Je Tsongkhapa Day 2020

Je Tsongkhapa Day 2020
10th December

by 

Geshe G. Tharchin 

Je Tsongkhapa's day is the celebration of his parinirvana, the Great Gaden Ngachhod. Je Tsongkhapa has passed away and attained the state of full enlightenment in the Bardo. This auspicious occasion falls on December 10.

Je Tsongkhapa (1357-1419) is the founder of the Gedenpa lineage, the Gelug tradition and great reformer of Buddhist doctrine in the Land of Snow. Je Tsongkhapa clarified the teachings of the Sakyamuni Buddha and composed a series of treatises, including several works by Lamrim that outline the complete path to enlightenment.
 

The celebration of Gaden Ngachhod's offering of light in Tibet considered similar to that of Diwali in India and Christmas in the West. On this special occasion one can practice meditation on the three main aspects of the path, https://geduntharchin.blogspot.com/2012/07/three-principles-of-path.html composed by Je Tsongkhapa to commemorate his life and teachings for the benefit of all sentient beings.

 

In Tibetan communities the event celebrates with the chanting of the following mantra of Je Tsongkhapa. 

དམིགས་མེད་བརྩེ་བའི་གཏེར་ཆེན་སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས།།
MIG MEY TZE WAY TER CHEN CHENREZIG

དྲི་མེད་མཁྱེན་པའི་དབང་པོ་འཇམ་པའི་དབྱངས།།
DRI MEY KHYEN PI WANG PO JAMPAL YANG

བདུད་དཔུང་མ་ལུས་འཇོམས་མཛད་གསང་བའི་བདག།
DU PUNG MA LU JOM DZEY SANG WEY DAG

གངས་ཅན་མཁས་པའི་གཙུག་རྒྱན་ཙོང་ཁ་པ།།
GANG CHENG KE PEY TSUG GYEN TSONGKHAPA

བློ་བཟང་གྲགས་པའི་ཞབས་ལ་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས།།
LO SANG TRAG PEY SHAB LA SOL WA DEB

OM AH GURU VAJRA DHARA SUMATI KIRTI SIDDHI HUNG 

 

 

 

Buddhist approach to cope with the difficult period of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Buddhist approach to cope with the difficult period of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Geshe G. Tharchin

     We are all in the same boat, we are all victims of the current pandemic, alive or dead, sick or healthy, we all belong to one family in the global community, unless this pandemic is defeated. Right now we all feel very close to each other. We need to intensify solidarity among ourselves through prayer, meditation, material help and psychological and spiritual support, to feel sustained by the warmth of attention and love of unity in the global community. To tell the truth, I personally do not feel that I have a greater capacity than others, and support the psyche of others in the midst of this gigantic pandemic. I am sorry.At certain times, in Tibet there is a saying, "when heaven attacks the earth", nothing works anymore! neither miracles, nor magic, nor oracles, nor gurus, as we know.  The only solution would be one's own wisdom, the true Dharma.

     However, I would like to share a few thoughts about Impermanence because that is what some Dharma friends have asked me:

     Impermanence could be divided into three levels: coarse level, subtle level, and very subtle level. The first is that death, caducity and transience of any material form can be perceived by five or six senses.  

     The impermanence of death is unfortunately unbelievable. Everyone has his mission on earth and once he has completed his mission he will go back to the Universe. When you disappear, you always leave great teachings of life to friends, loved ones and those close to you. All things are born out of the act of compassion, they live with the act of compassion and they conclude with the act of compassion. Naturally, every virtue and prayer dedicated to his peace and nirvana will help.

     The second, the subtle level, is represented by that process of speed of change that has manifested itself on atoms and cells and can be observed through modern, highly sophisticated technology.

     The third, the very subtle level is that impermanent nature of the reality of your consciousness, the union with your mind, which can be achieved within a Samadhi meditation.

     

     Once we have developed the meditative state of the practice we begin the journey: "Observing death as a path to realize the Dharma Kaya (body of Wisdom) and observing the Bardo state as a path to realize the Sambhoka Kaya (body of infinite bliss) day and night", only then is it possible for a Dharma practitioner to feel or understand the true meaning of life. Then the nature of death, no longer unfamiliar or fearful, becomes part of the daily value of life and the event of physical death is transformed into a unique moment of celebration, and at this point the presence of the conventional and definitive Bodhicitta mind is fundamental, combined with the practice of Vajrayana Anuttara.

     The practice of the great compassion "Tong Len" is also very effective for oneself and others at a critical moment.

Observing Saka Dawa of Tibetan Buddhism 2020

Observing Saka Dawa of Tibetan Buddhism

2020

Saka Dawa's observations take place in the fourth Tibetan month, which in 2020 starts on 23 May and ends on 21 June. Dawa means "month" in Tibetan. The term Saka comes from Tibetan astrology, and the star Saka is associated with the full moon of the fourth lunar month. Tibetans observe the Saka Dawa, the most sacred of Buddhist festivals. It is a holy month in which we celebrate the birth, enlightenment and death (parinirvana) of Buddha Shakyamuni. 

The merit of every good deed you perform during this month is thought to be multiplied many times a hundred thousand times. So Saka Dawa is a good time to devote yourself to spiritually positive actions.  The most sacred of all is Saka Dawa's full moon day, the 15th of the month, which is the date most commonly associated not only with Buddha's birth, but also with his enlightenment and parinirvana. The 15th of the month, also called Saka Dawa Duchen, will fall on June 5th.

Some good deeds that are commonly done to accumulate merit during Saka Dawa, especially on the 15th day, are: 

 Refrain from eating meat.

 Offer donations.

 Prayer and recitation of mantras.

 Make prostrations.

 Give money to beggars.

 Offer lamps.
 Make pilgrimages.

 Release animals that will be killed.

It is also very common to take the eight mahayana precepts for twenty-four hours during Saka Dawa, especially on the full moon on the 15th day of Saka Dawa. The full moon day is considered more powerful for the accumulation of merit. The eight precepts are:

1. 1. Avoid killing, directly or indirectly.

2. 2. Avoid stealing and taking things without their owner's permission.

3. 3. Avoid sexual contact. 

4. Avoid lying and deceiving others.

5. 5. Avoid intoxicants: alcohol, tobacco and recreational drugs. (You can take prescription drugs).

6. 6. Avoid eating more than one meal that day. The meal is taken before noon. At other times of the day you can take light drinks. Avoid eating meat, chicken, fish, eggs, onions, garlic and radishes.

7. 7. Avoid using too luxury chair and bed. Also avoid sitting on animal skins.

8. 8. Avoid wearing jewelry, perfume and makeup with attachment. 9. Avoid singing, dancing or playing music with attachment.

WISH YOU HAPPY INTERNATIONAL VESAK 2020

སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༢༠ ལོའི་རྒྱལ་སྤྱིའི་ས་ཟླའི་དུས་ཆེན་ཉིན་རྣམ་དཀར་ལེགས་ཚོགས་གོང་དུ་འཕེལ་བའི་སྨོན་འདུན།

WISH YOU HAPPY INTERNATIONAL VESAK DAY

FULL MOON 7 MAY, 2020

Vesak, a special day of Meditation and prayer for the well being of all sentient beings.

"Vesak", the Day of the Full Moon in the month of May, is the most sacred day to millions of Buddhists around the world. It was on the Day of Vesak two and a half millennia ago, in the year 623 B.C., that the Buddha was born. It was also on the Day of Vesak that the Buddha attained enlightenment, and it was on the Day of Vesak that the Buddha in his eightieth year passed away.
https://www.un.org/en/observances/vesak-day.

AUGURI DI FELICE GIORNATA DI VESAK INTERNAZIONALE

LUNA PIENA 7 MAGGIO, 2020

Vesak, un giorno speciale di meditazione e preghiera per il benessere di tutti gli esseri senzienti.

"Vesak", il giorno di luna piena nel mese di maggio, è il giorno più sacro per milioni di buddisti in tutto il mondo. Fu nel Giorno di Vesak due millenni e mezzo fa, nell'anno 623 a.C., che nacque il Buddha. Fu anche il giorno di Vesak che il Buddha raggiunse l'illuminazione, e fu nel giorno di Vesak che il Buddha nel suo ottantesimo anno morì.
https://www.un.org/en/observances/vesak-day



DHARMA 

འདི་ནི་སངས་རྒྱས་བསྟན་པ་ཡིན།། 

Questo è l'insegnamento dei Buddha,

This is the teaching of the Buddhas,

SHILA

སྡིག་པ་ཅི་ཡང་མི་བྱ་ཞིང་།།

Non commettere azioni dannose,  

Don't do anything harmful, 

SAMADHI

དགེ་བ་ཕུན་སུན་ཚོགས་པ་བྱ།།

Realizzare azioni virtuose,  

Perform virtuous actions, 

PRAJNA 

རང་གི་སེམས་ནི་ཡོངས་སུ་འདུལ།།

Addestrare la propria mente.

Train your mind.

Happy Easter 2020

Today we, the whole world, are living in a difficult time because of the spread of covid-19. It is a challenge that we must face with compassion and wisdom. Each of us must not lose our human values and dignity and must pay great attention to our hearts and minds. It is also a crucial time for all of us to provide every possible support and help to others, to those in need.

I wish you a happy Easter of peace and serenity.

བོད་ལྕགས་བྱི་ ༢༡༤༧ ལོ་གསར་ལ་བཀྲིས་བདེ་ལེགས་ཞུ། Happy Tibetan New Year of Mouse-Iron 2147, Felice Anno Tibetano del Topo-Metallo 2147

བོད་ལྕགས་བྱི་ ༢༡༤༧ ལོ་གསར་ལ་བཀྲིས་བདེ་ལེགས་ཞུ། 

Happy Tibetan New Year of Mouse-Iron 2147

Felice Anno Tibetano del Topo-Metallo 2147 

ཚེ་རིང་ནད་མེད་ཚེ་བསོད་རྒྱས་པ་དང་།  མཐའ་དམག་དུས་འཁྲུག་ཞི་ནས། རྒྱལ་ཁམས་བདེ་ཞིང་སྐྱིད་པའི་སྨོན་འདུན་བཅས། དགའ་བྱང་ལྷ་རམས་པ་དགེ་བཤེས་དགེ་འདུན་མཐར་ཕྱིན་ནས།

Moderator at the International Conference 'Commemoration of the 600th. Anniversary of Je Tsongkhapa's nirvana'

རྒྱ་གར་གདན་ས་དགའ་ལྡན་དུ་རྗེ་ཙོང་ཁ་པའི་དྲུག་བརྒྱའི་མྱང་འདས་དུས་དྲན་གྱི་རྒྱལ་སྤྱིའི་མཁས་པའི་བགྲོ་གླེང་གཙོ་སྐྱོང་བར་བཅར་སྐབས་བྲིས།

This Introduction was wrote as moderator at the International Conference on Life, Thought and Legacy of Je Tsongkhapa, during the International Commemoration of the 600th. Anniversary of Je Tsongkhapa's nirvana, Gaden Monastic University, India.

Questa Introduzione è stata scritta come moderatore alla Conferenza Internazionale sulla Vita, il Pensiero e l'Eredità di Je Tsongkhapa, durante la Commemorazione Internazionale del 600. Anniversario del nirvana di Je Tsongkhapa, Università monastica di Gaden, India.

དགེ་འདུན་མཐར་ཕྱིན་གྱི་ངོ་སྤྲོད། 

དགེ་འདུན་མཐར་ཕྱིན་བལ་ཡུལ་དུ་བོད་མིའི་ཁྱིམ་ཚང་དུ་སྐྱེས། བོད་ཀྱི་སློབ་གྲར་གཞི་རིམ་སློབ་སྦྱོང་ཐོབ། 

ཕྱི་ལོ། ༡༩༧༦ ལོར་དགའ་ལྡན་བྱང་རྩེ་གྲ་ཚང་ནང་ཞུགས་ནས་ཕྱི་ལོ། ༡༩༨༥ ལོར་དབུ་མ་རབ་འབྱམས་པ་ཐོན། 

༧གོང་ས་ཆོག་དང་ཡོངས་འཛིན་རྣམ་གཉིས། གཞན་ཡང་དགེ་བའི་བཤེས་གཉེན་དུ་མའི་དྲུང་ནས་མདོ་སྔགས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་ཚུལ་གྱི་རྒྱུན་མཐའ་ཡས་པ་ཐོབ། 

ཕྱི་ལོ། ༡༩༩༤ ལོར་དགེ་བཤེས་ལྷ་རམས་པ་ཐོན་པ་དང་། ཕྱི་ལོ། ༡༩༩༥ ལོར་རྒྱུད་སྨད་ཆོས་ཐོག་སྐོར། 

དགེ་ལུགས་མཐོ་སློབ་ནས། བཀའ་རམ། སློབ་དཔོན། ལྷ་རམས་བཅས་ཀྱི་རྒྱུགས་ཐོན། 

ཕྱི་ལོ། ༢༠༠༧ ལོར་ལྷ་རམས་རྩམ་དེབ་ཆོས་མངོན་བློ་གཏེར་རབ་གསལ་དཔར་བསྐྲུན་བྱས། 

ཕྱི་ལོ། ༡༩༩༦ ལོ་ནས་ལོ་ཤས་རིང་ཨི་ཀྲ་ལི་རོམ་གྱི་མཐོ་སློབ་ཁག་གཉིས་ (Beda College and St. Thomas Aquinas University) ནུབ་ཕྱོགས་པའི་བལྟ་གྲུབ་དང་ཆོས་ལུགས་སྐོར་སློབ་སྦྱོང་བྱས། 

ཨིན་ལེན་གྱི་བསྟེ་ནས་ Cambridge ཁེམ་བྷི་རེ་ཇེ་དུ་དབྱིན་ཇིའི་སྐད་ཡིག་སློབ་སོན་བྱས། 

ཕྱོ་ལོ། ༡༩༩༧ ནས་ ༡༩༩༨ རྒྱལ་ས་རོམ་གྱི་ (Istituto di Studi Orientali e Africani (ISIAO - ISMEO) ཤར་གླིང་རིག་གནས་སློབ་གྲར་བོད་ཀྱི་སྐད་ཡིག་སློབ་འཁྲིད་བྱས་པ་དང་། 

ཕྱི་ལོ། ༢༠༠༠ ལོར་ཐེ་ཝེན་ (Chung-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies) ནང་པའི་མཐོ་སློབ་དུ་ནང་ཆོས་སློབ་འཁྲིད་བྱས། 

ཕྱི་ལོ། ༢༠༠༣ ལོར་ནང་ཆོས་སྐོར་རྩམ་དེབ་ La Via del Nirvana  ཞེས་པ་ Ellin Salae Editors ནས་དཔར་བསྐྲུན་བྱས།

ད་ལྟའི་ཆར་ Istituto LAMRIM ཆོས་ཚོགས་དང་ AREF International བཅས་ཀྱི་འཛུགས་བསྐྲུན་ཚོགས་མི་དང་། ཡུ་རོབ་ཀྱི་ཚོགས་སྡེ་ཁག་དང་། རྒྱལ་ས་རོམ་གྱི་ Sapienza Univerisity (Department of Psychology and Medicine) དང་ Pontifical Gregorian University (Faculty of Interreligious studies) རིག་གནས་གྱི་བསྟི་གནས་འདྲ་མིན་དང་ཨི་ཀྲ་ལིའི་ཆོས་ཚོགས་ཁག་དུ། ནང་ཆོས་དང་བོད་ཀྱི་ཤེས་རིག  ཆོས་ལུགས་ཕན་ཚུན་འབྲེལ་ལམ་སྐོར་གཏམ་བཤད་བྱེད་མུར་གནས།

གཏམ་བཤད་དང་སྩམ་བྲིས་རྣམས་དྲ་ལམ་འདི་(https://geshetharchin.blogspot.com/) བརྒྱུད་
མུ་མཐུད་དཔར་བསྐྲུན་བྱེད་བཞིན་པ་བཅས།

Introduction of Gedun Tharchin

Gedun Tharchin, naturalized Italian citizen was born in a Tibetan family in Nepal. He got basic educations in Tibetan School. 

In 1976 he entered Gaden Jangtse Monastery and in 1985 he obtained Uma-Rabjampa.

He received transmissions of both sutrayana and mantrayana from many masters, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama and his two tutors.

He received his Geshe Lharampa degree at Ganden Jangste Monastery in 1994 and Geshe Ngagrampa degree from Gyume Tantric College in 1995. 

He obtains the qualification of Karam (B.A.), Lopon (M. Phil.) and Lharam (Ph.D.) degrees from Gelukpa University. 

His Lharampa dissertation in Tibetan GATEWAY TO ABHIDHARMA, was published in 2007.

From 1996 then several years he has studied Western philosophy and religion at Beda College and St. Thomas Aquinas University, Rome. 

He completed English language study in Cambridge, UK.

He has taught Tibetan language at Istituto di Studi Orientali e Africani (ISIAO - ISMEO), Rome 1997-8. 

In year 2000 he was visiting lecturer at Chung-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies in Taipei. 

He is also the author of "La Via del Nirvana" (in Italian) published in 2003 by Ellin Salae editors. 

Currently he lives in Rome and founding member of Istituto LAMRIM and AREF International Rome. 

He has taught Buddhist philosophy and Tibetan Culture, and Inter-religious dialogue in various Institutes in Europe, and Roma Sapienza University (Department of Psychology and Medicine) and Pontifical Gregorian University (Faculty of Interreligious studies), Rome. 

His works distributed online via his personal site (https://geshetharchin.blogspot.com/).

Introduzione di Gedun Tharchin

Gedun Tharchin, oggi naturalizzato cittadino italiano, è nato in una famiglia tibetana in Nepal. Ha ricevuto un'educazione di base alla scuola tibetana.

Nel 1976 è entrato nel monastero di Gaden Jangtse e nel 1985 ha ottenuto l'Uma-Rabjampa.

Ha ricevuto trasmissioni di sutrayana e mantrayana da molti maestri, tra cui Sua Santità il Dalai Lama e i suoi due tutori.

Ha ricevuto il diploma di Geshe Lharampa al Monastero di Ganden Jangste nel 1994 e il diploma di Geshe Ngagrampa dal Gyume Tantric College nel 1995.

Ha ottenuto il diploma di laurea di Karam (B.A.), Lopon (M. Phil.) e Lharam (Ph.D.) presso l'Università Gelukpa.

La sua tesi di laurea di Lharampa in GATEWAY TO ABHIDHARMA tibetana è stata pubblicata nel 2007.

Dal 1996 poi diversi anni ha studiato filosofia e religione occidentale al Beda College e all'Università San Tommaso d'Aquino di Roma.

Ha completato gli studi di lingua inglese a Cambridge, Regno Unito.

Ha insegnato lingua tibetana all'Istituto di Studi Orientali e Africani (ISIAO - ISMEO), Roma 1997-8.

Nel 2000 è stato visiting lecturer presso l'Istituto di Studi Buddisti Chung-Hwa di Taipei.

È anche autore de "La Via del Nirvana" (in italiano) pubblicato nel 2003 da Ellin Salae editore.

Attualmente vive a Roma ed è membro fondatore dell'Istituto LAMRIM e dell'AREF International Rome.

Ha insegnato filosofia buddista e cultura tibetana, e dialogo interreligioso in vari Istituti in Europa, e presso l'Università Roma Sapienza (Dipartimento di Psicologia e Medicina) e la Pontificia Università Gregoriana (Facoltà di Studi Interreligiosi), Roma.

Le sue opere sono distribuite online attraverso il suo sito personale (https://geshetharchin.blogspot.com/).