Dawa Tsering, Drikung Khenpo

མཁན་པོ་ཟླ་བ་ཚེ་རིང་།

Khenpo Dawa Tsering(b. 1987 - )

Khenpo Dawa Tsering was born in 1987 in Tichurong Drigung Gonpa in the Dolpo region of Nepal. At 11, he started learning Tibetan and in 2000 he met H.H. Senge Tenzin and joined Drigung Monastery in India. He received his novice ordination from H.H. Drigung Kyapgon Thinley Lhundrup and undertook monastic education. In 2005, he joined Kagyu Buddhist University and finished his education in common sciences and Buddhist Studies in general and Kagyu systems, including the Single Intent, Five Verse Mahāmudra, etc., in particular under Khenchen Koncho Gyaltsen, Khenchen Nyima Gyaltsen, and H.H. Nubri Rinpoche. Since grade seven, he also taught language and grammar, and in 2014 he finished his education and taught at Samtenling Nunnery for eight years. In 2019, he was conferred the Khenpo title. He currently serves as the disciplinarian at Drigung Jangchubling Monastery.

རྣམ་ཐར་སྙིང་བསྡུས།

བལ་ཡུལ་ཌོལ་པ་རྫོང་གི་མངའ་ཁོངས་ཏི་ཆུ་རོང་འབྲི་གུང་དགོན་པ་ཞེས་པའི་ས་གནས་སུ་སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༡༩༨༧ ་ལོར་འཁྲུངས་ཤིང་། ལོ་ ༡༡ ་སྐབས་བོད་ཡིག་དབྱངས་གསལ་སོ་བཞི་བསླབས་ཏེ་སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༠༠ ་ལོར་གྲུབ་ཐོབ་སེང་གེ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་སྤྲུལ་ ༧ སྐྱབས་རྗེ་སེང་གེ་བསྟན་འཛིན་་དང་མཇལ་ཞིང་རྒྱ་གར་འཕགས་པའི་ཡུལ་གྱི་བྱེས་ཀྱི་གདན་ས་བྱང་ཆུབ་གླིང་དུ་འཛུལ་ཏེ་ ༧ འབྲི་གུང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་འཕྲིན་ལས་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་ཀྱི་དྲུང་ནས་དགེ་ཚུལ་གྱི་སྡོམ་པ་ཞུས། དེའི་རྗེས་སུ་གཞི་རིམ་སློབ་གྲྭ་རིམ་གྱིས་འགྲིམས་ནས་སློབ་མཐར་ཕྱིན་པ་དང་། སྤྱི་ལོ་༢༠༠༥ ་ལ་དཔལ་བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་ནང་བསྟན་མཐོ་རིམ་སློབ་གྲྭར་འཛུལ་ཞུགས་མཛད་ནས་རིམ་བཞིན་ཐུན་མོང་དང་ཐུན་མོང་མ་ཡིན་པའི་མདོ་སྔགས་ཀྱི་གཞུང་ཆེན་ཁག་དང་མཁན་ཆེན་དཀོན་མཆོག་རྒྱལ་མཚན་དང་མཁན་ཆེན་ཉི་མ་རྒྱལ་མཚན། ༧ སྐྱབས་རྗེ་ནུབ་པ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་སོགས་ནས་རང་གཞུང་ཐེག་ཆེན་བསྟན་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་དང་། དྭགས་པོ་བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་ཀྱི་གྲུབ་མཐའ་ཆེན་མོ། དམ་ཆོས་དགོངས་པ་གཅིག་པའི་གཞུང་ཕྱག་ཆེན་ལྔ་ལྡན་དྷརྨ་ཀིརྟིའི་ཞལ་ལུང་སོགས་ཞུས་ཏེ། ལོ་རིམ་བདུན་པ་ནས་སློབ་སྦྱོང་བྱེད་ཞོར་དུ་སུམ་རྟགས་དག་གསུམ་སོགས་སློབ་ཁྲིད་བྱས་ཏེ་སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༡༤ ་ལ་བསླབ་པ་མཐར་སོན་ཏེ་བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་མཐོ་སློབ་ཀྱི་འཛིན་སྐྱོང་ལྷན་ཚོགས་ནས་བཀའ་ཕེབས་པ་ལྟར་བཙུན་དགོན་བསམ་གཏན་གླིང་དུ་སློབ་ཁྲིད་དང་ལོ་ངོ་ ༨ ་ཀྱི་རིང་དགེ་ཆེའི་ལས་འགན་འཁུར། སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༡༩ ་ལ་མཁན་པོའི་གོ་གནས་བཞེས་ཏེ་ད་ཆ་གདན་ས་བྱང་ཆུབ་གླིང་དགེ་བསྐོས་མཛད་བཞིན་པ་ལགས།།

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Khenpo Dawa Tsering on Buddha-Nature in the Single Intent and Drikung Tradition

དམ་ཆོས་དགོངས་གཅིག་གཞིར་བཟུང་ནས་དཔལ་འབྲི་གུང་བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་པའི་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོའི་དགོངས་བཞེད་བཤད་པ།
Explaining the Drigung Kagyu Understanding of Buddha-Nature Based on the Single Intent

Khenpo Dawa Tsering starts by mentioning how buddha-nature is a profound and difficult topic to fathom even by enlightened beings, and he can merely make an attempt. In his presentation, Khenpo presents the theory and practice of buddha-nature in the Drigung Kagyu tradition, primarily based on the two verses on buddha-nature found in the Single Intent of Drigung Kyobpa Jikten Gönpo. To put it in historical context, he shares that Jikten Sumgon lived in the 12th century and the Single Intent has since had commentaries written on it not only by Drigung masters but also by Kagyu and Nyingma masters.

Based on the Single Intent, he confirms that the Drigung understanding of buddha-nature aligns with the direct experiential meditative tradition rather than the inferential and exegetical tradition. Out of many verses comprising 150 points in the Single Intent, there are only two lines explicitly mentioning buddha-nature. Like the Kagyu and Nyingma schools, the Drigung school also accepts that buddha-nature has the sublime qualities of the Buddha latent in it. These sublime qualities are, however, obscured by the impurities, which do not really penetrate or contaminate the actual state of buddha-nature.

In this respect, the term glo bur, or adventitious, does not have a temporal connotation of something happening suddenly and temporarily. The impurities have been around since the beginning. Rather, the term refers to the removable or separable nature of the impurities which cover buddha-nature. Following the Kagyu tradition originating in Dvagpopa, or Gampopa Sonam Rinchen, the Drigung school asserts that buddha-nature avoids the problems of denial and exaggeration. Because buddha-nature is free from or empty of impurities, it avoids the problem of imposition or exaggeration. Because buddha-nature primordially possesses noble qualities, it avoids the problem of denial or rejection.

Buddha-nature endowed with all sublime qualities of enlightenment is presented as being unconditioned and eternal, and three names of the impure, partially pure, and fully pure are used to refer to it in three stages. Just like Devadatta is known as a gardener for gardening, cook while cooking, etc., buddha-nature is also given three different titles at three stages, although it is one and the same in its essence.

According to the Single Intent, the third wheel of dharma on buddha-nature is said to be clearly definitive, while the middle wheel is not fully definitive, as it also teaches emptiness which is a nominal ultimate. Khenpo also adds that the two truths are perspectives and not two different ontological states and that the sūtras often classed as Mind Only-sūtras are considered as ultimately Mādhyamika. Sūtras themselves cannot be classed as Mind Only or Middle Way sūtras. While the three wheels of dharma are considered as progressive teachings for a person to follow gradually, the Single Intent also claims that the three wheels of dharma differ in focus and emphasis and they share all aspects with varying stress.

Dawa Tsering, Khenpo. "Khenpo Dawa Tsering at the 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference." Day 2, Talk 2. 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference, Shechen Monastery, Kathmandu, June 1–3. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department. Video, 59:21. https://youtu.be/_TvzvS2GUt4.

Dawa Tsering, Khenpo. "Khenpo Dawa Tsering at the 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference." Day 2, Talk 2. 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference, Shechen Monastery, Kathmandu, June 1–3. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department. Video, 59:21. https://youtu.be/_TvzvS2GUt4.;Khenpo Dawa Tsering on Buddha-Nature in the Single Intent and Drikung Tradition;Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa;Khenpo Dawa Tsering;མཁན་པོ་ཟླ་བ་ཚེ་རིང་།;Khenpo Dawa Tsering at the 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference