Overview and Chapter 9: Verse 201
Geshe Yeshe Thabkhe 
Aryadeva's 400 Stanzas 
Aug 20, 2016 Part of a series of teachings on Aryadeva's 400 Stanzas on the Middle Way given on an annual basis by Geshe Yeshe Thabkhe from 2013-2017.
Motivation from the Buddha
Sages do not wash away sins with water,
They do not clear away beings’ suffering with their hands,
They do not transfer their own knowledge to others;
They liberate by teaching the truth of reality
Overview of Aryadeva’s 400 Stanzas on the Middle Way
- Chapters 1-4 teach how to attain fortunate rebirth and achieve liberation from cyclic existence
- Chapters 5-8 teach how to overcome cognitive obscurations and enter into the practices of a bodhisattva
- It is vital to put into practice the lessons on what to adopt and what to abandon to become a buddha
- Chapters 1-8 explain the stages of the path depending on conventional truth and Chapters 9 and on, depending on ultimate truth
- Nine categories of treatises
- What is the object that is being refuted in Chapter 9?
- How we think persons and phenomena exist and how they actually exist
- Refuting permanent functional phenomena in general
- Direct valid cognition as viewed by different tenet systems
Geshe Yeshe Thabkhe
Geshe Yeshe Thabkhe was born in 1930 in Lhokha, Central Tibet and became a monk at the age of 13. After completing his studies at Drepung Loseling Monastery in 1969, he was awarded Geshe Lharampa, the highest degree in the Geluk School of Tibetan Buddhism. He is an emeritus professor at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies and an eminent scholar of both Madhyamaka and Indian Buddhist studies. His works include Hindi translations of The Essence of Good Explanation of Definitive and Interpretable Meanings by Lama Tsongkhapa and Kamalasila's commentary on the Rice Seedling Sutra. His own commentary, The Rice Seedling Sutra: Buddha’s Teachings on Dependent Arising, was translated into English by Joshua and Diana Cutler and published by Wisdom Publications. Geshela has facilitated many research works, such as a complete translation of Tsongkhapa’s The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, a major project undertaken by the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center in New Jersey where he teaches regularly.
