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Chapter 14: Verses 327-328

Chapter 14: Verses 327-328

Part of a series of teachings on Aryadeva’s 400 Stanzas on the Middle Way given on an annual basis at Sravasti Abbey by Geshe Yeshe Thabkhe beginning in 2013.

Motivation from Shantideva’s A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life

This leisure and endowment, which are so difficult to obtain, have been acquired, and they bring about the welfare of the world.
If one fails to take this favorable opportunity into consideration, how could this occasion occur again?

  • Refuting a truly existent composite by examining the four possibilities
  • Examining if the visible form and the object are one or different
  • Explaining why the self and the aggregates are not inherently same or inherently separate
  • Refuting Vaisheshika’s assertion that the pot is a substantial entity existing through its connection with the great generality “existence,” which is something separate from it
  • Explanation of the concept of generality
  • Phenomena have no meaning unless we attribute it to them

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.