September 17, 2018 – Palyul Monastery, China | We celebrate with the Buddhist scholars monastic community. The Palyul monastic community in Sichuan, China, have gathered for a big scholastic conference for the sixth year!
Yesterday, Sept 16, 2018, saw the start of the 5-day conference. The Palyul monastic college in Palyul, Sichuan, China, have brought together leading scholars from neighboring monasteries to this event. Monastic scholars have come from Kathok, Larung, Shechen, Dzogchen, Darthang, Raya, Lungon, Gyalwa and other renowned monasteries for this fruitful gathering of great minds.
Significance of the First Conference
The first Annual Conference for Buddhist Scholars was organized by His Eminence Thubsang Rinpoche, Palyul’s seniormost lama. It was named “Nang Ten Khe Wang Dro Leng (Tib: ནང་བསྟན་མཁས་དབང་བགྲོ་གླེང།)”. It means Conference of Learned Ones on the Buddha’s Teachings. The first conference was held in Chere, a place a few kilometers away from Palyul town.
Ma Rinchen Chok (Courtesy of Rigpa Wiki)
The present-day Chere does not have a flourishing monastery or monastic college. However, it was the chosen place to host the first academic conference, partly to remember the great activities of two illustrious masters.
In the 8th Century AD, during the time of the 25 disciples of Guru Rinpoche, Chere Chokchong Wangpo, (Tib: ཀྱེ་རེ་ཕྱོགས་སྐྱོང་དབང་པོ) and Rinchen Zhonnu (Tib: གཙུག་རུ་རིན་ཆེན་གཞོན་ནུ།) from Chere, traveled to Lhasa (Tibet’s capital) and Samye (first Tibetan Monastery). They then received extensive teachings mainly on the Guhyagarbha Tantra (Tib: Gyutrul Sangwa Nyingpo) from Guru Rinpoche’s disciple, Ma Richen Chok (Tib: རྨ་རིན་ཆེན་མཆོག).
Ma Rinchen Chok is one of the translators of the Guhyagarbha Tantra, the primary root text of Mahayoga, from Sanskrit into Tibetan language. He also assisted the Great Translator Vimalamitra in translating his commentary on the Guhyagarbha Tantra. Therefore, receiving teachings on the Guhyagarbha Tantra from such person as Ma Rinchen Chok himself is an unfathomable honor.
After their learning and practice, Chere Chokchong Wangpo and Rinchen Zhonnu went back to Chere and Palyul to teach and spread the practice of the Guhyagarbha Tantra. This is the significance of Chere town.
Learning the Buddhadharma
Thousands others listen to the exposition
The benefits of learning the Buddha’s teachings are unspeakable. Learning the Buddha’s vast teachings is very difficult, tiresome and a long-term effort.
We must rejoice if people are willing to invest their lives into such an effort. We must try to see the long-term benefits of such a circumstance.
Topics and Day’s Schedule
The moderator at the front of the prayer hall
The Conference is a 5-day event graced by the presence of learned scholars from highly esteemed small and large monasteries in Tibet.
In the morning, there is an exposition. Topics include Buddhist logic (Tib: tsema), expositions on the Four Noble Truths, on suffering according to the Sutra and Tantra, and many others. Each day, a specially invited Khenpo (Tib: a PhD degree holder in Buddhism) presents a topic to the moderator and to the monastic community.
The moderator seats at the front of the prayer hall. Opposite him, the defending scholar stands near the prayer hall’s entrance. Around them, thousands of other monks and nuns witness the presentation. After the exposition, other monastic members may ask their questions to the defending scholar.
Defending Group
These are the refining of Buddhist intellect and knowledge. All of our summarized teachings, prayers and explanations in our Manila temple and in thousands of Buddhist books will not be alive today if not for the academic conferences of the past.
In the afternoon, the prayer hall will host a formal debate. It includes two groups. The defending group will sit in front of the hall, while the challenging group will stand at the end of the hall. The challenging group is made up of several subgroups of debaters belonging to different monasteries. They are free to challenge the exposition topic at any time.
Challenging group
The topics include Rebirth (past and future lives), Buddhist logic, self- and other-ascertainment (another Buddhist logic topic), method to ascertain the teacher, the Buddha, as true (Tib: ston pa tsad mar gyur tsul – another Buddhist logic topic).
A topic will be debated for one hour and fifteen minutes. Thousands of monastics will also witness the formal debate.
In the later afternoon, for thirty minutes, one or two Khenpos will present short teachings on chosen topics.
In the evening, the open monastic grounds will host hundreds of monks who will individually debate on relevant topics. These debate topics are related to the topics discussed during the day.
Night Gathering at the Dharma Garden, Palyul Monastery
Summary
If we have a big illness, the medicine will taste bad. If we based our judgement on the taste of the medicine alone, we will not take the medicine. We lose the chance of curing the big illness.
These conferences are not just debates of learned intellectuals. These are the refining of Buddhist intellect and knowledge. Due to the academic conferences of the past, our summarized teachings, prayers, commentaries and explanations in our Manila temple and in thousands of Buddhist books are alive today.
The learned ones spent decades to learn and master the Buddha’s words. By doing this, they will uphold the teachings for the next generation.
Night Debate