..续本文上一页 region, everyone have some right understanding of Tibetan Buddhism.
Tibetan Buddhism started developing earlier in Hong Kong and Taiwan, but there are some “odd phenomena” that have perhaps led many to misunderstand it, and even to strongly reject it. Certainly, the propagation of Buddhism also accords with the conditions and depends on the merits of all beings. Just like when Mahayana Buddhism first emerged in India and the Chan tradition initially entered the Han region; it also was not accepted. Thus, if we observe today through the lens of history, we find that it is the same in Hong Kong and Taiwan, the same in the Han region. To not be initially accepted is a usual phenomenon.
But today, perhaps after having experienced this entire process, among Western intellectuals, there is a “Tibetan Buddhism craze”. Why is it that in the 20th and 21st Century, people in the West would long for and admire Tibetan Buddhism in such a way
Many great masters believe: it is just like how we need water when we are thirsty, when people suffer relentlessly, there needs to be a force to resolve this, and Tibetan Buddhism has exactly this force. Hence, “craze” was also caused by need.
As for the teachings at our Buddhist Institute, from what I have experienced since 1985, it has mainly been the same. There are Sutrayana classes and Tantrayana classes. In the Sutrayana classes there are the Five Great Mahayana Texts – Vinaya (Precepts), Abhidharma, Buddhist Logic, Middle Way, and Prajnaparamita. Everyone has to study these. There are of course also studies of Tantra as well as Dharma Assembly practices. Our Institute does not reject any tradition, as long as it accords with the Dharma, irrespective of being from Tibetan or Han tradition, they can all be taught there.
In reality, it is not only at our Buddhist Institute, across the entire snow region, there still fully retains a genuine Buddhist system and tradition. Since we live in this day and age, on the one hand we wish to continue transmitting it, and at the same time we wish for more regions and more people to benefit from it.
(15) Question: I am an ordained student at the Hong Kong University Centre for Buddhist Studies. Could Khenpo please give a brief explanation of “extrinsic-emptiness”
Answer: There are even monks in university; this makes me feel very welcomed! Once I came across a Sri Lankan monk at Fudan University. At the time I found it very novel. Yet there are even more here, that”s why as soon as I came here, I felt both the novelty and welcome.
Your question on “extrinsic-emptiness” has been discussed in Sutrayana sutras and sastras, as well as Tantrayana”s Kalachakra. Among the Tibetan Buddhism lineages, generally speaking, the Gelupa lineage speaks of “intrinsic-emptiness”, whereas the Jonangpa lineage speaks of “extrinsic-emptiness”. Whereas the Nyingma masters believe that “intrinsic-emptiness” and “extrinsic-emptiness” do not contradict.
What is referred to as “intrinsic-emptiness” is a teaching during Shakyamuni Buddha”s second turning of the Dharma Wheel. The main commentaries that expound on this teaching are Bodhisattva Nagarjuna”s Six Commentaries on the Middle Way, Aryadeva”s Four Hundred Verses on the Middle Way, and commentator Chandrakirti”s Introduction to the Middle Way. “Extrinsic-emptiness” is a teaching during the third turning of the Dharma Wheel, which mainly discusses the idea of Tathagatagharba, such as Bodhisattva Maitreya”s Jewel Nature Treatise, Bodhisattva Nagarjuna”s In Praise of Dharmadhatu and Praise to the Supramundane Buddha. These are all significant commentaries.
In reality, intrinsic-emptiness and extrinsic-emptiness do not contradict, it is just that their emphases are different: one emphasizes emptiness, and one emphasizes lumin…
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