From 13th March to 15th March 2024, three days programmes of The 1st Kachu Geshe (one who observes the 10 commandments of Buddha, title of monk-scholar who has passed preliminary examinations, 2 classes) graduation ceremony at Pal Gyalwa Jonang Ngedhon Takten Shedup Choekhor Ling Monastery. With the great presence of our His Eminence Tashi Gyaltsen Rinpoche, abbot Gedun Gyatso, devotees from India, Bhutan, the USA, Taiwan and China and local governors Mr: Mohan Basnet were made the ceremony meaningful.  The First Day, with the presence of our monastic abbot Gedun Gyatso, many other great lamas and monks gathered for the chanting of great prayers composed by the Jonang Dolpo Buddha, the great master of Jonang Buddhist Lineage. After the completion of Tsok offering puja, abbot Gedun Gyatso presented the Geshe robes to the Kachu Geshes. Kachu Geshes  has been receivedthe Kachu Geshe Degree and Certificate of Appreciation from His Eminence Tashi Gyaltsen Rinpoche and abbot Gedun Gyatso after the completion of 18-years of studies on The Five Major Buddhist Philosophy Subjects. The Jonang Monastery of Ngedön Takten Shedrup Chökhor Ling is  established by His Eminence Tashi Gyaltsen near the holy Buddha Stupa in Nepal. It is the main seat for the study and practice of the glorious Jonang tradition.  Latter, the monastery moved in Yangleshö and rebuilt, nowadays, the monastery is located in Yangleshö. Under the supervision of His Holiness the Dalai Lama,  Most of monks and students from Dolpo, Karmorong, Yolmo, Sharpa, and other places in Nepal, some of them from Mön Tawang in India. They are studying the Jonang Tradition of the Middle Way of Other-Emptiness, Tibetan language and culture.  The detail information completely mentioned in the Tibetan language, have a look on Tibetan website. 

Thirteenth   Rather, the emptiness that is the [ultimate] nature of non-entities [that is, emptiness that is the ultimate nature opposite from non-entities] is required. Also, Vasubandhu’s Commentary on the “Extensive Mother,” the “Twenty-five Thousand Stanza Perfection of Wisdom Sutra,” and “Eighteen Thousand Stanza Perfection of Wisdom Sutra”calls the ultimate nature that is empty of adventitious imputations conventionalities and is opposite from conventionalities the nature of non-entities, and thereupon says that this is also the perfection of wisdom of the un-differentiable entity of basis and fruit. From this also, it is established that the profound emptiness that is a synonym of the ultimate noumenon is other-emptiness. Döl-bo-ba handles the many statements such as that (363): The element of attributes is empty of the element of attributes. Thusness is empty of thusness. The limit of reality is empty of the limit of reality. The inconceivable basic element is empty of the inconceivable basic element.by holding that they require interpretation, their purpose being to quiet conceptualization of the element of attributes and so forth as this or that. In this way the element of attributes is not empty of the element of attrib- utes. Since meditation on self-emptiness is not sufficient, he must handle the many statements that afflictive emotions are overcome through meditating on self-emptiness, such as  Objection: Aryadeva’s Lamp Compendium for Practice states: All ones-gone-thus possessing an essence of compassion seeing all sentient beings fallen into a whirlpool of suffering, without refuge, and without defender-cause those beings to purify afflictive emotions through thorough knowledge of the nature of afflictive emotions in a conventional manner, and cause them to be thoroughly set in meditative stabilisation having an essence of the mode of reality through having cleansed conventional truth also by means of ultimate truth.  and so forth. Does this not say that the entities of afflictive emotions are purified through knowledge itself that they are self-empty?  Answer: This is in consideration of temporarily suppressing or reducing the pointedness of coarse afflictive emotions because even.

This year, the Tibetan New Year (Losar) falls on 10th February 2024. the auspicious wood Dragon year in 2024, it brings a wave of hope, ambition, and anticipation. The Dragon, a symbol of power, wisdom, and luck, casts a profound influence over the year. The dragon has significant symbolism and is revered. It represents positive qualities such as power, strength, good luck, and wisdom. The wood dragon is considered a celestial and divine creature, with the ability to control natural elements such as wind and water. The Year of the Dragon is anticipated to bring auspicious opportunities and exciting advancements for all. Those born under the dragon sign are reputed for their innovative thinking and inquisitive nature, and often flourish in their professional pursuits. May this Year of the Dragon be filled with creativity, passion, and remarkable achievements for you.

January, 22. 2024 In Bodh Gaya, this January, Jonang Gyaltsab Rinpoche, His Eminence་Ngawang Choekyi Nangwa Rinpoche has been leading the annual  Jonang Monlam. Many Geshes, Tulkus, teachers and Hundreds of monks have attended.  The Jonang Monlam Prayer will be ended on 26th January 2024, The Monlam Chenmo Festival or “Great Prayer Festival”  was started at early time in Tibet, to commemorate Shakyamuni Buddha’s performance of miracles in Shravasti. Monlam Chenmo celebrations have been observed every year since, to pray for the long life of attained masters from all traditions, for the growth of Dharma in the minds of all sentient beings, and for world peace.

Twelfth  by asking whether “the factors of appearance are empty or not empty, and by citing the statement in Nagarjuna’s Essay on the Mind of Enlightenment that: Conventionalities are described as emptinesses. Just emptinesses are conventionalities. and the statement in the Heart Sutra that “Form is emptiness; emptiness is form.” The equation of ordinary forms with self-emptiness requires that they are not the ultimate, and the corresponding equation of the ultimate with other-emptiness requires that the matrix-of-one-gone-thus and all the ultimate buddha qualities of body, speech, and mind inhering in it are ultimate and are other-emptiness. He holds that it is an extreme of non-existence to claim that ultimate other-emptiness is self-empty. Whereas the part less, omnipresent pristine wisdom of the element of attributes always abides pervading all, the extreme of non-existence is the deprecation that it does not exist and is not established and is empty of its own entity. That which is the middle devoid of those extremes is the basis devoid of all extremes such as existence and non-existence, superimposition, and deprecation, permanence and annihilation, and so forth, due to which it is the final great middle. It is non-material emptiness, emptiness far from an annihilator emptiness, great emptiness that is the ultimate pristine wisdom of superiors, five immutable great emptinesses, six immutable empty drops, a which is the supreme of all letters, buddha earlier than all buddhas, primordially released one-gone-thus, causeless original buddha, aspect-lessens endowed with all aspects-insuperable and not fit to be abandoned. Not to be deprecated, it is the inconceivable element of attributes beyond phenomena of consciousness and not in the sphere of argument; it is to be realised in individual self-cognition by yogis. Consequently, those who come to the conclusion that: *The “middle” is solely designated to the mere voidness of all extremes. *”Even the middle is empty of the middle.” *”Even the ultimate is empty of the ultimate.” and so forth do not accord with the thought of the conqueror because, for the character of the emptiness that is the final mode

Eleventh  He says that “subjects that cannot withstand analysis and finally disintegrate are empty of their own entities.” Self-empty phenomena do not appear to wisdom of reality, since they do not exist in the mode of subsistence. Conventional phenomena only provisionally exist in that they exist only for   consciousness, which is necessarily mistaken, and thus what appears to pristine wisdom does not appear to consciousness and what appears to consciousness does not appear to pristine wisdom. Hence, conventional phenomena do not appear to buddhas; even conventional buddha-qualities of body, speech, and mind do not appear to a buddha, being only for the sake of trainees to whom they appear.  Nevertheless, buddhas are omniscient, since they implicitly know the phenomena of cyclic existence, for when they explicitly know the ultimate, they implicitly know that these conventional phenomena do not exist. As he says: These three realms, which are appearances of ignorance, do not appear to the pristine wisdom of one awakened from the sleep of ignorance because these three realms are appearances of consciousness and whatever is consciousness is ignorance. The spheres of wisdom and consciousness are separate. Döl-bo-ba argues that if emptiness were only self-emptiness, then since self-emptiness would be thusness (the ultimate), all phenomena that are self-empty (and thus are self-emptiness) would themselves absurdly be thusness. He rubs in the point by elaborating that all of the following would absurdly be the ultimate. those with perverse attachment adventitious things changing into something else and again into something thing else.

Part Ten  Since endowment with pre-existent ultimate buddha qualities does not eliminate the need for practice of the path, when describing the final Buddha-qualities, he titles the section on the path “Explaining how effects of separation and of production are attained through the path.” As Taranatha, second only to Döl-bo-ba in importance in Jo-nang, says: Therefore, newly attained effects that are to be produced through cultivating the path are produced effects, due to which they do not truly exist, whereas the primordially abiding buddha is merely separated through cultivating the path from the covering over that buddha, due to which it is called an “effect of separation” and the path also is called a “cause of its separation.” These [effects of separation] are merely imputed cause and effect, not actual cause and effect. These effects of separation also are not the analytical separations described in Manifest Knowledge, “Separation is a mental extinguishment.” Rather, it is an ultimate effect of separation and an ultimate true cessation in accordance with the statement in the Questions of King Dharanishvara Sutra, “Since it is primordially extinguished, it is called ‘extinguishment.’ In this way, the natural lineage is called a “cause” but does not produce effects, and the body of attributes is called an “effect” but it is not produced. Two Emptinesses Since the matrix-of-one-gone-thus, also called the immutable thoroughly established nature, is empty of all compounded phenomena but replete with the ultimate phenomena, or attributes, of enlightenment, it is not self-empty. If the matrix-of-one-gone-thus were self-empty, it would not exist at all (213). Rather, the matrix-of-one-gone-thus is empty in the sense of being empty of the other two natures, imputations and other-powered natures respectively conceptually dependent factors and phenomena produced by causes and conditions. In this way, Döl-bo-ba recognises two important types of emptiness-self-emptiness and other-emptiness. He calls the first “empty-emptiness” and the second “non-empty-emptiness (213, 252, 301). Self-emptiness means that an object is empty of its own entity. A table is entity; a mind is empty of its own entity, and so forth.

DHARAMSHALA, Sept. 19: As the sixth session of the 17th Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile commenced on Tuesday in Dharamshala by extending solidarity with the Tibetans inside of Tibet with a seven-point official resolution.With the announcement of session commencement by the Speaker, the parliament hall assembled with Speaker Khenpo Sonam Tenphel and Deputy Speaker Dolma Tsering Teykhang of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile, Sikyong Penpa Tsering of the Central Tibetan Administration along with his ministerial colleagues (Kalons) as well as the parliamentarians, sang the Tibetan national anthem.  a group of close to 500 Tibetans from the Indian sub-continent and overseas made appeals to the lawmakers to make necessary amendments in the Charter, including one that will allow the appointment of the Chief Justice Commissioner and two judges of the Supreme Justice Commission, the apex judicial body of the Central Tibetan Administration. The group under the banner of ‘Advocacy of the general public’ stressed the urgency to appoint the Chief Justice Commissioner and two additional justices of the Tibetan Supreme Justice Commission to establish a robust judiciary capable of administering oaths for future leadership of the exile Tibetan government. The advocacy group highlighted that this move can play a pivotal role in bringing stability to the parliament. The advocacy group also called for immediate action to grant the general Tibetan public the right to elect the Members of Parliament from the various religious sects. The appeal asserted that failure to implement this crucial measure would compel them to advocate for the exclusion of MPs from religious sects altogether from the parliament.  An appeal made by the International Jonang Association called for equal rights for various religious sects, and appreciated ongoing efforts by the present Kasang.  International Jonang Association has been making such appeals for many years. Finally, the Speaker ended the address with a call for unity amongst Tibetans and coordinated effort from all in resolving the Sino-Tibetan conflict.

Sikyong Penpa Tsering has been visited at Jonag Dukhor Jordruk Gomdra Choekhorling during his assessment tour of Dharamshala Tibetan Communities. Dharamshala: Sikyong Penpa Tsering has embarked on a four-day Dharmashala wide assessment visit of the Tibetan community, schools and institutions on Monday with a key focus on reviewing their concerns and requirements. This visit comes at the helm of the commitment reiterated by Sikyong shortly after assuming office to visit and meet members of the Tibetan community in exile at least twice during his tenure. Accompanied by Additional Secretary Tenzin Norbu of Home and Tso Kunchok Migmar, In the afternoon Sikyong visited at International Jonang Wellbeing Association and Jonang Dukhor Jordruk Gomdra Choekhorling where he was taken on an extensive tour of the campus by the Lobpon Kunchok Gyalyso and Lobsang Dawa,  He spoke to the Lobpon of the institutions and listened to the concerns for further review by the Kashag. Later in the afternoon, Sikyong drove toward Norbulingka and toured Dolma Ling Nunnery, Lhundrub Chime Gatsel Ling Monaster and Nyingtop Ling, a home for handicapped Tibetans, before visiting Norbulingka institution and speaking to the Tibetans there.

Part Nine Döl-bo-ba argues hat although the ultimate, the body of attributes, not produced, is not contradictory for it to be an effect. its attainment is a separative effect, an effect of having been separated from peripheral defilements. The presence of self-arisen pristine wisdom’ is not sufficient; other-arisen pristine wisdom must be produced through practising the path. He uses the metaphor of the sky to convey the point: That which is self-arisen pristine wisdom, ultimate truth, abiding pervasively in all do not differ in anyone as to its natural purity, but through the force of persons, there are the differences of purity from adventitious defilements and of impurity due to adventitious defilements, like the fact that the sole sky which by its own nature does not exist as entities of clouds and is purified of entities of clouds not purified of clouds in some areas and is purified of clouds in other areas. Therefore, it is not contradictory that just as sky that is not purified of clouds does not exist in any area, so sky that is purified of clouds does not exist in any area, but, due to the area, there is impure sky and there is pure sky. Similarly, while the naturally pure, sole, basic element of the ultimate abides together with defilements in some persons and abides without defilements in some, it is posited as the basis and the fruit through the force of the presence or the absence of defilements in persons, but the entity of the noumenon does not differ. The noumenon is the same, whether realised or not. However, dependent upon realisation, beings come to be termed impure, partially pure, and pure. Two Lineages in order to show how the matrix-of-one-gone-thus yields Buddhahood, Döl-bo-ba addresses the topics of its two divisions, called the two causal lineages. The first is the noumenon clear light itself, the natural lineage, and the other consists of the spiritual activities of accumulating wisdom and merit, the developmental lineage. From those two, respectively, arise the two buddha bodies-the body