Oh yeah that blog thingy, I knew I was forgetting something.

A month ago, I finished writing my sixth year exams.  I wrote two exams on Abhisamayalankarakarika by Maitreya, one on Haribhadra's commentary and the other on Paltrul Rinpoche's commentary. I also wrote an exam on the third chapter of Dharmakirti's Pramanavartika, with Mipham's commentary, one on the last two chapters of Dudjom's history, and one on Dharmadharmatavibhakarika by Maitreya, with Mipham's commentary.

If I had to pick a favorite subject for this year it would be Dharmadharmatavibhagakarika also known as chos dang chos nyid rnam 'byed. It focuses on the nature of samsara and nirvana as awareness. It is available in English as Distinguishing  Phenomena and Pure Being.  This translation is pretty good, but there are a few things I would change (spelling mistakes in the Tibetan on facing pages, for example).

This year (unless I happened to have failed my exams) I'll be starting seventh year, the first of three years focusing on tantra.  Last year I took special care to get the transmissions and permissions necessary to read Luminous Essence, Dharmachakra's English translation of Miphams spyi don 'do gsal snying po.  I'm also listening to Khenchen Namdrol's lectures on mp3.

Hmm... all this makes me sound quite studious.  Friends, that is simply not the case.  I'm home in Canada at the moment.  Dharma study and practice are indeed a part of each day.  The rest of the time I've been enjoying the amazing foods of home, playing MarioKart Wii, connecting with old friends and making new ones, and watching House MD.

Pramana rant

This afternoon I spent about an hour fruitlessly paging through Mipham's Pramanavartika commentary (legs bshad snang ba'i gter) looking for the line "gzhal bya rang mtshan gcig kho na*" in root text by Dharmakirti. At debate I asked my classmates about this often quoted line, they assured me: "It is there! Look on page 46." I had indeed already checked that page a few times already- because it seemed that is exactly there that quote should be. After debate a classmate, determined to show me the quote was there, showed me the page. What we found a very similar line: "rang gi mtshan nyid gcig gzhal bya**". It was then that I started wondering if this was a quote from Pramanavartika or perhaps a certain other extremely well known Pramana text-- Sakyapandita's tshad ma rigs gter. I googled it - two verbatim hits, one citing Sapan. I paged through the root text of rig ter. There it was! So... unless Sapan is quoting Dharmakirti and I am too blind to see it, I believe Sapan may have said it first. Next time I'll google it first.


*the objects to be examined are individually characterized only

** individually characterized objects only are the objects to be examined

Not long ago we began studying the 3rd chapter of Mipham's commentary on tshad ma rnam 'grel aka pramanavartika. We study its four chapters over four years. Last year was awfully difficult. It was only through great effort, debate, and classroom discussion that we were able to figure out what Mipham and Dharmakirti were attempting to tell us. This year's installment has been enjoyable so far because it is continuing to discuss those topics, namely the nature of generally characterized phenomena and the way they are perceived by the conceptual mind.
Meanwhile we are almost finished our reading of Paltrul's General Commentary on the Perfection of Wisdom. In this case I fear the stuggle and subsequent understanding of the text still lie ahead of me.