Books/The Wisdom Chapter/Bilingual

The Wisdom Chapter

Mipam Gyatso - Bilingual Presentation

Reading Room  |  Item page  |  Bilingual

• Ketaka Jewel
• Light of the Day Star - Introduction
• Light of the Day Star - Question 1
• Light of the Day Star - Question 2
• Light of the Day Star - Question 3
• Light of the Day Star - Question 4
• Light of the Day Star - Question 5
• Light of the Day Star - Question 6
• Light of the Day Star - Question 7
• Light of the Day Star - Question 8
• A Pleasurable Discourse

Read a fully bilingual presentation of Mipham's famous commentary on Wisdom, The Nor bu ke ta ka, including root verses, translated by Padmakara Translation Group's Helena Blankleder and Wulstan Fletcher in 2017. This book was published with the translations of three texts, to round out the philsophical discussions, still of interest today:

• 1) ཤེས་རབ་ལེའུའི་ཚིག་དོན་གོ་སླ་བར་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པ་ནོར་བུ་ཀེ་ཏ་ཀ། (མི་ཕམ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ 1846 - 1912) (The Ketaka Jewel: An Easy to Understand Explanation of the Words and Meaning of the Wisdom Chapter)
  
• 2) ཟབ་མོ་དབུ་མའི་གནད་ཅུང་ཟད་བརྗོད་པ་བློ་གསལ་དགའ་བའི་གཏམ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་མི་ཕམ་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་ལ་ཀླན་ཀ་བགྱིས་པ་དང་པོ། (བྲག་དཀར་སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་ 1866 - 1928) (A Pleasurable Discourse for Those of Clear Understanding)
  
• 3) བརྒལ་ལན་ཉིན་བྱེད་སྣང་བ། (མི་ཕམ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ 1846 - 1912) (Light of the Day Star: Answers to Objections)

Shāntideva’s guide to the training of a Bodhisattva is one of the most important and beloved texts in the Tibetan tradition. The ninth chapter, however, dealing with Madhyamaka, the Middle Way, the most profound wisdom view of Mahayana Buddhism, has always posed unique challenges to readers. This commentary by the great scholar Mipham Rinpoche presents in quite straightforward terms Shāntideva’s exposition of emptiness, the essential foundation of all Buddhist doctrine, demonstrating that it is not only compatible with, but in fact crucial to, the correct understanding of other important Buddhist teachings such as karma, rebirth, and the practice of compassion. Mipham interprets Shāntideva according to the view of the Nyingma school, which in some respects was at variance with the religiously and politically dominant interpretation of the text in Tibet at that time. As a result, his commentary stirred up a furious debate. With the addition of a critique of Mipham Rinpoche’s view by a prominent scholar of the time, along with Mipham’s response, that debate is beautifully captured in this volume. (Source: Shambhala Publications)

The Ketaka Jewel

Jamgön Mipham the Great's famous commentary on the Ninth Chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva.

Mipham's Commentary

A Pleasurable Discourse
for Those of Clear Understanding

Drakar Tulku's polemical response to Mipham: A Pleasurable Discourse for Those of Clear Understanding.

Drakar's Refutation

The Light of the Day Star
Answers to Objections

Mipham's polemical writing, The Light of the Day Star, answering eight important questions.

Mipham's Answers to Objections

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhisattva'

Madhyamaka - Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. Skt मध्यमक  Tib དབུ་མ་  Ch 中觀見  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Madhyamaka'

Madhyamaka - Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. Skt मध्यमक  Tib དབུ་མ་  Ch 中觀見  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Middle Way'

Śūnyatā - The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics. Skt शून्यता  Tib སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་  Ch 空 and 空門  

Go to the page with the definition of 'emptiness'

Karuṇā - Skt करुणा  Tib ཐུགས་རྗེ་  Ch 悲  

Go to the page with the definition of 'compassion'

Nyingma - The Nyingma, which is often described as the oldest tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, traces its origin to Padmasambhava, who is said to have visited Tibet in the eighth century. Tib རྙིང་མ་  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Nyingma'