27 – 28 January 2025
༄༅། །དཔལ་མཉམ་མེད་འགྲོ་མགོན་བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་པའི་དགུན་ཆོས་ཆེན་མོ་ཐེངས་ཉེར་ལྔ་པའི་ཉིན་ཉེར་བརྒྱད་པ། སྔ་དྲོ་བཛྲ་བིདྱཱ་གཙུག་ལག་སློབ་གཉེར་ཁང་གི་བཤད་གྲྭ་བ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་བསུ་བ་སེར་སྦྲེང་སྤོས་སྣེས་སྔུན་བསུས་ཏེ། རྒྱ་བལ་འབྲུག་གསུམ་གྱི་བཀའ་དགོན་བཤད་གྲྭ་ཁག་གི་ལས་ཐོག་མཁན་པོ་དང་སློབ་དཔོན་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་བཛྲ་བིདྱཱ་གཙུག་ལག་སློབ་གཉེར་ཁང་གི་དཔེ་མཛོད་ཁང་ནས་མདོ་སྔགས་གཞུང་ཆེན་བརྒྱད་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་དཔེ་གཙུག་ལག་ཁང་དུ་གདན་
དྲངས། རྟེན་གཙོའི་དྲུང་དུ་མཆོད་པ་མཚར་དུ་དངར་བ་གཙང་ཞིང་བཀོད་ལེགས་སྔོན་ནས་བཤམས།
དགུན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་མཁན་བླ་བཤད་གྲྭ་བ་རྣམས་དང་། གདན་ས་རུམ་བཏེག་གི་དབུ་ཆོས་ལས་སྣེ་འདུས་མང་གནས་སྐོར་བ་རྣམས་ཀྱང་རིམ་བཞིན་གྲལ་དུ་འཁོད། ཀུན་ལ་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་གསོལ་ཇ་བཞེས་འབྲས་བསྟར།
དེ་རྗེས་དཔལ་༧རྒྱལ་བའི་དབང་པོ་༧ཀརྨ་པ་བཅུ་བདུན་པ་ཆེན་པོ་མཆོག་གིས་དྲ་བརྙན་ཐད་གཏོང་བརྒྱུད་དེ། མདོ་སྔགས་གཞུང་ཆེན་བརྒྱད་ཀྱི་དཔེ་བསྡུར་བགྲོ་གླེང་དབུ་འབྱེད་ཀྱི་བཀའ་སློབ་བཀའ་དྲིན་ཆེ་བ་སྩལ།
གུང་རྒྱབ་བཤད་གྲྭ་ཁག་གི་མཁན་པོ་དང་སློབ་དཔོན། བཤད་གྲྭ་བ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མདོ་སྔགས་གཞུང་ཆེན་བརྒྱད་ཀྱི་དཔེ་བསྡུར་བགྲོ་གླེང་མཛད་བཞིན་པའི་ཡུལ་དངོས་ཀྱི་བརྙན་
པར་ཕྱོགས་བསྡུས་དགེའོ། །
Detailed schedule for the first day of the conference
1st Session: 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM
The day began with Gyalwang Karmapa’s presentation on the topic: “Producing Critical Editions of the Eight Great Texts on Sutra and Tantra.” This session laid the foundation for the discussions that followed, emphasizing the importance of preserving and studying these texts.
2nd Session: 2:00 PM - 2:50 PM
The second session was held in the Vajra Vidya Institute shrine hall, where all the participating teachers gave their presentations on the same topic. These presentations provided valuable insights and diverse perspectives on producing critical editions of these important texts.
3rd Session: 3:00 PM - 4:15 PM
During the third session, participants were divided into six groups, each consisting of 6-7 teachers and approximately 100 students. These group discussions allowed for in-depth conversations and the exchange of ideas regarding the topic.
4th Session: 5:00 PM - 5:30 PM
The day concluded with a discussion summarizing the group meetings. Participants shared their thoughts and ideas on how to work collaboratively on producing critical editions of the Eight Great Texts on Sutra and Tantra in the future.
This structured approach ensured a thorough exploration of the topic while fostering collaboration and shared understanding among participants.
What the Gyalwang Karmapa said in the first session
After greetings and well wishes to those attending the conference, the Gyalwang Karmapa made these points:
During this year’s Kagyu Gunchoe, I initially planned to offer teachings; however, due to scheduling conflicts, I had to cancel them. Today, we are holding a conference on the topic of “Producing Critical Editions of the Eight Great Texts on Sutra and Tantra.” I have decided to structure this conference a little differently than usual. First, I will give my presentation on the topic, followed by a discussion among the khenpos and teachers. Another discussion session will take place in the afternoon.
The title “Eight Great Texts on Sutra and Tantra” was used by the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa. These texts, which hold immense importance, are now relatively easy to access. However, this was not the case in Tibet in the past. When I lived in Tibet, obtaining these texts was extremely difficult. I vividly remember the joy and deep sense of fulfillment that people, especially teachers, felt when they were able to access and study these rare texts. It is challenging to put into words how much they treasured such an opportunity, as there were no facilities to access them easily back then.
The 16th Gyalwang Karmapa worked diligently to collect and preserve these texts. Today, however, they are readily available in libraries and bookstores. While this ease of access is a great achievement, it has also led to a lack of appreciation and interest in these profound works. I encourage all participants to reflect deeply on the significance of these texts and their proper study, as well as the responsibility we bear to preserve and honour them.
The second point is that today, we will discuss the production of critical editions of the great root texts on Sutra and Tantra. This is a vital topic that deserves thorough consideration and reflection.
As I mentioned previously, for example, the 8th Karmapa, Mikyö Dorje, composed a vast number of significant texts on both Sutra and Tantra. These include:
• Vinaya: The Disk of the Sun: The Great Commentary on the Vinaya Sutras
• Abhidharma: The Springtime Bounty: A Commentary on the Treasury of Abhidharma
• Prajnaparamita: Rest for the Yogi: A Commentary on the Ornament of Clear Realization
• Madhyamaka: The Chariot of the Practice Lineage: A Commentary on Entering the Middle Way
• Logic and Epistemology: The Ocean of Literature on Logic: A Commentary on the Major Works of Dignāga and Dharmakīrti
The remarkable quality of these texts lies in their clarity and accessibility. When studied with proper listening and contemplation, they are easy to understand, and when put into practice, they are equally straightforward to integrate into one’s meditative experience.
Reflecting on the life of the 8th Karmapa, it is astounding to note that he composed these profound works while still in his twenties. Today, when we think about young people in their twenties, it is rare to see such intellectual or spiritual accomplishments; most are focused on other pursuits. Writing texts, particularly of such depth and clarity, is one of the most challenging undertakings compared to explaining or debating.
The extraordinary efforts of the 8th Karmapa in composing these works have played a crucial role in ensuring the survival and flourishing of the Karma Kamtsang lineage for many centuries. It is our responsibility to honour this legacy by ensuring the accurate preservation, study, and dissemination of these texts.
