Distinguishing Phenomena from Their Nature

Distinguishing Phenomena from Their Nature

The treatise titled "Distinguishing Phenomena from Their Nature" is attributed to Maitreya and holds a significant place among the "Thirteen great texts", which constitute the fundamental curriculum in Tibetan Buddhist monastic colleges.
 

Online teaching from 25th May 2023 every Monday and Thursday

6.30 a.m. - 8.00 a.m. CET, except June 19 and 22, 2023

Teacher: Geshe Lharampa Nyima Gyaltsen

 
 
Language: Tibetan
 
 
 
 
If you are interested in audio recordings, please send us an e-mail at info@siddhartha.cz. Attention, the lectures are only in Tibetan!
 

Distinguishing Phenomena from Their Nature

 
"Distinguishing Phenomena from Their Nature" (Skt. Dharma-dharmatā-vibhāga; Tib. ཆོས་དང་ཆོས་ཉིད་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པ) is a short Mahayana treatise that examines the distinction between dharma (in the sense of "phenomena") and dharmatā (the intrinsic nature of phenomena). The work exists in both a prose and a verse version. Nowadays it survives only in Tibetan translation, however the Sanskrit original was reported to exist in Tibet during the 1930s.
This work has been translated into English together with a commentary by Mipham Rinpoche by Jim Scott and Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche under the title Maitreya's Distinguishing Phenomena and Pure Being: Commentary by Mipham. It was retranslated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee with commentaries by Khenpo Shenga and Mipham Rinpoche under the title Jamgon Mipham and Maitreya, Distinguishing Phenomena from Their Intrinsic Nature — Maitreya's Dharmadharmatavibhanga with Commentaries by Khenpo Shenga and Ju Mipham.

Geshe Lharampa Nyima Gyaltsen

 
Geshe Lharampa Nyima Gyaltsen is a highly respected scholar of Buddhist philosophy and a distinguished graduate of the Sera Je monastery in South India. He has dedicated over two decades to studying and practicing Buddhism, earning the highest academic degree in the Gelug tradition and achieving the Rigchen Tsonglawa title for being the top graduate of his class.

Study of Five Treatises of Maitreya

Under the guidance of Geshe Lharampa Nyima Gyaltsen, we're studying all five philosophical works attributed to the bodhisattva Maitreya. These texts were transmitted to the bodhisattva Asanga and transcribed as the Five Treatises of Maitreya, which constitute the core curriculum in Tibetan Buddhist monastic colleges, also known as shedras.

After "Distinguishing the Middle from Extremes" (Skt. Madhyāntavibhāga; Tib. དབུས་མཐའ་རྣམ་འབྱེད་), we will now study "Distinguishing Phenomena from Their Nature" (Skt. Dharma-dharmatā-vibhāga; Tib. ཆོས་དང་ཆོས་ཉིད་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པ), subsequently "The Ornament of the Mahayana Sutras" (Skt. Māhayānasūtrālaṃkāra; Tib. ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ་སྡེ་རྒྱན་), "The Sublime Continuum" (Skt. Uttaratantra Śāstra; Tib. རྒྱུད་བླ་མ་), and finally "The Ornament of Clear Realization" (Skt. Abhisamayālaṃkāra; Tib. མངོན་རྟོགས་པའི་རྒྱན་).

It is worth noting that these teachings will be delivered in the Tibetan language.