Jorden, Ngawang

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མཁན་པོ་ངག་དབང་འབྱོར་ལྡན།
Khenpo Ngawang Jorden

Khenpo Dr Ngawang Jorden was born in 1956 and grew up in Sikkim. He lived at Lachung, Sikkim until he was 12 then moved to Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim where he began formal studies at Enchey School. At age 14 he joined Sa-Ngor-Choe-Tshok Monastery in Gangtok. After completing his monastic studies such as rituals, he then studied Buddhist Philosophy with the late Khenpo Lodro Zangpo.

In 1975 he went to Sakya College, Dehradun, India, where he studied the five branches of Buddhist philosophy under the late Khenchen Appey Rinpoche. He obtained the degree of Kachupa (equivalent to B.A.) and Loppon (equivalent to M.A.) in Buddhist Studies. Khenpo Jorden later taught at Sakya College before going to America to study at Harvard University where he completed his M.A. and then Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies.

His Holiness the Sakya Trizin and Khenchen Appey Rinpoche invited Khenpo Jorden to take up the position of Principal of IBA in Kathmandu and so he left his teaching post at the University of Chicago and joined IBA in 2009. As Principal of IBA he oversees the many projects IBA is involved in, teaches the Dharma to students from across the globe and engages in translation work. He also travels extensively to countries such as Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and Europe to give teachings.

IBA has around 40 monastic scholars undertaking the five-year monastic leadership program and each year offers a summer program in Buddhist studies and practice to overseas students. IBA also has an active translation program, the Chödung Karmo Translation Group, with scholars and translators from many countries. Khenpo Jorden is currently managing a rebuilding program at IBA after significant damage to campus buildings in the earthquakes. (Source Accessed July 22, 2020)]

རྣམ་ཐར་སྙིང་བསྡུས།

སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༡༩༥༦ ལོར་བོད་ཀྱི་ས་གནས་གམ་པ་རྫོང་ནང་གི་གྲོང་གསེབ་གྲང་ལུང་ལ་འཁྲུངས་ནས་ཡུན་རིང་མ་ཕྱིན་པར་འབྲས་ལྗོངས་སུ་གནས་སྤོས་བྱས་ཤིང་ལ་ཆུང་ལ་སྐུ་ནར་སོན། དགུང་ལོ་ ༡༢ ་ལ་འབྲས་ལྗོངས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་ས་སྒང་ཏོག་ཏུ་དབེན་ཅན་སློབ་གྲྭར་འཛུལ་ཞུགས་བྱས་ནས་སློབ་ཚན་འདྲ་མིན་སློབ་སྦྱོང་དང་། དགུང་ལོ་ ༡༤ ་ལ་ས་ངོར་ཆོས་ཚོགས་དགོན་པར་གྲྭ་པ་མཛད་དེ། ཆོ་ག་ཕྱག་ལེན་དང་། གདོན་སྤུར་དང་གཏོར་བཟོ་དཀར་རྒྱན། ཐིག་རྡུལ་མཚོན་སོགས་ཀྱི་སློབ་སྦྱོང་ལོ་ཤས་ནང་ཚར་ནས་ཞི་བར་གཤེགས་པ་མཁན་ཆེན་བློ་གྲོས་བཟང་པོའི་མདུན་ནས་གཞུང་ཆེན་ཁག་མང་པོའི་བཀའ་ཁྲིད་ཞུས། སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༡༩༧༥ ་ལོར་རྒྱ་གར་གྱི་ས་གནས་མ་སུ་རིར་ས་སྐྱ་མཐོ་རིམ་སློབ་གྲྭར་འཛུལ་ཞུགས་མཛད། ལོ་བཅུ་ཙམ་གྱི་རིང་མཁན་ཆེན་ཨ་པད་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ནས་གཞུང་ཆེན་བཅུ་གསུམ་དང་གྲགས་ཆེན་བཅོ་བརྒྱད་སོགས་མདོ་ཕྱོགས་དང་། སྤྱི་ལྗོན་བརྟག་གསུམ་སོགས་སྔགས་སྐོར་སློབ་སྦྱོང་བྱས་ཏེ་བཀའ་བཅུ་པ་དང་སློབ་དཔོན་གྱི་ལག་ཁྱེར་བཞེས་ནས་མཐོ་སློབ་ཏུ་སྐྱོར་དཔོན་དང་དཔེ་ཁྲིད་དགེ་རྒན་དེ་བཞིན་དུ་འཛིན་སྐྱོང་གནང་མཚམས་ཨ་རིར་ཕེབས་ཏེ། ཐོག་མར་ California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) མཐོ་སློབ་ཁང་དུ་སློབ་དཔོན་གྱི་ལག་ཁྱེར་ (M.A.) དང་། མཐོ་སློབ་ཆེན་པོ་གྲགས་ཅན་ Harvard University ་ལ་འཛམ་གླིང་གི་ཆོས་ལུགས་འདྲ་མིན་གྱི་སྐོར་སློབ་གཉེར་བྱས་ནས་ Master of Theological Studies (MTS) ་ཞེས་པའི་ལག་ཁྱེར་བཞེས། དེ་ནས་མུ་མཐུད་དེ་འབུམ་རམས་པའི་སློབ་སྦྱོང་དང་རིགས་གཅིག་རྐང་འཛིན་གྱི་ཞིབ་འཇུག་མཛད་ནས་སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༠༣ ་ལ་ལག་ཁྱེར་བཞེས་པ་དང་། ལོ་མང་རིང་ University of Chicago ་ནང་ཆོས་དང་བོད་ཀྱི་སྐད་ཡིག་གི་དགེ་རྒན་མཛད། སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༠༡ ་ནས་ ༢༠༠༩ ་བར་ལོ་ལྟར་བལ་ཡུལ་དུ་རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་གསུང་རབ་སློབ་གཉེར་ཁང་ལ་རྒྱལ་སྤྱིའི་སློབ་གཉེར་བ་རྣམས་ལ་ནང་ཆོས་སློབ་ཁྲིད་བཤད་ཅིང་། སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༠༩ ་ནས་ ༧ སྐྱབས་མགོན་གོང་མ་ཁྲི་ཆེན་ ༤༡ པ་ཆེན་པོ་མཆོག་དང་མཁན་ཆེན་ཨ་པད་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་རྣམ་གཉིས་ཀྱི་བཀའ་བཞིན་རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་གསུང་རབ་སློབ་གཉེར་ཁང་གི་འགན་འཛིན་མཛད་དེ། ཤར་ནུབ་ཀྱི་ཡུལ་གྲུ་རྣམས་སུ་ནང་ཆོས་ངོ་སྤྲོད་དང་འཆད་སྤེལ་གནང་བཞིན་བཞུགས།། (Source: Karma Phuntsho, 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference)

Library Items

Buddha Nature Across Asia
The tathāgatagarbha or buddha nature doctrine is centered on sentient beings’ potential for buddhahood—sometimes understood in the sense that all beings already contain a “buddha within.” This notion is found through various strands of early Mahāyāna sources that, notwithstanding their complex and interwoven development, came to share enough common features to summarize them under the doxographical category of Tathāgatagarbha. The chapters contained in this volume represent the latest research into buddha nature theory that covers a range of topics across major Buddhist traditions. These contributions were originally presented as papers during the symposium “Tathāgatagarbha across Asia: The Reception of an Influential Mahāyāna Doctrine in Central and East Asia,” held at the University of Vienna in 2019. This symposium brought together academic scholars focusing on religio-historical developments of buddha nature theory as well as traditional teachers and monastics who offered emic perspectives on the relevance of the concept within the context of their own tradition. The resulting volume, therefore, aims at contributing to the overall better understanding of tathāgatagarbha doxography, both historically and in living Buddhist communities. (Source: WSTB)
Mathes, Klaus-Dieter, and Casey Kemp, eds. Buddha Nature Across Asia. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 103. Vienna: Arbeitkreis für tibetische und buddhistische Studien, University of Vienna, 2022.
PhD Diss
Jorden, Ngawang: Buddha-Nature: Through the Eyes of Go rams pa Bsod nams seng ge in Fifteenth-Century Tibet
Abstract


This dissertation explores the evolving interpretation and understanding of the Buddha-nature in Fifteenth-Century Tibet, through the eyes of Go rams pa Bsod nams seng ge (1429-1489), a prominent scholar of the Sa skya school of Tibetan Buddhism. The previous work of European and American scholars in this field have led to our general understanding of Buddha-nature as an innate potential for enlightenment that lies within all sentient beings. The concept of Buddha-nature provides the primary answer to a question with which all Mahāyānists have been philosophically concerned, throughout history: are all sentient beings capable of attaining Buddhahood? The Mahāyāna, more specifically, Madhyamaka theory of Buddha-nature answers the question unequivocally: "Since all sentient beings possess Buddha-nature they are guaranteed to achieve the state of Buddhahood." This research has been mostly limited to the interpretations of Indian and Chinese texts and to a study of only certain Tibetan schools. This dissertation seeks to fill the gap in present scholarship by analyzing the systematic thought of Go rams pa, who set out to provide a critical analysis, explain the internal coherence, and map out the organization of diverse Indian and Tibetan interpretations of this complex idea. I demonstrate in two fundamental ways that Go rams pa developed an unique view of Buddha-nature in two ways: First, I explore the facts Go rams pa's interpretation of Buddha-nature that contribute to his unique perspective. Second, I analyze his opponents' views on the subject thereby illuminating its distinctive features in an historical context. Throughout this study, I deploy a comparative apparatus considering the different views that Go rams pa thought was wrong. Given this fifteenth-century debate, we realize that the understanding of Buddha-nature is subtle and complicated; yet this study is vital to explicate its implications. I conclude that according to Go rams pa, Buddha-nature is to be understood as unity of the emptiness of the mind and clarity which is the nature of mind.
Jorden, Khenpo Ngawang. "Buddha-Nature: Through the Eyes of Go rams pa Bsod nams seng ge in Fifteenth-Century Tibet." PhD diss., Harvard University, 2003.
Video
Khenpo Ngawang Jorden at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium
Khenpo Ngawang Jorden discusses Gorampa’s interpretation of the concept of buddha-nature presented in his Supplement to the Three Vows. In particular his presentation is focused on Gorampa's refutation of the Jonang view of buddha-nature, as represented by the writings of Dolpopa and his zhentong philosophy.
Jorden, Khenpo Ngawang. "Revisiting Gorampa on Buddha Nature." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 45:05. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmhgtw5HwCE.
Video
Khenpo Ngawang Jorden on Buddha-Nature and Gorampa’s Refutations
གོ་བོ་རབ་འབྱམས་པས་སྡོམ་གསུམ་ཁ་སྐོང་ལ་གསུངས་པའི་གཤེགས་སྙིང་གི་དགག་བཞག་སྐོར།
Gorampa's Refutations of Some Interpretations of Buddha-Nature


Khenpo starts by saying how the conference is a wonderful opportunity to get exposure to and learn from each other, unlike other times when we are mostly stuck within the individual systems. He also mentions that as a senior figure he is very encouraged by younger participants and pleased to learn that the general state of Buddhist scholarship is very strong and that everyone must strive for the greater welfare of Buddha's teachings. He says that the topics were distributed among three Sakya scholars. While his two colleagues chose to speak on Rongtön and Śākya Chokden, he chose to speak about Gorampa, on whom he also did his PhD dissertation, although he has not written anything in Tibetan.

The main topic of Khenpo’s presentation is Gorampa's work on Sakya Paṇḍita's Distinguishing Three Vows. Although called A Supplement to Distinguishing Three Vows, Khenpo explains that it is not really a supplement to add something to make the former text complete but rather a sequel to it in order to continue the discussion. Gorampa presents the text in the framework of ground, path, and result, of which the ground refers to buddha-nature.

Claiming to carry on the traditions of Nāgārjuna as well as Maitreya and Asaṅga, whose thoughts converge on the ultimate point, Gorampa identifies the ultimate point to be the unconditioned, luminous, constant, unceasing union. Thus, buddha-nature in Gorampa's view is the unconditioned union of emptiness and luminosity. Gorampa refutes other scholars who he thinks failed to understand the teachings on buddha-nature.

Khenpo explains the verses in Gorampa's work about the reason for composition. Khenpo reads out the passages showing Gorampa's reasons for the refutation. The teachings, according to Gorampa, were misinterpreted in the centuries following Sapan, and his main reason for the composition of the text is to clarify things and dispel the misunderstanding.

The opponents whom Gorampa refutes were not identified in his own work, but the names were given in another work entitled Blooming Lotus. Gorampa's first refutation is of the Jonangpa interpretation, which Khenpo says he has already presented in another conference in English. The second opponent is Gyaltshab Je, who has written a commentary on the Ultimate Continuum and is the main source for the Geluk understanding of buddha-nature. Gyaltshab asserted a nonimplicative negation of mere absence of inherent existence to be buddha-nature. Gorampa refutes this, saying that such negation cannot be the ground for spiritual practice, the path of practice, and the resultant state of the Buddha.

The second opponent is Śākya Chokden, and the third opponent who Gorampa refutes is Dratsepa Rinchen Namgyal, the student of Buton Rinchen Drub. Refuting the positions espoused by these scholars, Gorampa formulated a definition of buddha-nature as a union of emptiness and luminosity, which is unconditioned and permanent, but one which transcends the ordinary sense of permanence and impermanence. Khenpo's presentation generated a lively discussion on the nature of union and how the union can be seen as unconditioned and permanent if one aspect of it is the subtle form of conditioned impermanent consciousness.
Ngawang Jorden, Khenpo. "Khenpo Ngawang Jorden at the 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference." Day 3, Talk 3. 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference, Shechen Monastery, Kathmandu, June 1–3. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department. Video, 59:30. https://youtu.be/hpvslhxx1R0.

About this person

Affiliations & relations

  • International Buddhist Academy (IBA), Kathmandu, Nepal · workplace affiliation
  • Sakya · religious affiliation
  • Appey, Khenchen · teacher

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