Scholasticism Series

Scholasticism

Knowledge is as infinite as the stars in the sky;

There is no end to all the subjects one might study.

It is better to grasp straight away their very essence—

The unchanging fortress of the dharmakāya.

Texts on the subject of scholasticism, including warnings of the limitations of intellectual understanding:

Advice

On the Ignorance of the Learned

by Dodrupchen Jigme Tenpe Nyima

A candid, somewhat comical description of what it means to take a limited and superficial approach to scholarship, which Jigme Tenpe Nyima tells us is based on his own experience.

Advice Notes 11 Apr 2014

Counsel to Aka Nyima

by Khenchen Ngawang Palzang

Verses of advice that stress the importance of recollecting impermanence, training in study, contemplation and meditation, and avoiding the pitfalls of dry scholasticism.

Advice 8 Nov 2024

Like the Sweet Sound of an Echo

by Khenchen Ngawang Palzang

Verses outlining what Khenchen Ngawang Palzang says he has understood about the view of the Nyingma School of Early Translations, together with warnings about the dangers of partiality and polemicizing.

Advice 5 Mar 2025

Prayers

A Prayer to Kindle the Three Faiths, Addressed to the Seventeen Great Paṇḍitas of Glorious Nālandā

by Fourteenth Dalai Lama

His Holiness himself identified seventeen of the most paṇḍitas associated with Nālandā Monastery (Nāgārjuna, Āryadeva, Buddhapālita, Bhāvaviveka, Candrakīrti, Śāntideva, Śāntarakṣita, Kamalaśīla, Asaṅga, Vasubandhu, Dignāga, Dharmakīrti, Ārya Vimuktisena, Haribhadra, Guṇaprabha, Śākyaprabha and Atiśa) and commissioned a thangka (scroll painting) depicting them. He then composed this prayer to accompany the image in 2001.

Lineage Prayers 22 Oct 2005

Quotations

Eight Self-Assertions

by Sakya Paṇḍita Kunga Gyaltsen

Sakya Paṇḍita's famous verse in which he employs the word for "I" or "me" eight times as he asserts his own erudition and superiority in the various branches of knowledge.

Quotations 16 Sep 2025

Rituals

An Appeal for the Prosperity of Teaching and Studying the Five Major Scriptures

by Pari Lobzang Rabsal

Adapted from Könchok Tenpe Drönme's "The Summoning Hook of Wish-Fulfilment: An Appeal for Prosperity", this is a rite to summon the conditions for teaching and studying the five major texts (bka' pod lnga) of Gelug scholasticism.

Wealth & Prosperity 19 Mar 2019

Songs and Poems

Many Are the Scholars Who Travel Empty-Handed to the Realm of the Dead

by Khenpo Chime Rigdzin

A poem warning monk-scholars of the risk of pursuing the path of intellectual study alone at the expense of the kind of deeper practice that brings genuine attainment.

Songs and Poems 4 Nov 2019

Scholasticism Series

Advice

Prayers

Quotations

Rituals

Songs and Poems

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