ENGLISH INTRODUCTION

The Tibetan Buddhist monastery of Rato Datsang was founded by
Drakpa Sangpo, a veritable lord of Buddhist learning who lived
in the 15th century.  He hailed from the Ma region of Kham,
eastern Tibet, and served as a lamp for the teachings of the
Buddha throughout his life.

Drakpa Sangpo did his initial studies under the Sakya master
Rong Ton (1367-1449), as well as many other great lamas of his
era.  Later he met the great Tsongkapa (1357-1419), and received
from him instruction in the traditional subjects of phar-phyin
(the teachings of the Svatantrika Madhyamika school of classical
Buddhist philosophy), tsad-ma (Buddhist presentations of logic
and perception according to the Sautrantika school), and dbu-ma
(the Prasangika Madhyamika school).  He completed a careful
study of the various topics of each school and then went on to
put these into actual practice in his life.  This earned Drakpa
Sangpo a place as one of the principal disciples among the many
learned and accomplished students of the Master.

In the various biographies of Je Tsongkapa, including what is
known as the Great Biography, we find lists of his direct
disciples; here Drakpa Sangpo is counted as a member of the
group of ten great students known as "Lamps of the Land of
U-Tsang," the region of central Tibet.

During Je Tsongkapa's final hours, as he was pretending to pass
on to the other world, he sent a message to Drakpa Sangpo
through Gyaltsab Je Darma Rinchen, the one who would later
become his regent.  He said that Drakpa Sangpo of Ma-Kham should
go and found a new monastery, to be located in the land known as
Nyetang, and dedicated mainly to the teaching of tsad-ma, the
study of Buddhist logic and perception mentioned above.

To help start the new monastery, the Master sent with his
message a quantity of gold known as a srang.  It was not long
before Drakpa Sangpo had founded the monastery of Rato in
Nyetang, instituting there a program for the transmission of the
Buddha's teachings.

Thus began at Rato a long succession of learned masters,
stretching through history like a great string of golden
mountain peaks, including such eminent masters as Drachung
Yonten Gyatso (a direct student of Drakpa Sangpo); Jamyang Lama
Choklha Oser (whose name we see spelled as both Mchog-lha
'od-zer and as Phyogs-lha 'od-zer); and Drungchen Lekpa Sangpo.

Because of their teachings, Rato soon stood above the crowd of
monasteries in the central lands of Tibet, distinguishing itself
as one of the major centers where one could study the great
texts of Buddhist logic composed by the Lord of Reasoning,
Dignaga, and his spiritual son, Dharmakirti.  This too is why
the "Great Fifth" Dalai Lama, in his autobiography, remarked
that "Rato is like a jewel--it stands out from all the other
monasteries that specialize in philosophical studies.  Although
my dream has never become a reality, I have always wished that I
could study there."

The book goes on to describe how the monks of Tak Tsang Rawa
Topa (another name for Rato) instituted special debate sessions
at Drepung Monastery so that the Dalai Lama could attend and
learn.  (The relevant section of the autobiography, which is
entitled Raiment of Dukula Silk, begins at page 280 of the
edition published in Dharamsala, India, by the Private Office of
His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama.)

Rato Monastery has also supplied three of the Ganden Tripa's, or
holders of the throne of Je Tsongkapa, from the time this
institution began in the 15th century.  They are Tri Lodro
Gyatso (the 30th throneholder), Trichen Konchok Chopel (the
35th), and Tri Lobsang Gyaltsen (the 41st).  And these are but a
few of the many lamas of Rato who through the years have come to
be our lamps to elucidate the teachings of the Buddha in the
world.  Trichen Konchok Gyaltsen, by the way, was a personal
tutor of the Great Fifth Dalai Lama, who considered him among
those lamas to whom he was most indebted.

Although Rato is renowned primarily for its course in Buddhist
logic, scholars from the monastery have always devoted
themselves to the other traditional monastic subjects as well:
to dbu-ma and phar-phyin as mentioned above, and to 'dul-ba (the
study of vowed morality) and mdzod (the teachings of the
Vaibhasika school of classical Buddhism).

Thus it is that in every other year a monk from Rato would stand
at the great Monlam festival in Lhasa for his examination as a
lharampa geshe, or Master of Buddhist Philosophy in the highest
degree, equal in every respect to his fellows from the "Major
Three" monasteries of Sera, Ganden, and Drepung.  And each year,
during the Summer Debates at Sangpu in the fourth month of the
Tibetan calendar, a monk from Rato would stand as well among
those of the ten colleges of the Geluk and Sakya, to take his
examination as a "goldthrone," otherwise known as a "geshe of
the golden throne."

Every year, on the first day of the eleventh month of the
Tibetan calendar, monks from Rato would travel to Jang, a
monastery that dates back to the time of the Kadampas, the very
early Buddhist sages of Tibet.  It was their responsibility to
organize the great festival of philosophical disputation known
as the "Winter Debates of Jang."  Scholars of the Major Three,
and other monasteries as well, would convene at Jang for a full
month in order to study together the great classical texts of
Buddhist logic, tsad-ma.

The Abbot of Rato would teach the assembled monks, and the
monastery's Debate Master would oversee the busy schedule.  The
quartermasters of Rato had the duty of preparing daily meals
during the great gatherings of monks.  And so did we of Rato
serve the teachings of the Buddha, and those who studied them,
at Jang.

In 1959 the Communist Chinese invaded Tibet, and only a handful
of monks from Rato were able to flee to India.  Over the years a
good number of additional monks have been able to escape from
Tibet, and all these have gathered together to form a new Rato
Monastery, in the Tibetan settlement camp at Mundgod, south
India.

Rato has quite a few monastic textbooks, written especially for
its curriculum over the centuries.  The present volume, the
Logic Primer of Rato, is considered the predecessor of all the
many other primers of this type found in Tibet.  This book sets
forth in a definitive way many aspects of formal reasoning which
must be grasped by any student who hopes to study the classics
of Buddhist philosophy in general, and, more specifically, the
great presentation of Buddhist logic known as the Commentary on
Valid Perception (the Pramanavarttika of Master Dharmakirti).

It is the common view that the Logic Primer of Rato is the
written version of an oral tradition of Buddhist logic that
began with Jamyang Lama Choklha Oser and his close disciples.
Beyond this I personally have yet to come across much concrete
information about the text.  According to various biographies of
the Dalai Lamas, Jamyang Lama Choklha Oser was a disciple of the
second Dalai Lama.  "Jamyang" is a name for the embodiment of
the wisdom of the Buddhas, and the title "Jamyang Lama" is meant
to indicate just how great the power of his understanding was.

Not long ago I was approached by Michael Roach, who is a member
of the Gyalrong College of Sera Mey Monastic University.  He
brought to my attention a rare woodblock print entitled A
Resolution of Philosophical Questions Raised in the Logic Primer
of Rato, which was written in the 1700's by Jampel Gendun
Gyatso, a lama of the Tongkor Shabdrung line.  He said he felt
it would be a great service to the tradition and to the living
beings of this world if a volume were printed which contained
both the original Primer and this explanation of its difficult
points.  And he asked me if I would be willing to proofread both
of the texts.

I myself though have little of the knowledge that would be
required for such a task--I possess neither those kinds of
intellectual abilities that some people enjoy from the time they
are born, nor those types that come with years of study; neither
do I have much time, being quite busy with my other activities.
There lives however a monk who is such a great master of
Buddhist logic that he is in a sense the owner of these
teachings in our times; I am speaking of the supreme Kachen,
Lobsang Sopa, the high abbot of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery.

I made a request to Kachen Sopa that he give the commentary a
careful reading, and he complied with pleasure.  He informed me
that it would be a great goodness if we were able to complete
the proposed publication.

I have had only a brief chance to examine the commentary here,
since it only recently came into my hands.  It includes a great
many clarifications that I think will be met with great
enthusiasm by capable scholars, despite the fact that on some
few points it seems to be at variance with the traditional Rato
position.  Nonetheless I have undertaken to publish this volume,
with the hopes that it will inspire students of the subject to a
greater depth of knowledge.  And as the old verse goes,

     It's not that I am partial to the teachings of the Buddha; 
     It's not that I'm against the other teachings that I see.  
     Whether I decide to praise or pay some honor to them
     Relies instead on whether words stand up to reasoning; 
     And that's a reason for me then to follow what they teach.

The printing of this book has been sponsored by the Rato Datsang
Foundation, which I and my associates have organized to help
establish the new Rato Monastery, in India.  It is my prayer
that the power of this good deed may lead to a world in which
sickness and hunger, conflict and misunderstanding--all of the
many problems we face--may disappear from every nation on earth.
I pray too that this act may lead every single being to spend
his days in peace and happiness.  And I pray finally that I and
all my students and friends, people of the Asian race and those
of the Western, all of us, as one, may speedily win the ultimate
goal: the Great Liberation of the Buddha.

Rato Khyongla Rinpoche, Ngawang Lobsang
New York, September 1992







Editor's note:

The woodblock edition used for printing the commentary by the
Tongkor Shabdrung is the only copy of which we are aware, and is
in poor condition.  The final page, containing the recitation
for wisdom, had been ripped in two, the missing half written out
by hand and glued to the existing half.  Some parts of the
recitation, which is in Sanskrit, seem as though they may
contain some errors, which we have not however attempted to
correct.  A version of the recitation may be found in volume
"tha" of the rGyud-'bum section of the Lhasa edition of the
bKa'-'gyur, beginning from folio 471B.