Summer Retreat 2025 - A Commentary on Tsongkhapa's Praise of Dependent Origination
Demo Rinpoche
His Holiness the Dalai Lama calls Je Tsongkhapa’s In Praise of Dependent Origination “a text that bears the blessings of the hard work Tsongkhapa put into understanding emptiness.”
In 1398, at age forty-one after almost a year of intensive practice, Je Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelugpa tradition, achieved a breakthrough by realizing a profound experience of emptiness based on Buddha’s teachings. Tsongkhapa composed his Praise of Dependent Origination to express his feelings of joy, wonder, gratitude, and deep reverence for the Buddha for having taught the wisdom of emptiness and dependent origination in order to liberate sentient beings from suffering.
Tsongkhapa has said all Buddha’s teachings compassion and wisdom are based on the fact of dependent origination. Thus, for a Buddhist practitioner or someone who wants to learn about Buddhism further, dependent origination is a master key to open all secret doors of Buddhism.
Demo Rinpoche has composed his own commentary on this famous text and will share his wisdom and understanding with us during this summer retreat.