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Debate has been central to the Nalanda Tradition inherited by the Tibetans, and especially to the Geluk tradition. His Holiness the Dalai Lama has emphasized again and again the importance of debate, and it is said that he once shared that doing three years of basics in debate was better for beginners than doing a three-year retreat. His Holiness has also organized debate instruction among the lay Tibetan community. Lama Zopa Rinpoche also strongly supported the debate program, and funded a substantial portion of the yearly expenses for supporting the monks in the debate program at Sera Jey Monastery. Ven. Gache's teacher Chöden Rinpoche was one of the best debaters at Sera Jey in Tibet in the 1950's.
The importance of debate is not to win, but to learn how to think critically about the teachings. One of the distinct features of Buddhist teachings is not mere states of deep concentration – which are common to many Indian religions – but the application of concentration to reasoned analysis about the nature of self, phenomenal reality, and the causes of suffering.
Ven. Losang Donyo, who has completed nine years of the debate/study program at Sera Jey Monastery and has organized the "Debate School," a one-month intensive debate at Sera Jey for foreign students , will join to assist with the debate demonstration and instructions.
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Tenzin Gache (Brian Roiter) grew up in the Boston area and graduated from Tufts University in 2005. In 2004 he met Chöden Rinpoche, who invited him to join Lhopa Khangtsen, Rinpoche’s house group at Sera Jey. At the end of 2005, he traveled to India, where several months later he received monastic ordination from His Holiness the Dalai Lama. In August of 2006 he moved to Sera Jey, where he has lived and studied since. He has now completed the standard geshe studies program and has begun the six-year process of intensive examinations to qualify for the degree of geshe lharampa. He has served as the director of Sera IMI House (foreigners’ residence) at Sera Jey since 2023. He also served as translator for Chöden Rinpoche's works Mastering Meditation and Mastering the Six-Session Guru Yoga
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