Chapa Chökyi Senge

Chapa Chökyi Senge (T. phywa pa chos kyi seng+ge ཕྱྭ་པ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སེངྒེ་) (1109 - 1169). A Kadampa master who was the sixth abbot of the great Kadampa center of Sangphu Neuthok. His students included Sonam Tsemo (1142–1182), one of the founders of the Sakya tradition, and the 1st Karmapa Lama, Düsum Khyenpa.

The Princeton Dictionary states:

His collected works include explanations of Madhyamaka and Prajñāpāramitā. With his influential Tshad ma'i bsdus pa yid kyi mun sel rtsa 'grel he continued the line of pramāṇa scholarship started by Rngog Blo ldan shes rab, one that would later be challenged by Sa skya Paṇḍita. He is credited with originating the distinctively Tibetan bsdus grwa genre of textbook (used widely in Dge lugs monasteries) that introduces beginners to the main topics in abhidharma in a peculiar dialectical form that strings together a chain of consequences linked by a chain of reasons. He also played an important role in the formation of the bstan rim genre of Tibetan Buddhist literature, the forerunner of the more famous lam rim.

Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics (Vol 1) states:

In [his] texts Chapa summarized the subjects of logic and epistemology, such as valid cognition and the objects it ascertains, objective worlds and subjective minds, identity and difference, universals and particulars, substantial phenomena and abstract phenomena, contradiction and relation, cause and effect, and the tripartite of definition — the definiens, definiendum, and instance, and so on. He systematized the presentation of these topics within a threefold framework: refutation of the positions of others, presentation of one’s own position, and rebuttal of objections.

Furthermore, texts such as Epistemology Eliminating the Darkness of the Mind inspired other introductory texts, including those on the science of cognition (lorik) and the science of logical reasoning (tarik) that were aimed at beginner-level study. Even today this tradition of studying the science of cognition, logical reasoning, and the Collected Topics continues without decline in Tibetan centers of learning.

And also:

His famous eighteen topics, listed in the Root and Commentary of the Condensed Epistemology Eliminating the Darkness of the Mind (Tshad ma bsdus pa yid kyi mun sel rtsa ’grel), marked the beginning of a Tibetan tradition of epistemological studies.

Sources

• Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Donald S. (2014), The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University 
• Thupten Jinpa, ed. (2017), Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics, Volume 1: The Physical World, translated by Coghlan, Ian James, Wisdom Publications 

Further reading

• People/Phywa_pa_chos_kyi_seng+ge, Rangjung Yeshe Wiki
• Chapa Chökyi Sengé, Rigpa Shedra Wiki