Necklace of Clear Understanding

The Necklace of Clear Understanding, An Elucidation of Mind and Mental Factors (T. sems dang sems-byung gi tshul gsal-par ston-pa blo gsal mgul rgyan སེམས་དང་སེམས་བྱུང་གི་ཚུལ་གསལ་པར་སྟོན་པ་བློ་གསལ་མགུལ་རྒྱན་) — is a commentary by the Tibetan teacher Yongdzin Yeshe Gyeltsen (1713-1793) on the mind and mental factors based on the presentation in the Abhidharma-samuccaya.

Brief description

Herbert Guenther and Leslie Kawamura state:

The Necklace of Clear Understanding: An Elucidation of the Working of Mind and Mental Events by Ye-shes rgyal mtshan (1713-1793) is an auto-commentary on his own verse text; which explains the mind and its fifty-one mental events in 177 four-lined stanzas.

They also state:

He builds his presentation around Asanga's Abhidharma-samuccaya (51 mental events as against the Abhidharma-kosha's 46 mental events) and Tsong-kha-pa's lam-rim chen-mo. In his own words,

I, Ye-shes rgyal mtshan ... composed this work ... by making the Abhidharma-samuccaya the basis and by embellishing it with statements from Tsong-kha-pa and his disciples....

Artemus B. Engle states:

I soon also became acquainted with a native Tibetan work...written by Tsechok Ling Yongzin Yeshe Gyeltsen (1713–1793), an important Gelukpa scholar who served as tutor to the eighth Dalai Lama. Entitled A Necklace for Those of Clear Mind: An Elucidation of Mind and Mental Factors, this work is distinguished by the way that it relates the descriptions of mind and mental factors to the instructions of the teaching system known as Lamrim, or Stages of the Path, which is revered for its effectiveness in enabling practitioners of all levels to develop the spiritual attitudes that lie at the heart of the Buddhist Mahāyāna tradition.

Tibetan Text

• སེམས་དང་སེམས་བྱུང་གི་ཚུལ་གསལ་བར་སྟོན་པ་བློ་གསལ་མགུལ་རྒྱན།

English translations

• Guenther, Herbert V. & Leslie S. Kawamura (1975), Mind in Buddhist Psychology: A Translation of Ye-shes rgyal-mtshan's "The Necklace of Clear Understanding". Dharma Publishing.
• Toh Sze Gee (translator) (2006), A Necklace for Those of Clear Awareness: Clearly Revealing the Modes of Minds and Mental Factors , by Ye-she Gyel-tsen, Toh Sze Gee & FPMT Inc.

See also

• Khenjuk

Sources

• Engle, Artemus B. (2009), The Inner Science of Buddhist Practice: Vasubhandu's Summary of the Five Heaps with Commentary by Sthiramati, Ithaca: Snow Lion
• Yeshe Gyeltsen (1975), Mind in Buddhist Psychology: A Translation of Ye-shes rgyal-mtshan's "The Necklace of Clear Understanding", translated by Guenther, Herbert V.; Kawamura, Leslie S., Dharma Publishing 

External links

• ye_shes_rgyal_mtshan, Rangjung Yeshe Wiki