Lama Zopa Rinpoche

There were many thousands of monks in the six colleges of the three main monasteries of
the Lama Tsongkhapa, or Gelug, tradition in Tibet: over seven thousand at Drepung, over
five thousand at Sera and over three thousand at Ganden. Obviously the numbers are
different now in India.
Anyway, these large monasteries, the very top monasteries where the monks do extensive
study on Buddhist philosophy, are like huge universities. They resemble the huge factories
that make all the different parts of a plane—every single screw, every single engine
component, everything that is needed. Without missing anything, the monks learn the whole
path to enlightenment, both method and wisdom sides, the qualities of the Buddha, the
different levels of the Hinayana and the Mahayana sutra and tantra paths, the five paths to
liberation, the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment and so forth. What they study is truly
amazing; so extensive, as deep and as vast as the Pacific Ocean.
Besides studying the sutra path, the tantra they learn and practice is much more than just
reciting mantras or doing sadhanas, as people with little knowledge might think. Even
though reciting mantras greatly purifies the mind and prepares it for achieving
enlightenment, the practice of tantra is so much more than that. It contains the entire path
to enlightenment. In tantra there are many skillful techniques that are not found in the
practice of sutra. The study of the mind in sutra lacks the great profundity of tantra, where
we learn about the gross, subtle and extremely subtle mind, the pure mind.
When Lama Tsongkhapa organized the Mönlam Chenmo, all the main monasteries and
many other monasteries gathered together, and this continued up until His Holiness the
Fourteenth Dalai Lama left Tibet. Now we do it in exile. The festival lasts for fifteen days,
from Losar 87 until the Day of Miracles. 88 Many people think it is just the Day of Miracles, but
in fact it lasts the entire fifteen days.
Lama Tsongkhapa was extremely skillful. During the fifteen days of Mönlam Chenmo we
start each day with puja. Lay people come from all over to ask for prayers for those who
have died, are sick or have difficulties. They make food, money and tea offerings because
during this period, the merit of offerings made to each monk is increased a hundred million
times. Monks also come to ask for success in their Dharma studies and practice or for help
in overcoming obstacles.
Then the monks debate on the Pramanavarttika, logical teachings on mind, reincarnation, the
trustworthiness of the Buddha because his teachings are pure and so forth. Then there is
another puja followed by debate on the Prajnaparamita or the Abhisamayalamkara. After
another puja or meditation there’s debate on the Madhyamaka and in the evening there is
another puja and then debate on the Vinaya or the Abhidharmakosha.
The debates are between geshes who have finished their study of these five major texts.
Each day they gather in groups and two of them are chosen to reply to questions. They are
also examined and their answers checked by somebody like the Ganden Tripa, His
Holiness’s regent or the abbots of the monasteries.
After the early morning puja the Ganden Tripa reads the Buddha’s life stories in order to
inspire the monks to follow the path he practiced, with the six paramitas of charity, morality,
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