The differences between ....

zider_red

...the Tibetan schools, especially Sakya & Gelug.

Hi all,
I'm having trouble getting my head around just what the differences between the various schools actually is. I'm especially interested in finding out more about the different perspectives and practices of the Sakya & Gelugpa traditions, as these are the schools of the 2 centers I attend for meditation classes at the moment.
many thanks
Jason

SherabDorje

Very briefly- the general consensus is that Gelug has an ever-so-slightly increased emphasis on intellectual pursuits as opposed to the other three schools, which have an ever-so-slightly increased emphasis on meditation over intellectual pursuits. These distinctions are apparently minor, since both emphasize intellectual pursuits and meditation, but Gelug is thought to emphasize intellectual pursuits somewhat more than the other schools, this distinction is made.

If you look at the "Emptiness Thread" over in the "Experienced" section, you will see a discussion that is pretty typical of Gelug (although I could be wrong about that).

What I mean to say is that Gelug sees intellectual/philosophical analysis of topics like emptiness as a valid way to approach the realization of emptiness when coupled with meditation. That is, reason and logic are thought to be a truly valid way to approach and examine emptiness, and this is sufficiently true of Gelug to make that distinction.

This is just my interpretation, but I'm pretty sure it's right.

dennis60

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelug

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakya

NamelessRiver

the Tibetan schools, especially Sakya & Gelug.

These are some teachings associated with each of the 4 schools:

Gelug -> Lam Rim, Tonglen, Lojong
Sakya -> Lam Dre
Nyingma -> Dzogchen
Kagyu -> Mahamudra

The schools don't exclude one another, though.

zider_red

many thanks for the answers. In the basic meditation classes I find that Sakya & Gelug seem fairly similar to each other, where as the one Nyingma class I attended had a very different feel to it. The Gelug group seems to have a lot more talks/events that are open to everyone than the Sakya group, who seem to require that one has taken refuge and had this & that instructions before one can go to the majority of their activities, thought I suspect that is more a difference between the 2 groups, rather than a difference between the 2 schools.