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Tsongkhapa on the Results of Anger

ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 2 1995

Cutting the Roots of Virtue: Tsongkhapa on the Results of Anger

Daniel Cozort
Dickinson College

Anger is the most powerful of the kleśas that not only “plant seeds” for suffering but also “cut the roots of virtue” for periods of up to a thousand aeons per instance. This article examines and assesses the exegesis by Tsongkhapa, founder of the Tibetan Gelukba order, of Indian sources on the topic of anger. It argues that despite Tsongkhapa’s many careful qualifications he may not be successful in avoiding the conclusion that if the sūtras are to be accepted literally, there almost certainly will be persons for whom liberation from saṃsāra is precluded.

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