Klong chen pa
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2 Library Items
This first part of the Trilogy of Rest sets the foundation for the following two volumes: Finding Rest in Meditation, which focuses on Tibetan Buddhist meditation practice, and Finding Rest in Illusion, which focuses on post-meditation yogic conduct. The Padmakara Translation Group has provided us with a clear and fluid new translation to Finding Rest in the Nature of the Mind along with selections from its autocommentary, The Great Chariot, which will serve as a genuine aid to study and meditation.
Here, we find essential instructions on the need to turn away from materialism, how to find a qualified guide, how to develop boundless compassion for all beings, along with the view of tantra and associated meditation techniques. The work culminates with pointing out the result of practice as presented from the Dzogchen perspective, providing us with all the tools necessary to traverse the Tibetan Buddhist path of finding rest.
Shambhala PublicationsNotes
1. Following Paul Harrison, I employ the term 'buddhology' (written in lower case) to refer to theories on and conceptions of the nature of a "buddha" (i.e., Buddhahood), while reserving 'Buddhology' (capitalized) for an alternative designation for Buddhist Studies. See Harrison 1995, p. 24, n. 4.
2. In the present study I differentiate between a buddha (i.e., written in lower case and italicized), a title referring to any unspecified awakened person, and Buddha (i.e., written in roman and capitalized), a title referring to Śākyamuni Buddha or any other particular awakened person. (The same convention has been employed in the case of other titles: for example, bodhisattva versus Bodhisattva.) This differentiation is particularly important for the discussion of buddhology, or conceptions of Buddhahood, since some such conceptions (particularly the earlier ones) are clearly only associated with the person of the historical Buddha, while others, which commonly represent later developments in which a plurality of buddhas is affirmed, concern all awakened persons. To be sure, often there is no clear-cut borderline. In such cases I have employed both forms as alternatives.
On the topic of this person
drawn primarily from two of the four major orders of Tibetan Buddhism:
- the old order called Nying-ma-ba,[2] which reached its full development in the fourteenth century with the scholar-yogi Long-chen-rap-jam[3]
- a highly scholastic order called Ge-luk-ba,[4] founded by the fourteenth century scholar-yogi Dzongka-ba.[5]
Long-chen-rap-jam was born in 1308 Do-drong[6] in south central Tibet, received ordination at Samyay[7] Monastery, and studied the doctrines of both the old and new schools. A great scholar, he became abbot of Sam-yay Monastery early in his life but retired from that position to live in the mountains. Receiving the full corpus of the teachings of the Old Translation School of Nying-ma, he wrote prolifically, and even when he was exiled for a decade to Bhutan for his closeness with the opponents of the ruling power, he established and restored monasteries.[8]
Dzong-ka-ba was born in 1357 in the northeastern province of Tibet called Am-do,[9] now included by the occupying Chinese Communists not in the Tibetan Autonomous Region but in Ch'ing-hai Province. He studied the new and old schools extensively, and developed his own tradition called Ge-luk-ba. Dzongka- ba and his followers established a system of education centered especially in large universities, eventually in three areas of Tibet but primarily in Hla-sa, the capital, which in some ways was for the Tibet cultural region what Rome is for the Catholic Church. For five centuries, young men came from all over the Tibetan cultural region to these large Tibetan universities to study (I say "men" because women were, for the most part, excluded from the scholastic culture). Until the Communist takeovers, these students usually returned to their own countries after completing their degrees.
This first part of the Trilogy of Rest sets the foundation for the following two volumes: Finding Rest in Meditation, which focuses on Tibetan Buddhist meditation practice, and Finding Rest in Illusion, which focuses on post-meditation yogic conduct. The Padmakara Translation Group has provided us with a clear and fluid new translation to Finding Rest in the Nature of the Mind along with selections from its autocommentary, The Great Chariot, which will serve as a genuine aid to study and meditation.
Here, we find essential instructions on the need to turn away from materialism, how to find a qualified guide, how to develop boundless compassion for all beings, along with the view of tantra and associated meditation techniques. The work culminates with pointing out the result of practice as presented from the Dzogchen perspective, providing us with all the tools necessary to traverse the Tibetan Buddhist path of finding rest.
Shambhala PublicationsNotes
1. Following Paul Harrison, I employ the term 'buddhology' (written in lower case) to refer to theories on and conceptions of the nature of a "buddha" (i.e., Buddhahood), while reserving 'Buddhology' (capitalized) for an alternative designation for Buddhist Studies. See Harrison 1995, p. 24, n. 4.
2. In the present study I differentiate between a buddha (i.e., written in lower case and italicized), a title referring to any unspecified awakened person, and Buddha (i.e., written in roman and capitalized), a title referring to Śākyamuni Buddha or any other particular awakened person. (The same convention has been employed in the case of other titles: for example, bodhisattva versus Bodhisattva.) This differentiation is particularly important for the discussion of buddhology, or conceptions of Buddhahood, since some such conceptions (particularly the earlier ones) are clearly only associated with the person of the historical Buddha, while others, which commonly represent later developments in which a plurality of buddhas is affirmed, concern all awakened persons. To be sure, often there is no clear-cut borderline. In such cases I have employed both forms as alternatives.
Philosophical positions of this person
- "...the Grub mtha' mdzod's positive interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhāga, maintaining that emptiness needs to be understood in the sense of buddha nature's luminosity, and that such a positive assessment of the ultimate has definitive meaning." Mathes, K., A Direct Path to the Buddha Within, p. 98.
- Duckworth, D., Mipam on Buddha-Nature, pp. 2-4.
- "As he concludes the section on the buddha-nature in his Treasury of Tenets, again based largely on citations quoted from the Uttaratantra, he declares, "The meaning of buddha-nature must be asserted and understood only as definitive, not as provisional. Because this topic on the buddha-element [from the Uttaratantra] is the essential and difficult-to-realize aspect of the Mahāyāna, that is why it is explained in detail here." Wangchuk, Tsering, The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, pp. 64-65.
It exists in sentient beings, though it is very difficult to perceive due to being hindered by adventitious stains, which are explained in detail in the long quote in Mathes, K., A Direct Path to the Buddha Within, p. 100.
"Longchenpa, thus, adduces the crucial stanza I.28 from the Ratnagotravibhāga, which lists the three reasons for the presence of buddha nature in sentient beings. In his explanation of the third reason ("because of the potential"), Longchenpa equates potential with the dzogchen term awareness, adopting as he does the reading rig instead of rigs (potential), and glossing buddha nature as rigpa in the following paraphrase. In other words, all sentient beings possess buddha nature because of their intrinsic primordial awareness." Mathes, K., A Direct Path to the Buddha Within, p. 100.
Duckworth, D., Mipam on Buddha-Nature, pp. 2-4.
- Though much like Mipham in his steed, Longchenpa presents a combination of second and third wheel teachings in his presentations of buddha-nature with the emptiness of the second and the appearance of wisdom, etc. in the third as a unity. However, strictly speaking Longchenpa considers buddha-nature as taught in the RGV as belonging to the third turning.
This is a tricky issue, as he generally predates this categorization though he does use the term, sparingly, in some of his writings, though not in the same way that it would come to be characterized by Dolpopa. Though some traditional scholars, such as Kongtrul, consider him a zhentongpa, this is not a common Nyingma view. For relevant discussions of this issue see:
- Mathes, K., A Direct Path to the Buddha Within, pp. 98-99.
- Wangchuk, Dorji, The rÑiṅ-ma Interpretations of the Tathāgatagarbha Theory, pp. 174-178.
"He also describes an “ultimate universal ground” (don gyi kun gzhi) in his autocommentary of his Wish-Fulfilling Treasury: “The basic element is called ‘the ultimate universal ground’ because it co-exists with the unconditioned qualities of the naturally pure nirvāna.” He says that this ground is the support for both samsāra and nirvāna, and identifies it with Buddha-nature: Due to abiding as the expanse neither conjoined with nor separable from the exalted body and wisdom, it is Buddha-nature; due to supporting all phenomena of samsāra and nirvāna, it is the abiding reality called “the ultimate universal ground”; it is unconditioned and abides as the great primordial purity..." Duckworth, D., Mipam on Buddha-Nature, p. 104.
Other names
- ཀློང་ཆེན་པ་ · other names (Tibetan)
- klong chen pa · other names (Wylie)
Affiliations & relations
- Nyingma · religious affiliation
- Vimalamitra · emanation of
- pad+ma las 'brel rtsal · emanation of
- rig 'dzin ku mA ra rA dza · teacher
- Karmapa, 3rd · teacher
- g.yag sde paN chen · teacher
- bsod nams rgyal mtshan · teacher
- 'jam dbyangs pa grags pa rgyal mtshan · teacher
