Property:BookEssay
From Buddha-Nature
This is a property of type Text.
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The Dagpo Tarjen'"`UNIQ--ref-00000D50-QINU`"' or The Jewel Ornament of Liberation'"`UNIQ--ref-00000D51-QINU`"' of Gampopa is one of the most important texts of Tibetan Buddhism. In the Kagyu'"`UNIQ--ref-00000D52-QINU`"' tradition it is the main text used in the instruction of monks. It is sometimes referred to as the "merging of the two streams" because Gampopa here combines two traditions or currents of Dharma teachings, that of the Mahayana Kadampa'"`UNIQ--ref-00000D53-QINU`"' tradition and that of the tantric Mahamudra'"`UNIQ--ref-00000D54-QINU`"' tradition.
Gampopa's teachings brought these two traditions together in such a way that they could be practiced together as one experience. They quickly became one of the most important and effective foundation texts used in the teaching of Buddhism in Tibet from the eleventh century onward. The whole Kagyu tradition is based mainly on this teaching.
====The Author====
Gampopa was born in 1079 and died in 1153. Despite his renown as a physician, he was unable to save his wife and two children, who died in an epidemic that ravaged the region where they lived. Full of grief, he came to a deep understanding of the transitory nature of all things and the inherent suffering that this implied. He renounced the world and devoted himself totally to spiritual practice, seeking a way out of the suffering of samsara. Gampopa became a monk and for many years followed the teachings of the Kadampa geshes'"`UNIQ--ref-00000D55-QINU`"' of the time. One day he happened to hear the name of Milarepa, the famous Tibetan yogic poet, and intense devotion immediately arose in him. Deeply inspired, he began to cry and left at once to seek out Milarepa.
After many hardships Gampopa arrived near the place where the yogi was staying. Having traveled without any rest, Gampopa was by now ill and exhausted. The people in the local village took him in and treated him with great respect and hospitality. "You must be the one whom Milarepa spoke of," they said. "What did he say about me?" asked Gampopa. The villagers replied that Milarepa had predicted his arrival, telling them, "A monk from Ü'"`UNIQ--ref-00000D56-QINU`"' is coming. He is a very great bodhisattva and will be the holder of my lineage. Whoever shows him hospitality when he first arrives will be liberated from samsara and will enjoy the best of good fortune."
When Gampopa heard this, he said to himself, "I must be a very special person." Feelings of pride and conceit arose in his mind, and, consequently, when he went to meet Milarepa in his cave, the latter refused to see him. He had Gampopa wait in a nearby cave for fifteen days. When he was finally allowed to see Milarepa, Gampopa found the yogi sitting there with a skull cup full of wine. He handed the skull to Gampopa and invited him to drink. Gampopa was perplexed. He was a fully ordained monk and as such had vowed to abstain from alcohol. Yet here was Milarepa commanding him to drink. It was unthinkable! So great, however, was Gampopa's trust and devotion to his guru that he took the skull cup and drained it of every drop.
This act had a very nice and auspicious significance, as it showed that Gampopa was completely open and ready to receive the entirety of Milarepa's teachings and full realization. It is said that how much a student can benefit from a teacher depends upon how open he or she is. Although Gampopa was a very good monk, he drank the skull cup of wine without any hesitation or reservation, which signified that he was completely open and without the slightest doubt.
Milarepa subsequently gave Gampopa his complete teachings, and within a very short time Gampopa became his best and most realized student.'"`UNIQ--ref-00000D57-QINU`"' In Gampopa's teachings we therefore find the scholarly erudition and discipline of his monastic tradition combined with the total realization of a fully accomplished yogi, which he received through Milarepa.
The present commentary relies mainly on the original Tibetan text but draws upon both Guenther's and Holmes's translations where necessary.
'"`UNIQ--references-00000D58-QINU`"'
This commentary is a key source for teaching buddha-nature and the ''Gyü Lama'' in the Sakya tradition and was authored by the famous Sakya master [[Rongtön Sheja Kunrik]]. The book is an updated version of Bernert's dissertation, which includes an annotated translation of Rongtön's commentary on the fourth chapter of the ''Gyü Lama'' (''Ratnagotravibhāga'') and an analysis of Rongtön's position, which is a useful starting point for understanding the view of buddha-nature teachings from a Sakya perspective. Rongtön's view of buddha-nature follows the analytical tradition of [[Rngog blo ldan shes rab|Ngok Loden Sherab]], but is somewhat complex, and Bernert does a good job of presenting the complexities in his analysis. +
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This is essential reading for understanding Dölpopa's position on buddha-nature. +
The present work is a study of ''tathāgatagarbha'' (often referred to as Buddha Nature) thought, crystallized in a short text by one of the great religious scholars of fourteenth-century Tibet, the Third Zhwa nag Karma pa of the Bka' brgyud school, [[Rang byung rdo rje]] (1284-1339). This verse text, entitled "A Pronouncement on the Enlightened Heart of Buddhahood" (''De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po gtan la dbab pa'', or ''De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po bstan pa'') blends scriptural quotations from both ''sūtra'' and ''tantra'' with Rang byung's own words, creating an evocative picture of the relation between the primordially pure enlightened state- symbolized by the Enlightened Heart (''snying po'')- human existence, and Buddhahood. While Rang byung has relied heavily on the ''Ratnagotravibhāgaśāstra'', (known in Tibet as the ''Uttaratantra'', or ''Rgyud bla ma''), the syncretism of various strands of ''Mahāyāna'' and ''Vajrayāna'' apparent in the text is particular to Tibet. ''Tathāgatagarbha, Madhyamaka, Yogācāra, Mahāmudrā'', and ''Annuttarayogatantra'' all coalesce in this work, which is a testament to the hundreds of years of appropriation and synthesis of Indian and Tibetan Buddhist thought that preceded it.
The leitmotif of the ''Snying bstan'' is the indivisibility of the transcendent,
absolute nature of reality and the immanent, ordinary human mode of reality.
This indivisibility is embodied in the concept of the Enlightened Heart (''snying po'').
To paraphrase, it is precisely because all beings possess the Enlightened Heart of Buddhahood that they are, but for obscuring defilements, essentially Buddhas.
The Snying bstan falls somewhere between religious poetry and religious
philosophy: On the one hand it is evocative, promoting faith in the reader with
striking imagery and a derision of reason as a means to apprehend the absolute.
On the other hand it does attempt to systematize the relation between the
absolute reality and ordinary human reality, arguing against other views of this relation, and methodically describing the continuum of existence from ordinary
human existence to Buddhahood.
This study consists of seven chapters. Chapter one is a paraphrase of the
earliest known biography of Rang byung, the Red Annals (Deb ther dmar po).
Chapter two is a description of Rang byung's textual corpus, in which I have
very briefly described all of the texts attributed to him which I have been able to
locate at the University of Washington.
Chapter three is a short discussion of the historical and doctrinal relation
between Rang byung and [[People/Dol_po_pa|Dol po pa Shes rab rgyal mtshan]] (1292-1361),
generally recognized as the initiator of the gzhan stong (emptiness of other)
system. While later Tibetan scholars such as [[People/%27jam_mgon_kong_sprul|'Jam mgon Kong sprul blo 'gros mtha' yas]] (1813-1899) assimilate these two thinkers, referring to them both as
Gzhan stong pas, differences can be discerned in their thought. This chapter
merely begins to untangle a complicated relationship that will require a
considerable amount of research in order to provide anything approaching a
complete picture.
Chapter four is an explication of the ideas of the Snying bstan. In brief, the
Enlightened Heart (snying po) is present as a precondition for human existence,
throughout human existence, and at the time of awakening, of. Buddhahood. In
order to highlight this idea I will present the thought of Rang byung's work in a
four-fold interpretive model which is intended to represent the existential
moments or phases through which the Enlightened Heart moves, all the while
remaining unchanged from an absolute standpoint by this movement. These
moments are:
1. The pre-phenomenal. The Enlightened Heart as a pre-condition for existence.
2. The phenomenal. The Enlightened Heart obscured within our ordinary
consciousness.
3. The post-phenomenal. The Enlightened Heart revealed at the time of
Buddhahood.
4. The re-phenomenal. Buddhahood acting in the world to aid beings, in a
manner in which the Enlightened Heart is not obscured.
While I have drawn inspiration from certain traditional interpretive schemes, I
have developed this model independently of anyone Tibetan sheme in order to
highlight the relationships posited in the Snying bstan between the Enlightened
Heart and ordinary consciousness.
Throughout this four-fold movement the Enlightened Heart is the
unchanging force compelling human beings toward enlightenment. It is equally
present in all stages, albeit unseen in the phenomenal phase. Although this fourfold scheme is not explicitly stated in the text, it has the advantage of clearly
presenting the relationship between the Enlightened Heart, ordinary human
existence, and Buddhahood.
Chapter five continues the interpretive discussion begun in chapter four.
Specifically, it deals with the use of language in the Snying bstan in terms of the
tension between apophatic or negative language and kataphatic or positive
language as means to refer to the absolute. This topic has a long history in
western thought, especially Eastern Christianity and Neo-Platonism. David
Seyfort-Ruegg has recently described tathagatagarbha as a kataphatic term. I
would like to expand upon his work by suggesting that within the Snying bstan
the Enlightened Heart is elicited through both kataphatic and apophatic
language.
Chapter six is an annotated translation the work, which I have titled in
English The Pronouncement on the Enlightened Heart of Buddhism.
Finallly, chapter seven presents a diplomatic edition of the Snying bstan, as well as the commentarial annotations to the text written by the fifth [[Zhwa dmar Dkon mchog yan lag]] (1525-1583), otherwise known as Dkon mchog 'bangs. (Schaeffer, introduction, 1–4)
Within non-tantric, Mahāyāna literature, sūtras along with their complimentary scholastic commentarial treatises or śāstras, are further subdivided into the literary genres concerning the Buddha's discourses on the perfect wisdom that discerns emptiness (''śūnyatā'', ''stong pa nyid'') known as the ''Prajñāpāramiā-sūtras'', and sūtras that elucidate an innate luminous essence (''garbha'', ''snying po'') that pervades living beings known as "buddhanature" (''tathāgatagarbha'', ''de bzhin gshegs pa’i snying po''). These two subgenres of Mahāyāna sūtra and śāstra literature are at the heart of the Indian and Tibetan hermeneutic enterprise—the search for how these seemingly paradoxical doctrines of ''śūnyatā'' (a lack of any enduring essence) and ''tathāgatagarbha'' (an enduring enlightened essence) interrelate.<br> In an effort to reconcile this great paradox and synthesize these classical Indian Buddhist doctrines, the Tibetan Jo nang scholar and Kālacakra master Kun mkhyen Dol po pa Shes rab Rgyal mtshan (1292-1361)—known by his epithet, "the Buddha from Dolpo”—formulated a technical language and interpretive model for distinguishing two definitions of emptiness: emptiness devoid of an intrinsic nature (*''svabhāvaśūnyatā'', ''rang stong'') and what is empty or devoid of everything other than buddha-nature (*''parabhāvaśūnyatā'', ''gzhan stong''). This multivalent formulation and codification of śūnyatā and tathāgatagarbha provoked historic controversy and polemic in Tibet, leading to a so-called "rang stong" versus "gzhan stong" debate that has infused Tibetan Buddhist philosophical discourse for centuries.<br> Over seven hundred years after Dol po pa's interpretive formula and philosophical articulation known as "gzhan stong"—regarding how the nature of relative reality empty of intrinsic characteristics while ultimately full of enlightened qualities—these writings as well as the larger body of Jo nang gzhan stong literature have received little attention within the Western academy. Due to the historical accident of privileged access to diasporaic Tibetan traditions emphasizing "rang stong"—in contrast to "gzhan stong"—a premature normative has been set within Western studies on Tibetan Buddhist interpretations of emptiness, resulting in the gzhan stong formulation of the Jo nang tradition being less well-known. However, due to more recent access to the living Jo nang Tibetan Buddhist tradition in the Amdo region of the northwestern cultural domain of Tibet, and due to more regular availability of gzhan stong literature, we now have opportunities to re-consider this normative and re-evaluate the gzhan stong understanding of the Jo nang. (Sheehy, introductory remarks, 8–9)
It is more than seven years now since I began the study of the Lankavatara Sutra quite seriously, but owing to various interruptions I have not been able to carry out my plan as speedily as I wished. My friends in different fields of life have been kind and generous in various ways, and I now send out to the perusal of the English-reading public this humble work of mine. There are yet many difficult and obscure passages in the Sutra, which I have been unable to unravel to my own satisfaction. All such imperfections are to be corrected by competent scholars. I shall be fully content if I have made the understanding of this significant Mahayana text easier than before, even though this may be only to a very slight degree. In China Buddhist scholars profoundly learned and endowed with spiritual insights made three or four attempts extending over a period of about two hundred and fifty years to give an intelligible rendering of the Lankavatara. It goes without saying that these have helped immensely the present translator. May his also prove a stepping board however feeble towards a fuller interpretation of the Sutra!
The present English translation is based on the Sanskrit edition of Bunyu Nanjo's published by the Otani University Press in 1923.
I am most grateful to Mr Dwight Goddard of Thetford, Vermont, U. S. A., who again helped me by typing the entire manuscript of the present book. To Assist me in this way was indeed part of the object of his third visit to this side of the Pacific. Says Confucius, "Is it not delightful to have a friend come from afar?" The saying applies most appropriately, to this case.
It was fortunate for the writer that he could secure the support and help of the Keimeikwai, a corporation organised to help research work of scholars in various fields of culture; for without it his work might have dragged on yet for some time to come. There is so much to be accomplished before he has to appear at the court of Emma Daiwo, to whom he could say, "Here is my work; humble though it is, I have tried to do my part to the full extent of my power." The writer renders his grateful acknowledgment here to all the advisers of the Society who kindly voted for the speedy culmination of this literary task—a task which he tenderly wishes would do something towards a better appreciation by the West of the sources of Eastern life and culture.
Whatever literary work the present author is able to put before the reader, he cannot pass on without mentioning in it the name of his good, unselfish, public-minded Buddhist friend, Yakichi Ataka, who is always willing to help him in every possible way. If not for him, the author could never have carried out his plans to the extent he has so far accomplished. Materially, no visible results can be expected of this kind of undertaking, and yet a scholar has his worldly needs to meet. Unless we create one of these fine days an ideal community in which every member of it can put forth all his or her natural endowments and moral energies in the direction best fitted to develop them and in the way most useful to all other members generally and individually, many obstacles are sure to bar the passage of those who would attempt things of no commercial value. Until then, Bodhisattvas of all kinds are sorely needed everywhere. And is this not the teaching of the Lankavatara Sutra, which in its English garb now lies before his friend as well as all other readers?
Thanks are also due to the writer's wife who went over the whole manuscript to give it whatever literary improvement it possesses, to Mr Hokei Idzumi who gave helpful suggestions in the reading of the original text, and to Professor Yenga Teramoto for his ungrudging cooperation along the line of Tibetan knowledge.
-Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki Kyoto, November, 1931 (Source: Preface)
Preface
Kyotön Monlam Tsultrim, the abbot who led Narthang monastery
at the peak of its history, was an illustrious figure of his time
in Central Tibet. A resolute monk, a meditation master, a learned
scholar, author, and public figure, he epitomized the high ideals,
practices, and approaches of the Kadam school and championed
its traditions of scriptural exegesis and meditation instructions. A
Kadam luminary, he also left behind religious writings which hold
great significance for Tibetan Buddhist scholarship and practice today.
It was his short works on buddha-nature which initially drew
the interest of modern scholars and my own attention as I began
my work as writer-in-digital residence for the Tsadra Foundation.
These short tracts, like the rest of his writings, were discovered
about two decades ago in the library of Drepung and published by
Paltsek Bodyig Penying Zhibjugkhang (Dpal brtsegs bod yig dpe
rnying zhib ’jug khang, དཔལ་བགས་ད་ག་ད་ང་བ་འག་ཁང་) under
the aegis of Alak Zengkar Rinpoche. At the invitation of Karma
Delek, who was at that time leading the project on the ground, I
witnessed the work of listing and scanning these books in Drepung
in 2002 during my first trip to Tibet. Without their massive
and sustained initiative to preserve and make accessible the literary
wealth of Tibet, which has suffered colossal damage and destruction
in the twentieth century, we would not have much knowledge
of Kyotön and many other masters of Tibet.
The writings of Kyotön Monlam Tsultrim appear in volume 50 of
the second batch and volume 61 of the third batch of the Collected
Works of Kadam series published in 2007 and 2009 by Paltsek
Bodyig Penying Zhibjugkhang and Sichuan People’s Publishing
House. Volume 50 contains most of his writings, making up a full
book containing 24 titles with 425 pages, and volume 61 in the
third batch contains only five titles ranging from pages 117–166.
The titles in volume 61 were discovered after publishing the first
set in volume 50 and thus were added later. The original books are
stored in Nechu Lhakhang, the temple in which the statues of the
Buddha and the sixteen arhats are located, in Drepung monastery in Tibet. They are books in loose leaf (poti, ་ ་) format and written
in obscure Ume (dbu med, ད ་ ད་) script, which, in numerous
cases, are abbreviated, faded, or poorly inscribed. The texts also
contain many annotations in small cursive letters, most of them
added after the books were written, inserted between the lines or
al་ong the margins. The books are marked “external” (phyi, ་) to
perhaps indicate that they were brought from outside and housed
in Nechu Lhakhang in Drepung monastery. Apart from this, there
is no information available on the provenance of the books before
they reached the library in Drepung where they have remained sequestered
for several centuries. It is quite likely that these books
along with thousands of other titles, including those that are now
lost, were deposited in Drepung as the Ganden Phodrang rose to
political power in Tibet in the middle of the seventeenth century.
For the recensions of these texts in this book, we used the scanned
copies of the texts as exemplars, as we did not have direct access
to the original manuscripts. We had initially used the scans available
on the Buddhist Digital Resource Center, but due to their poor
resolution we subsequently used the higher resolution scans prepared
by Marcus Perman from the printed copies. The biography of
Chim Namkha Drak in prose by Kyotön Monlam Tsultrim and the
biography of Kyotön himself by Nyima Gyeltsen, however, are not
from the Collected Works of Kadam series. They are reproduced
from the manuscript of the Golden Rosary of Narthang available at
the Buddhist Digital Resource Center. The biographies were written
in clear Uchen script and can be found on pages A279–B384
in that version of the Golden Rosary of Narthang. Although the
scans of the original texts of these two biographies are clear and
easy to read, they have been reproduced here to make this book
comprehensive in presenting the life and works of Kyotön Monlam
Tsultrim.
Our main objective for reproducing the books in Uchen (dbu can,
ད ་ཅན་) typeset is to make the writings easily accessible to readers,
including international researchers and Himalayan readers who do
not have knowledge of Ume script. Having a computerized type set also helps us have searchable texts for various purposes. In
the process of the input and compilation of this volume, we have
also been able to ascertain the true works of Kyotön from those
mistakenly attributed to him by the editors of the Collected Works
of Kadam series and before them by the curators of the archives
at Nechu Lhakhang in Drepung. Close reading of the texts helped
us verify most of the cases, but a few still remain to be confirmed.
Although included in volume 50 containing works attributed to
Kyotön, the biographies of Paldenpa (alias Drotön Dutsi Drak),
Chumikpa, Sangay Gompa, and Zhang Chökyi Lama are excluded
from this book. The versions of these biographies in Ume script in
volume 50 do not have colophons, but the near identical versions
in the Golden Rosary of Narthang have colophons showing Chim
Namkha Drak as their author, and the titles are also listed among
the writings of Chim Namkha Drak by Kyotön. However, the hagiography
of Chim Namkha Drak in verse found in volume 50,
like the long prose biography of Chim Namkha Drak in the Golden
Rosary of Narthang, is undoubtedly a composition of Kyotön. In
volume 61, the short longevity ritual text entitled The Heart of
All Buddhas (Bde gshegs kun gyi snying po, བ་གགས་ན་ི་ང་་) included among Kyotön’s writings has a colophon showing Padmasambhava
as the author, and the two sādhana practice manuals
of Parṇaśavarī are clearly works of Chomden Rikpai Raldri, while
one text entitled A Hundred Verses on the Noble Qualities of the
Followers of Kadam Scriptural Tradition (Bka’ gdams gzhung pa’i
rnam thar tshigs su bcad pa brgya pa, བཀའ་གདམས་གང་པ་མ་ཐར་
གས་་བཅད་པ་བ་པ་) appears to be a work of someone after Kyotön.
Thus, these three texts are not included in this book, although
they are classified as writings of Kyotön in the Collected Works of
Kadam series.
Many other writings attributed to Kyotön may also be only recensions
of texts composed by authors before Kyotön, but we cannot
conclusively ascertain this without further evidence. For example,
the colophon of the Instructions on Perfection (Phar phyin gyi man
ngag, ཕར་ན་ི་མན་ངག་) states that Kyotön, “the great master, the
eighth abbot of Narthang wrote this from/based on the text of Nyen and the monk Chökyi Gyeltsen transcribed and edited it (གཉན་ི་
ད་ལ་བ་དན་ན་་ར་ཐང་པ་བད་པར་ན་པས་ས། ་ལ་བན་པ་ས་་ལ་
མཚན་ིས་ས་ང་ས་་དག་པར་ས་པ།།). It is very likely that this text
was composed by one Nyen and Kyotön merely transcribed it, but
it is also possible that he used the text by Nyen as a basis to write
this text. We also find many other titles such as the Instruction
on the Ultimate Continuum of Mahāyāna (Theg pa chen po rgyud
bla ma’i gdams pa, ག་པ་ན་་ད་་མ་གདམས་པ་), the Repository of
Pristine Wisdom (Ye shes kyi bzhag sa, ་ས་་བཞག་ས་), Instructions
on Reality (Chos nyid kyi khrid, ས་ད་་ད་) and Instructions
for Dying (’Chi kha’i man ngag, འ་ཁ་མན་ངག་) attributed Kyotön,
as explained below in the introduction, although these titles appear
in the list of teachings he received from his teachers and among
the writings of earlier masters. Thus, it is difficult to ascertain if
the texts bearing these titles among Kyotön’s writings are original
compositions of Kyotön with similar titles or merely earlier texts
transcribed or redacted by him. However, the fact that they appear
in different lists suggests their importance and use by the scholars
of the time, and their authorship can be confirmed only when further
evidence comes to light.
Among those works which can be clearly attributed to Kyotön, Instructions
on the Middle Way appears twice as Instructions on the
Middle Way of Mahāyāna (Theg chen dbu ma’i man ngag, ག་ན་
ད་མ་མན་ངག་) and Instructions on the Middle Way of the Dīpaṃkara
(Mar me mdzad kyi dbu m’i man ngag, མར་་མཛད་་ད་མ་མན་ངག་),
these being just two different versions of the same work. Similarly,
Procedures for Daily Practice (Nyin zhag re’i bsag sbyang
gi rim pa, ན་ཞག་་བསག་ང་་མ་པ།) also recurs as the final part
of Quintessence of Scriptures and Pith Instructions (Sde snod kun
gyi bcud bsdus man ngag rnams kyi snying po, ་ད་ན་ི་བད་བས་
མན་ངག་མས་་ང་།). The final text in this book, Dispelling Darkness
in Ten Directions (Phyogs bcu mun sel, གས་བ་ན་ལ་), is
not an original writing but Kyotön’s shortened recension of the
Daśadigandhakāravidhvansanasūtra. As is the wont of Tibetan
Buddhist masters in the past to prioritize passing down intact the
transmission or teachings they have received rather than introduce new ideas or write original works, Kyotön’s writings may also be
largely reproductions of earlier works, albeit with some modification
for expedience.
The first item in this book is the biography of Kyotön written by
his student and successor, Nyima Gyeltsen, the ninth abbot of Narthang.
This is followed by the list of teachings Kyotön received
from his teachers, which was either extracted from his biography
or written separately and then incorporated into the biography.
Following these two works on Kyotön’s life and education, we
included the two biographies of his master, Chim Namkha Drak,
both written by him. These are then followed by his commentarial
works, philosophical writings, and instructions for practice. While
some works are synoptic outlines, annotations, and scholastic commentaries,
most of his philosophical writings are pithy meditations
on Buddhist topics such as luminosity, emptiness, ultimate truth,
dependent-arising, etc. In this book, we arranged the titles in order
of traditional sense of depth and sanctity by going from exoteric
life writing, to scholastic works on Buddhist texts and themes, to
deep meditations on profound topics, to esoteric practices, and finally
to the abridged version of the Daśadigandhakāravidhvansan
asūtra as an auspicious conclusion.
The typescript is prepared using Jomolhari font, and original interlinear
annotations within the texts are given in smaller font.
Tibetan folio numbers of the original texts are included in parentheses,
with ན་ indicating recto and བ་ indicating verso. We have
not recorded the page numbers in Roman inserted by publishers of
the Collected Works of Kadam series, but the range of such page
numbers for each title is provided on the first page of the text after
the title. We have included the actual titles found in the main texts
rather than the titles found on the cover page, as many of the titles
on the cover page were not accurate. The writings contain a wide
range of archaic Tibetan words and phrases (e.g., མར་ི་ཤགས། ད་།
་བག བག་པ་ཅན། དག་པ་ག ་་་ནག་ ་ཏས་་ བབ་བམ་་བབ་ས་པས་
་བབ་གངས།) which, interestingly, are in current use in Bhutanese
vernaculars. Like in the case of modern Dzongkha, the connective
particular ི་ is frequently used after a word without a suffix. We have rendered these in the grammatically correct form.
The original texts are often very difficult to read or totally unintelligible.
Where the texts could not be deciphered or a word or
phrase is missing, ellipses are marked by tsheg (་་་) dots. Ellipses
are also used to indicate the words or phrases which are deliberately
left out by the author, particularly in citations, as they are not
relevant, although we know what they are. When we provide a better
alternative reading or orthography which may affect the meaning
or literary and orthographic choice of the scribe, the original
is preserved in the footnote. However, some original orthography
is preserved to show the semantic and orthographic choice of the
author or practice of the time. For example, in the commentary
on Ornament of Clear Realization, or Abhisamayālaṃkāra, Kyotön
or the scribe consistently uses ང་ བ་ མས་པ་, which more accurately
renders the term “bodhisattva,” instead of the common ང་
བ་ མས་དཔའ་, which is used in the annotations, which were clearly
added later, in this text.
This book is being brought out as a supplement to the rich web
resource on buddha-nature (buddhanature.tsadra.org) which was
built to spread the message of wisdom and compassion as the true
nature of all beings. A project of Tsadra Foundation, the website
holds a very diverse collection of literature including sūtras, tantras,
and other writings on the theme of buddha-nature, audio-visual
recordings such as teachings, interviews and conversations,
and many educational tools such as bibliography, glossary, timeline,
and events. The website introduces the beginner to the topic
of buddha-nature, prepares the intermediate student to go deeper
into the historical development, doctrinal exegesis and practical
application of buddha-nature, and offers an unprecedented body of
resources for advanced learners to delve into this profound topic in
Mahāyāna Buddhism using the Ultimate Continuum of Mahāyāna
or Mahāyānottaratantra, (Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma, ག་པ་
་ ན་ ་ ད་་ མ་) as the core text. As a number of Kyotön’s writings
directly discuss buddha-nature and most of other writings are relevant
to the study and practice of buddha-nature, this book will help
enrich this web resource and our knowledge of buddha-nature.
Moreover, by making the writings of Kyotön Monlam Tsultrim
easily accessible, we hope to shed more light on the philosophical
understanding and meditation practices associated with the Kadam
masters who followed the meditative tradition of the works of Maitreya.
While the works of scholars such as Ngok Lotsāwa Loden
Sherab, Chapa Chökyi Senge, and their followers who took up the
exegetical tradition of Maitreya’s works, mainly at the scholastic
center of Sangphu, were quite well known and have been studied
by both traditional Tibetan scholars and Western academics,
information on the meditative tradition still remains scanty and
understudied. This collection of the writings of Kyotön Monlam
Tsultrim, we hope, will help narrow this gap and also broaden our
limited knowledge of this line of rich spiritual tradition.
This publication would not have been possible without the support
of Eric Colombel and the Tsadra Foundation, with their noble and
prodigious vision and programs for disseminating the vast and profound
wisdom of Tibetan Buddhism across the world. Marcus Perman,
the Executive Director of Tsadra, has been the direct channel
of this support and instrumental throughout the process of this
publication. Similarly, Alex Catanese has been very generous with
his time and efforts to improve the English text in this book. My
gratitude also goes to my colleagues Gregory Forgues and Gwen
Witt-Dörring for their help and to Khenpo Tshewang, Alak Zengkar
Rinpoche, Karma Delek, and Lama Dawa for responding to
my queries.
It was my Bhutanese colleagues Tendel Zangpo and Dorji Gyaltshen
who spent weeks plowing through the Tibetan texts and helped
me decipher some of the near unintelligible Ume annotations.
With his skills in textual input, typeset, and layout, Tendel Zangpo
has undertaken the major bulk of the work in preparing this book,
while Dorji Gyaltshen, with his acumen for textual editing, provided
much needed assistance in proofreading and copyediting.
At the height of the digital revolution, when even in remote corners
of the Himalayan world people are enamored by developments
such as ChatGPT and engrossed in digital platforms such as Instagram
and Tiktok, which continue to fuel people’s sense of vanity and self-aggrandizement, the ideals and principles of the Kadam
masters today seem like an otherworldly impossible endeavor.
Yet, faced with enormous challenges of deep-seated egocentricity,
rampant parochialism, widespread negativity, and so forth, humanity
at this point needs more than ever before the values of humility,
selflessness, simplicity, compassion, positivity, and openness,
which Kadam masters like Kyotön so remarkably epitomized. It is
with the deepest hope and prayers to promote and disseminate such
values and cultivate such ethos that we bring out this book on the
life and works of Kyotön Monlam Tsultrim.
Karma Phuntsho
Bodhitse, Thimphu
The work on philosophical doctrines, entitled ''Fundamentals of the Nyingma School'', presents a comprehensive account of traditional philosophical views, both secular and religious, non-Buddhist and Buddhist. It also includes an extended discussion of the validity of the esoteric scriptures and the special (tantra) distinctions of the Nyingma. In the second translated work, entitled ''History of the Nyingma School'', Dudjom Rinpoche directly addresses the legacy of criticism of the Nyingma tradition in a special section entitled "A Rectification of Misconceptions Concerning the Nyingma School." He responds to various charges against the authenticity of the Nyingma tradition and provides a discussion of the “Great Perfection” (dzogchen) view. He also explores the continuity of the Nyingmapa tradition and its impact on the other schools, the shortcomings of logical argumentation, prophecies found in the treasure tradition, and the relationship between the Nyingmapa and the "pre-Buddhist" tradition of the Bonpo. +
The book consists of two parts: (1) a detailed philosophical investigation of the distinctions and (2) an anthology of previously untranslated Tibetan materials on the distinctions accompanied by critical editions and introductions. The first part systematically investigates the nature and scope of the distinctions and traces how they developed in relation, and sometimes reaction, to Indian Buddhist Cittamātra, Madhyamaka, Pramāṇavāda, and Vajrayāna views. It concludes with an exploration of some soteriological implications of the mind/primordial knowing distinction that became central to rDzogs chen path hermeneutics in the classical period as authors of rDzogs chen path summaries used this distinction to reconcile progressivist sūtric and non-progressivist tantric models of the Buddhist path. The translations and texts included in part two of the book consist of (a) a short treatise from Klong chen pa’s Miscellaneous Writings entitled ''Sems dang ye shes kyi dris lan'' (''Reply to Questions Concerning Mind and Primordial Knowing''), (b) selected passages on the distinctions from this author’s monumental summary of the rDzogs chen sNying thig (Heart-essence) system, the ''Theg mchog mdzod'' (''Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle''), and (c) an excerpt on rDzogs chen distinctions taken from ’Jigs med gling pa’s (1729-1798) 18th century Klong chen sNying thig path summary entitled ''Treasury of Qualities'' (''Yon tan mdzod'') along with a word-by-word commentary by Yon tan rgya mtsho (b. 19th c.). (Source: [https://www.istb.univie.ac.at/cgi-bin/wstb/wstb.cgi?ID=82&show_description=1 WSTB]) +
This comprehensive guide to the body of Buddhist teachings known as the hinayana brings together theory and practice in a way that reveals contemplative experience to be inseparable from the traditional concepts used to describe it. Based on teachings from the Vajradhatu Seminaries—the three-month-long meditation-and-study retreats that Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche led annually from 1973 to 1986—it covers in detail topics such as the four noble truths, karma, the four foundations of mindfulness, meditation, the refuge vows, the three jewels, the five skandhas, and more. The Path of Individual Liberation, along with its two companion volumes, presents a complete map of the Tibetan Buddhist path from beginning to middle to end, from a teacher who had an extraordinary ability to convey the buddhadharma to the hearts and minds of his students. ([https://www.shambhala.com/the-path-of-individual-liberation-volume-1-3107.html Shambhala Publications - Source Accessed March 21, 2019])
"To begin with, we have to find out who we are. When we do so, we realize that we are buddha already, that we possess buddha nature. We might like that, or we might find that difficult to accept." (page 17)
"The path is joyful. Being a human being, being yourself, being a member of the sangha, is joyful. You should really enjoy yourself. Enjoyment comes from the sense of things being truly what they are. That brings great joy, and it brings the greater joy of uncovering buddha nature, your inherent capacity for awakening..." (page 20)
"In the Buddhist-English terminology that has developed, suchness or isness refers to something that is fully and truly there. It is connected with rediscovering buddha nature." (page 446) +
Tsering Wangchuk's ''The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows'' is a clear and concise introduction to the history of the Uttaratantra and buddha-nature theory in pre-modern Tibet. It is an ideal introduction for anyone not yet familiar with the buddha-nature debate in Tibet. Wangchuk summarizes the writings and views of several of the most important Tibetan philosophers who weighed in on buddha-nature between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries from Ngok Lotsāwa through Sakya Paṇḍita to Dolpopa and Gyaltsap Je.
The book is divided into three main sections: early Kadam thinkers who attempted to fold the Uttaratantra's positive-language teaching on buddha-nature into mainstream Madhyamaka doctrine of non-affirming negation. They did so by asserting that buddha-nature was, in fact, a synonym of emptiness, and was, therefore, a definitive teaching. The second stage was reactions during the thirteenth century. Sakya Paṇḍita, for example, rejected the conflation of buddha-nature and emptiness and declared the teaching to be provisional; early Kagyu thinkers revived the positive-language teachings and asserted that such statements were definitive, and Dolpopa taught "other-emptiness," the strongest expression of positive-language doctrine ever advocated in Tibet. Finally, in the fourteenth century, a number of mainly Geluk thinkers, such as Gyaltsap Je, reacted against Dolpopa and all synthesis of Yogācāra and Madhyamaka thought, relegating the Uttaratantra again to provisional status.
The advantage of Wangchuk's historical frame is that all assertions are placed in the easy context of an opponent or supporter's writing, thus reminding the reader that buddha-nature theory in Tibet is an ongoing conversation, a debate between the two fundamental doctrinal poles of positive and negative descriptions of the ultimate. +
Dans le corpus des textes bouddhistes indiens, La Continuité suprême du Grand Véhicule (Mahāyāna-uttaratantra-śāstra) est le principal traité consacré à la nature de bouddha. Depuis son apparition au Tibet au xie siècle, ce texte a conquis le cœur et l’esprit de nombreux lettrés et pratiquants, soulevé d’importantes questions doctrinales et animé d’incessants débats qui ont donné lieu à une abondante exégèse.
Or, malgré les positions divergentes des commentateurs de ce traité qui s’inspire des « soûtras du tathāgatagarbha », propres au troisième cycle des enseignements du Bouddha, cette œuvre ne se laisse enfermer dans aucun système particulier. Par-delà la logique des vues scolastiques, elle exalte surtout l’immensité immaculée que nous portons en nous depuis l’absence de commencement. Dès lors que cette quintessence pure et lumineuse est dégagée des voiles adventices, la sagesse née d’elle-même se révèle comme un soleil libre de nuages. Une fois éveillées, les qualités peuvent alors s’exprimer et accomplir sans effort les activités destinées au vaste bien des êtres.
C’est donc à l’ineffable Éveil que nous invite la lecture de ce livre où l’on trouvera les strophes originales du traité indien et les explications du célèbre maître tibétain Jamgön Kongtrul. Trait d’union entre les soûtras et les tantras, ce traité révèle la présence immédiate et parfaite du fruit au moment de la voie. Pour les adeptes du mahāmudrā, qui appréhendent la base, la voie et le fruit sous l’angle de la dimension absolue, le présent traité est autant un fondement théorique qu’une méthode pratique.
La Continuité suprême du Grand Véhicule fait partie des cinq textes que la tradition tibétaine attribue à Maitreya – bodhisattva du plus haut niveau qui réside dans le ciel des Tuṣitas, un monde céleste hors d’atteinte des êtres ordinaires où il se prépare à devenir le cinquième bouddha de notre ère.
Pendant cinquante années humaines, le maître indien Asaṅga (320-390) y aurait reçu cet enseignement directement de la bouche de Maitreya pour le rapporter dans notre monde sous forme écrite.
Ce texte, vraisemblablement en conflit avec les idées philosophiques de l’époque, aurait ensuite disparu d’Inde entre le VIIe et le Xe siècle, avant que l’adepte érudit Maitrīpa (1007 -1085) le retrouve, dans un vieux stoupa, et en reçoive aussi les instructions directes de Maitreya.
Même si ce texte, apparemment constitué de plusieurs strates, n’est sans doute pas l’œuvre d’un seul auteur, et si sa paternité continue à faire débat, il joua un rôle considérable dans le développement de la pensée bouddhiste puisqu’il constitue le traité fondamental sur le tathāgatagarbha – « quintessence des tathâgatas » ou « nature de bouddha ». En raison même de la présence de cette nature essentielle en chaque être et du caractère adventice des affections mentales avec lesquelles elle cohabite, il n’y a pas de différence fondamentale entre un être « ordinaire » et un être « éveillé ».
(Source: [http://www.padmakara.com/fr/collection-tsadra/274-traite-de-la-continuite-surpreme-du-grand-vehicule-9782370411181.html Padmakara])
Chinese writings from premodern times constitute a vast body of texts stretching back over 2,500 years, and while Western studies of China have been growing, many riches from the Chinese tradition have remained untranslated or have been given only partial translations, sometimes scattered across multiple publication venues. This situation obviously poses a problem for those who want to learn about Chinese thought but lack the ability to read Chinese. However, it also poses a problem even for scholars who specialize in Chinese thought and can read Chinese, because it is not easy to read across all the time periods and genres in the Chinese corpus. Not only did the Chinese language change over time; but in some genres particular vocabularies are developed and familiarity with certain earlier texts—sometimes quite a large number of texts—is presumed. For this reason, scholars who focus on one tradition of Chinese thought from a given era cannot simply pick up and immediately understand texts from a different tradition of thought in another era. The lack of translations is thus an impediment even to specialists who can read Chinese but wish to learn about aspects of Chinese thought outside their normal purview. Furthermore, scholars are often hampered in their teaching by the lack of translations that they can assign to students, which then becomes a barrier to promoting greater understanding of Chinese history and culture among the general public.<br> By offering English translations of Chinese texts with philosophical and religious significance, Oxford Chinese Thought aims to remedy these problems and make available to the general public, university students, and scholars a treasure trove of materials that has previously been largely inaccessible. The series focuses on works that are historically important or stand to make significant contributions to contemporary discussions, and the translations seek to strike a reasonable balance between the interests of specialists and the needs of general readers and students with no skills in Chinese. Translators for the series are leading scholars and experts in the traditions and texts that they render, and the volumes are meant to be suitable for classroom use while meeting the highest standards of scholarship.<br> The present volume, Treatise on Awakening Mahayana Faith, is itself a treasure trove of historical, philosophical, and religious insight. The avowed aim and purpose of the Treatise is to establish faith in the soundness and efficacy of the Mahayana Buddhist path, which it accomplishes in part by setting forth a framework for much of Buddhist metaphysics and psychology, reconciling what had largely been competing views about the nature of mind, consciousness, the buddha-nature, the phenomenal world of arising and ceasing, and the sources of ignorance and falsehood. The Treatise is without question one of East Asia's most influential philosophical and religious texts. From the late sixth century CE to the present day, it has been the subject of over three hundred commentaries and has been invoked by countless Buddhist thinkers as an authority on doctrine and practice. It is often credited with shaping the schools and lineages of Buddhism that are most distinctively East Asian, including Huayan and Chan (in Japanese, Zen). This translation was conducted by a team of leading Buddhologists and specialists in Chinese thought, and is accompanied by a substantial introduction as well as several other supporting tools, including glossaries, that should be of use both to novice learners and established scholars of Buddhism alike. We hope and expect that students and scholars and even nonacademic Buddhist practitioners will find it an indispensable window into some of the most stimulating and important developments in the history ofBuddhism. (Series Editor's Preface)
V
Yaroslav Komarovski's ''Visions of Unity'' is a thick study of Śākya Chokden, a fifteenth-century Sakya philosopher who wrote extensively on Yogācāra and Madhyamaka in an attempt to synthesize the two. He wrote at a time that a strict interpretation of Madhyamaka was in ascendence and Yogācāra was dismissed as a lesser teaching. Śākya Chokden was a passionate critic of Tsongkhapa, and stridently faulted the Geluk patriarch for spreading nihilism to his own beloved Sakya tradition. He was himself a follower of Madhyamaka, but he embraced many elements of Yogācāra; his attempt at a synthesis was to reclassify the different strands of Yogācāra and Madhyamaka so as to combine those that he liked and dispense with those he did not. Although his writings were recognized for their brilliance, his criticisms of Tsongkhapa and Sakya Paṇḍita, and his qualified acceptance of "other-emptiness" (gzhan stong) meant that he was almost entirely rejected by his peers.
Śākya Chokden was an accomplished scholar and practitioner of tantra, and his eagerness to preserve elements of Yogācāra arose from his desire to provide an intellectual basis by which to merge sūtra and tantra. Komarovski skillfully places Śākya Chokden in a long history of Yogācāra-Madhyamaka syntheses, a tradition that Śākya Chokden accused Tsongkhapa of abandoning in his radical interpretation of Candrakīrti and rejection of all positive-language doctrine.
Tibetan philosophers frequently turned to doxography to advocate their own interpretation of Buddhist doctrine. Since no teaching of the Buddha could be discarded, all had to be organized in a soteriological hierarchy; that is, the teachings that best bring a practitioner to a realization of the ultimate are better than those teachings that were offered to soothe fears or inspire action. For Geluk thinkers who Śākya Chokden opposed, for example, the teachings of buddha-nature were not to be taken literally. In his effort to merge the positive- and negative-language teachings of Yogācāra and Madhyamaka, Śākya Chokden developed a unique doxography that redefined both. In dense but readable prose Komarovski explains how Śākya Chokden reclassified elements of each (the Satyākāravāda doctrine of the Yogācāra, and the Prasaṅgika branch of the Madhyamaka) as true Madhyamaka; each was capable of bringing people to a realization of the ultimate, one with positive language and the other with negative.
W
<em>When the Clouds Part</em> is a translation and study of the ''Uttaratantra'', also known as the ''Ratnagotravibhāga'', and nine related texts from India and Tibet, some translated for the very first time in this publication. It is not the first translation of the text—Brunnhölzl cites two previous English translations by Obermiller (1931) and Takasaki (1958), who translated from Sanskrit and Tibetan, and Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese, respectively.
The book begins with a 325-page "Translator's Introduction," a study of the sutra's sources and exegetical traditions, which is a tour de force and a major reference for buddha-nature studies. It is for highly educated readers, assuming an extensive familiarity with the issues and terms of the discussion, such as the Madhyamaka/Yogācāra divide and the doctrine of tathāgatagarbha.
The Translator's Introduction is divided into eight sections: (1) the sūtra sources for tathāgatagarbha teachings; (2) historical survey of Indian and Tibetan definitions of tathāgatagarbha; (3) the history of the transmission of the "Five Books of Maitreya" to Tibet; (4) a survey of explanations of the meaning of the title of the ''Uttaratantra''; (5) the relationship between the ''Uttaratantra'' and Yogācāra; (6) the ''Uttaratantra'' and ''zhentong''; (7) the ''Uttaratantra'' and Mahāmudrā; (8) and an outline and summary of the ten works translated. +
