The Life and Works of Kyotön Monlam Tsultrim

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LibraryBooksThe Life and Works of Kyotön Monlam Tsultrim
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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.
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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་བགས་ད་ག་ད་ང་བ་འག་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
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volume 61, the short longevity ritual text entitled The Heart of
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All Buddhas (Bde gshegs kun gyi snying po, བ་གགས་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་གང་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་དན་ན་་ར་ཐང་པ་བད་པར་ན་པས་ས། ་ལ་བན་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.
 
|BookToc=* {{i|༡. དཀར་ཆག | i }}
 
|BookToc=* {{i|༡. དཀར་ཆག | i }}
 
* {{i|༢. གླེང་བརྗོད། Preface  | iii }}
 
* {{i|༢. གླེང་བརྗོད། Preface  | iii }}

Revision as of 15:38, 17 May 2023

The Life and Works of Kyotön Monlam Tsultrim
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The Life and Works of Kyotön Monlam Tsultrim publishes the collected works of the early Kadam master Kyoton in clear uchen type based on the manuscripts in the bka gdams gsung 'bum, which are very difficult to decipher in the old Ume scripts. The book contains many short works on buddha-nature and several other important subjects. It also includes a detailed introduction from Karma Phuntsho about the life and works of Kyotön. This publication was supported by Tsadra Foundation.

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.

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. (Source: Karma Phuntsho, Preface, page iii.)

Citation Phuntsho, Karma, ed. སྐྱོ་སྟོན་སྨོན་ལམ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་ཀྱི་མཛད་རྣམ་དང་གསུང་རྩོམ། The Life and Works of Kyotön Monlam Tsultrim. Bhutan: Loden Foundation, 2023.

"Emptiness" is not in the list (Yogācāra, Madhyamaka) of allowed values for the "PosYogaMadhya" property.

Kadam - The Kadam tradition, which traces its origin to the teachings of Atiśa, was the first of the so-called New Schools of Tibetan Buddhism, traditions which arose during or after the Second Propagation of Buddhism (phyi dar) in the tenth century. Tib. བཀའ་གདམས་

sādhana - Sādhana refers to a method of practice through which one can actualise a specific spiritual result, and by extension to the texts and manuals which present such methods. A sādhana in the Vajrayāna Buddhist context generally involves the worship and visualisation of a tantric deity, chanting of mantras, and associated practices. The practice often begins with verses of taking refuge and cultivating altruistic thought, then carrying out meditation on emptiness and the mandala of deity, seven-part worship, chanting of mantras, and finally the dissolution of the deity which was visualised. Skt. साधन Tib. སྒྲུབ་ཐབས། Ch. 修行

Mahāyāna - Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of Common Era, focusing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through the realization of the wisdom of emptiness and the cultivation of compassion. Skt. महायान Tib. ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ། Ch. 大乘

Yogācāra - Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana). Skt. योगाचार Tib. རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྤྱོད་པ་ Ch. 瑜伽行派

Madhyamaka - Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. Skt. मध्यमक Tib. དབུ་མ་ Ch. 中觀見

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