The Life and Works of Kyotön Monlam Tsultrim

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LibraryBooksThe Life and Works of Kyotön Monlam Tsultrim
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of the time, and their authorship can be confirmed only when further
 
of the time, and their authorship can be confirmed only when further
 
evidence comes to light.
 
evidence comes to light.
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Among those works which can be clearly attributed to Kyotön, Instructions
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on the Middle Way appears twice as Instructions on the
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Middle Way of Mahāyāna (Theg chen dbu ma’i man ngag, ག་ན་
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ད་མ་མན་ངག་) and Instructions on the Middle Way of the Dīpaṃkara
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(Mar me mdzad kyi dbu m’i man ngag, མར་་མཛད་་ད་མ་མན་ངག་),
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these being just two different versions of the same work. Similarly,
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Procedures for Daily Practice (Nyin zhag re’i bsag sbyang
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gi rim pa, ན་ཞག་་བསག་ང་་མ་པ།) also recurs as the final part
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of Quintessence of Scriptures and Pith Instructions (Sde snod kun
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gyi bcud bsdus man ngag rnams kyi snying po, ་ད་ན་ི་བད་བས་
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མན་ངག་མས་་ང་།). The final text in this book, Dispelling Darkness
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in Ten Directions (Phyogs bcu mun sel, གས་བ་ན་ལ་), is
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not an original writing but Kyotön’s shortened recension of the
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Daśadigandhakāravidhvansanasūtra. As is the wont of Tibetan
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Buddhist masters in the past to prioritize passing down intact the
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transmission or teachings they have received rather than introduce new ideas or write original works, Kyotön’s writings may also be
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largely reproductions of earlier works, albeit with some modification
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for expedience.
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The first item in this book is the biography of Kyotön written by
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his student and successor, Nyima Gyeltsen, the ninth abbot of Narthang.
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This is followed by the list of teachings Kyotön received
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from his teachers, which was either extracted from his biography
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or written separately and then incorporated into the biography.
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Following these two works on Kyotön’s life and education, we
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included the two biographies of his master, Chim Namkha Drak,
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both written by him. These are then followed by his commentarial
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works, philosophical writings, and instructions for practice. While
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some works are synoptic outlines, annotations, and scholastic commentaries,
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most of his philosophical writings are pithy meditations
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on Buddhist topics such as luminosity, emptiness, ultimate truth,
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dependent-arising, etc. In this book, we arranged the titles in order
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of traditional sense of depth and sanctity by going from exoteric
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life writing, to scholastic works on Buddhist texts and themes, to
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deep meditations on profound topics, to esoteric practices, and finally
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to the abridged version of the Daśadigandhakāravidhvansan
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asūtra as an auspicious conclusion.
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The typescript is prepared using Jomolhari font, and original interlinear
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annotations within the texts are given in smaller font.
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Tibetan folio numbers of the original texts are included in parentheses,
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with ན་ indicating recto and བ་ indicating verso. We have
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not recorded the page numbers in Roman inserted by publishers of
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the Collected Works of Kadam series, but the range of such page
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numbers for each title is provided on the first page of the text after
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the title. We have included the actual titles found in the main texts
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rather than the titles found on the cover page, as many of the titles
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on the cover page were not accurate. The writings contain a wide
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range of archaic Tibetan words and phrases (e.g., མར་ི་ཤགས། ད་།
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་བག བག་པ་ཅན། དག་པ་ག ་་་ནག་ ་ཏས་་ བབ་བམ་་བབ་ས་པས་
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་བབ་གངས།) which, interestingly, are in current use in Bhutanese
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vernaculars. Like in the case of modern Dzongkha, the connective
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particular ི་ is frequently used after a word without a suffix. We have rendered these in the grammatically correct form.
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The original texts are often very difficult to read or totally unintelligible.
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Where the texts could not be deciphered or a word or
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phrase is missing, ellipses are marked by tsheg (་་་) dots. Ellipses
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are also used to indicate the words or phrases which are deliberately
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left out by the author, particularly in citations, as they are not
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relevant, although we know what they are. When we provide a better
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alternative reading or orthography which may affect the meaning
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or literary and orthographic choice of the scribe, the original
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is preserved in the footnote. However, some original orthography
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is preserved to show the semantic and orthographic choice of the
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author or practice of the time. For example, in the commentary
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on Ornament of Clear Realization, or Abhisamayālaṃkāra, Kyotön
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or the scribe consistently uses  ང་ བ་ མས་པ་, which more accurately
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renders the term “bodhisattva,” instead of the common  ང་
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 བ་ མས་དཔའ་, which is used in the annotations, which were clearly
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added later, in this text.
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This book is being brought out as a supplement to the rich web
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resource on buddha-nature (buddhanature.tsadra.org) which was
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built to spread the message of wisdom and compassion as the true
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nature of all beings. A project of Tsadra Foundation, the website
 +
holds a very diverse collection of literature including sūtras, tantras,
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and other writings on the theme of buddha-nature, audio-visual
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recordings such as teachings, interviews and conversations,
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and many educational tools such as bibliography, glossary, timeline,
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and events. The website introduces the beginner to the topic
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of buddha-nature, prepares the intermediate student to go deeper
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into the historical development, doctrinal exegesis and practical
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application of buddha-nature, and offers an unprecedented body of
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resources for advanced learners to delve into this profound topic in
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Mahāyāna Buddhism using the Ultimate Continuum of Mahāyāna
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or Mahāyānottaratantra, (Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma,  ག་པ་
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་ ན་ ་ ད་་ མ་) as the core text. As a number of Kyotön’s writings
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directly discuss buddha-nature and most of other writings are relevant
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to the study and practice of buddha-nature, this book will help
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enrich this web resource and our knowledge of buddha-nature.
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Moreover, by making the writings of Kyotön Monlam Tsultrim
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easily accessible, we hope to shed more light on the philosophical
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understanding and meditation practices associated with the Kadam
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masters who followed the meditative tradition of the works of Maitreya.
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While the works of scholars such as Ngok Lotsāwa Loden
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Sherab, Chapa Chökyi Senge, and their followers who took up the
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exegetical tradition of Maitreya’s works, mainly at the scholastic
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center of Sangphu, were quite well known and have been studied
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by both traditional Tibetan scholars and Western academics,
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information on the meditative tradition still remains scanty and
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understudied. This collection of the writings of Kyotön Monlam
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Tsultrim, we hope, will help narrow this gap and also broaden our
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limited knowledge of this line of rich spiritual tradition.
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This publication would not have been possible without the support
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of Eric Colombel and the Tsadra Foundation, with their noble and
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prodigious vision and programs for disseminating the vast and profound
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wisdom of Tibetan Buddhism across the world. Marcus Perman,
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the Executive Director of Tsadra, has been the direct channel
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of this support and instrumental throughout the process of this
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publication. Similarly, Alex Catanese has been very generous with
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his time and efforts to improve the English text in this book. My
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gratitude also goes to my colleagues Gregory Forgues and Gwen
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Witt-Dörring for their help and to Khenpo Tshewang, Alak Zengkar
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Rinpoche, Karma Delek, and Lama Dawa for responding to
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my queries.
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It was my Bhutanese colleagues Tendel Zangpo and Dorji Gyaltshen
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who spent weeks plowing through the Tibetan texts and helped
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me decipher some of the near unintelligible Ume annotations.
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With his skills in textual input, typeset, and layout, Tendel Zangpo
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has undertaken the major bulk of the work in preparing this book,
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while Dorji Gyaltshen, with his acumen for textual editing, provided
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much needed assistance in proofreading and copyediting.
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At the height of the digital revolution, when even in remote corners
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of the Himalayan world people are enamored by developments
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such as ChatGPT and engrossed in digital platforms such as Instagram
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and Tiktok, which continue to fuel people’s sense of vanity and self-aggrandizement, the ideals and principles of the Kadam
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masters today seem like an otherworldly impossible endeavor.
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Yet, faced with enormous challenges of deep-seated egocentricity,
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rampant parochialism, widespread negativity, and so forth, humanity
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at this point needs more than ever before the values of humility,
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selflessness, simplicity, compassion, positivity, and openness,
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which Kadam masters like Kyotön so remarkably epitomized. It is
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with the deepest hope and prayers to promote and disseminate such
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values and cultivate such ethos that we bring out this book on the
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life and works of Kyotön Monlam Tsultrim.
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Karma Phuntsho
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Bodhitse, Thimphu
 
|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 15:40, 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

prabhāsvaratā - In a general sense, that which clears away darkness, though it often appears in Buddhist literature in reference to the mind or its nature. It is a particularly salient feature of Tantric literature, especially in regard to the advanced meditation techniques of the completion-stage yogas. Skt. प्रभास्वर Tib. འོད་གསལ་ Ch. 光明

śūnyatā - The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics. Skt. शून्यता Tib. སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ Ch. 空,空門

paramārthasatya - "Ultimate truth" or "absolute truth"; the reality of things as they truly are. Skt. परमार्थसत्य Tib. དོན་དམ་བདེན་པ་ Ch. 第一義諦,眞諦

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt. बोधिसत्त्व Tib. བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ། Ch. 菩薩

These are the root verses of the Uttaratantra attributed to Maitreya by the Tibetan tradition.

Tsen Tradition - Tsen Khawoche's "meditative tradition" of exegesis of the Uttaratantra; it is one of two major Tibetan traditions of exegesis, both stemming from students of Sajjana. Tib. བཙན་ལུགས་

anātman - The nonexistence of the self as a permanent, unchanging entity. Skt. अनात्मन् Tib. བདག་མེད་པ་ Ch. 无我

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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