Recent Essays/Post-59

Two Sakya Lamas and Two Synopses

Chögyal Phakpa

It is quite interesting that two Sakya lamas, Chögyal Phakpa (1235–80) and Lama Dampa Sonam Gyaltsen (1312–75), almost a century apart, wrote two texts which bear almost identical titles. The first one, Synopsis of the Mahāyāna Treatise the Ultimate Continuum (ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་བསྡུས་དོན།) was written by Chögyal Phakpa in China in the Palace of Kubilai Khan, whom he describes as a bodhisattva. The second is a synopsis by Lama Dampa Sonam Gyaltsen, who is best known for his history of Tibet called the Clear Mirror, and is entitled Synopsis of the Ultimate Continuum of Mahāyāna (ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྡུས་དོན།).

Although both texts have the title "synopsis" (བསྡུས་དོན་), neither of them provide synoptic exegesis of the Ultimate Continuum. Instead, both the texts are outlines (ས་བཅད་) of the Ultimate Continuum. The former presents the Ultimate Continuum by dividing it into two main headings, while the latter does so through four main headings. While the former is signed off by the author himself, the latter was extracted from the author's commentary on the Ultimate Continuum by one Gyaltsen Zangpo. Neither of the texts provide any special philosophical interpretation or insight into the Ultimate Continuum.

Weekly quote

 

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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