 H.E. Lobsang Nyima
Editors of the “Buddhist Views” Requested His Eminent and the most Venerable Lobsang Nyima, the 100th and present Throne Holder of the Gelugpa order to say a few words on the Lam-rim-teachings on the stages of spiritual path-during his visit to the Kopan Monastery to bless the Great Prayer Festival of the Gelugpas in March 1998.
The following text is the transcribed and translated excerpt of the above interview with His Eminent Gaden-Tripa, Lobsang Nyima on Lam-rim.
The Lam-rim (gradual or the graded path or the steps of the path) has been taught by the Lord Buddha at great length both in his Discourses and in his Tantra. In his 84,000 textual volumes of the Discourses or the 84,000 heaps of Dharma teachings includes every teaching on the stages of spiritual path except Tantric teachings that he taught separately. The teachings on the Discourses could be roughly summarized in his teachings of 12 scriptural categories-viz. (1) Sets of discourses (2) Intermediate verses (3) Prophetic teachings (4) Versified teachings (5) Specific teachings (6) Introductory teachings (7) Parables (8) Legends (9) Life stories (10) Grand teachings (11) Marvellous teachings and (12) Finalized teachings. These have been further abridged in his teachings of Tripitakas or the three baskets of Buddha’s teachings. These are classified in general into 3 divisions according to their subject matter and training’s they describe. They are the Vinaya Pitaka or the basket of teachings on moral discipline mainly emphasizes the training of ethics, the Sutra Pitaka or the basket of teachings in discourses mainly emphasizes the training of concentration, the Abhidharma pitaka or the basket of teaching on knowledge mainly emphasizing the training of wisdom. Buddha also showed the 3 Principal aspects of the path according to Discourses are- renunciation, mind of enlightenment and right view.
On the basis of these teachings Buddha taught in tantra, the Graded path classifying them into four groups, i.e. (1) Kriya tantra or action tantra (2) Carya tantra or Performance tantra, (3) Yoga tantra and (4) Annuttarayoga or highest yoga tantra.
The difference between the Discourses and the Tantra (Dho and Ngag) is that in the case of the first place one has to meditate the method and the wisdom separately in order to attain the enlightenment. In the case of the second, one has to meditate both the method and the wisdom simultaneously without separating them to attain the enlightenment. Of course this is only one main difference.
Lord Buddha further taught in Tantra the Utapatikrama or the generation stage Practice and the Supreme Karma or the completion stage. The first one is “the tantric practice of transforming appearance; sound and wisdom respectively into a deity; mantra and wisdom of that particular meditational deity in order to purify the four types of birth along with their latencies.”
The second one is “an anuttarayoga tantra practice of meditation in which a practitioner trains or is able to activate the innate primordial wisdom through experiencing the four fold joys (joy, great joy, exalted joy and innate joy) and the mind of clear light through experiencing the 4 fold emptiness (the empty, the extremely empty, the great empty and the all empty) respectively upon this Vajra (deity) body.
There are so many scriptural categories both in the Discourses and Tantra teachings of the Buddha. It is very different for a person to practice everything in one lifetime. It is, therefore, the great compassionate Bodhisatva’s of Tibet at that time decided to invite some Pandits from India who could give some instructions that would be of special benefit to keep the teachings of the Buddha in the world. A 10th century Tibetan King of Ngari region- Lha Lama Yeshe Woe, in the later part of his life he offered the Kingdom to his brother in order to become a monk and was later instrumental in inviting Atisha to Tibet. He finally instructed his nephew royal lama Jangchub Woe; who under went much hardship to invite Atisha to Tibet. Atisha Dipenkara Sri Jhana was the celebrated Buddhist Pandit from Bengal, who came to Tibet in 1042 and lived there for a number of years. He was one of the principal figures during the revival of Buddhism in Tibet in the 11th century. He passed away in Nyethang near Lhasa. At the request of Jangchub Woe, Lord Atisha then wrote the famous texts- A Lamp on the Path to Buddhahood (Bodhipatha pradrpa) which became the source of the “Lam-rim” tradition in Tibet and the expression began to spread. This teaching though is by no means something that lord Atisha and the great Tsongkhapa invented themselves; rather, it is that grand highway along which each and every Buddha has travelled. As the shorter Sutra on the Perfection of Wisdom says it.
It is this perfection, nothing else, which is the path that’s shared.
By all the Victors, stay they in the past, the present, or the future.
This by the way is the ultimate origin of the expression “steps of the Path”. Or “Lam-rim”.
Lord Atisha came from India with a permission from Acarya Kamalashila to visit Tibet for only 3 years. But due to inevitable circumstances he could not return in time which has actually been fortunate for the Tibetans. In Tibet, Atisha, first met the great translator Rinchen Zangpo with whom he had many Buddhist philosophical discussions and Rinchen Zangpo introduced the great many works of both the Indian and Tibetan Scholars preceding Atisha both in the field of Discourses and Tantra. Atisha, at one time felt that there are already so many accomplished scholars and since so many works have already been done, there was no need for him to stay in Tibet to teach.
Later, the great translator Rinchen Zangpo showed his own different places of religious practices classifying them into Vinaya Pitaka, Sutra Pitaka and Abhidharma Pitaka. These classifications of teachings are according to subject matter and training they describe. At that point Atisha understood the reason why they invited him into Tibet. He know that Tibetans wanted a consolidated and combined teachings of both the Discourses and Tantra for a convenient and practical practise of the practitioners. Atisha was then, delighted to learn that the purpose of his coming into Tibet has been met. He decided to teach by combining the complete Discourses and Tantras into one single texts to attain the enlightenment.
Thus, Atisha taught the stages of paths of the three types of persons and the texts that explain these paths are as follows:
1) A practitioner who merely seeks a higher state of rebirth impelled by fear of the lower rebirths within cyclic existence (samsara) for the sake of oneself alone.
2) A practitioner who wishes himself or herself to be free of the sufferings of cyclic existence and seeks to achieve the state of liberation for one’s own sake by being disgusted with the marvels of cyclic existence (samsara).
3) A practitioner with great spirit who voluntarily seeks to place all sentient being throughout the expanse of space in the state of complete enlightenment (Buddhahood) and who therefore is able to work extensively for the sake of others. All path of the greater vehicle (Mahayana) that are conjoined by resolute intent, the sixth of the seven-fold causes and result transmission.
4) Lha-Lama Jangchub Woe’s petition to Lord Atisha has been very tactful in the sense that he requested to give an instruction that would be of special benefit to keep the teachings of the Buddha in the world. He did limit his apprisal to the extent of requesting for a special initiation, secret mantra or to perform a ritual that would expel the interfering forces and so on. He asked for a whole some teaching, with the result achieved, he was later, named as Pure or Virtuous Lama (Lama-Zangpo) Jangchub woe. Lord Atisha was very pleased with the way in which he was approached and therefore, he gave the teachings on Jangchub Lam-rim or the gradual path of the Bodhisattava. From the beginning he said that the texts of his teaching is so little yet the summarization of its content is so huge. It is practical and convenient for a person to practise in one lifetime to a great extent.
His teachings won much popularity and appreciation from all the Indian Pandits of the time. They remarked that if Atisha had not been to Tibet where the population is so little yet the thirst of the practise of dharma is unbelievable that led lord Atisha to compose such a concise and complete teaching on the spiritual path of enlightenment with complete Buddha’s teachings of Discourses and Tantra together, would not have been possibly feasible to accomplish. Atisha, when he could not return to India due to civil war in Tibet, he visited the central part of Tibet and gave extensive teachings. Gelug tradition began to flourish with the establishment of great many monastic universities.
Atisha was one of the last Indian masters to teach in Tibet, dedicating the final 17 years of his life to his Tibetan disciples. His Lam-rim teachings reached its full bloom amongst later Tibetan teachers and scholars. It presents the important practices in a concise and easily understandable manner and orders them in terms of the development and ability of the mind. Such practices as these are timeless and of benefit to all.
The form of Buddhism that Atisha propagated so widely in Tibet and that later became the major foundation stone for the Gelug tradition, quickly made its influence on all traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, especially the Sakya, Kargyue and Gelug. Within the Gelug it was particularly important, to the point many Gelug teachers consider Atisha to be the roof of that tradition. In his Lamrim Chemo-Great Exposition of the stages in Spiritual Prectice- Je-Tsongkhapa, the founder of the yellow Head sect, himself stated that as all his inspiration in composition came from Atisha, the actual authorship of the treatise could just as easily be credited to him (Atisha).
Later, although many Lam-rim texts have been written by different Bodhisatteva’s with varying length but the main theme of the Lam-rim in all the texts are same in that it explains the steps to the path of enlightenment. It is important to realize the uncertainty of death and certainty of a rebirth after the death. And it is important to constantly remember that it is the only Dharma or the religious practice, which can help and nothing else can help after one’s death. Dharma- means to practice the virtuous actions and abandon the non-virtuous actions. If one does not believe in the next life, then one need not necessarily care much for one’s present actions and he may commit any actions. But both logically and scientifically it has been proved that there is a rebirth and the conditions of such rebirth is governed by the present live’s acitons. Therefore, it is inevitably important to prepare for the next life by accumulating good merit in this life. To practice the 10 virtuous actions and to practise to take refuge in the three objects of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Practicing to take refuge means to practice what Buddha taught to do and to practice to abandon what Buddha taught not to do. Otherwise, even if one is born as a human being, one has to constantly undergo many sufferings due to one’s delusions leave alone the great sufferings of birth, illness and death. The world is full of sufferings and in order to get rid of the sufferings, you must not think of only yourself; because there is no sentient being who has not been your mother at one time or the other from the beginning’s time. So, remembering all those mother sentient beings kindness towards you, it is not a right attitude to think of only yourself. All the sentient beings wants happiness and do not want misery. Therefore, one should commit to do everything possible for the sake of all the mother sentient beings to overcome their sufferings and to acquire them happiness. For that matter, we should practice the teachings of Buddha even it is only one word and must determine to ultimately get the full enlightenment or to attain the Buddhahood for the sake of the mother sentient beings. With such a compassionate and Buddhasattavas mind, any step that one practices is the gradual path to enlightenment or the Buddhahood. This is Lam-rim.
One of the largest Buddhist network web site in the world.
www.buddhistview.com 827 Sherman Ave # 1 Evanston. Il, 60202. USA tsultim@buddhistview.com
|
Printable Version)
