Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism - Its Fundamentals and History by H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche
This book is dedicated to
the continued enlightened activity of
HIS HOLINESS DUDJOM RINPOCHE
and to all those who maintain
the living traditions of Tibetan Buddhism.
General Contents
SECTION ONE: THE TRANSLATIONS
List of Illustrations
Foreword by Shenpen Dawa Rinpoche
Preface to the Second Edition
Credits for Illustrations and Maps
Technical Note
Guide to Pronunciation
Abbreviations for Section One
BOOK ONE: FUNDAMENTALS OF THE NYINGMA SCHOOL OF TIBETAN BUDDHISM
Detailed Contents of Book One
THE TEXT
Introduction
PART ONE: DOCTRINES OF SAṂSĀRA AND NIRVĀṆA
1 The Essence and Definition of Dharma
5 Buddhist Treatises 6 [[Quantitative Treatises
PART TWO: THE NATURE OF THE TEACHER ENDOWED WITH THE BUDDHA-BODIES
Introduction
1 Samantabhadra, the Buddha-body of Reality
2 Vajradhara, the Emanation of Samantabhadra
3 The Two Buddha-bodies of Form
4 The Five Buddha-bodies and Five Pristine Cognitions
5 Distinctive Attributes of the Buddha-bodies and Pristine Cognitions
PART THREE: CAUSAL VEHICLES OF DIALECTICS
Introduction
1 The Three Promulgations of the Doctrinal Wheel
2 The Lesser Vehicle
3 The Greater Vehicle
4 The Superiority of Great Madhyamaka to Mind Only
5 The Provisional and Definitive Meaning of the Transmitted Precepts
6 The Enlightened or Buddha Family
7 The Two Truths According to Great Madhyamaka
8 Key to the Appraisal of Causal Vehicle Texts
9 A Recapitulation of the Causal Vehicles
PART FOUR: RESULTANT VEHICLES OF SECRET MANTRA
Introduction
1 The Superiority of Secret Mantra
2 The Essence and Definition of Secret Mantra
3 The Three Continua of Ground, Path and Result
4 The Four Tantrapiṭaka
5 Mahāyoga
6 Anuyoga
7 Key to the Appraisal of Secret Mantra Texts
8 The Superiority of Atiyoga, the Great Perfection
9 The Definition of Atiyoga
10 The Divisions of Atiyoga
11 A Recapitulation of the Resultant Vehicles
CONCLUSION
1 Concluding Remarks
2 Dedicatory Verses
3 Colophon
BOOK TWO: HISTORY OF THE NYINGMA SCHOOL OF TIBETAN BUDDHISM
Detailed Contents of Book Two
THE TEXT
PART ONE: THE ORIGIN OF THE PRECIOUS TEACHING OF THE CONQUEROR IN THIS WORLD
Introduction
1 The Coming of Buddha, Teacher of the Doctrine
2 The Collecting of Transmitted Precepts by Councils
3 The Patriarchs of the Teaching
4 The Preservation of the Teaching and Spread of the Greater Vehicle
PART TWO: THE RISE OF THE PRECIOUS TEACHING OF SECRET MANTRA
Introduction
1 The Turning of the Secret Mantra Wheel
2 The Collecting of Transmitted Precepts by Different Compilers
3 The Emergence of this Teaching in the Human World
4 The Lineage of Mahāyoga, the Class of Tantras
5 The Lineage of Mahāyoga, the Class of Means for Attainment
6 The Lineage of Anuyoga, the Perfection Stage
7 The Lineage of Atiyoga, the Great Perfection
8 Concluding Remarks
PART THREE: THE ORIGIN OF THE CONQUEROR’S TEACHING IN TIBET
Introduction
1 The Three Ancestral Religious Kings
2 The Decline and Expansion of the Doctrine during the Intermediate Period
3 The Revival and Later Expansion of the Teaching
PART FOUR: THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE THREE INNER CLASSES OF TANTRA IN TIBET
Introduction
1 Mahāyoga and Anuyoga
2 The Mental and Spatial Classes of Atiyoga
3 The Esoteric Instructional Class of Atiyoga, the Innermost Spirituality
4 Longcen Rapjampa
PART FIVE: THE DISTANT LINEAGE OF TRANSMITTED PRECEPTS
Introduction
1 The Lineage of Nyak
2 The Lineage of Nup
3 The Lineage of the Zur Family
4 Biographies of the Rong Tradition
5 Dotokpa’s Lineage of the Zur Tradition
6 Biographies of the Kham Tradition
7 Miscellaneous Lineages of the Zur and Kham Traditions
8 Rongzom Chöki Zangpo
9 The Traditions of Vajrakīla
10 The Lineages of the Empowerment of the Sūtra which Gathers All Intentions
11 Later Lineages of the Transmitted Precepts
PART SIX: THE CLOSE LINEAGES OF THE TREASURES
1 The Nature, Purpose and Kinds of Treasure
2 Biographies of the Treasure-finders
3 Sangye Lama
4 Trapa Ngönshe
5 Nyang-rel Nyima Özer
6 Guru Chöki Wangcuk
7 Como Menmo
8 Orygen Lingpa
9 Ngödrup Gyeltsen or Rikdzin Gödemcen
10 Sangye Lingpa
11 Dorje Lingpa
12 Ratna Lingpa
13 Pema Lingpa
14 Karma Lingpa
15 Thangtong Gyelpo
16 Ngari Paṇcen Pema Wangyel
17 Rikdzin Jatsön Nyingpo
18 Rikdzin Düdül Dorje
19 Lhatsün Namka Jikme
20 The Fifth Dalai Lama
21 Rikdzin Terdak Lingpa, the Great Treasure-finder of Mindröling
22 Jikme Lingpa
23 Chogyur Decen Lingpa
24 Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo
25 Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thaye
26 Mipham Jamyang Namgyel Gyamtso
Conclusion
PART SEVEN: A RECTIFICATION OF MISCONCEPTIONS CONCERNING THE NYINGMA SCHOOL
1 General Reply to Criticisms of the Nyingmapa Tantras
2 On the View of the Great Perfection
3 Response to Critics of the Sūtra which Gathers All Intentions
4 Response to Critics of the Root Tantra of the Secret Nucleus
5 The Continuity of the Nyingmapa Tradition and its Impact on the Other Schools
6 On the Validity of the Treasures
7 The Shortcomings of Refutation and Proof
8 On The Prophecies Found in the Treasures
9 The Relationship between the Nyingmapa and Pönpo Traditions
10 On the “Bad Luck of the Nyingmapa”
PART EIGHT: THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE DOCTRINE
1 Duration of the Doctrine
2 A Chronology of the Buddha’s Life
3 From the Buddha’s Final Nirvāṇa until the Beginning of the First Tibetan Sexagenary Cycle
4 From the Beginning of the First Sexagenary Cycle to the Present
5 Some Prophecies
CLOSING STATEMENTS
1 Primary Sources
2 Concluding Benedictions
3 Colophon
SECTION TWO: REFERENCE MATERIAL
Contents
Introduction
Guide to Pronunciation
Abbreviations for Section Two
NOTES
1 Fundamentals
2 History
GLOSSARY OF ENUMERATIONS
Introduction
Glossary of Enumerations
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Introduction
Part One: Works Cited by the Author
Works Cited by the Author
Part Two: Works Referred to by the Translators
1 Indic Texts
2 Tibetan Texts
3 Secondary Literature
4 Addenda to the Bibliography
ARTIFACTS AND MATERIAL TREASURES
Introduction
Artifacts and Material Treasures
INDEX OF TECHNICAL TERMS
Introduction
Index of Technical Terms
INDEX OF PERSONAL NAMES
Introduction
Index of Personal Names
INDEX OF LOCATIONS
Introduction
Index of Locations
MAPS
Introduction
1 Buddhist India and Adjacent Regions
2 North-Central India
3 Tibet
4 Western Tibet and Nepal
5 North-Central Tibet
6 South-Central Tibet and Bhutan
7 North-West Kham
8 South-West Kham
9 Amdo
10 North-East Kham
11 South-East Kham
Illustrations
PLATES
1 Samantabhadra, the primordial buddha-body of reality, with consort Samantabhadrī (kun-bzang yab-yum). Fresco at the Jokhang, Lhasa.
2 The peaceful and wrathful deities (zhi-khro lha-tshogs).
3 Vajrasattva (rdo-rje sems-dpa’), the buddha-body of perfect rapture.
4 Mahottara Heruka (che-mchog he-ru-ka), the central figure of the Deities of the Eight Transmitted Precepts (bka’-brgyad lha-tshogs).
5 Padmasambhava, flanked by his two foremost consorts, Mandāravā and Yeshe Tshogyel, and surrounded by his eight manifestations (guru mtshan-brgyad).
6 Maṇḍalas of the Eight Transmitted Precepts (bka’-brgyad-kyi dkyil-’dhor).
7 The three ancestral religious kings (chos-rgyal mes-dbon rnam-gsum), Songtsen Gampo, Trhisong Detsen and Trhi Relpacen. Statues in the Pelkor Chöde, Gyantse.
8 Jowo Rinpoche, the famous image of Lord Śākyamuni in Lhasa, brought to Tibet by Songsten Gampo’s Chinese queen. Originally housed in the Ramoche Temple, it was later established as the central object of veneration in the Jokhang.
9 Image of King Songtsen Gampo in the Jokhang, flanked by those of his Nepalese and Chinese queens.
10 Gilded roofs of the Jokhang, the first temple of Lhasa and centre of Songtsen Gampo’s geomantic design. Originally built by his Nepalese queen, Trhitsün, it has been enlarged and embellished over the years.
11 The stone-lion emblem of the Yarlung dynasty in the Chongye valley, looking towards the tumuli of Songtsen Gampo and Relpacen, with the town of Chongye in the distance.
12 The reconstructed central shrine (dbu-rtse) at Samye, Tibet’s first monastery.
13 A realistic representation (nga-’dra-ma) of the peerless fourteenth-century scholar and treasure-finder (gter-ston) Longcen Rapjampa, now in the possession of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.
14 Remains of the sacred juniper tree at Kangri Thökar, where Longcen Rapjampa’s protector deities resided while he was composing his celebrated treatises, the Seven Treasuries (mdzod-bdun).
15 Tharpaling in Bumthang, Bhutan, founded by Longcen Rapjampa.
16 Katok Dorjeden Monastery in Kham, founded by Katokpa Tampa Deshek in 1159.
17 The imposing façade of Mindröling Monastery, the most influential seat of the Nyingma school in Central Tibet, founded by Terdak Lingpa in 1670.
18 The hidden valley of Rudam Kyitram, behind Dzokcen Monastery, with the Śrī Siṃha College in the foreground.
19 Pel Tshering-jong, the retreat of Jikme Lingpa in Tönkar valley near Chongye, where the Innermost Spirituality of Longcenpa (klong-chen snying-thig) was first revealed.
20 The restored Pelyül Namgyel Cangcup Ling Monastery, founded by Rikdzin Künzang Sherap in 1665.
21 The celebrated monastery of Dorje Trak, recently restored on the north bank of the Brahmaputra River, opposite Cedezhöl, where the Northern Treasures (byang-gter) tradition was preserved.
22 The deities of the Combined Means for Attainment of the Three Roots (rtsa-gsum dril-sgrub), discovered by Tibet’s first treasure-finder, Sangye Lama, and rediscovered by Jamgyang Khyentse Wangpo.
23 Painted scroll depicting Terdak Lingpa, with his handprints and footprints in gold. Preserved at Mindröling Monastery.
24 Dudjom Rinpoche (centre) surrounded by his previous emanations.
LINE DRAWINGS
Dignāga
Dharmakīrti
Samantabhadra and Consort
Vajradhara
Vajra on Lotus
Vasubandhu
Nāgārjuna
Āryadeva
Asaṅga
Maitreya
Vajrasattva
Śākyamuni
Śāriputra
Maudgalyāyana
Mahākāśyapa
Ānanda
Śāṇavāsika
Upagupta
Madhyāhnika
Samantabhadra and Consort
Vajradharma
Mañjuśrī, Avalokiteśvara, Vajrapāṇi
King Ja, Indrabhūti
Kukkurāja
Līlāvajra (or Vilāsavajra)
Buddhaguhya
Prabhāhasti
Padmasambhava
Hūṃkara
Yamāntaka
Hayagrīva
Vajrāmṛta
Vajrakīla
Mahākarmendrāṇī
Mahottara Heruka
Kambalapāda
Śākyamitra
Garap Dorje
Mañjuśrīmitra
Buddhajñānapāda
Śrī Siṃha
Jñānasūtra
Vimalamitra
Lha Thotori Nyentsen
Songtsen Gampo
Trhisong Detsen
Śāntarakṣita
Padmākara
Dorje Trolö
Pehar
Trhi Relpacen
Lhalung Pelgi Dorje
Lacen Gongpa Rapsel
Namkei Nyingpo
Gyelwa Choyang
Vairocana
Pang-gen Sangye Gönpo
Dzeng Dharmabodhi
Nyang Tingdzin Zangpo
Dangma Lhündrup Gyeltsen
Cetsün Senge Wangcuk
Zhangtön
Dorje Lekpa
Nyibum
Guru Cober
Trüzhi Sengegyap
Melong Dorje
Kumārādza
Ekajaṭī
Karmapa III, Rangjung Dorje
Longcen Rabjampa
Guru Trakpo
Nyak Jñānakumāra
The Sogdian Pelgi Yeshe
Nupcen Sangye Yeshe
Yamāntaka
Lharje Zurpoche Śākya Jungne
Yangdak Heruka
Zurcung Sherap-tra
Lekden Degü
Zur Dropukpa Śākya Senge
Zur Campa Senge
Yungtön Dorjepel
Tanak Drölmawa Samdrup Dorje
Zur Ham Śākya Jungne
Zurcen Chöying Rangdröl
Rāhula
Katokpa Tampa Deshek
Śrīdevī
Tsangtönpa
Campabum
Rongzom Chöki Zangpo
Yeshe Tshogyel
Vajrakīla
Rikdzin Lekdenje
Dorje Trak Rikdzin Pema Trhinle
Sangdak Thrinle Lhündrup
Locen Dharmaśrī
Dzokcen Pema Rikdzin
Rikdzin Künzang Sherap
Sangye Lama
Trapa Ngönshe
Nyang-rel Nyima Özer
Guru Chöki Wangcuk
Como Menmo
Orgyen Lingpa
Rikdzin Gödemcen
Rikdzin III, Ngagiwangpo
Sangye Lingpa
Dorje Lingpa
Ratna Lingpa
Pema Lingpa
Karma Lingpa
Thangtong Gyelpo
Ngari Paṇcen Pema Wangyel
Rikdzin Jatsön Nyingpo
Rikdzin Düdül Dorje
Lhatsün Namka Jikme
The Fifth Dalai Lama
Rikdzin Terdak Lingpa
Jikme Lingpa
Chogyur Decen Lingpa
Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo
Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thaye
Mipham Jamyang Namgyel Gyamtso
Peltrül Rinpoche
The Author, Dudjom Rinpoche
Acintyaprabhāsa
Akṣobhyaprabha
Pel Jikpa Kyopei Yi
Düjom Lingpa
Rudrakulika
Trhadruk, possibly Tibet’s first Buddhist temple
Samye, general view from Hepori
Lhodrak Khoting, a Border Taming temple
Lhodrak Kharcu, sacred site of Padmasambhava and Namkei Nyingpo
Karcung Temple of the Indesciructible Expanse, near Lhasa
Öncangdo Peme Trashi Gepel Temple, with Longcenpa’s retreat centre on the hillside behind
Foreword by Shenpen Dawa Rinpoche
His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, Jikdrel Yeshe Dorje, (1904-87) was appointed by His Holiness Dalai Lama XIV as the supreme head of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. He was an enlightened yogin and meditation master, a discoverer of concealed treasure teachings (gter-ston) who was inseparable from Guru Rinpoche [Padmasambhava], the most prolific of contemporary Tibetan scholars, and an incarnate lama who had intentionally emanated for the sake of sentient beings through seventeen successive lives. In ancient India these emanations included: Buddha Śākyamuni’s foremost disciple Śāriputra; the mahāsiddha Saraha; Kṛṣṇadhara, the religious minister of King Indrabhūti; and the ṛṣi Hūṃkara. In Tibet, they included: Khyeucung Lotsāwa, one of Padmasambhava’s twenty-five disciples; Smṛtijñānakīrti whose lifetime demarcated the transition from the ancient to the new system of translation; Rongzom Paṇḍita who was among the first to compose major treatises within the Nyingma tradition; Katok Tampa Deshek (1122-92) who founded the monastery of Katok in East Tibet; Chögyel Phakpa (1235-80) who established a Sakya administration in Central Tibet; Rikdzin Düdül Dorje (1615-72) who is famous for his discovery of concealed treasure teachings (gter-ma) in the Puwo region of south-east Tibet; Gyelse Sonam Detsen, responsible for revitalising Katok; and the treasure-finder Düjom Lingpa (1835-1904) who discovered the “New Treasures” (gter-gsar).
Like many of his predecessors, His Holiness was also renowned as a great discoverer of concealed treasure teachings which are now widely practised and propagated. These are primarily the direct “treasures of intention” or “mind treasures” (dgongs-gter) of the awareness-holders (vidyādhara) concerning the inner tantras of the secret mantra vehicle, which can bring about the unsurpassed enlightenment of the rainbow body in one lifetime.
He took birth in the Pemakö region on the frontier of Tibet, on the twenty-third day of the fourth Tibetan month, 1904. This birth occured while his predecessor Düjom Lingpa was still alive. Düjom Lingpa himself gave the specific instructions of how to find his authentic emanation. His father was Tülku Jampel Norbu, who was Prince of Kanam, a direct descendant of King Trhisong Detsen, and his mother, Namgyel Drölma.
In his youth His Holiness received the transmissions and direct blessings of Guru Rinpoche, Yeshe Tshogyel and Mañjuśrī in person. He received all the lineages of the Nyingma school from his lamas: Phüngong Tülku Gyurme Ngedön Wangpo, Jedrung Trhinle Campa Jungne, Gyurme Phendei Özer, Namdröl Gyamtso of Mindröling, Gendün Gyamtso and Khenpo Aten, amongst others. He mastered every tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Astonishingly, at the age of fourteen, he gave the full empowerment and oral transmission of the Store of Precious Treasure (rin-chen gter-mdzod), which are the collected treasure texts of the Nyingma lineage. From that time on, he gave major empowerments relating to different treasure cycles, and at the same time composed many means for attainment (sādhana) which elucidated the profound teachings of the buddhadharma. He wrote commentaries both on his predecessor’s teachings and on his own revealed treasures. When he was seventeen years old he composed his first celebrated treatise on the Great Perfection (rdzogs-pa chen-po). He became widely renowned as a scholar and meditation master, and was followed by many students. Among his students in Tibet and throughout the Himalayan regions, many have shown the signs of full enlightenment.
He maintained the lineage of the Mindröling tradition in Central Tibet, and above all at Pema Chöling [Lamaling] and his other seats in the Kongpo and Puwo areas of south-east Tibet. Subsequently, forseeing the incipient Chinese invasion, His Holiness and family left Tibet for India in 1958, following the prediction of Düjom Lingpa that the lineage of his New Treasures would spread to all continents of the world, and especially to the West.
After his arrival in India, Nepal and Sikkim, he established many vital communities of Buddhist practitioners. These include Zangdok Pelri in Kalimpong, Düdül Rapten Ling in Orissa and the Buddhist monasteries in Tshopema [Rewalsar, Himachal Pradesh] and Bodhnath in Nepal. In addition, he actively encouraged the study of the Nyingma tradition at the Tibetan Institute for Higher Studies in Sarnath. In such locations, he continued to grant the empowerments and literary transmissions for the Collected Transmitted Precepts of the Nyingmapa (rnying-ma’i bka’-ma), the Collected Tantras of the Nyingmapa (rnying-ma’i rgyud-’bum), and the Store of Precious Treasure, among others. His prolific scholarship is attested by the recent publication in India of his Collected Works, and his edition of the Collected Transmitted Precepts of the Nyingmapa, a fifty-five volume work which he began at the age of seventy-four. At the request of the Dalai Lama, he also wrote a Political History of Tibet (bod-kyi rgyal-rabs).
In the final phase of his teaching activity, His Holiness travelled widely throughout Asia, Europe and North America, where he brought many students to the dharma. He continued the buddha-activity of formal teaching, empowerment and personal supervision of meditation practice and retreat, which is the essence of the transmission of Vajrayāna Buddhism. Meditation and retreat centres were also established: the Vajrayāna Esoteric Society of Hong Kong, Dorje Nyingpo and Urgyen Samye Chöling in France, Yeshe Nyingpo and Orgyen Chö Dzong in the United States.
His Holiness passed into parinirvāṇa, dissolving his emanational body into the pure space of the buddha-body of reality (dharmakāya) on 17 January 1987, the eighteenth day of the eleventh month of the fire tiger year, shortly before the advent of a new Tibetan sixty-year cycle. This was at his residence overlooking the Vezère valley in the Dordogne, France. His passing was accompanied by miraculous signs of his enlightened realisation and buddha-attributes. His passing away in France is of great significance because it enacts the unification of East and West into a single maṇḍala of enlightened mind. His embalmed body was placed in a stūpa, constructed in Bodhnath, Nepal on 5 February 1989, in order to continue the Bodhisattva’s activity of benefitting sentient beings. He was a Vajra Guru whose accomplishment is to be seen not so much in the outward form of elaborate monastic establishments, but in the direct, clear awareness of the mind, free from elaboration. This enlightened mind is displayed by many of his monastic and lay disciples. On this basis the purity of his lineage is established and maintained to this day in an unbroken succession.
The publication of this translation was originally conceived as a maṇḍala offering to His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche and to those great teachers who, through their discriminative awareness and skilful method, lead sentient beings to the path of the dharma - what is to be abandoned and what is to be adopted. For twenty years Gyurme Dorje devoted painstaking and continuous effort to bring these translations to fruition. He is a modest and unswerving scholar who has accomplished a work of paramount importance for practitioners, scholars and those generally interested in Tibetan Buddhism. Matthew Kapstein has given invaluable assistance for the later stages of these translations. Our joy is that this work has now come to its final form – the seed having been carefully planted and tended throughout, its growth has borne fruit. It will bring inconceivable benefit to all those who come into contact with it through reading, contemplation or meditation. Our regret is that we could not complete the project in time to make an offering of it to His Holiness during his lifetime. It is a work which communicates the highest wisdom of the Nyingma lineage to the English-speaking world.
I dedicate the benefit of this profound work of my father to the long life of His Holiness Dalai Lama XIV, the incarnation of Avalokiteśvara, who is a benefit to the Land of Snows, and to the whole world. May all his actions be spontaneously accomplished. May the Tibetan people, under his lotus feet, never be separated from his enlightened discriminative awareness and compassion. May His Holiness the Gyelwa Karmapa manifest swiftly to raise the victory banner of the dharma which liberates sentient beings, and may the heads of the Kagyü schools continue to illuminate the path of those wandering in the six realms. May His Holiness the Sakya Trhizin powerfully safeguard and nourish the faultless tradition of the Sakyapa. May all other lineage-holders flourish, and their dharma activities increase like the waxing moon.
May His Majesty King Jikme Senge Wangcuk of Bhutan live long, bringing happiness, prosperity and spiritual growth to his people. May His Majesty King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev of Nepal fulfil all the aspirations and wishes of his people. May the government and people of India, the land of the sublime ones, prosper and sustain their spiritual heritage.
May our dharma patrons, the Royal Grandmother of Bhutan, HRH Phüntsok Chödrön, M. Gerard Godet, Dr L. Y. Soo, Ms Emily Stevens and Jonathan Altman, enjoy both causal and wisdom merits and may their ability to benefit others never be exhausted. Tülku Pema Wangyel and Tülku Rangdröl selflessly served His Holiness – may their activities in the West be crowned with success.
To you, my physical and spiritual father and root guru, on behalf of my mother Rikzin Wangmo, my sisters Chime Wangmo and Tsering Penzom, my niece Lhanzey Wangmo, and my prophesied wife Sonam Chhuskit; on behalf of my sons Namgyel Dawa and Wangchen Dawa, and on behalf of all your disciples, I bow at your lotus feet and offer homage for your unrepayable kindness and guidance in making our lives wholesome and meaningful. May the victorious sound of the drum of the dharma penetrate all the levels of existence, bringing joy and happiness. May all be auspicious.
Taking a humble position, rich with the treasure of contentment,
Free from the binds of the eight worldly concerns, firm and strong-hearted in practice,
Receiving the Guru’s blessing, realisation becomes equal to space.
May we attain the kingdom of the All-Good.
HIS EMINENCE SHENPEN DAWA RINPOCHE
Lineage-holder of the New Treasures
Dordogne, 1990
Preface
Two treatises form the present volume, namely, the Fundamentals of the Nyingma School (bstan-pa’i mam-gzhag) and the History of the Nyingma School (rnying-ma’i chos-’byung). Among the most widely read of all His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche’s works, these treatises were composed during the years immediately following his arrival in India as a refugee. His intention in writing them, as the concluding verses of the History state, was to preserve the precise structure of the Nyingma philosophical view within its own historical and cultural context, in a period of great uncertainty and instability.
Since the early sixties, His Holiness had appreciated the growing interest in the meditation practices and philosophical views of the Nyingma tradition, which is now evident both in universities and in the large number of Buddhist meditation centres throughout the world. He knew that, despite the vastness of the Tibetan literature, very few texts had actually been translated into other languages, and he recognised an urgent need for the presentation in English of traditional works which precisely define, stage by stage, the entire range of Buddhist experience and thought, and the authentic history of its transmission from antiquity to the present. Therefore, in 1971, he authorised and encouraged me to translate into English his History of the Nyingma School, which constitutes the latter part of this volume. Then, in 1980, he further authorised the translation of his Fundamentals of the Nyingma School.
Prior to 1971, partial Chinese and Hindi translations of the History had already been published in Hong Kong and Nalanda respectively. Working from the original Tibetan and its Hindi version, I prepared an annotated English translation in manuscript form at the monastery of Orgyen Kunzang Chokhorling in Darjeeling and at the sacred place of the Nyingmapa known as Tshopema, or Rewalsar, in Himachal Pradesh, between 1971 and 1977. The typing of the first draft was completed by Sheona Gunn at Bodhnath, Nepal, during the winter of 1977 to 1978. In the summer of 1979, the Author asked Matthew Kapstein to edit the manuscript, and consequently in 1981 we met to revise the edited translation and to standardise the English terminology. Then, between 1980 and 1982, I prepared a translation of the Fundamentals in the Dordogne region of France and met again with Matthew Kapstein in New York during the summer of 1983, where he helped edit the Fundamentals. Both texts were prepared for publication with the assistance of many volunteer typists at Orgyen Chö Dzong, Greenville, New York.
The Fundamentals is written in the terse, highly structured style of the grub-mtha’ genre, and is by no means an easy text to comprehend. A synopsis of the treatise has been included in the Translator’s Introduction so that the reader can form an overall view of its structure and become familiar with the English terminology. Those unfamiliar with even the basic categories of Buddhist thought are recommended to start by reading the History, Parts One and Two, where these concepts are introduced in the clear narrative context of the origins of Indian Buddhism, as understood in the Nyingma tradition.
The annotations, glossaries and indexes for both texts, which are published here in the second section as a resource for the reader, were compiled after consulting materials at the library of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, between 1982 and 1983. The bibliographies were initially prepared in the Dordogne and London over the same period, and their sources thoroughly researched and documented at Brown University, Rhode Island, USA, from 1985 to 1986. All of this reference material was revised, updated and expanded into its present form with the help of our editor Sarah Thresher during the final editorial work in London, New York and Boston throughout 1989 and 1990.
The general problems of translation are compounded in the case of the Tibetan language. In the past, Tibetan scholars of the calibre of Vairocana and Kawa Peltsek could translate the Sanskrit Buddhist texts with great accuracy because they had fully realised the essence of enlightened mind. By contrast, in the present circumstances, despite our total absence of inner realisation, we are obliged to translate the great works of Tibetan literature in order to preserve and propagate them for the benefit of posterity. It is therefore hoped that the well informed reader will exercise some restraint in the knowledge that the translator accepts full responsibility for errors which inevitably exist. These in no way reflect on the realisation or scholarship of the Author.
At this juncture Matthew Kapstein and I wish to express our gratitude to all who helped bring about the publication of the English version of these texts. Above all, His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche suggested the task and inspired the work of translation at every stage of its development. Specifically, he gave attention to many textual problems in the Dordogne, France, during the summer of 1982 and in New York during the summer of 1983. His wife, Lady Rikdzin Wangmo (Sangyum Kusho), and his dharma heir, Shenpen Dawa Rinpoche, have also given constant support. The late Kangyur Rinpoche and his family facilitated the project during its formative years in Darjeeling from 1971 to 1976, and gave invaluable subsequent assistance. During this period, the project was also funded and staunchly supported by Eric and Joan McLennan. Then, from 1977 to 1983, Gerard Godet of the Kangyur Rinpoche Foundation sponsored the translation with dedicated generosity. Some financial support was also provided by Tom Stickland in 1978, Georgina and Etienne De Swarte in 1982, and Mr C. T. Chen of the Institute for Advanced Studies of World Religions during 1979 and 1980. Moreover, for the past twelve years enormous practical help has been given by Rigzin Dolma, who, keeping in the background, has sustained those working on the project.
Several scholars devoted many concentrated hours to clarify obscure points of dharma or translation. In chronological order, these were: Pema Dorje, the artist, and Khenpo Pema Sherab who dedicated themselves to the task at Clement Town during the winter and spring of 1978 to 1979; Khetsun Zangpo Rinpoche and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyel who offered similar assistance during the autumn and winter of 1979 in Nepal; and Lama Sonam Topgyel, Tülku Pema Wangyel, Khenpo Palden Sherap and Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche, who applied themselves to the editing problems in France from 1980 to 1982. I also wish to thank Professor David Snellgrove for his interest and support, Mr Hugh Richardson, Dr Michael Aris and Kalon Jikme Taring, who helped clarify specific points; and Mr Michael Farmer, who prepared our new maps with great thoroughness and care. Matthew Kapstein wishes to thank Khenpo Sangye Tenzin of Serlo Gumba, Nepal, for the profound kindness with which he introduced him to the historical and doctrinal traditions of the Nyingmapa.
Finally, we wish to express gratitude to all the staff of Wisdom Publications for their sustained efforts, editorial care and strong commitment to the preservation of the important works of Tibetan Buddhism. The publishers wish to thank Brian Boland for his assistance during the latter stages of production.
GYURME DORJE
London, 1990
Preface to the Second Edition
After H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche’s The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism: Its Fundamentals and History first appeared in English in 1991, many expressed to us the desire for a more moderately priced edition that would be readily available to the broad range of students of Buddhism in the West and in Asia. We are therefore grateful to Wisdom Publications for now undertaking to bring out a new edition that will fulfill this demand. Our thanks are also due to the Venerable Sogyal Rinpoche and to the Rigpa Fellowship, whose encouragements have greatly facilitated these efforts.
The present volume reproduces in full the text of the two volumes of the original publication, the Translations, and Reference Materials. It differs in that it offers a reduced selection of the photographic plates that illustrated the first edition; and it corrects, without comment, a number of errors and infelicities that were found in the text after careful review. A list of addenda to the bibliography of works referred to by the translators has also been added so as to reflect pertinent developments in Tibetan Buddhist Studies during the past decade.
In concluding our present task, we wish to honour once again the memory of our magnificent teacher, H.H. the late Dudjom Rinpoche. We have been greatly privileged to assist in bringing these treasures of his intention to interested readers throughout the world. dge legs ’phel! May virtue and goodness increase!
Gyurme Dorje and Matthew Kapstein
June 2002
Credits for Illustrations and Maps
PLATES
The following people and organisations kindly made available colour or monochrome photographs for inclusion in Section One:
Board of Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 5
Dudjom Rinpoche Collection, frontispiece, 6, 24
Gyurme Dorje, 1, 9, 11, 12, 16, 19, 20, 23,
Golbenkin Museum of Oriental Art, Durham, 2
Rigpa Meditation Centre, London, 3
Lama Yeshe Dorje, 4
Mathieu Ricard, 18, 22
Stone Routes, 10, 15, 17
Robin Bath, 8
Michael Farmer, 21
Richard Freling, 7
Ngawang Chödron, 13, 14
We would also like to thank Chris Conlon and all those who helped with the photo research.
LINE DRAWINGS
The series of line drawings in Section One was compiled from a number of sources and redrawn by Chris Conlon. The majority were commissioned and drawn under the guidance of Dudjom Rinpoche for the original publication of the History in its Tibetan version in 1962, and later redrawn by Gomchen Oleshey for publication in Kailash. We also acknowledge Professor Lokesh Chandra’s Buddhist Iconography of Tibet, which was an invaluable resource, and thank all those who obtained or commissioned rare drawings, namely, Khenpo Pema Sherap, Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche, Tülku Pema Wangyel, Dr Yoshiro Imaeda, Dr Michael Aris, Chris Fynn and the Rigpa Meditation Centre, London. The completed line drawings were shown to Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche in the summer of 1990, who then instructed Tülku Pema Wangyel to review them for accuracy. Several revisions were undertaken on the basis of the latter’s valuable advice.
MAPS
The maps in Section Two were compiled by Michael Farmer and extracted from the Tibetan mapping database currently being used to generate the forthcoming Wisdom map of Tibet. He wishes to thank YRM plc for the extensive use of their Intergraph CAD system, without which the project would not have been possible; and also Robbie Barnett, Jeremy Schmidt, John Cannon, Bradley Rowe, Anders Andersen and Urgyen Norbu, who generously provided valuable and rare maps from their own collections.
Technical Note
The two treatises presented here are works of great breadth and complexity. For this reason, extensive annotations, glossaries and indexes have been compiled to assist the reader, and these constitute Section Two. The introduction to the second volume details the reference material at the disposal of the reader – this brief note is intended to introduce only those conventions commonly used within Section One.
Each book is preceded by a detailed list of contents which includes a complete breakdown of all the sections and subsections of the original work. For the benefit of the reader, chapter and section headings have also been inserted within the texts themselves whenever possible even though these do not always appear in the original Tibetan. None of the inserted headings have been enclosed within square brackets or parentheses.
Square brackets have been used in the text where the terse character of the Tibetan language necessitates short explanations by the translators. They are also employed where, at the beginning of each section of the translation, the pagination of the original Tibetan text is given for the convenience of scholars wishing to locate specific passages in the original. Parentheses have been used where technical terms and book titles given in the original text have been retained, either in their Tibetan or Sanskrit versions. In those instances where these conventions would require the running together of square brackets and parentheses only the former have been employed.
Tibetan and Sanskrit book titles have been given in English translation and after their first occurence are followed by the Tibetan title (in the case of indigenous Tibetan works) or a Sanskrit title (in the case of works of Indic origin). The translated title always represents the form in which it is given in the Tibetan text and so may not always correspond to the known Sanskrit title. Abbreviated bibliographical data for texts occuring in certain well-known collections, such as the Kangyur, has also been provided, along with precise identification of the original sources of citations from major Indian Buddhist works wherever possible. When the readings of the text and Sanskrit original diverge, the translators have remained faithful to the Tibetan. Full bibliographical information for texts cited by the Author or referred to by the translators is provided in Section Two.
Sanskrit has generally been used for the names of persons and places in India, and for the names of many of the deities. Sanskrit equivalents of Tibetan technical terms have also occasionally been given, though this is mostly reserved for the glossaries of Section Two. Where a technical term given in Sanskrit is not documented in the original Sanskrit sources that are presently available, this fact is indicated by the use of an asterisk (*) preceding the term in question. To avoid typographical clutter, however, we have not followed this convention with respect to personal and place names.
Numerical categories are not indicated in the body of the text and seldom in the Notes but are listed in the Glossary of Enumerations in Section Two, which should be directly consulted whenever enumerations occur. Similarly, Tibetan and/or Sanskrit equivalents for all the technical terminology employed in the body of the translations are given in the Index of Technical Terms.
Finally, readers are referred to the Guide to Pronunciation which follows, for an explanation of the system of romanisation and simplified spelling adopted for personal and place names in Section One. In particular, the conventions governing the use of the letters c and e may seem unnatural to an English speaker and so require special attention. Technical terms and book titles occuring parenthetically have been transcribed according to their proper Tibetan orthography.
Guide to Pronunciation
Readers should familiarise themselves at the outset with the following four rules of pronunciation for Tibetan and Sanskrit:
(1) A final e is never silent, but is always pronounced in the manner of the French é. Thus, Sanskrit vane is pronounced vané, and the Tibetan Ghare, Kore and Dorje are pronounced, respectively, Gharé, Koré and Dorjé.
(2) C is pronounced somewhat like the English ch, but without aspiration. Sanskrit cakra and citta thus resemble chakra and chitta, and Tibetan Co-se, Campa and Koca are rather like Cho-sé’, Champa and Kocha.
(3) Ph is never pronounced like an English f, but like a p with strong aspiration, for example in Sanskrit phala and Tibetan photrang.
(4) Th is never pronounced like the English th in think or that, but always resembling a t with strong aspiration, for example in Sanskrit tathāgata and Tibetan thuk.
The following remarks explain the conventions adopted for the transcription of Sanskrit and Tibetan in greater detail:
SANSKRIT
The Sanskrit vowels in actual use here are as follows:
a, ā, i, ī, u, ū, ṛ, e, ai, o, au
A, i, u, e and o are pronounced as in Italian. A, ī and ū are not to be pronounced like the so-called “long vowels” in English, but like the a in father, the ea in seat and the oo in boot respectively. Ai is similar to the y-sound of English by, and au to the ow of now. Ṛ resembles the ri-sound of brick. Vowels may be followed by ṃ and ḥ, which respectively indicate the nasalisation and aspiration of the vowel to which they are affixed.
The transcribed Sanskrit consonants are:
k, kh, g, gh, h
c, ch, j, jh, ñ
ṭ, ṭh, ḍ, ḍh, ṇ
t, th, d, dh, n
p, ph, b, bh, m
y, r, l, v
ś, ṣ, s, h
Of these, k, ch, j, t, d, n, p, b, m, y, r, l, v, s, and h indicate roughly the same sounds as they do in English, and c, ph and th have been explained above. The series t, th, d, dh, n is distinguished from the series ṭ, ṭh, ḍ, ḍh, ṇ in that the latter or “retroflex” series is pronounced with the tongue striking the roof of the mouth, and the former or “dental” series, with the tongue striking the upper incisors. Kh, gh, jh, dh, ḍh and bh are similar to k, g, j, d, d and b respectively, but with strong aspiration. Ṅ resembles the ng in English sing, and ñ the ny in canyon. Ṣ and ś are both similar to the English sh-sound, but the tongue is positioned further back when pronouncing the former.
TIBETAN
The transcription of Tibetan in English introduces special problems owing to the fact that the pronunciation of the spoken language does not closely correspond to the orthography of the literary language. For this reason a transliteration of the Tibetan spellings is of little use to the ordinary reader, who will have no way of knowing that, for example, bsgrubs and dbyings are currently pronounced as drup and ying respectively. On the other hand, students of the classical Tibetan language usually prefer the literal transcriptions to simplified phonetic schemes. The solution adopted in the present work has been to give all Tibetan personal and place names occurring in the text in just such a simplified system, relegating the precise transliterations to the indexes. At the same time, book titles, technical terms and peculiarities of language which are given parenthetically or discussed in the annotations have been given in a formal transliteration of the classical Tibetan, the system used being based upon that of the late Turrell V. Wylie, which will be familiar to specialists.
Our simplified phonetic transcription approximates the pronunciation of modern Central Tibetan, but without the subtlety or precision of a formal phonetic transcription, such as that developed by Chang and Shefts. Our intention here is merely to minimise the difficulties with which Tibetan names confront the reader.
In addition to the five vowels a, i, u, e and o, which have the same values here that they do in Sanskrit, Tibetan introduces two more – ö and ü - which are pronounced as in German.
The following additional consonants are used, along with those also found in Sanskrit: ng, ny, tr, trh, dr, ts, tsh, dz, w, sh, z, zh. Of these, ng, ny, tr, dr, w, sh and z are similar to their English values. Trh is like tr, but with strong aspiration. Ts resembles the rs-sound in English bets, and dz the sound in adze. Tsh is the strongly aspirated version of ts. Zh is similar to the s in leisure, or the j of French words such as jamais.
Specialists will note that this system does not reflect tone, an important feature of modern spoken Tibetan, and that we have dropped the aspirate in cases where it is not usually pronounced, even if it occurs in the classical orthography. Following a vowel, l is often silent, the preceding vowel being lengthened by way of compensation.
Abbreviations for Section One
DZ Gdams-ngag mdzod. Store of Precious Instructions. 12 vols. Delhi: N. Lungtok and N. Gyaltsan, 1971.
Fundamentals Dudjom Rinpoche, Jikdrel Yeshe Dorje. The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism: Its Fundamentals and History, Vol. 1, Bk. 1.
History Dudjom Rinpoche, Jikdrel Yeshe Dorje. The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism: Its Fundamentals and History, Vol. 1, Bk. 2.
Mvt. Mahāvyutpatti. Ed. R. Sakaki, Kyoto, 1916-25.
NGB Rnying-ma’i rgyud-’bum. Collected Tantras of the Nyingmapa. Thimpu: Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, 1973. 36 vols. Catalogue by E. Kaneko, Tokyo, 1982.
NMKMG Rnying-ma bka’-ma rgyas-pa. Collected Transmitted Precepts of the Nyingmapa. Ed. Dudjom Rinpoche, Jikdrel Yeshe Dorje. 55 vols. Kalimpong, WB: Dubjung Lama, 1982.
NYZ Snying-thig ya-bzhi. Four-Part Innermost Spirituality. 11 vols. New Delhi: Trulku Tsewang, Jamyang and L. Tashi, 1970.
P The Tibetan Tripiṭaka, Peking Edition. 168 vols. Tokyo-Kyoto: Suzuki Research Foundation, 1955-61.
RTD Rin-chen gter-mdzod. Store of Precious Treasure. 111 vols. Paro: Ngodrup and Sherap Drimey, 1976.
SK Sa-skya bka’-’bum. The Complete Works of the Great Masters of the Sa Skya Pa Sect of Tibetan Buddhism. 15 vols. Tokyo: Toyo Bunko, 1968.
Skt. Sanskrit
SP Śatapiṭaka Series. Sarasvati Vihar, New Delhi.
T A Complete Catalogue of the Tibetan Buddhist Canons. Ed. H. Ui et al. Sendai: Tōhoku University, 1934.
Tib. Tibetan
Book One
Fundamentals of the Nyingma School
Dudjom Rinpoche, Jikdrel Yeshe Dorje
Translated and edited by Gyurme Dorje
Associate editor Matthew Kapstein
Note
This detailed list of contents has been compiled as a resource for the reader showing the entire structure and framework of the teachings as they are presented in Book One. Headings have been added which do not appear in the actual translation to give a more precise and full idea of the subjects mentioned in the text, and these have been included in square brackets. The actual nesting of subject categories within the original Tibetan treatise is indicated by the small figures in square brackets which follow each heading.
Detailed Contents of Book One
TRANSLATOR’S INTRODUCTION
THE TEXT
VERSES OF INVOCATION
INTRODUCTION
PART ONE: DOCTRINES OF SAṂSĀRA AND NIRVĀṆA [1]
1 THE ESSENCE AND DEFINITION OF DHARMA
[Essence] [11]
[Verbal Definition] [12]
[Classification] [13]
2 DOCTRINES OF SAṂSĀRA [131]
The Characteristics of Saṃsāra [131.1]
The Mundane Vehicle and the Brahmā Vehicle [131.2]
The Mundane Vehicle [131.21]
The Brahmā Vehicle [131.22]
Those of No Understanding and Those of Wrong Understanding [131.3]
Those of No Understanding [131.31]
The Apathetic [131.311]
The Materialists [131.312]
Those of Wrong Understanding [131.32]
Sāṃkhya [131.321]
Aiśvara [131.322]
Vaiṣṇava [131.323]
Jainism [131.324]
Nihilism [131.325]
Conclusion [131.4]
3 DOCTRINES OF NIRVĀṆA [132]
The Superiority of the Supramundane Vehicle [132.1]
A Detailed Account of the Supramundane Vehicle [132.2]
Realisation of the True Doctrine [132.21]
Transmission of the True Doctrine [132.22]
4 TRANSMITTED PRECEPTS [132.221]
[The Characteristics of Transmitted Precepts] [132.221.1]
[Verbal Definition of Transmitted Precepts] [132.221.2]
[Classification of Transmitted Precepts] [132.221.3]
Transmitted Precepts according to Buddha’s Personality [132.221.31]
[Those Given in Oral Teaching] [132.221.311]
[Those Given by Blessing] [132.221.312]
[Those Given by Mandate] [132.221.313]
Transmitted Precepts according to Time [132.221.32]
[The First Promulgation of the Doctrinal Wheel] [132.221.321]
[The Second Promulgation of the Doctrinal Wheel] [132.221.322]
[The Third Promulgation of the Doctrinal Wheel] [132.221.323]
Transmitted Precepts according to Sections [132.221.33]
[The Twelve Branches of Scripture] [132.221.331]
[The Nine Branches of Scripture] [132.221.332]
[The Three Piṭaka] [132.221.333]
Transmitted Precepts according to their Function as Antidotes [132.221.34]
[The Eighty-four Thousand Components of the Doctrine] [132.221.341]
[The Four Piṭaka] [132.221.342]
Transmitted Precepts according to their Power [132.221.35]
[One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Nine Vehicles] [132.221.351]
5 TREATISES [132.222]
[The Characteristics of Treatises] [132.222.1]
[Pure Treatises] [132.222.11]
[Ostensible Treatises] [132.222.12]
[Verbal Definition of Treatises] [132.222.2]
[Classification of Treatises] [132.222.3]
Treatises according to the Standard of Composition [132.222.31]
[The Four Kinds of Treatise] [132.222.311]
[The Nine Kinds of Treatise] [132.222.312]
Treatises according to the Purpose of Composition [132.222.32]
[Those Summarising Vast Meaning] [132.222.321]
[Those Rectifying Disorder] [132.222.322]
[Those Disclosing Profundity] [132.222.323]
Treatises according to their Individual Composers [132.222.33]
[Those on Teachings Given by Buddhas] [132.222.331]
[Those on Teachings Given by Arhats] [132.222.332]
[Those on Teachings Given by Bodhisattvas] [132.222.333]
[Those Composed after Prophetic Declarations] [132.222.334]
[Those Composed by Ordinary Paṇḍitas] [132.222.335]
Treatises according to the Manner of their Composition [132.222.34]
[Commentaries on Specific Transmitted Precepts] [132.222.341]
[Independent Commentaries on their Meaning] [132.222.342]
Treatises according to the Transmitted Precepts they Explain [132.222.35]
[Commentaries on General Transmitted Precepts] [132.222.351]
[Commentaries on Particular Promulgations] [132.222.352]
Treatises according to the Meaning they Express [132.222.36]
6 QUANTITATIVE TREATISES [132.222.361]
Common Quantitative Treatises [132.222.361.1]
Uncommon Quantitative Treatises [132.222.361.2]
Outer Sciences [132.222.361.21]
The Arts [132.222.361.211]
Medicine [132.222.361.212]
Grammar [132.222.361.213]
Logic [132.222.361.214]
Minor Sciences [132.222.361.22]
Astrology [132.222.361.221]
Poetics [132.222.361.222]
Prosody [132.222.361.223]
Synonymics [132.222.361.224]
Drama [132.222.361.225]
7 TREATISES OF INNER SCIENCE [132.222.362]
Qualitative Treatises [132.222.362.1]
Treatises Teaching Liberation and Omniscience [132.222.362.2]
PART TWO: THE NATURE OF THE TEACHER ENDOWED WITH THE BUDDHA-BODIES [2]
INTRODUCTION
1 SAMANTABHADRA, THE BUDDHA-BODY OF REALITY [21]
2 VAJRADHARA, THE EMANATION OF SAMANTABHADRA [22]
3 THE TWO BUDDHA-BODIES OF FORM [23]
The Buddha-body of Perfect Rapture [231]
The Emanational Body [232]
Emanations of Natural Expression [232.1]
Emanations who Train Living Beings [232.2]
[Those who Instruct by their Great Merit of Body] [232.21]
[Those who Instruct by Direct Perception of Mind] [232.22]
[Those who Instruct by Inconceivable Miraculous Abilities] [232.23]
Diversified Emanations [232.3]
Emanations according to the Great Perfection [232.4]
4 THE FIVE BUDDHA-BODIES AND FIVE PRISTINE COGNITIONS [241.1-242.5]
5 DISTINCTIVE ATTRIBUTES OF THE BUDDHA-BODIES AND PRISTINE COGNITIONS [25]
[Distinctive Attributes of the Buddha-body of Reality] [251]
[Its Essence] [251.1]
[Its Characteristic] [251.2]
[Its Blessing] [251.3]
[Distinctive Attributes of the Buddha-bodies of Form] [252]
[Distinctive Attributes of the Buddha-body of Perfect Rapture] [252.1]
[Distinctive Attributes of the Emanational Body] [252.2]
PART THREE: CAUSAL VEHICLES OF DIALECTICS [3]
INTRODUCTION
[The Overall Meaning according to Classifications] [31]
1 THE THREE PROMULGATIONS OF THE DOCTRINAL WHEEL [311]
The First Promulgation [311.1]
The Second Promulgation [311.2]
The Third Promulgation [311.3]
Philosophical Systems of the Causal Vehicles [312]
2 THE LESSER VEHICLE [312.1]
Vaibhāṣika [312.11]
Sautrāntika [312.12]
Pious Attendants [312.13]
Self-Centred Buddhas [312.14]
3 THE GREATER VEHICLE [312.2]
Vijñānavāda [312.21]
[Sākāravāda] [312.211]
[Nirākārāvāda] [312.212]
Madhyamaka [312.22]
Outer Madhyamaka [312.221.1]
Svātantrika-Madhyamaka [312.221.1]
Prāsaṅgika-Madhyamaka [312.221.2]
Great Madhyamaka [312.222]
4 THE SUPERIORITY OF GREAT MADHYAMAKA TO MIND ONLY [312.222.1]
5 THE PROVISIONAL AND DEFINITIVE MEANING OF THE TRANSMITTED PRECEPTS [312.222.2]
6 THE ENLIGHTENED OR BUDDHA FAMILY [312.222.3]
7 THE TWO TRUTHS ACCORDING TO GREAT MADHYAMAKA [312.222.4]
8 KEY TO THE APPRAISAL OF CAUSAL VEHICLE TEXTS [312.3]
The Provisional and Definitive Meaning of the True Doctrine [312.31]
The Intention and Covert Intention of the True Doctrine [312.32]
9 A RECAPITULATION OF THE CAUSAL VEHICLES [32]
Vehicle of Pious Attendants [321]
Vehicle of Self-Centred Buddhas [322]
Vehicle of Bodhisattvas [323]
PART FOUR: RESULTANT VEHICLES OF SECRET MANTRA [4]
INTRODUCTION
1 THE SUPERIORITY OF SECRET MANTRA [41]
2 THE ESSENCE AND DEFINITION OF SECRET MANTRA
[The Extraordinary Vehicles of Secret Mantra] [42]
[The Overall Meaning according to Classifications] [421]
[Essence] [421.1]
[Verbal Definition] [421.2]
3 THE THREE CONTINUA OF GROUND, PATH AND RESULT
Classification of the Secret Mantra Vehicles [421.3]
The Three Continua of Expressed Meaning [421.31]
Continuum of the Ground [421.311]
Continuum of the Path [421.312]
Continuum of the Result [421.313]
4 THE FOUR TANTRAPIṬAKA
[The Four Tantrapiṭaka of Literary Expression] [421.32]
Kriyātantra [421.321]
Ubhayatantra [421.322]
Yogatantra [421.323]
Unsurpassed Yogatantra [421.324]
5 MAHĀYOGA [421.324.1]
The Ground or View of Mahāyoga [421.324.11]
The Path of Mahāyoga [421.324.12]
The Creation Stage of Mahāyoga [421.324.121]
The Perfection Stage of Mahāyoga [421.324.122]
The Result of Mahāyoga [421.324.13]
The Texts of Mahāyoga [421.324.14]
6 ANUYOGA [421.324.2]
The Ground of Anuyoga [421.324.21]
The Path of Anuyoga [421.324.22]
[Definitive Path of Skilful Means] [421.324.221]
[Liberating Path of Discriminative Awareness] [421.324.222]
The Result of Anuyoga [421.324.23]
The Texts of Anuyoga [421.324.24]
7 KEY TO THE APPRAISAL OF SECRET MANTRA TEXTS [421.324.3]
The Six Limits [421.324.31]
The Four Styles [421.324.32]
8 THE SUPERIORITY OF ATIYOGA, THE GREAT PERFECTION
[Atiyoga, the Great Perfection] [421.324.4]
[The Superiority of Atiyoga over the Lower Vehicles] [421.324.41]
9 THE DEFINITION OF ATIYOGA [421.324.411]
10 THE DIVISIONS OF ATIYOGA [421.324.42]
The Mental Class [421.324.421]
The Texts and Teaching Cycles of the Mental Class [421.324.421.1]
The Spatial Class [421.324.422]
The Texts of the Spatial Class [421.324.422.1]
The Esoteric Instructional Class [421.324.423]
The Texts of the Esoteric Instructional Class [421.324.423.1]
The View and Path of the Esoteric Instructional Class [421.324.423.2]
Cutting Through Resistance [421.324.423.21]
All-Surpassing Realisation [421.324.423.22]
11 A RECAPITULATION OF THE RESULTANT VEHICLES [422]
Distinctions between Outer and Inner Tantras [422.1]
Outer Tantras of Austere Awareness [422.2]
Kriyātantra [422.21]
Ubhayatantra [422.22]
Yogatantra [422.23]
Inner Tantras of Skilful Means [422.3]
Mahāyoga [422.31]
Anuyoga [422.32]
Atiyoga [422.33]
CONCLUSION
1 CONCLUDING REMARKS
2 DEDICATORY VERSES
3 COLOPHON
Translator’s Introduction
The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism represents the original Buddhist teachings as they were translated, principally from Sanskrit but also from Burushaski and other languages into Tibetan, until the period of the Indian scholar Smṛtijñānakīrti (late tenth or early eleventh century) and prior to that of Locen Rincen Zangpo (958-1055). It is also known as the Ancient Translation School (snga-’gyur) in contrast to the other lineages of Indian origin such as the Kagyüpa, the Sakyapa, and the Kadampa, which subsequently arrived in Tibet and became known as the new traditions (gsar-ma) or the later translation schools (phyi-’gyur).
The original promulgator of the doctrines brought together within the Nyingma tradition is held to be Samantabhadra, who is the primordial buddha-body of reality (chos-sku, Skt. dharmakāya). However, there are also a considerable number of teachings which derive from Vajradhara and the Buddhas of the Five Families, who are the buddha-body of perfect rapture (longs-spyod rdzogs-pa’i sku, Skt. sambhogakāya), and from the emanational bodies (sprul-pa’i sku, Skt. nirmāṇakāya), such as Śākyamuni in the world of men, Munīndra in the god realms and so on.
All Buddhist teachings may be presented in accordance with the threefold approach of theoretical view (lta-ba), meditational experience (bsgom-pa), or conduct (spyod-pa). In the Fundamentals of the Nyingma School, His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche precisely delineates the entire range of the Buddhist spiritual and philosophical systems from the standpoint of the view. It is traditionally held that once the view has been comprehended, it is then to be experientially cultivated through meditation, and practically applied in all everyday situations which arise during the aftermath of meditation.
The Buddhist spiritual and philosophical systems form what is essentially a dynamic gradation of experience from the most mundane level of cyclical existence (saṃsāra) to that of the Great Perfection (rdzogs-pa chen-po). As the text explains (p.80):
When the transmitted precepts are classified according to their power, they form a vehicle, because it appears that therein higher and higher paths are traversed, in the manner of a “vehicle”.
And again:
Riding on that, which is the best of vehicles,
Manifestly attaining to delightful bliss,
All sentient beings pass into nirvāṇa.
The Fundamentals expands upon these systems, which are known in the Nyingma tradition as the nine sequences of the vehicle (theg-pa’i rim-pa dgu), in extraordinarily intricate detail. To facilitate the reader’s understanding, a summary now follows.
SUMMARY OF THE TEXT
The Fundamentals consists of four parts. The first expounds the doctrines of cyclical existence or Saṃsāra and the supramundane doctrines of nirvāṇa. The second explains the nature of the teachers who are endowed with the three buddha-bodies of reality, perfect rapture, and emanation. The third is an analysis of the causal vehicles of dialectics. And, finally, there is a detailed account of the resultant vehicles of indestructible reality (Vajrayāna) which are held to be supreme by all schools of Tibetan Buddhism.
Within these four parts the distinctions of entrance (’jug-sgo), empowerment (dbang-bskur), view (lta-ba), moral discipline (tshul-khrims), meditation (bsgom-pa), conduct (spyod-pa), and result (’bras-bu) are clarified as they apply to each stage of the Buddhist experience.
PART ONE: DOCTRINES OF SAṂSĀRA AND NIRVĀṆA
At the outset, the Author differentiates between mundane doctrines which do not transcend the suffering of cyclical existence and the supramundane doctrines which do so by relying on the continuum of enlightenment.
Doctrines of Saṃsāra
The basis of the mundane doctrines is held to be ignorance which, in three interrelated aspects, generates a sense of bewilderment. This, in turn, gives rise to consciousness of the ground-of-all (kun-gzhirnam-shes, Skt. ālayavijñāna), the six conflicting emotions of ignorance, delusion, hatred, pride, desire, and envy, and also all sensory perception, the eighteen psychophysical bases, the five components and the twelve activity fields.1 All these are said to be compounded internally by the mind, their apparent aspect and support being the five gross elements compounded by external objects. In this way, the three world realms of desire (kāmadhātu), form (rūpadhātu) and the formless (ārūpyadhātu) are nothing but apparitional modes of the bewildered intellect of living beings. They do not appear in the pure vision of the buddhas, and the sufferings sustained within them are prolonged by karma or world-forming deeds.
The Mundane Vehicle and the Brahmā Vehicle
The mundane vehicle which is followed by gods and human beings (lha-mi ’jig-rten-gyi theg-pa) is the basis on which the nine specifically Buddhist sequences of the vehicle develop. By regulating world-forming deeds, renouncing the ten non-virtues and observing good deeds with piety and humility, one is said to progress to the status of a god of the desire realm within cyclical existence. As the text says (pp.60-1):
It either forms the foundation of, or is preliminary to, all vehicles, because the vehicle which is not retained by the correct view and which does not observe the deeds and path of the ten virtues as its actual foundation is nowhere to be found.
As an extension of this mundane vehicle, the vehicle of Brahmā (tshangs-pa’i theg-pa) generates the experience of all the twenty-one higher realms within cyclical existence. These include seventeen realms of form, which are experienced through the four meditative concentrations of form, and four formless realms at the summit of cyclical existence, which are to be experienced through the four formless absorptions. These meditative techniques employ both tranquillity (zhi-gnas, Skt. śamatha) and higher insight (lhag-mthong, Skt. vipaśyana), and are accompanied by the practice of the four immeasurables (loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity). The chart on the following pages indicates the stages and overall structure of the three realms of cyclical existence with their subdivisions and their corresponding meditative states.
Since the vehicles of gods and human beings and the vehicle of Brahmā possess qualities which are basic to any Buddhist experience, they are regarded as a means of entering into the true vehicle of Buddhist experience.
Those of No Understanding and Those of Wrong Understanding
The sentient beings who are considered to be ensnared within cyclical existence and subject to continuous rounds of suffering are traditionally divided into those who have no understanding (ma-rtogs-pa) and those who have wrong understanding (log-par rtogs-pa). The former include the apathetic who lack understanding of deeds and causality, and so fail to respond to any philosophical system, observing neither renunciation nor commitment; and the materialists (Lokāyata) who refer only to the present life and set their trust in the mysterious calculations of worldly wisdom.
Those of wrong understanding are traditionally said to comprise four schools of eternalistic extremism and one of nihilistic extremism. The former are the Sāṃkhya, the Aiśvara, the Vaiṣṇava, and Jainism. The Sāṃkhya hold all that is knowable to consist of twenty-five existent categories, which are said to be dissolved when sublimation of the self (puruṣa) occurs. The Aiśvara, who include the adherents of Nyāya logic and Vaiśeṣika analysis of substances, hold that an eternally existent lord or Īśvara controls the destiny of all beings regardless of deeds. The Vaiṣṇava uphold the authenticity of the Veda, along with the eternal status of Viṣṇu, Brahmā and other deities. And Jainism holds all the knowable to be divided into nine categories, among which animate substances (jīva) are eternally existent. The nihilistic extremists are the Bārhaspatya hedonists of ancient India who negate causality, past and future lives, the existence of invisible beings and the possibility of progress beyond suffering into nirvāṇa.
All these are said to lack a means of achieving liberation from the suffering of cyclical existence – those of no understanding because they are roused by no philosophical view and those of wrong understanding because they either cling to the concept of an eternal self or become totally negative. Even so, the Author maintains, there are certain circumstances when a buddha may teach in the manner of the eternalists for a specific purpose or in that of the nihilists when scepticism may be transmuted into Madhyamaka dialectic.3
Doctrines of Nirvāṇa
The true doctrine of nirvāṇa which transcends the suffering of cyclical existence is said to surpass mundane doctrines because it seeks refuge in the Buddha, the doctrines of Buddhism and the community of practitioners. There are four seals or hallmarks indicative of such transmitted precepts, namely, all that is compounded is impermanent, all that is corrupt is suffering, all things are without self, and nirvāṇa is peace. By the practice of the Buddhist teachings all cyclical existence and rebirth are opposed.
In general, the Buddhist teaching is divided according to realisation (rtogs-pa, Skt. adhigama) and literary transmission (lung, Skt. āgama). The former includes the realisation which has been achieved by buddhas, or the truth of cessation, as well as the active or dynamic means to attain that realisation – the truth of the path which removes obscuration and reveals the intrinsic awareness of buddhahood, bringing about the truth of cessation. The literary transmissions comprise both the transmitted precepts (legs-bshad bka’, Skt. subhāṣitapravacana) and the treatises (bstan-bcos, Skt. śāstra).
Transmitted Precepts
Transmitted precepts are the sūtra and tantra texts which originated from buddhas such as Śākyamuni. They comprise those given in the form of oral teaching, those given by the blessing or consecration of the buddha-body, speech and mind, and those given by a buddha’s mandate (pp.74-6). They may also be classified according to the three successive promulgations of the doctrinal wheel, the twelve branches of the scriptures, the eighty-four thousand doctrinal components including the Vinayapiṭaka, Sūtrapiṭaka, Abhidharmapiṭaka, and Vidyādharapiṭaka,4 or according to the nine sequences of the vehicle.
The Author indicates at some length that enumerations such as two vehicles, three vehicles, four vehicles, or five vehicles are merely different ways of categorising the single vehicle. In fact there may be as many vehicles as there are thoughts. As the Sūtra of the Descent to Laṅkā (Laṅkāvatārasūtra, T 107)5 says:
As long as there is perception
The culmination of vehicles will never be reached.
In the Nyingma tradition the vehicle is said to have nine sequences, which are differentiated according to the acumen of those who require training through them. Each lower sequence is also included in the higher. Thus the All-Accomplishing King (kun-byed rgyal-po, T 828) states:
Existentially there is only one
But empirically there are nine vehicles.
These nine sequences are the vehicles of the pious attendants (nyan-thos, Skt. śrāvaka), self-centred buddhas (rang-rgyal, Skt. pratyekabuddha) and bodhisattvas (byang-chub sems-dpa’); the vehicles of Kriyātantra (bya-ba), Ubhayatantra (gnyis-ka), and Yogatantra (rnal-’byor); and those of Mahāyoga (rnal-’byor chen-po), Anuyoga (rjes-su rnal-’byor) and Atiyoga, the Great Perfection (rdzogs-chen shin-tu rnal-’byor). However, it is emphasised that the transmitted precepts in the form of a vehicle are a means of attaining realisation, and that, in the words of the Sūtra of the Descent to Laṅkā:
When the mind becomes transformed
There is neither vehicle nor mover.
Treatises
Treatises are commentaries composed by sublime beings such as Nāgārjuna, Asaṅga and Longcen Rapjampa to elucidate the intention of the transmitted precepts.
In Buddhist terms, treatises are defined as compositions which are made so as to counteract the three poisons of delusion, desire and hatred, and to protect the mind from the suffering of cyclical existence (pp.88ff.). They require four special attributes, namely, a motivation based on compassion and discriminative awareness, expressive words in verse, an expressed meaning which reveals the means for those who desire liberation, and a purposeful composition. Treatises are then classified in six ways according to: the purpose of the composer, the qualitative standard of the composition, the status of the composer (i.e. buddha, bodhisattva, arhat or paṇḍita), the specific or general manner of their composition, the view, conduct and integration of view and conduct as revealed in each of the three successive promulgations of the transmitted precepts, and finally the meaning they express, which may be quantitative, qualitative or conducive to liberation and omniscience.
The quantitative treatises, in which diverse categories are enumerated, include general treatises on ethics, and specialised treatises on grammar, logic, art, medicine, astrology, poetics, prosody, synonymics and drama. Qualitative treatises include those on Madhyamaka philosophy which establish the selflessness of the individual and of phenomena. Finally, the treatises conducive to liberation and omniscience include esoteric instructions of five kinds, which are condensed in order to generate liberation from cyclical existence in those who require training through them.
PART TWO: BUDDHA NATURE ACCORDING TO THE BUDDHA-BODIES
Having distinguished between the doctrines which cause one to remain in cyclical existence and those which transcend such suffering, what then is the nature of the buddha or the teacher who is said to communicate the means of attaining liberation? This is the subject-matter of Part Two.
Buddha (literally, the “awakened one”) is rendered in Tibetan as sangs-rgyas: sangs meaning purified of all conflicting emotions and rgyas meaning vast in enlightened attributes. Thus a buddha is one who has purified all sufferings of cyclical existence and is endowed with the enlightened attributes of buddha-body and pristine cognition. The buddha-bodies are held to number three or five, although they have many other aspects. Lower sequences of the vehicle speak of the two bodies of reality and form, or of three or four. Here in the Nyingma tradition there are five, namely, the buddha-bodies of reality, perfect rapture, emanation, awakening and indestructible reality.
The Buddha-body of Reality
The buddha-body of reality (chos-sku, Skt. dharmakāya), which is also known as Samantabhadra (kun-tu bzang-po), is considered to be the prime mover of the highest teachings of the Great Perfection or Atiyoga.
The Nyingmapa hold that buddhahood is attained when intrinsic awareness is liberated just where it is through having recognised the nature of Samantabhadra, the primordially pure body of reality. This buddhahood is endowed with the pristine cognition of the expanse of reality (chos-dbyings ye-shes, Skt. dharmadhātujñāna), for it is free from all conceptual elaborations, and the pristine cognition of sameness (mnyam-nyid ye-shes, Skt. samatājñāna) which remains pure through the extent of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa.
Reality (chos-nyid, Skt. dharmatā) in Buddhism refers to the emptiness which is the inherent nature of phenomena. The apparitional aspect of this reality is known as chos-can (dharmin), and that which is real (the phenomena themselves) are known as chos (dharma). Since it is held to be the foundation of all genuine experience, the body of reality is the basis of the buddha-bodies of form. It is also known as the youthful vase body (gzhon-nu bum-pa’i sku) because the pristine cognition remains inwardly radiant within it, in the manner of light within a crystal prism, even when it emanates as the buddha-body of form.
Through the blessing of this youthful vase body, the Buddha-field of the Bounteous Array (Ghanavyūhabuddhakṣetra) becomes manifest, and therein the Teachers of Five Enlightened Families, including the Buddha Vairocana, assume the body of perfect rapture. This is the great play of undifferentiated buddha-body and pristine cognition, which also acts out of compassion for the sake of sentient beings who are perceived to be bewildered without cause; for they wander in cyclical existence without recognising the nature of the primordial ground.
These teachers emanate all the buddha-fields within and around the body of Vairocana in order to guide beings to liberation. The fields are arrayed in three dimensions, namely, the Indestructible Nucleus of Inner Radiance (’od-gsal rdo-rje snying-po), Brahmā’s Drumbeat (tshangs-pa rnga-sgra) and the Aeon of Great Brahmā (tshangs-chen-gyi bskal-pa), which correspond, respectively, to the body of reality, the body of perfect rapture and the emanational body. The last of these comprises all the realms of cyclical existence outlined in the chart above. It is said that in the space of a single atomic particle there are measureless fields of sentient beings being trained by the buddhas, and that on the surface of a single atom there are fields containing atoms of oceanic infinity. As the Great Bounteousness of the Buddhas (Buddhavataṃsaka, T 44) says:
On the surface of a single atom
There are as many buddhas
As there are atoms.
However, as our text emphasises (p. 119):
These fields are said to be radiant apparitions, not existing in reality because, in the expanse of reality, relative appearances have not existed from the beginning.
The Buddha-body of Perfect Rapture
The buddha-body of perfect rapture (longs-spyod rdzogs-pa’i sku, Skt. sambhogakāya) is said to act within all those fields connected with Vairocana. It is endowed with seven attributes of natural expression, and the thirty-two major and eighty minor marks of the buddhas. These marks may appear outwardly, as the external form of the buddha-body; inwardly, as the network of energy channels, currents and seminal points (rtsa rlung thig-le) within the buddha-body; secretly, as present in the seed which is enlightened mind, or the nucleus of the tathāgata (de-gshegs snying-po, Skt. tathāgatagarbha); and, most secretly, as the rapture of the Great Perfection (rdzogs-pa chen-po) which is experienced when the energy channels and seminal points are naturally expressed as supreme bliss.
As such, the five components of mundane cyclical existence find their true natural expression in the Teachers of the Five Enlightened Families, namely, Vairocana, Akṣobhya, Ratnasambhava, Amitābha, and Amoghasiddhi; while the five elemental properties of space, cohesion, solidity, warmth and movement find their true natural expression as the five consorts: Dhātvīśvarī, Locanā, Māmakī, Pāṇḍaravāsinī, and Samayatārā. The four sensations of seeing, hearing, tasting and smelling, as well as the four sense objects, the four sense organs, the four temporal dimensions, the four aspects of sexual contact, and the four extremes of permanence, decay, self and character all find their true natural expression in the deities of the surrounding maṇḍalas. This pure vision, it is emphasised, lies within the perceptual range of the buddhas’ pristine cognition alone, and remains invisible even to bodhisattvas of the highest level who are not liberated from all obscurations. It is maintained that all these elements of mundane cyclical existence are transmuted into the pure, divine nature through experiential cultivation of the Buddhist teachings. As the Extensive Magical Net (sgyu-’phrul rgyas-pa, NGB Vol.14) says:
If there is no understanding of intrinsic awareness or genuine perception,
The field of Sukhāvatī is even seen as a state of evil existence.
If the truth which is equivalent to the supreme of vehicles is realised,
Even states of evil existence are Akaniṣṭha and Tuṣita.
The Emanational Body
The emanational body (sprul-pa’isku, Skt. nirmāṇakāya), which disciplines those who require training on the path to liberation, is of three types. First, there are the emanations of natural expression (rang-bzhin sprul-pa’i sku) who are the above-mentioned Teachers of the Five Enlightened Families appearing in their lower role before bodhisattvas of the highest level, in the manner of rainbow light. In this situation, when they are compounded by the minds of others, they are said to be endowed with a semi-manifest natural expression, half-way between the true body of perfect rapture and the emanational body.
Secondly, there are the supreme emanational bodies (mchog-gi sprul-pa’i sku) or emanations of the body of reality who train living beings through their twelve deeds in myriads of world systems. Within this world system of ours, which is known as the world system of Patient Endurance (mi-mjed ’jig-rten-gyi khams, Skt. Sahalokadhātu), the supreme emanational body appears as a sage embodying awareness of the true buddha nature in each of the six classes of living beings – gods, antigods, humans, animals, tormented spirits and hells. In the human world, for example, he appears as Śākyamuni Buddha, and, as the text explains (p. 131):
In these realms, the supreme emanational body projects the lamp of instruction for those requiring training in as many ways as they have psychophysical bases, sense organs and modes of conduct, and acts on behalf of sentient beings through four kinds of instruction.
These four are instruction by the great merits of the buddha-body’s twelve deeds, instruction by the direct perception of the buddha-mind which is endowed with six supernormal cognitive powers (mngon-shes drug, Skt. ṣaḍabhijñā), instruction by inconceivable miraculous abilities which are the mysteries of the buddha’s body, speech and mind, and instruction by knowledge conveyed in speech.
Thirdly, there are the diversified emanations (sna-tshogs sprul-sku) appearing as oases, food, and medicine, which are of benefit to living beings, and as the emanations of birth (skyes-sprul) and artistry (bzo-sprul) assumed, for example, by Śākyamuni Buddha in his previous lives and recorded in the Jātaka Tales.
The Nyingma tradition in particular holds that twelve teachers of the emanational body have appeared as the blessing of the body of perfect rapture in this world system to disclose the three emanational teachings of the buddha-body, speech and mind. A hand-sized vajra (rdo-rje) is said to be the actuality of the body of reality, a four-inch book is said to be the actuality of the body of perfect rapture, and the physical form, exemplified in those twelve teachers, is the actuality of the emanational body. The emanational body, in the Nyingma view, is endowed with sixty attributes; for each of those twelve teachers is connected with the five excellences of place, teacher, retinue, doctrine and time. A single emanational body also possesses ninety-six doctrines with respect to enlightened activity. Yet this enumeration is not regarded as a limitation because (p. 138):
The Sugata, learned in skilful means, manifests the body of form in ways which correspond to the number of atoms in the myriad fields of those requiring training, which are of oceanic extent.
The Buddha-body of Awakening
The buddha-body of awakening (mngon-par byang-chub-kyi sku, Skt. abhisambodhikāya), which is derived from the distinct apparitional functions of the aforementioned three bodies, possesses the four fearlessnesses, the eighteen distinct attributes of the buddhas, great compassion and the ten powers. These are all enumerated in the Mahāvyutpatti, the great glossary of technical terms composed by the Tibetan translators, probably during the reign of Senalek.
The Buddha-body of Indestructible Reality
Finally, the buddha-body of indestructible reality (rdo-rje sku, Skt. vajrakāya), which derives from the indivisible essence of the first three bodies, is the original unchanging expanse of reality in which all paths are concluded and all conceptual elaboration transcended. It is the taintless buddha nature pure from the beginning.
The Five Pristine Cognitions
The five pristine cognitions (ye-shes lnga, Skt. pañcajñāna), which are among the buddhas’ attributes, are also discussed here. They are the pristine cognition of the expanse of reality (chos-dbyings ye-shes, Skt. dharmadhātujñāna), which is the perception of the buddha-body of reality; the mirror-like pristine cognition (me-long ye-shes, Skt. ādarśa-jñāna), which is the unbroken causal basis of all pristine cognition; the pristine cognition of sameness (mnyam-nyid ye-shes, Skt. samatājñāna), which continuously abides in tranquillity, loving kindness and compassion without falling into the extremes of cyclical existence or nirvāṇa; and the pristine cognition of discernment (sor-rtogs ye-shes, Skt. pratyavekṣaṇajñāna), which is unimpeded with regard to the knowable, and refers to contemplations, dhāraṇī and other attributes. These last three are the perceptions of the body of perfect rapture. Finally, the pristine cognition of accomplishment (bya-grub ye-shes, Skt. krtyānuṣṭhānajñāna) is diversified in all realms, within the emanations who act on behalf of living beings. Thus it is the perception of the emanational body.
The Author asserts that the nature of the buddhas who have purified obscurations and become vast in enlightened attributes of buddha-body and pristine cognition is to be experientially cultivated through the Buddhist teachings – both indirectly, through the sūtra texts, and directly through the mantra texts which are respectively a long and a short path to the same goal.
He concludes Part Two by distinguishing between the attributes of the buddha-bodies as they are revealed in the causal vehicles of dialectics, and in the resultant vehicles of secret mantra. The sūtras of the causal vehicles require one to undertake a long path of causal gradation, whereby conflicting emotions are abandoned, and merits and pristine cognition are accumulated. The resultant vehicles of the way of mantras, however, begin from the ultimate view of the buddha nature and insist that the whole of cyclical existence and nirvāṇa conform to the pattern of the three buddha-bodies.
PART THREE: CAUSAL VEHICLES OF DIALECTICS
The causal vehicles of dialectics (rgyu mtshan-nyid-kyi theg-pa, Skt. *hetulakṣaṇayāna)6 are classified either according to the three successive promulgations of the doctrinal wheel or according to the philosophical systems included within the lesser vehicle (theg-pa chung-ba, Skt. Hīnayāna) and the greater vehicle (theg-pa chen-po, Skt. Mahāyānā).
The Three Promulgations of the Doctrinal Wheel
In the first promulgation the Buddha expounded the four truths of suffering, its origin, the path and the cessation of suffering, with the intention that sentient beings should forsake cyclical existence. In the second promulgation he expounded the teaching on the transcendental perfection of discriminative awareness (shes-rab-kyi pha-rol-tu phyinpa/ma, Skt. prajñāpāramitā) with the intention that the buddha nature should be comprehended through topics of emptiness, signlessness and aspirationlessness, and that consequently the ultimate truth which is referred to by synonyms in order to bring about the partial cessation of conceptual elaboration might become the foundation for those who enter the greater vehicle.
Then, in the third promulgation he excellently analysed all things from form to omniscience in accord with the three essential natures, namely, the imaginary (parikalpita), the dependent (paratantra), and the absolute (pariniṣpanna), and disclosed the nucleus of the tathāgata (tathāgatagarbha), intending that the ultimate truth for which there is no synonym should become the nucleus of the path of the greater vehicle. Such were the three promulgations delivered by Śākyamuni Buddha.
The Lesser Vehicle
Among the philosophical systems of the causal vehicles of dialectics, those which belong to the lesser vehicle are the Vaibhāṣika and the Sautrāntika systems.
Vaibhāṣika
The pious attendants of the Vaibhāṣika school classify the knowable into five categories: perceptual forms, mind, mental events, disjunct conditions unassociated with mental events, and uncompounded entities. They hold that consciousness ultimately exists as a series of time-moments and that the material substances composing the world are an association of indivisible atomic particles unified by vital energy. They claim the subject-object dichotomy to be created through the recognition of objects by consciousness, but that there is no intrinsic awareness apart from this consciousness.
Through the vehicle of the pious attendants (śrāvaka), the status of an arhat is realised by meditation on the sixteen aspects of the four truths, so that the obscurations of the three poisons and ignorance are destroyed. As it is said in the Sequence of the Path (Māyājālapathakrama, P 4736):
If, without realising non-duality,
Everything is viewed to exist substantially
In terms of the four truths,
And one resorts to renunciation and non-renunciation,
This is the level of the pious attendants.
Sautrāntika
The self-centred buddhas and pious attendants of the Sautrāntika school hold ultimate reality to agree with consciousness, which is a series of time moments. They also hold that, although consciousness refers to objects, external objects are not actually perceived, a single, uncompounded sensum being transmitted in the manner of a reflection on a mirror. The subject-object dichotomy therefore becomes a subjective process, conventionally known as the recognition of objects. They are said to surpass the Vaibhāṣika in holding the conglomerate of atoms to be unknown and in their appreciation of an intrinsic awareness.
Through the vehicle of the self-centred buddhas (pratyekabuddha), the twelve modes of dependent origination are meditated on and reversed. Whereas pious attendants hold the individual self to be abandoned in ultimate truth, the self-centred buddhas hold external objects to be ultimately fallacious and subjective consciousness to exist genuinely. They are said to be realised in one and a half parts of what is implied by selflessness. This is because they realise selflessness with reference to the individual and understand that the atomic particles of external phenomena do not independently exist, but still hold time moments of consciousness or internal phenomena to be ultimately real.
The Greater Vehicle
Among the philosophical systems of the greater causal vehicle, there are the Vijñānavāda or proponents of consciousness, and the Mādhyamika or adherents of the middle path.
Vijñānavāda
The Vijñānavāda confirm the Sautrāntika view that objects are not perceived. All things are held to be apparitional aspects of mind, definitively ordered according to three essential natures: the imaginary which includes both phenomena and characteristics such as the concept of selfhood; the dependent which includes the five impure components of mundane existence and the pure attributes of buddha-body and pristine cognition; and the absolute which includes the unchanging abiding nature of reality and the incontrovertible absence of conflicting emotions.
The Mind Only school, which emphasises the ontological aspect of the Vijñānavāda, is divided into those who hold sensa to be veridical (Sākāravāda), and those holding sensa to be false, admitting only consciousness to be genuine (Nirākāravāda). These have many subdivisions. While the Vijñānavāda is held to surpass the Vaibhāṣika and Sautrāntika of the lower vehicle, it fails to understand the absolute nature, since it holds consciousness to exist absolutely in the ultimate truth.
Madhyamaka
The Mādhyamika or adherents of the middle path are either those who uphold the coarse outer Madhyamaka or the subtle inner Great Madhyamaka (dbu-ma chen-po).
Outer Madhyamaka
The Outer Madhyamaka include the Svātantrika (rang-rgyud-pa) who employ independent reasoning, and the Prāsaṅgika (thal-’gyur-ba) who employ reductio ad absurdum.
The Svātantrika surpass the previous philosophical systems which adhere to substantiality and subjective conceptual elaboration, and they avoid both extremes. All things which appear are said to exist in relative truth, which is either correct or incorrect in conventional terms, but are inherently empty and non-existent in the ultimate truth, which cuts through conceptual elaboration. All relative appearances can be refuted by logical arguments, but it is also proven that no scrutiny or judgement can be made in relation to ultimate truth.
The Prāsaṅgika distinguish between the unbewildered intellect or pristine cognition of the buddhas, in which relative phenomena never appear, and the bewildered intellect of sentient beings. Ultimate truth, the reality of the unbewildered intellect of the buddhas, is vitiated by bewilderment, and so mundane cyclical existence appears and is assigned conventionally to the relative truth, though not really admitted.
The Prāsaṅgika also employ the five kinds of logical axioms used by the Svātantrika, but unlike them do not seek to prove their conclusions positively with reference to relative appearances and conceptual elaboration, having refuted them. Rather they refute all possible views which lie within the range of the four extremes of being, non-being, both being and non-being, and neither being nor non-being. Ultimate truth is thus the pristine cognition of the buddhas, free from all conceptual elaboration of the subject-object dichotomy. It is said that the two truths form the Madhyamaka of the ground; the two provisions of merit and pristine cognition form the Madhyamaka of the path; and that the coalescence of the two buddha-bodies of reality and form is the Madhyamaka of the result.
Great Madhyamaka
The Great Madhyamaka (dbu-ma chen-po) is aloof from the reasoning of the Outer Madhyamaka which is based upon dialectics, and instead must be experientially cultivated in meditation. In accord with the analysis of all things made by Śākyamuni in the third promulgation of the doctrinal wheel with respect to the aforementioned essential natures, it holds the imaginary to imply that attributes are without substantiality, the dependent to imply that creation is without substantiality, and the absolute to imply that ultimate reality is without substantiality. Absolute reality is thus empty of all the imaginary objects which are to be refuted and all conceptual elaboration of cyclical existence, but it is not empty of the enlightened attributes of buddha-body and pristine cognition which are spontaneously present from the beginning.
The Supreme Continuum of the Greater Vehicle (Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra, T 4024) says:
The seed which is empty of suddenly arisen phenomena,
Endowed with divisive characteristics,
Is not empty of the unsurpassed reality,
Endowed with indivisible characteristics.
The Great Madhyamaka therefore maintains that the conceptual area of the subject-object dichotomy is intrinsically empty (rang-stong), while the buddha-body of reality endowed with all enlightened attributes is empty of that extraneous conceptual area which forms the subject-object dichotomy (gzhan-stong). If enlightened attributes were themselves intrinsically empty of their own essence, the entire structure of the ground, path and result would be negated and one would be in the position of the nihilistic extremists who deny causality, progress on the path to liberation and so forth.
This expanse of reality, the ultimate truth, is said to pervade all beings without distinction and is known as the nucleus of the tathāgata (tathāgatagarbha) or the nucleus of the sugata (sugatagarbha). It is held to be only fully developed and qualitatively perceived according to its true nature by buddhas, and yet equally present in ordinary sentient beings and bodhisattvas who are partially purified on the path to liberation. It is when the obscurations covering this seed of the buddha nature are removed that liberation is said to occur. Now, there are two kinds of renunciation of obscurations which have been expounded, one that is a naturally pure, passive fait accompli, and another which actively removes the obscurations by applying an appropriate antidote. Although the nucleus of the tathāgata is held to be present from the beginning in all beings, it is not therefore claimed that all beings are buddhas free from all obscuration. Similarly there are two kinds of realisation, one that is naturally present and passive, and another that is dependently produced and active. They are equivalent to the truths of cessation and of the path described above in Part One.
While the second and the third promulgations of the doctrinal wheel give authenticity to the view of Great Madhyamaka, it is the third or final promulgation which extensively reveals the nucleus of the tathāgata. Certain scholars of the past have, as the Author states, erroneously linked the views of Great Madhyamaka and Vijñānavāda. However, the former is concerned with absolute reality, and the latter is directed towards consciousness. There is held to be a great distinction between the pristine cognition of the buddhas and the consciousness of the ground-of-all. The proponents of Mind Only maintain that consciousness is not transcended in ultimate truth, but this is a view which is bound within cyclical existence. According to Great Madhyamaka, the ultimate truth is the obscurationless pristine cognition, the uncorrupted expanse of reality transcending consciousness. This is because subjective consciousness is only dependently real, and pristine cognition is free from the subject-object dichotomy.
This view of the Great Madhyamaka is revealed in the compositions of Nāgārjuna,7 Asaṅga and others, whether they belong to the second or third promulgation of the doctrinal wheel, for both refer to the three essential natures. Once Mind Only has been provisionally taught, the apparitionless Madhyamaka is taught, and when that has been transcended, the apparitional Madhyamaka is revealed. Without reaching that, the profound meaning of the greater vehicle is not perceived.
Those who actually and experientially cultivate the path to liberation do not differentiate the two modes of Madhyamaka (rang-stong and gzhan-stong), as is attested by the writings of Nāgārjuna, Asaṅga and other paṇḍditas who commented on the intention of the definitive meaning (nges-don). While the second promulgation is generally confined to an outright negation of conceptual elaboration, this is merely a step in the experiential cultivation of Madhyamaka, which must subsequently transcend the Prāsaṅgika and Svātantrika reasoning.
When meditational experiences have been established, it is the Great Madhyamaka, as taught in the third promulgation, which is profound and vast; and the vehicles of the secret mantra which are even more extensive. The purposes of the lower sequences of the vehicle are gathered within the higher. Otherwise the buddhas would not have given the three promulgations and nine sequences of the vehicle in that appropriate order.
Provisional and Definitive Meaning
Thus, in the Nyingma view, the first and second promulgations may be allocated provisional meaning (drang-don, Skt. neyārtha) because they are a basis for debate, respectively rousing the mind from cyclical existence by teaching impermanence and destroying by means of the three approaches to liberation the reductionist view which adheres to the selfhood of phenomena. The third promulgation, however, is allocated definitive meaning (nges-don, Skt. nītārtha) because it teaches that all relative appearances are intrinsically empty (rang-stong) and that all enlightened attributes are empty of those same extraneous appearances (gzhan-stong). The range of the buddhas’ pristine cognition is thereby revealed and debate is surpassed by experiential cultivation. Yet, as the Author asserts, there is no difference between the transcendental perfection of discriminative awareness (prajñāpāramitā) revealed in the second promulgation and the pristine cognition revealed in the third. The distinction merely concerns the extent to which ultimate reality is revealed.
The Enlightened or Buddha Family
Since all beings are endowed with the nucleus of the tathāgata, the seed of the buddha nature, they are all part of the buddha or enlightened family. From the ultimate point of view, this family is one in which the natural expression of enlightenment is said to abide inherently, and from the conventional or dynamic point of view, it is one in which that natural expression is to be attained. The former is the ground of separation from obscuration (’bral-rgyu), in which the three resultant buddha-bodies arise. It is also known as the truth of cessation according to the greater vehicle. The latter is the truth of the path on which the provisions of merit and pristine cognition are accumulated in order that the obscurations covering the nucleus may be removed and the result be actualised (bral-’bras). The three buddha-bodies are thus said to abide primordially in the nucleus of the enlightened family, and are merely realised by the removal of the obscurations which cover them. They are not themselves compounded by the accumulation of causal provisions.
This indivisible essence of the enlightened family, the nucleus of the tathāgata, is extensively revealed in the writings of Nyingmapa authors such as Longcenpa, Rongzompa, Terdak Lingpa and Mipham Rinpoche, and also in the compositions of the great masters of other Tibetan traditions – Kadampa, Kagyüpa, Sakyapa and Gelukpa, as can be seen in the many quotations cited from their works.
The Two Truths according to Great Madhyamaka
During moments of meditative absorption, the outer and inner Madhyamaka do not differentiate the two truths since one then abides in the expanse of reality, the pristine cognition that is free from all conceptual elaborations of the subject-object dichotomy. During the aftermath of meditative absorption, however, they are distinguished differently by the Outer Madhyamaka, which allocates emptiness to ultimate truth and appearances to the relative truth; and the inner Great Madhyamaka, which determines ultimate truth to be the realities of nirvāṇa, in which the subject or pristine cognition and the object of its perception, as established by conventional logic, are harmonious, and relative truth to be the phenomena of cyclical existence, in which the subjective consciousness and the object of its perception, incapable of being established even in terms of conventional logic, are in a state of dichotomy. Ultimate truth is thus the expanse of reality in which pure appearances and emptiness are coalesced. Although this coalescence is even more elaborately revealed in the resultant vehicles of the secret mantra, it must first be established according to the view of Great Madhyamaka, on which the superior views from Kriyātantra to Atiyoga are all based. The Great Madhyamaka is therefore said to be the climax of the philosophical systems according to the causal vehicles of dialectics.
Through the vehicle of the bodhisattvas who uphold the Vijñānavāda and Madhyamaka philosophies, the ten levels and five paths are gradually traversed, and liberation is finally attained in the buddha-body of reality on the eleventh level (Samantaprabhā). Manifesting the two bodies of form, the bodhisattva then acts on behalf of others until all beings have been liberated from cyclical existence. It is therefore held that the vehicle of the bodhisattvas is the first of the nine sequences of the vehicle which may be conducive to total liberation.
Key to the Appraisal of Causal Vehicle Texts
Texts belonging to the causal vehicles of dialectics are firstly divided between those of the definitive third promulgation and their commentaries which reveal the full extent of the buddha nature, and those of the provisional earlier promulgations and their commentaries which partially reveal the buddha nature. There are also four kinds of intention with which buddhas deliver the teaching, unknown to the listener, and four kinds of covert intention which buddhas are said to employ in order for their precise meaning to be eventually understood by the listener.
Recapitulation of the Causal Vehicles
To facilitate comprehension of the above philosophical systems, Part Three is completed by a recapitulation of the three causal vehicles of dialectics, namely, those of the pious attendants, self-centred buddhas and bodhisattvas, within the context of their respective entrances, views, moral disciplines, meditations, modes of conduct and results.
PART FOUR: RESULTANT VEHICLES OF SECRET MANTRA
Part Four concerns the resultant vehicles of secret mantra, on which subject our text says (p.244):
…in the vehicle of dialectics, mind-as-such [or pristine cognition] is merely perceived as the causal basis of buddhahood. Since it is held that buddhahood is obtained under the condition whereby the two provisions increasingly multiply, and since the purifying doctrines which form the causal basis of nirvāṇa are made into the path, it is called the causal vehicle. Therein a sequence in which cause precedes result is admitted. According to the vehicle of mantras, on the other hand, mind-as-such abides primordially and intrinsically as the essence of the result, identified as the buddha-bodies and pristine cognitions. Mind-as-such is thereby established as the ground which exists within oneself from the present moment as the object to be attained. It is then established as the path through its functions of bringing about recognition and removing the provisional stains which suddenly arise by means of inducing the perception of just what is, and it is established as the result through its function of actualising this very ground. Since a sequence in which cause precedes result is not really distinguished therein, it is called the resultant vehicle and the vehicle of indestructible reality.
Superiority of Secret Mantra
The resultant vehicles are said to surpass the causal vehicles in many ways. They are held to be unobscured, endowed with many means, without difficulties, and referred to by those of highest acumen; or to be swift, blissful, and endowed with skilful means. The Tantra of Inconceivable Rali Cakrasaṃvara (Śrīcakrasaṃvaraguhyācintyatantrarāja, T 385) speaks of fifteen such superior qualities. Above all, the resultant vehicles are said to transcend all conceptual elaboration and logical reasoning, and to establish pristine cognition as the nucleus of the buddha-body of reality, the coalescence of appearance and emptiness, within one lifetime and so forth. Since a sameness with respect to all things is to be experienced, they are capable of making relative appearances into the path, without requiring them to be renounced as in the causal vehicles. Thus one meditates through the outer mantras of Kriyātantra, Ubhayatantra and Yogatantra with reference to the deity’s body, speech and mind, and according to the inner mantras all things are realised and experienced as the maṇḍalas of the buddha-body, speech and mind.
Essence and Definition of Secret Mantra
Mantra is defined as an attribute of buddha-body, speech and mind which protects the mind with ease and swiftness. It also includes the deities in which emptiness and appearances are coalesced, symbolised by the seed-syllables E-VAṂ, because they too protect the mind from rebirth in the three realms of cyclical existence. Those who attain realisation through the mantras are known as awareness-holders (rig-’dzin, Skt. vidyādhara) and the texts which convey the mantra teaching are known as the Piṭaka of Awareness-holders. There are said to be three kinds of mundane awareness-holder and enumerations of either four or seven kinds of supramundane awareness-holder. The resultant vehicle is also known as the vehicle of indestructible reality (rdo-rje theg-pa, Skt. Vajrayāna) because pristine cognition or mind-as-such is imperishable and unchanging, despite the divergent apparitional modes of cyclical existence and nirvāṇa.
The Three Continua
Again, the resultant vehicle is also known as tantra, which is defined both as a means for protecting the mind and as the continuum extending from ignorance to enlightenment. There are said to be three such continua – those of the ground, path and result.
The continuum of the ground is another name for the nucleus of the tathāgata, the buddha-body of reality, the family in which the natural expression of enlightenment abides and the pristine cognition of the ground-of-all – which have previously been explained in the context of Great Madhyamaka. However, the same continuum of the ground is also spoken of in Kriyātantra as one’s own real nature (bdag-gi de-kho-na-nyid), in Ubhayatantra as the blessing of that reality, which is the ultimate truth without symbols (don-dam mtshan-ma med-pa’i byin-rlabs), and in Yogatantra as a deity of the expanse of indestructible reality, who relatively appears (kun-rdzob rdo-rje dbyings-kyi lha).
Similarly, it is also spoken of in Mahāyoga as the superior and great body of reality in which the two truths are indivisible (bden-gnyis dbyer-med lhag-pa’i chos-sku chen-po), in Anuyoga as the fundamental maṇḍala of enlightened mind, the offspring of the non-duality of the expanse and pristine cognition (dbyings-dang ye-shes gnyis-su med-pa’i sras rtsa-ba byang-chub sems-kyi dkyil-’khor), and in the Great Perfection of Atiyoga as the ground conventionally known as essence, natural expression and spirituality (ngo-bo rang-bzhin thugs-rje).
The continuum of the path refers to the skilful means which purify the obscurations covering the ground, and cause all cyclical existence to be experienced as an array of deities and their fields of rapture. The continuum of the result is actualised when those obscurations have been removed, although it is essentially identical to the continuum of the ground. All accomplishments are therein actualised. It is said that when the ground and result are indivisible, the truth of the origin of cyclical existence appears as the truth of the path to its cessation, and that the truth of suffering appears as the truth of its cessation.
The Four Tantrapiṭaka
The texts in which the teachings of the resultant vehicles of the secret mantra are expressed are divided into four tantrapiṭaka, namely, Kriyātantra, Ubhayatantra (or Caryātantra), Yogatantra, and Unsurpassed Yogatantra (Anuttarayogatantra), which are taught as the means respectively for those of lowest, middling, superior and highest acumen who require training. According to the Nyingma tradition, the first three of these are known as the vehicle of austere awareness (dka’-thub rig-pa’i theg-pa) because they all, to a greater or lesser extent, include external observances of body and speech. The last one is known as the vehicle of overpowering means (dbang-bsgyur thabs-kyi theg-pa), in which skilful means and discriminative awareness are coalesced.
Kriyātantra
Kriyātantra (bya-ba’i rgyud), or the tantra of action, emphasises external observances of body and speech, while continuing the subject-object dichotomy. It holds that meditation is required alternately on an ultimate truth, which is one’s own real nature, and on a deity of relative appearance endowed with pristine cognition, distinct from that reality, who externally confers the accomplishments. By aspiring towards accomplishment, regarding the deity as a servant would his master, and by practising ablutions, fasting and other austerities which delight the deity, one may be granted the realisation of a holder of indestructible reality (rdo-rje ’dzin-pa) within seven lifetimes.
Ubhayatantra
Ubhayatantra (gnyis-ka’i rgyud), or the tantra which gives equal emphasis to the view and conduct, includes both symbolic meditation on the seed-syllables, seals and form of the deity and non-symbolic meditation on ultimate reality, the blessing of which may confer accomplishment as a holder of indestructible reality within five lifetimes.
Yogatantra
Yogatantra (rnal-’byor-gyi rgyud), or the tantra of union, emphasises meditation. The blessing of ultimate reality relatively appears as a deity of the expanse of indestructible reality. Persevering in the acceptance and rejection of positive and negative attributes in relation to this deity, one may attain the accomplishment of a holder of indestructible reality belonging to the five enlightened families within three lifetimes. Symbolic meditation in this context includes the experiences of the five awakenings (mngon-byang lnga), the four yogas (rnal-’byor bzhi), and the four seals (phyag-rgya bzhi) associated with the deity, and non-symbolic contemplation concerns the real nature of the mind. External observances are not, however, rejected.
Unsurpassed Yogatantra
The Unsurpassed Yogatantra (bla-na med-pa’i rgyud, Skt. Anuttarayogatantra) emphasises the coalescence of skilful means and discriminative awareness, and is said to surpass the lower tantras which have not abandoned duality. The three poisons are carried on the path – desire as the essence of bliss and emptiness, hatred as the essence of radiance and emptiness, and delusion as the essence of awareness and emptiness – and the result may be achieved within a single lifetime. In the Nyingma tradition, the Unsurpassed Yogatantra is divided into Mahāyoga, Anuyoga and Atiyoga.
Mahāyoga
Mahāyoga (rnal-’byor chen-po) unites the mind in the superior body of reality, in which the two truths are indivisible. The continuum of the ground is established as the genuine view to be realised by means of four axioms. The continuum of the path has two stages, among which the path of skilful means (thabs-lam) carries the three poisons on to the path by means of practices concerning the network of energy channels, currents and seminal points (rtsa rlung thig-le) within the body. The path of liberation (grol-lam) comprises a ground of discriminative awareness, a path of contemplation and, as its result, the status of an awareness holder (rig-’dzin) is attained. Contemplation chiefly refers to the five contemplative experiences of the divine maṇḍalas in their creation and perfection phases (bskyed-rim-dang rdzogs-rim), which purify the rebirth process including the moment of death, the intermediate state after death (bar-do), and the three phases of life (skye-ba rim-gsum). At the successful conclusion of this practice one is said to become an awareness-holder and to actualise twenty-five resultant realities of the buddha level.
Anuyoga
Anuyoga (rjes-su rnal-’byor), or subsequent yoga, emphasises the perfection phase, and so forms a bridge between the creation phase of Mahāyoga and the Great Perfection of Atiyoga. The ground or view of Anuyoga is that the expanse of reality, which is the primordial maṇḍala of Samantabhadrī, and pristine cognition, which is the spontaneously present maṇḍala of Samantabhadra, are indivisible in the fundamental maṇḍala of enlightened mind.
The path of Anuyoga comprises these three maṇḍalas of the ground, along with all the nine sequences of the vehicle. Among them the specific Anuyoga practices include the definitive path of skilful means (nges-pa’i thabs-lam) in which the co-emergent pristine cognition of melting bliss is realised through the perfection of the energy channels, currents and seminal points within the body (see p.286); and the liberating path of discriminative awareness (shes-rab grol-lam) which establishes the view that all things are of the nature of the three maṇḍalas, and employs both a non-symbolic contemplation of reality and a contemplation of the symbolic deity. While the divine maṇḍalas of Mahāyoga and the lower sequences are gradually created or generated, those of Anuyoga arise spontaneously in a perfect manner. The result is that the five paths and ten levels known to Anuyoga are traversed, all the subtle propensities which lead to rebirth in cyclical existence are refined, and the rank of Samantabhadra is realised along with the twenty-five resultant realities of the buddha level.
Key to the Appraisal of Secret Mantra Texts
At this point, Dudjom Rinpoche discusses the criteria by which the texts of the resultant vehicles of secret mantra are to be appraised. The language of the texts is said to observe six limits and their styles of presentation are said to number four. Each line or verse of the teaching of indestructible reality (vajrapāda) is to be analysed in terms of these criteria before the meaning can be ascertained.
Atiyoga
According to the Nyingma tradition, the Great Perfection of Atiyoga (rdzogs-chen shin-tu rnal-’byor) or “highest yoga” is the climax of the nine sequences of the vehicle. The expanse of reality, the naturally present pristine cognition, is herein held to be the ground of great perfection. The eight lower sequences of the vehicle have intellectually contrived and obscured by their persevering activities the pristine cognition which intrinsically abides. Accordingly, the text says (pp.294-5):
In this way the pious attendants and self-centred buddhas among the lower vehicles, with reference to the selflessness which they realise, hold consciousness and atomic matter to be the ultimate realities; and the proponents of consciousness who hold consciousness, self-cognisant and self-radiant in nature, to be the absolute characteristic of ultimate reality, do not transcend [the view of] mind and mental events harboured by mundane beings. The Mādhyamika adhere to a truth of cessation scrutinised by four great axioms and the like, concerning the absence of creation, absence of cessation, absence of being and absence of non-being, which are appraised according to the two truths, and they adhere to an emptiness which is, for example, like the sky, free from extremes and free from conceptual elaboration. The Kriyātantra among the lower ways of mantra hold that accomplishments are attained which delight the deity endowed with the three purities, by means of cleanliness and other such austerities. The Ubhayatantra are attached to superficialities in their equation of the higher view and the lower conduct. The Yogatantra, having regarded the blessing of ultimate reality as a deity, objectively refer to the yoga of the four seals. The Mahāyoga holds that pristine cognition is generated by incisive application of the creation stage, and [practices associated with] the energy channels, currents and seminal points according to the perfection stage. The Anuyoga regards the expanse of reality and pristine cognition as maṇḍalas of the deity which are either to be created or are in the process of creation.
Since these lower sequences are all drawn together by the intellect, they are said to be points of great deviation (gol-sa) from the Great Perfection, as the long quotation from the Tantra of the All-Accomplishing King (pp.295-7) clearly demonstrates. They are said to have been designed and so intended for the differing degrees of acumen in those requiring training through the vehicle, or as stepping-stones to Atiyoga.
The Great Perfection, on the other hand, refers not to consciousness but to pristine cognition. It is the intrinsic awareness of mind-as-such (sems-nyid-kyi rang-rig), transcending the mind, and buddhahood is said to emerge not through compounded provisions but through realisation of pristine cognition without activity. Thus the nucleus of all Buddhist teachings, in the Nyingma view, is pristine cognition, and the establishment of it through intrinsic awareness is the path of the Great Perfection. While the structure of the buddha level was revealed in the third promulgation by Śākyamuni, the path or means by which it is actualised was not revealed to the adherents of the causal vehicles. The lower mantras, too, are not considered to be definitive since they persevere with intellectually contrived activities. If the nucleus of pristine cognition is not realised in accordance with the Great Perfection, all aspects of the path, such as the six transcendental perfections (pha-rol-tu phyin-pa drug), the creation stage and the perfection stage, will not transcend the ideas and scrutiny of one’s own mind. Yet these aspects of the path are not, it is emphasised, to be renounced, since they are spontaneously perfect in the ground. So the text declares (p.307):
…in this abiding nature that is free from all activity, all things belonging to the truth of the path are naturally complete, without effort, in the manner of a hundred rivers converging under a bridge.
Great Perfection is therefore defined as the naturally present pristine cognition, or as a sameness throughout the extent of cyclical existence and nirvāṇa, in which all lower sequences of the vehicle are perfected in a single essence.
The Divisions of Atiyoga
Within the teachings of Atiyoga, there are three modes of experiencing the goal of Great Perfection according to the nature of those who aspire to it. The text explains (p.319):
There is the Mental Class (sems-sde), which teaches that all things are liberated from the extreme of renunciation, because they are not separated from mind-as-such. There is the Spatial Class (klong-sde), which teaches that all apparitions of reality are free from activity and liberated from the extreme of the antidote, because they are perfectly gathered in Samantabhadrī, the space of reality. And there is the profound Esoteric Instructional Class (man-ngag-sde), which teaches that the particular characteristics of truth itself are liberated from both extremes of renunciation and antidote, because they are established according to the modes of reality (yin-lugs).
The spiritual and philosophical goal of the Mental Class transcends the subject-object dichotomy. The compounded truth of the path as taught in the causal vehicles and lower mantras is determined in the great expanse of reality to be a pristine cognition of great purity and sameness. When the Mental Class is analysed, there are seven categories or areas of mind (sems-phyogs) in which this determination is made.
While the Mental Class holds the apparitions of reality to appear as the expressive power of mind-as-such, the spiritual and philosophical goal of the Spatial Class is the establishment of a great infinity of primordial liberation unscrutinised by mind. All that appears in the vast space of Samantabhadrī is an adornment of that array, free from all activities. The Spatial Class is divided into teachings concerning the Black Space propounded as Absence of Cause (klong nag-po rgyu-med-du smra-ba), the Variegated Space propounded as Diversity (klong khra-ba sna-tshogs-su smra-ba), the White Space propounded as the Mind (klong dkar-po sems-su smra-ba), and the Infinite Space in which Cause and Result are Determined (klong rab-’byams rgyu-’bras la-bzla-ba).
While the Mental Class, referring to mind-as-such, mostly achieves profundity rather than radiance, and almost clings to mental scrutiny because it does not recognise the expressive power of radiance to be reality, and while the Spatial Class almost falls into the deviation of emptiness although it achieves both radiance and profundity, the Esoteric Instructional Class is considered to be superior to both because it gathers all apparitions of reality within reality itself. It is classified into the three categories of the Random (kha-’thor), in which pristine cognition instantly arises without regard for formal structure, the Oral Tradition (kha-gtam), which naturally shatters the source of all conceptualisation and remains indefinite in character, and the Teaching which accords with its own Textual Tradition of Tantras (rgyud rang-gzhung-du bstan-pa), that is, the Seventeen Tantras of the Esoteric Instructional Class (NGB Vols.9-10), which turn to the origin of all transmitted precepts, without renunciation or acceptance, saṃsāra or nirvāṇa, or disputations regarding emptiness. These have their various subdivisions, and further subdivisions.
So in Atiyoga the awareness which transcends the mind is said to be a primordial liberation (ye-grol), a natural liberation (rang-grol), a direct liberation (cer-grol), and a liberation from extremes (mtha’-grol). Once this intrinsic awareness or pristine cognition has been ascertained to be the distinctive doctrine, there are said to be two means of realising it, which are known as Cutting Through Resistance (khregs-chod) and All-Surpassing Realisation (thod-rgal).
The former, Cutting Through Resistance, is oriented towards the emptiness-aspect, or primordially pure awareness without conceptual elaboration, and so causes the cessation of inherently empty phenomena. The latter, All-Surpassing Realisation, clarifies the apparitional aspect, which includes material objects, into inner radiance in a spontaneously present manner, and so causes the cessation of apparitional reality. It is said that when firm experience in Cutting Through Resistance has come about, one dissolves finally into a great primordially pure point of liberation. The coarse atoms of the four elements are transformed into pristine cognition and vanish. If, however, activity on behalf of others is resorted to, the dissolving atoms emanate as, and leave behind, relics of four kinds, while the awareness centred in the buddha-body of reality acts on behalf of beings through unceasing emanation.
While it is held that Cutting Through Resistance directly liberates the bewildering appearance of objects in fundamental reality, the All-Surpassing Realisation brings about the liberation of all apparitional aspects of the three world realms of desire, form and the formless (see chart, pp. 14-15) in the inner radiance or luminosity of a seminal point of five-coloured light which is the natural tone of awareness. Thus, the expanse of reality and its appearances, which are known as indestructible chains [of light, rdo-rje lu-gu rgyud], are the mature awareness itself. At the successful conclusion of this practice, it is held that the outer and inner elements of the three world realms all dissolve into inner radiance through a succession of four visionary appearances (snang-ba bzhi), and so all cyclical existence is reversed. The awareness enters a formless disposition, as in Cutting Through Resistance, but the buddha-body of form continues to appear in the manner of rainbow light, and to act on behalf of sentient beings. As such, it is known as the body of supreme transformation (’pho-ba chen-po’i sku, Skt. *mahāsaṅkrāntikāya), and this is recognised to be the buddha level attained by Padmasambhava, Vimalamitra, Śīlamañju and others. If, for the while, there is no one requiring to be trained, the buddha-body of supreme transformation is absorbed into the body of reality or the youthful vase body (gzhon-nu bum-pa’i sku), the emanational basis of all pristine cognition, and the intrinsic awareness abides radiantly within it.
Furthermore, according to the esoteric instructions (man-ngag, Skt. āmnāya/upadeśa) of the Great Perfection system, all things belonging to cyclical existence and nirvāṇa are established as a display of four intermediate states (bar-do, Skt. antarābhava), which are respectively known as the intermediate state of the birthplace, the intermediate state of the moment of death, the intermediate state of reality and the intermediate state of rebirth. Each of these transformations is provided with particular guidance, so that beings may be conveyed to the point of original liberation at any stage or in any circumstance. It is said that through the power of the descent of pristine cognition and the experiential cultivation of it in continuous yoga, the recollection of signs on the path, and the removal of obstacles, the result may be actualised within one lifetime.
Recapitulation of the Vehicles of Secret Mantra
Having detailed the overall meaning of the resultant vehicles of the secret mantra, Dudjom Rinpoche recapitulates them succinctly, categorising each sequence according to its entrance, view, moral discipline, meditation, conduct and result.
This concludes the summary of the contents of the Fundamentals of the Nyingma School. The history of their transmission in India by Garap Dorje, Mañjuśrīmitra, Jñānasūtra, King Ja, Kukkurāja, Līlāvajra and others, along with an account of their introduction to Tibet by Padmasambhava, Vimalamitra, Buddhaguhya and so forth, has been recorded by Dudjom Rinpoche, in his History of the Nyingma School (rnying-ma’i chos-’byung), which is published here in conjunction with the Fundamentals.
The History elaborately traces the distant lineage of transmitted precepts (ring-brgyud bka’-ma) and the close lineage of concealed teachings or treasures (nye-brgyud gter-ma) from their first appearance in Tibet until the present century, and clearly indicates that the Nyingmapa for the most part remained aloof from the sectarianism which has so often been divisive in Tibetan history. Indeed, as the Author demonstrates, the destiny and propagation of all schools of Buddhism in Tibet have been interlinked from the earliest times.
THE LITERARY TRADITION REPRESENTED IN THE FUNDAMENTALS
The literary heritage of the Nyingma tradition includes both tantras and sūtras, along with the treatises or commentaries composed upon their intention over the centuries.
The tantras and sūtras which emphasise the particular Nyingma teachings of Mahāyoga, Anuyoga and Atiyoga are found in the canonical transmitted precepts of the Kangyur (bka’-’gyur) and in the Collected Tantras of the Nyingmapa (rnying-ma’i rgyud-’bum). Among them, those which focus on Mahāyoga are exemplified by the Tantra of the Secret Nucleus (rgyud gsang-ba’i snying-po, T 832, NGB Vol.14), those which focus on Anuyoga are exemplified by the Sūtra which Gathers All Intentions (mdo dgongs-pa ’dus-pa, T 829, NGB Vol. 11), and those which focus on Atiyoga are exemplified by the Tantra of the All-Accomplishing King (kun-byed rgyal-po, T 828, NGB Vol. 1). However, there are many other texts which elaborate on each of these three categories. Among those which refer to the entire nine sequences of the vehicle there are the Tantra of the Great Natural Arising of Awareness (rig-pa rang-shar chen-po’i rgyud, NGB Vol.10) and the Miraculous Key to the Storehouse (bang-mdzod ’phrul-lde, NGB Vol.2).
The treatises composed by Indian scholars of the past on those transmitted precepts include long commentaries on specific texts such as those on the Tantra of the Secret Nucleus by Līlāvajra (Śrīguhyagarbhamahātantrarājaṭīkā, P 4718) and by Sūryaprabhāsiṃha (Śrīguhyagarbhatattvanirṇayavyākhyānaṭīkā, P 4719). Yet they also include a tradition of short, pithy explanations of the nine sequences of the vehicle, among which one should note the Garland of Views: A Collection of Esoteric Instructions (Upadeśadarśanamālā, P 4726) by Padmasambhava, the Sequence of the Path (Māyājālapathakrama, P 4736) by Buddhaguhya, the Lock of the Heart (Cittatālaka, P 4758) by Śrī Siṃha, and the Turquoise Display (gYu-thang-ma kras-dgu, P 4729) attributed to Nāgārjuna.
When the Nyingma tradition was introduced to Tibet, the concise exegetical style was maintained by authors such as Kawa Peltsek who wrote the Seventeenfold Appearance of the Sequence of the View (Ita-rim snang-ba bcu-bdun-pa, T 4356).
During the medieval period of Tibetan history which followed the persecution of the Buddhist doctrine by Langdarma and its subsequent restoration, long treatises were composed concerning these “ancient translations” by Rongzom Paṇḍita (eleventh century), Yungtönpa Dorjepel (1284-1365), Longcen Rapjampa (1308-63) and others. Longcenpa in particular was encouraged by his teacher Kumārādza (1266-1343) to compose the Seven Treasuries (mdzod-bdun) which definitively structured the entire Buddhist experience from the Nyingma point of view. These include his Treasury of Spiritual and Philosophical Systems (grub-mtha’i mdzod) which has had a profound influence on later interpretations of the nine sequences of the vehicle. Among his other works, one should note the General Exposition [of the Secret Nucleus, entitled] Dispelling Mental Darkness (spyi-don yid-kyi mun-pa sel-ba) which is a basic source-book for much of the present treatise.
Subsequently, Pema Trhinle (1641-1717) and Locen Dharmaśrī (1654-1717) have commented on the range of the Buddhist teachings in their respective Collected Works, and have explored in depth the distant lineage of transmitted precepts (ring-brgyud bka’-ma) and the meaning of the Anuyoga Sūtra which Gathers All Intentions (mdo dgongs-pa ’dus-pa, T 829, NGB Vol.11). The latter’s Oral Teaching of the Lord of Secrets (gsang-bdag zhal-lung) is a primary source for the recapitulations found in Parts Three and Four of the present work.
In the eighteenth century, Jikme Lingpa (1730-98) intricately stated the view of the Nyingmapa tantras and the nine sequences of the vehicle in his nine volumes of Collected Works, particularly in the Treasury of Enlightened Attributes (yon-tan mdzod); and Gyurme Tshewang Chokdrup of Katok catalogued the Collected Tantras of the Nyingmapa in his Discourse Resembling a Divine Drum (rgyud-’bum dkar-chag lha’i rnga-bo-che lta-bu), the first part of which corresponds closely to our present text.
During the nineteenth century, under the inspiration of his teacher the great Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, Jamgön Kongtrül (1813-99) compiled five anthologies (kong-sprul mdzod-lnga) which integrated the most important teachings from all schools of Buddhism.
More recently, Zhecen Gyeltsap and others have followed in this eclectic (ris-med) tradition, and Mipham Rinpoche (1846-1912) has composed elaborate exegeses on Madhyamaka, on the mind in its natural state (gnyugs-sems), and on the integration of the views of intrinsic emptiness (rang-stong) and extrinsic emptiness (gzhan-stong)8 within the sphere of the causal vehicles of dialectics. These are all included in the four cycles of his Collected Works. His Summary of the Spiritual and Philosophical Systems from Longcenpa’s Wish-fulfilling Treasury (yid-bzhin mdzod-kyi grub-mtha’ bsdus-pa) has been partially translated into English by H.V. Guenther.9
These prominent texts and authors serve to illustrate the literary tradition which Dudjom Rinpoche has inherited. Looking back upon the development of the Nyingma exegetical tradition from the Indian period until the eclectic movement, he has produced a treatise, the Fundamentals, which conforms to contemporary circumstances and requirements. Many Tibetans who currently practise the doctrine do so in a refugee environment, and so lack the time and resources which were once available for the detailed study of vast commentaries. Capturing the elegance of traditional versification, and the scholarly insights which have gradually been acquired over the centuries, he has condensed the writings of past masters, presenting their reasoning in an immediate, contemporary manner, and at the same time has substantiated this summarisation with copious quotations from the concise exegetical tradition of both Indian and Tibetan origin, which epitomises the Ancient Translation School.
The formal title of this work is An Abridged Definitive Ordering of the Nyingma Teaching, the Ancient Translation School of Secret Mantra, entitled Feast in which Eloquence Appears (gsang-sngags snga-’gyur rnying-ma-ba’i bstan-pa’i rnam-gzhag mdo-tsam brjod-pa legs-bshad snang-ba’i dga’-ston). Its two hundred and thirty-two Tibetan folios were composed during the summer of 1966. The xylographs for the first edition of the text were prepared in Kalimpong, West Bengal, India, where they are preserved at the monastery of Zangdok Pelri. The text was subsequently reprinted in the Collected Works of Dudjom Rinpoche (Kalimpong, 1979).
GYURME DORJE
The Text
An Abridged Definitive Ordering of the Nyingma Teaching, the Ancient Translation School of Secret Mantra, entitled Feast in which Eloquence Appears
gsang-sngags snga-’gyur rnying-ma-ba’i bstan-pa’i rnam-gzhag mdo-tsam brjod-pa legs-bshad snang-ba’i dga ’ston
Verses of Invocation
May you who are the indestructible reality
Of the speech of all conquerors,
Having attained supreme accomplishment,
A level whose wonder cannot even be grasped,
And arisen embodied as an awareness-holder,
Powerfully transforming the three spheres of existence,
Orgyen Dorje Chang,10 confer your blessings.
May you who bind the entire network
Of the supreme skilful means,
Which appears as great bliss,
In the seal of discriminative awareness,
Which is emptiness in its natural state,
Heruka, completely present
In mobile and motionless creatures,
All-pervading lord and guru,
Grant protection until enlightenment.
When the brilliant, attractive lotus of eloquent discourse
Born from the taintless ocean of doctrinal tradition
Exudes honey drops of excellent meaning,
The feast of the discerning bee increases in all ways.
Introduction
[2b.3-3a.1] On the basis of the unsurpassed aspiration and enlightened activity of the three ancestral religious kings11 who emanated in the land of snow mountains [Tibet], the field of the sublime and supreme Lokeśvara,12 the Teaching of the Conqueror [Buddhism] was established. Its foundation was clearly made secure by the preceptors, masters, paṇḍitas, accomplished masters, bodhisattvas and translators who were representatives of the Teacher [Buddha] through their translations, exegeses, teachings, study, meditation, and attainment. Subsequently, an immeasurable number of accomplished awareness-holders manifestly equal to the Conqueror himself emerged, such as Nupcen Sangye Yeshe and his nephew [Nup Khulungpa Yönten Gyamtso], the generations of the Zur family, Nyang-rel Nyima Özer, Rok Sherap-ö, Rongzompa Chöki Zangpo and Longcen Rapjampa.13 Therefore, I wish to summarise and briefly explain the fundamentals of that body of teaching renowned as the Nyingma tradition or Ancient Translation School of the secret mantra, the exegesis, attainment and enlightened activity of which continue to be maintained without decline until the present day.
Part One
Doctrines of Saṃsāra and Nirvāṇa
1 The Essence and Definition of Dharma
[3a.l-4b.5] At the outset, the doctrines of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa must be recognised in general and their characteristics established. This has three aspects: essence, verbal definition and classification.
The essence is as follows: Mundane doctrines are characterised as those which, when referred to objectively, cause one to wander in the three realms by the power of corrupt deeds, and as those whose nature is flawed in such a way that suffering alone is experienced. Supramundane doctrines are characterised as those which destroy the two obscurations when founded upon the continuum of the mind, and which are endowed with positive attributes affording protection from the suffering of saṃsāra. As it is said [in the Rational System of Exposition, Vyākhyāyukti, T 4061]:
The true doctrine (saddharma) is that which removes all suffering and every obscuration.
The verbal definition is that the term dharma, which is derived from the root dhr14 “to hold”, holds or conveys ten meanings. The Wish-fulfiller (Amaratīkākāmadhenu, T 4300) explains:
Because it holds everything
It is the dharma.15
In the Rational System of Exposition the ten meanings emerge as follows:
Dharma is that which is knowable, the path, nirvāṇa, an object of mind, merit, life, the scriptures, material objects, regulation, and the doctrinal traditions.
Accordingly, there are quotations from the sūtras illustrating the word dharma when it conveys the meaning of that which is knowable, for example:
Some things (dharma) are compounded,
Others are uncompounded.
And,
All things (dharma) should be known in that way.
When dharma conveys the meaning of the path, it may be illustrated by the words:
O monks, the wrong view is not the doctrine (dharma), but the correct view is the doctrine.
When it conveys the meaning of nirvāṇa, it may be illustrated by the words:
He took refuge in the doctrine (dharma).
When conveying the meaning of an object of mind, it may be illustrated by the expression “activity field of phenomena” (dharmāyatana). When conveying the meaning of merit, it may be illustrated by the words:
He practised the doctrine (dharma) in the company of a retinue of queens and maidens.
When conveying the meaning of life, it may be illustrated by the words:
A childish person dearly holds to the things (dharma) which he sees.
When conveying the meaning of the scriptures, it may be illustrated by the words:
O monks, that which is called the doctrine (dharma) includes for instance the piṭaka of the sūtras and the piṭaka of prose and verse combined.
When conveying the meaning of emergent objects, it may be illustrated by the words:
As for compounded substances, this is their reality (dharma).
and:
Even I have not transcended the phenomenon (dharma) of death and the reality of death.
When conveying the meaning of regulation, it may be illustrated by the term “four doctrines (dharma) of a spiritual ascetic”,16 and by the words:
O monks, to kill is not the doctrine, but to renounce killing is the doctrine (dharma).
And so forth. When it conveys the meaning of tradition, it may be illustrated by “national traditions” (dharma) and “ethnic traditions” (dharma).
If one then wonders how these [ten definitions] relate to the sense of the term “to hold”, then the things which are knowable hold both individual and general characteristics. Individual characteristics are held as illustrated, for example, in the following words:
Earth is hard, water wet, fire hot
And wind is light and mobile.
And the manner in which general characteristics are held may be illustrated by the words:
All that is compounded is impermanent.
All that is corrupt is suffering.
All things are devoid of self.
Nirvāṇa is peace.
By the path and nirvāṇa one is held from falling into saṃsāra. By the object of mind the mind is held. By merit one is held from falling into evil existences. By the life-span or life itself one holds the body or its appropriate stations. The scriptures hold the unmistakable truth. Emergent objects hold that which has a transient basis. Regulations hold the precise foundation. Traditions uphold an idiosyncratic conduct; and by awareness [of all these] one is held apart from the area of bewilderment. Such analogies may be inferred by reason.
The classification is twofold, consisting of the doctrine of saṃsāra and the doctrine of nirvāṇa. Concerning the distinction between these two, the [Long] Mother [i.e. the Transcendental Perfection of Discriminative Awareness in One Hundred Thousand Lines] says:
Liberality is possessed by both mundane and supramundane beings. What, you may ask, is mundane liberality? That which, by the act of having made some offering, neither moves beyond, nor sublimates, nor transcends the world, is said to be mundane liberality. That which does move beyond, sublimate, or transcend the world, by the act of having made some offering, is called supramundane liberality.
According to such quotations, when one has reached a conclusion through any method, the result is distinguished by having or lacking the power to sublimate the world.
2 Doctrines of Saṃsāra
[4b.5-16a.3] First, the doctrines of saṃsāra are explained under three headings: (1) the characteristics of saṃsāra, (2) the mundane vehicle [and the Brahmā vehicle], and (3) an ensuing discussion of the views held by those of no understanding and by those of wrong understanding.
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF SAṂSĀRA
The doctrines or phenomena of saṃsāra are originally caused by ignorance which arises in three interrelated aspects. Firstly, the ignorance of individual selfhood (bdag-nyid gcig-pu’i ma-rig-pa) arises as consciousness, but it is not recognised as such. Secondly, through the co-emergent ignorance (lhan-cig skyes-pa’i ma-rig-pa), the unconsciousness of the true essence and that consciousness emerge together. Yet it is thirdly, through the ignorance of the imaginary (kun-tu brtag-pa’i ma-rig-pa), that one’s own perceptions are externally discerned. Since these three aspects arise diversely from a single essence, they arise from the ground as the appearance of the ground; and since this is not known to have been self-originated, the threefold ignorance which subjectively discerns objects is the causal condition [of saṃsāra]. The objective appearances, which arise like one’s own reflection in a mirror, through clinging to externals apart from oneself, are the referential condition [of saṃsāra]. The consciousness which holds to the [concepts] of “I” and “mine” is the possessive condition, and since these three [conditions] are simultaneous, they form the immediate condition. Bewilderment originates from the impure referential aspect containing these four conditions [of saṃsāra] and is maintained by divisively clinging externally to objective phenomena, and internally to subjective consciousness. As it is said in the Penetration of Sound (sgra thal-’gyur, NGB Vol.10):
The basis of bewilderment is ignorance.
Ignorance has three forms.
And:
Owing to that root which is the single indivisible17 cause,
The true essence is not perceived;
This, therefore, is the beginning of saṃsāra.
And in the Great Array (bkod-pa chen-po):
Spontaneous presence arises as an object,
Which is emptiness.
At that time, from the cycle of bewilderment
Which has four conditions,
The snare of clinging comes into being.
From the very moment of bewilderment, that same bewilderment arises as the ground-of-all (kun-gzhi, Skt. ālaya) in its role as the ignorance, the naturally obscuring expressive power, which is the unconsciousness of the true essence. Dependent upon that [ground-of-all] is the mind which is the consciousness of the ground-of-all and the six conflicting emotions which originate from it. These are [ignorance, the basis on which bewildering thoughts are grasped];18 delusion, the bewilderment in the area of discriminative awareness; hatred, the bewilderment in the area of creative phases;19 pride, the bewilderment in the area of the view; desire, the bewilderment in the area of appearances; and envy, the bewilderment in the area of non-understanding [in relation to these]. Eighty-four thousand phenomena (dharma) then emerge through the gradual accumulation of ideas, beginning with the mind which apprehends emotionally conflicted thoughts such as the above, the intellect which apprehends all memories, the ideas which form the ground of connecting propensities and doubts, and that area [of mind] which clings to objects and entities.
In this way then, the five sensory perceptions originate together with the consciousness of the intellect wherein the twenty-one thousand phenomena [in each of four categories], namely, the three poisons and their equal combination, arise dispositionally.
The object which maintains the continuity of any of these six active consciousnesses20 at the moment of objectification, the immediate consciousness which at the same instant apprehends the object and its form, and any of the three subsequent feelings of pleasure, suffering or neutrality, are together called the sensation of contact. So it is that the eighteen psychophysical bases originate, divided into three groups of six.21
[Thereupon, the evolution of] the five components, the twelve activity fields, the six sense organs and karma or [world-forming] deeds ensues. The five components are, namely, the component of form, which is an accumulation of atoms and is capable of being destroyed and split; the component of feelings, which are the source of enjoyment and desire; the component of perceptions, which are dynamic and object-oriented; the component of habitual tendencies which create and accumulate propensities; [and the component of consciousness which is aware and objectifying].22
As for the twelve activity fields which cause any accumulation of ideas to be sensed, there are six objective modes, such as form, the object apprehended by the eye, which causes both the continuity [of the object of perception] in the subsequent instant and the apprehending consciousness to be sensed; and there are also six subjective modes, such as the consciousness of the eye,23 which arises in that subsequent instant and perceives as form that form which may be objectively sensed. There are five organs of sense, such as the eye, which have the power to apprehend objects, or six with the inclusion of the sense organ of the intellect, which originates from the possessive condition of the initial apperceptive consciousness.
Deeds may be of three types: virtuous, unvirtuous or neutral. The first includes the ten virtues which produce worldly happiness as their result. The second comprises the contrary deeds which cast [beings] into evil existences. The third refers to those [neutral] deeds24 which cast beings into higher realms.
Although all these phenomena are compounded internally by the mind, their apparitional aspect and supporting foundation are the five gross elements of which external objects are compounded, and which are caused, conditioned, supported and substantiated by the fourfold process of creation, duration, destruction and dissolution. As the number of mental propensities through which they appear as objects expands, the world realm of desire containing the four continents, Mount Sumeru and perimeter appears like a dream, along with the realm of form, like self-radiating rainbow light of five colours, and the formless realm, which originates from the contemplation of the summit of existence, and so on.25 In brief, the entire array of the inanimate container and animate creatures, mobile and motionless, subsumed by the three world realms, does not appear in the ultimate vision of sublime beings. Rather, it is an apparitional mode of the bewildered intellect of sentient beings, which appears by the power of the subject-object dichotomy lapsing into delusion, like water in a mirage, and into erroneous perception, like seing a multicoloured rope as a snake. As it is said in the Pearl Necklace (mu-tig phreng-ba, NGB Vol.9):
In this way, the diverse appearances
Resemble a rope when seen as a snake.
Though not so, by clinging to them as such
The outer container and inner essence
Are established as a duality.
The rope itself, on further investigation,
Is primordially empty of container and essence.
The ultimate takes form as the relative.
That perception of the snake is visually true,
The perception of the rope is genuinely true.
Enduring, for example, as a bird relates to a scarecrow,
The independent existence of the two truths
Refers only to the relative world.
It has no relation to genuine reality.
Because of the expanse of emptiness
The essence of that [reality] is that all is free.
And in the Oral Instructions of Mañjuśrī (Mañjuśrīmukhāgama, T 1853-4) it says:
All things of saṃsāra ṃ are held to be non-existent
Like the multicoloured rope when perceived as a snake.
Moreover, the creator of the happiness and suffering of saṃsāra, the high and the low and all such apparitional modes, is karma or [world-forming] deeds, corrupted by all-conflicting emotions, which are of three types. Without exception these modes are created by deeds, emanated by deeds, matured by deeds, and they appear through the power of deeds. Accordingly, it is said in the Hundred Parables on Deeds (Karmaśatakasūtra, T 340):
The diversity of the world is developed through deeds.
Happiness and suffering are created by deeds.
Deeds originate from an accumulation of conditions
And by deeds happiness and suffering are made.
And in the Introduction to the Madhyamaka (Madhyamakāvatāra, T 3861, Ch.6, v.89) it explains:
By mind itself the diverse
Sentient and inanimate worlds
Are allocated their share of deeds.
Living creatures without exception
Are said to be created through deeds.
THE MUNDANE VEHICLE AND THE BRAHMĀ VEHICLE
The Mundane Vehicle
[7b.2-10a.3] The mundane vehicle or the basic vehicle followed by gods and human beings is explained under three headings: essence, verbal definition and classification.
The essence is any method of progressing to the conclusive happiness of gods and human beings which lacks the power to sublimate saṃsāra. It is verbally defined as a vehicle because it can merely unite with, and progress towards, the result of happiness experienced by gods and human beings. Its classifications are sixfold, namely, entrance, view, moral discipline, meditation, conduct and result.
Firstly, concerning the entrance: After having seen the three evil existences, which are naturally endowed with suffering, one enters by means of renouncing the unvirtuous deeds, which are the cause of birth therein. As it is said in the Heruka Galpo (he-ru-ka gal-po, NGB Vol.25):
Non-virtue is renounced by the vehicle of gods and humans.
In this context the ten non-virtues consist of three physical deeds – to kill, to steal and to commit sexual misconduct; four verbal deeds – to lie, to slander, to talk irresponsibly and to utter abuse; and three mental deeds – to covet, to be malicious and to hold wrong views.
Secondly, concerning the view: The correct view is the conviction that there are such things as a future world and the cause and fruition of deeds. It says in the Collection of Meaningful Expressions (Udānavarga, T 326, Ch.4, v.9):
The great one who possesses
The correct view for a mundane being
Even in a thousand lifetimes
Will not turn to evil existences.
Conversely, with a wrong view, even though one may have practised other virtuous deeds, such as abstaining from murder, one will reap the fruit of suffering. As it is said in the Letter to a Friend (Suhṛllekha, T 4182, v.46):
Even though an individual may have practised well, with a wrong view
All that matures will be unbearable.
Therefore, it is important that the correct view be retained.
Thirdly, moral discipline is nothing but the moral discipline of renouncing the ten non-virtues. It has been said in the above-mentioned [Letter to a Friend, v. 11]:
The [eight vows of the] purificatory fast
Cause the pleasant body of the gods who act as they desire
To be bestowed upon lay people.
This being the case, is not the moral discipline derived from correct commitment explained to be necessary for one who would progress to the rank of the gods? Though indeed mentioned, it is spoken of only with reference to [the attainment of] the extraordinary [form] realms. For the ordinary [form] realms, its necessity is uncertain.26 Therefore, these latter realms are held to be attained simply by enacting the deeds and path of the ten virtues, along with their concomitants, which are retained by the correct view.
Furthermore, concepts such as purity of the grasping components are adhered to, and one who has been motivated by the possession of conscience and humility is called a holy or superior being for performing his or her duties of body and speech with propriety. And the converse is true for an evil or inferior being. The Treatise on Behaviour entitled the Holy Ornament (lugs-kyi bstan-bcos dam-pa’i rgyan) says: 27
To honour well those who are worthy of reverence,
To be especially benevolent to those who are unprotected,
And not to forget to repay kindness
Is the conduct of a holy being.
The holy person actually chooses death,
Rather than a life which has forsaken conscience,
Experiences which are tainted with sin,
And power gained by the deception of friends.
And again:
An evil creature delights in sin,
Shows ingratitude and casts away
Conscience like an enemy.
That one will do anything
To achieve his or her own purpose.
And in the Short Chapter on Discrimination (’byed-pa le’u chung) sixteen pure human laws (mi-chos gtsang-ma bcu-drug) are taught as follows:
Develop faith in the Three Precious Jewels without sorrow or weariness; search ultimately for the true doctrine; skilfully study the excellent sciences; first recollect and then appraise anything that is to be undertaken; do not hanker after unassigned work; look to a higher level and emulate the ancients and those of superior conduct; repay kindness to one’s parents of the past, present and future; be broad-minded and hospitable in one’s dealings with elder and younger siblings and paternal relatives; ensure that the young respect their elders by degrees; show loving kindness to one’s neighbours; arduously assist one’s acquaintances who are spiritual benefactors; perfectly fulfil the needs of those nearby who are connected through the worldly round; help others through one’s skill in science and the arts; provide a refuge with kindness to those who depend upon it; resist bad advice and establish advice which will increase the happiness of the country; and, entrusting one’s deeds to the doctrine, one should bring one’s spouse to obtain the ground of enlightenment in future lives.
Fourth, meditation: There is training until one has the power to bring about the proper result.
Fifth, conduct: One enacts the deeds and path of the ten virtues “endowed with corruption” along with their concomitants, which [virtues] are so named after their function which is [merely] to renounce the ten non-virtues. The positive virtues of such physical actions as prostration, verbal actions as praise and mental actions which benefit others by virtuous thoughts are also included. However, one might object, is it not said in the Heruka Galpo that on the vehicle of gods and humans, the ten modes of doctrinal conduct such as writing [scriptures] and making offerings are necessary? Here, as before, there is a distinction between [the attainment of] the extraordinary realms, and the ordinary realms.
Sixth, the result is as follows: By the extent of the power of one’s virtuous deeds, one is born in the ten higher levels of the desire realm, namely, among the human beings of the four continents or among the six species of Kāma divinities. Accordingly, the Tantra of the Extensive Magical Net says:
The practice of the ten virtues and the renunciation of non-virtues
Are the basis for birth among the gods and humans of the desire realm.
And in Buddhaguhya’s28 Sequence of the Path it says:
By emphasising the ten virtues
And not equating virtue with non-virtue,
One is born among the gods and human beings.
Without understanding sameness, one wanders in the desire realm.
Since this vehicle progresses to the culmination of the happiness desired in this life either as an emperor among men, or as a master of the Paranirmitavaśavartin29 realm of the gods, the Sūtra of the Descent to Laṅkā speaks of it as the divine vehicle, after the name of the highest realm to which it progresses. It has been said of this vehicle in the Sequence of the Path:
It is definitively arranged
As the first of the fundamental vehicles.
Accordingly, it either forms the foundation of, or is preliminary to, all the vehicles, because the vehicle which is not retained by the correct view and which does not observe the deeds and path of the ten virtues as its actual foundation is nowhere to be found. The Hevajra Tantra (T 417-18, Pt.2, Ch.2, v.l8cd) also states:
Having commenced from the ten virtues
His doctrine is disclosed.