What is
Tantra? Riding the Wisdom Tiger. Copyright 1994, Crazy
Cloud Dharma
Center
Training
the Mind and Cultivating Loving-Kindness by Chogyam Trungpa
Edited by Judith L. Lief Shambhala, Boston & London, 1993
WORDS
OF TRUTH : A prayer composed by HIS HOLINESS TENZIN GYATSO THE
FOURTEENTH DALAI LAMA OF TIBET Honoring and invoking the Great
Compassion of the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Teachings, and the
Spiritual Community
Exposition
of the view of the Four Indian Schools. Herein Lies the Very
Brief Exposition of the Views of the Four Indian Schools Written by Todd
Fenner, Ph.D.
On the meaning of:
OM MANI PADME HUM: by His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso The Fourteenth
Dalai Lama of Tibet.
The
Teaching of Phowa : Transference of consciousness at the time of
death.
UNDERSTANDING
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF A BUDDHIST SHRINE by Lama Choedak
A Brief Note on Tibetan Buddhism
1
Tibetan Buddhism is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition, meaning that the
goal of all
practice is to achieve enlightenment (or Buddhahood) in
order to help all other sentient beings attain this state, as opposed to
mere personal liberation. The motivation for Mahayana practice is
Bodhicitta (a Sanskrit word meaning 'mind of enlightenment') --the
altruistic intention to become enlightened for the sake of all sentient
beings.
Buddhahood is sometimes partially defined as a state of omniscience (sarvajñä).
It requires both complete freedom from the obstructions to liberation
(the negative states of mind such as ignorance, hatred and desirous
attachment) and complete freedom from the obstructions to omniscience
(which are the imprints or 'stains' of delusions which imagine inherent
existence).
When one is freed from mental obscurations, one is said to attain a
state of continuous bliss, mixed with a simultaneous cognition of the
true nature of reality. In this state, all limitations on one's ability
to help all other living beings are removed. This includes the
attainment of omniscience - that is the removal of all obstructions to
knowing all phenomena (or seeing the empty nature of each phenomenon as
well as each of their relative characteristics). From the perspective of
Tibetan Buddhism, when one conceives of a particular object, the mind
gives rise to the appearance of that object. In perceiving the empty
nature of all phenomena as well as each of their relative
characteristics, one becomes both omniscient and omnipresent.
There are said to be countless beings that have attained Buddhahood,
or countless Buddhas. Buddhas spontaneously, naturally and continuously
perform activities to benefit all sentient beings. However it is
believed that sentient beings' karma (or 'actions') limit the ability of
the Buddhas to help them. Thus, although Buddhas possess no limitation
from their side on their ability to help others, sentient beings
continue to experience suffering as a result of the limitations of their
own former negative actions.
History of Tibetan Buddhism
According to a Tibetan legendary tradition, Buddhist scriptures
(among them the Karandavyuha Sutra) and relics (among them the Cintamani)
arrived in southern Tibet during the reign of Lha Thothori Nyantsen, the
28th "king of Tibet" (fifth century), who was probably just a
local chief in the Yarlung valley. The tale is miraculous (the objects
fell from the sky on the roof of the king's palace), but it may have an
historical background (arrival of Buddhist missionaries).
The earliest well-documented influence of Buddhism in Tibet dates
from the reign of king Songtsän Gampo, who died in 650. He married a
Chinese Buddhist princess, Wencheng. According to a Tibetan legendary
tradition, he also married a Nepalese Buddhist princess, Bhrikuti; but
Bhrikuti, who bears the name of a goddess, is not mentioned in reliable
sources. Songtsän Gampo founded the first Buddhist temples. By the
second half of the 8th century he was already regarded as an embodiment
of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara.
The successors of Songtsän Gampo seem to have been less enthusiastic
about the propagation of Buddhism. But in the 8th century, emperor
Trisong Detsen (755-797) established Buddhism as the official religion
of the state.[6] He invited Indian Buddhist scholars to his court. In
his age the famous tantric mystic Padmasambhava arrived in Tibet
according to the Tibetan tradition. It was Padmasambhava (more commonly
known in the region as Guru Rinpoche) who merged tantric Buddhism with
the local Bön religion to form what we now recognize as Tibetan
Buddhism. In addition to writing a number of important scriptures (some
of which he hid for future tertons to find), Padmasambhava established
the Nyingma school from which all schools of Tibetan Buddhism are
derived.
Tibetan Buddhism exerted a strong influence from the 11th century AD
among the peoples of Central Asia, especially in Mongolia and Manchuria.
It was adopted as an official state religion by the Mongol Yuan dynasty
and the Manchu Qing dynasty that ruled China.
Vajrayana
Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism encompasses Vajrayana (a Sanskrit word that
is a conjunction of vajra which may be translated as diamond, thunder or
indestructible and yana or vehicle). It is said that Vajrayana practice
is the fastest method for attaining Buddhahood, however this is only the
case for advanced practitioners who have a solid and reliable grounding
in the preliminary practices (which may be categorized as renunciation,
Bodhicitta and Wisdom, specifically, the wisdom realizing emptiness).
For practitioners who are not qualified, Vajrayana practice can be very
dangerous, and will only lead to increased ego problems and more
suffering if it is not practiced with the pure motivation of Bodhicitta.
Even for the qualified advanced practitioner, a specific Vajrayana
practice should only ever be followed on the basis of receiving the
appropriate initiation (also known as an empowerment) from a lama who is
fully qualified to give that initiation.
Schools of Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism has four main traditions (the suffix pa is
comparable to "er" in English):
Nyingma(pa), The Ancient Ones. This is the oldest, the original order
founded by Padmasambhava, a Tibetan master, and relies on very early
esoteric scriptures known as tantras. In this school there is a good
deal of emphasis placed on meditation.
Kagyu(pa), Oral Lineage. This contains one major subsect and one
minor subsect. The first, the Dagpo Kagyu, encompasses those Kagyu
schools that trace back to Gampopa. In turn, the Dagpo Kagyu consists of
four major sub-sects: the Karma Kagyu, headed by a Karmapa, the Tsalpa
Kagyu, the Barom Kagyu, and Pagtru Kagyu; as well as eight minor
sub-sects, all of which trace their root to Pagtru Kagyu. Among the
eight sub-sects the most notable of are the Drikung Kagyu and the Drukpa
Kagyu. The once-obscure Shangpa Kagyu, which was famously represented by
the 20th century teacher Kalu Rinpoche, traces its history back to the
Indian master Niguma, sister of Kagyu lineage holder Naropa. This is an
oral tradition which is very much concerned with the experiential
dimension of meditation. Its most famous exponent was Milarepa, an
eleventh century Tibetan mystic who meditated for many years in mountain
caves before eventually reaching enlightenment.
Sakya(pa), Grey Earth, headed by the Sakya Trizin, founded by Khon
Konchog Gyalpo, a disciple of the great translator Drokmi Lotsawa. Sakya
Pandita 1182–1251CE was the great grandson of Khon Konchog Gyalpo.
This school very much represents the scholarly tradition.
Gelug(pa), Way of Virtue, also known casually as the Yellow Hats,
whose spiritual head is the Ganden Tripa and whose temporal head is the
Dalai Lama, who was ruler of Tibet from the mid-17th to mid-20th
centuries. It was founded in the 14th to 15th century by Je Tsongkhapa,
based on the foundations of the Kadampa tradition. Tsongkhapa was
renowned for both his scholasticism and his virtue. The Dalai Lama
belongs to the Gelukpa school, and is regarded as the embodiment of
Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion (the equivalent of
Avalokitesvara).
