THE LATER DIFFUSION OF BUDDHISM AND THE RESPONSE OF THE “ANCIENTS”
Tibetan historiographical traditions are almost unanimous in their insistence that, under the ninth-century monarch Üdumtsen (a.k.a. Lang Darma, d. 842), monastic Buddhism was persecuted to such an extent that the Dharma was effectively extinguished throughout Central Tibet for the following century and a half. Though recent research suggests that the persecution, if in fact it occurred, primarily took the form of a reduction or withdrawal of sponsorship, and that Buddhism in Central Tibet, once introduced, never actually died, the most intensive Buddhist activity among Tibetans during the early postimperial period appears to have taken place far from the center, in the distant northeast, in the regions of modern China’s Qinghai and Gansu provinces, known to the Tibetans as Amdo. There, at some point in the tenth century, an adherent of the Bön religion was ordained as a Buddhist monk, taking the name Gongpa Rapsel, “Clearest Intention,” and spearheading a revival of Tibetan monasticism that soon spread to Central Tibet, where his disciples founded a number of new monastic centers. These became the focal points of a far-reaching, renewed promulgation of the Buddhist monastic code, or Vinaya, that came to be known as the “later diffusion of the Teaching” (tenpa chidar).
During the same period, a revival movement also developed in far western Tibet. Though connections with the Amdo region via the Central Asia Silk Road no doubt played an important role, trade and pilgrimage relations between west Tibet and neighboring parts of India, especially Kashmir, where Buddhism remained strong, were decisive as well. In the kingdom of Gugé in particular, which occupied parts of the territory of the old Zhangzhung kingdom, including the area around Mount Kailash, the ruling family came to promote the renewed spread of Buddhism enthusiastically. Most representative in this respect was the king Yeshé-ö (959–1036), who became a Buddhist monk, eventually renouncing the throne. As he was followed in the religious life by both of his sons, sovereignty passed to his younger brother. Thereafter it remained the custom within each generation in the royal house of Gugé for a prince to enter the monastery, while a brother continued to rule.
The most famous of Yeshé-ö’s associates was Rinchen Zangpo (958–1055), known as the “Great Translator,” who promoted the spread of the arts and learning from Kashmir to the Gugé kingdom. A number of the surviving temples in the Indian Himalayan regions and adjacent parts of Tibet still house sculptures and paintings associated with his sustained and energetic promotion of Indian Buddhist culture. The revival of Buddhism in Gugé also led to a royal invitation’s being extended in 1042 to a celebrated, saintly teacher from eastern India, Dīpaṅkaraśrījñāna (982–1054), better known in Tibet as Atiśa. The thirteen years that Atiśa spent in Tibet—three in Gugé and the remainder, until his death, in Central Tibet—inspired a refocusing of Tibetan Buddhism, so that the compassionate way of the bodhisattva would be unambiguously regarded as the core message of the tradition. His followers constituted themselves as a new Buddhist order, called Kadampa, after their devotion to the scriptural teachings (ka) of the Buddha and the intimate instructions (dampa) concerning spiritual cultivation derived from them. MTK
As new forms of religious practice spread from Kashmir and other places in India to Tibet before the dawn of the eleventh century, the most troubling were those associated—fairly or not—with Buddhist tantra (see
chapter 5). Tantric texts played with long-standing Buddhist ethical and philosophical teachings by turning straightforward, didactic language on its head. Where texts of the Mah
āy
āna tradition might instruct the good Buddhist to avoid killing, stealing, lying, sexual misconduct, and intoxicants, tantric texts would encourage Buddhists to engage in these very practices! Most traditional commentators argue that such statements are intended to destabilize entrenched notions of language and its relationship to reality. For if, as Mah
āy
āna Buddhist theory states, reality is ultimately empty of any single, permanent, substantial entity, then conventional distinctions such as good/bad, subject/object, and sa
ṃs
āra/nirv
āṇa are ultimately meaningless. According to the open letter given below, however, for Tibetans around the year 1000, such linguistic sleights of hand were wreaking havoc on religious practice. If we believe this ordinance from Lha Lama Yeshé-ö, the most influential king of western Tibet during this period, tantric teachings were being interpreted literally and practiced to the letter, to the detriment of all Tibetans. Animal and human sacrifices were being performed in the name of the Buddha, and the sexual-contemplative practices so associated with tantra were undertaken by anyone who called himself a tantrist. As a result, the all-important law of karma, ethical cause and effect, was being ignored, and this would surely have disastrous consequences for the perpetrators of such “anti-Buddhist” practices as sacrifice, in both this life and the next. Yeshé-ö addresses a certain group, the Bajiwa, whom he singles out as the greatest perpetrators (and hence at the same time victims) of these sinful actions.
1 He speaks to them as a stern yet compassionate leader who cares for their individual well-being as much as the moral state of Tibet. Little evidence beyond this and similar letters of admonishment support the reality of such practices as are described here, and it is difficult to determine the extent to which the letter is a vivid rhetorical effort on the part of the king to brand his own form of Buddhism as superior to that of his competitors in the religious market of Tibet during this time. What is certain is that the relationship between tantric language and theory and the bounds of what constitutes proper Buddhist behavior was a persistent concern that lasted through the centuries after Yeshé-ö’s ordinance. KRS
Sent to the Tibetan tantrists by the king of Purang, Lha Lama:
I. MAHĀYĀNA BUDDHISM
In our southern continent, Jambudvīpa of the Universe,
The Teacher Śākyamuni took birth.
As an antidote to the 44,000 passions,
He preached 44,000 dharma [teachings] expanding them from the Tripiṭaka [the three-part scriptural collection].
As for the causes and their antidotes:
There are the ten evils and five terrible actions.
2To avert these he preached the Dharma of Cause and Effect.
Entering the door of the Four Truths and observing the 250 rules,
Purification of the eighty-two passions through the Path of Vision and the Path of Meditation,
Ādityabandhu (
Śākyamuni), the Teacher, taught these as the Way of
Śr
āvaka.
3
Realization of the Dharma, external and internal, in the state of the twelve interdependences,
Attainment of enlightenment step by step for oneself,
Possession of various supernatural powers,
The Lord of Living Beings taught these as the Way of the Pratyekabuddha.
4Laboring for the welfare of living beings through the Two Truths [absolute and relative],
Realization of the Dharma, external and internal, in the nature of emptiness,
Achieving the ten pāramitā [perfections] by degrees,
The Teacher taught these as the Highest Way.
II. ERRANT TANTRIC PRACTICES
You abbots, Tantric practitioners, living in the villages,
Without having any relation to these Three Ways,
Claim “we follow the Mahāyāna.”
Entirely devoid of the conduct of Mahāyāna,
Claiming to be Mahāyānist,
This is like a beggar saying that he is a king.
To claim to be Mahāyānist, though one is not,
Is like a donkey wearing the skin of a lion.
The apostle of the Conqueror, who has reached the tenth spiritual level,
Ārya Maitreya is free from ordinary objects and cognition, and has accomplished the two great accumulations of merit,
But even he is still not free from the obscurity of that which may be known.
Are you in this impure age more noble than him?
Imprisoned in the dirt of the five kinds of sensual objects and women,
It is astonishing to claim to be the body of dharma.
Indulging in the ten evil ones and taking on the mode of life of dogs and pigs
You who practice the religion of the heretics, the Bajiwa,
And say “we are Buddhists.”
Formerly Buddhism came to Tibet.
It saved living beings from taking evil births and led them to salvation.
This was the Tripitaka which flourished far and wide.
The early kings who were Bodhisattvas,
Prohibited this kind of false religion in accordance with the Word of the Buddha,
Straightened up the views of people and opened the doors of the noble births for them.
Numerous living beings entered the Highest Path.
Now as the good karma of living beings is exhausted and the law of the kings is impaired,
False doctrines called Dzokchen, “Great Perfection,” are flourishing in Tibet.
5Their views are false and wrong.
Heretical tantras, pretending to be Buddhist, are spread in Tibet.
These have brought harm to the kingdom in the following ways:
As sacrifice (lit. “deliverance”) has become popular the goats and sheep are afflicted.
As “sexual rite” has become popular the different classes of people are mixed.
As the ritual of medicine has become popular the materials for treating diseases are used up.
As the ritual of the corpse has become popular the making of offerings in cemeteries is abandoned.
As the ritual of sacrifice has become popular it happens that people are killed (lit. “delivered”) alive.
As the demons who eat flesh are worshipped there is plague among men and animals.
As the smoke of burnt (human) corpses is sent up into space,
The gods of the mountains and the serpent deities are offended.
Is this the practice of Mahāyāna?
Village abbots, your tantrist way of practicing,
Will shock if the people of other countries hear of it.
These practices of you who say “we are Buddhists,”
Show less compassion than a demon of action.
More avaricious for meat than a hawk or wolf.
More lusty than a mere donkey or an ox.
More greedy for beer than a beetle in a rotten house.
More indifferent to pure and impure than a dog or a pig.
By offering excrement, urine, semen and blood to the pure divinities,
Alas! You may be born in the mire of corpses.
By denying the existence of the Dharma of the Tripiṭaka,
Alas! You may be born in hell.
By way of retribution for killing living beings through “the rite of deliverance,”
Alas! You may be born as a demon of action.
By way of retribution for indulging in lust through “the sexual rite,”
Alas! You may be born as a microbe in the womb.
Worshipping the Three Jewels with flesh and urine,
Ignorant about the signification of “implicit” and therefore practicing it literally,
You, Mahāyānist, may be born as a demon.
What a strange Buddhist adhering to such practices:
If these practices like yours bring about Buddhahood,
Hunters, fishermen, butchers and prostitutes,
All of these would certainly have attained Enlightenment by now.
III. AVOID ERRANT TANTRIC PRACTICES
All of you tantrists, village abbots,
Must not say “we are Mahāyānist,”
You must reject these erroneous views.
Practice that which is taught in the Tripiṭaka and is correct and pure!
Confess the ten evils that you have committed so far!
If you do not, and continue to practice the false religion,
Karmic retribution will not escape you.
According to the Word which the Teacher himself pronounced,
It is true that reality is said to be void,
But you ought also to take karmic retribution into consideration.
Karma does not deceive anyone, it follows.
It does not turn itself into the four elements.
6Since the misery of the three evil births is hard to bear,
7Reject these terrible practices and practice that which is taught in the Tripiṭaka!
Those who wish to be Mah
āy
ānist
Must accumulate the two kinds of merit and abandon the notion
Of grasping and that which is to be grasped.
Must practice the ten perfections, alms giving, etc.,
Must achieve all the practices of a bodhisattva.
Must accomplish the welfare of living beings through love and compassion.
If you practice religion in this way, then you will be Mahāyānist!
This advice sent to you, Baji, means,
You should not abandon the practice of Mahāyāna, but keep it close.
Intellect is obscured by the massy darkness of ignorance,
Consciousness sinks into the mud of the ocean of lust,
Weighed down into evil births by a great mountain of pride,
Carried away into the cycle of existence by the whirling storms of jealousy,
Bound with the tight knot of egotism,
Is it not difficult to bring oneself to salvation?
[Samten G. Karmay, “The Ordinance of Lha Bla-ma Ye-shes-’od,” in Tibetan Studies in Honour of Hugh Richardson, ed. Michael Aris and Aung San Suu Kyi (Warminster: Aris and Phillips, 1980), 150–162.]
A second paragon of the Buddhist revival in western Tibet was the “Great Translator,” Rinchen Zangpo (958–1055). During his long and active life, spanning almost a century, and with the support of the royal family of Gugé, Rinchen Zangpo pursued Buddhist studies at the highest levels in both Kashmir and eastern India, and returned to his homeland to undertake a prolific program of translation, thus in effect reestablishing the pattern of translation under courtly sponsorship that had been the rule under the Central Tibetan emperors of earlier times. But his contributions to the formation of a Buddhist culture in Tibet went far beyond even this: he was an enthusiastic founder of temples, and to ensure that these would represent the full refinement of Indian Buddhist art, he invited artisans from Kashmir who lent their skills to his projects, training Tibetan apprentices at the same time. His activities along these lines had a determining effect on the entire later development of Tibetan painting and sculpture.
Although Rinchen Zangpo is widely associated with the ethical conservatism embraced by his patron, Yeshé-ö, and hence opposed the excessive transgressions of the more extreme types of tantric practice, he was not opposed to Buddhist tantrism per se. On the contrary, Rinchen Zangpo translated a great many tantric texts into Tibetan and was particularly associated with the development in Tibet of traditions specializing in the Yoga tantras, which emphasize priestly virtuosity in ritual, in particular for the protection of individuals and the state and the alleviation of ills. His tantrism, unlike the disturbing trends that Yeshé-ö had condemned, broadly served the interests of the monarchal state.
In the brief selections from his biography reproduced here, all these facets of his diverse and productive career are reflected. MTK
As for his journeying to eastern India, he traveled there rapidly by means of his mastery of swift-footedness and asked teachings of many scholars and paṇḍitas, Indian paṇḍitas such as Jñānamitra, Jñānaśrī and Śīlendrabodhi, and he made translations of limitless number, from the Vinaya, the Abhidharma, the Prātimokṣa, the Three Hundred Verses, the Perfection of Wisdom (Mother) literature in its full-length form and its medium-length form in 20,000, 18,000 and 8,000 verses and many mnemonic verses (dhāraṇī); these he translated and arranged in good order. Furthermore he asked for sūtras and tantras and innumerable works of instruction, and translated many cycles of texts concerned with Avalokiteśvara, but fearing that it would be excessively wordy in this case I have not written that he asked this text of this scholar, and that one of that scholar and so on.
In eastern India our Great Lama Translator was known as the Venerable Ratnasena. Then he returned from India to Kashmir and receiving his books from the hands of
Śraddh
ākaravarman, he went on his way carrying as many of these doctrinal works as he could and leaving what he could not carry with
Śraddh
ākaravarman. Up till now thirteen years had been passed in India and Kashmir. Traveling swift-footedly from Kashmir to Kyuwang, he reached there in six days. There was word that his father had already died and was no more there. Reflecting that he had not returned direct from Kashmir, he felt terrible remorse, he said. For the benefit of his father he arranged for seven
Durgatipariśodhana ma
ṇḍalas to be done.
8Just at the time that he went to Purang there was a monk there who appeared sitting cross-legged on a seat of coarse grass and everyone was paying him respects and there was general wonderment, but our Lama Translator gave thought to the matter and knowing that it was a delusive manifestation of Pehar [an important protective divinity], he sat for a month in profound coercive rites. Then he went to him and pointed his finger at him, and the monk turned head over heels, fell to the ground, and went. From then on our Lama Translator was treated with great respect.
Then the Mighty One King Lhadé invited many noble scholars such as the Paṇḍita Prajñākara Śrīmitra and the Paṇḍita Subhāṣita and they translated the Perfection of Wisdom in its long and medium form. In short he translated and studied many religious works together with the seventy-five paṇḍitas.
The Mighty One Lhadé made him Chief Priest and
Vajrācārya [tantric preceptor] and gave him sites in Purang, and as for the manner of his using these sites to the great honor of the Blessed Ones, he undertook to found 108 temples from Zher in Purang as far as Hobulangka. Then Lhadé asked him to found the temple of Khachar, and in Gugé where he went, the Royal Lama Yeshé-ö founded (with him) the “Twelve Isles” of Toling, and in Maryül (Ladakh) he founded Nyarma, and the foundations of all three were laid out in one day. Thus his activity was unbounded in founding so many temples and in translating so many scriptures. Thus our great Lama Translator operated from Purang upwards and the Junior Translator Lekpé Sherap did translation work down as far as Sakya. Then in order to avert an illness of his mother and to prolong her years he had seven Amit
āyus ma
ṇḍalas done. Thereupon his mother’s life was extended by eighteen years. Then the consecration and formal opening of Khachar in Purang, Toling in Gugé and Nyarma in Maryül, of all these three temples were performed on a great scale.
Afterwards the people of Purang said: “The Great Lama Translator was here and founded our temple and consecrated it,” while the Gugé people said that he was there and the Maryül people said that he was there. The Lama Translator was asked, and he said: “It is true that I was at all three.”
Then to our Great Lama Translator the Royal Lama Yeshé-ö addressed these words: “Great Lama Translator, I wish you to get those books (left) in Kashmir and to go and bring here some skillful artists.” He agreed to go. Then the Royal Bodhisattva said: “Great Lama Translator, although I give you as a parting gift horses and oxen, these will not carry you over the broken tracks and bridges of India. Although I give you gold and silver, they will not transport you far. I am going to give you as a parting gift fifteen intelligent youths as disciples.” The king gave him as an offering the eight kinds of precious bones [sacred relics] and he set out again for Kashmir. Then our Lama Translator thought to himself: “I know many scriptures and have acted on behalf of living beings due to graciousness of my two parents, so I should have made in Kashmir an exceptional memorial to my father.” So he took with him about twenty ounces of gold. Having begged for brass in Kashmir, he obtained a good deal, and so he asked an image-maker named Bhidhaka to make as substitute for his father an image of Avalokite
śvara [corresponding] to his father’s size. Lama
Śraddh
ākaravarman consecrated it, and of the twenty ounces of gold that he had brought from home, he made the lama happy with five of them. Five went in payment for the consecration and unveiling ceremony. Five went for the image-maker’s materials and he gave one as wages. When they were bringing the image in a cart from Kashmir, one of its hands struck against a rock on the track at the Mah
āsa
ṅgala Bridge and the tip of the ring finger was broken off. It was thirteen months since he first left the Village, when he arrived there again with the image. Thinking that Kyuwang was not then a suitable place for doing it honor, he brought the image to Gokhar in Khatsé,
9 and offered it to the community of sixty monks there. He also gave the means for worship at the right times. The Lama Translator passed six years in guiding his disciples in Kashmir and in obtaining the last of his teachings. After six years he returned together with thirty-two artists. Then thinking that he should pay his respects to the Mighty One, the Lama Yeshé-ö, he journeyed to Toling, and since he had invited so many scholars and brought them together, the Royal Lama said: “It is you Translator Rinchen Zangpo who has found the means for these invitations. You are welcome indeed! Now you should train as a translator here this monk from Pangkhyü.” When he had learned translating and become skilled in grammar, he was known as the Pangkhyü Translator. The two of them, master and pupil, translated many scriptures with the help of those pa
ṇḍitas.
[David L. Snellgrove and Tadeusz Skorupski, A Cultural History of Ladakh, 2 vols. (London: Serindia, 1977–80), 2:90–92.]
The following narrative is excerpted from Gö Zhönnupel’s famous history, the
Blue Annals (completed in 1376). It tells the story of the most important Indian figure in the renaissance of Buddhism in western and Central Tibet, Ati
śa D
īpa
ṇkara
śr
ījñ
āna, said by Tibetan tradition to have lived from 982 to 1054. His writings and teachings on ethics and contemplative training gave rise to the first new school of the renaissance, the Kadam. They also eventually formed the intellectual foundations of the most successful school of Tibetan Buddhism, the Geluk (see
chapter 16). Indeed, the latter’s founder, Tsongkhapa (1357–1419), structured his most famous work, the
Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, which begins with a biography of the Indian master, upon a didactic system popularized in Tibet by Ati
śa in his best known text, the
Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment. Both the
Lamp for the Path and the
Stages of the Path divide the religious path into three major phases, corresponding to three levels of human potential. In the first, people seek pleasure in this life, with no thought of the consequences in future lives. In the second, they strive to cultivate moral behavior in this life to gain a superior rebirth in the next. Finally, “superior” persons seek the elimination of suffering not only for themselves but for all others as well. This is of course the hallmark of the bodhisattva, and Ati
śa’s legacy in Tibet is inextricably bound up with his promotion of the bodhisattva ideology and a concomitant conservatism regarding tantric practice.
These doctrinal matters are referenced at several points throughout the biography below, but they are not its central concern. This is the story of Atiśa’s mission in Tibet, and though it does an admirable job of illustrating the difficulty of establishing a new tradition and of hosting a foreign teacher in an unfamiliar social and cultural environment, it is ultimately triumphant; every Tibetan historian knows that the Kadam school and its successors, including the Geluk and, in important aspects of its teaching, the Kagyü school to which Gö Zhönnupel belonged, point back to Atiśa as their origin, and none seeks to argue with this narrative. Though ostensibly an account of Atiśa’s career, this story has four protagonists: Atiśa, the Indian scholar; Lha Lama Yeshé-ö, the western Tibetan king who is credited with inviting him to Tibet (though in fact this is apocryphal); Naktso Tsültrim Gyelwa, the western Tibetan scholar who traveled to India to accompany the Indian teacher to Tibet; and Dromtön Gyelwé Jungné, the lay disciple responsible for bringing Atiśa to the Lhasa region in the later part of his life. The full account contained in the Blue Annals presents as well a number of peripheral figures surrounding these central actors, including most prominently the famous western Tibetan translator Rinchen Zangpo (see above), who the Blue Annals claims underwent a change of heart late in life under Atiśa’s care. Patrons are prominent among the other peripheral figures, and although their lives are not fully described here, it is clear that they were integral to the success of Atiśa’s career in Tibet, and perhaps even that their own success as patrons depended on this Indian teacher. Competition is ubiquitous in this story. Disciples, including Naktso and Drom, compete for teachings and time with the teacher, monastic administrators fight to keep their star scholars, and patrons compete to sponsor a celebrated Buddhist master from a foreign land.
The account proceeds through several sections. After detailing Ati
śa’s early career, it moves to the legendary, ahistorical tale of King Yeshé-ö’s sacrifice, in which he forgoes release from prison so that his ransom may be used to invite the master. The next section describes Naktso’s laborious journey to invite Ati
śa and escort him back to Tibet in 1042. (Although the text refers to Ati
śa’s reception by Lha Lama, that is, Yeshé-ö, the latter had in fact passed away some years earlier, and the actual host was his grand-nephew Jangchup-ö.) In an interim section, not included here, Ati
śa meets the other famous western Tibetan renaissance man, the translator Rinchen Zangpo. Another major figure in the narrative is now also introduced, the religious entrepreneur Dromtön Gyelwé Jungné. After a lengthy early career as a lay disciple of modest means, Drom meets Ati
śa in 1045 and quickly invites him from western to Central Tibet. He succeeds, thereby wresting the management of Ati
śa’s career in Tibet from his prior student and host, Naktso the Translator. Ati
śa’s move from the west becomes emblematic of the reintroduction of Buddhism—in the morally rigorous form of scriptural Mah
āy
āna—to Central Tibet. The final three years of Ati
śa’s life are spent traveling from host to host around the greater Lhasa region, though the temple at Nyetang, south of Lhasa, became his main place of teaching and is still remembered as his primary residence in Tibet. These narratives are among the most famous in Tibetan historical writing, essential for any account of the Tibetan renaissance. KRS
THE EARLY CAREER OF ATIŚA
Now I will write about how Glorious Atiśa promoted the Mahāyāna path tradition in Tibet. This great master [was born] in a magnificent country that Indians refer to as Sahor and Tibetans refer to as Zahor. The king of that country was Kalyāṇaśrī. His power was equal to that of the Eastern Emperors of China, and he lived in a castle named Golden Bannered.
He and his wife, Śrīprabhā, had three sons, Padmagarbha the eldest, Candragarbha the middle, and Śrīgarbha the youngest. Atiśa was Candragarbha, the middle son. At an early age Atiśa beheld Noble Tārā, his personal deity throughout his lifetimes. Because of this he had no desire for political authority.
Atiśa traveled to other lands in search of a spiritual master. Under a yogi at Black Mountain named Rāhulaguhyavajra, he asked for initiation into the Hevajra maṇḍala, learned tantras and their practice instructions, and achieved stability in the two stages of meditation. He then journeyed from place to place. He served the supremely realized Avadhūtipa for seven years and engaged in ascetic practice for three years. In Oḍḍiyāna he took part in religious gatherings with the ḍākiṇīs and heard many diamond songs, which were subsequently written down.
Once when Atiśa was settled within the supreme spiritual practice of the secret spell tradition, Lord Buddha and a large entourage spoke to him in a dream.
“What are you attached to?” they asked. “Why don’t you take monastic ordination?”
Atiśa felt that it would be very beneficial to the Buddhist teachings if he took ordination. So in the Mativihāra of Vajrāsana, he took ordination and full vows at the age of twenty-nine from Śīlarakṣita, a Mahāsaṅghika School superior in the instruction lineage of Buddhajñānapāda, who was fully engaged in spiritual training.
Atiśa heard the majority of the three scriptural collections of the four schools by the time he was thirty-one years old. He became skilled in ritual practices and became a source of knowledge regarding all the schools. At Odantapurī he studied the Mahāvibhāṣā under the teacher Dharmarakṣita, who, being a renunciant, switched houses every seven days. Masters under whom he heard teachings on the Perfection of Wisdom and secret mantra included Jñānaśrīmati; Kusali the younger; Jetāri; Kṛṣṇapāda, also known as Balyācārya; the younger Avadhūtipa; Ḍombhipa; Vidyākokila; Matijñānabodhi; Nāro Paṇḍita; Mahājana; Bhūtakoṭipa; the great scholar Dānaśrī; Prajñābhadra; and Bodhibhadra.
He worked primarily under Ratn
ākara
śānti, who possessed numerous teachings from a variety of lineages. Ati
śa later came before Serlingpa, under whom he heard limitless practice instructions, primarily on the generation of the enlightened attitude. He served long as an elder at Vikrama
śīla, from where word of his greatness pervaded every region.
INVITING ATIŚA TO TIBET
King Lhatsünpa Jangchup-ö had sent many invitations to Atiśa, along with large quantities of gold. Now, Srongngé had replaced Lha Lama Yeshé-ö as the king of Ngari. King Lhadé succeeded him, and Ödé succeded him. Ödé’s two younger brothers were the elder Lhatsünpa Jangchup-ö and the younger Zhiwa-ö, a monk. Zhiwa-ö was skilled in all the Buddhist and non-Buddhist arts. He was also quite a skilled translator.
Lha Lama Yeshé-ö had passed on his political authority. However, he still served as military commander. He was defeated in battle with the Qarluk, who imprisoned him.
“We will release you from prison,” said the Qarluk, “if you renounce your refuge in the Three Jewels [the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha], or if you give us the weight of your body in gold!”
Yeshé-ö stayed in prison for a long time while his ministers collected much gold from Ngari and a portion from a tax on monastic robes from the monks of Ü and Tsang. They amassed most of the gold, and when they had all but the weight of his head, Yeshé-ö’s nephew Jangchub-ö traveled to him among the Qarluk.
“Now we have the weight of your body in gold,” said Jangchub-ö. “When we have the required portion in the weight of your head, we will come to get you.”
“I am old now,” said Yeshé-ö. “I will be of no use to anyone! Take this gold and invite many scholars. Promote Buddhism here!”
Jangchub-ö heeded his words; he invited many scholars and promoted many Dharma teachings.
“There are many monks in Tibet,” Jangchub-ö now considered. “Yet there also appear to be many inappropriate practices, such as copulation and killing in Tantra. Many teach that without any practice, one can become enlightened through emptiness alone. The teachings on monastic conduct have been disseminated, yet I see that the study of bodhisattva conduct has declined. I must locate a great scholar who will quell these evildoers. To be sure, we have invited scholars in the past who have lifted up certain regions. But this has not brought about benefit for Tibet more generally. Were I to invite Atiśa, he would reverse these backward practices, and bring benefit to the Teachings.”
NAKTSO THE TRANSLATOR MEETS ATIŚA
As Jangchup-ö considered this, a certain monk from Gungtang, Naktso Tsültrim Gyelwa, traveled to India in order to study. Gya Tsöndrü Senggé was his primary mentor, and he received many teachings from many scholars, including Ati
śa.
When Naktso returned to Gungtang, Lhatsünpa Jangchup-ö told him to come to his residence.
“You must go and invite Master Atiśa,” he said. “Invite him, and if I am pleased I will make you pleased later. You must not refuse a command from me, the king.”
So Naktso accepted the king’s command. He carried with him much gold, topped off with a piece the weight of sixteen measures of wood. His servants came with him on his way to India. On the road they were fearful of thieves, but they skillfully mollified them, and arrived by night at Vikramaśīla.
Now, Gya Tsöndrü Senggé was sitting on the porch roof as Naktso and his companions recited Tibetan prayers.
“You must be Tibetans!” he yelled down to them. “We will meet tomorrow for sure!”
The next day Gya Tsöndrü Senggé brought Naktso to meet Atiśa. Naktso piled the large amount of gold into a maṇḍala, with the largest piece prominent.
Gya Tsöndrü Senggé spoke. “A long time ago the Teachings were respected in Tibet. Langdarma decimated the Teachings. Since then many years have gone by, and the Great High One [Yeshé-ö] founded many monastic communities. There are many in these monasteries who know the three scriptural collections yet are not capable of practically employing their instructions. Venerable One, who puts these teachings into practice, it would be valuable to the monks if you were to come. Other scholars will have a hard time benefiting them.” He made this and other heartfelt requests.
“You are correct!” replied Atiśa. “Much of the Tibetan king’s gold has been spent on my behalf. And many of the invitees who have arrived have since died of fever. I am shamed before the Tibetan king. So I have decided that if I can help, I will go to Tibet no matter what. However, the Superior of Vikramaśīla will be difficult about it. We need a skillful solution.”
“Naktso,” said Atiśa, “do not mention that you are inviting me. Say only that you have come to study, and then work at your studies.” So Naktso Lotsawa began.
Now Atiśa put the question before his personal deity and a woman at Vajrāsana who was an accomplished yogi.
“You should go to Tibet no matter what!” agreed the god and the ḍākiṇī. “You will benefit the Teachings in general, but in particular your meeting with a certain lay devotee [Dromtön] will be of benefit. But this will take twenty years off of your life!”
It’s fine if my life is shortened, he thought,
if it benefits the Teachings.
So he prepared to depart. With the two translators as his servants, Atiśa set out straightaway, saying that he was going on pilgrimage to Vajrāsana and then to see the Svayambhūnāth Stūpa of Nepal.
“Honored One,” Śīlākara the Superior then said to Naktso the Translator, “I thought you had come to study, yet it seems you are taking away my scholar, and that the scholar is pleased about this. I will not stand in your way. Yet Atiśa should not remain in Tibet for more than three years. He must come back after that.”
Naktso accepted this. They made a large offering at Vajrāsana, then traveled on to Nepal. Atiśa had good dreams when they arrived, so they lived there for one year. He had the great temple of Sthaṃ Vihāra constructed, arranged the necessities for a large monastic community, and gave many teachings.
ATIŚA ARRIVES IN TIBET
Now Atiśa was born in the water-male-horse year [982] and left India in the iron-male-dragon year [1040], when he was fifty-seven years old. He spent the iron-male-serpent year [1041] in Nepal. Finally, he arrived in Ngari in the water-male-horse year [1042]. Naktso the Translator was born in the iron-female-hog year [1011], so he was thirty-one years old when Atiśa arrived in Ngari.
Atiśa said that both the Nepalese food and the Dharma were good at Sthaṃ Vihāra. So when they came to Ngari, Lha Lama had a great welcome prepared. They went to the temple at Toling, and Lha Lama told them many times that his wishes had been fulfilled (Lha Lama later came to visit Atiśa when the Master was living in Ü).
During this time Tibetan teachers questioned [Lha Lama] about the qualifications of the scholars who had visited Ngari.
“This teacher had these qualifications, that one had these,” he would say.
But when they asked about Atiśa’s qualifications he looked up to the sky, clacking his palate, tok tok! “His qualities. Such qualities!” was all he said, for they were beyond description.
Atiśa gave Lha Lama many practice instructions.
“In Tibet,” Lha Lama said, “teachings such as this, teachings such as that exist, which contradict the Dharma. Please compose a work that will be an antidote to them.”
So Atiśa composed the Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, which illustrates the developmental process for three levels of personal aptitude. He stated:
The practice for people of ordinary aptitude is mindfulness of death. If one does not possess an attitude of revulsion from this life, then one cannot fully engage in religious activities. If one believes the mental and physical components to be the self, one cannot attain freedom. If one does not develop an enlightened attitude, one cannot set out upon the Mah
āy
āna path. If one’s Mah
āy
āna path does not integrate understanding and practice, then even if one meditates only upon emptiness, one will never become enlightened.
So saying, he eliminated the arrogance of those who claimed to possess contemplative experience.
He also stated, “With the exception of those who understand reality, it is not appropriate to perform the actual practices of the second and third tantric initations.”
And he proclaimed in a lion’s roar: “Ritualized sex and killing are not appropriate in any literal fashion!”
Atiśa was able to calculate the effects of moral causes, so he was the “Karma Scholar.” He heard about this nickname and was pleased to think that it might be of benefit to others.
Atiśa lived in Ngari for three years, setting both monks and commoners upon the righteous path. The experiential practices derived from his system spread far. He was about to return to India, but he met Drom while he was staying at Gyelzhing in Purang.
ATIŚA MEETS DROMTÖN
Now, when Drom arrived in Ngari, the goddess Tārā said to Atiśa, “Your lay student will be here in three or four days, so get ready for him.”
So Atiśa set an initiation vase under a cushion. At noon on the fourth day he invited his entourage and his patrons to lunch, but as he watched the road he wondered, Has the Goddess deceived me?
But while walking on a straight part of the road, he came right up to Drom. As if he were meeting someone with whom he was quite familiar, Drom did not say a thing to the group, but proceeded with them as if he were simply one of Atiśa’s assistants. In the evening he took his daily portion of butter and made butter lamps to offer. Atiśa granted him initiation. They then sat cushion to cushion and were able to talk at length.
Three days later Atiśa and his entourage set out on the road to Kyirong, where they spent the bird year [1045]. They meant to go to Belpo Dzong, but the road was blocked due to fighting, and they were not able to make the trip.
Drom regaled Atiśa with stories of the many temples in Central Tibet—in Lhasa, Samyé, and elsewhere—and of the many thousands of monks there.
“There are not even that many pure practitioners in India,” said Atiśa. “I wonder whether there are many realized ones as well.”
As he said this he made many prostrations in the direction of Ü. This strengthened Drom’s nerve, and he asked Atiśa to make the journey to Central Tibet.
ATIŚA’S LEGACY AND DEATH
Later adherents of the Kadampa School blame Naktso the Translator for having violated his oath [of loyalty to his teacher] when he dared depart [for Nepal] on the eve of Ati
śa’s death. Sharawa rejects this, saying, “What fragmented happiness we Kadampa have today is owed to the kindness of this translator. But we Kadampa speak only insults!”
On the whole it was Dromtön who served as Atiśa’s aide when he came to Tibet. Atiśa revealed his thoughts only to him. When they lived at Samyé he granted many tantric practices to Drom, and at Chimpu he granted him profound instructions such as the Dohā spiritual songs. If anyone arrived who was practicing tantra literally and without Atiśa’s blessing, Drom would pretend that he had never even heard Atiśa’s profound teachings [in order to dissuade them from attending]. Milarepa scorned this when he met [his disciple] Dakpo Lhajé [i.e., Gampopa, a former Kadampa disciple].
“You must construct a small center,” said Atiśa to Drom. “I am entrusting my teachings to you, so take care of them!”
“I won’t be any good at this!” said Drom. “I have only taken layman’s vows, so I won’t be able to accomplish much.”
“Work just as the training tells you to work,” said Atiśa. “I will bless you, don’t worry.”
In the wood-male-horse year [1054], on the twentieth day of the mid-autumn month, Atiśa passed away to Tuṣita Heaven.
[Bod gangs can yul du chos dang chos smra ji ltar byung ba’i rim pa bstan pa’i deb ther sngon po (Chengdu: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1984), vol. 1, 297–321 (selections). Trans. KRS. See also George N. Roerich, trans., The Blue Annals (Calcutta: Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1949), vol. 1, 241–261.]
Putowa (or Potowa) Rinchen-sel (1031–1105) was one of Dromtön’s leading disciples and is associated with an enormous body of Kadampa literature concerning the path of Mah
āy
āna Buddhism and the “refinement of the mind” (
lojong), that is to say, the spiritual training of an aspirant bodhisattva. It remains to be clarified to what extent this corpus represents his own work, and what seems often more likely, his tradition of teaching as recorded by disciples and grand-disciples. Many aspects of this literature, however, are so clear and consistent that we can be reasonably certain that they reflect tendencies he himself imparted. The works attributed to him, for instance, make great use of parables, proverbs, anecdotes, and colloquial expressions, now often difficult to understand, all of which must have given his teaching enormous immediacy and appeal when he articulated it. Doctrinally, he appears consistently as a staunch defender of a gradualist approach to Mah
āy
āna practice, eschewing any hint that enlightenment might be attained all at once, in a sudden breakthrough.
The first of the following selections, on the importance of meditating on impermanence, is drawn from a brief anthology of popular sayings of the early Kadampa masters, compiled by one of Putowa’s leading successors, Chegom Dzongpa Sherap Dorjé (twelfth century). The second, concerning the practice of meditation itself, represents one of the most treasured and difficult works of Putowa’s tradition, The Dharma in Parables, which abounds in archaic colloquialisms and other obscure turns of phrase. The brief italicized phrases represent the basic text, essentially a list of similes, metaphors, and proverbs that obviously require much commentarial elaboration if a coherent teaching is to be delivered on their basis. As our purpose here is primarily to illustrate Putowa’s way of teaching, only the first two of the twenty-four parables on meditation mentioned are given in this selection. MTK
I
A geshé asked Geshé Putowa: “If you practice one doctrine, which would be most important?”
Putowa said: “If you are to practice one doctrine, then this meditative cultivation of impermanence is most important. When meditatively cultivating [the awareness of] death and impermanence, first it acts as the basis for entering into the doctrine, next it acts as the condition encouraging engagement in virtue, and in the end it helps one to realize the equipoise of reality. Again, if you meditatively cultivate this impermanence, at first it acts as the basis for cutting off the entanglements of this lifetime, next it forms the condition for reversing hankering for all saṃsāra, and finally it helps one to enter the path of nirvāna. Again, if you meditatively cultivate this impermanence, at first it acts as the basis for the emergence of faith, next it forms the condition for one to undertake efforts, and finally it helps discernment to emerge. Again, if you meditatively cultivate this impermanence and it takes root in your mind stream, at first it acts as the basis for seeking the doctrine, next it forms the condition for achieving the doctrine, and finally, it assists in reaching the ends of the doctrine. Again, if you meditatively cultivate this impermanence and it takes root in your mind stream, then at first it acts as the basis for undertaking armoring efforts, next it forms the condition for undertaking applied efforts, and finally it assists in undertaking irreversible efforts.”
II
Now, in teaching about the principles of meditation, there are three general topics: the essence of meditation, its divisions, and the application of it to the mind stream.
First, the essence: in general, it is the mind’s unwavering adherence to its objective. In particular, it is the one-pointedness of mind on behalf of sentient beings.
There are three divisions to it: meditation that analyzes an object; meditation that objectifies reality; and the meditation of incorruptible virtue.
As for the teaching of their sequential application to the mind stream, this is indicated through twenty-four parables.
First, eleven parables indicate the cooperative conditions, of which the first three reveal the basis for meditation.
It is like pure water in a taintless vessel.
If, for instance, you pour pure water into a pure and taintless vessel, it will be perfectly clear from top to bottom, and the moon will be clearly reflected within it. Similarly, if you are endowed with pure moral discipline, like the pure vessel, and so cultivate the instructions of the guru, which are like pure water, you will at once attain a limpidly clear, tranquil concentration. It is said that insight is the lunar reflection that arises therein. Thus, on the basis of superior moral discipline, superior concentration arises, and superior discernment arises from that, whereby the afflictions are uprooted and omniscience obtained. Therefore, it is said that you must first purely abide in the lessons, vows, and commitment of higher moral discipline. As soon as there is that purity, your mind is freed from regrets, and with the mind thus fit, concentration naturally arises in the mind stream. Therefore, moral discipline is said to be the foremost [basis] for meditation.
Born from solitude.
The men of the first eon had concentration as an innate faculty. Because, in that state, there was no question of being occupied with mundane affairs or not, [concentration] arose from dwelling in the solitude of body, speech, and mind. Similarly, when we cultivate meditation, at the outset a solitary abode is required. Dwelling in a solitary place that is free from sharp noises at night, and without people going about by day, if you abandon affairs and activities and cultivate [the practice of meditation], it is said that concentration will arise naturally. Therefore, to dwell in solitude is the basis for increasing concentration, as well as the basis for purifying moral discipline.
Dwelling in solitude, like a forest breeze,
Like a wild animal, wandering fearlessly alone—
Just so the monk who is the heir to the Conqueror’s line.
So it is said.
Contented.
Those of us who cultivate meditation must be contented, with few desires for any outer things. If you have few desires and are contented, then men will not be able to lead you by the nose, and you will set yourself up in solitude. The mental faculties naturally coming to a state of ease, it is said that concentration will forcefully increase. Thus, with few desires and contented, you must produce an attitude that is attached to nothing at all. When that is produced, moral discipline will also be purified naturally, automatically. If you can set yourself up in solitude, it is said that meditation will develop according to its essential nature. As it says in the
Ornament of the Sūtras:
The meditation of the bodhisattva
Is unattached, has been unattached, will be unattached;
It is not itself an attachment,
But is unattached, has been unattached, will be unattached.
[Bka’ gdams gsung thor bu, Lhasa xylograph 17b6f., and Dpe chos rin chen spungs pa (Beijing: Minzu Chubanshe, 1991), Chapter 26: Explanations on the Topic of Meditation. Trans. MTK.]
The Nyingmapa stand in a distinctive relationship to all other traditions of Tibetan religion. As their name, which literally means the “Ancients,” suggests, the school maintains that it uniquely represents the ancient Buddhism of Tibet, introduced during the reigns of the great kings of Tibet’s imperial age. Fundamental to the distinctions informing Tibetan views of religious adherence is a broad division between the “ancient translation tradition” (Ngagyur Nyingma) and the “new mantra traditions” (Sangngak Sarma), where “mantra” refers to Buddhist esotericism, “tantrism,” as it is called in the West, in general. The former includes all of those lines of teaching that eventually came to be grouped together under the rubric Nyingmapa (“Ancients”). Their identity, however, was formed only after the tenth century, when the proponents of the newly introduced esoteric systems began to attack the older traditions as corrupt, or as outright Tibetan fabrications. We have seen an example of the polemics that circulated in the first selection in this chapter, the Ordinance of Yeshé-ö. In response, the adherents of the earlier traditions argued that their esoteric teachings and practices were derived from the texts and instructions transmitted during the time of the Tibetan monarchs of the seventh to ninth centuries, above all Tri Songdetsen (reigned 755–c. 797). The post–tenth-century Nyingmapa came to hold that the Buddhist culture heros of that age—in particular the Indian masters Padmasambhava and Vimalamitra and the Tibetan translator Vairocana, but many others as well—had introduced a purer, more refined and elevated form of esotericism than was being transmitted in Tibet from the late tenth century on. During this period in which a distinctive Nyingmapa identity took form, the lineages involved were often familial lines of lay priests, not monks, and it is impossible to think of them as yet forming a cohesive order. In later times, the Nyingmapa tended to rely on the renewed revelation of texts and teachings that were held to be spiritual “treasures” (terma) inspired by, but not derived in a direct line from, the traditions of the early masters. The proliferation of large numbers of new terma lineages further undercut the unity of the Nyingmapa.
Though a clear Nyingmapa identity was thus formed primarily in reaction to the criticisms of early Tibetan tantrism from the late tenth century on, certain characteristic features of later Nyingmapa teaching are already evident in documents from Dunhuang dating to the ninth and tenth centuries, as well as in the works of relatively early writers such as Nupchen Sanggyé Yeshé (circa late ninth–early tenth century). These works make clear that two of the key elements of the Nyingmapa ritual and contemplative tradition were already emerging during the early postimperial period: the Mah
āyoga (“Great Yoga”) system of tantric ritual, and the Dzokchen (“Great Perfection”) approach to meditation, emphasizing abstract contemplation (see
chapter 5). By the eleventh century some adherents of the old lineages following these approaches began to defend their tradition against detractors and to elaborate its doctrine and codify its ritual. The prolific scholar and translator Rongzom Chökyi Zangpo (eleventh century) exemplifies these trends. The selection given here, though attributed to Rongzom, is so far only known from works written in later times that cite him, not from his surviving writings themselves. However, it well represents the apologetics of Nyingmapa partisans in the face of attacks launched by the adherents of the “new translations.” MTK
First, concerning the greatness of the benefactors who introduced them [the “ancient tantras”]: Since the benefactors of the ancient translation period were the three ancestral kings, who were the sublime Lords of the Three Families in kingly guise, they were unlike the benefactors of the later translation period.
Second, concerning the locations in which they were translated and established: Since the ancient translations were accomplished in such emanated temples as Samyé and the other doctrinal centers of the past, high and low,
10 they are unlike those translated in the monastic grottoes of today.
Third, concerning the distinctions of the translators: Those doctrines were translated by emanational translators, the translators of the past such as Vairocana, Kawa Peltsek, Chokro Lü Gyeltsen, Zhang Yeshé Dé, Ma Rinchen-chok, and Nyak Jñ
ānakum
āra. Thus, they are unlike the translations made by the translators of today, who pass the summer in Mangyül and travel to India and Nepal for a short time during the winter.
Fourth, concerning the distinctions of the scholars [who supervised the ancient translations]: Those doctrines were introduced by buddhas and sublime bodhisattvas abiding on the great levels, [namely,] the scholars of the past such as the preceptor Śāntarakṣita, Buddhaguhya, the great master Padmākara (i.e., Padmasambhava), and the great paṇḍita Vimalamitra. Thus, they were unlike the scholars of today who wander about in search of gold.
Fifth, concerning the distinctions of the blossoms [offered] as the basis for commissioning [the translations]: In the past the doctrines were requested with offerings of gold weighed out in deerskin pouches, or by the measure. Thus, they were unlike the requests made [by disciples of] the present day with one or two gold bits drawn from under their own arms.
11Sixth, concerning the distinctions of the doctrine itself: The translations of the past were completed at a time when the doctrine of the Buddha had reached its zenith in India. Furthermore, there were tantras which did not even exist in India proper, which were retained by bodhisattvas, accomplished masters, awareness-holders, and ḍākiṇīs who had obtained their empowerments. They were taken from pure lands, and from regions of Jambudvīpa such as Siṅghala and Oḍḍiyāna in the west, through the arrayed miraculous powers of the great master Padmasambhava, Vimalamitra, and others, and then translated [in Tibet]. Thus, many [doctrines] which were completely unknown to the scholars and accomplished masters of India arrived to become the meritorious fortune of Tibet.
Furthermore, concerning the translations themselves: Since the translators of the past were emanations, they established the meanings correctly. For this reason their works are easy to understand and, on plumbing their depths, the blessing is great. But the translators of the later period were unable to render the meaning and made lexical translations following [merely] the arrangement of the Sanskrit texts. Consequently, their forced terminology is hard to understand, and on plumbing the depths the blessing is slight. Therefore, they are dissimilar.
[Dudjom Rinpoche, Jikdrel Yeshe Dorje, The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism: Its Fundamentals and History, trans. Gyurme Dorje and Matthew Kapstein, 2nd ed. (Boston: Wisdom, 2002), vol. 1, 889–890.]
