NOTES

INTRODUCTION

1. The first gathering to bring together leaders of the major world faiths and environmental leaders took place in Assisi, Italy, in 1986 and was organized by the Worldwide Fund for Nature.

2. ‘No-soul’ and ‘no-self’ are translations of the Sanskrit term, anatman. This theory is the third of the Four Seals which distinguish Buddhism from other philosophies and religions. The Four Seals are: all composite phenomena are impermanent; all contaminated phenomena are by nature unsatisfactory; all phenomena are empty of selfexistence; and nirvana is true peace.

3. Dependent origination, or dependent arising, are translations of the Sanskrit pratityasamutpada. It is the natural law that all phenomena arise ‘dependent upon’ their own causes ‘in connection with’ their individual conditions. Everything arises exclusively due to and dependent upon the coincidence of causes and conditions without which they cannot possibly appear.

4. A buddha is literally someone who is awakened (from Sanskrit bodhi, awake) so buddhahood is the awakened state.

5. ‘Cessation’ is a technical term meaning ‘the complete cessation of suffering’. Samsara refers to the cycle of suffering, and the cessation of that cycle is commonly identified as nirvana.

6. See Majjhima Nikaya I, p. 190-191, Pali Text Society. See also the Pratityamutpada Sutra.

7. The Ten Non-virtuous Actions we should avoid are: killing, stealing, sexual misconduct (three of the body); lying, slander, irresponsible chatter, verbal abuse (four of speech); covetousness, vindictiveness, and holding wrong views (three of the mind).

CHAPTER ONE

1. The Changeless Nature, translation of the Uttaratantra by Ken and Katia Holmes, Karma Drubgyud Darjay Ling, UK, 1985. Page 135. The Uttaratantra is also known as the Ratnagotravibhaga.

2. The Twelve Links of Dependent Origination form the twelve-fold cycle of causal connections which binds beings to samsaric existence and thus perpetuates suffering. These Links are depicted around the famous Buddhist Wheel of Life, which illustrates the six realms of samsara and their various causes. The Links are, going clockwise around the Wheel: ignorance, volition or karmic formations, consciousness, name and form, the six bases of consciousness, contact, feeling, desire, attachment, becoming, birth, and old age and death. See The Meaning of Life from a Buddhist Perspective by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, Wisdom Publications, 1992.

CHAPTER TWO

1. For a detailed treatment of Buddhist cosmology in English, see Myriad Worlds by Jamgon Kongtrul, Snow Lion, 1995.

2. The human world is part of the Desire Realm. The Formless Realm is more subtle than the Form Realm, which in turn is more subtle than the Desire Realm.

3. The early teachings of Buddhism are divided into the Vinaya, or code of discipline, the Sutras, or discourses of the Buddha, and the Abhidharma which is the commentarial and philosophical literature composed by Buddhist masters. Two complete corpuses of Abhidharma literature have survived to the present day: that of the Theravada school, in Pali, and that of the Sarvastivada school, in Sanskrit. Only the Sarvastivadin Abhidharma was taught in Tibet. The chief reference on cosmology is Chapter Three of Vasubandhu’s Abhidharmakosha, translated into English by Leo Pruden, Asian Humanities Press, Berkeley California, 1991.

4. Three Aspects of the Path, verse 7. See Robert Thurman’s Life and Teachings of Tsongkhapa, Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, Dharamsala, India, 1982.

5. According to Tibetan Buddhism there are six realms in samsara, each dominated by a particular mental poison. They are: the hell realms (anger), the animal realm (ignorance), the realm of pretas or hungry ghosts (miserliness), the human realm (desire), the demi-god or Asura realm (jealousy), and the god realm (pride).

6. This statement can be found in Majjhima Nikaya I (p. 262, Pali Text Society) and Majjhima III (p. 43, Pali Text Society) and Samyutta Nikaya II (p. 28, Pali Text Society).

7. Buddhist psychology bases the perception process on six sense faculties: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch and thought. Each faculty relates to a sense organ (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind) and to a consciousness which functions specifically with that organ. There are thus six sense consciousnesses, the sixth one being the mental consciousness.

CHAPTER THREE

1. The term ‘karma’ comes from the Sanskrit word ‘karman’, meaning ‘action’. It has three main meanings in Indian philosophy. The first is karma as ritual action, namely the sacrifice, in the early Vedas and Mimamsa philosophy. The second is karma as a particular category of human action, namely defiled and limited action, which we find in Samkhya Yoga, Advaita, the Bhagavad Gita and Buddhism. And the third meaning refers to karma not as an action but as a theory of action, in particular the theory of action as causal determinant. It is to this third meaning that the Dalai Lama refers here.

2. Chatuhshatakashastrakarika, chapter 8, verse 15.

3. See in particular the third and fourth chapters in Vasubandhu’s Abhidharmakosha.

4. See a fuller discussion of this topic by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in dialogue with David Bohm in Dialogues with Scientists and Sages: The Search for Unity, edited by Renée Weber (Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1986).

CHAPTER FOUR

1. The third category of phenomena are ‘very obscure phenomena’, which are beyond ordinary direct perception and logical inference. Generally, they can only be established on the basis of another’s testimony or through scriptural authority.

2. This view is held in particular by the Shravakayana schools, especially the Vaibhasikas or Sarvastivadins, and the Sautrantikas.

3. Chapter XXIV, verse 18.

4. His Holiness is referring to a text known as The Interwoven Praise (sPal mar bstod pa), which is a commentary in verse on Tsongkhapa’s famous Praise to the Buddha for his teachings on Dependent Origination (rTen ‘brel bstod pa). Lodrö Gyatso was a late nineteenth century Gelug master from Amdo and was more widely known as Chone Lama Rinpoche.

CHAPTER FIVE

1. See the Dasabhumika Sutra for an explanation of the stages of the bodhisattva path.

2. In the Indian tradition, the Buddhist path was generally presented as the Noble Eightfold Path, which is composed of: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right meditation, and right concentration. The Tibetan tradition also describes the Buddhist path in terms of the Five Paths, which are the path of accumulation, the path of connection, the path of seeing, the path of meditation, and the path of no more learning. Within this framework, the Noble Eightfold Path would be included in the path of meditation.

3. The Bodhicharyavatara by Shantideva, X.55.