2. ORIGIN OF LAMRIM INSTRUCTIONS

THIS TEACHING ON Lamrim (stages of the path) is one of eight great commentaries on Lamrim. This commentary explains the essential practices of Lamrim and also their preliminaries, in conjunction with the practice of tantra; specific parts of the meditations are associated with the tantric visualizations of nectar flowing within the body, and so forth. Among the eight commentaries, this text composed by Panchen Lama Choekyi Gyaltsen, called Path to Bliss (Delam),¹ and also the commentary on it composed by Panchen Palden Yeshi and entitled The Swift Path (Nyurlam),² are related to the practice of tantra, whereas the remaining six deal with Lamrim practices purely from a Perfection Vehicle standpoint.

For the practice of Lamrim, there are two major lineages, both stemming from Buddha Shakyamuni: the lineage of the Profound View transmitted through Manjushri, and the lineage of Vast Practice coming through Maitreya. These two lineages emerged as a result of an elucidation of the dual aspects of the subject matter of the Wisdom Sutras taught by the Buddha himself: the doctrine of emptiness (the explicit subject matter) and the stages of clear realization (the hidden meaning). Manjushri expounded the first and Maitreya the second.

Atisha integrated the two lineages, and from this integration there later arose the three lineages of the Kadam tradition. In Tibet, Atisha composed the text called Jhangchup Lamgyi Dronme (Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment), which served as the basis for many of the subsequent Lamrim treatises that emerged later in Tibet.

The great Lama Tsongkhapa, having received the three Kadam lineages, composed Lamrim Chenmo (The Great Exposition of the Stages of the Path), as well as an intermediate length version of it that omitted much elaboration but devoted special attention to the Two Truths in the section on special insight. He also wrote a very short form, in verse, called Lamrim Nyamgur (Songs of Spiritual Experience).

The Third Dalai Lama, Sonam Gyatso, composed a text called Lamrim Sershunma (Essence of Refined Gold), which is in fact a commentary on Lama Tsongkhapa’s shortest version of Lamrim. The Fifth Dalai Lama composed a Lamrim, a commentary on the Third Dalai Lama’s Lamrim, called Jampel Shalung (The Sacred Words of Manjushri), and Panchen Lama Choekyi Gyaltsen composed this Lamrim text, Path to Bliss. Panchen Palden Yeshi composed The Swift Path and then later Dagpo Ngawang Jamphel wrote a Lamrim in verse form. These eight are known as the eight great commentaries on the stages of the path.

Path to Bliss encompasses all the essential points of the sutra and tantra paths and has the advantage of having all the visualizations arranged in a manner conducive to systematic meditation. I know many people who have memorized this entire text and who undertake their practice on the basis of it, thus modeling the whole structure of the path on it.

I received the transmission of this Lamrim from the late Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche. Since the commentary being given is an experiential commentary, the tradition requires that I give the commentary four times,³ which means three repetitions today and one more tomorrow.

Regarding the mode of teaching and studying such a text, it is important on the part of the teacher to have pure motivation, to have the altruistic intention to really benefit the disciples, and for the disciples on their part to always relate the teachings to their own minds, to have the altruistic intention to benefit all sentient beings, and to dedicate all the merit of the teaching for the benefit of others.

On your part, as disciples, you should conduct the appropriate visualizations. These should also be done with the preliminary practices. The preliminaries are explained here in terms of six preparatory practices, Jorwai Choedrug, often abbreviated as Jorchoe. The six preparatory practices are: (1) cleaning the meditation environment and arranging the images, scriptures, stupas—representations of the body, speech, and mind of the Buddha—in their proper order; (2) beautifully setting up the offerings (which should be free from the taints of being procured through wrong means); (3) sitting on a comfortable meditation cushion in the seven-featured Vairocana posture, and, with the right state of mind, engaging in taking refuge and generating the altruistic motivation; (4) visualizing the merit field; (5) performing the seven-limbed practice and mandala offering, an endeavor encompassing all the essentials of purifying negativities and accumulating merit; and (6) beseeching the gurus to infuse one’s mind with their inspirations.

One could do the preliminaries also on the basis of the guru yoga practice of Lama Choepa,⁴ or a shorter version of the guru yoga practice known as Gaden Lhagyama (The Hundred Deities of the Joyous Land). It is not the ritual that is important—what is important is that one does the proper visualizations. The point is that you have to perform the visualizations that have been discussed by the teacher during the day. As the guru explains to you, your visualization should not be done in such a way that you have the notion that you are looking at something out there, but rather you should integrate the visualization with your own mind, trying to relate it to the state of your own mind, thus directly effecting some change and discipline within the mind. Undertaking a practice which combines contemplative and absorptive meditations on the basis of such a text and oral commentary constitutes receiving an experiential commentary. So the parts that the teacher covers daily should be visualized every day and the rest of the Lamrim practices could then be just reviewed. One could do that quite easily on the basis of some outlines, which is in fact much easier and also convenient. If you can, you should do that; if not, then there is nothing one can do about it.

It is important, when you are engaged in these practices, to focus your mind on them and not to let your mind be distracted, even by the arisal of other virtuous thoughts. You should not let your mind be led astray, but should rather channel it on the specific practice in which you are engaging, be it contemplative or absorptive. Letting your mind be distracted by thoughts that are totally unrelated to the practice that you have set out to undertake may actually give you a bad habit of letting your mind stray. So, right at the beginning of the session develop a strong determination that you shall never let your mind deviate from the practice. Furthermore, it is important to stick with the particular meditation that you have set out to undertake. Doing the practice properly, even for a short period of time, is better than spending a long time with all sorts of distractions. The emphasis should be on quality rather than quantity. You should also figure out means to overcome mental sinking and mental excitement, which may also depend on external factors like climate and food. The reason that we have not been able to make any progress at all, even in spite of our being acquainted with dharma for so long, is that we have not been able to focus our minds properly and pay the attention that is needed in such a practice. Therefore, I see the concentration of the mind when doing a practice as very important; if it is done, then there is every possibility that you will be able to undergo changes for the better.

Sometimes you might feel discouraged. Under such circumstances, it is important to compare your mind, your way of thinking and your actions of ten, fifteen, or twenty years ago with the state of mind you have now. This will enable you to gain encouragement by seeing that you have made some progress. You will be able to notice a certain change in your mind: your interest in dharma is stronger, your faith is more firmly rooted, and you lose your temper less often. These are signs of making progress.

The full title of this text is A Practical Guide to the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment: A Path to Bliss Leading to Omniscience. The text is preceded by a salutation to one’s own spiritual master who is seen as inseparable from the Buddha Vajradhara. Buddha Shakyamuni, the master of the sutra vehicle, appears in the aspect of Buddha Vajradhara, the master of tantric teachings. This text deals with all the essential points of both sutra and tantra; the form of the salutation accords also with this fact, because the success of the path, especially that of the tantric path, depends entirely upon receiving initial inspiration from a spiritual master.

It is very important, just as Lama Tsongkhapa pointed out in Lamrim Chenmo, to have proper reliance on a qualified spiritual master, because so much depends upon the master. For this reason, the practice of guru devotion is emphasized to a great degree at the beginning of this text. All the great traditions of Tibetan Buddhism emphasize the importance for serious meditators of having a very special guru devotion practice. When faith and conviction are taken as the basis for any of these practices—whether they be Mahamudra (Great Seal) or Lamrim—one will be able to make great spiritual progress. Many people have told me that they have experienced this for themselves.

Lord Buddha himself has outlined specific qualifications that a spiritual teacher must possess in relation to the different types of practices, in various scriptures on vinaya, prajnaparamita, and tantra. Lama Tsongkhapa, in his Lamrim Chenmo, has extensively discussed the qualifications of an ideal spiritual mentor.⁵ Therefore, practitioners who are seeking a spiritual master have the information needed to judge whether or not the person in whom they are seeking spiritual guidance possesses the appropriate qualities. It is important to rely upon someone who will be able to show you the right path toward enlightenment. Once you have relied upon a master, it is important to maintain a proper reliance, in both thought and action.

Since this text explains the mode of doing the visualization of the Lamrim in a rather condensed form, the outlines are slightly different from those of Lamrim Chenmo. The outline of Lamrim Chenmo has four major divisions. These four are: (1) the exceptional qualities of the author, in order to demonstrate the authenticity of the teachings; (2) the exceptional qualities of the teaching, in order to inspire respect for the instructions; (3) the way in which the text possessing the two exceptional qualities should be studied and taught; and (4) the stages of leading disciples with the actual instructions.

In order for a dharma teaching or text to be considered authentic, its origins should be traceable to the original teachings of the Buddha himself. The instructions on Lamrim have their origin in the prajnaparamita sutras taught by the Buddha.

The root text of the Lamrim is regarded as being Maitreya’s Abhisamayalankara (The Ornament of Clear Realizations), especially the section dealing with what is known as the “serial training” in the sixth chapter of the text. This work categorizes all the various stages of the spiritual journey to full enlightenment by a prospective bodhisattva into four trainings. These four are: (1) training in the complete aspects (namzog jorwa); (2) peak training (tsemoi jorwa); (3) serial training (thargyi jorwa); and (4) momentary training (kechigmai jorwa).⁶ Basically, the summary verses at the end of the Abhisamayalankara, where the entire text is summarized into three divisions—the three objects of meditation, the four trainings, and the resultant kayas of buddhahood—are taken as the source of Lamrim meditations. There are specific verses also in the fourth chapter of that text where conviction and faith in the spiritual master are emphasized along with conviction in the law of causality. That section also outlines the process of cultivating the altruistic attitude, bodhicitta, and then engaging in the actual deeds, the practices of the six perfections—thus the entire practice of Lamrim.

There are actually various ways and means of undertaking a practice of dharma, suiting the diverse faculties, interests, and needs of trainees. To study a text, we should take into account the circumstances, the situation, the time, the society, and the community where a book was originally written or a teaching taught. For example, you will see a difference between the style and composition of commentaries and texts authored by the Indian masters and those authored by the Tibetan masters. We find that there are many variations in the styles and techniques adopted by different masters for leading disciples or trainees on the stages of the path. These diversities have a special significance.

The style and the process of the path as explained in the Lamrim were first initiated by the Indian master Atisha. Although he was Indian, since his text on the stages of the path was composed in Tibet, he took into account the mentality and needs of the Tibetan people and wrote a text that would lead the practitioners through the comprehensive yet condensed practices of the three scopes. Therefore, Lama Tsongkhapa, when commenting on the exceptional qualities of the author at the beginning of his Lamrim Chenmo, wrote down the qualifications of Atisha, thus implying that he was the actual author of the text. For the Tibetans, Atisha’s kindness is indeed boundless.

Since the Gelug tradition later came to be known as the new Kadam tradition, retrospectively Atisha’s tradition came to be known as the old Kadampa. The Kadam tradition that emerged from Atisha and his chief disciple Dromtonpa was really very impressive, very straightforward, practical, and pure in its doctrine. Lama Tsongkhapa’s various versions of Lamrim took Atisha’s Lamp as their basis and complemented the section on special insight by adding materials from the major treatises of Indian masters such as Nagarjuna. In these sections, he not only explains the methods of cultivating the two factors of the path—wisdom and method—in a systematic way, but also clarifies many points that were left obscure before his time.

Then, as stated above, the First Panchen Lama composed this exceptional text on Lamrim. He was a great being with high realizations, and was totally non-sectarian, a person who was deeply admired by many great personalities of his time. As Lama Tsongkhapa mentioned in his Lamrim Chenmo, through the practice of Lamrim one could realize all the teachings of the Buddha as personal advice, see all his teachings as non-contradictory, and easily understand the ultimate intent of the Buddha. Thus, through such practice, the grave misdeed of abandoning the doctrine would be naturally prevented. Hence, one could say that the exceptional qualities of this text are: (1) an encompassing of the entire subject matter of Lamrim; (2) an easy applicability, as the text is composed in a style designed primarily for meditation; and (3) an endowment with the instructions of the two lineages. The text is quite condensed, yet very profound, consisting of all the essential points of Lamrim explained in conjunction with unique tantric visualizations.

For an intensive meditation on Lamrim practices it is essential to engage in a preliminary stage of practice, preparing for one’s meditation not only a conducive external environment but also a receptive mind. This can best be undertaken within the framework of what are known as the six preparatory practices.