NOTES
1. Tib., Lam-sgron. This text, together with its autocommentary, is preserved in the Tibetan commentarial canon, the Tengyur. Several English translations of the root text exist. See Atisha and Tibet, A. Chattopadhyaya and Lama Chinpa (Calcutta: Indian Studies Publishers, 1967). More recently a translation of Atisha’s autocommentary to A Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment has appeared in translation, A Lamp for the Path and Commentary, by Richard Sherburne (London: Allen & Unwin, 1983).
2. The dates of the early Indian Buddhist masters are very difficult to establish with any degree of precision due to the lack of surviving documentation. Generally, Nagarjuna is placed in the first to second century C.E., and Asanga in the third to fourth.
3. This Dharmakirti should not be confused with Dharmakirti the logician who wrote the pramana literature.
4. This is present-day Indonesia. Most scholars accept the theory that Atisha studied somewhere in Sumatra. However, there is evidence in Tibetan tradition that suggests that it was near Borobodur, Java, and I feel that this is more likely.
5. See Atisha and Tibet.
6. Tib., Lam-rim-tha-rgyan. An English translation of this work is available: The Jewel Ornament of Liberation, translated by H.V. Guenther (London: Rider and Co., 1959).
7. See The Opening of the True Dharma by Jamyang Khyentse, translated by A. Berzin and Sherpa Tulku (Dharamsala, India: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1979).
8. Tib., bDe-lam-lam-rim.
9. Tib., ’Jam-dbyangs-zhal-lung.
10. Tib., Myur-lam-lam-rim.
11. Tib., Lam-rim-snying-gu.
12. I included this commentary—though not the prayer appended to it—in Bridging the Sutras and Tantras (Ithaca, New York: Snow Lion Publications, 1981).
13. Shakyamuni, which literally means “the Sage of the Shakya Clan,” is simply another name for the historical Buddha. He is known by this epithet because his family was of the Shakya lineage.
14. Five principal scriptures resulted from the visions Asanga had of Maitreya Buddha after the former completed twelve years of retreat. These are known in Tibetan as the Mi-pam-de-nga. Western scholars attribute these to Asanga, as it was he who wrote them down. Traditional Buddhists, however, credit them to Maitreya, for it was he who inspired them.
15. Tib., rJe-btsun-bla-ma. The term simply means “holy guru.”
16. This quotation is taken from Maitreya’s Uttaratantra, another of the Five Works of Maitreya mentioned in note 14 above.
17. Tib., Sangs-rgyas.
18. The Third Dalai Lama’s own rite of this nature is translated in Appendix I of this volume.
19. This and the Shantideva quotations that His Holiness gives in his commentary to each of the subsequent perfections are from A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life (Skt., Bodhisattvacharyavatara). Shantideva’s Guide is considered to be the clearest practical exposition of the bodhisattva perfections to be written in classical India.
20. The first month of spring.
21. Panchen Sonam Drakpa had been the Second Dalai Lama’s principal student. Later in life he became the guru of the young Third Dalai Lama. His monastic textbooks still dominate the course of studies at Drepung Monastery.
22. That is, Cho-khor-gyal Monastery, which had been built by the Second Dalai Lama at the Lake of Visions.
23. Palden Lhamo, or Shridevi, is the wrathful manifestation of the female bodhisattva Tara, symbol of the active compassionate energy aspect of enlightenment. The First Dalai Lama had made the Tara tantric system one of his main meditational practices, and the Second Dalai Lama had continued the tradition, in addition making Palden Lhamo his principal protective practice.
24. Tib., dKa’-gdams-gleng-’bum.
25. Tib., sNying-po-don-gsum.
26. This brief prayer has a vast array of applications, from basic meditations such as love, compassion, and insight to exotica such as making or stopping rain, faith healing, consecrating medicines, etc. See The Life and Teachings of Lama Tsong Khapa, edited by Prof. Robert Thurman, (Dharamsala, India: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1982).
27. The extensive biography mentions this place as Kharachin; the short biography gives the name as Kharchin.
28. The month usually beginning with the new moon of April. It is necessary to say “usually,” as the Tibetan leap year leaps a month, causing the subsequent year to begin somewhat late.
29. I was naturally pleased to see the emphasis that the biographer Tsechokling places on Essence of Refined Gold. He does this partially because Essence is an important Lam Rim scripture and the biography is part of his history of the Lam Rim tradition (Lives of the Lam Rim Preceptors; Tib., Lam-rim-bla-brgyud); but he obviously holds the text in special regard in order to mention it twice in such warm and glowing terms.