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ESSENTIAL
TIBETAN BUDDHISM

>ctan Bud(

ts popularity as a path or

»le introduction to the traditio

rature, prese a true insid<

makes authentic Tibetan Buddhism accessible to

contemporary Western ...

Robert Thurman expertly and lucidly surveys the basic

teachings and varieties of Tibetan Buddhism. A concise

mary of Buddhism's deve nt across Asia, with

particular emphasis on its evolution in I ibet, provides

vital orientation, but the core of this much-neede

ne nrst-ever co or key I ibeta

ings on Buddhism and attain

ere are all the essential texts, freshly transb

ins to Tara, the liberator goddess,- the ri

irepa, the wandering poet-saint of the

Himalayas,- instructions ng the compassionate
isattva Way of Life, selections from T
of the Dead: and more.

ic practice texts

and selections from Nagarjuna's Five Stade'.

Master teachers fr ;chools-

Nagarjuna, Shantideva, Atisha, and Tsong Khapa-

the modern read er, providing advice on

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ESSEN T I A L T IB ET A N B UDD H ISM
Essential Tibetan
Buddhism

R O B E R T A. F. T HU R M AN

CASTLE BOOKS
 Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to
reprint previously published material:
Bantam for excerpts from The Tibetan Book of the Dead
by R. A. F. Thurman.
Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, which published earlier versions
of translations of "Three Principles of the Path" and "Transcendent
Insight" in Life and Teachings of Tsong Khapa by R. A. F. Thurman.
Princeton University Press, which published an earlier version of "Praise
for Relativity" in The Central Philosophy of Tibet
by R. A. F. Thurman.
Snow Lion Publications for the Nobel Prize lecture in A Policy o f
Kindness by H. H. Dalai Lama.
Wisdom Publications for an excerpt from The Door o f Liberation
by Geshe Wangyal.

The painting on the cover is The Refuge Tree, an array of enlightened

beings like the wish-fulfilling gems on the mythical tree of life.
Tibetan Buddhist meditators visualize such a tree in vivid details as present
before them in the sky of the mind's eye, showering them with liquid
jewel light-ray nectar blessings that fill up body and mind with light
and understanding. One imagines one's own mentor as the
Shakyamuni in the center, who has the Tantric
Buddha Vajradhara in his heart.
Tibet, eighteenth century, gouache on cotton.
Courtesy Shelley and Donald Rubin collection.
Photograph courtesy of Mokotoff Asian Arts.

ESSENTIAL TffiETAN BUDDHISM. Copyright © 1995 by

Robert A.F. Thunnan. All rights reserved. No part of this work
may be reproduced or transmitted, in any fonn or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or
any infonnation storage and retrieval system without pennission
in writing from the publisher.

This edition published by arrangement and with pennission of

HarperSanFrancisco, a division of Harper Collins Publishers, Inc.

This edition copyright © 1997 by Castle Books.

Published by CASTLE BOOKS

A Division of Book Sales, Inc.
114 Northfield Avenue, Edison, New Jersey 08837

ISBN 0-7858-0872-8

MANUFAcruRED IN THEUNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

 Contents

Introduction 1

I . The Quintessence: The Mentor Worship 47

2. Seeing the Buddha 6 I

3. Meeting the Buddha in the Mentor 9 5

4 . Practicing Transcendent Renunciation I I 5

5 . Practicing the Loving Spirit of Enlightenment I3 5

6. Practicing the Liberating Wisdom I 69

7. Practicing the Creation Stage 2 I 3

8 . Practicing the Perfection and Great Perfection Stages 249

9. Various Treasures of Tibetan Spiritual Culture 265

Notes 29 I
To His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet

"You are Lama!

(all my mentors)
You are Archetype!
(all my deities)
You are Dakini!
(all enlightened women)
You are Protector!
(all fierce angels)
For now 'til enlightenment,
No Savior other than you! . . .
Be my eternal friend! "

May His wishes all come true!

ESSENT I A L T IB ET AN B UDD H IS M
 Introduction

I. The Tibetan World and Its Creators

The Three Most Gracious

To look for the essence of the Tibetan worldview, a popular Tibetan saying
is a good place to start: "There were three who were most kind to Tibet:
the Precious Guru (Padma Sambhava); the Lord Master (Atisha); and the
Precious Master (Tsong Khapa}. " The Tibetan titles that come before the
names of these three Guru Rimpochey, lowo ley, and ley Rimpochey, re­
-

spectively--could apply to any of the tens of thousands of other great fig­

ures in Tibetan history. But any Tibetan, of whatever persuasion or
affiliation, knows immediately who is meant by the Precious Guru, the
Lord Master, or the Precious Master. The key to the whole matter is that
all three of these names indicate that their bearers are considered actual
Buddhas in their own right. They are not thought of as mere human beings,
albeit extremely holy, wise, or capable, who brought to or propagated in
Tibet a teaching about Buddhas. They are clearly considered by the mass
population as examples of the real thing.
The essence of Tibetan culture is defined by this experience of real
Buddhas dwelling among them. It is thus a civilization that feels itself
touched by Buddhas, marked by having experienced the living impact of
real Buddhas. Tibetans have even come to take for granted the constant
presence of many Buddhas around the country. Tibetan Buddhism is thus a
reorientation of individual and social life to account for the reality of
Buddhas, the possibility of becoming one oneself, and the actuality of a me­
thodical process of doing so.
This is the characteristic that distinguishes Buddhism in Tibet from the
Buddhisms in other civilizations, though Indian civilization in its classical
heyday of roughly 5 00 to IOOO C.E. enshrined the human possibility of
Buddhahood more and more openly in its core, as did the Ch'an, Son, and
2 • E S S E NTIAL T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

Zen subcultures of East Asia. Theravada Buddhism of South Asia, a form

of what Tibetans call Monastic or Individual Vehicle Buddhism, believes
that a Buddha is a purified being, a saint or arhat, who has attained cessa­
tion of embodiment in Parinirvana, a realm of absolute freedom, and so
has definitely departed from the world. According to this view, there were a
few other Buddhas prior to Shakyamuni, there are other purified saints fol­
lowing in Buddha's footsteps, and any human who has the teachings and
makes the effort can become one of those. But there are no living Buddhas
around until Metteya, the next Buddha, comes to the world thousands of
years from now.
The Universal Vehicle, or Messianic, Buddhism now remaining in East
Asia has many forms, but in general it has a different view of Buddhas. It
teaches that there are infinite numbers of Buddhas. All have a Truth Body,
a Body of Absolute Reality (which is undifferentiated; they all share it in in­
finite peace), and a Form Body of relative, compassionate manifestations.
This Form Body subdivides into a Beatific Body, an immeasurable body of
infinite bliss, color, and light, imperceptible to ordinary beings, and an
Emanation Body, a body of boundless manifestations. This Emanation
Body has three forms: the Ideal, of which Shakyamuni is the example in our
epoch; the Incarnational, which manifests limitless examples who appear
like ordinary humans and other kinds of beings, even inanimate objects like
planets, oceans, continents, islands, bridges, and buildings; and the Artistic,
which includes all kinds of representations of Buddhas in all art forms.
Thus all Universal Vehicle Buddhists consider that the Buddha's final
Nirvana was a kind of instructional show and that Buddhas can manifest
any time, any place. However, except for the Tibetans, they do not expect
any Buddhas to show up here and now, except in other dimensions (a pure
land such as Sukhavati or the visionary world of the Lotus, for instance).
They remain more or less attached to an originally brahminical cosmology
wherein the planet is experiencing a "Dark Age" (kaliyuga), and Buddhas
have given up on it for the time being. The Ch'an/Son/Zen Buddhists are
one exception to this. They consider perfect Buddhahood to be a mental en­
lightenment, the direct result of the practice of their methods of contempla­
tion and understanding; yet they have only a weak sense of the emanational
richness, the embodiment potential, of Buddhahood. The Shingon Tantric
Buddhists of Japan are the other East Asian exception, in that they also cul­
tivate a sense of the immediacy of the Buddha presence and potential.
Tibetan Buddhism, almost alone among Asian Buddhisms, preserved the
huge treasury of Indian Buddhist Tantric traditions. The Tantras emerged
from the third Vehicle of Indian Buddhism, the Tantric, Mantric, Ad­
amantine, or Apocalyptic Vehicle. This Vehicle is the esoteric dimension of
 Introduction 3

the Universal Vehicle, and it emphasizes practices based on the cultivated

sense of the immediate presence of the Buddha reality. It teaches methods
for the attainment of complete Buddhahood in this very life, or at least
within a few more lives, thus vastly accelerating the Universal Vehicle evo­
lutionary path on which a Bodhisattva transforms from a human to a
Buddha over three incalculable eons of self-transcending lifetimes. A major
component of these accelerated methods is the accessibility of beings who
have already become Buddhas.
Thus for the Tibetans, Shakyamuni Buddha, the foremost Buddha of
this world-epoch, is not just a dead hero. He is not just an object of belief,
a divine being encounterable in another dimension or an altered state. He is
a being believed to have conquered death, just as Jesus Christ is. But
Tibetans are not awaiting Buddha's triumphal return; they feel He is right
now utterly available to them, that in a real sense He never left them when
He withdrew the Ideal Emanation Body known as Shakyamuni. Tibetans
think that Shakyamuni Buddha Himself taught both the Universal Vehicle
and the Apocalyptic Vehicle, as well as the Monastic Vehicle, and that
every human can become a Buddha. They find the proof of this teaching in
the presence and deeds of the many people they consider living Buddhas.
Padma Sambhava was the earliest and most legendary: He was born by
miracle from a lotus blossom, millennia ago, at approximately the same
time as Shakyamuni Buddha. He was adopted as a prince of Afghanistan,
then called Odiyana, at the time a cultural part of the Indian subcontinent.
He became a perfect Buddha, practicing all three Buddhist Vehicles, the
Monastic, the Messianic, and the Apocalyptic. He visited Tibet toward the
end of the eighth century of the common era, in the twelfth century of His
already long life. His impact in Tibet was crucial; without Him, Buddhism
would never have taken root there. He is presented as not only conquering
the minds of the kings and warlords of Tibet by extravagant displays of
magical power, charismatic kindness, and astounding wisdom, but also as
capable of "taming" the savage war gods of Tibet, the wild and powerful
deities of the tribes, the Tibetan equivalents of the gods Odin, Zeus, Thor,
Indra, and so on. Padma eventually left Tibet but is believed to be still alive
today in a hidden paradise, Copper-colored Glory Mountain, somewhere
in the vicinity of Madagascar.
Another important Buddha, Atisha, was born naturally as a prince of
the Zahor kingdom of the Pala dynasty Bengal, in 9 8 2 C.E. At the age of
twenty-nine, after extensive Tantric studies, He renounced His throne and
became a monk, soon becoming a famous teacher of all levels of Buddhism.
At the prompting of the Goddess Tara, He traveled to Java to recover the
essential teaching of the messianic spirit of enlightenment of love and
4 • E S S E NTIAL T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

compassion. He went to teach in Tibet in I040 C.E., where He had an enor­

mous impact on the people. He died there around I054.
A later Buddha, Tsong Khapa, was born in I 3 5 7 C.E. in the far northeast
of Tibet, in the province of Amdo. He was a child prodigy, recognized early
as an incarnation of Manjushri, the god of wisdom. He spent his life from
the age of three in study, contemplation, and social action, attaining His
own perfect enlightenment in I 398, after a five-year meditation retreat. He
founded a progressive movement in Tibetan Buddhism that looked toward
the advent of the future Buddha Maitreya, the "Loving One." He revital­
ized the practice of monasticism through revision of the Vinaya Rule in
1402. He universalized the messianic spirit by founding the Great Miracle
Prayer Festival that brought the whole nation together around the Jokang
Cathedral in Lhasa for two weeks every new year, beginning in 1409. He
refined and spread the wisdom teachings by writing master treatises and es­
tablishing a definitive curriculum for cultivating insight in the monastic
universities. Above all, He facilitated and energized the Apocalyptic
Vehicle, Tantric ritual and contemplative practice and attainment, by giving
inspiring and penetrating teachings, writing critical, comprehensive, and
lucid treatises, building exquisite three-dimensional mandalas, and initiat­
ing hosts of well-prepared disciples. He passed away with a demonstration
of miracles in 14I9.

The Founding Teacher and His Angelic Disciples

All Tibetans would agree that the kindness these three great men showed the
Land of Snows would never have been possible if the most important human
of our world-epoch had not first demonstrated the highest evolutionary perfec­
tion accessible to humans, the mental and physical enlightenment of
Buddhahood. That human being was the prince Siddhartha of the Shakya na­
tion in northern India, who became the unexcelled, perfectly fulfilled
Enlightened Lord under the tree of enlightenment in around 5 3 6 before the
common era. Once a Buddha, His name was Shakyamuni, the "Shakya Sage,"
considered to have become a form of life beyond the human or the divine, the
"Human-Lion" (Narasimha), or the "God Beyond Gods" (Devatideva). By
definition, no being can possibly be more kind to all other beings than a perfect
Buddha; such kindness is ultimately something superhuman.
Among the Buddha's many human and divine disciples, there were four
great celestial or angelic Bodhisattvas, "Enlightenment Heroes," who are
believed to have taken a special interest in Tibet and the Tibetans. These are
the female Bodhisattva Tara, Lady of Miraculous Activities, and the usually
male Bodhisattvas Lokeshvara, Lord of Compassion, Manjushri, Lord of
 Introduction

Wisdom, and Vajrapani, Lord of Power. These Bodhisattvas are only in one
sense disciples of the Buddha; in another sense they are themselves already
perfect Buddhas. They became perfect Buddhas innumerable world-eons
before our universe and vowed to manifest as disciples of all Buddhas in all
world systems in order to mediate between those Buddhas and the human
populations of those worlds.
Among these, Lokeshvara and Tara are a kind of divine, or archangelic,
couple, a father and mother for Tibetans. He is the mythic Father of the
Nation, siring the first six Tibetans during a mythic life as a Bodhisattva
monkey in the prehistoric past. Later he reincarnates repeatedly as the em­
peror, king, or lama (mentor) ruler of Tibet. She is the ever-present Mother
of the Nation, a fierce female who unites with the monkey to bring forth
the human children who start the race. Later she serves as empress, queen,
and defender of the ruler. She manifests numberless incarnations in every
walk of life to help Tibetans overcome their difficulties and meet the chal­
lenge of making human life meaningful.
Lokeshvara incarnated as the thirty-third emperor, the first great
Dharma king of Tibet, Songzen Gambo (ca. 6n-69 8 C.E.). He unified the
land, built the first network of Buddhist shrines, had the Tibetan alphabet
and grammar created on the model of Sanskrit, and promulgated the foun­
dational Buddhist law code of Tibet. Both of his chief empresses-Bhirkuti,
princess of Nepal, and Wencheng, princess of Great Tang-were incarna­
tions of Tara.
Manjushri was a Buddha countless eons ago who vowed to incarnate in
every world a Buddha visited, to ask the hard questions about the profound
teaching of selflessness and voidness. His aim is to help people develop the
transcendent wisdom that is the sole cause of the ultimate freedom from
suffering that is enlightenment. He is a pervasive figure in Buddhist litera­
ture, being a god of learning and a patron of literature as well as the arche­
type of enlightened realization. He incarnated as the thirty-seventh Tibetan
emperor, Trisong Detsen (ca. 790-844 C.E.), who built the first monastery
in Tibet, inviting the Abbot Shantarakshita and the Adept Padma
Sambhava and commissioning the first great wave of translations of Indian
Buddhist texts. Later came the "three Manjushris" among teachers: the
great scholar, mystic, and first lama ruler of Tibet, the Sakya Pandita Kunga
Gyaltsen ( I I 8 2-12 5 1 ); the great Nyingma philosopher and mystic
Longchen Rabjampa ( I 3 08-I 3 63 ), and the greatest of Tibet's "Re­
naissance men," scholar, mystic yogi, and social activist Tsong Khapa
Losang Drakpa ( I 3 5 7-14 I9).
Vajrapani, the "Thunderbolt Wielder, " is quite fierce in appearance and
represents the adamantine power of enlightenment to ward off evil and
6 • E S S E N T I A L T I B E T A N B U D DHI S M

bring about the good. He incarnated as the fortieth and last Buddhist
Tibetan emperor, Tri Relwajen (ca. 8 66-90r C.E.), who completed the early
dynasty's work of unification and cultural transformation. Later he reincar­
nated as many rulers, ministers, and lamas.
From the time of Lord Atisha, Lokeshvara reincarnated as Dromtonpa
( ro04-r064 ), Atisha's main disciple, who founded Radreng Monastery.
During the time of Tsong Khapa, he incarnated as ley Gendun Drubpa
( r 39 r-r474), who later became known as the First Dalai Lama. The Dalai
Lamas became important spiritual leaders, first of the New Kadam or
Geluk Order and eventually, from the coronation of the Great Fifth
( r 617-r682) in r 642, of the entire nation.
Lokeshvara's continuous reincarnation as the Dalai Lama of the Land of
Snows sealed the Bodhisattva's covenant with the Tibetan people: He
would always serve them, reborn in many regions, in families of various
levels of society, skillfully preserving their realm as a special sanctum of the
Buddha Dharma, building a culture that maintained relatively ideal condi­
tions for individuals to educate themselves in Dharma.
Today Tibet has been shattered almost beyond recognition, suffering
horrendously for the first time in its two-thousand-year history under the
oppressive domination of an outside invader and occupier. Tibetans within
and without Tibet still regard the Fourteenth Dalai Lama as their legitimate
leader, the current reincarnation of Lokeshvara, and they look with plead­
ing glances to his Ganden Palace government in exile to represent their
plight to the world community.
Of course, Lokeshvara, Tara, Manjushri, and Vajrapani are believed to
manifest themselves in countless other ways at the same time, and the
Tibetan imagination is waiting for their activities to surface in a new era.
Lokeshvara manifests himself as other lamas who do not have such politi­
cal responsibilities, lamas such as the Karmapa incarnations. Manjushri is
evident in the manifestations of the Sakya lamas and in many a great
scholar, artist, and spiritual teacher. Tara has numerous female incarna­
tions, both formally recognized and informally active. Vajrapani is thought
to be exercising his indomitable protective power in some currently unfath­
omable way. And there are innumerable other messianic figures.
The rich tapestry of the activities of these enlightened beings constitutes
the Tibetan sense of history itself. Tibetans live in a multidimensional uni­
verse; they are quite aware that a single event appears quite differently to
different beings. Thus in history they posit an "ordinary perception" (thun
mong pai snang ba) and an "extraordinary perception" (thun mong ma yin
pai snang ba); or sometimes "outer," "inner," and "secret" levels of history.
These need not be contradictory. For example, on the ordinary or outer
 Introduction 7

level, Siddhartha was a human prince who was too intelligent to accept an
unawakened mode of mechanical living, so he renounced his inherited
identity, strove mightily to understand his own innermost essence, and suc­
ceeded in attaining complete awakening. At the same time, on an extraor­
dinary or inner level, Shakyamuni had attained Buddhahood many eons
earlier and chose this time to incarnate as Siddhartha and manifest the
deeds of a Buddha-life in order to educate and liberate the beings of this
world.
In the case of the taming of Tibet, on the ordinary level, Songzen Gambo
built on the conquests of his ancestors and expanded the Tibetan Empire to
its maximum feasible size, spilling over a bit in all directions beyond the gi­
gantic Tibetan plateau. He then began the process of transforming a war­
rior empire into a peaceful civilization, importing an alphabet, traditions of
learning, and a nonviolent ethic, fashioning an appropriate law code, and
initiating peaceful relations with neighboring states through treaties sealed
with marriages. On the extraordinary level, Lokeshvara and his two Tara
consorts looked down into Tibet from their vantage in the South Indian
paradise called Potalaka and saw the time was right to bring Buddhism to
the Tibetans. A light-meteor streaked from his heart and landed in the
womb of the queen of Tibet; similar meteors went from the hearts of the
two Tara goddesses to the wombs of the queens of Nepal and Tang China.
Nine months later the prince Songzen was born in Tibet, as was Wencheng
in China and Bhirkuti in Nepal, the two princesses destined to become his
brides, who brought Buddha icons, books, and learned teachers in their
dowry trains. Tibetans believe that every event in the life of an individual
and of a nation is susceptible to such a multileveled analysis of meaning.
In a last, extremely poignant, example, on the ordinary level, in the last
forty-six years, Tibet has been invaded, occupied, and annexed by the
People's Republic of China. This Chinese communist government has made
a systematic effort to exterminate Tibetan religious belief and cultural iden­
tity, resulting in the deaths of over a million Tibetans and the destruction of
all but 13 of Tibet's 6,267 significant monasteries. It has established large
colonies of Chinese settlers throughout Tibet, defended by up to half a mil­
lion troops, whose presence and abuse of land, wildlife, and natural re­
sources have badly damaged the fragile Himalayan ecosystem (the Tibetan
plateau has an average altitude of about fifteen thousand feet). How can
this be explained on the extraordinary level?
There are various theories. The most compelling one, if somewhat dra­
matic, is that Vajrapani emanated himself as Mao Tse-tung and took upon
himself the heinous sin of destroying the Buddha Dharma's institutions,
along with many beings, for three main reasons: to prevent other, ordinarily
8 • E S S E NT I A L T I B ETAN B U D D H I S M

human, materialists from reaping the consequences of such terrible acts, to

challenge the Tibetan Buddhists to let go of the trappings of their religion
and philosophy and force themselves to achieve the ability to embody once
again in this terrible era their teachings of detachment, compassion, and
wisdom, and to scatter the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist teachers and disseminate
their teachings throughout the planet among all the people, whether reli­
gious or secular, at this apocalyptic time when humanity must make a quan­
tum leap from violence to peacefulness in order to preserve all life on earth.
This all happens within the context of the advent of Shambhala upon
the entire planet, according to the prophecy originating with the Kala­
chakra Tantra, a central component of the national cult of Tibet since the
seventeenth century. The prophecy emerges in Indian and Tibetan literature
in the eleventh century, dating itself from the Buddha's time fifteen hundred
years earlier. It shows the Buddha as emanating himself in the form of a
"time machine" or "history machine," an embodiment of what the unen­
lightened perceive as the flow of time, adopting such a form to show his
commitment to the future enlightenment of all beings.
Thus this Tantra contradicts the outer or ordinary cosmology that says
that the Buddha's teaching lasts for a few thousand years and then dis­
appears until the next Buddha, with the condition of life on the planet
worsening until it becomes unimaginably horrible, something like the brah­
minical notion of a "Dark Age." The Time-machine Buddha rather pro­
claims that all beings are evolving in a positive or progressive manner,
beneath the surface events of a planet apparently dominated by the egoism,
militarism, and materialism of gods and humans. Finally, some three thou­
sand years after the Buddha's time, when the outer world is completely
dominated by a single materialistic dictatorship, the country of Shambhala
emerges from behind an invisible barrier. The dictator's military forces are
destroyed trying to conquer this new land, and the enlightened people of
Shambhala emerge and share their high-tech, liberated, enlightened style of
living with all the other peoples of the planet, ushering in a golden age that
lasts for at least eighteen hundred years. Tibetans believe that this age of
Shambhala is only a few centuries in the future, and the destruction of the
Buddhist institutions in their homeland is a sign of the nearing of the age of
liberation, for the whole world, not just for Tibet.
Thus at least one of the levels (the highest, most would say) of the
Tibetan sense of history sees the planet as progressing positively toward a
time of unprecedented fulfillment. Tibetan Buddhist society therefore is
perhaps unique among Buddhist societies in that the people live within a
consciously articulated myth of historical progress, carrying within itself a
fascinating complexity. The last three centuries under the Dalai Lamas were
 Introduction 9

a kind of millennial time for the Tibetans, since their messiah returned reg­
ularly and remained a tangible presence preserving the community. They
saw Tibet as a kind of holy land, a pure realm of the highest opportunity
for the individual's evolutionary fulfillment. At the same time they under­
stood that this millennial moment itself would perish in a planetary holo­
caust, only to be reborn one further time during a planetary time of fruition
in the age of Shambhala.
Tibetans thus believe that anyone who looks upon the color-particle
mandala of the Kalachakra Buddha with reverence and faith will be reborn
advantageously during the era of Shambhala. That is why they undertake
arduous pilgrimages and make intense efforts to attend performances of the
Kalachakra initiation ritual.

2. The Essence of Buddhism Itself

To appreciate essential Tibetan Buddhism, we must look for the essence of

Buddhism itself. The Tibetan genius did make its own distinctive contribu­
tion to the great river of Buddhism. But Tibetans considered it their discov­
ery, achievement, and special offering to find, embody, preserve, and extend
the deep and magnificent Buddha Teaching.
The enlightenment of the Buddha was not primarily a religious discov­
ery. It was not a mystical encounter with "God" or a god. It was not the re­
ception of a divine mission to spread the "Truth" of "God" in the world.
The Buddha's enlightenment was rather a human being's direct, exact, and
comprehensive experience of the final nature and total structure of reality.
It was the culmination for all time of the manifest ideals of any tradition
of philosophical exploration or scientific investigation. "Buddha" is not a
personal name; it is a title, meaning "awakened, " "enlightened," and
"evolved. " A Buddha's enlightenment is a perfect omniscience. A Buddha's
mind is what theists have thought the mind of God would have to be like,
totally knowing of every single detail of everything in an infinite universe,
totally aware of everything-hence by definition inconceivable, incompre­
hensible to finite, ignorant, egocentric consciousness.
No matter how preposterous it may seem to us at first, it is necessary to
acknowledge the Buddha's claim of the attainment of omniscience in en­
lightenment. It is foundational for every form of Buddhism. It is rarely
brought to the fore nowadays, even by Buddhist writers, since this claim by
a being once human is uttermost, damnable sacrilege for traditional theists
and a primitive fantasy, an utter impossibility, for modern materialists. But
it is indispensable for Buddhists. A Buddha is believed to have evolved to a
IO • E S S ENTIAL T I B ETAN B U D DHI S M

state of knowing everything knowable, evolving out of the states of igno­

rance of the limited and imperfect awareness of animals, humans, and
gods. Therefore the purpose of one's own life, seen as a process of infinite
evolution, is to awaken such omniscient awareness within oneself, to tran­
scend the egocentered animal condition to become a perfect Buddha.
Everything in Buddhism follows from this single chain of propositions
that the Buddha is believed to have exemplified: Life has the purpose of
achieving supreme happiness through total awareness of itself and the uni­
verse; every being has been working at this from beginningless time in life
after life; the human life-form is itself the result of inconceivable evolution­
ary efforts and is relatively quite close to ultimate evolutionary fulfillment;
this fulfillment, this blossoming, this butterfly awakening, occurs by means
of perfecting the understanding, through sensitivity and wisdom; upon
such awakening, suffering is no more and happiness is unimaginably com­
plete; and the infinite numbers of beings who have already become such
Buddhas are naturally moved to share that happiness with all other beings,
which they are doing all the time, effortlessly yet effectively.
In spite of this ultimately rosy picture of evolution, even Buddhas cannot
simply force ignorant beings to become wise and therefore free and happy.
While the Buddha did, on numerous occasions, calmly mention His attain­
ment of Godlike omniscience, He emphatically disclaimed the possession of
the Godlike power of creatorhood. He critically rejected the plausibility of
any being having total power and control over all other beings and things.
This does not mean that He disbelieved the existence of gods-the Buddha
was not an atheist. He not only believed in gods but, like Moses or Jesus,
He personally met a great number of them, including Brahma, the god
credited with creatorship by many Indian theists, Indra, the Father of the
Vedic pantheon, and Yama, the Lord of the Dead. (By definition, Tibetan
Buddhists believe that He certainly would have met the Jehovah of the
Bible, as well as every god of every nation on the planet.) He gave various
accounts of his encounters with this wide variety of gods, angels, and even
devils. He found them to be just as real as any other living beings. He sim­
ply discovered that no one of them had created the universe, no one of
them possessed the key to salvation or liberation, no one of them had at­
tained omniscient awareness. Beyond their immense pride in being power­
ful gods, they themselves ultimately needed help to save themselves from
their own entrapment in suffering, just as humans and other egocentric an­
imals do. They all needed the teachings of perfected Buddhas who have
evolved the omniscient awareness of enlightenment. Among a Buddha's
most important names are God Beyond Gods and Teacher of Gods and
Humans.
 Introduction II

As a Buddha, one discovers the unity of one's awareness with the om­
nipresent awareness of all beings and things. One actually experiences the
reality of absolute voidness, one's own and other beings' freedom from a
fixed individual and substantial self and all things' freedom from intrinsic
identity or objectivity. One integrates this experience of cosmic unity with
the realization of one's ability to manifest freely a responsive interactive
presence among other beings as a supple, open, happy, blissful, and power­
ful Buddha person, or even multitude of persons. One lives this realization
as the happy relaxation of futile servitude to the illusion of being a fixed
subject in a real objective world, enjoying an infinitely fresh and boundless
continuum of loving and liberative relationships with others.
Buddha liberation is so happy and complete that it can effortlessly in­
clude without distortion or separation the infinite realm of interconnected
beings and things. From there one has the experience of all beings as insep­
arable from oneself; one feels the condition of others. One is sensitive to
the continual suffering that arises from their imprisonment within a rigid
self-image opposed to an apparently overwhelming objective and alien uni­
verse. One's beatitude thus naturally reacts against the self-created suffer­
ing of other beings. For them one manifests educational events that help
them see through their beginningless delusions and arrive at freedom by
coming to an understanding of their own deeper nature. This natural and
inexhaustible reaction energizes the Buddhist liberative arts and the teach­
ings of the way of freedom through exact intuition of the nature of all
things.

The Teaching:
3.
The Buddhist Enlig htenment Movement

Tibetans believe then that Buddha Shakyamuni's enlightenment is not mys­

tical, in the sense of "contrary to reason. " It is rational, guided by a critical
inquiry into the nature of the reality of self and of the world, and experi­
mental, proceeding from solid conclusions to the experiential verification
of those conclusions. Indeed, the Buddha considered beings' ignorance,
their insistence on the illusion of an intrinsically established world of beings
and things, to be "mystical" and "nonrational." He did not consider irra­
tional faith, even in good things such as liberation and enlightenment, to be
powerful enough in itself to bring a being to liberation.
It is thus clear that His compassion for beings forced Him not to offer
them a religious solution to their predicament, a redemptive belief in Him,
or any dogma, deity, salvific rite, or membership in a group of elect. Since
12 • E S S E NTIAL T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

He knew that the only means for beings to gain freedom was their individ­
ual understanding of their unique situation, He was forced to try to help
them come to such an understanding. Simple faith cannot produce such un­
derstanding. Blind faith in implausible things blocks understanding, pre­
venting the open experience of reality itself, and rational faith becomes
obsolete once understanding takes over. Buddha was thus compelled to cre­
ate methods of education for beings, "education" in the true sense of elicit­
ing in beings the understanding of which they are capable, without
indoctrinating or conditioning them. As the celebrated verse of Matercheta,
a well-known author of the third century C.E., says: "Buddhas do not wash
away sins with water, They do not heal suffering by laying on of hands, and
They do not transmit their understanding into others' minds; They intro­
duce beings to freedom by educating them about reality."
According to this perspective, Shakyamuni had to face a monumental
task: He had to found an educational movement in a society that was orga­
nized only for professional training and religious indoctrination. He re­
jected the Vedas, the brahminical Scriptures of the day, not in order to
found an opposing religion but because He found religion itself to be of
limited value, even of negative value, in His enterprise of educating beings
for freedom. He lived in a world wherein a healthy secularity had begun to
develop only among the merchant classes of the cities, those who generated
the Indian traditions of "the good life"-namely, materialists, economists,
and political scientists.
Shakyamuni was brought up by His father to become a military general
and ruler of men, the first duty of a city-state monarch being military orga­
nization and social discipline. Thus when His beatitude moved Him to offer
an educational process to His contemporaries and posterity, He began His
work in a skillfully organized manner. His organization was militant in a
way precisely opposite to the prevailing militancy of military organizations.
His enlightenment showed Him a new meaning and purpose for human
life. It should not be wasted on relatively unsatisfying egocentric pleasure,
on procreation, economic productivity, conquest, the amassing of riches,
fame, glory, or even on religious piety, purity, or sanctity. He found Himself
infinitely intertwined with the fates and feelings of infinite beings. He rec­
ognized that human beings are biologically best suited to awaken, to dis­
cover their own ultimate freedom and immortal beatitude. He had the
powerful interest of His infinite altruism in redirecting humans' investment
of their life-energies, shifting it from mundane preoccupations toward evo­
lutionary and liberative ends.
He built on the existing Indian tradition of ascetic, wandering truth­
seekers (shramana ) and founded the monastic Community (Sangha). Alert
 Introduction 13

to the tensions this would create with the warrior-kings, He proclaimed the
Community to be an "other world," a sacred realm, a spiritual society out­
side ordinary society. He pledged the continuing obedience to the king's law
of anyone still within the king's realm of ordinary society. He asked only
for exemptions and special support for those who moved outside into the
extrasocial Community: exemptions from duties of productive labor, pro­
creation, family, military service, and taxes, and special support in the form
of free time for self-development, free food for subsistence, free land for
temporary shelter, and free cloth for robes, all limited to the minimum nec­
essary. He was alert also to the danger of threatening too strongly the reli­
gious priesthood of the times, so He prohibited His mendicant monks and
nuns from performing priestly services. They were not allowed to perform
rites of birth, blessing, marriage, funerals, or divinations and were forbid­
den to perform miracles or healings.

4. The History of This Movement in India and

Its Spread Throug hout Asia

This militant organization of the previously loose-knit ascetic traditions

was utterly revolutionary. The Buddha's near contemporaries such as
Confucius and Socrates had no such luck in organizing their movements;
nor did the much later Mencius, Chuang Tzu, Jesus, Paul, or Peter. The
mainstream activity in all the Eurasian city-states of this time was the op­
posite-namely, the organizing of professional armies, in the manner of
Darius of Persia, Ajatashatru of Magadha, Alexander the Great, Ashoka
Maurya, Chin Shih Huang-ti, and the caesars. Like the monk or nun, the
professional soldier also left ordinary occupations in the service of a univer­
sal ideal-world conquest, the very one prince Siddhartha had abandoned
to become a Buddha. Like a renunciant, the soldier also shaved his head,
donned an impersonal uniform, and trained himself to face death unflinch­
ingly. Like an ascetic, the soldier abandoned ordinary social constraints for
the frenzy of battle, dropping all normal concerns in the samadhi of slaugh­
ter. The language of the Buddhist Sangha was a mirror image of military
language: The monk was to conquer his inner enemy, face death moment to
moment, and give up attachment to comfort and even the sense of person­
ality in order to find the victory of liberation and transcendent bliss.
In sum, the Buddhist monastic, educational movement was the only
major universally expanding institution in ancient urban India other than
the universally expanding military organizations and mercantile trade em­
pires that gradually developed the sixteen city-states of the Buddha's time
I4 • E S S E NTIAL T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

into the Magadhan and Mauryan empires. The monastic organization was
a kind of inversion of the military organization: a peace army rather than a
war army, a self-conquest tradition rather than an other-conquest tradition,
a science of inner liberation rather than a science of liberating the outer
world from the possession of others. If we understand this perspective, then
the later, millennia-long encounter between monasticism and militarism
throughout Asia, and especially in Tibet, emerges in an entirely new light.
In its role as universal educator, the Buddhist Sangha can be seen as a
powerful "taming," or civilizing, force in ancient India. It was the one
multinational institution, opposed to the conquest army and the trade em­
pire, that could provide the individual some bulwark against the power of
the monarch and his state. It also was the engine of the inward-looking
bent of Indian science, which, in contrast to the sciences of Greece, Iran, or
China, found the inner world of the mind and its energies more important
than the outer world of natural elements and forces. The systematic effort
of monastic education to measure, understand, and control the mind for
the purpose of human betterment resulted in India's unique refinement of
various kinds of yoga, technologies for harnessing mind and body to
achieve happiness more effectively. Once we glimpse in this way how the
Buddhists created the main institution outside the state and developed the
curricula of taming, liberating, and empowering education, we can better
assess its key constitutive role in the formation of classical Indian civiliza­
tion, its arts, philosophies, religions, state institutions, and social ethics.
This then changes the way we look at Buddhist institutions in relation to
social development in later societies where Buddhism became even more in­
fluential.

5. The Three Stag es of Buddhism in India and Beyond

Most modern historians of Indian Buddhism have seen "early" or "pris­

tine" Buddhism as the monastic Buddhism known from the Pali literature,
the only one they consider close to credibly attributable to Shakyamuni
Buddha. The messianic Buddhism of the Universal Vehicle is viewed as later
Buddhism's desperate attempt to compete with "Hinduism," with its popu­
lar worship of gods. These historians' account puts Tibetan Buddhism in
the worst possible context, as the extension of a degenerate form of Indian
Buddhism. According to this depiction, Buddhist monks were losing
ground with the people, so they made up a "Universal Vehicle," which put
monks in a lower place (odd that they would demote themselves! ) , deified
the Buddha, preached an almost nihilistic philosophy of voidness and a so- •
 Introduction 15

cial gospel of universal love and compassion; then they attributed this new
Vehicle to the Buddha. This strategy kept Buddhism's head above the flood
of popular Hinduism for a while, so the story goes, somehow persuading
the people to continue to support the newly devalued monks. A few cen­
turies further down the slope, popular magic and mysticism became more
irresistible, and so this universal, messianic Buddhism compromised even
further by developing an esoteric Adamantine or Apocalyptic Vehicle.
Buddhism now incorporated Vedic fire-sacrifice rituals, mantras, mandalas,
feasts, sexuality, breath control, and yoga, along with an even more imagi­
natively lush deification of the Buddha, on top of the inclusion of women in
the ranks of religious virtuosi. After reaching this lowest level of popular­
ization, so the account goes, nothing was left for Indian Buddhism but to
sink into the swamp of Hinduism, submerging its own identity forever and
disappearing from the land of its birth.
The main difficulty with such a rendering of Indian Buddhism's evolu­
tion-the inexplicable mystery of it-is, if Buddhists kept needing to com­
promise to compete with Hinduism for survival, why didn't they simply
forget the whole thing and become Hindus? They were all born Hindus.
Since the Buddha was apparently such a detriment, such a killjoy, why keep
bothering with him at all century after century?
Obviously there must have been something more satisfying about being
a Buddhist than developing elaborate ways to compete with Hindus.
The evidence in fact supports a view of Buddhism as a powerful social
movement with a definite educating and civilizing program. During its
fifteen-hundred-year sojourn in India, the Buddhist education movement
was a catalyst for liberation and progress. The three Vehicles (Monastic,
Messianic, and Apocalyptic Vehicles) so crucial to Tibetan Buddhism were
manifestations of a progressive development.
Its first five hundred years were primarily monastic, solidifying the ex­
trasocial society of the Sangha and providing the educationally oriented
individual an asylum from economic, social, political, and religious de­
mands. During its next five hundred years-with the addition of the
Messianic Vehicle-Indian Buddhism moved aggressively outward from a
solid monastic base in the economy, society, and culture (already changed
by five centuries of feedback from the thriving educational community) to
tackle the more violent aspects of society and to teach a social ethic of
love and compassion. Its last five hundred years were culminatively apoc­
alyptic: Insisting on a more evolved level of behavior in developed society,
Buddhists entered the marginal areas of society among the lower castes,
tribals, and foreigners, such as the Tibetans. They used magical and
charismatic means to teach people who could not be approached within
16 • E S S E N T I A L T IB E T A N BU D D H I S M

the literate conventions of the by now highly refined, urbane, peaceful,

and civilized Sanskrit society.
In sum, we can see the Three Vehicles or styles of Buddhism as products
of the gradual improvement of an entire civilization. That society had orig­
inally responded to the basic egocentrism of individuals not by questioning
it but by controlling it through a system of beliefs, rituals, duties, and man­
ners that required individuals to sacrifice themselves for the group. The
evolving goal, by contrast, was a condition where individuals challenged
the egocentric outlook and actually went on not only to experience free­
dom from it but also to live and flourish within that freedom. The table in­
cluded here summarizes this new account of the development of Buddhism
in India.

VEHICLES OR STYLES
OF BUDDHISM IN INDIA

A. INDIVIDUALIS TIC STYLE, MONASTIC BUDDHISM­

DOM INANT CA. 5 00 B.C.E. TO 0 C.E.
r. Emphasizes monasticism as necessary for individual liberation.
2. Socially revolutionary, stressing ethical dualism, though antitheistic.
3. Ideal of monks and nuns is arhat-sainthood.
4. Urges lay community toward tenfold path of good and bad evolu­
tionary action.
5 . Warrior training reversed produces tamed person, free of wild,
egocentric drives.
6. Social result: tamed-warrior society, values supporting urban, mer­
chant classes.
7. Spreads outside India-mainly to Sri Lanka, central Asia, Iran, and
west Asia.

B. UNIVERSALISTIC STYLE, MES S IANIC BUDDHISM­

D O M I NANT 0 TO 5 00 C.E.
r. Incorporating core monasticism, reaches out nondually into lay so­
ciety to transform social ethic through love and compassion.
2. Socially evolutionary; monasteries develop into universities.
3. Ideal of the Bodhisattva, heroline who aims to liberate all beings
from suffering and to transform the universe into a buddhaverse; doctrine
of the Three Bodies of Buddha, Truth, Beatific, Emanation.
4. Nondualism of Nirvana/samsara undergirds nonduality of wisdom
and compassion, monastic Sangha and lay society.
 Introduction 17

5. Conscious adoption of the process of evolution, wherein one em­

barks on a career of millions of future individual lives to evolve to
Buddhahood.
6. Social result: moves a more civilized society toward a universalistic
orientation; frees the popular imagination to envision a colorful cosmos of
infinite buddhaverse.
7. Spreads to wherever monastic style spread and farther to China
and the Mediterranean.

C. ApOCALYPTIC STYLE, ESOTERIC, MAGICAL BU D D H I SM­

D O M I NANT CA. 500-IOOO C.E.
r. Socially culmina tory, monastic universities reach out beyond the
literate state into marginal areas. Unpacks furthest implications of mes­
sianic style.
2. Ideal of the Mahasiddha, female or male Great Adept, the "psy­
chonaut" of Indian inner science, actual perfect Buddha maintaining ordi­
nary human form in history, latent kingship of individual explicated
ritually and artistically.
3. Nondualism elucidated to include everything, including sexuality,
death; wisdom-compassion union becomes wisdom-bliss union,
Buddhahood as male-female-sexual-union-orgasmic reality.
4. Apocalyptic insistence on accelerating history and evolution, real­
ization of individual Buddhahood and universal buddhaverse here and
now, in this lifetime preferably, through magical, high-tech means.
5. Social result: elevation of women; expansion of culture to margi­
nal low castes, tribals, aliens; permeation of high culture with aesthetic
values; loosening of rigidities; living beyond this-life identities; unilateral
disarmament.
6. Spreads everywhere monastic and messianic styles spread, though
in subtle streams, reaching farther to Indonesia, Korea, Japan, and Tibet,
uniquely kept in total integration with two previous styles in Tibet and
later Mongolia.

The first of these five-hundred-year periods, the monastic Buddhist pe­

riod, established its main foothold outside India in Sri Lanka, where it con­
tinues today. The second, the messianic Buddhist period, spread also to Sri
Lanka in the same way it was integrated with monastic Buddhism in India,
but it also opened up new territory in central Asia and from there into
China. The third, apocalyptic Buddhist, period was integrated with both
monastic and messianic institutions and spread everywhere through the
18 • ESSE N TIA L T I B E T A N B U D D H I S M

Buddhist world in small streams. But then it transplanted itself wholesale

into Tibet, especially at the end of Indian Buddhism, due to the Islamically
driven cultural transformation of India from the eleventh century. After the
loss of Buddhist India, as the matrix civilization within which the three
styles or Vehicles were nested, Sri Lanka rejected apocalyptic and messianic
styles and became a bastion of the monastic style alone. East Asia empha­
sized monastic and messianic styles, allowing only a trickle of the apocalyp­
tic to survive. Only Tibet attempted to incorporate all three styles in their
originally integrated pattern.

6. The Advent of Buddhism in Tibet

It apparently took the efforts of living Buddhas to establish Buddhism in

Tibet. Great Adepts such as Padma Sambhava and Atisha were archetypes
of the apocalyptic style of the Tantric Vehicle. They had to manifest direct
control of the processes of nature, of life and death, to impress the
Tibetans, who were used to shamanic priests of intense charisma and who
had no literate culture as India and China did. Tibetans were tribalistic the­
ists and fierce militarists, having developed the technology and social orga­
nization necessary for large-scale campaigns of conquest. They had an
elaborate cult of divine kingship, probably modeled on what they had
learned of Persian imperial customs, including large-scale sacrificial rituals,
elaborate tumuli, court priests and magicians, and family, tribal, regional,
and national gods. It is likely, however, that the authority of the royal fam­
ily still relied on continually renewed success in conquest, holding together
the alliance of regional warlords on the basis of the common advantage of
extending dominion and increasing spoils. As in Japan during the same cen­
turies, there was probably no clear-cut ideology of imperial supremacy in­
ternalized by the nobles or the people that could guarantee the survival of
the central dynasty in times of hardship.
The royal dynasty therefore found that its spiritual inspirations coin­
cided nicely with its political interests in its multigenerational drive to im­
.
port Buddhism from India. By doing so, it imitated regimes in India, central
Asia, and China, creating spiritual legitimacy for the dynasty as defenders
of the Dharma, developing systems of writing, education, mythology, law,
scientific and humane medicine, literature, and art modeled on the sophisti­
cated traditions of India. Of course there were strong tensions inherent in a
warrior dynasty becoming the sponsor of a peace-cultivating, nonviolent
educational system, pattern of religious beliefs, and social norms. While
 Introduction 19

these would ultimately prove unsustainable by that dynasty, for more than
two centuries the new import was considered highly beneficial for both the
regime and the people.
Buddhism was accepted in Tibet only because they perceived it as deliv­
ered by some sort of superior being, whom they learned to call a Buddha. It
arrived in Tibet full-blown, with its monastic education, universalistic so­
cial ethic, and apocalyptic vision of reality. It had to confront and over­
come an already developed priestcraft capable of addressing every aspect of
life and death-birth, marriage, economic ethics, magic, protection against
demons, and so forth. In the mid-seventh century, an emperor named
Songzen Gambo (a near contemporary of the Japanese culture-transformer
Prince Shotoku Taishi) began the attempt to transform the civilization from
feudal militarism to peaceful monasticism. In a systematic process of cul­
ture building, he sent a team of scholars to India to learn Sanskrit, to create
a written language for Tibetan, and to begin to translate the vast Buddhist
literature. He married nine queens from neighboring countries, requesting
each to bring Buddhist artifacts and texts with her to Tibet. He built a sys­
tem of imperial temples laid out in a geomantic grid, centering on the
Jokhang and Ramoche cathedrals in his new capital at Lhasa, thereby cre­
ating a geometry of sacredness to contain the nation.
For the next two centuries, subsequent emperors continued his work,
defending Tibet internationally against Arab, Turkish, and Chinese powers,
sponsoring translations, holding conferences, building Buddhist institu­
tions, and educating the people. Around the turn of the ninth century, the
Emperor Trisong Detsen, with the help of the magical intervention of the
Great Adept Padma Sambhava and the monastic knowledge of the Indian
Abbot Shantarakshita, built the first monastery at Samyey. He thus im­
ported the Indian Buddhist university curriculum and began a sixty-year
process of collecting all useful knowledge then available. Mathematics, po­
etry, medicine, the art of government, fine arts, and architecture-all these
branches of learning were cultivated, not only Buddhist philosophy and
psychology. Scholars were invited from Persia, India, the Turkish and
Mongolian silk-route states, and Tang China. Tibetans developed their ge­
nius at comparison and combination, looking for the best understanding of
humanity and nature.
Padma Sambhava spent this time ranging around the country, imparting
to the most capable disciples the most advanced teachings, taking them on
long retreats, and even wrestling with and "taming" the tribal gods of
Tibet, gods of mountains, rivers, and sacred springs, gods of sky, and gods
of earth. He thus planted the seeds of the internal transformation of the
20 "* E S S E N T I A L T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

people, starting a chain reaction of changing individual hearts from egocen­

tric violence and insensitivity to openness of identity, altruism of sensibility,
and peacefulness of fulfillment.
After the high point of Samyey's ascendancy during the ninth century, a
period of confusion ensued, brought about by the contradictions of a mili­
tary dynasty sponsoring a national pacification campaign. There was a re­
volt within the royal family itself. Assassinations and coups d'etat ended
with the collapse of the dynasty, the regional fragmentation of the nation,
and the suppression of Buddhism as the official culture. However, the
twenty-five major, and numerous minor, lay teachers who had become
Great Adepts under the tutelage of Padma Sambhava evaded the suppres­
sion and preserved many of the teachings in a countercultural movement
that endured. These lineages of masters of inner knowledge persisted
through the next century, and a sense of the power and benefits of
Buddhism, a longing for the beauty of its vision of a higher world, was kept
alive at the grassroots level. In fact, after a little more than a century, when
regional rulers returned to official patronage of Buddhism, their efforts res­
onated with a groundswell of popular support that was the flowering of the
seeds planted by Padma Sambhava.

7. The Later Dissemination of Buddhism

The second major phase of the spread of Buddhism began with the advent
of Atisha Dipamkara Shrijnana (982-1°54) in 1°42. Atisha's impact on
Tibet was profound: It was possible, as in the case of Padma Sambhava in
the early period, only because he was perceived as a superior being, as a
Buddha.
In the new climate of the eleventh century, Atisha was able to bring to
Tibet the living synthesis of mature Indian Buddhism, a Buddhism that had
fully integrated the Monastic, Messianic, and Apocalyptic Vehicles of prac­
tice. Other Indian teachers visited Tibet around Atisha's time, but he alone
became known as jowo jey, "Lord Buddha Master, " meaning "a spiritual
master who is himself a Buddha. " (The other major figure in Tibet called
1owo is Jowo Rinpoche, the national icon of Lord Buddha, the sacred
statue of Shakyamuni Buddha that was installed by Songzen Gambo in the
Jokhang Cathedral in Lhasa.) This superlative honorific indicates the im­
mensity of Atisha's importance. It is not just that he was a great pandit, not
just a " reformer" backed by the king of the west, not just a dean from
Nalanda Monastic University in India. He must have been seen by contem-
 Introduction 2I

porary Tibetans as a Buddha in human form, a fully evolved yet perfectly

adapted being who made the Tibetans realize that the door to their own full
evolution and perfect adaptation was open wide.
Atisha was from Bengal, he knew Sanskrit, he had a pleasing appearance
and a royal manner, and he was sixty years of age when he arrived in Tibet
and had spent many years in Java. All of these attributes are important in
understanding the impact Atisha had on the Tibetans. But these attributes
pale in importance next to the apparent fact that Tibetans thought they saw
in him a living Buddha.
Tibetans by this time were widely familiar with the Buddhist narratives
wherein Shakyamuni Buddha's presence seemed to lift people to their feet,
put them in a state of heightened awareness, bring out their strongest emo­
tions, and often stimulate them to unprecedented understandings. The five
ascetics, companions of young Siddhartha, were forced to stand up against
their will when the Buddha came back from Bodhgaya to Saranath. Yashas,
a young "yuppie," attained sainthood in eight hours, despite a serious
hangover, due to the power of Buddha's calming and inspiring presence. It
invariably impressed the most willful kings, quite used to doing as they
pleased, even though all too often they were pleased to chop off heads and
conquer countries. Buddha's presence always inspired gods and demons
with a determination to do better, even with their own cosmic powers. In
the Mahayana texts in particular, the Buddha was constantly performing
amazing miracles that stimulated extraordinary visions and transformative
insights in vast audiences. Tibetans were fully steeped in the literature of
such accounts.
Thus a Buddha embodiment was supposed to be a manifestation of
compassion with no other purpose than to open people up to their own
higher potential. It seemed natural to Tibetans, therefore, that the field of
a Buddha should create a space for people to change, an atmosphere
wherein anything was possible and the loftiest aspirations seemed accessi­
ble. This is because the consciousness of a Buddha is divined to be quite
opposite to our ordinary consciousness. A Buddha has directly experi­
enced selflessness and so feels of one body with an infinite peace and free­
dom, not apart from things and beings but enfolding them all completely.
Thus a Buddha feels other beings in his or her field as intimately as they
feel themselves. This means that a Buddha has no solid sense of center as
we do, and so when we meet one, we feel something indefinably different
than when we meet another ordinary being, in whom we sense a self­
center as solid as we feel our own to be. This introduces a new dimension
to relating and changes the pressure of the encounter. A Buddha's energy is
:2.2 • E S S E N T I A L T I B ET A N BUDDHISM

entirely with and for us when we encounter it; there is in it no energy

scoop or surge opposed to our own.
Tibetans say that an Ideal Emanation Body Buddha appears only at cer­
tain moments in certain societies, when people are able to bear the alien as­
pects and benefit from the intensity of such an Emanation. An Ideal
Emanation is believed to exhibit a brain-dome called an ushnisha, light­
webbed fingers and toes, golden skin, retracted genitalia, a midbrow hair
tuft called an urna that radiates holographic displays-an imaginative
presentation. Shakyamuni is the only such fully marked Buddha to appear
in our era. More usually, a Buddha Adept manifests as an Incarnation
Emanation, in a relatively ordinary body, as a teacher, a scholar, a ruler, a
companion, a mother, a father; "in whatever way tames whomsoever," as
the verse says. Such a being, whatever his or her form, is the focal node of a
field in which other beings find maximal opportunities for their own evolu­
tionary advancement, gaining dramatically increased understanding, im­
proved emotions, perceptions, and insights, feeling much better, often
rising to the occasion and doing and understanding much better.
To return to Atisha, his stay in Tibet was rather short. He was there only
twelve years. An ordinary being, just another vagrant Indian intellectual,
could never have had such a powerful impact. A number of other visiting
Indian masters did good works but did not leave such an extreme impres­
sion. But if we recognize that Atisha was perceived as a walking, talking,
living buddha-field, surrounding the embodiment of a highly gifted Indian
pandit, his impact becomes understandable.
The scope of his benefit to Tibet goes beyond the power of his example,
which only enabled him to get started. His real benefit came from the fact
that he established a synthesis of all the key methods of Buddhism for de­
veloping people. His teaching epitomized the integration of the methods
that gave Buddhism the power and range in Tibet to respond effectively to
the difficult challenge of transforming the crude, undereducated, rather vi­
olent and lusty warrior Tibetans into a nation of yogins and yoginis. His fa­
mous motto was called the Four Square Path:
All teachings should be understood as free of contradictions;
All Buddha-discourses take effect as practical instructions;
The Buddh,a's intention is easily discovered; and thereby,
The serious bad behavior of Dharma-rejection self-destructs.
Since the Buddhist institutions were recovering in Tibet from a period of
suppression, confusion, and disorganization, Atisha was invited to Tibet to
use his encyclopedic knowledge of Buddhist literature to provide criteria to
 Introduction 2.3

distinguish between authentic Buddhist teachings and spurious fabrica­

tions. However, in a famous dialogue (see chapter 3 ), Atisha upheld the
master's personal precept as the lifeline of the true Dharma, more impor­
tant even than the authoritative canonical texts. He said that the "instruc­
tion of the Mentor" was more important than knowledge of all the
Scriptures and their commentaries. This is because the authentic guru,
lama, master, or spiritual mentor, is the representative of the immediate ap­
plicability of the teachings to an individual who needs methods to put into
practice. General knowledge of doctrine is useful but does not automati­
cally come with the skill to apply it. The mentor is the key element that
makes the teachings practicable.
Thus, in the situation of confusion in Tibet at the time, with valid and
spurious teachings mixed together in a poorly understood jumble, the first
rule to lay down was that the Buddha's teachings have no internal contra­
diction, if properly interpreted. Second, insofar as the method of interpre­
tation goes, we must remember that a Buddha is always speaking to a
specific audience in a specific context and is always concerned with the
practical impact of His teaching. He is not just spouting abstract truths that
are fixed in some absolute apart from the living reality of the beings who
need them. This rule of interpretation means that the enlightened mentor is
necessary to extract the instructional bottom line from the discourse or
Scripture, since it is his or her job to decide which teaching applies to which
practitioner.
In a famous simile the Buddha Master was fond of, the practitioner is
like a patient, the Dharma is like the medicine, the mentor is the physician
who analyzes the patient's sickness and prescribes a specific medicine, and
the practice of the Dharma is the therapy. Atisha thus emphasized the es­
sential role of the physician, the lama or mentor, when he said that the
mentor's instruction is more important than all the Scriptures. It does a sick
person no good to have a suitcase full of medicines if he does not know
which one to take for his condition.
In that simple statement, Atisha set down the principle of the priority of
the mentor, which was the foundation of Tibetan Buddhism (the focus on
the mentor is probably why it was called "Lamaism" by some observers,
though they meant it as a derogatory term, intimating that Tibetan
Buddhism had lost the "pure," "original" thrust of Buddhism, which they
thought was to value the medicine more than the physician) . But Atisha
did not invent this just for the Tibetans. It was the foundation of the final
Indian synthesis of Buddhism as the integration of monastic, messianic,
and apocalyptic styles. It reveals Atisha's thoroughly Tantric, apocalyptic
24 • E S S E N T I A L T I B ET A N BUDDHISM

orientation. It presupposes that there is no dearth of authentic mentors.

Due to the efficacy of the apocalyptic teachings, actual Incarnational
Emanation Body Buddhas are plentiful, appearing as semiordinary hu­
mans, as Great Adepts, whether monastics or laypeople.
Atisha had studied and practiced Tantra as a layman and prince until the
age of twenty-nine. He became ordained as a monastic at the prompting of
Dakinis, the esoteric angels who guard the apocalyptic teachings, in order
to integrate his deep insight with a life-form appropriate to his mission for
others. He was thus able to bring to Tibet the complete synthesis of the
three Vehicles already full-blown in India. Here Tantra is the supreme
Vehicle of the three, the most powerful tool to accelerate the individual's
evolution from common human to Buddha. Yet this emphasis is systemati­
cally integrated with the other Vehicles. As Atisha taught it, there is no mo­
tive to attempt Tantric evolution-acceleration unless the individual has the
messianic determination of the Bodhisattva, for which the total commit­
ment of the Universal Vehicle is required. And there can be no messianic de­
termination to liberate all beings unless the individual has first gained a
taste of and orientation toward liberation. This orientation can come only
from the renunciative, individual Vehicle of monastic Buddhism, through
which one becomes free of the worldly, "this-life" concerns of fame, gain,
praise, success, and their opposites and achieves the relief of abandoning ir­
relevant ambitions and anxieties. Finally, the wisdom of selflessness is the
foundation of the entire enterprise of Tantric transformation. Without
some degree of realization of voidness or selflessness, one will not have lib­
erated the energy of the imagination required to begin, one will be in dan­
ger of transferring the routinely frozen imagination from the ordinary
objective world to a psychotic fixation on an extraordinary perfected
world, and there will be no chance of becoming a successful Adept.
In sum, Atisha was by no means a dry monastic who was against Tantra,
and neither was Dromtonpa ( ro04-r064, the first incarnation in Tibet of
that series of Lokeshvara incarnations that eventually became the Dalai
Lamas), who remained an ordained layman purposely in order to receive
the higher initiations. When Atisha refused initiation to some nobles on a
few celebrated occasions, he was merely safeguarding Tantric practice for
those properly prepared for it by discerning the different aptitudes of differ­
ent people and accurately gauging the teachings for them. Not everyone
should be taught what is supposed to be esoteric until they have developed
the foundations. Thus he kept Tantra integrated with the whole of Bud­
dhist practice, since people need a specific foundation to succeed in the ad­
vanced practice of the Apocalyptic Vehicle.
 Introduction 25

Atisha wrote the first book by an Indian master in Tibetan, the Lamp for
the Path of Enlightenment (also the first Tibetan Buddhist book translated
back into Sanskrit for the benefit of Indian Buddhists) . This book was ab­
solutely seminal for the central genre of Tibet Buddhist writings, of which
there are examples from the literature of each of the orders, the "Path of
Enlightenment" genre.
Like all great Indian Buddhist masters of his era, Atisha was intensely
aware of the greatness of the Tantras as the keys to the transformation of
the universe into the buddhaverse and as the most high-tech and efficacious
arts of liberating beings. But that did not mean that all beings were capable
right away of leaping into Tantric perfections. There were different kinds of
beings, each needing a precise therapy for a precise condition. All could be
developed to the point where they could have the sublime good fortune to
encounter Tantra. So all teachings, for the individual and for this young,
frontier society of Tibet, were set within the context of the possibility and
opportunity of Tantra but with precise avenues of entry according to the
various levels of ability.
Some popular Tantric teachers in eleventh-century Tibet, enchanted
with the beauty of Tantric visions, tended to forget about the strictures of
secrecy and the careful prerequisites laid out in the Tantric texts. Less
comprehensive in pedagogical outlook than Atisha, they taught the highest
Tantras indiscriminately to everyone. Atisha saw that simple peasants and
illiterate warriors could be seriously misled if they heard some of the
shocking statements in the Tantric Scriptures (describing the unconscious
long before Freud and his id) that might seem to encourage seekers to kill
their parents, or even all beings, to eat human flesh, to couple with moth­
ers and daughters or with all women or all men in order to achieve
Buddhahood!
Atisha, his disciple Drom, and their successors gave a body of teach­
ings that addressed the everyday problems of taming the mind, dwelling
in a monastery, conquering an obsession with worldly concerns, cultivat­
ing love and compassion for all beings, and attaining the wisdom of the
realization of selflessness. This intense concentration on the immediacy
of transcendence, the universality of love, and the liberation of wisdom
and insight provided the basis for the explosion of religious fervor and
accomplishment that led to the mushrooming of the monasticism of all
orders in Tibet from the eleventh through the fourteenth century. This
movement resulted in the transformation of not merely a few individuals
or only the monastic communities. It resulted in the transformation of
the entire society.
26 • E S S ENTIAL T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

8. The "Buddhicization " Process: Monasticism and

Asceticism in the Medieval Period

It is said that when Atisha traveled through the southwest of Tibet, he had
visions of many Bodhisattvas, especially Manjushri, at a place where the
earth was yellow-gray (sa-skya ), visions of a great Dharma activity to come
there, conferring great benefit on all beings. The Khon family was the dom­
inant nobility of the region, tracing their lineage back to Lui Wangpo, one
of the seven original Tibetan monks ordained by Shantarakshita at Samyey.
The spiritual traditions from those early days had been transmitted within
the family down through the generations, a part of the social legitimacy of
the family in the region surely being their possession of these ancient teach­
ings, not to mention the positive qualities inculcated by those teachings.
In the middle of the eleventh century, the kings of Ngari Korsum, Yeshe
and Jangchub Oeu, uncle and nephew, were themselves ordained monas­
tics, combining in their persons the functions of ruler and priest. Their ac­
tivities set a new style of unifying the religious and the political, and their
popularity increased due to their sponsorship of Atisha and other masters.
These kings had acquired a new vision of the purpose of human life, a vi­
sion that put the individual's self-cultivation at the center of the social sys­
tem, a main priority for the society as a whole as well as for the individual
concerned. This caused them to rationalize all the social arrangements of
production, distribution, law and order, and ritual activities in terms of al­
lowing the maximum number of individuals to devote themselves to educa­
tional and spiritual development for the maximum time. The Buddhist
monastery was the already time-tested institution founded on such a ratio­
nalization, having delivered in India maximum free time to a maximum
number of people over many centuries. Thus the kings built and sustained
more and more monasteries. The monastic model of Atisha's Kadam order
was typical, with Drom's main monastery, Redreng, founded earliest, be­
tween 1 0 5 6 and 1064. It had the financial support of the noble Dam family
of that locality as well as of Atisha's far-flung network of admirers.
The Khon family followed the same model in founding the monastery
and order of Sakya in 107 3 . They incorporated as well the new style of
leadership, combining their social status as nobility in the region with the
spiritual abbacy of the monastery. The inspiration for their movement came
not from the political arena but from the spiritual. The Indian Buddhist
monk and Tantric Adept Virupa, having mastered his monastic studies­
perfecting his self-control, extending his messianic commitment, and gain­
ing deep insight into selflessness and voidness-entered the Tantric way of
acceleration of his physical and spiritual evolution toward Buddhahood.
 Introduction 27

He focused on propltlatlOn of the wisdom . goddess archetype form

Vajranairatmya. Finally he attained total Buddhahood on the subtle body­
mind level, choosing to remain in the coarse world in his former gross body
as a Great Adept (Mahasiddha), the human ideal added by apocalyptic
Buddhism to the ideals of arhat and Bodhisattva. His unconventional ac­
tions in India are well known, especially his mythic wine drinking, his con­
quests of various groups of sacrificialists, and his propagation of Buddhism
among various new populations.
Among his disciples was the translator Drogmi, who had already spent
many years in India in study and practice. Drogmi was initiated by
Prajnendraruchi into the Hevajra Tantra, with its sophisticated arts and sci­
ences. He was also taught Virupa's special method of organizing all the
Buddhist teachings into preparation for the Hevajra practice, a tradition
known as "Path and Fruition," based on the Diamond Verse (Dorje tsig
khang). Drogmi returned to Tibet after thirteen years of study and began to
teach many disciples. After that, he hosted the pandit Gayadhara in Tibet,
receiving further teachings on "Path and Fruition. "
One of Drogmi's disciples was Khon Konchok Gyalpo, a scion of the
Khon family. He established a hermitage at Sakya, supported by the family,
which gradually grew into a major center for study and practice. Finally it
became a monastic university, with a tradition of always having a member
of the Khon family as abbot, usually one considered to be a reincarnation
of Manjushri or another Bodhisattva. To resolve the problem of succession
for celibate, childless monk leaders, they instituted the system of succession
from uncle to nephew, generation after generation.
The "Path and Fruition" teachings synthesized the monastic, messianic,
and apocalyptic methods into a practical system designed to lead all indi­
viduals from wherever they had evolved through the stages of transcen­
dence, compassion, and wisdom of identitylessness toward enlightenment.
The process is designed to introduce them as soon as possible to the Tantric
initiation into the mandala of the archetype deity Hevajra. This enables
them to use the precious human embodiment to practice the creation and
perfection stages of Unexcelled Yoga in order to accelerate their attainment
of Buddhahood.
The social model of an aristocratic lineage associating itself with a
charismatic center of study and attainment became widely popular among
all the Buddhist orders flourishing in Tibet from that time. In the thirteenth
century the Mongolian warlord Godan Khan summoned the Sakya Pandita
Kunga Gyaltsen ( l I 8 r- 1 2 p ) to represent Tibet within the Mongol
Empire. His successor, his nephew Pakpa ( 1 234-1280), was later named
regent of Tibet by the Emperor Khubilai Khan, thus beginning the Tibetan
28 "* ES S E N T I A L T I B ETAN B U D D H I S M

innovation within Buddhism of a monastic serving as sovereign of a nation,

taking responsibility for his people's social as well as spiritual welfare.
During this time Tibet was divided into thirteen provinces, almost all of
them ruled by a noble family associated with an important monastic center
of one order or another. The main orders, all founded in the eleventh and
twelfth centuries, were the Kadampa, the Sakyapa, the Kagyupa, and the
Nyingmapa (slowest to form as an independent monastic order since it was
based on the lay teacher lineages that had survived from the time of Padma
Sambhava).
While the Khon family invested its aristocratic prestige in the develop­
ment of the Sakya order, another process was continuing among the rural
masses, epitomized in the history of Marpa and Milarepa and the founding
of the Kagyupa orders. Marpa ( 10 1 2-I099) came from a family of rich
peasants and merchants in the Lhodrag region of southern Tibet. He had
the ambition to adopt the highly respected profession called lotsawa (trans­
lator or "national eye " ), seeking through knowledge of India's higher, more
enlightenment-oriented culture greater knowledge and a better life for his
fellow Tibetans. He began his studies with the translator Drogmi but soon
decided to make the arduous journey to Nepal and India to find his des­
tined spiritual mentors. He met many teachers, most important being his
root mentor, Naropa, who had retired from his post as the head scholar of
Nalanda University in order to pursue his own Tantric studies under the
mentor Tilopa, and had become, after many studies and ordeals, a Great
Adept in his own right.
The teachings that Marpa brought back with him from his study and
practice journeys were essentially the same as those brought by Atisha and
Drogmi: the monastic practice and path of renunciation and transcendence,
the messianic practices of love, compassion, and universal responsibility,
coupled with the wisdom of voidness, and the swift engagement in the con­
templative evolutionary practices of Unexcelled Yoga Tantras. Marpa
added to the Hevajra Buddha-form the archetype Buddha-forms Guh­
yasamaja and Chakrasamvara.
Milarepa ( 1°4°-1 123 ) was the most important disciple of Marpa and
came from another wealthy commoner peasant family. Disinherited by a
wicked uncle upon the death of his father, Milarepa had made a name for
himself as a successful sorcerer but was racked by guilt over having caused
the deaths of thirty-five relatives with his black magic. So he sought the
transformative teachings of the Dharma at the feet of Marpa the translator.
Marpa forced him to go through the most terrible ordeals in order to
cleanse his heavy negative evolutionary momentum from having killed so
many people. After bringing him near the point of suicide, Marpa finally
 Introduction 29

introduced him into the mandalas of Hevajra and Chakrasamvara, urging

him to spend the rest of his life in contemplative retreat. This Milarepa did,
learning to live in the high Himalayan winter with merely a cotton robe
and practicing the famous yogas of Magic Body, Fury Fire, Death Ejection,
Dream Yoga, Clear Light, and so forth.
Within twelve years Milarepa had become a perfectly enlightened Adept
and subsequently traveled all over Tibet and taught thousands of people.
He happened to be an accomplished singer, so he taught his disciples by
singing his profound instructions in folk-song format. His songs were im­
mensely popular then and have been over following centuries. While he
revered his mentor Marpa as the "quintessence of all Buddhas," Milarepa
himself became widely recognized by members of all orders as the "first
Tibetan to become a perfect Buddha within a single lifetime. " He started
out an ordinary man, even a great sinner, yet his sincere practice of the
Unexcelled Yoga Tantras led him to evolutionary culmination in a single
lifetime. He thus became the example for generations of Tibetans who
sought their own most exalted destinies. The great disciples of Padma
Sambhava and Atisha, enlightened as they became, tended to be thought of
as emanations of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas rather than as ordinary people
who became perfected. The subliminal idea of Tibetans at that time was
that Buddhas were Indian; Tibetans were disciples of Buddhas, fit only to
worship them and serve them. Milarepa broke through this barrier in the
first chapter of his Hundred Thousand Songs, where he returned to his
cave, met five Indian demons mocking his contemplative practices, and
eventually overcame them by realizing the nonduality of them and himself.
He thus broke free of the stereotype of himself as unenlightened and en­
lightened beings as remote Indian icons and found the courage to assert his
own potential of perfected evolution.
Here I should underline one point about the apocalyptic approach.
Many people think of it as the quick and easy way to Buddhahood, and it
can easily be misunderstood as an esoteric shortcut that renders unneces­
sary the messianic teaching of the Bodhisattva's evolution, especially if one
is thinking that Buddhahood is only a mental breakthrough and not also an
extraordinary physical development. All Bodhisattvas vow to be reborn in­
finitely, for three incalculable eons of lifetimes, in all conceivable life-forms,
in order to accumulate the store of merit through generosity, morality, tol­
erance, and enterprise that is needed to develop the Form Body of
Buddhahood. This body divides into Beatific and Emanation Bodies, which
are effortlessly capable of freeing all beings from suffering and of trans­
forming the entire universe into a buddhaverse of perfect opportunity for
the happiness of all. The apocalyptic Adept determines to fulfill this very
30 • E S S EN T I A L T I B ETAN B U D D H I S M

vow, never to abandon or short-circuit his or her commitment to transform

the world and save all beings. Thus, when entering the mandala of Tantric
initiation, he or she is not seeking a way around the eons of lifetimes of ser­
vice to beings. Rather, the intensity of her compassion drives her to dis­
cover a method of accelerating the process of evolution, experiencing the
lifetimes in superfast motion in the subtle virtual-reality realms of the
Diamond Thunderbolt Vehicle. The reason, therefore, that apocalyptic
practitioners such as Milarepa tended to spend long years in remote re­
treats is not just to avoid beings but to relate more intensely with more be­
ings on the subtle, time-accelerated, virtual-reality level, rehearsing living
and dying, cultivating lifetimes' worth of transcendent virtues in a night of
meditation. The archetype deity forms visualized in these Unexcelled Yoga
meditations represent a kind of genetic engineering that enabled the yogin
or yogini to cultivate the ability to shape the body with the mind, trans­
forming the ordinary body produced by ignorance and egocentric instincts
into an embodiment of compassion produced by wisdom and artistic skill
in reaching out to help other beings become free from suffering. Obviously
such sophisticated technical procedures of gaining control over the pro­
cesses of life and death are simply incredible for materialistic moderns; I
only mention them here to show what the Tibetans themselves think their
cultural heroes such as Milarepa are doing and accomplishing.
The teachings of Milarepa remain today beloved by all Tibetans at all
social levels. He is thus the representative of the Buddhist transformation of
the commoners, making the goal of perfect Buddhahood accessible in prin­
ciple to any Tibetan. It is interesting that even though Mila had many yogin
and yogini "Repa" disciples, his main successor and the real founder of
the Kagyupa order was the learned monk, physician, and master yogin
Gampopa ( 1079-1 I 5 3 ). He had started his professional life as a physician
and had become a Kadampa monk on the death of his wife. He established
Kagyupa monasteries on the sound foundation of the Kadampa monastic
discipline and educational curriculum, moving graduates into sophisticated
apocalyptic practices utilizing the traditions handed down from Milarepa.
His teaching system was called the integration of Kadam and Mahamudra
teachings. Gampopa integrated within his person the roles of monastic
abbot, scholastic and scientific sage, and contemplative Adept. He exempli­
fies the distinctive specialty of Tibetan Buddhism of integrating the monas­
tic and the apocalyptic, since the vast majority of Tibetan Adepts of all
orders were monastics as well, with the exception of the few who had
reached the level of perfection-stage practice where they had to resign their
monastic vows.
 Introduction 3I

Among the twelve Kagyupa orders developing from Gampopa's founda­

tion, the Karma Kagyu was an important one due to a particular institu­
tional innovation it developed-the institution of official reincarnations. A
number of great teachers in Buddhist history had attained memory of their
former lives, and there were stories of a teacher being reborn in specific cir­
cumstances and accomplishing further good works and realizations. The
second Karmapa was another such case; born in 1 204, eleven years after
his former incarnation had died, as a child he remembered events of his
previous life and asked to be taken back to his monastery and disciples. He
was recognized by them and again became their leader and teacher; again
when he died, a third child was recognized as his reincarnation, and the tra­
dition of formal recognition was begun.
This institution would have. a profound effect on Tibetan civilization. In
spiritual terms, the reincarnations proved to the people the efficacy of the
most advanced apocalyptic yogas, that it was indeed possible for a human
being to become a Buddha in a single life and then manifest the power to
traverse death consciously and to continue to benefit other beings. Thus
Tibetan Buddhists no longer needed to think of the supreme examples of
the Buddhist education and evolution as having existed only in an ancient
historic past in the holy land of India. Real Buddhas-living, breathing,
teaching, helping, blessing--could be found among them right there in
Tibet. Thus there seemed to be no deficiency in the tradition, no obstacle
for any Tibetan to go as far in his or her practice as intelligence and effort
would carry. On the social level, this institution created a way of leadership
succession in celibate monastic communities that made it unnecessary to
maintain a special relationship with a particular noble family, as in the case
of the Sakya order or the Pagmodru Kagyu order. This then prepared the
way for the eventual emergence of monastic governance, an institution that
occurred only in Tibet and nowhere else in the Buddhist world.
Longchen Rabjampa ( 1 3 °8-1 3 63 ) was another great genius of the later
dissemination, along with Buton Rinpoche ( 1 210-1 3 64 ) a major initiatory
force in the Tibetan renaissance of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
He was an avid scholar, an intrepid contemplative, and a prolific writer. His
father descended from one of the main disciples of Padma Sambhava,
Gyalwa Chogyang, who had practiced the yoga of the fierce horse-headed
archetype deity Hayagriva so intensely that a small horse head emerged
from his cranium. His mother descended from the clan of Dromtonpa, the
founder of the Kadam order. He himself was believed to be the reincarna­
tion of Princess Pemasel, daughter of King Trisong Detsen, who had been
given, at the moment of her premature death, a treasure teaching called
3 2. "* E S S E N T I A L T I B ETAN B U D D H I S M

"Heart-Drop of the Dakinis. " He was a child prodigy, as were most of the
greatest mentor figures, having learned to read and write at five and having
received initiations at seven. He also memorized the Transcendent Wisdom
Sutra. He became a novice monk at Samyey monastery at twelve, where he
was educated in the rigorous Kadampa curriculum of Buddhist studies. His
family education was Nyingma and his academic education was Kadampa,
and he also studied Kagyu and Sakya teachings.
At twenty-seven he met his root mentor, Rigdzin Kumararaja ( 1 266-
1343 ), who taught him the key instructions in the Great Perfection Tantras
of the Nyingma tradition. Under this mentor, he moved out of the
monastery and adopted a contemplative style of life, intensely seeking med­
itative realization of the many teachings he had learned. He experienced
many insights, visions, and realizations, remembering his former lives and
receiving further teachings directly from Buddhas and angels. At thirty-two
he began to give initiations and spiritual teachings to others.
He taught thousands of disciples during many years. He wrote extensive
treatises, traditionally numbered at over two hundred, though quite a num­
ber have been lost. Longchen Rabjampa rebuilt temples, had mystic experi­
ences, and had an enormous impact on future generations. He was one of
the Tibetan "Renaissance men" who accomplished so much that it is hard
to believe he lived only fifty-six years. His portraits present him with two
lotuses above his shoulders, with a sword of wisdom on the right and a vol­
ume of the Transcendent Wisdom Sutra on the left, thus indicating his
membership in the group of "three Manjushris," along with Sakya Pandita
before him and Tsong Khapa after.
Longchenpa's main philosophical accomplishment was his synthesis of
the mystic traditions of the "discovered treasure " teachings received as rev­
elations from the Dakini-angels and the canonical teachings of the three
Vehicles. His teachings of the basic path are no different from those of the
Kadampa and other orders, with the methods of mind cultivation, stages,
meditations, and insights. His use of the newly translated Tantras was also
wholehearted; he accepted the Ritual, Action, and Yoga Tantras as Vehicles
four, five, and six of his system of nine Vehicles. He divided the Unexcelled
Yoga Tantras into three kinds: Mahayoga Tantras, which emphasize the
creation stage; the Anuyoga Tantras, which emphasize the first two and a
half levels of the perfection stage; and the Atiyoga Tantras, which empha­
size the highest teachings of the Great Perfection, the last two and a half
levels of the perfection stage.
This integration of Sutra and Tantra methods shared by all the Tibetan
orders was the key cause of the development of Tibet's unique Buddhist
culture, which I call "protomillennial" or "apocalyptic, " which began to
 Introduction 33

manifest more visibly in the fifteenth century. Dromtonpa, Marpa, the

Sakyapa mentors, Milarepa, Gampopa, Machig Labdron, Longchenpa,
and the many translators and other yogins and yoginis, scholars, Adepts­
all these individuals accomplished great feats in the war against individual
and national ignorance, egotism, prejudice, hate, greed, and other addictive
passions. This inner struggle of theirs had a powerful effect of "morphic
resonance" in the collective consciousness of the nation, turning the inter­
est of many, each on an individual level, toward evolutionary goals. During
this era, the picture of karmic evolution became common sense; karmic
evolution is defined as an individual's sense of coming from many former
lifetimes of biological experience, of being embedded as an individual in a
great chain of vastly different life-forms, and of being subject to moving,
after a relatively short instant of life, into other embodiments, other realms,
other life-forms, perhaps divine forms or forms of great suffering. This
sense makes the moments of this life incredibly valuable, as opportunities
to positively affect those future lives. One feels naturally that one should
invest the moments of this life in making spiritual efforts, working with
one's subtlest mind, which is the sole thing that will determine the bound­
less future, for good or ill, that it be happy and not miserable.
In this era the Tibetans attained several qualities that are sociologically
extraordinary, not present in most other Asian nations, and some of them
not that prevalent even today in so-called modern societies. They gradually
lost most interest in their ancestors, and they did not maintain any ances­
tral rituals as people did in ancient India and China. This is the direct result
of the sense of karmic evolution, since an ancestor is more likely to be re­
born as a fellow being alive today than to be sitting in an ancestral realm
waiting for offerings and pious thoughts. Bit by bit Tibetans lost the inten­
sity of their taste for war, journeys of conquest, and material development,
considering the accumulation of vast treasures more or less a waste of time,
a useless enterprise, since death would deprive them of the benefit soon
enough. Yet they still liked to travel as pilgrims and to do business in a
quiet way while on long pilgrimages to holy places. They became acutely
conscious of the immediate presence of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, as
deities and angels and other spiritual agencies that help human beings and
even as other human beings, living persons reincarnated to teach the way to
enlightenment.
Because of these three qualities (the universalization of ancestor feelings,
the loss of the taste for war, and a sense of the immanence of enlightened
beings), one can say correctly that Tibetans have become particularly spiri­
tual among peoples. This is not to say that they are perfect. They are
human, like all people, with many problems, and often put into practice
34 "* E S S E N T I A L T I B ETAN B U D D H I S M

their teachings and taming disciplines because they fear hell or other horrid
evolutionary destinies. They are also egotistical, in fact grand individualists
for the most part, people of mountainous and solitary terrains. But when
they think "I, " what they identify, even without much analysis, is their
soul, not so much their body. For it is common lore that the subtle soul and
body are what get reborn, not the coarse body that the vultures wait hun­
grily to eat. Therefore they have put the same kind of ingenuity into under­
standing those inner processes as materialistic peoples have put into
understanding the environment.

9. Spiritual Renaissance

After Atisha's time and the founding of Radreng Monastery in 1062, for
the next three centuries Tibetans turned their interests more and more to­
ward Buddhist education, and monasteries were built all over the country.
The vast work of translation was completed, and a voluminous indigenous
literature was developed. No new royal dynasty emerged to control the
whole country. Tibetan militarism was unable to return due to the power of
Buddhism and its ethic of nonviolence. Local noble families still ruled re­
gional areas, but more and more they shared even their social and political
power with the rapidly developing monastic institutions. Important popu­
lar figures emerged, such as Marpa and his famous disciple Milarepa.
During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the Mongolian Empire
unified most of Eurasia, and Tibet also was a part of it. In reality Tibet was
very little changed, divided into thirteen main administrative regions, each
run by a combination of a local ruling family and a local monastic hierar­
chy. The Sakya hierarchy was formally put in charge of all by Khubilai
Khan, but the Sakya hierarch was more of a spiritual figurehead than an ac­
tive administrator. Toward the end of the fourteenth century, the Mongol
Empire fell apart, and the native Tibetan dynasty of Pagmodru asserted
control over Tibet.
Around 1400 a spiritual renaissance was ushered in by the life work of
Lama Jey Tsong Khapa ( 1 3 57-1 4 1 9 ), who came to be known as the
Precious Master. Tsong Khapa shared with Padma Sambhava and Atisha a
special recognition by Tibetans, seen as a child prodigy, a reincarnation of
Manjushri, from an early age. He is generally accepted as having attained
full enlightenment in 1 3 9 8 , at the end of an arduous six-year retreat. For
the last twenty-one years of his life after that, his popular impact increased
exponentially, and the example he lived, teachings he gave, books he wrote,
 Introduction 35

temples he refurbished, and institutions he founded all set the tone for the
subsequent five hundred years of Tibetan civilization. While assisted in his
development by the pioneering work of his many predecessors, he consid­
ered himself particularly inspired by Atisha to renew the movement the lat­
ter had begun three and a half centuries earlier.
This renaissance was based on a new level of national dedication to
the practice of Buddhism and the realization of Buddhahood as the main
aim of Tibetan life. It was sealed by Tsong Khapa's founding the Great
Prayer Festival in Lhasa in 1409, commemorating an apocalyptic mo­
ment in Shakyamuni's biography as known to the Tibetans, the two
weeks of miracles performed near the great Indian city of Shravasti to­
ward the end of his teaching career. During these miracles, Shakyamuni
demonstrated to his whole civilization that the power of the compassion
released by enlightenment is greater than the power of gods and kings,
and he let it be known that enlightened beings could manifest whatever
any individual needs to further his or her evolution and understanding.
Tsong Khapa offered gold and bejeweled celestial ornaments to the Jowo
Rinpoche image of Shakyamuni Buddha enshrined in the Jokhang ca­
thedral to symbolize the nation's recognition of the Buddha's eternal
presence, that the Buddha miracles are always accessible. The festival
celebrated the distinctively Tibetan Buddhist sense of the immediacy of
enlightened and compassionate beings. A tradition thus began for the
whole nation to come together for two weeks of prayer and celebration
every lunar new year. The keys of the city were turned over to the
monastic abbots, and all ordinary business was suspended. This festival
was a core event for all Tibet from 1409 until 1960, when the Chinese
occupation stopped it by force in Lhasa.
After the renaissance led by Tsong Khapa, the spiritual synthesis of
Tibetan Buddhism was complete. Tsong Khapa himself refused to reincar­
nate in an official manner, giving the reason that he had established a curricu­
lum in the philosophical and apocalyptic monasteries that should produce
plenty of Buddhas, and one of those should rightfully occupy the Ganden
throne of the head of the order. The following centuries saw the rippling out­
ward of this spiritual synthesis in a gradual process of transformation of the
social, political, and physical landscape of Tibet. Monasteries were built on
an unprecedented scale, with three major monasteries constructed in the
Lhasa area alone, housing over twenty thousand monks (Lhasa's own lay
population was no more than thirty-five thousand). Many people become
intensely determined to devote their " infinitely precious human lives en­
dowed with freedom and opportunity" to fulfill their evolutionary purpose
36 • E S S ENTIAL T I B ETAN B U D D H I S M

and attain the perfect freedom and happiness of enlightenment. The social
climate became more peaceful, as fewer individuals were available for the
armies of the aristocratic warlords.
Although Tibetan warlords shared the general preference of military
rulers for soldiers and productive housewives over monks and nuns, they
seemed at first to feel relatively unthreatened by this immense wave of
monasticism; in fact they joined in competition with one another to see
who could sponsor more monasteries.
One of Tsong Khapa's disciples, the master Gendun Drubpa ( 1 3 9 1-
1474 ), had attained great awakenings in his lifetime and had performed
great deeds, founding the huge Tashi Lhunpo Monastic University in south­
ern Tibet and teaching hosts of disciples. After his death he turned up rein­
carnated as the son of a yogin and yogini couple of central Tibet. When he
began to talk, he revealed he was the reincarnation of Gendun Drubpa and
expressed his wish to be reunited with his disciples at his home monastery
at Tashi Lhunpo. Named Gendun Gyatso ( 147 5-1 542), he spent long years
in retreat, gave great teachings, built more important monasteries, and
made daring inner voyages as an Adept or "psychonaut, " as I like to call
them. He remembered during his samadhis that he had been previously
born as Dromtonpa, the disciple of Atisha, remembering as well many
other former lives.
His next reincarnation was called Sonam Gyatso ( 1 543-1 5 8 8 ), who
continued the universal spiritual education program, the building of
monasteries, the taming of individuals, and his inner voyages as a psycho­
naut. He was invited to the court of the Mongol king Altan Khan.
Somehow he tamed this formidable warlord, taught him it was better not
to throw prisoners of war into the Yellow River for sport, better not to sac­
rifice captives or animals to the ancestors and the war gods, and, instead of
such fierce shamanism, to take refuge in the Three Jewels of Buddha,
Dharma, and Sangha and practice renunciation, compassion, and wisdom
to evolve to become a Buddha. Altan Khan was so impressed by his en­
counter with a person he obviously perceived to be a superior being, a more
evolved life-form, that he gave him the name Dalai Lama, dalai a Mongol
word for "ocean. " Counting his two predecessors retroactively, Sonam
Gyatso became known as His Holiness the Third Dalai Lama.
Toward the end of Sonam Gyatso's life, the social situation in Tibet was
unstable due to the resistance of the Tibetan warlords, who began to fear
the ascendancy of the fully monasticized civilization coming from the
Tibetan renaissance of 1400. The fourth reincarnation was discovered
among the Mongols, in the family of Altan Khan, which led to closer rela­
tions between the Mongols and the Tibetans.
 Introduction 37

By the end of the sixteenth century, the warlord rulers of Tibet felt over­
whelmed by the popular dedication to enlightenment education, monastic
vocations, and monastery building. A period of violent persecution of
monasteries ensued around the turn of the seventeenth century, with the fate
of the country in the balance. Even the Monlam Chenmo New Year Festival
in Lhasa was suspended by the southern Tibetan warlord for several years.
Basically, the secular forces of the militaristic, aristocratic warlords tried to
assert themselves to eclipse the rise of the monastery-centered, spiritual
lifestyle, in parallel with what was happening simultaneously in the
Reformation in northern Europe, at the end of the Ming Dynasty in China,
and with the consolidation of the shogunate in Japan. The monastic leaders
resisted this effort, and the warlords relentlessly tried to turn the different
orders against one another. The Dalai Lama, by now the beloved spiritual
leader of a huge population, called for help from the Mongolian warlord
Gushri Khan, who had become his disciple. The Mongolian swept into Tibet
and crushed the coalition of warlords that had resolved to reverse the
monasticization of the land. These warlords were disarmed, and a peace
was made that elevated the main monastic leader to head of the nation.

LO. Inner Modernity: The Monastic Nation

In 1 64 2, almost exactly a thousand years after the building of the Jokhang

cathedral, His Holiness the Fifth Dalai Lama ( 1 617-1682) accepted re­
sponsibility for the whole society and was crowned king of Tibet. He con­
centrated within himself the roles of the abbot Shantarakshita, the king
Trisong Detsen, and the psychonaut Adept Padma Sambhava. He founded
the Ganden Palace Victory Government that Tibetans still consider their le­
gitimate government today. The Great Fifth, as he is known, created a
unique form of government eminently well suited to Tibet's special society.
It was almost completely demilitarized, acknowledging the centrality of the
monastic institutions in the national life and the priority given to nonvio­
lence. He rebuilt the Potala Palace on the Red Mountain at Lhasa, where
Emperor Songzen Gambo had lived. His palace was three buildings in one:
a monastery for the abbot, a fortress for the king, and a Buddha-realm
mandala for the Adept, both a monument to Lokeshvara's paradise
Potalaka in south India and an axial pedestal for the mandala of the
Kalachakra Buddha, the Buddha of Shambhala, the hidden country of the
north and land of the future apocalypse.
The nobility was virtually expropriated, retaining the use and income
from parts of their hereditary estates only as salary for service to the
38 • E S S E N T I A L T I B ET A N B U D D H I S M

Ganden Government. They were completely deprived of their private armies

and lost their feudal power of life and death over their peasants, who up to
then had closely resembled the medieval serfs of Russia and Europe. And,
with thanks to the Mongolian supporter, the Great Fifth asked him and his
army to return to Mongolia, and the Land of Snows became the first post­
modern nation, postmodern in the sense of unilaterally disarmed. As the
Protestant princes of northern Europe and the shoguns of Japan had seen, a
nation could not afford a universal military and a universal monastery at the
same time, which caused them to terminate the monastery. In Tibet alone at
this time did the monastery terminate the military and create a bureaucratic
government to maintain a principled peace. International security was to be
attained by diplomacy and moral force, not by military prowess.
The Great Fifth soon entered into an agreement with the new pan-Asian
emperors of the era, the Manchus, to guarantee Tibetan independence and
national integrity. The Manchus were a Tungusic people from the forest
lands north of Korea. They had conquered northern China in r 644 and
wished to conquer the rest of East Asia. Due to his authority over the fear­
some Mongols, the Dalai Lama was seen as a potent ally by the new
Manchu emperor. In r 65 2 an alliance was formed between the Manchu
Shun Chih emperor and the Great Fifth. The Manchus recognized the Dalai
Lama's secular authority over Tibet and his spiritual authority over the
world as they knew it. The Dalai Lama recognized the Manchus as legiti­
mate rulers of Manchuria and China and as international protectors of the
Buddhist Dharma, its practitioners and institutions in Tibet and Mongolia.
The bottom line was that the Dalai Lama agreed to encourage the Mongols
to practice Buddhism, and the Manchus agreed to protect the peace for the
demilitarized Buddhist societies. The Tibetan pacification of the Mongols,
the demilitarization of that most militarily powerful society, is one of the
remarkable social transformations in history, though it is no more astonish­
ing than Tibet's self-transformation over the previous millennium.
In the 309 years of the Dalai Lamas' uninterrupted rule over Tibet, a re­
markable society was developed. It was completely demilitarized and "edu­
cationalized," in that the monastic vocation was thriving at the highest rate
it ever achieved in any society anywhere. There is no space here to describe
this society in detail. It was not Shangrila, in that Tibetans themselves be­
lieve that Shambhala (Shangrila's model) exists in the north polar region of
the planet, and Tibetans were highly aware of the all-too-human faults of
their Land of Snows. But it was still a land blessed by the presidency of
Lokeshvara, the messiah figure believed in by the vast majority of the peo­
ple. It was the land of his sacred mantra, OM MAN! PADME HUM! "Come!
Jewel in the Lotus! In my heart! " It was therefore a place of unprecedented
 Introduction 39

opportunity for the individual intent on enlightenment: maximum low-cost

lifelong educational opportunities, minimum taxes, no military services, no
mortgages, no factories of material products, no lack of teachers and real­
ized beings, and even the opportunity to develop the ability to take rebirth
in the womb, home, town, region, or class of one's choosing and then to re­
turn to one's favorite retreat cave, monastery, or retreat villa.
The table here sums up the process of development of Tibet's Buddhist
civilization.

S U M MA RY OF THE STA GES OF THE

" CIVILIZIN G " OF TIBET

1 . Militaristic, dynastic Tibet-ca. 5 40 to 840. Conquering dynasty

comes to its pragmatically viable limits, meets Buddhism, and imports it as
a preferable matrix of its civilization, creating legitimacy for itself and the
internalizable ethic of a peaceful Tibetan society; suffers apparent nativis­
tic reverse ca. 840.
2. Nationalistic but regionalized Tibet-ca. 840 to 978. Atavistic move­
ment assaults Buddhism as weakener of militaristic fiber of nation, sup­
presses it and its countermilitary institution, monasticism. But the Buddhist
program continues counterculturally through the ministries of lay Adepts
descending from Padma Sambhava's teachings. Buddhist masters retreat to
eastern Tibet and neighboring countries and preserve traditions there.
3 . Medieval, regionalized, dualistic Tibet-ca. 978 to 1 244. Regional
princes sponsor the revival of Buddhism. Lumey (95°-102 5 ) returns from
Khams; Rinchen Zangpo is sent to Kashmir; Atisha (982-1054) comes to
Ngari in 1040; Drom founds Radreng in 1056; Marpa (1012-1°96) estab­
lishes the Kagyu order; the Khon family founds Sakya in 1073 . Regional
nobles legitimize their authority by aligning themselves with charismatic
monastic leaders.
4. Feudal, centralized Tibet, still dualistic, but protomillennial-ca.
1 244 to 1640. Thanks to the Mongol Empire, a central state reemerges be­
ginning with the Sakya regency, later with three nationalistic, secular
regimes, the Pagmodru, the Rinpung, and the Tsangpa. The spiritual
power of the Sakya hierarch merges with the secular power. After the frag­
mentation of the Mongol Empire in the fourteenth century, charismatic
lamas fail to assume political power, which is controlled by aristocratic
regimes. Reincarnations start, begun by the Karmapas. In 1409, with
Tsong Khapa's founding of the Monlam Chenmo Festival, the renaissance,
energized by the visionary millennialism at the heart of the festival, comes
to Tibet, with a new burst of energy for monastic education.
40 • E S S ENTIA L T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

5 . Modern nationalistic Tibet, founded on inner modernity--ca. 1 642

to 19 5 1. This stage begins with the Great Fifth Dalai Lama's coronation in
1 642, which resolves a century of conflict between lamas and warlords
who feared the vast growth of monasticism. The Dalai Lama proceeded to
build a monastic, modern nation-state, unique on the planet. This Ganden
Palace Government was founded on popular millennialism, combining
myths of the future Buddha Maitreya, the reincarnations of Lokeshvara,
and the prophecy of Shambhala. For the first time in Buddhist history, a
monastic took the throne of a nation. Warlords were expropriated, dis­
armed, and bureaucratized with monastic official counterparts and re­
ceived the income from their hereditary estates as salary for government
service. The annual budget was devoted to the support of monastic educa­
tion. The military was gradually phased out, with three centuries of rela­
tive peace, a unique, mass-monastic, unilaterally disarmed society. This
was an "interior industrial revolution," wherein enlightened people were
fabricated on a monastic assembly line, with a technology of life, death,
and reincarnation. All was rationalized to support the individual's attain­
ment of enlightenment.

II. The Present Day

Tibetan interior modernity has adapted quite well to the rest of the world's
industrial modernity, where the encounter was not violently forced. The
Chinese communists, however, have attempted to impose on Tibetans their
Marxist materialism, communistic egalitarianism, and an industrial focus
on the productions of this life through an all-out assault on Tibetan
Buddhism. It has included the destruction of monastic institutions, monks
and nuns, Scriptures, outdoor monuments, Mani stones, prayer flags, per­
sonal rosaries and prayer wheels, icons, paintings, photographs of the
Dalai Lama, even knowledge of the Tibetan language. Intensive communist
thought-reform sessions were held year in and year out for decades. The
Chinese have killed members of the upper classes, forced the redistribution
of whatever forms of wealth were not extracted for the economy of China,
imposed Chinese language education and indoctrination in Maoist writ­
ings, and enlisted all able-bodied persons in labor brigades, work gangs,
production units, and so forth. All of these measures caused the deaths of
approximately 1 . 3 million people, destroyed all the architectural and
artistic treasures of the nation, and eradicated the intelligentsia entirely
except for a few people who survived the prison camps or who escaped
into exile.
 Introduction 39

opportunity for the individual intent on enlightenment: maximum low-cost

lifelong educational opportunities, minimum taxes, no military services, no
mortgages, no factories of material products, no lack of teachers and real­
ized beings, and even the opportunity to develop the ability to take rebirth
in the womb, home, town, region, or class of one's choosing and then to re­
turn to one's favorite retreat cave, monastery, or retreat villa.
The table here sums up the process of development of Tibet's Buddhist
civilization.

S U M M A RY OF THE STAGES OF THE

"CIVILIZIN G " OF TIBET

1. Militaristic, dynastic Tibet-ca. 540 to 840. Conquering dynasty

comes to its pragmatically viable limits, meets Buddhism, and imports it as
a preferable matrix of its civilization, creating legitimacy for itself and the
internalizable ethic of a peaceful Tibetan society; suffers apparent nativis­
tic reverse ca. 840.
2. Nationalistic but regionalized Tibet-ca. 840 to 978. Atavistic move­
ment assaults Buddhism as weakener of militaristic fiber of nation, sup­
presses it and its countermilitary institution, monasticism. But the Buddhist
program continues counterculturally through the ministries of lay Adepts
descending from Padma Sambhava's teachings. Buddhist masters retreat to
eastern Tibet and neighboring countries and preserve traditions there.
3 . Medieval, regionalized, dualistic Tibet-ca. 978 to 1 244. Regional
princes sponsor the revival of Buddhism. Lumey (950-102 5 ) returns from
Khams; Rinchen Zangpo is sent to Kashmir; Atisha (982-1054) comes to
Ngari in 1 040; Drom founds Radreng in 1056; Marpa ( 1 0 1 2-1°96) estab­
lishes the Kagyu order; the Khon family founds Sakya in 107 3 . Regional
nobles legitimize their authority by aligning themselves with charismatic
monastic leaders.
4. Feudal, centralized Tibet, still dualistic, but protomillennial-ca.
1 244 to 1 640. Thanks to the Mongol Empire, a central state reemerges be­
ginning with the Sakya regency, later with three nationalistic, secular
regimes, the Pagmodru, the Rinpung, and the Tsangpa. The spiritual
power of the Sakya hierarch merges with the secular power. After the frag­
mentation of the Mongol Empire in the fourteenth century, charismatic
lamas fail to assume political power, which is controlled by aristocratic
regimes. Reincarnations start, begun by the Karmapas. In 1409, with
Tsong Khapa's founding of the Monlam Chenmo Festival, the renaissance,
energized by the visionary millennialism at the heart of the festival, comes
to Tibet, with a new burst of energy for monastic education.
40 • E S S EN T I A L T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

5 . Modern nationalistic Tibet, founded on inner modernity--ca. 1 642

to 5 1 . This stage begins with the Great Fifth Dalai Lama's coronation in
19
1 642, which resolves a century of conflict between lamas and warlords
who feared the vast growth of monasticism. The Dalai Lama proceeded to
build a monastic, modern nation-state, unique on the planet. This Ganden
Palace Government was founded on popular millennialism, combining
myths of the future Buddha Maitreya, the reincarnations of Lokeshvara,
and the prophecy of Shambhala. For the first time in Buddhist history, a
monastic took the throne of a nation. Warlords were expropriated, dis­
armed, and bureaucratized with monastic official counterparts and re­
ceived the income from their hereditary estates as salary for government
service. The annual budget was devoted to the support of monastic educa­
tion. The military was gradually phased out, with three centuries of rela­
tive peace, a unique, mass-monastic, unilaterally disarmed society. This
was an "interior industrial revolution," wherein enlightened people were
fabricated on a monastic assembly line, with a technology of life, death,
and reincarnation. All was rationalized to support the individual's attain­
ment of enlightenment.

I I. The Present Day

Tibetan interior modernity has adapted quite well to the rest of the world's
industrial modernity, where the encounter was not violently forced. The
Chinese communists, however, have attempted to impose on Tibetans their
Marxist materialism, communistic egalitarianism, and an industrial focus
on the productions of this life through an all-out assault on Tibetan
Buddhism. It has included the destruction of monastic institutions, monks
and nuns, Scriptures, outdoor monuments, Mani stones, prayer flags, per­
sonal rosaries and prayer wheels, icons, paintings, photographs of the
Dalai Lama, even knowledge of the Tibetan language. Intensive communist
thought-reform sessions were held year in and year out for decades. The
Chinese have killed members of the upper classes, forced the redistribution
of whatever forms of wealth were not extracted for the economy of China,
imposed Chinese language education and indoctrination in Maoist writ­
ings, and enlisted all able-bodied persons in labor brigades, work gangs,
production units, and so forth. All of these measures caused the deaths of
approximately 1 . 3 million people, destroyed all the architectural and
artistic treasures of the nation, and eradicated the intelligentsia entirely
except for a few people who survived the prison camps or who escaped
into exile.
 Introduction 4I

These efforts have nonetheless been dismal failures. The minute the
Chinese occupation administration was distracted by the post-Mao distur­
bances in the early 1980s, the Tibetans rose up as one and began to rebuild
monasteries, to become monks and nuns, to restore their previous social
order based on occupation and talent, to travel to India on pilgrimage, and
to receive initiations and teachings from the Dalai Lama and other teach­
ers. The Chinese were astounded that such "primitive" thinking could have
survived their "revolutionary" onslaught; but they rather uneasily acqui­
esced in the Tibetan choices because they hoped to make Tibet an attractive
tourist destination and so needed colorful monasteries and quaint monks
and ceremonies. By the late 1980s, the monks and especially nuns began to
make peaceful protests against Chinese occupation, and the government
cracked down on the monasteries with a heavy hand.
Meanwhile, in exile in India, Nepal, and Bhutan, as well as in North
America, Europe, and Australia, the Dalai Lama and about 1 50,000
Tibetan refugees have succeeded in keeping their unique civilization some­
what alive. They have their own school system within the Indian education
system, so young Tibetans can learn Tibetan language, history, and some
basic religious teachings. They have also maintained a high rate of monas­
ticism, with more than twenty thousand monks and nuns, about one sixth
of the population in exile. The curricula of the monasteries and nunneries
continue with very little alteration in the spiritual studies and practices,
though a modicum of modern, secular learning is added to orient the reli­
gious in the contemporary world. Tibetan spiritual teachers have attracted
large followings in Europe, the Americas, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, and
Southeast Asia, and some have written spiritual best-sellers. The Dalai
Lama has received the Nobel Peace Prize and has met and is respected by
most of the world's major religious and secular leaders. The communist
Chinese regime has still refused to recognize him or his people's right to
self-determination, and it still succeeds in getting other governments to ig­
nore the reality of Tibet as the price of trade relations with China.
Tibetans are a success story as refugee communities go, with little his­
tory of violence, crime, or persisting poverty, and they take very easily to
the professions of the modern economy. The further chapter of the amazing
social experiment of Tibetan Buddhist civilization cannot yet be written, as
it involves the coming experience of the political freedom Tibet will in­
evitably gain, as the restructuring of big-power, twentieth-century colonial­
ism that began with the U.S.S.R. becomes global. Then we will see if a
society touched by living Buddhas, with a different popular sense of the
purpose and value of human life, with a determined spiritual orientation,
will adopt some elements of a materialistic modernity. Which elements will
42 • E S S ENTIAL TIB ETAN B U D D H I S M

it adopt, and which will it reject? Will Tibetans use computers to aid them
in their quest of evolutionary perfection in Buddhahood? Will they milita­
rize, never again to taste the bitterness of conquest and occupation by an
outside power? Will they exploit and ruin their own environment? Will
they industrialize in an external manner? The world will get a chance to see
if a culture oriented to the possibility of becoming a perfect Buddha can
persist in a materially modern setting.

I2. Are There Several Essential Tibetan Buddhisms?

More than half a dozen important Tibetan Buddhist orders have existed,
and any given order has various levels and layers of doctrine, method, prac­
tice, and result. In modern times there are said to be four main orders, the
Nyingma, the Sakya, the Kagyu, and the Geluk. The Geluk are by far the
most numerous; the Nyingma is second, the Kagyu third, and the Sakya the
smallest. Like the Benedictines, the Franciscans, the Dominicans, and so on
in the West, these orders have different histories, with emphasis on differ­
ent texts and practices. They have held heated debates over points of doc­
trine and interpretation over the centuries. But do they have essential
differences in philosophy and religious practice?
My answer is that they do not. I must avow that my personal back­
ground is a long association with the majority order, even though I have re­
ceived teachings and initiations from teachers of all four. It is the tendency
of a majority to emphasize its essential sameness with the corresponding
minority, while the minority tends to emphasize its distinctiveness. Still,
correcting for any bias these factors of personal history and general ten­
dency might prompt, the essence of the way that all these orders present
Buddhism seems the same.
All consider Shakyamuni the main Buddha of this world-epoch. All
consider that a Buddha is a superhuman, superdivine being who has trans­
formed from a human state to a perfect omniscience and a perfect evolu­
tionary ability to manifest whatever compassion requires to interact with
whomsoever. All consider that many such Buddhas after Shakyamuni have
graced this planet and that many have lived in Tibet. They are credited with
having created Tibetan civilization. Many Tibetans have become Buddhas,
many still reincarnate life after life to continue to teach their disciples, and
many more will become Buddhas. They want to be Buddhas because that
for them is the pursuit of happiness. Buddhas are happier, more peaceful,
more beautiful, more powerful. They have achieved real freedom from in-
 Introduction 43

ternal compulsions as well as external obstructions, such as any suffering

or even death.
All the teachings of all the orders of Tibetan Buddhism agree on this
basic vision of life as an opportunity to join the Buddhas. It is rational to
take advantage of that opportunity, because not doing so does not guaran­
tee any status quo, and, as life has been and will continue to be infinite in
its permutations, it is dangerous to meet death without having attained the
ability to stay conscious, cool, and on course through its transitions.
Given the broad area of agreement, individual masters, scholars, and
writers within the same order or within different orders have of course
given different prescriptions about exactly what are the best methods for
attaining Buddhahood-which are faster for a certain type of practitioner,
which are less practical, what is the order in which they should be em­
ployed, what are the preparations, and so forth. There is a tremendous
amount of debate on all of these subjects. In fact, since it is finally a fully
developed understanding-insight become transcendent wisdom-that
makes possible the attainment of Buddhahood, and since understanding
comes about through a relentless process of critiquing prejudice, erroneous
views, and ignorant preconceptions, critical debate itself is an important
vehicle of liberation and enlightenment. Tibetan Buddhists cultivate a
heightened ability to think critically, to doubt everything in a systematic
way, in order to break through prejudice and to experience reality nakedly
as it is. Therefore it is natural that great practitioners and scholars should
use their critical acumen to debate every conceivable matter.

I3. The Essential Readings

One of the amazing things about Tibetan civilization is the vastness of its
literature. The current written form of its language was established in the
seventh century C.E., four hundred years before Chaucer and almost a thou­
sand years before Shakespeare. Woodblock printing was begun in earnest
from the fourteenth century, a century before Gutenberg. Up to 2 0 percent
of the people were monastics, more than half of whom were educated and
literate. Thus a nation that probably never numbered more than ten mil­
lion-nowadays six or seven million-has two different canons of Indian
texts translated from Sanskrit, numbering over three hundred volumes, each
volume of which would translate into a roughly two-thousand-page English
text. Radiating out from that canon are collected works in Tibetan of hun­
dreds of eminent scholars, saints, and sages, some of which number in the
44 • E S S ENTIA L TIB ETAN BUDDHISM

hundreds of volumes. These include many works of history, cosmology,

astronomy-astrology, grammar, linguistics, poetics, medicine-veterinary
as well as human-epistemology, psychologies of various kinds, philosophy,
and immense numbers of ritual and liturgical texts. Then there are monas­
tic catalogs, training manuals, disciplinary records, ceremonial manuals,
and numerous historical documents. In addition to this huge Buddhistic lit­
erature, there is an entire mirror version, still huge although considerably
smaller, of the Bon religion, which has its own canon, supposedly trans­
lated from the Persian, and Tibetan extracanonical collections in the same
categories as the Buddhist. In the secular sphere there are plays, poems, de­
crees, law codes, land records, titles, architectural and craft manuals of all
kinds. In short, for a contemplative culture, Tibetans were incredibly verbal
and literary, not to say wordy!
The selection of key texts, therefore, is no small feat; inevitably so much
has to be left out. In this book I have focused first on the essence of the
essence, "The Quintessence." I present this as the key to the distinctive at­
tainment of Tibetan Buddhist civilization, the vivid sense of the immediate
presence of Buddhas in ordinary, daily reality, the personal immanence of
the enlightenment reality in the Lama, or Mentor, figure. The first Panchen
Lama, Panchen Losang Chokyi Gyaltsen, mentor of the Great Fifth Dalai
Lama, wrote the Lama Chapa (Mentor Worship ) by collecting and quintes­
sentializing all the traditions of "Buddha-Mentor Yoga," which is the key
practice of using the personal mentor as a living icon of the present
Buddha. The Mentor Worship also collects all of the central teachings of
the path shared by all the orders of Tibetan Buddhism, running from recog­
nition of the Buddha in the mentor through refuge in the Three Jewels, ap­
preciation of the evolutionary opportunity in human life, renunciation of
mundane preoccupations, development of the loving mind of the spirit of
enlightenment, the messianic determination to accomplish the happiness of
all beings, and the liberative realization of selfless wisdom, right up to the
practice of the creation stage and perfection stages of the Tantras at the
very doorway of perfect Buddhahood.
In chapter 2 we look at the Tibetan vision of the life of Shakyamuni,
abridging a biography written by a famous Tibetan lama of the nineteenth
century. In chapter 3 we look at how the Buddha was found in the mentor
as Tibet developed, and we present various rationales and structures of the
path. Chapters 4 through 6 present the three stages of the exoteric path for
the evolutionary development of a human individual from ordinary ego­
centric living to the perfect enlightenment and boundless lifestyle of a
Buddha.
 Introduction 45

Chapters 7 and 8 offer abridged forms of esoteric materials from the

Esoteric Communion ( Guhyasamaja) Tantra, its creation stage as arranged
for practice by Tsong Khapa and its perfection stage as received from the
Indian Adepts Shakyamitra and Nagarjuna. These materials are usually not
for presentation to an uninitiated audience. I have nevertheless decided to
present them in this case, following the green light given by my personal
mentor, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who has himself published initiation
ceremonies, considering it now necessary to present at least the general out­
lines of these sublime visions and yogas in order to disarm those who, for
various propaganda reasons, have misrepresented Tibetan Buddhism as
corrupt. I have also left out enough detail so that a person who wanted to
go beyond reading to actual meditation on the Esoteric Communion would
have to seek a teacher, accomplish the prerequisites, and receive initiation
to do so.
In chapter 9 I present a few typical Scriptures and prayers of broad pop­
ularity among Tibetans to illustrate how full their universe is of the
Buddha-presence. Throughout the text, I have let the Tibetan texts speak
for themselves, although terms and ideas requiring special explanation are
elucidated in the Notes section at the back of the book.
 CHAPTER I

The Quintessence: The Mentor Worship

by Panchen Lama I,
Losang Chokyi Gyaltsen
I N I T I A L S E L F - C R EAT I O N
Through the great bliss state,
I myself become the Mentor Deity!
From my luminous body
Light-rays shine all around,
Massively blessing beings and things,
Making the universe pure and fabulous,
Perfection in its every quality!

REFU GE
I and all space full of mother beings
From now until enlightenment
Take refuge in the Mentor and the Three Jewels!
NAMO G URU BHYOH
NAMO B U D D HAYA
NAMO DHARM AYA
NAMO SANGHAYA

For the sake of all mothe� beings,

I will become a Mentor Deity,
To install all beings in the supreme
Exaltation of being Mentor Deities!

For the sake of all mother beings, in this very life I will very swiftly real­
ize the exaltation of the primal Buddha Mentor Deity; I will free all
mother beings from suffering and install them in the great bliss Buddha
state. For that purpose I will undertake the profound path of Mentor
Deity Yoga !
(3X)

O FF E R I N G S
OM AH HUM
Primal wisdom in reality appears as inner offering and individual offer­
ings and works to create the distinctive bliss-void wisdom in the fields
of the six senses, outer, inner, and secret clouds of offerings totally fill-
 The Quintessence: The Mentor Worship 49

ing earth, sky, and all of space with inconceivable visions and sacred
substances.
In the middle of all-good offering clouds
arranged in the vast heavens of bliss-void indivisible,
in the crown of a miraculous wish-granting gem tree,
radiantly beautiful with leaves, flowers, and fruits,
on a sparkling jewel lion-throne,
on cushions of spreading lotus, sun, and moon,
sits my thrice-kind Root Mentor,
the actuality of all Buddhas!
His form is of a fulfilled mendicant,
with one face, two arms, smiling radiantly,
right hand in the Dharma-teaching gesture,
left hand flat in meditation, holding a bowl of elixir.
He wears the three robes glowing saffron color,
head beautiful with the yellow scholar's hat.
At his heart sits the omnipresent Lord Vajradhara,
with one face, two arms, sapphire blue in color,
holding vajra and bell, embracing Lady Vajradhatvishvari,
both ecstatic in the play of bliss and void.
Resplendent with many-faceted jewel ornaments,
draped with divinely wrought silken clothes.
Adorned with the signs and marks, shining like the sun,
surrounded by halos of five-colored rainbows,
my Mentor sits in the vajra posture.
His five aggregates are really the five Bliss Lords,
his four elements the four Ladies, his sense-media, nerves,
muscles, and joints really the live Bodhisattvas,
his body hairs the twenty-one thousand arhats,
his limbs the Lords of Ferocity.
His light-rays are protectors and fierce spirits,
and the world gods lie beneath his feet.
Around him sit in rows an ocean of live and ancestral Mentors,
archetype deities, and divine mandala hosts,
Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, angels,
and defenders of the Dharma.
Each of their three doors of body speech and mind
is marked by the three vajras, OM AH H U M ,
50 • E S S ENTI A L T I B ETAN B U D D H I S M

the iron hooks of light-rays from their heart HUMS

draw spiritual duplicates from their natural abodes.
Wisdom heroes and icon heroes become indivisible
and substantially present.

SUMMO NING
o source of success, happiness, and goodness,
all-time live and ancestral Mentors, archetypes, Three Jewels,
along with heroes, angels, protectors, and defenders,
out of compassion, come hither and stay here!
Though all things are really free of coming and going,
you accord with the natures of various disciples
and perform appropriate miracles of love and wisdom;
Holy Savior with your retinue, please come here now!
OM G URU B U D D H A B O D H I S ATTVADHARMAPALASAPARIVARA
EHYEH II
JAH HUM BAM H O H

Wisdom heroes and symbol heroes become inseparable!

S A L U TAT I O N S
Mentor like a gem embodied, diamond bolt,
Live compassion from the great bliss element
You bestow in the fraction of a second
The supreme exaltation of the three bodies­
I bow to the lotus of your foot!
Primal wisdom of all Victors of the buddhaverses,
Supreme artist to create whatever tames each being,
Performer in the dance of upholding the monastic form,
I bow to the feet of the Holy Savior!
Eradicating all evil along with instincts,
Treasure of a measureless jewel mass of good,
Sole door to the source of all joy and benefit-
I bow to the feet of the Holy Mentor!
Teacher of humans and gods, reality of all Buddhas,
Origin of the eighty-four thousand holy teachings,
 The Quintessence: The Mentor Worship 5I

Shining axis of the entire host of noble beings­

I bow to all kind Mentors!
To the Mentors in all times and places,
And all worthy forms of the Three Jewels,
With faith and devotion and oceans of praise,
I bow with bodies as many as atoms in the universe!

OFFERINGS
To the Holy Mentor Savior with his retinue,
I offer an ocean of various offering clouds;
From well-arranged, bright, broad, jewel vessels
Four streams of purifying nectars flow.
Earth and sky are filled with graceful goddesses,
With beautiful flowers, garlands, and showering petals,
Delicious incense smoke adorns the heavens
With summer rainclouds of sapphire blue.
Masses of lamps lit by suns, moons, and radiant gems
Shine ecstatic light-rays to illumine the billion worlds;
Boundless oceans of fragrant waters swirl around,
Scented with camphor, sandalwood, and saffron.
Himalayas of human and divine food heap up,
Wholesome food and drink with a hundred savors;
The three realms resound with sweet melodies
From infinite specific varieties of music.
The outer and inner sensual goddesses
Pervade all quarters and present the glorious beauty
Of form and color, sounds, scents, tastes, and textures.

M A N D ALA O F F E R I N G
These hundred trillion four-continent, planet-mountain worlds,
With the seven major and seven minor jewel ornaments,
Perfect realms of beings and things that create great joy,
Great treasures of delight enjoyed by gods and humans-
o Savior, mercy treasure, supreme field of offering,
My heart full of faith, I offer it all to you!
52 • E S S ENTIAL TIB ETAN B U D D H I S M

Here on the shore of the wish-granting ocean

Of actually arranged and carefully visualized offerings,
This is a garden where the mind is captivated by the blooming
lotuses
Of offering substances which are all perfections of life and
liberation,
Where one is delighted by the scents of all-good offerings
Which are beautiful flowers of the mundane and transcendent,
Physical, verbal, and mental virtues of myself and others,
And where one is satiated with the rich fruits
Of the three educations, the five paths, and the two stages­
I offer it all to please you, Holy Mentor!
This delicate tea, rich with a hundred tastes
Saffron-colored, finely scented,
And the five hooks and the five lamps,
Purified, transmuted, and magnified
Into an ocean of elixirs-
I offer it to you!
A host of attractive, slender, youthful beauties,
Highly skilled in the sixty-four arts of love,
The heavenly, contemplative, and orgasmic heralds,
Exquisite, magic consorts-
I offer them all to you!
Great primal wisdom of unblocked orgasmic bliss,
Inseparable from the unfabricated natural realm,
Spontaneous, beyond theory, thought, and expression,
This supreme ultimate spirit of enlightenment-
I offer it to you!
I offer these various specific medicines of goodness
Which conquer four hundred four addiction sicknesses,
And to please you I offer myself as servant-
Please keep me in your service while space lasts!

CONFESSION
From beginningless time, whatever sinful acts
I did, had done, or rejoiced at others' doing,
 The Quintessence: The Mentor Worship 53

I repent before you, 0 Compassionate Ones,

Confess and solemnly swear never to do again!
Though things are naturally free from signs
I heartily rejoice in all the dreamlike
Perfect virtues of ordinary and noble beings
That bring them all their happiness and joy!
Clouds of perfect wisdom and love mass together
In order to grow, sustain, and prosper
The garden of help and happiness for infinite beings,
Let the rain of profound and magnificent Dharma fall!
Though your diamond body knows no birth or death,
You treasure chest of Buddhas self-controlled in union,
Fulfill my prayers until the end of time-
Please stay forever without entering Nirvana!
The mass of perfect virtue thus created,
I dedicate to stay with you, my Mentor, life after life,
To be cultivated by your threefold kindness,
To attain supreme communion of Vajradhara!

P RAY E R S
Source of excellence, vast ocean of justice,
Endowed with many jewels of spiritual learning,
Saffron-robed, living Shakyamuni Lord,
Patriarch, Discipline-holder,
I pray to you!
Possessor of the ten excellent qualities,
Worthy to teach the path of the blissful lords,
Dharma master, Regent of all victors­
Universal Vehicle Spiritual Guide,
I pray to you!
Your body, speech, and mind well controlled,
You are a genius, tolerant and honest.
Without pretense or deception,
You know mantras and Tantras.
Having the ten outer and ten inner abilities,
54 • E S S E N T I A L T I B ET A N BUDDHISM

Skilled in the arts and the instructions,

Chief of vajra masters,
I pray to you!
You precisely teach the good path of the blissful
To the savage, hard-to-tame beings of these dark times,
Who were not tamed by the visits of countless Buddhas,
Compassionate Savior,
I pray to you!
The sun of Shakyamuni now sunken over time,
You perform the deeds of a victorious Buddha
For beings who have no spiritual Savior,
Compassionate Savior,
I pray to you!
But a single of your body's pores
Is better recommended as our field of merit
Than the Victors of all times and places­
Compassionate Savior,
I pray to you!
The beauty wheels of your Bliss Lord Three Bodies
Ecstatically unfold the net of miracles of your liberative art,
Leading beings by participating in ordinariness­
Compassionate Savior,
I pray to you!
Your aggregates, elements, media, and limbs
Are the five blissful clans' Fathers and Mothers
The Bodhisattvas male and female, and the Ferocious Lords,
Supreme Three Jewel Mentor,
I pray to you!
Your nature is the million wheels of mandalas
Arising from the play of omniscient primal wisdom,
Chief Vajra Master, Lord of the Hundred Clans,
Communion Primal Savior,
I pray to you!
Inseparable from the play of unblocked orgasmic joy,
Universal Lord, you pervade all moving and unmoving,
You are actual, ultimate, all-good spirit of enlightenment,
 The Quintessence: The Mentor Worship 55

Beginningless and endless,

I pray to you!

S O L E M N P RAY E R
You are Mentor!
You are Archetype Deity!
You are Angel and Protector!
From now until enlightenment,
I seek no other Savior!
With compassion's iron hook
Please look after me,
In this life, the between, and future lives!
Save me from the terrors
Of both life and liberation!
Bestow on me all powers!
Be my eternal friend!
Defend me from attack!

I N I T I AT I O N AND B L E S S I N G
By the power of thus praying three times,
The vital points of the Mentor's body, speech, and mind
Emit white, red, and blue elixir light-rays,
First one by one and then all together,
Which dissolve into my own three vital points,
Purify the four blocks, and grant the four initiations.
I attain the Four Bodies, and a duplicate of the Mentor
Melts in delight and blesses me completely.

U S I N G T H E B L E S S I N G S I N T H E PAT H
By the power of offering, respecting, and praying
To the Holy Mentor, supreme field of benefit,
Bless me, Savior, root of help and happiness,
That you can happily look after me!
This liberty and opportunity found just this once,
Understanding how hard to get and how quickly lost,
Bless me not to waste it in the pointless business of this life,
But to take its essence and make it count!
56 • E S S ENTIAL TIB ETAN BUDDHISM

Fearing the blazing fires of suffering in the hellish states,

Heartily taking refuge in the Three Jewels,
Bless me to intensify my efforts
To cease sins and achieve a mass of virtue!
Tossed by fierce waves of evolution and addiction,
Crushed by the many monsters of the three sufferings,
Bless me to intensify my will to liberation
From this terrifying boundless ocean of existence!
As for this egoistic life-cycle unbearable as a prison,
Ceasing the delusion that it's a garden of delight,
Bless me to hold high the victory banner of liberation,
And enjoy the treasure of noble gems, the three educations!

Thinking how these pathetic beings were all my mothers

How over and over they kindly cared for me,
Bless me to conceive the genuine compassion
That a loving mother feels for her precious babe!

Not accepting even their slightest suffering,

Never satisfied with whatever happiness,
Making no distinction between self and other,
Bless me to find joy in others' happiness!

This chronic disease of cherishing myself,

Seeing it the cause creating unwanted suffering,
Resenting it and holding it responsible,
Bless me to conquer this great devil of self-addiction!

Knowing the cherishing of my mothers as the bliss-creating mind,

Door for developing infinite abilities,
Though these beings should rise up as bitter enemies,
Bless me to hold them dearer than my life!
In short, the fool works only in self-interest,
The Buddha works only to realize others' aims,
With the mind that understands these costs and benefits,
Bless me that I can exchange self and other!

Self-cherishing the door of all frustration,

Mother-cherishing the ground of all excellence,
Bless me to put into essential practice
The yoga of exchanging self and other!
 The Quintessence: The Mentor Worship 57

Therefore, 0 compassionate Holy Mentor,

Bless all beings to obtain happiness,
Letting my mothers' sins, blocks, sufferings
Entirely take effect upon me now,
Giving them all my joy and virtue!
Though the whole world be full of the fruits of sin,
And unwanted sufferings fall down like rain,
Seeing this as exhausting past negative evolution,
Bless me to use bad conditions in the path!
In short, whatever happens, good and bad,
By practice of the five forces, essence of all Dharma,
Becomes a path to increase the two enlightenment spirits,
Bless me to contemplate indomitable cheer!
Bless me to make my liberty and opportunity meaningful,
By practice of the precepts and vows of mind development,
Applying contemplation at once to whatever happens
By the artistry employing the four techniques!
Bless me to cultivate the spirit of enlightenment,
To save beings from the great ocean of existence,
Through the universal responsibility of love and compassion,
And the magic of mounting give and take upon the breath!
Bless me to intensify my efforts
On the sole path of the all-time victors,
Binding my process with pure messianic vows,
And practicing the three ethics of the supreme Vehicle!
Bless me to perfect the generosity transcendence,
The precept increasing giving without attachment,
Transforming my body, possessions, and all-time virtues
Into just the things each being wants!
Bless me to perfect the justice transcendence,
Not surrendering, even to save my life, my vows
Of individual liberation, bodhisattva, and secret mantra,
Collecting virtue, and realizing beings' aims!
Bless me to perfect the tolerance transcendence,
So that, even if every being in the world were furious,
Cut me, accused, threatened, even killed me,
Without strain, I could repay their harm with benefit!
58 • E S S E N T I A L T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

Bless me to perfect the enterprise transcendence,

So that even if I had to spend oceans of eons
In the fires of hell for the sake of each and every being,
My compassion would never tire of striving for enlightenment!
Bless me to perfect the meditation transcendence,
Through the one-pointed samadhi that transcends all flaws
Of distraction, depression, and excitement,
Focused on the truth-free reality of all things!
Bless me to perfect the wisdom transcendence,
Through the yoga of ultimate-reality-spacelike equipoise,
Connected with the intense bliss of the special fluency
Derived from wisdom of discrimination of reality!
Bless me to complete the magical samadhi,
Understanding the procedure of truthless appearance
Of outer and inner things, like illusions, dreams,
Or the reflection of the moon in water!
Bless me to understand Nagarjuna's intended meaning,
Where life and liberation have no iota of intrinsic reality,
Cause and effect and relativity are still inexorable,
And these two do not contradict but mutually complement!
Then bless me to embark in the boat to cross the ocean of the
Tantras,
Through the kindness of the captain vajra-master,
Holding vows and pledges, root of all powers,
More dearly than life itself!
Bless me to perceive all things as the deity body,
Cleansing the taints of ordinary perception and conception
Through the yoga of the creation stage of Unexcelled Tantra,
Changing birth, death, and between into the three Buddha bodies!
Bless me to realize here in this life
The path of clear light/magic body communion,
Coming from you, Savior, when you put your toe
In my eight-petaled heart-center Dhuti-nerve!
If the path is not complete and death arrives,
Bless me to go to a pure buddhaverse
By the instruction for implementing the five forces
Of mentor-soul-ejection, the forceful art of Buddhahood!
 The Quintessence: The Mentor Worship 59

In short, life after life forever,

You, Savior, please care for me never apart,
Bless me to become your foremost child,
Upholding all the secrets of body, speech, and mind!
You, Savior, at your perfect Buddhahood,
May I be foremost in your retinue-
Grant me good luck for easy spontaneous achievement
Of all my goals, temporary and ultimate!
Thus having prayed, may you, Supreme Mentor,
Joyously come to my crown to bless me,
Sit surely, your toenails glistening,
In the pistil of my heart-center lotus!
 CHAPTER 2

Seeing the Buddha

 Quintessence Segment
REFU G E
I and all space full of mother beings
From now until enlightenment
Take refuge in the Mentor
And in the Three Jewels!
NAMO G URU BHYOH
NAMO B U D D HAYA
NAMO DHARMAYA
NAMO SANGHAYA

Shakyamuni Buddha Through Tibetan Eyes

by Tse Chokling Yongclzin Yeshe Gyaltsen

For a Buddha to visit earth is as extremely rare as for an udumvara flower

to bloom from earth to heaven. Why? To become a Buddha in the world,
one must conceive the supreme spirit of enlightenment and accumulate
massive stores of merit and knowledge for an immeasurably long time over
three incalculable eons. Innumerable relativities must be arranged, such as
purifying the buddhaverse, fulfilling the vows, and developing the continua
of the disciples. It is very difficult to arrange so many relativities. Therefore
this world is usually sunken in ages of darkness, and the illuminated eon of
a Buddha's advent is barely a possibility.
It is very hard for beings caught in this world's life-cycle to develop even
a tiny virtuous mind. Whatever virtue they do develop relies only on the
Buddha's power. If it is so very rare to have a tiny good feeling such as faith
in the Buddha, why mention how rare it is for one to develop ethical dis­
cernment about evolutionary actions through finding faith in the Three
Jewels or to be moved by transcendent renunciation to abandon longing for
mundane successes and learn the path of liberation? If it is so very rare to
be moved by transcendence to learn the path of liberation, why mention
how rare it is to be moved by the precious spirit of enlightenment that cher­
ishes others over self to learn and constantly practice for many incalculable
eons the ocean of Bodhisattva deeds?
How did our compassionate Teacher first conceive the spirit of enlight­
enment? Innumerable eons ago, when he happened to be born as a bull in
one of the hells, pulling a cart in a team, he felt compassion for a weaker
 Seeing the Buddha 63

fellow bull. He told the Yama-demon Alang that he would pull the load
alone. Alang was so angry with this moment of compassion, he killed him
with his trident, and the Bodhisattva was born at once in the Thirty-three
heaven.
Then he began to accumulate merit during three incalculable eons. He
served seventy-five thousand Buddhas during the first incalculable eon,
from Mahashakyamuni to Rashtrapala, seventy-six thousand in the second
incalculable, from Bhadrakara to Indradhvaja, and seventy-seven thousand
in the third incalculable eon, from Dipamkara to Kashyapa.
This way of describing the three incalculable eons of gathering the stores
of merit and wisdom is in terms of general Buddhism. The Mahayana
Sutras describe this in another way. Long ago the Teacher, when he was in
the learner's path, served and honored Buddhas as countless as grains of
sand in the river Ganges. He consummated his deeds of development, and
purification, and manifested the Beatific Body with its five certainties in the
Akanishta heaven world called "Flower Ornament Essence." Without ever
leaving that body, he accomplished beings' aims by manifesting emanations
according to the faculties of each disciple in worlds throughout space.
Then, as the time approached when, as the fruition of his ancient spiritual
conceptions and vows, he was to manifest a Supreme Emanation Body in
this Saha universe, our compassionate Teacher incarnated as the Brahmin
boy Anuttara during the time of the Buddha Kashyapa. He became a monk
in the company of that Lord Victor and received the prophecy from him;
"You, Brahmin boy Anuttara, after my Nirvana, when human beings in
this Saha world live only a hundred years, will become a Realized Lord, a
Saint, a Perfected Buddha, Wise and Ethical, Blissful, World-knowing,
Unexcelled Human-Taming Charioteer, Teacher of Humans and Gods, a
Buddha called Shakyamuni. After turning the Dharma wheel until you are
eighty, your teaching will last a long time after your Nirvana. " This
prophecy became well known all over the world. After the Brahmin boy
Anuttara died, he went to Tushita, manifesting as the divine, last-life
Bodhisattva Shvetaketu. The Bodhisattva Shvetaketu dwelt in the Tushita
heaven, living happily in thirty-two thousand mansions endowed with mil­
lions of perfections and divine ornaments, listening to the eighty-four thou­
sand varieties of music and song. From that music, empowered by his own
merits and the blessings of the Buddhas, emerged the message "You have a
magnificent mass of merits, infinite consciousness, understanding, intelli­
gence. Your wisdom is luminous, your power is matchless, your magic
power is extensive. You must remember the prophecy of Dipamkara.
Supreme Eminence, by the glory of your merit, the Tushita Palace is very
beautiful, but since you have the heart of compassion, descend to raise the
64 • E S S ENTIA L TIB ETAN B U D D H I S M

golden banner in the world." The music exhorted him again and again to
visit our world of Jambudvipa.
The Bodhisattva went out of the great mansion and entered into the
palace Dharmottana and sat on the lion throne Sudharma. He taught the
Dharma extensively to the Bodhisattva Maitreya, the god-king Samtushita,
and the whole assembly of Bodhisattvas. Then, wishing to manifest the
Buddha deeds on earth, he performed the five searches; for the time, the
place, the lineage, the bone, and the woman able to serve as mother.
As for the search of time, he remembered the prophecies of all previous
Buddhas and renewed his resolve to descend to earth to help the beings in
this dark age of the hundred-year life span.
As for the search of country, a Buddha's visit to earth is only for the sake
of disciples, and humans and gods are the main disciples. If he manifested a
Supreme Emanation in heaven, humans could not attend him. Teaching the
gods has only slight benefit, since they are distracted by desires and it is
hard for them to generate transcendent renunciation, so they are not fit for
individual liberation vows. And the gods can go to earth to hear the
Dharma. So the deed of manifesting a Supreme Emanation Body is only
done among humans. Among humans, Jambudvipa humans are poor,
short-lived, but often very intelligent. It is easy for them to feel intense re­
nunciation, and it is possible for evolutionary impetus accumulated early in
life to ripen later in the same life. Thus, intending to teach the teaching of
both Sutra and Tantra here in Jambudvipa, the Bodhisattva Shvetaketu de­
cided to manifest the Buddha deeds here.
As for the search of lineage, Buddhas can perform the Buddha deeds by
incarnating either in the royal class or the priest class, but they always pick
the one that is highest in status at the time, and in this world the royal caste
has been highest since the beginning. At that, he saw that the Shakya King
Shuddhodhana had the most taintless royal lineage. As for the search of the
clan: He saw that the families of both Shuddhodhana and Mayadevi were
flawless for seven generations, and so decided to be born as their son. As
for the search of the mother, Mayadevi had already vowed to give birth to
Buddhas many lives previously. So he decided to be conceived in her womb.
Having concluded the five searches, he went to the Sudharma throne
and gave 1 0 8 teachings to the assembled gods and Bodhisattvas. He
crowned Maitreya as his successor and then proclaimed his intention to
manifest supreme Buddhahood on earth.
Then the Bodhisattva, in full sight of all the gods, entered into a multi­
storied pagoda produced as a miniature jewel womb, a glorious mansion of
bliss, duplicate of the Ucchadhvaja Teaching Palace. This jewel pagoda was
circumambulated by all the gods and Bodhisattvas and began to shake and
 Seeing the Buddha 65

vibrate. Then the Bodhisattva emitted the countless ninefold light-rays such
as "bliss ornament, " dispelling all gloom from the billion-world galaxy and
overwhelming suns and moons with its luminosity, eradicating the suffering
of the lower states in a second, insulating all beings against their addic­
tions, and accomplishing all activities such as manifesting the appropriate
visions to whomsoever needed taming.
Then a light specially designed for his mother emitted from all his
pores, a light called "illumination born of the element of all mothers' ex­
cellence." Mayadevi, then taking her monthly purification retreat, felt this
light enter her body, giving her great bliss, distinguishing her body as out­
standing from the bodies of all beings, her womb becoming vast as space
yet not expanding beyond the size of a human body. In her right side ap­
peared a lovely pagoda made of serpentine sandalwood called "Jewel
Array of the Bodhisattva Sphere," square, four pillared, adorned with
upper stories, of the size to accommodate a six-month-old child. Within it
was a second pagoda, and within that a third, each not touching the other,
indestructibly solid and firm yet pleasant to the touch, with a supreme blue
color, like an abode of the desire-realm gods. A half-ounce of its substance
was so precious the entire billion-world galaxy filled with jewels could not
equal its value. Its environs were filled with flowers surpassing the flowers
of the gods, redolent with the five sense-attractions. Within the third
pagoda was a round throne fitting for a six-month-old child, with a child's
robe upon it made of an exquisite fabric, whose light made Brahma's robe
seem dull. Indra strove to enhance the luster of the mother and make the
womb pure.
Then the Bodhisattva Shvetaketu, with his inconceivable divine retinue
and offerings, gradually descended from Tushita, and, appearing as a
young snow-white elephant with six tusks, entered the mother's right side
in the first watch after midnight. He assumed the appearance of a six­
month-old child, wearing the robe and seated cross-legged on the throne in
the pagoda in the mother's right side, accompanied by a retinue of Bodhi­
sattvas as numerous as atoms in ten universes, each dwelling within sandal­
wood pagodas all around him.
On the night when the Bodhisattva entered his mother's womb, a great
udumvara flower born of the merit of feeding holy persons in previous lives
covered the ocean and great earth, reaching up to the Brahma heaven. All
the nurture of the billion-world galaxy congealed in the form of a drop of
nectar on that flower. It was seen only by Brahma, who collected it in a sap­
phire vessel and offered it. The Bodhisattva drank it and his body flourished;
no other living being could have digested it. Light-rays like a mass of flames
shone from his body in the womb, extending for five leagues around.
66 ,.. E S S E NT I A L T I B ET A N B U D D H I S M

As the Mother reported: "To hear the Dharma from the Bodhisattva, the
four great kings and the giant lords come in the morning, and the
Bodhisattva teaches them, raising the finger of his right hand. They sit in
seats and hear the Dharma. Then he sends them away when they are satis­
fied. Likewise in midday the gods Indra and company come. In the after­
noon Brahma comes and offers the drop of nectar. In the first watch of the
evening the Bodhisattva host attends, and light-rays emit from his body to
create lion thrones for them, and he gestures and makes the great symbols
of the Dharma."
Thus for ten months he dwelt in the womb like that, developing and lib­
erating countless disciples, innumerable Bodhisattvas, Brahma and Indra
and the Four World Guards and so on, and the dragons and the giants and
so on. As the time approached for the birth, the following thirty-two signs
emerged in the gardens of King Shuddhodhana: Everything blossomed,
eight jewel trees grew spontaneously, twenty thousand treasure troves
opened of their own accord, jewel sprouts grew in the house, delicious
scented oils and perfumes oozed forth, and young lions from the Himalayas
surrounded the palace without harming anyone. Five hundred young white
elephants came down and touched the king's foot with their trunks. Divine
children came and played in the laps of the wives of the king and chased
away any evil spirits. Dragon princesses carrying offerings appeared half­
bodied in the sky. Ten thousand full vases surrounded Kapilavastu. Divine
princesses carried vessels of scented water on their heads. Ten thousand
goddesses appeared carrying umbrellas, banners, drums, and horns. Winds
did not blow and raise the dust. Water did not agitate or flow. Sun, moon,
and stars stood still. Jewel nets festooned Shuddhodhana's palace. Fire
would not burn. Upper stories, parapets, and porticoes were hung with
jewels and wishing gems. Treasuries were filled with jewels and precious
brocades and their doors burst open. There was no hooting of owls. Sweet
sounds sounded. Beings' actions ceased. All directions were equal. Cross­
roads and marketplaces were adorned with cool flowers. Pregnant women
delivered themselves easily.
Mayadevi wished to go to the Lumbini Garden, and King Shuddho­
dhana and King Viprabuddha cleaned the garden, adorned it, and filled it
with offerings. A great light filled the garden, illuminating all the earth.
Jeweled flowers bloomed, and their petals radiated sounds "Is he born ? "
Then King Shuddhodhana commanded his subjects to clean all the paths
from the palace to Lumbini, moisten them with scented waters, adorn them
with various flowers, make offerings with inconceivable music and songs,
array innumerable jewel chariots, and set tens of thousands of warriors as
guardians. Having adorned all the chariots with jewels, he escorted Queen
 Seeing the Buddha 67

Mayadevi. She entered the jeweled chariot and was drawn by the Four
Guardian Kings. As they went, the king of gods Indra cleaned the road be­
fore her. Brahma fanned her from the side. Innumerable gods gazed un­
blinking at the Bodhisattva sitting in the pagoda in the womb and bowed
and prayed.
Mayadevi arrived at Lumbini and descended from the chariot. She
strolled from grove to grove, gazing at tree after tree. The ground was even,
the green grass soft and pleasant. There was a luminous jewel tree relied on
by the ancient queen Lumbini, worshiped by the pure-realm deities, its root,
trunk, branches, and leaves adorned by jewels, blooming with human and
divine flowers, with the scent of supreme incense, festooned with divine
multicolored cloths, a royal tree called Plaksha. Mayadevi held on to a jewel
tree branch with her right hand, and as she stretched and looked upward,
from her right side he was born, emerging suddenly like a golden sacrificial
post with a light like a million suns. Then the whole sky filled with divine of­
ferings, and Brahma and Indra held him wound in a divine silken cloth. The
dragon kings Nanda and Upananda offered him nectars. Countless gods
and goddesses washed him, holding vases full of scented waters.
Then he said, " Look at me! " and placed his feet on the ground and
walked seven steps in each direction. "I am the best in this world! " He
emitted his great lion's roar. When the Bodhisattva was born from Maya­
devi's right side, his body's light was more bright than a thousand suns ris­
ing at one time. It illuminated all universes at once, even penetrating
underground depths. Any being touched by that light felt filled with happi­
ness; emotional addictions and sufferings suddenly ceased. The sandal­
wood pagoda in which the Bodhisattva had lived in the womb was carried
away by Brahma and set up in the Brahma deity heaven as a holy shrine. At
that time all flowers bloomed, fruits ripened. Flowers rained down from
heaven. The three lower states were ceased. The earth moved six ways.
At the second the Bodhisattva was born, sons were born to the four
great kings in the four great cities. In Shravasti, Brahmadatta had a son, il­
luminating the whole country like a mirror, so his name was Prasenajit. In
Rajagrha, a son was born to Mahapadma like a rising sun, so he was called
Bimbisara. In Kaushambi, Senashataka had a son also like a sun rising over
the world, so he was called Udayi. In Ujjain, King Ananta had a son who
seemed to illuminate the world like a lamp, so he was called Pradyota. Each
of them was proud of his son's excellent qualities.
At the same time in Kapilavastu, many other princes, princesses, com­
moner boys and girls, warriors, brahmins, and merchants were born. Foals,
baby elephants, and calves were born by the thousands. There were many
miraculous happenings.
68 • E S S E N T I A L T I B ET A N B U D D H I S M

Since the birth of his son accomplished all his wishes, King Shuddho­
dhana named him Siddhartha, "Accomplisher of Aims. " Father and
mother asked the augurers for the fate of their son and were told that if he
stayed in the home he would become a world-conquering monarch and if
he donned the robes of a monk and went from home to homelessness he
would become a transcendent lord, a saint, a truly perfect Buddha. They
stayed seven days in Lumbini. Since the light from his birth had gone out all
over the world, the Himalayan sage called Asita and his clairvoyant com­
panions saw it and heard the gods rejoicing and proclaiming how soon
there would be a perfect Buddha in the world. They decided to go pay
homage to the Bodhisattva.
The Bodhisattva was escorted back to Kapilavastu. According to the
local religious custom, when a child is born, one must take him to pay
homage to the local and world deities. The king took the prince to the tem­
ple in a jeweled elephant chariot. The proud Shakya warriors were unable
to bear the majestic radiance of the Bodhisattva and bowed low. So he was
called Shakyamuni, "Sage of the Shakyas. "
When the Bodhisattva was about to enter the temple, the idol of the
tribal deity Shakyavardhana came to life and escorted him in, touching the
child's feet with his head. When the right foot of the Bodhisattva was
placed on the threshold, the idols of Chandra, Surya, Indra, Vishnu,
Maheshvara, Brahma and so on arose from their shrines and bowed to the
Bodhisattva's feet. The earth shook. When Shuddhodhana saw this, he gave
him the name Devatideva, "God of Gods," since the gods had touched his
feet.
Then the rishi Asita with his retinue came to look upon the face of the
Bodhisattva. Shuddhodhana honored them and let them see the prince. The
rishis saw the thirty-two signs and eighty marks on the prince's body and
felt intense faith. They knew by clairvoyance that it would take thirty-five
years for the prince to turn the wheel of Dharma. They realized they would
not be alive that long and taste the elixir of the Dharma; they felt deep sor­
row and wept. Shuddhodhana asked them if they saw some evil portents.
They replied, "No evil portents; the prince will certainly become a Buddha
and turn the wheel of Dharma. We are weeping since we know we will die
and will miss his teaching; so we feel our loss. " The rishis made earnest
prayers over the Bodhisattva and then returned to their abode.
When Siddhartha reached seven, they tried to adorn him, but ornaments
lost their lustre on his lustrous body. He was educated in letters, mathemat­
ics, archery, jumping, wrestling. In each case, he knew inconceivably more
than his teachers and used the opportunity to teach them, his mates, and
thousands of attending gods new lessons in these arts, especially as con-
 Seeing the Buddha 69

nected to the Dharma. Then Yashodhara and sixty thousand princesses

came to amuse the Bodhisattva, and, though the Bodhisattva was not natu­
rally lustful, he enjoyed himself. He even multiplied himself so that each girl
thought she was with him alone. He passed some time in such a round of
amusements, but his former vows soon ripened, and the songs and music
of the dancing girls began to emit verses reminding him of the real nature of
life and his vow to renounce the world and attain enlightenment.
"Seeing beings beset by a hundred sufferings, become their savior,
refuge, and resort, their benefactor and their ally. Your own former vow
was just this. Remember your vow, 'To help beings, do the virtuous deeds
of former heroes.' Now is your time and this your measure. Supreme sage,
it is time for you to leave your home." His former life stories emerged
from the music. "The three worlds blaze with suffering of sickness and old
age. They blaze with death and birth without savior. Beings always ignore
the way to renounce this helpless existence, and cycle through their lives
like bees in a bottle. The three worlds are unstable like autumn clouds.
Birth and death of beings are like watching a play. Beings' life span is like
a flash of lightning. It goes more swiftly than a mountain waterfall." Thus
exhorted, the Bodhisattva thought that the time had come for his transcen­
dent renunciation.
The Bodhisattva began to go out with his charioteer Chanda, and he
saw the four sights: an old man, a sick man, a corpse, and a mendicant
seeker of truth. The Bodhisattva was shocked, since he had been carefully
shielded from such realities since he was very little. He decided that life was
too precious and fragile to waste on mundane pursuits and that he should
become a mendicant to seek a full understanding of reality, in order to ben­
efit his subjects and all other beings, to help them discover a way out of the
endless suffering of the ignorant life.
He was then twenty-nine. He went up on the roof of his palace and
bowed to all the Buddhas and vowed to attain enlightenment quickly for
the sake of all beings. The whole sky was full of Bodhisattvas, Brahma,
Indra, the Four World Guardians, and all good deities, as well as de­
mons, fairies, and dragons, all carrying various offerings. Vajrapani and
Vaishravana overcame all the guards around the palace and set up divine
ladders to the roof. The prince came down the ladders and mounted his
horse Kanthaka, and Indra opened the lucky gate at the east. Thus led by
the gods, he covered over a hundred miles and saw the dawn at the bank of
a beautiful river, where the three pure monuments commemorated the spot
where three past Buddhas had cut their hair. The Bodhisattva commanded
Chanda to take his ornaments and Kanthaka back home to the family.
Chanda obeyed his command while letting fall a rain of tears.
70 • E S S EN T I A L T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

The Bodhisattva cut off his long princely hair and flung it into the sky,
where it was borne aloft by Indra. He thought his expensive silk robe un­
suitable for a renunciant and wished for a mendicant's orange robe; so
Indra brought him a monk's robe. He felt he should get still further away
from his homeland, so he crossed the Ganga and entered the kingdom of
Magadha. Thus the Teacher threw away the glories of a world conqueror
like so much spittle, giving up his ornaments and clothing, renounced the
world and became a mendicant, vowing, "This is what disciples must do! "
So later those who seek the stages of the path of enlightenment should
think over this example of the teacher again and again.
Joining the ascetic wanderers, the Bodhisattva was so intense in his aus­
terities, making four times the efforts of others, the other shramanas called
him Mahashramana, the " Great Wanderer. " When 5huddhodhana heard
that the Bodhisattva had no servants, he sent five hundred attendants to
take care of him. The Bodhisattva sent them back but kept five young brah­
mins, led by his old companion Kaundinya, to join him in his austerities.
Then the Bodhisattva set himself with his companions to practice the
most severe austerities on the bank of the river Nairanjana, living on one
grain of rice a day and sitting cross-legged in samadhi for six years. By
those six years of ascetic discipline, he developed billions of gods and hu­
mans for entry into the three Vehicles, all the while being surrounded by
the worship, prayers, and offerings of all classes of beings, from gods to
serpents. Those gods and humans with a propensity for the magnificent vi­
sion of evolution saw the Bodhisattva as residing in a jewel tower, living in
bliss, teaching the Dharma all the time to develop gods and humans. But
beings in general agreed that they saw him engaged in the terrible ordeals
of ascetic practice, thereby earning the respect of and evolving toward
enlightenment four million two hundred thousand fanatically religious
ascetics.
The Bodhisattva thought to himself, " One cannot attain Buddhahood
through austerities alone. I should rely on a middle way between the two
extremes and I should attain Buddhahood now. " The limitless Buddhas
also urged him again and again to leave his austerities and manifest the
deed of attaining Buddhahood beneath the tree of enlightenment. So he
quit his ascetic ordeals and let himself breathe more freely, partaking of or­
dinary food. He washed in the Nairanjana river, then wore a clean cloth.
He went to beg alms food from the two village maidens, 5ujata and
Balarama, who had ancient vows to assist him in this way. On the four­
teenth day of the spring month of Vaishakha, the two maidens took the
essence of milk of a thousand cows and offered it in a golden urn, and the
Bodhisattva drank it completely that evening. His body immediately was
 Seeing the Buddha 71

restored to its former health and radiance; the thirty-two major marks and
eighty minor signs of enlightenment appeared on it, along with exquisite
halos of light-rays. All kinds of beings, from gods to serpents, brought their
own best food to nourish him, and, using his magical power to make them
invisible to each other, the Bodhisattva consumed all of their offerings. In
this way, they all felt they participated in his enlightenment, and all of them
developed their own aspiration for evolutionary fulfillment.
The Bodhisattva thought about where he should perform the deed of
final enlightenment, and all the deities and beings of all kinds showed him
the Vajrasana under the Bodhi tree across the Nairanjana to the west where
all Buddhas have always gone for the final achievement of Buddhahood.
The gods cleaned his path and flowers rained from the heavens. The World
Guardians hung golden nets, and Indra made the victory tower adorned
with nets. The Yama gods brought sapphire nets, and the Tushita gods
brought pearl nets, and the Nirmanarati gods brought rose-apple gold bell
nets, and the Vashavarti gods brought nets of divine jewels. There were
jewel thrones, jewel nets, jewel towers, incense powders, jeweled staircases,
jewel cloths draped in the trees, and so on, along with hosts of worshiping
gods and goddesses, as well as innumerable other kinds of beings reverently
in attendance. Brahma, the king of gods, told them all to revere the
Bodhisattva with all their hearts, as he was going to fulfill his ancient vow.
The whole world was filled with divine golden lotuses and jewel substances
and fragrances, as if it was a heavenly paradise, like a hundred thousand
pure buddhaverses revealed in this world.
In the evening, as the sun sank lower in the sky, the Bodhisattva went to
the tree of awakening, which had been adorned by the four goddesses of
the tree. From the soles of his feet shone light-rays which terminated the
lower states of existence, cooling the sufferings and addictions of beings
and making them happy, revealing to them all the lands of the Buddhas.
Whenever a great being went to the enlightenment tree, the whole great
earth resonated like a brass gong being struck. When the Bodhisattva went
there, he remembered that previous Buddhas had sat upon a grass mat, and
he wished for one from the gods of the pure abodes. Indra read his
thoughts and emanated himself as the grass-seller Svasti and gave a load of
kusha grass to the Bodhisattva, excellent grass, blue as a peacock's throat,
rightward curving, fragrant, soft to touch. "By this grass may you attain
the path of former Buddhas, enlightenment, the deathless! Please accept it,
o ocean of virtues; may I also finally become a Buddha! "
Then the Bodhisattva circumambulated the enlightenment tree seven
times and bowed to it, to follow the example of previous Victors. He then
placed the grass blades in a circle, their tips pointed inward, arranging
72 ,.. E S S E N T I A L T I B ET A N BUDDHISM

them evenly. He sat down on the grass mat, l?alanced his body in cross­
legged posture, and focused his awareness. He faced the east and vowed,
"Until I truly attain the end of the contamination of all kinds of sufferings,
even though my life will end, I will not move from this posture."
Innumerable Bodhisattvas gathered from the buddhaverses of the ten di­
rections and manifested various magical displays; creating flower palaces,
radiating thousands of colors from their bodies, radiating sunlike rays,
shaking the earth, carrying four oceans on their heads and sprinkling the
ground with fragrant waters, offering jewel-offering trees, flying in the sky,
dissolving their bodies and turning into garlands filling the universe, pro­
nouncing millions of discourses from the pores of their bodies, making
their bodies huge, bringing trees with Bodhisattva bodies emerging halfway
from each leaf, bringing axial mountains, stimulating masses of water with
their feet, making great sounds like great drum rolls filling a billion uni­
verses.
Then the great devil Mara began to marshal his armies and obstruct the
Bodhisattva to distract him from enlightenment by raining down weapons
upon him. The Bodhisattva, seeing all things as like magic illusions, had no
fear of those devil armies. To tame them, he showed his magic power by ap­
pearing to swallow all their hosts within his mouth, causing them to flee in
terror. But they remembered themselves and turned again against him,
flinging various weapons, which only turned into a flower canopy and
palace. They sent fierce flames fanned by their poison breath, which only
turned into a hundred-petaled lotus of pure light. The Bodhisattva rubbed
his head with his right hand and the devils saw a great flaming sword in his
hand and ran away to the southern direction. Again they overcame their
fright and threw even more powerful missiles, which only turned into gar­
lands that decorated the Bodhi tree.
Seeing the powers of the Bodhisattva, the devil Mara was stirred by jeal­
ousy and hate and addressed him thus: "You, why do you sit at the circle of
enlightenment? " The Bodhisattva replied, "In order to attain the unex­
celled intuitive wisdom ! " Mara said: "Hey, royal prince! Get up! Manage
your kingdom! What makes you think you have the merit to achieve liber­
ation ! " Then he threw his mighty discus, which only turned into a giant
flower; and the mountain thrown by his soldiers became a flower pond.
The Bodhisattva said: " Evil one! You, by means of one extraordinary offer­
ing, attained the lordship of the desire realm. I made many different a hun­
dred thousand ten million trillion extraordinary offerings during three
incalculable eons, underwent ordeals of total letting go for the sake of be­
ings, and thereby I attain the unexcelled intuition of reality-there is no
hope that I will not attain that unexcelled intuition. " Then Mara replied,
 Seeing the Buddha 73

shouting in a loud voice, "Well then, you are my witness of having attained
desire-realm lordship by a single act of offering! But who is your witness of
having performed offerings for three incalculable eons in order to attain the
unexcelled intuition? " The Bodhisattva was unafraid, with his mind of
great compassion, and gently rubbed his whole body with his right hand
adorned with wheel and svastika, manifesting all Buddhas of all worlds;
then he touched the great earth in the good luck gesture, saying, "This
earth is my witness! This earth is the abode of all beings, it has no partial­
ity, being equal toward the moving and the unmoving. This is my witness
that I do not lie! You must accept this as my witness! " As soon as he had
touched the earth with his right hand, the great earth quaked in six ways
and the eighteen great signs occurred.
Then the earth goddess Prithivi, with her host of attendants, emerged
from the earth from the navel up, beautiful with her ornaments, bowed in
the direction of the Bodhisattva, joined her hands in reverence, and said,
"Yes! It is so, 0 holy being! It is as you say! I have directly beheld it! It is
like that! I along with the gods am your witness! " And she addressed the
devil, "Evil one, it is as the divine Transcendent Lord has spoken! " And
then she instantly disappeared.
In that way Mara was overwhelmed and silenced, and he inclined his
crown and stood still. At that time the other devils heard the sound made
by the Bodhisattva's hand striking on the ground as a sound of conquest, of
roaring, of terrifying danger. Millions of those devils heard a command
from the sky "Take refuge in this one ! " They flung themselves down on
their faces and cried out, "We request refuge with this holy person! " Mara
the evil one with his armies was afraid and wanted to escape but was un­
able to move. The Bodhisattva radiated light and gave him refuge from his
terror. At that time, in the devil's retinue a hundred million eight thousand
demons and a hundred thousand million trillion ninety-six thousand ani­
mals conceived the spirit of enlightenment. Eighty-four thousand gods with
previous practice attained the tolerance of birthlessness. The great earth
quaked in six ways. The Lord's body radiated light, which flooded the
world with great illumination, eradicated the agonies of the three hellish
states, terminated the bondages, and rendered all beings free of harm from
cruelty, pride, and hate.
Then as the Lord was about to attain unexcelled enlightenment,
Vajrapani entered his heart and praised him with the 108 names, and the
Lord gave his approval to Vajrapani.
Then the gods wanted to throw flowers, but the more experienced gods
told them to wait for a sign. Then the ten-direction Buddhas shouted their
approval of the perfect Buddhahood of the Transcendent Lord. The
74 • E S S E N T I A L T I B ET A N BUDDHISM

Bodhisattvas created a giant jewel umbrella that covered this whole uni­
verse with a great net of light-rays. They bowed to Lord Shakyamuni and
offered it to him in the proper manner. Then the Lord, staying cross-legged,
rose up into the sky seven palm-tree heights and a great shout arose: "The
path is broken. Suffering is terminated. The taints are dried up. " Then all
the gods scattered flowers.
The various gods all brought various kinds of offerings and adorned the
entire circle of enlightenment. The Bodhisattvas in the sky all made offer­
ings and sang praises. And the Lord himself proclaimed, "Merits have
ripened, happiness is given, all sufferings are dispelled. The wishes of all
meritorious humans are fulfilled. The devil is conquered, and enlighten­
ment is quickly reached. Sorrow is extinguished, attained is the cool reality
of peace. "
Such a manifestation of the deed of awakening is a deed of the Supreme
Emanation Body for the sake of disciples. This very teacher has been stated
to have already attained enlightenment countless eons earlier. Thus the
above manner of attaining Buddhahood is that taught in terms of ordinary
reality.
The way of enlightenment in terms of the Mantric path is as follows: On
the eighth day of the Vaishakha month, he left his evolutionary body on the
bank of the Nairanjana and went with his mental body into the Akanishta
heaven. Then, according to the Yoga Tantra version, he entered the great
mandala of the diamond realm and manifested the deed of awakening
through the door of the five enlightenments. According to the Unexcelled
Yoga Tantra version, he entered the mandala of the Esoteric Communion
and received from Bodhichittavajra the initiation characterized by the great
natural intuitive wisdom, purifying even the subtlest dualism and arising in
the Union Body. In the Yamantaka Tantra, it is said he conquered the devil
by arising in the bodies of the red-and-black Yamantakas. In short, there
are infinite inconceivable accounts of his attainment of enlightenment
taught in the esoteric Tantras.
Thus, in his thirty-fifth year in the predawn of the fifteenth day of the
Vaishakha month of the male wood horse year called Jaya, he manifested
the deed of perfectly accomplished Buddhahood. He spent the first seven
days at the enlightenment tree. He traveled far and wide throughout the
billion-world galaxy in the second week. He spent the third week looking at
the enlightenment tree without blinking. He spent the fourth week wander­
ing east and west in the four continents surrounded by the four oceans. He
spent the fifth week in the dragon Muchilinda's kingdom. He spent the sixth
week at the Nyagrodha tree and ripened many naked ascetics for enlighten­
ment. He spent the seventh week in the serpentine sandalwood grove enter-
 Seeing the Buddha 75

taining the merchants Trapusha and Bhallika, receiving their offerings of

food and magically creating one begging bowl out of the four stone bowls
offered by the four great kings. He composed good-luck verses for the sake
of the two merchants and predicted their eventual enlightenments.
Then the Lord thought, "I have understood this profound truth, pro­
found illumination, hard to realize, not the sphere of the intellectuals,
knowable only by the wise; if I expound it to others, they will not under­
stand. I should abide in the yoga of staying happy by myself. " And also,
"Profound, peaceful, uncomplicated, clear light, uncreated, I have attained
this elixir of truth. Though I teach it, others will not understand. Better stay
silent, in the midst of the forest. " And so he remained averse to teaching.
Innumerable Bodhisattvas of all directions and countless deities requested
him to teach, especially the king of the billion-world universe, great
Brahma, yet the Buddha remained silent and focused intently within. Then
Brahma returned to the Brahma heavens.
The Lord remained thus withdrawn in order to intensify others' rever­
ence for the Dharma, to increase Brahma's virtue in having to ask him
again and again, and to show how very profound the truth is. Knowing
this, Brahma exhorted Indra, "Take Maheshvara and many other gods of
the desire and form realms and go to the Lord and urge him to teach the
Dharma." Still, the Buddha was difficult about teaching, and Brahma,
knowing this, brought sixty-eight thousand Brahmas with him one evening
into the presence of the Lord. They all folded their hands in supplication
and made their request. "The Dharma previously taught in Magadha was
impure and tainted, we understand. Please open the door of the taintless
elixir of Dharma, please teach us how to understand it. May the Muni dis­
pel the darkness with the lamp of Dharma! May you raise the victory ban­
ner of the Transcendent Lords! It is time for you to express the sweetest
speech. May you sound your lion's roar! " The Lord replied: "Brahma, I,
with great difficulty, have conquered my faults and have understood. Those
enveloped in existence and attachments will not understand this Dharma
well." Brahma insisted: "In the world there are the intelligent, the
mediocre, and the dull. Some beings are easy to tame. If they do not hear
the Dharma, they will be lost. Please teach the Dharma ! " and, "Previously
to seek the Dharma you gave away even a thousand heads. "
Finally, the Lord agreed and said, "Open up the gates of the elixir of im­
mortality! Who wants to listen, set aside your doubts. 0 Brahma, the ex­
pansive Dharma is for humans; don't be contentious, and I will explain it
briefly." Thus he gave his commitment to teach the Dharma.
Then the gods rejoiced and proclaimed that "the Lord will turn the
wheel of Dharma, to bring benefit and happiness." The four goddesses of
76 • E S S E N T I A L T I B ET A N BUDDHISM

the Bodhi tree asked the Lord, "Where will you turn the wheel of
Dharma? " The Teacher replied that Varanasi is the holy place of former
sages, where many thousands of millions of sacrifices had been held, and
therefore it is the place to turn the wheel of Dharma.
Then the Lord went to the land of Kashi, the city of Varanasi, accepting
alms, staying at the deer park in Rishipatana. The five companions saw him
coming from afar. "The greedy ascetic Gautama who has lost his renuncia­
tion is coming over here. Let's not speak to him, nor rise up for him, nor
salute him nor offer him a seat!" Though they made such a plan to humili­
ate him, Kaundinya did not agree to it in his heart. The moment the Lord
arrived at the abode of the five at the bank of the waterfall, his glory and
energy overwhelmed them and they began to tremble on their seats. They
all gave up their plan and rose from their seats. "Venerable Gautama, how
good you have come! Please sit down on this seat we prepared! "
Then the Lord sat on the seat and the five eagerly addressed him, calling
him by name and clan name and "venerable." The Lord spoke, "You
should not address a Transcendent Lord in such a manner. You will suffer
for a long time if you do." They then responded crudely, "But Gautama, by
your former regime and ascetic disciplines you did not attain the unexcelled
goal of the religious path. Then have you been able to attain your goal by
this new code of conduct? " He spoke, "A renunciant should not rely on
two extremes. Which two? The inferior code of bad persons who persist in
the destructive regime of indulgence in desires, and the striving for self­
mortification-these two damage the noble path. You should not rely on
these two extremisms, should open your eyes and wisdom to the middle
path, and you will achieve peace, superknowledge, perfect enlightenment,
and Nirvana. What is the middle way? It is the noble eightfold path."
Then the Lord remembered that this very place of Rishipatana was
where he was to turn the wheel of Dharma, in that place where former vic­
tors had turned the wheel of Dharma seated on a thousand seven-jewel
thrones. And Brahma erected his lion throne, which was forty-two thou­
sand leagues high. Likewise, other Brahmas and Indra and a hundred mil­
lion Bodhisattvas also erected similar thrones. The gods of earth and
heaven magically set up a vast arena for turning the wheel of Dharma,
adorned, beautiful, magnificent, with pools seven hundred leagues in
breadth. There were umbreilas and pavilions in the sky and the desire­
realm gods offered eight thousand thrones, asking him to sit there and turn
the wheel of Dharma.
Then the Lord, to venerate the ancient victors, circumambulated three
of the thrones, and fearless as a lion sat cross-legged on the fourth throne.
 Seeing the Buddha 77

Brahma, Indra, and the Bodhisattvas all turned to him sitting on the lion
throne. The five mendicants, having bowed to the Lord, also sat in a disci­
plined manner. At that time the Lord's body shone forth light-rays termi­
nating the suffering of the six kinds of beings. The eighteen great omens
occurred. The Saha world became level, all beings became loving. That
light exhorted, "The Victor practiced for a hundred thousand eons. Who
wants to hear his Dharma, for the long-term sure result, come here to hear
the Dharma." Then gods, dragons, ogres, fairies, titans, garudas, eagle­
men, kinnaras, and great serpents, all these eight species understood and
gathered round. Countless ten-directions Bodhisattvas also came there; this
entire billion-world galaxy was pervaded by beings not leaving empty even
the space of a hair-tip.
Then the ten-directions Bodhisattvas and the Brahma and Indra of this
Saha world and other powerful beings bowed to the Lord's feet and asked
him to turn the wheel of Dharma in order to heal many beings. Brahma in
particular said, "For these beings oppressed by the hundred sicknesses of
the mass of addictions, 0 Victorious Doctor, please turn the holy wheel and
make them free. Share the seven treasures, 0 Leader, please turn the wheel!
Fulfill your intent, destroy the plague, please turn the supreme wheel! " And
he offered to the Lord the thousand-spoked wheel made of rose-apple gold
shining with a thousand light-rays, used by the ancient Victors, while he re­
quested him to turn the wheel of Dharma.
Then the sky full of Bodhisattvas, the eighty thousand main deities, the
dragons, ogres, fairies, snakes, kinnaras, great serpents, Kaundinya and his
four companions, and the whole assembly gathered to hear the Dharma,
without a single sound. They all sat silently looking only at the Victor. Then
the Lord, in the later part of the night, turned the wheel of Dharma, pro­
mulgating the twelvefold repetition of the middle path abandoning the two
extremes, including the names of the four truths, the choices they involve,
their recognition, abandonment, realization, and meditation, and the eight­
fold path that follows. And from that melodious speech, all the various dis­
ciples heard the words they needed to hear to be tamed, receiving the
teachings of all three Vehicles according to their inclinations. The venerable
Kaundinya and Jvalatejas and so on, all the eighty thousand gods, devel­
oped the taintless eye of Dharma.
Then the Lord spoke again to Kaundinya. "Do you fully understand this
Dharma?" He replied, "The Lord has fully bestowed it." Then the venera­
ble Kaundinya became known as "Full-understanding Kaundinya," and
the Three Jewels were established in this world. And the gods again said,
"Friends! The Lord at Varanasi has turned, repeating three times in twelve
78 • E S S E N T I A L T I B ET A N BUDDHISM

modes, the Dharma wheel, endowed with a truth that no one has ever
turned thus appropriately in this world. The gods are increased thereby,
and the titans are decreased."
Then the Lord twice again taught the four truths to the five ascetics, and
Full-understanding Kaundinya's mind was liberated from contamination,
free of grasping, and he became a perfect saint. Then in the world there was
another saint, the Lord being the first. The other four ascetics also saw the
truth. Then the fivefold group just realized intuitive wisdom, and their
marks and symbols as fanatics disappeared. Their hair flew off, they in­
stantly possessed the three Dharma robes and the begging bowl, and they
became fully graduated mendicants. And the Lord praised them, saying,
"This Full-understanding Kaundinya is the supreme of those holding the
standards of renunciants." Then the Lord taught the other four extensively,
that form was not self, about suffering and impermanence, and the other
four also realized sainthood; there were then five saints in the world and
the Lord was the sixth.
Having thus been taught, four thousand million gods and eighty-four
thousand humans saw the truth. Thereby a hundred million beings con­
ceived the spirit of enlightenment.
Thus the Teacher attained perfect enlightenment and yet still made it
hard to get him to teach the Dharma, making it necessary to request him
again and again. When he began to teach the Dharma, he did not teach first
about profound voidness and so forth but taught the precepts of discipline,
such as keeping the roundness of the Dharma robe, the abstention from af­
ternoon food, and the need not to lapse into extremisms about food and
clothing, then teaching the four noble truths. Then among the four truths,
he taught the truth of suffering. From among its four aspects, he first taught •

impermanence. By this pattern of deeds, when the discerning person under­

stands how to think it over, she can gain firm certainty in the practice of the
stages of the enlightenment path. First, one must rely on a spiritual friend,
the root of the whole mass of goodness. Then, not being content with who­
ever happens by, the disciple must examine whether the spiritual teacher
has the right qualifications; one needs to rely on a qualified teacher. The
teacher also must not just teach anyone whether or not they are fit but ex­
amine whether the disciple is a fit vessel or not. When the disciple is to be
taught, then, like a brave mother healing a child or a doctor curing a pa­
tient, the teacher must cultivate the personality of the disciple by examining
her scope. Since the foundation of all positive qualities is pure ethics, it I

must first be developed. Since it is the method to develop first an aversion

to the preoccupations of this life and then an aversion to the life-cycle in
general, one must teach the impermanence of all created things, especially
 Seeing the Buddha 79

this contaminated body. In this way the disciple can diminish attachment to
this life and create ambition for the future life, and then lose attachment to
the whole life-cycle and create firm aspiration aiming for liberation. When
such an intention has been created, then the root of the life-cycle, the truth
of origin, is introduced. In this way, by understanding the way to lead grad­
ually to the higher paths, one will know how to turn even the biography of
the teacher into a practice.
Gradually the Teacher taught the limitless other discourses included in
the first wheel of Dharma in other places and at other times. Having at­
tained perfect enlightenment, the Teacher took care of the first five disciples
such as Kaundinya, the second five such as Yashas, the five hundred that
came along with Shariputra and Maudgalyayana in Rajagrha, and count­
less great beings such as Mahakashyapa. His fame spread throughout the
whole country.
When King Shuddhodhana heard about it, he was delighted. He wanted
to meet the Buddha, sending messengers again and again to invite him to
Kapilavastu. Then the Lord saw the need to tame countless Shakyas such as
his father Shuddhodhana, his foster mother Prajapati, and so on. So during
the rains one year he told a messenger, "Tell the king I will come, but the
Transcendent Lord and the Community of mendicants will stay not in the
royal palace but in the academy of holy persons of the city. "
The Lord said to Maudgalyayana, "Tell the mendicants that the Lord
will go to Kapilavastu to meet his father; whoever among them wishes to
witness the father-son meeting should take up their Dharma robe." Then
the Lord traveled to the bank of the waterfall Rohika, nearby Kapilavastu,
along with a great community of twelve hundred fifty mendicants. When
King Shuddhodhana heard he had arrived, he had well-adorned seats set up
in broad and open spaces. He had the crossroads, streets, and squares of
Kapilavastu cleaned and sprinkled with sandalwood water, setting up
bowls of sweet incense, festooned with many silken streamers. He ordered
the Shakyas, "Let your best carriages be prepared. Why? Because today we
will have an audience with the Lord Buddha." "Yes, God! " they said and
prepared their best vehicles. Then the king adorned the way between the
city and the banyan grove as a royal way, spreading fresh sand, adorning it
with flowers, draping it with streamers, staffing it with dancers, singers,
musicians, and drummers. The king mounted his chariot and departed with
great royal glory and power, attended by eighty thousand Shakya princes.
Some of the Shakyas were mounted on blue chariots drawn by blue horses,
with blue ornaments and nets of bells, blue-robed attendants, blue para­
sols, swords, coiffures, jeweled yak-tail whisks, and boots, with blue robes,
ornamented greeting scarves, with charioteers with blue reins and whips,
80 .. E S S E N T I A L T I B ET A N BUDDHISM

with blue banners and blue ornamented cohorts; others had all their equip­
ment in yellow, others in red, others pure white, and others multicolored.
Seeing King Shuddhodhana thus attended like a crescent moon emerge
from the city, the Lord, attended by the twelve hundred fifty mendicants
such as the First Five, Yashas, Mahakashyapa, Gaya Kashyapa, Shariputra,
and Mahamaudgalyayana and so forth, intentionally gathered the most
powerful gods, such as the four great kings, Vemachitra of the titans, and
all the gods of the desire and form realms. The Lord knew how great was
the pride of Shuddhodhana and knew that the Shakyas would not respect
him if he touched the ground of Kapilavastu. So he rose up in the air the
height of seven palm trees and performed miracles of radiating fire and
light in all directions and releasing streams of water from his body. All the
mendicant saints rose up six palm trees' height in the air, ranging them­
selves around to greet the king. Then the god Brahma appeared on the
Lord's right, a bit larger than human size, and the god Indra on the left, and
around them were the four kinds of desire-realm gods holding up royal
parasols and fanning him with cooling yak-tail fans. The four great kings
stood in the east and west with hands cupped together in reverence. The
gods filled the sky with jewel towers, making offerings with flowers and in- .
cense powders, offering heavenly music and songs, with a fine gentle spray
of incense rain descending from the clouds.
Seeing such a host of mendicants and such miraculous displays, the fa­
ther king did not recognize the Lord; he became confused, and asked his at­
tendant, Kalodayin, "Among the many orange-robed mendicants, where is
the prince? " Then Kalodayin pointed out the Lord to the king, saying,
"This one is the Lord, 0 King of Men, behold him!" Then, by the power of ·
the Lord, those gods and humans could see each other; and the king saw
the Lord, the gods who were making offerings to the Lord, and the sky full
of divine jeweled towers, and he was greatly amazed. "When he was a •

youth, I said he would be a lord of the Dharma. And that is what this is. I
only have a human following, but the Lord, he has a following of both gods
and humans! " The Shakyas all came out of the city and gathered together,
wondering, "Will the father pay homage to the son or the son pay homage
to the father? " Then the great king Shuddhodhana bared one shoulder of
his priceless robe, placed his right knee on the ground, and paid homage to
the foot of the Lord with his jeweled coif and diadem, and said: " 0 thou of
vast intelligence, I bow thrice to your universal feet! When you were born,
the earth quaked, and the shadow of the rose-apple tree did not leave your
body. " But when the father had thus revered the son, the Shakyas felt
suspicious, wondering, "How can this be? What does it mean?" King
 Seeing the Buddha 81

Shuddhodhana addressed them: "Wise ones, i t is not the young prince that
1 salute; 1 have bowed three times to this Lord of gods and humans."
Then the Lord withdrew his magical manifestation, and, in the midst of
the community of mendicants, sat on a lion throne adorned with various di­
vine fabrics by the desire-realm gods. The desire gods held a divine canopy
above him. Then King Shuddhodhana's voice felt choked, his heart felt
heavy, and his eyes filled with tears, as he spoke: "When you dwelt in the
spacious mansion in your father's palace, why did you go alone into the
wilderness filled with dangers? " The Lord spoke: "Lord of men! Freeing
themselves from the bonds of the household, the sages live happily in the ten
abodes of the noble ones." Along these lines, father and son had a lengthy
conversation. Finally the king was happy, and he bowed again to the Lord,
fully recognizing him as a blissful Buddha. Then the king thought: "My son
has attained such excellence! It is my great fortune! " Then the Lord gave an
appropriate teaching there in the banyan garden, and seventy-seven thou­
sand Shakya princes saw the truth. The next day he taught at the Brahma
garden, and seventy-six thousand Shakyas saw the truth.
The Shakya Amrtodhana had a six-year-old son named Ananda who
had been predicted to become an attendant of the Lord; so the father
wanted to keep him away from the Lord by all means possible. But the
Lord thought, "I should go to Kapilavastu for the sake of Ananda." When
Amrtodhana hid Ananda in his room, the Lord opened the door with mag­
ical power, and Ananda came out, picked up a yak-tail fan and came to fan
the Lord. When the Lord left, Ananda followed in his footsteps, and no one
could turn him back. Amrtodhana realized the prophesied time had come,
so he sent Ananda on an elephant to the banyan garden. When he reached
there, the Lord had Dashabala Kashyapa confer the renunciation vows.
From that time Ananda fulfilled the prophecy by happily serving the Lord.
The next day the Lord taught the Dharma at the Rohatika garden, and
Amrtodhana and seventy-five thousand Shakyas attained the fruit. But
Devadatta did not respect the Lord and slandered him.
King Shuddhodhana invited the Lord to the midday meal; having of­
fered the meal, the king took the sacrificial vase and formally offered the
Nyagrodha garden. The Lord dedicated the merit of the gift and went there
to spend the summer rains retreat, with the king and the Shakya people vis­
iting him often to listen to the Dharma. At that time, King Shuddhodhana
experienced strong mental swings between extreme depression and intense
delight, and so did not attain the fruit. Then the Lord, to rid the king of the
gleeful mood when he thought "My son is the only one with the greatest
magical powers! " sent Maudgalyayana to visit him. When he asked the
82 • E S S EN T i A L T I B ETAN BUDDHiSM

saint, "Do other disciples have great powers? " Maudgalyayana replied,
"There are many others with great magical powers. " Then the king was
free of his exulting mind, realizing that others besides his son had great
magical powers. Next, to free the king from his depression, which had
arisen when he had thought that the gods, humans, and titans used to make
offerings to the Lord but now only the humans were doing it, the Lord
taught the Dharma to the host of gods. Indra, knowing the problem, told
Vishvakarma to build a pagoda of four jewel substances in the Nyagrodha
garden with various thrones in it. The four great kings sat in the four door­
ways. The Buddha was invited there, and the desire and form gods, the
dragons, the ogres, the fairies, the titans, the bird-men, the kinnaras all
gathered around, along with the Great Disciples. Outside sixty thousand
spirits gathered. At that time the Lord sat on the throne adorned with vari­
ous jewels and taught the Discourse called The Demonstration of Real­
ity: The Bodhisattva Samadhi of the Meeting of Father and Son.
Maudgalyayana brought King Shuddhodhana out of Kapilavastu to the
divine pagoda. When Maudgalyayana entered and began to bring
Shuddhodhana with him through the eastern door, he was stopped by King
Rashtrapala, who said, "Don't go in." "Why not?" "The Lord is explain­
ing the Dharma to the divine audience. Humans are not allowed in." "Who
may your honor be?" " Great King! I am Rashtrapala." Then King
Shuddhodhana went into the south, west, and north doors and had similar
encounters with the other three great kings. Then King Shuddhodhana was
free of his depression and felt an ambition: "Hey! I would like to see the
Lord teaching that pure audience of gods." Then the Lord had the intuition
that King Shuddhodhana would die of frustration if he could not see the
Buddha teaching, and so he magically made the jewel palace transparent,
and the king could see the Buddha's body without obstruction. Seeing it, he
felt joy and reverence and bowed to the Lord's two feet and sat down to
one side. Then the Lord made a sign to the titan king Vemachitra to make
offerings. Then Vemachitra mounted his seven-jewel chariot and put many
titan women in the jewel chariots drawn by jewel horses, carrying various
offerings, erecting jewel palaces in offering, praising and offering to the
Lord with intense reverence. Likewise the titan king Bali and Rahu and so
on and the bird king Supaksha also worshiped. Then the dragon princesses
offered jewel umbrellas, and the dragon kings Nanda and Upananda filled
garlands with red pearls and purified everything with blazing and dripping
fire and water from various wish-granting gems within the seven-jewel
mansions. Then the serpent spirits and the host of the four great kings of- .
fered jewel canopies and the fairies offered pools filled with lotuses upon
the earth-guarding pillar deities. And the kinnara king offered a seven-jewel
 Seeing the Buddha 83

house adorned with jewel umbrellas, and Indra offered a jewel mansion.
All the gods made offerings and sang praises, and the Lord smiled.
Then King Shuddhodhana was totally enveloped with love for his son,
and so the Lord taught the Father-Son Meeting Sutra, the samadhi to tame
that attachment. King Shuddhodhana attained the fruit of stream-entry in
the Mahayana, finally attaining the tolerance of the uncreated along with
the seventy thousand Shakyas. The Lord smiled, and when Ashvathama
asked the reason, he predicted the enlightenments of Shuddhodhana and
the Shakyas and told Shariputra to promulgate the Sutra.
If you can reflect properly about this story of what happened when fa­
ther and son met, you can understand the need not to be attached to your
relatives and dear ones of this life when you try to practice a pure Dharma.
If you really want to help your relatives, dear ones, and friends, you will
transcend the home and enter homelessness, abandoning concern for great­
ness in this life and even the perfect successes of the life-cycle. Abiding in
pure ethical conduct, you must apply yourself to practice the path in soli­
tary places, and you will feel a firm certitude about the keys of the prepara­
tions, practices, and applications of the stages of the path to enlightenment.
Then the Lord reached the age of forty-one in the iron male mouse year
and spent the rains retreat in the Thirty-three heaven. The Lord wished to
take care of his mother, Mayadevi, who had taken rebirth in the Thirty­
three heaven and also wished to develop the roots of virtue of innumerable
deities there. Sitting before the Sudharma palace, the mantra of Ush­
nishasitatapattra emerged from his crown-dome. He then went to the gods'
pleasure park together with Brahma and Indra and the eight classes of gods
and also Mahamati and the other many Bodhisattvas. At that moment
light-rays radiated, and all the tormented beings from the three wretched
states were liberated from their sufferings and set upon jewels in the pres­
ence of the Lord, where they began to sing his praises.
Then the Lord sat upon a flat stone like a white blanket, under the divine
tree Kalpadruma, spending the rains retreat with eight thousand saints such
as Shariputra, Mahakashyapa, Mahakatyayana, Puma, Potala, Ashvatama,
Kapina, Mahodara, and Subhuti, and also Ananda. Many Bodhisattvas also
gathered, and the great mother Mayadevi was immensely delighted. For the
Bodhisattvas to live comfortably she taught the spell of Shankara.
At that time, the Lord was dwelling only with tenth-stage Bodhisattvas.
Maitreya requested the teaching to alleviate the sufferings of the humans of
Jambudvipa. The Lord touched his foot to the ground, emanating a magi­
cal fierce deity, who subdued the evil beings, and then he taught the Achala
Tantra. A god became aware that he would die and be born as a pig and
began to beat his breast in terror. The Lord went there and told him to go
84 ,.. E S S E N T I A L T I B ET A N BUDDHISM

for refuge to the Three Jewels. When he did so, he was reborn instead as the
son of a merchant in Vaishali, given the name Prajna.
While the Lord was staying in the Thirty-three heaven, Mahamaud­
galyayana remained on earth to tend the teaching. When any ordinary per­
son was wondering where the Lord was staying, King Bimbisara and King
Prasenajit and the four assemblies would ask Mahamaudgalyayana, who
was spending the rains retreat in Shravasti. "Where is the Lord staying? "
"He is staying in the heavens." Then they were happy. They returned to him
again after the three months of the rains retreat and said, "Now it has been
a long time since we saw the Lord, please invite the Lord to return with our
word of request." Maudgalyayana went to the heaven in an instant and
made the request of the four assemblies to the Lord. Then the Lord, know­
ing that humans could not climb to the heavens and that the gods could de­
scend to Jambudvipa, acknowledged their request and sent Maudgalyayana
back to say that he would descend in seven days to the city of Sankhasya.
Maudgalyayana went back in an instant and informed the humans and then
returned to the Thirty-three. Aniruddha told King Udayana about it, who
was very happy and had the city cleaned, set out offerings everywhere, and
made that whole place into a divine pleasure garden.
Then on the twenty-second day of the middle autumn month, the Lord
set out for the earth, and Indra commanded Vishvakarma to magically cre­
ate three stairways. On the central sapphire staircase, Shakyamuni de­
scended with his attendants. On the right one of gold, Brahma with the
form-realm gods descended, fanning the Lord with jeweled yak-tail fans.
On the left one made of crystal, Indra with the desire gods came carrying
royal umbrellas. The Lord came half the way down by foot, to create merit
for Vishvakarma, and half the way by magic, in order to prevent loss of
faith in people. Once below the altitude of twelve leagues, the gods could
not bear to descend due to the rising human smell, so he caused a sandal­
wood smell to spread everywhere. Since if human men could see divine
women or if human women could see divine men, they would die, he magi­
cally caused men to see all the gods as male and women to see them all as
female. And so he entered the city of Sankhasya and sat down on a lion
throne erected by Indra.
When the Lord was fifty-seven, in the male fire dragon year, he per­
formed the great miracles in Shravasti. Now since the Teacher had attained
perfect Buddhahood, he had developed and liberated countless gods and
humans. All the nine great kings of the Jambudvipa continent made offer­
ings to the Teacher along with his Community of great disciples. The six re­
ligious teachers such as Pur ana were disturbed by jealousy and wished to
rival the Teacher. The evil Mara also stirred up their minds, intensifying
 Seeing the Buddha 85

their competitiveness. The six teachers went to King Bimbisara. " 0 king!
We and Gautama are said to be wise, so it is right for us to hold a contest of
miracles. " The king said, "You all are being foolish. How can you compete
with the Buddha's great miraculous power?" The six teachers replied, "In
seven days we will compete in miracles, and you will see." The king said, "I
will prepare this contest, though I fear you will be shamed." The king then
communicated with the Lord, who said, "I myself know the time. " Then
the king prepared the place for the miracle competition; but on the seventh
day, the Lord left for Vaishali with his Community.
The six teachers rejoiced and became arrogant: "Gautama's miracles
were not on our level! You didn't believe in us, but he fled when he had to
compete! " Then they and King Bimbisara all followed the Buddha to
Vaishali. The people of Vaishali welcomed the Lord. The six teachers set up
a miracle competition again after seven days. The Lord was requested and
again said, "I myself know the time." But on the sixth day he departed for
Kosambi and King Udayana.
Again they followed and requested a competition, and this time the Lord
left for Anga of King Shunchidala. There again they followed, requested the
competition, and the Buddha left for Champa and King Indravarma. Again
they followed, and this time the Lord went to King Brahmadatta's Vara­
nasi. Again they followed, and this time the Buddha went to Kapilavastu of
the Shakyas. All this time the six teachers were becoming more and more
arrogant and urged King Bimbisara again and again to make the Lord com­
pete with them in miracles. The king said to them, "If you repeat this again
three more times, I will banish you and send you away." They then
thought, "This king is the partisan of Gautama. But King Prasenajit is said
to be completely impartial. So let's ask him to make it happen," and they
followed the Lord to Shravasti, where he was staying in the Jetavana
Monastery. At that time, King Bimbisara had five hundred horsemen and
an assembly of four hundred and ten thousand followers, the Licchavis had
five hundred horsemen and seventy thousand followers, Udrayana had
eighty-one thousand followers, Shunchidala had fifty thousand followers,
Indravarma had sixty thousand, Brahmadatta had eight hundred thousand,
and the Shakyas had nine million followers. The whole forest of Shravasti
was filled with this great multitude.
Then the six teachers spoke to Prasenajit. "The ascetic Gautama has
made appointments with us for miracle competitions; whenever the time
comes, he flees. Now, a great audience has assembled in your country. You,
King, are like the earth, without partiality; it is fitting for you to be the
judge. If Gautama wins, we will become his disciples; if we win, we will
rule." The king said, "Why do such lowly persons as you, who know next
86 ,.. E S S E N T I A L T I B ET A N B U D D H I S M

to nothing, want to compete in miracles with the great King of Dharma ?

I fear you will lose." They replied, "You may have been deceived by
Gautama. If we compete, it will be clear." The king said, "In that case, I
will request the Lord." Then King Prasenajit asked the Lord three times.
The Lord knew that here in Shravasti the previous Buddhas had manifested
their great miracles after gathering a great host of people, and he said,
" Great King! Please prepare things after seven days, find an open place out­
side the city, and erect a stadium."
Then King Prasenajit draped the stadium for the great miracle contest in
hundreds of thousands of cloths and swept down the road from Shravasti
out to it with sandalwood-scented water. Banners and victory standards
were erected. Pennants were hung. He made it like a divine pleasure gar­
den. He erected there a golden lion throne for the Lord, adorned with jew­
els. The followers of the six teachers erected six stadiums adorned with
cloths and thrones for the six teachers, according to their own means. The
six teachers arrived first and sent a messenger to the king, "Divine One! We
are here! Please send someone to bring the ascetic Gautama." The king and
his retinue went to the stadium and sent a brahmin boy to invite the Lord.
On the first day of the last month of winter, the Lord, like a king of
geese, flew through the sky to the stadium of great miracles. Seeing him,
Prasenajit said to the six teachers, "The Lord has just shown a miracle.
Now it is your turn to do so!" They replied, " Lord! Since such a great mul­
titude is here assembled, what sort of miracle is this? Who knows whether
it is ours or Gautama's? "
When the Lord entered within the great miracle pavilion, the assembled
humans, animals, and deities all saw a great fire consume the pavilion and
a great light was emitted. The six teachers said, " Good! Now the ascetic
Gautama has burned the stadium. If he is capable of that, then here he
might be peaceful." The many faithful, such as King Prasenajit, Queen
Malavati, the merchant Anathapindada, and their attendants and so on, all
sat silently with understanding in their hearts, while the six teachers and
their disciples rejoiced. What had really happened was that the Buddha's
power had made the fire to cleanse the impurities of the stadium. When the
fire died down, the stadium appeared even more beautiful. The king was
delighted and said to the teachers, "The Lord has shown his miracles! Now
you show yours!" They lost their eloquence and fell silent.
Then King Prasenajit made bounteous offerings of food and equipment
to the Lord in the stadium. The Lord took his toothpick and stuck it in the
ground, and he manifested a seven-jewel tree, five hundred leagues high,
with flowers the size of chariot wheels, and with fruits the size of a five-
 Seeing the Buddha 87

quart vase, with aromatic breezes, emitting the sound of the Dharma, more
brilliant than sunlight. Beginning with this, for a whole fortnight, each day
the vast multitude beheld astounding miracles, became faithful and atten­
tive to the Dharma, and were individually established on the three paths.
On the second day, King Udrayana made offerings, and two jewel
mountains shining with rainbow colors appeared on the Lord's right and
left sides, the right one upholding various flowering trees producing deli­
cious fruits that satisfied many people. On the left-hand mountain sweet
grass grew which satisfied the grazing animals. On the third day, King
Shunchidala made offerings, and when the Lord threw the water used to
rinse his mouth on the earth, it made a two-hundred-league jewel pond
adorned with the seven precious gems filled with lotuses of many colors,
which radiated light-rays that filled earth and sky and amazed and de­
lighted the entire assembly. On the fourth day, when King Indravarma
made offerings, the Lord created eight great canals on each of the four sides
of that jewel pond, from which water tumbled into the pond, emitting the
sounds of the Dharma. On the fifth day, when King Brahmadatta made of­
ferings, the Lord emitted from his smile a dazzling golden light which illu­
minated the entire billion-world universe, filling the bodies and minds of all
beings it touched with intense bliss, relieving them of the three sufferings
and the five obstructions.
On the sixth day, when the Licchavis made offerings, the Lord made it
possible for each member of all assemblies to read the thoughts of each
other member and to know the good and bad evolutionary actions of the
other; and all were delighted and praised the Lord. On the seventh day,
when the Shakyas made offerings, each member of the assembly saw him­
self or herself as a world emperor, with the seven precious ornaments and
the thousand sons, receiving the homage of the princes and ministers, and
all felt great joy.
On the eighth day Indra invited the Lord, and when he placed his right
foot within the sweet-scented mansion, the earth quaked and the five hun­
dred Rishis whom the six teachers had asked to help them thought it was
the sign to come. When they arrived, the Lord emitted a ray from his body,
and they saw the Lord become as beautiful as the sun; they felt great faith,
and they all attained sainthood. The Lord returned again to the great mira­
cle stadium with the five hundred saints and sat on the lion throne erected
by Indra in the midst of the vast multitude.
Then the Lord made himself invisible on his throne and performed the
four actions in the four directions, going, standing, sitting, and lying down,
emitting various light-rays. Flames roared from the lower part of his body,
88 • E S S ENTIAL T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

and water streamed from the upper part, and vice versa. Then the Lord
touched the earth with his hand and the dragons offered a chariot-wheel­
size lotus with a thousand golden petals and diamond anthers that sprouted
up from the ground, and the Lord sat in the calyx of the lotus. Then many
lotuses just like it sprouted forth, and many emanated Buddhas sat in them,
filling the world up to the Akanishta heaven. Some of those Buddhas blazed
with flames, some became luminous, some streamed with rain, some emit­
ted lightning, some prophesied beings' omniscience, some asked questions,
some answered them, some walked, some ate, some stood, some sat, some
lay down. Even all the children could see these Buddhas without obstruc­
tion, and thus all were blessed. All the kings and their retinues from all the
countries, and the many hundreds of thousands of humans and gods beheld
the miracle without blinking and bowed to it unceasingly. They were de­
lighted and scattered flowers and incense powders. And the emanated
Buddhas uttered many verses of teaching. The Lord said, "0 mendicants,
the great miracle will disappear, don't cling to its sign," and he disappeared.
King Prasenajit said to the six teachers, "Hey! The Lord has shown the
great miracle. Your turn has come-now you show something! " Then
Purana Kassapa was silent and elbowed Makkhali Gosala, who did the
same to Sanjaya Belatthiputta, who did the same to Ajita Kesakambala,
who did the same to Pakhuda Kaccayana, who did the same to Nigantha
Nataputta, who did the same once again to Purana. The king repeated his
request three times, and still they were speechless and elbowed each other
and became paralyzed and discouraged and hung their heads and were
speechless, their minds withdrawn and bodies shaken. Then the Lord
touched his lion throne and a great bellow like a bull's sounded, and five
great ogres emerged and destroyed the thrones of the six teachers. And
Vajrapani, holding a vajra with fires blazing from its tip, brandished it over
the heads of the six teachers, emitting a red wind and a fierce rain, and the
six teachers were terrified and fled. But their followers, ninety thousand
strong, felt faith in the Buddha, renounced the home life, and attained
sainthood. Then the Lord emitted light-rays from his eighty thousand pores
and manifested a Buddha on a lotus on the tip of each ray. Each Buddha sat
and taught them the Dharma.
On the ninth day, when Brahma made offerings, the Lord made his body
tall enough to reach the Brahma heaven, illuminating heaven and earth
with light-rays, and taught the Dharma. On the tenth day, the four great
kings made offerings, and light-rays blazed from the body that reached
up to the summit of existence. On the eleventh day, the householder
Anathapindada made offerings, and the Buddha became invisible on his
throne, emitted rainbow light-rays, and taught the Dharma. On the twelfth
 Seeing the Buddha 89

day, when the householder Chitra made offerings, the Lord entered the
trance of love and radiated golden light-rays that enfolded whomever they
touched into the abode of universal love. On the thirteenth day, King
Shunchidala made offerings, and two light-rays emerged from the navel of
the teacher seated on the lion throne, extended seven arm spans into space
on either side, and created giant lotuses on the tip of each, with an em­
anated Buddha seated on each. From their navels two light-rays were emit­
ted with lotuses and Buddhas on their tips and so forth until the entire
billion-world universe was filled with emanated Buddhas. On the four­
teenth day, when King Udrayana made offerings and scattered flowers, the
flowers were transformed into twelve hundred fifty jewel chariots of blaz­
ing gold, tall enough to reach the Brahma heavens, adorned with precious
wishing gems, with an emanated Buddha seated in each, radiating a light
that enabled all to see the entire billion-world galactic universe.
On the fifteenth day, when King Bimbisara made offerings, each dish
had food of a hundred tastes, satisfying the entire multitude. The Lord
touched the earth with his hand, and the assembly saw all the beings in the
eighteen hells suffering various miseries, burned by blazing flames and so
on, crying, "How we suffer these terrible torments! " All were terrified and
felt intense compassion. The hell beings themselves could see the Buddha.
Rays of light like liquid gold flowed from his five fingertips, and that golden
light touched the bodies of the hell beings and relieved their suffering. The
instant they heard the Dharma, they passed away from there and were re­
born in a higher state.
Thus when the Teacher had performed such great miracles in Shravasti,
the faithful humans and gods erected there a Great Miracle Monument,
square, with four stages, with niches on each side.
Subsequently the Lord turned the wheel of Dharma infinitely in various
lands of gods and humans. On the Vulture Heap Mountain, to a countless
assembly of Bodhisattvas from the heavenly pure lands, of disciples, gods,
and dragons and so on, he taught the precious Transcendent Wisdom
Sutras. That was called the central teaching, the signless Dharma wheel.
Then in other countries he taught the King of Trances Sutra, the Buddha
Garland Sutra, the Jewel Heap Sutra and so on, immeasurable Sutras of the
central teaching. Thereafter he taught the final teaching Sutras such as the
Elucidation of the Intention, in Vaishali and so on.
On another level, he taught the Dharma wheel of mantra at the very
same time. While he was teaching the Transcendent Wisdom Sutra on the
Vulture Heap Mountain, in other embodiments he taught infinite Unex­
celled Yoga Tantras such as the Wheel of Time at the Glorious Dhanya­
kataka Monument. Likewise he taught infinite teachings of the four
90 .. E S S ENTiAL TIB ETAN B U D D H I S M

Esoteric Mantra Tantras in many heavens, such as the summit of Mount

Meru, the Thirty-three heaven, the Tushita heaven, the Brahma heavens,
and in many special places on earth, such as the realms of dragons and of
ogres and the kingdom of Oddiyana and so on. Nowadays there are some
confused people who think that the Teacher Shakyamuni may have taught
the Sutras but not the Mantric Tantras. But such thoughts and positions are
irrational chatter. When the Teacher spent a rains retreat at the Sudharma
center in the Thirty-three heaven, the Arya Ushnishasitatapattra emerged
from his crown-dome and taught the supreme Aparajita mantra. From then
on, the initiation and instruction of the Arya Sitatapattra Action Tantra of
the Transcendent Buddha clan has continued without interruption until
today. Again, when the Lord went to the Potala Mountain, he taught many
Action Tantras, such as the Dharani of the Great Compassion Lord
Simhanada and the Dharani of the Thousand-Armed Thousand-Eyed
Compassion Lord and so on; and these initiations and instructions of the
Lotus clan Action Tantras have continued uninterruptedly until the present
day. Again the Teacher, in order to purify the sins of King Ajatashatru,
taught the Vajravidarana, vajra class, Action Tantra, and we have its in­
structions in unbroken descent. Further, he taught the well-known mea­
sureless Action Tantras, such as the Trisamayavyuha and so on; the
Performance Tantras, such as the Vairochana-abhisambodhi and the
Vajrapanyabhisheka; and the Yoga Tantras, such as the Vajradhatuman­
dala and the Tattvasamgraha and so on-all taught at the time of enlight­
enment in Akanishta heaven.
Then there is the well-known story about when the Lord spent the rains
retreat in the Thirty-three heaven, and lndra saw the godling Vimalamani
die and take rebirth in hell and so asked the Lord for a method to release
him from that horrid state. The Lord taught the Durgatiparishodhana
Tantra and gave its personal instruction to Indra, who then performed the
hell-cleansing rites. That godling was immediately released and born in a
higher heaven, and so Indra was filled with great faith and reverence and
gratitude and bowed to the Lord and made offerings to him: "Wonder! The
blessing of the mantras of the Buddhas is astounding, whereby a being who
has fallen into the unredeemable hell is quickly reborn in heaven. "
The Teacher also taught the Unexcelled Yoga Tantras. On the full moon
of the Chitra month at the glorious Dhanyakataka Great Monument, at the
request of King Suchandra of Shambhala, to an assembly of many millions,
he taught the Kalachakra Tantra, at the same time teaching most of the
other Unexcelled Yoga Tantras, such as the Mahavajrabhairava Mulatantra
and so on, entrusting those Tantras to the Lord of Secrets, Vajrapani.
Furthermore, the ultimate, consummate, and peak of all Unexcelled Yoga
 Seeing the Buddha 9I

Tantras is stated in unison by all Great Adepts to be the Glorious Esoteric

Communion Tantra, and that Tantra is said in its preface to have been
stated by the Lord when dwelling in a measureless mansion within a trian­
gle having the shape of the vulva of the vajra goddess, to an assembled host
filling the entire realm of space. And in the seventeenth chapter, when re­
quested by His Holiness the Savior Maitreya and Vajrapani and so on, the
Lord himself said that incalculable, innumerable eons ago from the
Nirvana of the Realized Lord Dipamkara up to the Transcendent Lord
Kashyapa the Buddhas had not taught any Unexcelled Yoga Tantras. And
finally, in order to care for King Indrabhuti of the land of Oddiyana, the
Lord again taught the Esoteric Communion and entrusted the Tantra to
Vajrapani. And all the Great Adepts agree that then King Indrabhuti medi­
tated on it and attained communion in his single lifetime.
Here some may think that, since most of the Unexcelled Yoga Tantras
are said to be taught by Vajradhara and not by Lord Shakyamuni, he did
not in fact teach them. This shows lack of discernment. How can one say
that the Lord did not teach Tantras that he taught while creating himself as
the Lord of the mandala with the accoutrements of the Beatific Body? The
Lord is seen to change his outfit to teach the Dharma even in the monastic
literature.
For example, look at the story of the barbarian king Kapina. He sent a
messenger to the kings of the six great cities, especially King Prasenajit.
"You all should come to visit me within seven days! If you don't come, it
will be war! 1 will destroy your countries." That messenger delivered his
message to the kings of five of the cities and they all were terrified and went
to Shravasti and told King Prasenajit. Then they all went together to the
presence of the Lord and told him about it. The Lord said, "Send that mes­
senger to me! " King Prasenajit said to the messenger, "There is a magical
king greater than me-go to him!" When the messenger went to the
Jetavana Monastery, he gave the message to the Lord, seated in state as a
world emperor. The magical king crushed it under his foot and commanded
the messenger, "I am a great emperor, master of the four continents. Why
does your stupid king not behave obediently toward me? You go to him
and tell him this for me! 'You come to my presence within seven days! If
you don't come, 1 will punish you according to my law.'" When King
Kapina came to Shravasti, all the kings under the sun escorted him. They
went to the Jetavana Monastery, transformed into a divine city like Indra's
Sudarshana on top of Mount Meru, and the Lord sat in state with the out­
fit of a world emperor. Maudgalyayana was transformed into his chief min­
ister. When the great king Kapina saw this, he thought, "His image is
greater than mine, but how is his power? " Then Indra, in the guise of a
92 .. E S S E N T I A L T I B ET A N BUDDHISM

charioteer, brought the rainbow bow of the gods and presented it to the
chief minister. The minister gave it to the barbarian king, but the latter
could not even lift it. Then the magical king took the bow and tapped it
with his little finger, which literally petrified King Kapina, making him un­
able to move. Then when the Lord as a magic king bent the bow, the earth
quaked. He shot one arrow and it pierced in succession seven great iron
drums, splitting into five arrows, from whose tips countless light-rays emit­
ted, each of them with a world emperor on its tip. Those light-rays accom­
plished the aims of beings, and they sounded verses of praise and teaching.
Then the pride of power of King Kapina was quieted, and he thought,
" Ema! What is this? " The Lord then taught him the Dharma and he saw
the truth. Then the Lord reverted to his usual form, and King Kapina,
along with his eighteen thousand ministers, renounced the home life and at­
tained sainthood; he was called the Venerable Mahakapina.
In this case, who in his right mind would say, " King Kapina was tamed
by a world emperor, not by the Lord ! "
Further, many Unexcelled Yoga Tantras often say, "stated by the Lord
Shakyamuni." It is well known in the Kalachakra Tantra. Further, the
Manjushri Namasamgiti, well known as the root of many Unexcelled Yoga
Tantras, states: "Thereupon the Lord Shakyamuni saw all the great clans of
secret mantra, the three clans, the secret mantra clan, the mantra-holding
clan. The mundane and the transcendent clan, the great clan that illuminates
the world, the supreme clan of the Great Seal, seeing the great crown-dome
clan, the Lord of the Word made this verse. Having the six kings of secret
mantra, nonduality emerged and he stated this qualified by nonproduction. "
And also, there is the colophon, "The true expression of the ultimate names
of the Holy Manjushri, spoken by Lord Shakyamuni, is completed. "
Further, as for the Samvaratantra being taught b y Shakyamuni, the
Dakarnava Tantra clearly says, "This was stated by the Shakya Lion in this
time of contention."
Therefore, those who wish from their hearts to practice the stages of the
path of enlightenment should not entrust their minds to any false tales of
foolish people and must develop a certitude from the depths of their being
that the compassionate Teacher Shakyamuni taught everything from the
root of the path, the way of reliance on the spiritual friend, up to the at­
tainment of communion, the ultimate fruit of the culminating path of
mantra. Having understood that there is no instruction beyond the teach­
ings of the Victor, they should place their trust in the actual teaching of the
Buddha as the supreme of personal instructions.
Thus, the compassionate Teacher, King of the Shakyas, limitlessly taught
 Seeing the Buddha 93

the Three Baskets and Four Tantra Divisions, according to the vow of
Samantabhadra, "In god language, the languages of dragons and ogres, ser­
pent and human languages, according to all the sounds of all beings, I will
teach the Dharma in every language. " He taught according to the lan­
guages of all beings such as gods and dragons, a single statement of his
being understood by each being in their own language. And so infinite
teachings emerged according to the faculties and inclinations of each being.
Infinite teachings ceaselessly emerged from each pore of his body, and all of
the teachings of the Buddha could only have been taught by him. We only
summarize this infinite profusion of teachings according to the antidotes
needed by the individual disciple's addictions, as "eighty-four thousand
groups of teachings. "
Thus that compassionate Teacher turned measureless wheels of Dharma
of Individual and Universal Vehicles, developing and liberating countless
humans and gods. The Teacher spoke to his followers: "The fourfold com­
munity should read the twelve branches of Scripture that confer benefit and
happiness. Apply yourselves to the individual liberation practice. The el­
ders should support the younger with equipment. The younger should not
summon the elder by name. To the faithful, you should show the Teacher's
birth, Buddhahood, Dharma teaching, and Nirvana. 0 mendicants, if you
have any doubts about the three jewels and the four truths, you should ask
about them." And the Lord took off his upper robe. "Mendicants! It is rare
to see a Transcendent Lord! Behold the body of the Transcendent Lord ! "
The mendicants were silent for a moment. "All created things have the na­
ture of destruction. This is the last statement of the Transcendent Lord . "
Then, next to a pair of Sala trees, he placed his head to the north to show
that "in the future, in the northern Land of Snows, my complete teaching
will vastly spread, " during the male iron dragon year, which was his eighty­
first year, on the full moon day of the month of Vaishakha. Though in ulti­
mate reality there was no interruption of his Form Body manifestations and
miraculous activities, in order to give incentive to those disciples still hold­
ing on to permanence, to instruct them that Transcendent Lords are very
rare and hard to meet, by the power of previous spiritual conceptions and
vows, he manifested the way of ultimate Nirvana. Though the Victor him­
self attained Nirvana, by the power of his ancient spiritual conception and
solemn vows he blessed the teaching to remain for five thousand years, and
he increased profusely his heritage and relics, blessing the whole of
Jambudvipa to be filled with monuments.
Those who have the essential concern to practice the stages of the path
of enlightenment must understand that all the Victor's teachings of Sutra
94 .. E S S E N TIAL T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

and Mantra are exclusively methods for their own attainment of enlighten­
ment, thinking, "That compassionate Teacher taught this Dharma for the
sake of liberating me personally from the suffering of the hellish states
and the life-cycle in general and to establish me in the exaltation of
Buddhahood. " They should make effort to remember the Teacher's excel­
lence, kindness, and compassion, and worship and invoke him with faith
and reverence. At the start of the Teacher's teaching of the Dharma, he
taught the group of five the four aspects of the noble truth of suffering, be­
ginning with impermanence. At the end, with his statement about how all
created things have the nature of destruction, again he taught imperma­
nence. If intelligent people know how to examine this fact, they can under­
stand this as a great key for energizing their practice of the path to
enlightenment.
At the beginning, thinking over the fact that one will not live long, being
perishable by nature, energizes the urgency of entering the Dharma. At the
medium level, thinking over the process of impermanence leads one to lose
appetite by knowing the unreliability of even the successes of the life-cycle,
which energizes one's meditation of the path. At the level of the great being,
thinking over impermanence, how all beings have been careening from life
to life unceasingly, helps one cultivate the spirit of enlightenment through
the seven causal precepts, such as mother recognition, and helps one to
practice the Bodhisattva deeds. Even when one contemplates the view of
the central way, it proceeds according to the saying "from impermanence,
suffering, from suffering, he taught selflessness." First one meditates imper­
manence and eliminates the mentality habituated to the permanent, unique,
independent self. Then one can engage in meditating the central view free
of the extremist fabrications. Then, having cultivated character by means
of the ordinary path, when one enters the Mantric path, remembering im­
permanence energizes one with the urgency of needing to learn the Tantric
Vehicle.
One should understand the biography of the Teacher in this way, bring­
ing its message into one's practice of the path.
 C H A P T ER 3

Meeting the Buddha in the Mentor

 Quintessence Segment

You precisely teach the good path of the Blissful

To the savage, hard-to-tame beings of these dark times,
Who were not tamed by the visits of countless Buddhas,
Compassionate Savior,
I pray to you!
The sun of Shakyamuni now sunken over time,
You perform the deeds of a Victorious Buddha
For beings who have no spiritual Savior,
Compassionate Savior,
I pray to you!
But a single of your body's pores
Is better recommended as our field of merit
Than the Victors of all times and places­
Compassionate Savior,
I pray to you!
The beauty wheels of your Bliss-Lord Three Bodies
Ecstatically unfold the net of miracles of your liberative art,
Leading beings by participating in ordinariness­
Compassionate Savior,
I pray to you!
Your aggregates, elements, media, and limbs
Are the five Blissful Clans' Fathers and Mothers
The Bodhisattvas male and female, and the Ferocious Lords,
Supreme Three Jewel Mentor,
I pray to you!
Your nature is the million wheels of Mandalas
Arising from the play of omniscient primal wisdom,
Chief Vajra-master, Lord of the Hundred Clans,
Communion Primal Savior,
I pray to you!
Inseparable from the play of unblocked orgasmic joy,
Universal Lord, you pervade all moving and unmoving,
You are actual, ultimate, all-good spirit of enlightenment,
Beginningless and endless,
I pray to you!
 Meeting the Buddha in the Mentor 97

S O LEMN P R AY E R
You are Mentor!
You are Archetype Deity!
You are Angel and Protector!
From now until enlightenment,
I seek no other Savior!
With compassion's iron hook
Please look after me,
In this life, the between, and future lives!
Save me from the terrors
Of both life and liberation!
Bestow on me all powers!
Be my eternal friend!
Defend me from attack!

I N I TIATI O N AND B L E S S I N G
By the power of thus praying three times,
The vital points of the Mentor's body, speech, and mind
Emit white, red, and blue elixir light-rays,
First one by one and then all together,
Which dissolve into my own three vital points,
Purify the four blocks, and grant the four initiations.
I attain the Four Bodies, and a duplicate of the Mentor
Melts in delight and blesses me completely.

The Three Body Mentor Yoga, The Natural Liberation

Not Ceasing the Three Poisons

by Padma Sambhava

OM - AV KAA AAH !
To the unborn, nondeveloping Truth Body Mentor,
In the palace of the perfect, all-pervading Realm of Truth,
With reverent devotion, ardently I pray!
Naturally free without abandoning misknowing delusion,
I freely accept the perfect Truth Body blessing,
As effortless, nonartificial, primal wisdom!
98 .. E S S ENTIAL T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

To the deathless, great bliss Beatific Body Lama

In the palace of bright, pure wisdom's universal bliss,
With reverent devotion, ardently I pray!
Naturally free without abandoning lust and longing,
I freely accept the effortless Beatific Body blessing,
As the instant liberation of inner wisdom's universal bliss!
To the ineffable, self-created Emanation Body Mentor,
In the palace of the flawless perfect lotus,
With reverent devotion, ardently I pray!
Naturally liberated without abandoning misconceiving hatred,
I freely accept the effortless Emanation Body blessing
As self-evident wisdom's introspective self-illumination!
To the impartial great bliss Trinite Body Mentor,
In the palace of a uthentic clear light introspection,
With reverent devotion, ardently I pray!
Naturally free without abandoning subject-object dualism,
I freely accept the great bliss Triple Body blessing
As original wisdom's Triple Body spontaneity!
o compassion on these suffering conscious beings
Who wander in the life-cycle, darkened with delusions,
Not knowing their own minds as the infinite Truth Body­
May all of them attain the Body of Truth!
o compassion on these conscious beings, misguided in desires,
Who wander in the life-cycle, identifying with lust and clinging,
Not knowing their self-awareness as great bliss Beatific Body­
May all of them attain the Body of Beatitude!
o compassion on these misconceiving beings
Who wander in the life-cycle, with the dualistic mind of hate,
Not knowing their own minds as the born-free Emanation Body­
May they all attain the Body of Emanation!
o compassion on all beings who are not yet Buddhas,
Trapped by the presence-habit of addictive and objective veils,
Not knowing their own minds as the indivisible Three Bodies­
May they all attain the Three Bodies of Buddhahood!
 Meeting the Buddha in the Mentor 99

Atisha's Pith Saying

When Atisha arrived in Tibet, his three disciples, Ku, Ngog, and Brom,
asked him, "To attain the high state of liberation and omniscience, which is
more important to follow, the precept of the lama, or the scriptures and
commentaries? "
Atisha replied, "The precept of the lama is more important than the
scriptures and commentaries. "
"Why?" they asked.
"If you know that emptiness is the prime characteristic of all things, and
even if you can recite the entire canon by heart, if, at the time of practice
you do not apply to yourself the precept of the lama, you and the Dharma
will go your separate ways. "
They asked, "Please define the practice of the precept of the lama. Is it
simply striving to practice mental, verbal, and physical virtuous deeds, act­
ing in accordance with the three vows of individual liberation, Bodhi­
sattvahood, and Tantra? "
"Both of these will b e insufficient," replied Atisha.
"Why? "
"Although you keep the three vows, i f you do not renounce the three
realms of cyclic life, your deeds will only increase your worldliness.
Although you strive day and night to commit physical, verbal, and mental
virtuous acts, if you do not dedicate your efforts to universal enlightenment,
you will end up with numerous wrong attitudes. Even though you meditate
and come to be considered holy and a wise teacher, if you do not abandon
your interest in the eight worldly concerns, whatever you do will only be for
the purpose of this life, and in the future you will miss the right path."
Again they asked, "What is the highest teaching of the path?"
Atisha replied, "The highest skill lies in the realization of selflessness.
The highest nobility lies in taming your own mind. The highest excellence
lies in having the attitude that seeks to help others. The highest precept is
continual mindfulness. The highest remedy lies in understanding the intrin­
sic transcendence of everything. The highest activity lies in not conforming
with worldly concerns. The highest mystic realization lies in lessening and
transmuting the passions. The highest charity lies in nonattachment. The
highest morality lies in having a peaceful mind. The highest tolerance lies in
humility. The highest effort lies in abandoning attachment to works. The
highest meditation lies in the mind without claims. The highest wisdom lies
in not grasping anything as being what it appears to be. "
1 00 .. ES S E NTIAL TIB ETAN BUDDHISM

"And what is the ultimate goal of the teaching?"

"The ultimate goal of the teaching is that emptiness whose essence is
compassion. "

Milarepa's Meeting with Peldar Boom from

The Hundred Thousand Songs

Homage to the Mentor!

One autumn, the holy Milarepa was on his way to the northern Horse
Gate Mountain to practice meditation, and he came to Gebha Lesum in
Chung. The villagers were busy harvesting. In a particular large field, many
people were laboring under the direction of a very beautiful girl, about fif­
teen years of age, who showed the signs of being a wisdom Dakini-angel.
Milarepa approached her and said, "May the patrons please give alms
to me, a yogin. "
The girl replied, " 0 yogin, please go rest a t that house over there. I will
come soon."
Accordingly Milarepa went to her house, pushed the door open with his
staff, and entered. At once an ugly old woman with a handful of ashes
came forward, cursing, "You yogin beggars! I never see you stay put! In
summer you come begging for milk and butter! In the winter you come for
grain! I'll wager you wanted to sneak in with no one home to steal the jew­
els of my daughter and daughter-in-law! " Fuming and trembling with rage,
she was about to throw the ashes at Milarepa.
He stopped her, saying, "Wait, Grandma! Listen a minute to Milarepa's
song!"
He then sang a song with nine meanings:
One, above is the happiness of high birth and freedom.
Two, below are the sufferings of the three horrid states.
Three, between are those not free to choose where to be born.
These three have come together for you now,
Grandma, you burn with anger,
And even hate the Dharma!
Look at your thoughts and see your mind!
You should practice a spiritual teaching,
And rely on a reputable mentor!
When you were first sent to this house,
Could you imagine yourself becoming such a hag?
In the morning you get up from bed,
 Meeting the Buddha in the Mentor lor

In the evening you go to sleep,

Between you do the endless housework;
You are engrossed in these three things.
Grandma, you are the unpaid maid.
Watch your thoughts and see your mind!
You should practice a spiritual teaching,
And rely on a reputable mentor!
Then think how things might be better.
The head of the family is the most important,
Otherwise, income and wealth are next,
And children are indispensable.
Now these three are before you.
Grandma, you're unimportant, with no share.
Watch your thoughts and see your mind!
You should practice a spiritual teaching,
And rely on a reputable mentor!
Then think how things might be better.
You get, and the thief will rob you,
You don't get, and bandits attack,
You struggle to avoid injury and death.
Now you are subjected to these three things.
Grandma, you burn with fury at crowds of foes!
Watch your thoughts and see your mind!
You should practice a spiritual teaching,
And rely on a reputable mentor!
Then think how things might be better.
Identifying the girlfriends of men,
Gossiping about your children,
Chattering of widows and relatives!
Now you are obsessed with these three things!
Grandma, are you tolerant when you gossip?
Watch your thoughts and see your mind!
You should practice a spiritual teaching,
And rely on a reputable mentor!
Then think how things might be better.
You get up like pulling a stake from the ground,
You walk like a waddling bird,
You sit like a stone drops to ground,
These three now have become your lot!
1 02 .. E S S ENTIAL TIB ETAN BUDDHISM

Grandma, your mind is done in by your body's illusions.

Watch your thoughts and see your mind!
You should practice a spiritual teaching,
And rely on a reputable mentor!
Then think how things might be better.
Outside your skin is creased with wrinkles;
Inside your bones stick out from your withered flesh;
Between you are deaf, dumb, blind, and confused;
Now these three have become your lot!
Grandma, wizened show of ugliness!
Watch your thoughts and see your mind!
You should practice a spiritual teaching,
And rely on a reputable mentor!
Then think how things might be better.
Your food and drink are cold and foul,
Your coat is heavy and torn,
Your bed is a heap of coarse hides;
Now these three have become your lot.
Grandma, you are half woman and half bitch!
Watch your thoughts and see your mind!
You should practice a spiritual teaching,
And rely on a reputable mentor!
Then think how things have come to this.
Upward, to gain high birth and freedom
Is rarer than a star in daytime;
Downward, the life-cycle and horrid states
Happen easily as flesh is pierced;
Now, discouraged, paralyzed by death,
Grandma, remorseful, you have no heart for death?
Watch your thoughts and see your mind!
You should practice a spiritual teaching,
And rely on a reputable mentor!
Due to the compassion and the melodious speech of the holy man, the
old woman could not help but feel deep faith. The ashes in her hand were
released and fell to the floor. She regretted her previous behavior and broke
into tears.
Meantime the girl from the field came back to the house. Seeing the old
woman in tears she turned to Milarepa and cried, "0 yogin, you don't
 Meeting the Buddha in the Mentor 1 03

seem very religious! Did you hit this poor old woman? " The grandmother
quickly intervened: "No, no, please don't wrongly accuse him! He never
said anything unkind to me. It was 1 who treated him wrongly. He gave me
such true teachings as 1 had never heard, 1 was deeply moved to faith. 1 only
cried because 1 realized how far from the Dharma 1 have gotten. Now you
are not like me. You are young, and have wealth and faith. This is the great
Mentor called Milarepa. You should serve him and make offerings and ask
him for teachings and instructions. "
The girl replied, "If that's it, then you both are amazing! Are you the
powerful Milarepa ? Just meeting you brings great merit! If you would tell
us the history of your lineage, it will inspire your disciples. It will instruct
us in how to transform our perceptions. 50 please tell your lineage. "
The reverend Milarepa thought, "This girl i s destined to become a disci­
pie," and so he sang this song of his lineage:
The Truth Body is pervasive All-Good 5amantabhadra.
The majestic Beatific Body is great Vajradhara;
The Emanation Body, saving beings, is Shakyamuni.
1 am the yogin who descends from these three;
Daughter, do you have faith in this lineage?
"Your lineage is a great wonder, " said Peldar Boom, "it is like the gla­
cier at the head of all rivers. 1 have heard that you Dharma practitioners
rely outwardly on a mentor who marks your process of consciousness, so
that you can inwardly realize the unborn Body of Truth. Please tell me
what kind of root mentor do you rely upon? "
Milarepa replied, "I have the following kind of root mentor," and he
sang a song on how to rely on a qualified mentor:

The outer mentor shows you wisdcm from without,

The inner mentor teaches awareness from within,
The reality mentor teaches reality in your mind.
1 am a yogin who has all three mentors,
Daughter, do you have faith in these three?

"These mentors are outstanding, " exclaimed the girl, "like turquoises
strung on a woven gold chain! But before we ask for their teachings, what
sort of empowerments do we request?"
Milarepa then sang:
Touching the vase on your crown is the outer empowerment;
Showing your body to be divine is the inner empowerment;
1 04 .. E S S ENTIAL T I B ETAN B U D D H I S M

Identifying the intrinsic nature of the mind is the real empowerment;

I am a yogin who has all three empowerments;
Are you the daughter who wants to receive them?
Peldar Boom exclaimed, "These empowerments are indeed profound!
Like the lion, king of beasts, overwhelming all other animals. I have heard
that after empowerment, awareness is introduced to the path by means of
reality instruction. What is that instruction? "
I n answer to her question, Milarepa sang:
Outer instruction is learning, thinking, and meditating;
Inner instruction is stone-to-bone identification of intuition;
Real instruction is realization free of uniting and dividing;
I am a yogin who has all three instructions;
Are you the daughter who wants to receive them?
Peldar Boom declared, "These instructions are like reflections in a clear
mirror! But after instructions, I have heard that one must retire to a her­
mitage and practice sacrifice! How do you perform such sacrifice! "
Milarepa sang in answer:
Retiring to a solitary hermitage is outer sacrifice;
Turning the body into food is inner sacrifice;
Absolute, radical sacrifice is reality sacrifice;
I am a yogin with all three sacrifices;
Are you the daughter who wants to receive them?
The girl said, "This sacrifice is an extremely great wonder, like a great
eagle flying in the sky, overawing all lesser birds! But I have heard that
some yogins who perform sacrifice transform negative circumstances into
the path by using the mantra 'PHAT. ' Please tell me the meaning of PHAT. "
Milarepa then sang:
Outer PHAT collects scattered thoughts;
Inner P H AT rouses depressed intelligence;
Real PHAT focuses on experience of reality;
I am the yogin who has all three;
Are you the daughter who sounds them?
She exclaimed, "This PHAT is extremely wonderful! It assures swift and
massive accomplishment, like the war drum and command of a king! But if
one puts it into practice, what will arise? "
 Meeting the Buddha in the Mentor 105

Milarepa sang in reply:

Base experience is the uncontrived vast immersion;
Path experience is the uncontrived great straight way;
Fruit experience is the uncontrived Universal Seal;
I am the yogin who has all three experiences,
Are you the daughter who achieves them?
Peldar Boom then said, "These experiences are like the bright sun dawn­
ing in a cloudless sky, illuminating all things. They are extremely wonder­
ful! But realizing them gives you what sort of assurance?"
Milarepa sang again:
Free from gods and devils is view assurance;
Free from focus and distraction is meditation assurance;
Free of hope and fear is goal assurance;
I am a yogin with these three assurances.
Are you the daughter who wants them?
Thereupon the girl felt great faith in the holy man and bowed at his feet.
With full devotion she invited him in and attended him respectfully. Then
she said, "0 mentor, I have been blocked by ignorance and have not
thought of the Dharma! Now, 0 mentor, I will be your attendant; through
your great compassion, please teach me the Dharma. " Thus owning her
past faults, she offered this song of formal request:
Ankay! Precious mentor!
Supreme person, Buddha emanation!
How dull, ignorant, and confused was I!
How great is evil in this world!
Southern clouds shaded me in summer heat,
But I never felt the cool!
Winter cold was so intense,
I never noticed flowers blooming!
My bad instincts were so strong,
I could not recognize you as an Adept!
I'll tell you the story of this woman child:
Lowly in evolution, I took this lowly body.
Trapped and blocked in lowly life-forms,
I never noticed I was a Buddha.
Lacking courage, I thought not of Dharma.
1 06 >i* E S S ENTiAL TiB ETAN BUDDHiSM

Though I aspired to practice Dharma,

I was overcome by laziness.
For a woman, the good life is safe bondage,
A bad life is losing all companions.
We lose touch with our kind parents.
With our husbands we think of suicide.
We have high ambitions but small determination,
Quick to scold, skilled in accusation,
Knowing all the gossip in the land,
Families must keep us away with dogs!
Though generous in public with food and wealth,
We are privately stingy and ill-tempered!
Seldom do we think of transience and death.
Hindrances always follow us like shadows.
Now, from my heart I want to practice Dharma.
Please give me a teaching simple to understand
And easy to put into practice!
Pleased, Milarepa sang in reply:
Ankay! Daughter Peldar Boom,
This your tale of a woman's life,
If I praise it, you will be self-conscious.
If I disparage it, you will be angry.
If I speak reality, it will reveal faults.
Now, listen to me, this wise old man!
If you wish from the heart to practice Dharma,
Rather than cleaning up your face,
It is better to clean your heart.
More than quitting fantasies and pretensions,
It is better to embrace a humble status.
More than quitting serving children and husband,
It is better to rely on a qualified Mentor.
More than giving up this life's business,
It is better to attain the future's great goal.
More than quitting greed and stinginess,
It is better still to give impartially.
Clever it is to know these things.
You, girl, fool around like a playful mouse;
Dharma is scarce for smooth-tongued women.
You, girl, are like a wild peahen;
Dharma is scarce for a sultry beauty.
 Meeting the Buddha in the Mentor 1 07

You, girl, are like a merchant at market;

Dharma is scarce for the wily-minded.
If you want to practice Dharma rightly,
Follow me and do as I do.
Meditate in mountains without distraction.
Peldar Boom then sang this request to the holy man:
Ankay! Precious holy man,
Yogin whose friendship benefits.
In the days I am busy with endless work.
At night, stupefied I fall asleep.
All day long food and clothing make me slave.
I have no time to practice Dharma.
Milarepa replied, "If you want to practice the Dharma, you must recog­
nize mundane business as your enemy and renounce it." And he sang a
song called "The Four Renunciations":
Ankay, daughter Peldar Boom,
Faithful girl, alive and rich!
Future lives' journey is longer than this life's­
Do you know how to prepare provisions?
If you don't know how to prepare provisions,
Since generosity creates them, get into giving.
The enemy watchdog called avarice
You think helps you but causes you harm.
Do you know stinginess as your enemy?
If you do, see that you renounce it!
Ankay, daughter Peldar Boom!
Future life is more obscured than this one.
Do you know how to light your lamp?
If you don't know how to light it,
Since it's clear light, get into meditation.
The enemy "delusion" lies in unconsciousness,
Though you think it helps, it causes harm.
Do you know delusion as your enemy?
If you do, see that you renounce it!
Ankay, daughter Peldar Boom!
Future lives are more dangerous than this life­
Do you know how to prepare your escort?
If you don't know how to prepare a guide,
108 .. E S S ENTIAL TIB ETAN B U D D H I S M

Since it's the holy Dharma, get into its practice.

All-absorbing are the enemies called "relatives,"
You think they help but they cause great harm.
Do you know relatives as your enemy?
If you do, see that you renounce them!
Ankay, daughter Peldar Boom!
The path of future life is longer and narrower;
Do you know how to train your stallion?
If you don't know how to train your mount,
Since it's enterprise, get into diligence!
The enemy "laziness" will lead you astray.
You think it helps, but it causes harm.
Do you know laziness as your enemy?
If you do, see that you renounce it!
Peldar Boom then said, with great determination, "Sir Mentor! I do not
know how to train to prepare for future lives; but now I will try to do so.
Please have compassion for me and give me instruction in meditation. "
The holy man was quite delighted and replied, "If you practice the
Dharma with such determination, in my tradition, it is not necessary to
change your name. Since you can achieve enlightenment whether monk or
layperson, you don't need to shave your head or change your clothes."
Then he sang her a song of meditation instruction called "The Four
Examples and Five Meanings":
Ankay, daughter Peldar Boom,
You rich and pious girl!
Use the sky as example,
Meditate without limit and center!
Use sun and moon as example,
Meditate without clarity and obscurity!
Use this mountain as example,
Meditate without movement or change!
Use the great ocean as example,
Meditate without surface or depth!
Create the meanings within your mind,
Meditate without contempt or yearning!
In this way he taught her the vital points of body and mind and set her
to meditate. After the girl had developed a good realization, she offered the
following recital to dispel doubts and obstructions:
 Meeting the Buddha in the Mentor 1 09

Ankay! precious holy one!

Ona! supreme Buddha emanation!
I was happy meditating like the sky,
But uncomfortable meditating the clouds.
Please instruct me to meditate the clouds.
I was happy meditating sun and moon,
But a bit uncomfortable meditating all the stars.
Please instruct me to meditate planets and stars.
I was happy meditating the mountain,
But uncomfortable meditating the trees.
Please instruct me to meditate the trees.
I was happy meditating the great ocean,
But uncomfortable meditating the waves.
Please instruct me to meditate the waves.
I was happy meditating my own deep mind,
A bit uncomfortable meditating the many thoughts.
Please instruct me to meditate my thoughts.
The holy man was very pleased with this expression of her contempla­
tion. So he sang her this song to dispel obstructions and intensify the im­
pact of her realization:
Ankay, daughter Peldar Boom,
Listen, you rich and faithful girl!
If you were happy meditating the sky,
Clouds are but miracles of the sky;
So see them as the sky itself!
If you were happy meditating sun and moon,
Planets and stars are but miracles of sun and moon;
So see them the same as sun and moon!
If you were happy meditating this mountain,
Trees are but miracles of the mountain;
So see them as the actuality of the mountain!
If you were happy meditating the ocean,
Waves are but miracles of the ocean;
So see them as the actuality of the ocean!
If you were happy meditating your natural mind,
Thoughts are but miracles of the mind;
So set them in the actuality of the mind!
From then on Peldar Boom meditated and understood the reality of the
nature of the mind. Eventually she achieved perfect realization and then
110 .. ES S ENTIAL T I B ETAN B U D D H I S M

ascended with her human body to the pure land of the angelic Dakinis, ac­
companied by the sound of heavenly drums.
This is the story of Milarepa meeting his spiritual daughter, Peldar
Boom, one of his four main female heirs, at Geba Lesum of Jung.

Dromtonpa's Outline of the Path

After Atisha passed into final liberation, Drom the Teacher became his suc­
cessor. On one occasion his three main disciples, the brothers Potowa,
Chengawa, and Puchungwa, asked him, "Please tell us the way of practice
that includes the essence of all paths to omniscient Buddhahood. "
The spiritual friend Drom answered, "Though there is an incalculable
number of precepts, each of which gives entry to the path of enlightenment, if
one has the necessary ground for practice, there is only one thing to attain."
"What is that one thing? " asked the three brothers.
"That which has the essence of voidness and compassion. To explain:
Voidness is the absolute spirit of enlightenment; the realization that all
things are naturally and truly unborn. Compassion is the relative spirit of
enlightenment; it is universal compassion reaching out to all beings who
have not yet realized their fundamental birthlessness. Thus those who prac­
tice the path of the Universal Vehicle should first strive to develop these two
forms of the spirit of enlightenment. Once the spirit of enlightenment has
been conceived, it should be diligently cultivated. By doing so, one is sure
to realize Buddhahood with its Form Body and Truth Body, the ultimate
fruition of attaining the two kinds of spirit of enlightenment.
"There are many methods to conceive the two kinds of spirit of enlight­
enment. Condensing them into a way of practice, there are only three root
methods and nine branch methods growing from them. The three root
methods are mind development, the accumulation of merit and wisdom,
and the quest of samadhi. Each root method has three principal branches.
"The three principal branch methods of mind development are the med­
itations on impermanence, love and compassion, and the selflessness of all •

persons and things. Among the various methods of mind development,

these three are the most important, incorporating all the others.
"The principal branch methods for the accumulation of merit and wis­
dom are to honor the Mentor, to venerate the Three Jewels, and to honor
the Sangha. These three are the only important methods, incorporating all
others.
 Meeting the Buddha in the Mentor IrT

"The principal branch methods of the quest of samadhi are to maintain

impeccable ethical conduct, to pray to the mentors of the lineage, and to
keep constant solitude. In seeking the supreme samadhi of quiescence and
insight, these are the only important methods, incorporating all the others.
" By practicing these nine methods, you will naturally develop the two
kinds of spirit of enlightenment. When you develop the absolute spirit, you
will effortlessly realize that all outer and inner things are empty of reality
status, originally lacking true creation, and utterly free from proliferation.
This realization will bring you boundless joy. When you develop the rela­
tive spirit of enlightenment, you will feel a profound love and compassion
for those beings who have not realized the absolute spirit of enlightenment.
From then on, whatever you do will only be for the benefit of those many
beings, and, since you have attained the spirit of enlightenment, all you
have already done will benefit them also.
"There are two ways to integrate absolute and relative spirits of enlight­
enment. When you develop the absolute spirit, you experience the voidness
of all existence; at that very moment of experience of voidness, you will de­
velop intense compassion for all beings, since they are not negated by the
experience of voidness. When you develop this relative spirit of enlighten­
ment, this profound compassion for all beings, you will simultaneously feel
the nonseparation of self and others. Appearances are like a magician's illu­
sions; they are actually devoid of intrinsic reality.
"When you have successfully developed this integrated realization of the
two kinds of spirit of enlightenment, you have correctly entered the path of
the Universal Vehicle. By cultivating that realization, you will perfect your
meditation and will naturally obtain the Form and Truth Bodies of
Buddhahood. The Truth Body arises from voidness, the absolute spirit of
enlightenment. The Form Body arises from compassion, the relative spirit
of enlightenment. From the cultivation of the indivisible two kinds of spirit
of enlightenment, you will reach the indivisible Truth and Form Bodies of
Buddhahood. "

G A M P O PA'S F OUR THEMES

1. Turning the Mind to the Dharma

2. Practicing the Dharma as a Path
3. Removing Confusion While on the Path
4. Purifying Confusion into Primal Wisdom
[12 .. E S S ENTIAL T I B ETAN B U D D H I S M

Manjushri's Revelation to Sachen Kunga Nyingpo

(I 092-I I56j
If you have attachment to this life,
You are not a religious person.
If you have attachment to existence,
You do not have transcendent renunciation.
If you have attachment to your self-interest,
You do not have the spirit of enlightenment.
If grasping arises,
You do not have the authentic view.

The Three Principles of the Path

by Tsong Kha pa

Reverence to all the holy mentors!

I will explain as best I can
The key import of all the Victor's teachings,
Path praised by all the holy Bodhisattvas,
Best entry for those fortunates who seek freedom!
Listen with clear minds, you lucky people
Who aspire to the path that pleases Buddhas,
Strive to give meaning to liberty and opportunity,
And are not addicted to the pleasures of cyclic living.
Lust for existence chains all bodied beings,
Addiction to cyclic pleasures is only cured
By transcendent renunciation.
So first of all seek transcendence.
Liberty and opportunity are hard to get,
And there is no time to life; keep thinking on this,
And you will turn off your interest in this life.
Contemplate the inexorability of evolutionary effects
And the sufferings of life-over and over again­
And you will turn off interest in future lives.
 Meeting the Buddha in the Mentor I13

By constant meditation, your mind will not entertain

A moment's wish even for the successes of this life,
And you will aim for freedom day and night-
Then you experience transcendent renunciation.

Transcendence without the spirit of enlightenment

Cannot generate the supreme bliss
Of unexcelled enlightenment-therefore,
The Bodhisattva conceives the supreme spirit of enlightenment.

Carried away on the currents of four mighty streams,

Tightly bound by the near inescapable chains of evolution,
Trapped and imprisoned in the iron cage of self-concern,
Totally enveloped in the dark of misknowledge,
Born and born again and again in endless cyclic lives,
Uninterruptedly tortured by the three sufferings­
Such is the state of all beings, all just your mothers­
From your natural feelings, conceive the highest spirit!

Though you experience transcendence,

And cultivate the spirit of enlightenment,
Without wisdom from realizing voidness
You cannot cut off the root of cyclic life­
So you should strive to realize relativity.

Who sees the inexorable causality of things,

Of both cyclic life and liberation,
And destroys any objectivity-conviction,
Thus finds the path that pleases victors.
Appearance inevitably relative
And voidness free from all assertions­
As long as these are understood apart,
The victor's intent is not yet known.
But when they coincide not alternating,
Mere sight of inevitable relativity
Secures knowledge beyond objectivisms,
And investigation of the view is perfect.
More, as experience dispels absolutism
And voidness clears away nihilism,
1 14 .. E S S ENTIAL TI BETAN B U D D H I S M

You know voidness dawn as cause and effect­

Then you will never be deprived by extremist views.
When you realize the essentials
Of the three principles of the path,
Rely on solitude and powerful efforts
And swiftly achieve the eternal goal, my son!
 C H A P T ER 4

Practicing Transcendent Renunciation

 Quintessence Segment

This liberty and opportunity found just this once,

Understanding how hard to get and how quickly lost,
Bless me not waste it in the pointless business of this life,
But take its essence and make it count!
Fearing the blazing fires of suffering in the hellish states,
Heartily taking refuge in the Three Jewels,
Bless me to intensify my efforts
To cease sins and achieve a mass of virtue!
Tossed by fierce waves of evolution and addiction,
Crushed by the many 'gators of three sufferings,
Bless me to intensify my will to liberation
From this terrifying boundless ocean of existence!
As for this egoistic life-cycle unbearable as a prison,
Ceasing the delusion that it's a garden of delight,
Bless me to hold high the victory banner of liberation,
And enjoy the treasure of noble gems, the three educations!

Treasury of Wish-Fulfilling Gems:

A Textbook of Universal Vehicle Precepts

by Kunkyen Longchen Rabjam

Chapter Thirteen:
T H E R A RITY O F F I N D I N G L I B E RTY
AND O P P O RTUNITY
Next, you who would study according to the Holy Ornaments
Should generate in mind the certain wisdom that reflects
On all the meanings appropriate to Individual Vehicle disciples,
And should especially contemplate in five ways.
First, you should contemplate the rarity of liberty and opportunity,
The misfortune of being born among a misguided people,
Of being born with imperfect faculties,
Of being deprived of the blessing of birth in a land with the doctrine,

1I6
 Practicing Transcendent Renunciation 117

Or of living in a wilderness of false teachings

Where it is very hard to meet many spiritual friends.
Foremost unfortunates who have lost this rare opportunity
Are hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, long-lived gods and titans.
Then there are humans in wild lands untrod by Buddhas, with
misguided views,
Humans unreceptive to teachings due to retardation or negative
conditions,
Humans disturbed by the five poisons or possessed by the demon of
self-deception,
The indolent and those immersed in a sea of negative evolution,
And the timid under the sway of others who pretend to be saviors.
Those deprived by these eight forms of misfortune,
Confused and unreceptive to the true path to freedom,
Suffer the ultimate bondage, since all they do is for ill.
Their human life-cycle is wasted in panic, with no hint of faith,
They engage in sin and vice with no thought of truth
And are notorious for breaking commitments and vows.
Divorced from any spiritual heritage, these eight types of
unfortunates
Are estranged from truth, with no lamp to light their way to
freedom.
We who have not been born in these circumstances
Should rejoice and strive to realize the holy doctrine.
Thus, considering the precise embodiments of living beings,
How a human body is evolved over countless life-cycles,
How, once in human form, well endowed, you are fit for truth,
And how this jewel makes you equal to the task of Buddhahood,
You should always carefully contemplate your liberty and
opportunity.
Those born with imperfect faculties or in remote lands
Cannot grasp the truth, hold extreme views of evolution,
Have .no faith in doctrine, no religion, and so befriend vice.
Through carefully reflecting numerous times
On having this body and the teaching, unlike such unfortunates,
You should contemplate in total certainty, day and night,
The full blessing of opportunity to practice the teaching,
II8 .. E S S ENTI A L T I B ETAN B U D D H I S M

Of having teachings to cultivate positive evolution,

Of being born as a human with perfect faculties,
With a perfect view of evolution undistorted by extremism,
Of having all that proceeds from these rare achievements.
Since perfect opportunity is hard to find, be diligent.
The Teacher came, spoke the truth, his teaching is preserved,
We enjoy the support of caring sympathetic guides.
Since this is so precious, apply yourself to practice.
This opportunity is as hard to win as the auspicious marks and signs.
If the yoke of an ox were adrift at sea,
How rare for a sea turtle to poke its head through the hole!
That is how rare it is to be born human.
As rare as corn attaching to the surface of a wall
Is precious birth in a central land.
As rare as a heavenly lotus growing in this world
Is a meeting with the true spiritual path.
As hard as threading raw cotton through the eye of a needle
Is precious success in the ways of the path once found.
As rarely as one finds a jewel on a desert island
Is how rarely one finds a true mentor.
So strive for success by diligence in these reflections.
Having abandoned meaningless activity for true success,
Whatever precludes the virtues that serve to ground freedom
Must be renounced as one strives toward the truth.
Misguided actions are senseless causes of misery,
Useless and of no help at the time of death; therefore,
Like painful thorns, work to finally get rid of them.
In this life, domestic relations, anxious cares,
And materialistic principles-the ills
That waste our opportunity-must be let go and renounced.
With constant mindfulness, awareness, and conscientiousness,
Contemplate your opportunity to reach enlightenment's freedom.
Whether on the move or at rest, even while eating and such,
You should eliminate the six faults such as indolence.
If you would achieve the great aims of ascendance and
transcendence,
Be exemplary even in things like satisfying your appetites.
Day or night, you should strive to be wholly virtuous.
 Practicing Transcendent Renunciation 1 19

At every turn think how this life can serve that end.
Burn with flamelike zeal to provide for the future,
When by virtue you can transcend this unfortunate era
And quickly cross the ocean of cyclic life.

Chapter Fourteen:
L I F E ' S I M P E R M A N EN C E
Once acquired, this precious life with liberty and opportunity
Has the characteristics of instantaneity, impermanence, and decay.
The three realms are deceptive and illusory in nature.
Though beautified by the wealth of its four continents,
Our earthly environment is impermanent and exhibits decay.
Even this body should be recognized as a ball of foam,
Like those of all these beings now on earth.
In a hundred years, they will certainly not be,
Since everything born eventually dies.
Just as your own life span will come to an end,
In places like markets, crossroads, guest houses,
All these crowds of diverse beings will be scattered.
Contemplate the certainty from the heart that your relations
And the resources of your amassed possessions,
Like a city deserted, will come to nothing.
Since whatever wealth one has amassed
Is impermanent and without essence, you should be detached;
You ascend to the wealthy cities of paradise,
Even as you go beyond death and fall to miserable lives.
Be sure that pride in this life or wealth grants no equanimity,
Since one is separated in time from things outer and inner.
Since impermanence and death are certain,
Give up on the delusion of permanence.
Subatomic matter endures momentarily,
Being impermanent as a flash of lightning,
So you should realize ultimate truth just as quickly.
The variety of habitats and life-forms is transient,
Essenceless as an illusion or a banana tree,
Therefore this life-cycle is called impermanent,
And clinging to one's self or work is not acceptable.
1 20 .. E S S E N Tl A L Tl B E T A N B U D D H I S M

Habitats and beings are made of four elements, subject to decay.

Embodied beings vanish like transient settlements.
Since compounds are everywhere, nothing at all is permanent.
Nothing in life is certain but that death is never partial.
So one must contemplate from the heart death's certainty.
Since, at the time when death comes, home and possessions,
Friends, the company of celebrated experts, and so forth
Are no company at all, you must realize ultimate truth.
One's perception of markets, riverbanks, miraculous trees,
Thunderheads, the movements of living beings, moon and sun,
Impermanent and transient, will likewise suddenly cease.
At the time of death, your best friends are your stores of virtue;
So rely on the ultimate, and strive to realize its essential meaning.
On the path of analysis, one must be ever mindful of death.
Measure your practice by watching the compounded decay.
With effort, abandon the fears and activities of this life,
Not resting in the ordinary even an instant.
Develop a renunciative, repentant mind of few diversions,
For the benefits and virtues of such a mind are infinite.
Eliminate worldly faults and naturally gather virtues.
Free from the permanence habit, stop enmity and kinship, desire and
hate,
Be diligent in virtue, and know this life as deceptive.
Fully gather both stores, and the gods will see you as glorious,
You will ascend to the heavens, achieve lifetimes of bliss,
And quickly earn the state of enjoying the elixir of immortality.

Chapter Fifteen:
C O NTEM P L AT I N G T H E N AT U R E O F F A I T H
Following the natural realization of impermanence,
Devote yourself exclusively to building a store of faith.
With aspiring faith, work to choose wisely your path of evolution.
With confident faith, immerse your mind in the supreme objective.
With devoted faith, purify your mental qualities.
With sincere faith, eliminate doubt about the truth.
With certain faith, meditate on what you have learned.
 Practicing Transcendent Renunciation 121

Especially have faith in the excellencies of the teaching.

The nature of faith is like that of a good foundation,
As the groundwork of all spirituality,
It serves to foster the accumulation of virtues.
Like a ship, faith frees one from the waters of existence.
Like a convoy, it protects one from addictions and demons.
Like a ferry, it steers one to the island of liberation.
Like the king of gems, it accomplishes any wish.
Like a hero, it dims the glamour of vice.
The amassed holy stores are the ultimate wealth.
Since the unfortunate lack even the slightest faith,
Their faults will be truly limitless.
Like anchors at sea, they will not fathom freedom.
Like unready boats, they will never cross [the sea of] existence.
Like crippled hands, they will not earn their share of virtue.
Like burnt seeds, they will not sprout enlightenment.
Like the complacent, they will not manifest the form of truth.
Like those stuck in a rut, they roam in the egocentric life-cycle.
Generate pure faith in the doctrine with six objectives.
Generate aspiring faith for protection from existence.
Generate devoted faith for protection from sick relationships.
Generate devout faith for protection in this life.
Generate sincere faith from the purity of the ultimate realm.
Generate confident faith from learning about causality.
Generate certain faith from purely contemplating what you learn.
Relying on the ground of faith yields higher development.
Relying on the holy yields good relationships and insight into Sutra
and Tantra.
Contemplating death builds confidence in evolutionary causality.
Contemplating learning yields diligence in the preliminary practices.
Thus higher development is achieved through faith.
Obscurations condition one to perceive a teacher's faults.
Ordinary relationships lead to lifestyles of self-centered hedonism.
Indulging indolence multiplies worldly activities.
Truthless actions such as these
Raise the high tide of evil obscurations.
Evolving through faith, in time one develops
Insight into life, death, and transference,
122 .. ESSENTi A L T I B ETAN B U D D H I S M

The ability to heal, bear the worst suffering, learn the teaching,
Understand the lives of superior beings, and remember your past
lives.
Since these develop through faith and enhance life,
You should always meditate on the primacy of faith.
Measure faith by renunciation of cyclic life, devotion to the Three
Jewels,
Attention to study and contemplation, devotion to the three
educations,
Delight in virtue and dread of vice,
And by the aspiration to achieve higher virtues.
If you do not pursue the art of generating faith,
You will achieve no blessings but continually wander in cyclic life.
Therefore, whatever techniques you rely on,
You should exert yourself in methods of developing faith.
Recognize and abandon ambivalence about faith.
The most judicious never abandon faith,
For the slightest loss causes obscurations to grow;
Inviting negative conditions without the least care,
Even the most ingenious are unable to sustain any progress.
Those who are not completely sure, and so pursue pleasure,
Wander aimlessly and are stopped by the least circumstance.
So you must be continually mindful to avoid these six.
First, examine the objects of faith,
Then be as unchanging as the king of mountains.
Be unobstructed as a sunlit ocean sky.
Be like the bowstring, with neither tension nor laxity.
Be without sluggishness, like a steady ship.
Flow without interruption, like a great river.
Be pliant, like a young vine.
Be unperturbed by conditions, steadfast as space.
The benefits of faith are manifold and immeasurable.
As the ground of all things virtuous, it dispels misery.
As a guide on the path to enlightenment, it is the vessel of the
profound.
As the tree of the holy intention, it is the consummate virtue.
 Practicing Transcendent Renunciation 1 23

Since it is the supreme way to virtue for living beings,

Be sure to apply yourself to the full, hundred-thousand-petaled lotus
of faith.

Chapter Sixteen:
C O NT E M P L AT I N G E V O L U T I O N A RY C A U S A L I T Y
Next, those endowed with faith should contemplate
How virtue and vice are to be adopted and abandoned
To accord with evolutionary causality.
Virtuous action is partly consistent with merit
And partly consistent with freedom, of which there are two kinds.
Virtues that have the evolutionary effect of pleasurable existence
Were defined by the Sage as being consistent with merit.
Many kinds are enumerated, but in essence such virtues are ten.
Three are physical, four verbal, three mental.
When these ten are unrelated to the formless contemplations,
They create the effect of human and divine happiness in the desire
realm.
When related to the formless contemplations, there is another
possibility.
Virtues create all kinds of pleasure in happy lives.
Avoiding killing leads to a long and healthy life.
Avoiding stealing leads to consummate wealth.
Avoiding sexual misconduct leads to freedom from marital strife.
Avoiding false speech leads to praise from others.
Avoiding abusive speech leads to the joy of pleasant conversation.
Avoiding slander leads to enjoying freedom from discord.
Avoiding gossip leads to one's word being honored.
Avoiding greed leads to attaining one's needs.
Avoiding malice leads to the delightful experience of peace.
Avoiding false views leads to a positive outlook.
Thus these ten virtues are the chariot of heaven.
Those who aspire to the bliss of transcendence must restrain
The ten sinful actions, since they cause the misery of bad migrations,
In long, medium, or short periods of descent into hellish, pretan,
Or animal lives, with their various sufferings;
1 24 .. ESSENTI A L T I B ETAN B U D D H I S M

And even cause suffering when heavenly life is attained.

Killing leads to short life spans with frequent illnesses.
Stealing leads to poverty and misfortune.
Sexual misconduct leads to marital strife.
Telling lies leads to much recrimination.
Slander leads to mutual discord among friends.
Abusive speech leads to quarrels and impotent speech.
Greed leads to lack of success in one's aspirations.
Malice leads to being fearful, and false views to a bleak outlook.
Thus the ten nonvirtues are like poisons,
Which knowledgeable persons strive to avoid.
The path to freedom achieves peace and enlightenment,
Helps one transcend existence and eliminate suffering.
Beings who enter the path of the three Vehicles to supreme
attainment
Should develop their minds by contemplating the four
immeasurables,
And reach the haven of enlightenment by practicing the six
transcendences.
For those who strive day and night to develop virtues,
The Universal Vehicle especially is a great tide of good.
So prepare to conceive its spirit and incomprehens ible actuality,
Then, by dedication, fully retain them.
These are the three principles leading to the path of freedom.
Whatever the practice, begin everything with altruistic intent.
View all things like space, through the eighteen voidnesses,
Meditate on clear light with the thirty-seven enlightenment
accessories.
Practice the flawless six transcendences
Whose fruit is the achievement of unexcelled enlightenment.
Thus all things evident in cyclic existence
Evolve from virtuous and non virtuous instincts.
As evolution is not finished, this deceptive evidence is empty and
unreal.
Therefore you must abandon nonvirtue
For the excellent path that pleases the Victors and their heirs.
 Practicing Transcendent Renunciation 1 25

The whole, consummate practice of a Victor's liberation

Is gathering the two stores to eliminate the two obstructions to their
realm.
So knowing what comes of the store of virtue, be sure to be diligent.
Of virtues, the part conducive of merit is a cause of the life-cycle,
While the other part is conducive of achieving liberation.
In order to renounce the life-cycle, you must strive to abandon its
cause.
While five of the transcendences are manifest as merit,
Guard what is taught as the second store, of intuitive wisdom.

Chapter Seventeen:
R E A L I Z I NG TH E S U F F E R I N G O F TH E L I F E - C Y C L E
AND THE BLISS O F TRANS C ENDENCE
Next you should contemplate the sufferings of the life-cycle.
Since they lack essence and cannot endure,
The three levels and six forms of existence are a misery.
Hence you must work at the means to transcend them quickly.
In hellish lives, the misery is immeasurable.
As beings tear each other apart with their teeth,
In repetitive lives and deaths, the pain is impossible to bear.
Sawed along burn lines, you are repeatedly dismembered.
Your body is pulverized, crushed between mountains and boulders,
or in chasms.
You are lured into buildings of red-hot iron,
Or onto a ground of burning embers smoldering with flames.
Your skin is flayed, you are impaled on a stake,
Consumed inside and out by searing flames,
Boiled in molten copper until your whole body dissolves into atoms,
Or roasted in iron traps in ceaseless torment, impossible to bear.
You are pounded, chopped, hacked, and ground into bits,
Baked, skewered, flattened between iron plates, and wound in
burning wire.
Beyond these hot hells in all directions are the four surrounding
hells,
Of putrid swamps, burning trenches,
126 .. ESS ENTI A L TI B ETAN B U D D H I S M

And razor fields whose sword-leafed brush

Is entirely surrounded by forests of sword-leafed trees.
Hell dwellers experience a profusion of pains,
And their life span, in the B iting and other seven hot hells,
Is equal to one day in the life of a desire-realm god.
Once one has earned life there by self-deceit, it is possible
To spend half an eon in the burning hells,
And then you may live one eon in the hell of ceaseless torment.
With glacial mountains and blizzards
Embodied beings suffer in eight ways in freezing hells.
From freezing blisters to bursting blisters,
Shivering moans to clenched teeth,
From cracking like a lotus, to shattering like a blue lotus,
Stricken with cold, one's misery is limitless.
The life span in the blister hell is the time it takes
To empty a hundred-bushel bin of sesame seeds, one seed every
hundred years.
Life in each successive cold hell is twenty times longer than that of
the previous one.
Pretan beings suffer violent hunger and thirst.
Those with outer obscurations burn for whatever goods they see.
Those with inner obscurations feel a blazing fire in their internal
organs.
Those with general obscurations are obsessed with food and drink.
In twelve years, some may not even hear the sound of water.
For others, food and drink appear, but demon guards attack them.
The life span of pretans is from one hundred
To five hundred of our years, in which they suffer miserably.
As for animals, they devour one another.
Attacking, capturing, and killing each other,
They experience much pain,
In indeterminate life spans for as long as an eon.
Most humans also lack pleasant circumstances.
Through birth, old age, and death, they have many enemies and
assailants.
Divorced from friends, they lose what they want
And often experience what they do not want.
 Practicing Transcendent Renunciation 1 27

Their desires unfulfilled, they suffer heat, cold, and exhaustion.

In return for help, they experience injury and ingratitude.
Their world is full of wrongdoing and pointless rivalry.
They experience no praise but countless untrue accusations.
As for titans, their endless hostility and fighting
Yield unbearable deaths by lightning bolts and so forth.
They have many and varied sufferings, with no pleasures.
Even the gods experience death transitions,
Eventual descent to lower rebirths and such.
The ocean of suffering is boundless and immeasurable.
All egocentric life-cycles resemble a burning abyss,
With no chance of true happiness, like a well
That trickles but never continually flows.
Hence those of sound mind should aspire to freedom
From such a heartless cycle of despair.
In the supreme liberation of transcendence,
Whose peaceful, luminous bliss is the peerless elixir,
Without permanence or change, free from fabrication,
A body of innate excellence, perfectly free from age and death,
A source of bliss and benefit.
Free from obscurations and without taints,
The rescuing force and refuge of all beings.
So you of fine mind should strive to attain it!

The Buddhist Layperson's Vow

"0 reverend teacher, please attend to me! I, called so-and-so, from this time
for as long as I live, take refuge in the Buddha, supreme of gods and hu­
mans! I take refuge in the Dharma, supreme of things free from desire! I
take refuge in the Sangha, supreme of communities! May the reverend look
after me as a lay religious for as long as I live ! "
(This is to be repeated after the mentor. O n the third repetition, when
you say " look after me as a layperson," think that the vow has generated in
your continuum.)
The mentor says, "Excellent! "
The disciple says, "Excellent!"
128 .. E S S E N T I A L T I B ETAN B U D D H I S M

" 0 mentor, please attend to me! As those holy saints abandoned killing as
long as they lived, turning away from all taking of life, so I, called so and so,
from this time forth for as long as I shall live shall abandon killing and turn
away from taking of life! By this first branch I shall educate myself in the dis­
cipline of those holy saints! I shall practice it! I shall accomplish it!
Furthermore, as those holy saints for as long as they lived abandoned taking
the not-given, sexual misconduct driven by lust, pretentious lies, and the
liquors of grain and distillation and all intoxicants and causes of recklessness;
just like that, I, called so-and-so, from this time forth for as long as I shall
live, shall abandon taking the not-given, sexual misconduct driven by lust,
pretentious lies, and the liquors of grain and distillation and all intoxicants
and causes of recklessness! By this five-branched vow, I will educate myself in
the discipline of those holy saints! I shall practice it! I shall accomplish it!"
The mentor says, "Excellent! "
The disciple says, "Excellent! "

Monks' and Nuns' Vow: The Luminous Lamp of

Powerful Rites, Early and Later Expressions
of the Vows of Individual Liberation

by Purchok Jampa Rinpoche

Reverence to the Omniscient Lord!

From the Manual of Renunciates, there are two, the first giving the rite
for achieving Shramanera (Wanderer) and the latter the rite for achieving
Full Graduation. For whichever, one m4"t first clean the place for the rite
and set up a platform in the place of honor for an image of the Teacher,
Lord of Sages, and a volume of Scriptures or of the monastic rites. Prepare
the equipment necessary for the renunciate, and bring together mendicants
worthy for assembly, performing the usual recitations and a dedication
with a sacrificial cake. Then one should investigate that one's mind has not
been infected by downfalls, or has been extensively repaired if infected, or
at least one should perform recitation of general confession of downfalls.
Then all are asked about their vows.
Then for the actual ceremony there are preliminaries, actuality, and con­
clusion.
First, one asks about problems that make the renunciant suitable or un­
suitable. Then, in order to engage one in the gradual education in the teach-
 Practicing Transcendent Renunciation 1 29

ing, one achieves the adjunct lay vow. Then, in order to promptly accept
the discipline of Wanderer, one achieves the renunciation.
First, the man who wants to renounce comes before the mendicants who
are oriented around the abbot. He kneels down on one knee. The abbot
speaks:
"In order to allow you to take renunciation, you must be free of ob­
structing things. If an obstructed person renounces, either the vow is not
born or, though it is born, it cannot stay and so on, and so it does not help
your life. Furthermore, there is a transgression for me. So I must ask about
obstructions; as the Root Sutra says, 'First the abbot asks about obstruc­
tions and then the occasion begins for the pure one.' Answer my questions
without any side thoughts. You are not a fanatic? You are not younger than
fifteen? Though at least fifteen, you are not incapable of scaring away
crows? You have not been able to scare crows for less than seven years? You
are not a slave? You are not a debtor? You are not proceeding without your
parents' permission? You are not proceeding without your parents' permis­
sion from a country not far off? You are not an invalid? You are not an ex­
pelled female mendicant? You are not a thief? You are not an exile? You are
not an outcast? You are not a hermaphrodite? You are not a neuter? You are
not a serpent? You are not a beast? You are not a follower of the fanatics?
You have not committed matricide? You have not committed patricide? You
have not killed a saint? You have not divided the Community? You have not
maliciously drawn blood from a Transcendent Lord? Of the four expulsion­
ary transgressions, you have not committed any one of them? You are not
living as a nihilist, disbelieving in cause and effect? You do not have a club
hand and so on? You do not have albino hair? You do not have one finger­
nail and so on? You are not condemned by the king? You are not coming
without the permission of the king? You are not coming without permission
of the king from a not far-off country? You are not a famous bandit? You
are not destitute? You are not a shoemaker? You are not an untouchable?
You are not deformed? You are not a nonhuman being? You are not a per­
son from the Northern Kuru continent? You have not changed your sex
three times? You are not a mannish woman? You are not a habitual sinner?
You are not an outlandish person born in another continent?
"When these have been asked and the answer has been 'I am not!' you
are then determined as free of obstructions and suitable for renunciation.
Now, since one must enter the Buddha's teaching methodically, you must
achieve the adjunct lay vow upholding the five precepts along with the
refuge vows. For that purpose, imagining this image of the Teacher to be
the Teacher himself, bow three times. Say, 'I bow three times before you!'
Then kneel down before him, join your palms together at your heart. The
130 .. E S S E N T i A L T I B ET A N B U D D H i S M

adjunct's vow is born by repeating the assertion three times, along with tak­
ing the refuges. Thus think along these lines:
"'Wherever one is born in the three realms of the egocentric life-cycle, it
is a place of misery. My companions are companions in misery. What I
enjoy is enjoyment of misery. In order to be liberated from the misery of the
egocentric life-cycle, I must take refuge. Further, mundane gods cannot save
me from the suffering of the life-cycle, as it is said, "Mundane gods, them­
selves bound in the prison of the life-cycle, who are they able to save? "
Thus, since the Three Jewels have the power to save from the misery of the
life-cycle, taking refuge in the Buddha, I receive a teacher of the path; tak­
ing refuge in the Dharma, I receive the actual refuge; and taking refuge in
the Community, I find friends with which to practice the path. Thus, for the
sake of all beings, I must achieve unlocated Nirvana, perfect Buddhahood!
For that purpose, from this moment forth until I die, taking the complete
adjunct vow, I must keep it. Please look after me as an adjunct layperson
upholding the five precepts.'
"Thinking in that way, repeat after me. 'Venerable, please attend to me!
I, named [say your name], from this time forth for as long as I shall live, as
an adjunct, take refuge in the Buddha, supreme of two-footed beings! I take
refuge in the Dharma, supreme of things free of desire! I take refuge in the
Sangha, supreme of communities! For as long as I shall live, may the vener­
able look after me! I thus express the mantra of my own aim without excess
or deficiency!' You must repeat this three times, again repeat after me for
the second time. After the second repetition, since the words of the rite are
in three parts, up to 'I take refuge in the Sangha!' expresses the refuge. 'For
as long as I shall live, as an adjunct' expresses the self. 'The venerable
please look afted' expresses the other. At the moment of saying 'as an ad­
junct' during the expression of self, the adjunct vow is born in your life.
Since I have become your teacher, when I say in an emphatic voice 'as an
adjunct' and you repeat 'as an adjunct,' that is the very moment you must
generate the attitude of obtaining, thinking, 'This is the time I attain the ad­
junct vow!' This is very important.
"At that time, it is necessary to know you have attained the vow and to
say that 'having become my teacher, may the teacher please look after me!'
Put that in your mind, and again repeat after me the third time. When the
third repetition is complete, I the master say, 'That is the method of attain­
ing the adjunct vow. You have done well!' And you the disciple say, 'It is
good!'
"Thereby you have attained the adjunct vow. Though you have attained
it, if you do not keep it, it will not give much benefit and has great draw­
backs; so you must keep it. As for the way of keeping it: thinking, 'as the
 Practicing Transcendent Renunciation 131

saints mentally abandoned killing and so on, the five sins, and verbally and
physically refrained from them, so I will learn!' Then repeat after me:
'Teacher, please attend to me. As the noble saints abandoned killing as long
as they lived and refrained from killing, I [say your name], from this time
forth for as long as I shall live shall abandon killing and refrain from taking
life. By this first branch, I will educate myself in the precept of those saints.
I will achieve it. I will accomplish it. Further, just as the noble saints for as
long as they lived abandoned taking the not-given, wrong lustful sexuality,
speaking falsehood, and refrained from grain alcohol, distilled liquor, and
other intoxicants and drugs of recklessness, so I [say your name], from this
time forth for as long as I shall live, I will abandon taking the not-given,
wrong lustful sexuality, speaking falsehood, and refrain from grain alcohol,
distilled liquor, and other intoxicants and drugs of recklessness. By these
five branches, I will educate myself in the precepts of those saints. I will
achieve them. I will accomplish them.'
"The teacher says, 'It is the method. It is good!'
"And the adjunct says, 'It is good! ' "

The Renunciant Vow

There are three preliminaries: One requests to become renunciant because

of conceiving an attitude of extreme ethical sensitivity and inner conscien­
tiousness. To obtain the indispensable cause of renunciation, one must pe­
tition an abbot; the first activities are to transform oneself to bear the outfit
of this Dharma.
First, the initiate's mat and medicine bag and various robes are folded on
the left and right of the abbot, folded double with the multiple ends facing
the abbot. His begging bowl should be there, not empty, but with a few
white grains in it, along with his water filter. There must be an assistant for
the abbot, a mendicant who is expert in the rite of renunciation. Then a
mendicant spiritual teacher is ordered by the abbot.
"You, venerable, must be the sponsor to the Sangha for this request for
renunciation. "
That mendicant asks, "Is this destined one free of all obstructions?"
Then the abbot himself replies, "He is free and pure!"
Then that mendicant has the initiate bow three times to the Sangha and as­
sume a kneeling position, with palms pressed together, wearing a white robe.
The mendicant then says, "Reverend Sangha members, please listen!
This venerable one named so-an-so seeks renunciation from the Abbot
so-and-so. A white-robed householder with hair and beard unshaven
132 .. ESSENTIAL T I B ETAN B U D D H I S M

seeks renunciation into the discipline of the well-taught Dharma. This

venerable so-and-so seeks renunciation, shaves his hair and beard, and
wears the yellow robe. Through faith only in the real, he renounces the
home life for homelessness under this Abbot so-and-so. He is pure of any
of the obstructions, absolutely so. May he receive renunciation? "
Then the assisting mendicants say, "If he is absolutely pure!"
Second: One makes three bows to the abbot and then kneels before him
with palms put together.
The abbot says, "You who want to receive renunciation must definitely
have an abbot. And it is not enough to have any old kind, you need one
who is both expert in the teaching and truly holy. And he must not be
someone who resides elsewhere; so 1 must simulate being worthy to serve
as abbot. So, thinking, 'Please serve as master, which really means "pre­
cious educator," and indirectly is the means for the proper achievement of
the actuality of transcendence for the sake of gaining access to the exalta­
tion of Nirvana, which has transcended all manifestations of the contami­
nated life-cycle!' then repeat as follows:
"'Preceptor, please attend to me. I, so-and-so, request that the preceptor
please serve as master. Preceptor, please serve as my master! Preceptor, as
master make me transcend!' "
Repeat this three times. At the third repetition, if the preceptor consents
to serve as master, he becomes that. After that the master says, "It is the
method. It is good!"
Third, one needs the three changes, the change of signs and outfit to
those of a transcendent, a change of attitude, and a change of name, which
helps to remind one not to forget those changes. First, the master orders a
worthy mendicant to serve as assistant to shave the tuft of this venerable.
That mendicant comes in front of the initiant and asks him, "Do you want
your hair tuft shaved? "
The initiant replies, "I want it! "
A little water is poured on his head to wash it. From behind, the mendi­
cant shaves the hair tuft and gives it to the master.
The master says, "Gods who delight in virtue, do you please rejoice! "
He combines the hair tuft with flowers and throws them in the direction
of the Three Jewels. "I must give you your Dharma robe, upper and lower
robes, begging bowl, mat, and water filter, while stating their need and
meaning, and you must properly accept them; therefore, bow three times! "
The mat and the upper robe are taken on the left shoulder. The master
and disciple put their left hands below them and their rights above. The
master says, "This Dharma robe always worn on the upper body is the
upper robe; it is a special sign of your distinctness from laypeople and rei i-
 Practicing Transcendent Renunciation 1 33

gious fanatics. Wear it as a reminder you are a virtuous ascetic. It is worn as

a robe to protect you from heat and cold of sun and wind and from bugs
and mosquitoes. Thinking, 'I will keep always an upper cloth like this,'
place it on your right shoulder. "
The same procedure is then followed with the lower robe. "This is worn
below, the lower robe, to keep your nakedness and embarrassing parts cov­
ered, to protect you from mosquitoes and so on, and to distinguish you
from householders and religious fanatics. Wear it as a reminder that you
are a virtuous ascetic. Think, 'I will always keep a lower robe like this,' and
wear it. The Buddha wore robes like this, so wear them with mind tamed,
with mind calm."
The offering bowl should be filled with a little grain, master and disciple
should both hold it with left hand below and right above. The master says:
"This 'offering bowl' is a distinctive sign of being a vessel more receptive
than the inferior transcendents of other orders, different from the house­
holders' eating bowls and the fanatics' begging bowls. As it fills with food,
your understanding and life should fill with knowledge. As you enjoy the
food within it, you should enjoy the Dharma. As the Teacher allowed it as
a vessel of receiving alms to avoid the extremes of indulgence and mortifi­
cation, think, 'I will always keep an offering bowl like this.' The mat is held
in the same way. This mat should be used when one rests or sits to protect
one from rough surfaces such as grass mats and so on. "
Then there is the giving of the water filter. "This water filter manifests
the compassion of the Buddha's teaching, since the vow of individual liber­
ation refrains from all harmfulness to other beings, one must abandon
harming all beings. Since you need to use water morning, noon, and night,
you must keep this filter with you. By this example, all your things must be
prevented from harming living creatures."
The assistant helps the initiate wear the lower robe and the upper robe.
Then the master makes the initiate take the tips of the robes together and
hold his palms together, and the master then places a flower on his head.
The Sangha members chant prayers and scatter flowers, saying, "May
his banner of liberation be firm! May he complete his purity of conduct!
May he consummate the great heap of ethical behavior! May he enjoy the
pure ethics of the transcendent in all his lives! "
Second, the change of attitude: The initiate thinks, "This image is the ac­
tuality of the Lion of the Shakyas! "
H e bows three times to i t and three times to the master. He then kneels
before them, putting his palms together at his heart.
"It is very good that you wish to transcend. The reasons are stated in the
Sutras about the great difference between householders and transcendents.
134 .. E S S E N T I A L T I B ET A N B U D D H I S M

All the Buddhas of the three times attained Buddhahood in the life-form of a
transcendent; no one did so in the form of a householder. Especially the
merit of taking one step toward a monastery with the pure ambition that
wishes transcendent renunciation is infinitely greater than the merit of all
beings of the three realms giving away their children and wives and so on
until the end of the eon. Householders cannot properly achieve the benefi­
cial goal of this life and the future, since their household duties distract them
too much; hence they will suffer in this life and in the future. The transcen­
dent is the opposite; their aims and activities are less, and they can achieve
readily through learning, reflecting, and meditating; in this and future lives
they are able to progress from happiness to happiness and ultimately they
are able to attain the exaltation of Nirvana peace. Thus you should think
deeply in your heart of the drawbacks of the household and the benefits of
transcendence and follow after that very Lion of the Shakyas, intensifying
your feeling, 'How good to become a transcendent!' Through this commu­
nication, one changes one's attitude. Having transcended, one must no
longer adhere to householder's duties or even name or clan, so one receives
a name ending with one's Sangha division or the name of one's master."
Now having completed the three changes, in order to effect the accep­
tance of the actual ethical conduct of a transcendent, one offers three bows
each to the Teacher's image and the master, one kneels and lowers one's
upper robe from one shoulder. One must repeat the following formulaic ex­
pression three times to undertake the ethical conduct. Then, requesting the
master's attention, using one's new name, with refuge in the Three Jewels,
thinking, "Following the example of the peerless Lion of the Shakyas as
long as I shall live, I abandon the signs and outfit of the householder and
take up properly the signs and equipment of the transcendent, never to
transgress against them!" then one repeats after the master:
"Master, please attend to me! I, so-and-so, from this time forth for as
long as I shall live, take refuge in the Buddha, the supreme of two-footed
beings! Take refuge in the Dharma, the supreme of desireless things! Take
refuge in the Sangha, the supreme of communities! Following the transcen­
dence of the Chief, the Lord, the Transcendent, the Saint, truly perfect
Buddha, Shakyamuni, Shakyasimha, Shakyaraja, I transcend. I abandon
the householder signs! I truly take up the transcendent's signs! "
One repeats three times. The master says, "That is the method of achiev­
ing transcendent renunciation! You are excellent! "
One replies, "This achievement has been excellent! "
 C HA PTER 5

Practicing the Loving Spirit of Enlightenment

 The Quintessence Segment

Thinking how these pathetic beings were all my mothers

How over and over they kindly cared for me,
Bless me to conceive the genuine compassion
That a loving mother feels for her precious babe!
Not accepting even their slightest suffering,
Never being satisfied with whatever happiness,
Making no distinction between self and other,
Bless me to find joy in others' happiness!
This chronic disease of cherishing myself,
Seeing it the cause creating unwanted suffering,
Resenting it and holding it responsible,
Bless me to conquer this great devil of self-addiction!
Knowing the cherishing of my mothers as the bliss-creating mind,
Door for developing infinite abilities,
Though these beings should rise up as bitter enemies,
Bless me to hold them dearer than my life!
In short, the fool works only in self-interest,
The Buddha works only to realize others' aims,
With the mind that understands these costs and benefits,
Bless me that I can exchange self and other!
Self-cherishing the door of all frustration,
Mother-cherishing the ground of all excellence,
Bless me to put into essential practice
The yoga of exchanging self and other!
Therefore, 0 compassionate holy Mentor,
Bless all beings to obtain happiness,
Letting my mothers' sins, blocks, sufferings
Entirely take effect upon me now,
Giving them all my joy and virtue!
Though the whole world be full of the fruits of sin,
And unwanted sufferings fall down like rain,
Seeing this as exhausting past negative evolution,
Bless me to use bad conditions in the path!
 Practicing the Loving Spirit of Enlightenment 137

In short, whatever happens, good and bad,

By practice of the five forces, essence of all Dharma,
Becomes a path to increase the two enlightenment spirits,
Bless me to contemplate indomitable cheer!
Bless me to make my liberty and opportunity meaningful,
By practice of the precepts and vows of mind development,
Applying contemplation at once to whatever happens
By the artistry employing the four techniques!
Bless me to cultivate the spirit of enlightenment,
To save beings from the great ocean of existence,
Through the universal responsibility of love and compassion,
And the magic of mounting give and take upon the breath!
Bless me to intensify my efforts
On the sole path of the all-time victors,
Binding my process with pure messianic vows,
And practicing the three ethics of the supreme Vehicle!

Asanga's Teaching of Great Compassion

(from Geshe Wangyal's Door of Liberation)

To conceive the spirit of enlightenment, you first must develop equanimity

toward all beings, and then contemplate the sevenfold cause-and-effect
spiritual instruction given by Maitreya to Asanga. First imagine before you
a being who has neither helped you nor harmed you. Think, "From his
own point of view, he wants happiness and does not want suffering, just
like everybody else. I will free myself from attraction and aversion. I will
not feel close to some and help them while feeling distant from others and
harming them. I will develop equanimity toward all beings. Lamas and
gods, enable me to do this! "
Once you feel equanimity toward that neutral person, imagine a person
who attracts you. Try to feel equanimity toward that person. Think, "My
partiality is due to my attraction. Since I have always desired attractive be­
ings, I have been reborn constantly in the miserable life-cycle." Thus re­
strain your desire and meditate.
138 .. E S S E N T I A L T I B ET A N B U D D H I S M

Once you feel equanimity toward that attractive person, imagine an un­
attractive person. Try to feel equanimity toward him. Think, "Because
there has been discord between us, I have developed an aversion to him and
so lack equanimity. Without it, I cannot conceive the spirit of enlighten­
ment!" Thus restrain your aversion and meditate.
When you feel equanimity toward that unattractive person, imagine
both persons together. Think, "These two are the same in that each, from
her own viewpoint, wants happiness and doesn't want misery. From my
viewpoint, this one who seems so close now has been reborn as my enemy
countless times. This one toward whom I feel hostile has been reborn as my
mother countless times and has cared for me with love. Which one should I
like? Which one should I hate? I will feel equanimity and free myself from
attachment and aversion. Lamas and gods, please enable me to do this ! "
When you feel such equanimity, extend it to all beings. "All beings are
the same. Each wants happiness and doesn't want misery. All beings are my
relatives. Therefore I will learn equanimity and be free from attachment
and aversion to near and far, helping some and harming others. Lamas and
gods, help me to accomplish this! "
Once you have developed the mind of equanimity, implement the first of
the seven causal instructions for attaining the spirit of enlightenment.
Visualize the lamas and gods before you and contemplate: "Why are all be­
ings my relatives? As there is no beginning to the life-cycle, there has also
been no beginning to my rebirths. In passing through these countless lives,
there is no form of life which I have not adopted countless times, and there
is no country or realm in which I have not been born. Of all beings, there is
not one who has not been my mother innumerable times. Each has been my
mother in human form countless times, and will become my mother many
times again. "
When you have fully experienced this truth, contemplate the kindness
which living beings have shown you when they were your mother. Visualize
the lamas and gods before you, and imagine clearly your mother of this life,
when she was young and as she grew old. "Not only is she my mother in
this life, but she has cared for me lives beyond number. In this lifetime, she
lovingly sheltered me in her womb, and when I was born she lovingly put
me on soft pillows and cradled me in her arms. She held me to the warmth
of her breasts, and suckled me with her sweet milk. She welcomed me with
loving smiles and looked at me with happy eyes. She cleaned my snotty
nose and wiped away my excrement. My slightest ailment gave her worse
misery than the thought of losing her own life. Scorning all affliction, tor­
ments, and abuse, not considering herself at all, she provided me as well as
 Practicing the Loving Spirit of Enlightenment 1 39

she could with food and shelter. She gave me infinite happiness and benefit,
and protected me from measureless misery and harm." Contemplate her
very great kindness. Then, in the same way contemplate the kindness of
your father and others close to you, for they have also been your mother
countless times.
When you have fully experienced this truth, meditate on beings toward
whom you feel impartial. "Though it now seems that they have no relation­
ship to me, they have been my mother times beyond number, and in those
lives they protected me with love and kindness. " When you have experi­
enced this truth, meditate on those beings who are now your adversaries.
Imagine them clearly in front of you, and think: "How can I now feel that
these are my enemies? As lifetimes are beyond number, they have been my
mother countless times. When they were my mother they provided me with
measureless happiness and benefits and protected me from misery and
harm. Without them I could not have lasted even a short time and without
me they could not have endured even a short time. We have felt such strong
attachment countless times. That they are now my adversaries is due to bad
evolutionary actions. At another time in the future they will again be my
mother who protects me with love." When you have fully experienced this
truth, meditate on the kindness of all beings.
Then meditate on repaying the kindness of all beings, your mothers.
Visualize the lamas and deities before you and contemplate: "From begin­
ningless time these mothers have protected me with kindness. Yet as their
minds are disturbed by the demons of addictive passions, they have not ob­
tained independence of mind, and are crazed. They lack the eye to see either
the path to the high states of humans and gods or the path to Nirvana, the
supreme good. They are without a spiritual teacher, the one who is the leader
of the blind. Continually pummeled by the discord of wrong deeds, they slip
toward the edge of the terrifying abyss of rebirth in the life-cycle, especially
its lower states. To ignore these kind mothers would be shameless. To return
their kindness I will free them from the misery of the life-cycle and establish
them in the bliss of liberation. Lamas and gods, enable me to do this. "
Then meditate love. Imagine a person to whom you are strongly at­
tached, such as your mother. "How can she have undefiled happiness when
she does not even have the defiled happiness of the life-cycle? What she
now boasts of as happiness slips away, changing to misery. She yearns and
yearns, strives and strives, desiring a moment's happiness, but she is only
creating the causes of future misery and rebirths in lower states of being. In
this life as well, weary and exhausted, she creates only misery. She definitely
does not have real happiness. How wonderful it would be if she possessed
I40 .. E S S E N T I A L T I B E T A N B U D D H I S M

happiness and all the causes of happiness! May she possess them! 1 will
cause her to possess happiness and all its causes. Lamas and gods, please
enable me to do this! "
When you have gained experience of this, continue to meditate, first
imagining other persons who are close to you, such as your father, then
imagining a person toward whom you feel impartial, then an adversary,
and finally all beings.
Then do the meditation of great compassion and universal responsibil­
ity: "My kind fathers and mothers, whose number would fill the sky, are
helplessly bound by evolutionary actions and fettering passions. The four
rivers, the river of desire, existence, ignorance, and fanaticism, sweep them
helplessly into the currents of the life-cycle, where they are battered by the
waves of birth, old age, sickness, and death. They are completely tied up by
the tight and hard to break bonds of various kinds of evolutionary actions.
From beginningless time they have entered into the iron cage of holding the
concepts 'I' and 'mine' in the center of the heart. This cage is very difficult
for anyone to open. Enshrouded by the great darkness of ignorance, which
obscures judgment of good and evil, they do not even see the path leading
to the happy states of being. Much less do they see the path leading to lib­
eration and enlightenment.
"These wretched beings are ceaselessly tortured by the suffering of mis­
ery, the suffering of change, and the all-pervasive suffering of creation. 1
have seen all beings, my mothers, wretched, engulfed in the ocean of the
life-cycle. If 1 do not save them, who will? If 1 were to ignore them, 1 would
be shameless, the lowest of all. My desire to learn the Mahayana would be
only words, and 1 could not show my face before the Buddhas and
Bodhisattvas. Therefore, no matter what, 1 will develop the ability to pull
all my kind sad mothers from the ocean of the life-cycle and to establish
them in Buddhahood. "
Think this and generate a very strong and pure universal responsibility.
Finally, meditate the spirit of enlightenment. Ask yourself whether or
not you can establish all beings in Buddhahood, and reflect, "I do not know
where 1 am going; how can 1 establish even one being in Buddhahood?
Even those who have attained the positions of disciple or hermit Buddha
can accomplish only the minor purposes of beings, and cannot establish be­
ings in Buddhahood. It is only a perfect Buddha who can lead beings to full
enlightenment. Therefore, no matter what, 1 will obtain peerless and com­
pletely perfect Buddhahood for the sake of all beings. Lamas and gods,
please enable me to do this! "
 Practicing the Loving Spirit of Enlightenment 141

Eight Verses on Mind Development

by Geshe Langri Tangpa Dorjey Sengey

Through my ambition to achieve

The supreme of goals,
Far better than any wish-granting gem,
May I always dearly cherish every being!
Whenever I associate with anyone,
May I see myself as lower,
And with deep determination
May I cherish the other as superior!
In all acts, inspecting my own mind,
As soon as addictive feelings arise,
So troubling to myself and others,
May I stop them, using forceful methods!
When I meet beings of evil nature,
Driven by fierce sin and suffering,
May I cherish them as the rarest find,
Like chancing upon a treasury of jewels!
When others feel jealous of me
And abuse and attack me wrongly,
May I take the defeat unto myself,
And grant to them the victory!
When those in whom I have invested
The greatest hopes of getting benefit,
Instead irrationally inflict great harm,
May I see them as my best spiritual teachers!
In short, may I give to all, my mothers,
All help and happiness in this and future lives!
And may I secretly take upon myself
All my mothers' harms and sufferings!
And may all of them not be touched
By tainted notions of the eight concerns,
Being detached, freed from all bonds
By the wisdom knowing all things as illusions!
142 .. E S S EN T I A L T I B ETAN B U D D H I S M

Shantideva's Teaching of Great Compassion

Tolerance, Remedy for Anger

Whatever my virtuous deeds,

Devotion to Buddhas, generosity, and so on,
Amassed over a thousand eons,
All are destroyed in a moment of fury.
There is no sin as harmful as hate,
No penance as effective as tolerance,
Thus by all possible means I should
Cultivate tolerance with intensity.
Keeping the mind wounded by hate,
I will never experience peace,
I will have no joy or happiness,
Lose sleep and writhe with discontent.
Even a lord whose magnanimity is vital
To those he gives wealth and status,
Is nonetheless in danger of being killed,
If he has hatred for them.
Hate wears out friends and relatives;
Though attracted by giving, they will not trust us.
In sum, there is no way to live happily
Together with the fire of rage.
Anger, my real enemy,
Creates such sufferings as these.
But who controls and conquers it
Finds happiness here and hereafter.
Hate finds its food in the mental discomfort
I feel, faced with the unwanted happening
And the blocking of what I want to happen;
It then explodes and overwhelms me.
Seeing that, I should carefully eliminate
That food that gives life to the enemy;
For �hat enemy has no activity at all
Other than causing me harm.
 Practicing the Loving Spirit of Enlightenment 14 3

Whatever happens, I must not allow

My cheerfulness to be disturbed.
Being unhappy won't fulfill my wish
And will lose me all my virtues.
Why be unhappy about something
If it can be fixed?
If it cannot be fixed,
What does being unhappy help?
Unwanted for me and my friends
Are suffering, contempt,
Harsh words, and disrepute;
For enemies it is just the opposite.
Cause for happiness sometimes happens;
Causes of suffering are very many.
But without suffering there is no transcendence,
So, my mind, you must be brave!
Pointlessly, penitents and flagellants
Endure the sensations of cuts and burns;
Why then, my mind, are you afraid
To suffer for the sake of freedom?

There is nothing that does not become

Easier to bear through constant practice;
Thus by practicing with little pains,
You should learn to endure great pains.
Who has not experienced this with accidental pains,
Bites of insects and of snakes,
Pangs of thirst and hunger and so on,
And irritations such as rashes?
I should not become intolerant
Of such as heat, cold, rain, and wind,
Sickness, death, bondage, and blows;
For it only adds to the hurt.
Some become even more brave and heroic
When they see their own blood spilling;
1 44 .. E S S EN T I A L T I B ETAN B U D D H I S M

Others feel faint and pass out completely

Just seeing another bleeding.
These things come from the mind,
Whether its habit is brave or timid;
Therefore I should disregard injuries
And not let sufferings get to me.
Even though they experience sufferings
The wise don't let the mind cloud or agitate;
In making war on the addictions,
The battle will bring much harm.
Disregarding all sufferings,
Conquering enemies such as hate,
These are truly victorious heroes-
The rest just slaughter corpses.
Further, suffering has its benefits;
Being tired of it dispels our arrogance,
It stirs our compassion for cyclic creatures,
It makes us shun sin and love virtue.
I am not angry with the major sources
Of sufferings, ill-humors such as bile,
So why am I angry with mental beings,
All driven by conditions as they are?
As all the while unwillingly
This illness inevitably occurs,
So all the while unwillingly
Addictions arise compulsively.
Not thinking "I should be furious,"
People helplessly feel fury;
And not thinking "I must develop,"
Fury itself automatically develops.
Whatever evils can be found
And the various kinds of sin,
All arise by the force of conditions,
And not willfully at all.
 Practicing the Loving Spirit of Enlightenment 14 5

Those conditions gathered together

Have no intention "let us produce harm,"
Nor does their product, harm itself, intend
"I am going to be produced."
Even the postulated agents, "soul-stuff,"
And the theoretically imagined "self,"
Would never act thinking voluntarily,
"I must arise as the cause of harm. "
Since such are unproduced and nonexistent,
So also their will to produce (harm or any action),
Since their focus on their object must be permanent,
It could never become terminated (in action).
If the self were permanent (as claimed),
It clearly must be inactive just like space,
Even on encounter with other conditions
What could it do without changing itself?
And if when acted upon it stays the same as before,
Then what would the action have affected?
Though we say, "This is the action of this,"
What could possibly be its relation (to anything)?
Thus everything is in the power of other things
Themselves in the power of still others;
Knowing that, 1 will never be angry
With things being as unreal as apparitions.
"If all were unreal, then what is eliminated by whom? "
Surely eliminating anger would be irrational.
It is not improper to eliminate anger, if you want
To interrupt the continuous stream of suffering.
Thus if 1 see enemy or friend
Do something wrong,
1 will keep my good cheer, thinking,
"This comes from mechanical conditions.
If it were voluntarily happening,
Since no one wants to suffer,
No embodied being whatsoever
Would ever experience suffering. "
146 .. ES S E N T I A L TI B ETAN B U D D H I 5 M

Through carelessness,
People hurt themselves with thorns and so on,
And to win a woman and so on,
They become obsessed and wasted.
Some kill themselves jumping off cliffs,
Taking poison and vile food,
And hurt themselves
With unmeritorious acts.
If in the power of addictive emotions
They kill even their cherished selves,
How would they fail to cause harm
To the bodies of other beings?
Thus compelled by addictions,
When they try such things as killing me,
Perhaps it's hard to feel compassion,
But what's the point of getting angry?
If it is natural for the immature
To cause harm to others,
It is wrong to get angry with them,
Like resenting fire for burning.
Even if beings are gentle natured
And the evil of harm is occasional,
It is still wrong to be angry;
Like resenting space for filling with smoke.
Though sticks and so on really hurt me,
I get angry with the thrower;
But he is also a tool, thrown by hate,
So I am only rightly angry with hate.
Long ago I inflicted
Harm of this kind on beings,
So causing injury to them,
Now this harm comes back to me.
His weapon and my body
Both are causes of my suffering;
He made the weapon, I the body,
With whom should I be angry?
 Practicing the Loving Spirit of Enlightenment 1 47

Blind with craving, if I cling

To this human form so prone to suffering,
Agonizing to the touch like an open sore,
Whom should I hate when it is hurt?
The immature don't want suffering
Yet thirst for suffering's causes
And so are hurt by their own evil;
What's to resent in others?
Just like the keepers in the hells
And the forest of razor-sharp leaves,
This pain is produced by my own evolution.
With whom should I be angry?
Compelled by my evolutionary actions
Others come forth to harm me;
When that sends them to hell,
Have I not caused their downfall?
Relying on them with tolerance,
Do I not purge myself of many sins?
Yet when they relate to me with harm,
Do they not suffer long the pains of hell?
Since thus I injure them,
And thus they benefit me,
Why so perversely, savage mind,
Do you feel anger toward them?
If I have the excellence of tolerance,
I'll never stay in hell;
Though I protect myself this way,
How will it be for them?
Yet if I retaliate by harming them,
That will not serve to protect them;
My own conduct will be destroyed,
And all my discipline wili be for naught.
My mind is not itself embodied,
So no one can conquer it in any way;
But its deep attachment to the body
Lets it be harmed by sufferings of the body.
148 .. E S S EN T I A L TI B ETAN B U D D H I S M

But since contempt,

Harsh words, and disrepute
Can never injure the body,
Why, mind, do you get so angry?
Because others will dislike me!
But that will not consume me
Either in this life or the next;
So why should I dislike it?
"Because it will block my worldly gain!"
Even if I don't like that,
I will leave my profits behind me here,
While I will go on riding on my sins.
Better that I die right now,
Worse that I live long by evil deeds;
Though I might hang on for quite a while,
Reality comes out in the suffering of death.
You dream of happiness for a hundred years,
And then you waken.
You dream of happiness for an instant,
And then you waken.
In both these wakings
The happiness will not return ;
Whether life is long or short,
Like that at death it ends the same.
Even if I gain great good fortune
And enjoy happiness for a long time,
Just as if I was robbed by a thief,
At death I go on destitute with empty hands.
If I live and have good fortune,
I can wipe out sin and save up merit.
But if I use anger to attain that fortune,
Do I not consume all merit and accomplish sin?
If I am destroying the very merit
For the sake of which I am alive,
What is the use of living,
When all I do is intensify my sins? . .
 Practicing the Loving Spirit of Enlightenment 14 9

"I should be angry when people slander me,

Since they thereby ruin others' confidence! "
Then why don't you also get angry
When they slander others?
When the deficiency points to others,
1 can tolerate lack of confidence;
But why can't 1 tolerate slander,
Since it just points out my mental addictions?
Should people slander or even destroy
Icons, sacred monuments, or Scriptures,
My hatred would be inappropriate,
Since Buddhas and such cannot be injured.
1 should stop my anger toward people
Who harm mentors, relatives, and friends,
Seeing as in the above cases
How it arises from mechanical conditions . . . .
When 1 have understood this,
1 should scrupulously make merit,
Using every way to turn everyone
Toward mutually loving attitudes . . . .
If others take pleasure in praising
An excellent person (who is my rival),
Why don't you also, 0 my mind,
Take pleasure and praise him? . .
When my excellence is discussed,
1 want others to be happy too;
But when others' excellence is the topic,
1 don't even want myself to be happy.

Since 1 conceived the spirit of enlightenment

By wanting all beings to find happiness,
Why do 1 become angry
When they find happiness on their own? . .
If 1 don't like others to get any good,
Where is my spirit of enlightenment?
How could 1 have that spirit
If 1 get angry about others' fortune? . .
150 .. E S S E N T I A L T I B ET A N B U D D H I S M

Praise and so on are but distractions,

They destroy my disillusion with cyclic life,
They stir my rivalry with the excellent
And destroy my chance of real success.
Thns those who aim to destroy
My reputation and so on,
Are they not also deeply engaged
In preventing my fall to the lower depths?
Dedicated to achieving liberation,
I don't need bonds of gain and status.
When one frees me from my bonds,
How can I resent him?
Those who want me to suffer
Are like Buddhas blessing me,
They elevate me beyond all dangers;
Why should I resent them?
"But if he obstructs my gaining merit? "
It's not right to be angry with him even then,
For there is no penance as good as tolerance,
And doesn't he help me abide in it?
If I, by my own shortcomings,
Fail to remain tolerant of him,
I have finally only obstructed myself
From using this occasion for merit.
If one thing won't happen without another,
And if it does happen when it's there,
That other thing is the cause of the one;
How can it become its obstructor?
When I make a gift, the recipient
Will not obstruct my generosity.
The bestowers of monastic graduation
Do not obstruct monastic graduation.
There are plenty of recipients in this world,
But the one who causes harm is rare;
If I don't cause them harm,
Beings usually won't harm me.
 Practicing the Loving Spirit of Enlightenment 151

Therefore I should rejoice in my enemy;

He helps my practice of enlightenment,
Being just like a treasure found at home
Without having to go out and get it.
I can practice tolerance with him;
So he deserves my first offering
The fruits of tolerance to him,
Since he is the cause of tolerance.
"But that enemy does not deserve such veneration,
Since he does not intend my tolerance-practice! "
Then why venerate the holy Dharma,
Since it too is but a cause for practice.
"But this enemy is not to be venerated
Since he does have the intention to harm!"
How could I ever practice tolerance
If all strove only to help me, just like doctors.
Thus since tolerance is developed
Relying on those with hate in their hearts,
They are as fit for veneration as the holy Dharma,
Since both are causes of tolerance.
Therefore the Muni said
The buddhaverse is the world of beings;
The many who have satisfied those beings
Have thereby attained transcendence.
Beings and Buddhas are alike
As both cause gain of Buddha qualities;
As I adore the Buddhas,
There is no way not to adore beings . . . .
Further, since Buddhas are beings' true friends,
Who accomplish their measureless benefits,
What other way is there to repay such kindness
Than to love and satisfy those beings?
Having given their bodies and entered hells for beings,
Gratitude to Buddhas means helping those same beings;
Thus even if beings cause the greatest harm,
I must treat all with most resourceful goodness . . . .
1 52. .. E S S E N T I A L T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

When beings are happy, Buddhas are pleased;

When they are harmed, Buddhas are harmed.
I will love them and delight the Buddhas;
For if I hurt them, I will hurt the Buddhas.
Just as the senses can find no pleasure
When the body is ablaze with flames,
So when beings are being harmed
There is no way to delight the Compassionate.
Thus since I have harmed these beings,
And caused displeasure to the Compassionate,
I now repent and confess these sins,
And beg your indulgence for such displeasure.
In order to please the transcendent lords,
From now on I will control myself and serve the world,
Let the many beings kick me, trample my head, or kill me­
May the World Saviors rejoice as I do not retaliate. . . .
Why don't I see that all comes from pleasing living beings,
Not only my future attainment of Buddhahood,
But also great glory, fame, and happiness
In this very lifetime.
Even in cyclic living, tolerance bestows
Beauty, health, and fame,
Supporting a very long life,
And the happiness of a universal monarch.

Compassion

Thus having considered the excellence of solitude

By the many themes appreciating its value,
I must calm my conceptual agitations
And cultivate the spirit of enlightenment.
First of all let me strive to contemplate
The equality of self and other;
Since we are equal in pleasures and pains,
I should guard all others as I do myself.
 Practicing the Loving Spirit of Enlightenment 1 53

Though parts of the body such as hands are many,

They are one in needing to be protected;
So all different beings in pleasure and pain
Are just like me in wanting to be happy.
If my pain
Does not harm the bodies of others,
Still that pain of mine becomes
Unbearable only when identified as "mine."
So the pains of others
Do not affect me directly.
Still, if I identify their pains as mine,
They too become hard to bear.
So I must dispel the pains of others,
Because they are pains just like my own.
I must help others,
Because they are beings, with bodies like mine.
When I and others both
Are alike in wanting happiness,
What's so special about me
That I strive for my happiness alone?
When I and others both
Are alike in not wanting pain,
What's so special about me
That I guard myself, not others?
I don't guard them
Since their pains don't hurt me.
Why then do I guard myself from future pains,
Since they also don't hurt me now?
To think "I will experience that"
Is a mistaken notion;
For the one who dies here
Is almost totally different from the one reborn.
When someone has a pain,
That one should guard himself against it.
But the foot's pain is not the hand's;
Why then does the hand guard against it?
1 54 .. E S S ENTIAL T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

Though this self-concern is not rational,

It happens because of the self-habit.
But what is irrational for self and other
Should be abandoned as much as possible.
"Continuum" and "mass" are false constructions,
Just like rosaries and armies;
There is no possessor of pain,
So who can take control of it?
There being no owner of pain,
All are without distinctions (of self and other).
It must be dispelled because it is pain.
What has certainty got to do with it?
Why should the (unowned) pain of all be abolished?
This is no sound argument.
To abolish my own I must abolish all,
Otherwise, I, like beings, must stay in pain.
Since compassion increases my pain, .
Why should I insist on developing it?
Think about the pains of beings,
How could compassion increase them?
If a single pain
Could abolish many pains,
A loving person would feel compelled
To undergo that pain for self and other.
Thus she who attunes her mind like this
Delights in eradicating others' pains
And can plunge into the worst of hells
Like a wild goose into a lotus lake.
The vast ocean of joy
When all beings are free,
Am I not satisfied with that?
What to do with a solitary freedom?
Thus doing the welfare of beings,
I should not be conceited or amazed with myself;
Enjoying single-mindedly the welfare of others,
I need not expect any rewarding fruit.
 Practicing the Loving Spirit of Enlightenment 1 55

Thus, just as I protect myself

From unpleasant things however slight,
I should have a protective concern
And a compassionate attitude for others.
Through the power of familiarization,
I have come to regard as "myself"
A few drops of others' sperm and ovum,
In themselves quite insubstantial.
Likewise, why cannot I come to regard
Others' (well-developed) bodies as "myself" ?
After all, it is not hard to posit
My own body as some other thing.
Having understood the flaws in self-concern,
And the ocean of advantages in other-concern,
I must abandon self-preoccupation
And cultivate concern for others.
Just as the hand and so on are accepted
As inalienable limbs of the body,
Why should not embodied beings
Be accepted as inalienable limbs of life?
Just as custom creates a sense of self
About this body that utterly lacks a self,
Why cannot habit create the sense of self
About any other living being?
Therefore I have no pride or wonder
About performing altruistic deeds,
Just as I expect no great reward
For having given myself some food.
Thus, just as I protect myself
From unpleasant things however slight,
I should cultivate a protective concern
And a compassionate attitude for others.
Therefore the Savior Lokeshvara,
From great compassion for all beings,
Blessed his name alone to clear away
All terrors of the cyclic life.
1 56 • E S SENTIAL T I B ETAN B U D D H I S M

I should not shrink from what is hard;

For such habituation is so powerful,
Fear at the mention of a person's name
Can create displeasure even when they're absent.
One who desires as soon as possible
To give refuge to self and others
Should practice the holy secret teaching
Of the transposition of self and other. . . .
"If I give it, what can I enjoy?"
Such selfish thinking is the demon's way.
"If I enjoy it, what can I give? "
Such altruism is the way of gods.
If I hurt others for my own sake
I will suffer in hell and so on.
If I hurt myself for the sake of others,
I will achieve all success.
One who wants himself to be higher
Finds bad realms, foul and stupid.
But shifting the highness to the others,
He gains pleasant realms and honor.
Using others for my purposes,
I end up as a servant and such.
Exercising myself for others' sake,
I end up lord and master.
All happiness in the world
Arises from the wish for others' happiness.
All suffering in this world
Arises from the wish for one's own happiness.
What need to say a great deal more?
The immature work for their own sake,
Buddhas work for the sake of others;
Just look at the difference between them!
If I don't truly exchange
My happiness for others' sufferings,
I won't attain Buddhahood
And will not find even cyclic happiness.
 Practicing the Loving Spirit of Enlightenment 1 57

Forget about the future life-

My servants will do no work for me,
My masters will give me no rewards,
I will not achieve even the goals of this life.
In pursuit of happiness in this life and the future,
I throw away this art of supreme delight
And contribute to the sufferings of others,
My delusion so causing me unbearable pains.
Since all the violence there is,
The terror and suffering in the world,
All come from this habit of the self,
What can I do with this great devil?
If I don't give myself up completely,
I won't be able to abandon suffering,
Just as you can't stop burning yourself
As long as you don't let go of the fire.
Thus to heal my own injuries
And relieve the sufferings of others,
I must give myself up to others
And attend to others as myself.
"I am under the power of others! "
Make sure of this, you my mind!
Now you should think of nothing other
Than achieving the goals of beings.
It is not right for these eyes belonging to others
To work to achieve my own goals;
It is wrong for them to do anything
That counters the goals of others.
Thus beings should be the main concern;
Whatever I notice on my body,
I should steal and use it
For the benefit of others.
Taking inferior, equal, and superior beings as myself,
And taking myself to be another,
With my mind free of conceptual thoughts,
I should cultivate pride, competitiveness, and envy. . . .
IS8 • ES SENTIAL TIBETAN B U D D H I S M

The Bodhisattva Commitment from

Tsong Khapa's Stages of the Path

In a clean . . . place . . . one sprinkles sandalwood water and scatters sweet­

smelling flower petals. One then puts on an altar images of the Three
Jewels, statues, Scriptures, and so on. One adorns it with fine cloth, flow­
ers, music, food, and jewels. There must be an image of Shakyamuni and a
copy of the B,OOO-Line Transcendent Wisdom Sutra. Then . . . the host of
holy ones is invited . . . and praises sung. Then the disciples . . . join their
palms together. The lama helps them generate intense faith from their
hearts in the excellencies of the refuge host, and they think that the
Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are sitting just before each of them; slowly they
should recite the sevenfold preliminary prayer. Then they should imagine
that the mentor is the Teacher, Shakyamuni, make three prostrations, offer
the symbolic universe, kneel on the right knee, join palms together, and
then make the formal request for the spirit of enlightenment.
"Just as all the ancient perfect Buddhas, transcendent saints, and great
Bodhisattvas on the spiritual stages first conceived the spirit of unexcelled,
perfect enlightenment, may I, named [so-and-so], please be allowed by the
Master to conceive the spirit of unexcelled, perfect enlightenment. "
One should repeat this three times. One should then take the special
refuge in the Lord Buddha, the Dharma of the truth of path (mainly the
Universal Vehicle Nirvana), and the Sangha of the nonregressing holy
Bodhisattvas, from this time forth until reaching the seat of enlightenment,
especially in order to provide refuge for all beings, thinking strongly never
to regress:
"Master, please attend to me! I, named [so-and-so], from this time forth
until I reach the seat of enlightenment, take refuge in the Lord Buddhas,
best of humans! Master, please attend to me! I, named [so-and-so], from
this time forth until I reach the seat of enlightenment, take refuge in the
best Dharma, peaceful freedom from desire! Master, please attend to me! I,
named [so-and-so], from this time until I reach the seat of enlightenment,
take refuge in the best Community of nonregressing holy Bodhisattvas!"
One repeats this three times. One then should hear the precepts of the
refuge from the mentor, then recite again the seven-branch prayer, then purify
the mind by reflecting on love and compassion immeasurably for all beings.
Then the actual rite. Before the master, one kneels on the right knee,
joins the palms together, and conceives the spirit. This is not just the spiri­
tual conception "I will attain Buddhahood for the sake of others" but the
conception "Mindful of my spiritual conception, I will never give up until I
reach the perfect enlightenment." Such a commitment. If one cannot edu-
 Practicing the Loving Spirit of Enlightenment 1 59

cate oneself in the precepts of such a willing spirit, one should not make it.
But whether or not one can educate oneself in those precepts, one can par­
ticipate in the rite with only the conception "I will become a Buddha for the
sake of all beings. " In conceiving the willing spirit, either type of person is
allowed, but one who cannot educate himself at all in the precepts cannot
participate in the rite to conceive the acting spirit. Now the actual rite to
uphold the spirit:
"May all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the ten directions please at­
tend to me! May the Master please attend to me! I, named [so-and-so], by
that root of virtue of the nature of giving and ethical action and meditation
that I do, get others to do, and rejoice in others' doing, in this life and in all
of my other lives, just as all the Buddhas, Saints, Transcendent Lords, and
great Bodhisattvas in the exalted spiritual stages conceived the spirit of un­
excelled perfect enlightenment, so may I, named [so-and-so], from this time
forth until I reach the seat of enlightenment, conceive the spirit of unex­
celled perfect enlightenment! May I free those beings not yet freed! May I
deliver those not delivered! May I console those not consoled! May I re­
lease those not ultimately released! " (Three times. )

Bodhisattva Vow Ceremony

Kneel with folded palms. Recite three times: "0 teacher, please grant to me
the authentic taking of the vow of the Bodhisattva ethic! If there is no ob­
jection, out of compassion for me, please hear my plea and rightly grant it
to me! "
The Teacher gives general instructions, giving the particulars of the vow
and the dangers of not keeping it.
Repeat three times: "Please, teacher, quickly grant me true undertaking
of the vow of the Bodhisattva ethic! "
Actual taking o f the vow: The teacher recites the traditional words three
times; after each time, the vow takers say, "I undertake them! " "Gentle son
or daughter, named [so-and-so], do you undertake all the precepts and the
ethical actions of all the Bodhisattvas of the past, all the precepts and the
ethical actions of all the Bodhisattvas of the future, and all the precepts and
all the ethical actions of all the Bodhisattvas of the present everywhere, all of
those precepts and ethical actions, the ethics of vowed restraint, the ethics of
amassing virtue, and the ethics of helping beings? " "I undertake them."
One recites three times: "Guru, Buddhas, and Bodhisattvas, please at­
tend to me! As ancient Buddhas conceived the will to enlightenment and
systematically lived by the Bodhisattva precepts, I also, to help beings, must
1 60 • ES SENTIAL T l B ETAN B U D D H I S M

conceive the enlightenment spirit and systematically live by the Bodhisattva

precepts!
"Now my life becomes fruitful! I have succeeded as a human being!
Today I am born in the Buddha family! I have become a child of Buddha! !
From now on may all my actions suit that family tradition! May I act never
to disgrace this family so impeccable and holy!

Shantideva's Bodhisattva Vow

May I be the doctor and the medicine
And may I be the nurse
For all sick beings in the world
Until everyone is healed.
May a rain of food and drink descend
To clear away the pain of thirst and hunger
And during the eon of famine
May I myself turn into food and drink.
May I become an inexhaustible treasure
For those who are poor and destitute;
May I turn into all things they could need
And may these be placed close beside them.
Without any sense of loss
I shall give up my body and enjoyments
As well as all my virtues of the three times
For the sake of benefiting all.
By giving up all, sorrow is transcended
And my mind will realize the sorrowless state.
It is best that I now give all to all beings
In the same way as I shall at death.
Having given this body up
For the pleasure of all living beings,
By killing, abusing, and beating it
May they always do as they please.
Although they may play with my body
And make it a thing of ridicule,
Because I have given it up to them
What is the use of holding it dear?
 Practicing-the Loving Spirit of Enlightenment 161

Therefore I shall let them do anything to it

That does not cause them any harm,
And when anyone encounters me
May it never be meaningless for him.
If in those who encounter me
A faithful or an angry thought arises,
May that eternally become the source
For fulfilling all their wishes.
May all who say bad things to me
Or cause me any other harm,
And those who mock and insult me,
Have the fortune to fully awaken.

May I be a protector for those without one,

A guide for all travelers on the way;
May I be a bridge, a boat, and a ship
For all who wish to cross (the water).
May I be an island for those who seek one
And a lamp for those desiring light;
May I be a bed for all who wish to rest
And a slave for all who want a slave.
May I be a wishing jewel, a magic vase,
Powerful mantras, and great medicine;
May I become a wish-fulfilling tree
And a cow of plenty for the world.
Just like space
And all the great elements such as earth,
May I always support the life
Of all the boundless creatures.
And until they pass away from pain
May I also be the source of life
For all the realms of varied beings
That reach unto the ends of space.
Just as the previous Lords of Bliss
Conceived the enlightenment spirit,
And just as they successively lived
By the Bodhisattva practices,
162 • ES SENTIAL T I B ETAN B U D D H I SM

Likewise for the sake of all that lives

Do I conceive the spirit of enlightenment,
And likewise shall I too
Successively follow the practices.
In order to further increase it from now on,
The intelligent who have vividly taken
The spirit of enlightenment in this way
Should extol it in the following manner:
"Today my life has borne fruit;
Having well obtained this human existence,
I've been born in the family of Buddha
And now am one of Buddha's children.
Thus whatever actions I do from now on
Must be in accord with the family tradition.
Never shall I do anything to disgrace
This holy, faultless family!
Just like a blind man
Discovering a jewel in a heap of trash,
Likewise by some coincidence
I have found the enlightenment spirit within me.
It is the supreme elixir
That overcomes the lord of death;
It is the inexhaustible treasure
That eliminates all poverty in the world.
It is the supreme medicine
That cures the world's disease.
It is the evergreen tree that shelters all beings
Wandering tired on the roads of life.
It is the universal bridge
That frees beings from wretched lives,
It is the rising moon of the mind
That dispels the torment of addictions.
It is the great sun that burns away
The misty ignorance of the world;
It is the quintessential butter
From the churning of the milk of Dharma.
 Practicing the Loving Spirit of Enlightenment 163

For all guests traveling the path of life

Who wish to experience the true happiness,
This spirit will satisfy them with joy
And exalt them in the highest bliss.
Today in the presence of all the saviors
I invite the world to be my guests
At the feast of temporal and ultimate bliss.
May gods, titans, and all be joyful!

The All-Good Prayer

To the Bliss Lords of the three times,

Those Human Lions of all ten directions­
With full clarity of body, speech, and mind,
I bow down in reverent salutation!
Through the power of the prayer of all-good deeds,
I manifest in the mental presence of all the Victors;
In their lands as numerous as the atoms of the earth
I bow my bodies to salute them all!
Buddhas as numerous as the world's atoms in each atom
Sit amidst retinues of their Buddha-children;
Thus I believe all realities in every direction
Are filled with glorious Victors!
With endless oceans of sincere praise,
With all sounds, oceans of poetry,
I express the great virtues of all the Victors;
I praise all the Lords of Bliss.

I now offer to each supreme Victor

Sacred garlands of exquisite flowers,
Precious parasols and sweet-toned cymbals,
The best incense and finest lamplight.
I now offer to each supreme Victor
The finest of clothes and perfumed oils,
Powders and food piled high as Mount Meru,
All in arrays of supernal beauty!
164 • ES SENTIAL TIBETAN B U D D H I S M

And any supreme unexcelled offerings

All I yearn to offer to the Victors;
By faith in the power of the prayer of all-good deeds,
May I offer my reverence to all the Buddhas.
Under the influence of desire, anger, and ignorance,
With my body, speech, and also with my mind,
Whatever the sinful acts I have committed
I now lay them bare before the Victors.
In all the merits of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas,
In all the virtue of disciples and hermit Buddhas,
In all the merit of every living being
I fully rejoice with a heart of gladness.
Those brilliant lamps of every world system
Won Buddha-detachment through the stages of enlightenment.
I exhort those Saviors in all ten directions
To turn the unexcelled wheel of Dharma.
With hands folded in sincere supplication,
I beg those who consider showing final Nirvana
To remain for as many eons as atoms of the world
For the joy and benefit of beings.
Whatever little merit I might have amassed
From saluting, praising, offering, confessing,
Rejoicing, exhorting, and imploring
I dedicate all to enlightenment for the sake of all beings!
I shall learn the ways of all the Victors,
Completely perfecting all good deeds;
May my ethical actions be taintless and pure;
May they be always faultless and undefiled.
In the tongues of the gods, Nagas and yakshas,
In the languages of demons and men,
With a voice as vast as the sounds of sentient beings
In every tongue I will proclaim the Buddhadharma.
Peacefully striving for the transcendences,
I shall never forget my precious spirit of enlightenment.
May whatever obscurations arise from my sins
Be without exception completely cleansed.
 Practicing the Loving Spirit of Enlightenment 1 65

Liberating all sentient beings in all ten directions

From evolution and the effect of the misery from sin­
Thus will I act like a lotus that the ripples cannot moisten;
Like the sun and moon in a cloudless sky.
I will alleviate the suffering in all the hell realms­
Vast as the worlds and the ten directions;
Placing all beings in a state of bliss,
Thus will I benefit sentient beings.
Fully perfecting the all-good work,
Acting in accord with sentient beings,
I will teach them to accomplish good deeds­
Even in the endless eons to come!
Whoever practices in such a way
May I always meet and befriend him or her;
And with our bodies, speech, and minds,
May our activity and our prayers be joined.
To those I meet who long to befriend me
May I always teach them to do good deeds,
May I always find them wherever I go,
And may I never push them from my mind.
May I always clearly see the Victors,
Guarded by a retinue of their children;
Tirelessly throughout the eons to come,
May I offer them endless offerings.
Holding to the holy Dharma of the Victors,
May I always manifest enlightened action;
Acting completely through good deeds,
May I do so in all time to come.
In all the turns of the wheel of existence
May I endlessly seek merit and wisdom;
May I endlessly accomplish the merits
Of wisdom, method, meditation, and liberation.
On as many worlds as the particles of each atom
Buddhas unencompassable by thought
Sit in the midst of a Bodhisattva retinue;
Thus may I see them as they do enlightened deeds.
166 • ES SENTIAL TIBETAN B U D DH I SM

And without exception may all ten directions

And the three times be but the size of a hair.
So will I enter the expanse of Buddhas,
The ocean of worlds, and the expanse of eons.
With speech, the ocean of words,
The pure, poetic aspect of all the Victors,
With poetry like the thoughts of sentient beings,
So will I always engage in the Buddha speech.
The victorious Transcendent Lords of the three times
Turn the wheel of Dharma in many ways;
By the power of mind I will follow their methods
And speak in their inexhaustible poetry.
May I enter into the eons to come,
And may I do it in but one instant.
I will enter into all time's eons
Whose measure is the space of an instant.
In the space of a single instant, may I see
The Bliss Lords of the three times, those Lion-humans;
May I always engage in their sphere of activity
Through the power of the illusory liberations.
All the planetary arrays of the three times
Shall become manifest on a single atom.
In that way in all directions without exception
I shall enter into the arrays of the Victors.
May all those lamps of the worlds who have not yet come
Turn the wheel of the stages to Buddhahood.
They teach the limit of peace as Nirvana.
May I draw ever closer to those survivors.
Always through the swift power of miracles,
Completely through the might of the vehicles,
Always through the strength of virtuous action,
May I be always filled with the power of love.
Completely through the power of virtue and merit
And the powerful wisdom of desirelessness,
Through the strength of wisdom, method, and meditation,
May I achieve the might of enlightenment.
 Practicing the Loving Spirit of Enlightenment 1 67

The power of evolution shall be purified,

And the power of misery defeated;
Evil shall be rendered powerless,
And I shall perfect the strength of good activity.
Fully purifying the vast expanse of worlds,
I shall fully free the ocean of beings.
Seeing the vast expanse of realities,
I shall fully know the ocean of perfect wisdom.
Fully purifying the vast expanse of activity,
I shall completely perfect the ocean of prayers.
Making offerings to the vast expanse of Buddhas,
I shall act tirelessly in the ocean of future time.
All of the special paths of enlightened prayer
Of all the blissful Victors of the three times,
And through good activity, enlightened Buddhahood,
All that without exception I shall perfect.
That saint, the son of all the Victors,
Who is known as All-Good Samantabhadra,
In order to unite my deeds with his,
All of this merit I fully dedicate.
Fully purifying my body, speech, and mind,
And completely purifying good activity and all worlds,
Like the dedication of wise Samantabhadra
May I too dedicate in communion with him.
For the full virtue of these good deeds
I shall accomplish the prayers of Manjushri,
And tirelessly in the eons to come
May I perfect all of those vows.
Pure activity is immeasurable;
Virtue is without end.
Remaining in the endlessness of activity,
May I attain all magical powers.
Sentient beings are as numerous
As the immeasurable breadth of space;
Suffering's extent is the same.
May the vastness of my prayer equal them all.
168 • E S SENTIAL TIBETAN B U D D H I S M

May all the limitless worlds of the ten directions

Be beautified with jewels and offered to the Victors.
For as many eons as the atoms of the earth
The joys of men and gods I will also offer.
Whoever hears this king of dedications,
And yearning for supreme enlightenment,
Develops but once a firm faith,
This will become for him or her the highest virtue.
Whoever offers this prayer of good deeds
Will avoid all hellish rebirths,
Will abandon all unwholesome friends
And soon come to see the supreme light.
Meeting all needs, she will live joyfully
And appreciate this precious human life;
And whatever are the ways of Samantabhadra,
She will eventually, unimpeded, become the same.
He who, under the power of misknowledge,
Committed the five heinous crimes
By saying this prayer of good deeds
will quickly purify that evil.
In the wise manner of the savior Manjushri,
And also through the deeds of Samantabhadra,
In order to follow the discipline of those beings,
I fully dedicate all of these merits.
Through the dedication praised as supreme
By the transcendent victors of the three times,
I fully dedicate all this root of virtue
Toward the living practice of all-good deeds.
 C H APTER 6

Practicing the Liberating Wisdom

 The Quintessence Segment

Bless me to perfect the wisdom transcendence,

Through the yoga of ultimate-reality-spacelike equipoise,
Connected with the intense bliss of the special fluency
Derived from wisdom of discrimination of reality!
Bless me to complete the magical samadhi,
Understanding the procedure of truthless appearance
Of outer and inner things, like illusions, dreams,
Or the reflection of the moon in water!
Bless me to understand Nagarjuna's intended meaning,
Where life and liberation have no iota of intrinsic reality,
Cause and effect and relativity are still inexorable,
And these two do not contradict but mutually complement!

The Three Principles of the Path Segment

Who sees the inexorable causality of things,

Of both cyclic life and liberation
And destroys any objectivity conviction
Thus finds the path that pleases Victors.
Appearance inevitably relative
And voidness free from all assertions­
As long as these are understood apart,
The Victor's intent is not yet known.
But when they coincide not alternating,
Mere sight of inevitable relativity
Secures knowledge beyond objectivisms,
And investigation of the view is perfect.
More, as experience dispels absolutism
And voidness clears away nihilism,
You know voidness dawn as cause and effect­
No more will you be deprived by extremist views.
 Practicing the Liberating Wisdom 1 71

Foundation of All Excellence Segment

And bless me to cease attraction to false objects,

And through precise analysis of ultimate reality,
Swiftly to produce within my spiritual process
The integrated path of quiescence and transcending insight!

In Sanskrit: BhagavatI Prajiiaparamita-h.rdaya

In English: The Heart of Transcendent Wisdom,
the Lady Buddha

Thus did I hear on a certain occasion. The Lord was dwelling on the
Vulture Heap Peak at Rajagerha, together with a great community of
monks and a great community of Bodhisattvas. At that time, the Lord en­
tranced himself in the samadhi of teaching called "Illumination of the
Profound."
At the same time, the holy Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, the great mes­
siah, was contemplating the practice of the profound transcendence of wis­
dom; and he realized that those five body and mind processes are void in
their intrinsic reality.
Thereupon, influenced by the psychic power of the Buddha, the venera­
ble Shariputra addressed the holy Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, the great
messiah, thus: "When any noble son wishes to engage in the practice of the
profound transcendence of wisdom, how should he learn? "
Then the holy Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, the greac messiah, ad­
dressed the venerable Shariputra thus: "Shariputra ! When any noble son
or noble daughter wishes to engage in the practice of the profound tran­
scendence of wisdom, he or she should realize it in this way: those five
body and mind processes should be truly realized to be void of any intrin­
sic reality. Matter is voidness. Voidness is matter. Voidness is not other
than matter; neither is matter other than voidness. Likewise, sensations,
conceptions, emotions, and consciousnesses are also void. Shariputra!
Thus all things are voidness: signless, uncreated, unceased, stainless, im­
peccable, undecreased, and unincreased. Shariputra ! Therefore, in void­
ness there is no matter, no sensation, no conception, no emotion, no
consciousness, no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mentality,
no form or color, no sound, no scent, no taste, no texture, no idea. There
are no sense media, from eye to mentality; and there are no consciousness
172 • ES SENTIAL T I B ETAN B U D D H I S M

media from visual- to mental-consciousness media either. There is no igno­

rance and no cessation of ignorance, and so on up to no old age and death
and no cessation of old age and death either. Likewise there is no suffering,
no origination, no cessation, no path, no intuitive wisdom, no attainment,
and no nonattainment either.
"Therefore, Shariputra, because the Bodhisattva is without attainment,
he lives in reliance on transcendent wisdom; his spirit is unobscured and
free of fear. Passing far beyond all confusion, he succeeds ultimately in
Nirvana. And all the Buddhas who live in past, present, and future rely on
transcendent wisdom to reach manifestly perfect Buddhahood in unex­
celled, perfect enlightenment. Such being the case, there is the mantra of
transcendent wisdom; the mantra of the great science, the unexcelled
mantra, the uniquely universal mantra, the mantra that eradicates all suf­
fering. It is not false and should be known as truth; the transcendent wis­
dom mantra.
"TADYATHA/-GATE-GATE-PARAGATE-PARASAMGATE-BODHI-SVAHAII
"Shariputra! Thus should the Bodhisattva, the great messiah, learn the
profound transcendence of wisdom! "
Thereupon, the Lord arose from that samadhi and applauded the holy
Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, the great messiah: "Excellent! Excellent!
Noble son! Such it is! Such it is! One should practice the profound tran­
scendence of wisdom in just the way you have taught it. And even the
Transcendent Lords will joyfully congratulate you! "
When the Lord had spoken thus, the venerable Shariputra, the holy
Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, the great messiah, everyone in that audience,
and the whole world, with its gods, hum.ans, titans, and fairies, all rejoiced;
and all applauded what the Buddha said.

The Treasury of Wish-Fulfilling Gems

by Kunkyen Longchen Rabjam

Chapter Eighteen:
E S TA B L I S H I N G T H E NAT U R E O F R EA L I T Y
Once you have completed such contemplations,
You should develop experiential wisdom in your process.
Among the three paths of transcendence in the three Vehicles,
 Practicing the Liberating Wisdom 1 73

Here you enter the unexcelled, essential import.

First, devote yourself to understanding the nature of reality.
Although this takes many forms, depending on the Vehicle,
The definitive essence is the indivisible reality
Which is the secret treasury of the Buddhas.
It is the natural transparency intuition
Beginninglessly peaceful, free from perplexity.
Like sun and sky, spontaneous and uncreated.
Since its natural great purity is primally present,
It is vision and voidness inseparable,
Free of proof and rejection, going and coming.
Beyond the realm of superficial determinations and distinctions,
Beyond dual-reality notions, it resolves all perplexities.
Its indivisible reality is neither proven nor unproven,
Experientially vision and voidness are naturally nondual;
This reality is called "indivisible."
When analyzed by the conventional two realities,
All things in cyclic life are mistaken appearances;
Untrue and deceptive, they are superficial realities.
Things of Nirvana are profound peace of translucency,
Accepted as ultimate reality, changeless in nature.
This manifold appearance is thus superficial.
Illusion, like the reflection of the moon in water,
It lacks the intrinsic reality it appears to have.
When examined, it lacks basis, root, and substance,
Free of intrinsic identity, empty as space.
When unexamined, this illusory, enticing diversity
Evolves as a relativistic distortion of instinct.
Thus, just like a datura hallucination,
These things are selfless and unreal.
Since that, in reality, is their way of being,
The " ultimate" appears but superficially,
Though appearing, in reality it is unborn;
So naturally its reality is indivisible.
Its natural primal purity
And its transparent ultimacy are nondual,
So the life-cycle and liberation are nondual,
And its reality is indivisible.
[ 74 • E S SENTIAL T I B ETAN B U D D H I SM

Since the life-cycle appears while lacking reality,

In that ultimate realm of intrinsic realitylessness
Nothing can be distinguished as separate and distinct,
And life-cycle and liberation are taught as equality.
Other ideas are false intellectual notions,
Quite confused about the nature of reality.
Causality exists as it appears to deceptive experience,
So cherish understanding of ethical choice.
The changeless nature of ultimate reality
Is transparency, the Bliss Lord essence, spontaneity,
Natural indivisible awareness of clarity-void.
This is the mandala of natural spontaneity
Primal natural perfection, essence of enlightenment,
Purity, unfabricated, free from partiality,
Profound peace, body and wisdom inseparable.
It has examples known to all beings;
Known by the wise as like underground gold,
A lamp in a vase, a body in a lotus.
Just as a pauper has a treasure underground
But doesn't know and so stays poor,
Though you possess natural enlightenment,
It is hidden by the earth of body, speech, and eightfold mind,
So you stay poor, impoverished by the ills of life.
Just as a clairvoyant person can see
And find a way to take out the treasure
To perfect the wealth of self and other,
So the holy ones teach that reality
And show how enlightenment can be found within,
The wish-granting gem that fulfills both aims.
Just as a lamp in a vase might be bright
But cannot illuminate, blocked by the vase,
So the essential Truth Body abides within
Yet does not show, blocked by the vase of obscuration.
But it does show when the vase is broken,
Just as the world lamp illumines all the lands,
When all obscurations are removed.
 Practicing the Liberating Wisdom 175

Though the Bliss-Lord Body is in the lotus,

It does not show when the lotus is closed
So the thousand petals of subjects and objects block
One's vision of the self-luminous Lord of Victors.
When the petals open, it is clear,
There is great liberation from the lotus of duality.
The three Buddha Bodies become naturally evident.
Thus please understand the reality
That ultimate-realm translucency
Exists within yourself!
This reality has names of many different kinds.
It is "the realm" that transcends life and liberation
And the primally present "natural spontaneity,"
As the " essential realm" obscured by defilements,
As the "ultimate truth," the condition of reality,
As the originally pure "stainless translucency,"
As the "central reality" that dispels extremisms,
As the "transcendent wisdom" beyond fabrications,
As the "indivisible reality" clear-void-purity,
As the "Suchness" reality free of death transitions.
Such names are accepted by the clear-seeing wise.
Not understanding this, one adopts a nihilistic voidness,
Though claiming to avoid extremes of being and nothing,
Since one does not know the ground of freedom
And longs to escape to the peak of existence,
One falls outside this profound teaching,
Sits empty-minded, fit to rub with dust!
The Teacher taught the treasury of Dharma,
The path of the pinnacle, clear light, essence of all,
The "reality of the ground spontaneity. "
Understanding this ultimate profound view,
Liberates one from resistance and obscuration,
Frees from all absolutism and nihilism.
One's practice is fruitful, one soon becomes enlightened,
One gains the eye to see all Sutras and Tantras.
Therefore be sure to realize the reality of clear light!
[76 • E S SENTIAL T I B ETAN B U D DH I S M

Tsong Khapa's Medium-Length Transcendent Insight

Benefits of Meditating on Quiescence and Insight

The Buddha stated in the Elucidation of Intention Sutra that all mundane
and transcendent excellencies of Individual and Universal Vehicles are the
effects of mental quiescence and transcendent insight.
One might object, "Well, aren't quiescence and insight themselves excel­
lencies of character of one who has already attained the fruits of medita­
tion? In that case, how is it correct for all those excellencies to be the effects
of those two?"
Since actual quiescence and insight, as will be explained, are indeed ex­
cellencies of character of one accomplished in the fruits of meditation, it is
granted that all excellencies of Individual and Universal Vehicles are not
their effects. However, there is no contradiction, since all samadhis beyond
one-pointedness toward virtuous objectives are classified under the heading
of "insight." With this in mind, the Lord said that all excellencies of the
three vehicles are the effects of quiescence and insight.
He further states in the Elucidation of the Intention Sutra: "If a person
practices quiescence and insight, he will become liberated from the
bondages of bad conditioning and signification." Ratnakarashanti explains
in the Instruction in Transcendent Wisdom that this means that " bad con­
ditioning" bondages, which are the instincts lying in the mental processes
capable of generating ever-increasing distorted subjectivities, and "signifi­
cation" bondages, which create those instincts in the form of prior and pos­
terior attachment to distorted objects, are abandoned by insight and
quiescence, respectively. Now those are the benefits of what are designated
as "quiescence" and "insight," and the meaning is the same even if you do
not so designate them, as when you designate them the benefits of "medita­
tion" and "wisdom." They still are to be known as the benefits of these
two, quiescence and insight.

How the Two Contain All Samadhis

The Buddha also stated in the Elucidation that all samadhis of Individual
and Universal Vehicles that he ever mentioned are included in quiescence
and insight. Therefore, since those eager for samadhi cannot possibly ex­
plore all separate categories of samadhis, they should explore thoroughly
the method of cultivation of quiescence and insight, which provide a gen­
eral framework for all samadhis.
 Practicing the Liberating Wisdom 1 77

The Identification of Mental Quiescence

Buddha states in the Elucidation: "One sits alone in isolation, one absorbs
oneself within, one impresses in the mind the well-considered teachings,
and one goes on impressing this within the mind continuously, the very
mind that is doing the impressing. Entering in this way and repeatedly
abiding therein, when physical and mental fluency emerge, it is called 'men­
tal quiescence.' This means that when the mind no longer vacillates but
works continuously, naturally abiding with its chosen object, and when the
joyous ease of mental and physical fluency is produced, then that samadhi
becomes (actual) mental quiescence. This is produced just from holding the
mind within without wavering from its chosen object and does not require
any realization of the thatness of things.

The Identification of Transcendent Insight

The Buddha said in the Elucidation, "Then, after attaining the physical and
mental fluency, one abandons the mode of keeping the mind focused on one
thing, and one individually investigates the well-considered things arising
as internal images in the realm of the samadhi; one confronts each one of
them. Thus, with regard to those objects of knowledge that arise as images
in the objective sphere of samadhi, their discernment, investigation, exami­
nation, thorough analysis, tolerance, acceptance, differentiation, viewing,
and discrimination; all these are called 'transcendent insight.' And in this
way, the Bodhisattva becomes expert in transcendent insight."
According to Ratnakarashanti and Asanga, quiescence and insight are
not differentiated according to their chosen objects, since each of them can
take either ultimate or relative as their object. There is such a thing as an in­
sight that does not realize voidness. Therefore one is called "quiescent sta­
bility" because it is a quieting of the mind's attraction toward external
objects and a stabilizing of the mind on the inner object. And the other is
called "transcendent insight" because there is an "intensifying" or "ex­
celling" experience.
Now there are some who assert that quiescence is the lack of the sharp
clarity of the inteilect through keeping the mind thought-free, and insight is
the presence of such sharp clarity. But they are mistaken, since such contra­
dicts all of the above explanations, and since that difference is merely the
difference between samadhi afflicted by depression and samadhi without
depression. All quiescence samadhis must definitely be cleared of depres­
sion, and all samadhis free of depression definitely arrive at sharp clarity of
1 78 • ES SENTIAL T I B ETAN B U D DH I SM

mind. Therefore we must recognize whether or not a samadhi or wisdom is

oriented toward voidness by whether or not the intellect involved under­
stands either of the two selflessnesses, since there are innumerable samadhis
that have bliss, clarity, and thoughtfulness without having any interest in
the objective ultimate reality. It is established by experience that to generate
insight it is not enough to hold the mind completely free of thought and not
discover the view that understands the real situation. Failure to understand
voidness in no way precludes the development of nondiscursive samadhi.
By the power of holding the mind thought-free for a long time, one devel­
ops fitness of neural energies. This is marked by the arisal of joy and bliss in
body and mind; so lack of realization of voidness does not preclude the cre­
ation of bliss. Once that has been created, by the power of the vividness of
the feeling of bliss, clarity dawns in the mind. Therefore one cannot repre­
sent all blissful, clear, and thought-free samadhis as realizing thatness.
Thus, while it does happen that nondiscursive bliss and clarity occur in
samadhis realizing voidness, it also often happens in samadhis not at all
oriented toward voidness. So it is necessary to distinguish the difference be­
tween the two.

Reason for the Necessity to Meditate on Both

Why is it not sufficient to meditate on quiescence and insight one by one

but rather to meditate upon both together?
For example, if one is in a temple at night and wishes to view the wall
paintings and so lights a lamp, one can see the painted deities quite clearly
if one has both a bright lamp and it is undisturbed by the wind. If the lamp
is not bright, or if its brightness is too agitated by the breeze, one cannot see
the deities clearly. Similarly, to view the impact of the profound, one can
see thatness clearly if one has both the wisdom that ascertains unerringly
the import of thatness and also the unwavering concentration that stays fo­
cused on its chosen object. Even though you might have the nondiscursive
samadhi, which stays put without being distracted elsewhere, if you do not
have the wisdom to be aware of the real situation, however much you may
cultivate that samadhi, it will be impossible for you to realize the real situa­
tion. And, even if you have the view that understands selflessness, if you do
not have the stable samadhi where the mind stays put on one point, it will
be impossible for you to see clearly the impact of the real situation.
Therefore both quiescence and insight are necessary.
Then what is the way in which quiescence must precede insight? Here
the generation of insight is in the context of the common individual who
 Practicing the Liberating Wisdom 1 79

has not previously generated meditative realization and must newly do so.
In that context, except for the exceptional way, to be explained below, in
which a distinctive subjectivity for the realization of voidness meditates on
selflessness, in the usual context of the Transcendence Vehicle and the three
lower Tantra divisions, analytic meditation is necessary, since without prac­
ticing analytic meditation, which cultivates wisdom's analysis of the import
of selflessness, meditative realization will not emerge. Now in that case, one
seeks the understanding of selflessness, repeatedly analyzing its meaning,
before one has achieved quiescence, and if quiescence has not been
achieved already, it is impossible to achieve based on that sort of analytic
meditation. Further, while quiescence is achieved by the practice of focus­
ing meditation apart from analysis, there is no method to practice insight
apart from the practice of quiescence. Therefore insight must be sought
subsequently; and therefore, ultimately, you cannot get around the order
that quiescence is first sought and then insight is meditated based on the
achieved quiescence.
Of course, this order of quiescence and insight is in terms of their initial
development. Once attained, there is no fixed order, since sometimes one
will first meditate insight and later quiescence.

Conditions Necessary for Transcendent Insight

General Setup

(Kamalashila), in his Second Stages of Meditation, states the three condi­

tions for transcendent insight to be reliance on a holy person, eagerness to
hear the teachings, and suitable reflection upon them. More explicitly, the
reliance on an expert who knows unerringly the essentials of the Buddha's
Scriptures, the study of the flawless scientific treatises, and the development
of the view that realizes thatness by the wisdoms of learning and reflec­
tion-these constitute the indispensable preconditions for transcendent in­
sight. If there is no penetrating certainty about the import of actual reality,
it is impossible to generate that realization which is the transcendent insight
into the nature of reality.
One must seek such a view by relying on teachings of definitive meaning,
and not on those of interpretable meaning. And one comes to understand
the impact of the definitive discourses by knowing the difference between
interpretable and definitive discourses. Further, if one does not rely on the
philosophical treatises that elucidate the Buddha's inner thought, written
1 80 • ES SENTIAL TIBETAN B U D D H I SM

by one of the great champions who personified living reason itself, one is
like a blind person wandering in a dangerous wilderness without any guide.
Thus one should rely upon the flawless scientific treatises.
On what sort of person should one rely?
The holy Nagarjuna was renowned through the three realms and was
quite clearly predicted by the Lord himself in many Sutras and Tantras as
the elucidator of the essence of the teaching, the profound import free of all
extremes of being and nothingness. So, one should seek the view that real­
izes voidness by relying on his treatises. Aryadeva also was taken as equal
in authority to the Master by the great centrists such as Masters Buddha­
palita, Bhavaviveka, Chandrakirti, and Shantarakshita. Hence, since both
Father Nagarjuna and Son Aryadeva were the sources for the other cen­
trists, the old-time scholars called these two the "grandmother treatise cen­
trists" and the others, the "partisan centrists."
Which one of these masters should one follow to seek the ultimate inten­
tion of Nagarjuna and Aryadeva, the Holy Father and Son?
The eminent former mentors in the line of my oral tradition followed the
practice of the Lord of Masters Atisha in holding the system of Chandrakirti
as the supreme one. Master Chandrakirti perceived that, among the com­
mentators on the Wisdom, it was Master Buddhapalita who most com­
pletely elucidated the intention of the noble ones. He took the latter's system
as his basis, and, when he worked out his own elucidation of the noble in­
tention, while he used many of the good statements, he refuted points that
seemed slightly incorrect in the work of Master Bhavaviveka. Therefore,
since I see the explanations of these two masters, Buddhapalita and
Chandrakirti, as very much superior in explaining the treatises of the Noble
Father and Son, I will follow them here in determining their intention.

The Method of Determining the View: Identification

of Addictive Misknowledge

Misknowledge is the basis of all ills and faults since all the Victor's teach­
ings to counter other addictions such as attachment are only partiai reme­
dies and only his teaching against misknowledge is a comprehensive
medicine. As Chandrakirti says in the Lucid Exposition: "Buddhas are
renowned in this world as regulating the activities of people by their nine
modes of teaching such as Sutras, based on the two realities. Therein,
teachings dispelling lust will not bring hatred to an end. Teachings dis­
pelling hatred will not bring lust to an end. Teachings dispelling pride and
so on will not conquer the other taints. Thus, those teachings are not all­
pervasive and do not bear the great import. But teachings dispelling delu-
 Practicing the Liberating Wisdom 181

sion conquer all addictions, for Victors declare that all addictions truly de­
pend on delusion."
That being so, the meditation on thatness is necessary as the medicine
for misknowledge and since one does not know how to cultivate the medi­
cine without identifying misknowledge itself, it is very important to identify
misknowledge.
Misknowledge is the opposite of knowledge, and knowledge here
should be taken not as whatever type of common knowledge but as the
wisdom of the knowledge of the thatness of selflessness. The opposite of
that, again, is not properly understood as the mere absence of that wisdom,
as merely something else than that, but as its very antithesis. That is pre­
cisely the reification of a self, and, as there are two reifications of selves, of
persons, and of things, the subjective self-habit and the objective self-habit
together constitute misknowledge. As for the manner of that reification, it
is the habitual sense that things have intrinsically objective, intrinsically
identifiable, or intrinsically real status.
These reasons bring out the mode of the habitual sense of truth status,
the negatee which is the habitual notion that the apparent intrinsic reality of
things is not merely imposed by force of beginningless mental construction
but is established within objects as their own objectivity. The presumed con­
ceptual object of that habit pattern is called "self" or "intrinsic reality." Its
absence in the designated "person" is called "personal" or "subjective self­
lessness," and its absence in things such as eyes, ears, and so forth is called
"selflessness of things" or "objective selflessness. " It is thus understanda ble
by implication that the habitual sense of the existence of that intrinsic real­
ity in persons and things is the two "self-habits. " As Chandrakirti says in his
Four Hundred Commentary: "The 'self' is the 'intrinsic reality' which is that
objectivity in things independent of anything else. Its absence is selflessness.
It is understood as twofold by division into persons and things, called 'per­
,
sonal selflessness' and 'objective selflessness. "
With regard to the innate egoistic view that also is the self-habit, in the
Introduction, Chandra refutes the position that its object is the aggregates
and comments that its object is the dependently designated self. He also
states that the conventional self is not the mere conglomerate of the aggre­
gates. Thus, as its object is neither the conglomerate of the aggregates at
any one time nor the conglomerate of the temporal continuum of the aggre­
gates, one must take the mere "person" and the mere "I" as the objective
basis of the mere thought "I." Thus one should not put either the separate
or the conglomerate aggregates as the substance of that "I. " This is the un­
excelled distinctive specialty of this dialecticist centrist system, which 1 have
explained extensively elsewhere.
1 8 2. • E S SENTIAL TIBETAN B U D D H I S M

The object of the innate egoistic view that is the property habit is the ac­
tual "mine," object of the innate cognition that thinks "mine," and is not
held to be objects such as one's eye and so on. The manner of this habit is
the habitual holding of the objects perceived as "mine" as if they were in­
trinsically identifiably property.
As for the innate objective self-habit, its objects are the form aggregate
and so on, the eyes, ears, and so forth of both self and others and imper­
sonal inanimate objects and so on. Its mode is as explained above.
In the Introduction Commentary, Chandra affirms that "delusion is
misknowledge, which functions as the reification of the intrinsic objectivity
of nonobjectively existent things. It is superficial, with a nature of obscura­
tion, seeing intrinsic realities in things. " Further, in saying "thus, by the
force of the addictive misknowledge included in the 'existence' member,"
he equates that misknowledge which is the truth habit about objects with
addictive misknowledge. Thus, while there are two systems of classification
of objective self-habits either as addictive or as cognitive obscurations, this
system chooses the former way.
This is also the statement of the Noble Father and Son , as in the
Voidness Seventy: "Reification of the reality in things born of conditions,
the Teacher called it 'misknowledge'; therefrom the twelve members arise.
Seeing truly and knowing well the voidness of things, misknowledge does
not occur, is ceased; thereby the twelve members cease." Here "reification
of the reality in things" indicates the habitual perception of "truth" or "re­
ality status" in those things.
In the Jewel Rosary, Nagarjuna also states in the same vein that "as long
as there is the aggregate habit, so long will there be the 'I' habit. " That is,
that egoistic views will not be reversed as long as the truth habit about the
aggregates is not.
The context here is the identification of that "delusion" which is one of
the three poisons and hence equivalent to addictive misknowledge. To get
rid of that misknowledge, he declares it necessary to understand the import
of the profound relativity, which happens when the import of voidness
arises as the import of relativity. Therefore one must interpret addictive
delusion according to Chandrakirti's explanation in the Four Hundred
Commentary as the reification of reality in things.
This system was lucidly proclaimed by Chandrakirti, following Bud­
dhapalita's elucidation of the intention of the noble ones.
Now that just-explained misknowledge which is thus habituated to the
two selves is not the conscious holding of persons and things hypostatized
by the distinctive beliefs of Buddhist and non-Buddhist philosophers, such
as unique, permanent, and independent person; objects that are external
 Practicing the Liberating Wisdom 183

yet are the aggregates of indivisible atoms without eastern and s o on direc­
tional facets; subjects that are internal cognitions yet that are consciousness­
continua composed of indivisible instantaneous consciousnesses without
any temporal prior and posterior components; and such as a true nondual
apperception devoid of any such subjects and objects. It rather consists of
the two unconscious self-habits, which exist commonly both for those af­
fected by theories and for those unaffected by theories and which have per­
sisted from time immemorial without having depended on any theoretical
seduction of the intellect. Therefore it is that same unconscious self-habit
which is here held as the root of the egocentric life-cycle.
This reason reveals that all living beings are bound in the life-cycle by
the unconscious misknowledge. Further, since intellectual misknowledge
exists only for those philosophers, it is not properly considered the root of
the egoistic life-cycle.
It is extremely important to come to an exceptional certitude about this
point. If one does not know this at the time of determining the view, one will
not know how to hold as principal the determination of the nonexistence of
the hypothetical object held by unconscious misknowledge, while keeping
the negation of the intellectually held objects subordinate. And if one refutes
the two selves and neglects the negation of the habit pattern of unconscious
misknowledge, then one will have determined a selflessness that is merely a
rejection of those "selves" hypothesized by the philosophers, as explained
above. Even at the time of meditation, one's meditation will be just the
same, since the "determination of the view" involves meditation as well.
Thus even in meditation only the manifest habits will be involved in the final
analysis, and one will experience only the absence of the two selves that are
merely those hypothesized by the intellectual habits. To think that this will
eliminate the unconscious addictions is a great exaggeration.
One should also understand according to the statement of Dharmakirti
in the Commentary on Validating Cognition: "Who sees a self always rei­
,
fies an '! there; supposing one identifies with that; identifying, one becomes
obscured with faults. Seeing qualities, one desires them, one grasps their at­
tainment as 'mine.' Thus, as long as one is attached to the self, so long will
one revolve in the life-cycle."
First, once one holds to intrinsic identifiability in the objective basis of
the thought "I," attachment to the self arises. Therefrom craving for the
happiness of the self arises. Then, since the self's happiness cannot arise
without dependence on one's property, craving arises for property, the
"mine. " Then, being obscured by such faults, one begins to see the qualities
in those things. Then one grasps onto the property as the means of accom­
plishing the happiness of the self. Through the addictions thus produced,
1 84 • ES SE NTiAL TIBETAN B U D D H I S M

conceptually motivated action occurs, and from such action, the life-cycle
itself is constantly held together. As Nagarjuna says in the Voidness
Seventy, "Action has its cause in addictions; construction's nature is from
addictions; the body has its cause in actions; and all three are empty of in­
trinsic reality. " In such a way one must practice finding certainty in the se­
quence involved in the evolution of the egoistic life-cycle.

Reason for the Need to Seek the View

That Understands Selflessness, Wishing to Abandon
Such Misknowledge

It appears extremely necessary to will to abandon utterly the above

misknowledge, the twofold self-habit, so one should intensely cultivate
such a will. Even so, having such a desire, not to strive to understand how
self-habits become the root of the life-cycle, and, having seen a part of that,
not to strive to develop in mind a pure view of selflessness, having properly
negated the objects held by self-habits with the help of the definitive scrip­
tures and sound reasoning, such a person has to have extremely dull facul­
ties, since he thinks nothing at all of completely losing the life of the path
leading to liberation and omniscience.
Thus Chandrakirti teaches that the truth habit positing things is the
cause of all addictive views. And all other addictions are abandoned by
the realization of the real condition of things as not intrinsically really
produced, by reason of their relativity. For the vision of their intrinsic real­
itylessness will not arise without negation of the object held as the intrin­
sically real status of things.
That is, he states that by cultivating the understanding of voidness, as
voidness of the intrinsically real status of things, the egoistic views are elim­
inated, and by eliminating them all other addictions are eliminated, since it
is impossible to understand selflessness without negating the object of the
personal self-habit.
In short, the many supreme experts in elucidating the meaning of the
profound discourses investigate with many references and reasonings when
they determine the import of thatness. And, seeing that selflessness and
voidness cannot be understood without seeing that the self, as held by the
false habits, is not existent and is void, they spoke thus as above; because it ,
is crucially important to find certitude about this.
If one does not meditate on the import of this negating of the object of
the error fundamental to cyclic bondage, even if one meditates on any other
would-be-profound import, it will not disturb the self-habits at all; because
it is impossible to eliminate self-habits without applying the intelligence to
 Practicing the Liberating Wisdom 185

the thatness of selflessness and voidness; and because even though without
negating the object of self-habits one can at least withdraw the mental
gravitation toward that object, that is not acceptable as applying the mind
to selflessness.
The reason for this is that when the mind is applied to an object, there
are three habits: one holding that object in truth, one holding it as truthless,
and one holding it without either qualification. So just as the nonholding of
truthlessness is not necessarily the truth habit, so the disconnection from
the two selves is not necessarily the application to the two selflessnesses; be­
cause there are limitless states of mind included in the third option.
The two self-habits, further, function through perceiving things chiefly
as persons and objects, and therefore it is necessary to determine right on
the very basis of error the nonexistence of that thereon so held; otherwise it
is like searching for footprints in the house of a thief already gone into the
forest.
Therefore, since errors will be terminated by meditating on the import
thus determined, such a voidness is the supreme import of thatness. And if
some other false import of thatness is determined, it is no more than
wishful thinking, and you should consider it outside the meaning of the
scriptures.
Thus the misknowledge in truth habits about fabrications of persons
such as males and females and things such as forms and sensations is elimi­
nated by finding and meditating upon the view that understands the void­
ness that is selflessness. When misknowledge is eliminated, eliminated too
are the conceptual thoughts that are improper attitudes reifying the signs of
beauty and ugliness and so on by perceiving the objects of truth habits.
When they are eliminated, all other addictions, desire and so on, which
have egoistic views as their root, are eliminated. When they are eliminated,
actions motivated by them are eliminated. When they are eliminated, invol­
untary birth in cyclic life as propelled by actions is eliminated.
Considering this process, the firm determination "I will attain libera­
tion ! " is generated, and thence one seeks the utterly incisive view of that­
ness.
In regard to the sequence of generation of the two self-habits, it is the
objective self-habit that generates the personal self-habit. Nevertheless, in
entering the truth of selflessness, it is by first generating the view of per­
sonal selflessness that one must later generate the view of objective selfless­
ness. As Nagarjuna states in the Jewel Rosary: "A creature is not earth,
water, fire, wind, space, or consciousness; if it is none of these things, what
else might a creature be? Since the creature as collocation of elements is not
real in itself, so each element, itself a collocation, is not really real either."
186 ". E S S E N T I A L T I B ET A N B U D D H I S M

Thus he first declares the nonreality of the person and then the nonreality
of its designative bases, the elements earth and so on.
As for the reason why one must understand it that way, while there is no
variation of degree of subtlety in the selflessness to be ascertained in the
basic person or in the basic thing, because of the essentiality of the subject
of concern, it is easier to ascertain selflessness in the person and harder to
ascertain it in the thing. For example, it is difficult to ascertain objective
selflessness in the eye, ear, and so on but easy to ascertain it in things such
as images, and this can be used as an example of the varying cases in deter­
mining selflessness with regard to things and persons above.
If one knows well the condition of the "I" anchoring the concept of self
that thinks "I," and one applies the reason about it to internal things such
as eye and nose and external things such as vases, one should come to un­
derstand them in just the same way. Then, knowing the nature and seeing
the reality of one thing, one can be able to know and see the natures of all
other things.
"Person" is a term used in contexts such as the six species of persons
such as gods, or the types of persons such as individual persons or holy per­
sons, and in referring to the accumulator of evil and good action, the expe­
riencer of their effects, the traveler in cyclic life, the practicer of the path for
the sake of liberation, and the attainer of liberation. Chandrakirti in his
Introduction Commentary quotes a standard Scripture: "The demon-mind
'self,' it forces you to adopt its view; this aggregate of emotions is void,
therein no sentient being. Just as one says 'chariot,' depending on its aggre­
gate of components, so depending on the aggregates, one says 'superficial
sentient being.'''
The first sentence teaches the personal selflessness that is the ultimate
absence of "person"; the first phrase calls the personal self-habit the
" demon-mind" ; the second phrase shows the holder of that habit to be the
victim of evil views; and the third and fourth phrases state that the aggre­
gates are devoid of any personal self. The second verse teaches the con­
ventional existence of the self, the first two phrases giving the example and
the last two applying it to the meaning. It teaches that the "person" is a
mere designation based on the aggregates, because this Scripture states the
aggregate-conglomerate must be understood as either the simultaneous
conglomerate of aggregates or their sequential conglomerate. Thus neither
the spatial conglomerate nor the temporal continuum of the aggregates can
be posited as the "person." When the conglomerate is posited as designa­
tive base, that which is conglomerated is also posited as a designative base;
so it is illogical for either to be the "person" itself.
 Practicing the Liberating Wisdom 187

Here one uses the first of the four key procedures for determining self­
lessness, analyzing one's own mental process in order to identify one's own
mode of habitual adherence to a personal self. This has been already ex­
plained.
The second key procedure (is as follows): If that person has intrinsically
real status, it must be established as actually the same or actually different
from the aggregates of body and mind, and thus one decides that there is no
way for it to be established in any other way. In general, in regard to such
things as pots and pillars, if one determines them on one side as matching,
one excludes them on the other side from differing, or such a thing as a pot,
if determined here as differing, is excluded on the other side from match­
ing-as this is established by experience, there is no third option other than
sameness or difference. Therefore one must become certain that it is impos­
sible for a self to exist and to be neither the same as nor different from the
aggregates.
The third key procedure is to see the faults in the hypothesis that the
person and the aggregates are intrinsically really the same.
The fourth key procedure is to see well the faults in the hypothesis that
the person and the aggregates are really different. Thus, when these four
keys are complete, the pure view realizing the thatness of personal selfless­
ness is developed.
To rehearse the third key procedure, if self and aggregates were the same
entity with intrinsically real status, three faults would accrue. The first is
that there would be no point in asserting a self, since if the two were intrin­
sically really established as a single entity they would never be at all differ­
entiable, since the two being absolutely established as a single entity could
necessarily never appear as different to a cognition that perceived them.
The reason for this is that, while there is no contradiction for a superficial
thing's appearance being different from its real mode of existence, such a
difference does preclude any truth status in that thing, since a true thing
must really exist in just the way it appears to any cognition.
Thus the postulation of an intrinsically objective self is (only) for the
sake of establishing an agent for the appropriation and discarding of the
aggregates, and this is not plausible when the self and the aggregates have
become the same. As Nagarjuna states in the Wisdom, "When it is asserted
that there is no self but for appropriation, then that the appropriation itself
is the self; and then that self of yours is nonexistent. " The second fault is
that the self would become a plurality. If the self and the aggregates were
really the same, then just as one person has many aggregates, so one would
come to have many selves; or, as the self is no more than one, the aggregates
188 $ E S S E N T I A L T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

would become one. Chandrakirti says in the Introduction: "If the aggre­
gates were the self, as they are many so the self would become many. "
The third fault is that the self would become endowed with production
and destruction. As Nagarjuna says in the Wisdom: "If the aggregates were
the self, then it would become endowed with production and destruction."
That is, just as the aggregates are endowed with production and destruc­
tion, so the self would become endowed with production and destruction,
since the two are a single entity.
Now, if one thinks this is merely an acceptance of the momentary pro­
duction and destruction of the self or the person each instant, while it is ad­
mitted that there is no fault in accepting this merely conventionally, the
opposition here asserts the intrinsic identifiability of the person and so must
assert the intrinsically objective production and destruction of that person,
which assertion has three faults, as Chandrakirti states in the Introduction.
First, "Things intrinsically identifiably separate are not rationally in­
cluded in a single continuum"; that is, it is illogical for things that are ob­
jectively established as different, in being former and later, to relate with
the later depending on the former; because the former and later things are
self-sufficiently and independently established and cannot properly relate
to one another. Thus, since it is incorrect to include them in one continuum,
the "I" cannot rightly remember its former life, "At that time I was like
that," just as two different persons such as Devadatta and Yajiia cannot re­
member each other's lives. In our system, though things are destroyed in
every instant, conventionally there is no contradiction for former and later
instants to be included in a single continuum, so it is possible for former
lives to be remembered. Those who do not understand this point generate
the first of the four wrong views mentioned in Scripture as relating to a for­
mer limit. When the Buddha often says, "I was this former person," they
think that the person at the time of Buddhahood and the person of this for­
mer life are the same, or that, since created things are instantaneously de­
stroyed, they cannot be the same, so both of them must be permanent, and
so forth. In order not to fall into such (views), one must understand prop­
erly the way-at the time of remembering former lives-in which the gen­
eral "I" is remembered without specifically qualifying it as to country, time,
and nature.
The second fault is the fault of the effect of action committed becoming
lost, when, if the person were intrinsically identifiable, it would be impossi­
ble to bring the agent of the action and the experience of the evolutionary
effect together on a single basis, the mere "I."
The third fault is that of receiving the evolutionary effect of actions not
performed; if such could happen, there would be the extreme absurdity that
 Practicing the Liberating Wisdom 1 89

a single personal continuum would experience all the evolutionary effects

of all the actions performed and accumulated by other different personal
continua. These two faults, as explained above in the Introduction, accrue
through the key point that if the person has objectively real status, it is im­
possible for his former and later instants to be included in a single contin­
uum. As Nagarjuna says in the Wisdom, "If the god and the man are
different, they cannot logically belong to one continuum. "
Here you may wonder, "Granting these faults i f persona and aggregates
are the same, what is the fault if you assert the intrinsically real difference
of person and aggregates?"
Nagarjuna gives the fault in the Wisdom: "If the self were different from
the aggregates, it would be devoid of the nature of the aggregates. " If the
self were objectively different from the aggregates, it would have to lack the
created nature of the aggregates; it would have no production, no duration,
and no destruction, just as a horse lacks the nature of an ox, being a differ­
ent creature. Our opponent here thinks, "Well, isn't that just how it is, after
all?" However, if the personal self were utterly different from all relational
things, it would not be logical for the instinctive mental self-habit to per­
ceive it as the object that supports the conventional designation "self," be­
cause it is not a created thing, subject to ordinary contacts and relations,
just like a skyflower or a state of Nirvana. Further, if it were really different
from the nature of such as the aggregates, which is material and so on, it
should be perceived as such, just as matter and mind are perceived as differ­
ent things. But since the self is not perceived in such a manner, the self is not
something different from the aggregates. As Nagarjuna says in the
Wisdom: "It is not correct for the self to be something different from the
processes of appropriation; if it were, logically it should be perceived apart
from appropriation; but it is not. " And Chandrakirti says in the
Introduction, "Thus the self does not exist apart from the aggregative
processes since its perception beyond them is not established. "
By means of such reasons, one should cultivate a firm certainty that sees
the faults of the self being objectively different from those of the aggre­
gates. If you do not derive a correct certainty about the faults of these two
positions of sameness and difference, your decision that the person is in­
trinsically reality less will merely be a premise, and you will not discover the
authentic view.

Determination of the Nonreality of " Mine"

Thus having inquired rationally into the existence or absence of intrinsi­

cally real status in the self, when you negate its intrinsic reality by not
190 ". E S S E N T I A L T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

finding any self either the same or different from the aggregates, that
same rationality analytic of thatness will not discover any intrinsic reality
in one's property. If you cannot perceive the son of a barren woman, his
property such as eyes and so on will also not be perceived. Thus that ra­
tionality which determines the lack of intrinsically objective status of
one's own "I" or "self" or "person" should realize the entire import of
the thatness of personal selflessness, that all persons and their property,
from hell beings up to Buddhas, have no intrinsic reality as the same or as
different from their designative bases, whether they be contaminated or
uncontaminated aggregates. And thereby one should also understand the
method of establishing the lack of intrinsic reality of all those beings'
property. . . .

Arising as Illusion

The method of understanding other things as like the example of illusion is

as follows: For example, when a magician manifests an illusion, though
there never was any horse or ox there, the appearance of horse and ox un­
deniably arises. In the same way, things such as persons, although they
were always empty of any objectively established intrinsic reality as objects,
are understood as undeniably appearing to have that status. Thus the ap­
pearances of gods and humans are represented as persons, and the appear­
ances of forms and sounds and so on are represented as objects, and
although not even an atom in persons and objects has intrinsically identifi­
able intrinsic reality, all the functions of relativities such as accumulation of
evolutionary actions and seeing and hearing are viable. Voidness is not ni­
hilistic, since all functions are viable because of it. Since one simply be­
comes aware of that voidness, things having always and ever been void,
neither is it just a mentally made-up voidness. Since all things knowable are
accepted in that way, it is not a partial voidness, and when one meditates
upon it, it serves as the remedy for all the automatic reifications of the truth
habits.
That profound import is not at all objectively inaccessible to any sort of
cognition but can be determined by the authentic view and can be taken as
object by meditation on the meaning of reality; so it is not a voidness that
cannot be cultivated in the context of the path, that cannot be known, and
cannot be realized, a sort of utter nothingness . . . .
Thus, to the perception of one experienced in meditating in samadhi,
there is an understanding that apparent things such as pots and cloths are
void of what they appear to have; but this is not the same as the under-
 Practicing the Liberating Wisdom 191

standing of their illusoriness and dream-likeness, which is their lack of in­

trinsically real status. Therefore one must investigate thoroughly the dis­
tinctive mode of arisal as iliusory stated in the definitive meaning scriptures
and the scientific treatises in order to generate realization of illusoriness
and dream-likeness.

False Mode of Arising as Illusory

When one has not properly identified the measure of the negatee as ex­
plained above, when one's analysis of the object cools down, one first be­
gins to imagine that the object does not exist, then one comes to experience
the analyzer also as likewise (nonexistent), then even that ascertained as
nonexistence ceases to have existence, and one comes into a state wherein
there is no ground of ascertaining anything at all as "this is it" or "this is
not it. " There then arises perception of a fuzzy, foggy appearance, occur­
ring from the failure to distinguish between intrinsically real existence and
nonexistence and mere existence and nonexistence. Such a voidness is the
kind of voidness that destroys relativity, and therefore the arisal of such a
fuzzy, foggy perception derived from such a realization is definitely not the
meaning of illusoriness.
Therefore when one analyzes rationally and one comes to consider that
such a "person" is not present even in the slightest upon any intrinsically es­
tablished object, sustaining that consideration one might have perceptions
that arise in a fuzzy, foggy manner; just this is not very difficult. Such expe­
riences occur for all those who admire the centrist philosophies and have a
casual learning of the teachings that demonstrate intrinsic realitylessness.
But the real difficulty is to negate completely any objectively established in­
trinsic reality and yet develop a deep certainty about the representation of
how that intrinsically unreal person itself is the accumulator of evolutionary
actions and the experiencer of evolutionary effects and so on. When the
combination of those two facts-realitylessness and the ability to represent
those things-is carried to the extreme limit of existence, that is the view of
the central way, so extremely difficult to discover. . . .
When one investigates with the rationality analytic of ultimate reality,
nothing whatever is discovered that can withstand analysis such as a person
who is born, does actions, and transmigrates. Nevertheless, illusory things
occur as the evolutionary effects of good and bad actions. One must de­
velop one's understanding according to this statement of the Buddha.
Furthermore, when one does not practice in equipoise by concentrating
upon the view that has decisively penetrated into reality, but merely finds
1 92 ". E S S E N T I A L T I B ETAN B U D D H I S M

stability in one-pointedness on not holding anything at all in one's mind,

then, when one arises from the power of that samadhi, appearances such as
mountains no longer appear solid and substantial but appear indistinct like
fine smoke or like a rainbow. But this is not the arisal of illusoriness ex­
plained in the Scriptures, because this is an appearance within a voidness of
coarse substantiality and is not an appearance within the voidness of the in­
trinsically real status of those apparent things; and because the absence of
solid substantiality is definitely not the meaning of voidness that is intrinsic
realitylessness. Otherwise there would be the fault that it would be impos­
sible for the truth habit to arise when perceiving a rainbow as a qualified
object, and it would be impossible to develop the wisdom-realizing truth­
lessness when considering substantiality as the qualified object.

Correct Arisal in Illusoriness

For example, when the visual consciousness sees an illusory horse or ox,
one depends on the certainty in mental consciousness that the apparent
horse or ox does not exist, and one generates a certainty that the horse or
ox appearance does not exist as it seems. In the same way, one depends on
both the undeniable appearance of person and object in conventional cog­
nition and the certainty through rational cognition that that very thing is
empty of an objectively established intrinsic reality, and thereby one gener­
ates the certainty that that person is an illusory or false appearance. By that
key one reaches the essence of the meditation on voidness as like space
wherein one's concentration allows not even an iota of mental orientations
that are substantivistic sign-habits. When one arises from that concentra­
tion, and one regards the arisal of apparent objects, the aftermath illusory
voidness arises. In that manner when one investigates repeatedly with the
rationality analytic of the presence or absence of intrinsically objective sta­
tus in things, after one has generated an intense certitude about intrinsic re­
alitylessness, one's observation of the arisal of appearances is the arisal in
illusoriness, and there is no separate method of determining the voidness
that is illusoriness. Thereupon, when one engages in activities such as pros­
trations and circumambulations, the certitude from the above analysis is
taken into account, and the engagement in those activities becomes the ed­
ucation in the arisal of illusoriness. One should perform those activities
from within the actuality of that awareness. When one purifies that, the
mere remembrance of the view causes those things to arise in illusoriness.
To express the method of seeking that certainty in an easily under­
standable way: Having initiated the proper arisal in general of the above-
 Practicing the Liberating Wisdom 193

explained rational negatee, one should identify it by considering thor­

oughly how one's own misknowledge reifies intrinsic realities. Then, con­
sidering specifically the pattern wherein if such intrinsic reality exists it
will not go beyond sameness or difference with its basis of designation,
and the process wherein devastating negations accrue to the acceptance of
either alternative, one should derive the certainty that is aware of the
negations. Finally, one should confirm the certitude that considers that
there is not even the slightest intrinsically real status in the person. And
one should cultivate repeatedly such certainty-derivation in the voidness
orientation. Then one should become involved in the appearance of the
convention "person" undeniably arising as object of cognition, and one
should cultivate the attitude oriented toward relativity wherein that con­
ventional person is represented as the accumulator of evolutionary action
and the experiencer of evolutionary effects, and one should discover the
certitude about the systems wherein relativity is viable without any intrin­
sic reality.
When those two facts-that is, the viability of relativity and the absence
of intrinsic reality-seem contradictory, one should consider the pattern of
their noncontradiction by using the examples of mirror images and so
forth. Thus the mirror image of an object, such as a face, although it is void
of the reality of the eyes and ears and the like that appear in it, is still pro­
duced depending on the object and the mirror, and it is destroyed when ei­
ther of those conditions is removed. Those two facts-its voidness of the
objects and its being produced depending on them-are undeniably coinci­
dent in the same phenomenon.
Like that, there is not even an atom of intrinsic reality status in the per­
son, and yet this does not contradict its being the accumulator of evolution­
ary actions, the experiencer of evolutionary effects, and its being produced
depending on the actions and addictions of previous lives. One should cul­
tivate this consideration. Thus one should understand illusoriness in this
way on every such occasion . . . .

O bjective Selflessness

"Objects" are the five aggregates that are the person's designative base, the
six elements such as earth, and the six media such as eye and so forth. Their
voidness of objectively established intrinsic reality is the selflessness of
those things. There are two parts to the way of determining this: one negat­
ing objective self by the reasonings mentioned above, and the other negat­
ing it by other reasonings previously unmentioned. . . .
194 ". E S S E N T I A L T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

The Royal Reason of Relativity

The reason of relativity is clearly stated in the Dialogue with Sagaramati

Sutra as logically negating the intrinsic reality-status of things: "Things that
occur relativistically do not exist with intrinsic objectivity." In the Dialogue
with Anavatapta Sutra, Buddha also clearly states, "What is produced from
conditions is unproduced, it is not produced through any intrinsic objectiv­
ity. I declare that everything produced from conditions is void. Who knows
voidness, he is consciously aware. " This kind of statement is extremely
common in the precious Scriptures.
In the latter quotation, the "unproduced" in the first line is explained by
the "not produced through any intrinsic objectivity," which thus qualifies
the negatee in the negation of production. Chandra, in the Lucid Ex­
position, cites the Visit to Lanka, "intending the lack of intrinsically real
production, I say all things are unproduced! " Thus the Teacher himself ex­
plicates his own inner intent in the discourses, explaining for those who
worry that perhaps the unqualified statements of productionlessness mean
that all things produced do not exist at all, that it rather means that there is
no production through any intrinsic reality.
In the third line, the Buddha states that conditionality of dependence on
conditions is equivalent to voidness of intrinsic objectivity, which is tanta­
mount to the equation of voidness of intrinsic reality with relativity. This
shows that the Buddha does not intend a voidness of functional efficacy,
which would be the negation of mere production.
Nagarjuna also, in the Wisdom, states, "Whatever is relatively occurrent
is peace in its objectivity." That is, things are peaceful, or void, with respect
to intrinsic objectivity, by the reason of their relativity. Thus one should un­
derstand that these statements clear away the darkness of erroneous opin­
ions such as that the central way system must advocate nonproduction with
respect to even relative production.
Such a reason of relativity is extremely praiseworthy. The Buddha states
in the Questions of A navatapta Sutra, "Wise persons will realize the rela­
tivity of things and will no longer entertain any extremist views. " That is,
one no longer entertains extremist views once one realizes relativity.
Furthermore, Chandra declares in the Introduction, "Since things are oc­
current in relativity, such reifications cannot be attached to them. Hence
this reasoning of relativity cuts open the whole network of bad ideas." This
is the unexcelled distinctive specialty of the eminent beings Nagarjuna and
his son. Therefore here, among all reasonings, we should celebrate the rea­
son of relativity.
 Practicing the Liberating Wisdom 195

Here there are two chief points of resistance that obstruct the realistic
view. One is the reificatory view or absolutist view that has a fixed orienta­
tion toward truth habits that hold to the truth status in things. The other is
the repudiative view or nihilistic view that goes too far by not appreciating
the measure of the negatee and becomes unable to incorporate in its system
the certitude about cause and effect within relativity, losing all ground of
recognition about anything such as "this is it" and "this isn't it." These two
views are completely eliminated by the negation of intrinsic reality based
on the reason that brings certitude that from such and such a causal condi­
tion such and such an effect occurs. For the ascertainment of the import of
the thesis radically refutes absolutism, and the ascertainment of the reason
radically refutes nihilism.
Therefore all things-inner, such as emotions, and outer, such as
sprouts-that occur in dependence on misknowledge and so forth and
seeds and so forth, respectively, being thus relative are not correctly estab­
lished as intrinsically identifiable. For if they were to be intrinsically objec­
tively established, it would be necessary for each to have an independent,
self-sufficient reality status, which would preclude their dependence on
causes and conditions. As Aryadeva says in the Four Hundred, "What ex­
ists relativistically will never become independent. All this is without inde­
pendence; hence the self does not exist."
By this one should realize that persons and things such as pots have no
intrinsically real status, since they are designated in dependence on their
own aggregation of components; this is the second formulation of the rea­
son of relativity. Since things are dependently produced and dependently
designated, they are not objectively the same as what they depend upon; for
if they were the same, all actions and agents would become the same.
Neither are those two objectively different; for if they were, any connection
could be refuted and that would preclude any dependence.
Thus having derived certitude about the voidness that is the voidness of
all the objectifying attitudes of substantivism, it is extremely praiseworthy
to assume responsibility for ethical choice by not abandoning the certitude
about the relevance of the evolutionary effects of actions. As Nagarjuna
states in the Disclosure of the Spirit of Enlightenment, "Knowing this void­
ness of things, the one who still takes responsibility for evolutionary ac­
tions and effects, this one is even more wondrous than wonder, even more
miraculous than miracles! "
To achieve this, one must distinguish between intrinsically real existence
and mere existence, and between lack of intrinsically identifiable existence
and nonexistence.
1 96 ". E S S E N T I A L T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

If you do not distinguish these kinds of existences and nonexistences,

you will not get beyond the two extremisms of reification and repudiation,
since as soon as something exists it will have objective existence, and once
something lacks objective existence it will become utterly nonexistent.
Therefore, in our system, we are free from all absolutisms by the absence
of intrinsic objectivity, and we are freed from all nihilisms by our ability to
present an intrinsically unreal causality in that very actuality of voidness of
objectivity.
Nagarjuna, thinking that the truthlessness of uncreated things such as
space, calculated cessation, uncalculated cessation, and thatness could be
easily proved once the truthlessness of persons and created things was
proved by the above-explained reasonings, stated in the Wisdom, "If cre­
ated things are utterly unestablished, how can uncreated things be estab­
lished? "
A s for the way in which it i s easy to prove: Once intrinsic reality i n cre­
ated things is negated as above, their nonreality is established as sufficient
for the presentation of all functions such as bondage and liberation, cause
and effect, and objects and means of knowledge. That being established,
then uncreated things also, such as reality and calculated cessation, even
though also lacking truth status, can still be well represented as the goals of
the paths, objects of knowledge, and as the Dharma jewel, refuge of disci­
ples. It is never said that "if one does not maintain these things as truths,
the systems that must present those things are invalid." Therefore there is
no point in maintaining the truth status of these (uncreated) things, since
truth status is not required for conventional viability.
Even if one did claim their truth status, one would still be required to
maintain their presentability as characterized by such and such characteris­
tics, as their being disconnected causes and disconnected effects, and as
their being cognized by such and such validating cognitions. And in that
case, if they are claimed to be not connected with their own means of at­
tainment, characteristics, and means of cognition, then one cannot avoid
the fault of all unconnected things being characteristic and characterized in
relation to each other and so forth. And if it is claimed that they are con­
nected, then, since it is impossible for a true, intrinsically real thing to de­
pend on anything else, the claim of connection cannot be sustained.
Thus one should negate truth status through the analysis of sameness
and difference. If this rational analysis cannot refute the truth status of
these uncreated things, then one cannot refute even in the slightest the truth
status of anything, since created things are completely similar.
Former scholars held many opinions about the grounds of differentia­
tion into the two realities. Here, knowable objects are the ground of differ-
 Practicing the Liberating Wisdom 197

entlatlOn, following Shantideva's statement in the Education Manual.

"Knowable objects are comprised by the superficial and ultimate realities."
They are divided into the two realities, superficial and ultimate, accord­
ing to Nagarj una's statement in the Wisdom: "The reality of the social su­
perficial and the reality of the ultimate object."
In the Lucid Exposition, Chandrakirti explains "superficial" in three
ways, as "a covering over reality," as "mutual dependence," and as "social
convention. " The latter of these is explained as having the nature of the ex­
pressed and its expression, the knowable and its knowledge, and so forth,
but by this the superficial reality is not to be understood either as including
all expressibles and knowables whatsoever, or as merely the expression and
cognition of subjective conventions. Now, the first of the above three is the
superficial represented as reality in superficial cognitions of forms and so
on. This is also the misknowledge that reifies existence of intrinsic reality in
things lacking in any intrinsically real objective status. For, truth status
being objectively impossible, truth is (merely) represented in cognition, and
there is no representation of truth in a cognition free of truth habits.

Actual Transcendent Insight

When you discover the view that realizes the two selflessnesses from the
above teaching of the necessary conditions for transcendent insight, you
should meditate on transcendent insight.
How many transcendent insights are there?
Here I have not mainly taught the high stages of transcendent insight but
have emphasized the transcendent insight to be meditated by common indi­
viduals. To completely analyze that type of transcendent insight, there are
the insights of the four realities, the insights of the three doors, and the in­
sights of the six investigations.
The insights of the four realities are stated in the Elucidation of the
Intention as the four, "discernment" and so forth. Among them, "discern­
ment" takes the contents of reality as its object, and "investigation" takes
the nature of reality as its object. The first contains thorough examination
and thorough analysis, and the second contains examination and analysis,
since they respectively discern coarse and subtle objects. The identification
of these four is stated in the Stages of the Disciples and in the Instruction in
Transcendent Wisdom.
The insights of the three doors are stated in the Elucidation of the
Intention as the insights arisen from signs, arisen from thorough investiga­
tion, and arisen from individual discrimination. As for the description of
these three, taking the import of selflessness as an example, first, selflessness
198 ". E S S E N T I A L T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

is identified, then it is taken as object, and then its significance is imprinted

in the mind without engaging in repeated determinations. The second stage
of insight consists of determinations in order to ascertain what was not pre­
viously certain. The third stage of insight is the analysis as above of the
identified import.
The insights of the six investigations are the thorough investigations and
individual discriminations of meaning, object, nature, orientation, time,
and reason. Insight investigating meaning investigates whether "the mean­
ing of this expression is this"; investigating objects considers "this is inter­
nal" or " this is external," and so forth; investigating nature, it investigates
whether "this is a particular nature or a general nature," or "this is a com­
mon nature or an uncommon nature"; investigating orientation, it investi­
gates the faults and disadvantages of negative orientations and the virtues
and benefits of positive orientations; investigating time, it investigates
"such happened in the past, such happens in the present, and such will hap­
pen in the future." Insight investigating reason, investigates through the
four types of reasoning; it investigates relational reasoning by viewing how
effects occur depending on causes and conditions, considering specifically
the objects of superficial and ultimate realities; it investigates functional
reasoning by investigating how things perform their specific functions, such
as fire by burning, considering "this is the phenomenon, this is the activity,
and this is the function it accomplishes"; it investigates logical reasoning by
investigating how things are established without contradicting validating
cognitions, considering whether "this is supported by perceptual, inferen­
tial, or scripturally testimonial validating cognitions or not"; and it investi­
gates natural reasoning by investigating the commonsensical natures, the
inconceivable natures, and the ultimate natures of things such as the heat of
fire and the wetness of water, respecting those natures and not considering
other possibilities. The presentation of these investigative insights as sixfold
is to be understood by the yogin, but they can definitely be included in three
categories, as concerned with verbal meanings, with phenomenal objects,
and with ultimate natures. The first investigative insight is in terms of the
first concern, objective investigation and particular nature investigation are
concerned with the second, and general nature investigative insight and the
other three are concerned with the third. The first-explained four insights
operate through three doors and manifest six modes of investigation, and
therefore the insights of the three doors and the insights of the six investiga­
tions are included in the insights of the four realities.
The four conscious attitudes explained above in the quiescence section,
such as the "balancing" attitude, are explained in the Stages of Disciples as
 Practicing the Liberating Wisdom 199

being common to both quiescence and insight, and thus there are also four
conscious attitudes in insight.
As for the way of practice, it is the procedure of first seeking quiescence
and then, based on that, subsequently practicing insight, and that is the rea­
son why quiescence and insight are differentiated by their different proce­
dures in practice, even though they may both take the same object, such as
selflessness. Especially, since the meditation of the two transcendent in­
sights-that concerned with the levels of peace through specific discern­
ment of the faults and virtues of the higher and lower realms, and that
concerned with selflessness cultivated through analysis with the wisdom of
the specific discrimination of the meaning of selflessness-is indispensably
necessary to generate a firm and intense certainty, it has the greater power
to abandon specific abandonees, defilements, and obscurations. As for the
phenomenologically concerned transcendent insight, it is not only the med­
itation concerned with levels of peace that abandons the manifest addic­
tions, but it is also stated by Ratnakarashanti in the Instruction to be the
analytic meditation that discerns the nature of the eighteen elements, by
which illustration one can understand the other insights meditated by dis­
tinguishing phenomenal objects.
Although Ratnakarashanti explains in the Instruction that one must
generate quiescence and insight on the stage of yoga oriented toward the
phenomenological before generating quiescence and insight oriented to­
ward the ontological, here, following the view of Shantideva and Kama­
lashila and others, insight is generated after first generating whatever sort
of quiescence, and I mean here the transcendent insight oriented ontologi­
cally toward ultimate reality.
The Esoteric Communion also explains the orientation toward mind­
only, as taught in the Visit to Lanka: "depending on mind alone, do not
imagine any external objects"; the orientation toward thatness; and the
teaching of the three stages of the yoga of nonappearance. It also appears
to explain, as above, the procedure of practice of quiescence and insight
through focused meditation and analytic meditation in the first two stages.
Thus it accepts a similar procedure of developing quiescence and insight in
the mental process oriented toward reality. My own interpretation is that
in the context of the Unexcelled Yoga the procedure of developing the un­
derstanding of the view must be practiced according to the central way
treatises. In practice, however, although sometimes there are conscious at­
titudes analytic of thatness during the aftermath intuitions of the creation
stage and perfection stage, and although the perfection stage yogin who
has achieved the ability to concentrate on the essentials in the body must
200 ". E S S E N T I A L TI B E T A N B UDDH I SM

definitely meditate through concentration on top o f his o r her view when

cultivating thatness in equipoise, there is no practice of the analytic medi­
tation of transcendent insight as explained in other treatises. Therefore in
that context you should not employ one-pointed reality meditation of
transcendent insight as explained in other treatises. Instead in that context
you should employ one-pointed reality meditation upon your view in al­
ternation with your employment of analytic meditation . . . .
If you do not discover the view of selflessness, no matter what method of
meditation you practice, your meditation will not abide on the import of
thatness. So you must discover that view. And even if you have an under­
standing of the view, if you do not remember the view when you meditate
on thatness and focus your meditation upon that, you will have no medita­
tion on reality. Further, if after each new session of analysis of the view you
focus your mind on not holding anything at all, it is not the cultivation of
reality of thatness. Further, practicing by remembering that view and just
focusing upon it is no more than the above practice of quiescence, and the
meaning of the treatises is not just to practice insight in alternation with
that. Therefore you should practice through the specific analysis by means
of wisdom of the import of selflessness, as explained above.
If you practice analytic meditation by itself, the quiescence you previ­
ously developed will decline, so you should practice analytic meditation
mounted on the horse of quiescence, now and then blending in periods of
focused meditation. Moreover, if you practice analytic meditation often,
your focusing decreases, so you should often return to focused meditation,
engaging in quiescence by itself. If the focused meditation is overdone, you
become averse to analysis or you ignore the functioning of your analysis,
and your mind becomes obsessed with one-pointed quiescence, and so you
should often return to analytic meditation. Your meditation has the great­
est power if you practice quiescence and insight in balanced proportion, so
that is how you should practice.
Thus it is not correct to hold that all thoughts occurring in analytic prac­
tice are substantivistic sign habits that are truth habits and therefore termi­
nate them; because, as I have repeatedly established, truth-habit thought is
only one tendency of thought. If you decide that rational negations over­
whelm whatever is held by discriminating thought, this becomes the nihilis­
tic repudiation that has overextended the rational negatee, and it is not the
meaning of the scriptures, as I have established. Yet you may still think
that, even if you do not assert that with regard to other subjects of concern,
whatever is held in cognition regarding ultimate nature is merely the prod­
uct of substantivistic sign habits that conceptualize truth status in things. In
fact, those sign habits are the fault of a defective habit pattern of mind and
 Practicing the Liberating Wisdom 20 I

do not function with regard to all objects cognized, because it is stated that
the egocentric individual desiring liberation must investigate reality from
many scriptural and rational perspectives.
Again you may think that the meditation on thatness, as it is for the pur­
pose of generating nondiscrimination, is not produced by analytic discrimi­
nation, since cause and effect must correspond in nature. The Lord himself
clearly answered this concern, in the Kashyapa Chapter: " Kashyapa, for
example, when you rub two sticks together, they produce fire and are them­
selves completely consumed in the process. In the same way, Kashyapa, au­
thentic analytic discrimination produces the faculty of holy wisdom, and,
being produced, it serves to consume that authentic discrimination itself. "
Here he clearly states that the holy wisdom is generated by discrimination.
Similarly Kamalashila states in his Middle Meditation Stages, "When the
yogi analyzes with wisdom and does not cognize as ultimately certain any
intrinsic objectivity of anything, he enters the samadhi free of discrimina­
tive thought, and he realizes the utter nonexistence of the intrinsic objectiv­
ity of things but merely meditates exclusively on the abandonment of all
conscious attitudes; he never eliminates that particular discrimination of
that absence of mental function, and he will never realize the utter nonexis­
tence of intrinsic objectivity, since he is devoid of the illumination of wis­
dom. Thus, from the authentic specific discrimination arises the fire of the
true wisdom of reality, like fire arisen from rubbing sticks, which then
burns the sticks of discrimination. This is what the Lord stated. " Otherwise
it would never happen that the uncontaminated would arise from the con­
taminated, the transcendental from the mundane, a Buddha from a living
being, a holy person from an alienated individual, and so forth. For in all
these cases the effect is dissimilar from the cause.
Nagarjuna states in the Disclosure of the Spirit of Enlightenment that
"where discriminations occur, how could there be voidness? The Trans­
cendent Lords do not perceive any mind in the form of discriminated and
discrimination; where there is discrimination and discriminated, there is no
enlightenment." But here he is teaching that enlightenment will not be at­
tained when truth status is perceived in discriminated and discrimination
and does not negate discriminative wisdom or the mere function of discrim­
inated and discrimination. Otherwise it would contradict his extensive de­
termination of thatness through many discriminative analyses in that text;
and if mere discrimination were meant, their not being seen by Buddha
means their nonexistence. Again Nagarjuna states in the same text,
"Voidness, called 'nonproduction,' 'voidness,' and 'selflessness,' if it is con­
templated as anything less, it does not serve as meditation on that. " This
does not refute meditation that takes voidness and selflessness intrinsically
202 "* E S S E N T I A L T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

unproduced as its object, but it refutes meditation on an inferior voidness,

the lesser nature that is conceived by holding those voidnesses as having
themselves truth status. As he states in the Transcendental Praise, "As you
taught the nectar of voidness to cure all mental constructions, you reject
those who adhere to it as true in itself." Likewise he said in the Jewel
Rosary that "thus neither self nor selflessness is apprehended in reality.
Therefore the Great Sage eliminated the views of self and selflessness."
Both self and selflessness have no objective status in reality, and so the view
that holds both as truly existing is eliminated. But this does not refute the
view of selflessness, because, as in the previous quote from the Rebuttal of
Objections, if it is not the case that there is realitylessness of intrinsically
real status, then intrinsically real status would become existent.
These ways of meditation occur also in the old instructions on the stages
of the path. Geshe Potowa says, in his Collected Sayings, that " some say
that you should rationally determine intrinsic realitylessness at the time of
study and reflection but meditate only on nondiscrimination at the time of
meditation. But such leads to an irrelevant voidness, which will not serve as
a remedy, since it is meditated as something else. Therefore, even at the

time of meditation, one should discriminatingly investigate the absence of

sameness and difference, or relativity, whatever you are used to, and also
fix oneself slightly in nondiscrimination. If you meditate like that, it reme­
dies the addictions. "
If you meditate through investigation b y discriminating wisdom in that
way, until you have achieved the previously explained ecstatic fluency, you
have a simulated transcendent insight. Once that ecstatic fluency is gener­
ated, you have the genuine transcendent insight. The actuality and method
of generating fluency is as already explained. Further, this must occur with­
out weakening of quiescence, and there is a fluency developed from that, so
merely having fluency is not enough. Then what is? If you can develop ec­
static fluency through the power of the practice of analytic meditation it­
self, that then becomes transcendent insight. This is the same whether it
involves the transcendent insight oriented toward the contents of reality or
the transcendent insight oriented toward the nature of reality.
Such a way of the integration of quiescence and insight must be under­
stood according to the teachings of the original treatises, and one should
not rely on other explanations that presume it to be otherwise. And you
should understand from my extensive Stages of the Path the extensive
details (of the teachings) of the "stages of the path of enlightenment" (tra­
dition) on the conclusive analyses through reasoning, the supportive scrip­
tural references, and the processes of meditation.
 Practicing the Liberating Wisdom 203

Praise of Buddha Shakyamuni for His Teaching of

Relativity: The Short Essence of Eloquence

by Tsong Khapa

Reverence to the Guru, Manjughosha!

I bow to that perfect Buddha, Supreme Philosopher,
Who taught us relativity, free of destruction, creation,
Nihilism, absolutism, coming, going, unity, and plurality;
The calm beyond all fabrications, the bliss supreme!
I bow down to Him whose insight and speech
Make Him unexcelled as Sage and Teacher;
The Victor, who realized ultimate truth,
Then taught us it as relativity!
Misknowledge itself is the very root
Of all the troubles in this fleeting world;
Who understood that and then reversed it
Taught universal relativity.
Thus how could it be possible
That the geniuses would not understand
This very path of relativity
As the vital essence of Your teaching?
Such being the case, who could discover
Anything even still more wonderful,
To sing Your praises for, 0 Savior,
Than Your teaching of relativity?
"Whatever depends upon conditions
Is empty of intrinsic reality!"
What excellent instruction could there be
More marvelous than this discovery?
Though the naive can seize upon it
As just confirming their extremist bonds,
The wise use that same (relativity)
To cut open fabrication's net.
This teaching is not seen elsewhere,
So You alone are titled Teacher,
204 .. E S S ENTI A L T I B ETAN B U D D H I S M

Mere flattery for fundamentalists,

As when you call a fox a lion!
Wondrous Teacher! Wondrous Refuge!
Wondrous Philosopher Supreme!
Wondrous Savior of the world!
I pay full homage to that Teacher
Who proclaimed universal relativity!
o benefactor! To heal all beings
You proclaimed (profound relativity),
The unrivaled reason to ascertain
Voidness, the essence of the teaching.
How can one who understands
The process of relativity
As contradictory, or unestablished,
Ever understand Your art?
Your position is that when one perceives
Voidness as the fact of relativity,
Such voidness of reality does not preclude
The viability of activity;
Whereas when one perceives the opposite,
Activity is impossible in voidness,
Voidness is lost during activity;
One falls into anxiety's abyss.
Thus experience of relativity
Is most recommended in Your teaching,
Neither that of utter nothingness
Nor that of intrinsically real existence.
The nonrelative is like a sky-flower,
So there is nothing nonrelational.
Things' existence with objective status
Precludes dependence on cause and condition.
Thus You said that just because no thing
Exists beyond relational occurrence,
So nothing can really exist beyond
Voidness of intrinsic reality.
 Practicing the Liberating Wisdom 205

You said if things had any self-reality,

Since such could never be reversed,
Nirvana would become impossible,
Since fabrications could not be reversed.
Dauntless in the assemblies of the wise,
You clearly uttered Your lion's roar,
"Let there be freedom from identity! "
Who would presume to challenge it?
All systems are completely viable,
Since the lack of intrinsic reality
And relativity do not conflict;
Never mind they complement each other.
"By the reason of relativity,
There are no grounds to hold extremist views ! "
For this excellent statement, You, Savior,
Are unexcelled among philosophers!
"All this objectively is voidness! "
And "From this cause comes this effect! "
These facts are mutually nonexclusive;
Certainties, they reinforce each other.
Than this, what could be more wondrous?
Than this, what miracle could more awe?
For this one principle, if You are praised,
It is real praise; and otherwise not so.
Those held in the thrall of delusions
Rise angrily to challenge You;
No wonder they should find unbearable
Your declaration of identitylessness!
But those who formally accept relativity,
The precious treasury of Your speech,
When they cannot bear the roar of voidness,
That really does amaze me!
The unexcelled relativity,
Doorway to identitylessness,
They hold it as a nominal identity;
How they deceive themselves!
206 ". E S S E N T I A L T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

These should be led by whatever art

Into that good path which pleases You,
The matchless haven well frequented
By all the supreme Holy Ones.
Intrinsic reality, uncreated and nonrelative,
And relativities, created and relational;
How can these two facts coincide
In a single instance without contradiction?
Therefore the relatively occurrent,
Though ever free of self-reality,
Appears as if intrinsically real;
So You said all this is like illusion.
From this very fact one well understands
The (centrists') statement that, the way You taught,
Those who would challenge Your teaching,
Rationally can find no fallacy.
Why? Because this Your elucidation
Makes utterly remote the tendencies
To reify and repudiate things
Empirical and hypothetical.
This very path of relativity,
Proof that Your speech is matchless,
Also generates complete certitude
Of the validity of Your other statements.
You speak well from experience of reality,
And those who train themselves under You
Go far beyond every kind of trouble,
Having abandoned the root of all evil.
But those who turn their backs on Your teaching,
Though they have struggled for a long time,
Decry many faults once outside again,
Because of a firm conviction about the self.
o wonder! The wise one understands the difference
Between following and not following your teaching.
Then how could he fail to feel most deeply
Great respect for You (and Your teaching) ?
 Practicing the Liberating Wisdom ;"0 7

What need is there to mention Your many teachings?

To find even a rough, general certainty
About the precise meaning of even a small part
Confers, even that, the supreme happiness!
Alas, my mind conquered by confusion,
Though I came from afar to seek refuge
In the profusion of Your excellence,
I could not embody its smallest part.
Yet when I stand before the lord of death,
And the stream of life is not quite ended,
I will consider myself fortunate
To have even this slightest faith in You.
Among teachers, the Teacher of relativity,
Among wisdoms, the wisdom of relativity;
These are like imperial victors in the world,
Making You world champion of wisdom, over all.
Whatever You taught is penetrated
By means of relativity itself,
And since that really becomes Nirvana,
No deed of Yours does not deliver peace.
Yea! Whoever hears Your teaching
Finds liberating peace in everything;
So who could possibly not respect
The upholders of such a teaching?
As it overcomes all oppositions,
Is free from internal contradictions,
And fulfills both goals of human beings,
My delight ever grows for this system.
For the sake of this, You gave away
Again and again during innumerable aeons
Sometimes body, other times life,
Loved ones, and great wealth of possessions.
When I see such excellence of Yours,
I see that Your great heart brings forth the teaching,
Just like the fishhook drags out the fish;
What a sorry fate not to hear it from You!
1.08 ". E S S EN T I A L T I B ETAN B U D D H I S M

But even with the force of that sorrow,

I will not let my mind waver (from the teaching),
As the mind of the mother
Always goes after her beloved child.
And even when I think upon Your speech,
"That Teacher, full-orbed with nets of light-rays,
Blazing with glory of auspicious signs and marks,
Spoke in this way with his Brahma voice! "
Then the image o f great Shakyamuni
Just dawning in mind, heals me well,
As moon-rays heal the pains of fever.
Though that good system is thus marvelous,
Inexpert persons get totally confused
In every respect, as if they were
Tangled up in jungle grasses.
Having understood this problem,
I schooled myself in writings of skilled sages,
Studying with manifold exertions,
Seeking Your intent again and again.
And I studied numerous treatises
Of the Buddhist and the non-Buddhist schools,
Yet unremittingly my intellect
Was still tormented in the trap of doubt.
So I went to the night-lily garden of Nagarjuna's works,
Prophesied to elucidate correctly
The art of Your final Vehicle,
Free of the extremes of being and nothing.
There I saw, by the kindness of the Mentor,
All illuminated by garlands of white light
The true eloquence of the glorious Chandra moon,
Whose expanding orb of taintless wisdom
Courses freely in the sky of Scripture,
Dispels the darkness of extremist hearts,
Eclipses constellations of false truths;
And then my mind at last obtained relief!
Of all His deeds, His speech is the supreme.
And for this very reason, true sages
 Practicing the Liberating Wisdom 20 9

Should commemorate a perfect Buddha

For this teaching of relativity. . . .
I renounced the world on the example of that Teacher,
My study of the Victor's speech is not inferior,
I am a Buddhist monk, energetic in yoga practice;
And such is my respect for that great Seer!
By my Mentor's kindness, I was thus fortunate to meet
The liberating teaching of the unexcelled Teacher,
And I dedicate this virtue as a cause of all beings'
Being looked after by the holy spiritual teachers.
May the teaching of that Benefactor, 'til world's end,
Be undisturbed by the winds of wrong prejudices,
And, finding faith in the Teacher by understanding
The natural way of the teaching, may it ever increase!
May I uphold the wholesome system of Shakyamuni
That illumines the principle of relativity,
Through all my lives, though I give up body and even life!
And may I never give it up, even for an instant!
May I spend all day and night reflecting
On the methods to propagate this teaching,
Achieved by that best Leader through boundless hardships,
By making strenuous efforts the essence (of His lives ! )
As I strive in this way with pure high resolve,
May Brahma, Indra, and the world protectors,
And Mahakala and the other Dharma defenders,
Always befriend me without fail!

Discovery of Mother Voidness

by Jankya Rolway Dorje

o thatness of profound Relativity-O Wonder!

May the Guru who nakedly reveals this as it is,
His kindness irrepayable, be enthroned in my heart!
I will speak spontaneously whatever comes to mind!
210 "* E S S E N T I A L T I B ET A N B U D D H I S M

I was like a mad child, long lost his old mother,

Never could find her, though she was with him always!
But now it seems I'm about to find that kind old Ama,
Since Big Brother Relativity hints where she hides,
I think, "Yes, yes!"-then, "No, no! "-then, "Could it be, really! "
These various subjects and objects are my Mother's smiling face!
These births, deaths, and changes are my Mother's lying words!
My undeceiving Mother has deceived me!
My only hope of refuge is in Brother Relativity!
The sole chance for freedom is just old Mother's love;
If this subject-object situation were all there was to it,
The three-time Buddhas could find no way to save us!
But liberation is possible, since these various changes
Are but the changes of my unchanging Mother!
The mutual interdependence
Of ineffable Mother where nothing has status,
And Relativity where everything appears,
Is exactly what must be understood!
Seeking my oid Father, and just not finding,
Is the actual finding of my oid Mother,
Then from my Mother's lap I find my oid Father-
I, child of such kind parents, cry out for their refuge!
When Mother's neither one nor many faces
Seemed to be there ineffably reflected
In the clear mirror of Big Brother Relativity­
How crazy I was, not to start this quest!
The generous testaments of Nagarjuna and Chandrakirti
Were but papers blowing in the wind, until Tsong Khapa,
Manjugarbha, sent his retriever hawk to get them.
Then was I saved the trials of far questing
And allowed to see my oid Mother, natural here with me.
Nowadays some of the bright ones of our school,
Fond of terms such as "self-sufficiency" and "truth status,"
Seem to put aside what obviously appears before them
And seek some fabulous unicorn to be critiqued!
They never acknowledge this obvious appearance.
 Practicing the Liberating Wisdom 2II

They explain and explain, not reaching the crux,

And that old Mother completely escapes them!
Though things surely do exist somehow,
Their reality seems not to be this horny incompatibility,
Since the intimacy of Father-Mother union
Seems inseparably tender and cozy!
The systematists, traditionists, and idealists,
And the dogmaticist centrist masters,
Describe the Mother's snow-white elephant body
With such a wide variety of designations-
"The fierce striped tiger of substantial objects! "
"The brainless, mad monkey of pure subjectivity! "
"The powerful bear of self-sufficient nonduality! "
But they all miss the presence of old Mother!
The many sages of Sakya, Nyingma, Kagyu, Drugpa, and so on
Proclaim their traditions' various conventions for Her;
"Subjectless clarity-voidness-self-awareness! "
"Primal, spontaneous true face of Samantabhadra!"
"Nonartificial, innate Great Seal! "
"Freedom from assertions beyond something and nothing! "
All these are fine, they all d o hit on the real situation,
But let them press down a little on their own noses
And ask themselves honestly, "Is it really so? "
Cheer up, you realists, no need to b e nervous,
Since external things are not done away with!
Cheer up, you idealist philosophers,
Validation works, even without apperception!
Cheer up, you dogmaticist centrist masters,
Relativity has beauty even without identifiability!
No need to worry, you holders of personal lineages,
It's fine even to hold clarity-voidness union!
Your mystic sages need not insist on all-goodness,
Since even in primal purity good and bad apply!
You wise old sages need not be too stubborn,
Since the innate will arise even in willful meditation!
And you hardheaded critics, don't get too excited,
It's fine to assert freedom from something and nothing!
212 "* E S S ENTIAL T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

I acknowledge of course that those unfamiliar with texts

Cannot know the technicalities of using conventions,
So it is not that I do not respect their attainments;
If any feelings are hurt, please forgive me!
Though by no means am I an heir to omniscience,
Through skill with the reins of analysis and devotion,
I rode well the fine stallion of the ancestral texts
And won my way to freedom from the abyss.
No need to seek her, she's the seeker himself!
Don't cling to her truth; she is utter falsehood!
Don't negate her falseness, it is truth itself!
It's sufficient to rest in the unabsolute unceased!
Though I don't see my Mother, by her mere name
It seems I meet my long-lost kind parents,
As if face to face!
Great thanks, 0 Nagarjuna and sons!
Great thanks, 0 Tsong Khapa Lama!
Great thanks, 0 kind Mentor Lama!
As the way to repay all your kindness,
I thus honor our Mother the Void!
My unproduced, inexpressible old Mother
Cradles gently the tiny infant of intellect;
With the banquet of her perfectly good expressions,
May she lead all beings to true happiness!
E MA LA-Rolway Dorje!
A 0 LA-I dance with joy!
A H O LA-I worship the Three Jewels!
 C H A PTER 7

Practicing the Creation Stage

 The Quintessence Segment

Then bless me to embark in the boat to cross the ocean of the

Tantras,
Through the kindness of the captain Vajra-master,
Holding vows and pledges, root of all powers,
More dearly than life itself!
Bless me to perceive all things as the deity body,
Cleansing the taints of ordinary perception and conception
Through the yoga of the first stage of Unexcelled Tantra,
Changing birth, death, and between into the three Buddha bodies!

Glorious Esoteric Communion Self-Creation Yoga

by Lama Tsong Khapa

NAMO GURU MANJUGHOSHAYA !

May the glorious, precious root Mentor
sit in the lotus of my heart
and sustain me with his great kindness.
May he grant attainments of body, speech, and mind!
I invoke the glorious Losang Drakpa,
who lovingly teaches just as he sees
the complete essence of the path of all Sutra and Tantra,
who holds the complete holy Dharma of the Victor.
I invoke the feet of the Holy Mentor,
supreme guide leading beings to liberation,
seeing this life impermanent as a bubble
and samsara coreless like a plantain tree.
I invoke the feet of the Omniscient One,
perfect fruit of enlightenment's evergreen tree,
grown on the ground of equanimity,
from compassion-seeds watered by the rain of love.
I invoke the effortless servant of others,
in ordinary form for the sake of the less intelligent,

214
 Practicing the Creation Stage 2 I 5

yet complete with the mandala of thirty-two deities,

the five families with the four consorts and so on.
I invoke the Omnipresent Lord Vajradhara,
who achieves beings' aims with limitless incarnations,
with the vow of the inseparable vajra union,
base of the whole mandala, residents and environment.
I invoke the feet of Lodro Rinchen
· . . Savior Nagarjuna,
· . . Matangipa,
I invoke the feet of Tilopa, Sri Jnana,
who, attaining powers, went to the pure land of bliss,
and blessed by the holy Dakini-angel,
performed more deeds than a thousand Buddhas.
I invoke the feet of Narotapa,
in whose heart was born the illusory samadhi,
who performed many very difficult feats
in the eastern city, as the Dakini prophesied.
I invoke the feet of the translator Marpa,
· . . Wangi Dorje,
· . . Sonam Rinchen,
· . . Tsultrim Kyab,
· . . Zhonu 0 of Serding,
· . . Choku Ozer of Deding,
· . . Phagpa 0 of Lake Jo,
· . . Khyungpo Lhaspa, supreme master,
· . . Losang Drakpa,
Zang Kyongwa, who sees all things,
Sherap Senge, crown jewel of the wise, and
Palden Zangpo, master of the triple canon.
Jamyang Gedun Pelwa, best master, bright as Manjushri,
Trashi Pagpa, vajra holder, and
Samdrup Gyatso, unconfused in all things.
Tzondru Pagpa, who reached the stage of accomplishment,
Dorje Zangpo, who attained the supreme discipline, and
Sangye Gyatso, the holder of the discipline.
Kaydrup Gyatso, transcendent in realization,
216 "* E S S E N T I A L T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

Konchok Yarpel, holder of the treasury of oral traditions,

and Ngawang Tzondru, knower of the five sciences.
Gedun Puntsog, holding the freedoms of mind,
Gyachen Tso, treasury of supreme and common powers,
Wangchuk lay, wise and adept in the essential.
The wise and loving Vajradhara, Ngawang Chogden,
Kelsang Gyatso, Ocean Savior, ambassador of Buddhas.
Lozang Penden Yeshe, whose compassion exceeded all Victors,
and Losang lampel, springtime of bounty of the ocean of Victors.
I acknowledge and repent to all the Saviors,
whatever proscribed and natural evil actions I performed,
had performed, and rejoiced at,
while gripped by addictions in former times.
I invoke the live and ancestral masters,
may they bless my mental stream;
embarking on the ship of the profound two stages,
may I enter the ocean of omniscient wisdom!
May I swiftly attain the exaltation of Vajradhara,
never parting in all lives from the true masters,
enjoying the glory of the Dharma and perfecting
the virtues of the stages and paths!

Instantaneous Self-Creation

In a split second I myself become the blue-black Fury Vajra, with three
faces, black, white, and red; six arms holding vajra, wheel, and lotus in the
right, and bell, jewel, and sword in the left; embraced by Touch Vajra simi­
lar to myself. We are both adorned with the eight jeweled ornaments, our
shoulders draped with heavenly shawls, our waists covered with divine
silken robes.

Inner Sacrifice

OM AH VIGHNANTAKRT HUM.
OM SHUNYATA JNANA VAJ RA SVABHAVA ATMAKO HAM.
All becomes emptiness. From the actuality of emptiness comes HUM YAM
HUM, from the gray-blue YAM arises a semicircular blue-green disk of wind,
adorned on the two sides by two five-point vajras, arising from the HUMS.
Upon that, there is HUM RAM HUM, from the red RAM arises a triangular
red fire plane, adorned on the two sides by two vajras arising from two
 Practicing the Creation Stage 2 I 7

HUM S . Upon that arising from OM AH HUM, a tripod of human heads and
above that arising from AH a skull, red inside and white outside. Within it
from an AH arises an eight-petaled red lotus marked with AH. In its center
are the five meats and the five nectars. In the sky above them on a solar
seat, arising from HUM is a five-point white vajra, whose center is marked
by HUM. From it light radiates, wind stirs, fire blazes, and the substances in
the skull melt and boil. The vajra with its solar seat falls within, and the
substances become equal in flavor. All taints are purified, and it becomes
translucent as milk-white crystal. The lotus with its AH melts, and a light
bright as sunlight blazes forth, and all naturally becomes the nectar of wis­
dom. The light-rays of OM like a laser hook attract the wisdom of all
Transcendent Lords of the ten directions; merging it expands into an ocean.
OM AH HUM (7X)

Sense Offerings

OM AH VI GHNANTAKRT HUM.
OM SHUNYATA JNANA VAJRA SVABHAVA ATMAKO HAM
HUM All becomes emptiness. From the actuality of emptiness from AH,
there are vast expansive skull bowls; inside each is its letter, such as AM,
PAM, PUM, adorned with a squiggle. Therefrom arise offering water, water
for the feet, water for the mouth, food, flowers, incense, light, scent, food,
music. Their nature is bliss emptiness, their aspects are the offering sub­
stances, and their function is to give special uncontaminated bliss to the six
sense bases.
OM ARGHAM AH HUM. OM PADYAM AH HUM. OM ANCAMANAM AH
H UM. OM PROKSHANAM AH HUM. OM PUSHPE AH HUM. OM DHUPE
AH HUM. OM ALOKE AH HUM. OM GANDHE AH HUM. OM NAIVI DYE AH
HUM. OM SHABDA AH HUM.

Mandala Offering to Mentors

OM VAJ RA BHUMI AM HUM. The golden ground of great power

OM VAJ RA REKHE AH HUM. The outer iron mountain wall around
OM HAM S UMADHYA MAIRAVE NAMA. Mount Sumeru in the center
OM YAM PURVAVI DEHAYA NAMA. Purvavideha in the east
OM RAM JAMBUDVI PAYA NAMA. Jampudvipa in the south
OM LAM APARAGAVCARYA NAMA. Aparagaucarya in the west
OM VAM UTTARAKURAVE NAMA. Uttara Kuru in the north
OM YAM UPADVI PAYA NAMA. ( 2X) Lu and Pupag islands
218 • E S S ENTIAL T I B ETAN B U D D H I S M

O M RAM UPADVI PAYA NAMA ( 2x)-Ngayab and Ngayabshen islands

OM LAM UPADVI PAYA NAMA ( 2x ) -Yoden and Lamchoktro islands
OM VAM U PADVIPAYA NAMA ( 2x)-Draminyen and Draminyenjida
islands
OM YAM GAJA RATNAYA NAMA-precious elephant
OM RAM PURUSHA RATNAYA NAMA-precious minister
OM LAM ASHVA RATNAYA NAMA-precious horse
OM VAM STRI RATNAYA NAMA-precious queen
OM YAM KHADGA RATNAYA NAMA-precious general
OM RAM CHAKRA RATNAYA NAMA-precious wheel
OM LAM MANI RATNAYA NAMA-precious jewel
OM VAM MAHANIDHI RATNAYA NAMA-great treasure
OM S URYAYA NAMA-sun
OM CANDRAYA NAMA-moon
Taking up in mind the all-good precious mandala with the mass of totally
good offerings with the forces of virtue of past, present, and future enjoy­
ments of body, speech, and mind of myself and others, I offer it to the
Mentor, deities, and the Three Jewels. Accepting it out of your great com­
passion, please look after us.
l OAM GURU RATNA MANDALA KAM NIRYATAYAMI

Refuge

I always take refuge in the Bliss Lords, who practice the play of mind like a
taintless moon, using the limitless arts of their holy compassion-may they
always abide in my mind!
I always take refuge in the holy Dharma, the reality uniformly experi­
enced in all things, ground of the successes of all holy spiritual heroes, sure
liberator from all superstitions!
I take refuge in the Community of the lords of discipline, truly freed
from all bonds, endowed with the glory of best compassion, established on
stages such as the joyous!
May I conceive the holy spirit of enlightenment, the mind adorned by in­
tense aspiration, wherein the instincts for all obscurations are eradicated by
the purification of thought and evolutionary effects. ( 3X)
 Practicing the Creation Stage 2 1 9

Vajrasattva Meditation

From PAM on my crown a lotus and from AH a moon disk, upon them
from HUM a five-pointed white vajra, marked in the center with HUM.
From that vajra light radiates, then from its gathering together there arises
a white Vajrasattva with one face, two arms holding vajra and bell. His
consort, white Vajradhatvishravi, has one face and two arms holding skull
and diamond chopper, embracing him. Both are adorned with various jew­
eled ornaments. He sits in the vajra position; upon a moon in his heart
there is a white HUM radiating light, inviting wisdom heroes similar to
himself.
OM VAJRASATTVA SAPARIVARA
ARGHAM PADYAM PUSHPE DHUPE ALOKE
GANDHE NAIVI DYE SHABDA PRATICCHA HUM SVAHA
JAH HUM BAM HOH
May they become indivisible! Again, light radiates from the heart HUM,
inviting consecration deities
OM PANCHAKULA SAPARIVARA ARGHAM PADYAM PUSHPE DHUPE
ALOKE GANDHE NAIVI DYE SHABDA PRATICCHA HUM SVAHA
May all Transcendent Lords openly please confer consecration. When I
pray thus, they hold up a vessel filled with wisdom nectar and confer con­
secration upon him.
OM SARVA TATHAGATA ABHISHEKHATA SAMAYA SH RIYE HUM
The body becomes filled with wisdom nectar, and he becomes adorned
on the crown by Akshobhya. "Lord Vajrasattva, please cleanse and purify
all losses of vows and all sins and obscurations of myself and others. " By
praying thus, light radiates from the heart HUM purifying the sins and de­
filements of all beings, also offerings are given to the Buddhas and
Bodhisattvas, and all their virtues are concentrated into light, dissolving
into the heart HUM making his luster and energy outstanding.
OM VAJ RASATTVASAMAYAM. ANUPALAYA VAJRASATTVENOPA-
TISHTHA. DRDHO ME BHAVA. SUTOSHYO ME BHAVA. S U POSHYO ME
BHAVA. ANURAKTO ME BHAVA. SARVASI D DHIM ME PRAYACCHA. SARVA
KARMASUCHA ME. CHITTAM SHRIYAM KURU HUM. HA HA HA HA HOH
220 .. E S S EN T I A L T I B E T A N B U D D H I S M

BHAGAVAN. SARVA TATHAGATA VAJRA M A M E MUNCHA. VAJRI BHAVA.

MAHA SAMAYA SATTVA AH HUM PHAT. (2IX)
"0 Mentor, my protector, please give refuge, deluded by my ignorance I
have broken and lost my vows. Chief holder of the vajra, whose nature is
great compassion, I take refuge in the leader of beings. "
Vajrasattva says: " Gentle son, all your sins and broken vows are puri­
fied." He dissolves into me and my body, speech, and mind become indivis­
ible from his.

Refuge Evocation

I myself become the luminous Akshobhyavajra. The blue HUM on the varie­
gated lotus and sun disk in my heart emits light-rays like laser hooks that
draw the deities of the Akshobhya mandala, indivisible from the vajra mas­
ter, down from their natural abodes. The light-rays return to my own heart.
OM SARVATATHAGATA ARGHAM PAOYAM PUSHPE • • , . • • • • ,

OHUPE ALOKE . GANDHE

• . NAIVIDYE
. • . SHABDA RUPA
• • • • . • . . •

• SHABOA . . . GANOHA
• . RASA S PARSHE PUJAMEGHASAMU­
. • . . . •

ORA S PARANASAMAYA SHRIYE AH HUM

I salute those magnificent deities like Bodhichittavajra, including forms,
sensations, notions, emotions, cognitions, the six media, the six faculties,
and earth, water, fire, air, and space!
I salute those magnificent deities like Bodhichittavajra, including igno­
rance, pride, lust, and those of vajra clan, emerged from constant contact
with the knowledge consort, manifesting wild joy of various delights!
I salute those magnificent deities like Bodhichittavajra, Takkiraja,
Niladanda, Mahabala, Achala, Sumbharaja, Ushnisharaja, Yamantaka,
Prajnantaka, Hayagriva, and Vighnantaka!
In the presence of the greatly compassionate ones, I confess and repent
with proper rites all mistakes caused by misperceptions in this timeless
ocean of existence.
I rejoice heartily in all the virtues accomplished by perfect Buddhas,
Bodhisattvas, or by other saints, and I dedicate them to final enlightenment.
I always take refuge in the Bliss Lords, who practice the play of mind
like a taintless moon, using the limitless techniques of their holy compas­
sion-may they always abide in my mind!
 Practicing the Creation Stage 221

I always take refuge in the holy Dharma, the reality uniformly experi­
enced in all things, ground of the successes of all holy spiritual heroes, sure
liberator from all superstitions!
I take refuge in the Community of the lords of discipline, truly freed
from all bonds, endowed with the glory of superior compassion, who have
reached the stages such as joy!
May I create the holy spirit of enlightenment, adorned by the lofty aspi­
ration, which purifies the resolve and maturity to eradicate the instincts for
all obscurations!
May that mind which is the actuality of perfect enlightenment now truly
abide on the sole path of all Bliss Lords, the way of tenfold pure excellence,
such as generosity and so on!
May all the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas please think of me! I,
Akshobhyavajra, from this time forth until I come to the seat of enlighten­
ment, may I conceive the holy, unexcelled spirit of enlightenment, just as
the three-times protectors certainly accomplished their enlightenment. I
will uphold firmly all three ethics, that of the vow of restraint, that of
achieving virtue, and that of helping beings. I uphold from now on the
vow arisen from the Buddha yoga of the unexcelled Three Jewels: Buddha,
Dharma, and Sangha. I will truly uphold also the holy masters. I will al­
ways give the four kinds of gifts each day at the six times in keeping the
delightful vow of the great supreme jewel clan. In regard to the great pure
lotus clan arising from the great enlightenment, I will hold each Dharma'
of the Three Vehicles: outer, inner, and secret. I will uphold truly each and
every vow I have in the great supreme karma clan, and I will do what I can
of ritual offerings. I will conceive the holy unexcelled spirit of enlighten­
ment for the sake of all sentient beings. I will uphold all the vows com­
pletely. I will save those not yet saved. I will deliver those not yet delivered.
I will console those not consoled. I will establish sentient beings III
Nirvana.
May the members of the assembly field return to their own abodes!

Ordinary Protection Wheel

TAKKI HUM JAH-around the terrible ones there is a fence of iron vajras
TAKKI HUM JAH-outside that a water fence
TAKKI HUM JAH-outside that a fire fence
TAKKI HUM JAH-outside that a wind fence
222 • E S S ENTIAL T I B ETAN B U D D H I S M

From HUM upon the iron fence a vajra tent like a stupa, under the tent
upon the fence a vajra canopy. Beneath this to the ground from HUM the
vajra ground. In all the outer directions there is a net of arrows radiating,
fiercely blazing with wisdom fire. On the crown moon of the deities a white
OM, on the throat lotus a red AH, and on the heart sun a blue HUM-OM
AH HUM ( 3x).

Creation of the Mandala Universe

There being no things, there is no meditator, nothing to meditate upon, and

no meditation; since things are without reality, meditation is not to be per­
ceived.
Since all animate and inanimate things are ultimately without reality,
they have the nature of emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness, wherein
meditated, meditation, and meditator are not perceived.
From the actuality of emptiness in a split second, in the center of the
complete vajra ground, replete with fence, tent, canopy, and fire mountain,
there is a white triangular reality source standing upright with an expansive
top and tapered base. Within its fine lower point in the center of a lotus
there is HUM YAM HUM. From the blue-gray YAM comes a blue bow­
shaped wind mandala, and from the two HUMS come two vajras to adorn
the two sides. Upon that HUM RAM HUM from the red RAM comes a red tri­
angular fire mandala, and from two HUMS come two vajras to adorn the
two sides. Upon that HUM RAM HUM from the white RAM comes a round
white water mandala, and from the two HUMS come two vajras to adorn
the two sides. Upon that HUM LAM HUM from the yellow LAM comes a
square yellow earth mandala, and from the two HUMS come two vajras to
adorn the two sides. These being in reality the four goddesses, Lochana and
so on, from the merging into one of the four mandalas there arises a double
vajra on which is manifest a white BHRUM radiating light-rays of clouds of
Buddhas, from which arises the square four-doored divine palace.
Its walls have five layers, from the outside in, white, yellow, red, green,
and blue. Near the top of the wall is a red j ewel frieze, adorned with jew­
eled squares and triangles. Its plate is formed by four golden colonnades.
Over that protrude rafters shaped like crocodile heads, from whose mouths
hang pearl nets and half nets. Outside that, jewel pendants hang from the
edge of the roof. Above that is a balustrade in the shape of half lotus petals.
It is beautified by eight banners and eight victory standards, which stand in
golden vases. Four royal umbrellas adorn the four outer corners. At the
foot of the outer wall there is a red ledge, on which dance offering god-
 Practicing the Creation Stage 22 3

desses in various postures and colors, worshiping and making offerings.

Vajra-decorated red gems stand on half moons in the outer portals of the
gates and arches and at the inner and outer corners of the walls.
In front of each of the four doors there are gold triumphal arches, each
supported by four pillars rising from vase-shaped footings, holding up the
arch's facade of eleven layers, decorated with gold disks, pendants, jewels,
silver horseshoes, munnam jewels, waranda stripes, pendants, jewels,
hooves, and a parapet. At the peak of each arch there is a Dharma wheel
flanked by a buck and a doe. On the right and left sides of the arches are
wish-fulfilling gem trees growing from fine vases, bearing the seven pre­
cious necessities of a kingdom. All around are yogin Adepts. Goddesses
leaning from the clouds hold garlands of flowers and beautify the mansion.
On the floor of the divine palace, halfway within the mandala, is a raised
circular beam with five-color lights on the outside and with three-pointed
vajras on the inner side. Upon this in the east is a wheel, the south a jewel,
the west a lotus, and the north a sword. There are two pillars on each side,
which support the diamond roof beams that beautifully uphold the roof, its
peak adorned with a jewel and a vajra.
On the right and left of each cardinal section of this upper stage are two
jewel vessels each filled with nectar, with eight vessels in all. This supreme
good palace of qualities exceeding gods and humans is clearly transparent
from the outside in and clearly transparent from the inside out.
All the surfaces above and below are white in the east, yellow in the
south, red in the west, green in the north, and blue in the center. Within
there are thirty-one lotus seats; the central one and the ten terrible ones
have sun cushions, the easterners, such as Vairochana, have moon cush­
ions, Mamaki has a vajra seat, and the other southerners have jewel seats;
westerners have red lotus seats, and northerners have crossed vajra seats.
Upon these seats, in a split second by merely intense aspiration, all thirty­
two deities simultaneously become perfectly manifest.
On the central seat is myself as blue Vajradhara: three faces, blue, white,
and red; six arms holding vajra, wheel, and lotus in the right, and bell,
jewel, and sword in the left, hair tied up in a crown ornament; adorned by
the thirty-two marks and eighty signs. My consort is blue Sparshavajra
with Akshobhya crown: three faces, blue, white, and red; six arms holding
vajra, wheel, and lotus in the right, and bell, jewel, and sword in the left.
Her hair in the half-bound coiffure, extremely graceful with a smiling face,
beautiful with gestures such as sidelong glances. Her beauty is fully mature,
and she playfully delights with the five objects of desire. With our first two
arms, we hold each other in mutual embrace. We are adorned with the
224 "* E S S ENTIAL T I B ETAN B U D D H I S M

eight jeweled ornaments: jeweled crown, jeweled earrings together with a

blue utpala flower beautified with ribbons, jeweled necklace, pearl sash,
precious bracelets, anklets, and jeweled belt sash. Our shoulders are draped
with heavenly shawls, and our waists covered with divine silk. We sit in an
aura of light in the enlightened hero posture.
In the east there is white Vairochana with Akshobhya crown: three
faces, white, black, and red; six arms holding wheel, vajra, and white lotus
in the rights, and bell, jewel, and sword in the lefts. In the south yellow
Ratnasambhava with Akshobhya crown: three faces, yellow, black, and
white; six arms holding jewel, vajra, and wheel in the rights, and bell, yel­
low lotus, and sword in the lefts. In the west red Amitabha with Akshob­
hya crown: three faces, red, black, and white; upper left hand holding bell
with the stem of a red lotus, upper right hand holding a flowering lotus at
the heart, other right hands a vajra and wheel, left hands a jewel and
sword. In the north green Amoghasiddhi with Akshobhya crown: three
faces, green, black, and white; six arms holding sword, crossed vajra, and
wheel in the rights, and bell, green lotus, and jewel in the lefts. Southeast,
white Lochana with Vairochana crown: three faces, white, black, and red;
six arms holding wheel, vajra, and pundarika in the rights, and bell, jewel,
and sword in the lefts. Southwest, blue Mamaki with Akshobhya crown:
three faces, blue, white, and red; six arms holding vajra, wheel, and purple
lotus in the rights, and bell, jewel, and sword in the lefts. Northwest, red
Pandaravasini with Amitabha crown: three faces, red, black, and white;
upper left holds bell and root stems of a red lotus, upper right opens it at
her heart. Northeast, green Tara with Amoghasiddhi crown: three faces,
green, black, and white; six arms holding crossed vajra, wheel, and vajra­
marked lotus in the rights, and bell, jewel, and sword in the lefts.
In the second row out, southeast, white Rupavajra with Vairochana
crown: three faces, white, black, and red; two upper hands holding a red
mirror, other right hands a vajra and pundarika, left hands a jewel and
sword. Southwest, yellow Shabdavajra with Ratnasambhava crown: three
faces, yellow, black, and white; two upper hands playing blue lute, other
right hands wheel and purple lotus, left hands a jewel and sword.
Northwest, red Gandhavajra with Amitabha crown: three faces, red, black,
and white; two upper hands holding a conch vessel of scent, other right
hands a vajra and wheel, left hands a jewel and sword. Northeast, green
Rasavajra with Amoghasiddhi crown: three faces, green, black, and white;
two upper hands holding vessels of flavors, other right hands a wheel and
vajra-marked lily, left hands a jewel and sword. All eight of the goddesses
have hair in half-bound coiffures, extremely graceful with smiling faces,
beautiful with gestures such as sidelong glances. Their beauty is fully ma-
 Practicing the Creation Stage 225

ture, and they playfully delight with the five objects of desire. They sit in
vajra position in their seats in the center of a shining halo of light.
On the (facing center) right and left seats at the eastern door are respec­
tively white Maitreya and Kshitigarha with Vairochana crowns: three faces,
white, black, and red; six arms holding wheel, vajra, and pundarika in the
rights, and bell, jewel, and sword in the lefts. Maitreya also holds in the
upper right a wheel-marked naga tree flower. On the right and left seats at
the southern door are respectively yellow Vajrapani and Aksagarbha with
Ratnasambhava crowns: three faces, yellow, black, and white; hand imple­
ments like Ratnasambhava. On the right and left seats at the western door
are respectively red Lokeshvara and Manjushri with Amitabha crowns:
three faces, red, black, and white; hand implements like Amitabha. On the
right and left seats at the northern door are respectively green Sarva­
nivarana Viskhambhini and Samantabhadra with Amoghasiddhi crowns:
three faces, green, black, and white; hand implements like Amoghasiddhi.
All deities from Vairochana to Samantabhadra have hair in royal topknot
wearing jeweled crowns, jeweled earrings together with a blue utpala
flower beautified with ribbons, jeweled necklaces, pearl sashes, precious
bracelets, anklets, and jeweled belt sashes. Upper bodies are draped with
cloth of heavenly shawls and the lower bodies covered with divine silks.
Adorned by the thirty-two marks and eighty signs. At peace in an orb of ra­
diant light, each one is seated in the vajra position.
In the eastern door black Yamantaka with Vairochana crown: three
faces, black, white, and red; six arms holding staff, wheel, and vajra in the
rights, and noose over chest with threatening gesture, bell and ax in the
lefts. In the southern door white Prajnantakrt with Ratnasambhava crown:
three faces, white, black, and red; six arms holding vajra-marked white
staff, and sword in the rights, and noose over chest with threatening ges­
ture, bell and ax in the lefts. In the western door red Hayagriva with
Amitabha crown: three faces, red, black, and white; six arms holding lotus,
sword, :ind pounder in the rights, and bell on the hip, ax and noose in the
lefts. In the northern door black Vighnantakrt with Amoghasiddhi crown:
three faces, blue, white, and red; six arms holding double vajra, wheel, and
spear in the rights, and noose over chest with threatening gesture, bell, and
ax in the lefts. In the southeast black Achala with Vairochana crown, three
faces, black, white, and red; six arms holding sword, vajra, and wheel in
the rights, and threatening gesture over heart, ax and noose in the lefts. In
the southwest door blue Takkiraja with Ratnasambhava crown: three faces,
black, white, and red; first two hands held in the Humkara gesture, other
two rights vajra and sword, lefts noose and iron hook. In the northwest
blue Niladanda with Amitabha crown: three faces, blue, white, and red; six
226 "* E S SENTI A L T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

arms holding blue staff marked with vajra, sword and wheel in the righ
and noose over chest with threatening gesture, lotus and ax in lefts. In t
northeast blue Mahabala with Amoghasiddhi crown: three faces, blac
white, and red; six arms holding vajra-marked black staff, vajra and whc
in the rights, and noose over chest with threatening gesture, trident and
in the lefts. Above blue Ushnishacakravarti with Akshobhya crown: thr
faces, blue, white, and red, first two hands in the ushnisha gesture, otb
two rights vajra and lotus, lefts threatening gesture and sword. Below bl
Sumbharaja with Akshobhya crown, three faces, black, white, and red; !
arms holding vajra, wheel, and jewel in the rights, and noose over chc
with threatening gesture, lotus and sword in the lefts.
All ten of the terrible ones have yellowish-red hair flaming up; their bro'
and eyelashes flare intensely orange. Each face has three eyes and four sha
fangs, which grind horribly. Their fierce, loud laughs HA HA reverberate, al
their faces are wrinkled with intensity of expressions. They have big bellil
Their hair is bound by blue Ananta snakes, red Takshaka snakes serve
earrings, striped Kulika snakes adorn the shoulders, white Padma sna�
serve as necklaces, yellow Shankhapala snakes serve as bracelets, green Ja
snakes serve as sashes, nectar-colored Vasuki snakes serve as belts, and wh
Mahapadma snakes serve as anklets. Intense wisdom-fire blazes from thl
bodies; they stand in the center ready to punish all evil beings.
From my own heart HUM light-rays radiate. All living beings are ;
tracted, streaming into the mandala like vajra heroes, unhindered from t
four directions; abiding there, they are consecrated by the light-rays of t
enlightenment spirits of the five father-mothers in union and attain the bl
and mental joy of all Transcendent Lords-becoming Vajrasattvas procec
ing each to his own Buddhaland.

Conversion of Death into the Truth Body

The laser hook light-rays of the blue HUM of my heart invite the deit
from Vairochana to Sumbharaja setting them in my points such as t
crown, and they become actually indivisible from my form aggregate a
so on. On the crown Vairochana, throat Amitabha, navel Ratnasambha1
groin Amoghasiddhi, navel Lochana, heart Mamaki, throat Pandaravasi
crown Tara, eyes Kshitigarbhas, ears Vajrapanis, nose Khagarbha, tong
Lokeshvara, heart Manjushri, secret organ Sarvanivarana Viskhambhi
joints Samantabadhra, crown Maitreya, doors of the eyes Rupavajr;
doors of the ears Shabdavajras, door of the nose Gandhavajra, door of t
mouth Rasavajra, door of the vajra Sparshavajra, right hand Yamanta1
 Practicing the Creation Stage 227

left hand Aparajita, mouth Hayagriva, vajra Vighnantakrt, right shoulder's

nerve Achala, left shoulder's nerve Takkiraja, right knee Niladanda, left
knee Mahabala, crown Ushnishacakravarti, and on the two foot-soles, two
Sumbharajas.
The deities of the body dissolve into clear light in sequence: Vairochana,
Lochana, Kshitigarbha, Rupavajra, Maitreya, Yamantakrt, and Achala.
Then Ratnasambhava, Mamaki, Vajrapani, Shabdavajra, Aparajita, and
Takkiraja dissolve in stages into clear light. Then Amitabha, Pandaravasini,
Akashagarbha, Gandhavajra, Hayagriva, and Niladanda dissolve in stages
into clear light. Then Amoghasiddhi, Tara, Lokeshvara, Rasavajra,
Sarvanivarana Viskhambhini, Sparshavajra, Samantabhadra, Vighnan­
takrt, and Mahabala dissolve in stages into clear light. Then Ushnish­
achakravarti, Sumbharaja, and Manjushri dissolve in stages into clear light.
And then the Lord also dissolves in stages into clear light.
OM SHUNYATA JNANA VAJRA SVABHAVA ATMAKO HAM.

Conversion of the Between into the Beatific Body

Upon the central seat from HUM a solar disk arises and in its center from
OM a moon disk and upon that an eight-petaled red lotus, and in the center
of that stacked up are OM AH HUM. These merge and become a single
moon orb. It emits light-rays, and all animate and inanimate objects gather
and dissolve into the moon.
OM DHARMADHATU SVABHAVA ATMAKO HAM.
I am that appearing moon, the mere energy mind, root of all beings and
things.
Upon the moon, like water bubbles bursting from water, are white OM,
red AH, and blue H U M . They emit light-rays and invite infinite masses of
the five Buddha-clans and their retinues from the ten directions. They dis­
solve and completely transform into a white five-pointed vajra marked at
the center with OM AH HUM.
VAJRA ATMAKO HAM

Conversion of Birth into the Emanation Body

The vajra together with the letters completely transforms into myself, the
white Primal Protector: three faces, white, black, and red; six arms holding
vajra, wheel, and lotus in the rights, and bell, jewel, and sword in the lefts.
228 "* E S S E N T I A L T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

Adorned with precious jewels and various robes of silk, from their natUl
abodes the male and female Transcendent Lords embrace in union, creati
streams of enlightenment spirit, which suffuse all the realms of space wi
hosts of Akshobhyas in order to tame all beings. They bless all beings to f
perience uncontaminated physical and mental bliss. Then the Akshobh}
merge together in the Mandala Palace and enter into me. I become the bl
Emanation Body Vajrasattva, with three faces, blue, white, and red, six an
holding vajra, wheel, and lotus in the rights, and bell, jewel, and sword
the lefts, and adorned with precious jewels and various robes of silk.

The Body Mandala

The front, back, right, and left sides of my body become the Mand�
Palace's four corners. The mouth, nose, anus, and urethra become the fa
doors. The five-colored pure energies that carry thoughts become the fi1
fold wall. The tongue cognition becomes the precious molding. The i
testines become the jeweled nets, and the sinews become the half ne
Parts of the white spirit become the half-moons, the eye cognition becorr
the mirrors, and the nose cognition becomes the garland of flowers. T
tongue sense becomes the bells, and the body sense becomes the yak-t
fans adorning the nets and half nets. The ear and body cognitions becOl
the banners and victory standards flying on the parapet. The eight liml
the calves, thighs, forearms, and biceps become the eight pillars. The be
becomes the mandala's interior vases. The ear senses become the ha
moon vajras in the corners. The pure five aggregates become the five colt
of the Mandala Palace. The four essential places: secret spot, navel, hea
and nose-tip, become the four triumphal arches, and the eye senses I
come the Dharma wheels above them, with the mind cognition the de
and the nose sense the triumphal arches' banners. The mind sense becon
the central lotus. Thus all parts of my body become parts of the Mand:
Palace.
From my crown to hairline, the reality of the form aggregate, white (
transforms into white Vairochana . . . . From hairline to throat, the real
of the ideation aggregate, red AH transforms into red Amitabha. . . . Ff(
throat to heart between the two breasts, the reality of the consciousness :
gregate, blue H U M transforms into blue Akshobhya . . . . From the heart
the navel, the reality of the sensation aggregate, yellow SVA transforms if
yellow Ratnasambhava . . . . From navel to groin, the reality of the emoti
aggregate, green HA transforms into green Amoghasiddhi.
At the navel, the reality of the body's earth element, yellow LAM tral
 Practicing the Creation Stage 229

forms into white Lochana . . . . At the heart, the reality of the body's water
element, blue MAM transforms into blue Mamaki . . . . At the throat, the re­
ality of the body's fire element, red PAM transforms into red Pan­
daravasini . . . . At the crown, the reality of the body's air element, green
TAM transforms into green Tara . . . . At the eyes, the reality of the eye
senses, THLIMS transform into white Kshitigarbhas. . . . At the doors of the
eyes, the reality of form, JAHS transform into white Rupavajras. . . . The
first two arms of both male and female hold each other in mutual embrace.
At the ears, the reality of the ear senses, OMS transform into yellow
Vajrapanis . . . . At the doors of the ears, the reality of sound, HUMs trans­
form into yellow Shabdavajras. . . . The first two arms of both male and fe­
male hold each other in mutual embrace. At the nose, the reality of the nose
sense, OM transforms into yellow Akashagarbha . . . . At the door of the
nose, the reality of scent, BAM transforms into red Gandhavajra . . . . At the
tongue, the reality of the tongue sense, OM transforms into Lokeshvara. . . .
At the door of the mouth, the reality of tastes, HOH transforms into green
Rasavajra . . . . At the heart, the reality of the mind sense, HUM transforms
into red Manjushri . . . . At the vajra, the reality of the body media, OM
transforms into green Sarvanivarana Viskhambhini . . . . At the door of the
vajra, the reality of textures, KHAM transforms into blue Sparshavajra . . . .
The first two arms of both male and female are holding each other in mu­
tual embrace. At the joints, the reality of the joints, SAMS transform into
green Samantabhadras. . . . At the crown of the head, the reality of the
nerves and sinews, MAIM transforms into white Maitreya . . . . All the gods
from Vairochana to Maitreya have ornaments of precious jewels and varie­
gated robes of silk.
At the right hand, its reality HUM transforms into black Yamantakrt. . . .
At the left hand, its reality HUM transforms into white Prajnantakrt. . . . At
the mouth, its reality HUM transforms into red Hayagriva . . . . At vajra, its
reality HUM transforms into black Vighnantakrt. . . . At the right shoulder's
nerve, its reality HUM transforms into black Achala . . . . At the left shoul­
der's nerve, its reality HUM transforms into blue Takkiraja . . . . At the right
knee, its reality HUM transforms into blue Niladanda . . . . At the left knee,
its reality HUM transforms into blue Mahabala . . . . At the crown its reality
HUM transforms into blue Ushnishachakravarti. . . . At the two heels, its re-
ality HUMs transform into blue Sumbharaja with Akshobhya crown: three
faces, black, white, and red; six arms holding vajra, wheel, and jewel in the
rights, and noose over chest with threatening gesture, lotus and sword in
the lefts. All ten terribles have yellowish-red hair flaming up and have all
the other manners of ferocity.
1.30 "* E S S E N T I A L T I B ETAN B U D D H I S M

Blessing Body, Speech, and Mind

My crown OM becomes a perfect moon disk on which white OM radiat

rainbow light-rays, filling all space with a host of Lochanas, whose rad
ance instantly invites the body-vajra Vairochana host filling all space.
come before the central Lord Vairochana in union with Lochana.
Holder of the Body of the glorious Buddhas,
Contemplating the indivisible triple vajras,
In order to grace me now with blessings,
Please bestow on me the Vajra Body!
May all the Buddhas of the ten directions,
Contemplating the indivisible triple vajra,
In order to grace me now with blessings,
Please bestow on me the Vajra Body!
Thus entreated, the emanated Lochanas and the invited Vairochanas a
mutually attracted, passionately embrace in union, and experience the bli
of supreme ecstasy. They melt into white light-rays that enter me throu!
the door of Vairochana like Wisdom Heroes. Attaining the wisdom stag
my body is filled and satisfied, and mastery of the body is attained.
The very body of all Buddhas
Being fulfilled by my five aggregates,
By the reality of the Buddha Body,
May I also become just such!
OM SARVA TATHAGATA KAYA VAJRA SVABHAVA ATMAKO HAM
My tongue-center AH becomes a red eight-petaled lotus with red AH
the center radiating rainbow light-rays, filling all space with a host
Pandaravasinis. Radiating, they invite the vajra speech Amitabha host, fi
ing all space. I come before the central Lord Amitabha in union wi
Pandaravasini.
Glorious path of the Dharma speech,
Contemplating the indivisible triple vajra,
In order to grace me now with blessings,
Please bestow on me the vajra speech!
May all the Buddhas of the ten directions,
Contemplating the indivisible triple vajra,
In order to grace me now with blessings,
Please bestow upon me the vajra speech!
 Practicing the Creation Stage 2 3 1

Thus petitioned, the emanated Pandaravasini and the invited Amitabha

hosts are both mutually attract�d and passionately enter into union and ex­
perience the bliss of supreme ecstasy. They melt into red light-rays that
enter into me through the tongue in the manner of a wisdom hero.
Attaining the wisdom stage, my body is filled and satisfied, and mastery of
the speech is attained.
The very speech of the vajra Dharma,
Perfection of the definitive word,
May my word also be just such,
May I be like you, the Dharma Holder!
OM SARVA TATHAGATA VAGVAJRA SVABHAVA ATMAKO HAM
My heart center HUM becomes a sun disk with a blue H UM in the center
radiating rainbow light-rays, filling all space with a host of Mamakis.
Radiating, they invite the vajra mind Akshobhya host filling all space. I
come before the central Lord Akshobhya and Mamaki in union.
Holder of the glorious vajra mind,
Contemplating the indivisible triple vajra,
In order to grace me now with blessings,
Please bestow on me the vajra body!
May all the Buddhas of the ten directions,
Contemplating the indivisible triple vajra,
In order to grace me now with blessings,
Please bestow upon me the vajra body!
Thus petitioned, the emanated Mamaki and the invited Akshobhya
hosts are mutually attracted, passionately embrace in union, and experi­
ence the bliss of supreme ecstasy. They melt into black light-rays that enter
me through my heart center in the manner of a vajra hero. Attaining the
wisdom stage, my body is filled and satisfied, and mastery of mind is at­
tained.
The very Mind of Total Goodness,
With the genius of the Mystic Lord,
May I also become just such,
An equal of the Vajra Holder!
OM SARVATATHAGATAKAYAVAKCHITTA VAJRASVABHAVATMAKOHAM
I become the great Vajradhara, the indivisible triple vajra of body,
speech, and mind of all Transcendent Lords!
232 "* E S SENTI A L T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

O M SARVATATHAGATAKAYAVAKCHITTA VAJ RASVABHAVATMAKOHl

In the clear and open heart of myself, the devotee hero blue Vajradh:
is a variegated lotus and moon seat upon which is my red wisdom h
with one face and two arms, holding vajra and bell, embraced by a sim
wisdom consort. Through their union in the kiss, their bodies expand.
a moon disk in their heart is a blue five-pointed vajra, and its center is
samadhi hero, a blue H UM; it constantly dawns like a great lamp and
comes a huge mass of sapphire brilliance to destroy the darkness of ig
ranee. On my devotee hero's crown diadem there is a great wi
Vajradhara with one face and two arms holding vajra and bell, in passi
ate union with Vajradhatvishvari, the queen of the vajra realm, with
oozing stream of their enlightenment nectars dripping down into me ;
satisfying all the deities of my body. From my heart center, the consor
my vajra clan emerges.
OM SHUNYATA JNANA VAJRA SVABHAVA ATMAKO HAM
The consort becomes emptiness. Within the actuality of emptir
emerges KHAM, which becomes a vajra marked by KHAM. It transfol
into blue Sparshavajra with Akshobhya crown: three faces, blue, wh
and red; six arms holding vajra, wheel, and lotus in the right, and �
jewel, and sword in the left. Her hair in the half-bound coiffure, sh
graceful, smiling, beautiful with gestures such as sidelong glances. I
beauty is mature, and she delights in the five sense objects. From her ere
to the hairline, the reality of the form aggregate, white OM transforms i
white Vairochana . . . . From the hairline to the throat, the reality of
cognition aggregate, red AH transforms into red Amitabha . . . . From
throat to the heart between the two breasts, the reality of the consciousr
aggregate, blue HUM transforms into blue Akshobhya . . . . From the he
to the navel, the reality of the feeling aggregate, yellow SVA transforms i
yellow Ratnasambhava. . . . From the navel to the groin, the reality of el
tion aggregate, green HA transforms into green Amoghasiddhi. . . . At
navel from LAM, Lochana, at the heart from MAM, Mamaki, at the thr
from PAM, Pandaravasini, at the crown from TAM, Tara. At the eyes fr
JAH, Rupavajra embracing Kshitigarbha, at the ears from H I
Shabdavajra embracing Vajrapani, at the nose from BAM Gandhavajra I
bracing Akashagarbha, at the tongue from H OH Rasavajra embrae
Lokeshvara, at the vagina from KHAM Sparsavajra embracing �
vanivarana Viskhambhini.
At the right hand from HUM Vetali, at the left hand from H
Aparajita, at the mouth from HUM Bhrkuti, at the vagina from H
 Practicing the Creation Stage 2 3 3

Ekajati, at the right shoulder's nerve from HUM the Buddha consort Vajri,
at the left shoulder's nerve from HUM Vishva Ratna, at the right knee from
HUM Vishva Padma, at the left knee from HUM Vishva Karma. At the
crown from HUM Akasha Vajri, and at the soles from H UMS earth god­
desses.
From the unperceivable realm of my secret place HUM transforms into a
blue five-pointed vajra, with the central spoke a jewel marked with OM and
the hole blocked with a golden PHAT. From the unperceivable realm of my
consort's secret place AH transforms into an eight-petaled red lotus with
the hole blocked with a golden PHAT. My vajra and her lotus suffuse with
five-color light-rays. I become Ratnasambhava.
OM SARVA TATHAGATA ANURAGANA VAJ RA SVABHAVATMAKO HAM
I become Vajradhara. HUM-Engaged in union, I feel bliss of supreme
joy. I become Amoghasiddhi. PHAT
OM SARVA TATHAGATA PUJA VAJRA SVABHAVA ATMAKO HAM

Drop Mandala, Mandala Triumph

All the gods of the body mandala are satisfied, the melted drop falls into the
consort's lotus, and that very drop becomes the fountainhead of all deities,
the Transcendent Lords and the five clans and so on. One part of the drop
becomes a BHRUM, which transforms into the square four-doored
Mandala Palace, replete with all its characteristics, including seats. The
other part of the drop becomes the thirty-two parts, each upon a seat. They
transform into-
OM AH HUM HUM. OM AH KHAM HUM. OM AH OM HUM. OM AH
SVA HUM. OM AH AH H U M . OM AH HA HUM. OM AH LAM HUM. OM AH
MAM H UM. OM AH BAM HUM. OM AH TAM HUM. OM AM JAH HUM. OM
AH HUM HUM. OM AH BAM HUM. OM AH HOH HUM. OM AH MAI M
HUM. OM AH THLIM HUM. OM AM OM HUM. OM AH OM HUM. OM AH
OM H U M . OM AH HUM H U M . OM AH OM H U M . OM AH SAM HUM. OM
AH HUM HUM. OM AH HUM HUM. OM AH HUM HUM. OM AH HUM
HUM. OM AH HUM HUM. OM AH HUM HUM. OM AH HUM HUM. OM AH
HUM HUM. OM AH HUM HUM. OM AH HUM HUM.
The thirty-two respectively transform into vajra and vajra, wheel, jewel,
lotus, vajra cross, wheel, vajra, blue lotus, vajra cross, red mirror, blue lute,
perfume conch, food vessel, wheel-marked naga tree flower, wheel, jewel,
jewel, lotus, lotus, sword, sword, staff, vajra, lotus, vajra cross, sword,
234 "* E S S EN T I A L T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

vajra, blue vajra-marked staff, black vajra-marked staff, vajra and va

These in stages transform into the thirty-two deities.
Upon the central seat myself, peaceful blue-black Akshobhya.
Myself as blue Sparshavajra with Akshobhya crown. . . . At the east, m}
white Vairochana . . . . At the south, myself yellow Ratnasambhava . . .
the west, myself red Amitabha. . . . At the north, myself gl
Amoghasiddhi. . . . At the southeast, myself white Lochana . . . . In
southwest, myself blue Mamaki. . . . At the northwest, myself
Pandaravasini. . . . In the northeast, myself green Tara . . . . In the sec
row at the southeast, myself white Rupavajra . . . . At the southwest m}
yellow Shabdavajra . . . . At the northwest myself red Gandhavajra . . .
the northeast myself green Rasavajra. . . . Myself on the right and left s
at the eastern door as respectively white Maitreya and Kshitigarbha.
Myself on the right and left seats at the southern door as respectively
low Vajrapani and Akashagarbha . . . . Myself on the right and left seal
the western door as respectively red Lokeshvara and Manjushri. . . . M}
on the right and left seats at the northern door as respectively gl
Sarvanivarana Viskhambhini and Samantabhadra. . . . Myself in the e
ern door as black Yamantaka . . . . Myself in the southern door as w
Prajnantakrt. . . . Myself in the western door as red Hayagriva . . . . M}
in the northern door as black Vighnantakrt. . . . Myself in the south
door as black Achala . . . . Myself in the southwest as blue Takkiraja.
Myself in the northwest as blue Niladanda . . . . Myself in the northea!
blue Mahabala . . . . Myself above as blue Ushnishachakravarti . . . . M}
below as blue Sumbharaja with Akshobhya crown: three faces, bl
white, and red; six arms holding vajra, wheel, and jewel in the right,
noose over chest with threatening gesture, lotus and sword in the left.
All ten of the terrible lords have yellowish-red hair flaring up, t
brows and eyelashes flaming intensely orange; each face has three eyes
four sharp fangs that are snarled. Their fierce, loud laugh HA HA rever
ates, and their faces have wrinkled expressions, and they have big bel
They are adorned with various jewel ornaments, their skirts are t
skins. Their hair is bound by blue Ananta snakes, red Takshaka sn:
serve as earrings, striped Kulika snakes adorn the shoulders, white Pa4
snakes serve as necklaces, yellow Shankhapala snakes serve as brace
green laya snakes serve as sashes, nectar-colored Vasuki snakes serv
belts, and white Mahapadma snakes serve as anklets. Intense wisdom
blazes from their bodies; they stand in the center ready to punish all
beings.
 Practicing the Creation Stage 23 5

Supreme Triumph over Evolution

Akshobhya is attracted to my heart-vAJ RADHRK emerges from my heart

radiating in the ten directions, accomplishing the Buddha deeds such as
turning the wheel of Dharma, especially purifying the hatred of hating be­
ings, establishing them in the exaltation of Akshobhya. All the emanations
gather into one and merge indivisibly with the Akshobhya wisdom hero.
Consecration is conferred by the enlightenment spirits of the lord and lady
of his clan. He returns before me and enters, merging into my heart, and I
transform into a peaceful, happy Vajradhara. Then my moon disk seat dis­
solves into a sun disk seat, and I transform into a blue-black Anger Vajra:
three faces, black, white, and red; six arms holding a nine-pointed vajra,
wheel, and lotus in the rights, and bell, jewel, and sword in the lefts. In an
aura of shimmering red light, I sit in the center of the mandala in the vajra
posture.
Sparshavajra is attracted to my heart, S PARSHAVAJ RA emerges. . . .
Vairochana is attracted to my heart, JINAJ I K emerges. . . . Ratnasambhava
is attracted to my heart, RATNADHRK emerges . . . . Amitabha is attracted
to my heart, AROLIK emerges . . . . Amoghasiddhi is attracted to my heart,
PRAJNADHRK emerges . . . . Lochana is attracted to my heart, MOHARATI
emerges . . . . Mamaki is attracted to my heart, DVESHARATI emerges. . . .
Pandaravasini is attracted to my heart, RAGARATI emerges. . . . Tara is at­
tracted to my heart, VAJRARATI emerges. . . . Rupavajra is attracted to my
heart, RUPAVAJRA emerges . . . . Shabdavajra is attracted to my heart,
SHABDAVAJRA emerges . . . . Gandhavajra is attracted to my heart, GAN-
DHAVAJRA emerges . . . . Rasavajra is attracted to my heart, RASAVAJRA
emerges. . . . Maitreya is attracted to my heart, MAITRI emerges. . . .
Kshitigarbha is attracted to my heart, KSHITIGARBHA emerges . . . .
Vajrapani is attracted to my heart, VAJRAPANI emerges . . . . Khagarbha is
attracted to my heart, KHAGARBHA emerges . . . . Lokeshvara is attracted to
my heart, LOKES HVARA emerges. . . . Manjushri is attracted to my heart,
MANJUSHRI emerges. . . . Sarvanivarana Viskhambhini is attracted to my
heart, SARVANIVARANA VI S KAMBHIN emerges . . . . Samantabhadra is at-
tracted to my heart, SAMANTABHADRA emerges . . . . Yamantakrt is at-
tracted to my heart, YAMANTAKRT emerges. . . . Prajnantakrt is attracted to
my heart, PRAJNANTAKRT emerges. . . . Hayagriva is attracted to my heart,
PADMANTAKRT emerges. . . . Amrtakundali is attracted to my heart, VIGH-
NANTAKRT emerges . . . . Achala is attracted to my heart, ACHALA
emerges . . . . Takkiraja is attracted to my heart, TAKKI RAJA emerges . . . .
236 "* ES S ENTIA L T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

Niladanda is attracted to my heart, N I LADANDA emerges. . . . Mahabal

attracted to my heart, MAHABALA emerges. . . . Ushnishachakravarti is
tracted to my heart, U S H N I S HACHA KRAVARTI emerges . . . . Sumbharaj
attracted to my heart, S U M B H ARAJA emerges from the heart, radiatinl
the ten directions, accomplishing the Buddha deeds such as turning
wheel of Dharma, especially conquering poisons moving and unmov
underworld dragons, and earth deities. All emanations condense into (
merging indivisibly with the Sumbharaja wisdom hero. Consecratiol
conferred by the enlightenment spirits of the lord and lady of his clan.
returns before me and merges with the Sumbharaja in the basement of
palace.
The Mandala Palace is attracted to my heart, OM AH HUM emerges fI
the heart, radiating in the ten directions, especially purifying the evils
flaws of inanimate objects. All emanations condense into one, merging
divisibly with the palace wisdom hero. It returns before me and mel
with the Mandala Palace.

Repetition of Mantras

As one recites the mantras, the individual deity's heart-seed syllable is

cled by the letters of the mantra and radiates out the host of deities of
mandala, who accomplish the benefit of beings. These hosts reenter
heart-seed syllables with the mantra letters along with the inhaled wind
ergy. I recite in this way (alternating) radiating and concentrating.
OM AH H U M . OM AH VAJ RADHRK H U M H U M . OM AH S PARS HAVA
KHAM H U M . OM AH J I NAJ l K OM H U M . OM AH RATNA D H R K SVA H l
O M AH A RO L I K AH H U M . O M AH P RAJNAD H R K HA H U M . O M AH �
HARATI LAM H U M . OM AH DVESHARATI MAM H U M . OM AH RAGAR
PAM H U M . O M AH VAJ RARATI TAM H U M . O M AH RU PAVAJRA JAH Hl
OM A M SHABDAVAJ RA HUM H U M . O M AH GAND HAVAJ RA BAM Hl
O M AH RASAVAJRA H O H H U M . O M AH MATREYA MAIM H U M . O M
K S H IT I GARBHA THLIM H U M . O M AH VAJ RAPANI O M H U M . O M
KHAGA R B H A O M H U M . O M AH L O K E S HVARA O M H U M . O M AH M
J U S H R I H U M H U M . OM AH SARVANIVARANA V I S KA M B H I N OM H l
O M AH SAMANTABHADRA S A M H U M . O M AH YAMANTAKRT H U M H l
O M AH PRAJNA NTAKRT H U M H U M . O M AH PAD M A NTA KRT H U M H l
O M AH V I GHNA NTAKRT H U M H U M . O M AH ACHALA H U M H U M . O M
TA K K I RAJA H U M H U M . O M AH N I LADANDA H U M H U M . O M AH M A
BALA H U M H U M . O M AH U S H N I S HACHAKRAVARTI H U M H U M . O M
S U MBHARAJA H U M H U M • • • • (Recite the hundred-syllable mantra.)
 Practicing the Creation Stage 23 7

Concluding the Repetitions

Melting in sexual union, the Mother dissolves into the Father. The devotee
hero Father dissolves into the wisdom hero. The wisdom hero dissolves
into the samadhi hero. The samadhi hero's vowel dissolves into the HA. The
HA dissolves into its top. The top dissolves into the moon crescent. The
moon crescent dissolves into the drop. The drop dissolves into the squiggle.
And finally the squiggle dissolves into clear light translucency.
Then the four goddesses, the realities of the four immeasurables, feel
sorrow no longer to see the Lord. They desire to look upon him and so
strive to arouse him with sweet songs.
o Thou of Diamond Mind, 0 Lord who dwells in the realms of beings,
Pray grant refuge to me, who loves the great goal, joy, and pleasure!
o Best Friend, 0 great Father of living beings,
o Savior, if thou wish me to remain in life,
Pray arise right now to make me happy!
o Thou of Diamond Body, whose wheel of speech benefits all
beings,
Teacher of the absolute enlightenment essential to win Buddhahood,
o Savior, if thou wish me to remain in life,
Pray arise right now to make me happy,
Through your great love, 0 Passion's Devotee!
o Thou of Diamond Speech, 0 Lover and Helper of all,
Always dynamic to accomplish people's necessary aims,
o Savior, if thou wish me to remain in life,
Pray arise right now to make me happy,
With thy ecstatic deeds of perfect goodness!
o Thou of Diamond Passion, essential help of the supreme vow,
o Thou of Equal Vision, best heir of perfect Buddhas,
o Savior, if thou wish me to remain in life,
Pray arise right now to make me happy,
o Treasury of Many Jewels of Excellence!

Thus aroused, through the power of compassion and ancient vows, I

arise from the clear light translucency in a body of the nature of the triply
enfolded spiritual heroes. All the deities of the mandala clearly behold me.
They all declare:
"Reverence to the mystic song, 0 Akshobhyavajra, 0 great wisdom, 0
great expert of the diamond realm, 0 best three vajras, 0 triple mandala!
238 .. E S S E N T I A L T I B ET A N B U D D H I S M

"Reverence to the Diamond Teacher, 0 Vairochana, greatly pure,

Diamond Peace, 0 great delight, 0 best of best, natural clear light!
" Reverence to the Diamond Body, 0 Jewel King, extremely deep, i
maculate like diamond space, naturally pure, without defilement!
"Reverence to the Diamond Speech, 0 Vajra Amitabha, great king,
holder of the vajra of great space beyond conceptions, 0 discoverer of t
transcendence of passion!
"Reverence to the Diamond Messiah, 0 Amoghavajra, perfect Buddl
arisen from the natural purity, fulfilling perfectly every being's aspiration
OM SARVATATHAGATA ARGHAM ' " PADYAM . . . PUSHPE .
DHUPE . . . ALOKE . . . GANDHE . . . NAIVIDYE . . . SHABDA . . . RU
. . . SHABDA . . . GANDHA . . . RASA . . . SPARSHE PUJAMEGHASAM
D RA SPARANASAMAYA SHRIYE AH HUM

Offerings to the Ancestral Mentors

From the KSHUM of my left thumb, the earth foundation. From the ri
finger SUM there is Sumeru standing at the middle of the great ocean on t
earth and stirring up the essence of nectar. HUM on the tongues of t
guests becomes a one-pointed red vajra with a light-ray tube. I make t
offering!
To the mouth of the actuality of the concentrated body, speech, mil
excellence, and deeds of all transcendent lords of the ten directions a
three times, the origin of the eighty-four thousand masses of teachings, t
master of the holy community, the kind root mentor-OM AH HUM.
To the mouth of Victor Vajradhara OM AH HUM
To the mouth of the glorious protector Arya Nagarjuna OM AH HUM
Bodhisattva Matangipa OM AH HUM
Great Adept Tilopa OM AH HUM
Great Pandit Narotapa OM AH HUM
Translator Marpa OM AH HUM
Dharma King Tsong Khapa OM AH HUM
Again to the mouth of Victor Vajradhara OM AH HUM
Bodhisattva Vajrapani OM AH HUM
King Indrabhuti OM AH HUM
Naga Vajra Yogini OM AH HUM
Lord Visukalpa OM AH HUM
Glorious Saraha OM AH HUM
Glorious Arya Nagarjuna OM AH HUM
 Practicing the Creation Stage 23 9

Glorious Chandrakirti OM AH H U M
Lopa Dorje O M AH H U M
Greatly accomplished Kanhapa O M AH H U M
Master Trinki Shuk Chen O M AH H U M
Lord Go O M AH HUM
Mangrap Sengye Gyaltsen O M AH HUM
Ngok Yeshe Sengye O M AH H U M
Ngok Aryadeva O M AH H U M
Lansta Nima Cham O M AH H U M
Takpa Renchen Trak O M AH H U M
Thur Hlawa Tsultrim Kyab O M AH HUM
Thang Pewa Pagpa Kyab O M AH H U M
Serding pa Zhon nu O M AH H U M
All-knowing Choku Ohzer O M AH H U M
All-knowing Phagpa Oh O M AH H U M
All-knowing Choje Buton Renchen drup OM AH H U M
All-knowing holy master Sonam Gyalsten O M AH H U M
All-knowing Tragyor Namkha Zangpo O M AH H U M
All-knowing peerless great Rendawa O M AH H U M
Dharma King great Tsong Khapa O M AH H U M
Kedrup Gelek Pal Zangpo O M AH H U M
All-knowing Losang Kalsang Gyatso O M AH H U M
Venerable Losang Palden Yeshe O M AH H U M
All-knowing Losang Jampal Gyatso O M AH H U M
Also to the mouths of all those masters who gave initiations, ex­
pounded the tantras, and gave oral traditional teachings OM AH
HUM
(To the thirty-two deities of the mandala)
VAJ RAD H R K OM AH H U M .
S PARS HAVAJ RA O M A H H U M .
J INAJ I K O M AH H U M .
RATNADHRK O M AH H U M .
AROLIK OM AH HUM.
P RAJ NADHRK O M AH H U M .
M O HARATI O M AH H U M .
DVE SHARATI O M AH H U M .
RAGARATI O M A H H U M .
VAJ RARATI O M AH H U M .
RU PAVAJ RA O M AH H U M .
S HAB DAVAJ RA O M AH H U M .
240 .. E S S E N T I A L T I B ET A N BUDDHISM

GAND HAVAJ RA O M AH H U M .
RASAVAJ RA O M A H H U M .
MAITRI O M AH H U M .
KS HITIGARBHA O M AH H U M .
VAJ RAPANI O M A H H U M .
KHAGA R B HA O M AH H U M .
L O K E S HVARA O M AH H U M .
MANJ U S H R I O M AH H U M .
SARVANIVARANA V I S KAM B H I N O M AH H U M .
SAMANTABHADRA O M A H H U M .
YAMANTAKRT O M AH H U M .
PRAJNANTAKRT O M AH H U M .
PADMANTAKRT O M AH H U M .
VIGH NANTAKRT O M AH H U M .
ACHALA O M AH H U M .
TA K K I RAJA O M AH H U M .
N I LADANDA O M AH H U M .
MAHABALA O M AH H U M .
U S HNIS HACHAKRAVA RTI O M AH H U M .
S U M B HARAJA O M AH H U M .

To the mouth of the deities and mandala gods of the four Tantras
AH H U M .To the mouth of the oath-bound protectors who saw the previ
Buddhas, heard the holy Dharma, relied on the supreme community, ,
have pledged to protect the doctrine and the four sections of the com
nity, and upon whom the ancient masters relied and practiced-OM
HUM.
To all the heroes, yoginis, direction protectors, realm protectors, na
and so forth, who reside in the twenty-four regions, the thirty-two pia
and the eight great cemeteries O M AH H U M .
To the local spirits of natural sites and to all beings as deities O M
HUM.

O M AMRTA SVADANA VAJ RA SVABHAVA ATMAKO HAM

All guests are delighted and satisfied by this nectar of wisdom.

From the unperceivable realm of my secret place H U M transforms in
blue five-pointed vajra, with the central spoke a jewel marked with OM
the hole blocked with a golden PHAT. From the unperceivable realm of
consort's secret place AH transforms into an eight-petaled red lotus ,
the hole blocked with a golden PHAT. My vajra and her lotus suffuse ,
five-color light-rays. I become Ratnasambhava.
 Practicing the Creation Stage 2:41

O M SA RVA TATHAGATA A N U RAGANA SVABHAVA ATMAKO HAM

I become Akshobhya. H U M I achieve the supreme joy by engaging in dy­

namic union. I become Amoghasiddhi. PHA T

OM SA RVA TATHAGATA PUJA VAJ RA SVABHAVA ATMAKO HAM

All the deities of the mandala experience natural bliss and entrance
themselves in the samadhi of the indivisibility of great bliss and Thatness;
thus they become delighted by the mystic and absolute sacrifice offerings.
The laser hook light-rays of the blue H U M of my heart invite the deities
from Vairochana to Sumbharaja, setting them in my vital points such as the
crown. On the crown Vairochana, throat Amitabha, navel Ratnasam­
bhava, secret place Amoghasiddhi, navel Lochana, heart Mamaki, throat
Pandaravasini, crown Tara, eyes Kshitigarbha, ears Vajrapani, nose
Khagarbha, tongue Lokeshvara, heart Manjushri, secret organ Sarva­
nivarana Viskhambhini, joints Samantabhadra, crown Maitreya, eye-doors
Rupavajra, ear-doors Shabdavajra, nose-door Gandhavajra, tongue-door
Rasavajra, vajra-door Sparshavajra, right hand Yamantakrt, left hand
Prajnantakrt, mouth Hayagriva, vajra Vighnantakrt, right shoulder's nerve
Achala, left shoulder's nerve Takkiraja, right knee Niladanda, left knee
Mahabala, crown Ushnishachakravarti, and two soles Sumbharajas. Then
each part of the divine palace dissolves into each part of my body.
From the sexual contact of myself as Father-Mother in union the light­
rays of enlightenment spirit radiate intensely, consecrating all beings, puri­
fying all obscurations and transforming them all into H U M S . These fill the
realm of space and then transform into Vajradharas. They are attracted by
my light-rays and dissolve into me.

OM YOGA S H U D DAH SARVADHARMAH YOGA S H U D D H O HAM.

YE D HARMA HETUPRAB HAVA. HETUN TESHAM TATHAGATA HYAVA­
DAT. TESHAM CA YO N I RODHO. EVAM VAD I MAHA S H RAMANAH.

Esoteric Communion Prayers

By this virtue, may I quickly attain the state of Vajradhara,

The whole essence of all Buddhas! And may all beings attain it too!
May I practice all deeds for the sake of enlightenment,
The deeds taught by both the perfect Buddhas and by
Bodhichittavajra!
242 .. E S S E N T I A L T I B ET A N B U D D H I S M

Thus from within the vivid experience of deity body

Luminant voidness like a magic illusion, like a dream,
Among the divine host of the mandala of Akshobhyavajra,
Fabulous collection of victors of ten directions,
Since I have found delight through the wondrous bliss;
Striving here to make outer, inner, and secret offerings,
To praise, to contemplate, and to recite and so on,
Whatever virtue I might thus accumulate,
May I take up the supreme spirit of enlightenment,
Bearing responsibility for liberating beings.
Seeing that all those my mothers
Have fallen into the ocean of samsara just like me,
Seeing that there is no winning enlightenment
Just by conceiving the spirit yet not cultivating
The three kinds of ethics, may I train myself intensely
In practicing the Bodhisattva vow.
Become a vessel through practice of ordinary path,
May I enter with perfect ease
Into that holy haven of well-destined beings,
The Vajra Vehicle, supreme way of all.
By vase initiation anointment in streams of Ganga water,
May all percepts and concepts of the ordinary be cleansed!
By tasting the wisdom elixir of the secret initiation,
May energies in the speech place arise as mantra!
By the goad of orgasmic bliss of the third initiation,
May the mind be drawn into the realm of clear light!
By the fourth initiation's identifying the meaning of communion,
May reifications about the ultimate be cut off!
Then, having found a nonartificial certitude
That the keeping of pure vows and commitments
Is the base of achieving both kinds of powers,
May I always guard them even at the cost of life!
May all appearance dawn as the circle of deities,
Finding extreme and total stability
In the gross and subtle paths of the creation stage,
With four branches of service and practice in four-session yoga
That completely concentrates the energetic stores
 Practicing the Creation Stage 243

Effortlessly, with every movement, utterance, and thought

Free of all suspicion of notions and perceptions of the ordinary!
Depending on the supreme field of the mind mandala
Accumulating the stores with proper rituals
And the yoga of sacrificial gifts free of misappropriation,
May my spiritual process become fully purified!
May all miracle deeds be accomplished by the samadhi
Of the glorious Anger-vajra, accompanied with his retinue
Of the ten furious terrifies, who punish
Evil-minded demons who run around in every direction!
May the yoga of the creation stage be achieved,
Which purifies all percepts and concepts of the ordinary
In the processes of birth, death, and the between,
By gradually generating in the spiritual process
The supreme vajra of proper practice
Of death as the Body of Truth, the between as the Beatific Body,
And of birth as the Body of Emanation-the supreme technique
To realize the exaltation of the Three Bodies!
Through the samadhi in the mode of the great passion,
The swift path to that consummation of one's own aims,
Skilled in technique of devotion to the consort of one's own Buddha
clan,
May the victors be worshiped by means of orgasmic bliss!
May the best mandala triumph soon be achieved,
Which totally purifies all lands, beings, and environment,
Filling all of space with clouds of emanations,
From the animate and inanimate mandala
Produced when the fury-fires blaze up,
Ignited by the union of the vajra with the realm of space,
Melts the liquid enlightenment spirit into the avadhuti path,
Whence it goes into the lotus of the wisdom consort!
May the outer and inner repetition become perfected,
As well as the yoga of subtle equanimity,
Creating the five-colored jewel, essence of five sugatas,
At the tip of the paths of the vital and evacuative energies,
Expanding in nets of rainbow light-rays,
244 .. E S S EN T1A L Tl B E T A N B U D D HISM

And in the mustard-seed-size drop of enlightenment spirit,

Completely visualize the symbol and deity mandalas
And focus on them at will vividly and without blur!
Then, depending on the substance, the mantra,
The wheel machine, and on their contemplation,
May I accomplish the eight great realizations,
And the fabulous deeds of pacifying and so on,
And thereby accomplish the best evolutionary triumph!
May I attain the profound path of the five stages,
Together with the three conducts of yoginis,
Which includes completely the six branches,
Withdrawal, contemplation, vitality control,
Stabilization, verification, and samadhi!
May the downward and upward four joys be produced,
Brought forth by the stages of reversal and emergence,
Of the streams of nectar when the sun melts down the moon,
Relying on the mind in the subtle drop in the jewel tip!
Arising from that, amid all appearances that dawn,
May I perfect body isolation withdrawal and contemplation,
By the samadhi of the Diamond Body, arising
As one hundred, five, three, and one classes!
By concentrating the king of drops; the best mantra drop,
On the tip of the lotus of the heart,
May the twelve energies that generate
All notions of subjects and objects
Dissolve into the indestructible drop!
The vibration of the drop of light at the nose tip,
By its dawning as the uncontrived three vajras,
By the samadhi of speech isolation speech vajra,
May I break free from my heart's eggshell of ignorance!
By meditating vitality control of the substance drop
At the root of art, wisdom, and mystic channels,
Clearing away the darkness of conception energies,
May the clear light sun dawn in the center of my heart!
By meditating vitality control of the three drops
At the three nose tips, by the lights of moon and sun
 Practicing the Creation Stage 24 5

And the dark gloom in the cloudless sky,

May the mind isolation of the three voids arise!
Becoming expert in the key points
Of the complete secret instruction
Of the nine mergers, three to each of three
Magic Body of Beatitude, Clear Light Body of Truth,
And the variegation of the Body of Emanation,
May I perfect the holding of the absolute clear light
By means of the relative Magic Body,
The reverse-order verification practice,
The samadhi of communion, and the three conducts,
Conventional, unconventional, and extremely unconventional!
If I cannot achieve the supreme samadhi here
Or in the between, and am caught by time of death,
May I be able to merge the four voids of the process
Of basic death with the four voids of the path!
Merging the samadhi of illusion with my time
In the between, at the time of taking rebirth,
May I consciously be born in a supreme birthplace
Just as the Beatific Body takes Emanation Body incarnation!
In short, whatever dawns in birth, death, and the between,
Understanding it as an exhortation to virtuous practice
From previous prayers, practicing the three path-conversions,
May my mind's delight expand immensely at the time of death!
Thus may all beings be delivered
By this consummate technology,
This ultimate of this miraculous path,
Practicing it properly without obstructions,
Spreading and expanding it in all directions!

Mentor's Benedictions

The host of deities of the Esoteric Communion,

Filling the vastness of space like sesame seeds,
Some cause rains of various flowers to fall,
Some sing sweet songs of blessed fortune.
Others act to conquer the army of malignants,
246 .. E S S E N T I A L T I B ET A N BUDDHISM

And all cause you always to abide in glory.

Know this and generate happiness in mind,
As I pronounce this garland of benedictions.
Full beatitude, ablaze with glory of wondrous signs and marks,
Always playing in the feeling of the kiss of bliss and void,
Abandoned the peace extreme with unconditional compassion,
Homage to the Lord with his seven limbs!
Mystic Lord, collecting the communion of all mysteries,
Finder of the supreme through the Communion, King of Tantras,
To Indrabhuti, Nagadakini, Visukalpa, glorious Saraha,
Nagarjuna the vajra-holder and Aryadeva,
Nagabodhi, Shakyamitra, Matangi,
Chandrapada, and so on-
By that good luck of the store of goodness found,
In this distinguished lineage of mentors,
May all your troubles be eliminated
And your fortune increase like the waxing moon,
And may you sport in the glory of perfection!
The five classes of Buddha Father-Mothers, the four heroines,
The eight Bodhisattvas and the ten terrific lords-
The Buddha Jewel of the glorious Communion:
By the good luck of the store of goodness found
In the circle of the thirty-two deities,
May all your troubles be eliminated,
And your fortune increase like the waxing moon,
And may you sport in the glory of perfection!
The Tantric Scripture uttered from the lotus mouth
Of the Universal Lord Glorious Vajrasattva,
Its fine root of thirty-three thousand lines,
The glorious Communion Root Tantra and Explanatory Tantras,
The four consecrations and the three kinds of vows,
The four vajras of ordinary creation-stage service,
The six branches of supreme perfection-stage service,
The profound five stages and three conducts,
The Dharma jewel of the glorious Communion:
By the good fortune of the store of goodness found
In the textual and practical Dharma wheels,
May all your troubles be eliminated,
 Practicing the Creation Stage 247

Your fortune increase like the waxing moon,

May you sport in the glory of perfection!
The Community Jewel of the glorious Communion
Who dwells in fabulous pure lands in ten directions­
By the good fortune of the store of goodness found
In all who hold more than one dimension of the holy
Textual and practical teachings of the King of Tantras,
May all your troubles be eliminated,
Your fortune increase like the waxing moon,
May you sport in the glory of perfection!
 CHAPTER 8

Practicing the Perfection and

Great Perfection Stages
 The Quintessence Segment

Bless me to realize here in this life

The path of clear light/magic body communion,
Coming from you, Savior, when you put your toe
In my eight-petaled heart-center Dhuti-nerve!
If the path is not complete and death arrives,
Bless me to go to a pure buddhaverse
By the instruction for implementing the five forces
Of mentor-soul-ejection, the forceful art of Buddhahood!
In short, life after life forever,
You, Savior, please care for me never apart,
Bless me to become your foremost child,
Upholding all the secrets of body, speech, and mind!
You, Savior, at your perfect Buddhahood,
May I be foremost in your retinue-
Grant me good luck for easy spontaneous achievement
Of all my goals, temporary and ultimate!
Thus having prayed, may you, Supreme Mentor
Joyously come to my crown to bless me,
Sit surely, your toenails glistening,
In the pistil of my heart-center lotus!

From Nagarjuna's Five Stages of the Perfection Stage

1. VAJ R A R E P E T I T I O N

This art is taught by the perfect Buddhas, like a ladder,

For those stable in the creation stage and ambitious for the perfec-
tion stage.
The life energy of beings, doing all work, is called wind.
It is like the mount of consciousness, fivefold and tenfold in nature.
Through realization of creation by mantra, one is trained in vajra
repetition.
The yogin abiding in vajra repetition will obtain the mind objective,
Abiding in the illusory samadhi, he is purified by the summit of
truth,
 Practicing the Perfection and Great Perfection Stages 251

Arising from the summit of truth, she will attain nondual intuition.
Abiding in the communion samadhi, there is nothing whatever fur-
ther to learn.
This is the Perfection Yoga, and the great Vajradhara,
Supreme in all ways, is born from that.
Since the three states, past, present, and future,
Are purified through clear light, he sees them all at once.
These truths abide well sealed, in the glorious Communion Tantra;
They should be understood from the mentor's speech,
In accordance with the Explanatory Tantras . . . .
Who devotedly always strives in service and worship,
Who retains her learning, such a one
Need not be examined by the superior Mentor­
He should be given the Mentor's grace.
Who falls from the summit of a high mountain
May think, "I mustn't fall! "-but she will fall.
Who obtains the helpful prophecy by the Mentor's kindness
May think, "I should not be delivered," yet he will be delivered! . . .

2. M I N D O BJ E C T I V E
I pay homage and bow down! With homage I bow down!
With homage, homage, homage I bow down!
Offering praises, I pay homage!
Who praises, who is praised?
I myself pay homage to my own intuition,
When will I understand that we are like
Water poured in water, butter poured in fire? . .
Now it is to be clearly explained by the perfected yoginii,
Explaining here the purity of the three voidnesses as clear light.
That is called universal voidness, the purity of the three intuitions.
The abode of those intuitions is reality and the unexcelled omni-
science.
Unchanging, not appearing, nondual, and supremely peaceful,
It is not in the range of existence or nonexistence, or of any words.
Then, from the purity of clear light, the three intuitions emerge;
One becomes the omniscient one, supreme in all one's aspects,
Endowed with the thirty-two auspicious signs and the eighty marks.
25 2 .. E S S EN T I A L T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

The Magnificent Play Sutra states:

Shakyamuni, accepting this enlightenment,
The clear and transcendent state,
Clearly thought that Buddhahood
Is to be attained from the great voidness.
On the bank of the river Nairanjana,
He sat in the immovable samadhi,
Then the Victors filled all space
With vajras like a scattering of sesame.
They snapped their fingers before the Bodhisattva
And spoke together in a single voice.
"This meditation is not perfection.
By this the ultimate will not be won.
Apprehend the clear light,
Like the realm of space, supreme!
Attaining the realm of clear light,
You will be born in the absolutely joyous body.
Then, in the ecstatic vajra body,
You will attain universal mastery."
When he heard that statement,
He abandoned the immovable samadhi,
And at the time of midnight,
The Bodhisattva saw clear light.
The body was not straight
Nor was it not straight,
There was no exhalation or inhalation,
He did not speak, nor was he silent.
His good eyes were not closed
Nor were they open.
The miraculous universal voidness,
Great intuition, translucent and clear,
Then he clearly beheld it
By the kindness of the actual Mentor.
Then he saw in a single instant
The three states of existence
Of the past, the present, and the future.
Purified by the clear light,
Through the vajralike samadhi,
At the time of the predawn light
He was adorned by the excellence of magic illusion
 Practicing the Perfection and Great Perfection Stages 2. 5 3

Like the moon in water, like a mirage, and so on.

Then sitting at the tree of enlightenment
He conquered all the devils.
The Shakya Savior thus attained
The genuine intuition, unexcelled,
And then to help and protect all beings
He manifested that actuality right there.
That perfect enlightenment thus manifested
Is called the intuition of reality. . . .
It is not attachment, and not detachment,
Nor is it apprehended in between.
It is not empty, and not nonempty,
Nor is it apprehended in the middle.
The communion of all Buddhas
Proclaims it as this very reality.
The reality beyond the three intuitions,
Is taught through intentional speech.
Likewise the nature of perfect enlightenment
Is taught by the verse "There is no thing, and so forth."
From the " Enlightenment" chapter
Of the glorious Secret Communion Tantra.
And the purity of desire and so on
Is also taught in the Glorious Paramount Bliss.
That same reality is also taught by the Transcendent One
As universal voidness.
What is taught as that reality
By various Sutras and Tantras,
It is none other than this realm
Of universal voidness.
From the eighty-four thousand teachings
Taught by the Great Ascetic,
This nature of perfect enlightenment
Is proclaimed the essence of the essence. . . .

3. S E L F - E MP O W E R M E N T
Homage to the Great Vajra,
Chief of all the vajras;
Out of love I will explain
The actual self-empowerment.
254 .. E S S E N T I A L T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

First, one gets the empowerment following the creation stage, one under­
stands the intention of the four kinds of Tantras, one has wisdom and
knowledge of physical, verbal, and mental isolation. One intensely aspires
to both realities, and one truly propitiates the Vajra Master. Having pleased
the Mentor and having made the great offerings in group rites, one offers
even one's own young mate. Then one gets the private instruction in the
self-empowerment from the Mentor's own mouth, and one gets the secret
initiation, together with the rosary, water, perfect Buddha, vajra, bell, mir­
ror, name, mastership, and permission initiations. Then one should praise
the Mentor with this praise:
"Your body has no inner void,
Nor flesh, nor bone, nor blood;
It is a purposeful manifestation
Just like a rainbow in the sky. . . .
Homage to the unconditional you ! "
Thus having praised the Vajra Master with these praises, one should
pray that he is pleased by these verses:
"Whose very substance is omniscient intuition,
Who purifies the wheel of the life-cycle,
Now please kindly bestow upon me
The chief jewel of all elucidations!
Abandoning the lotuses of your feet,
I take no refuge in any other Lord.
May the hero of beings, the Great Ascetic,
Grant me supreme genius! "
Thus fearlessly praying
She hears these words,
Feels compassion with his disciple,
And begins the self-empowerment.
To know the stage of self-empowerment,
One must teach the superficial reality;
That will be attained in no other way
Than through the kindness of the Mentor.
The stage of the self-empowerment­
Who does not discover it,
Though she studies Sutras, Tantras, and rites,
Her pains will ever prove fruitless.
Who attains the stage of self-empowerment
 Practicing the Perfection and Great Perfection Stages 255

Is himself the Lord, the essence of all Buddhas,

Without any doubt she will attain
Buddhahood in his very lifetime.
The samadhi of self-empowerment
And alike the realm of clear light,
In their aspects as ca use and effect,
Teach the two realities.
By the stage of the self-empowerment
One will attain the clear light.
Therefore the Vajra Master
Teaches self-empowerment first.
All beings are without free will
And do not arise independently.
Self-empowerment's cause is the clear light;
The clear light of universal voidness.
That mind which binds foolish beings
With the chains of cyclic life;
That same mind causes the yoginli
To proceed to the realm of Lords of Bliss.
Here there is no birth at all
Nor is there any death at all.
One should understand that egoistic life itself
Abides in the nature of the mind.
The nature of mind is not perceived
Without the yoga of the breath.
When that nature of the mind creates,
Evolution and birth then take their course.
That mind really controlling the breaths,
Then the threefold consciousness
Arises as the body of the yoginli,
It is called the "body of magic illusion."
For this reason it is explained
That all beings are "like illusion,"
Abiding in the illusory samadhi
Everything is seen like that.
Form and also feeling,
Perception and creation,
Consciousness the fifth,
And likewise the four elements,
The eye and so forth and the objects,
256 .. E S S E N T I A L T I B ETA N B U D D H I S M

And the five consciousnesses,

Divided into internal and external-
All are from nothing other than illusion.
One should understand the magic body
Like an image reflected in a mirror.
Its color like a rainbow,
Its range like the moon in water.
Freed from being and nothingness,
It is like the well-designed Vajrasattva,
His appearance clearly reflected
In a flawless mirror surface.
Superior in all its aspects,
A body one never tires of seeing,
It is taught to that good disciple,
And is called "the self-empowerment. . . . "
And so one enters into the worship of self.
Oneself is all the Buddhas
And all the Bodhisattvas.
Thus with all of one's efforts
One should always worship oneself. . . .
The Great Seal of great bliss
Will be achieved by following oneself. . . .
The private word of the self-empowerment,
Who does not get it from his Mentor
Perceives permanence or annihilation,
And thus becomes prone to regression.
Abandoning all forms of worship,
Engage truly in the worship of the Mentor.
By pleasing him, one will attain
The supreme intuition of omniscience . . . .
The Mentor takes away sin.
The Mentor dispels terrors.
The Mentor delivers one to the far shore
Of the terrors of the ocean of misery. . . .
Who is defiled with pride
Refutes the stage of truth,
Who has contempt for the Dharma
Such a one should not be taught.
 Practicing the Perfection and Great Perfection Stages 25 7

Devoted to the Mentor, speaking truth,

Expert in teachings and concentrated,
Keeper of deeds according to her vows,
This stage should be taught to him.

4. UNIVERSAL ENLIGHTENMENT
I pay homage to the Vajra Hero,
Teacher of universal voidness.
I will explain the fourth stage
Of direct enlightenment.
The self-existent Lord,
The sole, great-souled deity;
Greater than him is the Vajra Master,
Because she grants the personal instructions . . . .
Having truly propitiated him
For a year or even for a month,
When that Mentor is well pleased,
Then worship her as much as possible . . . .
The disciple folds his palms
To please the Mentor with worship and praise.
"I pay homage to you, the unconditional,
Liberated from the three realms,
Equanimous as the space,
Not corrupted by all desires. . . .
Grant the vision of direct enlightenment,
Whose nature is universal voidness! "
The disciple should press her palms together,
Praise the Mentor, and then entreat him:
"Great Savior, grant me the vision
Of direct enlightenment,
Free from evolution and birth,
Beyond the three luminances." . . .
Thus the yoginli should please the Mentor
By expressing her excellencies truly;
Their compassion arises for the disciple,
And she puts forth this very stage.
Night-moon is luminance; the spread of sun-rays is radiance. The interval is
the luminance-imminence; one proceeds through these not just once
258 .. E S S EN T I A L T I B E TAN BUDDHISM

through one's own natural instincts. What is neither night nor day nor the
interval is free from those instincts. That is the instant of enlightenment,
the supreme teaching of the Mentor, the objective of the yoginli. . . . This
instant just before the sunrise is the immaculate ultimate of reality. . . . In
an instant she will attain the untroubled inner bliss of Buddha enlighten­
ment. . . .
The yoginli attains thus such reality,
Gaining the inexhaustible body of the sole friend of beings,
Whose nature is animate and inanimate
The Human-lion made of intuition,
The cause of all beings.
That crooked body becomes straight,
Firm, and abiding without any abode,
Whose eyes are wide open even when they are closed,
Who is entranced even when not meditating.
Even though she uses words, she is inexpressible.
Though he has enjoyments, he has no grasping,
Though she is the savior of the world, she is the slave of others . . . .
The essence of all things, with the genius of the immaculate
Teaching gained by the Mentor's kindness,
Is clear and pure, extremely subtle, natural supreme peace,
The realm of Buddha Nirvana.
Free of notions of duality, nature of constant bliss,
The yogin/i should meditate that reality.
Liberated from good and evil, herself, here and now,
Become the Lord Vajrasattva!

5. C O M M UN I O N
I pay homage to the Protector,
Whose nature is cause and effect,
Yet abandons all dualities;
I will explain the final stage of communion.
Abandoning the two notions
Of egoistic life and liberation,
Wherein they become the same thing;
That is called "communion. "
Knowing the addictive and purificative
Both as the absolute itself;
 Practicing the Perfection and Great Perfection Stages 259

Who knows them as just the same

Knows the communion.
The notion of things with their forms
And the notion of nothingness;
The yogin/is who treat them as the same,
That one knows this communion.
Not having the mind that divides
The two, subject and object,
Having the mind without such differentiation,
That one knows the so-called communion.
Who abandons the cognitions
Of permanence and annihilation,
He is the sage who knows the reality
Of this stage of abiding communion.
Knowing wisdom and compassion as one,
Who acts in such a way
Is said to have "communion. "
This stage i s the sphere of Buddhas.
Fully concentrating the unification
Of art and wisdom, she has knowledge;
Who abides in this great yoga
Comes to have this communion . . . .
Freedom from the two notions
Of personal selflessness
And objective selflessness
Is the nature of communion.
Knowing the stage of knowing reality,
Who truly brings together
Self-empowerment and clear light,
This is the stage of communion . . . .
The superficial and the absolute,
Each with his own aspects,
Where they truly merge,
Is called "communion. "
When the perception of reality itself
Arises (in the magic body),
260 • E S S EN T I A L T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

That is the winning of communion,

The abode of the inexhaustible yoginli.
Abandoning both the occasions
Of sleeping and being awake,
Freedom from both sleep and wakefulness,
The Teacher proclaimed as communion.
For whom all of these are not,
Abandoning somethings and nothings,
That yoginli abides in communion,
Liberated from mindfulness and unconsciousness,
Having a constantly occurring character,
The yoginli who acts as she pleases
Abides in the stage of communion.
Freed from attachment and detachment,
Having the body of supreme joy,
Living in the samsaric state,
He manifests this communion . . . .
The creation stage is one,
And the perfection stage another!
Where these two become one,
That is called "communion. " . . .
That is the nondual intuition,
The unlocated Nirvana.
It is the Buddha Vajrasattva himself,
And the Lord Master of all.
Whatever expressions, such as "birthlessness,"
That teach the nondual intuition,
All of them are expressions of this;
There no other is explained.
The Buddhas, quite as numerous
As the sands of the Ganga River,
Realized this very thing, and,
Abandoning being and nothing,
Attained this essence of the Great Seal.
This supreme fifth stage,
By the merit gained from teaching it,
May the whole world sport with this samadhi of communion!
 Practicing the Perfection and Great Perfection Stages 261

The Natural Liberation Through Naked Vision,

Identifying Intelligence

by Padma Sambhava

EMA HOH!
The one mind that pervades all life and liberation,
Though it is the primal nature, it is not recognized,
Though its bright intelligence is uninterrupted, it is not faced,
Though it ceaselessly arises everywhere, it is not recognized.
To make known just this objective nature,
The three-times victors proclaimed the inconceivable
Eighty-four thousand Dharma teachings,
Teaching none other than this realization.
Though Scriptures are measureless as the sky,
Their import is three words identifying intelligence.
This direct introduction to the intention of the Victors­
Just this is the entry into freedom from progression.
KYAI HO !
Fortunate children! Listen here!
"Mind"-though this great word is so well known­
People do not know it, know it wrongly or only partially;
And by their not understanding its reality precisely,
They come up with inconceivable philosophical claims.
The common, alienated individual, not realizing this,
By not understanding her own nature on her own,
Suffers roaming through six life-forms in three realms.
Such is the fault of not realizing this reality of the mind.
Disciples and hermit Buddhas claim realization
Of a partial selflessness but do not know this exactly.
Bound up in claims from their treatises and theories,
They do not behold clear light transparency.
Disciples and hermits are shut out by clinging to subject and object,
Centrists are shut out by extremism about the two realities,
Ritual and performance Tantrists, by extremism in service and
practice,
And great (Maha) and pervasive (Anu) Tantrists,
By clinging to the duality of realm and intelligence.
They err by remaining dualistic in nonduality,
262 .. E S S E N T I A L T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

By not communing nondually, they do not awaken.

All life and liberation inseparable from their own minds,
They still roam the life-cycle on vehicles of quitting and choosing.
Therefore, absorbing all created things in your free inaction,
Realize the great natural liberation of all things from this teaching
Of natural liberation through naked seeing of your own intelli-
gence!
Thus in the great perfection, everything is perfect! . . .
"Mind," this bright process of intelligence,
In one way exists and in another way does not.
It is origin of the pleasure and pain of life and liberation.
It is accepted as essential to the eleven vehicles of liberation.
Its names are countless in various contexts.
Some call this mind "the mind-reality."
Some fundamentalists call it "self."
Some disciples call it "selflessness."
Idealists call it by name of "mind."
Some call it "Transcendent Wisdom. "
Some call it "the Buddha nature. "
Some call it "the Great Sea!."
Some call it "the Soul Drop."
Some call it "the Truth Realm. "
Some call it "the Foundation. "
Some call i t "the Ordinary."
To introduce the three-point entrance to this itself­
Realize past awareness as trackless, clear, and void,
Future awareness as unproduced and new,
And present awareness as staying natural, uncontrived.
Thus knowing time in its very ordinary way,
When you nakedly yourself regard yourself,
Your looking is transparent, nothing to be seen.
This is naked, immediate, clear intelligence.
It is clear voidness with nothing established,
Purity of clarity-voidness-nonduality;
Not permanent, free of any intrinsic status,
Not annihilated, bright and distinct,
Not a unity, multidiscerning clarity,
 Practicing the Perfection and Great Perfection Stages 263

Without plurality, indivisible, one in taste,

Not derivative, self-aware, it is this very reality.

This objective introduction to the actuality of things

Contains complete in one the indivisible three bodies.
The Truth Body, the voidness free of intrinsic status,
The Beatific Body, bright with freedom's natural energy,
The Emanation Body, ceaselessly arising everywhere­
Its reality is these three complete in one.

To introduce the forceful method to enter this very reality,

Your own awareness right now is just this!
It being just this uncontrived natural clarity,
Why do you say, "I don't understand the nature of the mind " ?
As here there i s nothing to meditate upon,
In just this uninterrupted clarity intelligence,
Why do you say, "I don't see the actuality of the mind" ?
Since the thinker in the mind is just it,
Why do you say, "Even searching I can't find it" ?
Since here there is nothing to be done,
Why do you say, "Whatever I do, it doesn't succeed" ?
As it is sufficient to stay put uncontrived,
Why do you say, "I can't stay still" ?
As it is all right to b e content with inaction,
Why do you say, "I am not able to do it" ?
Since clear, aware, and void are automatically indivisible,
Why do you say, "Practice is not effective" ?
Since it is natural, spontaneous, free of cause and condition,
Why do you say, "Seeking, it cannot be found" ?
Since thought and natural liberation are simultaneous,
Why do you say, "Remedies are impotent" ?
Since your very intelligence is just this,
Why do you say, "I do not know this" ?

Be sure mind's nature is groundless voidness;

Your mind is insubstantial like empty space­
Like it or not, look at your own mind!
Not fastening to the view of annihilative voidness,
Be sure spontaneous wisdom has always been clear,
Spontaneous in itself like the essence of the sun­
Like it or not, look at your own mind!
264 .. ES S E N T I A L T I B E T A N B U D D H I S M

Be sure that intelligent wisdom is uninterrupted,

Like a continuous current of a river-
Like it or not, look at your own mind!
Be sure it will not be known by thinking various reasons,
Its movement insubstantial like breezes in the sky-
Like it or not, look at your own mind!
Be sure that what appears is your own perception;
Appearance is natural perception, like a reflection in a mirror­
Like it or not, look at your own mind.
Be sure that all signs are liberated on the spot,
Self-originated, self-delivered, like clouds in sky­
Like it or not, look at your own mind! . . .
Vision-voidness natural liberation
Is brilliant void Body of Truth.
Realizing Buddhahood is not achieved by paths­
Vajrasattva is beheld right now. . . .
Therefore, to see intuitively your own naked intelligence,
This Natural Liberation Through Naked Vision is extremely deep.
So investigate this reality of your own intelligence.
Profound! Sealed!
EMA!
 CHAPTER 9

Various Treasures of Tibetan Spiritual Culture

 Instruction in the Great Science of the
Six-Syllable Mantra

(from The Jewel Case Array Sutra, Chapter 5 )

Then the Transcendent Lord Padmottama, the Saint, the perfectly enlight­
ened Buddha, spoke to the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara: " Give me, gentle
son, the queen, the great science of the six-syllable mantra with which I
may liberate from suffering hundreds of thousands of millions of billions of
various beings, so that I may cause them to reach unexcelled perfect en­
lightenment as swiftly as possible."
Then the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, the great spiritual hero, gave the
great science, the six-syllable mantra to the perfectly enlightened Buddha,
the Transcendent Lord, the Saint Padmottama:
OM MA NI PAD ME H U M .

At that instant, when this great science of the six-syllable mantra was
given forth, then the four great continents, along with the heavenly resi­
dences of the deities, trembled like a leaf of a banana tree, and the four
great oceans were churned up together with all of their demons and ob­
structors. All of these demons and obstructors were terrified, and the forest
demons and the cannibals, and the Great Black One, Mahakala, together
with all his great retinue fled away.
Thereupon the Transcendent Lord Padmottama extended his elephant­
trunk-like arms and offered the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, the great
spiritual hero, a pearl necklace worth many hundreds of thousands, and
Avalokiteshvara, receiving that pearl necklace himself, offered it in turn to
the Saint, the Transcendent Lord, the perfectly enlightened Buddha
Amitabha. He in turn, receiving that necklace, again returned an offering to
the Transcendent Lord, the Saint, the perfectly enlightened Buddha
Padmottama. Thereupon the Transcendent Lord, the Saint, the perfectly
enlightened Buddha Padmottama, receiving this great science, the six­
syllable mantra, returned to his Padma buddhaverse.

The Praise of the Twenty-One Taras

Hail Tara! Swift One, Champion,

Your glance like flash of lightning!
 Various Treasures of Tibetan Spiritual Culture 267

You arise the tear-born stamen

From our Savior's lotus face!
All hail! Your face shines splendid
As a hundred full harvest moons,
Ablaze with your laughing light-rays,
Like the host of a thousand stars!
All hail-infinity alive,
Triumphal Buddha-brain-dome Queen,
Honored by all Victor-children,
Showing all transcendent virtues!
Hail! You who fill all space of realms
With fierce H U M G and TUTTARA sounds,
You tread upon the seven worlds,
Controlling them all completely!
Hail you, adored by the All God,
Indra, Agni, Brahma, Maruts,
Honored by all demons, zombies,
Fairies, angels, and the goblins!
Hail, your fierce TRAD and PHAT sounds
Crush enemies' magic diagrams,
Feet planted in the bowman's stance,
Fierce glances blazing searing flames!
Hail you, 0 great awesome TURE,
Crusher of satanic champions,
Lotus face so fiercely frowning,
Quickly annihilate all foes!
Hail you whose heart is beautiful
With hands in the Three-Jew'l gesture,
Their exquisite royal wheel-marks
Shining their light-rays everywhere!
Hail you-garlands of light cascade
From your diadem aglow with joy,
Smiling, laughing with TUTTARE,
You dominate all devil realms!
Hail you who have power to summon
The whole earth's guardian spirit host,
268 .. E S S E N T IA L T I B E TA N BUDDHISM

You dance, you frown, you sound your H U M G ,

Deliver us from disasters!
Hail you whose diadem shines brightly,
Moon crescent in dark-lock hairdo,
With Amitabha seated in it
Shining polar constant light-rays!
Hail! You stand wreathed in cosmic flames,
Supernova conflagrations,
In the bowman's stance, joy powered,
Incinerate the wheel of foes!
Hail you who sharply clap your hands
And stamp your foot upon the ground,
Frown fiercely, roar the sound of HUMG,
Shatter all seven underworlds!
Hail you, blissful, gentle, beauty,
Luxurious peaceful in Nirvan',
Glorious with SVAHA and with OM,
Destroy all great atrocities!
Hail you whose pow'r is total joy,
Who rend the bodies of all foes
With your magic syllables ten­
OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SVAHA
And your ferocious spell of HUMG!
OM NAMAS TARE NAMO HARE HUMG HARE SVAHA
Hail you, Swift Lady, stamp your foot,
Springing forth from your HUMG-shaped seed,
You shake the whole threefold planet,
Mounts Meru-Kailash-Mandara!
Hail you who holds the hare-marked moon
Like a divine lake in your hand,
Totally extracts all poisons
Pronouncing TARA TARA PHAT!
Hail you-honored by God Indra,
Brahma, all gods and horse-head fairies,
 Various Treasures of Tibetan Spiritual Culture 269

With armor of joy ecstatic,

You stop all conflict and bad dreams!
Hail you, your shining sun-moon eyes
Penetrate like lightning flashes,
HARA HARA and TUTTARA,
You allay all fatal fevers!
Hail, three-reality created,
Flowing bliss-pow'r Shiva-Shakti,
Best Swift Lady, you overcome
Rushing demons, zombies, ogres!
This mantra-rooted hymn of praise,
Twenty-one-fold salutation,
Sing it ardent, true, and thoughtful,
With devotion to the Goddess!
Remember it well at evening,
Or at dawn upon arising,
It gives safety, stops ev'ry sin,
Reverses all evil fortunes!
One will soon be well anointed
By seventy million victors,
Enjoying thereby much glory,
At last achieving Buddhahood!
Rememb'ring it, one is released
From effects of vilest poisons,
Animal, plant, or mineral,
Whether taken in food or drink!
Reciting its three sevens twice
Completely stops the suffering
Of addictions, demons, fevers,
Poisons, even in other beings;
Who wants a child will soon get one,
Who wants wealth will soon receive it.
One will fulfill all one's wishes
And will not suffer any harm!
270 .. E S S E N T I A L T I B ETA N BUDDHISM

Description of the Between

from The Natural Liberation Through

Understanding in the Between

"Hey, noble one! Listen well, and keep this in your mind! In hell, heaven,
and the between, the body is born by apparition. But when the perceptions
of the mild and fierce deities arose in the reality between, you did not rec­
ognize them. So after five and a half days, you fainted with terror. Upon
awakening, your awareness became clearer, and you immediately arose in a
likeness of your former body. As it says in the Tantra: 'Having the fleshly
form of the preceding and emerging lives, senses all complete, moving un­
obstructed, with evolutionary magic powers, one sees similar species with
pure clairvoyance.'
"Here 'preceding' means that you arise as if in a flesh-and-blood body
determined by the instincts of your preceding life. If you are radiant and
have traces of the auspicious bodily signs and marks of a mythic hero, it is
because your imagination can transform your body; thus, that perceived in
the between is called a 'mental body.'
"At that time, if you are to be born as a god, you will have visions of the
heavens. If you are to be born as a titan, a human, an animal, a pretan, or a
hell being, you will have visions of whichever realm you will be born in.
'Preceding' here means that for up to four and a half days you experience
yourself as having a fleshly body of your previous life with its habitual in­
stincts. 'Emerging' means that you begin to have visions of the place where
you are heading for rebirth . . . .
"Therefore do not follow after every vision that happens. Don't be at­
tached to it! Don't adhere to it! If you are stubborn and attached to all of
them, you will roam in suffering through the six realms. Up until yesterday,
the visions of the reality between dawned for you, but you did not recog­
nize them. So you have had to wander here now. So now if, without waver­
ing, you can develop recognition, the spiritual teacher's orientation can
open your awareness of the clear light, the naked, pure, vibrant void. Enter
into it, relax into the experience of nonholding, nondoing! Without having ,
to enter a womb, you will 1be liberated.
"If you do not recognize the light, then meditate that your spiritual
teacher or archetype deity is present on the crown of your head, and devote
yourself totally with a forceful faith. It is so important! Do it without wa­
vering again and again! "
 Various Treasures of Tibetan Spiritual Culture 271

So you should say. If the deceased recognizes the light at this point, she
will not wander in the six realms and will be liberated. But if the power of
negative evolution still makes this recognition difficult, you should again
speak as follows:
"Hey, noble one! Listen without your mind wandering! 'Senses all com­
plete, moving unobstructed' means that even if in life you were blind, deaf,
crippled, and so on, now in the between, your eyes clearly discern forms,
your ears hear sounds, and so forth. Your senses become flawlessly clear
and complete . . . . Recognize this as a sign that you have died and are wan­
dering in the between! Remember your personal instructions!
"Hey, noble one! What is 'unobstructed' is your mental body; your
awareness is free from embodiment and you lack a solid body. So now you
can move hither and thither everywhere through walls, houses, lands,
rocks, and earth, even through Meru, the axial mountain; except through a
mother's womb and the vajra throne at Bodhgaya. This is a sign that you
are wandering in the existence between, so remember the instructions of
your spiritual teacher! Pray to the Lord of Great Compassion!
"Hey, noble one! 'With evolutionary magic powers' means that you,
who have no special abilities or meditational magic powers whatsoever,
now have magic powers arising from the result of your evolution. In a split
second you can circle this four-continent planet with its axial mountain.
You now have the power just to think about any place you wish and you
will arrive there in that very instant. You can reach anywhere and return
just as a normal man stretches out and pulls back his arm. But these various
magic powers are not so miraculous; if you don't specially need them, ig­
nore them! You should not worry about whether or not you can manifest
this or that, which you may think of. The fact is you have the ability to
manifest anything without any obstruction. You should recognize this as a
sign of the existence between! You should pray to your spiritual teacher!
"Hey, noble one! 'One sees similar species with pure clairvoyance'
means that beings of the same species in the between can see each other.
Thus if some beings are of the same species, all going to be reborn as gods,
they will see each other. Likewise other beings of the same species, to be
reborn in whichever in the six realms, will see each other. So you should
not be attached to such encounters! Meditate on the Lord of Great
Compassion!
" 'With pure clairvoyance' refers also to the vision of those whose pure
clairvoyance has been developed by practice of contemplation, as well as to
the vision of those whose divine power of merit has developed it. But such
272 ... E S S E N T I A L T I B ETA N B U D D H I S M

yogis or deities cannot always see between beings. They see them only
when they will to see them, and not when they do not, or when their con­
templation is distracted.
"Hey, noble one! As you have such a ghostly body, you encounter rela­
tives and familiar places as if in a dream. When you meet these relatives,
though you communicate with them, they do not answer. When you see
your relatives and dear ones crying, you will think, 'Now I have died, what
can I do?' You feel a searing pain, like a fish flopping in hot sand. But how­
ever greatly you suffer, tormenting yourself at this time does not help. If you
have a spiritual teacher, pray to your spiritual teacher. Or else pray to the
compassionate archetype deity. Don't be attached to your loved ones-it is
useless. Pray to the compassionate ones, and do not suffer or be terrified!
"Hey, noble one! Driven by the swift wind of evolution, your mind is
helpless and unstable, riding the horse of breath like a feather blown on the
wind, spinning and fluttering. You tell the mourners, 'Don't cry! Here I
am!' They take no notice, and you realize you have died, and you feel great
anguish. Now, do not indulge in your pain! There is a constant twilight,
gray as the predawn autumn sky, neither day nor night. That kind of be­
tween can last for one, two, three, four, five, six, or seven weeks-up to
forty-nine days. Though it is said that for most people the suffering of the
existence between lasts twenty-one days, this is not always certain due to
people's different evolutionary histories.
"You think, 'How nice it would be to have a new body!' Then you will
have visions of looking everywhere for a body. Even if you try up to nine
times to enter your old corpse, due to the length of the reality between, in
the winter it will have frozen, in the summer it will have rotted. Otherwise
your loved ones will have burned it or buried it or given it to birds and
beasts, so it affords no place to inhabit. You will feel sick at heart and will
have visions of being squeezed between boulders, stones, and dirt. This
kind of suffering is in the nature of the existence between. Even if you find
a body, there will be nothing other than such suffering. So give up longing
for a body! Focus yourself undistractedly in the experience of creative non­
action!
" . . . Your body is mental, so even if it is killed and cut up, you cannot
die. In fact, your form is the void itself, so you have nothing to fear. The
yamas are your own hallucinations and themselves are forms of the void.
Your own instinctual mental body is void. Voidness cannot harm voidness.
Signlessness cannot harm signlessness. You should recognize that there is
nothing other than your own hallucination. There is no external, substan­
tially existent yama, angel, demon, or buH-headed ogre and so on. You
must recognize all this as the between!
 Various Treasures of Tibetan Spiritual Culture 273

"Meditate on the samadhi of the Great Seal!

"If you don't know how to meditate, examine carefully whatever terri­
fies you and see the voidness that is its lack of objective status. That is the
Natural Body of Truth. And that voidness is not merely an annihilation.
Your triumphant, distinct awareness of the terror of the void is itself the
blissful mind of the Body of Beatitude. Voidness and clarity are indistin­
guishable; the actuality of the void is clarity, the actuality of the clarity is
the voidness. Your awareness of voidness-clarity-indivisible is stripped
naked, and now you abide in the unfabricated experience. That is the
Wisdom Body of Truth. And that spontaneously and unobstructedly arises
anywhere. And that is the Body of Compassionate Emanation.
"Hey, noble one! Behold this without wavering! Recognize it! You will
definitely become a Buddha, the perfection of the four bodies. Do not be
distracted! This is the borderline between a Buddha and an ordinary being.
Now is the time- described as 'One instant alienated, one instant perfectly
enlightened.'
"Until yesterday you were given to distraction, you did not recognize
what arose as the between, and you were gripped by so much terror. If you
again surrender to distraction, the cord of compassion will be cut, and you
will go into the abodes that lack all freedom; so be careful!
"Hey, noble one! If you don't know to meditate thus, then remember
and pray to the Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha, and the compassionate
lords. Contemplate all the terrors and visions as the Compassionate Lord
or your own archetype deity. Remember your esoteric initiation name and
the spiritual teacher who gave you the initiations you received in the
human realm; proclaim them to yama, the Lord of Truth! You won't be in­
jured even if you fall off cliffs, so abandon fear and hate!
"Hey, noble one! In short, since your present between-consciousness is
highly unstable, volatile, and mobile, and virtuous or vicious perception is
very powerful, don't think at all about any unvirtuous evolution, and re­
member your own virtuous practice. If you have no virtuous practice, then
adopt a positive perception and feel faith and reverence. Pray to your ar­
chetype deity and to the Lord of Compassion! With an intense willpower,
perform this prayer!
Now that I wander alone, without my loved ones,
And all my visions are but empty images,
May the Buddhas exert the force of their compassion
And stop the fear and hate-drawn terrors of the between!
Now when I suffer by the power of negative evolution,
May my archetype deities dispel my suffering!
274 • E S S ENTIAL TIB ETAN B U D D H I S M

When reality crashes with a thousand thunders,

May they all become OM MANI PADME HUM !
When I'm pulled by evolution without recourse,
May the lords mild and fierce dispel my suffering!
When I suffer due to evolutionary instincts,
May clear light bliss samadhi arise for me!
"Thus perform this fervent prayer! It will surely guide you on the path.
It is crucial that you decide it is sure not to let you down! . . .
"Again, meditate long and carefully that whoever your archetype deity,
he or she appears like a magic illusion, lacking intrinsic reality. It is called
the pure Magic Body. Then contemplate that archetype deity as dissolving
from the edges inward, and enter the experience of not holding rigidly to
the insubstantial, the clear light of voidness. Again contemplate that as the
archetype deity! Again contemplate it as clear light! Thus meditating deity
and clear light in alternation, then let your own awareness dissolve from
the edges; where space pervades, let awareness pervade. Where awareness
pervades, let the Truth Body pervade. Enter comfortably into the experi­
ence of the ceaseless nonproliferation of the Truth Body. "

Praises of Various Fierce Protectors

Praise to Mahakala
HUM !
Homage to the swift Lokeshvara!
o Great Black Mahakala! You wear a tiger skin!
Your ankleted feet trample an obstructor!
Your six arms are adorned with snakelets;
The rights hold chopper and rosary
And fiercely rattle a damaru drum!
The lefts hold a skull bowl and a trident
And a noose with which you bind all demons!
Your face is fierce, you gnash your fangs!
Your three eyes bulge, your hair burns upward!
Forehead anointed with red lead powder,
Your crown is sealed with Akshobhya Buddha!
Your garland, fifty blood-soak'd human heads,
Your diadem, five bejeweled human skulls!
 Various Treasures of Tibetan Spiritual Culture 27 5

Come here from your heaven, accept my cake!

I bow to you, Glorious Six-Armed One!
Fiercely guard the Buddha Teaching!
Fiercely praise the exalted jewels!
We teachers, disciples, and associates­
Wipe out our obstacles and bad conditions,
Quickly grant us the attainments we desire!

Praise to Shri Devi

BHYO H !
Mind-essence working the four miraculous activities,
Not deviant from the essence, neither being mind alone,
Absolute indivisible, free of color or form,
Her miracles mere magic, fitting each being's mind;
She manifests, she the peaceful Glory Goddess!
Peacemaker, Peace Being, her reality is peace,
Chief Lady of the retinue of peace,
Her symbolic body a perfectly pure white!
I bow to the all-peacemaking Mother Goddess!
Pray cease all disease, demons, and obstructions!
BHYO H !
Mind-essence working the four miraculous activities,
Not deviant from the essence, neither being mind alone,
Absolute indivisible, free of color or form,
Her miracles mere magic, fitting each being's mind;
She manifests, she the prospering Glory Goddess!
Growthmaker, Growth Being, her reality is growth,
Chief Lady of the retinue of growth,
Her symbolic body a perfect golden yellow!
I bow to the all-prospering Mother Goddess!
Please expand my life span and my merit!
BHYO H !
Mind-essence working the four miraculous activities,
Not deviant from the essence, neither being mind alone,
Absolute indivisible, free of color or form,
276 ;\) ES 5 ENTIAL T l B ETAN BUDDH!S M

Her miracles mere magic, fitting each being's mind;

She manifests, she the powerful Glory Goddess!
Powermaker, Power Being, her reality is power,
Chief Lady of the retinue of power,
Her symbolic body a perfect passion red!
I bow to the all-dominating Mother Goddess!
Please bring under control all beings of three realms!
BHYOH !
Mind-essence working the four miraculous activities,
Not deviant from the essence, neither being mind alone,
Absolute indivisible, free of color or form,
Her miracles mere magic, fitting each being's mind;
She manifests, she the ferocious Glory Goddess!
Fierce-maker, Fierce Being, her reality is ferocious,
Chief Lady of the retinue of the fierce,
Her symbolic body a glistening dark black!
I bow to the all-terrifying Mother Goddess!
Fiercely pray free of diseases, demons, foes, and obstructions!
BHYOH !
Though your nature is not at all substantial,
By appearing with such variety of natures,
You accomplish beings' aims with four miracle workings,
And we praise you heartily with intense attention!
Let us effortlessly achieve the four activities,
Striving with you for the sake of beings!

Tsong Khapa's Praise of the Inner Yama

The slightest stamp of your bowman's feet

destroys the world with its four prime elements!
Your intensely fierce buffalo face blazes intensely,
your great roar fills the three-realm universe!
Lord Yamantaka, terrible form that tames all evil,
manifest by Manjushri, sole father of Buddhas,
I bow reverently to you!
Now I praise you, Yamaraja-
it's time for every devil to watch out!
 Various Treasures of Tibetan Spiritual Culture 277

Ever sounding the great roar

that shatters mountains and churns up oceans,
dense fierce flame-mass amid billowing black smoke
like lightning flashing in a thunderhead,
your head radiates unbearable heat!
Surrounded with halos of rainbow light;
upon a triangle, blackened as if by a million fogs,
filled with a swirling ocean of blood and fat,
standing on a black ogre prostrate on a solar disk,
there you are, 0 Yamaraja!
Your short, thick body black as kohl,
right leg outstretched, left drawn up,
in the stance that shakes the earth,
your hair flaming up earthy yellow,
adorned with five-skull diadem,
your crown is adorned with the fiercest vajra bolt!
Necklaced with bloody, freshly-severed-head garland,
your three eyes flash and bulge and dart about,
your mouth gapes with sharp fangs gnashing,
its breath panting constantly with poisonous snake vapors!
Your right hand brandishes the blazing chopper knife
to mince the brains of the demon host,
your left hand fondles the bloody skull bowl,
your tiger-skin skirt shows the power of your fury!
Swiftly recall your vow to Lord Yamantaka!
Never waver, never waver,
accomplish all that I the yogin do command!
More, let all your host of great white, yellow, red, black yamas,
buffalo faces furious wild, adorned with death-ground ornaments,
mouths ablaze, eyes bloodshot, boldly mounted with warrior's
.stance
atop fierce buffaloes with piercing horns and razor throats,
conquer the host of devils spread out in the four directions!
May the vajra thunder of my praise
accomplish all deeds of peace, growth, power, and terror!
'Til I attain, for the sake of beings as infinite as space,
the supreme state of world-famed Manjughosha,
always praised by all the Buddhas!
278 ;\) E S S ENTI A L TIB ETAN B U D D H I S M

So long may Dharmaraja with your yama host

respectfully follow Yamantaka's command!
Effectively conquer the dark-side armies who always struggle
to steal our supreme treasure-the reality path!

Praise of Vaishravana, Deity of Wealth

HUM
0, Savior, arisen from the syllable VAl,
You sit at ease with your massive force
Astride the lion of fearlessness-
We bow to you, lord of the stage immovable!
We make offering, give praise, and bow in homage,
To your four queens and four princes,
Your eight ogres who accomplish special missions,
Your eight dragons who bestow treasures,
Those eight deities and demons with their retinuesl
Conquer all the foes and demons,
Perfect our enjoyment of prosperity,
Fulfill all our wishes completely-
Effortlessly accomplish others' aims!

Activation Prayer for the Protector Setrabjen

by Nyare Kentrul Gelek Rinpoche

From the bliss-void reality wherever you are,

Our powerful protector, Great Setrabjen,
Your emanations and their myriad minions­
We heartily invite you-please come here!
In your palace, here in space before us,
On your lotus sun seat that flattens demons,
Great Emanation Dharma King with your armies,
Please stay here while we concentrate!
To you, bliss-guardian Great Setrabjen,
We fervently offer in the bliss-intensifying vase
 Various Treasures of Tibetan Spiritual Culture 27 9

Oceans of clouds of great-bliss-wisdom offerings.

Please accept them in the bliss-void-indivisible realm!
Great Dharma King arisen from nondual wisdom,
I repent in inconceivability whatever offends you,
Praying with total trust, the all-good offering clouds
And the sacred energizing substances-I offer you!
I offer the great red offering cakes
Purified, transformed, and magnified,
And the inexhaustible elixir medicine, filling the universe,
With your magical power please enjoy them!
Deerskin-clad Lokesha, Buddhas' compassion alive,
Manjushri, wisdom bodied, garbed as eternal youth,
Vajrapani Lord of Secrets, magical power deity­
Inseparable from these, I praise you, ferocious form!
You are the great foe-deity of yoginis,
Master of glory of power and magical feats,
Miraculously guard the life span of glorious mentors,
Widely spread the good tradition of virtue practice!
The Jewel Heart teachings in their good glory,
Teachers and students of our Dharma college,
Please support their spiritual life and happiness,
Make all contact with them ultimately worthwhile!
o deity who has been with us over many lives,
We pray to you wholeheartedly not to leave
From now until we reach enlightenment,
Be our savior, supporter, and friend!
HOH
o Setrabjen, great foe-deity,
Your six main emanations such as Neu Lutsen,
King Jey, all your subemanations,
And the host of your oath-bound retinue-
We pray to you and make offerings!
Please accept this responsibility!
We imagine you! We summon you! Don't delay!
We beg you! We urge you! Don't be idle!
280 ;\) E S S ENTIAL TIB ETAN BUDDHISM

We commission you! Don't be careless!

Especially whatever we will in mind,
Make it happen spontaneously!
Bestow on us all accomplishments!

Prayer of the Word of Truth -

by His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama

o all-time Buddhas with your children and disciples,

Your glory an ocean of boundless virtues,
You think of poor beings as each an only child;
Please attend to my truthful lamentation!
May you magnify the ten virtuous practices
Of the wise, adept upholders of the Buddha teaching,
And spread the glory of its benefit and bliss the whole world over
As it abolishes the miseries of existence and extinction!
May you rescue wretched beings, ceaselessly tormented
By the fierce push of unbearably vicious evolutionary acts,
Prevent the horrors of their dread diseases, wars, and famines,
And restore their spirits in your ocean of bliss and happiness!
Please look upon the religious people of the Land of Snows,
Ruthlessly conquered with harsh tactics by malevolent invaders;
May your compassion exert itself with miraculous speed
To stop the torrent of their blood and tears!
Ah! Those cruel people defeat themselves as well as others,
Driven to insane behavior by the devil of addictive passions;
Have mercy and restore their decent insight of right and wrong,
Use love and kindness to reunite them in the glory of human
friendship!
Bring us our deep desire, so long held in our secret hearts,
The natural glory of the perfect freedom of the whole of Tibet,
And grant us the good fortune to enjoy once more
The millennial feast of the union of secular and sacred!
 Various Treasures ol Tibetan Spiritual Culture 28I

May Chenraysig, the Messiah of the Potala,

Compassionately protect these people who have suffered so many
ordeals,
Who have given up body, life, and all of their possessions
For the teaching, its holders, their fellows, and sacred/secular rule!
After all I pray there soon may come the brilliant dawn,
The good fruition of the magnificent vow to maintain Tibet
Sworn by the Messiah, Chenraysig the Lord,
In the presence of all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas!
By the power of deep relativity, reality of world and void,
The might of mercy of the Three Jewels, the force of this word of
truth,
And by the force of the truth of the inexorable effects of evolution­
May our prayer of truth be realized swiftly without interference!

The Nobel Peace Prize Lecture

Tenzin Gyatso,
His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet

O S LO, DECE M B E R 1 0, 1 9 8 9

Brothers and Sisters;

It is an honor and a pleasure to be among you today. I am really happy
to see so many old friends who have come from different corners of the
world, and to make new friends, whom I hope to meet again in the future.
When I meet people in different parts of the world, I am always reminded
that we are all basically alike: we are all human beings. Maybe we have dif­
ferent clothes, our skin is of a different color, or we speak different lan­
guages. This is on the surface. But basically, we are the same human beings.
That is what binds us to each other. That is what makes it possible for us to
understand each other and to develop friendship and closeness.
Thinking over what I might say today, I decided to share with you some
of my thoughts concerning the common problems all of us face as members
of the human family. Because we all share this small planet earth, we have
282 ;\) E S S ENTIAL T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

to learn to live in harmony and peace with each other and with nature.
That is not just a dream but a necessity. We are dependent on each other in
so many ways that we can no longer live in isolated communities and ig­
nore what is happening outside those communities. We need to help each
other when we have difficulties, and we must share the good fortune that
we enjoy. I speak to you as just another human being, as a simple monk. If
you find what I say useful, then I hope you will try to practice it.
I also wish to share with you today my feelings concerning the plight
and aspirations of the people of Tibet. The Nobel Prize is a prize they well
deserve for their courage and unfailing determination during the past forty
years of foreign occupation. As a free spokesman for my fellow country­
men and -women, I feel it is my duty to speak out on their behalf. I speak
not with a feeling of anger or hatred toward those who are responsible for
the immense suffering of our people and the destruction of our land,
homes, and culture. They too are human beings who struggle to find happi­
ness and deserve our compassion. I speak to inform you of the sad situation
in my country today and of the aspirations of my people, because in our
struggle for freedom, truth is the only weapon we possess.
The realization that we are all basically the same human beings, who
seek happiness and try to avoid suffering, is very helpful in developing a
sense of brotherhood and sisterhood-a warm feeling of love and compas­
sion for others. This, in turn, is essential if we are to survive in this ever­
shrinking world we live in. For if we each selfishly pursue only what we
believe to be in our own interest, without caring about the needs of others,
we may end up harming not only others but also ourselves. This fact has
become very clear during the course of this century. We know that to wage
a nuclear war today, for example, would be a form of suicide; or that to
pollute the air or the oceans, in order to achieve some short-term benefit,
would be to destroy the very basis for our survival. As individuals and na­
tions are becoming increasingly interdependent we have no other choice
than to develop what I call a sense of universal responsibility.
Today we are truly a global family. What happens in one part of the
world may affect us all. This, of course, is not only true of the negative
things that happen, but is equally valid for the positive developments. We
not only know what happens elsewhere, thanks to the extraordinary mod­
ern communications technology, we are also directly affected by events that
occur far away. We feel a sense of sadness when children are starving in east­
ern Africa. Similarly we feel a sense of joy when a family is reunited after
decades of separation by the Berlin Wall. Our crops and livestock are conta­
minated and our health and livelihood threatened when a nuclear accident
 Various Treasures of Tibetan Spiritual Culture 283

happens miles away in another country. Our own security is enhanced when
peace breaks out between warring parties on other continents.
But war or peace; the destruction or the protection of nature; the viola­
tion or the promotion of human rights and democratic freedoms; poverty
or material well-being; the lack of moral and spiritual values or their exis­
tence and development; and the breakdown or the development of human
understanding, are not isolated phenomena that can be analyzed and tack­
led independently of one another. In fact, they are very much interrelated at
all levels and need to be approached with that understanding.
Peace, in the sense of the absence of war, is of little value to someone
who is dying of hunger or cold. It will not remove the pain of torture in­
flicted on a prisoner of conscience. It does not comfort those who have lost
their loved ones in floods caused by senseless deforestation in a neighboring
country. Peace can last only where human rights are respected, where the
people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free. True peace with
ourselves and with the world around us can be achieved only through the
development of mental peace. The other phenomena mentioned above are
similarly interrelated. Thus, for example, we see that a clean environment,
wealth, or democracy means little in the face of war, especially nuclear war,
and that material development is not sufficient to ensure human happiness.
Material progress is of course important for human advancement. In
Tibet we paid much too little attention to technological and economic de­
velopment, and today we realize that this was a mistake. At the same time,
material development without spiritual development can also cause serious
problems. In some countries too much attention is paid to external things
and very little importance is given to inner development. I believe both are
important and must be developed side by side so as to achieve a good bal­
ance between them. Tibetans are always described by foreign visitors as
being a happy, jovial people. This is part of our national character, formed
by cultural and religious values that stress the importance of mental peace
through the generation of love and kindness to all other living sentient be­
ings, both human and animal. Inner peace is the key: If you have inner
peace, the external problems do not affect your deep sense of peace and
tranquillity. In that state of mind you can deal with situations with calm­
ness and reason, while keeping your inner happiness. That is very impor­
tant. Without this inner peace, no matter how comfortable your life is
materially, you may still be worried, disturbed, or unhappy because of the
circumstances.
Clearly it is of great importance, therefore, to understand the interrela­
tionship among these and other phenomena and to approach and attempt
284 ;\) E S S E N T i A L T I B ETAN BUDDHISM

to solve problems in a balanced way that takes these different aspects into
consideration. Of course it is not easy. But it is of little benefit to try to
solve one problem if doing so creates an equally serious new one. So really
we have no alternative; We must develop a sense of universal responsibility
not only in the geographic sense but also in respect to the different issues
that confront our planet.
Responsibility lies not only with the leaders of our countries or with
those who have been appointed or elected to do a particular job. It lies with
each of us individually. Peace, for example, starts within each one of us.
When we have inner peace, we can be at peace with those around us. When
our community is in a state of peace, it can share that peace with neighbor­
ing communities and so on. When we feel love and kindness toward others,
it not only makes others feel loved and cared for but it helps us also to de­
velop inner happiness and peace. And there are ways in which we can con­
sciously work to develop feelings of love and kindness. For some of us, the
most effective way to do so is through religious practice. For others it may
be nonreligious practices. What is important is that we each make a sincere
effort to take seriously our responsibility for each other and for the natural
environment.
I am very encouraged by the developments that are taking place around
us. After the young people of many countries, particularly in northern
Europe, have repeatedly called for an end to the dangerous destruction of
the environment that was being conducted in the name of economic devel­
opment, the world's political leaders are now starting to take meaningful
steps to address this problem. The report to the United Nations Secretary
General by the World Commission on the Environment and Development
(the Brundtland report) was an important step in educating governments
on the urgency of the issue. Serious efforts to bring peace to war-torn zones
and to implement the right to self-determination of some peoples have re­
sulted in the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan and the estab­
lishment of independent Namibia. Through persistent nonviolent popular
efforts, dramatic changes, bringing many countries closer to real democ­
racy, have occurred in many places, from Manila in the Philippines to
Berlin in East Germany. With the cold-war era apparently drawing to a
close, people everywhere live with renewed hope. Sadly, the courageous ef­
forts of the Chinese people to bring similar change to their country was
brutally crushed last June. But their efforts too are a source of hope. The
military might has not extinguished the desire for freedom and the determi­
nation of the Chinese people to achieve it. I particularly admire the fact
that these young people, who have been taught that "power grows from
the barrel of the gun," chose instead to use nonviolence as their weapon.
 Various Treasures of Tibetan Spiritual Culture 285

What these positive changes indicate is that reason, courage, determina­

tion, and the inextinguishable desire for freedom can ultimately win. In the
struggle between forces of war, violence, and oppression on the one hand,
and peace, reason, and freedom on the other, the latter are gaining the
upper hand. This realization fills us Tibetans with hope that someday we
too will once again be free.
The awarding of the Nobel Prize to me, a simple monk from far-away
Tibet, here in Norway, also fills us Tibetans with hope. It means that, de­
spite the fact that we have not drawn attention to our plight by means of vi­
olence, we have not been forgotten. It also means that the values we
cherish, in particular our respect for all forms of life and the belief in the
power of truth, are today recognized and encouraged. It is also a tribute to
my mentor, Mahatma Gandhi, whose example is an inspiration to so many
of us. This year's award is an indication that this sense of universal respon­
sibility is developing. I am deeply touched by the sincere concern shown by
so many people in this part of the world for the suffering of the people of
Tibet. That is a source of hope not only for us Tibetans but for all op­
pressed peoples.
As you know, Tibet has, for forty years, been under foreign occupation.
Today more than a quarter of a million Chinese troops are stationed in
Tibet. Some sources estimate the occupation army to be twice this strength.
During this time Tibetans have been deprived of their most basic human
rights, including the right to life, movement, speech, worship, only to men­
tion a few. More than one sixth of Tibet's population of six million died as
a direct result of the Chinese invasion and occupation. Even before the
Cultural Revolution started, many of Tibet's monasteries, temples, and his­
toric buildings were destroyed. Almost everything that remained was de­
stroyed during the Cultural Revolution. I do not wish to dwell on this
point, which is well documented. What is important to realize, however, is
that despite the limited freedom granted after I 9 79 to rebuild parts of some
monasteries and other such tokens of liberalization, the fundamental human
rights of the Tibetan people are still today being systematically violated. In
recent months this bad situation has become even worse.
If it were not for our community in exile, so generously sheltered and
supported by the government and people of India and helped by organiza­
tions and individuals from many parts of the world, our nation would
today be little more than a shattered remnant of a people. Our culture, reli­
gion, and national identity would have been effectively eliminated. As it is,
we have built schools and monasteries in exile and have created democratic
institutions to serve our people and preserve the seed of our civilization.
With this experience, we intend to implement full democracy in a future
286 ;\) ESS ENTIAL TIBETAN BUDDHISM

free Tibet. Thus, as we develop our community in exile on modern lines, we

also cherish and preserve our own identity and culture and bring hope to
millions of our countrymen and -women in Tibet.
The issue of most urgent concern at this time is the massive influx of
Chinese settlers into Tibet. Although in the first decades of occupation a
considerable number of Chinese were transferred into the eastern parts of
Tibet-in the Tibetan provinces of Amdo (Chinghai) and Kham (most of
which has been annexed by the neighboring Chinese province)-since I 9 8 3
a n unprecedented number of Chinese have been encouraged by their gov­
ernment to migrate to all parts of Tibet, including central and western Tibet
(which the PRC refers to as the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region) .
Tibetans are rapidly being reduced to an insignificant minority in their own
country. This development, which threatens the very survival of the Tibetan
nation, its culture and spiritual heritage, can still be stopped and reversed.
But this must be done now, before it is too late.
The new cycle of protest and violent repression, which started in Tibet
in September of I 9 8 7 and culminated in the imposition of martial law in
the capital, Lhasa, in March of this year, was in large part a reaction to this
tremendous Chinese influx. Information reaching us in exile indicates that
the protest marches and other peaceful forms of protest are continuing in
Lhasa and a number of other places in Tibet despite the severe punishment
and inhumane treatment given to Tibetans detained for expressing their
grievances. The number of Tibetans killed by security forces during the
protest in March and those who died in detention afterward is not known
but is believed to be more than two hundred. Thousands have been de­
tained or arrested and imprisoned, and torture is commonplace.
It was against the background of this worsening situation, and in order
to prevent further bloodshed, that I proposed what is generally referred to
as the Five-Point Peace Plan for the restoration of peace and human rights
in Tibet. I elaborated on the plan in a speech in Strasbourg last year. I be­
lieve the plan provides a reasonable and realistic framework for negotia­
tions with the People's Republic of China. So far, however, China's leaders
have been unwilling to respond constructively. The brutal suppression of
the Chinese democracy movement in June of this year, however, reinforced
my view that any settlement of the Tibetan question will be meaningful
only if it is supported by adequate international guarantees.
The Five-Point Peace Plan addresses the principal and interrelated is­
sues, which I referred to in the first part of this lecture. It calls for ( I )
Transformation of the whole of Tibet, including the eastern provinces of
Kham and Amdo, into a Zone of Ahimsa (nonviolence); (2) Abandonment
of China's population transfer policy; ( 3 ) Respect for the Tibetan people's
 Various Treasures of Tibetan Spiritual Culture 287

fundamental human rights and democratic freedoms; (4) Restoration and

protection of Tibet's natural environment; and ( 5 ) Commencement of
earnest negotiations on the future status of Tibet and of relations between
the Tibetan and Chinese peoples. In the Strasbourg address I proposed that
Tibet become a fully self-governing democratic political entity.
I would like to take this opportunity to explain the Zone of Ahimsa or
peace sanctuary concept, which is the central element of the Five-Point
Peace Plan. I am convinced that it is of great importance not only for Tibet
but for peace and stability in Asia.
It is my dream that the entire Tibetan plateau should become a free
refuge where humanity and nature can live in peace and in harmonious bal­
ance. It would be a place where people from all over the world could come
to seek the true meaning of peace within themselves, away from the ten­
sions and pressures of much of the rest of the world. Tibet could indeed be­
come a creative center for the promotion and development of peace.
The following are key elements of the proposed Zone of Ahimsa:
1. The entire Tibetan plateau would be demilitarized;
2. The manufacture, testing, and stockpiling of nuclear weapons
and other armaments on the Tibetan plateau would be prohibited;
3. The Tibetan plateau would be transformed into the world's
largest natural park or biosphere. Strict laws would be enforced to
protect wildlife and plant life; the exploitation of natural resources
would be carefully regulated so as not to damage relevant ecosys­
tems; and a policy of sustainable development would be adopted in
populated areas;
4. The manufacture and use of nuclear power and other technolo­
gies that produce hazardous waste would be prohibited;
5 . National resources and policy would be directed toward the ac­
tive promotion of peace and environmental protection. Organiza­
tions dedicated to the furtherance of peace and to the protection of
all forms of life would find a hospitable home in Tibet;
6. The establishment of international and regional organizations for
the promotion and protection of human rights would be encouraged
in Tibet.
Tibet's height and size (the size of the European Community), as well as
its unique history and profound spiritual heritage, make it ideally suited to
fulfill the role of sanctuary of peace in the strategic heart of Asia. It would
also be in keeping with Tibet's historical role as a peaceful Buddhist nation
and buffer region separating the Asian continent's great and often rival
powers.
288 ;\) E S S ENTIAL TIB ETAN BUDDHISM

In order to reduce existing tensions in Asia, the president of the Soviet

Union, Mr. Gorbachev, proposed the demilitarization of Soviet-Chinese
borders and their transformation into a "frontier of peace and good­
neighborliness. " The Nepal government had earlier proposed that the
Himalayan country of Nepal, bordering on Tibet, should become a zone
of peace, although that proposal did not include demilitarization of the
country.
For the stability and peace of Asia, it is essential to create peace zones to
separate the continent's biggest powers and potential adversaries. President
Gorbachev's proposal, which also included a complete Soviet troop with­
drawal from Mongolia, would help to reduce tension and the potential for
confrontation between the Soviet Union and China. A true peace zone
must, clearly, also be created to separate the world's two most populous
states, China and India.
The establishment of the Zone of Ahimsa would require the withdrawal
of troops and military installations from Tibet, which would enable India
and Nepal also to withdraw troops and military installations from the
Himalayan regions bordering Tibet. This would have to be achieved by in­
ternational agreements. It would be in the best interest of all states of Asia,
particularly China and India, as it would enhance their security while re­
ducing the economic burden of maintaining high troop concentrations in
remote areas.
Tibet would not be the first strategic area to be demilitarized. Parts of
the Sinai peninsula, the Egyptian territory separating Israel and Egypt, have
been demilitarized for some time. Of course, Costa Rica is the best example
of an entirely demilitarized country.
Tibet would also not be the first area to be turned into a natural preserve
or biosphere. Many parks have been created throughout the world. Some
very strategic areas have been turned into natural "peace parks." Two ex­
amples are the La Amistad park on the Costa Rica-Panama border and the
Sf a Paz project on the Costa Rica-Nicaragua border.
When I visited Costa Rica earlier this year, I saw how a country can de­
velop successfully without an army, to become a stable democracy commit­
ted to peace and the protection of the natural environment. This confirmed
my belief that my vision of Tibet in the future is a realistic plan, not merely
a dream.
Let me end with a personal note of thanks to all of you and our friends
who are not here today. The concern and support that you have expressed
for the plight of the Tibetans have touched us all greatly and continue to
give us courage to struggle for freedom and justice; not through the use of
 Various Treasures of Tibetan Spiritual Culture 28 9

arms but with the powerful weapons of truth and determination. I know
that I speak on behalf of all the people of Tibet when I thank you and ask
you not to forget Tibet at this critical time in our country's history. We too
hope to contribute to the development of a more peaceful, more humane,
and more beautiful world. A future free Tibet will seek to help those in
need throughout the world, to protect nature, and to promote peace. I be­
lieve that our Tibetan ability to combine spiritual qualities with a realistic
and practical attitude enables us to make a special contribution in however
modest a way. This is my hope and prayer.
In conclusion, let me share with you a short prayer that gives me great
inspiration and determination:
For as long as space endures,
And for as long as living beings remain,
Until then may I, too, abide
To dispel the misery of the world.

Thank you.
 Notes

INTRODUCTION

Shakyamuni, whose name literally means "the sage of the Shakya clan,"
was the historic Buddha of our era, living from ca. 563 B.C.E. to 4 8 3 B.C.E.
Tibetan Buddhists consider him the founder of the three main forms or Ve­
hicles of Buddhism, the Monastic or Individual (Hinayana) , the Messianic
or Universal (Mahayana), and the Apocalyptic or Tantric (Vajrayana) Vehi­
cles.
The brahmins were the priests of ancient Indian society, the mediators
between humans and the gods of the Vedic world, presiding over the sacri­
ficial ritual that provided the main channel of communication with the di­
vine. Their cosmology was based on a sense of better days in the past,
coupled with a sense of the present as a process of deterioration. This but­
tressed their authoritarian mistrust of new generations, which caused them
to resist all change, innovation, and progress.
Tantra comes from a verb meaning "to weave" and a noun meaning
"thread." As a religious category it refers to methods of spiritual practice,
ways of transforming the ordinary world into a divine one, by weaving an
enlightened universe in place of the realm of suffering. It can also refer to a
set of texts that describe these methods. A mantra is a sacred sound, word,
or phrase that is magically creative in the sense that it can alter an old or
produce a new state of affairs by being repeated or, in some cases, even vi­
sualized as letters. The use of mantras is central in most Tantric practices.
A Bodhisattva is a person, who can be animal or divine as well as
human, who has conceived the will to enlightenment and vowed to mani­
fest the spirit of enlightenment, thus dedicating all his or her lives to the at­
tainment of perfect Buddhahood for the sake of all beings.
Dharma has eleven main meanings, ranging from "thing," through
"quality," "duty," "law," "religion," "doctrine," and "teaching," up to
"truth," "reality," "absolute," and even "liberation" or "Nirvana." Whenever
292 NOTES TO INTRODUCTION

it is left untranslated and in upper case, it means the latter meanings, espe­
cially "Truth" or "Free Reality. " Thus a Dharma king is a ruler who ac­
knowledges the primacy of the higher reality of liberating Truth and rules
his country within an orientation toward that Truth.
Ganden, literally "the joyous heaven," is the Tibetan name for Tushita,
the heaven where Maitreya, the future Buddha, dwells. The residence of the
Dalai Lama incarnations in Drepung Monastery was called the Ganden
Palace because of the Dalai Lamas' association with the progressive, opti­
mistic outlook of the Buddha who will visit the world in the future, enlight­
ening millions of beings. When the Dalai Lamas became head of the
Tibetan government, after r 642, the government as a whole adopted the
name.
The Karmapa Lamas were the originators of the formal institution of
the recognized reincarnation. In the first decade of the thirteenth century a
small boy was recognized as the reincarnation of the great lama Karma
Dusum Kyenpa and was subsequently enthroned as Karma Pakshi, the Sec­
ond Karmapa. The seventeenth Karmapa is currently recognized as incar­
nate in not one but two young boys, who are being trained as spiritual
teachers.
Shambhala is a mythical country somewhere in the vicinity of Siberia or
the North Pole where most of the population is enlightened and life is gen­
erally happy. This land is invisible to the rest of the world, except for a few
adepts, until a time a few centuries hence when it becomes visible and the
more unhappy people on outer earth try to conquer it. There ensues a sort
of Armageddon-like conflict, at the end of which life all over the world be­
comes as idyllic as Shambhala had been for a lengthy period of centuries.
Shambhala is the basis of the modern legends of Shangri-la.
The Kalachakra (Time-wheel) Tantra is practiced by learned yogins and
yoginis who must first be initiated into the vision of the "Time-machine
Buddha" by entering the palace of this Buddha-deity. The architecture of
such a palace is represented by a geometric pattern that uses squares, circles,
symbols, and architectural elements to provide a sort of blueprint for the
three-dimensional building; this pattern is called a mandala, a sphere of
essence. For major initiation rituals conducted by lamas for large groups,
the monks create such a mandala using particles of fine sand mixed with
pure pigment. When you see this mandala, the seed of the vision of the full­
blown mandala-palace is planted in the subconscious; years of focused med­
itation are needed to grow this seed into a stable and transformative vision.
Pali was a literary language developed in Sri Lanka during the early cen­
turies of the common era, based on the up-to-then orally transmitted litera­
ture of the monastic Buddhist Scriptures, systematically memorized and
 NOTES TO I NT R O D U C T I O N 293

preserved since the Buddha's time in a language resembling the spoken lan­
guage of the Magadha region of central India (present-day Bihar province).
The word Hinduism originates from the Arabic and basically means no
more and no less than "Indian religion," i.e., religion in the Indian region.
It thus covers a great variety of religious forms and institutions, including
Indian Buddhism and Jainism. It is also used more narrowly to refer to
those forms of Indian religion that subscribe to the divine authorship of the
ancient Vedas, which Buddhists and Jains do not. Following this latter
usage, one tends to refer to non-Buddhist and non-Jain Indian religions as
"Hinduism," even though the various groups of believers in Shiva, Vishnu,
Indra, or Brahma had no such word to describe themselves.
The Mahayana (Universal Vehicle) Scriptures began to appear in India
around the first century B.C.E., starting with the Transcendent Wisdom
Scriptures, though there are no firm grounds for specific dating. By the time
of large-scale translation of these Scriptures into Chinese from the fourth
century C.E., there were thousands of texts, roughly the equivalent of forty
or fifty Bibles, in addition to a huge Sanskrit literature very similar to the
Pali collection of Scriptures.
A key point is that the Tibetan "Stages of the Path of Enlightenment"
teachings are not simply to be classified as exoteric, or "gradual" teaching,
the opposite of esoteric, "subitist," or mystical teachings. The path of en­
lightenment genre evolved in the apocalyptic or Tantric context, in which
the stages of the foundational path are compressed and focused to prepare
for entry onto the Tantric Vehicle. In the same way, the Tantric "prelimi­
nary practices" are merely prostrations, purifications, offerings, and so on,
but their special context and accompanying visualizations make them
Tantric prostrations and so on.
Once practitioners have achieved the prerequisite understanding of tran­
scendent renunciation, compassionate commitment to all beings, and the
wisdom of selflessness, they have the freedom from programmed drives and
habitual self-image rigidity that enables them to begin a conscious process
of accelerating their evolution. This begins in initiation into a mandala, a
sacred alternative universe of an enlightened being, in this case the Buddha­
archetype Hevajra, in order to reshape body and mind methodically ac­
cording to the dictates of wisdom and compassion. This reshaping process
begins in the imagination, in what is called the creation stage, and con­
cludes with rehearsals of actual death, out-of-body voyaging, ordinary
body reentry, and so on in what is called the perfection stage.
Morphic resonance is a term coined by the evolutionary biologist Rupert
Sheldrake to explain a statistical pattern he observed in primitive life-forms,
where the adopting of a particular pattern of behavior and embodiment by
294 NOTES TO CHAPTER I

a number of individuals of a species accelerates the rate of adoption of that

pattern in others. He speculates that this kind of phenomenon can be ob­
served in human communities, which explains shifts in fashion, trends in
thinking, and so on. It is quite a controversial hypothesis; but I find it useful
in describing the relationship between individual transformation through
spiritual cultivation and subsequent social changes in the behavior of
groups.
A foundational theme in the stages of the path to enlightenment is the
preciousness of the human evolutionary state, very hard to achieve from
positions among the lower life-forms, quickly lost due to its fragility, and
the perfect opportunity for coming to self-awareness and self-control in the
midst of the evolutionary processes. Among human life-forms, those en­
dowed with the freedom from survival preoccupations and the opportunity
to come to full consciousness due to contact with enlightened beings and
their teachings are particularly precious. A Tibetan who considers that he
or she has such a life-form is naturally inclined to use its every moment to a
beneficial evolutionary end.
The Three Jewels-Buddha , Dharma, and Sangha-are the treasured
refuges for any Buddhist, their Teacher, His Teaching, and the Community
of those engaged in its practice. They give refuge from the dangers of the
world of egocentric sufferings.
CHAPTER 1 : The Quintessence: The Mentor Worship
Panchen Rinpoche I, Losang Chokyi Gyaltsen, lived from 1 5 70 to 1 662.
He was considered the reincarnation of Kedrub Jey ( 1 3 8 5-143 8 ) , one of
Tsong Khapa's foremost disciples. He was the main teacher of the Great
Fifth Dalai Lama, who named his reincarnation from then on the
"Panchen" (literally, "Great Pandit") Rinpoche, regarded as the emanated
reincarnation of Amitabha Buddha, the celestial mentor of the Bodhisattva
Lokeshvara, who reincarnates as the Dalai Lamas. For more information
on the Panchen Rinpoche and his adept heritage, see J. Willis, Enlightened
Beings (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 199 5 ).
In this Mentor Worship text, perhaps his most famous composition, the
Panchen Rinpoche records inherited personal instructions for this medita­
tion, the very heart of Tibetan Buddhism, which descended to him from
generations of great adepts who lived and practiced in Tibet during the two
centuries since Tsong Khapa. In my translation, I have been helped by ver­
sions done previously by Sharpa Tulku and Alex Berzin, Geshe Kelsang
Gyatso, Tubten Jinpa, and recently by my close colleague Joseph Loizzo,
working under Kyabje Gelek Rinpoche. This particular version I did for my
 NOTES TO CHAPTER I 295

personal use twenty years ago, rediscovering and revising it comparatively

for this book.
Mother beings (Tib. ma sems can rnams) refers to all beings viewed
through the eyes of universal love, which recognizes the beginningless evo­
lutionary link between beings, who have been reborn through an infinite
past in all possible relationships with one another, making it certain that
every single other being in all possible universes has served in many life­
times as one's personal mother, giving one life, nourishment, protection,
and loving care.
The four phrases set in small capitals are mantras meant to be chanted
three times when using this text as a visualization contemplation manual.
NAMO GURUBHYOH means "I bow to the Mentors! "
The five aggregates, or aggregate processes, are those of bodily forms,
sensations, ideas, emotions, and consciousnesses, the five layers of mind
and body. As an enlightened being, the Mentor is visualized as having those
aggregates constituted by living Buddhas, the Transcendent Buddha
Vairochana constituting forms, Ratnasambhava sensations, Amitabha
ideas, Amoghasiddhi emotions, and Akshobhya consciousnesses. The four
elements are earth (solidity), water (cohesion), fire (heat), and wind (mobil­
ity), and in such an enlightened being they are constituted by the female
Buddhas Lochana, Mamaki, Pandaravasini, and Tara. All the other parts
of the Mentor are envisioned as being manifestations of other archetypal
Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.
The three vajras or diamond-lightning energy foci, identical to the
mantric syllables OM, AH, and HUM, represent the essence of the body,
speech, and mind of all enlightened beings.
The seven major jewel ornaments of royalty are the precious wheel of
power, the wish-granting jewel, the jewel queen, the jewel minister, the
jewel horse, the jewel elephant, and the jewel citizen. The minor ornaments
are the jewel sword, the jewel dragon hide, the jewel couch, the jewel gar­
den, the jewel mansion, the jewel robe, and the jewel boots.
The three educations are the moral, meditational, and intellectual edu­
cations that constitute the Buddhist teaching in actual practice of ethics,
samadhi, and wisdom. The five paths are the paths of accumulation, appli­
cation, insight, meditation, and mastery that stratify the process of evolu­
tion of any individual being from ordinary egocentric existence to Buddha­
hood. The two stages are the creation stage and the perfection stage of the
Unexcelled Yoga Tantras of the Apocalyptic Vehicle.
The saffron-colored delicate tea is what is called the inner offering, a
complex visualization of all the substances internal to the life processes of
296 NOTES TO C H A PTER I

beings transmuted into precious elixirs. The five hooks are various types of
flesh, such as beef and horse meat, and the five lamps are blood, urine, and
so forth, all internal substances usually thought of as impure but here trans­
muted imaginatively into pure elixir of divine life.
The sixty-four arts of love are a standard set of erotic practices detailed
in the Kama Sutra literature. These heralds are different kinds of female an­
gels, celestial, from imaginary realms, and from the subtle, subatomic di­
mensions of bliss and ecstasy. Orgasmic (Skt. saha;a; Tib. [han skyes) is
usually translated euphemistically by "natural" or "spontaneous," or some
such, since erotic language seems out of place in "spiritual" contexts.
Bringing in the earthiness of Buddhist spirituality might cause misunder­
standing in some, but it is a translator's duty to be as clear as the original.
Of course, orgasmic bliss does not refer only to the mechanical climax of
ordinary sexuality; it includes the ecstasy of the melting of the sense of rigid
boundaries between self and other that develops from the intensity of the
wisdom of selflessness, an ecstasy whose intensity departs from and goes
way beyond the bliss of ordinary sexual melting. The only other occasion
in ordinary sentient life where such bliss is inevitable is in the temporary
dissolution of individuation in the process of death, but dying bliss is
harder for most beings to remember than sexual bliss.
Tibetan medicine classifies diseases according to their principal causes,
which are the three disturbances, wind, bile, and phlegm, and their combi­
nations, which correspond to the three emotional addictions of lust, hate,
and delusion and their combinations. Each of the four categories includes a
list of a hundred and one diseases, for a total of four hundred and four. Of
course, when these are analytically subdivided in diagnosis, there are thou­
sands of different disorders.
Things are naturally free from signs because they have no intrinsic sig­
nificance in themselves, significance being attributed to them by mental
habits of beings. When you look at the letter A, it seems to pronounce itself
inside your head, making the sound "aey," as if it emerged naturally from
the three lines of the letter. But a person who didn't know the roman alpha­
bet wouldn't hear any "aey"; you don't hear it if you turn the letter upside
down or on its side. Thus the three lines are free from intrinsically being the
sign for the letter A or the sound "aey." If you think about this, you enter
the realm of understanding the profound and liberating Buddhist insight
into signlessness, closely related to selflessness, voidness, identitylessness,
and so on.
The three kindnesses of a mentor are the kindness of giving initiations
and vows, the kindness of transmitting inherited teachings, and the kind-
 NOTES TO C H A PTER I 297

ness of giving personal instructions based on his or her own insight and re­
alization.
Communion translates Tibetan zung 'jug, which refers to the interpene­
trating union of compassion and wisdom, bliss and voidness, magic body
and clear light, at the fifth stage of the perfection stage, when the practi­
tioner becomes a perfect Buddha. Vajradhara is the Tantric Buddha Arche­
type Deity par excellence. I also translate Sanskrit Samaja in the name of
the Buddha of the Guhyasamajatantra as communion, as it ultimately
comes around to the same thing.
The ten excellent qualities of a mentor are mentioned in the Ornament
of the Universal Vehicle Scriptures, as ( I ) a just mind, (2) a concentrated
mind, (3 ) a wise mind understanding selflessness, (4) greater knowledge, ( 5 )
delight in teaching Dharma, (6) wide textual knowledge, (7) profound real­
ization of voidness, ( 8 ) skill in teaching, (9) love for his or her disciples, and
( 10) enterprise in teaching.
The ten outer and ten inner abilities of a vajra mentor constitute a de­
tailed list of a mentor's expertise in visualizing, meditating, creating man­
dalas, performing rituals, conferring initiation, and so forth.
The five blissful clans are the Buddha clans that correspond to the five
aggregates, the Transcendent clan (form aggregate), the Jewel clan (sensa­
tions), Lotus clan (ideas), Action clan (emotions), and Vajra clan (con­
sciousnesses), whose fathers and mothers are respectively Vairochana and
Lochana, Ratnasambhava and Mamaki, Amitabha and Pandaravasini,
Amoghasiddhi and Tara, and Akshobhya and Vajradhatvishvari. All the
ways of dividing the elements, sense media, and body parts of the mentor
correspond to groups of Buddha deities in this visualization practice.
The hundred clans is an even more elaborate way of analyzing the
components of a Buddha mentor, moving the imagination toward the vi­
sion of every atom and subatomic energy as a male or female Buddha or
Bodhisattva.
The four blocks are the emotional blocks of body, speech, and mind,
and the cognitive blocks that prevent omniscience. The four initiations are
the vase, secret, wisdom science, and word initiations that purify and em­
power body, speech, mind, and intuitive wisdom and make possible the at­
tainment of the Four Bodies of Buddhahood, the Emanation, Beatific,
Wisdom-Truth, and Reality-Truth Bodies.
The three sufferings are the suffering of change (ordinary happiness that
turns into suffering in time), the suffering of suffering (ordinary suffering),
and the suffering of creation (inherent in egocentric existence in any state
due to the inevitable dissolution of that state).
29 8 NOTES TO CHAPTER I

The five forces of the mind-cultivation ( blo spyong) tradition are those
of positive determination, habituation, eradication, positive accumulation,
and focused aspiration. They are elements of the process of conscious evo­
lution from negative states of being toward more positive states.
The spirit of enlightenment (Skt. bodhichitta) is the will and determina­
tion to become perfectly enlightened for the sake of all beings, in order to
have the ability to effectively help all beings find happiness. There are two
kinds of this spirit, the conventional spirit, which is the will to attain en­
lightenment, and the ultimate spirit, which is the realization of the selfless­
ness or voidness of all things from ignorance to enlightenment, which is the
Bodhisattva's awareness of the ultimate nonduality of enlightenment and
unenlightenment.
The mounting of give-and-take upon the breath refers to the visualiza­
tion practice of giving all your own happiness to other beings and taking
upon yourself all their suffering, sending them your happiness with your
exhalation in the form of rays of light and taking in their suffering with
your inhalation in the form of clouds of darkness that are consumed in the
radiance of awareness of voidness in your heart and turned into the light of
happiness that floods back out to the beings.
The messianic vows are the Bodhisattva vows to become a Buddha to
free all beings from all sufferings, part of the conventional spirit of enlight­
enment. The three ethics of the Supreme Vehicle are the ethics of restraint
of evil, of gathering virtue, and of benefiting others.
Reality is described as ultimately truth-free to indicate the nonabsolute­
ness and therefore sheer relativity of all distinctions and rigid divisions,
even those between true and false, black and white, good and evil. Ultimate
truthlessness does not lead to the nihilism of relative truthlessness; it simply
takes away the absolutist sting of egotistical truth.
Nagarjuna was one of the greatest human teachers of ancient India living
a mythic six hundred years from ca. 50 B.C.E. to 5 50 C.E. He was especially
renowned for his discovery of the Universal Vehicle Scriptures, beginning
with the Transcendent Wisdom Scripture and for writing his profound man­
ual called Wisdom. Tibetans also regard him as a founder of a major Tantric
tradition of practice, the noble tradition of the Esoteric Communion.
The dhuti or avadhuti nerve is the central channel of the yogic subtle
nervous system of nerve channels and wheel complexes. This channel runs
from midbrow up over the crown and down just in front of the spine to the
coccyx and thence up to the tip of the genitalia. It has a number of com­
plexes, often five, the most important being that at the heart level, at the
height of the breasts. Here the Mentor is invited into the center of that
 NOTES TO CHAPTER 2 299

heart-wheel complex, the Tantric seat of the soul, the subtle energy contin­
uum of bodymind existence that is the essence of the selfless individual, mi­
grating from life to life and ultimately reaching Buddhahood.
The five forces are the same as those identified on p. 298.
Soul-ejection ( 'pho ba) is a practice of forcefully pushing the subtle
bodymind of the practitioner out of the heart center up the central channel
and out of the coarse body into a rebirth in a Buddha-land. This is done to
ensure a positive rebirth in order to continue your practice of the path of
Buddhahood. It can also be done by a skilled yogin or yogini for the soul of
a dying person using special rituals and visualizations.
CHAPTER 2: Seeing the Buddha
At the beginning of each of the following chapters, I will quote a verse
or two from the Quintessence work, to link it, the heart of this Essential
book, with the texts in these chapters. For example, at the head of this
chapter, we see again the refuge formulation from the Mentor Worship.
The first refuge is the Mentor as indivisible from the Buddha, and so we
need to know more deeply what the Tibetan Buddhists think a Buddha is.
The chapter goes on to give us a Tibetan vision of the Buddha during his
life on earth and beyond.
Tse Chokling Yongdzin Yeshe Gyaltsen ( 1 71 3 - 1 79 3 ) was one of the
most famous teachers of the eighteenth century, offered the Ganden throne
at the head of the Geluk order, personal tutor of the Eighth Dalai Lama,
and a prolific author. Among his most famous works are his biographies of
the mentors of the path of enlightenment tradition, beginning with this bi­
ography of Shakyamuni Buddha, written in the context of his collection of
biographies of all the "Path of Enlightenment" teachers. It is especially use­
ful in our context because he tells the Buddha's story as Tibetans see it, with
a view to inspiring the spiritual practice of the audience.
A buddhaverse is a universe as seen in its reality by enlightened beings.
They are sometimes presented as celestial realms of perfect happiness, such
as the Sukhavati buddhaverse of the Buddha Amitabha. Other Mahayana
Scriptures make the point that this universe, in all its apparent ordinariness,
is the Saha (Barely Tolerable) buddhaverse of Shakyamuni Buddha, pre­
sented to us ordinary beings in this way for the sake of our spiritual educa­
tion and evolution.
Yama is the judge of the dead and the lord of the hells in Buddhist myth.
He employs numerous demon minions, called Yama-demons, who inflict
tortures on beings whose negative evolutionary habits have brought them
into these incarnations of paranoia.
300 NOTES TO C H A PTER 2

The Thirty-three heaven is the heaven presided over by the god Indra,
the king of the desire-realm gods in the Indian mythoverse. Like the Greek
Olympus, it is on the top of the axial mountain at the center of the flat
earth.
Incalculable eons are Indian time spans, billions of years long, measuring
the evolution and decay of universes, which have no first beginning, no "big
bangs," but do arise and dissolve in extremely long cycles, within a context
of an infinite expanse of other universes at other points in their own cycles,
that is, in a context of unlimited infinities and eternities of space and time.
The Akanishta heaven is the highest heaven of the form realm, that is, of
all spatial realms, since the formless realms have no coarse spatial exten­
sion. It is in that sense on the event horizon between finitude and infinitude,
since the first formless realm is the realm of infinite space. It therefore in­
cludes an infinite number of buddhaverses within its core region, known as
the Dense Array because it is the realm of immeasurable creativity, the
dwelling of various Creator Gods as well as of all Beatific Body Buddhas.
The five certainties of the Beatific Body of a Buddha are that its abode is
always Akanishta's "Dense Array" region, its time is until the end of cyclic
life of all beings, it is adorned with all auspicious signs and marks, its ret­
inue is all enlightened Mahayana Bodhisattvas, and it articulates only the
Universal Vehicle teachings.
The Tushita (Tib. Ganden, "satisfaction") heaven is the desire-realm
heaven second above Indra's Thirty-three heaven, a heaven of solid plea­
sure where Bodhisattvas descend to dwell in a staging area for their even­
tual descent to the earth of human beings. At this point it may be useful to
present a table of the Indo-Tibetan cosmology of the heavens, human
realms, and lower depths (see the table on the opposite page).
In all these lavish descriptions, which Tibetans inherited from the lush
literary imagination of India, there are always eight of these and thirty-two
of those, and so forth, as if these were the invariant patterns that occur
when Buddhas are born and so forth.
The three lower states are hell, the hungry pretan realm, and the subhu­
man animal realms. That the earth moves six ways means merely that it
shook in the four directions and up and down. The significance of this vio­
lent but nondestructive quaking is that material solidity is subordinate to
the cosmic event of the birth of the great being.
Brahma is referring either to a former life of Buddha, when he was a
thousand-headed deity who gave away his life in order to receive a teaching
of the Dharma, or, perhaps more likely, to a thousand times when Buddha
was a human and gave his life away in order to receive teachings of the
Dharma.
 THE B U D DH I ST WORLD OF THE THREE REALM S

F
o - beyond conscious/unconscious
R
R
E - absolute nothingness
M A
L
L - infinite consciousness
E
M
S
S - infinite space (mass)

Pure (Brahma) A bodes Eighteen Heavens

F O U R I M M EA S U R A B LE S

F
o - immeasurable impartiality - Akanishtha, Visionary,
R Sublime, Carefree
M - Stable, Unconscious
- Fruitful, Meritorious
R - Cloudless
E - Supernal Beauty
A - immeasurable joy - Boundless Beauty
L - Lesser Bea u ty
M - Clear Light
- immeasurable compassion - Boundless Light
- Lesser Light
- Great Brahma
- immeasurable love - Chief Brahma
- Lesser Brahma

5 H - heaven "control of others' fantasy-emanations"

D I
X
E
A - heaven "delight of every fantasy"
E V
E - heaven " Consummate Joy" (Tushita/Ganden)
S N
5 - heaven "Struggle-Free" (Yama)
I - Indra's "Heaven of the Thirty-three" (heavenly city
R on the top of Mount Sumeru)
E - heaven of the four guardian kings
R F M - Titan Migration (Asura)
E I
V
I
G - Human Migration
A E R
A - Beast Migration
L T
- Preta Migration
I
M o - Hell Migration (thirty-two hells)
N
5
302 NOTES TO CHAPTER 3

The six kinds of beings are gods, antigods or titans, humans, animals,
pretans, and hell beings. The eighteen great omens are the usual sort of mir­
acles, lights shining, flowers blooming out of season, angels appearing, jew­
els appearing, and so on. The Saha world is this universe as a buddhaverse,
and at such moments the ground becomes smooth and even, soft, lumi­
nous, and jewellike. A kinnara is a sort of reverse centaur, i.e., a being with
a human body and a horse's head. Kinnaras live in the mythical Himalayas
and are associated with erotic pleasure, aesthetics, music, magic, and po­
etry. The seven treasures of a noble person are faith, justice, learning, gen­
erosity, conscience, consideration, and wisdom.
Various precious offering objects, even mansions, are made of seven jew­
els, the standard list including diamond, ruby, sapphire, emerald, topaz,
beryl, and lapis.
The three wretched or horrid states are the hells, pretan realms, and ani­
mal realms. The vision here is that the light-rays from the Buddha were so
powerful that they pulled beings out of these dreadful realms and set them
around him in the park.
The spell of Shankara (Skt. dharani) is for pacifying any disturbance,
Shankara meaning "peacemaking." I have not yet found the actual spell.
I have not been able to find the proper Indian spelling of the Anga king's
name, so I have used the Tibetan transliteration, Shunchidala.
The Three Baskets are the three divisions of the exoteric Buddhist
Scriptures, the Discipline, the Discourses, and the Sciences ( Vinaya-Sutra­
Abhidharma) . The four divisions of the Tantras are the Action, Per­
formance, Yoga, and Unexcelled Yoga Tantra divisions.

CHAPTER 3 : Meeting the Buddha in the Mentor

This "Three Body Mentor Yoga" comes from the Natural Liberation
Through Understanding in the Between, originally written in the eighth
century by Padma Sambhava and rediscovered by Karma Lingpa in the
fourteenth century. It is from the Nyingma order tradition but shows the
same focus on discovering the Buddha, replete with various Bodies, in the
living icon of the personal mentor. For further information, see my Tibetan
Book of the Dead (New York: Bantam, 199 5 ) .
The famous " Atisha's Pith Saying" comes from a compilation Sayings of
the Kadam Mentors (Tibetan Kadam Thorbu ), which I partially translated in
1963 working under the late Venerable Geshe Wangyal, currently available
in publication in G. Wangyal, The Door of Liberation (Boston: Wisdom
Publications, 199 5 ). I have modified the translation to fit my current style.
 N O T E S TO C H A PTER 3 303

The three realms of cyclic life are the realms of desire, form, and form­
lessness; see the cosmology chart in the notes to chapter 2.
The eight worldly concerns are for profit and loss, fame and notoriety,
praise and blame, pleasure and discomfort.
This song of Milarepa occurs in the compilation The Hundred Thousand
Songs of Milarepa. Milarepa lived in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and
his many songs have come down in many recensions. The basis for this
translation is the compilation by Tsangnyon Heruka ( 14 5 2-1 5°7). This was
previously translated, rather freely, by G. C. C. Chang, in a seminal publica­
tion, The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa (New York: University
Books, 1962; rpt. Boston: Shambhala, 1994).
The primary mentor of a practitioner, the one upon whom he or she re­
lies as icon to develop awareness of the immediacy of the perfect Buddha, is
called the root mentor (Tib. rtsa bai bla rna).
The triad, base, path, and fruit is common to all Tibetan path teachings.
Milarepa approaches the triad from a fruitional viewpoint, where you pro­
ject yourself into nonduality at the start, immersing yourself in reality right
away; you proceed on the path without considering it apart from the goal,
and you deepen your experience of the fruit of intimate, ecstatic union with
all beings and things, where your every experience is timelessly sealed with
the stamp of bliss-void-indivisible.
Ankay! seems to be a way of saying "wow! " or "whoopee! " in Peldar
Boom's local dialect.
Now that Peldar Boom has recognized Milarepa and asked for teach­
ings, note how he gets right down to earth and makes her aware of her day­
to-day bad habits. The mentor's instructions are personal in this way, not
consisting of highflown secret teachings but exposing the real problems in a
person's life.
"Dromtonpa's Outline of the Path" is also from the Sayings of the
Kadampa Mentors, discussed above. The last few selections in this section
provide overviews of the path that proceeds from the recognition of the
Buddha through the mentor.
Gampopa ( 1°79-1 1 5 3 ) was one of the main disciples of Milarepa. He
founded the Kagyu order as a monastic tradition, combining the personal
instruction meditation traditions from Marpa and Milarepa with Kadam
order monastic curricula. His main way of presenting the path can be con­
densed into the precious four themes.
Sachen Kunga Nyingpo ( 1092-1 1 5 8 ) was the second important founder
of the Sakya order. As a young man he received a direct revelation from the
304 NOTES TO C H A PTER 4

Bodhisattva Manjushri giving this set of four themes for practice of the
basic path.
Tsong Khapa ( 1 3 5 7- 1 4 1 9 ) was considered an incarnation of Manjushri,
but he also received a personal revelation from the Bodhisattva in the early
1 3 90S while meditating on the roof of the Jokang Cathedral of Lhasa. The
"Three Principles of the Path" then revealed were considered a seed of his
massive work, Lam Rim Chenmo, the Great Stages of the Path.
CHAPTER 4: Practicing Transcendent Renunciation
Kunkyen Longchen Rabjam ( 1 3 °8-1 3 63 ) was the greatest author of the
Nyingma order, who formulated the basic curriculum of the school, synthe­
sizing traditions of ancient teachings from the dynastic period of Tibetan
Buddhism in the eighth and ninth centuries with the latest developments in
Kadam, Sakya, and Kagyu order teachings. In translating this section from
his Treasury of Wish-Fulfilling Gems, chapters 1 3- 1 6, I was helped by a
preliminary version kindly done for me by my colleague Joseph Loizzo.
The Holy Ornaments are the great Mahayana Buddhist masters of classi­
cal India, such as Nagarjuna and Asanga and their colleagues and successors.
The auspicious marks and signs are physical marks of a highly evolved
being, such as a crown dome, a golden complexion, wheel marks on palms
and soles, and a tuft of white hair at midbrow. World monarchs have these
signs, and perfect Buddhas have them to a much greater degree.
The three realms, already mentioned, are the realms of desire, form, and
formlessness.
A pretan is a life-form ranked between animal and hell being, often
translated "hungry ghost," based on the Chinese translation from the San­
skrit preta. They are not ghosts but are solidly reborn in a realm whose
dominant characteristic is scarcity of food and drink. They are always tor­
mented by hunger and thirst, their grotesque embodiments reflecting insa­
tiable appetites, with gigantic stomachs, long, narrow throats, and so forth.
The eighteen voidnesses are the voidnesses of things, nothingnesses, in­
trinsic realities, perceptions, and so forth up to the voidness of voidness.
The thirty-seven accessories to enlightenment are a famous set of facul­
ties developed by the Buddhist practitioner, including the four foci of mind­
fulness, the four authentic abandonments, the four magic powers, the five
spiritual faculties, the five strengths, the seven enlightenment accessories,
and the noble eightfold path. Faith, mindfulness, learning, diligence, samadhi,
ethics, conscience, authentic speech, livelihood, view, and various forms of
wisdom of selflessness-these are the kinds of faculties.
The six transcendences are the famous set of virtues, giving, ethics, tol­
erance, enterprise, meditation, and wisdom.
 NOTES TO C H A PTER 5 3 05

These lay and monastic vows are taken from Tsong Khapa's Great
Stages of the Path of Enlightenment. I include them here to show the prac­
tical outcome of the contemplations so eloquently set torth by Longchen
Rabjampa. When people decide to use their human lives to best evolution­
ary advantage, they naturally seek to commit themselves to a higher level
of ethical commitment, simplifying and focusing their lives in order to de­
velop the contemplation and understanding necessary for real transfor­
mation.
Purchok Ngawang Jampa Rinpoche ( 1 682-1762) was a famous teacher
of the eighteenth century, teaching the Seventh Dalai Lama and many other
eminent lamas, such as Jangkya Rolway Dorje. He sets forth in this text on
monastic vows the practical instructions for the ceremonies conferring
monastic ordination. I discovered in looking through previous anthologies
about Tibetan Buddhism that they focused only on the spectacular medita­
tions, exotic rituals, and mystic realizations, while millions of Tibetans over
many centuries have been inspired by the Dharma to enter holy orders on
one level or another. So many did become religious, in fact, that the high
percentage of monastics in the Tibetan population was a distinctive charac­
teristic of its modern (seventeenth to twentieth century) society.
CHAPTER 5 : Practicing the Loving Spirit of Enlightenment

Asanga (ca. fourth century C.E. ) was one of the eight greatest saints,
sages, and authors of classical Buddhist India. His sevenfold cause-and­
effect precept for developing the spirit of enlightenment through recogni­
tion of the motherhood of beings is what is called an oral tradition precept.
Asanga himself received it directly from Maitreya Bodhisattva, and he
handed it down to his disciples. Atisha brought it to Tibet, and it descended
in various lines to Tsong Khapa, from whom it descended through the
"Ganden" or "Ensa" oral tradition even to the present, especially to the
Fourteenth Dalai Lama. The original text of this selection is a commentary
on Tsong Khapa's Three Principles of the Path by the Fourth Panchen
Lama, Tenpai Nyima ( 1 781-1 8 5 3 ), which I translated thirty-two years ago
under the guidance of Venerable Geshe Wangyal; indeed the translation is
ornamented by Geshe Wangyal's own inimitable oral-commentary style. It
is also available in G. Wangyal, The Door of Liberation (Boston: Wisdom
Publications, 1 9 9 5 ) . I have modified the translation considerably for the
present edition, going back to the Tibetan original.
The "Eight Verses on Mind Development" were written in the Kadampa
tradition by Geshe Langri Tangpa Dorjey Sengey, who lived in the late
eleventh and early twelfth century. They are a most concise version of the ex­
change of self and other precept for developing the spirit of enlightenment
306 NOTES TO CHAPTER 5

of love and compassion. This precept for conceiving the spirit is believed
to have been given by the Bodhisattva Manjushri to Shantideva, who passed
it down through successors in India until the time of the Guru Dharmakirti
of Suvarnadvipa (Java), when the transmission left India, in the early
eleventh century. Atisha went to Java to recover this precept, then took it to
Tibet with him, handing it on to Dromtonpa. Dromtonpa's main successor
was Potowa, who in turn handed the main transmission to Langi Thangpa.
For previous translation and commentary, see G. Rabten and G. Dhargyey,
Advice from a Spiritual Friend (London: Wisdom Publications, 1984).
Shantideva was a great Indian master who lived in the eighth century. His
story tells of a strange monk who seemed very lazy and nonconforming to
his teachers and fellow students. Derisively they called him Bhusuku, liter­
ally "he who eats, sleeps, and defecates." He slept in classes, slept a lot
in the daytime, and had a good appetite. Finally it came his turn to present
his knowledge to the monastery or face expulsion. The whole community
turned out for the farce of Bhusuku giving a lecture. He prayed the night be­
fore to Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of incisive wisdom. When he mounted
the podium, he asked the audience if they wanted a recital of teachings they
were familiar with or something unprecedented. " Oh, the latter by all
means! " they said. He then recited the eight hundred or so verses of the
Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life, profound in meaning and beautiful in
expression, one of the greatest classics in India or Tibet. Its Sanskrit original
still exists, with several commentaries, and its Tibetan translation is univer­
sally used in the practice of Tibetan Buddhism. This selection, the passages
on cultivating tolerance, the remedy for hatred (from chapter 6), and com­
passion through the precept of exchanging self and other (from chapter 8 ),
are considered the locus classicus for the transmission of this special precept,
the foremost upholder of which in the present day is His Holiness the Dalai
Lama. For previous translations, see Shantideva (S. Batchelor, trans.), Guide
to the Bodhisattva Way of Life (Dharamsala, India: Library of Tibetan
Works and Archives, 1979); the Dalai Lama, A Flash of Lightning in the
Dark of Night (Boston: Shambhala Press, 1994).
The section on cultivating compassion through the exchange of self and
other occurs in chapter 8 of Shantideva's great work. After exchanging self
and other, one looks upon oneself with the other's eyes and imagines see­
ing oneself as inferior, equal, and superior with eyes of contempt, rivalry,
and jealousy. This is a powerful method of cultivating the ability to substi­
tute other-concern for self-concern. I do not quote the verses on this prac­
tice because this selection has become so long. Please consult the original
work.
 N O T E S TO C H A PTER 6 307

The instruction on how to confer the Bodhisattva commitment on an

aspirant Bodhisattva comes from Tsong Khapa's masterpiece, The Great
Stages of the Path of Enlightenment, a full translation of which is soon to
be published from the Library of Tibet.
The sevenfold preliminary prayer has already been described above; it
includes bowing, offering, confessing, congratulating, requesting teaching,
requesting the enlightened ones not to depart, and dedicating one's merit to
Buddhahood for the sake of all beings.
The Bodhisattva vow ceremony is another more concise version of the
ceremony to undertake the activated spirit of enlightenment-it also comes
from Tsong Khapa's masterpiece.
Shantideva's Bodhisattva vow comes from the third chapter of his great­
est work, Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life. It is often recited when
taking the vow in a ceremony for its beauty and the sheer good omen of it.
This last selection of this chapter, "The All-Good Prayer," is the famous
"Prayer of the All-good Bodhisattva, Samantabhadra," which originally
comes from the Garland Sutra and is considered a quintessential expression
of the Bodhisattva spirit of universal responsibility. I originally translated it
for an anthology of Tibetan prayers published by the Library of Tibetan
Works and Archives in Dharamsala, though I have abbreviated and altered
it substantially here. It has also been translated from the Chinese by Thomas
Cleary in his masterpiece The Flower Ornament Sutra (Boston: Shambhala,
1994). I include this because hundreds of generations of Indians, Tibetans,
Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, and Mongolians have memorized and chanted
this prayer. Its pattern of "all-good dedication" underlies the positiveness
and benevolence we can find in the acts and teachings of a teacher such as
His Holiness the Dalai Lama and his many enlightened colleagues.
CHAPTER 6: Practicing the Liberating Wisdom
Along with the emblematic segment from the "Quintessence," I repeat
these four extraordinary verses from Tsong Khapa's "Three Principles of
the Path" (see chapter 3 ) because they are so seminal in the practical way
wisdom is cultivated in the Tibetan curriculum.
The Transcendent Wisdom Heart Sutra, known as The Heart Sutra in
all Mahayana Buddhist countries, and The Heart of Wisdom in Tibet, is a
concise expression of the profound vision of reality that is the root of liber­
ation from suffering. Tibetan religious all know this by heart and chant it
solemnly at the beginning of every ceremony. In addition to a prescription
for enlightenment, they consider it the most powerful exorcism, purifier,
and developer of merit as well as wisdom.
3 08 NOTES TO C H A PTER 6

The five body and mind processes are the five aggregate constituents of
body and mind already encountered above; to repeat, forms, sensations,
ideas, emotions, and consciousnesses.
"Establishing the Nature of Reality" is the eighteenth chapter of The
Treasury of Wish-Fulfilling Gems by the great Nyingma Lama Longchen
Rabjam discussed above (see notes to chapter 4).
Datura is the notorious "loco weed" that stimulates hallucinations in
cows and even humans, though it is used by shamans in the American south­
west to teach to vision-questers the illusoriness of habitual objective reality.
" The wish-granting gem that fulfills both aims": both aims are aims of
self and other; enlightenment fulfills self-interest by being a state of perfect
and stable bliss, the highest happiness, unimaginable by those addicted to
fleeting pleasures, and fulfills other-interest by effortlessly extending itself
with the energy of such bliss to relieve the tensions of others and introduce
them to their own deeper blissful nature.
Late in life, around 1 4 1 4 C.E., Tsong Khapa wrote a more concise ver­
sion of his Great Stages of the Path of Enlightenment, called, naturally
enough, the Short Stages of the Path. The next selection, " Tsong Khapa's
Medium-Length Transcendent Insi ght, " includes portions of the third sec­
tion of this text, the section dealing with transcendent insight (Skt.
vipashyana) , the critical, analytic meditation used to develop transcendent
wisdom that understands the nature of reality. Quiescence is the other main
type of meditation, one-pointed, noncritical, thought-free meditation, used
to calm and sharpen the focus of the mind but unable by itself to provide
the meditator with new insight or deeper understanding. Enlightenment
and liberation must thus be achieved by an integrated approach, an ap­
proach that focuses the acuity of the one-pointed mind on the task of criti­
cal penetration of the true nature of reality. I published an earlier version in
The Life and Teachings of Tsong Khapa (Dharamsala, India: Library of
Tibetan Works and Archives, 198 3 ). I have here gone back to the original
and retranslated it to accord with my current translation usage.
Thatness is a Buddhist way of referring to the immanent ultimacy of all
things, perceived by wisdom as each thing's unique nonduality with the in­
finite, called its thatness since its conventional name seems inadequate to
express its reality. It is sometimes opposed to "suchness," which designates
the transcendent ultimacy of all things, the fact that each thing's reality
transcends its conventional name and can appear only as if "such" as itself,
i.e., not quite only itself.
The Transcendence Vehicle is a way to refer to the exoteric Universal Ve­
hicle in a context where the Tantra Vehicle is understood to be the esoteric
Universal Vehicle.
 NOTES TO C H A PTER 6 3 09

The three lower Tantra divisions are those of Action, Performance, and
Yoga Tantras.
The philosopher-yogin-saints mentioned in "Conditions Necessary for
Transcendent Insight" constitute the pantheon of the Tibetan curriculum:
Nagarjuna (ca. 50 B.C.E.- 5 5 0 C.E. ! ) , Aryadeva (ca. second-fourth century),
Buddhapalita (ca. fifth century), Bhavaviveka (ca. fifth-sixth century),
Chandrakirti (ca. sixth-seventh century), Shantarakshita (ca. eighth cen­
tury), and Kamalashila (eighth-ninth century) were the greatest teachers of
the centrist (Madhyamika) tradition of critical philosophy within which
Tsong Khapa here writes.
I use addiction to translate Tibetan nyon mongs, which means a dis­
torted emotional or conceptual state, such as hatred or confusion, which
takes over your mind and drives you to involuntary thoughts and acts.
They are addictive in that they trick you into thinking your following their
dictates will bring you satisfaction, yet they actually put you in states where
you feel all the more unsatisfied. Addictive misknowledge is the instinctual
level of delusion described below, contrasted with cognitive misknowledge,
which is simply the failure to know realities.
The following discussion may seem rather technical in nature, but I can­
not emphasize enough the importance of this type of teaching within the
Tibetan curriculum, a teaching that demonstrates the supremely intelligent
approach the Tibetan Buddhists have developed, building on the knowl­
edge of their Indian ancestors, for dealing with the psychology of identity.
The misknowledge described in such detail is basically the misappropria­
tion of identity-the reification and rigidification of identity, of self, in sub­
jects and objects-that traps conscious beings in an oppressive world in
which the self-absolutized subjectivity is constantly being overwhelmed by
a massive and inescapable universe of objectivities. Overcoming this mis­
knowledge leads to the wisdom that sees through the alienation and discov­
ers the freedom and relationality revealed when the intrinsic identity habit
is discarded. For further details about this, see my Central Philosophy of
Tibet (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press, 1984); and my Life and Teach­
ings of Tsong Khapa (Dharamsala, India: Library of Tibetan Works and
Archives, 1 9 8 3 ) .
It may b e useful to list the types of misknowledge Tsong Khapa discusses
in a single list:

I . Conscious or theoretical, personal or subjective self-habit or I-habit

2. Unconscious or instinctive, personal or subjective self-habit or 1-
habit
3 . Conscious or philosophical property-habit or mine-habit
310 NOTES TO CHAPTER 6

4. Instinctive or natural property-habit or mine-habit

5. Conscious objective self-habit, identity-habit, truth-habit, objectivity­
habit, reality-habit
6. Instinctive objective self-habit, etc.
The more deeply you can identify your inner identity-habits, the more
thoroughly you can free yourself from their compulsive aspect, and the
more supple, flexible, and connected is your sense of relational self.
Negatee refers to that which is negated by negative expressions such as
voidness and selflessness. To understand a negation, you have to under­
stand what is being negated. Thus meditation on selflessness is not a mind­
less, thoughtless fixation on a contentless mind and reality; it is an active
investigation of your whole being, body, and mind in the attempt actually
to discover the self you habitually assume to be there. Only in looking for
the self as hard as you can and failing to find it do you begin to feel free of
the rigid self-image that the Buddhists say you have been driven by and car­
rying for beginningless lifetimes. So the negatee of this most liberative of
negations, the negation that is freedom, is self, intrinsic reality, intrinsic
identity, and so on.
The four key procedures for determining selflessness can be summarized
in a list:
I. The key of ascertaining the negatee-identifying the presumed self
that misknowledge and self-habits assume to exist substantively as their
core concern
2. The key of ascertaining logical pervasion-determining that such a

presumed self must either be the same as the bodymind processes or differ­
ent from them, and that there is no third option
3 . The key of ascertaining the lack of true sameness
4. The key of ascertaining the lack of true difference
"Praise of Buddha Shakyamuni for His Teaching of Relativity" was writ­
ten by Tsong Khapa on the morning of his final enlightenment, in 1 3 9 8 , in
his retreat cave on Oede Gungyel Mountain above Olkha. For further infor­
mation, see my Central Philosophy of Tibet (Princeton, N.].: Princeton Univ.
Press, 1984), wherein I published an earlier version of my translation, along
with considerable biographical detail and commentary in an introduction.
"Discovery of Mother Voidness" was written at the sacred mountain Wu
Tai Shan in Shensi province of China by the great Mongolian lama Jankya
Rolway Dorje ( 1 7 1 7- 1 7 8 6 ) . Like the previous poem written by Tsong
Khapa, it fits into the literary category of "Enlightenment Song" (Tib. Ita
 NOTES TO C H A PTER 7 3II

mgur), being an expression of joy and appreciation in the euphoria and lu­
cidity of just having attained a comprehensive freedom from ageless suffer­
ing and anxiety. The Mother symbolism here is poignant, building on ancient
traditions. Transcendent Wisdom herself is called Mother of all Buddhas;
wisdom is associated with female, and compassion with male.
"Some of the bright ones of our school . . . ": here Rolway Dorje cri­
tiques his colleagues in the Geluk order for overintellectualizing the matter
and not putting the vital point of selflessness into practice.
"The systematists . . . ": here he critiques various Indian Buddhist
philosophers and those in Tibet still caught up in their theoretical postures,
misperceiving the white elephant of reality as tiger, monkey, and bear.
"The many sages . . . ": here he teases the many Tibetan sages in various
orders, repeating their many highflown phrases for ultimate reality, conced­
ing their correctness, but then challenging them to press themselves inter­
nally (symbolized by pressing their fingers on their own noses), "Do I really
understand it all that well myself?"
From "Cheer up" on he proceeds, not to reject any of the Indian or Ti­
betan sages he has named, but rather to agree with them all, embracing all
their understandings in the ecstasy of his own fresh vision of reality, con­
cluding with apologies for any brusqueness of manner.

CHAPTER 7: Practicing the Creation Stage

Glorious Esoteric Communion Self-Creation Yoga a visualization and
,

recitation manual for the creation stage yoga of the Esoteric Communion
Archetype Deity, was arranged by Tsong Khapa, combining the Indian
Guhyasamaja literature with the personal instructions of the Adepts de­
scending from Nagarjuna and disciples through the agency of the great
Adept Naropa and the Tibetan translator Marpa. It was polished and re­
fined in subsequent centuries in the Tantric monasteries of the Geluk order.
The version here translated in abbreviated form is that used by the Namgyal
Monastery of the Potala, currently in exile in Dharamsala; it shows by the
mentors listed in its spiritual salutation that it was fixed in the late eigh­
teenth century, in the time of the Eighth Dalai Lama.
The contents of this manual are meant for recitation in a slow chant,
punctuated by musical interludes during the sense-offering sequences,
while the detailed visualizations of body and mind, self and others in this
celestial mandala environment are to be vividly contemplated in the mind's
eye. You should not try to visualize these deities, and especially not project
yourself into being the main deity, unless you are initiated into the practice.
3 12 N O T E S TO CHAPTER 7

I include this manual here to show the reader the essence of the Tibetan
Buddhist Unexcelled Yoga Tantra creation stage practice, since hundreds of
thousands of lamas over millennia have assiduously performed it and have
developed the ability to see with the inner eye these elaborate alternative di­
mensions in all their jeweline beauty and detail.
The main point of the creation stage is given in the "Quintessence" verse
repeated at the head of the chapter, to use the disciplined imagination in
meditation to cleanse one's habits of perception and conception of the solid­
ity of the suffering-bound ordinary world and the ordinary self. One thereby
creates an imaginative, holographic blueprint for an enlightened, divine
world where self and others may enjoy the perfect happiness of wisdom and
compassion. Environment is visualized as divine residence, and self is visual­
ized as Buddha-deity, death is visualized as Truth Body of the absolute, be­
tween state is visualized as Beatific Body, and life-state is visualized as
Emanation Body. Once persistent meditation, visualization, and focused sta­
bilization have enabled you to enter such a world completely in imagina­
tion, you are ready to enter the perfection stage practices, where you begin a
process of transformation to develop the ability actually to enter such di­
mensions, to change your embodiment, and to change your mentality, tra­
versing at will the realms of death, between, and alternative life-worlds.
In the benedictory verses at the end, there are numerous allusions to
practices and lists of items that may pique the reader's curiosity. I include
the verses for their beauty and the outline they provide of the path of Unex­
celled Yoga Tantra. There is no space here to annotate these allusions thor­
oughly.
The Inner Sacrifice is a visualizational and ritual simulation of a holy
grail, a grail with the magical power to transmute the ordinary poisons of
egocentric life into elixirs of enlightened immortality.
The meditator as Akshobhyavajra in the center of the mandala visual­
izes that the deities sitting and standing around the jewel mansion are
drawn on light-rays into positions on his (even if the meditator is a woman
in ordinary life, she visualizes herself here as male) body, and then those
miniaturized deities in those spots dissolve into light as one's body dissolves
into light as the death-dissolution sequence ensues. With the mantra OM
SHUNYATA, etc., one imagines oneself as dissolved into the absolute as at
death, but here one's infinite awareness is the Truth Body of all Buddhas.
The Supreme Triumph over Evolution visualization is very complicated,
involving a sending out of the deities visualized within the micro-mandala
in the drop in the sexual center of the male-female union where they go out
into the ordinary world as light-rays and transform all its negative aspects
into positive ones, thus making the bliss-void-wisdom of the mandala tri-
 N O T E S TO CH APTER 8 313

umph over the miserable ignorance of the evolutionary world. It is not nec­
essary to elaborate more here, as anyone trying actually to do this visual­
ization would have to receive initiation and formal training.
The triply enfolded spiritual heroes refers to visualizing oneself on the
coarse level as Akshobhyavajra with three faces, six arms, and so on in the
ordinary scale of the mansion and others, here called the Devotee Hero. In
one's heart is again oneself as a thumb-size Guhyasamaja deity with one
face and two arms, called a Wisdom Hero. In his heart again is a mustard­
seed-size dark blue HUM letter, shining with rainbow light-rays, called a
Samadhi Hero.
CHAPTER 8: Practicing the Perfection and Great Perfection Stages
The realm of the perfection stage, or of the great perfection, depending
on which system you use to approach it, is the realm of the deepest mystery
and the most incredible magic in the Tibetan tradition. It is the realm of
practice of the Tibetan Adepts, whom I have called psychonauts, by anal­
ogy with our astronauts-i.e., those highly trained scientists who are also
courageous explorers of the most far-out dimensions of reality as they have
discovered it. I have discussed their world somewhat in the introduction to
my recent translation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead (New York: Ban­
tam, 1994). In this chapter I present a glimpse of the vast literature of this
most advanced region of the Tibetan evolutionary path.
The first work is an excerpt from Five Stages of the Perfection Stage by
Nagarjuna, considered by Tibetans to be the same Nagarjuna as the great
centrist philosopher, though modern scholars do not accept this, since it
involves crediting the Indo-Tibetan belief in the six-century longevity of
Nagarjuna. Though a work originally produced in India, it is considered
a fundamental codification of the yogic instruction in the practice of the
perfection stage. It serves as the basis of numerous Tibetan works on the
perfection stage, the most important of which is Tsong Khapa's Extremely
Brilliant Lamp of the Five Stages, which I have been working on for ten
years and hope to finish in 1996. After much deliberation, I decided it is
perfect to excerpt for this chapter to convey the essence of this most ad­
vanced dimension of essential Tibetan Buddhism. An extra advantage is
that it also connects with the Esoteric Communion, which was presented as
the example of the creation stage.
The five stages of the perfection stage are counted in various ways; here
they are counted as ( I ) vajra repetition (sometimes called speech isolation),
(2) mind-objective (or mind isolation), ( 3 ) self-anointment (sometimes
called magic body), (4) universal enlightenment (sometimes called clear
light), and ( 5 ) communion, which is the same as perfect Buddhahood. The
314 NOTES TO C H A PT E R 8

great perfection teaching, preserved especially in the Nyingma tradition,

sometimes is presented as something even more advanced than all five of
these stages but more often as the three upper stages of the five, since it is
hard in Tibetan Buddhism to maintain that there is anything more ad­
vanced than perfect Buddhahood.
The five main neural winds are the vitalizing, the evacuating, the elevat­
ing, the digesting, and the pervading winds. The five branch winds are vari­
ously named and connect particularly with the five sense organs. The vajra
repetition trains the yoginli to develop voluntary control of these subtle en­
ergies within the circulatory and nervous systems.
Throughout this translation, I have added a nonsexist particle to the
generic masculine case that is assumed in much translation (probably in
many of the originals as well) from inflected languages like Tibetan and
Sanskrit, since I feel that the uninflected English, where there are different
words for male and female, makes the sexist subtext more pronounced
than in the original. Hence, when yogin is mentioned, I put yoginli, and
when pronouns are used, I alternate male and female.
This lengthy quote from the Magnificent Play Sutra (Skt. Lalitavistara)
is not found in the version remaining in the Tibetan translation of this
scripture (the Sanskrit original is lost). It shows vividly how the Tibetan
apocalyptic Buddhists saw the interfusion of exoteric and esoteric Bud­
dhisms, as the esoteric and exoteric biographies of Shakyamuni interfuse in
the depictions of his attainment of enlightenment.
In this quote again we encounter the paradox of Tibetan Buddhism. The
role of the mentor emerges again as central in the rebirth of the yoginli in
this context, something beyond father, mother, beloved, or deity. Yet all the
intensity of this relationship, where the mentor is envisioned as all-in-all
and all devotion is mobilized, the mentor himself or herself focuses all that
authority on empowering the disciple to empower himself or herself to be
self-sufficiently the abode of all Buddhas, the agent of all enlightenment,
the enjoyment of all perfection and bliss.
The direction in this ancient text that one should be ready to offer one's
mate could be misunderstood. The couple's relationship at this level of prac­
tice is something different. The mate is not simply a tool, an instrument for
the yoga of the practitioner. It is clearly stated in many sources that no yo­
gini can serve effectively as consort for a yogin (and no yogin can be effec­
tive consort for a yogini) beyond the vajra repetition stage unless that yogini
or yogin has attained at least the same stage as the partner. At the objective
or isolation stage of mind, both yogin and yogini, who need each other to
traverse the stage, must undergo the death-dissolution processes completely.
 NOTES TO C H A PTER 9 315

Indeed, this is why they need each other, since the stabilization of a specially
balanced contemplative sexual union is the only state other than actual
death through which all of the ten neural winds can be forced to dissolve in
the central channel, thereby breaking the compulsive connection of the
yogin and yogini with their habitual coarse body. After having attained that
stage and thus being ready for the self-empowerment teaching, yogin and
yogini, though they love each other totally and universally, are colleague
psychonauts, not merely pair-bonded ordinary egocentric mates. Thus, in
the process of going further into the realm of subtle body practice, voyaging
into out-of-body practices of magic body and clear light, they are naturally
willing to give each other away, especially to the all-important mentor, at the
moment of receiving the "jumping-off" instructions in the magic body. For
a fascinating discussion of this issue, see Miranda Shaw, Passionate Enlight­
enment (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press, 1 994).
The three luminances (Skt. aloka) are the three intuitive wisdoms that
occur when the yoginli enters the final phase of the dissolution process. It
has eight stages: ( I ) earth dissolves into water, (2) water into fire, ( 3 ) fire
into wind, (4) wind into gross consciousness, ( 5 ) gross consciousness into
luminance, (6) luminance into luminance-radiance, (7) luminance-radiance
into luminance-imminence, and ( 8 ) luminance-imminence into clear-light
translucency, the ultimately subtle state. The subjective signs of these disso­
lutions are, respectively, ( I ) mirage, (2) smoke, ( 3 ) fireflies, (4) candle
flame, ( 5 ) moonlit sky, (6) sunlit sky, (7) blacklit sky, and ( 8 ) predawn gray­
lit twilight sky. The three luminances, or luminance intuitions, are states
( 5 ), (6), and (7)·
"The Natural Liberation Through Naked Vision" is an important for­
mulation of the Nyingma tradition's Great Perfection teachings, attributed
to Padma Sambhava, later discovered by the treasure-finder Karma Lingpa.
I take this excerpt from my full-length translation, published as an appen­
dix to my Tibetan Book of the Dead (New York: Bantam, 1994).
It is clear that this teaching very much resembles the communion teach­
ings of the perfection stage. It teaches the most advanced, radical vision of
nonduality, the Buddha-vision accessible to the psychonaut once he or she
has been able consciously to traverse the death experience and can remem­
ber the clear-light translucency of ultimate mind.
CHAPTER 9: Various Treasures of Tibetan Spiritual Culture

I include "Instruction in the Great Science of the Six-Syllable Mantra,"

an excerpt from the Jewel Case Array Sutra, to introduce the archetypical
mantra of Tibet, OM MAN! PADME HUM. It is a good omen, perhaps, in the
316 N OT E S TO C HAPTER 9

light of Tibetan myth, since this Sutra is one of the first Buddhist texts tu
come to Tibet. Legend has it arriving miraculously from the air on the roof
of the palace of King Lha Totori Nyentsen. It was kept there and revered,
and three generations later Tibetans learned to read it!
This eulogy to the Twenty-one Taras must be included, since so many
Tibetans of all walks of life have it memorized and recite it up and down
the mountains, day in and day out. Tara is the Mother Mary figure for all
Tibetans. So all-encompassing is her presence, she is invoked daily in these
main twenty-one forms, though Tibetans believe her to be functioning in
limitless forms, for the sake of all beings. For an earlier translation of this
homage, see M. Willson, In Praise of Tara (London: Wisdom Publications,
1982). For the iconography of Tara, see Rhie and Thurman, Wisdom and
Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet (New York: Abrams, 199 1 ) .
"Description of the Between" comes from my translation of The Ti­
betan Book of the Dead (New York: Bantam, 1994). I include it to give the
reader a brief description of the between (Tib. bardo; Skt. antarabhava)
state, the subjective experience of beings after death and before the next re­
birth. Though this idea was inherited from Indian Buddhism, the Tibetans
developed it carefully and incorporated it in the very heart of their culture,
which helped them cope with death, both of loved ones and of themselves,
and gave their lives the dimension of being open both to the subtle dimen­
sion and to a limitless future.
Mahakala was a demon who was once unleashed upon the world and
was tormenting even the gods with his greed and aggression, as the god
Brahma had given him the boon that no outside enemy could defeat him.
The Bodhisattvas Manjushri and Avalokiteshvara teamed up, transformed
themselves into a horse and a pig, entered his mouth and anus, and then
began to expand in size. When the demon, about to explode, begged to sur­
render, the Bodhisattvas chained him up and then began a process of con­
verting him to gentleness and compassion. Eventually he became a protec­
tor of the Dharma, a fierce cherubim or seraphim, using his demonic strength
to keep lesser evil spirits and calamities at bay. He is propitiated by most
Tibetans in one of his many forms. This short invocation, " Praises of Var­
ious Fierce Protectors," is from the equivalent of the "Book of Common
Prayer," published in Dharamsala.
Shri Devi is the fiercest form of Tara. Art historians and mythographers
associate her with the Hindu goddess Kali. She has become thoroughly do­
mesticated in Tibet, serving as special protectress of the Dalai Lamas and
the nation. Her "soul-lake" is in central Tibet, and is used as an oracular
mirror by high lamas when they go to search for the reincarnation of a
Dalai or a Panchen Lama.
 NOTES TO CHAPTER 9 3 [7

Yama is the god of death, inherited from India by the Tibetans. Tsong
Khapa was considered an incarnation of Manjushri, who himself adopts
his fiercest form of Yamantaka (Killer of Death) when he confronts Death
and overwhelms him so that all beings, including Death, can become im­
mortal. Tsong Khapa had a vision of Yama, now redeemed as a protector
of the Dharma, and left this famous invocation.
Vaishravana is the guardian deity of the north and the jolly god of
wealth (perhaps an Indo-Tibetan archetype of Santa Claus ! ) . He is con­
stantly invoked by Tibetans, who ask his help to keep the economy in good
shape so that the spiritual institutions may be handsomely supported.
Setrabjen (Rhino Breastplate Wearer) is a typical Tibetan fierce deity,
one who can be invoked to protect against more local, not only spiritual,
difficulties. The author of this invocation is a lama who lives and teaches in
the United States, the reincarnation of an abbot of the Tantric University of
Upper Lhasa, which was located in the Ramochey National Cathedral.
" Prayer of the Word of Truth," written by the Dalai Lama some years
after his escape from the Chinese Red Army into exile in India, has become
something of a hymn for the Tibetan exile community around the world.
The Word of Truth is a Buddhist concept, indicating the Buddhist faith that
if one sincerely upholds the truth, its simple power will eventually over­
whelm injustice, the might of arms and numbers, and lies and negativity,
and the good, the right, and the innocent will prevail. It is closely associ­
ated with the Gandhian idea of "truth upholding" (satyagraha) , which is
the heart principle underlying nonviolent social action. This is a principle
that the Dalai Lama and the majority of Tibetans have steadfastly clung to,
in spite of the lethal persecution and official neglect they have suffered for
nearly half a century.
I close this Essential book with this last selection, the very moving
speech given by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Oslo, on the occasion of
his being awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace, which I include by kind per­
mission of Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca, New York, who originally pub­
lished it in America in the Dalai Lama, A Policy of Kindness ( 1990). In it
we can hear the echo of the compassion and universal responsibility teach­
ings given here in chapter 5, as well as the wisdom teachings in chapter 6. It
also concludes our journey in this book on a positive note, on the manifes­
tation of the wisdom and compassion of Tibet. He reaches out from Tibet's
own darkest hour into our modern world and offers all of us from all na­
tions a vision of a positive twenty-first century, at a time when things still
seem quite worrisome.
 (continued from front Hap)

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