the profound path of peace · 88 his eminence jamgon kongtrul rinpoche issue no. ii february 1992 ....

THE PROFOUND PATH OF PEACE

INTERNATIONAL KAGYU SANGHA ASSOCIATION, XI

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This issue is dedicated to the skillful means and the long life of the

Venerable Tenga Rinpoche

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The Profound Path of Peace a magazine of the International Kagyu Sangha Association of Buddhist Monks and Nuns

Chairman: Editor -in-Chief: Editor: Graphics:

Very Ven. Thrangu Rinpoche LodroZangpo Migme ChOdron Molly Nudell

The International Kagyu Sangha Association ofB uddhistMonks and Nuns [I.K.S A] was founded in 1981 by the Four Regents of the Karma Kagyu Lineage: H.E. Shamar Rinpoche, H.E. Tai Situ Rinpoche, H.E. Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche and H.E. Gyaltsap Rinpoche. Its main purpose is to increase the communication between the monastic Sangha and its centers and to further the education of the monks and nuns and their understanding of the monastic life.

The calligraphy on the cover page was contributed by H.E. Tai Situ Rinpoche. The letters in the flame say 'zhi wai lam sang' and mean "Profound Path of Peace". The letters in the black bowl atthe bottom say "kon chog sum' and mean "Three Jewels".

Acknowledgments: The article "Emptiness from the Shentong Point of View [Chapter 3]" is reprinted from The Buddha Within by S.K. Hookham by permission of the State University of New York Press. © 1991 State University of New York Press, Albany. The book can be ordered for $ US 19.95 from: State University of New York Press; c/o CUP Services; P.O. Box 6525; Ithaca, New York 14851. Just prior to printing the 'dakinis' stole all the pictures for this issue. We had to improvise quickly and didn't have time to ask all photographers for permission. We hope that you will understand.

Subscription rate for The Profound Path of Peace: 1 issue $ 8.00 Can [overseas $ 9.00] 2 issues $ 16.00 Can [overseas $ 18.00] Please make your check or money order out to l.K.S.A. and mail it to:

I.K.S.A., c/o Gampo Abbey, Pleasant Bay, N.S., Canada BOE 2PO. Phone: [902] 224-2752; Fax: [902] 224-1521

© I.K.S.A

CONTENTS

4 Editorial 6 Doha 8 Vinaya

by Venerable Lama Gendun Rinoche The Seventeen Bases of the Vinayapitaka by the Ven. Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche

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20 Article The Treatise Entitled: "A Teaching on the Essence of the Tathagatas [the Tathagatagarbha)"

36 Memorial

38 Open Dialogue

50 Article

55 Article 61 Forum

68 Guess Who? 69 News 72 News 76 News 82 News 84 News 87 Books

Pictures

by the Karmapa. Rangjung Dorje His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche & His Eminence Pawo Rinpoche The Impact of Science on Myth by Joseph Campbell Building Enlightened Society by ChOgyam Trungpa Rinpoche The Sawang, bsel Rangdrol Mukpo Emptiness from the Shentong Point of View by Dr. Shenpen Hookham

Karma Triyana Dharmachakra Kagyu Thubten ChOling SamyeLing Nepal & Sweden Yeunten Ling

1 Venerable Lama Norlha 7 Venerable Lama Gendiin Rinpoche 11 Venerable Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche 36 His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche & His Eminence Pawo Rinpoche 51 Vidyadhara Trungpa Rinpoche, Lady Kiinchok and Sawang, bsel RangdrOl

Mukpo 57 Sawang, bsel Rangdrol MulqJO 69 His Holiness the Sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje 77 Venerable Akong Tulku Rinpoche 88 His Eminence Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche

Issue No. II February 1992

EDITORIAL

First I would like to thank everybody for the letters which we received concerning the last issue and also for the many articles we received for this issue. It is indeed very enjoyable to see the growing interest in "our Kagyu family" magazine and in I. K. S. A. affairs and, even more so, to establish further personal contact with the Sangha, be they our lineage teachers, the monastics, lay practitioners all over the world, the translators, yogis and yoginis, dakas and dakinis, squirrels, dogs and cats.

The Yen. Ponlop Rinpoche had suggested that we request the centers to write "their story" for The Profound Path of Peace which later could be worked over and presented in a separate issue as the Kagyu Annals. This issue is a start in this direction. In addition to that, we would like to encourage all the centers to send us news of any important developments in their center. You will find our telephone number and our fax number on page 2.

We are publishing for the first time in this issue Rangjung Dorje's "A Teaching on the Essence of the Tathagatas". To have access to an English translation of such a key text of our lineage will hopefully inspire our lineage holders to give commentaries on this text which are necessary for understanding its profundity and implications. We are very grateful for Peter Roberts for making his translation available to us and for future issues we would like to encourage translators likewise to make unpublished works available to the wider Sangha via the PPP.

While I was in Germany over Christmas I met with Lama Yeshe Tharchin, the former I. K. S. A. secretary, over tea and cake. We talked about our monastic journey and in this context he mentioned Lama Gendiin Rinpoche' s concern that his western lamas learn "to stand and walk on their own feet". What this seemed to involve, among other things, is an honestlook at our western upbringing and culture as well as our Tibetan tradition in order to sort out the "good beans" from the "bad beans" in the western context. For the Open Dialogue section I therefore selected Joseph Campbell' s thought-provoking "The Impact of Science on Myth" in which he points out that in the modern Western world, any religion [myth], if it wants to be taken seriously, has to accept and cope with the challenges of science because 'They have found the bones'. Campbell encourages and emphasizes that the continuing search for more, the eagerness for truth, the 'growth' are a measure of the life of the modern Western man, and of his world: a world of change, new thoughts , new things, new magnitudes, and continuing transformation; not of

petrifaction, rigidity, and some canonized found 'truth'. In this context it might be interesting to contemplate why the Yen. Ponlop Rinpoche doesn't like to use the word 'religion' for Buddhism but sees it more as a 'science of mind' although his use of the word 'science' is probably different from Campbell:S.

The lineage holders showed their interest that the PPP should be sent out to as many Kagyu centers as possible and within reason we would like to continue to follow up on that suggestion. However, this good intention doesn't prevent us from having to raise around $ 1600 for each issue for printing and mailing. For the last issue we received around $ 1 ()()() from subscriptions and the rest from donations and some "magic". In order to make the "magic" part a little easier for us, we would like to remind you again to support us with your subscriptions and donations. Ideally we are looking out for "one big fish" donor for each issue, be it a human, a business man, an alien or whatever, and we could make acknowledgements if so desired.

As a last word, I would like to remind you of a saying of one of America's great culture heroes, Wavy Gravy:

Love

LodroZangpo

If you don't have a sense of humor, it isn't funny.

DOHA by Venerable Lama Gendiin Rinpoche

Happiness cannot be found through great effort and willpower, but is already there, in relaxation and letting-go.

Don't strain yourself, there is nothing to do. Whatever arises in the mind has no importance at all, because it has no reality whatsoever. Don't become attached to it. Don't pass judgement.

Let the game happen on its own, springing up and falling back - without changing anything -and all will vanish and reappear, without end.

Only our searching for happiness prevents us from seeing it. It is like a rainbow which you run after without ever catching it. Although it does not exist, it has always been there and accompanies you every instant.

Don't believe in the reality of good and bad experiences; they are like rainbows.

Wanting to grasp the ungraspable, you exhaust yourself in vain. As soon as you relax this grasping, space is there - open, inviting, and comfortable.

So, make use of it. All is YOW's already. Don' t search any further. Don ' t go into the inextricable jungle looking for the elephant who is already quietly at home.

Nothing to do, nothing to force, nothing to want, - and everything happens by itself.

Venerable Lama Gendiin Rinpoclze

THE SEVENTEEN BASES OF THE VINAYAPITAKA

by Yen. Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche

The vinaya pi!aka in the Tibetan tradition consists of four major texts, the Vinayavastu, the Vinayavibhanga. the Vinayagama and the Vinaya-ullama .. 'Vastu' means' ground or basis,' and the Vinayavastu is extensive and detailed. 'Vibhanga' means 'distinguishing', and the Vinayavibhanga [commentary to the Pratimok~hasutra] deals with different procedures, activities and duties. The Vinayagama and Vinaya-ullama, which are connected with the first two, are minor texts, more condensed in form.

The two main commentators of the vinaya pi!aka were two Indian scholars, GUl)aprabha, a student of Vasubandhu, and Shakyaprabha. Since the vinaya is so extensive, GUl)aprabha's commentary, the VinayamUlasutra [T: 'dul-ba mdo-rtsaba], the Root Vinaya Sutra. is usually studied in Tibetan monastic institutions. There are seventeen subjects, topics or bases, 'gzhi' [T], 'vastu' [S], in this commentary, of which the Buddha considered three [T: 'dul-ba gzhi gsum] to be of greatest importance. These three are sojong [T: gso-sbyong] or po~hadha [S], gag-ye [T: dgag-dbye], prav3ral)ll [S], or lifting the restrictions, and yarne [T: dbyar-gnas], var~ha [S], or the summer retreat.

a] Sojong Regarding the first basis, po~hadha or sojong, sojong [T: dge-ba gso sdig-pa

sbyong] literally means 'to encourage, to flourish, to blossom'. 'gSo-ba' means 'to add, to grow, to develop', in this case developing merit or virtue, and 'sbyong-ba ' means 'to purify, to wash'.

There are six different types of po~hadha, 1) the po~hadha of shamatha, 2) the po~hadha of the fourteenth, 3) the po~hadha of the fifteenth, 4) the po~hadha of auspiciousness, tashi sojong, 5) the po~hadha of removing obstacles, and 6) the po~hadha of harmony.

The po~hadha of shamatha refers to a group practice of shamatha but includes all practices up to vipashyana. The Buddha said that when one enters the monastic sangha, one has to focus on two things, practice and study. This po~hadha emphasizes practice.

The po~hadha of the fourteenth and fifteenth are done regularly in a monastery on the fourtheenth and fifteenth days of the lunar month.

The po~hadha of auspiciousness is performed when consecrating sites for monasteries, retreats and so on.

The po~hadha for removing obstructing spirits is done in cases of illness.

The po~hadha of harmony is done to unify the sangha when it has been divided into two or more groups by some disagreement or conflict.

The fourteenth and fifteenth are definite po~hadha; the others are indefinite because there is no definite time when they should be done.

When it is the time for sojong, all the monastics living in.the same area are called together, and if someone is missing, they must send a message that they cannot attend. Until that message is received, the ceremony must be delayed. If the community carries on with the ceremony in the absence of any of its members, those attending it receive a minor downfall [T: ltung-ba). The process is quite democratic. All the monastics must agree on the place where sojong is to be held. If a proper place, such as a shrine hall, is not available, the Buddha said thatsojong may be held in a cave or in a field , for example, but it must be a place where there is no fear of wild animals or other harm.

b] Yarne The summer retreat, yarne, was introduced by the Buddha because some of

the monks, begging for alms during the monsoon season, were drowned in a flood and the village people complained that the sangha members were travelling around in the rainy season and did not stay in retreat. There are two prescribed times when yarne may start, but the exact date varies from country to country.

c] Gagye The third basis, gagye, is the lifting of the special restrictions of the summer

retreat. On the eve of gagye, all the senior bhik~hus and bhik~hul)IS give teachings throughout the entire night. In Rumtek the teachings begin around 7 or 8 in the evening and finish in the morning, when, after a short break of 15 or 30 minutes, the po~hadha of the fifteenth is held.

These three bases, sojong, yarne and gagye, are the most important aspects of the monastic sIDlgha. Wherever there is a sangha of four or more fully-ordained monks or nuns, sojong, yarne and gagye can be held. If there is no sangha, a bhik~hu or bhik~hul)I must do short prayers by themselves in a formal way as, for example, that given by Karma Chagme, but the novice cannot do the prayers alone; he or she can purify wrongdoing by reflecting on whatever downfalls [T: ltung-ba] he or she has committed in the past two weeks and make the mental commitment not to repeat them.

Those are the three major bases or topics from among the seventeen that comprise the VillayamUlasiltra. In the following discussion the English titles assigned to the seventeen points are provisional.

1] RABJUNG: Ordination The first of these seventeen bases is called 'rabjung' [T: rab-byung; S:

pravrajya] which means ordination, entering into monk-hood. This is discussed very extensively in the Vinayamiilasutra. It is divided into three sections: i) how to receive ordination; ii] how to keep the ordination; iii] how to mend or repair broken precepts. i) How to receive ordination:

This section has two basic categories. The first, 'ngonchok' [T: sngon-chog], original ordination, did not require the presence of any companions and was given by the Buddha himself during the first six years after he attained enlightenment and again once just before entering parinirvana. 'Sngon' means preliminary or before and 'chog' means ordination ceremony. His first five disciples were ordained without any ritual by the Buddha saying "Ehyehi" or "Come here." The person who is capable of receiving this type of ordination must have six qualities, which are:

First, one must be free of three obscurations: a] free of the fully-matured obscuration, i.e. not having been born in the hell

realm, the hungry ghost realm or the animal realm; b] free of karmic obscurations, i.e. not having committed the five heinous or

inexpiable crimes of 1] killing one's father, 2] killing one's mother, 3] killing an arhat, 4] harming the Buddha, such as Devadatta did, or 5] creating an actual schism between the historical Buddha and his disciples which at this point is no longer possible;

c) free ofklesha obscurations, i.e. not having such strong kleshas that prevent the possibility of liberation in this life. Of course the Buddha' s first disciples had some slight degree of klesha obscuration but these were so few that they attained liberation almost instantly after hearing the Four noble truths three times or nine times.

Secondly, one must have three ripenings: a] the maturing of one's stream of being [T: rgyud] connected with one ' s

karmic link between past and present; having lesser negativities and a purer stream of being;

b) the maturing of prajf\a or sherap [T: shes-rab], the transcendental intelligence to understand orrealize the true meaning of the four noble truths or emptiness;

c) the maturing of the sense-faculties [T: dbang-po] in a person of highest faculties.

After the first six years, the Buddha introduced an ordination ceremony called 'tachok' [T: da-chog], 'present ceremony' . 'Da' means present and 'chog' means ceremony. In a central place such as Bodhgaya or wherever there is a large monastic sangha, this ordination requires the presence of ten bhik~hus or bhik~hul)is. In outlying regions where there is a small monastic sangha, it requires the presence of five fully-ordained monastics. These five are 1] the abbot, 2] the loppon [T: slob-

dpon), 3] one monk who enquires whetherthe candidate is free of obstacles, whether one is qualified to receive ordination, 4] one monk who measures the time, and 5] one monk who helps the candidate to dress in the robes and shows him how to prostrate. The abbot and the loppan who are present during one's ordination are then looked upon as one's principal teachers. One of the reasons ,why the Buddha introduced the present ordination was because there were old bhik~hus who were sick and who had noone to attend them. He said "You must respect the elders , not justme."Thefirstmonkordained by this type of ceremony wasCharka, Udayin [S], usually called Black Charka, Charka Nagpo, because at one time, when he was accompanying Prince Siddhartha in a big park, he killed a huge poisonous snake which was about to harm the Prince and, in the process, the snake's venom touched his body which turned his skin dark.

The difference between original ordination and present ordination is that in the former, the monk did not have to go through the stage of novice first and then later become a bhik~hu, as in the case of present ordination, but received both together.

After having classified these two types of ordination, the Vinayamlllasillra

goes on to classify the present ordination into five classes: bhik~hu, bhik~hu~I ,

novice men, novice women, and par-rna rabjung [T], a pre-bhik~hu~I stage called sh~hamana in Sanskrit. The novice woman takes the sh~hamana vows for one year between novice and fuU ordination. ii] How to keep the ordination:

This section deals with the precepts, 253 for bhik~hus, and over 300 for bhik~hu~Is, 10 for novices, and those for sh~hamanas. iii] How to mend or repair broken precepts:

This is discussed more fully in later bases. 2] SOJONG: The bi-monthly confession ceremony

The second of the seventeen bases is sojong. There are six different types of sojong which have already been listed. Sojong has two aspects, namely purification of evil deeds and development of virtue. During sojong, two sutras are read by the abbot. The first, Shila sa'!lyukta sUtra, or Highly Praising the Discipline Suo·a. is read to the novices, and by listening to the virtues of keeping the discipline and the non-virtues of breaking the discipline, one's aspiration to keep the vows is strengthened and virtue develops. The second, the Pratinwk~hasutra. or Individual Liberation Surra. is read to the fully ordained monks and nuns. 3] GAGYE: Lifting the restrictions

The third of the seventeen bases is gagye, or lifting the restrictions. On gagye eve teachings are given as has already been described and sometimes sUtras, such as The Wise and F oafish Olles, are read. The following morning, after the teachings, the restrictions of yame are lifted. 4] YARNE: Summer retreat

The fourth of the seventeen bases is yarne, the summer retreat. When the Buddha was staying at ShravastI, many of the monks travelled around during the monsoon season, some losing their lives in floods. Also many insects and small animals were killed by the monks as they walked. Therefore the Hindus complained about Buddhist monks travelling during the summer, and so the Buddha instituted the rule that during the summer, monks and nuns must remain in one place. The numerous rules of how to carry out the ceremonies, what the vows are and so on, are discussed in this fourth topic. For example, if there is a large sangha within one boundary, two separate yame's cannot be held. 5] KO-PAK: Use of leather objects

The fifth basis, called 'ko-pak' [T: ko-Ipags, S: charma], concerns leather, skins, hides. 'Ko' is related with leather, and 'pak' with skin and fur. BasicaUy, the Buddha restricted the use of animal products. Using leather shoes or boots, using animal skins or fur, causes harm to animals. However the Buddha permitted the use of leather shoes in cold regions because otherwise the monks would get sick. Then in central India, a monk called Tro-shin-kye [T] travelled long distances without shoes or sandals and so his feet were blistered, cut and bleeding. The Buddha asked

Ananda why this monk's feet were hurt. Ananda explained that it was because he, the Buddha, had forbidden the use of shoes. And so the Buddha permitted the use of sandals in those regions as well, if necessary. 6] GO: Robes

Number six is called go [T: gos; S: chivaravastu],and concerns robes, the proper size of the chOgo [T: chos-gos], the yellow robe, and the thang-go [T: mthang-gos], the lower robe. This section also mentions special robes needed in certain cases, for example skin disease, to protect the yellow robe and to keep it clean.

The discussion goes on to say that one should not obtain one's robes by perverted or wrong means, of which there are five categories. The first is flattery, praising a person with such words as: "You are a good benefactor and a great support for the sangha", and on the basis of that, wanting to receive benefit particularly for oneself. The second is hinting. An example would be if one has a single set of robes but one wants another set, and says to someone: "Oh, I have only this one robe and it has a hole in it and I don't have money to get a new one." The third is seeking a reward in return for doing someone a favour. The fourth is called contriving, i.e. to plot or contrive, to disparage or slander someone else to please a possible patron. The fifth is pretentious behaviour; perhaps one always walks around sm iling. These five apply not only to obtaining robes but to any kind of livelihood and should be avoided by all practitioners, monastic or lay. 7] SA-KYANG: Rules concerning the production and distribution of robes

Number seven is the 'sa-kyang' [T: sra-brkyang; S: kathina] privileges. 'Ka~hina' traditionally is the time when the robes are given out, when the material for making new robes is blessed. This basis also deals with relaxation of the rules for robes. According to the vinaya, this relaxation is done after gag-ye, before the bhik~hus or bhik~hul)IS go out for a vacation. A yellow robe is taken from a bhik~hu or bhik~hUl~I of pure conduct, placed on a wooden stand and blessed by performing certain pTIjas. The other robes are then blessed with this one robe. One bhik~hu or bhik~hul)I of pure conduct must stay behind with the robes. All the other bhik~hus or bhik~hul)IS can now travel without having to carry every thing- the yellow robe, the begging bowl, and soon. There is alsoa relaxation of the rules for eating. Usually one should not eat after noon, and one should not serve oneself more than twice before getting up from one's seat. With the relaxation of the rules, one can eat certain foods after noon, eat more, and eat outside the sruigha. The relaxations last about three months, between the end of yarne and winter. However this was never practised in Tibet. The Ka~ina privileges or relaxation of the rules was introduced by the Buddha because at one time a group of monks, having finished the summer retreat, started out to visit the Buddha, as was customary. When they arrived and made their prostrations, the Buddha asked them: "Did you have any difficulties during your retreat?" They answered: "No, we had a very good retreat, no problems

with food, but we are very tired because of carrying all these things while we were travelling." The Buddha did not make rules to cause people to suffer, so he lifted that restriction. 8] MEN: Medicine

The eighth basis [T: sman; S: bhai~jya] relates to medicines and medical treatments. According to the vinaya, one is restricted from eating anything chewable after noon. But people who have physical problems may eat food which must, however, be blessed by the abbot. Drinks, such as butter-tea, yoghurt drinks or fruit juices, as well asany medicines which must be used for prolonged periods, must also be blessed by the abbot. 9 & 10] KOSHAMBI & LE: Dispute between two groups of monks in Kausbambi & lawful monastic procedure

Number nine, called 'KosMmbI' or 'City of Flowers' [T: koshambI, S: koshambaka] and number ten called 'Ie' [T: las; S: karma], duties or karma, procedures or activities, both deal with the same topic, administration. If, for example, there is a monk who constantly causes problems in the sangha, or a monk who has problems with the bhi4hul)I sangha, sections nine and ten pertain to the procedures of how to deal with such situations. They also concern ordinations, how to perform the ceremonies, how many monks must be present, and so on. In order to become abbot one must know these two bases by heart. H & 12] MAR-SER-CHEN & GANG-ZAK : Amending vows

Numbers eleven [T: dmar-ser-can; S: pID)4ulohitaka] and twelve [T: gangzak; S: pudgala] deal with repairing or amending broken vows, major and minor vows. As we have already discussed, if one commits one of the four defeats and conceals this for more than a day, one cannot repair the vow, nor can one take the vow again. If, however, one commits one of the defeats and declares it immediately to the abbot, one can retake the vow but restrictions are applied, e.g. one cannot become abbot no matter how learned one is; one cannot lead the bhik~hul)I sangha in any position. If one has broken one of the thirteen remainders, then one's seating position in the row is changed; one has to move to the end of the row, and one has to serve the sangha. 10 the monastic sangha, importance is given to the seating position. If one bhik~hu has taken the vows one minute before another, then he must sit ahead of him. 13 & 14] PO & SO-JONG-ZHAK-PA : Postponing & Behavior during the pari vasa and manatva probationary periods

Numbers thirteen [T: spo-wa; S: po~hadastapana] and fourteen [T: gsosbyong-bzhag-pa; S: parivasika] are related. 'Po' means 'changing' or 'postponing' .If there are four bhik~hus in a sangha and all of them have broken one or another of the remainders, that cannot be purified during sojong. The purification has to be postponed until the next sojong. The bhik~hus have to wait until some pure bhik~hus come to purify, or else they have to go to another monastery. So number thirteen

deals mainly with changing and postponing different actions such as sojong, etc. The fourteenth basis deals with gagye and sojong. 15] Nt-MAL: Monastic residences and vehicles

Number fifteen, ne-mal [T: gnas-mal; S: shayanasana], is about rules for seats [monastery sites and monks' quarters] and vehicles so ,!S not to overload wagons or chariots pulled by horses or oxen and not to cause them to suffer. It discusses the monks' cells. It also concerns the sites on which monasteries can be built. The site must be legal, free from disputes over land ownership. During the time of the Buddha, there were no good exact laws. At one time, Charka, whom we have already mentioned, together with a group of six monks found a fine place for a vihara. So they brought all the materials, stones and so on, and built the monastery in one day. Unfortunately the land belonged to Hindus who came to claim their property. The people were beaten up by Charka and his friends, and they went to the Buddha to complain. The Buddha said "No, you can'tdo that", and decreed that in the future, before starting to build a monastery, the land should be free of dispute, the monasteries should have a good foundation, etc. 16] TSO-PA: Procedures to settle disputes

Number sixteen [T: rtsod-pa; S: ahikaraJ)a] concerns disputes and dissension. In this one, the Buddha dealt mainly with avoiding the causes of dissension rather than discussing dissension itself. The outer cause of dissension deals with relationships with other people and reactions from people, and the inner cause deals with thekleshas. For both causes, the Buddha introduced methods of meditation and practices of patience. 17] GE-DUN-YEN: Schism

The last basis, number seventeen is schism, ge-dun-yen [T: dge-' dun-dbyen; S: sallghabheda]. This has always been a big issue in the vinaya because Devadatta attempted to create a schism between Buddha and the sangha. The main schism is between the Buddha and his followers, and it must occur in the absence of the Buddha because, in the Buddha's presence, people did not have the power to bring about schism.

The whole vinaya structure is contained in these seventeen bases which are covered in GUl)aprabha's VillayamUlasiltra.

Question 1: What is the number required to make up a complete saJlgha, e.g. to do yarne? Rinpoche: Four bhik~hus or four bhik~hul)IS are necessary. You cannot make up the number by having three bhik~hus and one bhik~hul)I and so forth. It is related with the functions. In some cases, five are required and in other cases up to twenty. The latter number is required in cases where a decision is being made about lay

sponsors who have been quarreling with or denigrating the saligha. The Buddha forbade retaliating with harsh words against such people, but recommended that the monks cut off any relationships with them, not going for alms to them or looking for any support from them, turning the begging-bowl upside-down for them.

Question 2: Does the VinayamiUasiitra discuss the schism that occurred at the time of the second council when the different schools broke off from one another? Rinpoche: Actually the Buddha prophesied the eighteen breaks in the hinayana. In one of the sutras it is said that during the time of the third buddha, Kashyapa, a king had a dream in which he saw a roll of cloth at which eighteen people were tugging. Finally the cloth tore into eighteen pieces and each person had a piece. The king had a second dream in which an elephant was trying to getoutof a window . It got its body outside, but its tail got stuck in the window. Then the king had a third dream in which all the people were seeking water and then the water was seeking people. The king was alarmed by his dreams and went to Buddha Kashyapa who said: "Don 'I worry. This is not about our situation but it is a prophecy for the next buddha." So our buddha, the historical Buddha, interpreted these dreams as follows: The roll of cloth pulled into eighteen pieces means that after he died, there would be disputes over his dharma, but everyone would have a piece of buddhadharma in pure form, regardless of its shape. The elephant symbolizes that people in the future would get some kind of freedom from saf!1sara, but they might get stuck in spiritual materialism. The meaning of the third dream is that, at the beginning, people would be thirsty for the dharma, but at a later time, the dharma would be seeking people.

Question 3: How are the seventeen bases presented to Tibetan monks? Rinpoche: The seventeen points are the basic structure of the Buddha' s sutra, the Vinayasiitra, and the basic structure of GUl)aprabha's VinayamiUasiltra. On the practical level, the original sutras are not taught as such because they are too long. Instead, the VinayamiUasiitra is taught, which is much shorter, about 100 folios, but monks who are interested read the original sutras as a research program. Otherwise, even shorter texts, such as the Dom sum, the Three Vows, which covers the vinaya, the bodhisattva and the vajrayana vows, are taught.

Question 4: Concerning the 253 precepts for bhik~hus, how many were emphasized in Tibet? Rinpoche: The ones that are maintained strictly are the four defeats [T: pham-pa] , killing and so on, and the thirteen remainders, [T: Ihag-ma). For bhik~huI)IS, there are eight defeats and sixteen or seventeen remainders. If these four defeats and thirteen remainders are kept purely, then all the other precepts will be kept natura II y pure as well. In regard to drinking, which is not one of these precepts, Buddha did not specifically emphasize drinking in the vinaya, buthe did discourage it in general,

saying that anyone who drinks is not one of his followers . But one must also differentiate, because there are some yogis, such as Birvapa, who drank the beer of eighteen villages and never got drunk. That kind of drinking is different.

Question 5: In Rumtek, what happens if one commits a defeat? Rinpoche: Usually, you have to report to the Abbot,who discusses this with the administrators, and a fine and purification is imposed, such as donating something to the monastery and doing prostrations. Then you have to disrobe, after which you cannot live in the monastic community. According to the vinaya, if you have hidden your defeat, you cannot take back your vows. However, if you have a sense of regret and declare the defeat immediately after you have committed it, then you can take ordination again if you wish, but certain restrictions are imposed on you, e.g. you cannot become abbot or one of the masters. In the vinaya it is said that a bhik~hu can give up his robes and take them back up to six times, but this is obviously not encouraged. If you think you can' t keep the vow, you tell the Abbot who usually advises you three times, gives you three chances, after which you have to give up your robes. For breaking one ofthe four defeats, an analogy is given: Within a small house which has four doors which represent the four defeats, there is ajewel which represents the vow. A thief can enter the house from anyone of the four doors and steal the jewel. The main point is, when your jewel has been stolen, it doesn ' t make any difference through which door the thief came in.

Question 6: At Rumtek, what happens if a monk breaks one of the thirteen remainders? Rinpoche: Usually, according to the vinaya, your place in the hierarchy is changed, for example, if you are sitting at the head of the row, you must move to the last place in the row. And then you must serve the sangha, offering them tea and food and cleaning up after them for a period of time which depends on how long you had hidden your fault. You do not have to disrobe. In many of the Kagyu monasteries in Tibet and in India, you had to do thousands of prostrations in the courtyard which was somewhat embarrassing. But in general, when one breaks vows, the penance consists of offering butter lamps and doing thousands of prostrations. According to the sutras, the best method of purification is meditation on selflessness or the nature of mind, and second I y, the Vajrasattva mantra, offerings and prostrations. If one has problems with the rules, one goes to the Abbot who then usually tells one to do prostrations, because especially with the very young monks, if they are told to meditate, how can one tell what they are doing?

Question 7: In Theravadin countries such as Burma and Thailand temporary ordination is common. Every man takes ordination for a period of a year, six months, or even a weekend. What is the view of the vinaya in regard to temporary ordination?

Rinpoche: The Buddha said that if you can keep the vows purely even for one day, it has great merit, great virtue, and so it would seem that the Buddha approved temporary vows. However this was never done in Tibet or India.

Question 8: Are there instructions in the vinaya about the settling of disputes that arise in the sangha? Rinpoche: Yes. Devadatta, the cousin of the Buddha, tried to create a schism between the Buddha and his followers . He wanted to be Buddha himself. The Buddha said that neutral monks not strongly involved in the dispute should advise both sides in the dispute three times. If the disputants still do not listen, then action should be taken in accord with the vinaya. The punishment imposed for causing schism is expulsion from the sangha. Another form of punishment is to announce to all the benefactors and patrons that the bhik~hu or bhik~hul)j who has caused the schism has been expelled. The result of this is that the sponsors of that particular bhik~hu or bhik~hul)j withhold offerings of food and clothes. Creating a schism is one of the thirteen remainders, not a defeat. At present, an "actual" schism cannot happen, because according to the vinaya, an "actual" schism is only between the Buddha and his followers, but similar schisms, such as two groups parting, can still occur. If one creates a schism between the root teacher and his or her student, that is very close to an "actual" schism.

Question 9: Could you comment on the seeming conflict between independence and freedom and rules and discipline within the monastery? Rinpoche: The original notion of a monastic sangha was different from what it is today because we have permanent places now. At the time of the Buddha, monasteries or viharas were offered by benefactors, but the Buddha said that the monks could live in a given place for a limited period only, maybe a year, and then had to move to another place. This gave the monks some sense of freedom. So any clinging to the development of the given place, thinking "This is mine, I have to develop this monastery," was undercut. Also, in the traditional viharas in India , the schedules were very simple, emphasizing meditation and study. For the study programs, the seniors who were learned in the sTItras gave courses to the juniors. The whole saJlgha had to agree on which classes were to be given, in order to cut any group conflicts about who could attend which classes. And of course the monks had to spend time collecting alms. So today's picture of a monastic sangha is somewhat different from the original sangha.

Question 10: I have a picture of a monastery as an ideal society and of monks following an existential quest for freedom from the kleshas, etc. How can we avoid being sucked into "institutionalism"? Rinpoche: The original monasteries had a democratic spirit. For example, when

they needed a head of the kitchen, first the seniors, i.e. the abbot or abbots, the disciplinarian, geko [T], and the elders discussed it, then the gaJ)q.i was struck, the sangha assembled and the announcement was made: "We believe that so-and-so would be good as head of kitchen. " Then if he himself and the majority of the sangha agreed, so-and-so was selected as head of kitchen. However, for positions such as abbot or teacher, the candidate must have certain qualifications. The abbot must be someone who is fully ordained and who has kept the vows purely for the past ten years, which means not having broken the four defeats and the thirteen remainders. He must know the vinaya very well and know how to take action in accord with the vinaya. If more than one person has these qualifications, then the sangha has to pick one by agreement. Actually the Buddha said that only the fully ordained monks have the right to vote. So it's democratic, and at the same time has a socialist spirit in that individual sangha members are not allowed to own any capital, money or investments. Sort of social-democratic.

"Wait! Wait! Listen to me!. .. We don't have to be just sheep!"

THE TREATISE ENTITLED:

"A TEACHING ON THE ESSENCE OF THE TATHAGATAS

(THE TATHAGATAGARBHA)ltf

by the Third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje2

I pay homage to all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.

"Though beginningless, it has an end. It is pure by nature, and has the quality of permanence. It is unseen, because it is obscured by a beginningless covering. Like, for example, a golden statue that has been obscured."

That was taught [by the Buddhap.

"The element' of beginningless time Is the location of all phenomena. Due to its existence, there are all beings, And also, the attainment of Nirvana."

[That was taught by the Buddhap. "All beings are Buddhas, But obscured by incidental stains. When those have been removed, there is Buddhahood.

That is a quotation from a Tantra6•

The "element" has no creator, But is given this name, because it retains its own characteristics?

"Beginning less" means that There is nothing previous to it. The "time" is that very instant, It hasn't come from somewhere else.

"Phenomena" are explained to be Saf!1sara and Nirval)a appearing as a duality. This is named "the ground of the latencies of ignorance". The movement of mental events: correct thoughts

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And incorrect thoughts, are the cause of that arising [of Saf!1sara and Nirval)a]. The condition for their causes is taught to be the Maya (the universal ground)8.

"The location" is the Buddha-nature9

Incorrect conceptualisation is completely located within the mind's purity. This purity that exists in that way, Exists, but is not seen due to ignorant conceptualisation. Therefore, there is Saf!1sara.

If they are dispelled, there is Nirval)a, Which is termed "the end".

"Beginning" and "end" are dependent upon conceptualisation, Mental events that are like winds, That cause karma I 0 and kleshasll to arise. The [karma and kleshas] manifest the skandhasl 2, dhatus l 3

Ayatanasl4 and all the phenomena of dualistic appearances. Someone who strives for and discards these [appearances] is deluded. What can be negated through rejecting your own projections? What can be gained by acquiring your own projections? Isn ' t this belief in duality a fraud?

Though this understanding is taught as a remedy, The understanding of non-duality is not truth . It is the conception of non-conceptuality. The understanding of emptiness gained through breaking down forms , and so on, Isn ' t it itself a delusion?15 But it's taught so that attachment to things as real will cease.

There isn ' t anything that is either real or false. The wise have said that everything is like the moon's reflection on water. The "ordinary mind"16 is called The Dharmadhatu l 7 and the Buddha-natureI8.

The enlightened cannot improve it. Unenlightened beings cannot corrupt it. It is described by many names But its meaning cannot be known through verbal expression.

Its unceasing manifestation [Is taught] to have sixty-four qualities, Though that is Uust] a simplified description. It is said that each of the sixty-four has millions [of qualities] .

There are the ten strengths: (1) The knowledge of appropriate and inappropriate actions; (2) The knowledge of the ripening of karma, (3) of natures, (4) Aptitudes and (5) aspirations; (6) The knowledge of the destinations of all paths, (7) [the possession] of dhyanal 9

(8) Divine sight, (9) the memory of previous lives, and (10) peace. Due to those [ten strengths], there are the four fearlessnesses: (1) Teaching that one abides in enlightenment, within all phenomena, (2) Teaching the path, (3) teaching cessation, and (4) being beyond dispute2o .

Due to those causes there are these eighteen [distinct qualitiesFI: (1) No error, (2) no empty chatter, (3) no forgetfulness ,

(4) Continuous meditation, (5) the absence of a variety of identifica-tions22, (6) the absence of an undiscriminating neutrality,

(7) The possession of an undeteriorating aspiration, (8) Diligence, (9) mindfulness23, (10) samadhi24, (11) praji'i~5 ,

(12) The wisdom26 that sees complete liberation, (13-15) Every action being preceded by wisdom27

,

And (16-18) time being unable to obscure. If those thirty-two [qualities] are possessed, there is the Dharmakaya29

•

In our present [state], we deny the [presence of the Buddha-nature and] these qualities. There is no understanding of it as it is. The non-existent "fabrications"3o are conceived of as existent. The thoughts that arise due to that, are " the dependent"3 1. The "completely true"32 is not known. Thus we create our own torment. Oh! Understanding these qualities of the Dharmakaya

To be true, is the knowledge of truth, But in their present state, beings with meagre ability Reject the knowledge of truth and fabricate untruth, Which is adopted by the agitation that follows it.

Through knowing [the Buddha-nature] as it is, One obtains its powers. There is nothing whatever to be removed. There isn't the slightest thing that needs to be added. The truth is truly seen. If the truth is seen, there is complete liberation. The "element" is devoid of the incidental impurities, Which have the characteristic of being separate. It is not devoid of the un surpassable qualities, Which have the characteristic of inseparability.

In [the Buddha-nature] are the qualities of the two Form Kayas33:

The thirty-two major and [eighty] secondary signs.

Those qualities that are attained are one's own body. The body is not created by self, Phywa34, Shiva35,

Brahma, external real particles, Or by elements beyond experience36.

When the impure development as the five senses,

When the [duality] of perceiver and perceived Is purified, the name "attainment" is given.

Therefore, the purified nams3?,

Vayus38, and bindus39 are the pure Form Kayas. The unpurified are the impure Form Kayas.

For example, the qualities of an encrusted Beryl40 are not evident. When it is cleaned with yak-hair cloth41 and salty water, And cleaned with vinegar and woolen cloth, And cleaned with pure water and Benares cotton, Purified, it becomes the jewel that fulfills all needs and desires.

In the same way, for the purpose of clearing away The three encrustations of kleshas, knowledge and meditation42

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From the aquamarine of the mind, There is their total cessation through the paths of accumulation and juncture, The seven impure bhTImis43 and the three pure bhumis.

When incorrect conceptualisation Encounters correct conceptualisation, Just as both [kindling]-sticks are burned by the fire, there is freedom from [both] conceptualisations. There is the freedom from the concepts of elimination, Remedies, such ness and the idea of a result.

At that time, the flowers of the physical signs blossom In the one who has the body of space. The three phases of impurity, both purity and impurity, And of complete purity, are respectively: [The phases] of beings, Bodhisattvas And the Tathagatas. Though this is what is said, Buddhahood is not newly created. As it was before, it is the same after. It is the changeless Buddha-nature. The "change" is becoming free of the stains.

If someone has the negative view That the Buddha qualities have no cause, Or conceive them not to be within oneself, But created by external causes and conditions, What difference is there between that and the eternalist and nihilist views of non-Buddhists?

The apparent momentary birth and cessation of the "mental events"44 [of Buddhas] Correspond to the impure mental events [ofbeingsl If [the "mental events" of the Buddhas] were not like that, The activity of the form Kayas would cease. However, they are not given the name "mental events", But [the name] "discriminating wisdom".

The nature of the material elements Is [either] accompanied by clinging [or] their powerful essence is manifested.

There is no difference whatsoever in appearances To the deluded and the undeluded.

Page 25

The [only] difference is the presence or absence of clinging to dualism. If that was not so, How could the Buddhas apply their activity?

The examples of the wish-fulfilling jewel and so on, Are explained to represent the manifestation of non-conceptual power. However, this does not exist solely within the beings of others. If that were so, it would be the wisdom of other beings. And if that were so, then wisdom would be delusion.

If one states that [wisdom] has attachment for its own appearances, Then a mirror that has appearances within it Would [also] have thoughts of attachment.

All the delusions that beings have, Appear to [a Buddha's] wisdom. The wisdom is, however, unstained by the delusions. For example, though the material elements Appear to originate and cease within space, Space is unstained, is without any origin or cessation.

In that same way, though the wisdom of the Buddhas Enters beings, it is not stained. It is not given the name "delusion". It is called "[the wisdom ot] the accomplishment of action."

The mind that has the absence of the three obscurations, Is "[the wisdom ot] equality," and it is "peace". Due to having love and great compassion [for beings] The Sarrbhoga[kaya], etc., appears to them. This is stated in order to refute those who say That the attainment of Buddhahood is the same as the llinayana [attainment].

Wisdom is the three permanences: Permanence of nature is the Dharmakaya, Permanence of continuity is the Sarrbhogakaya, Uninterruptedness is the NirmID)akaya.

There are three impermanences: Mentally fabricated emptiness is impermanent. The mind of moving thoughts is impermanent. The composite six consciousnesses are impermanent.

However, the three permanences are present. The three impermanences are stains, The three permanences are wisdom.

This is not the same as the luthika4S "self', Because that is a mental fabrication and [Buddha-nature] is not.

This is not the same as the NirvID)a of the Shravakas46 and Pratyekabuddhas47

Because [in that] all the qualities of the Form Kayas are not manifested. This is not the same as the body of an [ordinary] being, Because it is not created due to the defilements.

It will not change back to the previous state, Because it has manifested exactly as it is.

There will never [again] be the appearance of the stains. Because there is freedom from differentiating conceptualisation.

Therefore, the mind, this Buddha, Is present now, but is not known.

[From the SUtralailkara48]:

"When there is realisation, at that time, Just as when the heat of metal ceases, And conjunctivitis in the eyes ceases, Because Buddhahood [has occured], one can't say that Mind and wisdom either exist or don't exist".

[From the Mahayanavimshika49]:

"Because in the pristine meaning there is no birth, There is also no liberation there. Buddhahood is like space. It has the same qualities as beings.

As "this side" and "the opposite side" are birthless, The composite are truly empty. This is the experience of omniscient wisdom".

[From the Uttaratantra50]:

"It is subtle, so it is not the object of learning. It is ultimate, so it is not the object of contemplation. The dharmata is profound, so it is not the object of Mundane meditation, and so on."

This experience of wisdom that knows itself, This ultimate, arises through trust in self-origination. Oh! Because they do not understand this, The children wander in the ocean of SaTJ1sara!

Through the power of great ShaIcyamuni, Of ManjushrI, Maitreya and Avalokiteshvara, This was written by Rangjung Dorje.

Mayall beings have unmistaken knowledge And full attainment of the Buddha-nature!

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This completes the definitive presentation of the Buddha Nature, which is the essence of the vajrayana.

SHUBHAM!

[Auspiciousness!]

Translated by Peter Roberts, at Sonada Monastery near Darjeeling, in June 1990, from a five-folio xylograph printed at Rumtek Monastery, Sikkim. Revised and corrected somewhat in December 1991, Oxford.

Verse divisions and translation are based on Jamgon Kongtrul's [1813-1899] commentary to this text, a forty-one folio xylograph made at Rumtek Monastery, Sikkim, entitled " An Illumination of the Thoughts of Rangjung Dorje: A Commentary to "The Treatise that Teaches the Buddha Nature". 1 Sanskrit: tathagata-garbha. Tibetan: de-bzhin gshegs-pa'i snying-po. The Sanskrit means " the womb ["garbha" from the root word grabh: to conceive, which in

pure Sanskritcan also mean "the interior" and "embryo or foetus"] of the Tathagatas, i.e., the place from which they are born. Tathagata is comprised first of the syllable tatha, which is synonymous with yatha, and means "in that manner, in that way, so, thus, etc." The second half of the word has been interpreted to be both gata ("gone") and agata ("come"), as the same result comes from the combination of tatha with either word. While the Sanskrit can mean "to be in such [a state or condition], in Buddhism it means "One who has come and/or gone like [the previous Buddhas)", i.e., a Buddha. The Chinese translation of this term "ru-lai", followed the interpretation "One Come in That Way", while the Tibetan "de-bzhin-gshegs-pa" followed "One gone in that way". The word "garbha" was translated into Tibetan as snying -po, which means "essence", so that the Tibetan term literally means "The essence of the Tathagatas", instead of ''The womb ofthe Tathagatas". The standard English translation of either the Sanskrit or Tibetan is "Buddha-nature". 2 Born 1284. Died in the capital of China in 1334. 3 There is perhaps some textual corruption here, as Jamgon Kongtrul treats this first quotation and the following verse as one unit that he says is from the MahayanaAbhidharma SUtra. Jamgon Kongtrul ascribes both quotations to the lost MahayanaAbhidharma SUtra (see note 5). However, this first quotation does not appear to be from that sUtra. Different sUtras are written in different kinds of Sanskrit. All surviving Mahayana-Abhidharma SUtra quotations are in pure Sanskrit, while this first quotation is in hybrid Sanskrit and also in a different metre from the surviving Mahayana-Abhidharma quotations. Prof. J . Takasaki, my informant on this point, says that the provenance of this quotation has yet to be identified. 4 dhatu. Tibetan: khams. This is a term frequently used for the Buddha-nature in the sUtras. 5 There may be a textual omission here. I have made this addition in order to distinguish between the preceding verse and the following verse from the Hevajra Tantra, as otherwise they appear to be a single quotation. AsJamgon Kongtrul treats this verse and the preceding quotation as one unit in his commentary, ascribing the verses to the Mahayana-Abhidharma SUtra (see note 3), it could lead one to assume that the "zhes gsungs so" "Thus the Buddha taught" has been misplaced, in the blockprint Rumtek edition of the text, from the point where it would have distinguished the sUtra quotations from the Hevajra quotation. However, the two sUtra quotations are distinct quotes even though Jamgon Kongtrul does not treat them as being such, so it may be that an omission rather than a misplacement has occurred. The two sUtra quotations occur separately in the Mahayanaottaratantrashastra-vyakhya [theg -pargyud-bla-ma' i bstain-bcos mam-par-bshad-pa] by Asanga (Tengyur text 4025. Volume Phi pp. 74-128). It is the sixth text in the CiUamatra section and is listed as Asanga's commentary to Maitreyanatha's Uttaratantra, the principal text on the Buddha-nature [text no. 4024]. Asanga's commentary, which itself includes the Maitreya text has been translated

by Prof. J. Takasaki as "A Study on the Ratnagotravibhaga", ascribed in accordance with the Chinese tradition to Saramati. The title Ratnagotravibhaga has been used for the Uttaratantra, because the title in surviving Sanskrit manuscripts, even those found ih Tibet, is Ratnagotravibhaga-Mahayanaottaratantra-shastra. The first quotation occurs in the Tibetan text on page 21 b [42 of Phi volume] line 4. The second. quotation is on page 39 b [76] line 6 - 7. The sources for the quotations are not given in this text, but in Asanga's Mahayanasllf!lgraha [Tengyur Text. no 4048. Vol. Ri, 1 b -43 a] the second quotation is one of a number of verses that are specified as coming from the Mahayana-Abhidharma Sutra. Although this was one of the principal Tathagatagarbha sutras, of which there were about half a dozen, and although Asanga wrote in the fourth century and the Chinese translations of Tathagatagarbha sutras commenced in the early fifth century, the MahayanaAbhidharma Sutra was not translated into Chinese. No new quotations appear in any text later than the Mahayanasaf)1graha, and the sutra was not amongst those translated from the 8th century onwards into Tibetan. No Sanskrit manuscript of this sutra has ever been found. In other words, it is a lost sutra, with only some of its verses surviving as quotations in other texts. A compilation of these verses has been published in Japan. 6 This quotation is from the Hevajra Tantra. Kangyur Tantra section. Derge Edition Text 417. Volume Nga. Pages 1-13. It has been translated by David Snellgrove. Oxford University Press, 1959. The Sanskrit and Tibetan are in Volume One and the English translation in Volume Two. 7 Rangjung Dorje is here explaining the words of the quotation from the MahayanaAbhidharma Sutra, in the order that they appear in the quotation itself. As the syntax of Tibetan differs to English, the order of the words in the translation of the quotation differ from the order of the words in the original Tibetan. Therefore, for the purpose of clarity, the order of some of the lines in the text have been rearranged so that the sequence of the explanation of the words will match the sequence of the words in the quotation. S Sanskrit: alaya. Tibetan: kun-gzhi. In true Sanskrit alaya means "home" "house" or "abode" as in Himalaya: "the abode of snow". It is from the root-word ali : to come close to, or to settle in. In Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, while it can mean a habitation, this term also has the meaning of "a fundamental or ever-enduring basis". The Sanskrit word therefore can also have the negative meaning of "attachment". The Tibetan has translated the "basis" meaning ofalaya, with the words kun-gzhi, which mean " the basis, ground or foundation [of] everything". 9 Here the Tibetan is rgyal-ba' i snying -po: "The Essence of the Jinas (the Victorious Ones), which is synonymous with de-gshegs-snyingpo: Tathagatagarbha, but does not appear to have a direct Sanskrit equivalent, which would have been j inagarbha. 10 Sanskrit: karman: literally means "action", though in other contexts it can also mean "duty" and "rite". The Tibetan translation is "las" meaning "action".

II Sanskrit: klesha. Tibetan: nyon-mongs-pa. The Sanskrit means "pain, affliction and distress". The Buddhist Sanskrit also means "impurity and defilement". The Tibetan word means "physical or mental misery, distress and misfortune". As a standard term it refers to various lists of ignorance, anger, envy, pride, craving, etc. 12 ''The [psycho-physical] aggregates". Sanskrit: skandha. Tibetan: phung-po. In general Sanskrit this has many meanings including: multitude, troop, aggregation, part, division, section, chapter, etc. In Buddhism it refers to the five principal mental and physical constituents of a being: form, sensation, recognition, mental events and consciousnesses. The Tibetan word literally means a 'heap' but has the meaning of aggregation. 13 "The elements [of sensory perception)". Sanskrit: dhatu. Tibetan: khams. The Sanskrit means "element" or "basic constituent" and is so translated into Tibetan. There are eighteen: the six sense faculties, the six sense objects and the six sense consciousnesses. 14 "The Bases [of sensory perception)". Sanskrit: ayatanas. Tibetan: skye-mched. The Sanskrit means "seat", "abiding-place", "resting-place", "home", "support" "abode", etc. and is etymologically closely related to "alaya". In a Buddhistcontext, the sites, abodes or supports of sensory experience are the six sense faculties (the sixth is the mental faculty) and their six objects. The Tibetan term is not a literal translation, but is made up of the two syllables "birth" and "increase" in reference to sensory experience. I~ The Tibetan in this line actually addresses the realisation directly using the pronoun "you": Aren't you yourself a delusion? 16 Tibetan: tha-mal gyi shes-pa. "tarnal gi shepa". A Tibetan term from the mahamUdra tradition for the enlightened mind. 17 "The Realm of Dharma". Sanskrit: dharmadhatu; Tibetan: chos-kyi-dbyings. The Sanskrit can be interpreted as "the realm of existents/phenomena" or "the realm of the Truth or the Buddha's Teachings", although dhatu can also mean element, as used earlier in the text. The Tibetan translation follows the meaning "realm" with dbyings, which can also mean expanse or space. 18 "Essence of the Victorious Ones", as described in an earlier note. 19 Meditation, a stable meditative state. Sanskrit: dhyana. Tibetan: bsam-gtan. The Sanskrit is the general word for meditation, both in its deepest sense and as contemplation. The Tibetan translation has the more specific meaning of "stabilised thought", emphasising an undistracted state of mind. 20The four fearlessnesses are: 1) "sarva-dharmabhisal!1bodhi-vaisharadyam", chos thams-cad mngon-par rdzogs-par byang-chub-pa la mi-'jigs-pa. Alternatively, chos thams-cad mkhyen-pa la mi-'jigs-pa. According to Jamgon Kongtrul's commentary here, this means enlightenment withill "the expanse of phenomena or dharmas", the dharmadhatu, though this can also be interpreted as the fearlessness of complete enlightenment ill relation to all dharmas, or the knowledge of all

dharmas. 2) "sarvasrava-~haya-jmina-vaisharadyam . Zag-pa thams-cad zad-par mkhyen-pa la mi-'jigs-pa. The Buddhist Sanskrit means the fearlessness of the knowledge of the exhaustion or cessation of all evil or misery, anything negative, [within oneself]. 3) antarayika-dharmananyathatva-nishcitta-vyakaranavaisharadyam. Bar-du gcod-pa'i chos-rnams gzhan-du mi-'gyur-bar nges-pa'i lung-bstan-pa la mi-"jigs-pa. The fearlessness of the changeless certain pronouncement to others of what is an obstacle. 4) sarva-saI!1pad-adhigamayanairyanikaratipat-tathatva-vaisharadyam . .'Gyur-bar nges-par 'byung-ba'i lam de-bzhin-du 'gyur-ba la mi- 'jigs-pa. The fearlessness of the definite results from the path. 21 These are traditionally in three groups of six qualities. The first six are qualities of behaviour; the second six are qualities of realisation; the last six are qualities of activity. 22 This "variety of identifications" is particularly in reference to the extremes of saf!1sara and nirval)a, acquisition and rejection. 23 Sanskrit: sm[li. Tibetan: dran-pa. The Sanskrit can have the meanings of remem bering, keeping in mind, and can be used to mean mindfulness. The Buddhist use of the word has the extra specific meaning of mindfulness, a state of awareness. The Tibetan also has the primary meaning of memory, of keeping something in mind, and can be used to mean mindfulness. 24 "meditative absorption". Sanskrit samadhi. Tibetan: ting-nge-' dzin. The "sam" part of samadhi. means "together with", or "altogether". The verb samadha means "to hold, fix or put together". Samadhi, therefore, has the primary meaning of joining or combining, and union of different parts, and thus also a state of agreement or harmony. The word is thus also used for a deep state of meditation. The Tibetan word is defined by Tibetans as meaning literally "truly-held", meaning a one-pointed state of meditation. 2S Sanskrit prajna. Tibetan: shes-rab. The Sanskrit word is composed of pra, which can mean "forward", "directed onward", or "great", and jna, which means "to know", "understand" and "experience". As a verb it means to know, understand or discern. As an adjective, it means wise or knowledgable. As a noun, as in this case, understanding, wisdom, knowledge, or discernment. In Buddhism it can also mean spiritual wisdom. The Tibetan is made up of the two words, "knowledge" and "best". The word prajna is often used interchangeably or as synonymous with jnana, which has in this text been translated as wisdom. 26 Sanskrit: jnana. Tibetan: ye-shes. The Sanskrit is the noun from the verb jna, to know, and therefore means knowledge, either general or spiritual. The Tibetan translation, while being generally "shes-pa", in the case of the knowledge of a Buddha, has added the syllable "ye", which means primordial, thus literally meaning "primordial knowledge". The word is often used interchangeably with prajna, and therefore there is no truly definite translation into English as either knowledge or wisdom.

27 This is three distinct qualities as the activity of body, speech and mind are being listed. 28 This is three distinct qualities as it refers to the Buddha's wisdom being unobscured by the past, present or future. 29 Sanskrit: dharmakaya. Tibetan: chos-kyi-sku. Originally a term to distinguish the presence of the Buddha's teachings "the Dharma-body" from the rupakaya "the form body" of the Buddha. It has also the meaning of a Buddha's body that embodies the Dharma teachings. In Mahayana, while the word still retains the metaphor for body, it usually means the aspect of Buddhahood that can only be seen by a Buddha, that is, Buddhahood itself, while other beings see actual bodies, the rupakayas. 30 Tibetan: kun-brtags. Sanskrit: parikalpitam. Parikalpa is a term not found in Sanskrit itself, only in Buddhist hybrid. It means assumption, hypothesis or figment of the imagination. Kalpita means fabricated, artifical and assumed. The Tibetan means "totally affixed or imputed". It is the first of three terms from the Cittamatrin "Mind-Only" school, that occur in this verse. 3 1 Tibetan: gzhan-dbang. Sanskrit: paratantra. "Dependent", opposite to svatantra " independent". Tibetan is literally: "other-power". The second of the three Cittamatrin terms. 32 parini~hpanna. Tibetan: yongs-su grub-pa. The Sanskrit literally means "completely perfected", and occurs only rarely in actual Sanskrit, being primarily a Buddhist hybrid term. The third of the terms from the Cittamatrin school which refers to the absolute truth. The Tibetan means " totally established". 33 The two Form-kayas are: 1) The Saf!1bhogakaya "Body of Enjoyment": immaterial forms of Buddhas, etc. , only perceived by Bodhisattvas. Saf!1bhoga is from saf!1 "complete" or "perfect" ,and bhoga "enjoyment" or "pleasure". 2) The Nirmal)akaya "emanation-body", a physical presence of the Buddha in the world that can be perceived by ordinary beings. NirmID)a means "creation" or "manifestation", derived from nirma meaning "to produce" or "create" . 34 Pronounced "Cha" . He is the principal deity of the Tibetan Bon tradition. 3S In the text he is mentioned as IShvara [Tib: dbang-phyug] , which is one of shiva ' s most commonly used names. shiva itself is "rtag-zhi" (permanent Peace) in Tibetan. 36 phag-na-mo. A term from the Hinayana Sautrantika school , that did not believe in the existence of atoms as an ultimate truth, but of some external substances that while themselves could not be perceived were responsible for our perceptions. 37 "Channels". Tibetan: rtsa. Sanskrit: nadI from nada = nala "a hollow stalk". It can mean any pipe, tube, hollow stalk, etc., as well as the veins and arteries of the body. Here it specifically refers to immaterial channels within the body, which are the pathways of the vayus. 38 "airs" or "winds" . Sanskrit: vayu. Tibetan: rlung. The Sanskrit is the name for one of the four basic elements, air, as well as for the external winds. It is also the

name of the godof the winds in Indian mythology. This same word, however, means the breath, and the "vital airs" within the body that are responsible for primary physical functions, in both Hinduism and Buddhism. Here these "airs" are seen as also being interrelated to the state of the mind and the path to enlightenment. The Tibetan is rlung, which can also mean air, wind, breath and the vital airs. 39 Bindu: "globules, drops, quintessences". Sanskrit: bindu. Tibetan: thig-Ie. The Sanskrit can mean globule, dot, spot, etc. In this context the word refers to various immaterial, quintessential concentrations of vitality or energy within the body. 40 Sanskrit: vaidurya. The Tibetan being a transliteration of the Sanskrit into Tibetan letters. Some controversy centres on the meaning of this word. In its Tibetan use, it clearly refers to beryl, as evidenced by Tibetan materia-medica texts. When not qualified by another colour, the beryl is assumed to be blue. A blue-green beryl is known in English as an aquamarine, while the green form is an emerald, which has its own distinct Sanskrit and Tibetan name. Lapis lazuli, the alternative identification of vaidurya, is clearly mu-men in Tibetan. Other kinds of beryl such as the yellow, or the white (colourless) are specified in Tibetan, as in "the garland of white beryls", white lapis-lazuli as a translation being obviously absurd. Sanskrit dictionaries are not conclusive, sometimes giving lapis or cat's-eye as the meaning. Vaidurya means "that from far away" and was probably, like so many other Sanskrit words, used for different things. Therefore, in some Sanskrit texts it could possibly mean lapis-lazuli, though this appears to be unlikely in the context ofthe Medicine Buddha, "The King of Vaidurya-Light", as it is beryl which is translucent and can emit coloured light. The confusion has not been helped by the tendency of Tibetan artists to paint any blue deity, for aesthetic reasons, several shades darker than described in the sadhana texts, so that the colour of a painted Medicine Buddha, for example, may sometimes resemble the very dark blue of lapis. 4 1 The meaning here is a very rough cloth. This is a Tibetan adaptation of an Indian simile. 4 2 While the kleShas themselves form the "encrustation" or obscuration, the names of the latter two subtler obscurations refer to what is obscured. 43 "Stages or levels of enlightenment" from the first level of a Bodhisattva to the level of Buddhahood. The first seven of the eight Bodhisattva levels are termed "impure" and the latter three "pure". The Sanskrit word bhumi and the Tibetan "sa", literally and commonly, mean earth, soil or ground. The Sanskrit can also have the meanings of district, place, situation, site, the floor of a house, etc., and thus also a degree or stage of spiritual practice. 44 "mental events". Sanskrit: sarrskara. Tibetan: du-byed. The Sanskrit word is from "sarr" completely, and "kara" to create or make, therefore meaning to make something perfectly, to put something together completely, and can also mean accomplish, adorn, cleanse, train, educate, etc. The specific meaning that this term has in Buddhism, in terms of the twelve sequences of interdependent origination,

existences. In tenns of the five skandhas, or aggregates, as here, it means all the thoughts and feelings created in the mind. 4S Tibetan: mu-stegs-pa, which preserves the etymology of "someone who has reached the other shore", but tends to be interpreted as "one who follows a marginal [spiritual path]". This Hybrid Buddhist tenn is in fact derived from the Jain title Urthangkara, which means "a forder" or "ford-maker": one who has crossed over to liberation. The corrupted version of this title was used by Buddhists for all nonBuddhist paths in India, which in later times were primarily Jainism and "Hindu" religions. There is in fact no word for Hinduism in the Buddhist vocabulary as it is a recent British tenn, which has only gained usage within India itself in the twentieth century. 46 Sanskrit: Shravaka. Tibetan: nyan-thos. The Sanskrit word is from the root-word "shrav" meaning "hear". The word shravaka can therefore mean "audible" or "the act of listening", but in the Buddhist context means a pupil or disciple, in particular the Buddha's own personal disciples. In early Buddhism, one of the ways to achieve nirvlU)a was as a Shravaka, or disciple of a Buddha, that is without the long process of accumulating the merit in order to become a Buddha oneself. The other two ways of achieving nirvaI)a were as a Pratyekabuddha, (see next note) or as a Buddha following lifetimes as a Bodhisattva. With the rise of the Mahayana, which practiced exclusively in order to attain the third of those goals, the first two approaches became the symbol of the lesser attainment of an acquiescent, inactive nirval)a. 47 Skt: pratyekabuddha. Tibetan: rang-sangs-rgyas or rang-rgyal. Pratyeka means "single", "individual" or "personal". A Pratyekabuddha was one of the three possible ways of achieving nirval)a as seen in early Buddhism (see previous note). A Pratyekabuddha, like a Buddha, would achieve enlightenment on his own, due to his previous accumulation of merit, though there would not be enough merit for his teaching others, hence a single or individual Buddha, who remains alone in the forest, and so is often tenned "Solitary Buddha" in En~lish. It is a disputed point in both Indian and Tibetan Buddhism as to whether the Shravakas and the Pratyekabuddhas have the same realisation as a Buddha. The view of, in India, the Svatantrika school, and in Tibet, the Kagyupa school, is that they do not have the same realisation, whereas the Prasal)gika and Gelugpa school say they do. Nevertheless, for all Mahayana traditions, they are a symbol of a lesser accomplishment from which there is little benefit for other beings. 48 Mahayana-sutra-Iailkara. "An Adornment for the Mahayana Sutras" by Maitreyanatha. In the Derge Tengyur, the collection of Tibetan translations of texts by Buddhist masters, it is text no. 4020, pages 1-39 in Volume Phi. It is the first text in the Ciuamatrin or "Mind-Only" school section. 49 "Twenty Lines on the Mahayana" By Nagarjuna. Tibetan title: theg-pa chen-po nyi-shu-pa. Two translations of this are in the Derge Kangyur: 3833. Madhyamaka

nyi-shu-pa. Two translations ofthis are in the Derge Kangyur: 3833. MMhyamaka [Middle-way] section. Volume Tsa. pages 137b-138a. Translated by Candrakumara and Shakya-'od. (Shakya 0). The other is text no. 4551 in the collection of "Atisha's Teachings, translated by Ananda and grags-'byor shes-rab (Drajor Sherab). It has been translated into English by Vidhushekhara Bhattacharya in the Visva Bharati Quarterly in 1931, and by Giuseppi Tucci in "Minor Buddhist Texts" Part One, pages 147-161, Serie Orientale Roma. so Mahayanaottaratantra-shastra. "The Treatise on the Supreme Continuum", i.e., the Buddha-nature, by Maitreyanatha. In the Chinese canon it is attributed to Saramati. Derge Tengyur Text no. 4024 Volume Phi, pages 54-73. The fifth text in the Cittamatrin, the Mind-Only school section. There is a 1930 translation by E. Obermiller in Acta Orientalia 9, which is called "The Sublime Science of the Great Vehicle to Salvation". Jikido Takasaki translated Asanga's commentary (also ascribed to Saramati in the Chinese tradition), which contains the Uttaratantra itself, as" A Study on the Ratnagotravibhaga", 1966. A recent translation, under the guidance of Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, is by Katia Holmes, entitled "The Changeless Nature", published by Kagyu Samye Ling.

'Ln J"tel1'WTfj of IUs lloUness DiCqo Xhfjentse 1H.npoche

Looking again and again at the mind that cannot be lookeel at , One sees clearly just as it is the tr-uth of not seeing . Resolving any doubt as to whether- it is or- is not,

nay we r-ecognize our- unconfused natur-e by our-selves.

'Ln ],'LernonJ of His £minence PaCden Pawo Rinpoche

Both appearance is mind and emptiness is mind. Both realization is mind and confusion is mind.

Both birth is minei and cessation is mind. nay aU doubts about mind be resolved.

Xarmapa 1?anl)junl) Dorje

Page 37

OPEN DIALOGUE

THE IMPACT OF SCIENCE ON MYTH

by Joseph Campbell

I was sitting the other day at a lunch counter that I particularly enjoy, when a youngster about twelve years old, arriving with his school satchel, took the place at my left. Beside him came a younger little man, holding the hand of his mother, and those two took the next seats. All gave their orders, and , while waiting, the boy at my side said, turning his head slightly to the mother, "Jimmy wrote a paper today on the evolution of man, and Teacher said he was wrong, that Adam and Eve were our first parents."

My Lord! I thought. What a teacher! The lady three seats away then said, "Well, Teacher was right. Our first

parents were Adam and Eve." What a mother for a twentieth-century child! The youngsterresponded, "Yes, I know, but this was a scientijicpaper." And

for that, I was ready to recommend him for a distinguished-service medal from the Smithsonian Institution.

The mother, however, came back with another. "Oh, those scientists!" she said angrily. "Those are only theories."

And he was up to that one too. "Yes, I know," was his cool and calm reply; "but they have been factualized: they found the bones."

The milk and the sandwiches came, and that was that. So let us now reflect for a moment on the sanctified cosmic image that has

been destroyed by the facts and findings of irrepressible young truth-seekers of this kind.

At the height of the Middle Ages, say in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, there were current two very different concepts of the earth. The more popular was of the earth as flat, like a dish surrounded by, and floating upon, a boundless cosmic sea, in which there were all kinds of monsters dangerous to man. This was an infinitely old notion, going back to the early Bronze Age. It appears in Sumerian cuneiform texts of about 2000 B.C. and is the image authorized in the Bible.

The more seriously considered medieval concept, however, was that of the ancient Greeks, according to whom the earth was not flat, but a solid stationary sphere in the center of a kind of Chinese box of seven transparent revolving spheres,

From MYTHS TO LIVE BY by Joseph Campbell. Copyright 1972 by Joseph Campbell. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc.

in each of which there was a visible planet: the moon, Mercury, Venus, and the sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, the same seven after which our days of the week are named. The sounding tones of these seven, moreover, made a music, the "music of the spheres," to which the notes of our diatonic scale correspond. There was also a metal associated with each: silver, mercury, copper, gold, iron, tin ,-.and lead, in that order. And the soul descending from heaven to be born on earth picked up, as it came down, the qualities of those metals; so that our souls and bodies are compounds of the very elements of the universe and sing, so to say, the same song.

Music and the arts, according to this early view, were to put us in mind of those harmonies, from which the general thoughts and affairs of this earth distract us. And in the Middle Ages the seven branches of learning were accordingly associated with those spheres: grammar, logic, and rhetoric [known as the trivium], arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy [the quadrivium]. The crystalline spheres themselves, furthermore, were not, like glass, of inert matter, but living spiritual powers, presided over by angelic beings, or, as Plato had said, by sirens. And beyond all, there was that luminous celestial realm where God in majesty sat on his triune throne; so that when the soul, at death, returning to its maker, passed again through the seven spheres, it left off at each the accordant quality and arrived unclothed for the judgment. The emperor and the pope on earth governed, it was supposed, according to the laws and will of God, representing his power and authority at work in the ordained Christian commonalty. Thus in the total view of the medieval thinkers there was a perfect accord between the structure of the universe, the canons of the social order, and the good of the individual. Through unquestioning obedience, therefore, the Christian would put himself into accord not only with his society but also with both his own best inward interests and the outward order of nature. The Christian Empire was an earthly reflex of the order of the heavens, hieratically organized with the vestments, thrones, and procedures of its stately courts inspired by celestial imagery, the bells of its cathedral spires and harmonies of its priestly choirs echoing in earthly tones the unearthly angelic hosts.

Dante in his Divine Comedy unfolded a vision of the universe that perfectly satisfied both the approved religious and the accepted scientific notions of his time. When Satan had been flung out of heaven for his pride and disobedience, he was supposed to have fallen like a flaming comet and, when he struck the earth, to have plowed right through to its center. The prodigious crater that he opened thereupon became the fiery pit of Hell; and the great mass of displaced earth pushed forth at the opposite pole became the Mountain of Purgatory , which is represented by Dante as lifting heavenward exactly as the South Pole. In his view, the entire southern hemisphere was of water, with this mighty mountain lifting out of it, on whose summit was the Earthly Paradise, from the center of which the four blessed rivers flowed of which Holy Scripture tells.

And now it appears that when Columbus set sail across that "ocean blue"

which many of his neighbors [and possibly also his sailors] believed was a terminal ocean surrounding a dislike earth, he himself had in mind an image more like that of Dante's world - of which we can read, in fact, in his journals. There we learn that in the course of his third voyage, when he reached for the firsttime the northern coast of South America, passing in his frail craft at great peril between Trinidad and the mainland, he remarked that the quantity of fresh water there mixing with the salt [pouring from the mouths of the Orinoco] was enormous. Knowing nothing of the continent beyond, but having in mind the medieval idea, he conjectured the fresh water might be coming from one of the rivers of Paradise, pouring into the southern sea from the base of the great antipodal mountain. Moreover, when he then turned, sailing northward, and observed that his ships were faring more rapidly than when they had been sailing south, he took this to be evidence of their sailing now downhill, from the foot of the promontory of the mythic paradisial mountain.

I like to think of the year 1492 as marking the end - or at least the beginning of the end - of the authority of the old mythological systems by which the lives of men had been supported and inspired from time out of mind. Shortly after Columbus's epochal voyage, Magellan circumnavigated the globe. Shortly before, Vasco da Gamma had sailed around Africa to India. The earth was beginning to be systematically explored, and the old, symbolic, mythological geographies discredited. In attempting to show that there was somewhere on earth a garden of Paradise, Saint Thomas Aquinas had declared, writing only two centuries and a half before Columbus sailed: "The situation of Paradise is shut off from the habitable world by mountains or seas, or by some torrid region, which cannot be crossed; and so people who have written about topography make no mention of it." Fifty years after the first voyage, Copernicus published his paper on the heliocentric universe [1543]; and some sixty-odd years after that, Galileo's little telescope brought tangible confirmation to this Copernican view. In the year 1616 Galileo was condemned by the Office of the Inquisition - like the boy beside me at the lunch counter, by his mother - for holding and teaching a doctrine contrary to Holy Scripture. And today, of course, we have those very much larger telescopes on the summits, for example, of Mount Wilson in California, Mount Palomar in the same state, Kitt Peak in Arizona, and Haleakala, Hawaii; so that not only is the sun now well established at the center of our planetary system, but we know it to be but one of some two hundred billion suns in a galaxy of such blazing spheres: a galaxy shaped like a prodigious lens, many hundreds of quintillion miles in diameter. And not only that! but our telescopes now are disclosing to us, among those shining suns, certain other points of light that are themselves not suns but whole galaxies, each as large and great and inconceivable as our own - of which already many thousands upon thousands have been seen. So that, actually, the occasion for an experience of awe before the wonder of the universe that is being developed for us by our scientists surely is a far more marvelous, mind-blowing revelation than anything the prescientific world could

ever have imagined. The little toy-room picture of the Bible is, in comparison, for children - or, in fact, not even for them any more, to judge from the words of that young scholar beside me at the counter, who, with his "Yes, I know, but this was a scientific paper," had already found a way to rescue his learning from the crumbling medieval architecture of his mother's Church.

For not only have all the old mythic notions of the nature of the cosmos gone to pieces, but also those of the origins and history of mankind. Already in Shakespeare's day, when Sir Walter Raleigh arrived in America and saw here all the new animals unknown on the other side, he understood as a master mariner that it would have been absolutely impossible for Noah to have packed examples of every species on earth into any ark, no matter how large. The Bible legend of the Flood was untrue: a theory that could not be "factualized." And we today [to make matters worse] are dating the earliest appearance of manlike creatures on this earth over a million years earlier than the Biblical date for God 's creation of the world. The great paleolithic caves of Europe are from circa 30,000 B.C.; the beginnings of agriculture, 1O,()()() B.C. or so, and the first substantial towns about 7,000. Yet Cain, the eldest son of Adam, the first man, is declared in Genesis 4:2 and 4: 17 to have been "a tiller of the ground" and the builder of a city known as Enoch in the land of Nod, east of Eden. The Biblical "theory" has again been proved false, and "they have found the bones!"

They have found also the buildings - and these do not corroborate Scripture, either. For example, the period of Egyptian history supposed to have been of the Exodus - of Ramses II [1301 - 1234 B.C.], or perhaps Merneptah [1234 - 1220] or Seti II [1220 - 1200] - is richly represented in architectural and hieroglyphic remains, yet there is no notice anywhere of anything even comparable. Moreover, as other records tell, Bedouin Hebrews, the "Habiru," were already invading Canaan during the reign ofIkhnaton [1377 -1358], a century earlier than the Ramses date.

The long and the short of it is simply that the Hebrew texts from which all these popular Jewish legends of Creation, Exodus, Forty Years in the Desert, and Conquest of Canaan are derived were not composed by "God" or even by anyone named Moses, but are of various dates and authors, all much later than was formerly supposed. The first five books of the Old Testament [Torah] were assembled only after the period of Ezra [fourth century B.C.], and the documents of which it was fashioned date all the way from the ninth century B.C. [the so-called J and E texts] to the second or so [the P, or "priestly" writings]. One notices, for example, that there are two accounts of the Flood. From the first we learn that Noah brought "two living things of every sort" into the Ark [Genesis 6: 19 - 20; P text, post-Ezra], and from the second, "seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean" [Genesis 7:2 - 2; J text, ca. 800 B.C. ± 50]. We also find two stories of Creation, the earlier in Genesis 2, the later in Genesis 1. In

2, a garden has been planted and a man created to tend it; next the animals are created, and finally [as in dream] Mother Eve is drawn from Adam's rib. In Genesis I, on the other hand, God, alone with the cosmic waters, says, "Let there be light," etc., and, stage by stage, the universe comes into being: first, light; and the sun, three days later; then, vegetables, animals, and finally mankind, male and female together. Genesis I is of about the fourth century B.c. [the period of Aristotle], and 2, of the ninth or eighth [Hesiod's time].

Comparative cultural studies have now demonstrated beyond question that similar mythic tales are to be found in every quarter of this earth. When Cortes and his Catholic Spaniards arrived in Aztec Mexico, they immediately recognized in the local religion so many parallels to their own True Faith that they were hard put to explain the fact. There were towering pyramidal temples, representing, stage by stage, like Dante's Mountain of Purgatory , degrees of elevation of the spirit. There were thirteen heavens, each with its appropriate gods or angels; nine hells of suffering souls. There was a High God above all, who was beyond all human thought and imaging. There was even an incarnate Saviour, associated with a serpent, born of a virgin, who had died and was resurrected, one of whose symbols was a cross. The padres, to explain all this, invented two myths of their own. The first was that Saint Thomas, the Apostle to the Indies, had probably reached America and here preached the Gospel; but these shores being so far removed from the influence of Rome, the doctrine had deteriorated, so that what they were seeing around them was simply a hideously degenerate form of their own revelation. And the second explanation, then, was that the devil was here deliberately throwing up parodies of the Christian faith, to frustrate the mission.

Modern scholarship, systematically comparing the myths and rites of mankind, has found just about everywhere legends of virgins giving birth to heroes who die and are resurrected. India is chock-full of such tales, and its towering temples, very like the Aztec ones, represent again our many-storied cosmic mountain, bearing Paradise on its summit and with horrible hells beneath. The Buddhists and the Jains have similar ideas. And, looking backward into the pre-Christian past, we discover in Egypt the mythology of the slain and resurrected Osiris; in Mesopotamia, Tammuz; in Syria, Adonis; and in Greece, Dionysos: all of which furnished models to the early Christians for their representations of Christ.

Now the peoples of all the great civilizations everywhere have been prone to interpret their own symbolic figures literally, and so to regard themselves as favored in a special way, in direct contact with the Absolute. Even the polytheistic Greeks and Romans, Hindus and Chinese, all of whom were able to view the gods and customs of others sympathetically, thought of their own as supreme or, at the very least, superior; and among the monotheistic Jews, Christians, and Mohammedans, of course the gods of others are regarded as no gods at aU, but devils, and their worshipers as godless. Mecca, Rome, Jerusalem, and [less emphatically] Benares

and Peking have been for centuries, therefore, each in its own way, the navel of the universe, connected directly - as by a hot line - with the Kingdom of Light or of God.

However, today such claims can no longer be taken seriously by anyone with even a kindergarten education. And in this there is serious danger. For not only has it always been the way of multitudes to interpret their own symbols literally, but such literally read symbolic forms have always been - and still are, in fact - the supports of their civilizations, the supports of their moral orders, their cohesion, vitality, and creative powers. With the loss of them there follows uncertainty, and with uncertainty, disequilibrium, since life, as both Nietzsche and Ibsen knew, requires life-supporting illusions; and where these have been dispelled, there is nothing secure to hold on to, no moral law, nothing firm. We have seen what has happened, for example, to primitive communities unsettled by the white man's civilization. With their old taboos discredited, they immediately go to pieces, disintegrate, and become resorts of vice and disease.

Today the same thing is happening to us. With our old mythologically founded taboos unsettled by our own modem sciences, there is everywhere in the civilized world a rapidly rising incidence of vice and crime, mental disorders, suicides and dope addictions, shattered homes, impudent children, violence, murder, and despair. These are facts; I am not inventing them. They give point to the cries of the preachers for repentance, conversion, and return to the old religion. And they challenge, too, the modem educator with respect to his own faith and ultimate loyalty. Is the conscientious teacher - concerned for the moral character as well as for the book -learning of his students - to be loyal first to the supporting myths of our civilization or to the "factualized" truths of his science? Are the two, on level, at odds? Or is there not some pointof wisdom beyond the conflicts of illusion and truth by which lives can be put back together again?

That is a prime question, I would say, of this hour in the bringing up of children. That is the problem, indeed, that was sitting beside me that day at the lunch counter. In that case, both teacher and parent were on the side of an already outdated illusion; and generally - or so it looks to me - most guardians of society have a tendency in that direction, asserting their authority not for, but against the search for disturbing truths. Such a trend has even turned up recently among social scientists and anthropologists with regard to discussions of race. And one can readily understand, even share in some measure, their anxiety, since lies are what the world lives on, and those who can face the challenge of a truth and build their lives to accord are finally not many, but the very few.

It is my considered belief that the best answer to this critical problem will come from the findings of psychology, and specifically those findings have to do with the source and nature of myth. For since it has always been on myths that the moral orders of societies have been founded, the myths canonized as religion, and since the impact of science on myths results - apparently inevitably - in moral

disequilibration, we must now ask whether it is not possible to arrive scientifically at such an understanding of the life-supporting nature of myths that, in criticizing their archaic features, we do not misrepresent and disqualify their necessity -throwing out, so to say, the baby [whole generations of babies] with the bath.

Traditionally, as I have already said, in the orthodoxies of popular faiths mythic beings and events are generally regarded and taught as facts; and this particularly in the Jewish and Christian spheres. There was a Resurrection of Christ. Historically, however, such facts are now in question; hence, the moral orders, too, that they support.

When these stories are interpreted, though, not as reports of historic fact, but as merely imagined episodes projected onto history, and when they are recognized, then, as analogous to like projections produced elsewhere, in China, India, and Yucatan, the import becomes obvious; namely, that although false and to be rejected as accounts of physical history, such universally cherished figures of the mythic imagination must represent facts of the mind: "facts of the mind made manifest in a fiction of matter," as my friend the late Maya Deren once phrased the mystery. And whereas it must, of course, be the task of the historian, archaeologist, and prehistorian to show that the myths are as facts untrue - that there is no one Chosen People of God in this multiracial world, no Found Truth to which we all must bow, no One and Only True Church - it will be more and more, and with increasing urgency, the task of the psychologist and comparative mythologist not only to identify, analyze, and interpret the symbolized "facts of the mind," but also to evolve techniques for retaining these in health and, as the old traditions of the fading past dissolve, assist mankind to a knowledge and appreciation of our own inward, as well as the world's outward, orders of fact.

There has been among psychologists a considerable change of attitude in this regard during the past three-quarters of a century or so. When reading the great and justly celebrated Golden Bough of Sir James G. Frazer, the first edition of which appeared in 1890, we are engaged with a typically nineteenth-century author, whose belief it was that the superstitions of mythology would be finally refuted by science and left forever behind. He saw the basis of myth in magic, and of magic in psychology. His psychology, however, being of an essentially rational kind, insufficiently attentive to the more deeply based, irrational impulsions of our nature, he assumed that when a custom or belief was shown to be unreasonable, it would presently disappear. And how wrong he was can be shown simply by pointing to any professor of philosophy at play in a bowling alley: watch him twist and turn after the ball has left his hand, to bring it over to the standing pins. Frazer's explanation of magic was that because things are associated in the mind they are believed to be associated in fact. Shake a rattle that sounds like falling rain, and rain will presently fall. Celebrate a ritual of sexual intercourse, and the fertility of nature will be furthered. An image in the likeness of an enemy, and given the enemy's name, can

be worked upon, stuck with pins, etc., and the enemy will die. Or a piece of his clothing, lock of hair, fingernail paring, or other element once in contact with his person can be treated with a like result. Frazer's first law of magic, then, is that" like produces like," an effect resembles its cause; and his second, that "things which once were in contact with each other continue to act on each other ala distance after the physical contact has been severed." Frazer thought of both magic and religion as addressed finally and essentially to the control of external nature; magic mechanically, by imitative acts, and religion by prayer and sacrifice addressed to the personified powers supposed to control natural forces. He seems to have had no sense at all of their relevance and importance to the inward life, and so was confident that, with the progress and development of science and technology, both magic and religion would ultimately fade away, the ends that they had been thought to serve being better and more surely served by science.

Simultaneously with these volumes of Frazer, however, there was appearing in Paris a no less important series of publications by the distinguished neurologist Jean Martin Charcot, treating of hysteria, aphasia, hypnotic states, and the like; demonstrating also the relevance of these findings to iconography and to art. Sigmund Freud spent a year with this master in 1885 and during the first quarter of the present century carried the study of hysteria and of dreams and myths to new depths. Myths, according to Freud's view, are of the psychological order of dream. Myths, so to say, are public dreams; dreams are private myths. Both, in his opinion, are symptomatic of repressions of infantile incest wishes, the only essential difference between a religion and neurosis being that the former is the more public. The person with a neurosis feels ashamed, alone and isolated in his illness, whereas the gods are general projections onto a universal screen. They are equally manifestations of unconscious, compUlsive fears and delusions. Moreover, all the arts, and particularly religious arts, are, in Freud's view, similarly pathological; likewise, all philosophies. Civilization itself, in fact, is a pathological surrogate for unconscious infantile disappointments. And thus Freud, like Frazer, judged the worlds of myth , magic, and religion negatively, as errors to be refuted, surpassed, and supplanted finally by science.

An altogether different approach is represented by Carl G. Jung, in whose view the imageries of mythology and religion serve positive, life-furthering ends. According to his way of thinking, all the organs of our bodies - not only those of sex and aggression - have their purposes and motives, some being subject to conscious control, others, however, not. Our outward-oriented consciousness, addressed to the demands of the day, may lose touch with these inward forces; and the myths, states J ung, when correctly read, are the means to bring us back in touch. They are telling us in picture language of powers of the psyche to be recognized and integrated in our lives, powers that have been common to the human spirit forever, and which represent that wisdom of the species by which man has weathered the

millenniums. Thus they have not been, and can never be, displaced by the findings of science, which relate rather to the outside world than to the depths that we enter in sleep. Through a dialogue conducted with these inward forces through our dreams and through a study of myths, we can learn to know and come to terms with the greater horizon of our own deeper and wiser, inward self. And analogously, the society that cherishes and keeps its myths alive will be nourished from the soundest, richest strata of the human spirit.

However, there is a danger here as well; namely, of being drawn by one's dreams and inherited myths away from the world of modem consciousness, fixed in patterns of archaic feeling and thought inappropriate to contemporary life. What is required, states J ung therefore, is a dialogue, nota fixture at either pole; a dialogue by way of symbolic forms put forth from the unconscious mind and recognized by the conscious in continuous interaction.

And so what then happens to the children of a society that has refused to allow any such interplay to develop, but, clinging to its inherited dream as to a fixture of absolute truth , rejects the novelties of consciousness, of reason, science, and new facts? There is a well-known history that may serve as sufficient warning.

As every schoolboy knows, the beginnings of what we think of as science are to be attributed to the Greeks, and much of the knowledge that they assembled was carried and communicated to Asia, across Persia into India and onward even to China. But every one of those Oriental worlds was already committed to its own style of mythological thought, and the objective, realistic, inquisitive, and experimental attitudes and methods of the Greeks were let go. Compare the science of the Bible for example - an Oriental scripture, assembled largely following the Maccabean rejection of Greek influence - with that, say, of Aristotle; not to mention Aristarchus [fl. 275 B.c.), for whom the earth was already arevolving sphere in orbit around the sun. Eratosthenes [fl. 250 B.C.] had already correctly calculated the circumference of the earth as 250,000 stadia [24,662 miles: correct equatorial figure, 24,902]. Hipparchus [fl.240 B.C.] had reckoned within a few miles both the moon's diameter and its mean distance from the earth. And now just try to imagine how much of blood, sweat, and real tears - people burned at the stake for heresy, and all that - would have been saved, if, instead of closing all the Greek pagan schools, A.D. 529, Justinian had encouraged them! In their place, we and our civilization have had Genesis I and 2 and a delay of well over a thousand years in the maturation not of science only but of our own and the world' s civilization.

One of the most interesting histories of what comes of rejecting science we may see in Islam, which in the beginning received, accepted, and even developed the classical legacy. For some five or six rich centuries there is an impressive Islamic record of scientific thought, experiment, and research , particularly in medicine. But then, alas! the authority of the general community, the Sunna, the consensus - which Mohammed the Prophet had declared would always be right-

cracked down. The Word of God in the Koran was the only source and vehicle of truth. Scientific thought led to "loss of belief in the origin of the world and in the Creator." And so it was that, just when the light of Greek learning was beginning to be carried from Islam to Europe - from circa 1100 onward - Islamic science and medicine came to a standstill and went dead; and with that, Islam itself went dead. The torch not only of science, but of history as well, passed on to the Christian West. And we can thereafter follow the marvelous development in detail, from the early twelfth century onward, through a history of bold and brilliant minds, unmatched for their discoveries in the whole long history of human life. Nor can the magnitude of our debt to these few minds be fully appreciated by anyone who has never set foot in any of the lands that lie beyond the bounds of this European spell. In those socalled "developing nations" all social transformation is the result today, as it has been for centuries, not of continuing processes, but of invasions and their aftermath. Every little group is fixed in its own long-established, petrified mythology, changes having occurred only as a consequence of collision; such as when the warriors of Islam broke into India and for a time there were inevitable exchanges of ideas; or when the British arrived and another upsetting era dawned of startling, unanticipated innovations. In our modem Western world, on the other hand, as a result of the continuing open-hearted and open-minded quest of a few brave men for the bounds of boundless truth, there has been a self-consistent continuity of productive growth, in the nature almost of an organic flowering.

But now, finally, what would the meaning be of the word "truth" to a modem scientist? Surely not the meaning it would have for a mystic! For the really great and essential fact about the scientific revelation - the most wonderful and most challenging fact - is that science does not and cannot pretend to be "true" in any absolute sense. It does not and cannot pretend to be final. It is a tentative organization of mere "working hypotheses" ["Oh, those scientists!" "Yes, I know, but they found the bones"] that for the present appear to take into account all the relevant facts now known.

And is there no implied intention, then, to rest satisfied with some final body or sufficient number of facts?

No indeed! There is to be only a continuing search for more - as of a mind eager to grow. And that growth, as long as it lasts, will be the measure of the life of modem Western man, and of the world with all its promise that he has brought and is still bringing into being: which is to say, a world of change, new thoughts, new things, new magnitudes, and continuing transformation, notof petrifaction, rigidity, and some canonized found "truth".

And so, my friends, we don 'I know a thing, and not even our science can tell us sooth; for it is no more than, so to say, an eagerness for trulhs, no matter where their allure may lead. And so it seems to me that here again we have a still greater, more alive, revelation than everything our old religions ever gave to us or even so

much as suggested. The old texts comfort us with horizons. They tell us that a loving, kind, and just father is out there, looking down upon us, ready to receive us, and ever with our own dear lives on his mind. According to our sciences, on the other hand, nobody knows what is out there, or if there is any "out there" at all. All that can be said is that there appears to be a prodigious display of phenomena, which our senses and their instruments translate to our minds according to the nature of our minds. And there is a display of a quite different kind of imagery from within, which we experience best at night, in sleep, but which may also break into our daylight lives and even destroy us with madness. What the background of these forms , external and internal, may be, we can only surmise and possibly move towards through hypotheses. What are they, or where, or why [to ask all the usual questions] is an absolute mystery - the only absolute known, because absolutely unknown; and this we must all now have the magnitude to concede.

There is no "Thou shalt!" any more. There is nothing one has to believe, and there is nothing one has to do. On the other hand, one can of course, if one prefers, still choose to play at the old Middle Ages game, or some Oriental game, or even some sort of primitive game. We are living in a difficult time, and whatever defends us from the madhouse can be applauded as good enough - for those without nerve.

When I was in India in the winter of 1954, in conversation with an Indian gentleman of just about my own age, he asked with a certain air of distance, after we had exchanged formalities, "What are you Western scholars now saying about the dating of the Vedas?"

The Vedas, you must know, are the counterparts for the Hindu of the Torah for the Jew. They are his scriptures of the most ancient date and therefore of the highest revelation.

"Well," I answered, "the dating of the Vedas has lately been reduced and is beingassigned,I believe, to something like, say, 1500 to l000B.C. Asyouprobably know," I added, "there have been found in India itself the remains of an earlier civilization than the Vedic."

"Yes," said the Indian gentleman, not testily but firmly , with an air of untroubled assurance, "I know; but as an orthodox Hindu I cannot believe that there is anything in the universe earlier than the Vedas." And he meant that.

"Okay," said I. ' 'Then why did you ask?" To give old India, however, its due, let me conclude with the fragment of a

Hindu myth that to me seems to have captured in a particularly apt image the whole sense of such a movement as we today are all facing at this critical juncture of our general human history. It tells of a time at the very start of the history of the universe when the gods and their chief enemies, the anti-gods, were engaged in one of their eternal wars. They decided this time to conclude a truce and in cooperation to churn the Milky Ocean - the Universal Sea - for its butter of immortality. They took for their churning-spindle the Cosmic Mountain [the Vedic counterpart of Dante's

Mountain of Purgatory], and for a twirling-cord they wrapped the Cosmic Serpent around it. Then, with the gods all pulling at the head end and the anti-gods at the tail, they caused that Cosmic Mountain to whirl. And they had been churning thus for a thousand years when a great black cloud of absolutely poisonous smoke came up out of the waters, and the churning had to stop. They had broken through to an unprecedented source of power, and what they were experiencing first were its negative, lethal effects. If the work were to continue, some one of them was going to have to swallow and absorb that poisonous cloud, and, as all knew, there was but one who would be capable of such an act; namely, the archetypal god of yoga, Shiva, a frightening daemonic figure. He just took that entire poison cloud into his begging bowl and at one gulp drank it down, holding it by yoga at the level of his throat, where it turned the whole throat blue; and he has been known as Blue Throat, Nilakantha, ever since. Then, when that wonderful deed had been accomplished, all the other gods and the anti-gods returned to their common labor. And they churned and they churned and they went right on tirelessly churning, untillo! a number of wonderful benefits began coming up out of the Cosmic Sea: the moon, the sun, an elephant with eight trunks came up, a glorious steed, certain medicines, and yes, at last! a great radiant vessel filled with the ambrosial butter.

This old Indian myth I offer as a parable for our world today, as an exhortation to press on with the work, beyond fear.

BUILDING ENLIGHTENED SOCIETY by Cbogyam Trungpa Rinpocbe A public talk: given in Boston, Massachusetts, 1985. Edited by J. Lief

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Good morning! This is our way of greeting, saying "Good morning," whatever time of day it may be. We regard everything as morning, as a time to wake up and enjoy beauty and pleasure in the world. So, "Good morning, ladies and gentlemen." Why don't you say good morning? Good morning! [Audience: Good morning.] Jolly good.

For the past ten years I have been teaching Buddhism in North America and at the same time I have been teaching the wisdom ofthe Shambhala tradition. The difference between the two is that Buddhism is a religion and Shambhala is the secular notion of enlightened society - building enlightened society in the world. So it is secular; it is not particularly religious. Even Buddhism somewhat transcends religion in the ordinary sense. Buddhism is often viewed as one ofthe basic religions such as Christianity,J udaism, and so forth. Nonetheless, Buddhism transcends such cultural and racial barriers; it is a teaching of humanitarian wisdom. But the Shambhala tradition goes even beyond that. It is how to be a basic human being altogether. That's putting it in a nutshell- how to be a basic human being.

Such a thing comes to us along with the problems of human society. As we know already, since we are living in this world, in this particular age we have nuclear threats, economic problems, social problems, and psychological difficulties. All kinds of things take place in this world, with which we are quite familiar. We are subject to them, and we can't getaway from that. Butat the same time, I have found that within myself as well as within society at large, such as American society, it is possible that we could achieve enlightened society. This is not impractical and purely idealistic at all- not whatsoever. Ladies and gentlemen, let us be practical and realistic.

That world we live in is, of course, in absolute turmoil. We snatch things away from each other, take each other's ground, and are extremely hostile to each other. At the same time, when we are nice to each other, we try to possess one another. We smear honey and marmalade allover each other - with butter. We would like to possess our friends, wishing that they' II stick with us forever and ever, eternally. Love and kindness has become very sticky and very gooey - and soon it begins to turn smelly. That' s the picture oflove and hate, ladies and gentlemen.

Shambhala vision teaches us that we could be heroic, warriorlike, and kind. At the same time there are no expectations. Shambhala is a term we use to promote this particular idea in you. The kingdom of Shambhala is supposed to arrive at a certain time in history to destroy or combat the age of materialism. Materialism, or the materialistic outlook, is called lalo in Tibetan. The literal translation of lalo is

Lady Kiinchok, VidyadlUlra Trungpa Rinpoclze and Sawang, Osel Rangdrol Mukpo

"barbarianism". However, there is external barbarianism, internal barbarianism, and secret barbarianism; barbarianism is not all that simple and obvious to a lot of us. We've been fooled by that situation. One basis of barbarianism is that we as individuals - I as Lord Mukpo and you as "Joe Schmidt," "David Doe," or whatever - have been expecting some kind of pleasure to arise in our life. We have been educated and brought up in a society and we are trying to be a poet, artist, businessman, philosopher, psychiatrist, psychologist, doctor, nurse. There are all kinds of possibilities. Butane thing that is hidden in this situation is that we certainly do not want to come out of our cocoon. Cocoon: we want to give something away and at the same time we want to keep it. We want to maintain our neurosis, but we would like to keep our connection to enlightened society at the same time. Ladies and gentlemen, you have to be much braver than that. You can't have the best of both worlds - the best of the pain and the best of the pleasure. You can't have them both. The best of the pain is security, the cocoon. You would like to hide, you don't want to be exposed. More than that, you don't wantto work for the benefi t of others. You simply want to be yourself in a very secure way - maybe along with your children and your husband or wife. Quite possibly your inlaws are included, but often they are not, as we know.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have been watching American society for a long time and I know your tricks and triggers. I know your problems as well. One of the beauties of American society is that it is blunt and outright, straightforward. That is one of the most brilliant aspects of America. For example, the Boston tea party is the best expression of Americanism. Thatis the best. Beyond that I'm not so sure. Even the English language has been Americanized and suffered a lot of literary problems and difficulties. Definitely America is the home of the brave, the land of the warriors. That is marked by your flag with its red and white stripes. Red is brave, white is the home of the warriors. But you have too many stars, nonetheless. Some time ago Americans thought that America was going to rule the world. Nowadays the administration of the American government has become shy of that. After the Viet Nam war in particular American foreign policy and American gesture has been toned down. America isn ' t the one and only ruling class in the world. At the same time, of course, the Russians have begun to pick up what the Americans left. Russia has invaded its satellite countries, as you know, and the Russians are building more and more nuclear warheads and bodies. Ladies and gentlemen, America is a very interesting place. America has become the perfect analogy of the human realm . In order to preserve themselves, they destroy themselves by preserving. As Buddha mentioned, the human realm is full of - full of! - passion, aggression, ignorance, jealousy, and so forth.

Shambhala training may be a small opportunity, or contribution, to the American world. But at the same time it could be a grand contribution to the American world. Ladies and gentlemen, please try to think beyond your home,

beyond your burning fire in the fireplace, and beyond sending your children to school. Please, please, please! Try to think bigger. We could actually help this world. I'm very, very, very serious. Please. Think bigger. If you don'tdoit,nobody will do it. It is your turn to help this world. That doesn't mean that every one of you have to become President of the United States, or the mayor of such.and such a city. You can do it on your own; you could work with your relatives, friends, the people around you. Please think that you are not off duty. Don't just relax. Please don't just relax. We really need your help. This whole world needs a lot of help. Let's start with America at this time. Let's start with Boston, even. Wouldn't that be nice? Enlightened society started in Boston. [Applause] Great! We could spread to the rest of the continent. Good.

Creating enlightened society is quite interesting, but it is somewhat problematic how you do it. Let me give you three logics for it. First, in order to provide enlightened society, you start with yourself. As they say, "Charity begins at home." In that way, you yourself are no longer a problematic case. You begin to feel good because you are. That is the basis of goodness. When we talk about good, we are talking about good in the sense of not expecting anything in return when you render service to somebody. That's one good.

Number two is that because you are fundamentally good, because you are an intelligent and decent person yourself, you realize your own shortcomings and the possibility of the extension of that into goodness.

Number three is that even apart from those two cases you are fundamentally excellent. You possess what is known as basic goodness, from the Shambhalian point of view. Every human being possesses basic goodness because you have the intelligence to clean up if you make a mess on the table or on the floor. Bringing up your children and taking care of your livelihood is an expression of your basic goodness. If there were no basic goodness, nobody could do such things.

Those three very simple logics make it possible for us actually to uplift this world, ladies and gentlemen. My suggestions at this point are for your own goodness ' sake. We are not saying that my particular organization will grow because you do this, or that I will get rich because of it. None of that applies at all. Please believe me. My concern is that we must do something about our society. And you are capable of doing something even if you are eighteen years old, seventeen, even sixteen years old or ten years old. Let us think, ladies and gentlemen: apart from you some people have heard such a message already - but there are millions and billions of people who have not heard such a message at all! It is your duty to spread this good message. Ladies and gentlemen, let us do something about it. Please spread this challenging and good news to everybody. Certain persons may not be good at one particular occupation. But they may be good at something else, and from that they could expand the basic goodness of humanity altogether, ladies and gentlemen.

We are not giving up on anybody at all. We are not saying that the world is faIling down, faIling to pieces, and everybody is doing badly, oy vey. There are nuclear threats between Reagan and Brezhnev. [Someone: And everyone else.] Everyone else, yes. What's going to happen to us? Blah, blah, blah. Ladies and gentlemen, we are not going to face nuclear holocaust at all. We might - if you don't work, within our lifetime there might be nuclear problems. But let us make sure that within our lifetime nothing like that happens. It is possible. We could contribute to this world tremendously. For one thing, we could save this world. Number two, we could educate our world. Number three, we could enlighten our world. It is all up to you, ladies and gentlemen. It is completely possible. That is why Shambhala Training and the ShambhaIa message has come to this earth. It is come here through me, but it is not my personal thinking. It is not my personal idea. It is a centuries and centuries old idea that ShambhaIa will appear to save the dark ages. And finally it came to me, and it encouraged me. It came through my teachers and my friends and my own sense of duty and worthiness to serve all of you in this way and to serve the world. I am simply asking you to serve with us and to build enlightened society. Saving individuals aIone is not enough - we have to build enlightened society.

The Four Dignities of the Shambalian Warrior - Meek - Perky - Outrageous -Inscrutable -

Tibetan Inscription: "Profound, Brilliant, Just, Powerful, All-Victorious"

THE SAWANG, OSEL RANGDROL MUKPO

A Biographical Sketch of the New President of Vajradhatu International

The Sawang, Osel Rangdrol Mukpo, was born on the full moon day of the tenth month of the Year of the Tiger, November 1962, in Bodhgaya, India. His father was the Vidyadhara ChOgyam Trungpa Rinpoche, the eleventh Trungpa Tulku, who before the Chinese occupation of Tibet served as the Head Abbot of Surmang monastery in the eastern region of Kham. At the time of thebirth of the Sawang, Trungpa Rinpoche, who at that time was the spiritual advisor to the Young Lamas' Home School in Dalhousie, India, was about to leave for England to study comparative religion and philosophy at Oxford University under a Spalding sponsorship. His mother is Lady Kiinchok Palden, who, before meeting with Trungpa Rinpoche, lived in a Tibetan practice centre. For years they had been close friends and he had arranged her escape from Chinese-occupied Tibet.

On the evening of the Sawang's conception, Lady Kiinchok, while sleeping on the roof of the house in Delhi where they were staying, heard giant footsteps that caused the whole building to shake and, looking up, saw an enormous Indian in a white dhoti. Later, she received a letter from Trungpa Rinpoche, predicting that the child would be a manifestation of Lha [the divine, or heavenly], and that after studying for fifteen years in foreign lands he would find the treasure of his skillful means and would attain the siddhi that brings peace to sentient beings. During her pregnancy, in accordance with the instructions ofTrungpaRinpoche, Lady Kiinchok went on a pilgrimage, visiting the various sacred Buddhist sites in India. Hence she was in Bodhgaya at the time of the birth. She went up a hillside to a small clearing sheltered by some boulders where, helped by some Indian women, she gave birth to the infant.

The child was named Osel Rangdrol Mukpo. "Osel" means luminosity and "Rangdrol" means "self-liberated" or " in-and-of-itself liberated". Mukpo is his father's Tibetan clan name. Osel Rangdrol Mukpo then lived with his mother in the Tibetan refugee village of Bir in the northwestern region of Himalchal Pradesh, in India. [For a more complete rendering of these years, including some of the stories recounted by Lady Kiinchok, see the February 1991 issue of the Vajradhatu Sun.]

Osel Rangdrol Mukpo remained in Bir until the age of seven at which point he left India to be with his father, who had been studying in Oxford University in England and had founded Samye Ling in Scotland, a Buddhist practice centre. At this time, because of various difficulties and because of complications involving the refugee status l of the Sawang, he remained in England at the Pestalozzi Children 's Village in Sussex.

In 1971 , however, he was able to join his father and step-mother, Lady Diana

Mul-po, in their home in Four Mile Canyon, in Boulder, Colorado. Later, the family would include Surmang TengaRinpoche, or Tagdrug Mukpo, and Sechen Kongtrul Rinpoche, or Gesar Mukpo, his two younger brothers.

In regards to his conventional education, from the age of ten until eighteen, the Sawang went through the American school system, attending both private and public schools. He had a lot of hard work to do, first in regard to learning to read and write English and then in terms of simply catching up to his age group. He graduated from high school in 1981 and in 1982 he entered the University of Colorado in Boulder. His father had always wanted him to attend Oxford University, so after a year at university in Boulder and a year of tutorials in Boston, the Sawang transferred to an Oxford University preparatory school in England. Unfortunately, his father ' s illness and subsequent parinirvana curtailed these studies.

As to some of his other interests, during the early years his main hobbies were falconry and horse riding. He also had a great love of the outdoors. Later on, physical fitness and the martial arts became of such great interest to him that many were concerned he might never be interested in the buddhadharma but would become a professional athlete instead.

In his later teens he studied Kyudo, the Way of the Bow, under Shibata Kanjuro Sensei XX, the twentieth in the line ofImperial Bowmakers to the Emperor of Japan, who is not only an accomplished teacher but also a student and colleague of the Vidyadhara. When Shibata Sensei founded the Ryoko Kyudojo in 1981, the Sawang was asked to be President, not only because of his family connection, but also because of his great skill in the techniques and spirit of that ancient, contemplative discipline.

Similarly, when Lady Diana Mukpo, the first lady graduate of the prestigious Spanish Riding School of Vienna, started the Shambhala School of Dressage in Boulder, the Sawang, who had been riding under her guidance since his arrival in America, was her most proficient student.

In regards to his practice and study of the buddhadharma, in 1978, he took the Refuge vows with his father Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and was given the dharma name of Mipham Lhaga, Unconquerable Divine Joy. Soon after, he attended the three month Vajradhatu Seminary conducted by his father. Trungpa Rinpoche made it clear to the Sawang that although much was expected of him, he was to follow the same path of study and practice that he required of his other students. Following his father 's instructions to complete all the practices required of all of his students and after having attended several seminaries, the Sawang received permission in 1980 to begin prostration practice.

Although it is not usual to recount inner dreams or experiences, one story

Sawang, Osel Rangdrol Mukpo

from this period is well known. At the point where the Sawang completed his last prostration, the string of his mala broke. Following that he saw the entire refuge tree of the Kagyu lineage burst into joyful applause, congratulations and laughter.

By the summer of 1983 he had completed the rest of the ngondro practices and was ready to receive the abhisheka empowering him to practice the yidam of Vajrayogini. After 1,000,000 recitations of the mantra both in retreat and in daily practice, the Sawang performed the fire offering which serves to purify and further clarify the practice. In 1986 the Sawang received the abhisheka empowering him to practice the yidam of Chakrasamvara, the practice of which must be done entirely in solitary retreat. This retreat he conducted during the fall of that same year and since then he has presided over several fire offerings for that yidam.

The Sawang has also received numerous abhishekas from His Holiness the XVI Gyalwa Karmapa, the four Dharma Regents, the Very Venerable Thrangu Rinpoche and the Very Venerable Kalu Rinpoche. From the latter he received the Kalachakra abhisheka, particularly associated with the first King of Shambhala, King Dawa Zan gpo. Also he renewed his bodhisattvsa vow with the Very Venerable Kalu Rinpoche under the bodhi tree in Bodhgaya.

Since the parinirvana of Trungpa Rinpoche and until recently, the Sawang has been studying under His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and the Venerable Tulku U gyen Rinpoche, spending most of his time either in or near Bir in northern India, studying Tibetan language and texts, or in Kathmandu or Bhutan. He has received numerous abhishekas and teachings from both of these teachers and continues to study and practice under their guidance.

The second main aspect of training that the Sawang underwent involves his study and practice of the Shambhala teachings. These teachings have ancient secular roots, but they are particularly applicable today in cultures whose main emphasis is on secular rather than religious power.

Shambhala Training involves regular weekend programs from levels I through V. The student studies meditation practice along with teachings designed to help him or her take full advantage of life in a sacred, but secular, way. After the first five levels there is a graduate program with more specific teachings taken from some of the special texts, or term a, written by Trungpa Rinpoche. These teachings are especially vivid and potent. After Trungpa Rinpoche introduced the Shambhala teachings, Vajradhatu sangha members have found themselves propelled into a larger and more challenging world , one that is as limitless and meaningful as any inner tantric mandala. The Path of the Warrior embraces every aspect of life including business and family , and many new forms of teachings were developed and transmitted.

The main place where many of these forms were developed and manifested was the residence of Trungpa Rinpoche and the Sawang, called the Kalapa Court.

Kalapa was the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Shambhala. It is called a Court because the enlightened view is the essence of what is secularly known as a royal or king's view.

The Sawang has had a seminal role in the Shambhala teachings since they were first presented in the West. In 1978, shortly after these teachings were first introduced to the senior students of Vajradhatu, the Sawang, at the age of sixteen, took an oath dedicating his life to the protection and propagation of the Shambhala teachings. It was at that time that he was given the title of Sawang which means Earth Lord, and was publicly proclaimed Trungpa Rinpoche' s Shambhala heir. At the Kalapa Court, the Sawang was intimately exposed to many of his father's manifestations as guru, mahasiddha and President of Vajradhatu and in this way received most of his training in leadership.

Soon after his Shambhala oath ceremony, the Sawang was attended both at the Kalapa Court and at seminaries and other Vajradhatu functions by many of his father's trained kusung and kasung, students who serve as personal assistants , servants and bodyguards. Consequently he was involved in a continual process of being trained as well as himself training others. This aspect of constant and mutual service and training was one of the chief hallmarks of his family 's Shambhala household , where the everyday occurrences and details of family life were included as an integral part of the path. He has therefore received thorough and continuous training in leadership and is known for his skill and great patience when dealing either with individuals or administration.

In the fall of 1990, following the death ofTrungpa Rinpoche' s Va jra Regent, bsel Tendzin, the Sawang assumed the role of President and lineage holder of Vajradhatu.

Soon thereafter, he appointed a new Board of Directors and began a restructuring process of the Vajradhatu mandala. As in previous years, most of the Directors' work is on a volunteer basis , but instead of managing an administrative department and a particular staff, now they chair or sit on one or many different committees that have been set up recently by the Sawang. These committees have taken the place of the old departments and serve as agencies responsible for much of the administering of the many activities and organizations in the Vajradhatu community. In this way, more of the students are included in the decision-making process. The horizontal reach of the hierarchy has thus been greatly extended, including more of the members of the sangha and lessening the tendency to focus too much energy into a large central bureaucracy. These actions have allowed students to participate in their world in a new, albeit less defined , way. It has thrown students back onto their own strengths and resources rather than encouraging them to expect all the energy and guidance to come from the centre.

Following the re-organization of the Vajradhatu Board in 1990, the Sawang

returned to Kathmandu for his studies. In early 1991 he returned to the West and conducted an exhaustive tour of most of the Dharmadhatus and Dharma Study Groups in America, Canada and Europe. In each centre he gave teachings and made administrative changes where necessary.

In 1992 the Sawang, assisted by Gelongma Perna ChOdron, will for the first time teach the 1992 Vajradhatu Seminary and grant the transmissions necessary for students to enter the vajrayana path. In the spring of 1992 he plans to travel to Tibet to visit Surmang monastery, the seat of the Trungpas, and to meet his father's brother, the Venerable DamchuRinpoche. In 1993 he will preside over the Kalapa Assembly, an advanced program for those senior students who have successfully completed all the levels of Shambhala Training.

We wish that the life of the Sawang, bsel RangdrOl Mukpo, may be long, that under his guidance the activities of Vajradhatu may flourish and expand, and that his teachings may bring peace to all beings.

This article was written by Mr. Ashley S. C. Howes, a student of the Vidyadhara ChOgyam Trungpa Rinpoche.

1 See the epilogue by Trungpa Rinpoche in his book Born in Tibet .

FORUM

EMPTINESS FROM THE SHENTONG POINT OF VIEW [Chapter 3]

by Dr. Sbenpen Hookbam

3.1 Progressive Stages of Meditation on Emptiness

The term 'emptiness' (sunyata, stong pa nyid ) is central to Buddhism and is found in the Pali tradition as one of the three 'Liberations.' Though scholarly commentators no doubt understand it to mean self-emptiness, it would require great care to determine which, if any, Pali traditions have understood or do understand it in a more Shentong way. Generally speaking, however, it is Mahayana Buddhism that investigates emptiness in depth .

Khenpo Tsultrim in his book Progressive Stages of Meditation on Emptiness gives a very useful introduction to the subject from a Shentong point of view, that is, from the point of view of those who accept that the Buddhist scriptures do make a rangtong-Shentong distinction. In this short text, Khenpo Tsultrim outlines how, as one's understanding of emptiness deepens, the focus of one's meditation shifts. He gives five main stages to the process; each is named after the Buddhist tradition that it represents most typically.

He calls the first stage the' Sravaka meditation on non-self.' Here the focus of the meditation is the skandhas, which are seen to be empty of a personal self as a single, lasting independent entity. The base (pralisedhyavaslu. dgag gzhi ) is the skandhas and thing refuted (pratisedhya. dgag bya ) is the self of the person.

The second stage is called the 'Cittamatra Approach.' Here the focus of the meditation is the mind-stream, each moment of which consists of a perceiving consciousness and a perceived object-of-consciousness. This stream is the dependent nature (paratantra, gzhall dballg ) because it arises dependent on previous causes. It is the base (pratisedhyavastu. gagshi) that is empty of duality. Duality is what is to be refuted (pratisedhya, gagcha). 'Duality' here means a duality of a difference in substance between the outer perceived object-of-consciousness and that which perceives it, the inner perceiving consciousness. As in a dream, the object is simply a manifestation of the same mind that is aware of it. Thus, whereas in the Sravaka meditation the subjective belief in a personal self is refuted, in Cittamatra the objective belief in an outer world is refuted.

Furthermore, the Cittamatra Approach distinguishes three uses of the telln

emptiness. The self of the person and the objective world as a different substance to the observing mind are described as imaginary (parikalpita, kun rtags ); they are empty in the sense that they do not exist at all. The mind-stream of perceiving consciousnesses and their objects is described as 'dependent-in-nature' (paratantra, gzhan dbang ); it is empty in the sense that it is the base (gagshi) empty of the imaginary nature (i.e. gagcha). The true nature (parinispanna, yongs grub) of phenomena is the emptiness of the dependent nature (the gagshi) of the imaginary nature (the gagcha). It is empty or emptiness in the sense of the truth or true nature that has to be seen in order for realization to arise. So the focus of the meditation is the mind-stream and what is to be seen is its emptiness (parinispanna). Thus, the imaginary nature is empty because it is what is to be refuted. The dependent nature is empty because it is what remains as empty when the imaginary nature is refuted and the true nature (parinispanna) is empty (or emptiness) because it is the true nature of phenomena that must be realized.

The third stage of the progression according to Khenpo Tsultrim is the Svatantrika Madhyamaka Approach. Here the focus ofthe meditation is all dharmas - both outer and inner. They are the base (gagshi) and they are empty of self-nature (svabhava. rallg bzhin). This removes the impression that there is any 'substance' in either the inner perceiving mind or the outer perceived object. Since the consciousness and its object both arise in dependence on each other, neither has independent existence and therefore neither can be a substance. Thus, the base (gagshi) cannot be the mind-stream as a substance in which there is no duality of subjects and objects (the Cittamatra view). The base (gagshi) has to be apparent phenomena (i .e. samvrtisatya) and that which is to be refuted (gagcha) is self-nature (svabhava). Apparent phenomena (i.e. samvrtisatya) are empty of self-nature because they are dependently arising (pratityasamutpada). This means they do not exist in themselves; they are self-empty. The Svatantrikas do not distinguish three natures and three modes of emptiness. For them, there are just apparent phenomena, which are dependently arising (i.e. samvrtisatya), and their emptiness (rangtong). This emptiness is the ultimate or absolute reality about phenomena and also what must be seen in order for realization to arise. Apparent reality or apparent phenomena (i.e. samvrtisatya), is (or are) not empty in the sense of not being there at aU, but empty in the sense that it is (or they are) the base (gagshi) empty of something else (svabhava) . The important point the Svatantrikas are making is that the whole idea of an underlying substratum to reality is conceptually incoherent. One would have to read their arguments in detail to understand how they do this.

The fourth stage in the meditation on emptiness is thePrasangika Madhyamaka Approach. Here the focus for the meditation is the non-conceptual (nisprapanca) nature of both the appearance of phenomena and their self-emptiness. That which is to be refuted (gagcha) is all conceptual creations (prapanca). This is where an attempt is made to remove all concepts of bases and things to be refuted (gagshi and

gagcha). All the stages preceding the Shentong are very analyticaJ in approach.

furthermore, each stage analyzes more deeply on the basis of having understood the previous stages; it attempts to remedy the shortcomings of its predecessors. In this way, it paraJlels the progressive understanding of an individuaJ as well as of successive Buddhist thinkers. Although the Prasangika Approach is deeply analytical in the way it refutes all positions that assert or refute anything about ultimate reality, this approach also shows how, in meditation practice, to rest the mind in that reality without any conceptual analysis or contrivance. In fact, right from the Sravaka stage the meditator is enjoined to rest in the emptiness without conceptual artifice. However, as each succeeding stage of the meditation shows, the former stage still contained within it conceptual limits. One may have rested one's mind somewhat without artifice but not completely. As the stages are traversed, the conceptual content becomes increasingly subtle until at the Prasangika stage it is hard to see that any conceptual content remains at all. In fact, Khenpo Tsultrim admits that theoretically there should be none and so the Clear LightNature of Mind (the non-dual Buddhajnana) should become manifest as a matter of course. However, in practice this often does not happen because it is so difficult to overcome the subtle conceptual tendency to 'cut' or analyze phenomena - accentuated by the process of following the path itself. For overcoming this, Khenpo Tsultrim states that one must develop faith in Shentong, the last stage of the process.

Before proceeding further, let it be said that Rangtongpas include all Svatantrika and Prasangika Madhyamikas who do not accept that Paramarthasatya (Absolute Reality [chap!er 5.3]) is non-dual Buddhajnana [chapter 2.4]. Because Candrakirti -seventh century A.D. - is regarded by many as the greatest exponent ofPrasangika Madhyamaka, there is a tendency to associate that school primarily with his system. However, Shentongpas often criticize Candrakirti arguing that although he claims to be a true Prasangika Madhyamaka holding no posi tion, in fact, his system implies he holds a position both in regard to paramartha and samvrtisatya [chapter 5]. Thus, the question of what the true Prasangika Madhyamaka is and who represents it is not a clear-cut issue. Nevertheless, in order to clarify the points made by Shentongpas, I have referred in a generalized way to the Prasangika Madhyamaka view, sometimes supporting it as intrinsic to the understanding of Shentong and sometimes criticising it as having failed to reveal the true non-conceptual nature of Reality. In the first case, the reader should understand it to be Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka defended by Prasangika-type arguments, that is, arguments that refute aLI conceptual positions without positing any of their own. In the latter case, it should be understood to be a version of Prasangika Madhyamaka that, in the opinion of Shentongpas, still contains (either overtly or covertly) a conceptual residue. The key issue for Shentongpas is whether the Madhyamaka system in question refutes mind-stream theory or whether it continues to assume that Bud-

dhajnana is a dependently arising self-empty stream of dualistic consciousnesses [chapters 2 and 4] .

3.2. Tbe Final Stage - Sbentong (Yogacara Madbyamaka)

Since the Buddha's Wisdom Mind (Buddhajnana) is beyond concepts, one might be surprised to see it presented in such positive terms as 'truly Existing' and 'having Qualities' and so forth. Dolpopa [RC 391.4] replies that it is necessary to present Buddhajnana as truly Existing Absolute Reality. Otherwise it is likely to be mistakenly included in the category of 'all dharmas,' the reality of which is negated when one establishes emptiness through Rangtong reasoning. Then, since the concept would be wrong, the attitude would be wrong and therefore, the view would be wrong. Since the view is the basis for the meditation practice, this also would be wrong, therefore, it is vital that one have the correct conceptual framework at the outset. This view is in harmony with the five reasons for teaching the Tathagatagarbha presented in the RGV [1.156 -166] and the doctrine of the Srimaladevisutra and the other Tathagatagarbha Sutras.

Indeed, since it is beyond all concepts, it is valid to say that the final stage is beyond both rangtong and Shentong. However for the meditator Shentong doctrine helps to overcome certain residual subtle concepts. Although Prasangika Madhyamaka is supposed to focus on the nonconceptual (nisprapanca) nature of phenomena, in practice before this is realized the meditator focuses first on apparent reality (samvrtisatya) to negate the tendency to grasp conceptually at self-entities and then on Ultimate Reality (paramarthasatya) in order to negate the tendency to grasp conceptually at emptiness. If he/she is successful, at a certain point the false notion of self-entities ceases to arise and there is no longer anything to focus on or negate. Nonetheless, the meditator might still have the subtle conceptual belief in the negating process and start to misapply it. Dolpopa [RC 482] remarks that if all were self-empty, since self-empty is nothing (mengag), that which was to be established (sgrub chos) would have been negated.

This problem is referred to in RGV [1.36] :

di dag 'bras ni mdor bsdu na. chos kyi sku fa phyin ci fog. rnam pa bzhi las bzlog pa yi. gllyen pos rab tu phye ba nyid. These fruits are in short the (four) remedies that counteract the four mistakes about the Dharmakaya.

The RGVV explains that the four mistakes about the dharmakaya arise from misapplying the fourremedies that counteract the four mistakes about the skandhas. Beings cling to the skandhas as if they were permanent, happiness, self, and pure when in truth they are quite the reverse. To remedy their mistake they are taught to

meditate on the impermanence, suffering, non-self, and impurity of the skandhas. They then make the mistake of seeing these negative qualities everywhere, thereby overlooking the true nature of the Dharmakaya, which is permanent, bliss, self, and purity.

Thus, Shentong, the final stage, is taught to remedy the meditator's tendency to cling to the habit - fostered on the earlier stages of the path - of negating whatever experience arises in his/her mind. This habit leads to the tendency to try to negate the Reality of Buddhajnana by making the same mistake as those mentioned in the RGVabove.

Although it is true that to call the Dharmakaya 'True Permanence' and so forth, or to say true Emptiness is really the non-dual Buddhajnana can easily be misunderstood, such teachings do have the important function of remedying the former fault. Thus, Shentong is the remedy for a certain kind of misunderstanding of Prasangika Madhyamaka, notwithstanding Prasangika Madhyamaka is in turn the remedy for a certain kind of misunderstanding of Shentong.

If Shentong is taught in order to remedy the misapplication of teachings directed at destroying false concepts, it is also to alert the practitioner to the presence of a dynamic, positive Reality that is to be experience once the conceptual mind is defeated.

Thus, Khenpo Tsultrim presents the final stage of the progressive stages of meditation on emptiness as Shentong. Whereas in Svatantrika and Prasangika Madhyamaka the absence of self-nature in apparent reality is emphasized, Shentongpas introduce a further subtlety by means of the Sandhinirmocanasulra (SNS) doctrine of the three natures, the three absences of essence and three modes of emptiness. In Shentong terms, the emptiness of apparent phenomena (the gagshi) of self-nature (the gagcha) is equivalent to the dependent nature's (i.e. paratantra, the gagshi' s) emptiness of the imaginary nature (parikalpita, the gagcha) . Thus, the paramarthasatya of Rangtong Madhyamaka is equivalent to the parinispanna of Cittamatra in the sense that it is the emptiness of the dependent nature (paratantra, the gagshi) of the imaginary nature (parikalpita, the gagcha). The difference is, of course, that for Cittamatrins parikalpita (the gagcha) is a duality of substance between mind and its objects, not self-nature (svabhava) in the Madh yam aka sense. The Shentong view is that for one' s understanding of emptiness to be complete one must rest in the Parinispanna (the gagshi) empty of imaginary nature (parikalpita, the gagcha) and dependent nature (paratantra, the gagcha), that is, one simply rests in non-dual Jnana abandoning all effort to see absence of imaginary nature (parikalpita) in the dependent nature (paratantra).

All Buddhist systems teach that all apparent (samvrti) phenomena apparently exist, that is, exist in a samvrti way. Shentong thinkers understand this as their seeming to exist as seeming or apparent realities, which means in effect that they never actually exist at all. Gelugpa and Svatant:rika Rangtongpas stress that some

phenomena never truly exist (bden grub) or never exist with self-nature, while continuing to imply that it is possible to exist falsely or to exist without self-nature. Shentong thinkers reject such a position as totally incoherent. When Shentongpas use expressions such as' apparent phenomena do not trul y exist' or 'do not exist with self-nature,' they mean 'apparent phenomena do not exist.'

Rangtongpas try to refute the Shentongpas at this stage by saying that they are falling into the nihilistic extreme of denying existence to what exists. For Buddhist it is vital to avoid the extreme nihilistic position of denying the truth of karma cause and effect (las rgyu 'bras) on the one hand and the spiritUal path and goal on the other. The Shentongpa defends himself/herself against the accusation of nihilism by saying he/she does not deny apparent reality anymore than Nagarjuna did. Nagarjuna and the Prasangikas accept seeming or apparent reality (samvrtisatya) insofar as that is how ordinary deluded beings experience the world . In other words, they would not deny to an ordinary being that he/she must suffer the consequences of hither karma and so fort. As for the Buddha dn the Buddha Qualities, these are not apparent reality . They have apparent (samvrti) counterparts that beings apprehend, but the real Buddha Qualities are Ultimate Reality, nonconditioned, non-arising, non-ceasing, ineffable, and beyond the conceptual mind. The question of the Absolute (para martha) nature of the Buddha Qualities is subtle and difficult to understand. Since it is a central them of Tathagatagarbha doctrine, we shall be returning to it frequently in this work.

Shentong thinkers have often been taken for Cittamatrins because they emphasize in this way the importance of distinguishing the three natures and the three modes of emptiness. Shentongpas argue that, since Cittamatrins treat the dependent nature (paratantra) as the base (the gagshi) and the parikalpita as what is to be refuted (the gagcha), they do not recognize the Parinispanna itself as the base (the gagshi). According to Shentongpas the true base (the gagshi) is What Is , variously referred to in the scriptures as the Absolute Dharmata, the Mind's True Nature, the Clear Light Nature of Mind, the Mind Itself (sems nyid ) , or the Tathagatagarbha. Therefore, there is a huge difference between Cittamatra and Shentong - unless one is thinking of what Dolpopa calls Absolute Cittamatra.

At this point, Rangtongpas accuse Shentongpas of falling into the position of asserting as existing what does not exist. Rangtongpas point out that Prajnaparam ita teachings of the second Dharmacakra say: 'All dharmas are empty of selfnature' and the list of 'all dharma' includes absolute as well as samvrti dharmas. Shentongpas do not deny that the Prajnaparamita teachings of the second Dharmacakra say this, but add that if this were ultimately the case, since self-empty )or emptiness-of-self-nature) means not to exist, then absolute dharmas such as Buddha, the Buddha Qualities, Nirvana, paramarthasatya and so forth , would all be nonexistent. To them this is nonsense. We will be returning to this argument again since it has far-reaching implications. It is because the second Dharmacakra gives

the impression that Absolute dharmas are ultimately empty of self-nature (rangtong) that Shentongpas such as Dolpopa class it as a provisional (Neyartha) and not the final or ultimate teaching (Nitartha) of the Buddha. They have excellent scriptural grounds for saying this because the only Sutra that explicitly states which of the Dharmacakras is Nitartha and which Neyartha is the SNS. According to this Sutra, the second Dharmacakra is Neyartha and the third Nitartha. Other Shentongpas (e.g. Kongtrul) call the second Dharmacakra Nitartha and the third Dharmacakra ultimate Nitartha.

How then do Shentongpas understand the teachings of the second Dharmacakra? How is it that the Prajnaparamita Sutras can say that absolute dharmas are as empty of self-nature as apparent dharmas are? The Shentong reply is that the second Dharmacakra is for removing the fault of thinking ultimate reality can be grasped by the ordinary conceptualizing mind or consciousness (vijnana ). Since ideas such as Buddha or the absolute can be shown by logical argument to be merely conceptually created constructs, they are careful to specify that it does not exist as a conceptually graspable entity; rather it has to be approached through' faith. ' When the Buddha is said to have qualities as countless as the sands of the Ganges, it is important to notice that the Sutras lay great emphasis on these qualities being inseparable from the nature of the Buddha. They are not qualities divisible from the entity qualified (such as are refuted by Madhyamaka reasoning of the second Dharmacakra). Since Shentong thinkers accept Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka arguments, which refute all conceptually created constructs about ultimate reality, they consider themselves Madhyamakas. Furthermore, since they do not mistake the true import of the Prajnaparamita - as their opponents surely do - they consider themselves to be the great or true Madhyamikas. On the other hand, because Shentongpas take Absolute Reality to be the Clear Light Nature of Mind, the nondual J nana that can only be experienced or realized through meditation experience, they consider themselves the true Yogacarins. Hence, they call themselves 'Yogacara-Madhyamikas.' For example, Kongtrul [SKK hum 32] refers to the Shentong view as Yogacara, including it under the general heading of Madhyamaka [SICK hum 3lb]. According to contemporary Shentongpas such as Kalu Rinpoche and Khenpo Tsultrim, Shentong is just another name for Yogacara Madhyamaka: simply the term 'Shentong' has become more current among Tibetans these days. Khenpo Tsultrim explains that confusion sometimes arises because, for Gelugpas and Sakyapas, Yogacara-Madhyamaka means Cittamatra. Shentongpas these days do not accept that their system is Cittamatra - at least in the ordinary sense.

Although one could say that the Yogacara Madhyamaka or Shentong view comes from the Nitartha Sutras of the Third Dharmacakras as commented on in the RGV, other commentarial traditions would not accept this as the true interpretation of those teachings. In the present work, I shall be describing the contents oftheRGV and its Vyakhya (which comments on the Tathagatagarbha Sutras of the third

Dharmacakra) for the reader to judge for himself how well the Shentong interpretation fits these texts. By way of contrast, I shall also from time to time draw the reader's attention to how Rangtong commentators interpret the same passages. The message of the RGV has been heralded for centuries as the great key to the Sutras and the Tantras. It is therefore important what we understand that message to be.

GUESS WHO?

Guess who is this young boy?

~i)oa:'Irf~ ll\A~8u~ '1I~8uJ:~t ~i>'1I~I ~]{

NEWS: KARMA TRIYANA DHARMACHAKRA

The Importance of the Monastery Project - In the Words of His Holiness the Karmapa

After completing the construction of the mai1l seat of His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa it is interesti1lg to recall the excerpts from the minutes of the Board of Directors Meetillg at Karma Triyalla Dharmachakra. July 28.1980.

The front of Karmatriyana Dharma Chakra monastery

The first Kanna Kagyu monastery to be established in the United States of America is going to be here in Woodstock. In doing divinations and making supplications to the Three Jewels, all indications seemed to be that this must be the place, the most auspicious and appropriate place for the construction of the monastery. Actually, the concern of the divination, and my concern, is not just having a building erected, but whether this would contribute to the peace and harmony of the people of this country. And it seems to look very positive. And if, through the establishment of this monastery, the preservation and the flourishing of the wisdom of this ageless tradition could be accomplished it would be very good. I feel that this is workable, and this gives the inspiration and the courage that this must be done, and in fact, done as soon as possible. I wish to request your sincere and wholehearted effort, working together, in plans and projects, to bring this about.

The purpose of this project, and the vision behind this project is not for the sake of any kind of fame or popularity or personal reputation. The people of this country definitely need the Mahayana teaching to be available to them. If it flourishes , it will bring peace to the country, and ultimately, enlightenment to its people. That is the path, there is no other. In order to establish this firmly asa reality,

there is need of a base. The base, the essential source for the continuous study of the Mahayana teachings is this project. Peace and harmony is absolutely necessary for the people of this country and for people everywhere. Before people are able to taIceresponsibility and realize the importance of such, we as pioneers must establish the base, so that no matter how long it takes for people to connect themselves and realize the importance of the application of the Dharma in their lives, that it will be maintained and preserved.

We must all have the same aspirations and the same attitude that our work is done in order to help and benefit all beings, and that our concern is for the betterment of humanity everywhere. Our goal is to bring peace, harmony and upliftment, and experience of the enlightened mind to the people of this country in particular. This is our vision and this is our project. The hope is that we will succeed in this project. That we will all be able to contribute so successfully that even if we are gone, that still for hundreds of years what we have put together will continue to live and manifest for the benefit of all.

Another important point is that we are not going to play politics in the name of the Dharma. That is a disgrace to the Dharma in terms of its dignity and in terms of the purity ofthe Dharma. My only concern is to benefit beings through the purity of the Dharma. Anyone who is of this mind, I will commit myself fully to them. But if all kinds of politics are involved there are other places where I need to be.

In Tibetan Buddhism there are four major schools, the Gelug, Kagyu , Nyingma and Sakya. The teachings being those of the Buddha, these schools are exactly the same, though practiced in different styles out of convenience and because of a particular approach. It is important to remember that whatever school or line of practice with which one is involved, one works toward the flourishing of that practice, for upliftment through that practice, and for the maintenance of teachings in a correct way both internally and externally. At the same time it is important to extend our openness, respect and our friendship among all schools. In the Kagyu school itself, right now, there are three major centers - under the direction of Karm a TriyanaDharmachakra, TrungpaRinpocheand KaluRinpoche, which are under the overall direction of the Karmapa, being part of the Kagyu lineage. In these cases there is no difference. There may be teachings manifested in different ways, but actually the teachings manifested are the same. Everyone needs to have this understanding, that there is really no difference whatsoever. It is exactly the same, and this is not being said just in order to have a better relationship, but because this is the true situation. Holding one attitude inside and having some different attitude outside is not the way of the Dharma. This is wearing the mask of the Dharma. And so, wholeheartedly and purely we will work together, for our concern is benefiting beings.

Be it your money, be it your effort, whatever is offered, if it is offered sincerely and wholeheartedly for the Dharma it is never a waste.

NEWS: KAGYU THUBTEN CHOLING

Kagyu Thubten ChOling is Kalu Rinpoche's meditation center in the MidHudson Valley area of New York. Lama Norllia, a meditation master fully trained in the Kagyu tradition, guides the center's comm unity of practitioners in integrating the authentic practice of Tibetan Buddhism with simple daily living.

The search for a place to start the traditional three-year, three-month retreat ended in 1979, when Lama Norlha and members ofKalu Rinpoche's New York City Dharma center bought a simple one-story building, a former factory, on seven acres ofland overlooking the Hudson River in Wappingers Falls, NY. Soon after, a small group of members began renovation of the main building and construction of the retreat houses. Inspired by Lama Norlha' s unwavering dedication to the project and working with him laying foundations and building drywells, they worked twelve or more hours a day; in the evening, Lama Norlha gave them lessons in reading Tibetan. Within two years, the main building had a second story with a shrine room, Rinpoche 's quarters and guest rooms, and the two drupkangs [retreat houses], one for men and one for women, were ready for retreatants to begin the first traditional three-year retreat in North America.

The second retreat began in 1986, with some who had completed the first returning for a second time. Meanwhile, Thubten CMling continued to grow and flourish , not only as a training ground for the the three-year retreat, but as a study and meditation center in itself, with regular weekend seminars given by Lama Norlha, special study courses offered by visiting lamas, and a daily schedule of chanting, meditation and work periods. Residents and guests alike found themselves in an environment rich in opportunities to stabilize and enhance their Dharma practice. In response to the increasing interest of his students, Lama Norlha enlarged and deepened his presentation of the Dharma, and began training students in more detail in the traditional elements of Tibetan Buddhism, such as the ritual procedures and music which accompany the daily chanting assemblies. Lama Norlha has always emphasized that properly carrying out these activities is an excellent way of accumulating merit.

Visitors are often impressed at how well so many of the traditional Tibetan Buddhist practices are preserved at Thubten CMling. Led by Lama Norlha,

practitioners chant together in Tibetan morning and evening. They conduct several monthly dii-chod [chanting of sadhanas] such as DorjePhagmo, Khorlo Demchok, and Gonpo Bernachen, on the appropriate days of the Tibetan month. In general, whether they are learning to read a commentary in Tibetan, play the gyaling, mold a torma out of dough or make a wick for a butterlamp, Lama Norlha encourages practitioners to train themselves thoroughly and to undertake the task with joy. Residents are urged to generate a similar attitude toward whatever work they do for the Dharma center, and Lama Norlha himself is as equally involved in the daily running of the center as he is in the formal teaching of the Dharma.

Between the second and third three-year retreats, members of the center undertook several major work projects. To meet the growing need for a diversity of retreat facilities, a new building was constructed for women to do individual retreats of varying length. The kitchen and dormitories of Thubten ChOling's main building were completely renovated. The most intensive project was the renovation ofthe shrine room. Tibetan artist Thinley ChOjor, assisted by members ofthe center, painted the walls and ceiling in traditional Tibetan design. A group of nuns painted the faces of the thousand Buddha statues that line the walls around a large central Buddha. All the statues in the shrine room were filled with thousands of zungs [special prayers and blessing mantras] which were painted with saffron and rolled into cylinders by monks and nuns. With these images of the Buddha, the entire collection of the Kangyur and Tengyurtexts and stupas, the shrine room is complete with the traditional symbols of the Buddha's Body, Speech and Mind.

The third three-year retreats began in the Fall of1991. In addition to teaching the retreats, Lama Norlha teaches regularly at Thubten Choling and the New York City center, Kagyu Dzamling Kiinchab. He emphasizes developing a strong basis for practice through study and contemplation of the four thoughts which tum the mind toward the Dharma,! the five skandhas [aggregates],2 and Dependent Origination.3 To these teachings he joins instruction in Taking and Sending meditation to develop compassion, and shamatha meditation to stabilize the mind. Lama Norlha believes this approach is particularly beneficial during these difficult times when the mind is easily distracted by objects of the five senses, and many obstacles arise to Dharma practice. These teachings are the indispensable groundwork of pure Dharma practice, and when properly internalized, form the foundation on which one can build an understanding of higher teachings.

Lama Norlha's students who have completed one or two three-year retreats also lead seminars and short retreats at both centers. Several of them have become very learned in Buddhist studies and Tibetan language and share their skills with others by offering group classes and private tutoring. Residents and guests also have the opportunity to learn to play the traditional musical instruments and to make tOf"maS and butterlamps. All of these activities are ways of making offerings to the Three Jewels and are powerful methods for accumulating merit. Butterlamps, for

example, traditionally symbolize the wisdom which dispels the darkness of ignorance. Kalu Rinpoche for many years offered a hundred butterlamps a day and they are also offered regularly at Thubten ChOling. Construction of a butterlamp house to hold a thousand butterlamps and a thousand bowls of offering water is currently underway.

Thubten ChOling has been exceptionally fortunate to have a lama-inresidence who offers the close, practical guidance given by Lama Norlha. Joining his students at meals and attending their work meetings, routine events become infused with the Dharma through his observations and counsel. He has stressed that because the Dharma is new to the West, it is very important that the Dharma center be stable in order to preserve the teachings, and so residents are encouraged to learn, and learn well, as many of the different jobs necessary to run the center as they can. He urges his students to see their work as an opportunity to accumulate merit and practice mind-training - whatever is done, from washing dishes to painting an eyebrow on a Buddha statue, should be done with the attitude that the work will help all sentient beings. Work can be used to develop the Paramitas [virtuous qualities] such as diligence and patience, or simply as mindfulness training. Lama Norlha's own intimate participation in the daily activities of the Dharma center is undoubtedly one of the greatest strengths ofThubten Choling, and a vivid demonstration that pure Dharma is meant to pervade one's life and experience.

For more information, please call or write: Kagyu Thubten ChOling 127 Sheafe Road Wappingers Falls, NY 12590 Tel.: [914] 297-2500

I The Four Thoughts are 1] that our human birth provides a rare and precious opportunity to practice the Dharma; 2] that our life is impermanent and therefore we must exert oursel ves in making it meaningful; 3] that the connection between action, cause and result is infallible, and so we must abandon unvirtuous acts and practice virtue; 4] that the nature of samsara is suffering. 2 The Five Skandhas refer to the constituents of our experience which are directly related to our habitual tendency to cling to a self. 3 Dependent Origination is the interdependence of all phenomena, a central insight of Buddhism which is the basis for an understanding of emptiness.

NEWS: SAMYELING

The Samye Ling Experience

If you happen to come to Samye Ling on a clear day, the last few miles of what for most people is a very long journey ,is an unforgettable experience. You approach through forestry plantations; miles of nothing but trees, then suddenly the view opens out and you are looking across a wide valley bordered by ranges of hills stretching as far as the eye can see. The road dips steeply and tums into the village of Eskdalemuir. If you look to the north-east before you descend, you might just catch a glimpse of a golden roof above a clump of pines.

Samye Ling has evolved steadily over 20 years from a handful of disciples who gathered around Trungpa Rinpoche and Akong Rinpoche in the late 60' s, to become a thriving community and Dharma Centre of world repute. The centre has attracted people from all over the world from various walks of life and many have given up jobs or commitments outside to be better able to help and take part in the centre's activities. The community as a whole consists of around 100 persons, with 60 of those living and working in the centre itself.

The Abbot and Administrator of Samye Ling, Akong Tulku Rinpoche, is the inspiration and driving force of the centre. It is through peoples' devotion to him and their endeavouring to realize his aims that the centre has grown. Those aims include: to provide a place of quiet and retreat for people of all beliefs; to offer general Buddhist and especially Tibetan Buddhist instruction through courses, retreats and personal tuition under well-qualified teachers; to preserve Tibet's rich religious and cultural heritage; to promote cultural, religious, and medical exchanges in order to foster the growth of compassion and well-being in today ' s world.

Since 1988 and the end of the first four-year retreat, Lama Yeshe Losal , the Retreat Master, brother of Akong Rinpoche, who himself has spent many years in solitary retreat, has devoted increasingly more of his energy to running the centre. He divides his time between directing the day-to-day activities at Samye Ling and leading the second retreat at the retreat centre. This has been necessitated by Akong Rinpoche spending much of the year abroad, fulfilling commitments to give teachings mainly around the therapy course outlined in his book 'Taming the Tiger'.

In the past two years Akong Rinpoche has also been deeply involved in setting up ROKPA, a world-wide charity organisation dedicated to offering help wherever it is needed. Projects include: building clinics and schools in rural areas of Tibet, feeding and clothing street people in Nepal, arranging sponsorships for Tibetan refugees, and providing soup, blankets, etc., for the homeless in London, Glasgow and other European cities.

Venerable Akong Tulku Rinpoche

Lama Yeshe Losal began his retreat at Karma Triyana in 1980 where he was previously the treasurer and secretary and he was also directly responsible for buying the property. After six years he was persuaded by his brother to return to Scotland and continue his retreat at the Samye Ling retreat centre. This he agreed to do, expecting to stay in retreat untj) the year 2000. However, this was not to be. The previous retreat master, Lama Ganga, passed away shortly after the end of the first retreat and Lama Yeshe agreed to take over.

The retreat centre, situated half a mile from Samye Ling, was extended in 1989, and accommodates 18 monks and 18 nuns, six of whom have taken full ordination and 30 who have taken ordination for the duration of the retreat. In March of 1992 the retreaters will be entering the final year of their intensive four-year programme. For nine of them it will be the completion of their second retreat at the centre.

One of the notable projects Lama Yeshe has initiated is the construction of

the great Prayer Wheel. Within its richly decorated pagoda-like structure the gemstudded drum contains the 'Om Manj Peme Hung' mantra over 21 billion times on 45 miles of microfilm. The completed wheel is housed at the retreat centre and is kept turning by an electric motor, day and night. It is unique in that it contains more manis than any other wheel ever made, [one for every human being in the world!] and also that it is an ingenious blend of Tibetan tradition and the latest Western technology.

In 1978, carrying out the wishes of His Holiness the 16th Karmapa, Akong Rinpoche initiated the first stage of building the Samye Temple, representing phase one of an ambitious project which will eventually include a college, therapy centre and library built round a quadrangle, the temple taking up one whole side. Starting with next to no money and only a handful of dedicated Dharma students, most with little or no previous experience of building work, the site was cleared and foundations dug, all without the aid of mechanical earth-moving vehicles or equipment. At the beginning it was hard tedious work, and many must have thought the plan was hopeless. Sometimes progress was held up for months through the lack of money for materials. Often work had to be carried out in the rain or in freezing conditions. As the months turned into years, people acquired skills and everyone gained a greater confidence in tackling necessary but often unfamiliar tasks. For many it was their first chance to prove they had determination and could apply themselves. Workshops were built and equipped to do joinery, metalwork, casting, gilding, and screen printing; parts of the temple superstructure and decoration were fabricated there. Everything was carried out under the keen eye of the master artist Sherabpalden Beru who had the final say on every piece of carving and every spot of colour in the temple.

By 1987 the shell was completed and it was time for the various pieces of interior decor to be brought in from the workshops and fitted into place. For example, over 200 large panels printed in 16 colours were fastened to the ceiling and an enormous shrine was built containing a large Buddha figure with places for 1,000 smaller gilded Buddhas, as well as texts and other precious objects. The date 8.8.88 was fixed for the opening, but there was still so much to be done. Rinpoche urged everyone to coordinate better and to work longer hours, seven days a week.

The temple was officially opened by the 12th Tai Situpa and Right Hon. David Steel M.P. in front of an audience of thousands of invited guests, friends and visitors. The celebration lasted a month and included a festival of Eastern and Western music, dance and drama. It was ajoyful occasion and a fitting culmination to the years of effort put in by so many people.

Since the opening, the centre has been visited by more people every year. The temple has become an educational resource in the area and groups of students or schoolchildren are offered seminars and accommodation by arrangement. Guided tours are also available for coach parties and for passing tourists during the holiday

season. There is a cafe where home-made cakes and refreshments are available, and a shop selling pottery and other items made at the centre. However, in accordance with Rinpoche' s wish, the temple is not just a beautiful building and is always open for persons wishing to meditate or pray.

Pujas and meditation sessions take place daily in the main shrine room as well as teachings at regular intervals throughout the year. At these times, a folding partition can be drawn back to accommodate up to SOO people. When the partition is closed, therapy courses and general meetings are held in the rear of the shrine room. The first floor contains a residence and audience room for visiting Lamas; the top floor is a reliquary and a meeting room that is used for the yearly Inter-Faith Symposium. Leaders of many religions came to the temple opening and became friends of the centre. It was to deepen these connections and expand the areas of agreement that the first Inter-Faith Symposium was convened with the theme 'Compassion through Understanding'. Now it is an annual event at Samye Ling where papers are presented and discussed. Subsequently these papers are gathered together and published at Samye Ling in book form.

In recent years, most importantly, the temple has been used for the Mahamudra course established and led by Tai Situpa. This consists of parallel courses, one lasting five years and the other seven years. For four weeks and two weeks each year respectively, a retreat is held where teachings are given for these two groups of people. Mahamudra techniques never before taught outside of retreat, or taught in any other but a guru-student, one-to-one situation, are explained. Students are given private tuition and a programme of practice to be followed throughout the rest of the year. This has proved to be a very valuable discipline for many people and has been a great inspiration and source of energy for the residents. After the finishing of the temple, there was a need for a spiritual goal and a sense of direction and the Mahamudra course has provided it.

As for the future, phase two of the Samye project is in its very early stages and plans for a short term retreat centre have had to be shelved. However, a new and exciting project has appeared on the horizon, which will in its turn facilitate and provide invaluable experience for the completion of phase two. It will also make the building of a new short-term retreat centre unnecessary.

Over 12 months ago, Lama Yeshe was approached by a Mrs Morris who said she had an island to sell. Lama Yeshe was excited by the prospect and decided to visit it. The fact that it was a rugged undeveloped island with lots of caves and also, very importantly, a holy island inhabited by St Molaise in the sixth century, convinced him it would be ideal for retreat. Mrs Morris was concerned that the island should be well looked after and that its spiritual heritage should be preserved. She was happy for us to buy the island. The only obstacle was the price. One year later, after much discussion , a price was agreed upon. Now a deposit has been paid, the Holy Island Project has been launched and all avenues are being investigated to

raise money to complete the payment and subsequently to build the retreats. Samye Ling has been in existence for nearly 25 years, and has gone through

many changes. For my part, I have been resident here for only five years. Samye Ling can be experienced on many different levels. It is something that has to be lived through. Samye Ling is practical Dharma, profound and precious teachings on a day-to-day level. Sometimes I see us walking along a knife-edge path with a gulf on either side, this side Samsara, the other side spiritual materialism. It is only through the unfailing wisdom and guidance of Akong Rinpoche, Lama Yeshe, Tai Situpa and other visiting Lamas that we keep on the right track and that we are able in our small way to help all sentient beings towards complete and inevitable enlightenment.

Alan Sharples 12.12.91

NEWS: NEPAL & SWEDEN Transmission of Dam Ngak DzOd [Treasury of Key Instructions] by Venerable Thrangu Rinpoche in Tashi CMling, Nepal, from May 4th to 31st 1992 , and in Sweden, in July 1st to 31st 1992.

The first Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche composed a vast collections of Teachings as the Five Treasuries [DzOd Nga). Of these, the Dam Ngak DzOd contains Teachings of the Eight Main Practising Lineages of Tibetan Buddhism in ten volumes.

These eight main Teachings are: 1] Kadampa Teachings

Old Kadampa Teachings and Empowerments of Atisha divided into three divisions of Dam Ngak, Men Ngak and Zhung. Mind Training.

New Kadampa or Gelukpa Teachings of Tsongkapa Lam-Rim and Mahamudra. 2] Sakyapa Teachings

Lam Dre and Hevajra Empowerment. Teachings of eight great Indian Mahasiddhas. Shamatha meditation. Mindfulness of the Horn of Yamantaka. Empowerment of Protectors. 3] Marpa Kagyu Teachings

Oral instructions and teachings of Chakrasamvara from Gampopa, Rechungpa and N gen Song. Milarepa' s instructions and Bardo Teachings. Six Y ogas of Naropa and Mahamudra.

Special Karma Kamtsang Mahamudra instructions and Dorje Phagma instructions.

Teachings of Drukpa Kagyu including Upper and Lower DruJ,,-pa. Empowerments of Mahakali and Four-arm Mahakala.

4] Shangpa Kagyu Teachings Teachings and Empowerments of Niguma including Six Yogas, Chakras

mavara, five main yidams and Mahamudra. Mahamudra of Tangtong Gyalpo. Empowerments of thirteen Mahakala Protectors. 5] Shi-je

Instructions of Padampa Sangye. Empowerments of Manjushri, Chenresig and Tara. Empowerments of the

Five Paths. Maitripa's Chakrasamvara and Protector Agura Mahakala. ChOd practice. Empowerment and Teachings of Phowa. Offering of body

and tsag.

'i..~V;;..i· .,, -~.

The Very Venerable Thrangu Rinpoche

6] Kalachakra Teachings Empowerment of nine deities Kalachakra and Protector Dorje Shog. Dzog

rim of Kalachakra. 7] Orgyenpa and other minor Traditions

Teachings of Dorje Sum [Vajrayogini], Empowerments of Eighty-four Mahasiddhas and Protector. Empowerments of Gyalwa Gyatso, Manjushri, Tara, Amitayus and Protectors. 8] Nyingma Dzog-chen Teachings

Teachings and Empowerments of Maha Yoga, Anu Yoga and Ati Yoga. Sem De, Long De and Men Ngak De of Ati Yoga.

All are invited to attend the transmission given by Rinpoche for the first time. You may attend wholly or partially. If accomodation is required please inform as soon as possible.

About 300 people including monks, nuns and lay disciples are expected to participate at this Auspicious occasion. OUf centre plans to raise US $ 10,000 to provide food daily for all those receiving the teachings.

This amount is also expected to feed about 500 beggars daily around the Great Stupa of Boudhanath, Nepal, during this period of time.

We hope you will contribute towards this act of generosity. Donations should be sent to us anytime before 6th April, 92.

Thank you and best wishes.

For further information please contact:

Thrangu Tashi Chbling P.O. Box 1287 Kathmandu, Nepal Tel. : [977] 1-4772024

or

Karma Shedrub Dargye Ling Hbkarvagen 2 S 12658 Hagersten Sweden Tel.: 08/88 6950

NEWS: YEUNTEN LING

A Genuine School for Buddhist Art Directed by Gega Lama Wiu Continue its Activities in Yeunten Ling.

Gega Lama is one of the last surviving masters of Tibetan painting. Author of the manual "Principles of Tibetan Art" [please, contact Yeunten Ling for information], which we have published, he has also been named by the four regents as the "official holder of the typically Kagyu tradition ofTibetan art, the style known as Karma Gardri".

We impatiently await the appearance ofthe second volume of his work which will deal with symbolism and colours. The first volume is already used allover the world as the technical manual and principal reference work for Tibetan art.

The frescoes in the temple in Yeunten Ling, the great Buddha statue behind the chateau and the other one in the stupa, also the statue of Kalu Rinpoche, the 25 golden thangkas and the many others that can be seen in the centre, are so many examples of the perfection and great mastery of his art. The classical beauty which radiates from his works represents for many practitioners a perfect support for practice.

Gega Lama himself has profoundl y realized the teachings of the Dharma: this is evidenced by his immense modesty and the respect in which his fellow Tibetans hold him.

Through his creations, his research work and his teachings to student painters he has given an artistic service to the preservation of Tibetan culture which is unequalled.

Finally, the art course which Gega Lama previously directed in Yeunten Ling will resume its activities. Furthermore, Gega Lama will remain in Yeunten Ling for a period of at least a year, if not two. He will direct the building works of the new temple. During this entire period the Western artists will therefore have the quite exceptional opportunity to continue their studies and practice in the field of Tibetan art, under his direction.

Programme Three types of activity are anticipated: an intensive course from L July to 30

August and a supervised apprenticeship for a longer period, also a series of lectures in different places in Europe accompanied by various activities:

1. The programme for the intensive course is as follows: The Art Workshop Workshop on Tibetan Art

The technique of drawing

Page 85

Lessons for students of the first year [weekdays 10- Ilh] on iconographic measures, drawing and correction.

The technique of colour Courses for the second and third year [weekdays 12- 13h] on the use of colour, preparation of the canvas etc.

Ritual practices and handicrafts Lessons for the fourth and fifth year [weekdays 9 - IOh] on sculpture, mandalas, consecration of statues, construction of a Chorten.

Guided practice for all students Advanced students will work together with Gega Lama and his two assistant teachers Rinzin Tcheudeun and Temba Rabgay.

Comnwn course Every weekday 19 - 20h, Gega Lama will give teachings on history and characteristics of the Karma Gardri tradition.

Study of Tibetan Language A complementary course on translating of Tibetan texts related to artistic practice will be held on Saturdays and Sundays, 11-12h and 15 - 16h.

Optional Tara-puja [7h], Mahakala-puja [18h], and Tchenresig-puja [20h] are held daily.

Those who are interested in the courses are requested to subscribe in advance for a period of 14 days minimum. The course fee will be 400 Bf per day, the price of lodging 600 BF per day.

Please return your reservation to: Yeunten Ling

Chateau de Fond L 'Eveque Promenade St. Jean l' Agneau

4500 Huy, Belgium Phone 085/21 48 20

Telefax: 085/23.66.58

2. A long-term supervised apprenticeship From 1 September the students and artists who wish to attend lessons and be

guided by Gega Lama for a longer period can arrange a year-long programme of studies and practice with the master himself.

All fields which relate to Tibetan art [such as mandalas, sculpture, thangka -painting] can be taken into consideration. Gega Lama will also bring some Tibetan reference works to Yeunten Ling, which were only recently rediscovered and thus will be able to instruct beginners as well as scholars according to their needs.

3. The lecture series From next Autumn 1992, a series of conferences will be given at various

places in Europe. As the director of the Department of Fine Arts in the University of Rumtek

in India, Gega Lama is indeed the most accomplished master in this field. We will therefore not miss this opportunity to organize lectures on Tibetan art accompanied by various activities [such as workshops, exhibitions etc.]

BOOKS

THE SHAMBHALA SUN

"We need to find the link between our traditions and our present experience of life. Nowness, or the magic of the present moment, is what joins the wisdom of the past with the present." - ChOgyam Trungpa, 'Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior'

In 1976, the Buddhist teacher ChOgyam Trungpa Rinpoche introduced the Shambhala teachings to the West. These teachings are a secular counterpart to the Buddhist tradition, transcending the boundaries of religion and extending the principles of meditation and sacred world to a wider audience. Trungpa Rinpoche hoped that the Vajradhatu Sun , for fourteen years a leading Buddhist newspaper, would eventually evolve to reflect this expanded viewpoint.

In accordance with his wishes, the Shambhala Sun will be launched in April, 1992, exploring all aspects of contemplative practice and contemporary life. To the Buddhist perspective is added the provocative teachings of Sham bhala, bringing the wisdom of nowness and basic goodness to everyday life.

Incorporating the Vajradhatu Sun, the Shambhala Sun will continue to present news from across the Buddhist world, announcements, events and important teachings of all traditions, such as those featured in recent issues: - The Four Yogas of Mahamudra, by His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche - Finding Your Own Voice: Women and the Wisdom Tradition of Buddhism, by Bhikshuni Perna ChOdron - Relating with Death, by the Vidyadhara, ChOgyam Trungpa Rinpoche - The Nature of Mind, teachings from five Lineages at the Kalachakra held in New York - Bardo teachings, by Tulku Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche

The Sun is published bi-monthly, with editorial offices now in Halifax,Nova Scotia. Subscriptions may be ordered by calling or writing The Shambhala Sun , P.O. Box 399, Halifax Central, Halifax, N.S., Canada B3J 2P8. [902] 422-8404.

Fax: [902] 423-2750. $ 18 US 3rd class post; $ 25 for 1st class; $ 30 Cdn in Canada; $ 4.00 for sample issue.

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the profound path of peace · 88 his eminence jamgon kongtrul rinpoche issue no. ii february 1992 ....

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