topics: |  buddhism | tibet | tantra

This book is completely straightforward and lucid, and it seems to go to the heart of Tibetan Buddhist practice. Thaye outlines the history of Buddhism in general, how it spread to Tibet, and then goes on to detail its basic practices, giving justifications and rationalizations for the various steps.

bio (back cover): Lama Jampa Thaye is one of the first Westerners to be recognized as a master. He has trained in the Sakya and Kagyu traditions with some of the most distinguished Tibetan spiritual leaders.

Excerpts / Notes

At the age of 29, Gautama the Buddha renounced the luxuries of his palace, and started wandering across northern India seeking a more meaningful existence. He met many gurus, but found no solace. Eventually, after six years, he came to a realization under a tree at Bodhgaya near the river Neranjana. A few weeks later he at Sarnath, he spoke of his vision to five friends [shramaNas, wandering ascetics] whom he had met earlier during in the period before Bodh Gaya, who became his disciples. In his first sermon at the deer park [Mrigadava] in Sarnath (the site of a stupa built by Ashoka), the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, he outlined the Four Noble Truths :

1. duHkha: The truth of suffering.  BK Matilal looks upon duHkha as a
	theme that binds Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, and perhaps, Sikhism:
	Duhkha underlines "the undesirability or non-finality of the worldly
	life for persons who strive to discover a higher, better, greater, and
	transcendent truth beyond all this"  p.11, excerpt:chapter 2
      Logical and Ethical Issues: An Essays on Indian Philosophy of Religion

2. samudaya: The truth of the cause of suffering: attachment to [craving: Pali
	tanha, Skt triShNa] self [worldly pleasures, mAyA,] - leads to
	repeated coming into existence [bhava]
3. nirodha: The truth of the cessation of suffering : nirvAna [when craving
	ends, one is freed from desire]
4. mArga: The truth of the path to the cessarion of suffering - the noble
	eight-fold path; that is, right view, right intention, right speech,
	right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right
	concentration."

The original sources

[While these four truths appear several times in the Samyutta Nikaya and the
Anguttara Nikaya in the Pali canon, they are not referred as frequently in
the traditions of China and Japan.  It is certainly a part of Dalai Lama's
teachings; see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXmdKWVirUA
    The eight-fold path stresses an approach of moderation, away from the
extremes of sensual indulgence and self-mortification and toward the
practice of wisdom, morality and mental cultivation (the middle way,
majjhimā patipadā).  In some traditions (madhyamika?), it is also said that
when his companions asked him - what great austerities have you performed,
he said, No, I have given up all extremes, and this is sometimes mentioned
even before the four truths.  ]

from the w Chinese and Pali canon texts:

   1. The Nature of Suffering (Dukkha):
      "This is the noble truth of suffering: birth is suffering, aging is
      suffering, illness is suffering, death is suffering; sorrow,
      lamentation, pain, grief and despair are suffering; union with what is
      displeasing is suffering; separation from what is pleasing is suffering;
      not to get what one wants is suffering; in brief, the five aggregates
      subject to clinging are suffering."[9][10]

   2. Suffering's Origin (Samudaya):
      "This is the noble truth of the origin of suffering: it is this craving
      which leads to renewed existence, accompanied by delight and lust,
      seeking delight here and there, that is, craving for sensual pleasures,
      craving for existence, craving for extermination."[9][10]

   3. Suffering's Cessation (Nirodha):
      "This is the noble truth of the cessation of suffering: it is the
      remainderless fading away and cessation of that same craving, the giving
      up and relinquishing of it, freedom from it, nonreliance on it."[9][10]

   4. The Way (Mārga) Leading to the Cessation of Suffering:
      "This is the noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of
      suffering: it is the Noble Eightfold Path; that is, right view, right
      intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort,
      right mindfulness, right concentration."[11][12]

[9] _Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta_ (Samyutta Nikaya 56.11), trans. Bodhi (2000),
	pp. 1843-47.
[10] "轉法輪經".  Cbeta.
[11] Samyutta Nikaya 56.11, trans. Bodhi (2000), p. 1844. In this translation,
	Bodhi elides the six middle factors of the Noble Eightfold Path
	(between right view and right concentration). Thus Bodhi's translation
	for the six middle factors was taken from his translation of SN 45.1
	(Bodhi, 2000, p. 1523-24). See also Feer (1976), p. 421f.
[12] In Anguttara Nikaya 3.61, the Buddha provides an alternate elaboration
	on the second and third noble truths identifying the arising and
	cessation of suffering in accordance with Dependent Origination's
	Twelve Causes, from ignorance to old age and death (Thanissaro, 1997).

Mahayana and Hinayana

For those disciples whose understanding was more penetrating, the Buddha's
message was that they should strive to become awakened not only to become free
from suffering oneself, but above all to help others achieve liberation.  This
is the mahAyana (great vehicle), in contrast to the path laid out for ordinary
people, the hinAyana (lesser vehicle).  The mahAyana stresses that the
true nature of reality lies beyond all conceptual notion and thus is best
characterized as emptiness, and the supreme path is that of the bodhisattva,
one who works for enlightenment impelled by his compassionate resolve to
achieve the welfare of others.  p.6-7

Within the mahAyana also are the teachings known as tantras, which gives
rise to the vajrAyana.  These may have been given by Buddha in a form other
than his physical body, and may have even been revealed after his physical
death (at age 80, in Kushinagara, the site of an ancient monolithic 6m
sandstone statue of the reclining buddha).  The first of these, the
guhyasamaja tantra [Secret Assembly], was preached to king Indrabhuti, as a
means of seeking salvation in the middle of ordinary life.

Growth of Buddhism in India

After his death, his hinAyana teachings were collected by 500 disciples and
organized into three baskets (piTaka): abhidharma (philosophy), vinaya
(monastic practice), and the sutras (discourses of the Buddha).  These were
committed to collective memory and eventually to writing.  Similarly, the
mahAyana teachings were collected by various bodhisattvas.  The most secret of
Buddha's teachings, the tantra, were later collected by the bodhisattva
vajrapANi.

Rise of the Mahayana

For the first two c. after Buddha, the laity organized themselves according to
the vinaya tradition, i.e. in the hinayana.  Gradually, though, with the
work of Nagarjuna and Asanga, the mahayana teachings came to the fore. From
their teachings emerged the two great philosophical schools of mahAyana: the
madhyamika (middle way) and the chittamAtra (mind only).

	Sabbamatthī'ti kho ..., ayameko anto.
	Sabbaṃ natthī'ti ayaṃ dutiyo anto.
	... [U]bho ante anupagamma
	majjhena tathāgato dhammaṃ deseti.[Pali text: Samyutta Niyaka,
		Kaccānagottasutta]

"'Everything exists': That is one extreme.
'Everything doesn't exist': That is a second extreme.
Avoiding these two extremes,
the Tathagata teaches the Dhamma via the middle...."
	[tr. Thanissaro]

[from w Mahayana]: Although the Mahayana movement traces its origin to Gautama
Buddha, scholars believe that it originated in South India ~ 1st century
CE,[4][5] or the 1st century BCE.[6][7] Scholars think that Mahayana only
became a mainstream movement in India in the fifth century CE, since that is
when Mahayanic inscriptions started to appear in epigraphic records in
India.[8] Before the 11th century CE (while Mahayana was still present in
India), the Mahayana Sutras were still in the process of being revised. Thus,
several different versions may have survived of the same sutra. These
different versions are invaluable to scholars attempting to reconstruct the
history of Mahayana.

In the course of its history, Mahayana spread throughout East Asia. The main
countries in which it is practiced today are China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam
and worldwide amongst Tibetan Buddhist practitioners]

The vajrAyana

after many generations of transmission in secret, it came to the fore only in
the medieval period.  8th c. onwards, masters (siddhas): Saraha, Naropa, and
Virupa.

Buddhism in Tibet

Commenced during Songsten Gampo (609-49), and climaxed under his
great-grandsom, Trison Detsen (756-97).  The Indian abbot Shantaraksthis was
invited by Trison to Tibet, but his work faced considerable resistance, both
from nobles opposed to the king, and others (nagas) following traditional
rituals.  The work of building a monastery and could be completed only under
the vajrAyana master Padmasambhava, from Oddiyana, probably present-day
Afghanistan or Pakistan.  Padmasambhava is regarded by many Tibetans as a
second Buddha.  He was at the time meditating in Nepal, and acceded to the
king's invitation.  Padmasambhava managed to quell the protests and trained 25
disciples in the vajrAyana, including the young woman Yeshe Tsogyal who became
his consort and a master of vajrakilaya.  Taught three sets of practices -
maha-yoga, anu-yoga, and ati-yoga.  The latter is the climax of the teachings,
the primordial state of enlightenment.

[Yeshe Tsogyal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeshe_Tsogyal w is a Dakini or female tantric deity, often represented in
Thangka paintings as in a Yab-Yum position with Padmasambhava (he, lotus
position, she on his lap).

	[Dakini http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakini_(Buddhism) w: elusive
	tantric deity that might best be described as a female embodiment of
	enlightened energy. In the Tibetan language, dakini is rendered
	Khandroma which means 'she who traverses the sky' or 'she who moves in
	space'. Sometimes the term is translated poetically as 'sky dancer' or
	'sky walker'.

Although she was originally one of the Queen consorts of Trisong Detsen,
she was given to Padmasambhava and became his main spiritual consort. After
many years of diligent study she achieved a level of enlightenment equal to
his. Yeshe Tsogyal was the main compiler of Padmasambhava's teachings]

w kilaya:
[vajrakilaya  - kilaya is a phallic symbol, often used as a ritual stake]
]

After the passing of Shantarakshita and Padmasambhava's departure from Tibet,
a great debate was held in Lhasa between the followers of the Indian tradition
and those practicing earlier Chinese practices.  This debate was a decisive
victory for the Indian practices, led by Kamalashila, a disciple of Sh.
Trison then decreed that only these Buddhist practices would be permitted in
Tibet.

Taking refuge

We can take refuge only in that which is completely dependable.  The three
such sources, the "three jewels" are:

1. The buddha: there may have been countless others who realized the source of
	emptiness that characterizes the nature of reality.  However, Buddha
	may have been the wone to uncover this at a time when it's nature had
	become obscured.

2. The dharma: the practice of the methods given by Buddha.  But how
	does one know these instructions are reliable?  Because they can be
	tested with one's owni reasoning.  These tests must be done if one
	wants to take refuge in dharma; Buddha told his disciples not to rely
	on his teaching simply because he had said so.  "One should be like a
	merchant who tests gold before buying it." 25

3. The sangha:  Although one may practice the dharma by oneself, in
	practice, this approach does not seem to work.  Need for supportive
	frienship - interdependence - we are all "limbs of one life"
	[Shantideva]. Therefore spiritual practice should not be entirely
	private - that would be self-centered.

Motivation for taking refuge

Fear - the apprehension that otherwise we may keep making the same
    mistakes.
Confidence or faith that the Three jewels represent the only effective
    means of travelling the spiritual path.
Compassion : should rely on the three jewels not only for our own selves,
    but also for helping others.

The method of taking refuge

First time:  In the presence of a lama or senior sangha member.  Then repeat
thrice the chant:
   I take refuge in the Buddha, most excellent among humans
   I take refuge in the Dharma, most excellent in detachment
   I take refuge in the Sangha, most excellent among assemblies

Then we are asked thrice if we understand the method of taking refuge.  Then
our teacher usually gives us a religious name symbolizing the qualities that
will develop through taking refuge.  A lock of hair is cut to symbolize our
joining the sangha.  [a monk or nun would shave the head completely.]

This ceremony marks only the beginning of taking refuge.  Much training
etc. is associated with the path of the Buddha.