Santideva,
Introduction
to the Conduct o f a Ch.
Dudjom Rinpoche - Fundamentals and History of the Nyingmapa
179ff; Jikme Lingpa, rgyud-'bum 'dri-lan, pp.
281£f.
; and Sodokpa Lodro
Gyeltsen, rgyal-dbang kanna-pa mi-bskyod rdo-rjes gsang-sngags rnying-
ma-ba-rnams-la dri-ba'i chab-shog gnang-ba'i dris-lan lung-dang rig-pa'i
taken as evidence of error on the 0 Great Perfection into
1251 I. e. deviation (gol-sa). from experiences" (nyams-bzhi)
that of the or Into non-conceptualisation, which can of bliss, emptIness, radIance and 1 294-310
d·· SeeFundamentas,pp.
mislead me ItatIon. . . . f All-Surpassing Rea IsatIon.
-h _ en's view of conduct is that
. . nful deeds one comes . .
vIrtues or SI wa deliverance from Sar? sara IS Impos-
(respectIvely). In a y . diments to the attamment of Bud- sible, and there WIll be always Impe
dhahood. ". 1 ations of the doctrinal wheel, see
1248 OnthethreeturnIngs. or seeFundamentals,pp. 76and
pp. 423-5. For . a. detallle: see Fundamentals, 153-5. On prOVISIOna a d
pp. 187-90. h w translation schools is tradition-
1249 The view held by adherent. s of t ne f tantra and the dialectics are
ally one in which the phIlosop Ies theviewoftheGreatPerfection I. ntegrated. The Author he. re asserts tha
1269
p. 142.
is central to this d
common to all the Buddhist afe property of the tradition
1270
1271
1272
1273 1274
The "empowerment ofgreat light rays" is discussed in Fundamentals, On the first level, the Joyful (rab-tu dga'-ba, Skt. Pramoda), see Fun-
damentals, pp. 281-2; and sGam-po-pa, The Jewel Ornament of Liber- ation, pp. 240-2.
Orpiment is "yellow arsenic Powder" (ba-biaJ. According to gso-rig snying-bsdud skya-rengs gsar-pa, p. 251, this substance is medically applied for the prevention of decay and epidemics. It can be taken as
a treatment for anything from a swelling goitre to a festering Wound, and is even nowadays used as an antidote for mercury poisoning.
On the three higher empowerments, see the Glossary of Enumerations; and Fundamentals, p. 360.
. 1. . I p 337-45. 64
1252 This refers to the medItative practices 0
See Fundamenta s, p . . I . d· Fundamentals, p. 1 .
1253 Unidentified. This passage IS a so
dh t ofthenewtransatIon -··k- h·h
'brug-sgra, in . Collected Writings of Sog-bzlog-pa, Vol 2, p. 33. 1275 See above, p. 891.
1254 I. e. the a eren s A . ' Bodhimargapradfpapanp a, w IC
1255 This quotation is drawn. from vv 56-8. See R. Sherburne, SJ
1276
1277
1278 1279
1280
1281
comments on the Bodhlpathapra t P , · 151
The follOWing reproduces almost the entire text of this short work, as preserved in the Collected Writings of Sog-bzlog-pa, Vol. 1, pp. 524-6. To help clarify the complex embedding of quotations found here, all
passages from the Tantra of the Secret Nucleus itself are in italics. For the five empowerments and three realities which are referred to in
the Context of the Secret Nucleus, see the Glossary of Enumerations. dkyil- 'khor-gyi gtso-bo 'pho-bar bya-ba.
The Scholar's Feast of Doctrinal History, p. 180, cites this as Prajiiii- sutra'! l
The passage which follows is cited, too, in the Collected Writings of Sog-bzlog-pa, Vol. 1, pp. 519-20. Sodokpa however rejects the possi- bility of treating the Nyingmapa tantras as treatises.
L fi the Path and Commentary, p . . b h (trans. ), A amp or _ . k Madhyamaka as interpreted y t e
1256 On the view of the Svatantn a- 162-4.
Nyingma tradition, see Funda-
1257 On the pristine cogmtIOn 0 Iscern
mentals, p. 14! . . . " r "great liberation from extremes"
1258 "Great liberatlon from lImns 0 334
(mtha'-grol chen-po): se. e as a comment on
1259 Quoted by Nagarjuna In Vlgra avyavar . . ,
v. 28. . . n" seeFundamentals,pp. 71-2.
1260 On "expressed. meanmg and are given in the Glossary
1261 These categones from the Great of Enumerations.
I. e. even if their Indian origins are suspect, they can be held to be authoritative treatises so long as they are shown to conform to normal
u-ston,
90 Notes
1282
1283
1284 1285
1286
1287
1288 1289
1290 1291 1292
1293
1294 1295 1296
1297 1298 1299
doctrinal criteria. The problem here alluded to is discussed in some detail in the contribution of Davidson to Buswell, Buddhist Apocryphya; and in Kapstein, "The Purificatory Gem and Its Cleansing: A Late Tibetan Polemical Discussion of Apocryphal Texts".
any. case unl? catable in the extant SUlra which Genuinely Comprises the Doctrzne P 904, Vol. 36, pp. 1-45). Alter- natIvely, the totalIty of the lIst may be counted as its tenth member
1300 Pa1). <;iita's principle targets were the "heresies" of the Kagyu and Tshelpa Kagyti, both of which sought to resolve the com- plexities of the doctrine by insisting on a single quintessential metaphor: the "single intention" (dgongs-pa gcig) in the case of the former, and the "one purity that achieves all" (dkar-po gcig-thub) in the case of the latter.
1301 This . refers to Milarepa's insistence that Gampopa, during their first meetmg, abandon monastic rules by partaking of ale. See Chang, The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa, Vol. 2, p. 473.
1302 The text erroneously reads "four golden doctrines" (gser-chos bzhi), though five are properly enumerated. See the Glossary of Enumera- tions; and Kapstein, "The Shangs-pa bKa'-brgyud: an unknown trad- ition of Tibetan Buddhism", pp. 138-44. The basic Shangpa texts are found in the Peking edition of the Tangyur, but not in the Derge edition.
1303 On Yakde Pa1). cen (1299-1378) and Rongton Sheja Ktinzi (1367-1449), see Blue Annals, pp. 339-40, 532-6, 1080-1. It is clear that Yakde who predeceased the publication of Tsongkapa's (1357-1419) . works, cannot be counted as a critic of the latter. Most likely he IS lIsted here owing to his association with the tradition of Tolpopa (see n. 1309 below), whom Tsongkapa vehemently opposed, and be- cause Rongton, who was Tsongkapa's first great critic, was educated in his school. The on Tsongkapa launched by Korampa Sonam Senge (1429-89) and Sakya Chokden (1428-1507) were, on the other hand, so threatening to the Gelukpa establishment that their writings were banned in Central Tibet. The works of Korampa were eventually and published in Derge during the eighteenth century, whIle those of Sakya Chokden were preserved only in Bhutan. Taklung Lotsawa, the last named critic of Tsongkapa, is Taktsang Lotsawa Sherap Rincen (b. 1405), who has been the target of particularly rigorous refutation by later Gelukpa masters. See Kuijp, Contributions to the Development of Tibetan Buddhist Epistemology, p. 16, n. 46; and J. Hopkins, Meditation on Emptiness, passim.
1304 The source of the quotation is unidentified. Remdawa Zhonu Lodro (1349-1412), a Sakyapa, was a foremost teacher of Tsongkapa. See Blue Annals, pp. 339-40, 349, 1075.
1305 This quotation is attributed to the Broadside of Go Lhetse. See n. 1274 above.
1306 I. e. by sublime bodhisattvas who have yet to realise the buddha level. 1307 This incident connected with BUddhajft. anapada is mentioned in
Taranatha, History ofBuddhism in India, p. 279.
1308 Karmapa VIII, Mikyo Dorje's (1507-54) disagreements with earlier
Kagyti masters have not yet received scholarly attention. On hIS dIsputes with the Gelukpa school, see P. Williams, "A Note on Some Aspects of Mi Bskyod Rdo Rje's Critique of Dge Lugs Pa Madhyamaka" lIP 11 (1983), pp. 124-45; and on those with the Nying- mapa, see Kapstein, "The Purificatory Gem and Its Cleansing: A late Tibetan Polemical Discussion of Apocryphal Texts", n. 39.
1309 On Tolpopa Sherap Gyeltsen (1292-1361) and his doctrine of"extrinsic
According to Taranatha, History ofBuddhism in p. 302, the Red Master (atsara dmar-po) was a student of RatnavaJra named Guhya- prajft. a. The Blue-skirted Pa1). <;iita is mentioned in Blue Annals, p. " Refer to Karmay, "The Ordinance of Lha Bla-ma. Y od ,
pp. 150-62; idem, "An Open Letter by Pho-brang Zhl-ba- od the Buddhists of Tibet" The Tibet Journal V, 3 (1980), pp. 3-28; and Idem, "A Discussion on the Doctrinal Position ofrDzogs-chen from the 10th to the 13th centuries" Journal Asiatique (1975), pp. 147-56.
On the rainbow body, see n. 528; and Fundamentals, pp. 336-7,341-2. This occurrence aroused considerable controversy in Tibet at the time, and receives detailed discussion in Mipham Rinpoche, gzhan-stong
khas-len seng-ge'i nga-ro, fols. 18b3ff. , . . . Dtijom Lingpa (1835-1904) was the Author s mcarnatIon. He
was one of the most prolific treasure-finders of mneteenth-century Kham. See his biography in Perna Lungtok Gyatso et aI. , gter-chen chos-kyi rgyal-po khrag-'ihung bdud-'joms gling-pa'i rnam-thar zhal-
gsungs-ma. .
This is the great Ponpo scholar, Shardza Trashl Gyeltsen (1859-1935), on whom see Karmay, The Treasury of Good Sayings, especially
pp. xv-xvi; Shardza, Heart Drops of the
Probably this is Kopo Kelzang Gyeltsen, mentIoned by Karmay, The
Treasury of Good Sayings, p. xvi.
This was the father of the late lama Jurme Drakpa (d. 1975) of Jore
Bungalow, Darjeeling, who was a well-known meditation For an account of the father's miraculous death, see Trungpa Rmpoche,
Born in Tibet, pp. 95-6. See pp. 714-16.
mtho-ris dang nges-legs. .
Santigupta (late fifteenth to early sixteenth was a South IndIan yogin who preserved and transmitted the precepts ? f seven successive lineages. These traditions and SantIgupta's lIfe the subject-matter of Taranatha's bka'-babs bdun-ldan-fOl. l 1
rnam-thar, translated by Templeman in The Seven Instructzon Lzneages. See also p. 504 and n. 532. . ,
According to the standard traditional account, Nup. was s master only in sorcery. His master in the Great PerfectIon was Lhaga. See Lhalungpa, The Life ofMilarepa, p. 42; and Martm, Th
Teachers of Mi-la-ras-pa". .
The text erroneously reads Ba Selnang for Khon Ltilwangpo.
Santideva, Introduction to the Conduct o f a Ch. 9, v. AlakavatI (leang-lo-can) is the abode of presIded over by t
Lord of Secrets, Vajrapa1). i in the form of Valsrava1). a. or Kub;. ra. Pancen Lozang Choki Gyeltsen, dge-ldan bka'-brgyud rzn-po-che 1 phyag-
rtsa-ba rgyal-ba'i gzhung-lam, fo1. 3 Asvottama (rta-mchog) or Asvavarapada m Pag Sam Zang, p. 9 , is said to have been the teacher of Vi1). apa from O<;i<;ilyana. . . . One treasure has perhaps been omitted in this quotatIon, whIch IS III
History: Part Seven 91
92
Notes
"TheJO Nan
) see especially D. S. to the Grub
1321 1322
1323
See pp. 512-16.
On Gongpo ('gong-po) spirits, see Nebesky-Wojkowitz, Oracles and Demons of Tibet, pp. 168-70. For Tamsi (dam-sri) demons, ibid. , pp. 119, 284, 300-1, 469, 577-8. On Gyelpo (rgyal-po) and Senmo (bsen-mo) spirits who respectively manifest through anger and attach- ment, refer to the same source, pp. 233-6 for the former, and pp. 385, 396 for the latter.
Cf. Santideva, Introduction to the Conduct ofa Bodhisattva, Ch. 1, vv. 35-6.
1310
1311 1312
1313 1314
1315
1316
15-16,
' t h e discovery of the tre
emptiness
A S hool 0 pas: c .
u I f the Amencan . ' d C lon" Journa 0 Buddha Wtthw; an f'
" (gzhan-stong , l ' ts accor 1 . 83 f B ddhist Onto oglS . Oriental Soctety
mtha' sel gyl ;;e_91 ; S. Rookham, Fundamentals, pp. (1963), pp. B ddhafrom Dolpo. Cf. . s detailed treatmen f
Stearns, Th; u'f que of Tolpopa Gold in the Essence 0 Tsongkapa s cn 1 Khapa's Speec 0
, R. A. F. Thurman, Tsong nt of Tibetan Buddhist Ept-
True Eloquence. 'butions to the Developme K " Contrt
' The asures are found m
HISTORY: PART EIGHT
1324 On the Auspicious Aeon (bskal-pa bzang-po, Skt. Bhadrakalpa) and the reason why the Teacher, Sakyamuni Buddha, is referred to as the Fourth Guide, see p. 409 and nn. 378-9 above.
1325 The Gelukpa tradition identifies Vasubandhu's Conquest of Objections with Commentary on the Hundred Thousand Line Trans- cendental Perfection, and maintains that the author of this work was solely Cf. Lessing and Wayman, Mkhas Grub Rje's Fun- damentals of the Buddhist Tantras, p. 97. In the Nyingmapa view these are regarded as two separate treatises (Nyoshul Khenpo).
1326 One great aeon is said to contain eighty smaller aeons. See also n. 1380 below.
1327 The "third wheel of definitive significance" is explained at length in Fundamentals, pp. 169-217.
1328 The dating given here for Sakyamuni Buddha and all dates from the Indian period follow the Kalacakra reckoning which is based on scrip- tural authority and prophetic declaration. Thus there is a divergence of approximately four hundred years between this traditional dating of the Buddha's life and that favoured by modern historical scholars, i. e. c. 563 to 483 BC. A. Bareau, "La Date du Nirval). a" Journal Asiatique (1953), pp. 27-52, tabulates over fifty traditional calculations of the year ofthe Buddha's nirval). a, ranging from about 2100 BC to 265 Be.
1329 (chu-stod) is the sixth month of the Tibetan year, corresponding to July/August.
1330 According to the Kalacakra system of astrological calculation, earth- time is divided into cycles of sixty years known as rab-byung. Each of the sixty years within a single cycle has a distinctive name, but may also be referred to by a combination of twelve animals (hare, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, bird, dog, pig, mouse, ox and tiger) with the five elements (fire, earth, iron, water and wood). This latter system accords with elemental divination ('byung-rtsis) derived from Chinese traditions. Thus don-drub or the earth sheep year is the fifty- third within the sexagenary cycle. See Schuh, Untersuchungen zur Ge- schichte der Tibetischen Kalenderrechnung, pp. 144-5.
1331 The month of Vaisakha (sa-ga) is the fourth month of the Tibetan year, corresponding to May/June.
1332 drag-po or the iron monkey year is the fifty-fourth in the sexagenary cycle. See Schuh, Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der Tibetischen Kalen- derrechnung, pp. 144-5.
See UllP, stemology, pp. UnidentifIed.
. 619ft See also, Prophecies Padmasambhava, Pt. Pfrom a Bibliograph- Life and Considerations Ansmg d Tulku Thondup
"Some Prehmmary " pp 256-60; an Prats, h Early Gter-ston , .
ical Study of n Teachings of Tibet.
Rinpoche, H1 e 1 of this, see Karmay,
of the Irs
228' "were able to ,IS
guish the pro Ita Cf. also Snellgrove, ,
For a good examp e
T t" d
fi
t way of pon, who,
Earliest ex . , refers to the a
Phyva-gshen. ThIS, The Religions ofTtbet, p. d to functlOn as according to from the dangeroUS, an The Nine Ways of Bon,
1317
1318 1319
Treasures; for :reasures, e. g. Dorle to tWO trad- pon and Buddhi the treasure-finde:s 'dei rim1gter-ston. ,
For accounts of allo studio ? wgraf1coe i t general ments itions, see also prahts, -dang ho-shang.
a-nag-na ha-s ang Chakme n-chos m s 'd 'and 'InsIder, rgy 'h Karma " 'OutSI er " b t
,ka-Mahavadm, who
cetlC Satya hough f his followers t r
the Buddha's skIlful mean. , T t'" and
11. 10-16. " dzogs-chen in its earhest, Traditions of the
Cf Karmay, The R f the Tibetan Rel,lg 241 also remarks
'd Early Developme? t ,0 T'betan p. d'the technical an , n" Stem m 1 tenes an ,
Great PerfectlO . odelled their 'those of BuddhIsm. that the ponpo oso hy and on radition, were per-
vocabularyfor :;ch to Storeof Some ponpo wor s are also represente who recovered bot
diviners or augur.
41
h
the nirgrant a as
.
was brought s See Sutra 0) t e
pp 24-
This perhaps fold with six Bouquet, p. 277,
1320
alo 't "father-lor, h 95 translates 1 h rophets w 0
, ld pon priests, t e P
knew the ongl
, d by Padmasambh 'n treasure-finders
mitte erecertal . aSeep.
791 above.
comparison WIt , 11 1 5' "In IndIa they (h -shang), and m Tl e 3 2 6 especia Y . ' d 'BuddhIst 0 d"
fol. 2 a -, "(h -shang) an 11 connecte .
in China " a , All of these are causa yCanto 82, p. 489.
'Buddhist' pon,po '1Padmasambhava, Pt. lld_bell made of bronze, The Life and Ltberatwn ponpo religioUS s d'une c\ochette The shang M. Helffer, "Note a , ','
with a wooden chIme. ! 21 3 (1981), pp. : Tibetan C1Vlit- "ObjetsetMon s , headofafamiY· rnofrespect
The ntle ,
applied to the 0 'bid, p. 231. the three worlds, 1 '
zatWn, p,
, ' "The Rdzogs-chen m Its
"Ph'" indicates the d" It was also a ter , 'n of
d' tin-
History: Part Eight 93
94 Notes
1333 On the conste auo . . , h . th corresponding to November/
period of non-returners and the third, the period of stream-entry. Those three periods together are called the Age of Fruition or enlighten- ment. In the fourth period there is a predominance of discriminative awareness, therefore it is so called. The fifth is called the period of contemplation and the sixth, that of moral discipline. Those three periods together are called the Age of Attainment. The next three periods of Abhidharma, Sutra and Vinaya are collectively known as the Age of Transmission. The tenth and final period is called the Age of Convention or symbols because at that point the actual practice of the path will be lost, and only conventional tokens of the renunciate ordination (pravajyii) will remain. See Rikdzin Lhtindrup's Hindi translation of the History, Ch. 8, n. 21; HBI, pp. 210-22; and Ober- miller, History ofBuddhism by Bu-ston, Pt. 2, pp. 102-5.
1350 There is much disagreement in Tibetan and other sources concerning the year of birth and life-span of King Songtsen Gampo. A fine survey of the problem is given by H. E. Richardson in "How old was Srong btsan sgam po? " Bulletin of Tibetology 2, 1 (1965). Richardson con- cludes that the king was born in the period from 609 to 613 and died in 650. For the traditional account of his longevity, see also Dudjom Rinpoche, rgyal-rabs, pp. 129-51.
l351 As stated below by the Author, p. 959, the absence of systematic accounts of the period between the fall of the dynasty (846) and the revitalisation of the teaching in the late tenth century has led to consid- erable confusion in Tibetan dating of the imperial period. In essence, the problem consists in determining just how many sixty-year cycles elapsed during the Age of Fragmentation. To compensate for past miscalculations, one must subtract sixty years from each of the dates given for the period from 790 to 953. Thus, Trhisong was born not in 790 but in 730, i. e. 90 and not 150 years after Songtsen Gampo had founded the Jokhang. In 750 Samye was founded. In 767 the "seven who were tested" were initiated. In 804 Guru Padmasambhava left Tibet. In 806 Trhi Relpacen was born. In 832 Lacen Gongpa Rapsel was born. In 841 the persecution began. In 846 Langdarma was assassinated. In 869 the kingdom disintegrated; and in 893 Lume returned to Central Tibet. The Author concurs in this respect with Shakabpa and other modern Tibetan historians who have made this adjustment. Even with this adjustment, however, the dating for the period remains problematic - e. g. Stein, Tibetan Civilization, p. 60, gives 775 as the foundation of Samye; and Richardson assigns the reign of Langdarma to the period from 836 to 842. For a compendium ofthe traditional chronologies, see Tshe-brtan Zhabs-drung, bstan-rtsis kun-las btus-pa.
1352 Cf. Blue Annals, pp. 60-7. It is clear that Lacen did not visit Central Tibet in person, and that Lume is intended. Six men of Central Tibet and Tsang are usually spoken of, rather than ten. As Roerich indicates in the same source, p. xviii, the date, whether calculated as 893 or 953 is problematic.
1353 The Shangpa Kagyti historical tradition maintains that Khyungpo Nel- jor was born in a tiger year and lived for 150 years. The tiger year in question is usually said to be 978 or 990. In any case, Khyungpo was certainly active as late as the early twelfth century. See Kapstein, "The
1334 1335
11 ' n pusya see n 1088. Karttika (smin-drug) IS the tent mon ,
December. . the twenty-second year in the kun-'dzin, or the earth mouse year, IS
sexagenary di'ded into twelve two-hour periods, known as
1336 The days are er f th twelve animals in the aforementIOned
1337 1338
1339
1340
1341
1342 1343
1344
1345
1346
1347
1348 1349
1 e the recise duration of each promul-
or dus-tshad, and nafmthe a fall approximately between midnight and
uenceThehour0 eox . D" 89 seq . . G D . Tibetan Elemental Divinatwn razntzngs, p.
. 2a. m. chartm d)'. one,-fifthofatwo-hourperiod,i. e. twenty-four
A ghafIka (chu-tsha IS one minutes:
For vanoUs attempts to cadlcu 1 wPheel see Obermiller, History of . ingofthe octnna, 1 h
gatIon or turn
Buddhism by Bu-ston, Pt.
2 46-52 puton himself rejects al suc ,pP·. .
1 king any authontatIve source. d' efforts as ac. . h f the Tibetan year, correspon mg to
Caitra (nag) IS. the thIrd mont mid-spring month (dpyid-zla 'bring- April/May: It IS also known as t e f calculation. The chart of the po) accordmg to the Phukpa Systr 0 zur Geschichte der Tibetischen
twelve months in between their
Kalenderrechnung, p. 1 . ' seasonal names, the ammals
and the constellations.
. the fourteenth in the sexagenary The iron dragon year (rnamh-gno ) IS Geschichte der Tibetischen Kalen-
n cycle; see Schuh, Untersuc ungen zur
derrechnung, p.
Gyeltsen, rgyal-dbang kanna-pa mi-bskyod rdo-rjes gsang-sngags rnying-
ma-ba-rnams-la dri-ba'i chab-shog gnang-ba'i dris-lan lung-dang rig-pa'i
taken as evidence of error on the 0 Great Perfection into
1251 I. e. deviation (gol-sa). from experiences" (nyams-bzhi)
that of the or Into non-conceptualisation, which can of bliss, emptIness, radIance and 1 294-310
d·· SeeFundamentas,pp.
mislead me ItatIon. . . . f All-Surpassing Rea IsatIon.
-h _ en's view of conduct is that
. . nful deeds one comes . .
vIrtues or SI wa deliverance from Sar? sara IS Impos-
(respectIvely). In a y . diments to the attamment of Bud- sible, and there WIll be always Impe
dhahood. ". 1 ations of the doctrinal wheel, see
1248 OnthethreeturnIngs. or seeFundamentals,pp. 76and
pp. 423-5. For . a. detallle: see Fundamentals, 153-5. On prOVISIOna a d
pp. 187-90. h w translation schools is tradition-
1249 The view held by adherent. s of t ne f tantra and the dialectics are
ally one in which the phIlosop Ies theviewoftheGreatPerfection I. ntegrated. The Author he. re asserts tha
1269
p. 142.
is central to this d
common to all the Buddhist afe property of the tradition
1270
1271
1272
1273 1274
The "empowerment ofgreat light rays" is discussed in Fundamentals, On the first level, the Joyful (rab-tu dga'-ba, Skt. Pramoda), see Fun-
damentals, pp. 281-2; and sGam-po-pa, The Jewel Ornament of Liber- ation, pp. 240-2.
Orpiment is "yellow arsenic Powder" (ba-biaJ. According to gso-rig snying-bsdud skya-rengs gsar-pa, p. 251, this substance is medically applied for the prevention of decay and epidemics. It can be taken as
a treatment for anything from a swelling goitre to a festering Wound, and is even nowadays used as an antidote for mercury poisoning.
On the three higher empowerments, see the Glossary of Enumerations; and Fundamentals, p. 360.
. 1. . I p 337-45. 64
1252 This refers to the medItative practices 0
See Fundamenta s, p . . I . d· Fundamentals, p. 1 .
1253 Unidentified. This passage IS a so
dh t ofthenewtransatIon -··k- h·h
'brug-sgra, in . Collected Writings of Sog-bzlog-pa, Vol 2, p. 33. 1275 See above, p. 891.
1254 I. e. the a eren s A . ' Bodhimargapradfpapanp a, w IC
1255 This quotation is drawn. from vv 56-8. See R. Sherburne, SJ
1276
1277
1278 1279
1280
1281
comments on the Bodhlpathapra t P , · 151
The follOWing reproduces almost the entire text of this short work, as preserved in the Collected Writings of Sog-bzlog-pa, Vol. 1, pp. 524-6. To help clarify the complex embedding of quotations found here, all
passages from the Tantra of the Secret Nucleus itself are in italics. For the five empowerments and three realities which are referred to in
the Context of the Secret Nucleus, see the Glossary of Enumerations. dkyil- 'khor-gyi gtso-bo 'pho-bar bya-ba.
The Scholar's Feast of Doctrinal History, p. 180, cites this as Prajiiii- sutra'! l
The passage which follows is cited, too, in the Collected Writings of Sog-bzlog-pa, Vol. 1, pp. 519-20. Sodokpa however rejects the possi- bility of treating the Nyingmapa tantras as treatises.
L fi the Path and Commentary, p . . b h (trans. ), A amp or _ . k Madhyamaka as interpreted y t e
1256 On the view of the Svatantn a- 162-4.
Nyingma tradition, see Funda-
1257 On the pristine cogmtIOn 0 Iscern
mentals, p. 14! . . . " r "great liberation from extremes"
1258 "Great liberatlon from lImns 0 334
(mtha'-grol chen-po): se. e as a comment on
1259 Quoted by Nagarjuna In Vlgra avyavar . . ,
v. 28. . . n" seeFundamentals,pp. 71-2.
1260 On "expressed. meanmg and are given in the Glossary
1261 These categones from the Great of Enumerations.
I. e. even if their Indian origins are suspect, they can be held to be authoritative treatises so long as they are shown to conform to normal
u-ston,
90 Notes
1282
1283
1284 1285
1286
1287
1288 1289
1290 1291 1292
1293
1294 1295 1296
1297 1298 1299
doctrinal criteria. The problem here alluded to is discussed in some detail in the contribution of Davidson to Buswell, Buddhist Apocryphya; and in Kapstein, "The Purificatory Gem and Its Cleansing: A Late Tibetan Polemical Discussion of Apocryphal Texts".
any. case unl? catable in the extant SUlra which Genuinely Comprises the Doctrzne P 904, Vol. 36, pp. 1-45). Alter- natIvely, the totalIty of the lIst may be counted as its tenth member
1300 Pa1). <;iita's principle targets were the "heresies" of the Kagyu and Tshelpa Kagyti, both of which sought to resolve the com- plexities of the doctrine by insisting on a single quintessential metaphor: the "single intention" (dgongs-pa gcig) in the case of the former, and the "one purity that achieves all" (dkar-po gcig-thub) in the case of the latter.
1301 This . refers to Milarepa's insistence that Gampopa, during their first meetmg, abandon monastic rules by partaking of ale. See Chang, The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa, Vol. 2, p. 473.
1302 The text erroneously reads "four golden doctrines" (gser-chos bzhi), though five are properly enumerated. See the Glossary of Enumera- tions; and Kapstein, "The Shangs-pa bKa'-brgyud: an unknown trad- ition of Tibetan Buddhism", pp. 138-44. The basic Shangpa texts are found in the Peking edition of the Tangyur, but not in the Derge edition.
1303 On Yakde Pa1). cen (1299-1378) and Rongton Sheja Ktinzi (1367-1449), see Blue Annals, pp. 339-40, 532-6, 1080-1. It is clear that Yakde who predeceased the publication of Tsongkapa's (1357-1419) . works, cannot be counted as a critic of the latter. Most likely he IS lIsted here owing to his association with the tradition of Tolpopa (see n. 1309 below), whom Tsongkapa vehemently opposed, and be- cause Rongton, who was Tsongkapa's first great critic, was educated in his school. The on Tsongkapa launched by Korampa Sonam Senge (1429-89) and Sakya Chokden (1428-1507) were, on the other hand, so threatening to the Gelukpa establishment that their writings were banned in Central Tibet. The works of Korampa were eventually and published in Derge during the eighteenth century, whIle those of Sakya Chokden were preserved only in Bhutan. Taklung Lotsawa, the last named critic of Tsongkapa, is Taktsang Lotsawa Sherap Rincen (b. 1405), who has been the target of particularly rigorous refutation by later Gelukpa masters. See Kuijp, Contributions to the Development of Tibetan Buddhist Epistemology, p. 16, n. 46; and J. Hopkins, Meditation on Emptiness, passim.
1304 The source of the quotation is unidentified. Remdawa Zhonu Lodro (1349-1412), a Sakyapa, was a foremost teacher of Tsongkapa. See Blue Annals, pp. 339-40, 349, 1075.
1305 This quotation is attributed to the Broadside of Go Lhetse. See n. 1274 above.
1306 I. e. by sublime bodhisattvas who have yet to realise the buddha level. 1307 This incident connected with BUddhajft. anapada is mentioned in
Taranatha, History ofBuddhism in India, p. 279.
1308 Karmapa VIII, Mikyo Dorje's (1507-54) disagreements with earlier
Kagyti masters have not yet received scholarly attention. On hIS dIsputes with the Gelukpa school, see P. Williams, "A Note on Some Aspects of Mi Bskyod Rdo Rje's Critique of Dge Lugs Pa Madhyamaka" lIP 11 (1983), pp. 124-45; and on those with the Nying- mapa, see Kapstein, "The Purificatory Gem and Its Cleansing: A late Tibetan Polemical Discussion of Apocryphal Texts", n. 39.
1309 On Tolpopa Sherap Gyeltsen (1292-1361) and his doctrine of"extrinsic
According to Taranatha, History ofBuddhism in p. 302, the Red Master (atsara dmar-po) was a student of RatnavaJra named Guhya- prajft. a. The Blue-skirted Pa1). <;iita is mentioned in Blue Annals, p. " Refer to Karmay, "The Ordinance of Lha Bla-ma. Y od ,
pp. 150-62; idem, "An Open Letter by Pho-brang Zhl-ba- od the Buddhists of Tibet" The Tibet Journal V, 3 (1980), pp. 3-28; and Idem, "A Discussion on the Doctrinal Position ofrDzogs-chen from the 10th to the 13th centuries" Journal Asiatique (1975), pp. 147-56.
On the rainbow body, see n. 528; and Fundamentals, pp. 336-7,341-2. This occurrence aroused considerable controversy in Tibet at the time, and receives detailed discussion in Mipham Rinpoche, gzhan-stong
khas-len seng-ge'i nga-ro, fols. 18b3ff. , . . . Dtijom Lingpa (1835-1904) was the Author s mcarnatIon. He
was one of the most prolific treasure-finders of mneteenth-century Kham. See his biography in Perna Lungtok Gyatso et aI. , gter-chen chos-kyi rgyal-po khrag-'ihung bdud-'joms gling-pa'i rnam-thar zhal-
gsungs-ma. .
This is the great Ponpo scholar, Shardza Trashl Gyeltsen (1859-1935), on whom see Karmay, The Treasury of Good Sayings, especially
pp. xv-xvi; Shardza, Heart Drops of the
Probably this is Kopo Kelzang Gyeltsen, mentIoned by Karmay, The
Treasury of Good Sayings, p. xvi.
This was the father of the late lama Jurme Drakpa (d. 1975) of Jore
Bungalow, Darjeeling, who was a well-known meditation For an account of the father's miraculous death, see Trungpa Rmpoche,
Born in Tibet, pp. 95-6. See pp. 714-16.
mtho-ris dang nges-legs. .
Santigupta (late fifteenth to early sixteenth was a South IndIan yogin who preserved and transmitted the precepts ? f seven successive lineages. These traditions and SantIgupta's lIfe the subject-matter of Taranatha's bka'-babs bdun-ldan-fOl. l 1
rnam-thar, translated by Templeman in The Seven Instructzon Lzneages. See also p. 504 and n. 532. . ,
According to the standard traditional account, Nup. was s master only in sorcery. His master in the Great PerfectIon was Lhaga. See Lhalungpa, The Life ofMilarepa, p. 42; and Martm, Th
Teachers of Mi-la-ras-pa". .
The text erroneously reads Ba Selnang for Khon Ltilwangpo.
Santideva, Introduction to the Conduct o f a Ch. 9, v. AlakavatI (leang-lo-can) is the abode of presIded over by t
Lord of Secrets, Vajrapa1). i in the form of Valsrava1). a. or Kub;. ra. Pancen Lozang Choki Gyeltsen, dge-ldan bka'-brgyud rzn-po-che 1 phyag-
rtsa-ba rgyal-ba'i gzhung-lam, fo1. 3 Asvottama (rta-mchog) or Asvavarapada m Pag Sam Zang, p. 9 , is said to have been the teacher of Vi1). apa from O<;i<;ilyana. . . . One treasure has perhaps been omitted in this quotatIon, whIch IS III
History: Part Seven 91
92
Notes
"TheJO Nan
) see especially D. S. to the Grub
1321 1322
1323
See pp. 512-16.
On Gongpo ('gong-po) spirits, see Nebesky-Wojkowitz, Oracles and Demons of Tibet, pp. 168-70. For Tamsi (dam-sri) demons, ibid. , pp. 119, 284, 300-1, 469, 577-8. On Gyelpo (rgyal-po) and Senmo (bsen-mo) spirits who respectively manifest through anger and attach- ment, refer to the same source, pp. 233-6 for the former, and pp. 385, 396 for the latter.
Cf. Santideva, Introduction to the Conduct ofa Bodhisattva, Ch. 1, vv. 35-6.
1310
1311 1312
1313 1314
1315
1316
15-16,
' t h e discovery of the tre
emptiness
A S hool 0 pas: c .
u I f the Amencan . ' d C lon" Journa 0 Buddha Wtthw; an f'
" (gzhan-stong , l ' ts accor 1 . 83 f B ddhist Onto oglS . Oriental Soctety
mtha' sel gyl ;;e_91 ; S. Rookham, Fundamentals, pp. (1963), pp. B ddhafrom Dolpo. Cf. . s detailed treatmen f
Stearns, Th; u'f que of Tolpopa Gold in the Essence 0 Tsongkapa s cn 1 Khapa's Speec 0
, R. A. F. Thurman, Tsong nt of Tibetan Buddhist Ept-
True Eloquence. 'butions to the Developme K " Contrt
' The asures are found m
HISTORY: PART EIGHT
1324 On the Auspicious Aeon (bskal-pa bzang-po, Skt. Bhadrakalpa) and the reason why the Teacher, Sakyamuni Buddha, is referred to as the Fourth Guide, see p. 409 and nn. 378-9 above.
1325 The Gelukpa tradition identifies Vasubandhu's Conquest of Objections with Commentary on the Hundred Thousand Line Trans- cendental Perfection, and maintains that the author of this work was solely Cf. Lessing and Wayman, Mkhas Grub Rje's Fun- damentals of the Buddhist Tantras, p. 97. In the Nyingmapa view these are regarded as two separate treatises (Nyoshul Khenpo).
1326 One great aeon is said to contain eighty smaller aeons. See also n. 1380 below.
1327 The "third wheel of definitive significance" is explained at length in Fundamentals, pp. 169-217.
1328 The dating given here for Sakyamuni Buddha and all dates from the Indian period follow the Kalacakra reckoning which is based on scrip- tural authority and prophetic declaration. Thus there is a divergence of approximately four hundred years between this traditional dating of the Buddha's life and that favoured by modern historical scholars, i. e. c. 563 to 483 BC. A. Bareau, "La Date du Nirval). a" Journal Asiatique (1953), pp. 27-52, tabulates over fifty traditional calculations of the year ofthe Buddha's nirval). a, ranging from about 2100 BC to 265 Be.
1329 (chu-stod) is the sixth month of the Tibetan year, corresponding to July/August.
1330 According to the Kalacakra system of astrological calculation, earth- time is divided into cycles of sixty years known as rab-byung. Each of the sixty years within a single cycle has a distinctive name, but may also be referred to by a combination of twelve animals (hare, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, bird, dog, pig, mouse, ox and tiger) with the five elements (fire, earth, iron, water and wood). This latter system accords with elemental divination ('byung-rtsis) derived from Chinese traditions. Thus don-drub or the earth sheep year is the fifty- third within the sexagenary cycle. See Schuh, Untersuchungen zur Ge- schichte der Tibetischen Kalenderrechnung, pp. 144-5.
1331 The month of Vaisakha (sa-ga) is the fourth month of the Tibetan year, corresponding to May/June.
1332 drag-po or the iron monkey year is the fifty-fourth in the sexagenary cycle. See Schuh, Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der Tibetischen Kalen- derrechnung, pp. 144-5.
See UllP, stemology, pp. UnidentifIed.
. 619ft See also, Prophecies Padmasambhava, Pt. Pfrom a Bibliograph- Life and Considerations Ansmg d Tulku Thondup
"Some Prehmmary " pp 256-60; an Prats, h Early Gter-ston , .
ical Study of n Teachings of Tibet.
Rinpoche, H1 e 1 of this, see Karmay,
of the Irs
228' "were able to ,IS
guish the pro Ita Cf. also Snellgrove, ,
For a good examp e
T t" d
fi
t way of pon, who,
Earliest ex . , refers to the a
Phyva-gshen. ThIS, The Religions ofTtbet, p. d to functlOn as according to from the dangeroUS, an The Nine Ways of Bon,
1317
1318 1319
Treasures; for :reasures, e. g. Dorle to tWO trad- pon and Buddhi the treasure-finde:s 'dei rim1gter-ston. ,
For accounts of allo studio ? wgraf1coe i t general ments itions, see also prahts, -dang ho-shang.
a-nag-na ha-s ang Chakme n-chos m s 'd 'and 'InsIder, rgy 'h Karma " 'OutSI er " b t
,ka-Mahavadm, who
cetlC Satya hough f his followers t r
the Buddha's skIlful mean. , T t'" and
11. 10-16. " dzogs-chen in its earhest, Traditions of the
Cf Karmay, The R f the Tibetan Rel,lg 241 also remarks
'd Early Developme? t ,0 T'betan p. d'the technical an , n" Stem m 1 tenes an ,
Great PerfectlO . odelled their 'those of BuddhIsm. that the ponpo oso hy and on radition, were per-
vocabularyfor :;ch to Storeof Some ponpo wor s are also represente who recovered bot
diviners or augur.
41
h
the nirgrant a as
.
was brought s See Sutra 0) t e
pp 24-
This perhaps fold with six Bouquet, p. 277,
1320
alo 't "father-lor, h 95 translates 1 h rophets w 0
, ld pon priests, t e P
knew the ongl
, d by Padmasambh 'n treasure-finders
mitte erecertal . aSeep.
791 above.
comparison WIt , 11 1 5' "In IndIa they (h -shang), and m Tl e 3 2 6 especia Y . ' d 'BuddhIst 0 d"
fol. 2 a -, "(h -shang) an 11 connecte .
in China " a , All of these are causa yCanto 82, p. 489.
'Buddhist' pon,po '1Padmasambhava, Pt. lld_bell made of bronze, The Life and Ltberatwn ponpo religioUS s d'une c\ochette The shang M. Helffer, "Note a , ','
with a wooden chIme. ! 21 3 (1981), pp. : Tibetan C1Vlit- "ObjetsetMon s , headofafamiY· rnofrespect
The ntle ,
applied to the 0 'bid, p. 231. the three worlds, 1 '
zatWn, p,
, ' "The Rdzogs-chen m Its
"Ph'" indicates the d" It was also a ter , 'n of
d' tin-
History: Part Eight 93
94 Notes
1333 On the conste auo . . , h . th corresponding to November/
period of non-returners and the third, the period of stream-entry. Those three periods together are called the Age of Fruition or enlighten- ment. In the fourth period there is a predominance of discriminative awareness, therefore it is so called. The fifth is called the period of contemplation and the sixth, that of moral discipline. Those three periods together are called the Age of Attainment. The next three periods of Abhidharma, Sutra and Vinaya are collectively known as the Age of Transmission. The tenth and final period is called the Age of Convention or symbols because at that point the actual practice of the path will be lost, and only conventional tokens of the renunciate ordination (pravajyii) will remain. See Rikdzin Lhtindrup's Hindi translation of the History, Ch. 8, n. 21; HBI, pp. 210-22; and Ober- miller, History ofBuddhism by Bu-ston, Pt. 2, pp. 102-5.
1350 There is much disagreement in Tibetan and other sources concerning the year of birth and life-span of King Songtsen Gampo. A fine survey of the problem is given by H. E. Richardson in "How old was Srong btsan sgam po? " Bulletin of Tibetology 2, 1 (1965). Richardson con- cludes that the king was born in the period from 609 to 613 and died in 650. For the traditional account of his longevity, see also Dudjom Rinpoche, rgyal-rabs, pp. 129-51.
l351 As stated below by the Author, p. 959, the absence of systematic accounts of the period between the fall of the dynasty (846) and the revitalisation of the teaching in the late tenth century has led to consid- erable confusion in Tibetan dating of the imperial period. In essence, the problem consists in determining just how many sixty-year cycles elapsed during the Age of Fragmentation. To compensate for past miscalculations, one must subtract sixty years from each of the dates given for the period from 790 to 953. Thus, Trhisong was born not in 790 but in 730, i. e. 90 and not 150 years after Songtsen Gampo had founded the Jokhang. In 750 Samye was founded. In 767 the "seven who were tested" were initiated. In 804 Guru Padmasambhava left Tibet. In 806 Trhi Relpacen was born. In 832 Lacen Gongpa Rapsel was born. In 841 the persecution began. In 846 Langdarma was assassinated. In 869 the kingdom disintegrated; and in 893 Lume returned to Central Tibet. The Author concurs in this respect with Shakabpa and other modern Tibetan historians who have made this adjustment. Even with this adjustment, however, the dating for the period remains problematic - e. g. Stein, Tibetan Civilization, p. 60, gives 775 as the foundation of Samye; and Richardson assigns the reign of Langdarma to the period from 836 to 842. For a compendium ofthe traditional chronologies, see Tshe-brtan Zhabs-drung, bstan-rtsis kun-las btus-pa.
1352 Cf. Blue Annals, pp. 60-7. It is clear that Lacen did not visit Central Tibet in person, and that Lume is intended. Six men of Central Tibet and Tsang are usually spoken of, rather than ten. As Roerich indicates in the same source, p. xviii, the date, whether calculated as 893 or 953 is problematic.
1353 The Shangpa Kagyti historical tradition maintains that Khyungpo Nel- jor was born in a tiger year and lived for 150 years. The tiger year in question is usually said to be 978 or 990. In any case, Khyungpo was certainly active as late as the early twelfth century. See Kapstein, "The
1334 1335
11 ' n pusya see n 1088. Karttika (smin-drug) IS the tent mon ,
December. . the twenty-second year in the kun-'dzin, or the earth mouse year, IS
sexagenary di'ded into twelve two-hour periods, known as
1336 The days are er f th twelve animals in the aforementIOned
1337 1338
1339
1340
1341
1342 1343
1344
1345
1346
1347
1348 1349
1 e the recise duration of each promul-
or dus-tshad, and nafmthe a fall approximately between midnight and
uenceThehour0 eox . D" 89 seq . . G D . Tibetan Elemental Divinatwn razntzngs, p.
. 2a. m. chartm d)'. one,-fifthofatwo-hourperiod,i. e. twenty-four
A ghafIka (chu-tsha IS one minutes:
For vanoUs attempts to cadlcu 1 wPheel see Obermiller, History of . ingofthe octnna, 1 h
gatIon or turn
Buddhism by Bu-ston, Pt.
2 46-52 puton himself rejects al suc ,pP·. .
1 king any authontatIve source. d' efforts as ac. . h f the Tibetan year, correspon mg to
Caitra (nag) IS. the thIrd mont mid-spring month (dpyid-zla 'bring- April/May: It IS also known as t e f calculation. The chart of the po) accordmg to the Phukpa Systr 0 zur Geschichte der Tibetischen
twelve months in between their
Kalenderrechnung, p. 1 . ' seasonal names, the ammals
and the constellations.
. the fourteenth in the sexagenary The iron dragon year (rnamh-gno ) IS Geschichte der Tibetischen Kalen-
n cycle; see Schuh, Untersuc ungen zur
derrechnung, p.
