Geshe la began his teaching today by mentioning the "second dissemination" of Buddhism, which began in the eleventh century (1042) with the arrival of Atisha. As you might have guessed, there was also a "first dissemination," which is typically assigned to the first Buddhist ruler of Tibet, Songsten Gampo, who held the throne during the seventh century (649). Gampo brought two wives to Tibet, one from Nepal and one from China, and they in turn carried with them images of the Buddha as well as a highly developed Chinese and Nepalese practice. It was during this period as well that Tibet first acquired its alphabet, based loosely on the Sanskrit characters, and so it was not until the seventh century that Tibet began its literate tradition. The first dissemination also saw the arrival of Padmasambhava in the eighth century under the rule of the second Buddhist king, Trisong Detsen. Padmasambhava is credited with regularizing the practice of Buddhism and incorporating into it the most sympathetic practices of Bon, the native spiritual tradition of Tibet.
Atisha studied at Nalanda University, which Geshe la often mentions. It might well have been one of the most important universities in the world, and its particular character is unexcelled by any institution of higher learning in the contemporary world. Last year in The New York Times, Jeffrey Garten wrote that "the university was an architectural and environmental masterpiece. It had eight separate compounds, 10 temples, meditation halls, classrooms, lakes and parks. It had a nine-story library where monks meticulously copied books and documents so that individual scholars could have their own collections. It had dormitories for students, perhaps a first for an educational institution, housing 10,000 students in the universityâs heyday and providing accommodations for 2,000 professors. Nalanda was also the most global university of its time, attracting pupils and scholars from Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia and Turkey. The university died a slow death about the time that some of the great European universities, including those in Oxford, England, and Bologna, Italy, were just getting started, and more than half a millennium before Harvard or Yale were established. Its demise was a result of waning enthusiasm for Buddhism in India, declining financial support from successive Indian monarchs and corruption among university officials. The final straw was the burning of the buildings by Muslim invaders from what is now Afghanistan."
Atisha was not only a student here, but after a long period of study in Indonesia, which Geshe la
mentioned today, he returned there to become a distinguished teacher, scholar, and realized practitioner before embarking on his trip to Tibet. While in Indonesia on the island of Sumatra, Atisha studied with Serlingpa, a master known throughout India and beyond; here, Atisha learned the Seven Points of Mind Training as well as the practice of bodhichitta.
Atisha is important to the Gelugpas for many reasons, but his central text, Lamp on the Path to Enlightenment, was written at the request of King Yeshe O who wanted to know how to practice the true dharma--it is a highly condensed compendium of Buddhist knowledge and practice, emphasizing the consistency of the Buddha's teachings while concentrating on the core, on the common principles and practices that united Buddhist Mahayana philosophy. Atisha was an accomplished scholar, teacher, and practitioner, and he is widely regarded as the model for such activities throughout the Tibetan community.
The Tibetans seem to me the world's experts on teaching in general, and so Geshe la often mentions the various qualities of authoritative teaching. Today, he said that "experential transmission is much better than the knowledge we gain from books," and although that has been one of the central principles of Buddhist teaching, it has also been a very important part of Gelugpa teaching. Geshe la means simply that teachings received from those who have understood the philosophy first and then applied that philosophy to their lives, step by step, and found it both logical and renovating, these are the experential transmissions that we value the most highly. Understanding the philosophy is one thing; understanding how to embody the philosophy within our lives is quite another.
On the other hand, Geshe la told us that 75% of Buddhism is self-taught. His point is that once we have been fortunate enough to receive these transmissions then it is up to each of us to undertake the enormous project of self-renovation that these transmissions entail. Once we have begun to study the teachings, then we must begin to discover ways to incorporate them into our lives. No one does that for us, and that is why Geshe la claimed that much of Buddhist thought is self-taught. He might also have said that it is self-applied. Wisdom alone is not enough; we must also employ the correct methods to embody that wisdom.
Geshe la ended by speaking briefly about death and dying: "As soon as we are born, we are already dead!" he said. He said that the mental factors that congregate around a negative deed--such as anger, jealous, hatred--make an imprint on the "preceding moment of consciousness," the moment of consciousness that precedes our death, and this will make an imprint on our most subtle consciousness and have a direct impact on our rebirths. So, it is important at the moment of our death that we have th equanimity required to generate positive thoughts and actions; and to have this kind of self-control at the moment of our dying requires life-long practice. So we spend our lives practicing our death. But we begin at the beginning. If we can't control our thoughts in a traffic jam, then how can we expect to control them during our final moments? The great yogis, who have mastered the practice of dying, do so in retreat, away from what Geshe la called the "daily disasters" that distract us from our practice. But it is up to us, given our contemporary limitations, to make what progress we can each day and to assure ourselves a positive experience when we die.
We ended by chanting for a friend who had passed away. For those of you new to this practice, the
chant was one of the oldest ones in Buddhism, and it is the mantra associated with Chenrezig, in Tibetan, or Avalokiteshvara, in Sanskrit. It is the deity also associated with the Dalai Lama, and he is the embodiment of compassion. Typically, Chenrezig is shown with four arms: his right holding a crystal mala, his left arm a lotus flower, and his two central arms the wish-fulfilling gem. The mantra is "om mani padme hum" (pronounced and sung by Tibetans as "om mani peme hung").
One interesting side note: Because the mantra is so widespread both within Tibet and India, there are many ways of singing it. When Rinzin sang alone at the end of the chant, he was singing a version that he grew up hearing in his family, and one that is popular in Kham, his region of Tibet.
Sidney Burris, Tibetan Cultural Institute of Arkansas
