Tibetan Buddhism

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Tibetan Buddhism is the body of religious Buddhist doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and the Himalayan regions, which include northern Nepal, Bhutan, India (Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh and Sikkim), Mongolia, Russia (Kalmykia, Buryatia and Tuva) and northeastern China (Manchuria: Heilongjiang, Jilin). It includes the teachings of the three vehicles (or yanas in Sanskrit) of Buddhism: Hinayana, Mahayana, and Vajrayana[1].

The occupation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China began in 1950 and came to its first crisis in 1959. This occupation resulted in the Tibetan diaspora, which in turn eventually led to the spread of Tibetan Buddhism to many Western countries, where the tradition has gained great popularity.

In the past, Tibetan Buddhism was referred to by some westerners (sometimes dismissively) as "Lamaism", but this term is now considered by many to be based on a misunderstanding of the practice of guru yoga ('guru' is the Sanskrit equivalent of the Tibetan word 'lama' which means 'spiritual teacher') in Tibetan.

Verhaegen (2002: p.28) frames the political and economical dynamic within the evolving context of Tibetan Buddhism:

Being politically involved from its very beginning in Tibet, Tibetan Buddhism's various schools and sub-sects, in order to further their own interests, had become allied with the hereditary nobility. The aristocratic families, seeking power, influence, and support, increasingly became the secular arms of the monasteries and sects they supported. In time, as the monasteries became increasingly economic and political entities, their power often eclipsed that of their patrons.[2][3]

Contents

[edit] Introduction

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Founder of Tibetan Buddhism: Guru Rinpoche - Padmasambhava
Founder of Tibetan Buddhism: Guru Rinpoche - Padmasambhava


Tibetan Buddhism is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition, meaning that the goal of all practice is to achieve enlightenment (or Buddhahood) in order to help all other sentient beings attain this state, as opposed to mere personal liberation. The motivation for Mahayana practice is Bodhicitta (a Sanskrit word meaning 'mind of enlightenment') --the altruistic intention to become enlightened for the sake of all sentient beings.

Buddhahood is sometimes partially defined as a state of omniscience (sarvajñä). It requires both complete freedom from the obstructions to liberation (the negative states of mind such as ignorance, hatred and desirous attachment) and complete freedom from the obstructions to omniscience (which are the imprints or 'stains' of delusions which imagine inherent existence).

When one is freed from mental obscurations, one is said to attain a state of continuous bliss, mixed with a simultaneous cognition of the true nature of reality. In this state, all limitations on one's ability to help all other living beings are removed. This includes the attainment of omniscience - that is the removal of all obstructions to knowing all phenomena (or seeing the empty nature of each phenomenon as well as each of their relative characteristics). From the perspective of Tibetan Buddhism, when one conceives of a particular object, the mind gives rise to the appearance of that object. In perceiving the empty nature of all phenomena as well as each of their relative characteristics, one becomes both omniscient and omnipresent.

There are said to be countless beings that have attained Buddhahood, or countless Buddhas. Buddhas spontaneously, naturally and continuously perform activities to benefit all sentient beings. However it is believed that sentient beings' karma (or 'actions') limit the ability of the Buddhas to help them. Thus, although Buddhas possess no limitation from their side on their ability to help others, sentient beings continue to experience suffering as a result of the limitations of their own former negative actions.

[edit] Vajrayana

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Main article: Vajrayana

Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism encompasses Vajrayana (a Sanskrit word that is a conjunction of vajra which may be translated as diamond, thunder or indestructible and yana or vehicle). It is said that Vajrayana practice is the fastest method for attaining Buddhahood, however this is only the case for advanced practitioners who have a solid and reliable grounding in the preliminary practices (which may be categorized as renunciation, Bodhicitta and Wisdom, specifically, the wisdom realizing emptiness). For practitioners who are not qualified, Vajrayana practice can be very dangerous, and will only lead to increased ego problems and more suffering if it is not practiced with the pure motivation of Bodhicitta.

Even for the qualified advanced practitioner, a specific Vajrayana practice should only ever be followed on the basis of receiving the appropriate initiation (also known as an empowerment) from a lama who is fully qualified to give that initiation.

[edit] Schools of Tibetan Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism has four main traditions (the suffix pa is comparable to "er" in English):

  • Nyingma(pa), The Ancient Ones. This is the oldest, the original order founded by Padmasambhava, a Tibetan master, and relies on very early esoteric scriptures known as tantras. In this school there is a good deal of emphasis placed on meditation.
  • Kagyu(pa), Oral Lineage. This contains one major subsect and one minor subsect. The first, the Dagpo Kagyu, encompasses those Kagyu schools that trace back to Gampopa. In turn, the Dagpo Kagyu consists of four major sub-sects: the Karma Kagyu, headed by a Karmapa, the Tsalpa Kagyu, the Barom Kagyu, and Pagtru Kagyu; as well as eight minor sub-sects, all of which trace their root to Pagtru Kagyu. Among the eight sub-sects the most notable of are the Drikung Kagyu and the Drukpa Kagyu. The once-obscure Shangpa Kagyu, which was famously represented by the 20th century teacher Kalu Rinpoche, traces its history back to the Indian master Niguma, sister of Kagyu lineage holder Naropa. This is an oral tradition which is very much concerned with the experiential dimension of meditation. Its most famous exponent was Milarepa, an eleventh century Tibetan mystic who meditated for many years in mountain caves before eventually reaching enlightenment.
  • Sakya(pa), Grey Earth, headed by the Sakya Trizin, founded by Khon Konchog Gyalpo, a disciple of the great translator Drokmi Lotsawa. Sakya Pandita 1182–1251CE was the great grandson of Khon Konchog Gyalpo. This school very much represents the scholarly tradition.
  • Gelug(pa), Way of Virtue, also known casually as the Yellow Hats, whose spiritual head is the Ganden Tripa and whose temporal head is the Dalai Lama, who was ruler of Tibet from the mid-17th to mid-20th centuries. It was founded in the 14th to 15th century by Je Tsongkhapa, based on the foundations of the Kadampa tradition. Tsongkhapa was renowned for both his scholasticism and his virtue. The Dalai Lama belongs to the Gelukpa school, and is regarded as the embodiment of Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion (the equivalent of Avalokitesvara).

See Tibetan Buddhist canon for a list of important tantric texts recognized by different traditions.

[edit] Red Hat and Yellow Hat Sects, Ka'ma and Sarma traditions

The schools are sometimes divided into the "Old Translation", or Nyingma, and "New Translation" (Sarma) traditions, with the Kagyu, Sakya and Kadam/Gelug among the latter. They are also sometimes classified as "Red Hat" and "Yellow Hat" schools, with the Nyingma, Kagyu and Sakya among the former and the Gelug comprising the latter. The terms "Old Translation" and "New Translation" particularly designate translations and lineages of various Tantric texts.

[edit] Bön and other movements

Besides the above main schools, there are a number of minor ones like Jonang. The Jonangpa were suppressed by the rival Gelukpa in the 1600s and were once thought extinct, but are now known to survive in Eastern Tibet.

There is also an ecumenical movement known as Rime (alternative spelling:Rimed).

The Bön religion, which predated Buddhism in Tibet, has now been formally honoured by the Dalai Lama as the fifth religious tradition of Tibet. Bön practitioners honour Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche as their founder instead of Shakyamuni Buddha.

[edit] Study of tenet systems in Tibetan Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhists all follow one or another particular understanding of the true nature of reality, the inherent emptiness of all things, known as Madhyamika Prsangika. For the purpose of teaching and understanding however, the philosophy of emptiness is divided into four main streams of philosophical tenets:

Two belong to the older Hinayana path (Skt. for Lesser Vehicle, Tib. theg dman). (Hinayana is sometimes referred to as Śravakayāna (Skt. Vehicle of Hearers) because "lesser" may be considered derogatory):

The primary source for the former is the Abhidharmakosha by Vasubandhu and commentaries. The Abhidharmakosha is also an important source for the Sautrantikas. Dignaga and Dharmakirti are the most prominent exponents.

The other two are Mahayana (Skt. Greater Vehicle) (Tib. theg-chen):

Yogacarin base their views on texts from Maitreya, Asanga and Vasubandhu, Madhyamikas on Nagarjuna and Aryadeva. There is a further classification of Madhyamaka into Svatantrika-Madhyamaka and Prasangika-Madhyamaka. The former stems from Bhavaviveka, Santaraksita and Kamalashila, and the latter from Buddhapalita and Chandrakirti.

It is not clear whether these four streams ever actually existed as distinct philosophical traditions in India, or if this classification was introduced by Tibetan scholars only after the transmission to Tibet.

The tenet system is used in the monasteries and colleges to teach Buddhist philosophy in a systematic and progressive fashion, each philosophical view being more subtle than its predecessor. Therefore the four schools can be seen as a gradual path from a rather easy-to-grasp, "realistic" philosophical point of view, to more and more complex and subtle views on the ultimate nature of reality, that is on emptiness and dependent arising, culminating in the philosophy of the Madhyamikas, which is widely believed to present the most sophisticated point of view.

[edit] Monasticism

Lamayuru monastery.
Lamayuru monastery.

Although there were many householder-yogis in Tibet, monasticism was the foundation of Buddhism in Tibet. There were thousands of monasteries in Tibet, and nearly all were ransacked and destroyed by the Chinese communists, mainly during the cultural revolution. Most of the major ones have been at least partially re-established.

In Mongolia during the 1920s, approximately one third of the male population were monks, though many lived outside monasteries. These monasteries were largely dismantled during Communist rule, but many have been reestablished during the Buddhist revival in Mongolia which followed the fall of Communism.

Monasteries generally adhere to one particular school. Some of the major centers in each tradition are as follows:

[edit] Nyingma

The Nyingma lineage is said to have "six mother monasteries," although the composition of the six has changed over time:

Also of note is

[edit] Kagyu

Tibetan Buddhist monks at Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim
Tibetan Buddhist monks at Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim

Many Kagyu monasteries are in Kham, eastern Tibet. Tsurphu, one of the most important, is in central Tibet, as is Ralung.

[edit] Sakya

[edit] Gelug

The three most important centers of the Gelugpa lineage are Ganden, Sera and Drepung Monasteries.

[edit] History of Tibetan Buddhism

According to a Tibetan legendary tradition, Buddhist scriptures (among them the Karandavyuha Sutra) and relics (among them the Cintamani) arrived in southern Tibet during the reign of Lha Thothori Nyantsen, the 28th "king of Tibet" (fifth century), who was probably just a local chief in the Yarlung valley. The tale is miraculous (the objects fell from the sky on the roof of the king's palace), but it may have an historical background (arrival of Buddhist missionaries).[4]

The earliest well-documented influence of Buddhism in Tibet dates from the reign of king Songtsän Gampo, who died in 650. He married a Chinese Buddhist princess, Wencheng. According to a Tibetan legendary tradition, he also married a Nepalese Buddhist princess, Bhrikuti; but Bhrikuti, who bears the name of a goddess, is not mentioned in reliable sources. Songtsän Gampo founded the first Buddhist temples. By the second half of the 8th century he was already regarded as an embodiment of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara.[5]

The successors of Songtsän Gampo seem to have been less enthusiastic about the propagation of Buddhism. But in the 8th century, emperor Trisong Detsen (755-797) established Buddhism as the official religion of the state.[6] He invited Indian Buddhist scholars to his court. In his age the famous tantric mystic Padmasambhava arrived in Tibet according to the Tibetan tradition. It was Padmasambhava (more commonly known in the region as Guru Rinpoche) who merged tantric Buddhism with the local Bön religion to form what we now recognize as Tibetan Buddhism. In addition to writing a number of important scriptures (some of which he hid for future tertons to find), Padmasambhava established the Nyingma school from which all schools of Tibetan Buddhism are derived.

Tibetan Buddhism exerted a strong influence from the 11th century AD among the peoples of Central Asia, especially in Mongolia and Manchuria. It was adopted as an official state religion by the Mongol Yuan dynasty and the Manchu Qing dynasty that ruled China.

[edit] Transmission of Ch'an to the Nyingmapa

Chinese Ch'an Buddhism was introduced to the Nyingmapa in three principal streams: the teachings of Master Kim, Kim Ho-shang, (Chin ho shang) 金和尚 transmitted by Sang Shi[7] in c750 CE; the lineage of Master Wu Chu, 無住 of the Pao T'ang School was transmitted within Tibet by Ye shes dbang po; and the teaching from Mo Ho Yen, 和尚摩訶衍 (Tibetan: Hwa shang Mahayana) that were a synthesis of the Northern School of Ch'an and the Pao T'ang School.[8]

Tibetan King Khri srong lde btsan (742–797) invited the Ch’an master Mo-ho-yen (whose name consists of the same Chinese characters used to transliterate “Mahayana”) to transmit the Dharma at Samye Monastery. Mo-ho-yen had been disseminating Dharma in the Tun-huang locale, but, according to Tibetan sources, lost an important philosophical debate on the nature of emptiness from the Indian master Kamalashila, and the king declared Kamalashila's philosophy should form the basis for Tibetan Buddhism.[9] However, a Chinese source says their side won, and some scholars conclude that the entire episode is fictitious.[10]

[edit] Tibetan Buddhism in the contemporary world

The statue of Buddha in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
The statue of Buddha in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Today, Tibetan Buddhism is adhered to widely in the Tibetan Plateau, Nepal, Bhutan, Mongolia, Kalmykia (on the north-west shore of the Caspian), Siberia (central Russia, specifically Buryatia and Chita Oblast), and the Russian Far East (concentrated in Tyva). In the wake of the Tibetan diaspora, Tibetan Buddhism has gained adherents in the West and throughout the world; there are estimated to be tens of thousands of practitioners in Europe and the Americas. Western celebrity Tibetan Buddhism practitioners include Richard Gere, Adam Yauch, Allen Ginsberg; Philip Glass, and Steven Seagal (who has been proclaimed a tulku).[11]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Vajrayana may be cognate with Tantrayana, Mantrayana, etc. amongst many other renderings; though scholars and specific traditions often employ terms in specific ways with particular denotations. There are no true synonyms in English as in every other language.
  2. ^ Giuseppe Tucci, The Religions of Tibet, 1988, p.40.
  3. ^ Verhaegen, Ardy (2002). The Dalai Lamas: The Institution and Its History. Emerging Perceptions in Buddhist Studies, no. 15. New Delhi, India: D. K. Printworld (P) Ltd. ISBN 81-246-0202-6. p.28.
  4. ^ Studholme, Alexander: The Origins of Om Manipadme Hum, Albany, NY 2002, p. 14.
  5. ^ Macdonald, Alexander: Religion in Tibet at the time of Srong-btsan sgam-po: myth as history, in: The History of Tibet, ed. Alex McKay, Vol. 1, London 2003, p. 354-363 (for the queens see p. 355); Dargyay, Eva: Srong-btsan sgam-po of Tibet: Bodhisattva and king, in: The History of Tibet, ed. Alex McKay, Vol. 1, London 2003, p. 364-378 (for the queens see p. 373).
  6. ^ Beckwith, C.I.: The revolt of 755 in Tibet, in: The History of Tibet, ed. Alex McKay, Vol. 1, London 2003, p. 273-285 (discusses the political background and the motives of the ruler).
  7. ^ Sang Shi later became an abbot of Samye Monastery.
  8. ^ Barber, A. W.(1990). The Unifying of Rdzogs Pa Chen Po and Ch'an. Chung-Hwa Buddhist Journal. Vol.3, 04.1990. PP.301-317. Source: [1] (accessed: October 20, 2007).
  9. ^ Yamaguchi, Zuihō (undated). The Core Elements of Indian Buddhism Introduced into Tibet: A Contrast with Japanese Buddhism. Source: [2] (accessed: October 20, 2007)
  10. ^ Macmillan Encyclopedia of Buddhism (Volume One), page 70
  11. ^ Steven Seagal - "The Action Lama"

[edit] Further reading

Introductory books
  • Wallace, B. Alan (October 25, 1993). Tibetan Buddhism From the Ground Up: A Practical Approach for Modern Life. Wisdom Publications. ISBN-10: 0861710754, ISBN-13: 978-0861710751
  • Yeshe, Lama Thubten (2001). "The Essence of Tibetan Buddhism". Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive. ISBN 1-891868-08-X
Other books
  • Coleman, Graham, ed. (1993). A Handbook of Tibetan Culture. Boston: Shambhala Publications, Inc.. ISBN 1-57062-002-4.
  • The Ri-Me Philosophy of Jamgon Kongtrul the Great: A Study of the Buddhist Lineages of Tibet by Ringu Tulku, ISBN 1-59030-286-9, Shambhala Publications
  • Smith, E. Gene (2001). Among Tibetan Texts: History and Literature of the Himalayan Plateau. Boston: Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0-86171-179-3

[edit] External links

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Tibetan Buddhism
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