Archive Result

19960514GRAABWL

[Tape 2 side A of 05/14/96]

Last time we looked at the teaching in traditional style and we have said that Buddha first generated bodhimind, then accumulated merit and finally obtained enlightenment and shared his experience. We talked about generating bodhimind according to the Mahayana custom and teachings. This is, he generated bodhimind in the hell realm and just by that thought in the mind he was able to end this hell realm experience and came out of the hell realm. Then he accumulated merit, obtained enlightenment and shared the teachings. This he did by turning the wheel of Dharma three different times. The first turning is the Four Noble Truths, the second is the wisdom and the third is the method part. This is according to Gyaltsab Dharma Rinchen, one of Tsong Khapa’s outstanding disciple. The other is Khedrup. So the third turning of the wheel of Dharma contains all other activities, all contemplative methods, including love, compassion, bodhimind, etc.

The collected works of the Buddha are actually not called ‘Collected Works’. According to the western scholars it should be called ‘Canon of Buddhism’, because Buddha did not really compose books as we do today. Also the western scholars maintain that the Mahayana sections in there are collected one hundred and ten years after Buddha’s passing away. Who really knows who is right? Nobody knows. According to the practice-oriented points in the Indo-Tibetan tradition and also the Chinese tradition it is always said that the Mahayana teachings were given by Buddha and were just not recorded during Buddha’s life time, but only after his passing away.

There were three of the Buddha’s disciples - in Tibetan they are called Wö sung,

Kunga o and I don’t remember the name of the third one - who repeated the teachings of the Buddha according to the Three Higher Trainings of the mind. So each one of them repeated one of these three. That was then called The First Collection. The second one is when some kind of interpretation came in and corrections were made. That was called Second Collection. Then during the period of King Kanika eighteen different groups of the Buddha’s followers had different viewpoints and had big disagreements among themselves. Each group claimed to be right. At that time Bodhisattvas and Arhats and learned Mahapanditas - seventeen thousand of them - had a big assembly to settle the matter. That was the beginning of writing the teachings down. That was maybe one hundred and ten years later. So this is the reason why the western scholars prefer to call it ‘Buddhist Canon’ rather than ‘Collected Works of the Buddha’.

The reason why I mention this is that according to the Tibetan translations all the teachings of Buddha go into 108 volumes of what we call kan gyur. These are the words of the Buddha translated into Tibetan. The Chinese version of that has much more than 108 volumes.

The essence over here is that no matter how vast the amount of the teachings given by Buddha, the whole idea is that every single point in his teachings is actually relevant to one individual to obtain enlightenment. There are so many methods or tricks, so many ways and means, there is always some answer to whatever difficulties there may be. However, it may be impossible to be able to go through with these 108 volumes of Buddha’s teachings and all its commentaries which run into hundreds of volumes. These are just the commentaries by the early Indian teachers which were translated into Tibetan from the original Sanskrit. That is called Tan gyur and runs into almost four hundred volumes.

During those translations it was just like what we are experiencing today. Each and everyone of these translators had their own way of explaining and expressing. What was a difference between that period and today is that there were a number of translators and for each one of them there was an Indian scholar working with them and both of them would translate and so different versions would come out. Each one of these versions was then submitted to a counsel every year. This counsel was headed by the religious adviser for the ruler. The counsel then finalized and made decisions that this translation was good, that translation was not good. They would not block a whole translation though, but pick through each word of each translation. They would say that ‘Mr. A has used such and such a word in the translation, Mr. B has translated it as this and that’ and they would go through the different versions of translations and put them together and would credit the final version to that translator whose major part of the work was picked up, rather than crediting it to ten different translators. They also did not allow them to argue among each other, because there is no end to arguments. Anybody can argue anything. The Tibetans developed a phrase that goes, ‘The son who kills his own father, will also have an explanation and points for arguments.’ So all arguments were cut out and the counsel selected the translations. The translations are therefore really authentic and standardized. It was made clear which Sanskrit word meant what in Tibetan. They did that every year for about one hundred years. So every year they would work through whatever translations had been submitted. In this way all the four - or five hundred volumes have been standardized.

Today we have a number of translators. Each one of them has their own version of translation and they stand behind that. Just look at the translations of the Bodhisattvacharyavatara alone. You are going to find quite a number of different translations.

In reality, however, all these hundreds of volumes of teachings are meant for one individual to obtain enlightenment. That is the standing viewpoint of the lam rim tradition. That is the standing viewpoint of the Bodhisattvacharyavatara and also that of the lab dü. They all have that view point. Out of that, the essence of developing the bodhimind, love and compassion, and leading one individual to enlightenment, is the real message of this particular book, Bodhisattvacharyavatara.

The other day I talked about the author, so let us start today with the text itself. In order to understand it, let us first consider the title of this book. It is called ‘Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life’. I do not know how to explain that. But if you look into the Tibetan translation, it says in there, ‘In Indian language, Bodhisattvacharyavatara, in Tibetan language, Jang chub sem pai chö pa la jug pa. That means probably in English Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. Since I don’t know Sanskrit I cannot explain the Sanskrit title. However, the word Bodhisattva means in Tibetan jang chub sem pa. What does that mean? You may say that it means the person who possesses the bodhimind. That is the correct understanding. But there is more meaning than that. The meaning of jang means one who has trained well, who has experience. The message behind that is referring to one who has freed himself from the obstacles. It gives you the quality of the individual being who is free of obstacles. Training here means that your mind is very well managed. You have removed your mind from the control of negative emotions. So when you say jang chub sem pa, each of these syllables has a meaning. Jang is clarity, that is, the mind is cleared from obstacles, negativities. Chub is the one who cleared the obstacles. Sattva is the one who has built up love and compassion. The va out of the sattva stands for a person who has done that. It indicates a person. So the term bodhisattva is a person who has been able to clear the obstacles of negativities, particularly selfishness and self-cherishing. Chub is one who has obtained compassion and love and sempa is indicating the person whose mind has such qualities. So to me the term bodhisattva or jang cub sem pa carries much more meaning than just saying it. For Westerners perhaps bodhisattva is easier to pronounce than jang chub sem pa. Translators may prefer Sanskrit for that reason. In the early 1960s, when I m began to pick up the English language, many of those Sanskrit terms I thought to be English words! They used those terms in between the English text. So that shows you how much Sanskrit I know [laughs].

The last part of the title is chö pa la jug pa, or in short chö jug. In this English translation the translated that as Guide. I do not know what that really means. In Tibetan it means: How one follows the activities of a jang chub sem pa. Chö pa means activity or behavior of the persons who have cleared the obstacles and neuroses in general and in particular, narrow, selfish interests and who have a tremendous amount of qualities in general and particularly those of love and compassion. The book is therefore all about how to follow their behavior or activities. This is really the title of this book. I cannot criticize the English translation, because I have a lack of understanding in English. In Tibetan each syllable has meaning, combined together they have additional meaning. In Tibetan you just have to say chö jug and everybody will understand, whereas if you say bodhisattvacharyavatara, nobody will know. That is talking about old Tibet. The Tibetans coming out of India now probably know, because there are translations in Sanskrit and in English and all this. Chö jug is the title accepted by all the different schools, whether you are Nyingma pa, Sakya pa, Kargyu pa or Gelug pa. This book is accepted by everybody without any questions. Each school has hundreds of different commentaries on it. Chö jug means how one can follow the Bodhisattvas’ way of functioning.

There is a direct explanation what the title means ins Sanskrit. Bodhi is jang chub, sattva is the person with that mind, charya is behavior, and avatara means to follow.

Under the title itself the Tibetan and also this English translation says

Homage to all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas

Out of the Three Higher Trainings of the mind, which one will this teaching belong to? The homage gives you the indication for that. The homage could be to Manjushri or to compassion, to wisdom, or to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, or to just Buddha himself. That alone has some indications of what the subject is going to be. So the homage in this case is to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, which out of the Three Higher Trainings is the training of the mind in high activities, which is the accumulation of merit. This is more emphasized. Obviously here the Bodhisattva’s way in general is talked about and particularly how to develop the bodhimind, and once you develop the bodhimind, how you behave and how you deal with everyday life. That is the major emphasis.

verse one a

Respectfully, I prostrate myself to the Sugatas

Who are endowed with the Dharmakaya,

As well as to their Noble Sons

And to all who are worthy of veneration

I don’t have to explain what ‘respectfully’ means. I like to go through it in the Tibetan. The first word is de shig. That is translated here into Sanskrit, not into English, as Sugatas. There is a long way of explaining what Sugata means, but I am not going to do it.

The meaning of the word Sugata is similar to the previous explanation of chang, one who is free from obstacles, and one who has fully developed. Remember in the explanation of gone, gone, gone beyond, when you have the ultimate gone beyond which refers to the fully enlightened Buddhas. Sugata is referring to the Buddhas, the first out of the three objects of refuge. Why are Buddhas called ‘The ones who have gone beyond?’ Because they have overcome the obstacles. That again refers to overcoming negative karma, the causes of negative karma, which as the bottom line means the neuroses. So they have overcome those neuroses. That is why they have gone beyond, are well-travelled. That is one side. In the Tibetan tradition, when you empty the mind of neuroses, it has to be filled up with something else. What is it filled up with? Enlightenment, compassion, bodhimind, etc. Even the Buddhas refer to the Buddha as one who has cleared all obstacles and is fully developed. That is what Sugata is referring to. Buddha in Tibetan means sang gye, one who has cleared all the blocks and who has fully awakened. That means that he fully knows everything. The knowledge is totally built, the obstacles are totally cleared.

The next word in the Tibetan translation of this text is chö which has been translated into English as Dharmakaya. The line in English says, ‘Who are endowed with the Dharmakaya’

The translator is trying to tell us that the Sugatas are enriched with the Dharmakaya. What is Dharmakaya? The first moment of fully enlightened mind. It is the mental capacity, the first mind of the fully awakened state. This state is intangible, has no color, no shape. That knowledge, that mental part, free of physical blocks, great spacious-looking openness, no block, no limitation, limitless awakened mind level, that is what is referred to as Dharmakaya. There is nothing wrong with the translator using the word Dharmakaya for chö kyi ku. However, the chö here is actually referring to Dharma itself. Out of the three refuges, the Dharma is the chö. So we have the Buddha and the Dharma. Buddha is the person who is representing the totally enlightened state. Dharma is the true development within the individual. Out of the three refuges, the Three Jewels, it refers to that Dharma. So the verse should be understood as ‘I respectfully prostrate to the Buddha, the Dharma as well as to their ‘Noble Sons’. So that first verse is actually paying respect to the Three Jewels. So de shig, chö, ku nga. Now, instead of saying chö kyi ku, instead of putting the comma under the ku, if you put the comma under the chö and then say kyi ku nga, then that refers to the Sangha, here translated as ‘Noble Sons’. The Bodhisattvas are the Mahayana Sangha. Whether it is male or female Bodhisattvas does not matter. The Dakas and Dakinis are the Vajrayana Sangha. The Sutrayana or Theravada Sangha is the monks and nuns. So the way of looking at the Sangha is different from the angle of the three yanas.

So in Tibetan the first line says: De shig chö kyi ku nga se

In English, ‘sons’ will refer to male children. The female children are called ‘daughters’. If you say ‘children’, you keep a neutral gender. However, the translator chose to call it ‘sons’. In Tibetan ‘sons’ does not necessarily refer to the male children, it can be both, male and female. That term in Tibetan is se, although there is also a name for female gender called se mo. That has the female gender really added up. However, in this language se can be read as children. Therefore here it means the children of the Buddha which is the Mahayana Sangha. If you want to change it, if the book belongs to you, you can change ‘sons’ to ‘children’, or ‘daughters’. You can have the freedom to do that.

The last line of the first verse in English says, And to all who are worthy of veneration

That actually refers to your own spiritual master and the persons that you admire throughout your journey towards enlightenment, in other words, whomever you look at as worthy of veneration. It particularly means your own spiritual masters and those who are travelling with you. Then the English translation finishes here, but the Tibetan text does not. In Tibetan the verse does not end there. In The English version this is going into the next verse:

verse one b

Here I shall explain how to engage in the vows

Of the Buddhas’ Sons,

The meaning of which I have condensed

In accordance with the scriptures.

There are hundreds of different commentaries. I am just looking at three different ones, but I think the translation should not have ‘vows’ in it. This is my remark. In Tibetan the word is dom which can be vows, but it can also refer to a general system of how to function, it can even mean spider. So one single word can be translated in a hundred different ways. I would rather look at it as the general way of functioning of the Bodhisattva’s way of life, rather than vows. [end of side A of tape 2 ]

[Tape 2 side B of 05/14/96]

Again, here you have a reference to the Buddhas’s sons, de shig se. Actually the translation should read,

Here I shall explain the general system of the relative and absolute bodhimind

It refers to the relative and absolute parts of this precious mind. I am trying to give you an alternative way of looking, rather than ‘the Buddhas Sons’ This translation has become too literal. Once the translator had decided on ‘Sons of the Buddhas’, it could only take dom to mean ‘vows’, there is nothing else that goes. So Shantideva sets out to explain how to function within the system of the relative bodhimind and absolute bodhimind. This is the guy who only knows how to eat, sleep and shit! This three-minded person is talking among the nuns at this moment. He also says in this verse that he is going to explain this in accordance with the scriptures. (In Tibetan: lung shin). With that he is saying that he is not creating anything. It is not his creation. He also says that he is going to explain this briefly, meaning that there is not going to be any repetition.

It is considered to be a problem, if you repeat it again. In English, whatever you say, you try to keep the terminology consistent. In the traditional Tibetan and Sanskrit, if you try to be consistent, it shows that you have a lack of knowledge. You must not repeat the same word again. You always try to find another synonym, use a different word. To try to be consistent shows that you have a imitation of view, of explanation. That is considered to be a problem. So when Shantideva says that he is going to give a short explanation, he means that there is not going to be repetitions, in other words, he is not going to use the same word for the same purpose again. When he says that he has condensed the meaning of the teaching in accordance with the scriptures, he is giving four reasons. In the traditional Sanskrit and Tibetan system you don’t write a book, unless there are the four reasons. The number one reason is that there has to be a need. Secondly, you must really have something to say, rather than copying what somebody else has said or what you have heard somewhere else. You really must have something to say which goes in accordance with what Buddha really explained. It goes well with that and you have ways and means of getting it to the people. These are the two major reasons, without which you don’t want to write. If you don’t have anything to say, shut up. Even if you have something to say, but there is no need, keep your mouth shut. You only write something, if ultimately it will help the individual to be liberated.

So these are the reasons for explaining. So whenever it says, ‘I will explain as briefly as possible’, that means that the author has the four reasons, the need, there is something to say, that message goes according to the Buddha’s teaching and it will help to lead the individual to liberation. If these four reasons are there, you can say it, otherwise shut up. [end of tape 2 side B]