The Buddha From Dolpo

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• List of Illustrations
• Preface and Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part One—The Life and Teachings of the Omniscient Dolpopa

Chapter One—The Life of the Buddha from Dolpo

The Buddhist tradition is steeped in the marvelous. Belittled by some schools and exaggerated by others, the marvelous is ubiquitous. We have accepted it as such without attempting to eliminate it in the name of western rationalism. To disregard it would be to offer the reader a caricature of Buddhism and still not attain historical truth. It is not enough to discard the legend in order to discern the reality of the facts. By leaving the marvelous the place it has always occupied in the sources, we believe we have given a more faithful image of the mentality of the Buddha's disciples. And it is this mentality which is the true object of our research and not a fleeting and elusive historical certainty. —History of Indian Buddhism, É. Lamotte1

In the year 1309 a seventeen-year-old novice monk ran away from home in the Dolpo area of present-day Nepal and endured a harrowing journey north to the region of Mustang (Glo) in quest of spiritual guidance from a great Buddhist master. No one could have imagined that in less than twenty years he would be enthroned as the leader of Jonang monastery in the Tibetan province of Tsang, where he would soon construct the largest stupa* temple (sku 'bum ) ever seen in Tibet, and proclaim his vision of the nature of reality in a series of treatises that would rock the Tibetan Buddhist world. As an indispensable foundation for understanding Dolpopa's ideas and influence, the first thing that is required is a clear picture of his life and the cultural environment in which he lived.2 Fortunately, two primary sources provide us with crucial information. These are the biographies of Dolpopa composed by two of his main disciples, Gharungwa Lhey Gyaltsen (1319-1401)

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and Kunpang Chödrak Balzang (1283-1363), both of whom were witnesses to many of the events they describe and who record Dolpopa's own statements about his life and experiences. Later sketches of Dolpopa's life in historical works by Jetsun Taranatha* (1575-1635) and Mangtö Ludrup Gyantso (1523-1596) also supply interesting material, although they are sometimes at odds with the earlier sources.3

Childhood and Early Education

In 1292 Dolpopa was born into a clan that practiced the tantric tradition of the Nyingma, especially the cycles connected with the deity Vajrakilaya* , of which he became an expert as a boy.4 As early as 1297, when he was only five years old, he received the initiation of Red Manjusri* , and in meditation was graced by a vision of the deity, from whom he is said to have gained great powers of discriminating awareness.5 After receiving ordination as a novice monk in 1304, when he was twelve years old, he had the strong desire to study the sutras* on the perfection of transcendent knowledge (prajnparamita* ) and the treatises on logical reasoning (pramana* ), but there was no institute for their study in his home region. These subjects were the specialty of the Sakya tradition, which was not as strong as the Nyingma school in Dolpopa's homeland. He had by this time met and received teachings and tantric initiations, such as The Rosary Trilogy ('Phreng ba skor gsum ) of the Indian master Abhayakaragupta, from Gyidön Jamyang Trakpa Gyaltsen, a Sakya teacher who would become one of his two most important spiritual masters. Overcome with faith in his teacher, Dolpopa wished to follow Gyidön to Mustang but was prevented by his parents, who insisted that he study the tantras of the Nyingma tradition.

In 1309, when Dolpopa was seventeen, he fled alone in secret, without the permission of his parents, and after enduring great hardships, arrived in the presence of the master Gyidön in upper Mustang. There he received many teachings, such as the treatises on the sutras* concerned with the perfection of transcendent knowledge (prajnaparamita * ), the manuals on logical reasoning (pramana * ), and the texts on cosmology and psychology (abhidharraa ). After only a month of intense study Dolpopa quickly mastered the specific Dharma language (ehos skad ) associated with each of those genres

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of Buddhist learning and was able to enter into informed discussions, thereby attracting attention for the first time.6 At that point Gyidön received an urgent message from his uncle Shakya Bum, insisting that he come to the great monastery of Sakya, in the Tibetan province of Tsang, where he was teaching.7 Gyidön assured his sponsors and students in Mustang that he would soon return and left for Sakya, which was at that time the most prestigious center of learning in Tibet.8 In the meantime Dolpopa continued his studies in Mustang under two other learned masters.

Studies at the Great Monastery of Sakya

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The Move to Jonang

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Raising Mt. Meru and Revealing the Zhentong View

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The Initial Reception of the Zhentong Teachings

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The New Jonang Translation of the Kalacakra* Tantra and the Vimalaprabha*

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Years of Retreat and Teaching

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Invitation to China by the Yüan Emperor Toghon Temür

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Changes in the Jonang Leadership and the Beginning of the Journey to Lhasa

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Teachings in Central Tibet and the Return to Tsang

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The Aborted Meeting with Budön Rinchen Drup

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The Last Months at Jonang

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Chapter Two—A Historical Survey of the Zhentong Tradition in Tibet

This advice by the Omniscient Dolpopa should be kept as the essential point in our hearts: "If buddhahood will be reached merely as a result of having heard the word 'Buddha-nature,' what need to mention what will happen from actualizing it by means of faith and devotion, and meditating upon it? Therefore, compassionate experts should teach it even though they may lose their lives, and so forth, and those who strive for liberation should seek it out and listen to it even though they must cross through a great pit of fire." —Jamgön Kongdrul1

Very little is known about the early Tibetan proponents of philosophical points of view which would later come to be known as Zhentong (gzhan stong ). According to Lhey Gyaltsen, many persons with partial realization of the teachings of definitive meaning had appeared in Tibet before the fourteenth century, most of them serious meditators, but no one until Dolpopa had mastered all the teachings of definitive meaning found in the various scriptures, treatises, and esoteric instructions, and then formulated that realization into a coherent philosophical system2 Taranatha* traces a transmission lineage for what he refers to as "the instructions on the view of the Zhentong Middle Way," as well as a separate lineage for the transmission of the Kalacakra* teachings passed down in the Jonang tradition.3 The first of these lists is concerned with the transmission of the practical instructions which epitomize the intentions of all the sutras* and commentaries of the Third Turning of the Dharma Wheel. This lineage is primarily traced

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through Maitreya and the Indian brothers Asanga* and Vasubandhu, who are considered to be the originators of the doctrine, but another list is also given for the transmission from Nagarjuna* .4 This text may be considered a record of the names of teachers who taught the Zhentong view based upon the teachings of the Mahayana* scriptures and commentaries. Taranatha's* second text, concerned with the lineage of the Kalacakra* as transmitted in the Jonang school, may be considered a record of the names of teachers who taught the Zhentong view based upon the teachings found in the tantras, and specifically as articulated in the Kalacakra* tantra and the related literature. Examples of the teachings of only one Tibetan master in each of these lineages before the time of Dolpopa are available at the present time.

The Zhentong Tradition in Tibet before Dolpopa

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Dolpopa and the Zhentong View

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The Zhentong Tradition after Dolpopa

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Chapter Three—The Doctrine of the Buddha from Dolpo

Existence and nirvana* are not identical, but like a shadow and the sun. —Bhagavan* Avalokitesvara* 1

The title alone of Dolpopa's The Great Calculation of the Doctrine Which Has the Significance of a Fourth Council (Bka' bsdu bzhi pa'i don bstan rtsis chen po ) would have been enough to rankle those who were opposed to his interpretations of Buddhist Doctrine. In Tibet it was universally accepted that there had been three great councils (bka' bsdu ) in India for the purpose of gathering and accurately preserving the teachings of the Buddha after his final nirvana* .2 Dolpopa's audacious claim that his text served as a fourth such council would obviously have provoked incredulous reactions among many of his contemporaries. That he anticipated certain objections is clear from the following comments at the end of his autocommentary to The Fourth Council :

Having realized that the Doctrine of the Buddha remains in a superior, a middling, and an inferior [form, it is realized that] the superior is the Krtayuga* Dharma, which is the witness and authority. The middling is the Tretayuga Dharma and the inferior is the Dvaparayuga* Dharma. Those two are not witnesses. This realization by the great experts who stand guard over the Doctrine is very important.

To establish the path of perfect view, meditation, and conduct after cleansing the flawless Doctrine of flaws which have

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been mixed in, and contamination which has been imposed by the flawed intellects of ordinary persons, is also the purpose of a council. There were three councils before, and this is the fourth. It is also a great calculation of the Doctrine.3 It is called impartial and unbiased because all the faithful respect, pure vision, expressions of disagreement, appeals,. love, compassion, and so forth, remain impartial and unbiased, without falling into any prejudice.

Objection: While it is known that many arhats [destroyers of the enemy] gathered for the previous councils, here the gathering is just to destroy [your] enemies.

[Reply:] In the sublime Krtayuga* teachings there are many thousands of profound quotations by the great arhat, the Blessed One, the Buddha, which very clearly present the meaning of this. Since those [quotations] are the same as the [actual presence of] the great arhat, this has been compiled according to his tradition.

Future compilers please also do likewise, and if there is disagreement in regard to the interpretation of the quotations, please use the autocommentaries of the Buddha himself as witnesses.4

In addition to clarifying the meaning of the title of his text, these remarks also touch upon the first major point raised by Dolpopa in The Fourth Council itself. In this work, and many of his earlier compositions as well, Dolpopa speaks of a fourfold division of the Buddhist teachings according to four eons (yuga ). Basing himself upon the teachings of the Vimalaprabha * , Dolpopa mentions two sets of four eons (yuga ), the first of which is the greater, referring to the quality of the eons which make up a cosmic age (kalpa ), while the lesser set refers to the quality of the different periods of the Buddhist teachings.5 In the autocommentary he states his criteria for this classification, and makes it obvious that he is speaking of a doxographical scheme in regard to the eons of the Doctrine. This has recently been noted by M. Kapstein, who has said that Dolpopa was "allocating philosophical doctrines to 'aeons' according to purely dogomatic criteria."6 According to Dolpopa, the teachings of the perfect Krtayuga are those which apply directly to the truth just as it is, whereas the teachings which belong to the Tretayuga,

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Dvaparayuga* , and Kaliyuga are progressively contaminated and filled with flaws, due to the nature of the individuals who have composed them. Thus the Krtayuga teachings are the only ones which should be regarded as valid testimonies to the enlightened intentions of the Buddha.7

This classification of the historical degeneration of the Buddhist teachings is indeed found in full form in the Vimalaprabha * , primarily in the section of commentary upon verses 22 and 23 of the Lokadhatupatala* of the Kalacakra * tantra .8 Budön's annotations to these passages make it clear that Dolpopa was not here making any innovative interpretations of the original treatise.9 What is less clear is what the Vimalaprabha * and Dolpopa both consider to be the teachings of the Krtayuga. As indicated by quotations found throughout his writings, Dolpopa certainly considered the Krtayuga Dharma to include many, if not all of the highest tantras, as well as The Trilogy of Bodhisattva Commentaries, The Ten Sutras * on the Buddha-nature, The Ten Sutras * of Definitive Meaning ,10 and the works of Maitreya, Nagarjuna* , Vasubandhu, Asanga, Naropa* , and Saraha. AS Kapstein has mentioned, Dolpopa seems to have considered Ãrya Vimuktisena, Haribhadra, Yasomitra* , and other late Indian masters to represent the Tretayuga.11

It will become obvious in the translation of The Fourth Council in part 2 that Dolpopa identified his own tradition with the teachings of those scriptures and writers which he viewed as truly portraying the Krtayuga tradition. This was also a motivating factor behind his wish to redefine what had until his time been accepted as the orthodox lines of scriptural interpretation in Tibet.

Emptiness of Self-Nature and Emptiness of Other

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A Redefinition of Cittamatra* and Madhyamaka

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Two Approaches to Enlightenment

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Part Two—Texts in Translation

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Figure 2.1
Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen.
Detail of a fifteenth-century painting of the Kalacakra* mandala* .
Henss Collection, Zurich. (Photo by Michael Henss)

Introduction to the Translation of A General Commentary on the Doctrine

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The Supplication Entitled A General Commentary on the Doctrine

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Introduction to the Translation of The Fourth Council

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The Great Calculation of the Doctrine Which Has the Significance of a Fourth Council

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Bibliography

European Language Sources

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Tibetan and Sanskrit Sources

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Index

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