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Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism By C. Fred Smith Founders: Siddartha Gautama, the Buddha. The Tibetan form grew out of the teachings Kamalashila who defended traditional Indian Buddhism in Tibet against the Chinese form. Date: Founded between 600 and 400 BC in Northern India; Buddhism influenced Tibetan religion as early as AD 200, but only began to take on its Tibetan character after 792 AD. Its full expression as a Lamaist religion (one dependent on lamas or gurus to guide meditation) began in the 1200s, with the institution of the Dalai Lama in the 1600s. Key Words: Lama, Bon, Reincarnation, Dharma and Sangha BACKGROUND Tibetan Buddhism focuses on disciplined meditation to achieve enlightenment, which is the realization that life is impermanent, and the accompanying state of bliss. Its unusual character, different from other forms of Buddhism, lies in two facts. First, it traces its practices back to the earliest form of Buddhism from Northern India. Certain practices are similar to those of Hindu practitioners,1 and the meditative discipline is similar to that practiced in the first Buddhist Sanghas, or monastic communities. Second, its practices and “peculiar, even eerie character” are a result of its encounter with Bon, the older religion of Tibet, an animistic religion that emphasized shamans, rituals to invoke and appease spirits, and even sacrifices.2 Together, these produce a Buddhism centered on monks and monasteries that is “more colorful and supernatural”3 than other forms such as Zen.4 This form of Buddhism emphasizes the place of the lama, or teacher, who directs his charges in their meditation and ritual practices. The four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism (Gelug, Nyingma, Sakya, and Kagyu) each trace their origins back to a specific lama. In general, they are quite similar in beliefs and practices, though Gelug and Sakya focus more on scholarship and the study of Buddhist thought; the other two focus on rituals and meditation practices.5 This form often involves a conversation between the practitioner and the client, which allows a few different things to happen. The first one lets the client tell the practitioner why he or she is there, what is going on in his/her life, and what he or she is hoping to get out of the session(s). The second thing that happens during this conversation is that it gives the practitioner a chance to get a feel for the client's spiritual energies prior to starting the session and allows for even more insight into the client's current situation. The third thing that happens, and one of the most important, is that it gives the practitioner and client a chance to build a rapport. This allows the client to let go and open up more to the spiritual energies during the session. Tibetan Buddhism has caught the imagination of many in the western world, partially due to attention given to it by Hollywood,6 and the efforts of the Dalai Lama to restore Tibetan independence.7 Many westerners are more attracted to the virtues emphasized in Tibetan Buddhism such as kindness and the experience of peacefulness, more than the disciplines and rituals. However, due to the secretive nature of some of its teachings, and because little has been written on a popular level about Tibet and its religious traditions, Tibetan Buddhism remains largely a mystery to many westerners, though awareness of it is growing. HISTORY AND STRUCTURE Buddhism in Tibet is deeply embedded in the country’s history. Sometime after 600 AD, King Songtsen Gampo unified the various provinces under one rule creating the nation of Tibet. He married two Buddhist women and made Buddhism the court religion. He sponsored the development of a written Tibetan language so that Indian texts could be translated and he had the first Buddhist temples built in Tibet. Later, a successor, Trisong Detsen, built the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet, known as Samye. It is a large complex, intricately designed, with a six-story Tibetan Buddhism, page 2 temple in the center. The third floor of the temple has the apartment of the Dalai Lama (now in exile).8 Samye was the site of the Great Debate that began in 792 and lasted for two years.9 The debate was quite a dramatic event, set to determine which type of Buddhism Tibet would embrace. Principles in the debate were the Indian scholar Kamalashila, who defended the “middle way” of Indian Buddhism, with its rigorous meditation practices and rituals, and Chinese meditation master Mahayana, who argued strongly for Chinese Ch’an Buddhism, a form of Zen, which held that enlightenment came in a sudden flash rather than after long years of rigorous study and practice.10 Monks from all over Tibet attended the proceedings, but the decision lay in the hand of King Khri- Srong who determined that Kamalashila had made the best case.11 Indian or “tantric” Buddhism therefore became the basis for Tibetan Buddhism, although teachings from broader Buddhism have been important in its development.12 Tibet has struggled to maintain independence; invaded, alternately by the Mongolians and the Chinese. Sometimes the country has dissolved into separate provinces. Buddhism has been a unifying factor through this period. Dalai Lamas were first instituted under Mongolian rule, in the 1500s. A regular succession of Dalai Lamas was recognized in 1642, when the King of Mongolia made the fifth Dalai Lama the political leader of Tibet. From that time until 1950, Tibet’s leaders have all been Dalai Lamas (or their regents while the Dalai Lama was a minor). Tibetan independence ended in 1950 when Communist China invaded and annexed Tibet. Buddhism has been devastated due to Chinese Communist restrictions on religious practices (and due to the exit of Buddhist teachers from Tibet after the takeover). For example, there were 2,700 temples in Tibet in 1959. A delegation visiting in 1978 found only eight temples remaining.13 In 1959, the current Dalai Lama went into exile in Dharmasala in Northern India.14 He maintains that Tibet is still a sovereign nation, under occupation by China, and has worked very hard to make public the situation in Tibet (which won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989). As a result, worldwide support for the restoration of Tibet to independence has increased greatly.15 Tibetan Buddhism has grown in the United States over the past generation, surpassing Zen in popularity and public awareness. It was during 1950s and 60s that the first important Tibetan Buddhist teacher arrived in the U.S. A man named Geshe Wayal, a Mongolian lama, opened a monastery in New Jersey in 1955. Later, two men, Tarthang Tulku and Chogyam Trungpa, came from Tibet and found ways to popularize Tibetan Buddhist practices. Trungpa especially found ways to make Tibetan Buddhism appealing. He created a syncretized, western style of Buddhism that combined other Asian religious practices into a form he called Shambala, a more accessible form of Buddhism. Early on, practitioners had been Tibetan or other Asian immigrants, but American converts to Tibetan Buddhism have increased in numbers, especially since the 1970s. These converts were less likely to embrace the monastic side of this religion, being more interested in the transformative promises of meditation. DOCTRINE AND PRACTICES Buddhism, as practiced in Tibet, has a mixture of sources from India including Bon, which is an older indigenous Tibetan religion. Traditional Indian Buddhism is the source for Tibetan Buddhist meditation practices (including verbal mantras and visualization exercises). Bon contributes the shamanistic practice of following a Lama, or Buddha, who teaches the Dharma (principle/law) to his community of followers (Sangha). Bon, originally an animistic religion, believes that spirits inhabit natural features in the landscape and other objects.16 Their shamans entered trances to receive messages from spirits in order to placate them when problems arise.17 Modern Bon has adopted so much from Buddhism that the two religions are difficult to distinguish.18 Tibetan Buddhism has always emphasized taking refuge in the Three Jewels, plus the Lama (the wise teacher or guru who founds and leads a monastery). The three Jewels are the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha (the monastic community which comes together to encourage each other in the disciplines of Buddhist meditation and practice). To this, Tibetan Buddhism adds the Lama or Guru. He is not the original Buddha, but as a Lama, he is “a” Buddha, and he lives out and teaches the Dharma, and draws around him the community to practice the teachings. The lama/disciple relationship is very important in Tibetan Buddhism, and the disciple must follow closely the spiritual guidance given to him by the lama. While Tibetan Buddhism traces its roots directly back to India, and its practices are based on the older Theravada tradition. Its beliefs and goals are more similar to the wider Mahayana Buddhist teaching, which says that there are many Buddhas and that the goal (Nirvana) is to be understood as a state of enlightenment, or bliss wherein one can help lead all other living beings to enlightenment along with oneself. Enlightenment begins with Bodhicitta —the desire to achieve enlightenment for the good of others.19 From this beginning, one seeks to develop the “Six Perfections,” or six paramitas, the Tibetan Buddhism, page 3 “doors of action.” These six are generosity, training in mindfulness, “all embracing inclusiveness,” diligence, concentration, and finally wisdom and understanding.20 The cultivation of these begins with Bodhicitta, which is itself, an other-directed desire to make progress in Buddhist meditation, since it seeks to grow oneself for the benefit of others. There are four schools of Tibetan Buddhism: Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, and Gelugpa (The oldest being Nyingma).21 Next, the Kagyu Buddhists founded by a Buddhist named Marpa, and his disciple, Milarepa, built numerous monasteries and carried Buddhist teachings across Tibet.
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