2017 School Catalog
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VT Module6 Lineage Text Major Schools of Tibetan Buddhism
THE MAJOR SCHOOLS OF TIBETAN BUDDHISM By Pema Khandro A BIRD’S EYE VIEW 1. NYINGMA LINEAGE a. Pema Khandro’s lineage. Literally means: ancient school or old school. Nyingmapas rely on the old tantras or the original interpretation of Tantra as it was given from Padmasambhava. b. Founded in 8th century by Padmasambhava, an Indian Yogi who synthesized the teachings of the Indian MahaSiddhas, the Buddhist Tantras, and Dzogchen. He gave this teaching (known as Vajrayana) in Tibet. c. Systemizes Buddhist philosophy and practice into 9 Yanas. The Inner Tantras (what Pema Khandro Rinpoche teaches primarily) are the last three. d. It is not a centralized hierarchy like the Sarma (new translation schools), which have a figure head similar to the Pope. Instead, the Nyingma tradition is de-centralized, with every Lama is the head of their own sangha. There are many different lineages within the Nyingma. e. A major characteristic of the Nyingma tradition is the emphasis in the Tibetan Yogi tradition – the Ngakpa tradition. However, once the Sarma translations set the tone for monasticism in Tibet, the Nyingmas also developed a monastic and institutionalized segment of the tradition. But many Nyingmas are Ngakpas or non-monastic practitioners. f. A major characteristic of the Nyingma tradition is that it is characterized by treasure revelations (gterma). These are visionary revelations of updated communications of the Vajrayana teachings. Ultimately treasure revelations are the same dharma principles but spoken in new ways, at new times and new places to new people. Because of these each treasure tradition is unique, this is the major reason behind the diversity within the Nyingma. -
Shitro Empowerment and Bardo Teachings March 14Th – 17Th
Shitro Empowerment and Bardo Teachings March 14 th – 17 th Drikung Kyobpa Choling Monastery 1600 Sheridan Place Escondido CA 92027 Phone: 760-738-0089 or 909-625-5955 100 PEACEFUL AD WRATHFUL DEITIES This empowerment introduces the practitioner to experiences described in the Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Thodol) and helps prepare one to recognize the true nature of mind encountered in the bardo (intermediate state) between death and rebirth. • This is a rare empowerment that will further develop the companion practice of Phowa. • Liberation can follow a single moment’s recognition at the time of death or in the bardo between lives. • This complete transmission includes teachings on the True Nature of Mind. This teaching of the Peaceful and Wrathful Deities is the supreme method for the practitioners who are entering into the practices of the Creation Stage, the Completion Stage, and the Great Perfection. It is the supreme method for them to amend all of their impairments of samaya that have become fragmented. It is the supreme method for them to purify the obscurations of conceptuality, and it is the supreme method for them to help all sentient beings, by pulling them up from the lower realms of samsara and establishing them in the karmic fortune of obtaining the supreme siddhi [enlightenment]. It is also said that merely hearing this teaching prevents birth in the lower realms; merely understanding it causes one to travel the path of great bliss; and bringing its meaning to mind causes one to accomplish the irreversible state of the spontaneously arisen awareness holder. -
White Paper on Tibetan Culture
http://english.people.com.cn/features/tibetpaper/tibeta.html White Paper on Tibetan Culture Following is the full text of the white paper on "The Development of Tibetan Culture" released by the Information Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China June 22: Foreword I. The Spoken and Written Tibetan Language Is Widely Studied and Used, and Being Developed II. Cultural Relics and Ancient Books and Records Are Well Preserved and Utilized III. Folk Customs and Freedom of Religious Belief Are Respected and Protected IV. Culture and Art Are Being Inherited and Developed in an All- Round Way V. Tibetan Studies Are Flourishing, and Tibetan Medicine and Pharmacology Have Taken On a New Lease of Life VI. Popular Education Makes a Historic Leap VII. The News and Publishing, Broadcasting, Film and Television Industries Are Developing Rapidly Conclusion Foreword China is a united multi-ethnic country. As a member of the big family of the Chinese nation, the Tibetan people have created and developed their brilliant and distinctive culture during a long history of continuous exchanges and contacts with other ethnic groups, all of whom have assimilated and promoted each other's cultures. Tibetan culture has all along been a dazzling pearl in the treasure- house of Chinese culture as well as that of the world as a whole. The gradual merger of the Tubo culture of the Yalong Valley in the middle part of the basin of the Yarlung Zangbo River, and the ancient Shang-Shung culture of the western part of the Qinghai- Tibet Plateau formed the native Tibetan culture. -
Sacred Arts of Tibet: Art from the Roof of the World
Sacred Arts of Tibet Art from the Roof of the World An Educator Workshop presented by the Asian Art Museum Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture April 21, 2001 Prepared and edited by Deborah Clearwaters and Robert W. Clark, Ph.D. based on research by Terese Tse Bartholomew and other authors. We owe a debt of gratitude to Lama Ajia Lousang Tubten Jumai Gyatso, and Tenzin N. Tethong for their help in planning and presenting the workshop. Thanks to Terese Tse Bartholomew, Brian Hogarth, Alina Collier, Stephanie Kao, Elly Wong, and Jason Jose for their help with the packet and the workshop, and to Lisa Kristine, Migration Photography for her pictures. 1 Sacred Arts of Tibet Table of Contents Background Reading About this Packet The Land of Tibet The People of Tibet Nomads ~ Farmers ~ Monks and Nuns (the monastic community) Religious Practice in Tibet Buddhism in Tibet The Development of Buddhism in India Enlightenment and the Buddha’s Teachings Three Paths to Salvation The Bodhisattva Vajrayana Buddhism Bön, Tibet’s Indigenous Belief History The Age of Kings: The "First Transmission" of Buddhism to Tibet (approx. 400 BCE- 850 CE) Songtsen Gambo (618-650), the First King of a Unified Tibet Empress Wen Cheng and Empress Bhrikuti Help Establish Buddhism in Tibet Tibet’s Important Ties with India Expansion of Emperor Songtsen Gambo’s Empire Padmasambhava, the “Lotus Born,” Confronts the Bön Deities Establishment of the First Buddhist Monastery in Tibet Religious Rule: The “Second Transmission” of Buddhism to Tibet (Approx. 850-1000) -
An Excursus on the Subtle Body in Tantric Buddhism. Notes
THE JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BUDDHIST STUDIES EDITOR-IN-CHIEF A. K. Narain University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA EDITORS L. M.Joshi Ernst Steinkellner Punjabi University University of Vienna Patiala, India Wien, Austria Alexander W. Macdonald Jikido Takasaki Universite de Paris X University of Tokyo Nanterre, France Tokyo, fapan Bardwell Smith Robert Thurman Carleton College Amherst College Northfield, Minnesota, USA Amherst, Massachusetts, USA ASSISTANT EDITOR Roger Jackson FJRN->' Volume 6 1983 Number 2 CONTENTS I. ARTICLES A reconstruction of the Madhyamakdvatdra's Analysis of the Person, by Peter G. Fenner. 7 Cittaprakrti and Ayonisomanaskdra in the Ratnagolravi- bhdga: Precedent for the Hsin-Nien Distinction of The Awakening of Faith, by William Grosnick 35 An Excursus on the Subtle Body in Tantric Buddhism (Notes Contextualizing the Kalacakra)1, by Geshe Lhundup Sopa 48 Socio-Cultural Aspects of Theravada Buddhism in Ne pal, by Ramesh Chandra Tewari 67 The Yuktisas(ikakdrikd of Nagarjuna, by Fernando Tola and Carmen Dragonetti 94 The "Suicide" Problem in the Pali Canon, by Martin G. Wiltshire \ 24 II. BOOK REVIEWS 1. Buddhist and Western Philosophy, edited by Nathan Katz 141 2. A Meditators Diary, by Jane Hamilton-Merritt 144 3. The Roof Tile ofTempyo, by Yasushi Inoue 146 4. Les royaumes de I'Himalaya, histoire et civilisation: le La- dakh, le Bhoutan, le Sikkirn, le Nepal, under the direc tion of Alexander W. Macdonald 147 5. Wings of the White Crane: Poems of Tskangs dbyangs rgya mtsho (1683-1706), translated by G.W. Houston The Rain of Wisdom, translated by the Nalanda Transla tion Committee under the Direction of Chogyam Trungpa Songs of Spiritual Change, by the Seventh Dalai Lama, Gyalwa Kalzang Gyatso 149 III. -
Pilgrimage to Drakar Dreldzong
Pilgrimage to Drakar Dreldzong The Written Tradition and Contemporary Practices among Amdo Tibetans ,#-7--a};-1 Zhuoma ( |) Thesis Submitted for the Degree of M. Phil in Tibetan Studies Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages University of Oslo Spring 2008 1 Summary This thesis focuses on pilgrimage (gnas skor) to Drakar Dreldzong, a Buddhist holy mountain (gnas ri) in a remote area of Amdo, Tibet, in the present day Qinghai Province in the western part of China. The mountain had long been a solitude hermitage and still is a popular pilgrimage site for Tibetan lamas and nearby laymen. Pilgrimage to holy mountains was, and still is, significant for the religious, cultural and literary life of Tibet, and even for today’s economic climate in Tibet. This thesis presents the traditional perceptions of the site reflected both in written texts, namely pilgrimage guides (gnas bshad), and in the contemporary practices of pilgrimage to Drakar Dreldzong. It specifically talks about an early pilgrimage guide (Guide A) written by a tantric practitioner in the early 17th century, and newly developed guides (Guides B, C and D), based on the 17th century one, edited and composed by contemporary Tibetan lay intellectuals and monks from Dreldzong Monastery. This monastery, which follows the Gelukba tradition, was established in 1923 at the foot of the mountain. The section about the early guide mainly introduces the historical framework of pilgrimage guides and provides an impression of the situation of the mountain in from the 17th to the 21st century. In particular, it translates the text and gives comments and analysis on the content. -
The Nine Yanas
The Nine Yanas By Cortland Dahl In the Nyingma school, the spiritual journey is framed as a progression through nine spiritual approaches, which are typically referred to as "vehicles" or "yanas." The first three yanas include the Buddha’s more accessible teachings, those of the Sutrayana, or Sutra Vehicle. The latter six vehicles contain the teachings of Buddhist tantra and are referred to as the Vajrayana, or Vajra Vehicle. Students of the Nyingma teachings practice these various approaches as a unity. Lower vehicles are not dispensed with in favor of supposedly “higher” teachings, but rather integrated into a more refined and holistic approach to spiritual development. Thus, core teachings like renunciation and compassion are equally important in all nine vehicles, though they may be expressed in more subtle ways. In the Foundational Vehicle, for instance, renunciation involves leaving behind “worldly” activities and taking up the life of a celibate monk or nun, while in the Great Perfection, renunciation means to leave behind all dualistic perception and contrived spiritual effort. Each vehicle contains three distinct components: view, meditation, and conduct. The view refers to a set of philosophical tenets espoused by a particular approach. On a more experiential level, the view prescribes how practitioners of a given vehicle should “see” reality and its relative manifestations. Meditation consists of the practical techniques that allow practitioners to integrate Buddhist principles with their own lives, thus providing a bridge between theory and experience, while conduct spells out the ethical guidelines of each system. The following sections outline the features of each approach. Keep in mind, however, that each vehicle is a world unto itself, with its own unique philosophical views, meditations, and ethical systems. -
And Daemonic Buddhism in India and Tibet
Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2012 The Raven and the Serpent: "The Great All- Pervading R#hula" Daemonic Buddhism in India and Tibet Cameron Bailey Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES THE RAVEN AND THE SERPENT: “THE GREAT ALL-PERVADING RHULA” AND DMONIC BUDDHISM IN INDIA AND TIBET By CAMERON BAILEY A Thesis submitted to the Department of Religion in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Religion Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2012 Cameron Bailey defended this thesis on April 2, 2012. The members of the supervisory committee were: Bryan Cuevas Professor Directing Thesis Jimmy Yu Committee Member Kathleen Erndl Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the thesis has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii For my parents iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank, first and foremost, my adviser Dr. Bryan Cuevas who has guided me through the process of writing this thesis, and introduced me to most of the sources used in it. My growth as a scholar is almost entirely due to his influence. I would also like to thank Dr. Jimmy Yu, Dr. Kathleen Erndl, and Dr. Joseph Hellweg. If there is anything worthwhile in this work, it is undoubtedly due to their instruction. I also wish to thank my former undergraduate advisor at Indiana University, Dr. Richard Nance, who inspired me to become a scholar of Buddhism. -
WHY HOLY OBJECTS ARE PRECIOUS and WISH-FULFILLING by Lama Zopa Rinpoche Very Time You Look at Holy Objects – Pictures of the Destroy the World
HOLY OBJECTS and the lotus seat on which Tara sits, but the fine detailed procession all around Kopan Hill. I remember that Lama painting of Tara’s facial features, especially her eyes, was was wearing a ceremonial crown of the five dhyani done by Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Rinpoche was truly able to buddhas. We stopped at various points to chant and make bring Tara alive when he “opened the eyes” of the statue. prayers. Lama explained to everyone that we were showing This was the last step before the actual consecration, during Tara around her new home. Then she was placed in her which Tara was invited to come and reside in the statue. house in front of the gompa. I always thought of her as Connie remembers the consecration: “Two monks watching over and protecting Kopan from there.” And she carrying Tara on their shoulders led everyone in a joyous still does to this day. ama Zopa Rinpoche and Lama Yeshe are pictured here at Borobudur LStupa, Java, Indonesia, in 1979. Peter Kedge remembers the details of this visit to one of the world’s greatest Buddhist pilgrimage sites, dating back to 800 CE. “It was blisteringly hot the day we were there, humid and absolutely the worst conditions for Lama [Lama Yeshe had a heart condition that was especially aggravated by the heat]. But he insisted on circumam - bulating the shrine several times, while prostrating. Rinpoche joined him, but I couldn’t keep up at all and went off and found some shade.” WHY HOLY OBJECTS ARE PRECIOUS AND WISH-FULFILLING By Lama Zopa Rinpoche very time you look at holy objects – pictures of the destroy the world. -
Buddhism As a 'Living Tradition'
1 Buddhism as a ‘living tradition’: The foundation for Buddhism without borders Kathleen Gregory Reflecting on the contemporary presentations of Buddhism within the Western context, particularly from the Tibetan traditions, this paper presents Buddhism from a ‘living tradition’ perspective arguing that the principle which links Buddhism across space and time is the concern with ‘lived experience.’ This perspective highlights the origins of Buddhism in the Buddha’s experience, and serves to unify ordinary and Enlightened experiences as kinds of ‘lived experiences.’ As a result, the ‘living quality’ of the teachings is understood in terms of the interrelationship of doctrine and practice; and expressed in relation to the subjectivity of practitioners in space and time. It is argued that this perspective challenges a number of current Western perspectives in the study of Buddhism which can be described as over-determining Buddhism as a heterogeneous and non-Western product; while concomitantly emphasising ‘borders’ between the ancient and contemporary, text and praxis, and tradition and innovation. Particularly in the West, ‘tradition’ is seen in diametric opposition to innovation; I argue that this view of tradition is foreign to the living tradition context. Rather, Buddhism engages with and through human experience, which by its nature is always contemporary. ‘Living tradition’ is thus that which maintains the transformative power of Buddhism; concluding that this living tradition perspective is itself the foundation for Buddhism without borders. Introduction This presentation of Buddhism as a ‘living tradition’ begins from my reflections as a Buddhist practitioner for twenty years within the Tibetan tradition. I have learnt that Buddhism is primarily a ‘practical endeavour’ concerned with understanding experience and transforming experience through that understanding. -
Introductory Notes on the Relationship Between Buddhist and Hindu Yogas
Sean Feit Oakes, PhD | SeanFeitOakes.com | 2017 Introductory Notes on the Relationship Between Buddhist and Hindu Yogas Sean Feit Oakes, PhD One of the many ways Insight Meditation (IM) has evolved away from its roots in Southeast Asian Theravāda Buddhism is in its embrace of yoga as a valuable adjunct to the vipassanā that forms the heart of its practice system. The yoga most common in the West, known by some scholars as “Modern Postural Yoga” (MPY) to highlight both its physical emphasis and its recent provenance, is a substantial part of the practice regimen of many IM practitioners, but holds an ambiguous role in the formal system of IM practice.1 Yoga, most often in a gentle style of posture (āsana) practice, is offered both in classes and via dedicated space for practice, at many IM centers, but is rarely spoken of in dharma talks, included in the progression of instructions that forms the basis of retreat practice, or included in the collection of primarily Buddhist doctrines that are emphasized and repeated. The reasons for this ambiguity are historical and doctrinal, reflecting the cultural identity of modern practitioners as much as the imagined historical separation of the traditions. Materials from historically more distant traditions, after all, like poems from Rumi, Mary Oliver, or T.S. Eliot, bring Muslim and Christian influences into the room, but are commonly used. Another commonly used source, Japanese Zen, while seemingly related to Theravāda by its Buddhist-ness, is historically and in some ways doctrinally just as distant from Theravāda as most forms of modern Hinduism. -
SYMPOSIUM Moving Borders: Tibet in Interaction with Its Neighbors
SYMPOSIUM Moving Borders: Tibet in Interaction with Its Neighbors Symposium participants and abstracts: Karl Debreczeny is Senior Curator of Collections and Research at the Rubin Museum of Art. He completed his PhD in Art History at the University of Chicago in 2007. He was a Fulbright‐Hays Fellow (2003–2004) and a National Gallery of Art CASVA Ittleson Fellow (2004–2006). His research focuses on exchanges between Tibetan and Chinese artistic traditions. His publications include The Tenth Karmapa and Tibet’s Turbulent Seventeenth Century (ed. with Tuttle, 2016); The All‐Knowing Buddha: A Secret Guide (with Pakhoutova, Luczanits, and van Alphen, 2014); Situ Panchen: Creation and Cultural Engagement in Eighteenth‐Century Tibet (ed., 2013); The Black Hat Eccentric: Artistic Visions of the Tenth Karmapa (2012); and Wutaishan: Pilgrimage to Five Peak Mountain (2011). His current projects include an exhibition which explores the intersection of politics, religion, and art in Tibetan Buddhism across ethnicities and empires from the seventh to nineteenth century. Art, Politics, and Tibet’s Eastern Neighbors Tibetan Buddhism’s dynamic political role was a major catalyst in moving the religion beyond Tibet’s borders east to its Tangut, Mongol, Chinese, and Manchu neighbors. Tibetan Buddhism was especially attractive to conquest dynasties as it offered both a legitimizing model of universal sacral kingship that transcended ethnic and clan divisions—which could unite disparate people—and also promised esoteric means to physical power (ritual magic) that could be harnessed to expand empires. By the twelfth century Tibetan masters became renowned across northern Asia as bestowers of this anointed rule and occult power.