1.
Tibet Autonomous Region
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The Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, called Tibet or Xizang for short, is a province-level autonomous region of the Peoples Republic of China. Within China, Tibet is identified as an autonomous region, the current borders of Tibet were generally established in the eighteenth century and include about half of ethno-cultural Tibet. In 1950, the Peoples Liberation Army defeated the Tibetan army in a battle fought near the city of Chamdo, in 1951, the Tibetan representatives signed a 17-point agreement with the Chinese Central Peoples Government affirming Chinas sovereignty over Tibet and the incorporation of Tibet. The agreement was ratified in Lhasa a few months later, the Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 and renounced the 17-point agreement. Tibet Autonomous Region was established in 1965, thus making Tibet an administrative division that is equivalent in status to a Chinese province. The Tibet Autonomous Region is located on the Tibetan Plateau, the highest region on earth, in northern Tibet elevations reach an average of over 4,572 metres. Mount Everest is located on Tibets border with Nepal, Chinas provincial-level areas of Xinjiang, Qinghai and Sichuan lie to the north, northeast, and east, respectively, of the Tibet AR. There is also a border with Yunnan province to the southeast. The PRC has border disputes with the Republic of India over the McMahon Line of Arunachal Pradesh, the disputed territory of Aksai Chin is to the west, and its boundary with that region is not defined. The other countries to the south are Myanmar, Bhutan and Nepal. Physically, the Tibet AR may be divided into two parts, the region in the west and north-west, and the river region. On the south the Tibet AR is bounded by the Himalayas, the system at no point narrows to a single range, generally there are three or four across its breadth. Other lakes include Dagze Co, Namtso, and Pagsum Co, the lake region is a wind-swept Alpine grassland. This region is called the Chang Tang or Northern Plateau by the people of Tibet and it is some 1,100 km broad, and covers an area about equal to that of France. Due to its distance from the ocean it is extremely arid. The mountain ranges are spread out, rounded, disconnected, separated by flat valleys. The Tibet AR is dotted over with large and small lakes, generally salt or alkaline, due to the presence of discontinuous permafrost over the Chang Tang, the soil is boggy and covered with tussocks of grass, thus resembling the Siberian tundra. Salt and fresh-water lakes are intermingled, the lakes are generally without outlet, or have only a small effluent
2.
Lhasa (prefecture-level city)
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Lhasa is a city and administrative capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the Peoples Republic of China. Lhasa is the second most populous city on the Tibetan Plateau after Xining and, at an altitude of 3,490 metres, the city has been the religious and administrative capital of Tibet since the mid-17th century. It contains many culturally significant Tibetan Buddhist sites such as the Potala Palace, Jokhang Temple, Lhasa literally means place of the gods. Lhasa is first recorded as the name, referring to the temple of Jowo. By the mid 7th century, Songtsän Gampo became the leader of the Tibetan Empire that had risen to power in the Brahmaputra River Valley, Bhrikuti is said to have converted him to Buddhism, which was also the faith attributed to his second wife Wencheng. In 641 he constructed the Jokhang and Ramoche Temples in Lhasa in order to house two Buddha statues, the Akshobhya Vajra and the Jowo Sakyamuni, respectively brought to his court by the princesses. Lhasa suffered extensive damage under the reign of Langdarma in the 9th century, when the sites were destroyed and desecrated. A Tibetan tradition mentions that after Songtsän Gampos death in 649 C. E. Chinese troops captured Lhasa, Chinese and Tibetan scholars have noted that the event is mentioned neither in the Chinese annals nor in the Tibetan manuscripts of Dunhuang. Lǐ suggested that this tradition may derive from an interpolation, tsepon W. D. Shakabpa believes that those histories reporting the arrival of Chinese troops are not correct. From the fall of the monarchy in the 9th century to the accession of the 5th Dalai Lama, however, the importance of Lhasa as a religious site became increasingly significant as the centuries progressed. It was known as the centre of Tibet where Padmasambhava magically pinned down the earth demoness, islam has been present since the 11th century in what is considered to have always been a monolithically Buddhist culture. Two Tibetan Muslim communities have lived in Lhasa with distinct homes, food and clothing, language, education, trade, by the 15th century, the city of Lhasa had risen to prominence following the founding of three large Gelugpa monasteries by Je Tsongkhapa and his disciples. The three monasteries are Ganden, Sera and Drepung which were built as part of the puritanical Buddhist revival in Tibet, the scholarly achievements and political know-how of this Gelugpa Lineage eventually pushed Lhasa once more to centre stage. The 5th Dalai Lama, Lobsang Gyatso, unified Tibet and moved the centre of his administration to Lhasa in 1642 with the help of Güshi Khan of the Khoshut. With Güshi Khan as a largely uninvolved overlord, the 5th Dalai Lama, the core leadership of this government is also referred to as the Ganden Phodrang, and Lhasa thereafter became both the religious and political capital. In 1645, the reconstruction of the Potala Palace began on Red Hill, in 1648, the Potrang Karpo of the Potala was completed, and the Potala was used as a winter palace by the Dalai Lama from that time onwards. The Potrang Marpo was added between 1690 and 1694, the name Potala is derived from Mount Potalaka, the mythical abode of the Dalai Lamas divine prototype, the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. The Jokhang Temple was also expanded around this time
3.
China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
4.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
5.
Tibetan Buddhism
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Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet, the regions surrounding the Himalayas and much of Central Asia. It derives from the latest stages of Indian Buddhism and preserves the Tantric status quo of eighth-century India, Tibetan Buddhism aspires to Buddhahood or rainbow body. Religious texts and commentaries comprise the Tibetan Buddhist canon, such that Tibetan is a language of these areas. Among its prominent exponents is the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, the number of its adherents is estimated to be between ten and twenty million. Westerners unfamiliar with Tibetan Buddhism initially turned to China for an understanding, there the term used was lamaism to distinguish it from a then traditional Chinese form. The term was taken up by scholars including Hegel, as early as 1822. Insofar as it implies a discontinuity between Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, the term has been discredited, another term, Vajrayāna is occasionally used mistakenly for Tibetan Buddhism. More accurately, it signifies a certain subset of practices included in, not only Tibetan Buddhism, the native Tibetan term for all Buddhism is doctrine of the internalists. There is an association between the religious and the secular the spiritual and the temporal in Tibet. The term for this relationship is chos srid zung brel, in the west the term Indo-Tibetan Buddhism has become current, in acknowledgement of its derivation from the latest stages of Buddhist development in northern India. Tibetan Buddhism comprises the teachings of the three vehicles of Buddhism, the Foundational Vehicle, Mahāyāna, and Vajrayāna, the Mahāyāna goal of spiritual development is to achieve the enlightenment of buddhahood in order to most efficiently help all other sentient beings attain this state. The motivation in it is the mind of enlightenment — an altruistic intention to become enlightened for the sake of all sentient beings. Bodhisattvas are revered beings who have conceived the will and vow to dedicate their lives with bodhicitta for the sake of all beings, Tibetan Buddhism teaches methods for achieving buddhahood more quickly by including the Vajrayāna path in Mahāyāna. Buddhahood is defined as a free of the obstructions to liberation as well as those to omniscience. When one is freed from all mental obscurations, one is said to attain a state of continuous bliss mixed with a simultaneous cognition of emptiness, in this state, all limitations on ones ability to help other living beings are removed. It is said there are countless beings who have attained buddhahood. Buddhas spontaneously, naturally and continuously perform activities to all sentient beings. However it is believed that ones karma could limit the ability of the Buddhas to help them, there is a long history of oral transmission of teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
6.
Schools of Buddhism
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Schools of Buddhism refers to the various institutional and doctrinal divisions of Buddhism that have existed from ancient times up to the present. That have made up or currently make up the whole of Buddhist traditions, the sectarian and conceptual divisions of Buddhist thought are part of the modern framework of Buddhist studies, as well as comparative religion in Asia. The most common classification among scholars is threefold, with Mahāyāna itself split between the traditional Mahāyāna teachings, and the Vajrayāna teachings which emphasize esotericism, Vajrayāna, primarily in Tibet, Bhutan, Mongolia and the Russian republic of Kalmykia. The following terms may be encountered in descriptions of the major Buddhist divisions, Ekayāna Mahayana texts such as the Lotus Sutra and the Avatamsaka Sutra sought to unite all the different teachings into a single great way. These texts serve as the inspiration for using the term Ekayāna in the sense of one vehicle and this one vehicle became a key aspect of the doctrines and practices of Tiantai and Tendai Buddhist sects, which subsequently influenced Chán and Zen doctrines and practices. In Japan, the teaching of the Lotus Sutra also inspired the formation of the Nichiren sect. Esoteric Buddhism usually considered synonymous with Vajrayāna, some scholars have applied the term to certain practices found within the Theravāda, particularly in Cambodia. It is considered a term when applied by the Mahāyāna to mistakenly refer to the Theravāda school. Moreover, Hīnayāna refers to the now non extant schools with limited set of views, practices and results and its use in scholarly publications is now also considered controversial. Lamaism an old term, still used, synonymous with Tibetan Buddhism. Mahāyāna a movement that emerged from early Buddhist schools, together with its later descendants, Vajrayāna traditions are sometimes listed separately. The main use of the term in East Asian and Tibetan traditions is in reference to spiritual levels, mainstream Buddhism a term used by some scholars for the early Buddhist schools. Mantrayāna usually considered synonymous with Vajrayāna, the Tendai school in Japan has been described as influenced by Mantrayana. Newar Buddhism a non-monastic, caste based Buddhism with patrilineal descent, nikāya Buddhism or schools an alternative term for the early Buddhist schools. Non-Mahāyāna an alternative term for the early Buddhist schools, northern Buddhism an alternative term used by some scholars for Tibetan Buddhism. Also, a term still sometimes used to encompass both East Asian and Tibetan traditions. It has even used to refer to East Asian Buddhism alone. Secret Mantra an alternative rendering of Mantrayāna, a literal translation of the term used by schools in Tibetan Buddhism when referring to themselves
7.
Nyingma
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The Nyingma tradition is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Nyingma literally means ancient, and is referred to as Ngangyur because it is founded on the first translations of Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit into Old Tibetan in the eighth century. The Tibetan alphabet and grammar was created for this endeavour, in modern times, the Nyingma lineage has been centered in Kham. The Nyingmapa, a Red Hat sect of Tibetan Buddhism, incorporate local religious practices and local deities and elements of shamanism, the group particularly believes in hidden terma treasures. Traditionally, Nyingmapa practice was advanced orally among a network of lay practitioners. Monasteries with celibate monks and nuns, along with the practice of reincarnated spiritual leaders are later adaptations, Nyingma maintains the earliest tantra teachings that have been given the popular nomenclature of Vajrayana. Early Vajrayana that was transmitted from India to Tibet may be differentiated by the specific term Mantrayana, T least in Eastern Tibet, there existed during and after the time of Lha-tho-tho-ri a solid knowledge of Buddhism and that the upper classes of the people were faithfully devoted to it. But the border regions in the north and west probably had also come into contact with Buddhism long before the time of Srong-btsan-sgam-po, there used to be contacts with the Tibetan population in these border regions. It is possible that the knowledge gained from these encounters was spread by merchants over large areas of Tibet, thus, when Srong-btsan-sgam-po succeeded to the throne of Tibet in the year 627, the country was ready for a systematic missionary drive under royal patronage. Around 760, Trisong Detsen invited Padmasambhava and the Nalanda abbot Śāntarakṣita to Tibet to introduce Buddhism to the Land of Snows, Trisong Detsen ordered the translation of all Buddhist texts into Tibetan. Padmasambhava, Śāntarakṣita,108 translators, and 25 of Padmasambhavas nearest disciples worked for years in a gigantic translation-project. The translations from this period formed the base for the large scriptural transmission of Dharma teachings into Tibet, Padmasambhava supervised mainly the translation of tantras, Śāntarakṣita concentrated on the sutras. Padmasambhava and Śāntarakṣita also founded the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet, from this basis, Tantric Buddhism was established in its entirety in Tibet. From the eighth until the eleventh century, the Nyingma was the school of Buddhism in Tibet. Langdarma persecuted monks and nuns, and attempted to wipe out Buddhism and his efforts, however, were not successful. A few monks escaped to Amdo in the northeast of Tibet, indeed, the Nyingma traditionally had no centralized authority or Nyingma-wide hierarchy. Only since the Tibetan diaspora following the Chinese annexure of Tibet have the Nyingma had a head of the Tradition, even so, the Nyingma tradition is still politically decentralized and often decisions are made in an oligarchy or community of the senior sangha within a given jurisdiction or locale. There was never a single head of the lineage in the manner of either the Ganden Tripa or Dalai Lama of the Gelug and it was only recently in exile in India that this role was created at the request of the Central Tibetan Administration and it is largely administrative
8.
Kagyu
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Along with the Sakya and Gelug schools, the Kagyu tradition is classified as one of the Sarma or New Transmission schools of Vajrayāna founded during the second diffusion of Buddhism into Tibet. It is a Red Hat sect along with the Nyingma and Sakya and these lineages are hereditary as well as mindstream emanation in nature. Strictly speaking, the term bka brgyud oral lineage, precept transmission applies to any line of transmission of a teaching from teacher to disciple. There are references to the Atiśa kagyu for the Kadam or to Jonang kagyu for the Jonang, today, however, the term Kagyu almost always refers to the Dagpo Kagyu and, less often, to the Shangpa Kagyu. The term Bka brgyud pa simply applies to any line of transmission of a teaching from teacher to disciple. We can properly speak of a Jo nang Bka brgyud pa or Dge ldan Bka brgyud pa for the Jo nang pa, similar teachings and practices centering around the Ni gu chos drug are distinctive of the Shangs pa Bka brgyud pa. These two traditions with their offshoots are often referred to simply as Bka brgyud pa. The term Dkar brgyud pa refers to the use of the white cotton meditation garment by all these lineages and this complex is what is normally known, inaccuratly, as the Bka brgyud pa. Nevertheless, it is fine if are all called Bka brgyud, at Thuu kwans suggestion, then, we will side with convention and use the term Bka brgyud. One source indicates, he term Kagyu derives from the Tibetan phrase meaning Lineage of the Four Commissioners, the Shangpa Kagyu differs in origin from the better known Marpa or Dagpo school that is the source of all present-day Kagyu schools. The Dagpo school and its branches primarily came from the lineage of the Indian siddhas Tilopa and Naropa transmitted in Tibet through Marpa, Milarepa, Gampopa and their successors. In contrast, the Shangpa lineage descended from two female siddhas, Naropas consort Niguma and Virupas disciple Sukhasiddhi, transmitted in Tibet in the 11th century through Khyungpo Nenjor, the tradition takes its name from the Shang Valley where Khyungpo Nenjor established the gompa of Zhongzhong or Zhangzhong. For seven generations, the Shangpa Kagyu lineage remained a one-to-one transmission, although there were a few temples and retreat centres in Tibet and Bhutan associated with the Shangpa transmission, it never really was established as an independent religious institution or sect. Rather, its teachings were transmitted down through the centuries by lamas belonging to different schools. In the 20th century, the Shangpa teachings were transmitted by the first Kalu Rinpoche, who studied at Palpung Monastery, the seat of the Tai Situpa. Kagyu begins in Tibet with Marpa Lotsawa who trained as a translator with Drogmi Lotsawa Shākya Yeshe and his principal gurus were the siddhas Nāropa - from whom he received the close lineage of Mahāmudrā and Tantric teachings, and Maitrīpāda - from whom he received the distant lineage of mahāmudrā. Marpas guru Nāropa was the disciple of Tilopa from East Bengal. From his own teachers Tilopa received the Four Lineages of Instructions, Marpa married the Lady Dagmema, and took eight other concubines as mudras
9.
Jonang
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The Jonang is one of the schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Its origins in Tibet can be traced to early 12th century master Yumo Mikyo Dorje, but became much wider known with the help of Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen, a monk originally trained in the Sakya school. The Jonang re-established their religio-political center in Golok, Nakhi and Mongol areas in Kham, an estimated 5,000 monks and nuns of the Jonang tradition practice today in these areas and at the edges of historic Gelug influence. However, their teachings were limited to these regions until the Rimé movement of the 19th century encouraged the study of non-Gelug schools of thought, the monk Künpang Tukjé Tsöndrü established a kumbum or stupa-vihara in the Jomonang Valley about 160 kilometres northwest of the Tashilhunpo Monastery in Ü-Tsang. The Jonang tradition took its name from this monastery, which was expanded by Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen. The Jonang tradition combines two specific teachings, what has come to be known as the philosophy of śūnyatā. The origin of combination in Tibet is traced to the master Yumo Mikyo Dorje. The order remained in power in parts of Kham and Amdo centered on Dzamthang Monastery, the Jonang school generated a number of renowned Buddhist scholars, like Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen, but its most famous was Taranatha, who placed great emphasis on the Kalachakra Tantra. After the Jonang monasteries and practitioners in Gelug-controlled regions were forcibly converted, taranathas influence on Gelug thinking continues even to this day in the teaching of the present 14th Dalai Lama, who actively promotes initiation into Kalachakra. The Gelug school held the distinct but related rangtong view that all phenomena are empty and it is empty of all that is false, not empty of the limitless Buddha qualities that are its innate nature. Modern historians have identified two reasons which more likely led the Gelugpa to suppress the Jonangpa. First, the Jonangpa had political ties that were very vexing to the Gelugpa, the Jonang school, along with the Kagyu, were historical allies with the powerful house of Tsangpa, which was vying with the Dalai Lama and the Gelug school for control of Central Tibet. This was bad enough, but soon after the death of Taranatha, taranathas tulku was discovered to be a young boy named Zanabazar, the son of Tüsheet Khan, Prince of Central Khalkha. Tüsheet Khan and his son were of Borjigin lineage, meaning they had the authority to become khagan. When the young boy was declared the leader of all of Mongolia. The sects and institutions associated with these monasteries cried foul, tibetans have a long memory, and this accusation still stands within certain circles. I once asked the present Dalai Lama about this and he replied These monasteries were closed for political reasons, not religious ones, and their closing had nothing to do with sectarianism. They had supported the Tsangpa king in the uprising, thus committing treason, the Great Fifth believed that they should be closed in order to insure the future stability of the nation, and to dissuade other monasteries from engaging in warfare
10.
Sakya
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This articles concerns the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism. For information on the ancient Śākya tribe, see Shakya, the Sakya school is one of four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, the others being the Nyingma, Kagyu, and Gelug. It is one of the Red Hat sects along with the Nyingma, the Sakya tradition developed during the second period of translation of Buddhist scripture from Sanskrit into Tibetan in the late 11th century. Konchog Gyalpo became Drogmis disciple on the advice of his elder brother, from Drokmi comes the supreme teaching of Sakya, the system of Lamdre Path and its Fruit deriving from the mahasiddha Virupa based upon the Hevajra Tantra. Mal Lotsawa introduced to Sakya the esoteric Vajrayogini lineage known as Naro Khachoma, from Bari Lotsawa came innumerable tantric practices, foremost of which was the cycle of practices known as the One Hundred Sadhanas. Other key transmissions that form part of the Sakya spiritual curriculum include the cycles of Vajrakilaya, Mahākāla and Guhyasamāja tantras. The main Dharma system of the Sakya school is the Path with its Result, the other major system of the Sakya school is the Naropa Explanation For Disciples. In due course, two subsects emerged from the main Sakya lineage, Ngor, founded in Tsang by Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo, the Ngor school is centered on Ngor Evam Choden monastery. It represents 85% of the Sakyapa school and most if not all the monasteries in India are Ngorpa, tshar, founded by Tsarchen Losal Gyamtso. Nalendra became the home of the whispered-lineage of the Tsar school, the Bodongpa tradition, founded by Bodong Panchen Chögle Namgyel, is considered by some scholars to be a sub-sect of the Sakya tradition. The Mongol conquest of Tibet began after the foundation of the Mongol Empire in the early 13th century, in 1264, the feudal reign over Tibet was given to Drogön Chögyal Phagpa by Kublai Khan, founder of the Yuan dynasty. The leaders of the Sakya regime were as follows, Drogön Chögyal Phagpa 1253-1280 Dharmapala Raksita 1280-1282, d. The present Sakya Trizin, Ngawang Kunga Tegchen Palbar Trinley Samphel Wanggi Gyalpo, today, he resides in Rajpur, India along with his wife, Gyalyum Kushok Tashi Lhakyi, and two sons Ratna Vajra Rinpoche and Gyana Vajra Rinpoche. Ratna Vajra Rinpoche being the son, is the lineage holder and is married to Dagmo Kalden Dunkyi Sakya. Traditionally hereditary succession alternates between the two Sakya palaces since Khon Könchok Gyelpos reign, the Ducho sub-dynasty of Sakya survives split into two palaces, the Dolma Phodrang and Phuntsok Phodrang. Sakya Trizin is head of the Dolma Phodrang, dagchen Sakyas father was the previous Sakya Trizin, Trichen Ngawang Thutop Wangchuk, throne holder of Sakya, and his mother Dechen Drolma. Dagchen Sakya was married to Her Eminence Dagmo Jamyang Kusho Sakya, they have five sons, without Khyentse and Kongtruls collecting and printing of rare works, the suppression of Buddhism by the Communists would have been much more final. Tibet under Yuan rule Sakya Monastery Lamdré Tibetan Buddhism Jonang Patron and priest relationship Davidson, preliminary Studies on Hevajras Abhisamaya and the Lam bras Tshogs bshad
11.
Gelug
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The Gelug, Gelug-pa, dGe Lugs Pa, dge-lugs-pa or Dgelugspa is the newest of the schools of Tibetan Buddhism. It was founded by Je Tsongkhapa, a philosopher and Tibetan religious leader, the first monastery he established was named Ganden, and to this day the Ganden Tripa is the nominal head of the school, though its most influential figure is the Dalai Lama. Allying themselves with the Mongols as a patron, the Gelug emerged as the pre-eminent Buddhist school in Tibet since the end of the 16th century. Ganden is the Tibetan rendition of the Sanskrit name Tushita, the Pure land associated with Maitreya Buddha, at first, Tsongkhapas school was called Ganden Choluk meaning the Spiritual Lineage of Ganden. By taking the first syllable of Ganden and the second of Choluk this was abbreviated to Galuk, the Gelug school was founded by Je Tsongkhapa. A great admirer of the Kadam school, Tsongkhapa was a promoter of the Kadam emphasis on the Mahayana principle of compassion as the fundamental spiritual orientation. He combined this with extensive writings on Madhyamaka and Nagarjunas philosophy of Śūnyatā that, in many ways, in 1577 Sonam Gyatso, who was considered to be the third incarnation of Gyalwa Gendün Drup, formed an alliance with the then most powerful Mongol leader, Altan Khan. Sonam Gyatso was very active in proselytizing among the Mongols, and this brought the Gelugpas powerful patrons who were to propel them to pre-eminence in Tibet. The Gelug-Mongol alliance was strengthened as after Sonam Gyatsos death, his incarnation was found to be Altan Khans great-grandson. By the end of the 16th century, following violent strife among the sects of Tibetan Buddhism, according to Tibetan historian Samten Karmay, Sonam Chophel, treasurer of the Ganden Palace, was the prime architect of the Gelugs rise to political power. Later he received the title Desi, meaning Regent, which he would earn through his efforts to establish Gelugpa power, from the period of the 5th Dalai Lama in the 17th century, the Dalai Lamas held political control over central Tibet. The core leadership of this government was referred to as the Ganden Phodrang. Scottish Botanist George Forrest, who witnessed the 1905 Tibetan Rebellion led by the Gelug Lamas, according to his accounts, the Gelugpas were the dominant power in the region, with their Lamas effectively governing the area. Forrest said they used force and fraud to terrorise the, the central teachings of the Gelug School are Lamrim, based on the teachings of the Indian master Atiśa, and the systematic cultivation of the view of emptiness. The Guhyasamāja tantra is the principal one, as the Dalai Lama remarks, There is a saying in the Gelug, If one is on the move it is Guhyasamāja. If one is still, it is Guhyasamāja, If one is meditating, it should be upon Guhyasamāja. Therefore, whether one is engaged in study or practice, Guhyasamāja should be ones focus, the Gelug school focuses on ethics and monastic discipline of the vinaya as the central plank of spiritual practice. In particular, the need to pursue spiritual practice in a graded, arguably, Gelug is the only school of vajrayāna Buddhism that prescribes monastic ordination as a necessary qualification and basis in its teachers
12.
New Kadampa Tradition
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The New Kadampa Tradition – International Kadampa Buddhist Union is a global Buddhist organization founded by Kelsang Gyatso in England in 1991. In 2003 the words International Kadampa Buddhist Union were added to the original name New Kadampa Tradition, the NKT-IKBU is an international organization registered in England as a charitable, or non-profit, company. It currently lists more than 200 centres and around 900 branch classes/study groups in forty countries, the NKT-IKBU describes itself as ‘an entirely independent Buddhist tradition’ inspired and guided by ‘the ancient Kadampa Buddhist Masters and their teachings, as presented by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso’. Its founder, Kelsang Gyatso, has sought to make Buddhist meditation, the NKT-IKBU is described as being very successful at disseminating its teachings and Geshe Kelsangs books have been called very popular. The NKT-IKBU has expanded more rapidly than any other Buddhist tradition in Britain and it has been described as a controversial organization and a controversial New Religious Movement, a cult, or a breakaway Buddhist sect. The same year Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche visited Kelsang Gyatso in India and invited him over to teach at the Manjushri Institute, which was a part of their FPMT network. Kelsang Gyatso, a Tibetan Buddhist teacher, monk and scholar from the Gelug Tradition, according to David N. Kay, Kelsang Gyatso was invited in 1976 by Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who sought the advice of the Dalai Lama when choosing Kelsang Gyatso. Whereas according to a NKT brochure, Lama Yeshe requested Trijang Rinpoche to ask Kelsang Gyatso to become Resident Teacher of Manjushri Institute, Kelsang Gyatso was requested by Lama Yeshe to lead the General Program of Buddhist study. From 1982 to 1990 this program was led by Geshe Konchog Tsewang, according to a disciple of Lama Yeshe from this time, Lama Yeshe intended the institute to become the central monastery of the FPMT. One of the jewels of the FPMT crown and the pioneer among the western centres. In the late 1970s, Kelsang Gyatso, without consulting Lama Yeshe, Kay sees this as the beginning of a conflict between Lama Yeshe and Kelsang Gyatso. However, according to Kelsang Gyatso, the opening of the Centre in York caused not one moment of confusion or disharmony. Kelsang Gyatso was asked to resign so that another Geshe, described by Kay as more devoted to FPMT objectives, many students of Kelsang Gyatso petitioned him to stay and teach them, and on this basis he decided to remain. In the following years prior 1990 Kelsang Gyatso established 15 centers under his own direction in Great Britain and Spain, both Kay and Cozort describe the management committee of Manjushri Institute from 1981 onwards as made up principally of Kelsang Gyatsos closest students, also known as the Priory group. According to Kay, The Priory Group became dissatisfied with the FPMTs increasingly centralized organisation, according to Kay, Lama Yeshe tried at different times to reassert his authority over the Institute, but his attempts were unsuccessful. Kay goes on to describe a conflict of authority which developed between the Priory Group and the FPMT administration in 1983. In February 1984 the conflict was mediated by the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in London, Kay states that after the death of Lama Yeshe in March 1984, the FPMT lost interest because they saw it as a fruitless case. Further, Kay argues that Lama Yeshes and Geshe Kelsangs different ideological perspectives provided the conditions for the dispute between the Institute and the FPMT to escalate
13.
Padmasambhava
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Padmasambhava, also known as Guru Rinpoche, was an 8th-century Indian Buddhist master. A number of legends have grown around Padmasambhavas life and deeds, and he is venerated as a second Buddha across Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan. The Nyingma school considers Padmasambhava to be a founder of their tradition, nyangrel Nyima Özer was the principal architect of the Padmasambhava mythos according to Janet Gyatso. Guru Chöwang was the major contributor to the mythos. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries there were several competing terma traditions surrounding Padmasambhava, Vimalamitra, Songtsän Gampo, and Vairotsana. At the end of the 12th century, there was the victory of the Padmasambhava cult, according to tradition, Padmasambhava was incarnated as an eight-year-old child appearing in a lotus blossom floating in Lake Dhanakosha, in the kingdom of Oddiyana. Padmasambhavas special nature was recognized by the local king of Oḍḍiyāna and was chosen to take over the kingdom. In Rewalsar, known as Tso Pema in Tibetan, he secretly taught tantric teachings to princess Mandarava, the king found out and tried to burn him, but it is believed that when the smoke cleared he just sat there, still alive and in meditation. Greatly astonished by this miracle, the king offered Padmasambhava both his kingdom and Mandarava, Padmasambhava left with Mandarava, and took to Maratika Cave in Nepal to practice secret tantric consort rituals. They had a vision of buddha Amitāyus and achieved what is called the rainbow body. Both Padmasambhava and one of his consorts, Mandarava, are believed to be alive and active in this rainbow body form by their followers. She and Padmasambhavas other main consort, Yeshe Tsogyal, who hid his numerous termas in Tibet for later discovery. Many thangkas and paintings show Padmasambhava in between them, with Mandarava on his right and Yeshe Tsogyal on his left. According to this story, King Trisong Detsen, the 38th king of the Yarlung dynasty. Śāntarakṣita started the building of Samye, demonical forces hindered the introduction of the Buddhist dharma, and Padmasambhava was invited to Tibet to subdue the demonic forces. The demons were not annihilated, but were obliged to submit to the dharma and this was in accordance with the tantric principle of not eliminating negative forces but redirecting them to fuel the journey toward spiritual awakening. According to tradition, Padmasambhava received the Emperors wife, identified with the dakini Yeshe Tsogyal, King Trisong Detsen ordered the translation of all Buddhist Dharma Texts into Tibetan. Padmasambhava, Shantarakṣita,108 translators, and 25 of Padmasambhavas nearest disciples worked for years in a gigantic translation-project
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Tilopa
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Tilopa was born in either Chativavo, Bengal or Jagora, Bengal in India. He was a practitioner and mahasiddha. He practiced Anuttarayoga Tantra, a set of practices intended to accelerate the process of attaining Buddhahood. Naropa is considered his main student, at Pashupatinath temple premise, greatest Hindu shrine of Nepal, there are two caves where Tilopa attained Siddhi and initiated his disciple Naropa. From the beginning, she made it clear to Tilopa that his parents were not the persons who had raised him. Advised by the dakini, Tilopa gradually took up a life, taking the monastic vows. The frequent visits of his dakini teacher continued to guide his spiritual path, as advised by Matangi, Tilopa started to work at a brothel in Bengal for a prostitute called Dharima as her solicitor and bouncer. During the day, he was grinding sesame seeds for his living, during a meditation, he received a vision of Vajradhara and, according to legend, the entirety of mahamudra was directly transmitted to Tilopa. After having received the transmission, Tilopa embarked on a wandering existence and he appointed Naropa, his most important student, as his successor. Tilopa gave Naropa a teaching called the Six Words of Advice, the original Sanskrit or Bengali of which is not extant, the text has reached us in Tibetan translation. ”According to Ken McLeod, the text contains exactly six words, the two English translations given in the following table are both attributed to him. Have compassion for those who suffer constant anxiety, sick of unrelenting pain and desiring release, adhere to a master, For when his blessing touches your heart, the mind is liberated. One of the most famous and important statements attributed to Tilopa is, “The problem is not enjoyment, the Life of the Mahāsiddha Tilopa. Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, tilopas Mahamudra Upadesha, The Gangama Instructions with Commentary. An English translation of The Ganges Mahamudra Several English translations of The Ganges Mahamudra
15.
Naropa
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Nāropā was an Indian Buddhist Mahasiddha. He was the disciple of Tilopa and brother, or some sources say partner and pupil, as an Indian Mahasiddha, Naropas instructions inform Vajrayana, particularly his six yogas of Naropa relevant to the completion stage of anuttarayogatantra. Although some accounts relate that Naropa was the teacher of Marpa Lotsawa. According to scholar John Newman, the Tibetans give Nāros name as Nā ro pa, Nā ro paṇ chen, Nā ro ta pa, the manuscript of the Paramarthasaṃgraha preserves a Sanskrit form Naḍapāda. A Sanskrit manuscript edited by Tucci preserves an apparent Prakrit form Nāropā, Naropa was a contemporary of Atiśa. Naropa was born in a high status Brahmin family of Bengal, from an early age showed an independent streak, hoping to follow a career of study and meditation. Succumbing to his parents wishes, he agreed to a marriage with a young Brahmin girl. After 8 years they both agreed to dissolve their marriage and become ordained, at the age of 28 Naropa entered the famous Buddhist University at Nalanda where he studied both Sutra and Tantra. He gained the reputation of a scholar and faultless debater. He eventually gained the title Guardian of the Northern gate, engaged in debates and taught. According to his Tibetan namtar, or spiritual biography, one day, while he was studying and he replied that he did and when she seemed happy with his response, he added that he also understood their meaning. At this point the dakini burst into tears, stating that he was a great scholar, on hearing the name Tilopa, he experienced an intense feeling of devotion, and Naropa realised he needed to find the teacher to achieve full realisation. He abandoned his studies and position at the university and set out to find Tilopa, Naropa then underwent what is known as the twelve minor hardships in his quest to find his teacher, all the hardships being hidden teachings on his path to enlightenment. When he finally met Tilopa, he was given the four complete transmission lineages which he began to practice. Naropa spent a total of twelve years with Tilopa, at the bank of river bagmati, in the premise of Hindu shrine Pashupatinath Temple, there is the cave where he was initiated by Tilopa and attained Siddhi. Later in his life Naropa stayed in Phullahari, where he died aged 85, Phullahari or Pullahari was located most likely in eastern Bihar or Bengal. Because I went alone as an insignificant monk to see the Lord Atisha —— and because he tarried for a year in Magadha – I thought I would go see the Lord Naropa, since his reputation was so great. I went east from Magadha for a month, as I had heard that the Lord was staying in the known as Phullahari
16.
Milarepa
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UJetsun Milarepa is generally considered one of Tibets most famous yogis and poets. He was a student of Marpa Lotsawa, and a figure in the history of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. Born in the village of Kya Ngatsa – also known as Tsa – in Gungthang, a province of western Tibet, to a family, he was named Mila Thöpaga. His family name, Josay, indicates noble descent, a sept of the Khyungpo or eagle clan, when his father died, Milarepas uncle and aunt took all of the familys wealth. At his mothers request, Milarepa left home and studied sorcery, the villagers were angry and set off to look for Milarepa, but his mother got word to him, and he sent a hailstorm to destroy their crops. Milarepa later lamented his evil ways in his years in conversation with Rechungpa. Now, released from both good and evil, I have destroyed the root of karmic action and shall have no reason for action in the future, to say more than this would only cause weeping and laughter. What good would it do to tell you and he ascribes his gift to the clever control of internal air. David-Néel comments that at the house of the lama who taught him black magic there lived a trapa who was fleeter than a horse using the same skill, after witnessing such a monk David-Néel described how, He seemed to lift himself from the ground. His steps had the regularity of a pendulum, the traveller seemed to be in a trance. This esoteric skill, which is known as Lung-gom-pa in Tibet, is said to allow a practitioner to run at a speed for days without stopping. This technique could be compared to that practised by the Kaihōgyō monks of Mount Hiei and by practitioners of Shugendō, knowing that his revenge was wrong, Milarepa set out to find a lama and was led to Marpa the Translator. Before Marpa would teach Milarepa he had him build and then demolish three towers in turn, Milarepa was asked to build one final multi-story tower by Marpa at Lhodrag, this 11th century tower still stands. When Marpa still refused to teach Milarepa, he went to Marpas wife and she forged a letter of introduction to another teacher, Lama Ngogdun Chudor, under whose tutelage he practiced meditation. However, when he was making no progress, he confessed the forgery, Milarepa returned to Marpa, and was finally shown the spiritual teachings. Milarepa then left on his own, and after protracted diligence for 12 years he attained the state of Vajradhara and he then became known as Milarepa. Mila is Tibetan for, great man, and repa means, at the age of 45, he started to practice at Drakar Taso cave – Milarepas Cave, as well as becoming a wandering teacher. Here, he subsisted on nettle tea, leading his skin to turn green with a covering, hence the greenish color he is often depicted as having, in paintings
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Longchenpa
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Longchen Rabjampa, Drimé Özer, commonly abbreviated to Longchenpa, was a major teacher in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. Along with Sakya Pandita and Je Tsongkhapa, he is recognized as one of the three main manifestations of Mañjuśrī to have taught in Central Tibet. His major work is the Seven Treasuries, which encapsulates the previous six hundred years of Buddhist thought in Tibet, Longchenpa was a critical link in the exoteric and esoteric transmission of the Dzogchen teachings. He was abbot of Samye, one of Tibets most important monasteries and the first Buddhist monastery established in the Himalaya, but spent most of his life travelling or in retreat. Longchen Rabjampa was born at Gra-phu stod-gron in g. Yo-ru in Eastern dBus in Central Tibet on the day of the second lunar month of the Earth-Male-Ape year. The date of Longchen Rabjampas parinirvāṇa was the day of the twelfth lunar month of the Water-Female-Hare year at O-rgyan-rdzong in Gangs-ri thod-kar. Longchenpa is regarded as an incarnation of the princess Pema Sal. He was born to the master Tenpasung, an adept at both the sciences and the practice of mantra, and Dromza Sonamgyen, who was descended from the family of Dromton Gyelwie Jungne. Legend states that at age five, Longchenpa could read and write, Longchenpa was first ordained at the age of twelve and studied extensively with the Third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje. He received not only the Nyingma transmissions as passed down in his family, at the age of nineteen, Longchenpa entered the famous shedra Sangpu Neutok, where he acquired great scholarly wisdom. He later chose to practice in the solitude of the mountains, when he was in his late twenties two events occurred that were to be of decisive importance in his intellectual and spiritual development. One was a vision of Guru Padmasambhava and his consort Yeshe Tsogyal, therefore, someone will come to hold my lineage. Together with Rangjung Dorje, Longchenpa accompanied Kumaraja and his disciples for two years, during which time he received all of Rigdzin Kumaradzas transmissions. After several years in retreat, Longchenpa attracted more and more students, during a stay in Bhutan, Longchenpa fathered a daughter and a son, of which the latter, Trugpa Odzer, also became a holder of the Nyingtig lineage. A detailed account of the life and teachings of Longchenpa is found in Buddha Mind by Tulku Thondup Rinpoche, Pema Lingpa the famous terton of Bhutan is regarded as the immediate reincarnation of Longchenpa. In the Nyingma lineage, Longchenpa, Rongzom, and Mipham are known as the Three Omniscient Ones, Longchenpa is widely considered the single most important writer on the Dzogchen teachings. He is also a commentator of the Kunyed Gyalpo Tantra, a text belonging to the Mind Class of the Ati Yoga Inner Tantras, the Precious Treasury of Pith Instructions. The Precious Treasury of Philosophical Systems, padma Publishing 2007 The Treasury of Doxography
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Patrul Rinpoche
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Patrul Rinpoche was a prominent teacher and author of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. He took ordination with Khen Sherab Zangpo, from Shechen Öntrul Thutob Namgyal, he received the reading transmission for the Translated Word of the Buddha and teachings on Sanskrit grammar. He received the transmissions for the Kangyur and Tengyur in their entirety, together with the writings of many masters of the old and new translation schools. He received instruction on the Longchen Nyingtik Ngondro some twenty-five times from Jikmé Gyalwé Nyugu, in addition, he received instruction on tsa-lung practice and Dzogchen, and studied many of the cycles of practice found in the canonical scriptures of the Nyingma Vajrayana. Do Khyentse Yeshe Dorje introduced him to the awareness of rigpa while exhibiting wild. He trained for a time in the Longchen Nyingtik tsa-lung practices. To assemblies in Serthar and in the upper and lower regions of the Do valley he taught on The Way of the Bodhisattva, Mani Kabum, Aspiration Prayer of Sukhavati and so on. At the request of Situ Choktrul Chökyi Lodrö and others, he gave extensive explanations on The Way of the Bodhisattva to the assembly of monks. He went to major monasteries of the Riwo Gendenpa tradition such as Sershul, Labtridu, Chuhor and others and taught elaborately on The Way of the Bodhisattva and other topics. In addition, his disciples included many masters of the Sakya, Gelugpa and Kagyü schools, such as Sershul Lharampa Thubten, Palpung Lama Tashi Özer, Patrul Rinpoche died on the eighteenth day of the fourth lunar month in the Fire Pig year of the fifteenth calendrical cycle. Patrul Rinpoches writings were not collected by the master himself or by his attendants and those which were printed and which are now to be found comprise six volumes. Use the time of your life, recognize the impermanence of all outer pleasure. Live as a Yogi Do your spiritual practices, work as a Bodhisattva for a happy world. Become an Amitabha a Buddha of love and light, turn your world into the paradise Sukhavati, by unfolding the enlightenment energy within you. Search you a master, who knows the goal of enlightenment. Change your world into a place of grace, by understanding all the phenomena as spiritual exercises, dedicate your actions to the benefit of all beings. Live for the happiness of all beings, so you get the energy of light. The Way of the Bodhisattva Treasury of Precious Qualities The Words of My Perfect Teacher The Lotus Gardens Play, translated by Acharya Nyima Tsering, the Treasury of Lives, Biographies of Himalayan Religious Masters
19.
Rangjung Dorje, 3rd Karmapa Lama
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Rangjung Dorje was the third Karmapa, an important figure in the history of Tibetan Buddhism. He reportedly produced a black crown at the age of three and declared himself to be the mindstream reimbodiment of Karma Pakshi, 2nd Karmapa Lama. Born to a Nyingma family, he received the transmission of the Nyingma tradition in addition to that of the Karma Kagyu. Suchan links Rangjung Dorje to Rigdzin Kumaradza, Vimalamitra and Padmasambhava, The third Karmapa Lama, the latter taught Rangjung Dorje the nying-thig, heart-essence, teachings transmitted by Padmasambhava and Vimalamitra. Therefore, Rangjung Dorje belongs to the lineage of the Nyingma school. As a group, the Karmapa Lamas were among the earliest recognized Tulku and they were particularly influential at the Yuan and Ming courts of China. Their influence also extended to the court of the Tangut Xia Kingdom where a disciple of Dusum Khyenpa was given the title Supreme Teacher by a Tangut Xixia King. Rangjung Dorje was a scholar who composed many significant texts, the most famous of which is the Profound Inner Meaning. His mastery of both the Kagyu Mahamudra and Nyingma Dzogchen was widely renowned, and he was a Kalachakra master as well, in 1321 the famous scholar Dolpopa visited Tsurphu Monastery for the first time and had extensive discussions with Rangjung Dorje about doctrinal issues. It appears that Rangjung Dorje almost certainly influenced the development of some of Dolpopas theories, according to Karma phrin las, Dri lan yid, 91-92, his teacher, Chödrak Gyatso, the Seventh Karmapa, interpreted the nature of Zhentong accepted by Rangjung Dorje. Yungtön Dorjepel, studied the Great Perfection due to the inspiration of Rangjung Dorje. He visited China, where the emperor Toghon Temur became his disciple, upon his death, Rangjung Dorjes face is said to have appeared in the moon there. Schaeffer treats the Third Karmapas work on the Buddha Nature in a thesis, Lama Kunsang, Lama Pemo, Marie Aubèle. History of the Karmapas, The Odyssey of the Tibetan Masters with the Black Crown, snow Lion Publications, Ithaca, New York. The History of Sixteen Karmapas of Tibet, Rangjung Dorje, Venerable Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, Peter Roberts. Transcending Ego - Distinguishing Consciousness from Wisdom, Rangjung Dorje, Venerable Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, John Rockwell. An Aspirational Prayer for Mahamudra Rangjung Dorje, Venerable Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, a Treatise entitled, “A Teaching on the Essence of the Tathagatas Gardner, Alexander. The Treasury of Lives, Biographies of Himalayan Religious Masters
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Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen
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While the doctrinal origins of the Jonang school can be traced to the early 12th-century master Yumo Mikyöt Dorjé, it became much wider known through the efforts of Dölpopa Shérap Gyeltsen. Dölpopa was born in Dölpo, but in 1309, when he was seventeen, he ran away home to seek the Buddhist teachings, first in Mustang. In time, Dölpopa became one of the most influential and original yet controversial of Tibetan Buddhist teachers, originally a monk of the Sakya school, he developed a teaching known as shentong, which is closely tied to Yogacara and Buddha-nature traditions. In 1321, Dölpopa visited Jonang Monastery at Jomonang for the first time and he then visited Tsurphu Monastery for the first time and had extensive discussions with Rangjung Dorje, 3rd Karmapa Lama, about doctrinal issues. It appears that the Karmapa Lama almost certainly influenced the development of some of Dölpopas theories, possibly including shentong. Other than this, Dölpopa had studied almost completely under the Sakya tradition until he was thirty years old in 1322 and he had taught for most of the previous decade at the great Sakya Monastery. In 1327, after the death of his guru Yönden Gyantso, in 1329 a large stūpa was quickly built at Upper Zangden, but it collapsed. In 1330 the foundations for a much larger stūpa were laid at a new site in Lower Zangden and it was a massive undertaking and involved many workers and artisans. Support flowed in from around Tibet and it was finally consecrated in 1333 and was the largest stūpa temple or kumbum. Equally controversially, Dölpopa was not afraid to employ the term Self or Soul to refer to the truth that according to him lay at the heart of all being. Great teachers of the Tibetan Nyingma, Kagyu and Sakya schools have and do argue that such a view is fundamental to the practice of the Buddhist path and the attainment of Enlightenment. Buddha is by all accounts considered to be non-conditioned, eternal, unchanging, bliss, compassion, wisdom, power, for Shentongpas the fact that Buddha is non-conditioned means the essence of Buddha is complete with all the Buddha Qualities in a timeless sense. Dölpopa uses many scriptural citations to support his view, drawing upon sutras and tantras to substantiate his understanding of Mahayana, Dölpopa also frequently makes use of such positive terms which he finds in the selfsame scriptures and tantras as permanent, everlasting, eternal and Self. This, Dölpopa claims, all pertains to the realm of Nirvana and this felicitous state is said to lie within the being, eternally. But within the mode of perceiving, it is not recognised. For Dölpopa, the indwelling Buddha is genuinely real, yet empty in one sense - in that the internal Buddha or Buddha nature is empty of illusion, even having faith in the reality of these higher qualities helps remove spiritual veils. Dolpopa explains that the worldling believes he has self, permanence, bliss and those who are beyond the world also talk of Self, Permanence, Bliss, and Purity, but in their case it is meaningful, because they know what really has these qualities. Dolpopa remarks that just to believe this removes many veils, thus emphasising the power of faith, burns away all the veils that have been obscuring the spiritual qualities of the buddha-body of reality, which is eternal and spontaneously present within each living being
21.
Sakya Pandita
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Chöjé Sakya Paṇḍita Künga Gyeltsen was a Tibetan spiritual leader and Buddhist scholar and the fourth of the Five Sakya Forefathers. Künga Gyeltsen is generally known simply as Sakya Paṇḍita, a given to him in recognition of his scholarly achievements. He is held in the tradition to have been an emanation of Mañjuśrī and he is considered to be the fourth Sakya Forefather and sixth Sakya Trizin and one of the most important figures in the Sakya lineage. He was born as Palden Dondup at Sakya in the family of Jamyanggön. This lineage had held the abbotship of Sakya on a basis since 1073. His father was Palchen Öpoche and his mother Machig Nyitri Cham, Sakya Paṇḍita was the nephew of Jetsun Dragpa Gyaltsen, and became the principal disciple of this prominent scholar. He was instructed in the sutras and tantras by Dragpa Gyaltsen and mastered Sanskrit, eventually he was initiated as a śrāmaṇera by his master and given the religious name Künga Gyeltsen. As a young monk, he visited the prominent Kashmiri scholar Śakya Śri, who ordained him as a bhikśu in 1208, legend has it that he visited Kyirong in Nepal on his way back, and there defeated a brahman Shastri in a debate on logic. He then overcome his opponent in a contest of supernatural powers, as he wanted to show his fellow Tibetans the peculiar dress of Indian Brahmin priests, he brought the Shastri to Tibet where the unlucky loser was killed by the protective deities of the land. The Shastris head was tied to a pillar of the great temple in Sakya which remained until modern times. The experience of Sakya Paṇḍita with Indian learning provided a notably South Asian influence to his scholarship later on and his ordination as bhikśu marked the inception of Sakya as a proper monastic order. He acceded as dansa chenpo or abbot-ruler of Sakya upon the death of his uncle Dragpa Gyaltsen in 1216, according to later Tibetan historiography, Genghis Khan subjugated a king of Tibet in 1206 and then sent a letter to the Sakya abbot. After the death of Genghis Khan in 1227, the Tibetans stopped sending tribute and this is, however, a legend without historical foundation. It is known, however, that the grandson of Genghis Khan, in 1240 he sent an invasion force under Dorta into Tibet. The Mongols reached the Phanyul Valley north of Lhasa, killing some 500 monks and destroying and looting monasteries, villages, the Gyal Lhakhang Monastery went up in flames and many monks of the Reting Monastery were slaughtered by the horsemen. The Drigung Monastery was saved, ostensibly since the Mongols believed that an avalanche of stones could be attributed to the supernatural powers of the lamas. According to J. Y. Chang, it was rather the Drigung abbot who made the proposal, later chronicles assert that Dorta sent message to Prince Godan and enumerated the four foremost sects and lamas of Tibet, Kadam, Taklung, Drigung, and Sakya. Godan drew the conclusion that Sakya Paṇḍita was an important and wise lama who could show the road to salvation, and ordered to send a letter of invitation and presents to him
22.
Je Tsongkhapa
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Tsongkhapa, usually taken to mean the Man from Onion Valley, was a famous teacher of Tibetan Buddhism whose activities led to the formation of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. He is also known by his ordained name Losang Drakpa or simply as Je Rinpoche, in his two main treatises, the Lamrim Chenmo and Ngakrim Chenmo, Tsongkhapa meticulously sets forth this graduated way and how one establishes oneself in the paths of sutra and tantra. With a Mongolian father and a Tibetan mother, Tsongkhapa was born into a family in the walled city of Tsongkha in Amdo. At the age of seven, he was ordained as a śrāmaṇera by Döndrup Rinchen, the first abbott of Jakhyung Monastery, and was given the ordination name Losang Drakpa. He would go on to be a student of the vinaya, the doctrine of behaviour, and even later of the Six Yogas of Naropa, the Kalachakra tantra. At the age of 24, he received ordination as a monk of the Sakya school. From Zhönnu Lodrö and Rendawa, he received the lineage of the Pramanavarttika transmitted by Sakya Pandita and he mastered all the courses of study at Drigung kagyud Monastery in Ü-Tsang. As an emanation of Manjusri, Tsongkhapa is said have been of one mind with Atiśa, received the Kadam lineages and studied the major Sarma tantras under Sakya and Kagyu masters. He also studied with a Nyingma teacher, the siddha Lek gyi Dorjé and the abbot of Shalu Monastery, Chö kyi Pel, in addition to his studies, he engaged in extensive meditation retreats. He is reputed to have performed millions of prostrations, mandala offerings, Tsongkhapa often had visions of iṣṭadevatās, especially of Manjusri, with whom he would communicate directly to clarify difficult points of the scriptures. Tsongkhapa was one of the foremost authorities of Tibetan Buddhism at the time, Tsongkhapa died in 1419 at the age of sixty-two. After his death several biographies were written by Lamas of different traditions, wangchuk Dorje, 9th Karmapa Lama, praised Tsongkhapa as one who swept away wrong views with the correct and perfect ones. His main source of inspiration was the Kadam school, the legacy of Atiśa, Tsongkhapa received two of the three main Kadampa lineages from the Nyingma Lama, Lhodrag Namka-gyeltsen, and the third main Kadampa lineage from the Kagyu teacher Lama Umapa. Tsongkhapas teachings drew upon these Kadampa teachings of Atiśa, emphasizing the study of Vinaya, the Tripiṭaka, atiśas Lamrim inspired Tsongkhapas Lamrim Chenmo, which became a main text among his followers. At this time his account of the Madhyamaka focused on its interpretation as a negative dialectic structure, after this early work, his attention focussed on the Prajnaparamita sutras and Dharmakirtis Pramanavartika, and it is this emphasis that dominates all his later philosophical works. The classification into Prasangika and Svatantrika originated from their different usages of reason to make emptiness understandable, the Svātantrikas strive to make positive assertions to attack wrong views, whereas the Prasangikas draw out the contradictory consequences of the opposing views. In Tsongkhapas reading, the difference becomes one of the understanding of emptiness, the Svātantrikas state that conventional phenomena have particular characteristics, by which they can be distinguished, but without an ultimately existing essence. To exist at all entails having intrinsic existence, however, since there is nothing that holds up under ultimate analysis, everything is ultimately empty
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5th Dalai Lama
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Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso was the Fifth Dalai Lama, a key religious and temporal leader of Tibet who lived from 1617 to 1682. Gyatso is credited with unifying all Tibet after an era of civil wars. As an independent head of state, he established relations with China and other regional countries. The 5th Dalai Lamas father was called Dudul Rabten, the ruler of the Chonggye valley, also known as Hor Dudül Dorjé, his mother was called Tricham. His father had friendly relations with the Drugpa Kagyu and his mother had connections with the Jonangpa Kagyu through her family at Nakartse Dzong and his family called him Künga Migyur. The childs father, Dudul Rabten, was arrested in 1618 for his involvement in a plot to overthrow Karma Phuntsok Namgyal, Karma Phuntsoks grandfather Zhingshak Tseten Dorje had originally been appointed Governor of Tsang by the Rinpung Prime Minister Ngawang Namgyel in 1548. Tseten Dorje had rebelled against the heirs of Ngawang Namgyel starting in 1557, then Altan Khan, King of the Tumed Mongols, invited Drepung Monasterys abbot Sonam Gyatso to Mongolia. His two predecessors became known as the 1st and 2nd Dalai Lamas posthumously, the Samdruptse government saw this development as a politico-religious alliance between the Gelugpa and a foreign power. When Sonam Gyatso died, the Gelugpa recognised a Mongolian prince as his incarnation and so a Mongolian 4th Dalai Lama and this increased Mongolian involvement with the Gelugpa even further and enabled more Mongolian intervention in Tibetan affairs. Dudul Rabten escaped his captors and tried to reach eastern Tibet, Dudul Rabten died in captivity in 1626 at Samdruptse – Karma Phuntsok Namgyals castle also known as Shigatse – and thus, he never lived to see his son again. The former 4th Dalai Lamas chief attendant, Sonam Choephel, is credited with having discovered the incarnation, Lobsang Gyatso was the name which Künga Migyur received from Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen upon taking novice monastic ordination from him at Drepung. In 1638 when he took ordination, also in the presence of Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen at the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, Ngawang was added to his name. At this time his interest in the Nyingmapa teachings began to deepen, Richardson, declared or pronounced the Panchen to be an incarnation of Dhayani Buddha Amitābha - although other sources all appear to indicate that he was considered as such from the start. Since then, every incarnation of the Panchen Lama has been the master of Tashilhunpo Monastery and it is there that they have all received their education, when Panchen Gyaltsen died in 1662 at 93, the 5th Dalai Lama immediately commenced the tradition of searching for his next incarnation. He composed a prayer asking his master to return and directed the monks of Tibets great monasteries to recite it. He also reserved the title of Panchen - which had previously been a courtesy title for all exceptionally learned lamas - exclusively for the Panchen Lama. He had also predicted that Gyaltsen would continue to be reincarnated in future as the Panchen Lama, the two had a teacher/disciple relationship going back to the 1st Dalai Lama Gendun Drup and his teacher Khedrup Je, considered by some in retrospect as the 1st Panchen Lama. His canonical works total 24 volumes, in all, by 1681 Lobsang Gyatso personally wrote three volumes and his last Regent Desi Sangye Gyatso added another two after his masters death in 1982
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13th Dalai Lama
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Thubten Gyatso was the 13th Dalai Lama of Tibet. In 1878 he was recognized as the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama and he was escorted to Lhasa and given his pre-novice vows by the Panchen Lama, Tenpai Wangchuk, and named Ngawang Lobsang Thupten Gyatso Jigdral Chokley Namgyal. In 1879 he was enthroned at the Potala Palace, but did not assume power until 1895. Thubten Gyatso was a reformer who proved himself a skillful politician when Tibet became a pawn in British. Laird gives his birthdate as 27 May 1876, and Mullin gives it as dawn on the 5th month of the Fire Mouse Year, in 1879, he was enthroned in the Grand Reception Hall at the Potala Palace. The ceremony was approved by an imperial edict, according to Qing historian Max Oidtmann, the Lhasa ambans were involved in the installation of the three-year-old incarnation on his dais. On the first day the young Dalai Lama was taken before the image of emperor Qianlong and performed the “three genuflections and nine prostrations” before it. Agvan Dorzhiev, a Khori-Buryat Mongol, and a Russian subject, was born in the village of Khara-Shibir, not far from Ulan Ude and he left home in 1873 at 19 to study at the Gelugpa monastery, Drepung, near Lhasa, the largest monastery in Tibet. Having successfully completed the course of religious studies, he began the academic Buddhist degree of Geshey Lharampa. He continued his studies to become Tsanid-Hambo, or Master of Buddhist Philosophy and he became a tutor and debating partner of the teenage Dalai Lama, who became very friendly with him and later used him as an envoy to Russia and other countries. Mannerheim met Thubten Gyatso in Utaishan during the course of his expedition from Turkestan to Peking, Mannerheim wrote his diary and notes in Swedish to conceal the fact that his ethnographic and scientific party was also an elaborate intelligence gathering mission for the Russian army. The 13th Dalai Lama gave a blessing of white silk for the Russian Tsar and in return received Mannerheims precious seven-shot officers pistol with an explanation of its use. Obviously, the 14th Dalai Lama said, The 13th Dalai Lama had a desire to establish relations with Russia. To the English he was a spy, but in reality he was a good scholar, the Dalai Lama spent over a year in Urga and the Wang Khuree Monastery giving teachings to the Mongolians. In Urga he met the 8th Bogd Gegeen Jebtsundamba Khutuktu several times, the content of these meetings is unknown. The Dalai Lama insisted that if Russia would not help, he would even ask Britain, his former foe, after the Dalai Lama fled, the Qing dynasty immediately proclaimed him deposed and again asserted sovereignty over Tibet, making claims over Nepal and Bhutan as well. The Treaty of Lhasa was signed at the Potala between Great Britain and Tibet in the presence of the Amban and Nepalese and Bhutanese representatives on 7 September 1904, the provisions of the 1904 treaty were confirmed in a 1906 treaty signed between Great Britain and China. The Dalai Lama was suspected of involvement in the anti-foreign 1905 Tibetan Rebellion, the British invasion of Lhasa in 1904 had repercussions in the Tibetan Buddhist world, causing extreme anti-western and anti-Christian sentiment among Tibetan Buddhists
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14th Dalai Lama
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The 14th Dalai Lama (/ˈdɑːlaɪ ˈlɑːmə/, /ˌdælaɪ ˈlɑːmə/, is the current Dalai Lama. Dalai Lamas are important monks of the Gelug school, the newest school of Tibetan Buddhism which is headed by the Ganden Tripas. From the time of the 5th Dalai Lama to 1959, the government of Tibet. The Gelug schools government administered an area corresponding to the Tibet Autonomous Region just as the nascent PRC wished to assert central control over it. During the 1959 Tibetan uprising, the Dalai Lama fled to India, the 14th Dalai Lama received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. His family was of Monguor extraction and his mother, Diki Tsering, gave birth to him on a straw mat in the cowshed behind the house. He was one of seven siblings to survive childhood, the eldest was his sister Tsering Dolma, eighteen years his senior. His eldest brother, Thupten Jigme Norbu, had been recognised at the age of eight as the reincarnation of the high Lama Taktser Rinpoche and his sister, Jetsun Pema, spent most of her adult life on the Tibetan Childrens Villages project. The Dalai Lamas first language was, in his own words, a broken Xining language which was the Chinese language, a form of Central Plains Mandarin, and his family did not speak the Tibetan language. Sir Basil Gould, British delegate to Lhasa in 1936, related his account of the team to Sir Charles Bell, former British resident in Lhasa. The Regent, Reting Rinpoche, shortly afterwards had a vision at the lake of Lhamo La-tso indicating Amdo as the region to search. This vision also indicated a large monastery with a roof and turquoise tiles. This team, led by Kewtsang Rinpoche, went first to meet the Panchen Lama, the Panchen Lama had been investigating births of unusual children in the area ever since the death of the 13th. He gave Kewtsang the names of three boys whom he had discovered and identified as candidates, within a year the Panchen Lama had died. There they found a house, as described in the vision, according to the 14th Dalai Lama, at the time the village of Taktser stood right on the real border between the region of Amdo and China. When the team visited, posing as pilgrims, its leader and he held an old rosary that had belonged to the 13th Dalai Lama and the boy Lhamo Dhondup, aged two, approached and asked for it. The monk said if you know who I am, you can have it, the child said Sera Lama, Sera Lama and spoke with him in a Lhasa accent, in a language the boys mother could not understand. The next time the party returned to the house, they revealed their real purpose, one test consisted of showing him various pairs of objects, one of which had belonged to the 13th Dalai Lama and one which had not
26.
Bodhisattva
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Bodhisattvas are a popular subject in Buddhist art. In early Indian Buddhism, the term bodhisattva was primarily used to specifically to Gautama Buddha in his former life. The Jataka tales, which are the stories of the Buddhas past lives, depict the various attempts of the bodhisattva to embrace qualities like self-sacrifice, mount Potalaka, for example, is one of Bodhisattvayana. Because Hinayana was disliked and the terms Śrāvaka-Bodhisattva or Pratyekabuddha-Bodhisattva were not widely used, nevertheless, bodhisattva retained an implied reference to someone on the path to become an arhat or pratyekabuddha. In contrast, the goal of Mahayanas bodhisattva path is to achieve Samyaksambodhiṃ, when, during his discourses, he recounts his experiences as a young aspirant, he regularly uses the phrase When I was an unenlightened bodhisatta. The term therefore connotes a being who is bound for enlightenment, in other words, in the Pāli canon, the bodhisatta is also described as someone who is still subject to birth, illness, death, sorrow, defilement, and delusion. Some of the lives of the Buddha as a bodhisattva are featured in the Jataka tales. According to the Theravāda monk Bhikkhu Bodhi, the path is not taught in the earliest strata of Buddhist texts such as the Pali Nikayas which instead focus on the ideal of the Arahant. In later Theravada literature, the bodhisatta is used fairly frequently in the sense of someone on the path to liberation. He also quotes an inscription from the 10th Century king of Sri Lanka, Mahinda IV, paul Williams writes that some modern Theravada meditation masters in Thailand are popularly regarded as bodhisattvas. Like perhaps some of the early Mahāyāna forest hermit monks, or the later Buddhist Tantrics and they are widely revered, worshipped, and held to be arhats or bodhisattvas. Mahāyāna Buddhism is based principally upon the path of a bodhisattva, according to Jan Nattier, the term Mahāyāna was originally even an honorary synonym for Bodhisattvayāna, or the Bodhisattva Vehicle. The Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra contains a simple and brief definition for the term bodhisattva and this definition is given as the following. Because he has enlightenment as his aim, a bodhisattva-mahāsattva is so called, the early Rastrapalapariprccha sutra also promotes a solitary life of meditation in the forests, far away from the distractions of the householder life. The Rastrapala is also critical of monks living in monasteries and in cities who are seen as not practicing meditation. These texts seem to indicate the initial Bodhisattva ideal was associated with a strict forest asceticism, Mahāyāna Buddhism encourages everyone to become bodhisattvas and to take the bodhisattva vows. With these vows, one makes the promise to work for the enlightenment of all sentient beings by practicing the six perfections. Indelibly entwined with the vow is merit transference
27.
Dharma
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Dharma is a key concept with multiple meanings in the Indian religions — Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism. There is no single word translation for dharma in western languages, in Buddhism dharma means cosmic law and order, but is also applied to the teachings of the Buddha. In Buddhist philosophy, dhamma/dharma is also the term for phenomena, Dharma in Jainism refers to the teachings of tirthankara and the body of doctrine pertaining to the purification and moral transformation of human beings. For Sikhs, the word means the path of righteousness. The Classical Sanskrit noun dharma is a derivation from the root dhṛ, the word dharma was already in use in the historical Vedic religion, and its meaning and conceptual scope has evolved over several millennia. The antonym of dharma is adharma, the Classical Sanskrit noun dharma is a derivation from the root dhṛ, which means to hold, maintain, keep, and takes a meaning of what is established or firm, and hence law. It is derived from an older Vedic Sanskrit n-stem dharman-, with a meaning of bearer, supporter. In the Rigveda, the word appears as an n-stem, dhárman-, figuratively, it means sustainer and supporter. It is semantically similar to the Greek Ethos, in Classical Sanskrit, the noun becomes thematic, dharma-. The word dharma derives from Proto-Indo-European root *dʰer-, which in Sanskrit is reflected as class-1 root √dhṛ, etymologically it is related to Avestan √dar-, Latin firmus, Lithuanian derė́ti, Lithuanian dermė and darna and Old Church Slavonic drъžati. Classical Sanskrit word dharmas would formally match with Latin o-stem firmus from Proto-Indo-European *dʰer-mo-s holding, were it not for its development from earlier Rigvedic n-stem. In Classical Sanskrit, and in the Vedic Sanskrit of the Atharvaveda, in Pāli, it is rendered dhamma. In some contemporary Indian languages and dialects it occurs as dharm. Dharma is a concept of central importance in Indian philosophy and religion and it has multiple meanings in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. It is difficult to provide a concise definition for dharma, as the word has a long and varied history and straddles a complex set of meanings. There is no equivalent single word translation for dharma in western languages, there have been numerous, conflicting attempts to translate ancient Sanskrit literature with the word dharma into German, English and French. The concept, claims Paul Horsch, has caused difficulties for modern commentators and translators. Dharma root is dhri, which means ‘to support, hold and it is the thing that regulates the course of change by not participating in change, but that principle which remains constant
28.
Karma in Buddhism
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Karma is a Sanskrit term that literally means action or doing. In the Buddhist tradition, karma refers to action driven by intention which leads to future consequences and those intentions are considered to be the determining factor in the kind of rebirth in samsara, the cycle of rebirth. Karma is a Sanskrit term that literally means action or doing, the word karma derives from the verbal root kṛ, which means do, make, perform, accomplish. Karmaphala is the fruit, effect or result of karma, a similar term is karmavipaka, the maturation or cooking of karma, The remote effects of karmic choices are referred to as the maturation or fruit of the karmic act. The metaphor is derived from agriculture, One sows a seed, there is a time lag during which some mysterious invisible process takes place, Karma and karmaphala are fundamental concepts in Buddhism. Rebirth, is a belief in all Buddhist traditions. It says that birth and death in the six realms occur in successive cycles driven by ignorance, desire, the cycle of rebirth is called samsarā. It is a beginningless and ever-ongoing process, liberation from samsarā can be attained by following the Buddhist Path. This path leads to vidyā, and the stilling of trsnā, hereby the ongoing process of rebirth is stopped. The cycle of rebirth is determined by karma, literally action, in the Buddhist tradition, karma refers to actions driven by intention, a deed done deliberately through body, speech or mind, which leads to future consequences. The Nibbedhika Sutta, Anguttara Nikaya 6.63, Intention I tell you, is kamma, intending, one does kamma by way of body, speech, & intellect. According to Peter Harvey, It is the impulse behind an action that is karma. Actions, then, must be if they are to generate karmic fruits. According to Gombrich, this was an innovation, which overturns brahmanical. Its a rejection of caste-bound differences, giving the possibility to reach liberation to all people, not just Brahmanins, Not by birth is one a brahmin or an outcaste. How this emphasis on intention was to be interpreted became a matter of debate in, Karma leads to future consequences, karma-phala, fruit of action. Any given action may cause all sorts of results, but the results are only those results which are a consequence of both the moral quality of the action, and of the intention behind the action. According to Reichenbach, he envisioned by the law of karma encompass more than the observed natural or physical results which follow upon the performance of an action
29.
Rangtong-Shentong
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Shentong – literally other-emptiness – is an essentialist sub-school found in Tibetan Buddhism, which was systematized and articulated under that name by Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen. The term is explained as meaning that Absolute Truth is empty of anything other than its nature. Adherents contend that it is the most non-dual of all schools of Buddhist philosophy, empty of all qualities other than its own inherent nature. Shentong is closely related to the Yogacara school and the concept of Buddha-nature and it was suppressed by the dominant Gelug school for several hundred years, equally for political reasons as doctrinal reasons. Shentong literally means other-emptiness, empty of other, i. e. empty of all other than its own inherent existent. Chödrak Gyatso, 7th Karmapa Lama, and the Sakya scholar Sakya Chokden were also important proponents of a shentong view, in the Jonang tradition, Tāranātha is second in importance only to Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen himself. Also instrumental was Situ Panchen, senior chaplain in the Kingdom of Derge. In the end it would be Situ more than anyone who would create the environment for the acceptance of the Shentong theories in the next century. This revival was continued by Jamgon Kongtrul, a nineteenth-century ecumenical scholar, Shentong views were also advanced recently by the eminent Kagyu Lamas Kalu Rinpoche and Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche. According to Burchardi, limited attention given in studies to the various interpretations of gzhan stong. Shentongpas consider their position to be the expression of Madhyamaka. They hold that view is the fruit of direct meditative experience. The contrasting rangtong view of the followers of Prasaṅgika Mādhyamaka is that all phenomena are empty of self-nature. Although many eminent Tibetan authorities are supportive of shentong, it has always considered a polemical technique in terms of compatibility with traditional Buddhist doctrine. Shentong views have come under criticism by followers of all four of the main Tibetan Buddhist schools. The Shentong–Rangtong distinction is a dichotomy that Gelugpas and some Sakyapas generally do not utilize and they sometimes label shentong Madhyamaka eternalistic Madhyamaka. Gyaltsab Je and Khedrup Gelek Pelzang, 1st Panchen Lama, two of Gelug founder Je Tsongkhapa’s primary disciples, were critical of the shentong views of their time. The great fourteenth-century Sakya master Buton Rinchen Drub was also critical of shentong views
30.
Dzogchen
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Dzogchen or Great Perfection, Sanskrit, अतियोग, is a tradition of teachings in Tibetan Buddhism aimed at attaining and maintaining the natural primordial state or natural condition. It is a teaching of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. In these traditions, Dzogchen is the highest and most definitive path of the nine vehicles to liberation, in the 10th and 11th century, Dzogchen emerged as a separate tantric vehicle in the Nyingma tradition, used synonymously with the Sanskrit term ati yoga. According to van Schaik, in the 8th century tantra Sarvabuddhasamāyoga, there seems to be an association of Anuyoga with yogic bliss, and Atiyoga with a realization of the nature of reality via that bliss. This ties in with the three stages of deity yoga described in a work attributed to Padmasambhava, development, perfection, according to the 14th Dalai Lama, the term dzogchen may be a rendering of the Sanskrit term mahāsandhi. According to Anyen Rinpoche, the meaning is the student must take the entire path as an interconnected entity of equal importance. Dzogchen is perfect because it is an all inclusive totality that leads to middle way realization and it classifies outer, inner and secret teachings, which are only separated by the cognitive construct of words and completely encompasses Tibetan Buddhist wisdom. It can be as easy as taking Bodhicitta as the method, according to the Nyingma tradition, the primordial Buddha Samantabhadra taught Dzogchen to the Buddha Vajrasattva, who transmitted it to the first human lineage holder, the Indian Garab Dorje. According to tradition, the Dzogchen teachings were brought to Tibet by Padmasambhava in the late 8th and he was aided by two Indian masters, Vimalamitra and Vairocana. According to the Nyingma tradition, they transmitted the Dzogchen teachings in three series, namely the Mind Series, Space series, and Secret Instruction Series. According to tradition, these teachings were concealed shortly afterward, during the 9th century, from the 10th century forward, innovations in the Nyingma tradition were largely introduced historically as revelations of these concealed scriptures, known as terma. In the fourteenth century, Loden Nyingpo revealed a terma containing the story of Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche. According to this terma, Dzogchen originated with the founder of the Bon tradition, Tonpa Shenrab, who lived 18,000 years ago, ruling the kingdom of Tazik and he transmitted these teachings to the region of Zhang-zhung, the far western part of the Tibetan cultural world. The earliest Bon literature only exists in Tibetan manuscripts, the earliest of which can be dated to the 11th century, the Bon tradition also has a threefold classification, namely Dzogchen, A-tri, and the Zhang-zhung Aural Lineage. The written history of Tibet begins in the early 7th century, when the Tibetan kingdoms were united, songtsen Gampo conquered the kingdom of Zhangzhung in western Tibet, dominated Nepal, and threatened the Chinese dominance in strategically important areas of the Silk Road. He is also credited with the adoption of a system, the establishment of a legal code. Tri Songdetsen adopted Buddhism, but also maintained the traditions of the Tibetan empire. The Tibetans controlled Dunhuang, a major Buddhist center, from the 780s until the mid-ninth century, halfway through the 9th century the Tibetan empire collapsed
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Lamrim
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Lamrim is a Tibetan Buddhist textual form for presenting the stages in the complete path to enlightenment as taught by Buddha. In Tibetan Buddhist history there have many different versions of lamrim, presented by different teachers of the Nyingma, Kagyu. However, all versions of the lamrim are elaborations of Atiśas 11th-century root text A Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, based upon this request he taught what came to be known as the lamrim for the Tibetans. He was subsequently honored for this by the pandits of his alma mater in India, Atiśas presentation of the doctrine later became known as the Kadampa tradition in Tibet. Gampopa, a Kadampa monk and student of the famed yogi Milarepa and his exposition of lamrim is known in English translation as The Jewel Ornament of Liberation and is studied to this day in the various Kagyu schools of Tibetan Buddhism. There is also a medium-length lamrim text by Tsongkhapa and a one, called Lam-rim Dü-dön. Tibetan Buddhists believe that the teachings of the lamrim are based on the sutras that the Buddha taught, the hidden meanings are believed to be contained in the number and order of the subjects. The number and order of the subjects are vital if someone wants to put the philosophy into practice, the starting point of the lamrim is a division of Buddhist practitioners into beings of three scopes, based upon the motivation of their religious activity. Disregarded in this division are individuals whose motives revolve around benefits in their current life, striving for a favorable rebirth is implicitly the minimum requirement for an activity or practice to be classified as spiritual. Atiśa wrote in Lamp of the Path that one should understand that there are three kind of persons, persons of modest scope, persons of medium scope, persons of high scope, persons of modest motive search for happiness within samsara, their motive is to achieve high rebirth. Buddhists traditionally consider that this domain includes followers of most non-Buddhist religions who strive for a rebirth in a heaven, persons of medium motive are searching for their own ultimate peace and abandon worldly pleasure. This includes the paths of pratyekabuddhas and śravakabuddhas, which seek personal liberation alone, based on their insight of their own suffering, persons of high motive seek by all means to stop the suffering of all beings. This is the Mahāyāna path of the samyaksaṃbuddhas, although lamrim texts cover much the same subject areas, subjects within them may be arranged in different ways. The lamrim of Atiśa starts with bodhicitta, the mind of enlightenment. Gampopas lamrim, however, starts with the Buddha-nature, followed by the preciousness of human rebirth, tsongkhapas texts start with reliance on a guru, followed by the preciousness of human rebirth, and continue with the paths of the modest, medium and high scopes. Gampopa and Tsongkhapa expanded the short root-text of Atiśa into a system to understand the entire Buddhist philosophy. In this way, subjects like karma, rebirth, Buddhist cosmology, a commonly used outline for lamrim teachings today in English translation from Tibetan is that of Liberation in the Palm of your Hand by Pabongkhapa Déchen Nyingpo. An abbreviated and annotated outline follows to show the structure of this lamrim, the Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment
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