mkhyen brtse'i bka' babs: Difference between revisions
No edit summary |
No edit summary |
||
| Line 28: | Line 28: | ||
Of these seven only the first, the oral tradition consisting of the verbal explanations and initiations passed down in a succession of teachers and their students, applies to a somewhat commonplace type of transmission that would be accessible to ordinary individuals, though in Khyentse Wangpo's case even his capacity to receive and transmit these types of teaching has visionary origins. The remaining six are more explicitly rooted in the extraordinary aspects of visionary transmission that are the purview of only the most accomplished or karmically destined practitioners. In accordance with the above verse, the first four of these are related to the revelation of types of treasures (''gter ma''), including the fairly standard categories of those revealed from the earth and those revealed from the practitioner's mind. In addition to those there is the rediscovery of previously revealed treasures, which was a particular speciality of Khyentse Wangpo whom revived numerous treasure revelations whose lineages of transmission had faded away over the centuries | Of these seven only the first, the oral tradition consisting of the verbal explanations and initiations passed down in a succession of teachers and their students, applies to a somewhat commonplace type of transmission that would be accessible to ordinary individuals, though in Khyentse Wangpo's case even his capacity to receive and transmit these types of teaching has visionary origins. The remaining six are more explicitly rooted in the extraordinary aspects of visionary transmission that are the purview of only the most accomplished or karmically destined practitioners. In accordance with the above verse, the first four of these are related to the revelation of types of treasures (''gter ma''), including the fairly standard categories of those revealed from the earth and those revealed from the practitioner's mind. In addition to those there is the rediscovery of previously revealed treasures, which was a particular speciality of Khyentse Wangpo whom revived numerous treasure revelations whose lineages of transmission had faded away over the centuries, and recollection refers to the ability to access memories from previous lives. The final two categories involve new visionary encounters with enlightened beings and the accomplished masters of the past. | ||
Kongtrul describes these seven as subdivisions of the categories of oral, treasure, and pure visions, which is a traditional triumvirate of the Nyingma school used to delineate the origins of their teachings. In this context, the first of the seven corresponds to the oral teachings, while the next four correspond to the treasure teachings, and the final two correspond to the pure vision teachings. Furthermore, rediscovered treasures are considered a subset of earth treasures, recollections are considered a subset of mind treasures, and the aural lineages are considered a subset of pure visions. However, in terms of Khyentse Wangpo, Kongtrul's discusses these seven in the context of his "secret biography" (''gsang ba'i rnam par thar pa''), a genre which is typically concerned with visionary experiences and other miraculous events. This context is a crucial component of the ''Khyentse Kabab'', because at its core it is a thematic collection of Khyentse Wangpo's revelations and a celebration of his visionary prowess. | Kongtrul describes these seven as subdivisions of the categories of oral, treasure, and pure visions, which is a traditional triumvirate of the Nyingma school used to delineate the origins of their teachings. In this context, the first of the seven corresponds to the oral teachings, while the next four correspond to the treasure teachings, and the final two correspond to the pure vision teachings. Furthermore, rediscovered treasures are considered a subset of earth treasures, recollections are considered a subset of mind treasures, and the aural lineages are considered a subset of pure visions. However, in terms of Khyentse Wangpo, Kongtrul's discusses these seven in the context of his "secret biography" (''gsang ba'i rnam par thar pa''), a genre which is typically concerned with visionary experiences and other miraculous events. This context is a crucial component of the ''Khyentse Kabab'', because at its core it is a thematic collection of Khyentse Wangpo's revelations and a celebration of his visionary prowess. | ||
In the secret biography Kongtrul describes a visionary experience that occurred when Khyentse Wangpo was fifteen years old, or sixteen by Tibetan reckoning, in which he travelled miraculously to the pure abode of Lotus Light (''pad+ma 'od'') and met Guru Rinpoche on the morning of the tenth day of the holy fourth month of Saga Dawa. During this encounter Guru Rinpoche blessed the young Khyentse Wangpo with his mind (''dgongs''), conferred upon him the empowerment of symbols (''brda''), and spoke to him in detail granting him assurances of his becoming a conduit of the seven authoritative transmissions, a sequence which mirrors another classic Nyingma triumvirate delineating the three modes of transmission (''bka' brgyud gsum''), namely the mind, symbol, and aural transmissions. At the end of which, Guru Rinpoche stared at him with a fixed gaze and introduced him to the nature of mind (''ngo sprod'') with the following verse: | In the secret biography Kongtrul describes a visionary experience that occurred when Khyentse Wangpo was fifteen years old, or sixteen by Tibetan reckoning, in which he travelled miraculously to the pure abode of Lotus Light (''pad+ma 'od'') and met Guru Rinpoche on the morning of the tenth day of the holy fourth month of Saga Dawa, which commemorates the major events of the Buddhas life. During this encounter Guru Rinpoche blessed the young Khyentse Wangpo with his mind (''dgongs''), conferred upon him the empowerment of symbols (''brda''), and spoke to him in detail granting him assurances of his becoming a conduit of the seven authoritative transmissions, a sequence which mirrors another classic Nyingma triumvirate delineating the three modes of transmission (''bka' brgyud gsum''), namely the mind, symbol, and aural transmissions. At the end of which, Guru Rinpoche stared at him with a fixed gaze and introduced him to the nature of mind (''ngo sprod'') with the following verse: | ||
{{{!}} class=" ml-5 my-5 thick-red-left-border offwhite-bg" | {{{!}} class=" ml-5 my-5 thick-red-left-border offwhite-bg" | ||
| Line 42: | Line 42: | ||
Having said that, the Guru and his retinue dissolved into Khyentse Wangpo, which gave rise to the experience of their minds mingling indivisibly. Thus, from then on, Khyentse Wangpo was able to naturally maintain stability in the primordially pure abiding state of reality (''ka dag gi gnas lugs''). This episode, therefore, marks a pivotal moment in the visionary life of Khyentse Wangpo- a veritable coronation that set the stage for the onset of his illustrious career with the establishment of the seven authoritative transmissions as his crowning achievement. Though Kongtrul mentions earlier examples of such encounters, some of which occurred in the prior year suggesting that Khyentse Wangpo's early teenage years were a particularly transformative time in the master's life, he presents the above encounter as the culmination of these visionary events. And it is specifically in relation to the exponential growth in his abilities acquired through this last vision that Kongtrul begins to explicate the seven transmissions. | Having said that, the Guru and his retinue dissolved into Khyentse Wangpo, which gave rise to the experience of their minds mingling indivisibly. Thus, from then on, Khyentse Wangpo was able to naturally maintain stability in the primordially pure abiding state of reality (''ka dag gi gnas lugs''). This episode, therefore, marks a pivotal moment in the visionary life of Khyentse Wangpo- a veritable coronation that set the stage for the onset of his illustrious career with the establishment of the seven authoritative transmissions as his crowning achievement. Though Kongtrul mentions earlier examples of such encounters, some of which occurred in the prior year suggesting that Khyentse Wangpo's early teenage years were a particularly transformative time in the master's life, he presents the above encounter as the culmination of these visionary events. And it is specifically in relation to the exponential growth in his abilities acquired through this last vision that Kongtrul begins to explicate the seven transmissions. | ||
As mentioned above, the ''Khyentse Kabab'' is essentially a thematic collection. One that was created in recent times as a repository for the works related to this unique facet of Khyentse Wangpo's revelatory career and his fulfillment of the prophecies connected to his status as the "Possessor of the Seven Authoritative Transmissions" (''bka' babs bdun ldan''). Drawn mostly from earlier editions of the ''Rinchen Terdzö'', the original vehicle developed to house Khyentse Wangpo's revelations, this collection also includes the works of those who upheld Khyentse Wangpo's tradition of these seven transmissions. Prominent authors featured in these volumes include his direct disciples, such as Jamgön Kongtrul, Adzom Drukpa, and Mipham Gyamtso. As well as the following generation of masters and scholars, including his illustrious incarnations Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö and Dilgo Khyentse Tashi Paljor, and other Tibetan luminaries of the last century such as Dudjom Rinpoche, Jikdral Yeshe Dorje. This edition itself was created at Khyentse Wangpo's seat at Dzongsar Monastery in eastern Tibet and has benefitted greatly from the expertise of prominent local scholars, such as the Dzongsar Khenpos Phunstok Namgyal and Pema Damchö, as well as Dr. Lodrö Phuntsok, whom has been an invaluable asset to the preservation of the literary works of Khyentse Wangpo in recent times. | |||
|categories=mkhyen brtse'i dbang po's writings | |categories=mkhyen brtse'i dbang po's writings | ||
|imageDivClasses=grayscale30 | |imageDivClasses=grayscale30 | ||
|sectionTemplate=KababSections | |sectionTemplate=KababSections | ||
}} | }} | ||
Revision as of 11:14, 17 August 2021
The Khyentse Kabab collection, in twenty-two volumes, is structured around the notion of the seven types of authoritative transmission (bka' babs bdun) that were considered an essential aspect of Khyentse Wangpo's unique endowment as a highly influential promulgator of the Buddhist teachings. In his biography of Khyentse Wangpo, Jamgön Kongtrul mentions an early reference to this set of seven in an unnamed work by Thangtong Gyalpo that prophesied the arrival of Khyentse Wangpo, referring to him as "bka' babs bdun ldan mdo sngags gling," which references his treasure revealer (gter ston) title, Pema Ösel Dongak Lingpa, along with the epithet "Possessor of the Seven Authoritative Transmissions" (bka' babs bdun ldan). However, one of the most commonly cited references to these seven comes from another prophecy (lung bstan) found in the treasure revelation of Chogyur Lingpa, The Sacred Teachings of the Three Series of the Great Perfection (Dam chos rdzogs pa chen po sde gsum), which states:
| བཀའ་ནས་བཀར་བརྒྱུད་བར་མ་ཆད༔ ཟབ་མོ་དངོས་དང་དགོངས་པའི་གཏེར༔ ཡང་གཏེར་རྗེས་སུ་དྲན་པའི་གཏེར༔ དག་སྣང་སྙན་དུ་བརྒྱུད་པ་ཡི༔ |
The unbroken lineage passed down orally, Profound treasures revealed physically and from the mind, Treasures discovered again and recollected from the past, Pure visions and aural lineages, |
| བཀའ་བབས་བདུན་གྱི་ཆུ་བོ་ནི༔ མངའ་བདག་ཡབ་སྲས་སྐལ་བར་བབས༔ སྙིགས་དུས་བསྟན་པའི་བཙས་ཆེན་བྱེད༔ ཟབ་རྒྱས་ཉི་འོད་ལྷག་པར་བརྡལ༔ |
This great river of those seven authoritative transmissions, Will flow down to the king and heir who shall have their share. They will perform great deeds to protect the doctrine in dark times, And the light of this profound and vast sun will shine spectacularly. |
The "king and heir" (mnga' bdag yab sras) refers to the past life attributions of Khyentse Wangpo and Chogyur Lingpa, whom were believed to have been the Dharma King Trisong Deutsen and his son Lhase Damdzin Murub Tsenpo, respectively. It should also be noted that these seven, as they apply to this collection, are categorized according to Khyentse Wangpo's role as a conduit of a particular teaching or practice rather than being indicative of the nature or origins of the teachings themselves. Hence, the earth or mind treasures of earlier revealers may here be categorized as rediscovered treasures or even among the oral tradition, as this is how they came down to Khyentse Wangpo. In other words, these categories are demonstrative of how Khyentse Wangpo received a certain set of teachings and propagated them to the descendants of his lineage.
These seven, in the order that they are presented within this collection, are:
- the Oral Tradition (བཀའ་མ་ bka' ma or བཀའ་ནས་བཀར་བརྒྱུད་ bka' nas bkar brgyud)
- Earth Treasures (ས་གཏེར་ sa gter)
- Rediscovered Treasures (ཡང་གཏེར་ yang gter)
- Mind Treasures (དགོངས་གཏེར་ dgongs gter)
- Recollections (རྗེས་དྲན་ rjes dran)
- Pure Visions (དག་སྣང་ dag snang)
- Aural Lineages (སྙན་བརྒྱུད་ snyan brgyud)
Of these seven only the first, the oral tradition consisting of the verbal explanations and initiations passed down in a succession of teachers and their students, applies to a somewhat commonplace type of transmission that would be accessible to ordinary individuals, though in Khyentse Wangpo's case even his capacity to receive and transmit these types of teaching has visionary origins. The remaining six are more explicitly rooted in the extraordinary aspects of visionary transmission that are the purview of only the most accomplished or karmically destined practitioners. In accordance with the above verse, the first four of these are related to the revelation of types of treasures (gter ma), including the fairly standard categories of those revealed from the earth and those revealed from the practitioner's mind. In addition to those there is the rediscovery of previously revealed treasures, which was a particular speciality of Khyentse Wangpo whom revived numerous treasure revelations whose lineages of transmission had faded away over the centuries, and recollection refers to the ability to access memories from previous lives. The final two categories involve new visionary encounters with enlightened beings and the accomplished masters of the past.
Kongtrul describes these seven as subdivisions of the categories of oral, treasure, and pure visions, which is a traditional triumvirate of the Nyingma school used to delineate the origins of their teachings. In this context, the first of the seven corresponds to the oral teachings, while the next four correspond to the treasure teachings, and the final two correspond to the pure vision teachings. Furthermore, rediscovered treasures are considered a subset of earth treasures, recollections are considered a subset of mind treasures, and the aural lineages are considered a subset of pure visions. However, in terms of Khyentse Wangpo, Kongtrul's discusses these seven in the context of his "secret biography" (gsang ba'i rnam par thar pa), a genre which is typically concerned with visionary experiences and other miraculous events. This context is a crucial component of the Khyentse Kabab, because at its core it is a thematic collection of Khyentse Wangpo's revelations and a celebration of his visionary prowess.
In the secret biography Kongtrul describes a visionary experience that occurred when Khyentse Wangpo was fifteen years old, or sixteen by Tibetan reckoning, in which he travelled miraculously to the pure abode of Lotus Light (pad+ma 'od) and met Guru Rinpoche on the morning of the tenth day of the holy fourth month of Saga Dawa, which commemorates the major events of the Buddhas life. During this encounter Guru Rinpoche blessed the young Khyentse Wangpo with his mind (dgongs), conferred upon him the empowerment of symbols (brda), and spoke to him in detail granting him assurances of his becoming a conduit of the seven authoritative transmissions, a sequence which mirrors another classic Nyingma triumvirate delineating the three modes of transmission (bka' brgyud gsum), namely the mind, symbol, and aural transmissions. At the end of which, Guru Rinpoche stared at him with a fixed gaze and introduced him to the nature of mind (ngo sprod) with the following verse:
| གཟུང་བའི་ཡུལ་གྱིས་མ་གོས་ཤིང་། །འཛིན་པའི་རྟོག་པས་མ་བསླད་པ། །རིག་སྟོང་རྗེན་པར་བསྐྱང་བ་ནི། །སངས་རྒྱས་ཀུན་གྱི་དགོངས་པའོ། |
Untarnished by externally perceived objects, And untainted by subjective thinking, To sustain, without embellishment, this awareness-emptiness, Is the mindset of all the buddhas. |
Having said that, the Guru and his retinue dissolved into Khyentse Wangpo, which gave rise to the experience of their minds mingling indivisibly. Thus, from then on, Khyentse Wangpo was able to naturally maintain stability in the primordially pure abiding state of reality (ka dag gi gnas lugs). This episode, therefore, marks a pivotal moment in the visionary life of Khyentse Wangpo- a veritable coronation that set the stage for the onset of his illustrious career with the establishment of the seven authoritative transmissions as his crowning achievement. Though Kongtrul mentions earlier examples of such encounters, some of which occurred in the prior year suggesting that Khyentse Wangpo's early teenage years were a particularly transformative time in the master's life, he presents the above encounter as the culmination of these visionary events. And it is specifically in relation to the exponential growth in his abilities acquired through this last vision that Kongtrul begins to explicate the seven transmissions.
As mentioned above, the Khyentse Kabab is essentially a thematic collection. One that was created in recent times as a repository for the works related to this unique facet of Khyentse Wangpo's revelatory career and his fulfillment of the prophecies connected to his status as the "Possessor of the Seven Authoritative Transmissions" (bka' babs bdun ldan). Drawn mostly from earlier editions of the Rinchen Terdzö, the original vehicle developed to house Khyentse Wangpo's revelations, this collection also includes the works of those who upheld Khyentse Wangpo's tradition of these seven transmissions. Prominent authors featured in these volumes include his direct disciples, such as Jamgön Kongtrul, Adzom Drukpa, and Mipham Gyamtso. As well as the following generation of masters and scholars, including his illustrious incarnations Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö and Dilgo Khyentse Tashi Paljor, and other Tibetan luminaries of the last century such as Dudjom Rinpoche, Jikdral Yeshe Dorje. This edition itself was created at Khyentse Wangpo's seat at Dzongsar Monastery in eastern Tibet and has benefitted greatly from the expertise of prominent local scholars, such as the Dzongsar Khenpos Phunstok Namgyal and Pema Damchö, as well as Dr. Lodrö Phuntsok, whom has been an invaluable asset to the preservation of the literary works of Khyentse Wangpo in recent times.
Browse by sa bcad section
Browse by volume
- 670 texts cataloged in this collection.
