A History of Buddhism in India and Tibet

An Expanded Version of the Dharma's Origins Made by the Learned Scholar Deyu

Dan Martin

• Publisher: Wisdom Publications
• Year: 2022
• eBook ISBN: 9781614297420
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Buddhism

The first complete English translation of an important thirteenth-century history that sheds light on Tibet's imperial past and on the transmission of the Buddhadharma into Central Asia. Translated here into English for the first time in its entirety by perhaps the foremost living expert on Tibetan histories, this engaging translation, along with its ample annotation, is a must-have for serious readers and scholars of Buddhist studies. In this history, discover the first extensive biography of the Buddha composed in the Tibetan language, along with an account of subsequent Indian Buddhist history, particularly the writing of Buddhist treatises. The story then moves to Tibet, with an emphasis on the rulers of the Tibetan empire, the translators of Buddhist texts, and the lineages that transmitted doctrine and meditative practice. It concludes with an account of the demise of the monastic order followed by a look forward to the advent of the future Buddha Maitreya. The composer of this remarkably ecumenical Buddhist history compiled some of the most important early sources on the Tibetan imperial period preserved in his time, and his work may be the best record we have of those sources today. Dan Martin has rendered the richness of this history an accessible part of the world's literary heritage.

The Two Truths and Scripture

To the Well Gone Ones of the three times who, with the solar rays of their great compassion and

with affection for the entire range of animate beings, naturally achieve benefits for others;

to the Victors’ greatest son Nāgārjuna, who released a great rain of wisdom upon those prepared to receive it;

and finally, to all who descend from this clarifier of the Teachings. To them all I bow.⁹⁸

Writing so scholars who behold it will be amazed at some of the ways

the Teacher has unerringly arranged the Teachings with all their interconnections,

writing to overcome with their light the thoughts of deluded individuals,

writing to fulfill the entreaties of my sons, my disciples,

I shall base myself herein upon the sutras, the tantras, and the Lamas.

GENERALLY SPEAKING, it is said that all the Dharma Teachings spoken by the Perfectly Enlightened Buddha may be subsumed under one or another among the various twofold categories of the conventional and ultimate truths, or scriptural learning and practical realization, or scripture and commentary. If we categorize them under the two truths,⁹⁹ it is as Nāgārjuna said in his Root Verses of the Middle Way Entitled Wisdom:

The Dharma Teachings of the Buddhas

have recourse to the idea of two truths:

the conventional truth of this world and

the truth of ultimate meaning.¹⁰⁰

Some might wonder, ‘But can you not find a scriptural authority for that?’ Indeed we can. The Meeting of Father and Son Sūtra says:

You, knower of the world, knew how—on your own,

without learning it from anyone—to correctly teach the two truths.

They are these: the relative and ultimate truths. A third truth? There is no such thing.¹⁰¹ [L2]

If one were to ask about the defining marks of the two truths, they are these. The truth of ultimate meaning is free of egoic interferences.¹⁰² It does not fall within the intellectual scopes of ordinary unenlightened beings, but rather is a subject for the kind of full knowledge that each individual can become aware of only as an individual.¹⁰³ Conventional truth is just the contrary and is not dissociated with the thinking mind. It is in those terms that Akṣayamati speaks when he says:

Ultimate truth does not fall within the orbit of the thinking mind.

It is said that the thinking mind falls within the conventional.¹⁰⁴

The faults of not understanding the two truths are told in the Verses on the Middle Way:

A teaching that proves ignorant of the correct

distinctions between the two truths

is the teaching neither of the Buddha

nor the Dharma nor the Saṅgha.¹⁰⁵

The same text tells us the benefits of understanding the two truths:

Those who are skilled in the two truths distinction

do not get confused by the scriptures of the Sage. [4]

They accumulate all the accumulations¹⁰⁶ and,

upon their completion, cross to the other shore.¹⁰⁷

As for scriptural learning and practical realization, the Victor Maitreya said,

The holy Dharma of the Teacher is twofold,

characterized by scriptural learning and practical realization.¹⁰⁸

What qualifies the term practical realization,¹⁰⁹ as it is used here? “It is both a stoppage [of sensory distractions] as well as a release of the objective Dharma Realm from adventitious impurities. It is a realization on the Path of subjective wisdom that has been freed of phenomenal appearance . . . ,” and we also find, “Hearers realize the nonself of persons. Solitary Realizers realize nonself one and one half times. Followers of the Mahāyāna realize the two types of nonself. Those are the qualities of practical realization.”¹¹⁰

What qualifies scriptural learning? The Vaibhāṣika school says that it is characterized by societies of words, terms, and letters.¹¹¹ The Sautrāntika school says that it is a society of terms.¹¹² The Cittamātrin say that it appears as a string of sounds to the mental consciousness or to its grasping aspect. To the Mādhyamikas . . . a mere stoppage.¹¹³ [L3]

Apart from that, another matter we must discuss is the set of two types of societies of terms that lead to practical realizations. These are scriptures and treatises that were gathered together in two collections. As the Questions by the Holy Divine Prince explains:

All the Dharma Teachings are subsumed under scripture and treatises.

The former means well-spoken statements [of Buddha],

while the latter comments on their intended meanings.

Through their influence the Teachings of the Śākya Sage

will remain for a lengthy period in this worldly realm.¹¹⁴

We could also say that what is very well beyond dispute is scripture,¹¹⁵ while those texts that disentangle the Buddha’s intentions in conformity with scripture are treatises. Noble Maitreya speaks in those terms in his treatise entitled Uttaratantra. First he gives the meaning of scriptures:

Whatever is stated meaningfully in close connection with the Dharma

and leads to the abandonment of generally afflictive mental states of the three realms

while pointing out the benefits of mental peace,

that is what is to be identified as a statement of the Sage.

Whatever leads in the opposite direction is something other.

Immediately after this he gives the meaning of treatises:

Whatever is composed entirely under the influence of the Victor’s Teachings,

is explained by someone with an undistracted mind,

and accords with the Path to the attainment of liberation,

that, too, we take upon the crowns of our heads, just as if they were the scriptures of the Sage.¹¹⁶

We could also say that all scriptures are taught with the five unities,¹¹⁷ while all treatises are taught with either the five topics or the four ancillary modes of explanation.¹¹⁸

We have the personage who is reliable, the composer. We have the Dharma text that he or she composed. Then we have the marks of that Dharma text, what marks it as Dharma, and what actual thing bears those marks.

Our discussion will fall under three parts: the introductory matter, the main body, and the conclusion. [5]

98. Encoded in the four lines of this first verse is a homage to the three Bodies of the Buddha: the Dharma Body, the Full Resources Body (I prefer this translation to the more common “Enjoyment Body”), and the Manifestation Body. Three times is a stock expression in Buddhist works that simply means past, present, and future. Well Gone Ones translates Bde gshegs, a short form of Bde bar gshegs pa, the usual Tibetan translation for Sanskrit Sugata. Sugata is entirely synonymous with the Thus Gone Ones, in Tibetan De bzhin gshegs pa, in Sanskrit Tathāgata. Both Sugata and Tathāgata are names for the Completely Enlightened Ones, more commonly known as the Buddhas, and often, as we see here, also known as Victors (Sanskrit Jina). Nāgārjuna (Tibetan Klu sgrub), well known as the founding teacher of the Mādhyamika school of Great Vehicle Buddhism, also played a role in the revelation of the Wisdom Gone Beyond scriptures that had been concealed in the land of the nāgas, so that it might be said he was, in effect, responsible for the transmission of the Great Vehicle itself. In this context, as he is widely regarded as a Bodhisattva who experienced direct vision of the truth, Nāgārjuna stands for the entire group of Bodhisattvas.

99. The discussions and translations related to this very important topic that are likely to be most relevant are found in Lindtner, “Atiśa’s Introduction to the Two Truths”; Eckel, Jñānagarbha on the Two Truths; Newland, Two Truths; and Sonam Thakchoe, Two Truths Debate.

100. This refers to Nāgārjuna’s Verses on the Middle Way, with the particular passage found in chapter 24, verse 8. For an alternative translation of this verse in the context of a complete English translation, see Garfield, Fundamental Wisdom, 296, although there are a number of other translations available. Note also the translation in Lindtner, “Atiśa’s Introduction to the Two Truths,” 164, which reads “presupposes the two truths” instead of our “have recourse to the idea of the two truths,” a significant difference.

101. This sutra was translated already in the late imperial period, in the ea...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Special Acknowledgments
• Publisher’s Acknowledgment
• Contents
• General Editor’s Preface
• Translator’s Introduction
• Part 1: India
• Part 2: Tibet
• Appendix on the Authors’ Spiritual and Family Lineages
• Bibliographies
• Index
• About the Contributors
• The Institute of Tibetan Classics
• The Library of Tibetan Classics
• Become a Benefactor of the Library of Tibetan Classics
• Copyright