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The Four Dharmas of Gampopa
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| The
Lineage of the
Four Dharmas of Gampopa
It is said that the teachings
of the Kagyu lineage originated from the dharmakaya
Buddha Vajradhara. |
We might think, “Wait
a minute. I thought that the Buddhist teachings
came from the Shakyamuni Buddha.” However,
the mind of the Buddha is the dharmakaya and
he manifested in our world in a body as the
Buddha Shakyamuni in a supreme nirmanakaya emanation.
So there is no difference between the dharmakaya
and the Buddha Shakyamuni who was born in India
2,500 years ago.
The dharmakaya is not something that is born
and later dies, nor is it something that needs
to pass beyond samsara. The dharmakaya has three
qualities: knowledge, compassion, and skilful
means. These three qualities are not just qualities
of the Buddha, but they are the very nature
of wisdom (Skt. jnana). This wisdom of the dharmakaya
appears to students in two ways. The first is
to highly realized students in the form of the
sambhogakaya. For example, these pure students
would visit the pure lands and see Vajradhara
and other bodhisattvas as they appear in a thangka
with various ornaments and so on.
The second is the nirmanakaya as an ordinary
being such as the Shakyamuni Buddha’s
appearance in India many centuries ago. However,
these two forms are not fundamentally different
from each other because Vajradhara is the mind
of both the sambhogakaya and the nirmanakaya.
The sambhogakaya Vajradhara can only be met
by the great bodhisattvas and the great siddhas.
It is possible for them to meet face to face
with the sambhogakaya Vajradhara. For example,
the great siddha Tilopa met directly with the
sambhogakaya Vajradhara. When Tilopa met with
the sambhogakaya Vajradhara in the tenth century,
the nirmanakaya Shakyamuni Buddha was no longer
in the world. However, meeting with the sambhogakaya
Vajradhara was no different from meeting with
the nirmanakaya Shakyamuni Buddha. The reason
for this is that both are emanations of the
mind of the dharmakaya.
The great pandita, Naropa was a student of Tilopa.
At that time, Naropa was abbot of Nalanda Monastic
University, which was a major place of study
of the dharma in India. One day when Naropa
was studying the tantric text known as the Guhyasamaja
a wisdom dakini appeared in his room. While
Naropa was looking at the book, he had the feeling
that a shadow or a stain had suddenly appeared
on the book that he was reading. He said, “What
is this?” and looking up, he saw a hideous
old woman in the room. She asked him, “Do
you understand the words or do you understand
the meaning of this text?” He replied,
“I know the words.” This made the
woman extremely happy and she began to smile
and then laugh. So Naropa thought, “Well,
if she was so happy at hearing that I know the
words, she’ll be even more tickled to
know that I understand the meaning as well.”
So he added, “I also know the meaning.”
At that point the woman’s face turned
black and she became very sad and was completely
crestfallen. Seeing this, Naropa thought, “Well,
this is very strange. When I said that I knew
the words she was happy. Now when I say I know
the meaning, she is very sad. I’ll have
to ask her why.” So he asked her and she
replied, “You are indeed a very learned
person and you do understand the words, that
is true and made me very glad. However, you
don’t know the meaning of the words. So
when you said that you knew the meaning, that
wasn’t true and that made me very sad.”
Hearing this, Naropa said to the old woman,
“Well then, who does know the meaning
of these words?” And she replied, “In
the eastern portion of India, there is a mahasiddha,
a greatly accomplished person, named Tilopa.
He knows the meaning of these words.”
Just hearing the word “Tilopa” gave
Naropa a tremendous feeling of faith and gave
him confidence. He thought, “I must do
everything possible to meet with this person.”
Since Naropa was a great teacher, he had many
students at Nalanda University and many responsibilities
there. When he proposed that he go find the
great siddha Tilopa, the students and the other
teachers said to him, “You just can’t
go. Please remain here because we need you.”
Naropa thought about it and came to the conclusion
that if he knew only the words without the meaning,
then there would be no real benefit in his being
there so he must indeed go and find Tilopa.
To find Tilopa, Naropa underwent many hardships,
travelling to where Tilopa was reported to be
and endured many hardships training under him
after he found him. Eventually Tilopa gave him
the instructions of pointing out the nature
of mind and the oral instructions on how to
practice the understanding of the true nature
of mind. Naropa practiced these instructions
and was able to generate profound realization
in the continuum of his being.
The Tibetan translator Marpa, requested instructions
from Naropa and became his student. Naropa appointed
Marpa as his regent in Tibet and made the prediction
that just as the children of a garuda become
stronger and more powerful than the mother to
whom they are born, so each generation of Marpa’s
students in Tibet would be more accomplished
than their own gurus.
To see if this prophecy is true, we could look
at the generations that followed Marpa. Marpa
passed these teachings to his student, Milarepa
and Milarepa passed them to his student, Gampopa.
By the time the teaching had reached Gampopa,
he had not only received the teachings on the
Mahamudra which were known as the six yogas
of Naropa, but he had combined these teachings
with the oral instructions on training the mind
from the great Indian master, Atisha.
The instructions on Mahamudra that Gampopa received
from Milarepa were extremely profound. They
show how to practice the path of the Vajrayana.
The instructions from the great master Atisha
were on the way in which all beginners can enter
the Buddhist path and establish the very pure
motivation to practice dharma that enables one
to become accomplished. These instructions of
Atisha are very subtle and carefully guide the
training of one’s mind.
The Buddhist dharma was originally transmitted
to Tibet from India by the great guru Padmasambhava
and by Santarakshita in the 8th century C.E.
and began to flourish in Tibet based on their
teachings. However, in 905 C.E. King Langdarma
persecuted practitioners of the dharma in Tibet
and as a result it almost vanished. People had
to flee to high mountain regions of the country
and because of these conditions, the great Indian
teachers no longer came to Tibet. This meant
that the people who were in Tibet had books
and teachings on Buddhism, but they had to sit
around and speculate on what these teachings
meant. One person would say, “Well, I
think it means this” and then another
would say, “No, I think it means this.”
As a result the dharma became corrupted and
no one really knew what the genuine dharma was.
After Langdarma had ruled, a King whose name
was Yeshe Ö of Guge thought that it was
necessary to purify the dharma. So he invited
the foremost of Indian teachers, Atisha, to
come and purify the dharma in Tibet.
How had the dharma become degraded? The teachings
that had proliferated in Tibet were of a very
advanced, profound and subtle view which ordinary
people could not practice immediately. To achieve
this advanced view, it is necessary for people
to train in more basic teachings first. The
practitioners needed to arouse themselves first
with the determination to achieve freedom from
samsara. This is done by taking refuge in the
three jewels of the Buddha, the dharma, and
the sangha. So they needed to arouse bodhichitta,
or the heart of enlightenment, before doing
advanced practice. Raising bodhichitta is the
aspiration to achieve complete enlightenment
for oneself for the purpose of bringing about
the welfare of others. They also needed to practice
sending and taking (Tib. tong len) meditation,
which involves the exchange of self and others.
If one trains one’s mind initially in
the above practices, then when one combines
these teachings with the teachings on the very
profound view of Mahamudra, one’s practice
will progress very well. So it was these teachings
on bodhicitta and mind training that Atisha
brought to Tibet.
© Copyright Namo
Buddha Publications & Zhyisil Chokyi Ghatsal
Publications 2002.
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