Great Buddhists from Triratna Refuge Tree - Free Buddhist Audio

synthesises two lineages: that of Nāgārjuna: the Wisdom school, and that of the
Yogācāra school. He went to Tibet and re-stimulated Buddhism in Tibet after the
great persecutions of Buddhism there. He established the Kadam school, and one
of his teachings was that he declared the three Yānas to be successive along the
Path, so it is a syncretic movement like the Tien-t‟ai. His teachings eventually
developed into the Gelugpa school.
I shall not say anything about Padmasambhava. Tsongkhapa, along with
Padmasambhava and Atisha, is one of the three greatest contributors to Tibetan
Buddhism. He studied under all the great masters of all the traditions in all three
Yānas. He too studied both the Nāgārjuna and Yogācāra schools, so his approach
also is syncretic. Conze says of him that he was one of the greatest thinkers of the
Buddhist world, and Paul Williams says he is the most sophisticated and acute
Madhyamaka commentator. He was a great thinker, a great person in Buddhist
history. He was also a great reformer, and, of course, Mañjughoṣa is Tsongkhapa‟s
yidam and inspiration.
Next we move up to the Indian teachers. Vasubandhu lived in the 4th century C.E.
and was one of the chief exponents of the Yogācāra school. His brother was
Asaṅga, and Asaṅga converted Vasubandhu to the Yogācāra when Vasubandhu
was quite old, so he started as a Theravādin. Bhante says of him that he, “Enjoys
equal prestige as an exponent of the two main branches of the Buddhist tradition.
With one foot planted firmly on the side of the Great and the other on the side of
the Little Vehicle, he bestrides medieval Indian Buddhism „like a colossus‟ ” (A
Survey of Buddhism, 1980, p. 360).
Then comes another great figure in Buddhist history, Śāntideva. I do not need to
say anything about him. I am sure, too, that everyone has heard of Buddhaghosa,
the famous commentator of the Theravādin school, who wrote the Visuddhimagga.
Bhante says of the Visuddhi-magga that it is a splendid survey of Buddhist
doctrine, it is a compendium of the Tipiṭaka and one of the greatest masterpieces
of Buddhist literature, which describes authoritatively, lucidly and in great detail
the principal meditational practices of the Buddhist yoga. Again, I need not say
much about Nāgārjuna. He was associated with the Prajñāpāramitā literature and
the New Wisdom school. And finally there is Asaṅga, who established the
Yogācāra school.
Above the sixteen Gurus of the Past are the Five Jinas, the Five Buddhas. Finally,
above the Five Buddhas is Vajrasattva.
The practice then proceeds in a similar way to the Padmasambhava practice. We
say: “From now onwards until the attainment of Enlightenment, with great
reverence of body, speech and mind I Go for Refuge to the Buddha Śākyamuni,”
and we make prostrations. After we have done the prostrations, rays of light come
from all the forty-three figures on the Tree and take away the defilements of our
self and all sentient beings with whom we are prostrating. The rays eventually
merge into the body of the Refuges, and all the figures merge into Śākyamuni, and
Śākyamuni into the Void.
Triratna Dharma Training Course for Mitras
Year Four, Module 7: Great Buddhists from the Refuge Tree of the Triratna Buddhist Order
http://freebuddhistaudio.com/study
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