Nov-Jan Magazine (pdf) - Tibetan Buddhist Institute

I have found somekind of atmosphereof Geshela[Rinpoche]. He isnot here but hisspirit is very muchpresent here.top most masters or scholars. He wasinvited by a Tibetan emperor with PemaSambhawa, firstly Shāntarakshita camethen Pema Sambhawa joined. So hegave public teachings and also gaveordination and also I think translationwork was mainly led by Shāntarakshita.When he reached Tibet, Lhasa, his ageaccording to Indian historian, wasalready over 75. So imagine for an oldIndian great scholar, going to Tibet wasnot easy. The climate particularly alsoyou see very cold and very high too. Atleast in India there were bullock carts,but that cannot be used in Tibet! So heonly ride yaks and horses or mules, likethat. Even I, when I was quite young, asa young person when I was riding along time sometimes some pain here![indicates backside] An old Indianmaster I think must find it very difficult.I think it is quite clear that in theTibetan Buddhist tradition we verymuch emphasise study about differentphilosopher’s views and study alsoabout Buddhist epistomology, whereaswith Chinese Buddhist tradition thereis not much emphasis on Buddhistepistolomology. BecauseShāntarakshita himself was a greatlogician, so logically since he is sucha great logician he introducedcarrying this philosophy teachingto his students, so naturally he wantedhis students, not only one generationbut generation to generation to becomelike himself. Then afterward, I think 9thcentury, Kamalaśīla came according toShāntarakshita’s instruction. So both ofthese they are writing and they aretwo truly great thinkers, greatphilosophers and great logicians.So now today with myself it is over fiftyfour years since I became a refugee,the last fifty years I have on a number ofoccasions meetings and discussionswith many Buddhists from differentBuddhist traditions and Buddhistcountries: Vietnamese, also Korean,and Japanese, and Chinese, andBurmese, Thai, Cambodian, Laotian,Sri Lanka, like that. I give one example:when I met some Sri Lanka bhikśu,I found that yes, we have commonpractice about Vinaya, and thendifferent sort of practice accordingto Vaibhāshika tradition, but wehave common knowledge, commonexperience and common practice.Then when I met some ChineseBuddhist, or Japanese, or Vietnamese,again we have the same sort ofcommon practice: the PrajnaparamitaSutra and then also the Bodhisattvavow, these things are common. Theneven with Tantrayana; Kriya Tantrayana,Carya Tantrayana, Yoga Tantrayana, inChinese tradition these are there. Sothese are our common practice.Perhaps I can go on that with SriLankan Buddhist monk and ChineseBuddhist meeting, I think there is muchless common practice. So whenwe met both traditions yes therewas common practice there, thatmeans Tibetan practice is a morecomplete sort of practice.So now I think non-Buddhist countriesall over the world have the impressionthat Buddha Śākyamūni is Buddha ofnon-violence, or is a symbol of nonviolenceor compassion, like themodern time Mahatma Gandhi. Whenwe heard ‘Gandhi’ the image we haveis some kind of feeling of non-violence.So Buddha Śākyamūni is also likethat. Then his teaching; I think in onequotation, Buddha stated to hisfollowers, “For my followers, monksand scholars or nuns, should notaccept my teaching out of faith, butrather out of thorough investigationand experiment”. So all those masters,including Shāntarakshita, all thoseNalanda masters, strictly followBuddha’s advice, they alwaysinvestigate even Buddha’s ownteaching, Buddha’s own word, theycarry this investigation whether thatteaching can be accepted literally ornot. Therefore the Buddhist way ofapproach is more based oninvestigation rather than faith, so inthis modern time that approach isquite a modern way of approach.Anyway since Buddhism, like others,Jainism and also other philosophies,5 • TBI• tibetanbuddhistinstitute.org