Teachings of the Mountain Hermit of Mandong (Duff 2009)

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Teachings of The Mountain Hermit of Mandong: Taking Refuge and Arousing Bodhicitta Explained according to Atisha's Lineage

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

This book contains two teachings, one on taking refuge in the Three Jewels and one on the development of bodhichitta or enlightenment mind. The teachings are translations of two texts from the Collected Works of the Hermit of Mandong. The hermit was a Kagyu master who lived in caves in the Mandong area of Tibet during the latter half of the 20th century, after the Communist Chinese invasion. He is not known to most Westerners but is quite famous amongst Tibetans these days. Why? Well, he was very learned and highly accomplished, but, over and above that, he was famous for his love and compassion for the very impoverished people of his area. In the darkness following the Chinese destruction of Tibet, he went out of his way to ensure that the poor and downtrodden people of his area not only received Buddhist teachings but received teachings from the heart that they really could understand and practice. The two teachings in this book are texts written specifically to assist those people and are very potent because of it. The compassion of the Hermit of Mandong comes through very clearly.

The Hermit was a follower of the Kagyu lineage, a lineage that gained the complete Kadampa teachings on refuge and bodhicitta as taught by Atisha through the early Kagyu master Gampopa. The two teachings here come from that tradition. Because of the Hermit’s ways explained above, the teachings are not dry expositions at all, but are very heartfelt and wonderful to read. Moreover, they contain many stories and quotes from the early Kadampa masters and from Kagyu masters such as Milarepa, Karmapa, and so on. What is really fascinating about both teachings is that they were given for a thoroughly traditional audience, so they talk about hell realms and so on in a traditional way. However, the teachings are intensely personal and practical, so they go from what could be teachings that many Westerners would not find relevant to being thought-provoking teachings on love and compassion. This feature on top of all the other features of the teachings makes this a very interesting book.

Books like this tend to be overlooked these days because these days people are forgetting about refuge and bodhicitta and seeking only the hot topic of Dzogchen. Refuge and bodhicitta are indispensable for all according to the Buddha, and this little book brings those two teachings right to the fore in a very compelling way.

The book contains translations of the following texts:

• From the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment: A small instruction on Taking Refuge called "The Great Entrance to the Excellent House of the Conqueror’s Precious Teaching"
• From the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment: For Beginners in the Great Vehicle, The Method of Meditating on Compassion that References Sentient Beings called "An Ornament for the Minds of Young Conquerors’ Sons" (Source Accessed Jan 16, 2025)

Citation

Duff, Tony, trans. Teachings of The Mountain Hermit of Mandong: Taking Refuge and Arousing Bodhicitta Explained according to Atisha's Lineage. Kathmandu: Padmakarpo Translation Committee, 2009.

Publisher Link

https://www.pktcshop.com/product-p/hmrb.htm

Table of contents

• INTRODUCTIONv

FROM THE COLLECTED WORKS OF KARMA NGEDON TENGYAY, THE HERMIT OF MANDONG:

• FROM THE STAGES OF THE PATH TO ENLIGHTENMENT: A SMALL INSTRUCTION ON TAKING REFUGE CALLED "THE GREAT ENTRANCE TO THE EXCELLENT HOUSE OF THE CONQUEROR’S PRECIOUS TEACHING"1

• FROM THE STAGES OF THE PATH TO ENLIGHTENMENT: FOR BEGINNERS IN THE GREAT VEHICLE, THE METHOD OF MEDITATING ON COMPASSION THAT REFERENCES SENTIENT BEINGS CALLED "AN ORNAMENT FOR THE MINDS OF YOUNG CONQUERORS' SONS"55

• GLOSSARY115

• SUPPORTS FOR STUDY125

• INDEX129

Interconnections

Works related to this item

Śaraṇagamana - The foundational act of entering the Buddhist path by formally seeking protection and guidance from the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha. Skt शरणगमन  Tib སྐྱབས་འགྲོ་  Ch 皈依  

Go to the page with the definition of 'taking refuge'

Kagyu - The Kagyu school traces its origin to the eleventh-century translator Marpa, who studied in India with Nāropa. Marpa's student Milarepa trained Gampopa, who founded the first monastery of the Kagyu order. As many as twelve subtraditions grew out from there, the best known being the Karma Kagyu, the Drikung, and the Drukpa. Tib བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Kagyu'

Mettā - The unconditional wish for all sentient beings to experience happiness and the causes of happiness. It is a form of universal, selfless love and is one of the four immeasurables (or sublime abodes). Skt मैत्री  Tib བྱམས་པ་  Ch 慈  

Go to the page with the definition of 'love'

Karuṇā - The profound wish for all sentient beings to be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. It is a core virtue in Buddhism and, in the Mahāyāna tradition, develops into 'great compassion' (mahākaruṇā), the driving force behind the pursuit of enlightenment for the benefit of others. Skt करुणा  Tib ཐུགས་རྗེ་  Ch 悲  

Go to the page with the definition of 'compassion'

Śaraṇagamana - The foundational act of entering the Buddhist path by formally seeking protection and guidance from the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha. Skt शरणगमन  Tib སྐྱབས་འགྲོ་  Ch 皈依  

Go to the page with the definition of 'refuge'

Bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt बोधिचित्त  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།  Ch 菩提心  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhicitta'

Bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt बोधिचित्त  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།  Ch 菩提心  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhicitta'

Dzogchen - Dzogchen is an advanced system of meditation techniques to reveal the innate state of perfection primarily, but not exclusively, espoused by the Nyingma Buddhist tradition and the Tibetan Bön tradition. Skt महासन्धि  Tib རྫོགས་ཆེན།  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Dzogchen'

Bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt बोधिचित्त  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།  Ch 菩提心  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhicitta'

Bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt बोधिचित्त  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།  Ch 菩提心  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhicitta'