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Lineage of the Profound View

Key Concepts

Key Concepts

• Buddha-Nature
• Compassion
• Defining Bodhicitta
• Emptiness
• Equalizing & Exchanging Self and Others
• Equanimity
• History of Bodhicitta Teachings
• How to Develop Bodhicitta
• Interdependent Origination
• Lineage of the Profound View
• Lineage of the Vast Conduct
• Mahāyāna
• Mind Training
• Non-Self
• Seven-Point Instructions of Cause and Effect
• The Bodhisattva Ideal
• The Bodhisattva Path
• The Bodhisattva Vow
• The Bodhisattva's Goal
• The Four Immeasurables
• The Six Perfections
• The Three Higher Trainings
• The Two Accumulations
• The Two Truths
• Tonglen: The Practice of Sending and Receiving
• Types of Bodhicitta

The Profound View lineage, associated with Mañjuśrī and the philosopher Nāgārjuna, emerges from the Prajñāpāramitā sūtras and Madhyamaka philosophy. Its central teaching holds that authentic bodhicitta arises only through profound understanding of emptiness (śūnyatā). The lineage's core practices—"equating self and others" and "exchanging self for others"—involve meditating on beings' fundamental equality and mentally taking on others' suffering while offering one's happiness, directly countering self-cherishing attitudes.

The Lineage of The Profound View

The Mahāyāna system which spread from around 100 BCE saw significant expansion and diversification in the subsequent centuries. Such expansion and variation came about partly through the appearance of numerous sūtras emphasizing different aspects of the bodhisattva path. For instance, while the Perfection of Wisdom highlighted the empty nature of all phenomena, the buddha-nature sūtras underscored the natural purity and intrinsic virtue of sentient beings. Still other sūtras focused on bodhisattva ethics, bodhisattva practices, life stories, and rituals such as stūpa veneration.

In addition to the expansion through a multiplicity of sūtras, the Mahāyāna system also saw diversification through the emergence of different understandings and interpretations of the sūtras. For instance, the Perfection of Wisdom sūtras saw four major traditions of interpretation and hermeneutics propounded by Nāgārjuna, Asaṅga, Daṃṣṭrāsena, and Dignāga. Among the four, Nāgārjuna's interpretation, which focuses on emptiness, the explicit message of the Perfection of Wisdom sūtras, initiated the Madhyamaka (Middle Way) school, while Maitreya/Asaṅga's interpretation focused on the soteriological path, the implicit or hidden message of the Perfection of Wisdom sūtras. The latter was often philosophically aligned with the Cittamātra (Mind Only) school.

Thus, the Mahāyāna system in the Indo-Tibetan tradition became mainly classified into these two groups of what later came to be known as the Profound View Tradition (ཟབ་མོ་ལྟ་བའི་སྲོལ་ zab mo lta ba'i srol) and the Vast Conduct Tradition (རྒྱ་ཆེན་སྤྱོད་པའི་སྲོལ། rgya chen spyod pa'i srol). Kongtrul Lodrö Taye (1813–1899), in his Guidebook for the Path to Great Awakening: The Ritual for Generating Enlightenment Mind according to the System Followed in the Lineage of the Profound View writes:

Following The Stem Array Sūtra and The Sūtra of Ākāśagarbha and others, the tradition passed down from Ārya Māñjuśrī via Lord Nāgārjuna and his disciples and taken up by Śantideva and so forth is known as the Middle Way tradition. Following The Great Bodhisattva Ground and such sūtras, the tradition passed down from Lord Maitreya via Ārya Asaṅga and his brother and taken up by the master Candragomin, Lord Atiśa, and others is known as the Mind Only tradition.

While the tradition names and lineage lists that Kongtrul presents were not clearly defined in India, a philosophical division did exist. Mahāyāna thinkers appear to have been grouped into two camps based on their philosophical positions as early as the time of Bhāvaviveka (c. 500–570). Bhāvaviveka criticizes Asaṅga and Vasubandhu for shamelessly diverging from the Middle Way understanding of Nāgārjuna, who was prophesied by the Buddha and is said to have attained the first sublime stage of the bodhisattva path. There are also ample accounts of philosophical debates between the proponents of the Middle Way school and Mind Only school, confirming that Indian Mahāyānists were clearly divided along philosophical lines.

Beyond the philosophical differences that occupied Bhāvaviveka and others, a general division appears to have emerged in Mahāyāna approaches to understanding and practice. By the time of Ratnākaraśānti (late tenth century), we can see a general classification of the Mahāyāna system into two traditions, with one led by Nāgārjuna and another by Asaṅga. According to Ratnākaraśānti, Ārya Asaṅga presents the gist of the Mahāyāna system through seven topics such as the thought of awakening, while Ārya Nāgārjuna presents it through the six perfections and compassion.

In Tibet, Ratnākaraśānti or his disciple Atiśa is perhaps the first one to expound the two traditions and the two lines of transmission of bodhicitta practice. According to Atiśa:

Although there are many traditions on this among previous scholars, the religious tradition followed by a great number of people and the path set by the great pioneers should be explained to be two: the tradition of Ārya Asaṅga and the tradition of the Lord Śāntideva.

From Atiśa's time onward, bodhisattva vows and bodhicitta practices were presented according to the two main Mahāyāna traditions. Tibetan scholars subsequently adopted this formulation, and bodhicitta teachings were transmitted through these two distinct lineages.

Sakya Paṇḍita Kunga Gyaltsen (1182–1251), in his Illumination of the Sage's Intent, for example, states that the Mahāyāna tradition consists of the Mind Only and Middle Way schools. The cultivation of the thought of awakening in the Mind Only school, he explains, follows the Maitreya lineage coming through Asaṅga and is the tradition of Candragomin's Twenty Bodhisattva Vows (Byang chub sems dpa'i sdom pa nyi shu pa) based on Asaṅga's Bodhisattvabhūmi (Byang chub sems pa'i sa). On the other hand, the tradition of the Middle Way school follows the Mañjuśrī line through Nāgārjuna, is the tradition of Śāntideva's Way of the Bodhisattva based on the Buddhāvataṃsakasūtra, and is the one undertaken by Jetāri and other masters.

It must be noted, however, that Atiśa also presented a trifurcation in terms of the presentation of the general Mahāyāna system of thought. He listed Asaṅga, Vasubandhu, Sthiramati, Prajñākaragupta, et al. as those espousing the Aspectarian and Non-Aspectarian Mind Only school of thought, and Bhāvaviveka, Devaśarman, Buddhapālita, Avalokitavrata, Śāntarakṣita, and Kamalaśīla as expounding the Middle Way school of thought. He categorized Candragomin, Ācārya Śūra, Śāntideva, et al. as masters who promoted the Vast Conduct tradition through a focus on the practice of the four immeasurable thoughts, six perfections, and four means of attraction. Thus, it seems Atiśa divided the general Mahāyāna system into three main lines of thought or approaches but included them into two main traditions with regard to the specific practice of bodhicitta and the bodhisattva vows.

Notes

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  

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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'

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'

Prajñāpāramitā - A class of Mahāyāna sūtras which represents some of the earliest known literature of this genre of Buddhism. There are around forty texts associated with this category, though the most widespread is the exceedingly brief Prajñāpāramitāhṛdayasūtra, popularly known as the Heart Sūtra. This class of literature is typically associated with the second turning of the dharma wheel and especially with the teachings on emptiness (śūnyatā). As such, these texts were the primary scriptural source for the philosophy of the Madhyamaka school. Skt प्रज्ञापारमिता  Tib ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་;ཤེར་ཕྱིན་  Ch 般若波羅蜜多  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Madhyamaka - Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. Skt मध्यमक  Tib དབུ་མ་  Ch 中觀見  

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Śūnyatā - The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics. Skt शून्यता  Tib སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་  Ch 空;空門  

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Śūnyatā - The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics. Skt शून्यता  Tib སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་  Ch 空;空門  

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Śūnyatā - The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics. Skt शून्यता  Tib སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་  Ch 空;空門  

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Śūnyatā - The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics. Skt शून्यता  Tib སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་  Ch 空;空門  

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Mahāyāna - Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of the Common Era, focusing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through the realization of the wisdom of emptiness and the cultivation of compassion. Skt महायान  Tib ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ།  Ch 大乘  

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Prajñāpāramitā - A class of Mahāyāna sūtras which represents some of the earliest known literature of this genre of Buddhism. There are around forty texts associated with this category, though the most widespread is the exceedingly brief Prajñāpāramitāhṛdayasūtra, popularly known as the Heart Sūtra. This class of literature is typically associated with the second turning of the dharma wheel and especially with the teachings on emptiness (śūnyatā). As such, these texts were the primary scriptural source for the philosophy of the Madhyamaka school. Skt प्रज्ञापारमिता  Tib ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་;ཤེར་ཕྱིན་  Ch 般若波羅蜜多  

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Puṇya - The positive energy or potential created through performing good deeds, such as generosity or kindness. In Buddhism, accumulating this positive force is seen as essential for finding happiness in future lives, and crucial as a foundation for following the spiritual path. Skt पुण्य  Tib བསོད་ནམས་  Ch 福;功德  

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Madhyamaka - Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. Skt मध्यमक  Tib དབུ་མ་  Ch 中觀見  

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Cittamātra - Though it is sometimes used synonymously with Yogācāra, it is in fact one of the more prominent philosophical theories associated with this school. It asserts that the objects in the external world with which we interact are actually mentally created representations appearing as those objects. The character of these perceptions is predetermined by our own karmic conditioning that is stored in the ālayavijñāna. Skt चित्तमात्र  Tib སེམས་ཙམ་  

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Cittamātra - Though it is sometimes used synonymously with Yogācāra, it is in fact one of the more prominent philosophical theories associated with this school. It asserts that the objects in the external world with which we interact are actually mentally created representations appearing as those objects. The character of these perceptions is predetermined by our own karmic conditioning that is stored in the ālayavijñāna. Skt चित्तमात्र  Tib སེམས་ཙམ་  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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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  

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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  

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Pāramitā - The six or ten types of practices which lead an individual to Buddhahood. The practice of perfections is particularly important in Mahāyāna Buddhism in which the entire path of the Bodhisattva to reach full enlightenment is included in the six or ten perfections. The six perfections are that of giving, of discipline, patience, zeal, meditation, and wisdom. The perfection of skill-in-means, aspirations, power, and pristine wisdom are added to them to make ten perfections. Skt पारमिता  Tib ཕར་ཕྱིན།;ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ།  Ch 波羅蜜  

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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  

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Śrāvaka - The disciples of the Buddha who aspire to attain individual liberation or nirvāṇa. The final goal of the Hearers is to become an arhat, a state in which one has totally eliminated the inner problems of attachment, hatred and ignorance, the main causes for rebirth in this cycle of existence. There are four stages of a śrāvaka path including eight phases. Skt श्रावक  Tib ཉན་ཐོས།  Ch 聲聞  

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Sakya - The Sakya tradition developed in the eleventh century in the Khön family of Tsang, which maintained an imperial-era lineage of Vajrakīla and which adopted a new teaching from India known as Lamdre. Tib ས་སྐྱ་  

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Atiśa (ཇོ་བོ་རྗེ་ཨ་ཏི་ཤ་). Bodhimārgapradīpapañjikā [बोधिमार्गप्रदीपपञ्जिका]. byang chub lam gyi sgron ma'i dka' 'grel [བྱང་ཆུབ་ལམ་གྱི་སྒྲོན་མའི་དཀའ་འགྲེལ།]. [Commentary on the Difficult Points of the "A Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment" (84000)]. Tengyur, RKTST 3289 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3289&typ=2.

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ma hA paN+Di ta dpal mar me mdzad ye shes. ratnakaraṇḍodghāṭanāmamadhyamakopadeśa [रत्नकरण्डोद्घाटनाममध्यमकोपदेश]. dbu ma'i man ngag rin po che'i za ma tog kha phye ba [དབུ་མའི་མན་ངག་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་ཟ་མ་ཏོག་ཁ་ཕྱེ་བ]. [Personal Instructions on the Middle Way called "An Open Basket of Jewels" (84000)]. Tengyur, RKTST 3271 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3271&typ=2.

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