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''Ascertaining the Two Kinds of Selflessness'' by Mipham Rinpoche explains the Buddhist concepts of personal and phenomenal selflessness.
The text distinguishes between:
1. Personal selflessness - understanding that the "I" we cling to has no inherent existence, being merely a projection onto the five aggregates
2. Phenomenal selflessness - realizing that all phenomena lack true, independent existence when examined through logical analysis
Mipham emphasizes that clinging to "I" is the root of all mental afflictions and saṃsāra, while realizing selflessness is the foundation of liberation. He further distinguishes between conceptual understanding of emptiness (the "categorizable ultimate") and direct realization of the dharmadhātu - the ineffable natural state where emptiness and dependent origination are inseparable (the "uncategorizable ultimate"). True realization transcends intellectual analysis and requires settling the mind through meditation and guru's instructions to see the great Middle Way beyond conceptual elaboration. +
A history of Buddhism in India and Tibet composed in 1322 by the Tibetan polymath Bu ston rin chen grub. The full name of the work is ''Bde bar gshegs pa'i bstan pa'i gsal byed chos kyi 'byung gnas gsung rab rin po che'i mdzod''; it is available in English in the 1931-1932 translation of major parts by Eugène Obermiller, done in collaboration with Mongolian monks educated in Tibetan monasteries. The text is in two parts: a history and an important general catalogue of Tibetan Buddhist canonical literature, one of the first of its kind. The first chapter of the ''Chos 'byung'' draws on the ''Vyākhyāyukti'' and is a general discussion of the exposition and study of Buddhist doctrine. The second chapter is a traditional history dealing with the spread of the doctrine in the human world, the three turnings of the wheel of dharma (''dharmacakrapravartana''), the councils (''saṃgīti''), the collection of the Buddhist doctrine into authoritative scriptures, the date of the Buddha, the followers who came after him, and the decline of the doctrine in India. The history of Buddhism in Tibet is divided into a section on the earlier (''snga dar'') and later spread (''phyi dar'') of the doctrine. The third section is the general catalogue of Buddhist canonical literature in Tibetan translation. It is divided into sūtras and Tantras, then again into the words of the Buddha (''bka<i>'</i>'') and authoritative treatises (''bstan bcos''). The words of the Buddha are subdivided based on the three turnings of the wheel of the dharma with a separate section on Mahāyāna sūtras; treatises are divided into treatises explaining specific works of the Buddha (again subdivided based on the three turnings of the wheel of the dharma), general expositions, and miscellaneous treatises. Bu ston similarly divides the tantras into words of the Buddha and authoritative treatises and deals with both under the division into four "sets" (''sde'') of ''kriyā'', ''caryā'', and ''yoga'', and ''mahāyoga'' tantras. This latter division is again subdivided into method (''upāya''), wisdom (''prajñā''), and both (''ubhaya'') tantras. In Mkhas grub Dge legs dpal bzang's explanation (''Rgyud sde spyi'i rnam bzhag''), a work based on Bu ston's model, but incorporating the influential scheme of Tsong khapa, the divisions of ''mahāyoga'' are subsumed under the general category of ''anuttarayogatantra'' (highest yoga tantra). The tantric commentaries are organized following the same schema. (Source: "Bu ston chos 'byung." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 158–59. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)
Bde bar gshegs pa'i bstan pa'i gsal byed chos kyi 'byung gnas gsung rab rin po che'i mdzod/Full text +
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A liturgical compendium for the worship of the Seven Medicine Buddhas (Bhaiṣajyaguru and his six buddha companions), composed by the Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Losang Gyatso, and completed in 1643. Associated with the ''Bhagavato bhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabhasya pūrvapraṇidhānaviśeṣavistārasūtra'', the text consolidates earlier, more fragmentary offering and recitation rites (''mchod pa'') into a single unified ritual manual. Per its colophon, it was compiled at the request of several religious figures, including Rikzin Lama Rinchen Gyatso and the regent (''phyag mdzod'') Sönam Rabten, and was later printed at Ganden Phuntsok Ling for wider dissemination of the teaching. +
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Notes on the Lectures on "An Easy Path to Omniscience: A Direct Guide to the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment" by Tsechokling Yongdzin Yeshe Gyaltsen. +
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The ''Blue Compendium'' contains lamrim instructions from the lineage of Dromtönpa and Potowa. These early teachers did not commit their instructions to writing. However, a tradition of written lamrim and tenrim as well as lojong ("mind training") works emerged within the next two generations of Kadampa teachers. This development went hand in hand with a transition from individual instructions for selected disciples (''Ikog chos'') to public teachings for a wider audience (''tshogs chos''). It can therefore be viewed as an attempt to preserve the teaching in an authentic form while at the same time making it accessible to a larger public. It is in this context that the ''Blue Compendium'' was composed, not long after its sister text, the ''Dharma Exemplified: A Heap of Jewels'' (''Dpe chos rin chen spungs pa''), which stems from the same generation and teaching lineage. Tradition regards these two works as the seminal treatises of their genre, and they have been described as complementing each other, containing the meaning and the examples, respectively, of the lamrim teachings. Both were composed in the early twelfth century by disciples of Potowa following his death in order to preserve his teachings. (''Stages of the Buddha's Teachings: Three Key Texts'', translator's introduction, 6) +
It has been nearly thirty-five years since I first opened ''The Way of the Bodhisattva'', and revisiting it now at the behest of ''Inquiring Mind'' fills me with a renewed appreciation for the vitality and breadth of the text. What appeared to me all those years ago as a beautiful but lofty and distant map of the bodhisattva path now feels deeply personal, subtle and provocative. Indeed, part of what draws me close to the work is a powerfully empathetic connection to the book’s author, Shantideva, who lived in the great monastic university of Nalanda in eighth-century India. Although we recognize him today for his great scholarship and deep wisdom, what immediately ignites my interest is that Shantideva was considered by his contemporaries to be a loser.
Read more [https://www.inquiringmind.com/article/3101_33_bondurant_3-beautiful-loser-shantideva-and-the-way-of-the-bodhisavttva/ here] +
Pema Chödrön presents Shantideva's ''Bodhicaryāvatāra'' verse-by-verse, offering both illuminating stories and practical exercises to enrich the text. +
The aphorisms of the Seven-Point Mind Training present a powerful and counter-intuitive call to Buddhist practice—view reality as dreamlike, contemplate the kindness of your enemies, give up expectations of reward, change yourself but remain as you are! When he fled Tibet, Gomo Tulku carried in his heart this widely studied Tibetan text, which he turned to time and again when faced with difficulties in life. Having relied on this practice to transform his own hardships, he shares here an inspired commentary to help us get through ours. [https://wisdomexperience.org/product/seven-steps-train-your-mind/ (Source: Wisdom Publications)] +
Becoming the Wish-Fulfilling Tree - Compassion and the Transformation of Ethical Subjectivity in the Lojong Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism +
This dissertation explores the possibility of viewing ourselves as beings who have "compassion at the core" in order to make a contribution to the emerging fields of contemplative science, positive psychology and the interdisciplinary "science of compassion." It does so by drawing from Tibetan and Sanskrit texts from the Buddhist ''Lojong'' (''blo sbyong'') tradition, as well as contemporary research in psychology, neuroscience, phenomenology and anthropology that focuses on compassion, emotions, empathy, embodiment, and meaning in life. Much of this research involves a reorientation away from an individualistic account of selfhood towards a recognition of the deeply social and moral nature of experience itself and the implications this has for our understanding of human nature, compassion, and ethics. Particular attention is paid to sources and concepts employed by contemporary, secular compassion training protocols such as Cognitively-Based Compassion Training (CBCT). After exploring key questions in contemplative science, such as reductionism, religious experience and the role of ethics and metaphysics, the dissertation turns to the specific types and ingredients of compassion as understood in the ''Lojong'' tradition. It then elucidates an implicit “contemplative phenomenology” in the ''Lojong'' tradition and compares it to strains of western phenomenology, suggesting that the development of a theoretically robust contemplative phenomenology will be very helpful to the future project of neurohpenomenology in contemplative science. The final chapter explores grounded and embodied cognition as well as psychological research on emotions and the implications these research areas have for contemplative science. The conclusion revisits the implications for our understanding of compassion and ethics when experience is seen as fundamentally interpersonal and moral. This perspective is then applied to the specific topic of "meaning in life" as studied in positive psychology with suggestions for developing a “relational theory of meaning” that centralizes the interpersonal and the ethical dimensions of meaning.
Benkenmitsu nikyòron. (辯顯密二教論). In Japanese, literally "Distinguishing the Two Teachings of the Exoteric and Esoteric"; a relatively short treatise composed by the Japanese Shingon monk Kūkai in the early ninth century. The text is commonly known more simply as the ''Nikyōron''. As the title suggests, the central theme of the ''Benkenmitsu nikyōron'' is the elaboration of the difference between the exoteric and esoteric teachings of Buddhism and the demonstration of the latter's superiority. The text begins with a brief introduction, followed by a series of questions and answers, and a short conclusion. The ''Benkenmitsu nikyōron'' describes the relation between the exoteric teachings preached by the ''nirmānakāya'' of the Buddha and the esoteric teachings preached by his ''dharmakāya'' as that between provisional words spoken according to the different capacities of sentient beings and ultimate truth. By meticulously citing scriptural references, such as the ''Laṅkāvatārasūtra'', the ''Benkenmitsu nikyōron'' shows that the ''dharmakāya'', like the ''nirmānakāya'' and ''sambhogakāya'', can indeed preach and that it does so in a special language best articulated in such esoteric scriptures as the ''Mahāvairocanābhisambodhisūtra''. Whereas the ''nirmānakāya'' speaks the dharma with reference to the six perfections (''pāramitā''), the ''dharmakāya'' employs the language of the three mysteries: the body, speech, and mind of Mahāvairocana expressed in mudrā, mantra, and maṇḍala. Like many of Kukai's other writings, the arguments presented in his ''Benkenmitsu nikyōron'' helped him legitimize the introduction and installment of the new teachings, now known as Mikkyō or esoteric Buddhism, which he had brought back from China. There are several commentaries on the text, including those composed by Seisen (1025-1115), Raiyu (1226-1304), Yūkai (1345-1416), and Kaijō (1750-1805). (Source: "Benkenmitsu nikyōron." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 104. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)
This book confronts two ways of approaching an Indo-Buddhist text with one another. The first is the historico-philological method, which takes the Cartesian ideal of certainty as its starting point. The second approach follows the lead of the philosophy of Hans-Georg Gadamer. This approach assumes that all human understanding is finite. In this light, it raises questions such as: what are the preliminary assumptions with which a buddhologist addresses a buddhist text? In analogy with these two ways of looking at a text, the book is divided into two parts. Part One is a historico-philological study of the Sanskrit compound sva-citta-dr'sya-matra as it is represented in the second chapter of the Indo-Buddhist text Lankavatarasutra (fifth century). Part Two then examines the unquestioned acceptances of this buddhological research from a philosophical point of view. The book opens up an entirely new perspective on methodological problems concerning any study of an alien culture.
[https://www.amazon.com/Between-Certainty-Finitude-Lankavatarasutra-Zentralasiens/dp/382589813X (Source: Amazon)] +
This commentary by Nāgārjuna systematically explicates the ''Bhadracaryāpraṇidhāna'' (''Aspiration Prayer of Noble Conduct'') by organizing it into ten main topics: prostration, offerings, confession, rejoicing in merit, requesting the Dharma wheel, imploring the buddhas to remain, dedication of virtuous roots, detailed subdivisions of the aspiration prayer, its ultimate extent, and its benefits. The text provides detailed explanations of how bodhisattvas should prostrate with body, speech, and mind to all buddhas throughout the ten directions and three times, make both material and mentally-generated offerings, confess negative actions accumulated through the three poisons, and rejoice in all merit. Nāgārjuna elaborates on sixteen subdivisions of the dedication section, including maintaining bodhicitta without forgetting it, purifying buddha-fields, benefiting sentient beings, meeting spiritual guides and fellow bodhisattvas, and developing the ten powers of a bodhisattva. He emphasizes that even the gravest karmic obscurations can be purified through sincere confession, generating bodhicitta, and understanding the emptiness of all phenomena, citing various sūtras to support this teaching. The commentary concludes by explaining the extraordinary benefits of reciting this aspiration prayer, including the purification of negative karma, meeting Amitābha Buddha at death, rebirth in Sukhāvatī, and ultimately attaining buddhahood to benefit all sentient beings throughout infinite time. +
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This commentary by Yeshe De, titled ''Bhadracaryācatuṣṭīkāpiṇḍārthābhismaraṇa'' (''A Memorandum Condensing the Four Points, A Commentary on (the Vows of) the Conduct of Samantabhadra''), synthesizes four earlier commentaries on the ''Bhadracaryāpraṇidhānarāja'' (''King of Aspiration Prayers for Excellent Conduct'') by Dignāga, Śākyamitra, Buddhagupta, and Bhadrabāhu, organizing the prayer into ten main topics: prostration, offerings, confession, rejoicing in merit, requesting the Dharma wheel, requesting the buddhas not to pass into nirvāṇa, dedication of merit, distinctions within the aspiration (divided into sixteen subcategories), the limitless scope of the aspiration, and its benefits in this life and future lives. The text provides detailed explanations of how practitioners should visualize prostrating with countless bodies to infinite buddhas dwelling on every atom throughout the ten directions and three times, make both material and mentally-created offerings, confess negative karma accumulated through desire, hatred, and ignorance, and rejoice in all merit. Yeshe De emphasizes that even the gravest karmic obscurations—including the five heinous crimes with immediate retribution—can be purified through sincere confession, taking refuge, generating bodhicitta, and realizing the emptiness of all phenomena. The commentary concludes by explaining the extraordinary benefits of reciting this aspiration prayer, including accumulating supreme merit, seeing Amitābha Buddha, being reborn in Sukhāvatī, receiving prophecy of buddhahood, and spontaneously accomplishing the welfare of all sentient beings throughout beginningless time. +
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༄༅། །འཕགས་པ་བཟང་པོ་སྤྱོད་པའི་སྨོན་ལམ་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་བཞུགས།
The King of Aspiration Prayers: Samantabhadra’s “Aspiration to Good Actions” (Zangchö Mönlam)
'''from the Gaṇḍavyūha chapter of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra'''. Many translations of this text exist as it is regularly chanted around the world in many different traditions. For an example, see [https://www.lotsawahouse.org/words-of-the-buddha/samantabhadra-aspiration-good-actions Lotsawa House].
Bhadracarīpranidhāna. (T. Bzang po spyod pa'i smon lam; C. Puxian pusa xingyuan zan; J. Fugen bosatsu gyōgansan; K. Pohyǒn posal haengwǒn ch'an 普賢菩薩行願讚). In Sanskrit, "Vows of Good Conduct," the last section of the ''Gaṇḍavyūha'' in the ''Avataṃsakasūtra'' and one of the most beloved texts in all of Mahāyāna Buddhism; also known as the ''Samantabhadracarīpraṇidhānarāja''. The ''Bhadracarīpraṇidhāna'' focuses on the ten great vows (''praṇidhāna'') taken by Samantabhadra to realize and gain access to the dharmadhātu, which thereby enable him to benefit sentient beings. The ten vows are: (1) to pay homage to all the buddhas, (2) to praise the tathāgatas, (3) to make unlimited offerings, (4) to repent from one's transgressions in order to remove karmic hindrances (cf. ''karmāvaraṇa''), (5) to take delight in others' merit, (6) to request the buddhas to turn the wheel of dharma (''dharmacakrapravartana''), (7) to request the buddhas to continue living in the world, (8) always to follow the teachings of the Buddha, (9) always to comply with the needs of sentient beings, and (10) to transfer all merit to sentient beings for their spiritual edification. The text ends with a stanza wishing that sentient beings still immersed in evil be reborn in the Pure Land of Amitābha. The text was translated into Chinese in 754 by Amoghavajra (705–774). Other Chinese recensions appear in the ''Wenshushili fayuan jing'' ("Scripture on the Vows made by Mañjuśrī"), translated in 420 by Buddhabhadra (359–429), which corresponds to the verse section from ''Ru busiyi jietuo jingjie Puxian xingyuan pin'', the last roll of the forty-roll recension of the ''Huayan jing'' translated by Prajña in 798. (There is no corresponding version in either the sixty- or the eighty-roll translations of the
''Huajan jing''.) The verses are also called the "Précis of the ''Huayan jing'' (''Lüe Huayan jing''), because they are believed to constitute the core teachings of the ''Avataṃsakasūtra''. In the main Chinese recension by Amoghavajra, the text consists of sixty-two stanzas, each consisting of quatrains with lines seven Sinographs in length, thus giving a total number of 1,736 Sinographs. In addition to the sixty-two core stanzas, Amoghavajra's version adds ten more stanzas of the ''Bada pusa zan'' ("Eulogy to the Eight Great Bodhisattvas") from the ''Badapusa mantuluo jing'' ("Scripture of the Maṇḍalas of the Eight Great Bodhisattvas") . . . Buddhabhadra's version consists of forty-four stanzas with 880 Sinographs, each stanza consisting of a quatrain with lines five Sinographs in length. Prajña's version contains fifty-two stanzas with each quatrain consisting of lines seven Sinographs in length. There are five commentaries on the text attributed to eminent Indian exegetes, including Nāgārjuna, Dignāga, and Vasubandhu, which are extant only in Tibetan translation. In the Tibetan tradition, the prayer is called the "king of prayers" (smon lam gyi rgyal po). It is incorporated into many liturgies; the opening verses of the prayer are commonly incorporated into a Tibetan's daily recitation. (Source: "Bhadracarīpraṇidhāna." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 106. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)
