ACI Course 1 — The Principal Teachings of Buddhism · Class 4 · 造论誓言

Here we have reached the second of the preliminaries that lead into the composition of the text. This is the pledge to compose the text, and is contained in the very first verse:

The principal thing that a person should put to practice—the essence of all the high teachings of the Victors—is the three principal paths, or what we call the "Steps of the Path." This teaching on the Steps of the path to Buddhahood is the only one where all the high teachings of the Victors have been combined into a single series of Steps that any given person can put into practice himself. Such a combination is found in no other separate instruction, open or secret, in any of the traditions, whether we're talking about the three of the Sakya, Geluk, and Nyingma, or any other lineage.⁶¹ We see this in lines such as the one written by Gungtang Jampeyang: "Every high teaching, literal or not, and consistent..."⁶² The sentiment too is expressed in the epistle that the omniscient Tsongkapa offered to Lama Umapa:

I have come to the realization that only the unerring exposition of the Steps to the paths in both the logical and the secret traditions contained in the work on the Steps of the path to Buddhahood imparted by that great being, the glorious Dipamkara Jnyana, is worthy of such wonder; as such, the steps along which I am presently leading my own disciples I have taken only from it. This teaching of Lord Atisha's appears to me to give the entire contents of the formal commentaries and private instructions on both the words of the Buddha and later explanations of them, by combining everything into a single series of Steps along a path. I feel thus that if people learn to teach it and to study it, and are thereby able to impart and put it into practice, they will (despite the relative brevity of the work) have gone through the entire teachings of the Buddha in their proper order. For this reason I have not found it necessary to use a great number of different texts in my teaching work here.⁶³

Thus we can say that, within just a single teaching session devoted to this work on the Steps to the path to Buddhahood, the teacher has taught and the disciples have heard the essence drawn from every single volume of Buddhist teaching that exists on this entire planet.

Now all the teachings of the victorious Buddhas are included into three collections,⁶⁴ and all these are included in the teachings on the Steps of the path to Buddhahood for persons of three different scopes. These teachings themselves are included, in their entirety, within even any one of the very briefest works on the Steps of the path. As the gentle protector, Tsongkapa, has described it himself, "...an abbreviated abbreviation of the pith of all the Buddhas' words."⁶⁵ The great guide Drom Tonpa said as well,

Thus it is that this teaching on the Steps of the path to Buddhahood is far superior to any other teaching of the Buddha that you might choose, for it possesses what we call the "three distinguishing features" and the "four greatnesses."⁶⁷ The special qualities mentioned above are found not even in such holy works as the glorious Secret Collection,⁶⁸ or the classical commentary known as the Jewel of Realizations.⁶⁹

A person who develops a good understanding of these Steps to the path reaches a point where he can go to any one of those tsatsa sheds around town where we dispose of old scriptures and images, pick up any scrap of writing that he finds there, and know just where it fits into his lifetime practice. When you go from here to there, meaning from this single teaching on the Steps out to the mass of the Buddhas' other teachings, the Steps are like a magic key that opens a hundred different doors. Going from there to here, the total contents of that mass of teachings has been packed into these Steps.

Having the ability we've just described is, by the way, what we mean when we say someone has "gained an understanding of the teachings in their entirety." Therefore too the expression "master of all the Buddhas' teachings" is not at all meant to refer to somebody who has put together some neither-here-and-neither-there concoction of all the earlier and later systems, and who is trying to practice that. This point we get as well from something that Tuken Dharma Vajra spoke: "Try to mix up all the systems, the earlier and the later, and you end up outside of both."⁷⁰

When we say here that the entire teachings of the Buddha are packed into the Steps of the path, what we mean is that every vital point of the teachings has been expressed through an abbreviated presentation of the topics contained in the three collections of scripture.

Now about the expression "Steps of the Path"; the royal lama Jangchub Uw once made a petition to Lord Atisha, asking for an instruction that would be of special benefit to keep the teachings of the Buddha in the world.⁷¹ Lord Atisha then spoke the Lamp on the Path to Buddhahood, which from that time onwards he referred to as the "Steps of the Path"—and thus the expression began to spread. This teaching though is by no means something that Lord Atisha and the great Tsongkapa invented themselves; rather, it is that grand highway along which each and every Buddha has travelled. As the shorter Sutra on the Perfection of Wisdom says it,

This, by the way, is the ultimate origin of the expression "Steps of the Path."

Therefore the teaching on the Steps of the path is one for all Tibet; still though, some people feel no desire to study it, for they hold it to be a private instruction of the Geluk tradition. They are not at fault; it is only because they have insufficient merit from their past deeds that they think this way.

And that's not all; it is in fact by stepping on to this path well-worn by all the Buddhas that one eventually arrives at the very state all Buddhas have found. Otherwise it doesn't make sense that you'd get anywhere except to some weird path or level that no Buddha or any other high being of the past has ever reached. You and I have no need to fear that we might ever make such a blunder, for we have the Steps of the path for our practice. All this we owe to the great kindness of Lord Atisha and Lord Tsongkapa.

People who have hopes of doing some kind of spiritual practice should study an unerring path such as this one. It's not right just to practice anything you can get ahold of, like some stray dog that gobbles down anything he can find. As the gentle protector, the Sakya Pandita, has said:

That's just how it is—even in every little matter of this present life, like when you're buying or selling something, you take a lot of care: you do everything you can think of, you run around and ask other people, you spend a lot of time thinking over what to do yourself. But no matter how big a mistake you make with something like this, it's not going to help or hurt you in your future life at all. If you meet up with a spiritual teaching that's wrong though, you make a mistake that affects the ultimate goal of all your lives.

Generally speaking a lot of us go off to some deserted place with the notion that we're going to do some deep practice there. But unless you go with some instruction in hand that is really complete and totally correct, and unless you work to dig down to its core, most of what you do won't be much more than simple wasted effort. As Lord Milarepa once said,

Now the master translators of old undertook a great many hardships, journeying afar to the land of India to bear authentic dharma teachings back here to Tibet. But those in Tibet who followed a mistaken path couldn't live up to them at all. Really good water should at the end of ends trace back to some pure snow. Just so, whatever dharma we choose to practice should have its ultimate origin in something infallible: in the very Lord of the Word, in the Teacher, in the Buddha.

You can spend a thousand years struggling to practice some dharma teaching that has no authentic origin, and you still won't get a single sliver of true realization. It's like thrashing water to make butter.

Therefore we can say that the teaching we decide to practice should have three distinguishing features:

1) It should have been taught by the Buddha.

2) It should have been cleaned of any errors: sages must have brought the teaching to its authentic final form, having examined it to determine whether any wrong ideas crept into it after the Buddha taught it.

3) It should have brought true realizations to the hearts of master practitioners, once they have heard, considered, and meditated upon it. And then it must have passed to us through the various generations of an unbroken lineage.

If the dharma we seek to practice has these three characteristics, it is authentic. We from our side still might fail it, through lapses in our effort and daily practice, but we need never fear that the teaching from its side will fail us.

And that authentic teaching is this very Steps to the path. The highest, the acme, of everything that the Buddha spoke is the precious collection of teachings on the perfection of wisdom. The overt subject matter of these teachings consists of the "instructions on the profound"—on emptiness. These are included in the Steps within those we call the "profound steps." The wisdom sutras also present what are known as the "far-reaching" instructions: those on working to save all living beings. These points are included in the Steps within those we call the "far-reaching steps." This then is why only the teaching on the Steps of the path is one both complete and free of error. And this is why people who are looking for a dharma teaching that is worthy of their practice should most surely begin the Steps.

We see a number of people who out of a mistaken loyalty to their family traditions stick stubbornly to whatever beliefs their parents happened to have held. They follow the Bon or some similar mistaken path and in the end it fails them; the whole great purpose of the present life they live, and their future lives as well, is carried away on the wind.

That great accomplished sage, Kyungpo Neljor, was too a follower of Bon in the beginning.⁷⁵ Later on he realized that Bon had errant beginnings, and so he got into the earlier secret traditions. These too, he came to learn, were faulty—so he travelled to India. Here he studied the later secret traditions and brought his practice to its desired end, gaining the great accomplishments. And there were many others as well—the great Sakya lama Kun-nying, for example—who did the same.⁷⁶

So now we can put the first verse into perspective. Lord Tsongkapa is saying, "As far as I am able I'll explain the teaching on the three principal paths. It is that excellent path that all the Victors' holy sons commend with their praise, the path on which they travel. It has no error. It goes no mistaken way. It is the highest of all doorways: it is the entry point for those people of good fortune who are seeking freedom."

The words "as far as I am able" in the verse are in general put there by Lord Tsongkapa as an expression of modesty. More specifically they have the effect of saying, "As far as I am able I will explain something of as great meaning as can be put into the few words here."

There is another way of glossing the verse, according to which the first line of explanation—the one that includes the words "all high teachings of the Victors"—refers to renunciation. As Chanting the Names says,

The point is that the Buddha, in some of his teachings which should be interpreted rather than taken literally, said that there were three different vehicles or ways. These three though are really only one, from the viewpoint of the ultimate end to which they lead. In a similar sense, all the high teachings of the Victors were enunciated as a means to produce the ultimate "renunciation"—the Buddha's knowledge—within the minds of disciples. And renunciation is what, at the very beginning, urges one to develop a disgust for the cycle of life and set his mind on reaching freedom. This is why the attitude of renunciation is taught here first, in the first line.

The second line of explanation—the one that includes the words "their holy sons"—refers to the wish to achieve enlightenment for every living being. This is the attitude that all the Victors and their sons take as their single most important meditation, and the attitude whose praises they sing. It is like a great center beam that holds up the entire structure of the greater way.

The third line of explanation—the one with the words "the fortunate seeking freedom"—refers to correct view. This perception is the one and only entry point for disciples who seek for freedom. To achieve freedom, you have to cut ignorance—the root of this circle of life. And to cut ignorance, you have to develop the wisdom which realizes no-self. And to develop wisdom, you need a correct view free of all error.

Correct view is the single door to nirvana, to peace. And so it is that the great Tsongkapa, in the closing words of the verse, pledges to compose his work on the three principal paths—which include correct view. His pledge is made in the way prescribed by Master Dandin:⁷⁸ he abbreviates within it all the topics to be treated in the work itself—which here would be to say he includes within his pledge every essential point in the entire body of the paths to be explained. In this sense, our Lama concluded, Lord Tsongkapa had in the first verse already taught us the essence of the paths.

61. Sakya, Geluk, and Nyingma: Names of three of the lineages that developed in Tibet for passing on the Buddha's teachings. The Geluk tradition began with Lord Tsongkapa himself.

62. Every high teaching... Textual source not located. Gungtang Jampeyang (1762-1823), also known as Gungtang Konchok Tenpay Dronme, was a student of the first reincarnation of the great Jamyang Shepa (see the Foreword and entry 27). He is known for his eloquent spiritual poetry and philosophical works; his incisive comments on the Three Principal Paths have been appended to the edition of Pabongka Rinpoche's commentary used for the present translation, and are included in the final section.

63. I have come to the realization... Lord Tsongkapa's letter to his teacher is still extant; the quoted lines appear on f. 69b (entry 67). The name "Dipamkara Jnyana" refers to Lord Atisha.

64. the three collections: Three principal divisions of the Buddha's teachings: the collection of vowed morality (which concerns principally the training on morality), the collection of sutra (principally the training of concentration), and the collection of knowledge (the training of wisdom).

65. an abbreviated abbreviation... Again, from the very brief version of Lord Tsongkapa's Steps on the Path to Buddhahood (f. 56a, entry 63).

66. His wondrous word... Source of quotation not found. See note 49 for the author's background.

67. three distinguishing features and four greatnesses: The three features that distinguish the teaching on the Steps from other instructions are that it includes all the subjects of both the open and secret teachings, is easily put to practice, and has come down to us through masters of the two great traditions described in note 195 (Pabongka Rinpoche, entry 47, ff. 48b-50b; Lord Tsongkapa, entry 61, f. 8b). The four greatnesses of the teaching are that one comes to realize all the teachings as consistent, one perceives all the scriptures as personal advice, one easily grasps the true intent of the Buddhas (none other than the three principal paths), and one automatically avoids the Great Mistake of disparaging any teaching (Lord Tsongkapa, entry 61, ff. 8b-14b; Pabongka Rinpoche, entry 47, ff. 41b-48b).

68. the glorious Secret Collection: One of the major secret teachings of the Buddha (entry 87).

69. Jewel of Realizations: Important text on the perfection of wisdom imparted to Master Asanga by Loving One; refer to note 46 (entry 44).

70. Try to mix up all the systems... Source of quotation not found. Tuken Dharma Vajra, also known as Lobsang Chukyi Nyima (1737-1802), was the third of the Tuken line of spiritual masters and is famed for his work on comparative Buddhist school systems, as well as for biographies of saints such as Changkya Rolpay Dorje, said to be the former life of Pabongka Rinpoche himself (see the Foreword, and also his collected works at entry 52).

71. royal lama Jangchub Uw: 11th Century ruler of the Guge kingdom of western Tibet, instrumental in bringing Lord Atisha and his teachings to the Land of Snows.

72. It is this perfection... The wording of the sutra as found in the Tibetan canon differs slightly, although the intent is the same (f. 206a, entry 84).

73. Even in some insignificant business... Quotation from f. 95a of his famed work on the three types of vows (entry 2, see also note 53).

74. The point: if you don't meditate... Source of quotation not found. See note 50 for information on its author.

75. the sage Kyungpo Neljor (978-1079): His persistence in seeking the secret traditions in India and bringing them to Tibet is well documented in the Blue Annals (pp. 728ff., entry 94). Bon is the shamanistic religion which was prevalent in Tibet prior to the introduction of Buddhism.

76. Sakya lama Kun-nying (1092-1158): Full name Kunga Nyingpo, son of the founder of the famed Sakya Monastery in north-central Tibet, and grandfather of the illustrious Sakya Pandita (see note 53).

77. The renunciation of all three... From a work in the secret teachings devoted to Gentle Voice (quotation from f. 10a, entry 25).

78. Master Dandin: Refer to the word "essence" back in his verse explained at note 38.