Buddhism and Christianity
a comparative study
and other selected essays. By Lama Shree Narayan Singh KHYENTSE TRULKU
Dr. Ambedkar Bodhi Kunja Foundation Delhi, Munger, Bihar
First edition : 1995 - 1000 copies
Second edition : Floppy edition I999
Library of Congress Catalogue # 96-905438
Other publications: The Seven Components of the Training & Purification of Consciousness
By Ngul Chhu Thog may
Translated by
Ven. Bakha Rinpochhe & Lama Shree N. Singh 1992. Copyright 1995 by the author, 'Uddiyana'. Dalip Mahal. Munger 811 201, Bihar, India Tel. 91 6344 2-2291
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior and written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.This work is dedicatedToVen. Golog Trulku Rinpochheof Sikkim,my late fatherRaghubar Narayan SinghAndMuneshwari Debi, my mother.
CONTENTS - Buddhism and Christianity - a comparative study.
Pericope 1 –
The Gospel According to St. Matthew Chapters 1 & 2 11
Pericope 2 – The Missing Years 27
Pericope 3 – The Structure of Buddhism 30
Pericope 4 – The Gospel According St. Matthew Chap. 3 38 2. The Collective Retreat of Vajrakilaya 51 6. Translations - a critique 76 - Problems in the development of Tibetan Buddhism in the West
By Ven. Dagyab Rinpochhe 88 - The Visit of Bhagawan Buddha to Munger
by Rahul Sankrityayana 93
9. Life-sketch of the author 94
10. Review – The Sunday Times, Patna April 30, 1996 96
11. The Last Word 99Sketch of the Buddha Shakyamuni
THE FOUR DHARMAS OF DHAGPO RINPOCHHE Grant your blessings that our minds may turn towards the Dharma: Grant your blessings that we may live in accordance with it,, Grant your blessings that in so doing confusion may be clarified; Grant your blessings that thus may confusion appear as wisdom!
Buddhism & Christianity –
` PROLOGUE "Homage to Him of boundless compassion! He who possesses perfectly the Three Ethics,
And has completely accomplished the two Bodhichittas,
Who spreads the Dispensation of the Sugatas in the ten directions, And is the crown-omament of the Holders of the Dispensation - To you my unequalled, Principal Guru, I pay homage!"
Ven. Kalu Rinpoche. when once asked to comment on Jesus and Christianity, said, "It is not possible for me to say very much about Jesus as I have not studied his life, nor do I know anything about Christianity. However, this I can definitely say, that whether it be Jesus, or be it any other who has taught a religion, they have all done so out of compassion, solely with the intention of benefitting beings !"
In the strife-torn world of today, this comes as a welcome message to us all. Indeed,if there is anything which is missing in our lives, and it is the one thing we all long for, it is love - love, not in the selfish sense of the word, but selfless love!
Jesus undoubtedly was the physical manifestation of that Love. Shakyamuni, the Buddha of the present aeon, climaxed his spiritual journey as a Bodhisattva, in removing once and for all, the various obscurations which hid his true nature of natural cognition, selfless compassion and limitless power. Other Buddhas of the past and the present have done the same, those of the future will do likewise.
Many of us have no doubt, experienced various aspects of the above-mentioned qualities. The majority of us however, find ourselves torn within, expressing our estrangement from ourselves in sectarian, ethnic and national terms.
Rudyard Kipling expresses this anguish in 'Kim' when he writes, "East is east, and west is west, and ne'er the twain shall meet!" We find ourselves disenchanted with our parents, our societies, our faiths, our governments and our traditions, and needless to state, discontented with ourselves and the way events occur in our daily lives.
The teachings of the Buddhas and those of Jesus, most certainly address themselves to this very same issue - estrangement and its concommitant, suffering! The language understandably varies. Buddhism deals with this from the non-theistic approach of the Three Yanas. Jesus, working within the context of the Judaic tradition, fulfills the prophecies of the Old Testament and affirms the new covenant of God's Love not only for the Jewish people but also for all nations.
This paper is thus an attempt to bring out the parallelisms and similarities between these two seemingly divergent points of view. It is an attempt to reconcile for myself, the various religious influences that I have come under, viz. Sanatana Dharma - the religion of my parents; Christianity, the religion taught us at St. Paul's, a public school based on the British system in Darjeeling, India; and Buddhism, the path 1 subsequently accepted for my own spiritual growth, acknowledging in this way my legacy from the past.
Almost a millenium ago, Atisha Dipankara is said to have stated, "Since my departure from India, none is left there who can differentiate accurately between the teachings of the Buddha and those taught by others! "
The boldness of such a venture thus, cannot but be questioned for one who lays no special claim to either scholarship or direct real ization. I have however, been fortunate to have spent many years at the lotus feet of my Gurus, learning to appreciate their virtues! So in writing this paper, I draw upon their limitless fount of wisdom and understanding. and call upon too, the Holy Spirit, for its unerring guidance, that as the Masters of the past have done, so may I too become an instrument of God's will on earth. Simultaneously, I must acknowledge all the shortcomings of this paper as my own, deriving from an intellect confounded by its own neuroses.
It is prayed that in this way, this paper will become meaningful to me in my own personal pilgrimage, as also to others who traverse similar paths. For many were there then as witnesses to the living Christ who now traverse the earth in variegated forms. Mystics of different traditions seem to confirm over and over again that rebirth is integral to existence! Perhaps the time has now come to look beyond the limitations of doctrinaire allegiances. Moreover it is prayed that this paper will pave the way for further, deeper and more extensive dialogue between Buddhists and Christians the world over. May others far more qualified than me be inspired by this humble effort, to stretch out to each other, hands of friendship in the fulfilment of their commitment to the Mahayana and God's Kingdom on earth.
Here I must acknowledge my indebtedness and gratitude to Rev. Maurice M.Haines, Pastor of the University Heights United Methodist Chruch in Albuquerque, N.M.,U.S.A. It was he who baptised me into Jesus, April 6, 1986, the First Sunday after Easter, and admitted me as a full member of the Church Trinity Sunday, May 25, of the same year. As an elder of his own tradition, he has been both an inspiration as a living example of the teachings of Jesus, and an indefatigable source of scholarship. He has graciously devoted a large amount of his precious time to leading me on the endless path of the Mystery of the Blood and the Eucharist, as well as critically editing this work. I'm indebted to Rev. R. lmprescia of the First Church of Religious Science in Albuquerque, for having first recommended to me the works of William Barclay. The latter's "The Daily Bible Study: The Gospel of St.Mathew" in two volumes, forms the basis of this paper and is to be read in conjunction with it. Quotations are from The Jerusalem Bible. The Anchor Bible study on St. Matthew has been referred to extensively as well.
My gratitude must necessarily be expressed to Mr. Rodwell Sami, a gentleman of Indian extraction from the Fuji Islands. It was he who took me to church that fateful Easter Sunday morning, re-introducing me to the Jesus of my childhood.
Mention here must be made of Reiki as well. This is a secular mystical discipline re-discovered in Japan by Dr. Usui almosta century ago. It is an ancient and non-sectarian technique for activating and applying universal energy deriving from Buddhist Sutras. This discipline addresses itself skilfully to the same factor of our self-estrangement, and healing through love. Introduced to it by my mother-in-law, Ms. Beverly Stouper, 2nd. Degree, it was under the loving inspiration of Ms. An Painter of Albuquerqe that I found myself at a workshop April 12-13, 1986, where I was initiated into its secrets by Mrs. Clarity Ann Martin, Reiki Master. During the full-moon the following month, it was my exceptional priviledge to receive the attunements of the Second Degree from Mr. John Latz, Reiki Master, and the personal teacher of Mrs. Martin, who conducted the workshop with him that weekend. [More recently I have received the Third Degree Part A from Reiki Grandmaster Sherwood Finley IV of New York, during his stay at Patna, Bihar.] Thus I invoke the blessings of the Grand Masters of this tradition as well.
Last but not least, all the credit for this paper must necessarily go to my wife Louise, who intrepidly accepted a hand proferred her from the other side of the world. The Lord has blest us with a loving home, giving me this incredible opportunity to heal myself physically, mentally and spiritually.
This paper is then offered in the words of St.Paul, as a "living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." May it thus become instrumental in spreading understanding, love, and harmony amongst us all!
Albuquerque, N. M., U.S.A.
Summer, 1986
Later that winter, we were blesed with a beautiful son,. Matthew Gregory. Divorced subsequently, this writer is re-married to an Indian lady from Punjab. Matthew continues to live with his mother in the States. We now have another son, Kashyap Sagar. Munger, Bihar. lndia. Dec. 6,1995. The Gospel according to St. Matthew
The Gospel starts with going into great detail of the genealogy of Jesus of Nazareth, tracing him back to David, stressing his ethnic pedigree.
Descent and geneology play an overly important role in eastern cultures. Tibetans use the term "dung-gyud", referring to direct descent. The most prominent amongst these is the ancient Khon lineage which traces its origins back to supra-mundane entities. Since the last eight hundred years descendants directly in this lineage have been successive Lineage Holders of the Sakya school of the lndo-Tibetan traditon of Triyana Buddism. The teachings of this school include an emphasis on the authenticity of their ethnic pedigree, when validating the purity of its spiritual heritage.
More loosely applied in terms of ethnic pedigree, though extremely relevant in the Tibetan context, are the dynasties which trace themselves back to various realized Masters or Lamas in their history. The Drighung Kargyud tradition was transmitted for its first sixteen generations, father to son, from Kyobpa Jigten Sumgon. Others have been less fortunate: Ratna Lingpa, a great "ter-ton",whose descendants no longer represent him as adepts in their own 'right, although the dynasty continues. Togden Shakya Shree, a renown Drugpa Kargyud Master from the early part of this century, has three grandsons, two of whom are Trulkus, or incarnate Lamas.A dyansty of the great "ter-ton" Gyurme Dorje exists, although once it passed through a daughter. The Chhogling dynasty similarly, has continued through the daughter of the great Master.
In most such instances however, ethnic origins may or may not be traceable to other than common Tibetan stock. It is contended that in spite of this, having a Master as its founder, imbues in the geneology an element of natural excellence!
Even more curious, though perfectly acceptable to Tibetans, is the marriage of the kin of the XIVth. Taala'i Lama into members of the aristocratic dynasties of central Tibet, even though the former is of common Amdo or east Tibetan stock. The latter trace their pedigree back to supra-mundane individuals. It must be concluded therefore, that the considerations operative here, may or may not be purely ethnic. This is in direct contrast to the Jewish peoples, for whom pedigree has been of paramount importance.
Another variation of direct descent adopted by the Sakya school and its affiliates, the Ngorpas and the Tsharpas, is as follows. Each of these traditions has a number of Labrangs or estates. The Ngor Thartse Labrang for example, would have a monk as its Khaenpo, loosely rendered as abbot. He being celibate, it would be the onus of his brother to provide him with a nephew, who would then be instated as the Zhab-dhrung, or Regent. The present Thartse Zhabdhrung incidentally, is ven.Lama Kunga Rinpochhe who lives and teaches in Berkeley, California, USA.
Tibetans, who are highly ethnocentric, make a great fuss about these considerations. These, though being extremely natural from their insular perspective psychologically isolated from the rest of the world, may appear unnecessary and superfluous from a modern point of view. In any case, they are themselves a mixed race to begin with, though largely of Mongolian stock. Their culture, language and political aspirations vary from region to region, in ample proof of their diverse heritage, though they may not care to openly admit it.
There is no evidence to suggest that India as a nation was awaiting the birth of Prince Siddhartha. One or two Siddhas, or Masters, obviously had premonitions of events to come, as illustrated by the story of the sage Asita. However, ever since the institution of the system of "Trulkus", or re-incarnated Lamas, by Karma Pakshi,the second Gyalwang Karmapa, in the thirteenth century, births of subsequent Gyalwang Karmapas have been anxiously awaited. Others have followed suit, and there are bound to be over two thousand such Trulkus within the Tibetan ambit. They each leave behind an estate or a monastery, to which the subsequent Truiku is the heir after his official recognition and enthronement by his 'elders'. It is only natural then, that an incarnate's immediate disciples, his estate manager, steward and so on, would be actively involved in the processes which would lead to the discovery and reinstatement of their Master's incarnation.
The methods used for locating such children, though common and matter of fact for Tibetans, may be questionable from the point of view of science. It needs to be pointed out however, that it is only recently that scientists are beginning to admit their own limitations and research is now being carried out in order to understand the so-called para-psychological phenomena. It may therefore come as no surprise that Harvard Medical School has recently started a department for the study of alternative medicine. This department specifically studies yoga, meditation, hypno-therapy, pyramid-therapy, acupressure, acupuncture and so on, considered anathema until recently.
Customarily, upon the physical demise of an incarnate Lama, his disciples would go to the elders in that tradition and request them for indications as to the whereabouts of the new-born baby. Among those traditionally consulted are the Taala'i Lama and H.H. the Gyalwang Karmapa. The Sakyas would refer their individual cases to H.H.the Sakya Tridzin Rinpoche; the Nyingmas to the Head of their tradition, currently H. H. Penor Rinpochhe. Heads of other monasteries and traditions would primarily be concerned with the Trulkus directly under them.The late XVIth. Gyalwang Karmapa was renowned for the accuracy of his predictions. He would include in his predictions. the names of the parents, the locality they may be living in, the age of the boy and so on. Search parties would then go out in accordance with these instructions and bring back information of the boys they had found. His Holiness wouid then confirm one from amongst them. This boy would then be tested, by asking him to recognise the articles belonging to his predecessor, from amongst a number of similar looking articles. On other occasions, as in the instance of the present H. H. the Gyalwang Drugchen Rinpochhe, the young Trulku boy would surprise his parents by saying that such and such is going to visit them and that they should make the necessary preparations. It would then happen as the boy had predicted, whereupon, he would promptly jump into the laps of the visiting 'strangers', calling them by their names and so on. These events have taken place over and over again during the preceding eiaht centuries in Tibet, and are well-documented.
Exceptionally, it must be noted here, that in the past the Gyalwang Karmapas have on many occasions left behind as their last will and testament, details of their forthcoming births, the names of their parents to be, and so on. Others have openly stated that they are the Karmapa. As of writing this, the incarnation of the XVIth. Gyalwang Karmapa is embroiled in a controversy with far-reaching political connotations for India, China and the rest of the world. Truth has fallen victim to expediency - the evils of communalism, nationalism, sectarianism, personal ambitions and so on. These events authored by the Taala'i Lama have made the world the less happier and comfortable in direct contradiction of the message of world peace he supposedly champions! The Vinaya or the Ethical Directives of the Buddha do not condone the creation of schisms within the Sangha or Community of Monks & Nuns, nor does the Vajrayana. The harshest of punishments - that of summary expulsion from the order has been prescribed for such misadventures. However, when the upholders of the law, themselves trangress the Directives, then who will maintain the Discipline?
'Karmapa – Two Ways of Divinity', a well researched and highly informative documentary on the Karmapa Controversy is available on a video cassette produced by Art Films Production, YLE/TV2 Documentaries, Czech TV, AVEK, Dharma Videos, Auhof Str. 39, A-1130 Vienna, Austria.
It has not been thirty years since women have been given equal rights in Hindu Law in India. Women have had their roles extolled as mothers, but traditionally have been kept subservient to their parents, brothers or husbands. Tibetan societies were structured similarly. This has never precluded the possibilities of women saints however, since those who embrace a spiritual life have been considered outside the purview of social norms. When and wherever saints have been encountered, they have generally been held in the highest esteem in both these lands. Some have been acclaimed during their lifetimes. Others, though having had to suffer various travails, have been acknowledged posthumously.
The Buddha did bring about a turning away from the Vaidik Dispensation of the caste structure, but here again the moment an individual left home to lead a holy life as a monk or a nun, one fell beyond the purview of social and legal norms. In my own readings of the sutras I do not recall a single passage in which the Buddha suggests that social norms are to be questioned by 'upasakas', or lay disciples. He himself, and many others who have followed in his footsteps since, have mingled equally with the high and the low. Many saints have chosen lowly births themselves in order to work for the welfare and happiness of the under-privileged.
From the explanations given in Barclay's work, it would be acceptable to correlate the 'Holy Spirit' with the term "rig pa'i tsal" in Tibetan, a term greatly elucidated upon by the Nyingmapa or Early Translation tradition. Three attributes - "tsal, dang, and ngon",are associated with this word. It is not possible to go into details here in an attempt to explain these terms. "Rig-pa" is rendered approximately in English as 'natural and innate cognition'. For a proper understanding of this one must be referred to a Master qualified to impart instructions on 'the true nature of the mind'. Prof. H.V. Guenther has dealt with these terms extensively in his translated work 'Kindly Bent to Ease Us'.
The Holy Spirit would thus correspond to the Dharmakaya. It needs to be stressed here that the approach peculiar to exoteric Christianity is to externalize an 'entity', Buddhism on the other hand invariably stresses that any apparent externalization is merely an expediency to describe things which would not otherwise be describable.
'Pregnant by the Holy Spirit.'This particular phrase has been the topic of endless debate and discussion amongst Christians of all persuasions. We could look at two points of view in this paper from the perspective of Buddhism.
To deal initially with the immaculate conception, it needs to be noted that though this was never stressed in the Tripitaka or the Three Baskets which comprise the Buddhist canon, the conception of Prince Siddhartha is explained similarly. Tradition maintains that Queen Maya dreamt of a white elephant entering the right side of her womb inducing in her a sense of great bliss and immense well-being. During this process, it is stated, the Bodhisattva came down from his abode in the Tushita heaven to accept his final birth in samsara, the cycle of becoming.
Similar concepts are echoed in the Shrimadbhagavatam of the Sanatana or Hindu tradition regarding the conceptions of Bhagawan Sri Krishna, his elder brother Balarama and Yogamaya. In this scripture the matter is taken even a step further in that Balarama is transferred from his mother Devaki's womb to that of his step-mother Rohini.
Instances of local spirits taking on a human form for the purpose of cohabitation, are strangely not uncommon in Tibet. I have personally talked to one such lady whose daughter was said to have been born after 'a large red man' had spent a night with her. Such occurances are not wholly unknown in other cultures as well.
Another point of view would maintain that Jesus was the Son of God, simply because it was the Holy Spirit which took up its abode in Mary's womb subsequent to a physical union. According to Buddhism, an embryo is formed when three factors come together, a sperm, an ovum, and thirdly, a 'consciousness' termed in Sanskrit as 'alaya vigyana'. This 'alaya' could be that of a being wandering through the six realms of samsara, a "rang-gyud-pa". On the other hand it could be the'alaya' of a "trul-pa". A Buddha and a Bodhisattva possess in varying degrees, the freedom of sending emanations on this earth as well as elsewhere in the universe, in their boundless compassion with the intention of benefitting beings. At any given moment of time, there can be and are countless such "trul-pas", both recognised as being such, and others who act and behave like so-called 'normal' people.
More systematically this is explained in terms of the "trulku" in the Tibetan tradition. Of these there are three categories. The first is the "chhog-gi trulku" of which the Buddha Shakyamuni is the sole representative of our age. "kye-wa'i trulkus" are best explained in the words of Robert Ekwall in 'The Lama Knows':-
"In the Tibetan world view, time too has a special quality in which past, present and future are sometimes merged, or imposed one on the other like blurred double exposures. Time is not necessarily a clear continuum along which events always flow in proper order but is modal in quality; filled with recurrences and relationships which are outside the western sense of time. "We two, father-son ten thousand years ago were .... now are ....,ten thousand years from now will be ...." is a continuing refrain -- the leitmotif -- of one of the great Tibetan stories of recurrent existence unfettered by time. The sense of such persisting relationships and repetitive existences telescopes past and future into one all-embracing present.Within that vast present of the Tibetan world view, Lamahood, as concept and institution, is of prime importance. The term lama has been applied indiscriminately to all members of the clergy but, strictly speaking. it belongs only to the "Emanation-body" ones who following Chinese usage, are often miscalled "Living Buddhas" and make up approximately one percent of the clergy. Lamas are not monks [necessarily], although they usually observe the rules of the monastic order. They are what they are not by reason of any vow taken or slow progress made in sanctity or learning, but by reason of birth; from the Dalai Lama [Taala'i Lama], as the highest to the relatively more obscure lama in some little monastery, they are all the constantly renewed manifestations of saviourhood - exemplifying the compassion of the bodhisattvas towards all living creatures.
In the sense that they are bodies, they are incarnations of spirits which have achieved liberation from recurrent birth, suffering, death and the pains of hell -- the dreary round of Karma-set changes on the wheel of life -- and thus are free to merge into Nirvana. Yet because of their compassion for all living beings they elect to return in birth after birth as saviours so that they may aid all sentient beings in the vanquishing of ignorance and progress along the road to the same final liberation.
The "emanation-body" lamas take part in much of ritual, yet their principal role is not to administer ritual in worship -- as when the monks verbalize the Scriptures for the benefit of all -- but to be the recipients ot worship and the dispensers of benediction and aid to all who travel the long road to final liberation. They represent Buddahood in living form and each one of them, in a sense and to a varying degree, by his presence in the monastery adds Buddhahood to the ever-present Congregation and Law; and thus completes the local version of the so-called Jewel Triad -- more aptly termed in Tibetan "Rare-Perfect Three".
While living they are objects of worship and their position is for life. Although most of them fulfil the vows of the monastic order, they are yet above the law. An "emanation-body" lama may renounce the vows, he may break the rules, yet he is still a lama. Nothing he can do will ever making him anything less than a lama, though a monk would be unfrocked for commission of a fraction of what he may do. His reputation may suffer and his managers and tutors may deeply regret their inability to keep him within bounds, yet, even as a robber chief with many wives, he is still a lama. Many indeed may worship him with special delight and secret admiration for the power of his lamahood which makes it possible for him to muster such an array of illusions to mask the reality of his existence on the timeless plane of the absolute.
When dead -- "honorably gone into the zenith" -- there is no uncertainty as to what progress the lama made on the wheel of existence, for he has already achieved realization and there remains only a hushed expectation and awaiting of his return. When that return, in the body of a boy of the appropriate age, has been signalised by the right combination of prophecies, omens and personal characteristics of the newly found, he is installed in the role of his lamahood within the monastery, and one more manifestation of saviourhood. has been renewed for the benefit of all living creatures."
The third type is the "zo-wa'i trulku", or a manifestation of a Buddha or a Bodhisattva or their emanations, demonstrated in order to illustrate a particular point or teaching. Whereas the first two types when manifest as human beings, go through the phases of life much as Jesus did, the latter can also take the form of miraculous occurences. It is said that the Chinese Master Suma Ching Hai manifests herself currently in variegated forms. 'a divine messenger appeared to him in a dream, and said'
Visions and dreams of the Three Jewels and the Three Roots, or of their messengers are not at all uncommon occurences within the Mahayana Dispensation. The more realized are actually known to converse with them in the realm of 'dhag-nang'. The latter could be understood as being a 'correct and undistorted perception of phenomena', understandably from an experiential point of view. It should be noted that this is a realm as valid for adepts as the human realm is for ordinary individuals. Whereas we are each limited by our sense of individuated identities, adepts have been able to resolve within themselves the conflicts commonly known to us all, and reconcile within the stream of their being, the apparent dualities of oneself and others.
During such visions and dreams, the future is often foretold, the past revealed, and so on, either by the use of symbols or by direct statements, which symbols are, in any case for the initiated. In modern terminology these are referred to as activities of the right cerebral hemisphere. It is obvious that the upbringing and education of an individual currently utilises and develops primarily the left cerebral hemisphere, with the right half left to take care of itself! It is here that the relevance of meditation, aesthetics and the other subtler aspects of life is incontrovertibly established.
The following is an excellent modern day example of such phenomena. From June, 1982, a young Indian Buddhist lady from Darjeeling, settled in the plains, started having a series of dreams from the second trimester of her pregnancy indicating to her the birth of a Bodhisattva as her son. The first of these was as follows:
She saw three or four men resplendently white, wearing white robes, handing over to her a baby boy asking her to take good care of him.
This was followed by countless other dreams in which various deities would visit her, much as did the angel Gabriel to Mary and Elizabeth make her offerings and tell her various things pertaining to the baby she was carrying -- later recognised as the Indian incarnation of H.H. the late XVI th. Gyalwang Karmapa by various Indian adepts. The Tibetan religious heirarchy has purposely chosen not to recognise this boy as they do not consider it expedient and in the interests of Tibetan nazi-ism!
'However, he had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son'.This is an extremely common tradition in the old world, upheld also by the Three Yanas of Buddhism. It is only with the advent of modern science that doctors are claiming that sexual intercourse has no adverse effect on the foetus in the womb of its mother. Vajrayana texts on the other hand, go into minute details explaining the formation, perceptions, feelings, conformations and consciousness of a being conceived in a womb. They read similar to medical treatises on the development of a foetus. Similady the process of birth is painstakingly elaborated upon, both from the point of view of the mother as well as the experiences of the foetus and the newborn baby. I distinctly remember having been told by H.H. the XIIth. Gyalwang Drugchhen Rinpochhe, Head of the Drugpa Kargyud tradition, that he remembered the process of his birth and as to how painful it had been. To go into a little more detail here, it is explained that the foetus experiences a great deal of discomfort should his mother indulge in intercourse. The sensations, besides the pressures exerted from her posture and the activities going on outside, include those of being pricked and poked. It is common knowledge that a newborn baby is extremely sensitive to sense-perceptions. One needs only to extend one's imagination a little further to appreciate what's written above.
Customarily, Indian ladies return to their parents for the delicate procedure of birthing. As the Indian lady mentioned above went into an extended labour at a posh nursing home in Darjeeling, W.B., India, those around her would become aware of the sounds of the playing of 'dhril bhu' or hand bell, 'damaru' or hand drum, 'gya-ling' or Himalayan oboes emanating from her womb. The boy's birth itself was accompanied by these sonorous sounds as well.
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This is a well-documented occurance in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition as well. Names of children may be indicated in dreams, visions, by orcales and so on. The instance of the Gyalwang Karmapas has already been cited. Ordinarily an expectant mother would go to her Lama or Master. and request a name for the yet unborn child. The sex of the child to be would also be indicated through this process. Names can also be requested for through correspondence. Many Tibetans do write to the Taala'i Lama in this way. When given by him, and similarly by others, they tend to indicate specific characteristics of the individual concerned.
Similarly a close disciple ofthe late H.H. the XVIth. Gyalwang Karmapa was foretold of the possibillity of H.H.'s rebirth as his son, the summer of 1981. His Holiness was then still in Rumtek and unknown to that disciple, extremely sick. The dream was as follows:
His Holiness was seated on a high throne and in front of him and facing him to his right in hierarchical order were Their Eminences Zhamar and Tai Situ Rinpochhes. To H.H.'s left were seated that particular disciple, followed by Their Eminences Jamgon Kongtrul and Gyaltshab Rinpochhes. To H.H.'s left and facing the Rinpochhes, was seated H. E. Bairi Khyentse Rinpochhe of Bodh Gaya. Each of the five Lames in front was holding in their right hand, a 7" Buddha statue of bronze with its bottom open, its contents filling a skull cup held in their left. H. H. then called up each of the five, turn by turn, inspected the contents of the skull cup in their hands, told each of them that it was very good and handed each a fruit. That disciple's turn came third. H. H. inspected the contents of the skull cup and kept the cup with its contents, whereupon he returned to his seat. When this audience was adjourned, that disciple passed beside H. E. Bairi Khyentse Rinpochhe who was still seated. He smiled at him and said, "His Holiness did not give you anything" and gave him a mango.
His Holiness passed away in a hospital in Chicago, USA later that November. February the following year, that same disciple had a vision of H. H. in the waiting room of a railway station as he was gazing blankly at the opposite wall, recollecting him and crying. H. H.'s countenance manifest on the wall wearing the Crown of Gampopa, and told him that if he was to get married to Saraswati, the daughter of Ven. Jhadhral Rinpochhe of Darjeeling, mentioned later on in this paper, he would be born as their son. The disciple then requested H. H. to convey the same message to Ven. Jhadhral Rinpochhe. His Holiness smiled and the vision concluded. Unfortunately however, the wedding never took place due to Rinpochhe's racial prejudices, and His Holiness was compelled to seek another Indian family for one of his subsequent rebirths.
The Buddha Shakyamuni's birthplace is at Lumbini in modern Nepal, and is one of the principal pilgrimages for Buddhists the world over. The site has been marked by a pillar of the Emperor Ashoka, in which the place is identified by his imperial edict. A small shrine, a pool and a tree have withstood the millenia since, preserving a sanctuary where the devout come to make offerings, say their prayers, and remember in appreciation their Shasta or Leader who showed them the way. The United Nations is currently in the process of developing this site into a massive complex under a masterplan involving many countries.
'magi came from the east to Jerusalem'. Various aspects relating to the recognition and enthronement of a Trulku have already been touched upon. It needs to be stated further that the enthronement ceremony is generally carried out with great pomp and glory, much like the investiture of a king with people coming from distant places to express their adoration and pay their respects. Those interested are referred to the enthronement ceremony of the Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche May 15, 1995 available as a video cassette titled 'Blazing Jewel of Sovereignty' from Shambhala International, 1345 Spruce St., Boulder, CO 80302, USA. Yet another video cassette titled 'The Return of the Karmapa' is available from Verein zur Forderung der Karma Kagyu Tradition, Auhofstr. 39, A-1130 Vienna, Austria.
As in the case of Jesus, different people would have the varying responses of adoration, indifference, or hostility to any such event. These are listed in Buddhism as being the three styles in which an individual might respond to the phenomenal world around him. Much as Herod the Roman King of Judaea had all newborn children put to the sword in an attempt to destroy any challenge to his kingdom, after news of Jesus' birth reached him, followers of the Taala'i Lama and Tai Situ Rinpochhe attacked the Karmapa International Buddhist Institute, B-19 Mehrauli Institutional Area, New Delhi 110 016, where the XVIIth. Gyalwang Karmapa Thaye Dorje was being welcomed March 17, 1994 as shown in 'The Return of the Karmapa' mentioned above. A separate 15 minute footage titled 'The Attack' gives a vivid description of the aggression let loose by the Taala'i Lama and his followers, who are supporters of the Karmapa incarnation recognised jointly by him and the Govt. of the Peoples' Republic of China.2 : 2
The word used in verse 5 is Messiah, which seems to imply the integration of spiritual and temporal authority. It was a term applied to both David and Solomon. The Buddhist tradition however, uses two separate words, the Chakravartin or universal monarch, and Shasta or the founder of a spiritual and religious movement. The Emperor Ashoka is regarded as having been a Chakravartin; Shakyamuni the Shasta or founder of the Buddha's Dispensation of this age. The former was a temporal monarch and a patron disciple of the Buddha's Dispensation. Almost a thousand years later the Dharma king Thri-song-de'u-tsan manifest as an emanation of Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, not only introduced and established the Buddha's Dispensation in Tibet, but also governed it wisely in accordance with Buddhist principles. This tradition, unfortunately, has not been maintained, in recent times.
His grandfather, King Song-tsaen Gampo, an emanation of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, was the first to promulgate laws in Tibet in consonance with the teachings of Buddhism. He is depicted invariably wearing a white turban within which lies concealed the image of the Buddha Amitabha, his Principal Guru. 'we have seen his star at its rising'
Most births and, deaths go phenomenally unnoticed. Events connected with the great however, both holy or wicked, do not. On the one hand they may coincide with astrological occurences, on the other they may be associated with those in the external world such as the appearance of rainbows, and others like earth tremors, rain, snow, epidemics, accidents, fighting and so on. The assassination of Mrs. Gandhi, the late Prime Minister of India, is a pertinent example: mass-scale rioting broke out in the country immediately after she was killed; the infamous Bhopal gas leak which claimed tens of thousands of lives followed shortly. Those skilled in the reading of signs and portents have emphasised such correlation between events over and over again throughout the millenia in cultures and traditions as varied and diverse as any. The Magi's seeking out of the infant Jesus, would be considered a fairly normal thing to do by Buddhists.
Interestingly when this writer's elder mother passed away Dec. 20, 1998 the last rites and requiem extending over thirteen days, were all completed congenially. His natural mother was inspired to embark on a month long puja series during the course of which she heard the entire Srimadbhagawatam, a Hindu scripture. A four day fire-puja festival was organised mid-January by the Gayatri Shaktipith people. By the end of the month five Lamas from Phodong Monastery in Sikkim were in residence at their family home performing various pujas for the welfare of the family. This was in direct contrast with the events surrounding the demise of his father June 15, 1995 which was followed by considerable tensions. Moreover, in spite of their best efforts, it had not been possible to invite Lamas to their family home to perform pujas. Clearly the elderly lady was extremely pious.
'We have come to pay him homage'
This has already been dealt with in substantial detail under vs.1:18. It would be pertinent to mention here that the birth of the great Moghul Emperor of lndia, Akbar, was also foretold in detail. His father, king ,Mirza Humayun, a follower of Islam, saw a Sufi saint in his dream who told him that he would have an outstanding son who he was to call Jalaludin Mohammed Akbar. The mother was to be a lady related to the saint. It is also documented that the boy's birth was delayed by the intercession of the Hindu King of Amarkot in Rajasthan, his astrologers and others who were waiting for the planetary configuration which happens once in a thousand years. Children born then would be highly exceptional. Moreover. when the boy was born, the Queen of Amarkot and others in attendance clearly held the peeling of temple bells and the sounds of prayers being offered in mosques. Akbar the Great as he subsequently came to be known, was born Oct. 15, 1542, and amazingly his first wet nurse was a Rajput lady -- a Hindu.
In the Buddhist tradition, a fair amount of speculation is generally associated with the rebirth of a high Trulku until it is confirmed. There were mothers anxiously hoping to bear the XIVth. Gyalwa Rinpoche or Taala'i Lama, subsequent to the demise of the Thirteenth. A number of people have been praying since November 1981 when the XVIth. Gyalwang Karmapa passed away, that he would grace their family, clan or region by being born amongst them. Gossip concerning his re-incarnation had been rife, with many conflicting claims and suggestions until the recognition of three incarnations of H.H. -- the first of an Indian between 1982 and 1986 by Indian adepts as mentioned above; the second in 1992 by the Govt. of the Peoples' Republic of China confirmed by none other than the Taala'i Lama together with Tai Situ Rinpochhe of the Karma Kagyu tradition, of Orgyen Thrinlay Dorje in Tibet; the third in 1994 of Thaye Thrinlay Dorje - another Tibetan boy in India - by H.E. Zhamar Rinpochhe, the foremost disciple of H.H. the late XVIth. Gyalwang Karmapa.
It is anathema for the average Tibetan to even consider the possibility of the rebirth of any Lama as any other than one amongst them. It is for these pseudo considerations of Tibetan nazi-ism that this entire imbroglio came to exist in the first place. Had the principal disciples of H.H. the late XVIth. Gyalwang Karmapa been committed to fulfilling his enlightened wishes, the entire process would have been concluded in the 1980-s itself. H.E. Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpochhe would have still been amongst us; neither would the fracture in the Karma Kagyu would ever have taken place. Clearly non-Tibetan disciples and devotees of H.H. were unable to assess the ardour of Tibetan nationalism vis a vis the Dharma, which seeks the subjugation of all phenomena to serve its own ends.
The Govt. of the Peoples' Republic of China has since 1992, recognised an extremely large number of 'Living Buddhas' in its attempt to effectively control the Tibetan populace.
It needs to be mentioned here that Chinese Emperors and governments throughout the last millenium have interfered in the recognition and instatement of rulers in Tibet. the Taala'i Lamas ever since the Great Fifth, have particularly been a target of their meddlesomeness: the recognition of the Taala'i Lama requiring confirmation from the Chinese Emperors who had instituted a peculiar Golden Vase system of identification. This method was used for the recognition of the XIth. Paenchhen Rinpochhe recently.
The recognition of the Gyalwang Karmapas, on the other hand, has been extremely simple, facilitated by the fact that he has on various occasions left a letter behind stating the whereabouts of the coming incarnation, whilst on other occasions announcing it himself while yet an infant. Pregnancies associated with them and other such, have invariably been accompanied by wondrous occurences. Such events associated with the birth of the late XVIth. Gyalwang Karmapa have been dealt with in detail in The History of the Sixteen Karmapas of Tibet by Karma Thrinlay, published by Shambhala. Boston. Moreover, the Chinese never found in them a threat to their claims of suzerainty over Tibet, hence they had until 1992, never interfered in the selection of the Gyalwang Karmapas.
Such interrogations by kings are commonly acknowledged in the traditions of almost every culture in the world.
If the reader can travel back in time to the investiture of Queen Elizabeth II of England, for example, the panache surrounding the enthronement of a Taala'i Lama would come as no surprise. The offerings of gold, incense and myrrh to the infant Jesus would have been a fairly normal thing to have done in any ancient culture. The extreme humility of his birth and the lack of any formal recognition by his own people ensured the simplicity of the whole affair.
The significance of each substance offered to the infant merits individual consideration. In the dualistic and relative framework we ordinarily live, each substance is associated with certain 'inherent' qualities such as those elucidated in Barclay's work. Buddhist texts similarly go into exhaustive details of the symbolism of substances given as offerings to the exalted, charity to others less privileged than oneself and gifts to those of similar or equal status. A vivid description of this is given in the video cassette titled 'Blazing Jewel of Sovereignty' mentioned earlier.
The Buddha's teachings over and over again emphasize that inherent in every meeting is a parting, in every birth a death, in every creation a destruction! The magi obviously knew what they were doing when they offered to the Infant their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
2 : 13 - 15
Barclay makes some interesting points in his commentary which need to be touched upon. Readers may be aware of a book titled 'The Forgotten Books of the Bible', essentially a collection of accepted canonical works excluded from the New Testament for a variety of reasons. Books included in this volume published 1926 by Bell Publishing Co., NY, give detailed accounts both of the Virgin Mary as well as of the Infant Jesus.
Accounts of the birth of Prince Siddhartha invariably include in them the supranatural. It can only be assumed then that people in those times were obviously aware of supra-mundane realities, a realm which modern science is just becoming curious about. Anything other than common human experience unfortunately, has been termed as myth or legend by a group of people who would seek to limit the world by their own limited left brain perceptions. Siddhartha, as the story goes, was born from the right side of his mother, the gods washed him with heavenly waters and perfumes. Flowers rained from the sky and the young Bodhisattva immediately stood up, walked seven steps, a lotus blossoming under each step to receive his feet, and pointing a finger to the skies he said, "This is my last birth." Accounts of his childhood explain as to how intelligent the Prince was, and so on.
The accounts of Jesus in the above-mentioned book are equally enchanting. It is related there that his mother was in the habit of giving the sick the water washed from the baby's body; lepers would be cured merely by washing in this water, others would be healed by touching his garments, and so on.
Stories similar to the above are recounted over and over again by Buddhists in Tibet; many of these are also historically documented. There have been instances of what are termed 'child prodigies' such as Yuthog Yontaen, the founder of Tibetan medicine. He was doing marvellous things at the 'tender' age of three and a half. One of the incarnations of the Zhamarpas was teaching logic and philosophy to his disciples, it is said, having just turned three. Others when born, as is traditionally upheld for the Gyalwang Karmapas, have got up and said, "I'm the Gyalwang Karmapa," and so on.
To sum up the above, from a Buddhist point of view, the appearance of Jesus on earth as a 'saviour' of mankind, is a wonderful occurrence, an expression of Love and Compassion which is boundless and unlimited. The miracles he performed during his life are in themselves a testament to what he was/is. Those amongst them who have taken the trouble to find out more about him will undoubtedly rejoice that such a 'saviour' did dwell amongst men. There is a consensus of opinion amongst Buddhists that it is not possible for an ordinary person to understand fully the stream of being and selfless activity of a Bodhisattva; that a lower level Bodhisattva cannot comprehend in entirety the modalities of a higher; and that even the highest Bodhisattva cannot comprehend in full the qualities of a Buddha. The reverse process is negated because by definition a Buddha is one such 'being' who has reconciled within himseelf all his neuroses, thus purifying them. This process includes within itself the simultaneous expansion of the perfect qualities of the 'Spirit' termed 'Tathagatagarbha'. 'This was to fulfil the Lord's saying through the prophet.' St. Matthew, it is explained, is constantly quoting from the Old Testament to uphold for the Jewish people that Jesus is none other than the Messiah foretold by their prophets. This is a tool commonly used by the Mahayana in which the emergence of any individual, good or bad, is sought to be substantiated by references to prophecies by the Buddhas. To wit, the emergence of Mao tse tung and the subsequent flight of the Tibetan peoples down south, was prophesied by Guru Padmasambhava a thousand years ago. Dhagpo Rinpochhe, the heart son-disciple of Tibet's greatest yogi Milarepa, the founder of the Dhagpo Kagyu group of traditions, was prophesied of by the Buddha in the Samadhiraja Sutra. Other prominent Lamas have similarly been prophesied elsewhere. Many bodhisattvas have left innumerable prophecies as well vindicated through the ages by subsequent events. More importantly, highly evolved beings continually make various statements concerning their individual devotees and disciples which later turn out to be true.
There is at least one recorded incident in Tibetan history of a flight similar to Joseph's. In 1642 A.D., the Church and State had united under the Fifth Taala'i Lama subsequent to an inordinate amount of blood shed in the name of Buddhism by his patron, a petty Mongol chief known as Goshir Khan. The Gelugpa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism was declared the state religion plunging Tibet into a dark period of sectarian persecution and obscurantism. The Dhagpo Kagyu traditions were openly persecuted by this government which calls itself Dewar Zhung or the govt. which leads its people to happiness. This govt. supposedly still continues in exile in India, under what provisions of law is not clear -- the XVIIth. Gyalwang Karmapa its most recent victim. Amazingly, earlier in the twentieth century, the XIIIth. Taala'i Lama had recognised an impostor incarnation as the XVIth. Gyalwang Karmapa who fortunately died before any damage could be done.
The Xth. Zhamar Rinpochhe had been a younger brother of the then Paenchhen Rinpochhe. He had become involved in the politics of his time and was forced to flee to Nepal in the south. Declared as guilty of high treason towards the state, his title of Hu-thu-tho granted by a Mongolian Emperor was annulled, his principal seat at Yangpachaen converted by a govt. order to the Gelugpa tradition with all its branch monasteries. Monastic lands were confiscated as also were his Red Vajra Crown and ceremonial gown. Some maintain that these latter were buried under a stupa. Apparently however, these had been kept in the inventory at the Potala Palace, the residence of the Taala'i Lamas, and sent to Czar Nicholas II as a gift by the XIIIth. Taala'i Lama. It seems that the Czar had sent an emissary to Lhasa requesting the pontiff to send him one set of his robes as a protection for the Czar. Efforts are currently on to trace these articles.
The govt. decreed that subsequent incarnations of the Zhamarpa were not to be recognised. It was only in exile in the 1960-s that the Taala'i Lama has allowed and upheld the enthronement of the current XIIIth. incarnation of Zhamar Rinpochhe upon the request of the XVIth. Gyalwang Karmapa.
It needs to be clarified at the onset here that this paper is necessarily limited in scope to the Christology as developed in the Councils of Nicaea, 325 A.D. and Chalcedon, 451 A.D. Representatives of some Churches, it needs to be mentioned, had categorically declined to accept the theology propounded at these Councils. The Christianity which we are the most familiar with therefore, is that of the then Church of Rome, and the Reformation movement brought about within it by Martin Luther in the sixteenth century. Eastern Churches such as the Orthodox Church, the, Coptic Church, the Syrian Church established in India by St.Thomas and the Nestorian Church, have each their own individual theology which may or may not be at variance with this Christology. Readers seeking the truth through Jesus would necessarily need to acquaint themselves with the verities contained in these other traditions as well. The Dead Sea Scrolls also need to studied in depth. Those disillusioned by the Christianity of the western world, may find their efforts rewarded if they were to investigate these other traditions to reconcile for themselves their lives in Jesus, rather than to reject him outright together with what he stands for.
For the 'average' Christian, there is precious little available as to what Jesus might have been or done between the years of three and thirty. A visit to the temple by him with his parents is briefly mentioned when he was twelve years old in the Gospel according to St. Luke. The next time we encounter him is at his baptism by John. Many are wont to believe that at least till the age of twelve, he was living with his parents, and perhaps subsequently too, as a honourable member of the Jewish community. Others maintain that he was being prepared by God for the coming Ministry, but are unspecific as to how this might have hapenned. The Infancy of Jesus as described in the canonical, though excluded Gospels concerning this, bear witness to the fact that he was hardly a 'normal' infant.
The four accepted Gospels bear witness to his exalted state as the Son of God from approximately when Jesus was thirty. It should not be difficult to conclude therefore, that the intervening years might have been equally wondrous and amazing. To maintain otherwise might not necessarily be representative of that which might have actually taken place. It is commonly accepted by mystics that during the first eight years of life children possess a clarity of vision, recollections of one's past life and so on. These tend to get overshadowed by their perceptions of their current existence as children grow older, unless properly cultivated.
This lack of biographical detail is in direct contrast with the Buddhist tradition. The Pali Tipitaka, the Canon of the Theravada school, goes into painstaking details about the life of the Blessed One. The perspective of the Mahayana, though at variance with the above in some aspects, even though it invariably upholds the validity of the former as well, delves into even greater detail on the life of the Tathagata. In the Tibetan tradition biographies are classified into a minimum of three different styles: the outer, the inner and the secret These are not even termed biographies, rather are designated hagiographies or 'an elucidation of the liberated state of being as expressed on the physical plane' of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, adept Masters and so on.
In accordance with the above, the three Synoptic Gospels read more as 'outer biographies' of the Saviour. An 'inner' biography wherever it may exist, would detail the processes which Jesus manifest of his 'learning process', a 'secret' biography would explain his visions, communion with the Almighty, and other similar occurences.
There is yet another consideration from the Buddhist point of view which would uphold the factor of the miraculous works of Jesus as he was growing up for one, and secondly that he was exposed to a spiritual methodology as a preparation for his forthcoming ministry. Undoubtedly the boy would have grown up familiar with the Essenes or Nazarenes. He would have been undeniably exposed to the stories of different eastern and western traditions brought through by travelling traders. Historical records of Sri Lanka such as the Mahavamsa indicate the existence of Buddhist monasteries in Mesopotamia and Alexandria. The massive library at Alexandria destroyed by Atilla the Hun is said to have also contained a vast selection of Buddhist works then extant. Clearly Buddhism was known to the middle east during Jesus' lifetime and from much before.
Studies of the life of the Buddha Shakyamuni for example, and those of Guru Padmasambhava, the Mahasiddha Naropa, Milarepa and many others reveal that they each have demonstrated the process of 'growing up' within the social contexts of their times in spite of what the Mahayana might attribute to them as their 'divine origins'. Even currently it is seen that 'trulkus' who are prepared for their ministry grow up to serve humanity in a manner those who have undergone a modern education are unable to. In this context two video cassettes titled 'The Karmapa – Moments in an Incarnates Life' and 'Glimpses of the Kagyu Monlam' both available from Vienna Dharma Video, Auhofstr. 39, A-1130 Vienna, Austria, are highly educative. These demonstrate clearly the necessity of a specialised training for the Buddhist ministry.
It stands to reason therefore that if those before Jesus had done so, and those after him have done the same, even though in the context of another culture, how much more likely it is then that Jesus himself would have done likewise? Why these years of his life have not been recorded is not for me to analyse in this paper. Many scholars have devoted hours of their valuable time to just this one question and also as to where he might have been and what he might have done. The Vatican contains an enormous treasure of documents concerning the early church and unless the Holy Father undertakes to have them studied in depth, it will not be possible for the truth to be known.
This discussion would not be complete without the mention of a book titled "The Lost Years of Jesus" by Elizabeth Clare Prophet, Malibou, Ca, Summit University Press, 1984. The authoress goes into great detail about three manuscripts in Tibetan said to be preserved in Hemis Monastery in Leh, Ladakh, India, concerning the life of one called Issa. The original text from which this was translated is said to have been in Pali, the verancular of central India for a few centuries since the Buddha. and was supposedly kept in Lhasa in Tibet. It seems that a gentleman named Nicholas Notovitch had spent some time at that monastery in the previous century when he was shown these texts. One of them was in 14 chapters and 224 verses. This he translated and later published as "The Life of St. lssa", and is reproduced in that book. The former mentioned title abounds in many other references, tracing their sources back to renowned Asian explorers such as Prof.Nicholas Roerich, Frances Grant and others. It seems that there had existed Nestorian Christian colonies in Ladakh between the eighth and tenth centuries A.D. and elsewhere along numerous trade routes in central Asia. Through them the peoples of Ladakh and Kashmir incorporated in their heritage curious legends of a Christian character as well. Also mentioned is a reference to Jesus which was engraved by the order of the Emperor Akbar on his Victory Gate at Fatehpur Sikri in Uttar Pradesh in northern India which reads, "said Jesus, on whom be peace, 'The world is a bridge, pass over it but build no house there. He who hopeth for an hour, may hope for eternity. The world is but an hour, spend it in devotion. the rest is worth nothing.' "
Clearly it is imperative to keep an open and inquisitive mind about these years of Jesus. Whether the above-mentioned book, or the even more astounding "The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus Christ" have any truth in them, or how much of it they contain, is open to question, such considerations need not deter us from acknowledging the greatness and uniqueness of Jesus in that he came in fulfilment of the Scriptures.Pericope 3
The Structure of Buddhism
Reading through the New Testament and 'The Forgotten Books of the Bible', one cannot but notice a pronounced veneer of the esoteric, woven beautifully into an integrated whole. For any ancient people, the exoteric and the esoteric have always gone hand in hand, the one complementing the other. The mundane, the supra-mundane, or an 'other than the phenomenal world', the eventual and ultimate transcendence over both, followed by a meaningful expression on this earth and elsewhere as well –- are not these the principal topics any religion addresses itself to?
However, before we delve into a further analysis of St. Matthew, the premises upon which this may be based, need to be clearly elaborated. From the perspective of Himalayan Buddhism, Jesus, his teachings, the Gospels, St. Paul and the others, are not at all difficult to understand or explain. That rapport between these two traditions is virtually non-existent must necessarily be attributed to our human failings. These would seek to conceptualise, hence limit, God, Jesus, the Tathagata, and so on, in accordance with one's doctrinaire allegiances.
The body of expositions and praxis known as Buddhism are basically subsumed under the classification of the Three Yanas. It is purely incidental that this comprehensive approach is currently preserved fairly intact within the corpus of the Himalayan traditions. These Three Yanas, Skt. Triyana, are the Hinayana, Mahayana, and the Vajrayana. The Hinayana was that which the Buddha Shakyamuni openly taught in the human realm in the sixth century B. C. Subsequent to his 'mahaparinirvana', or 'great passing away', eighteen schools of Hinayana emerged of which only two are primarily followed. The Theravada is adhered to principally in a number of countries in S. E. Asia. The Tipitaka, or Three Baskets as the Buddhist Canon is known, is in Pali, the scriptural language, and contained in some thirty odd volumes.
The Sarvastivada tradition found its way to Tibet through northern India between the eighth and twelfth centuries A. D., where it continued to provide the necessary foundation for the other two Yanas, or vehicles. It seems that a number of the other schools were assimilated into the Buddhism of China; there exists a vast corpus of scriptures in Chinese translated from Sanskrit and currently available only in that language. It remains however, to be determined as to which of these schools are currently extant.
The Mahayana teachings concentrating on Shunyata, were given by the Buddha Shakyamuni primarily at Rajagriha in modern Bihar, India, but to a more select assemblage of disciples, invariably supra-mundane individuals which included those termed Bodhisattvas, explained later on. It was thus only a few centuries after the 'mahaparinirvana' that these teachings surfaced into our realm through the medium of the Buddha's Regents s – Nagarjuna and others. Scholar-saints such as Asanga, received teachings directly from the Bodhisattva Maitreya in the Tushita realm of heaven and wrote them down. Understandably the Mahayana has itself evolved into various traditions within itself as evident in Asia.
The origins of the Vajrayana are even more esoteric, and were made available to us starting at a much later date. Secrecy has always been, and necessarily so, associated with these teachings. There are two aspects to it. The first is that the teachings are self-secret, much as calculus would be to a young child. This is a direct function of the openness and understanding and limitations of individual disciples, rather than it being specifically devised to keep people away. The other angle to it derives from the necessity of keeping the teachings restricted to those who might actually benefit from them by going through the requisite preparations. This again would be similar to the education of a child starting at nursery, going through high school into college and university.
The Kangyur or Buddhist Canon in Tibetan is codified into a little over a hundred volumes depending on the particular edition. The earliest prints were made at Narthang and are considered the most authentic, followed by the blocks preserved till today at the library at Dege in eastern Tibet. The Lhasa redaction dates back to a hundred years having been commissioned by the XIIIth. Taala'i Lama. They include the Sutras or Discourses of the Buddha, the Vinaya or Ethical Directives, and the Abhidharma, or the section on Philosophy. This constitutes the Tripitaka. In this instance we have the Tripitaka of the Sarvastivada tradition, together with the extant Sutras of the Mahayana. Moreover the Kangyur contains the Tantras of the Vajrayana, those for which the transmissions exist unimpaired. This last is not to be confused with the Tantras of any other religious or spiritual tradition. Besides them there exists another compilation titled the Nyingma Gyu Bum comprising the Eighteen prinicpal Tantras of the Early Translation or Nyingmapa tradition.
This then is the structure that is being used throughout this paper.
Each Yana is characterised and understood in terms of its 'ta-wa, gom-pa, cho-pa' and 'zhi, lam, drae-bu'. Essentially the Kangyur is an in-depth analysis of these Yanas in terms of these triads. 'ta-wa' refers to the philosophical view-point, perspective and vision; 'gom-pa' to the meditations specific to a Yana; and 'cho-pa' could be understood as overt action. 'zhi' refers to the ground or basis; 'lam' the path or methodology; whilst 'drae-bu' to the end result or fruition of this methodology.
For the Hinayana, the view is that of the Four Noble Truths: suffering, the cause of suffering, the cessation of suffering and the path leading to the cessation of suffering. The meditation characteristc to it is 'samatha' or meditation of abiding at peace with oneself and 'vipashyana' or insight meditation. Overt activity is the Eightfold Path of right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right living, right exertion, right recollection and right meditation. Its ground is individuated existence; path the Eightfold Path; and fruition, the attainment of Arhant-ship or the state of Pratyekabuddha.
These states are defined as being those of partial enlightenment in which only the 'selflessness of one's own identity' is realised and this realisation stabilised. Such a being would have cut the stream of becoming for one's own self, having worked thoroughly with one's psyche, reconciling the conflicts within. As a result, one develops and manifests supernatural powers and becomes capable of performing miracles. Total enlightenment not having been arrived at however, results in one entering a prolonged state of meditative absorption accompanied with an immense sense of relief and certainty of having overcome the cycle of existence. Subsequently one needs to be awakened from this state of quiescence by the compassionate power of the Buddhas, to continue on one's pligrimage, actively growing in compassion and humility.
The view of the Mahayana is that of 'shunyata'; its meditations, those on the Two Bodhichittas; and overt expression as the Six or Ten Paramitas. 'Shunyata' has been variously translated as 'emptiness', voidness' and so on. Some misconstrue this term as referring to a nihilistic denial of the self and the other. If anything this term implies however, is that the phenomenal world is not the ultimate; that there is something transcendent and more fundamental to our existence on a relative plane. The view of the Two Truths is introduced – the Relative and the Absolute. In brief, the former may be understood as the world of interdependence and the interactions we are ordinarily subjected to. The other is the lack of solidity of the projections we overlay on our perceptions, fleeting and elusive. Thus the Bodhichitta has two aspects to it – the Relative Bodhichitta or lack of paranoia which engenders compassion; the Absolute Bodhichitta or 'shunyata'.
Meditations on these two Bodhichittas constitute the second aspect of the Mahayana. Overt expression, the third, are the six or ten Paramitas such as generosity, discipline, forbearance, application. meditation, transcendent knowledge, skilful means, power and strength, and finally natural gnosis or wisdom. Any activity is transformed into a Paramita when it is performed in conjunction with the sixth, i.e. with the understanding of the 'voidness' of oneself, the other, and the activity performed.
The ground of the Mahayana is the 'tathagatagarbha' or 'sugatagarbha'. This is defined as the Dharmakaya which is simultaneously all-encompassing and all-pervasive. Loosely this may be rendered as 'fundamental intelligence' inherent in all beings. The path is the Six or Ten Paramitas; and the end result, that of complete and undefiled Buddhahood.
There is a striking difference between these two Yanas in that whereas for both the starting point on a spiritual journey is the same, that of an individual being, they are perceived differently. In the former, the individual is perceived as an entity who needs to work hard towards one's own salvation following the example of the Buddha. The latter aproach maintains that the individual inherently possesses the 'tathagatagarbha' and all that needs to be done is to follow the proper methodology. Thus, the psycho-somatic veils which hide it are to be removed.
The Vajrayana itself is sub-divided into four or six yanas, and it is not within the scope of this paper to look into them deeply. They are basically founded on the Mahayana, but incorporate in them the parameters of grace, blessings, surrender, devotion and so on, many of these as enunciated in the New Testament. These will be looked into as we go through the Gospel of St. Mattew. Of the three primary neuroses which are explained as constituting the cause of samsara, the cycle of becoming, the Vajrayana addresses itself primarily to ignorance, the Hinayana to passion and lust, whilst the Mahayana to anger and hatred.
The Vajrayana incorporates terms such as the Four Kayas, the Five Buddhas, their Wisdom-consorts, providing a system of skilful means derving from the transcendent knowledge of the previous yanas, which enables the aspirant to progress speedily along the path to complete and total enlightenment. These methods are extremely direct and focus on the active transformation of one's 'identity'.
The Four Kayas, together. with the fifth known as the Mahasukha kaya, or the 'identity' of great bliss, refer to various aspects of an individual's psychosomatic constituents. The first of these is the Dharmakaya or the 'identity of fundamental intelligence', implying natural and uncontrived cognisance -- gnosis. From and within it manifest the two Rupa kayas, the Sambhogakaya and the Nirmanakaya. The former could be understood as an 'identity which experiences', the latter as the extension of the first two on a psychosomatic plane. That all three of these exist simultaneously is termed the Svabhavika kaya, 'natural, self-existing and holistic identity'.
The Five Buddha Families deal holistically with the perceiver, phenomenon, and the process of perceiving. The Five Buddhas represent the Five Wisdoms which when perverted result in the five conflicting neuroses, as well as the five skandhas -- elements which make up the psyche. Their five Consorts are representative of the five 'elements' which constitute the phenomenal world -- earth, water, fire, air, and space.
The Vajrayana is also characterized by its teachings on 'the nature of the mind'. This is dealt with both conceptually and experientially, in terms of another triad. Essentificially the mind is 'shunya' or void, by nature it is lucid, clear and intelligent, simultaneously it cannot be impeded or obstructed, and infinitely capable. The reader may have already assumed that they are related directly with the Dharma-, Sambhoga-, and Nirmana kayas mentioned above.
Where the first Yana is termed as that of 'causality', the latter two are those of 'fruition'. There is yet another factor and that of speed, rather expediency connected with each of these. The example generally given is that a person could reach point B from point A by walking to it, by driving to it, or by flying to it: the Hinayana being compared to the 'walk', the Mahayana to the 'drive' and the Vajrayana to the 'flight'. Hence, whereas the first may be slow it is relatively simple and free from danger. The second method involves greater risks and needs not only greater preparation and more advanced technology, but simultaneously incorporates tremendous risks as well; the third even more so.
These three Yanas are also explained with the simile of a house. The foundations of a house are akin to the Hinayana, the house itself the Mahayana, and the roof the Vajrayana. Hence, although the last is a holistic approach, the first is explained as being only partial. The styles therefore vary. The ethical directives of thefirst are known as 'vinaya', an external discipline facilitating functionality within the context of one's social environment. The second expands on this and talks in terms of the 'Bodhisattva Vow', hence the motivation behind one's actions. The Vajrayana however, deals with 'samaya' or 'covenant', between the aspirant and the enlightened mind personified in the Buddhas, through the medium of their Regents -- one's authentic Masters.
Individual beings are classified under two headings, the ordinary and the noble or exalted. The former needs no further elucidation except that it refers to the beings of the six realms of existence, i.e. those caught up within the cycle of birth and rebirth. The latter are also referred to as the Buddhas' Sons and include Arhants, Pratyekabuddhas, and Bodhisattvas. Arhants have already been described as being those who have disconnected themselves from samsara, as also the Pratyekabuddhas.
The Bodhisattva is one who having also put an end to the stream of becoming for oneself, by choice, and out of boundless compassion for others, returns to the various planes of existence over and over again in order to benefit beings in diverse ways and means. These are the Heart Sons of the Buddhas. As to whether all Bodhisattvas are the same, this is not so. They are generally classified into ten 'bhumis' or levels of attainment. The first level is known as the stage of 'excellent joy'. A Bodhisattva of this level has a stable realization of 'shunyata' and possesses thirteen various miraculous powers in sets of hundreds. For example, one such can manifest a hundred emanations of oneself at the same time in different places and so on. The higher the level, the more the Bodhisattva is in contact with one's true nature, has less obscurations and is able to work the more efficaciously to alleviate the sufferings of beings. These methods, naturally would be within the framework of the Three Yanas.
Retrogression is possible for Bodhisattvas in the first five Bhumis. Those on the Sixth Bhumi and beyond cannot retrogress. Those of the eigth 'bhumi' and above are also known as Mahasattvas. such as Avalokiteshvara and others. Another point deserving mention here is that a lower level Bodhisattva is not able to comprehend fully another but of a higher level. Likewise a tenth 'bhumi' Bodhisattva cannot comprehend fully a Buddha. The reverse is however not maintainable.
It should be obvious from the above that the Yanas may also be perceived in terms of stages on the path for an individual. The first is characterized by the individual's overwhelming preoccupation with oneself. Some may regard this as a selfish approach to life; indeed this is the idea most Indians have of those who embark on a spiritual journey. Somehow this is not quite correct. The Hinayana needs to be understood in terms of being a latency period of assimmilation, and personal enrichment, like a child growing up. Quite naturally, this reaches its own plateau and the individual automatically seeks to extend oneself into society, which one might do with the motivation of compassion, i.e. the Mahayana, together of course with knowledge and understanding. The Vajrayana basically provides such a person with the necessary skills so that one may make one's involvement with society more expeditious, enabling one to work actively for the common good.
The Three Jewels, the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha, form the very fulcrum of the Buddha's Dispensation or 'kingdom of enlightenment'. These are each understood differently in the context of the Three Yanas. The Hinayana understands the Buddha Shakyamuni in terms of an ideal individual. A person had vowed several aeons ago in front of a Buddha that he would attain enlightenment. The Bodhisattva since, through birth and rebirth practised the 'noble eighfold path' until his final existence as Prince Siddhartha. This Prince subsequently gave up his kingdom, practised austerities and eventually attained enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree in Bodh Gaya, India. The Dharma he taught centred around the Four Noble Truths. His followers comprise the Sangha, an assembly of Arhants, 'elders', monks and nuns, i.e. those who had renounced the world following his example. It is a very pristine approach.
The Buddha Shakyamuni in the Mahayana is one of an infinitittide of Buddhas of the past, present and future. Having made his vow to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, through birth and rebirth he went, motivated by compassion, perfecting the Two Accummulations, traversing the Five Paths, working through the veils which obscured his true nature, until the final consummation. The Dharma he taught included the Four Noble Truths but went a step further to the Bodhichitta. both Relative and Absolute. The Sangha or congregation in this case is made up of Bodhisattvas, both renunciates as well as householders, together with the others as mentioned before.
Examined from the point of view of the higher levels ofthe Vajrayana, the Buddha ever was and will be. Intelligence combined with compassion manifest in the form of the Prince who for the sake of all who came to know him or of him, enacted a play that spontaneously benefited all. His process of attaining enlightenment included initiations of various types by the Buddhas of the past, present and future. The Dharma he taught merely elucidated clearly the nature of things and their interactions. In other words, defining more clearly than in the previous yanas, the psychosomatic laws of the universe. If we are to question his authority and the correctness and validity of what he propounded, then one must go back to the definition of 'Buddha', as being one in whom the last vestige of obscuration and conflict has been removed. Hence through his being, the natural radiance of inherent intelligence is fully and authentically manifest. The Sangha in this case becomes the assembly of 'siddhas' or adepts and realized beings such as Guru Padmasambhava, the eightyfour mahasiddhas of India, Marpa, Mila, Drugpa Kunleg and others of Tibet, and so on.
Obscurations inherent in an individual are four: those of conflicting neuroses, karma, conditioning, and basic confusion. The spiritual journey or pilgrimage involves the removal of these veils by the process of perfecting the 'Two Accummulations'. These are the Accummulations of Merit, and that of Wisdom. The former occurs when an individual engages in positive deeds; the latter when the very same activities are performed within a non-dualistic framework. The journey is divided into five stages known as the Five Paths, or the Paths of Accummuiation, Application, Vision, Meditation, and ultimately of Non-learning. Readers are referred to existing treatises in English on all of the matter dealt with in this pericope, for a more in-depth understanding of the above. Some of these will be looked into more deeply as we go through the Gospel of St.Mattew, but for the time being, this must suffice.
Besides the 'Kangyur', literally meaning the 'translations of the instructions of the Buddha into Tibetan', there exists another similar set of translations known as the 'Taengyur', or the 'translations of the shastras or commentaries into Tibetan'. This consists of some two hundred and forty tomes. Unfortunately however, the lineage of transmission does not exist for more than some seventy tomes of this anthology. The term 'shastra' is applied to a work composed by a scholar, a saint, or a scholar-saint elucidating certain aspects of the Buddha's teachings. The validity of such a text is upheld only if it conforms to the Four Standards. The first of these is that of the Buddha's words themselves. The second is termed as that of the teachings of the Noble Ones. The third is that of logic and analysis whilst the fourth is the standard of personal meditative experience.
Throughout the millenia since the Buddha Shakyamuni's mahaparinirvana, a massive body of such literature has come to exist. The Taengyur codifies only the treatises translated from various Indian languages into Tibetan. A number of Indian shastras are also extant in their Chinese renditions as well. These, in many instances, are works available only in such translations. Besides, there are many works also composed originally in Tibetan, Chinese such as The Platform Sutra of Hui Neng and in other languages, in which the terminology had to be developed to accommodate various terse and abstract concepts. Many teachers in these cultures have left behind original compositions, numbering in the thousands, their contents preserved through direct transmissions from Master to disciple throughout the ages.
Thus, through the Regency of Bodhisattvas who manifest over and over again in order to lead sentient beings to enlightenment, a vast tradition has been preserved in terms of the twofold Buddha's Dispensation of Exposition and Praxis. The aspirant thus has available to him a variety of skilful means to choose from under wise guidance, in order to fulfill the Two Ideals: the purpose of oneself, that is self-reconciliation; and of others, or the reconciliation with others. The latter is the expression of sane or enlightened compassion dedicated to the welfare of other individuals both circumstantial and ultimate, leading them on the path of evolution as a mother cares for her only son! It is true that politics is an integral part of this, not because the Buddha's have necessarily taught politics per se; rather that as human beings we interact with each other in a number of sane and neurotic ways generically known as politics.Pericope 4 John and the Baptism of Jesus.
Both Indian and Tibetan Buddhism have documented examples of countless such saints.3 : 2'Repent'A recognition and acceptance of the deeds performed by an individual, as to whether they are wholesome or not, is a standard practice in Buddhism, in much the same way as it is taught in Christianity. However, this is explained in terms of 'karma', cause and effect. Actions are primarily divided into the two categories of wholesome and unwholesome, as applied to both the individual and society. These are understood in terms of both their immediate effects as well as their ultimate consequences, as to whether they promote happiness, well-being, prosperity, relaxation etc. or not, and whether they contribute to or hinder the processes of increasing understanding and eventually the attainment of complete and total enlightenment. Traditionally these are referred to as the Accummulations of Merit and Wisdom, echoed later on in the gospel chap. 6 : 19 - 20.
An act is explained as having been completely performed if done with the Four Confluences, "jor-wa-zhi". The first of these is the 'ground' or "zhi", the aspect of volition. The 'thought' or "sam-pa", of performing an act is the second. Next is 'co- ordination', "jor-wa", which is bringing together the various elements necessary to fulfil one's aim. The last is its 'completion', "thar-thug". A deed performed thoroughly as explained above, carries with it the full force of its consequences; one performed under duress for example, would have its karmik reverberations considerably decreased in intensity.
The teachings go on to state that by wholeheartedly rejoicing in the positive, meritorious, or virtuous activities of another, one accrues the same amount of positive karma as the performer himself. The same applies for unwholesome deeds as well. In the case of an unvirtuous deed which directly or indirectly harms another, implying one's ownself simultaneously, a cleansing is called for.
This is dealt with differently in the Three Yanas, summed up in the following. The Buddha Shakyamuni, once asked to sum up the Dispensation, had said, "Committing no negative deeds, Perform those which are beneficial to all. Thoroughly discipline your being: This is the Buddha's Dispensation".
The Hinayana, summarized in the first line, stresses therefore, the refraining from self-indulgence, if one were to use such a phrase. The Mahayana emphasizes positive social expression, whereas in the Vajrayana one would directly tackle the dualism responsible for the confusion. The Hinayana method of dealing with 'misdeeds' is by meditations, shamatha and vipashyana. The Mahayana enhances the purification process by meditations on compassion and voidness, as detailed in texts such as the Bodhicharyavatara, or the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, and the Lojong Dhon Dun Ma, or 'The Training and Purification of Consciousness in Seven Parts'. The Hinayana commitment is to cut the stream of becoming for oneself, the Mahayana Bodhisattva looks at the world in anguish, seeing how individual's although desiring happiness, perpetrate merely one's own suffering. A Bodhisattva cannot even envisage a 'nirvana' for one's own self: one's compassion breaking all conceptual limits to cover the expanse of existence, one vows to take on all the sufferings of others, that they may be freed from their suffering. Thus ennobled and simultaneously empowered, one grows both in knowledge as well as in wisdom, treading the endless path of the Mahayana.
Repentance in the Vajrayana is analyzed from the perspective of the Four Strengths, "tob-zhi", viz. the strength of repentance, "gyo-pa'itob"; that of the antidote, '.'nyen-po'i-tob"; of the reference point, "ten-pa'i-tob"; and of the commitment never to repeat one's errors in the future, "chhir-mi-dog-pa'i-tob". The first of these is self-explanatory. The second, the 'strength of the antidote', refers to the process of cleansing adopted. In the case of the previous two Yanas this has already been dealt with. The Vajrayana methods involve the Two Stages, the Generating Stage and the Perfecting Stage. The former involves meditations on 'deities' which are externally projected modalities of enlightenment, deriving from the teachings of the Buddha.
The latter basically are meditations on voidness not dissimilar from those of the Mahayana, but with differing emphases. The 'strength of the reference point' would be Vajrasattva, a deity specifically connected with repentance whilst the last needs no further elucidation.
Activities, both wholesome and unwholesome, are understood as being performed physically, vocally, and/or mentally. Basically there are three unwholesome physical activities -- those performed through the 'gate of the body'. These are killing, literally taking life; stealing or taking that which is not given and adultery. The terms in Tibetan are 'mi-ge-wa chu', or the ten unvirtuous deeds, of which the first three are 'sog-chod-pa., ma-jin-pa-len-pa and mi-tshang-chod-pa'. The four performed through the 'gate of speech are to tell lies or 'dzun-mna-wa'; to slander or 'thra-ma'; to utter harsh words or 'tshig-tsub mna-wa'; and engage in idle talk or 'ngag-chhal-wa'. There are three unwholesome activities of mentation, i.e. those performed through the 'gate of the mind', viz. covetousness or 'nab-sem'; nocent inclinations or 'nod-sem', and holding incorrect views or 'log-par-ta-wa'.
More specifically there are the 'tsham-med-pa nga'. These are the five deeds which if performed, take their subject straight down to hell without any intervening existences. These are killing one's mother, 'ma-sad-pa'; killing a realized being, an Arhant, or 'dra-chom sad-pg'; killing one's father or 'pha-sad-pa'; creating schisms in the Sangha, or community of Buddhists'ge-dun-gyi-de-la yen--jhed-pa'; and to cause a Tathagata to bleed out of malicious intent, or 'de-sheg ku-la ngaen-sem kyi thrag-chhung- wa'. There are alsofive other deeds of somewhat lesser intensity than these, known as 'de-dag nye-wa nga'.
The ten wholesome deeds, the 'ge wa chu' are the exact opposite of those listed above. The, foregoing lists read parallel to the Ten Commandments of Judaism Commentators in Buddhism have gone to great lengths to explain as to why the above-mentioned deeds are unwholesome in terms of the karmik consequences, or the boomerang effect they have on their performers.. It is therefore that an individual is exhorted not to engage in them. Jesus too expressed this succinctly when he said, "As yesow,so shall ye reap."
Saints and sages through the ages wherever encountered, have over and over again exhorted their peoples to turn away from their errant ways.
This is a tool commonly employed in different cultures. Each and every individual needs to establish or have established one's identity in society. On a mundane plane this is brought about through the considerations of descent, material prosperity, erudition, and so on. Those who are prophets too, need to validate themselves in the context of the container environment they draw their sustenance, inspiration, or functional reference from. There may perhaps be no better way for them to do so than the datum of the prophecies left behind by their spiritual ancestors. It is therefore natural that St. Matthew would refer to Isaiah in order to establish John as an authentic spiritual person within the context of Judaism.
Adepts, saints, seers and sages of India and Tibet are known to have been persons with highly individualized, eccentric habits. Even now there are many alive there devotedly worshiped by their followers. Some more overtly than others perform deeds which could be considered as miraculous. This writer has himself seen at least one evidence of such a 'miracle'. A photograph of the XVIth. Gyalwa Karmapa taken while he was performing a ceremony of the Vajra Crown, shows the back rest of the throne H.H. was sitting upon, through his transluscent torso.
Deoraha Baba of Uttar Pradesh, similarly is said to have lived for an indeterminate span of time, over hundreds of years. His devotees would quote their great grand and grand-fathers as ha viing said that he was alive when they were young. He passed away a few years ago. He was highly unusual and never wore clothes. He would accept fruits as offerings which he would then distribute amongst his devotees. Nobody seems to know as to what he ate and drank for sustenance and as to whether he slept or not. He invariably gave 'darshan' or audience, seated on a high platform specially constructed for him wherever he went. None was allowed insomuch as to touch his feet. He was highly revered by both high and low who flocked from all over India for his benediction and guidance.
'and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.'
It has already been emphasized in the commentary on 3 : 2, that an individual needs to be conscious of both one's wholesome qualities and deeds and those which may be unwholesome as well. The laws of any given country address themselves to maintaining law and order on a social and national level. Religious systems are those which take care of a person on a psychosomatic plane. The process of 'baptism' by water, spirit, or both. together, has been considered as a process of purification either in an ethnic sense or more commonly, in a spiritual way.
Inherently, the spiritual path could be described as none other than a process of psychosomatic purification, going into deeper and progressively less accessible strata of the psyche. The intellectual processes of the triad of audition, thinking and contemplation and meditation give an individual the means with which to orientate oneself either appropriately or otherwise both towards one's ownself as well as with the phenomenal world, generally construed as being the 'other than oneself'. The triad of view, meditation and action, moreover, enables one to express oneself phenomenally.
Although extremely little is known about John, it is accepted that he had spent years following a.spiritual path far removed from society. In fact, he was an Essene, the member of a spiritual tradition concerning which amazing details have emerged from the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered fifty years ago in Israel. Thus purified himself, he was then graced with the capacity to purify others using the symbolism of water, motivated by a heartfelt concern for the welfare of his people.
Vajrayana Buddhism advocates a similar baptismal ritual. An individual with the appropriaite preparation is given the dispensation to perform the purification called 'thru' -- literally washing. This is carried out using the triad of 'substances, mantras, and samadhi'. The substances used in this case are water, to which has been added a variety of spices and minerals, which are then consecrated through the process of meditation and recitations. "Mantras" are collections of syllables which affect the psyche through its various levels of the conscious, sub and the unconscious. "Samadhi" is one-pointedness in meditation. The person seeking to be purified would need to open oneself to the process of purification by acknowledging one's shortcomings and so on as explained earlier.
It is unfortunate however, that the process is not described in detail here. Basically this lack of detail is a phenomenon encountered throughout the New Testament, in which, although events are recorded, the intrinsic content of these occurences have been omitted obviously on purpose. This cannot but be construed as peculiar as it is clearly an attempt at obfuscation of the truth.
This word unfortunately seems to have become a 'dirty word' for younger generations, so much so that a number of translators tend to avoid using it as much as possible within the context of Buddhism. If understood as explained earlier, there would seem to be no real reason to have any difficulties with it however.
The Christian term 'original sin' has an interesting parallel in the Nyingma tradition of the Triyana Buddhism of Tibet, in The Aspirational Prayer of the Dharmakaya Buddha Samantabhadra.
The second verse explained below is indicative of the Buddhist approach of detailed logical analysis. Here value-judgements are avoided, the thrust being dispassionate analyses as to how the psychosomatic worlds known as "samsara" or the cycles of existence function. It further goes on to elucidate as to how the basic six conflicting neuroses of passion and lust, aggression and hatred, ignorance and stupidity, pride and arrogance, envy and jealousy, and miserliness and avariciousness come to be.
The first two lines explain what is termed as 'co-emergent avidya', the latter being a Sanskrit word. "Vidya" here refers to the innate intelligence of a wight, understood as being the fully awake nature of a being. This is to state that in an absolute sense, all wights are fully realized Buddhas in themselves. Should the question be asked as to why then one, such as the writer is not a Buddha just now, the answer is that his true nature is obscured from himself by layers of obscurations, a lack of recognition of what he truly is, because of "avidya", the opposite of "vidya". This is understood as being the individual's ego-identity and orientatedness, which have inherently been misconstrued as existent.
'Co-emergent' answers the question as to when this glorious misconception might have taken place. It states that if we look for its beginning with reference to time and space, such a beginning cannot be found. The term "avidya", could thus perhaps be understood as being 'beginningless confusion'.
The text continues to explain this as, "One's intelligence, (knowing consciousness), unaware of its own true nature, and thus distracted, runs here and there, chasing figments of its own imagination".
The second two lines elucidate the companion of "avidya", that of intellectual labelling. "This is the continued affirmation of the dichotomy of one's own ego-identity and the 'other'". "These two together," it continues, "form the basis of the confusion which results in the existence of a wight."
So the Buddha continues his prayer,
'By virtue of this my prayer made in the context of the Pranidhanaparamita,
May every wight wandering in the realms of samsara,
One's dark veils of unawareness lifted,
May each realize its error as being the perpetration of duality, And recognize for oneself one's own true nature of natural intelligence."
There is a standard procedure in Buddhism similar to this -- that of making offerings to one's Guru and the Three Jewels, Stupas, shrines, and so on. Moreover, physical acts such as cleaning a temple, making circumambulations around sanctuaries, offering one's services in various ways are often enjoined upon the devotee together with recitations of prayers, confessions, mantras and so on.3 : 9
The exposition in this context by Barclay would hold from a Buddhist perspective. To quote, "A degenerate age cannot hope to claim salvation (liberation) for the sake of an heroic past; and an evil son cannot hope to plead the merits of a saintly father." Currently a large number of Tibetans, particularly followers of the Taala'i Lama in India, consider him and themselves beyond reproach simply because the west has placed the pontiff in an unassailable position. There is no support for this in the Buddhist tradition and merely shows the lack of moral integrity of such Tibetans. 'that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones.'The fact that the Buddha Shakyamuni refused ever to make a statement about the existence of God, His non-existence, and various other metaphysical questions posed to him, has seemingly placed Buddhism at odds with Christianity. The sutras record numerous instances when he was asked the above questions. His reply invariably had remained the same: "There are many things the Tathagata (referring to himself) knows. However, this alone I teach that there is suffering and dissatisfaction, that it has a cause, a cessation, and a path leading to its cessation." He did moreover, express that all phenomena, being in themselves brought about by an interdependence on each other, are impermanent, all volitional functions are inherently dissatisfactory, all phenomena in themselves are devoid of an ego, and nirvana is peace. Moreover in the Udana, the Buddha is quoted to have said, "There is 0 Bhikshus, that which is unconditioned, unborn, and undying. Were it not so, then it would not be possible to attain this state of being unconditioned, and beyond birth and death."
As such throughout the centuries, Buddhist scholars have gone to incredible lengths using subtler and subtler logic to negate that 'God' could exist per se. Here it is necessary to look deeper into the definitions of God from a Christian point of view in terms of the three categories or perspectives of transcendence, transcendance-immanence, and immanence. A detailed study of these alone would bring out points of similarity and dissimilarity. This writer must confess his inability to delve deeply into this matter, and let this issue rest with the statement that it might be possible to correlate Vajrayana exposition of divinity with some or many of the concepts of a Christian God. Great Masters of the Buddhist traditions have been known to create various phenomenal manifestations for the sake of their disciples and devotees. Milarepa's training of his disciple Rechhungpa, may be cited as an appropriate example here. The Vairayana does address itself to an aspirant developing a deep understanding of oneself, and the phenomena which unfolds around one. Such a profound understanding, the unfolding of inherent wisdom, by working through the conscious, sub and unconscious of one's psyche, is said to bring about with it an unsought for mastery over nature. Hence, prior to his death, Milarepa had multiplied himself into being a travelling companion for each group of students and devotees converging to the place where he was later to leave his physical body. It might be said from an integrated point of view, that Milarepa had "realized God, and that he was able to perform these miracles through the power of the Holy Spirit".
The image here is extremely reverberant, definitely an allegorical way of stating the law cause and effect, i.e. karma, to an ordinary person. This verse interestingly enough, is in the passive case, the subject not mentioned at all, hence left open to interpretation. From the Buddhist point of view, one's innate intelligence is one's own judge of one's volitional actions. Just as a tree which does not bear good fruit, those whose actions are unwholesome, will be given their own rewards.
It would seem that it was Jesus alone who introduced the parameter of forgiveness through 'grace'. The baptism of John stresses the individual's responsibility in the acceptance of one's misdeeds and repenting one's actions. Whereas the latter would need to be understood from the perspective of the Hinayana and the Mahayana, a combination of both these approaches would constitute the Vajrayana path, already discussed, where grace is a paramount consideration. 'There is one coming after me .... Prophecies such as this are not at all unusual in the Buddhist traditions. Any person, who like John, has gone through a process of spiritual training, naturally becomes humble and unassuming. One's stream of being purified, the Holy Spirit would find in such a person, an apt vessel for communication with the world of humans. 'He will baptize you with the fire of the Holy Spirit.' Baptism here takes on a completely different sense to it reminiscent of what in the Vajrayana would betermed an initiation or empowerment, Skt. abhisheka, Tib. dBang. In order to practise the Vajrayana, an aspirant needs to be empowered or initiated into a mandala. There are two approaches to this. The first would require as a prerequisite, . intensive training in the previous yanas. The other style, starts the aspirant directly on the Vajrayana path, so that the combination of grace. and the individual's personal efforts, facilitates an evolution through the various yanas.
This needs to be explained further. The person who confers the empowerment is known as a Vajracharya, a Master in the Vajrayana tradition. The content of what he teaches is that which he has received through an unbroken transmission through a geneology of Masters dating back to the Buddha Shakyamuni himself. Teachings not transmitted in this way are considered as having become defunct. This Vajracharya must also have studied and meditated extensively under proper guidance for years preparing for his future ministry, before he may be authorised by his own Principal Guru, as a qualified Master in his own right.
It is understood at this juncture that a normal person functions, primarily by utilizing a conceptual matrix, in which is contained the sum total of his experiences, both of this life as well as of any other previous existences he may have had. This may also be termed an 'identity'. A spiritual path may be understood as being a process of restructuring an individual's identity. The Hinayana would deal with this process on a more overt level -- rules, regulations, clothes and so on. The Mahayana's thrust is to re-orientate an individual's psychological approach to interaction with others. The Vajrayana in its skilful means, aims right at the heart of the matter itself, with the bold assertion that it is ignorance of who we are that brings about an identity matrix in the first place. Hence the process of empowerment is used to penetrate through this identity matrix and activate the enlightened intelligence inherent in the aspirant to take over.
This is done employing the structure of a mandala, in which initially a confused matrix is replaced by a 'wisdom' matrix. The Vajracharya is understood as being the 'father', the mandala the 'mother' and disciple the 'son'. This is done utilizing both form, in the shape of symbols, objects, rituals and recitations, together with a direct and formless 'pointing out' of the enlightened nature of the mind. Besides a full-fledged empowerment, a less elaborate format is also customarily employed, This is termed a "rJes. gNang." in Tibetan, currently being rendered as 'permission-blessing'. These two are basically the same in content.
An empowerment essentially contains four parts to it, each of which may or may not be further sub-divided. An empowerment may be conferred in its totality during the course of a single ceremony, each part may also be transmitted individually to disciples who have already received the previous ones. The first of these is the 'Vase Initiation', the second 'Secret Initiation', third, the 'Initiation of Knowledge-gnosis', and fourth, that of the 'Precious Word' , perhaps not dissimilar in content from the beautiful exposition found at the beginning of the Gospel of St. John, and those of saints such as Kabir, Guru Nanaka Deva of India. It is not possible for various reasons, to delve more deeply into these here, except to state that they are each a function of non-dual gnosis, expressed in a relative format so that it can be comprehended and put into practice by any individual. The meditations an aspirant is enjoined to engage in subsequently, in its various aspects, succeeds in the creation, rather a recreation of his inner harmony, based upon the truths inherent in his life, rather than concepts.
When the Buddha Shakyamuni initially taught the Vajrayana, he is recorded to have spontaneously transformed himself into the manifestation of the appropriate 'mandala' or 'wisdom-matrix' he was expounding, 'visible' only to appropriate disciples. Countless adept Vajracharyas since, have been recorded to have done likewise. Currently a Vajracharya performs a preparatory spiritual exercise prior to the giving of an initiataion.
The Buddhist tradition contains an interesting account of the manner of transmission of the Guhyasamaja Tantra. Somewhere in northwest India there was a king called Indrabhuti whose ministers had brought him news of the existence of a wondrous person called the Tathagata Buddha. The king expressed a desire to meet this ascetic whereupon he was told that the Buddha being omniscient, the king should supplicate him sincerely. This the king did and the Buddha appeared at his palace together with five hundred Arhants flying through the sky. The king extended to them his hospitality and subsequently requested the Tathagata to give him instructions in the Dharma. The Buddha went on to expound the Four Noble Truth, the path of renunciation and so on. This left the king downcast as he was a person with many queens, a large kingdom, wealth and retinue. Explaining his situation to the Tathagata, the king requested him to give instructions which would be suitable to his circumstances. The Buddha perceiving that the king would make a suitable disciple, the traditional term is 'vessel', spontaneously manifest the mandala of Guhyasamaja, initiated him into it and gave him the necessary instructions. While the Buddha was doing so, except for the king, none other was able to perceive the mandala and subsequent events. This king later went on to practise these teachings and attained the 'siddhis' or spiritual gifts associated with them.
The compassion of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas is all-encompassing and unbiased. The analogy traditionally used of this is that of a hook, extended so that any ring can get hooked on to it. It is upto an individual to decide as to whether one wants to acknowledge them and make them integral to one's life or not. Should a person actively seek to incorporate them into one's life, then one is compared to a ring. One who seeks to ignore them is similar to a hard sphere, impervious to outside influences. Thus, it is an individual who must decide for oneself as to whether one would be like 'wheat', or whether one is to be like 'chaff'. In the former case, the person's existence becomes meaningful and fulfilling and understood in terms of the 'precious human birth replete with the eight freedoms and the ten favourable conditions'. Those likened with the 'chaff', are those, who under the power of their own confusion and ignorance, deny the relevance of the Buddha's compassion in their lives. Hence they continue in samsara, from existence to existence.
'gather the wheat into his granary.' The Buddha Shakyamuni, the second Buddha Guru Padmasambhava, and various other Masters, have each had their own followings. This is what constitutes the Sangha in its wider connotations.
'The chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.' On the one hand it needs to be understood that each person is responsible to one's own self for one's actions, the consequences of which one must inexorably experience in the future. This is what is termed as the law of karma, and may be understood in terms of the'six states of being' viz. the realms of the gods, jealous gods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts and the hells. These may or may not be specific places in the universe. The stress in Buddhism is the individual's inverted understanding of phenomena, both of one's ownself and 'others'. Thus, it is we ourselves, who would as it were, create our own realm or world, in terms of our mistaken perceptions of the truth.
Simultaneously, Buddhism admits of the possibilities of the enlightened activity of realized and enlightened beings such as Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and so on. Their boundless compassion manifests spontaneously and unobstructedly for the benefit of beings in terms of the Four Karmas of pacifying, enriching, magnetizing-harmonizing, and invincibility. The life of Guru Padmasambhava may be cited as an ideal, exemplifying the above. It is generally accepted in the east that even the greatest cannot attain to what they are without having related with a spiritual master. The motivating factor here is that of grace, which although coming from the 'absolute', a human intermediary is indispensable to facilitate this process. The Bodhisattva Siddhartha while searching for answers to the question of birth. old age, sickness, and death, is recorded to have had two teachers. from whom he learnt all they had to teach, even though this might not have resulted in his final and consummate awakening. Even so, through the practise of austerities and so o@earn@ he did make considerable progress in purifying his being, thus preparing him for the final leap.
Guru Padmasambhava, also known as the second Buddha of our age, is recorded to have related more extensively with various Masters of his time, prior to his attainment of complete illumination, which occured as a function of 'grace'.
John, the prophet he was, of course, cannot but recognise in Jesus the person he was, hence the hesitation. There existed no cultural or social context for the recognition of Jesus in the fullness of his Sonship. The Tibetans overcame this problem approximately seven centuries ago with the institution of the 'trulku' granting it both a spiritual and temporal status. In this way, Bodhisattvas have been provided a container environment conducive not only to their own personal growth, but also providing a framework, although a human and thus, an imperfect one, within the context of which they have been given the opportunity to fulfil their individual missions. This would seem to be exactly what Jesus' baptism does -- provide a setting for his forthcoming ministry.
Similarly, the Indian Karmapa incarnation mentioned earlier, was enthroned formally in the summer of 1986 by Ven. Mungpoo Rinpochhe, also known as Ven. Lama Rinchhen, in a small ceremony at a temple at '3-mile village' near Darjeeling en route to Teesta from Jhorebungalow. Rinpochhe had been informed in a vision of the impending visit of this prodigy the next morning and had therefore prepared himself and his disciples appropriately for the occasion. As the boy arrived with his grandmother at about ten that morning, he was ceremoniously escorted to his throne and requested to sit on it. After the customary offerings accompanied by their liturgy, Ven. Lama Rinchhen, an ethnic Tamang Indian, publicly announced that this boy is H. H. the XVIIth. Gyalwang Karmapa, that they were extremely fortunate to have him there with them, and that he would not return to this temple again. The Buddhist congregation assembled there then filed past His Holiness making their offerings and receiving his blessings in accordance with local custom!
Like John the Baptist, Ven. Lama Rinchhen is an adept highly respected principally by the non-Tibetan residents of the area. However, unlike John, he is not a hermit. He has established a large number of monasteries in the trans-Himalayan regions of Darjeeling and Sikkim, reaching out to a vast number of people who would otherwise not have the good fortune of a meaningful connection with the Buddha's Dispensation. Tibetans on the other hand, who are extremely racist, tend to mock and scoff at him, just as the Sadducees and Pharisees did to Jesus. This does not realiy matter, as Tibetans hardly form the fulcrum of modern human existence, although they might like the whole
world to think so! Very conveniently they forget that Tibetans living outside Tibet are merely refugees and behave as it they are lord and masters of all they survey.
Totally ignored by the Tibetan religious heirarchy, this young incarnation is leading the life of a normal Indian, studying in a good English-medium school, preparing hopefully for his future role as a spiritual leader of the Indian peoples.
The stage having been set in human terms, the Spirit of God is then able to reveal Itself on the human plane. The process is similar to the empowerments of the Vajrayana which is likewise an integration of the human and the divine. Miracles accompanying them have already been touched upon briefly earlier.
Postscript : This short work ends here. The circumstances for this writer to continue his research have yet to come together again. It is being published with the hope that it will serve as an inspiration for future and deeper studies of these two great traditions by qualified scholar-saints!
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