Teaching Transcripts and Synopses 

From Impermanence to Enlightenment

H.E. Trungram Gyalwa Rinpoche

2:30 PM on November 26, 2000
Conference Room of Medical Research of
Case Western University, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A.

Good afternoon, everyone!

Before I start, I would like to know how many of you have background on Buddhist practice or Buddhist studies. Can you raise your hand? O. K. ?So as you know, today, I am going to talk about Gampopa. He is a very important figure in Tibet, Tibetan Buddhism, especially during what they call it "later spread of Buddhism". Buddhism in Tibet was introduced sometime in the seventh century, later part of seventh century and then it collapsed in the ninth century, late ninth century; and then there wasn't really Buddha Dharma in Tibet, especially the central part of Tibet for roughly a century. And then in the tenth century, Buddhism started again, and this is what we call "later spread of Buddhism". Buddhism that was taught in the early spread and later spread were a little bit different. Now we have four main streams of Buddhism in Vajrayana, Tibetan Buddhism: Kagyupa - they call Kagyu, Nyingma, Sakya and Gelug. All these were started during the second spread or later spread except Nyingma which was already started and was almost like a continuation of the early spread, which was taught, introduced by Padmasambhava. He is another important figure in Tantric Buddhism.

Now Gampopa was a master in the 12th century. What I am going to do now is to talk a little bit about his life, the books that he wrote, some life stories and works. After that I will talk about some topics and terms he used. I think from my understanding these are some of the many important themes and important terms that he used very often, so I will talk about that. Gampopa, as you have seen was a twelfth century master, he was from central Tibet. And he later became the founder of all the Kagyu sub-schools. There are many schools within the Kagyu school of Vajrayana - there are four major transmissions and eight lesser schools and they all came from Gampopa. There wasn't such sub schools before Gampopa but after him. He had three very important students, the students and their students started the schools. And there are not many books about him. There are several, one is called "Life of Gampopa" written by Jampa Mackenzie Stewart. It's quite easy to read and wasn't very academically written, very easy to understand and is a quite good book. There is also a book called "Supreme Path". You can also find his short life story in that book. There is also a book called "Rain of Wisdom". Gampopa was married in his early life time, and he practiced medicine. He became a traditional Tibetan doctor, so he was a lay person. Not long after his marriage, his two children and his wife all died because of an epidemic disease. This was the turning point and a big shock in his life. It changed the whole program for him, caused him to renounce the world(ly life).

And then at that time the later spread of Buddhism was already established in Tibet especially by a person called Atisha. He was from a place called Bangala which is now divided into two places in a modern map. Part of Bangala - west Bangala is in India, part of Bangala is Bangladesh, and he was from there. He was a very well known scholar, also great meditator. He was a monk and was also a prominent teacher in Nalanda Institute which was one of the greatest universities in India at that time and was a Buddhist university. So Atisha gave teachings in Tibet, and through his tradition, a new school was established called Kadampa - Ka means teaching, Dam means advice, one who receives teaching through advice. And they emphasized very much on celibacy. Almost all of the Kadampa masters are monks. That's one lineage.

Gampopa took monk's vows and became a monk under the Kadampa's masters and now he was following the Kadampa's tradition. He was a monk and practicing there but at the same time he heard the fame of Milarepa. Milarepa was different. He was a yogi, a Tantric master, and was not in the form of a monk, but he was a highly realized master and his fame spread all over Tibet. The moment Gampopa heard about Milarepa's name, he got a very special feeling and he could not wait to see him. So finally he decided to go to see him. But the Kadampa masters didn't allow him to go there. So it's very interesting, there was some tension there. You can imagine, you know, one is the monk in an institution or monastery, there are rules and regulations, the other is the yogi in the caves. So what they wear and teach, there are differences. Yogis can drink alcohol, monks can not, for example. When you read Gampopa's life story, you can, it's not obvious, get all the information how the contradictions are. But Gampopa insisted, and finally he got a permission. He asked many masters one after the other, and they asked him not to change his clothes and don't stay longer than a year. Gampopa accepted, he went there, he met Milarepa, received the blessings, teachings. They had a very good time and he followed Milarepa's teachings.

He got a very kind and good treatment from Milarepa, different from what Milarepa's master and their masters experienced from their teachers. For example, Naropa was actually a prince in ancient India. He became a monk similar to Atisha. He was a great scholar, well known scholar, also the abbot of Nalanda University, but then he became a yogi afterwards, from monkhood to yogi when he practiced Tantra. Now Gampopa's life pattern was also similar to Naropa. He was also a scholar, a monk, but now changing his trend from the monk's tradition to yogi's. So it's somewhat similar, quite parallel. But when he practiced under his teacher Tilopa, Naropa went through hardships, very difficult practices, but Gampopa was different - his teacher was very kind, so he didn't have to go through difficult practices. For example, maybe this is worth noting here: the tensions between Kadampa, as you can see here (Rinpoche turned around to the whiteboard), I draw two lines there, there are two lineages which came into one, so Gampopa maybe had difficulties about which one he was, because there were a lot of contradictions from time to time. For example, when he came to see Milarepa for the first time, the first thing Milarepa asked Gampopa was: drink this wine, he gave him a bowl of wine. Milarepa drank half of it first and then he gave to him. He was very hesitant, because first of all in his mind: "I can't drink as a monk", secondly, "there are so many people around, it's not just Milarepa and me", so he didn't dare to drink it. But then the moment he thought of that, Milarepa told him: "Don't think too much", then he understood that Milarepa understood what he was thinking, so he drank it. And for Milarepa that was very important that he (Gampopa) could break through such an attachment - you know this can also be an attachment. There are many other differences such as, according to Milarepa's' teaching, one can realize the truth and get enlightened within one life time - within the same life time if one is diligent enough, if you meet a good teacher, if you practice the right Dharma, you can became enlightened within one life time. But Kadampa masters said that's impossible, one could not become enlightened within one life time. Those are some special things about Gampopa's experience. Later in his life, taught. Even though he got eleven to twelve months time with Milarepa to receive teachings, he treasured it, and actually became the holder of the lineage of Milarepa's.

He remained a monk but what he practiced was Milarepa's teachings, that's the most important for him. He placed it over the Kadampa's teachings. He had a very special dream, he explained it, I think it's very interesting, it has some connection with the teachings, the way he gave his teachings. He dreamed that he had a cup of milk and he had a big gong and then he made sound out of it, so many people can hear it, he drank a little bit of milk and wanted to share with people, but it's limited to only a cup. But that sound, thousands of people can hear it - there was no limit. He said that he understood the milk represented Milarepa's teachings - the yogi master's teaching and the other one the sound of the gong was the teachings of the Kadampa's. He said that he could teach the Kadampa's teachings to anybody, he could opening teach it to the publicly, but for Milarepa's teachings he had to find qualified students to teach. So if you read his books, you will find mostly Kadampa's teachings and very few Milarepa's teachings. There are several books, one is called "Jewel Ornament of Liberation". It's a quite famous book and that's written by himself.

Now there is a book written by Tsongkapa, also another very famous figure in Tibet. He wrote a text called "Lam Rim" in Tibetan language means stages of the path, how a person follows as a beginner to enlightenment, how one can approach enlightenment. But actually Gampopa was much earlier, he didn't call his text Lam Rim the stages of path, but the contents of text were exactly the Lam Rim. So Tsongkapa's Lam Rim is very similar and he came several centuries later. So "Jewel Ornament of Liberation" was translated. You can find it in English translated by Guenther. He has also written a text called "Rosary of Precious Gems". That's a very short text, and then there are many texts that are not translated so far, in Tibetan called " Tso Chi" which means public teaching, and there are many short essays, pistols, letters that he sent, questions and answers. There are many notes about that, about his teaching, so those are the written works about Gampopa. Usually they are quite short, but very condensed - you have to read very slowly.

During Buddha's time, there was no such different schools, after Buddha passed away, they became more and more obvious. So there is early Buddhism. It split or grew into eighteen different schools as Buddha predicted. The word Hinayana is a little bit pejorative way to call. Hina means small or lesser or lower, Yana means the vehicle, the means, the path to go or means to reach enlightenment. Then Mahayana means the greater vehicle. This is very important. Many scholars believe that Mahayana and Tantric Buddhism were new products which started many centuries afterwards. But traditionally they were all there during Buddha's time - the teachings were there. It looks like they started later on because they systematized it afterwards so it became clearer as a separate school. So people think it started afterwards. If you are talking about separate schools as separate systems, then you can say it started afterwards, but if you are talking about the teaching itself it's very hard to prove that it wasn't there during Buddha's time. So chronically speaking, early Buddhism or Hinayana was there at the beginning, from Buddha's time, and then Mahayana, then Tantrayana or Vajrayana. And often there is mix, it's hard to tell. The moment you talk about the monk's vow, the traditional monk's vow, it must be from the early Buddhism. There is no monk's vow in Mahayana or Vajrayana not depending on early Buddhism. Like in Tibet, all these three are there. Atisha brought the monk's vow, for example, which is from early Buddhism and Atisha is a Mahayana master and then they practiced Tantra. In Tibet, they call it three wheels in one. Outer appearance in the form of early Buddhism practice, inner in Mahayana practice and most inner or secret is the Tantric or Vajrayana Buddhist teachings. That is how a person like Gampopa practiced.

And now without practicing Mahayana's or Vajrayana's teaching, it is said that one can only reach nirvana just above this circle, circle representing samsara which means continuation of sufferings one life after another without end. So that is the world, the mundane world and there is no freedom, you don't have the right to stop and you are forced to do something by karma. So actually for all these masters, the Dharma teachers, what they are looking for is the freedom, how one can get the freedom, what is the real freedom that will last forever. This is the goal: how a sentient being can get the freedom and what Buddha meant by freedom is the freedom to get free from samsara - the continuation of suffering. And what is the way? Then he gave all the teaching - these are the ways how you can get out of samsara, so all the Buddha's teachings are means to get freedom out of the samsara. So early Buddhism teaching can let you reach nirvana which means where you get the cessation - all the sufferings are ceased since then. But the Mahayana goes beyond that, there are ten levels of Bodhisattvas, not just nirvana. They want to continue to get enlightenment. Nirvana is not enlightenment, is not Buddhahood. Buddhahood - parinirvana, the complete nirvana is the enlightenment. So for Mahayana and Vajrayana, their goal is enlightenment. They all reach the same destination but the difference between them is how you get there. Tantra uses different means of visualizations and using your physical energy in your meditation. With this special means one can reach enlightenment in shorter time and with less difficulty. With Mahayana without Tantric practice you may take longer time, that's the difference.