Lamrim Explained

Lamrim (Tibetan: "stages of the path") is a Tibetan Buddhist textual form for presenting the stages in the complete path to enlightenment as taught by Buddha. In Tibetan Buddhist history there have been many different versions of lamrim, presented by different teachers of the Nyingma, Kagyu and Gelug schools.[1] However, all versions of the lamrim are elaborations of Atiśa's 11th-century root text A Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment (Bodhipathapradīpa).[2]

History

When Atiśa, the originator of the lamrim came from India to Tibet,[3] he was asked by king Jang Chub Ö to give a complete and easily accessible summary of the doctrine[3] in order to clarify wrong views, especially those resulting from apparent contradictions across the sutras and their commentaries. Based upon this request he wrote the Bodhipathapradīpa ("A Lamp for the Path to Awakening"), teaching what came to be known as the lamrim for the Tibetans.[3] Atiśa's presentation of the doctrine later became known as the Kadampa tradition in Tibet.

According to Tsong Khapa, in his Lam Rim Chen Mo ("The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment"), Atiśa took the number and order of the subjects in Maitreya-natha and Asaṅgas Abhisamayalankara ("Ornament of clear realizations"), which was based on the wisdom sutras, as the basis to write the Bodhipathapradīpa. In the Abhisamayalankara they emphasised the hidden meanings of the sutras.[4] Tibetan Buddhists thus believe that the teachings of the lamrim are based on the sutras that the Buddha taught[5] [6] and therefore contains the essential points of all sutra teachings in their logical order for practice.

Gampopa, a Kadampa monk and student of the famed yogi Milarepa, introduced the lamrim to his disciples as a way of developing the mind gradually. His exposition of lamrim is known in English translation as "The Jewel Ornament of Liberation" and is studied to this day in the various Kagyu schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

The main Lam Rim text in the Nyingma tradition is Longchen Rabjampa's Finding Rest in the Nature of Mind, along with its voluminous auto-commentary, The Great Chariot. Both lay out the entire scope of the buddhist teachings according to the view of the Nyingma school, from the foundational practices through to Dzogchen.

Tsongkhapa, founder of the Gelug school which is primarily based on Atiśa's Kadampa school, wrote one of his masterpieces on lamrim: The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path of Enlightenment (Tib. Lam-rim Chen-mo)[2] which has about 1000 pages, and is primarily based on literary sources. There is also a medium-length lamrim text by Tsongkhapa (200 pages) and a short one, called Lam-rim Dü-dön (Tib.), which is recited daily by many Gelugpas and is about 10 pages long.

The Lamrim was the first Tibetan text translated into a European language by Ippolito Desideri, a Jesuit missionary, who visited Tibet and made an extensive study of Tibetan Buddhism from 1716 to 1721.[7] Desideri studied the Lam Rim Chen Mo of Tsongkhapa, and his manuscript describing Tibet was one of the most extensive and accurate accounts of Buddhist philosophy until the twentieth century.

Philosophy

Three kinds of motivation

The starting point of the lamrim is a division of Buddhist practitioners into beings of three scopes, based upon the motivation of their religious activity. Disregarded in this division are individuals whose motives revolve around benefits in their current life. Striving for a favorable rebirth is implicitly the minimum requirement for an activity or practice to be classified as spiritual.

Atiśa wrote in "Lamp of the Path" (verse 2) that one should understand that there are three kind of persons:

  1. Persons of modest motive search for happiness within samsara; their motive is to achieve high rebirth. Buddhists traditionally consider that this domain includes followers of most non-Buddhist religions who strive for a rebirth in a heaven.
  2. Persons of medium motive are searching for their own ultimate peace and abandoned worldly pleasure. This includes the paths of pratyekabuddhas and śravakabuddhas, which seek personal liberation alone, the traditional goal of Hīnayāna practice.
  3. Persons of high motive, who, based on their insight of their own suffering, seek by all means to stop the suffering of all beings. This is the Mahāyāna Bodhisattva path of the samyaksaṃbuddhas, who practice the six Perfections.

One of the formulaic presentations of the Buddhist path in the Nikayas is anupubbikathā, "graduated talk" or "progressive instruction," in which the Buddha talks on generosity (dāna), virtue (sīla), heaven (sagga), danger of sensual pleasure ( ādīnava)[8] and renunciation (nekkhamma). When the listener is prepared by these topics, the Buddha then delivers "the teaching special to the Buddhas,"[9] the Four Noble Truths (cattāri ariya-saccāni),[10] by which arises "the spotless immaculate vision of the Dhamma."[9] [11] In the Tibetan Lamrim teachings, the Bodhisattva-path, with its training of the six perfections, is added to this formula.

Subjects of the lamrim

Although lamrim texts cover much the same subject areas, subjects within them may be arranged in different ways. The lamrim of Atiśa starts with bodhicitta, the altruistic mind of enlightenment, followed by taking the bodhisattva vows. Gampopa's lamrim, however, starts with the Buddha-nature, followed by the preciousness of human rebirth. Tsongkhapa's texts start with reliance on a guru (Tib.: lama), followed by the preciousness of human rebirth, and continue with the paths of the modest, medium and high scopes. Longchenpa's lamrim begins with the four thoughts that turn the mind, and proceeds through to the two stages of vajrayana practice and dzogchen.

Gampopa, Tsongkhapa, Longchenpa, and others, expanded the short root-text of Atiśa into an extensive system to understand the entire Buddhist philosophy. In this way, subjects like karma, rebirth, Buddhist cosmology and the practice of meditation are gradually explained in logical order.

Outline of Topics

An example of the outline for lamrim teachings is that of Liberation in the Palm of your Hand by Pabongkhapa Déchen Nyingpo. An abbreviated and annotated outline follows to show the structure of this lamrim:

Introduction
The path shared with persons who have the modest scope motivationStriving for a rebirth in the upper realms:
The path shared with persons who have the medium scope motivationStriving for liberation of cyclic existence. The training in the medium scope path will lead to the development of the wish to be liberated from all un-free rebirths in cyclic existence through the power of afflictive emotions and karma. It consists of:
The path for persons who have the high scope motivationStriving for complete buddhahood:

Gelug Lamrim tradition

The study of Lamrim is a major focus of the Gelug school and numerous Gelug figures wrote Lamrim works. A collection of important Lamrim works is known as the Eight Great Commentaries (on Atisha's Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment). The 14th Dalai Lama frequently teaches on these works. These are:[12]

  1. The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (lam rim chen mo) by Je Tsong Khapa
  2. The Medium Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (lam rim ‘bring po) by Je Tsong Khapa
  3. The Concise Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (lam rim bsdus don) also known as Song of the Stages of the Path (lam rim nyams mgur) by Je Tsong Khapa
  4. The Essence of Refined Gold – Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (lam rim gser zhun ma) by His Holiness the Third Dalai Lama, Sonam Gyatso.
  5. The Easy Path – Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (lam rim bde lam) by Panchen Lobsang Chokyi Gyaltsen.
  6. The Sacred Words of Manjushri – Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (lam rim ‘jam dpal zhal lung) by the Fifth Dalai Lama, Lobsang Gyatso
    1. The Swift Path – Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (lam rim myur lam) by Panchen Lobsang Yeshe Essence of Fine Speech – Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (lam rim legs gsung nying khu) by Ngawang Drakpa of Dagpo

Lamrim texts in English

Classical Lamrim Books (in historical order)

Modern Lamrim Books & Commentaries

Meditations to Make Our Life Happy and Meaningful, Tharpa Publications (2003)

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. The Sakya school, too, has a somewhat similar textual form, the lamdré.
  2. http://www.thubtenchodron.org/GradualPathToEnlightenment/index.html Lamrim: the Gradual Path to Enlightenment
  3. http://vajra.us/lamrim/gus_lamrim_1.html Lam Rim Meditation — What is it?
  4. http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Abhisamayalankara Abhisamayalankara
  5. http://www.thubtenchodron.org/GradualPathToEnlightenment/LR_001_Qual_29Apr91.pdf Introduction to the Lamrim series; Preeminent qualities of the compilers and of the teachings
  6. http://kadampa.org/en/buddhism/stages-of-the-path Lamrim - The Stages of the Path
  7. Web site: Alison . Gopnik . Alison Gopnik . Could David Hume Have Known about Buddhism? Charles Francois Dolu, the Royal College of La Flèche, and the Global Jesuit Intellectual Network . 26 March 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130921055840/http://www.alisongopnik.com/papers_alison/gopnik_humestudies_withtoc.pdf . 2013-09-21 .
  8. In regards to translating ādīnava, Bullitt uses the word "drawbacks" while Ñāṇamoli & Bodhi (2001) use "danger" (p. 485), and Rhys Davids & Stede (1921-25) recommend "disadvantage, danger" (p. 99, entry for "Ādīnava," retrieved 2007-11-13 from https://archive.today/20120708211251/http://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.0:1:2695.pali).
  9. Majjhima Nikaya 56, To Upali, verse 18.Bhikkhu Nanamoli & Bhikku Bodhi.
  10. See, for instance, Bullitt (2005).
  11. Carole Anderson (2013), Pain and its Ending, p.143
  12. Web site: The Eighteen Commentaries. 2021-10-19. Jangchup Lamrim. en-US.
  13. Book: Rabjam, Longchen . Finding Rest in the Nature of Mind . Shambhala . 2017 . 9780834841161 . Boulder . 27.

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