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THE SNOW LION NEWSLETTER
216 pp., paper, CHGATR
$18.95, Snow Lion special $15.16
Available September 2006
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Chöd in the Ganden Tradition: The Oral Instructions of Kyabje Zong Rinpoche Book Excerpt
by Kyabje Zong Rinpoche, edited by David Molk
"A fabulous book—uplifting and enlightening. David Molk has done a most excellent job of presenting the Chod teachings ("Cutting Out Self-Grasping from the Root") from the later great Kyabje Song Rinpoche. David's many years of study and practice shine through in his re-telling of this most amazing Dharma legacy. Although the book is entitled Chod in the Ganden Tradition, all Chod practitioners will find it useful and enlightening, regardless of their particular lineage affiliation."—Glenn Mullin, author
In Chöd in the Ganden Tradition we encounter not only the life and teachings of one of the greatest Tibetan masters in modern times, but also instructions in one of the most interesting Tibetan techniques for working with basic fears. The instructions are offered with the engaging directness, wit, and stories for which Rinpoche was legendary.
He gives detailed explanations of the actual practice, including such topics as the degree of fear "necessary" for Chöd practice and how "to remember dream and death, morning, noon, and night." Also provided are the Chöd sadhanas for chanting in English.
Below is a short excerpt from the book, giving some of Rinpoche's background, as well as a short section on the syllables OM AH HUM.
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Prior to Kyabje Zong Rinpoche's life, the practice of Chöd in the Ganden tradition was at the point of extinction. Even though Chöd remained an innermost essence practice of the Ganden tradition lineage masters, its outward practice was largely forbidden at major Gelugpa monasteries starting in the 1930s. More generally, the decimation of the Tibetan population and its culture that occurred as a result of the Chinese invasion and occupation of Tibet was also responsible for the dwindling strength of Chöd practice. Kyabje Zong Rinpoche encouraged renewed practice of Chöd at Ganden Monastery in Tibet when he was abbot of Ganden Shartse and later propagated Chöd in the Tibetan exile community in India. At Ganden Monastery and other Gelugpa monasteries, the practice of Chöd is once again strong...
It was impossible for Kyabje Zong Rinpoche's qualities not to shine forth. His mere presence affected people profoundly. When he was young he would not accept special treatment as a tulku, but studied as an ordinary monk and completed his training, intending only to devote his life to yogic practice. Yet he was called upon to become abbot of Ganden Monastery, and the spiritual guide for an entire generation of Tibetans. He was fearlessly outspoken in maintaining purity of Buddhadharma, and just as rigorous in his own self-discipline.
We once came across a large collection of interviews with Tibetan tulkus. In each of the interviews the lamas described their previous incarnations. Seeing Kyabje Zong Rinpoche's name in the table of contents, we turned the pages, wondering if we might learn something of Rinpoche's previous lives. Instead we found a virtual indictment of the entire tulku system. He said nothing at all about his own previous incarnations. The gist of what Rinpoche said in the interview was that attachment between lamas and their disciples sometimes played too strong a role in the search for and identification of their reincarnations. Rinpoche would sometimes say that, if he were asked for his preference with regard to a teacher, he would choose a highly trained geshe over a recognized tulku who had not attained a similar level of education. He said on another occasion that if a child appeared and claimed to be the Zong Lama after he himself had passed away, the child should not be believed. "Throw ashes in his mouth, and just give him Dharma books to study, but nothing else!" he said.
Kyabje Zong Rinpoche was a consummate master of Sutra and Tantra, eminently qualified for practice of Chöd. In the Ganden tradition, Chöd is viewed as quite advanced, a kind of "graduate level" practice, to be most fully practiced after having completed study of both Sutra and Tantra. While inner practice of Chöd is pervasive in Mahayana, dealing as it does with realization of conventional and ultimate bodhichitta, the outer practice was kept carefully hidden. It is a mark of Kyabje Zong Rinpoche's confidence of realization that, at the request of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, he was willing to cross cultural boundaries and teach Western students the most profound secrets of Tantra and Chöd. Laying bare the path to enlightenment, he urged purity of practice and inspired disciples through his unique example.
Kyabje Zong Rinpoche
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In the Ganden tradition it is considered ideal to maintain Pratimoksha discipline outwardly, while inwardly engaging in the bodhisattva's heroic sacrifice of self for other, and secretly practicing Highest Yoga Tantra to manifest enlightenment swiftly. Heruka-Vajravarahi Tantra, and, in particular, Vajravarahi in her outer, inner and secret (Tröma Nagmo) forms, is central to Chöd practice. The teachings and actions of Kyabje Zong Rinpoche made it abundantly clear that he had completed this Tantric path. He was widely held to be Heruka-Vajravarahi. He was an embodiment of the complete Buddhadharma, whom any practitioner would have been awed to have had as his or her guru.
Kyabje Zong Rinpoche never watered down or sugarcoated the teachings to make them more palatable, nor would he pretend that the spiritual path was easy and required no effort. He would often say that a subject he was explaining could only be fully understood by the highly educated geshes. Yet by his very willingness to come to the West and reveal the complete path, including Tantric practice, he empowered students with the confidence that they, too, could accomplish the spiritual path. He said, "In the beginning take your Guru as your teacher, in the middle take the scriptures as your teacher, in the end take your own mind as your teacher."
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It is essential to understand the significance of the syllables OM AH HUM in the blessing of the inner offering. HUM is the seed syllable of Buddha Akshobya, whose nature is the wisdom of dharmadhatu, the vajra mind of all the Buddhas. At the time of the result, when we become Buddhas, we are never separated from this wisdom of dharmadhatu, the wisdom that realizes emptiness directly. This dharmadhatu wisdom purifies all delusion, negativities, and other faults. The wisdom realizing emptiness is so powerful that it can easily purify the substances in the skullcup. That is why HUM is visualized as descending into and purifying the skullcup substances.
AH is the seed syllable of Buddha Amitabha, whose nature is the vajra speech of all the buddhas. "Amitabha" is actually colloquial Sanskrit. The proper name in Sanskrit is "Amita Deva." Amita means "undying," or "deathless." A is negative, and mita means to die. The seed syllable AH dissolving into the substances transforms them into nectars of deathless immortality.
OM is the seed syllable of Vairochana, whose nature is the vajra body of all the buddhas. Vairochana represents the pure body of all the countless Buddhas. The seed syllable OM dissolving into the substances makes them inexhaustible in quantity.
All of us have the five aggregates. If these are purified, their nature becomes one with the buddhas. If we purify our physical form, this becomes Buddha Vairochana. In the same way, the feeling aggregate becomes Ratnasambhava, the discrimination aggregate becomes Amitabha, the compositional factor aggregate becomes Amoghasiddhi, and the consciousness aggregate becomes Akshobya.
To summarize, we should think that through the power of these three syllables dissolving, the skullcup substances are transformed into the three nectars—medicinal, life prolonging, and undefiled wisdom nectar. By just tasting this nectar, the sick can be healed, someone dead for up to seven days can be revived, and the wisdom of uncontaminated bliss and emptiness is experienced. "Contaminated" in this context refers to delusion, so all of our present enjoyments are completely contaminated. |
Table of Contents
Kyabje Zong Rinpoche: A Biographical Profile
Introduction: The "Sacred Cutting" of Chöd
Taking Vast Scriptural Learning
as Personal Advice
Kyabje Zong Rinpoche and
His Previous Lives
Transcending Partisanship
Dialectical Debate and the Middle Way
Putting Study to Use in Practice
Maintaining Pure View of the Guru
Practicing with the Wisdom
of Compassion
Chöd in the Ganden Tradition:
The Oral Instructions
An Overview of the Practice of Chöd
Lineage of the Practice
Place of Practice
Basis for Practice
Advice on Practice
Preliminary Practices of Chöd
Going for Refuge and
Generating Bodhichitta
Guru Yoga: Gateway to
Empowering Blessings
Accumulating Merit through
Seven-limb Prayer
and Mandala Offering
Purifying Obstructions and Nonvirtue
through the Descent of Nectar
from AH
Actual Practice of Chöd:
Gathering the Two Accumulations
Gathering the Accumulation of Merit
by Offering the Illusory Body
The White Distribution
The Red Distribution
The Manifold Distribution
Giving Dharma and Meditating
on Taking and Giving
Gathering the Accumulation of Wisdom
through Meditation on Emptiness
The Three Spheres of Giving
The Logical Reasons
Three Methods for Meditation on
Emptiness in Chöd Practice
Mara Hindrances in Chöd Practice
Dedicating the Accumulations
to Unsurpassed Great Enlightenment
Concluding Advice
Use of the Ritual Damaru
and Thighbone Trumpet
The Qualities of Buddha
and Je Tsongkhapa
Colophon
Appendices |
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More about the authors . . .
Kyabje Zong Rinpoche was born in Eastern Tibet in 1904 and became abbot of Ganden Shartse Monastery in 1937. He was the first principal of the Central Institute of Tibetan Higher Studies in Sarnath.
David Molk began to study with Zong Rinpoche twenty-five years ago and has translated for many Tibetan lamas. He lives in Big Sur, California.
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