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THE SNOW LION BUDDHIST NEWS & CATALOG
400 pp., ARFOHU
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"Being a Skillful Teacher," Aryadeva's Four Hundred Stanzas on the Middle Way Book Excerpt
This brief excerpt from Aryadeva's Four Hundred—a text often used by HH the Dalai Lama—illustrates the wisdom of being judicious in how we transmit spiritual teachings to others—and how we choose our own paths.
Whenever one is teaching students of different aptitudes or is in a position to guide and encourage a particular student's gradual development, choosing appropriate topics and practices is of vital importance. Ge-tsang (ke'u tshang), in his Channel for the Sea of the Clear Minded, Notes on the Short Exposition of the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment," mentions a story the great Atisa told when he came to Tibet which illustrates this.
Long ago in India the carcass of an elephant had been picked clean by big and small birds. Only the skeleton covered by the hide remained, and inside this tent-like shelter a meditator gained insight into emptiness. He became known as the Elephant-hide Meditator, and his fame spread. One of India's religious kings invited him to his court. Soon after his arrival, he began to teach the king about emptiness. The king, however, thought he was denying the existence of ordinary self-evident things and decided he was a nihilist masquerading as a great Buddhist teacher. Fearing that the laws he had enacted based on the ten virtues would not flourish among his subjects if he allowed such a teacher to remain there, he had him beheaded.
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He then invited another teacher who at once informed him that he did not like sensual pleasures and doubted whether he and the king would see eye to eye, since the king indulged in them a great deal. He began by explaining the faults in sense objects and gradually led the king toward higher insights. Eventually he taught him about emptiness and the king understood the nature of reality. Having done so, he felt enormous remorse for having killed his former teacher and made great efforts to purify this ill deed. One night the Elephant-hide Meditator appeared in a dream. He told the king to go to where the hide still was and to paint a picture of him on it. He was then to acknowledge his wrongdoing until he received signs of purification.
Both teachers had understood emptiness but one was a competent teacher while the other was not. The skillful one was able to help while the other, who lacked skill, caused harm.
It is equally important to try to understand our own disposition and aptitudes as well as possible, and to seek teaching and choose practices for which we have a natural inclination. If we do not assess our abilities and our stage of development honestly, we may embark on practices that are too advanced. Then, when we do not achieve the insights and experiences that these practices are intended to induce, we will feel disappointed and give up. When we undertake a practice, it should not be out of competitiveness or the wish to do what others are doing, but from a sense of personal conviction. In order to experience the benefits of any practice, we should approach it in a relaxed and gentle way, without forcing it. Regular and moderate practice is more valuable than sporadic bursts of intense practice, which are often followed by apathy or even antipathy. When we throw a pile of dry twigs on the fire, it flares and burns brightly for a short time and then dies down. A log does not ignite quickly, but once it does the fire grows hotter gradually and keeps burning for a long time.
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More about the book . . .
Gyel-tsap Dar-ma-rin-chen states that Aryadeva's Four Hundred Stanzas was written to explain how, according to Nagarjuna, the practice of the stages of yogic deeds enables those with Mahayana motivation to attain Buddhahood. Both Nagarjuna and Aryadeva urge those who want to understand reality to induce direct experience of ultimate truth through philosophic inquiry and reasoning. Aryadeva's text is more than a commentary on Nagarjuna's Treatise on the Middle Way, because it also explains the extensive paths associated with conventional truths. The Four Hundred Stanzas is one of the fundamental works of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy, and Gyel-tsap's commentary is arguably the most complete and important of the Tibetan commentaries on it.
Mahayana practitioners must eliminate not only obstructions to liberation but also obstructions to the perfect knowledge of all phenomena. This requires a powerful understanding of selflessness coupled with a vast accumulation of merit or positive energy resulting from the kind of love, compassion, and altruistic intention cultivated by bodhisattvas. The first half of the text focuses on the development of merit by showing how to correct distorted ideas about conventional reality and how to overcome disturbing emotions. The second half explains the nature of ultimate reality, that all phenomena are empty of intrinsic existence.
Gyel-tsap's commentary on Aryadeva's text takes the form of a lively dialogue that uses the words of Aryadeva to answer hypothetical and actual assertions, questions, and objections. Geshe Sonam Rinchen has provided additional commentary to the sections on conventional reality, elucidating their relevance for contemporary life.
"A fine and readable translation of an important work of Mahayana Buddhist thought. In the hands of Geshe Sonam Rinchen and Ruth Sonam, the Tibetan text translated in these pages truly becomes 'the essence of good explanations.'"—José Ignacio Cabezón, XIV Dalai Lama Professor of Tibetan Buddhism and Cultural Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara
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More about Geshe Sonam Rinchen and Ruth Sonam . . .
Geshe Sonam Rinchen was born in Tibet in 1933. He studied at Sera Je Monastery and in 1980 received the Lharampa Geshe degree. He is currently resident scholar at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala, India, where he teaches Buddhist philosophy and practice.
Ruth Sonam was raised in Ireland and graduated from Oxford University with an M.A. in Modern Languages. She began studying with Geshe Sonam Rinchen in 1978 and has worked as his interpreter since 1983.
Books by Geshe Sonam Rinchen
Books by Ruth Sonam
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