The Mahamudra Lineage Prayer: A Guide to Practice

155 Pages·2018·5.73 MB·English

by  Khenchen Thrangu

Snow Lion An imprint of Shambhala Publications, Inc.
4720 Walnut Street
Boulder, Colorado 80301
www.shambhala.com
© 2018 by Khenchen Thrangu All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage
and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Cover art: Detail of thangka of Buddha Vajradhara surrounded by mahasiddhas. 17th century c.e. Photo:
ierry Ollivier. ©RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY
Cover design: Gopa & Ted2, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Shakya Dorje, translator. | O’Hearn, Peter,
1959– translator. | Levinson, Jules B., translator. | Roberts, Peter Alan, 1952– translator. | O-rgyan-’phrin-
las-rdo-rje, Karmapa XVII, 1985– writer of foreword. | Thrangu, Rinpoche, 1933– Works. Selections.
English. | Rang-byung-rdo-rje, Karmapa III, 1284–1339. Nyes don phyag rgya chen po’i smon lam. | Rang-
byung-rdo-rje, Karmapa III, 1284–1339. Nyes don phyag rgya chen po’i smon lam. English.
Title: The Mahamudra lineage prayer: a guide to practice / Khenchen Thrangu; translated by Sakya Dorje,
Lama Yeshe Gyamtso, Jules Levinson, and Peter Alan Roberts from oral teachings; foreword by the
Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje.
Description: First edition. | Boulder: Snow Lion, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017054377 | ISBN 9781559394819 (pbk.: alk. paper) eISBN 9780834841819
Subjects: LCSH: Rang-byung-rdo-rje, Karmapa III, 1284–1339.
Nyes don phyag rgya chen po’i smon lam. | Kar-ma-pa (Sect)—Prayers and Devotions—History and
criticism. | Mahāmudrā (Tantric rite) Classification: LCC BQ7682.6.R363 M3413 2018 | DDC 294.3/444
—DC23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017054377
v5.3.2
a
CONTENTS
Foreword, by the Seventeenth Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje
Editor’s Preface
The Mahamudra Lineage Prayer
1. The Mahamudra Lineage
2. Practicing the Genuine Dharma
3. Shamatha Meditation
4. Vipashyana Meditation
5. Conduct
Appendix A: The Short or Close Lineage of Mahamudra
Appendix B: The Four Greater and Eight Lesser Schools of the Dagpo Kagyu
Appendix C: The Eight Forms of Leisure and the Ten Endowments
Appendix D: The Ten Virtuous, the Ten Nonvirtuous, and the Ten Special Deeds
Appendix E: Nine Ways of Placing the Mind
Appendix F: The Eight Consciousnesses
Appendix G: The Five Paths and the Ten Bodhisattva Levels
Appendix H: The Visualization for The Mahamudra Lineage Prayer
Notes
Glossary
Glossary of Tibetan Terms
Annotated Bibliography
Index
E-mail Sign-Up
FOREWORD
T
HE MAHAMUDRA LINEAGE Prayer was composed by Pengar Jampal Zangpo,
one of the two tutors of the Seventh Karmapa, Chödrak Gyatso. Jampal Zangpo
was himself a well-known Mahamudra lineage holder, which is why he
composed this lineage prayer. In the opening verse, he pays homage to the
Mahamudra lineage, including all the branches of the Dagpo Kagyu. In the
verses that follow, he introduces both the preliminary practice and the main
points of the Mahamudra practice, using vivid pith instructions—for example,
“Detachment is the foot of meditation,” “Devotion is the head of meditation,”
“Nondistraction is the body of meditation,” and so forth. The way in which the
prayer combines the practice of Mahamudra and the stages of the path makes it
very special. The prayer provides a concise guide to practicing Mahamudra; it
expresses clearly the main points to be focused on, uses simple language and
everyday imagery, is easy for everyone to understand, and can be recited by
anyone in any of the Dagpo Kagyu traditions. These are the reasons it has
become so important, not just in the Karma Kamtsang tradition, but in other
branches of the Dagpo Kagyu too.
Before Lord Gampopa, the Mahamudra practices were restricted Vajrayana
tantric teachings, requiring special empowerments. They were oral teachings
transmitted to only a few close disciples and advanced practitioners. Gampopa
introduced the sutric tradition of Mahamudra, using the King of Samadhi Sutra,
and made these teachings accessible to many more people, without the need for
tantric requirements. From that time on, the Mahamudra practice became very
popular.
Having been ordained and educated in the Kadampa lamrim tradition founded
by Jowo Atisha, Gampopa later studied the Kagyu tradition of Mahamudra with
Jetsun Milarepa, who became his principal teacher. Gampopa then melded these
two strands together. He regarded Mahamudra meditation as the highest possible
Dharma practice, the very essence of the Dharma, and hence it required a strong,
basic training. Because renunciation is the first step in becoming a Dharma
practitioner, Gampopa introduced the four contemplations from the Kadampa
lamrim tradition that are designed to develop renunciation: this precious human
birth, and death and impermanence, in order to cut attachment to this life; karma,
cause and effect, and the sufferings of samsara, in order to counter the desire for
future lives. In The Mahamudra Lineage Prayer, the verse beginning
“Detachment is the foot of meditation” is intended to encompass all four
contemplations. The prayer illustrates how Gampopa had integrated the lamrim
stages of the path into the Mahamudra tradition.
Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche is a great scholar, a great practitioner, and a
contemporary Karma Kagyu master, who has dedicated his whole life to the
service of the Dharma. He has introduced many students in both the East and the
West to Buddhadharma and meditation, and His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai
Lama appointed him to be my personal tutor when I came to India. He has given
many teachings on the practice of Mahamudra and classical Mahamudra texts. I,
therefore, welcome the publication of this compilation of his teachings on The
Mahamudra Lineage Prayer, which extend over nearly forty years. He is now
advanced in years, and I pray that he may live long and continue to turn the vast
and profound wheel of Dharma for the benefit of all sentient beings.
Finally, my thanks go to Clark Johnson, a long-standing student of Khenchen
Thrangu Rinpoche and director of Namo Buddha Publications, for compiling
and editing this collection, to the translators Sakya Dorje, Lama Yeshe Gyamtso,
Jules Levinson, and Peter Alan Roberts, and to all others involved in making this
book. I am sure that it will bring great benefit to all who read it, both increasing
their understanding of the prayer and informing their practice.
The Seventeenth Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje
March 28, 2018
EDITOR’S PREFACE
F
OR THE PAST forty years, Thrangu Rinpoche has begun all his teachings by
reciting The Mahamudra Lineage Prayer (Tib. Dorje Chang Thungma, literally
Short Vajradhara). There are two reasons why he does this. First, this prayer is
comprehensive: it lists the great adepts of the Mahamudra lineage, reviews the
common and special preliminaries, provides instructions for Shamatha (calm
abiding) and Vipashyana (special insight) meditation, sets forth the essentials of
Mahamudra practice, and finally makes an aspiration to achieve enlightenment.
All this is done in twenty-nine lines, with each line having just nine syllables,
making it a song of realization (Skt. doha). Although both Thrangu Rinpoche
and the author of this prayer are members of the Karma Kagyu lineage, this
prayer centers around the practice of Mahamudra, which is also practiced in
other lineages. We have therefore named it The Mahamudra Lineage Prayer.
The second reason why Rinpoche always recites The Mahamudra Lineage
Prayer requires a more detailed explanation. This lineage prayer has also been
called The Kagyu Lineage Chant. The reason I use the term “prayer” instead of
“chant” is that this text not only tells us how to achieve enlightenment but also
expresses the aspiration to do so. So, the person reciting it is, in effect, praying
for enlightenment. However, we must realize that prayer in theistic religions is
quite different from prayer in Buddhism. In many non-Buddhist traditions, a
prayer is a process whereby an individual makes a request to a god or gods or a
supreme being for some kind of help and then if the individual is sincere and
devoted enough and makes the proper offerings, the being(s) prayed to will
reward the individual by granting his or her wish. However, Buddhists do not
believe in a god or a supreme being, so there is actually no one to pray to. Rather
Buddhists believe that all sentient beings possess the potential, often called
“buddha nature,” which allows them to reach buddhahood. All of us are not,
however, enlightened because this potential is obscured by our negative
thoughts, habits, and actions that prevent the buddha nature from actually being
realized. When Buddhists “pray,” it is to receive help in reducing our
obscurations and negativities so that we can develop infinite love and
compassion for all beings in order to help them achieve enlightenment. Where
does this help come from? It comes from the thousands and thousands of highly
realized masters of the lineage who through their practice have created a vast
reservoir of positive energy; it is this energy that we are trying to tap into with
our aspirational prayer to the lineage. The positive energy is there, but whether
we can benefit from it depends completely upon our own training, actions, and
beliefs.
This positive energy of the lineage and its incredible importance can be
illustrated by examining Thrangu Rinpoche’s life. The present Thrangu
Rinpoche (“Thrangu Rinpoche” literally means “a tulku, or reincarnation, from
Thrangu Monastery) was born in 1933, and he is the ninth incarnation of the
Thrangu tulkus. The eighth Thrangu Tulku was widely known in Tibet for his
healing ability, which involved some very unorthodox methods. For example, at
times he would spit on the sick person and they would be miraculously healed.
Another time he rode his horse while waving a sword through a crowd of
Tibetans who had come to see him, and many in the crowd were spontaneously
healed. The eighth Thrangu Tulku had one major regret and that was that he was
asked by the Fifteenth Karmapa not to study or teach. Toward the end of his life,
he was visited in his monastery by the famous Nyingma master Mipham
Rinpoche, who was given a retreat hut at Thrangu Monastery in which to
practice and write. When Mipham Rinpoche left the monastery, he asked the
eighth Thrangu Tulku what he (Mipham) could do for him. Thrangu Tulku
replied that he wanted Mipham to make the aspiration that in Thrangu Tulku’s
next lifetime he (Thrangu Tulku) would be a great scholar and teach many
people.
A few years after the eighth Thrangu Rinpoche passed away in 1930, his
monastery sent a delegation to Tsurphu (hundreds of miles away) to consult with
the Karmapa to find his reincarnation. At that time, Tibet had no roads—only
horse and yak trails—and only a few bridges over steep valleys with wild
rushing rivers. Many months later the delegation reached Tsurphu and consulted
with the Sixteenth Karmapa, who was a teenager at the time. He dictated a letter
saying that the Thrangu reincarnation would be found in a certain area, and he
gave the name of the reincarnation’s father and mother. Because of the
Karmapa’s young age, the delegation decided to consult the Eleventh Tai Situpa
to get another prediction. They traveled several hundred more miles to the Tai
Situpa’s monastery and received a recognition letter from him. The Tai Situpa,
without seeing the Karmapa’s letter, wrote a second letter, which turned out to
make a prediction identical to the one that the Karmapa had made except that he
used the father’s name and the Karmapa used the father’s nickname! The
delegation then traveled many months back to Thrangu Monastery. On the way,
they found the small village described in the letters, a village that neither the Tai
Situpa or the Karmapa had ever visited, and “discovered” Thrangu Rinpoche.
Later, the Sixteenth Karmapa, Rigpe Dorje, became the present Thrangu
Rinpoche’s root guru. The Sixteenth Karmapa was later reincarnated, and his
reincarnation was found based on a letter the Sixteenth Karmapa had given the
Twelfth Tai Situpa before his death. In the year 2000, the Seventeenth Karmapa
left Tibet and came to India, where Thrangu Rinpoche became one of his main
tutors. Also the Twelfth Tai Situpa became one of Thrangu Rinpoche’s students.
I have given this brief account not simply because it is an interesting story, but
also to show both how very interconnected the Kagyu lineage and the tulku
reincarnation system are and how aspirational prayers to the lineage can lead to
profound results. Mipham’s prayers to the lineage for Thrangu Rinpoche did
come true—Thrangu Rinpoche has been recognized as one of the highest
scholars of the Karma Kagyu lineage.
A lineage in Tibetan Buddhism is constituted by an unbroken succession of
accomplished masters of a set of teachings or a certain practice. They often
become masters in a lineage by practicing in retreat for many, many years until
they obtain signs of realization and can do extraordinary things such as
predicting the location where a reincarnation will be found what the names of his
or her parents will be. Once they have this level of attainment, they can then
assemble capable students and have them do the practices until the students have
achieved as high a level of realization as their master. Then the pupils become
the masters. This interaction between master and student has been going on in
the Kagyu lineage in an unbroken line for the last nine hundred years. Such a
lineage differs greatly from traditions where congregations come together to
elect their leaders. It also differs from the traditions of great mystics such as
Madame Blavatsky, Gurdjieff, Rudolf Steiner, and so on, where a very brilliant
and creative person lives but no one with equal abilities succeeds them when
they pass away, so that over time the tradition and its knowledge becomes
greatly diluted and fragmented. This is called “having no lineage” in Tibetan.