Buddhadharma

by Kalu Rinpoche

Twenty-five hundred years ago, through the experience. of meditation, Buddha Sakyamuni penetrated the essence of mind. By direct contemplation, he realised mind's profound nature and thereby attained enlightenment. This was his crowning experience. Having discovered the reality of what we are, he expressed his teaching and proposed a way for others to gain access to the experience he had realised. This teaching is called the Buddhadharma, the teaching of Buddha.

It is experiential knowledge that teaches us to recognise our fundamental nature and liberates us from falling prey to illusions, passions, and thoughts. This awareness grants real happiness during this life, at the time of death, and in future lives up to ultimate spiritual enlightenment-which is the state of Buddhahood. This knowledge develops universal wisdom and compassion.

THE INNER SCIENCE

Buddhadharma, which concerns our deepest inner nature, is called the inner science. This is the traditional name of what in the West is called Buddhism. The Tibetan expression rendered in Western languages as "Buddhism" is nangpa sangyepai cho. The last two terms taken together, sangyepai cho, refer to Buddhadharma, or the Dharma of awakening. "Dharma" in this context means "teaching," and the word "Buddha'' refers to the origin of these teachings- the historical Buddha-as well as to the spiritual realisation he attained, or Buddhahood. Nangpa means "inner" and emphasises the fact that these teachings are concerned not so much with the physical body and the outer world as with the mind abiding there, since the teachings' main purpose is to provide mental peace, well-being, and liberation. Buddhadharma is therefore the inner science, or the science of the interior, understood as the science of mind.

THE TRANSMISSION OF SPEECH AND MIND

All the words of the Buddha were recorded in writing and have been preserved in the Tibetan tradition in a collection of 108 volumes called the Kangyur, which means "the translation of the Buddha's words." The Kangyur contains texts called sutras which are the foundation of the first two levels of teachings, the Hinayana and the Mahayana. It also contains texts called tantras, which are the basis of the third level of teachings, the Vajrayana.

In addition to the Kangyur, which forms the basic canon of the tradition, there are all the commentaries and treatises that India's leading sages, scholars, and adepts subsequently composed in order to clarify Buddha's teachings. This collection is called the Tengyur, which means "the translation of the commentaries." The entire collection originally contained 240 volumes, of which only 215 remain today. In addition to the Kangyur and Tengyur, there are the thousands of volumes of commentaries by Tibetan scholars and adepts. This collection is known as the Sungbum.

All these teachings of the Buddha offer a way of awakening, of liberation from the illusions of ignorance and the afflictions those illusions induce. They are the remedies for the three fundamental mental poisons of desire, hatred, and ignorance, and all the resulting afflictive emotions. In their many subdivisions and combinations, these three basic poisons can result in up to 84,000 types of mental afflictions.

The sutra teachings are made up of three collections: the vinaya, or collection on discipline; the sutras, or collection of sayings; and the abhidharma, or collection on reality. These three collections are considered remedies to be applied to each of the three basic mental poisons. The vinaya, which clarifies the spirit of discipline and its rules, is the remedy for the 21,000 types of desire. The sutra collection is an account of the teachings given by Buddha Sakyamuni in different places and circumstances. It is the remedy for the 21,000 types of hatred. The abhidharma is an explanation of the nature of reality, existence, the world, and individuals; it remedies the 21,000 types of ignorance. The tantra ("continuity") teachings constitute the Vajrayana and are considered the remedy for the 21,000 types of combinations of the three mental poisons.

It would be difficult to study all these teachings completely, but the lineage lamas transmit to us their essence in the easily understandable form of direct oral instructions. All Buddha's teachings have been transmitted in writing through these texts, but also in mind through the realisation of the lineage lamas up to the present day by an uninterrupted transmission from master to disciple. In the Kagyu lineage ("the tradition of practice") alone, there has been an ocean of adepts over the centuries, a host of beings who arrived at supreme awakening. Even today, there are masters who have gained perfect realisation of these teachings. The various aspects of their transmission and accomplishment have remained intact up to the present; their teachings are thereby accessible to us in their entirety, in theory as well as in practice. It is up to us to have the intelligence, courage, and energy to practice these masters' instructions.