The Buddhist Hour

Script No. 391

Broadcast live on Hillside 88.0 FM

on Sunday 24 July 2005CE   2549 Buddhist Era

This script is entitled:

Atisha’s A Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment Part III

This week we will be continuing our presentation of Master John D. Hughes commentary on the Buddhist text "A Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment", which was written by the great scholar and adept Atisha more than eight hundred years ago.

For the sake of new listeners, we will summarise the contents of the parts I and II.

In part I, we introduced Atisha as the great scholar and meditative adept who, at the request of the king of Tibet, composed a text entitled "A Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment." The text concisely disseminates the 84,000 teachings of the Buddha into one reading.

During his life he achieved many great things, such as having a vision of Tara at Bodhgaya where she explained to him the importance of Bodhicitta. Soon after he left for present day Sumatra to find the great master Suvarnadvipa, whom he studied under for many years. After his return to India he was appointed as the Abbott of Nalanda Monastery, the greatest Buddhist University there has ever been, and was heralded for his incredible ability in discourse.

Later he was requested by the King of Tibet to travel to the Land of Snows and give instructions on Buddhist practice and philosophy. After consideration, he traveled to Tibet where he composed "A Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment."

We then continued to read the text. If you are interested, you can find the script for part I on www.bdcublessings.org.au.

On the second program we first introduced you to the method of transformation, a logical analysis of how one, in seven distinct steps, begins from a mistaken notion and finally directly perceives the correct view.

We then read the first part of Master John D. Hughes oral commentary on “A Lamp on the Path to Enlightenment”, where he and three of his students discussed the purpose of the text and also how to pay homage to the mahabodhisattva Manjusri.

We finished last week while Master Hughes was instructing his student Minnie on the correct way of reciting the mantra of Manjusri. We continue with that now.

JDH: Right, now take your Mantra beads. Do the Mantra with ninety-eight d-d-d-d-d's. Away you go. Homage. This is homage to Bodhisattva Manjushri.

MINNIE: Om Ah Ra Pa Tsa Na Di H d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d

JDH: How did you find that Minnie?

MINNIE: Oh it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.

JDH: Do it again.

MINNIE: Is that Tsa?

JDH: Do it again.

MINNIE: (Laughs) Om Ah Ra Pa Tsa Na Di H-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d

JDH: Homage to the Bodhisattva Manjushri, the ever-youthful one. Homage to the Bodhisattva Manjushri, the ever youthful one. Homage to the Bodhisattva Manjushri, the ever youthful one.

MINNIE: (Continues d-d-d-d-d's)

JDH: How was it that time?

MINNIE: I realised it doesn't matter how it comes out as long as your mind is right.

JDH: All right, do it again. Homage to the Bodhisattva Manjushri, the ever youthful one. 

MINNIE: Om Ah Ra Pa Tsa Na Di H-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d

JDH: What comes in your mind now?

MINNIE: It's like I was being guided, less resistance to what the sounds were.

JDH: Do it again. Homage to the Bodhisattva Manjushri, the ever youthful one.

MINNIE: Om Ah Ra Pa Tsa Na Di H-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d

JDH: And what happened that time?

MINNIE: It's like I was, I was moving off my ritual and going to the, then I was being guided. Then I kept trying to go back to my ritual.

JDH: Homage to the Bodhisattva Manjushri. Do it again.

MINNIE: Om Ah Ra Pa Tsa Na Di H-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d

JDH: May 21 Taras protect you.

MINNIE: (continuing chanting)

JDH: What happened that time?

MINNIE: It's like, when I was doing it on pride I was, oh I'm correct now, but then I, when I went to just drop pride then it was, it's like I didn't have to do anything.

JDH: Do it again. Homage to the Bodhisattva Manjushri, the ever youthful one.

MINNIE: Om Ah Ra Pa Tsa Na Di H-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d

JDH: What did you find out that time? Homage to the Bodhisattva Manjushri, the ever youthful one. What did you find out that time?

MINNIE: It's like I saw that you can't learn if you're on smart ass minds.

JDH: So, Atisha's dedication to the, this text, involves homage to the Bodhisattva Manjushri therefore if you wish to get the Atisha transmission it would be necessary to follow the instructions. So Atisha's purpose in writing the Lamp on the Enlightenment Path was at the request of his disciple Bang Chub'od.

So the first four slokes read, "I bow in great reverence to all past, present and future Victors, to their doctrine and communities," communities meaning Sanghas, doctrine meaning Dhamma. "I shall light a lamp for the path to enlightenment at the request of my good disciple Bang Chub'od."

So if the, if the being had not requested, presumably Atisha wouldn't have written. The commentary, there's a commentary on the difficult points of the lamp for the enlightenment path, the second text. And the dedicatory verse on the commentary starts off with, "I pay homage to the noble and blessed Tara. I pay homage to Manjushri, Prince of old, to Chakrasamvara, the triple-pledge King. To Lokesvara and Tara in respect I bow."

"Bowing in sincerity to the gurus Maitreya, Asanga and Guru Suvarnadvipa, and to Manjugosha, Shantideva and Bodhibhadra, I will write this Commentary to give sunlight."

"Since the lamp for the path is only a moonbeam, on the good path to Enlightenment's heart; whatever details may be unclear in it, this sun-like commentary will light the way."

"Although I have no talent for treatise composing, I am writing this clearer explanation at my devout and ardent disciple's request, so that the Buddha's teaching may increase, and disputes over scripture may be put to rest."

"For wise men to produce wonders and average men to understand with ease, and so lesser men will put  aside their passions, I write this Commentary on Difficult Points."

"With so much meaning in so short a text, this treatise may be hard to comprehend; and without holy men for guidance one will altogether go astray."

"Therefore, an intelligent person wins the favour of a Guru, and asks for the right personal guidance which is in accord with the Guru tradition."

So there is a commentary which was written to, like footnotes if you like, or assistance to understanding the text. In regard to the text, "The instruction I give here comes like drops of honey and nectar to me from the holy Gurus Suvarnadvipa and the glorious and Venerable Bodhibhadra. And faced with the repeated requests of Byang-chub-'od, my disciple of princely rank, and of the Monk Tshul-khrims rgyal-ba, my disciple of long standing, I am going to gather up those drops of personal guidance I received, and follow both what my Gurus gave me, and what the sutras and treatises have to say."

JDH: So Minnie, what did you get out of that part?

MINNIE: To stop being stingy to myself.

JDH: Julie, what did you get out of that part?

JOD: Um, to drop everything and have respect for all...

JDH: So, the point is that the Buddha Dhamma is a continuing tradition. If you read the biography of Atisha, there's one written by an Indian lady I met in Bangladesh who spent about twenty years doing that, a biography of Atisha. There's other ones.

But Atisha didn't exist in a vacuum, in fact if you read the biography of Atisha you'll see he went to many, many teachers. Come and help me Nick. Ended up with the request of the King of Tibet to, if you like, unify the Buddhism. So if you see that the, if you could reconnect to Atisha then in turn you would reconnect to his former Teachers and so on. So your not existing in a Buddha Dhamma that hasn't got past history or past connections. In other words there is a tradition that's gone on and on.

Now the Atisha texts have been used for eight hundred or so years. When something is used for eight hundred years many generations of people, in an unending chain if you wish, have connected like one on one, one on one, one on one, one on one, and there is a great Lama, Tibetan Lama who lives in America, who I met and he is a very great exponent of Atisha. You've met the chief monk of Bangladesh, Atisha's birthplace is in what we call today Bangladesh.

In the most Venerable Suddhanandas Mahathero's Monastery, where I stay, are the relics of Atisha. The Chinese gave them to him, so in the meditation hall of this Monastery are Atisha relics. All his life he's liked Atisha. Atisha has always inspired him and when I went on to Bangladesh it was the celebration of the anniversary of the birth of Atisha. Special people came from everywhere to pay homage to Atisha.

So although we say Atisha has passed away, you might like to think in your mind what does it mean to be passed away. Is there anything left over or transmitted for the next generation of the next generation of the next generation. I think you can see in Atisha's case he was a very renowned man in his age that something he wrote is used 800 years later and is used today.

The, if you understand and you think about it for a while there must have been great content in Atisha because, in those 800 years, if the Atisha text and the commentary was not useful and people don't carry forward things that are not useful, the usefulness, the usefulness is the keynote.

So, the commentary then says, because Bang Chub'oe is ever asking me for the seven fold explanation saying the meaning is not clear in your root text, I'll write for the sake of his request. He was referring to what the great scholar, Acarya Vasubandhu said, “Those who preach a Sutra's meaning should give short instructions which include; one - its usefulness; two - a summary; three - the word definitions; four - its relevance; five - objections; six - responses and seven – explanation.” So the seven fold explanation. If you only explained or preached or talked about a Sutra's usefulness and you didn't go on any further then what would happen then, if you didn't go on further? Minnie? What do you think? Julie, what do you think?

Julie: There would be no understanding of it.

JDH: Frank, what do you think?

FTC: The student's minds aren't sufficiently prepared, for example their definitions might be quite different to the true meanings of the words. They might be holding onto objections, which could be dispelled if it was discussed prior to learning the text. So, it's not enough in all cases to have the student’s mind easily teachable to just stop at the earlier part, the reason.

JDH: So the seven-fold explanation we will start by giving short instructions and commenting on the usefulness of the texts. What is the usefulness of this text Minnie? What's it, what use is it?

Minnie: I don't know.

JDH: What's the usefulness of this text?

JOD: It's to come to full enlightenment.

JDH: It's to come to full enlightenment. That's what it's used for. What's the usefulness of this text Frank?

FTC: I haven't heard the text but I would imagine that that's part of the process of coming to enlightenment.

JDH: "If men of", this is the commentary, "If men of insight rely on a Guru, and are taught according to this method, the seven-fold explanation method, they quickly comprehend the good path of the Mahayana, the path of the great wagons, great vehicle, and the way of the superior person, and thus I will explain the path of the Bodhisattvas according to the Sutras, texts and my Guru's teaching."

Where does my explanation begin? It begins there, in the basic text starting with the first stanza, the first four slokes, stanza one. "I bow in reverence to all past, present and future victors, to their doctrine and communities, I shall light a lamp for the path to enlightenment at the request of my good disciple Bang Chub'oe." The first half of the stanza is easy to understand, "I bow with great reverence to all past, present and future victors, to their doctrine and communities." In the second half, "by good disciple", I mean a fit vessel for the doctrine of the Mahayana. And who is this good disciple? He is the man we call Bang Chub'oe."

"At the request of" refers to his saying to me, in this area of Tibet there are persons who misinterpret the Mahayana path of the Buddha's teaching. Gurus and spiritual friends are arguing back and forth about things they themselves do not comprehend. They all have their own logic to analyse their suppositions about the profound view and broad practice. With so much disagreement on all sides I beg you to clear up these doubts for us. And so because of his repeated entreaty, and for his sake, I do light this lamp for the path of enlightenment following the teachings of the sutras and tradition.”

If you ask where that lamp for the path to enlightenment is to be found, it is the main part of my basic text from the stanza on the superior person, which I will read later, through to the last stanza, sixty-seven, on Tantra.

So in Atisha's day, Tibetan monastic life was somewhat in disarray and that was due to both political and religious influence.

Alright, now the, in Atisha's day for political and religious reasons if you like the Tibetan Buddhism became into disarray, and at the request of the king of Tibet, they got Atisha there to, if you like homogenise or make even the various Buddhism’s.

What sort of disarrays or disorders do you imagine was in Tibet at the time, Minnie? Frank?

FTC: Oh, the introduction to that said that individuals were arguing backwards and forwards about the profound view which they didn't understand anyway.  So they'd been bickering and had gone to views.

JDH: What do you think Julie?

JOD: Um, conflicting views. People that have gone off just conflicting.

JDH: Well, the main point about the text, its usefulness, its usefulness was designed because of this disputing between Buddhists.

This was the request that the disciple said, "In this area of Tibet there are persons who misinterpret the Mahayana path of the Buddha's teaching. Gurus and spiritual friends are arguing back and forth about things they themselves do not comprehend. They all have their own logic to analyse their suppositions about the profound view and broad practice. With so much disagreement on all sides, I beg you to clear up these doubts for us."

So the request was to tidy up the doubts of the different types of logic used and that is its usefulness. It is useful, it is useful to dispel conflicting logic.

Now, let's see what we mean by logic that conflicts. Can you think of an example of logic that is in conflict? We say, "the internal angles of a triangle", if you remember Euclid, "equal, the sum of the internal angles equal a hundred and eighty degrees for a triangle. Do you remember that much? Minnie? Do you remember that much Julie? Do you remember that much Frank?

FTC: I'd forgotten Spike.

JDH: Alright. If you draw any triangle and you measure the angles and you add them together, they always come to a hundred and eighty degrees, irrespective of the shape of the triangle. That goes back two thousand years to the Greeks, to Euclid. Do you know that Minnie?

MM: No.

JDH: That's the, one of the simplest, most elementary things in geometry.

Now, so that seems straightforward enough. Actually if you draw triangles on flat bits of paper, flat surfaces, and you measure them, and you could measure accurately and could draw them accurately, it's always difficult because you can't take a perfect measurement, but if you try it out with a set of triangles you would find that it's true.   

Now, if you take a sphere and you draw a triangle on a sphere, a three-dimensional sphere, and you measure the angles into your angles of the triangle you find they do not add up to a hundred and eighty degrees because the proposition only applies in two dimensions. But if you put a triangle into three dimensions they don't add up. And similarly mathematically you can put a triangle into four, five, six, any dimensions.

Now, if you have got two different propositions in one sphere of reference, the two dimensional surfaces, they do add up to a hundred and eighty. However, if you made a very big area, if you know anything about modern physics, due to the curvature of space if you took a, if you tried to make triangle over vast light years I presume due to the curvature of space you couldn't get a two dimensional surface because space itself curves.

Are you familiar with these ideas Minnie?

MM: (Laughs) No! I've got no idea.

JDH: Are you familiar with these ideas Julie?

JOD: Yes, from Nargajuna, same Spike.

JDH: Are you familiar with these ideas Frank?

FTC: Yeah.

JDH: Alright. So what happens is when you specify a proposition in logic you have to define what your universal field is in mathematics. So, if your universal field is two dimensions you can write A plus B plus C if they're the internal angles, equals one hundred and eighty degrees. For the universal set of two dimensional plane, however the minute you try to do it in three dimensions the rule ceases to be true.

Now, what is the universal plane on which your logic is based Minnie?

What is the universal plane on which your logic is based Julie?

JOD: Kamaloka. 

JDH: And what is the universal plane on which your logic is based Frank?

Frank: Yeah, just human birth.

JDH: Manjushri comprehends the three worlds. Behind me on the wall is the three walls. Now whereas human bodies move, how can they move? They can move by walking, they can move by falling over cliffs under the force of gravity if you like, they can move in planes, trains and automobiles if you remember that film. Frank wiggles his toes, his body moves, his thumbs move. Under what influence did that happen you may wonder.

Minnie's hand moved, her thumb moves. Under what influence did that happen?

So, if we were talking about the logic of moving bodies, which goes into the realm of physics, we could develop a set of logic to measure the conditions under which things move and do not move. That is quite reasonable provided we include as a first proposition that bodies really do move. If there was some hallucination that people had and they thought bodies were moving, when in fact they never moved, we would have to devise another set of logic to explain the apparancy of the phenomena.

So, for example, outside the wind is blowing. The flag is moving on the flagpole. If you went to look I think you'd see that it's moving. We say the flames of the fire in the fireplace are moving. Does the mind move? Does it really move, or is it merely taking up different positions of viewing things? Does the mind move?

If you could take a mirror you could see a reflection of your own face in the mirror if you put it up to your face. We say there is a real reflection but we call it a reflection. We don't say there is a real face in the mirror. We say the real face is our face with which we look and we say the reflection is unreal relative to the real.

So we talk about, quite normally, in usual everyday talk, we talk about things that are real or we talk about things that are unreal. By distinguishing the real from the unreal we're able to operate quite well in the human world. Julie's car has a flat tire. If she drove it with that she would shred the inner tube, if it's got one, or damage the tire.

Having made decisions about what is real and what is unreal, then act accordingly, in accordance with what we perceive as real. However if we mistake the unreal for the real we do still act on the unreal.

Thank you for joining us for the third installment of “Atisha’s A Lamp on the Path to Enlightenment.” We hope that you will join us next week for the fourth part of the series. If you have missed parts one or two, or would like to read a copy of this script, they will be available for download on our website www.bdcublessings.org.au.

From today's program we can conclude the following;

?The importance of having respect for Buddha Dhamma Teachers to create a link to access the knowledge that they wish to transmit to us.

?The importance of identifying that different logic systems exist and for true analysis one must know which logic system or dimension you are operating in.

May I be well and happy.

May you be well and happy.

May all beings be well and happy.

This script was prepared and edited by Alec Sloman, Lainie Smallwood and Frank Carter.

References

Tape 1, Side 2

Teacher: John D. Hughes

Date of recording: 22/09/1989

Transcribed by Alec Sloman

Checked by: Frank Carter

CD Reference: 22_09_89T1S2

File Name I:\22_09_89T1S2A_JDHtranscribe.rtf

Recording Title: Atisha's Lamp on the Path

Tape 2, Side 1

Teacher: John D. Hughes

Date of recording: 22/09/1989

Transcribed by:  Alec Sloman

Checked by: Frank Carter

CD Reference: 22_09_89T2S1

File Name I:\22_09_89T2S1A_JDHtranscribe.rtf

Document Statistics.

Word count: 3,844