Subscriber Access Required
This teaching is reserved for active UnbornMind.com subscribers.
To continue reading, please subscribe using the link below:
Already a subscriber?
Log in here.
If you have completed your PayPal subscription but were not automatically redirected,
please create your account here:
Dear Sir,
My appreciations for the marvellous spiritual quality of your on-going work, which clearly emanates from a mind ground charged with a power of inspiration that could only be due to living contact with the Bodhidhatu. This force is lacking in the communcations of most visible contemporary western Buddhists, whose output is either coloured by superficial sentimentality or dry as dust intellectuality etc.
One who WAS powerfully inspired by the luminosity of reality, however, is the omniscient Dolpopa of the Tibetan Jonang lineage, whose understanding of Śūnyāta very much reminds me of your own; have you read his work?
By the way, how would you say that this ‘Primordial Vibration’ relates to the energy of Love and Compassion, as well as the ‘Great Bliss’ which is particularly emphasized in Tantrayana? I’d like to hear your own undertanding of how these various principles connect in the Absolute.
Many thanks for your comments. Am not familiar with Dolpopa; will have to read-up on the lineage. Am most familiar with the Tantrayana and the Adamantine Vehicle. Would encourage you to read and study the series here entitled, The Tathāgatagarbhatārā Tantra which is an exercise in Mahayoga. This is the second in a trilogy series that includes The Lankavatarian Book of the Dead (based on Atiyoga Principles) and Notes from the Iron Stupa., which constitutes an exercise in Anuyoga. The Primordial Vibration of which you speak is of the mystical union between Primordial Wisdom (Prajñā), and skillful means (Upāya).
Thanks. I really recommend reading up on him and the Jonangpas in general; Dolpopa is a shining beacon in the history of Tibetan Buddhism, and his teachings on zhentong (‘other-emptiness’) is a precious pearl born from the union of profound yogic experiences and scholarly expertise surpassed by none of his contemporaries. He was a superstar in Tibet in the fourteenth century, but due to unfortunate historical circumstances with power politics, the Jonang lineage shrank into obscurity and only survived in remote Eastern Tibet. The universally renowned Taranatha is the other most famous historical member of this lineage, which is most respected for its superior and most complete knowledge of the Kalachakra Tantra including the rare completion stage practice of the sixfold Vajrayogas—this being what led Dolpopa to his extraordinary realizations in the first place, in part due to contacts with the realm of Shambhala which is connected with this Tantra. Dolpopa’s main treatise is available in English translation as ‘Mountain Doctrine’ (which is worth having if only for the lavish amount of scriptural quotations showing his view). There is also a smaller biographical work including a translation of a more minor treatise of his, ‘The Buddha from Dolpo’. If you decide to research this, maybe you will gift us with a series of blog posts commenting upon the matter. 🙂
Some links to Jonang-related sites:
http://www.jonangfoundation.org/introduction-jonang (etc…)
https://greatmiddleway.wordpress.com/great-middle-way-buddhism/ (etc…)
http://rimebuddhism.com/khentrul-rinpoche/the-jonang-tradition/ (etc… This Jonang and Rimé lama comes to the USA this year btw.)
http://jonang.org/about-2/ (A couple of US centers…)
The Zhentong philosophical view is not limited to the Jonangpas throughout Tibetan history. Various prominent Kagyupas and Nyingmapas have shared this basic view of the Middle Way.
http://mahamadhyamaka.blogspot.se/?m=1