Entering the Way of the Great Vehicle: Dzogchen as the Culmination of the Mahayana

by Rongzom Chok Zangpo, Dominic Sur (Translator)

Overview

The first English translation of a classic treatise on how the Tibetan practice of Dzogchen, or Great Perfection, is in fact the culmination of the path of Mahayana Buddhism.

Rongzom Chökyi Zangpo wrote this treatise in the eleventh century during the renaissance of Buddhism in Tibet that was spurred by the influx of new translations of Indian Buddhist texts, tantras, and esoteric transmissions from India. For political and religious reasons, adherents of the “new schools” of Tibetan Buddhism fostered by these new translations cast the older tradition of lineages and transmissions as impure and decadent. Rongzompa composed the work translated here in order to clearly and definitively articulate how Dzogchen was very much in line with the wide variety of sutric and tantric teachings espoused by all the Tibetan schools. Using the kinds of philosophic and linguistic analyses favored by the new schools, he demonstrates that the Great Perfection is indeed the culmination and maturation of the Mahāyāna, the Great Vehicle.

The central topic of the work is the notion of illusory appearance, for when one realizes deeply that all appearances are illusory, one realizes also that all appearances are in that respect equal. The realization of the equality of all phenomena is said to be the Great Perfection approach to the path, which frees one from both grasping at, and rejecting, appearances. However, for those unable to remain effortlessly within the natural state, in the final chapter Rongzompa also describes how paths with effort are included in the Great Perfection approach.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781611809619
Publisher:	Shambhala
Publication date:	06/15/2021
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.01(w) x 8.99(h) x 0.77(d)

About the Author

Rongzom Chökyi Zangpo (eleventh century) was an important Tibetan Buddhist translator, fully adept in Sanskrit and, along with Longchenpa and Ju Mipham, is considered to be one of the three great systematizers of the Nyingma tradition. His works, whether translations from Sanskrit, commentaries on canonical texts, or original compositions such as Entering the Way of the Great Vehicle, demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of, and direct experience with, a wide variety of teachings that were coming into Tibet from India.
 
Dominic Sur first studied with Tibetan masters in India, Nepal, and Tibet for several years before returning to the United States, where he was fortunate enough to study with several outstanding scholars of Buddhism at Sarah Lawrence College, Harvard Divinity School, and the University of Virginia. In 2015, he completed a PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia and is now a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Utah State University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Translators Introduction 1

The Audacity of Rongzom's Work 1

The Context for Rongzom's Work 2

The Story of Rongzom's Life 6

Rongzompa's Entering the Why of the Great Vehicle 8

Summary of Chapter 1 12

Summary of Chapter 2 15

Summary of Chapter 3 19

Summary of Chapter 4 22

Summary of Chapter 5 26

Summary of Chapter 6 31

On the English Translation 34

The Commentarial Treatise Entitled Entering the Way of the Great Vehicle Rongzom Chökyi Zangpo

1 The Reality of Affliction 39

The Sravaka System 39

The Pratyekabuddha System 41

The Yogacara System 42

The Madhyamaka System 44

The Madhyamaka and Guhyamantra Systems 53

Conclusion 56

2 Objections and Replies 59

First Objection: Concerning the Reality of Illusions 59

Second Objection: Concerning the Reality of Causality 63

Third Objection: Concerning the Reality of Pure Phenomena 66

Fourth Objection: Concerning the Reality of Samsara 79

3 Distinguishing the Perfected System of the Illusory in the Great Perfection from the Other Vehicles That Retain the Nomenclature of Illusion 89

First Objection: Concerning the Reality of Confused Appearances 89

Second Objection: Concerning Reality in an Illusory World 91

Third Objection: Concerning the Yogacara View of Concepts 99

Some Supplementary Explanation concerning the Differences between the Aforementioned Views with respect to Limitations and Power 105

Great Perfection as a Vehicle 106

Great Perfection as a Transmission 106

Great Perfection as a Doctrinal Discourse 107

Great Perfection as a Continuum 107

Great Perfection as a Hidden Intention 108

Great Perfection as Intimate Advice 108

4 The Great Perfection Approach to the Path Is Not Undermined by Reason 111

Bodhicitta 111

Conceptual Frameworks, Appearance, and Nature 112

General Systems for Such Things as the Establishment and Negation of Identity and Difference 115

On the Two Methods of [Establishing] Proofs 116

Grammatical Treatises 122

Logical Treatises 122

Conclusion 126

5 Writings on Great Perfection 129

The Nature of Bodhicitta 129

The Greatness of Bodhicitta 129

Deviations and Obscurations 130

Methods for Settling Bodhicitta 130

From the Writings of Great Perfection 130

Eight Additional Rubrics 131

All Phenomena Are Seen to Be Perfected within the Single Sphere of Bodhicitta 131

All Confused Appearance Is Seen as the Play of Samantabhadra 132

All Sentient Beings Are Seen as the Profound Field of Awakening 132

All Domains of Experience Are Seen as Naturally Occurring Self-Appearing Gnosis 133

All Phenomena Seen as Perfected within the Nature of the Five Types of Greatness 135

The Six Great Spheres 137

The Elimination of Deviations and Obscurations 138

Twenty-Three Points of Deviation 143

The Seven Obscurations 155

The Three Beings 158

The Three Great Assurances 159

The Three Fundamental Esoteric Precepts 159

Resolution through Bodhicitta 160

What Is Resolved in Great Perfection 160

The Disclosure of Methods for Consolidating Bodhicitta 161

Disclosing Those Points through Scriptural Sources 164

On Critical Impediments to Concentration 175

Criteria for the Attainment of Mastery over the Ordinary Mind 180

On the Signs of Warmth 184

On the Qualities of Bodhicitta 185

6 Instructions on Paths Encountered through Methods Connected with Effort for Those Who Are Unable to Remain Effortlessly within the Natural State according to the Great Perfection Approach 191

Other Paths as Doors to Great Perfection 191

Six Faults Connected with Concentration 192

Conceptuality 193

Nine Obscurations Associated with the Path 194

The Eightfold Concentration That Eliminates the Five Faults 195

Six-Limbed Yoga 199

Five Signs of Mental Stability 201

After Attaining Such Signs of Mental Stability 202

Closing Verses 209

Appendix: Tibetan Names in Phonetic and Transliterated Forms 211

Abbreviations 213

Notes 215

Works Cited 239

Index 243

Editorial Reviews

Dominic Sur presents an outstanding study and translation of a renowned treatise by one of the greatest luminaries of Tibetan literature, the great Rongzompa. Starting with the Mahāyāna corpus, this volume illuminates how all the vehicles relate with, and culminate in, the Great Perfection. It is an invaluable addition to Buddhist literature in the West.”—Tulku Thondup, author of The Heart of Unconditional Love
 
“In this book, Dominic Sur has rendered into clear and elegant English Rongzom Chökyi Zangpo’s Entering the Way of the Great Vehicle, one of the great classics of Tibetan thought, and one of the earliest treatises composed by a self-avowed follower of the Nyingma or “Ancient” tradition. Studied to this day in Nyingma monastic colleges, Sur’s translation of this important thousand-year-old work is a must read for anyone interested in Tibetan intellectual history, and especially the early philosophical elaboration of the Great Perfection.”—José Ignacio Cabezón, Dalai Lama Professor of Tibetan Buddhism and Cultural Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

“The nature of suffering; the distinction (or lack thereof) between illusion and reality; the value of reason for the spiritual path: all of these essential Buddhist topics are treated with creativity and freshness in this key early work of Tibetan Buddhist philosophy. Sur’s incisive English prose renders this rich philosophical work accessible while still retaining the precision and complexity of the original.”—Kurtis Schaeffer, University of Virginia

From the Publisher