“Great emptiness free from the elaborations of the eight limits,
From the authentic logical path of the wise scholars,
That totally connects all beings to the ground of bliss and benefit,
I prostrate to those kind and sacred gurus.”
–Khenpo Gangshar in The Magic Key commentary (tr. Tomlin, 2023)
“In Tibetan, drub means to prove, and tha means the ends/limit of that proof. So when you prove something logically you come to some sort of an end, and that is what is meant when we say a drup-tha or a philosophical school, or way of practice. We prove something logically, and then we get to the real point or essence of something. So when we are doing the meditation of Mahamudra or Dzogchen, then primarily we have two types of views: the view of direct perception and the view of inference. In order to develop the view of direct perception, we have the view of inference as sort of a helper, which is something really good for developing the view that comes from direct perception. So, having the view that we develop through logic and inferential reasoning is very important.”
–9th Thrangu Rinpoche (2009)
INTRODUCTION
As part of an offering for the recent passing of 9th Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, and continuing with the theme of Mipham Gyatso, here is an overview and transcript of the first in a nine-sessions teaching Thrangu Rinpoche gave in 2009 in the USA, on the famous text by Mipham Gyatso Rinpoche called Entering the Gateway (or Door) to Knowledge (Khe-Jug), using the commentary called the Magic Key that Opens the Gate to Tenets (Drubtha) of the Definitive Middle Way by his Nyingma and Dzogchen teacher, Khenpo Gangshar. Interestingly, Mipham Rinpoche wrote the first part of the text Entering the Gateway to Knowledge, the section of ten topics, while he was doing a five year retreat in a place just above Thrangu Monastery, Tibet, during the time of the previous Thrangu tulku.
In this article, there is:
- a brief introduction to Mipham Rinpoche’s Entering Knowledge text: title, composition, contents and editions Tibetan and English-language.
- a brief introduction about Khenpo Gangshar’s Magic Key commentary on Mipham’s text: its title, composition and edition.
- contents outline and full transcript of the first session of the teaching, downloadable as a pdf here: Magic Key Day One transcript – Thrangu Rinpoche’s teaching.
- summary/overview of Sessions 2-5 of the teachings on the non-Buddhist and Buddhist schools up to and including Mind-Only.
In Sessions 1-3 of the teachings, Rinpoche briefly explains five non-Buddhist Indian Schools, and the Indian Buddhist schools (which Khenpo Gangshar’s commentary divides into the Sutra Vehicle and the Secret Mantra Vajrayana Vehicle). The Sutra vehicle is generally divided into four main schools by the Tibetan scholars: Vaibhāṣika (Great Exposition), Sautrāntika (Sutra-followers), Yogācāra/Cittamatra (Mind-Only), and Mādhyamika (Middle Way). This division has recently been queried by the 17th Karmapa as being an unjust and inaccurate way of treating the Mind-Only teachings, and that the Shentong teachings of the so-called ‘Great Middle Way’ do not fit well with the Middle Way tenets and texts, and would be better off termed the Buddha Nature school/tenets, for more on that see here. However, this categorisation is followed in this teaching.
Thrangu Rinpoche’s teaching shares the key differences of the schools, but also their benefits and qualities and why they are important to understand and appreciate. Like a baby we cannot eat the adult food of the ultimate view of Mahamudra and Dzogchen straight away and if we try to do so, will become sick/confused and worse, even go down a wrong path. In addition, we need the correct understanding of the views to meditate:
“Because then when we are meditating and some sort of experience happens, then first we will have already created a foundation and we’ll have a basis of understanding the way things are. A sort of a certainty in the way things are. Then when through our samadhi meditation we develop this experience, it’s helpful for us in recognizing it.”
Thrangu Rinpoche’s teachings from Session 4 onwards are on Khenpo Gangshar’s commentary on the Madhyamika (Middle Way) school, in particular the differences/distinctions between the Empty-of-Other and Empty of Self ‘Middle Way’ views, also presented by Mipham Rinpoche in his text. Mipham was an important (and controversial) figure in Tibet for his views and writings on the Middle Way, which sparked a huge debate with Gelugpa scholars. More on that soon! These two views of emptiness are a topic I recently spoke about in in a short Dharma talk and meditation I gave for Tricycle magazine last month. The full talk can be viewed here, and the short five minute mediation at the end, is viewable for free on Youtube here. So, in the next couple of posts, I will give an overview and transcribe Thrangu Rinpoche’s teachings on the Middle Way views, which still are part of the Sutra Vehicle teachings, followed by the final sessions on the Secret Mantra vehicle, Dzogchen and Mahamudra. If I have time, I will finish by writing and publishing an English translation of Khenpo Gangshar’s text itself, with notes from these teachings, that can be freely downloaded as a pdf file on this website.
When I first went to Nepal in 2006, after taking refuge with the 17th Karmapa in 2005, I started studying Tibetan language and attending empowerments and teachings with Thrangu Rinpoche, and also with Khenpos at Pullahari Monastery on the Rigpe Dorje programme. One of the first texts I bought to study was the English translation of Mipham’s Gateway to Knowledge, which includes the original Tibetan with it. So it is interesting to come full circle and newly discover this oral teaching given in 2009. I would recommend listening to them for anyone who wants to revise their understanding of the schools, or starting to study them. These overviews/introductions are meant merely as an aid to Rinpoche’s oral teachings though. One cannot underestimate the difference in energy and transmission of listening to the words of a great Mahamudra expert and practitioner like Thrangu Rinpoche. What is orally transmitted cannot be seen or described well, but it is very different to reading the transcript on paper. It is delightful to hear Thrangu Rinpoche’s profound and clear ‘experience’ of the main philosophical schools in India and Tibet and Rinpoche’s sharing of the wisdom and excellent qualities of the main Buddhist tenets, is not only a beautifying ornament of the Kagyu, but of all the Tibetan Buddhist schools and lineages.
Music? For the Hinayana teachings on truth of suffering, ignorance and impermanence: Believer by Imagine Dragons and Everything is Broken by Bob Dylan. For the Mind-Only, Lateralus by Tool, and Where is My Mind? by the Pixies.
May it be of benefit in preserving the legacy of Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche, Khenpo Gangshar, Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche and in understanding the Buddhist tenets so we may realise the ultimate nature and full awakening!
Written and transcribed by Adele Tomlin, 22nd June 2023.
BACKGROUND AND HISTORY TO THE TEXTS
Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche’s text, Entering the Gateway To Knowledge (Khe-Jug)
As I wrote about in the Introduction to my recent translation of the Song of the Dzogchen View, Mipham Rinpoche was not only extremely influential in Nyingma but also in Tibet. In this teaching, Thrangu Rinpoche explains how Mipham was considered one of the three Jamgons[i]: Jamgon Kongtrul, Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and Jamgon Mipham, who were all leading and founding members of the non-sectarian movement (Ri-med) in Tibet aimed at re-establishing the texts and views of other lineages in a Tibet that was controlled and dominated by the Gelugpa texts/views/teachers since the 17th Century. In Session 1, Rinpoche explains that Mipham Rinpoche wrote the first part of the text Gateway to Knowledge (Khe-Jug), the section of ten topics, while he was staying at Thrangu Monastery, when he did a five year retreat just above the monastery, when it was run by the previous 13th Thrangu Tulku.
The full name of the text in Tibetan is Khepai Tsul la Jugpa Go (མཁས་པའི་ཚུལ་ལ་འཇུག་པའི་སྒོ, which literally translated means Entering the Door/Gate to the Way of Scholars/Experts/Knowledge. It is similar to the title of Entering the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life (Je-jug) and often abbreviated as Khe-jug (མཁས་འཇུག་, mkhas ‘jug) and so here I call it Entering The Gateway Of Knowledge. It is often one of the first texts to be taught in a monastic shedra. Mipham Rinpoche’s treatise teaches:
- the vast—the ten topics of knowledge,
- the profound—the four seals, and
- the means of maintaining the profound and vast teachings—the four perfect Awarenesses.
The full Tibetan text can be read on the Karmapa’s Adarsha website, here. I was able to find several editions of the text online in Mipham’s Collected Works[ii], including an old pecha edition in the U-Mey script, with exquisite hand-written notes on it (see images here), whether these are by Mipham himself it is not known[iii]. There is also an English translation of the text by Erik Pema Kunsang (published in four volumes by Rangjung Yeshe Publications).
‘Magic Key’ commentary by Khenpo Gangshar and its recent discovery in Tibet with other texts
Thrangu Rinpoche’s teaching on Entering the Gateway to Knowledge is based on the The Magic Key Commentary by his teacher, the Nyingma and Dzogchen master, Khenpo Gangshar (mkhan po gang shar dbang po, 1925–1958/9).
I searched for the Tibetan edition of the text online and found one in the edition of his Collected Works published by Thrangu Tashi Choling monastery in 2008. The full title is The Magic Key that Opens the Gate/Door to the Great Tenet/School (Drubtha) of the Definitive Middle Way (ངེས་དོན་དབུ་མའི་གྲུབ་མཐʼ་ཆེན་པོའི་གཏམ་གཙོ་བོར་བརྗོད་པའི་གྲུབ་མཐའི་སྒོ་འབྱེད་འཕྲུལ་གྱི་ལྡེ་མིག། (grub mthaʼ)) [iv].
Although this is not in Thrangu Rinpoche’s teaching, Khenpo Gangshar’s opening lines in the text say:
མཐའ་བརྒྱད་སྤྲོས་པ་བྲལ་བའི་སྟོང་པ་ཆེ༎
ཡང་དག་ཚད་མའི་ལམ་ནས་འདོམས་མཁས་པ༎
འགྲོ་རྣམས་ཕན་བདེའི་ས་ལ་རབ་སྦྱོར་བའི།
དྲིན་ཆེན་དཔལ་ལྡན་བླ་མར་ཕྱག་བགྱིའོ༎
“Great emptiness free from the elaborations of the eight limits,
From the authentic logical path of the wise scholars,
That totally connects all beings to the ground of bliss and benefit,
I prostrate to those kind and sacred gurus.”
Then Khenpo Gangshar’s text states that the Tibetan word ‘Drub-tha’ means establishing/proving (drub) the ‘final/limit/end’ (tha). So the word for tenets (or schools) in Tibetan literally means ‘end/final proof/established doctrine’.
The colophon of the Tibetan text says that it was written at the urging of Tulku Konchog Palzang. In Session 5 of the video recordings, Gloria Jones (a fundraiser for Thrangu Monastery), explains how the text was only recently discovered at the family home of the tulku of Khenpo Gangshar in Tibet. The family had recently come into possession of an old box (astonishingly they had to pay a lot of money for it to an antique dealer) of his texts. The texts (in the U-mey script) were all photocopied and brought to Nepal and checked by Thrangu Rinpoche who confirmed that they were those of Khenpo Gangshar. Karma Gedun their librarian and the Tsadra Foundation sponsored the transcription and publication of these rare and precious texts and they are available on Patreon.
Some of Khenpo Gangshar’s texts, including a teaching called ‘Naturally Liberating Whatever You Meet‘ given to people at Thrangu monastery in 1957, have been translated and published on Lotsawa House website, here (although as is the norm on that website, they do not state from whom and when they got the permission/transmission/instruction on tho texts). Some of Khenpo Gangshar’s texts, together with Thrangu Rinpoche’s commentaries on them, have also been published in Vivid Awareness: The Mind Instructions of Khenpo Gangshar, (Shambhala Publications, 2011).
TRANSCRIPT AND SUMMARY (SESSIONS 1-3)
Session 1: The Text and the importance of the view
The transcript for Session 1 of the teaching can be downloaded as a pdf here.
Contents
- The three Jamgons, Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche’s Gateway to Knowledge composed at Thrangu Monastery.
- The importance of the View for Mahamudra and Dzogchen Practice.
- The great fortune of meeting the teachings and a teacher with compassion and a student with faith.
- The kindness of Dharma translators and the great Indian scholar who became like a shepherd.
- The importance of treating Dharma books with kindness and respect and of high value.
- Khenpo Gangshar on the meaning of Drubtha as End/Final Proof
Sessions 2-3
Five non-Buddhist Indian Schools – the nihilists and eternalists
Sessions 2-3 of 9th Thrangu Rinpoche’s teachings are a discussion of the non-Buddhist and Buddhist schools, up to and including the Mind-Only school. Rinpoche explained that the reason we study these schools, is so we can understand their qualities but also why their views are incorrect. The Non-Buddhist schools are divided into two groups, nihilist and eternalist.
The nihilist school is:
- Charvaka (Skt. Cārvāka; རྒྱང་འཕེན་པ་, Gyang Phenpa) or Brihaspati (Skt. Bṛhaspati; ཕུར་བུ་པ་, Wyl. phur bu pa)
The eternalist schools:
- Samkhya (Skt. Sāṃkhya; གྲངས་ཅན་པ་, Drangchenpa)
- Vaisheshika (Skt. Vaiśeṣika; བྱེ་བྲག་པ་, Jedragpa)
- Mimamsaka (Skt. Mīmāṃsaka; དཔྱོད་པ་བ་, Chopawa)
- Jain (Skt. Jaina) or Nigrantha (‘the naked ones’) (གཅེར་བུ་པ་, Cherbupa)
Thrangu Rinpoche summarised that all these schools have a view there is a Creator/God and a Self and this is something no asserted in Buddhism. Also , we can add Christianity and Islam to these views in terms of asserting such things. Although we do not accept that view, we can still see the good qualities of followers of those religions who may have done a lot to try and help sentient beings. I would add atheists to that list too, those who do not assert any God but are also kind, loving compassionate people, sometimes even more so than those who call themselves religious! In sum, he is saying that their faith in God can lead them to do and not do things such as lying because God will know, so it is not bad and can produce excellent conduct.
Buddhist Tenets/Schools (Drub-tha) – Sutra and Secret Mantra, and provisional and definitive teachings
The commentary then talks about the two divisions of Buddhist schools into:
- The Sutra/Characteristics vehicle – the cause as the path, such as abandoning non-virtues and adopting virtue.
- The Secret Mantra Vajrayana vehicle – the result as the path, meditating on the deity’s body, the sambhogakaya Buddha as the result.
Among the Sutra Vehicle there are four schools, these are generally considered to be:
- Vaibhāṣika (Great Exposition),
- Sautrāntika (Sutra-followers),
- Yogācāra/Cittamatra (Mind-Only), and
- Mādhyamika (Middle Way).
Thrangu Rinpoche then explains why there are four schools, with different focus and teachings because when Buddha taught the Dharma was new and so he taught two kinds of teachings so that beings would understand them:
- Expedient/Provisional – (Tib. Drang-don) Guiding Instructions, gradual approach to the ultimate view.
- Definitive – (Tib. Nge-don). Ultimate instructions on the ultimate nature that do not need further explanation.
The provisional teachings are similar to like being a baby, you cannot give them adult food straight away but gradually introduce them to it. Rinpoche then gives an overview on why the Buddha taught the three wheels of Dharma after originally not thinking he could teach Dharma at all when he attained full awakening and then turned the first wheel of Dharma, the four Noble Truths, which are what the two Hinayana Buddhist schools are predominantly focused on.
The two main Buddhist [Hinayana] ‘externalist’ schools – Vaibhashika and Sautrāntika – Session 2
In Session 2, Rinpoche explains that generally speaking, the four noble truths are studied by the two first main Buddhist schools , the Vaibhashika and the Sautrāntika (Sutra) and that out of the two types of obscurations (afflictive and cognitive), they deal mainly with abandoning the afflictive obscurations of the gross negative mental states like aversion, lust, anger, greed and so on.
He states that despite some subtle differences in their view, they generally meditate on the lack of an individual, permanent self, which is simply made up of indivisible particles/moments in time. As they do assert external phenomena (partless particcles) they are called ‘externalist’ schools, as Mipham refers to them in his text.
Rinpoche explains the reason why it is important to first teach about indivisible partless particles and instants of time, is without doing that, there is a danger people might think nothing exists at all, and that there would be no reason to practice virtue and abandon non-virtue and go down the wrong path to start with of nihilism. The qualities of these schools is that by recognising the lack of an individual self, the root of afflictive emotions, they are able to attain liberation from samsara, which is wonderful and amazing. However, because they do not realise the ultimate view/emptiness of all phenomena, they are unable to lead one to omniscience, and love, wisdom and power, of full awakening. It is interesting that in these teachings, Rinpoche uses two metaphors the Karmapa recently used in his teachings, showing how important the texts and teachers are!
In Session 3, Thrangu Rinpoche speaks about why it is important to know about the different schools: So if we know these views if we understand what they are like, then when we are meditating and some sort of an experience happens then first we will have already created a foundation and we’ll have a basis of understanding the way things are. A sort of a certainty in the way things are. Then when through our samadhi meditation we develop this experience, it’s helpful for us in recognizing it. So that is why it is so important and helpful to study these different philosophical schools. He also states that the reasoning of seeing things as impermanent formations of ‘aggregates’ (phung-po) is useful to loosen our grasping on them as solid, independent and truly existing things, such as my body, my friends, my house, my country etc.
The Mind-Only School – Session 3
In session three, Rinpoche then explains the Mind-Only view and why that is important and different from the other schools. In summary, the mind-only do not assert external objects that inherently exist but that all appearances of phenomena and self are the mind. They are mentally generated experiences like experiences in a dream. It posits six different consciousnesses based on the sense of seeing, hearing, touching, tasting and so on, with a sixth mental consciousness that conceptualises that sensory experience. That is the consciousness that makes us incorrectly thiink the person or object we saw yesterday is the same one we experience today. He says:
“Through the Mind-Only logic that appearances are mind, we understand that all the appearances are not outside ourselves but are just the mind. Normally what we think is that the things that appear that appear to ourselves aren’t mind and are outside of ourselves That there are gross things out there that are really existing. Yet the reasoning of the Mind -Only proves that all these appearances are just mind. When we establish that through the reasoning and then we come to experience it in meditation, we say “oh that is exactly what they say in the Mind-Only school. So when we meditate upon Mahamudra and Dogchen this view of the Mind Only school is very important and extremely helpful.
As Mipham Rinpoche said in his commentary on the Ornament of the Middle Way, the view of the Mind-Only is a very helpful and a very good support. Does this mean that the Mind-Only school sees the true nature of all phenomena? No, because they do still say that the the mind truly exists. So in this way the Mind-only school is really very important for the meditation on mahamudra and Dzogchen .
The Buddha’s teachings on Mind-Only are based on the Sutras like the Sutra of Ten Levels, the Travels to Lankavatara Sutra other such sutras and assert that all the various appearance are appearance of mind. However, even though they see all external phenomena as empty of true existence, the Mind-Only still assert a subtle continnum of mind and that is the basis for all the appearances occurring. That is why it is called mind-only, or merely mind. So it is not some blank nothingness and emptiness, they say there is mind which is the basis for karma, cause and effect and love and compassion.”
These six consciousnesses are the ‘unstable’ consciousnesses because they are not always present all the time. The other two consciousnesses are ‘stable and are 1) the subtle clinging to a self, which is neutral (not virtuous or non-virtuous) but it is an obscuring neutral mind because it prevents us from attaining liberation. The second consciousness is the all-ground consciousness which is clarity of the mind that is always present and enduring and where all the imprints and habitual tendencies are made. All that appears arises out of it. What the Mind-Only mean when they talk about ‘mind’ existing is this all-ground subtle consciousness.
Rinpoche then goes into more detail about the different schools within Mind-Only such as the True Aspectarians (Skt. satyākāravādin; Tib. རྣམ་བདེན་པ་, namdenpa) and False Aspectarians (Skt. nirākāravādin; Tib. རྣམ་རྫུན་པ་, namdzunpa), I recommend you listen to the teachings on that if you want more detail.
The commentary also explains how in the Mind-Only view appearances are of the three natures, either imaginary (kun-tag), dependent (Zhen-wang) or wholly established (yong-drub). [These three natures are important to know in the reasoning of the Zhen-tong (Empty-of Other) view too.]
“Imaginary is when when we perceive things as being separate from ourselves when they are not. It is like we have made it up mentally but it is not truly established in any way. The second characteristic is the dependent, which the commentary says is the “mere dualistic appearance of mental cognition as perceiver and perceived. when the mind perceives things there are the external objects that just merely appear, and when they appear they appear in dependence upon karma and interdependence and so that is why it’s called the dependent things.” The third, the wholly established is the part of the dependent that is empty of the imaginary. So if you take away all the imaginary and you’re just left with the empty nature of the dependent that is what is called the wholly established. Emptiness is the wholly established.
So here the imaginary is relative and is always relative. The dependent can be either relative or ultimate truth. So the dependent is in terms of the way things appear so if you just look at how things appear the dependent is relative, but if you actually look at the actual nature of things, the emptiness nature of things, then it is ultimate truth . Then the wholly established is a unilaterally ultimate truth. “
Endnotes
[i] For biographical details on Mipham’s life, see Steven D. Goodman,“Mi-pham rGya-mtsho: An Account of his Life, the Printing of his Works, and the Structure of his Treatise Entitled mkhas pa’i tshul la ’jug pa’i sgo,”in Wind Horse, ed. Ronald M. Davidson (Fremont: Jain Publishing Company, 1981),59–78; John W. Pettit, Mipham’s Beacon of Certainty: Illuminating the View of Dzogchen, the Great Perfection(Boston: Wisdom, 1999), 1ff.; Douglas S. Duckworth, Jamgön Mipam: His Life and Teachings (Boston: Shambhala, 2011). Karma Phuntsho,“Ju Mi pham rNam rgyal rGya mTsho. His Position in the Tibetan Religious Hierarchy and a Synoptic Survey of his Contributions,” in The Pandita and the Siddha, Tibetan Studies in Honour of E. Gene Smith, ed. Ramon N. Prats (Dharamsala: Amnye Machen Institute, 2007), 191–209 for a presentation of Mipham’s main works.
[ii] “mKhas paʼi tshul la ʼjug paʼi sgo zhes bya baʼi bstan bcos.” gSung ʼbum mi pham rgya mtsho, vol. 22, Lama Ngodrup And Sherab Drimey, 1984–1993, pp. 3–330. Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC), purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW23468_C6D85D.
mKhas paʼi tshul la ʼjug paʼi sgo. Dharma Publishing, 2004. Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC), purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW8LS20766.
“mKhas paʼi tshul la ʼjug paʼi sgo zhes bya baʼi bstan bcos.” gSung ʼbum mi pham rgya mtsho, vol. 17, [Gangs Can Rig Gzhung Dpe Rnying Myur Skyobs Lhan Tshogs], 2007, pp. 5–322. Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC), purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW2DB16631_724913.
mKhas ʼjug gi sa bcad dang sdom byang dang mkhas paʼi tshul la ʼjug paʼi sgo zhes bya baʼi bstan bcos sogs. Dur Pin Phun Gling Gsung Rab Nyams Gso Rgyun Spel. Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC), purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW1KG2807. Accessed 20 June 2023. [BDRC bdr:MW1KG2807]
[iii] ʼJu mi pham ʼjam dbyangs rnam rgyal rgya mtsho. mKhas paʼi tshul la ʼjug paʼi sgo. Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC), purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW8LS19999.
[iv] gSung ʼbum gang shar dbang po, 1st Ed., Thrangu Tashi Choling, 2008, pp. 271–312. Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC), purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW2CZ6597_008DA3. [
Dakini Translations and Publications མཁའ་འགྲོ་མའི་ལོ་ཙཱ་བའི་འགྱུར་དང་འགྲེམས་སྤེལ། 