Star Spangled Buddhist by Jeff Ourvan

Author:Jeff Ourvan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2012-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Lamrim and the Tibetan Book of the Dead

Tibetan Buddhism, as compared to Zen, or in some respects even the Soka Gakkai, places a great emphasis on study. Where all claim to be experiential faiths, Vajrayana Buddhism, with its rich literature, nevertheless bases its practice on a well-developed doctrinal ground.

The lamrim are the texts studied by most Tibetan Buddhists, and they describe in detail the stages of enlightenment. Most interpretations of lamrim are based on an eleventh-century writing by a monk named Atisa. Those teachings, in turn, inspired Je Tsongkhapa’s Lamrim Chenmo, a fourteenth- century treatise that became a major text of the Geluk school. Tibetan Buddhists believe that the lamrim are based on the sutras taught by Shakyamuni. The lamrim explain karma, rebirth, Buddhist cosmology, and meditation practices.

The lamrim divide Buddhist practitioners into three groups: people of modest scope, who search for happiness within the samsara world; people of medium scope, who seek inner peace and abandon worldly pleasures; and people of high scope, who use all means to relieve the suffering of all people. The lamrim describe the all-important concept of bodhicitta, the state in which one strives to achieve Buddhahood. One who practices bodhicitta, in turn, is a bodhisattva.

Among the lamrim’s most basic teachings is the moral practice of resistance to the ten nonvirtuous acts. This ethical code is also known as the Ten Precepts:

• Killing any living being (including by abortion or suicide).

• Stealing anything of value.

• Adultery, or sexual misconduct.

• Lying.

• Divisive talk.

• Harsh talk.

• Idle talk, or gossip.

• Coveting the possessions or personal qualities of others.

• Harboring ill will toward others.

• Having an incorrect worldview, or a view that fails to recognize karma as the direct cause of all experience.

Perhaps the most famous of the Tibetan treatises is the Bardo Thodol, Anglicized as the Tibetan Book of the Dead. This discourse is said to be one of the many termas hidden centuries ago by Guru Rinpoche. It was reportedly discovered by a lama in the fourteenth century, and it gained worldwide renown when translated into English and first published in 1927. The text sets out to describe the experiences that the consciousness has after death, and it seeks to guide one through those experiences. According to the text, the intermediate period between death and either rebirth or nirvana—the bardo, in Tibetan— is forty-nine days. The Bardo Thodol includes meditation instructions, visualizations of deities, liturgies and prayers, lists of mantras, descriptions of the signs of death, and indications of future rebirth to be employed as death approaches. It also includes prayers and meditations to be offered to support the deceased’s enlightenment or well-being in the after-death state. The prayers are meant to be recited and the rituals to be performed by teachers, friends, and loved ones as death is closing in, or after it has occurred.

The focus of the Bardo Thodol is the attainment of enlightenment at death. The text distinguishes three stages of death. The first stage is the moment of death. At this moment a person’s only avail is sincere religious practice.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.