Buddha’s Outer, Inner and Secret Teachings

Shakyamuni Buddha, who lived and taught in India approximately twentyfive centuries ago, is said to be the fourth buddha of this world era to turn the wheel of the enlightenment tradition. He collected together the fragments of the teachings of the earlier three, and updated them with a number of techniques appropriate specifically to the needs of humanity in this period. It was prophesied that the teachings he delivered would thrive for five thousand years.

There are different ways to categorize the doctrines that he transmitted. One such division is into the threefold path of Hinayana, Mahayana and Vajrayana, or Small Vehicle, Great Vehicle and Diamond Vehicle. The basis for and context of this threefold division of the teachings is given in a Tibetan verse,1

Practiced externally is the way of moderation;

Practiced internally is the bodhisattva spirit;

And practiced in secret are the esoteric mantric methods.

Each of these lines refers to one of the three vehicles: Small, Great and Diamond. In this verse the three are characterized respectively as the outer, inner and secret spiritual methods taught by the Buddha. In India these three phases of buddhism publicly surfaced in succession, the lower preparing the way for the advent of the higher.

The first to become widespread was the outer teaching, the Small Vehicle. This consisted of Buddha’s most fundamental and universal instructions, based on discourses given openly to mixed audiences, beginning with those in Deer Park near Varanasi. Central themes included the four noble truths, the noble eightfold path, the twelve links of interdependent origination, and the three higher trainings of discipline, meditative concentration and wisdom. The emphasis was upon an informal

simplicity in meditative application, with strong discipline as the basis. Historically, this was the aspect of buddhism patronized by King Ashoka in the third century B.C. and propagated by the missionaries that he sent throughout his empire, from Afghanistan in the northwest to Bengal in the

northeast. Therefore it has occasionally been called ‘early buddhism’ by some Western scholars. It should be pointed out that according to the classical Indian and Tibetan records this buddhism was not taught earlier than the other two aspects; rather, it was the form most widely propagated during buddhism’s infancy.

In the fifth century after Buddha’s passing (the second century of the Christian era) there appeared in India a buddhist sage by the name of Nagarjuna. As prophesied by the Buddha himself, Nagarjuna brought forth the inner teachings, or Mahayana, the Great Vehicle, that had been given to groups of select disciples and transmitted quietly over the centuries,

awaiting the maturation of the Indian buddhist civilization. It is said that when this maturation had been achieved Nagarjuna incarnated, retrieved the inner teachings from the nagas, or mystical keepers of the doctrine, and widely disseminated them. The more than three dozen Prajnaparamita sutras, or “Discourses on the Perfection of Wisdom,” that he received from the nagas quickly met with a wide Indian following. As well, his own “Six Treatises on the Reasoning of the Middle Way” achieved almost instant prominence. In brief, Nagarjuna’s vision of buddhism swept the Indian imagination, and thereafter most Indian buddhist thinkers took their principal inspiration from his works.2

A second important figure in the pioneer Mahayana movement was the master Asanga, who practiced meditation for twelve years and brought forth the transcripts known as “The Five Treatises of Maitreya.” These five, as well as several of Asanga’s own writings, soon became established classics.

Both Nagarjuna and Asanga essentially were interpreters of the Prajnaparamita sutras, with Nagarjuna concentrating on the ‘wisdom of emptiness’ doctrine and Asanga concentrating on the more conventional bodhisattva practices, these being known to the Tibetans as ‘the vast bodhisattva ways.’ Together these two Indian masters are known as ‘the Mahayana forefathers.’

In A Raft to Cross the Ocean of Indian Buddhist Thought the Second Dalai Lama writes,

The two Mahayana forefathers were Nagarjuna and Asanga, both of whom were very controversial in their own times for certain of their works that commented upon Buddha’s thought directly, that is to say, from personal visionary experiences rather than by relying upon any specific scriptures. These two masters were instrumental in the formulation of the two Mahayana schools.

The essential substance of the inner or Great Vehicle doctrine was the emulation and cultivation of the bodhisattva spirit and ways; in other words, the cultivation of the aspiration to highest enlightenment as a means of fulfilling compassion and love for other living beings, and the practice of the bodhisattva trainings, such as the six perfections of generosity selfdiscipline, patience, enthusiastic energy, meditation and wisdom.

The third trend in Indian buddhism, that of the Vajrayana, the tantric path to enlightenment, began to publicly manifest sometime after the fifth or sixth century A.D. From this time onward until the destruction of buddhism in India, new tantric systems continued to emerge from time to time. The list of important early Vajrayana propagators includes illustrious names such as Indrabhuti, Saraha, Lalitavajra and so forth. Although it is not

possible at present accurately to date these masters due to the scarcity of existing records,3 it nonetheless is well known that they claimed to be transmitting direct lineages of buddhist doctrine, as taught mystically by Buddha to the most mature of his trainees. These tantric doctrines were then transmitted in utter secrecy until the time for their wider propagation ripened. It is relevant to note that the Kalachakra Tantra was one of the last highest yoga tantra systems to emerge in India, not making its appearance until the tenth century A.D.

All three of these aspects of the Buddha’s teachings—outer, inner and secret—found their way to Tibet; but it was the third aspect, the secret tantric path, that encountered the most enthusiastic reception in the snowy lands to India’s north.

It could be pointed out that in India these three trends of buddhist thought and practice did not always co-exist with the same harmony they enjoyed in Tibet. Adherents of the outer schools often refused to accept the validity of later arrivals and developments. For instance, when Vasubandhu saw the Mahayana writings of his brother Asanga he is said to have commented, “My brother performed a meditation retreat for twelve years, but unable to achieve even a good dream, let alone achieve realization of the true teachings, he has fabricated a number of his own traditions.”4

Nor did the emergence of the tantric doctrines meet with instant approval by all Indian buddhists of the day. Many expressed their reservations. Gradually, however, the Indians seem to have accepted all three forms of buddhism. The portrait drawn by eleventh-century Tibetan pilgrims to the

monasteries of Northern India, including Nalanda, Vikramashila and Odantapuri, is one of integration, with the three buddhist trends being almost universally regarded as aspects of a greater whole. This is also very much reflected in the Tibetan biographies of important Indian masters of the day, such as those of Atisha, Naropa and so forth.5

It was in this shape that buddhism was translated into Tibetan in two great waves of royal patronage: first in the eighth and ninth centuries A.D. under the sponsorship of the Lhasa kings, and then in the mid-eleventh century, principally under the sponsorship of the kings of Guge, Western Tibet.

In A Raft to Cross the Ocean of Indian Buddhist Thought, the Second Dalai Lama summarizes these three vehicles as follows:

Fundamentally the Buddha taught three circles of doctrine. For disciples with inclinations toward a simple path he taught the Hinayana, the Small Vehicle. For those with inclinations toward a more complex approach he taught the Mahayana, the Great Vehicle, the Vehicle of the Perfections. Finally, for those wishing to follow an extremely profound way he taught the esoteric Vajrayana, the Diamond Vehicle, the path incorporating the tantric use of sensuality and passion in its methods.

Here the Second Dalai Lama is speaking in the sense of the trainees who would serve as the main recipients of the specific teachings and would use that aspect as their principal spiritual undertaking.

From the viewpoint of practice, however, the verse quoted earlier suggests the approach to be taken, for it reveals how the outer, inner and secret teachings are to be integrated into an individual’s training as successive levels in spiritual endeavor.

In brief, the Tibetan attitude is that one first develops inner stability through the Small Vehicle methods of the three higher trainings (i.e., discipline, meditation and the cultivation of wisdom), and then expands the scope of the undertaking by augmenting one’s practice with the bodhisattva

aspiration and the trainings of the six perfections. Finally, when by means of the above two applications one has generated the three qualities of the free spirit of detachment, the compassionate bodhisattva attitude, and the wisdom of emptiness, one takes tantric initiation and ventures into the trainings of the Diamond Vehicle.

The Third Dalai Lama describes the benefits of the correct attitude in Essence of Refined Gold:

All the profound teachings taught in the sutras and tantras, as well as in the treatises and elucidations written by the successive generations of buddhist masters, will be seen as methods for oneself to apply, beginning with the more basic practices and building up to the more advanced, in order to overcome the negative aspects and limitations of the unenlightened mind.

The significance of all the teachings of Buddha and the lineage masters— from the advice on how to cultivate an effective working relationship with a spiritual teacher up to the highest methods for perceiving the final nature of being—will come into one’s own hand.… All the teachings will be seen in perspective to one’s own life and training.