Further Great Deeds

After teaching some more, Tsongkhapa again went into retreat; this time with his teacher Rendawa. He went into a writing retreat, and it was during this retreat that he wrote most of Lam-rim chen-mo. He wrote Lam-rim chen-mo only after he’d had nonconceptual cognition of voidness. He didn’t write it as just the beginning stuff. And then he studied some more of the six practices of Naropa and mahamudra further with Drigung Kagyu. And he had done lots of retreats on this already but he went for more teachings, back to Drigung Kagyu. And then, during the rainy season after this, he taught vinaya (’dul-ba, the monastic rules of discipline); and he taught it so clearly and so profoundly that it’s regarded as his second great deed. That’s very interesting. His teaching Madhyamaka and his revising the understanding—all these things—that’s not considered one of his great deeds. Teaching the monastic discipline rules; that’s considered a great deed because he clarified these things and really got the whole monastic community back in shape, which had a very long-lasting influence in terms of the preservation of the Buddhadharma. The Buddha said, “So long as the monastic sangha survives, the Dharma survives.”

So, after this, Tsongkhapa finished Lam-rim chen-mo and he decided that now he would teach more fully on tantra. But before teaching on tantra, he wrote extensive commentaries on the bodhisattva vows and the Fifty Stanzas on the Guru (Bla-ma lnga-bcu-pa, Skt. Gurupancashila); that was the foundation for tantra practice. Then, while he was teaching tantra, he wrote Ngag-rim chen-mo (The Stages of the Tantra Path) and so many of his commentaries on Guhyasamaja. From the eighteen volumes that he wrote, the topic that he wrote the most about is Guhyasamaja. This tantra system from which comes all the basic teachings on how do you understand tantra; the whole theory of tantra. It comes out of that literature.

Then the Chinese Emperor invited him to become the Imperial Tutor, but Tsongkhapa excused himself—“Sorry. I’m too old, and I want to stay in retreat”—and he sent one of his disciples instead. Now that’s a very good example. Suppose you’re in a position in which you are really doing something about what you think is beneficial in terms of pure Dharma. And then we get this opportunity. Somebody offers us as a job or something and we could become really, really famous and make a lot of money. Are we willing to turn that down and stay as a humble practitioner and do what we think is the best for Dharma? And Tsongkhapa clearly decided, “No, thank you.” Tsongkhapa decided it was much more important to stay and continue writing and to teach his disciples in the monasteries. Very inspiring example.

Over the next two years Tsongkhapa taught lam-rim and tantra extensively and wrote this text that I mentioned, The Essence of Excellent Explanation of Interpretable and Definitive Meanings. It’s a very difficult text on the different tenet systems and on voidness. He wouldn’t have written it if he’d gone to China.

Then in the year 1409, at the age of 52, he started the Monlam Great Prayer Festival (sMon-lam chen-mo) in Lhasa at the Jokang. All the monks from all the different monasteries and traditions come together for a great session of prayers, and practice, and—bringing everybody together. Very important. And there’s a big Shakyamuni Buddha statue at the Jokang, this temple, and he offered it a golden crown. Rather than it just being like a Buddha monk, Shakyamuni monk, he offered it a golden crown—like a prince—which signifies that now it was a Sambhogakaya statue rather than a Nirmanakaya statue. This is significant because a Nirmanakaya manifestation of a Buddha, like Shakyamuni, lives a life and passes away—like an ordinary being—but a Sambhogakaya stays forever, until everybody has reached liberation. And so this is considered his third great deed, crowning the statue, because it was such an auspicious thing in terms of the positive force from that—that the teachings not just come and go, like ordinary life, but will endure like a Sambhogakaya. It would be very, very inspiring for people who came and saw this statue.

After this, his disciples asked him to stop traveling so much, and so they founded for him Ganden monastery (dGa’-ldan dGon-pa), Tsongkhapa’s personal monastery. There he continued to teach and write and do more retreats. And he commissioned that they build the great Ganden hall with a huge Buddha statue and copper three-dimensional mandalas—quite big—of the three main tantra deities that he practiced: Guhyasamaja, Chakrasamvara, and Yamantaka (Vajrabhairava). And building these three-dimensional mandalas in Ganden hall, that’s considered his fourth great deed.

I found this really quite interesting to look at. He did so many fantastic things during his lifetime, and what were chosen as his four greatest deeds? It’s restoring this Maitreya statue, teaching on vinaya, crowning this statue in the Jokang, and building these mandalas. If we had to choose his four greatest deeds, we probably would not choose those, would we? If you think about it, they didn’t choose what Tsongkhapa did basically to gain his own realizations—in terms of all his practice or his insights—those weren’t considered his great deeds. His great deeds were what he did for the future, to benefit people for many, many, many generations in the future. In terms of this great Maitreya statue—Maitreya is the next Buddha, so that’s very auspicious for the future. The vinaya—the lasting of the Buddha’s teachings is with the pure vinaya. Sambhogakaya is for Buddha to teach forever. And the mandalas of the tantric deities to make everything into a pure land. I think it’s on this basis, of what was significant for building up tremendous positive karmic force for the flourishing of the teachings in the future. Those were considered his great deeds—for the benefit of others, not his personal insights or his personal practices or personal accomplishments.

What’s significant is that people make the prayers. So you’re inspired by the statue: “May I be able to meet and be among the first disciples of Maitreya when Maitreya comes.” The Maitreya prayer. Everybody recites that. Because you have to build up the karmic connection with Maitreya in order to actually be a disciple of Maitreya. It gives us a great deal of respect for Lama Zopa’s project with this huge Maitreya statue. Because, of course, it’s very easy to criticize and think it’s impractical—could use the money to buy food for the poor people. But if you look at it in light of what Tsongkhapa did, and the whole thing in terms of the future lasting of the teachings and future connections, then Lama Zopa is really trying to follow, I think, in the steps of Tsongkhapa with this example. This is why I think it’s quite important—although I must say that I myself was skeptical in the beginning—but I think it’s quite important, when we talk about karma and dedication.

The Tibetans always use an example: Even if we put just one grain of rice in this huge, huge bag of rice that’s going to be used to feed people on their journey—well, we’ve made our contribution to that. And so that will build up a positive force until the whole thing is used up. And so, likewise, even if we just make a little bit of a donation to this, we’ve contributed in something which will really have long, long future consequences. If it ever happens. I mean if they’re ever able to succeed in building this thing. So I think this is the thinking behind Lama Zopa.

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