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Mipham Rinpoche and The Word of Chandra

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Mipham Rinpoche was born in 1846 into an aristocratic family in the east of Tibet. His father belonged to the Ju clan, and the ancestors of both his parents had been ministers to the kings of Derge.- The circumstances of his birth entailed the advantage of material independence. And although Mipham Rinpoche was eventually to be acknowledged as an undeniable, indeed spectacular embodiment

of Manjushri himself, he was never recognized as a tulku. He was therefore unhampered by the responsibilities and ties, both political and economic, that are often associated with that prestigious rank. He was able to devote himself exclusively to the pursuit of the Dharma in both study and practice. He took his first monastic vows at the age of twelve at Jumo Horsang Ngakcho Ling, which was a dependency of the great monastery of Shechen Tennyi Dargye

Ling in Kham. Conspicuous intelligence and aptitude for study soon distinguished him. An eighteen-month retreat on Manjushri, begun at the age of fifteen, marked a turning point in his intellectual and spiritual development. His practice was attended by signs of unusual accomplishment, and it is said that

from that moment he was able to assimilate easily and without labor the entire range of Buddhist learning. The troubles provoked by the war in Nyarong obliged him to leave home. He traveled first to Golok in eastern Tibet and thence, on pilgrimage, to Lhasa, during which he spent a month at the great

monastic university of Ganden. There, he was able to observe at first hand the scholastic methods of the Gelugpas, for which he acquired a lasting admiration. This was the first of many travels in the course of which he received instructions from many great masters. Mipham's most important teachers

were Patrul Rinpoche, Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, and Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye, the founding fathers and principal exponents of a new and vigorous movement that was to revitalize the Dharma in the east of Tibet and beyond. This was the so-called Rime (ris med) movement, the essence of which was an endeavor to

collect and preserve, in a spirit of nonsectarian impartiality, all the spiritual lineages of Tibetan Buddhism, especially those that at that time were threatened with extinction. Mipham Rinpoche was to become one of the most talented and learned exponents of this tradition. By no means confined to philosophy and religion, the scope of his interests was universal, ranging from the Kalachakra-tantra, on which he composed an immense commentary, to the intricacies of traditional divination, ranging en route through such subjects as poetry, music, medicine, political theory, and even the arts of love

(although, as Gendun Chopel was to observe, as a chaste upholder of the monastic vows, his contribution to this last subject was essentially speculative). In accordance with the free spirit of the Rime movement, Mipham frequented masters of every lineage. He studied logic with Loter Wangpo, one of the

greatest Sakya masters of the nineteenth century, and received from him the transmission of the tshad ma rig gter, the important work of Sakya Pandita that marks the beginning of the "new logic school.55 Similarly, he received teachings on the Madhyamakavatara from the celebrated Gelugpa master Bumsar Geshe

Ngawang Jungne. He was invariably praised by his teachers for his incomparable intelligence. After examining Mipham on his understanding of Chandrakirti, Ngawang Jungne exclaimed to the monastic entourage that though he was the one with the title of geshe, he had not even a trace of Mipham's brilliance. In

short, Mipham studied and mastered the entire spectrum of Tibetan Buddhism according to the traditions of both the Old and New Translations. As his biographer observed, he "moved like a fearless lion in the company of the greatest scholars, effortlessly explaining, debating, and composing commentaries.^^-


Nonetheless, he had a special love for the Nyingma tradition, which he treasured above all else. He is reported to have said that his youth had been marked by meetings with great and wonderful teachers of both the old and new traditions and that, thanks to the blessing of his yidam deity rather than his own

studies, he had been able to comprehend whatever text he came upon.- He observed that at the beginning, he found the texts of the New Translation traditions easier to assimilate. But though he found the Nyingma texts more difficult, he never doubted that they were of great significance. uAnd for that

reason,55 he remarked, "my wisdom ripened fully.55 Later on he was to discover, to his satisfaction, that the profoundest points of doctrine were "all to be found in the teachings deriving from the lineages of the Old Translations.55


Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo requested Mipham to compose textbooks for the benefit of the Nyingma tradition. He was to create, in other words, a series of commentaries covering the whole range of the sutra teachings. This included not only the Madhyamika, with important commentaries, for example, on the

Wisdom chapter of the Bodhichary avatar a and the Madhyamakalankara, but also commentaries on the five texts of Maitreya and Asanga, logic, and so on. This invitation to compose is interesting in itself not only because it shows there was a need for such texts but also because, as Mipham himself remarked, it

attests to the fact that there does indeed exist a specifically Nyingma approach to these sutra topics. Overshadowed perhaps by the enormous output of the later schools, the sutra tradition of the Old Translations harks back to the first dissemination of the Dharma in Tibet, set in motion by Shantarakshita. A

characteristic feature of the Nyingma teaching is an insistence that a balance is to be struck between the traditions of the profound view (Nagarjuna) and of vast activities (Asanga), as illustrative of the experience of the Ary as in meditative equipoise and in postmeditation respectively. This in turn

implies that the teachings of the second and third turnings of the Dharma wheel are to be regarded as complementary; not only the scriptures of the second turning but also those of the third are to be classified as definitive in meaning.-


The re-presentation of a specifically Nyingma position on philosophical and logical questions did not fail to provoke a reaction from the other schools. It could scarcely be otherwise. It is well known that debate plays an important role in the Buddhist scholastic tradition, and down the centuries the Tibetans

have shown themselves to be the worthy inheritors of the Indian tradition of disputation. The Sakyapas and Gelugpas, in particular, are famous for excelling in this art. Its aim is to sharpen the mind's discriminative powers with a view to a deeper grasp of difficult and subtle doctrines, and, taken within the framework of spiritual training, it has been productive of spectacular results, on both the intellectual and religious levels. Nevertheless, it

is obvious that a practice in which emphasis is placed primarily on intellectual acumen is not without its dangers. In the heat of controversy, pure motivations may be forgotten; and in situations where traditions and reputations are to be defended and where sponsorship and perhaps careers are in question, it is not always possible to avoid sophistry, arrogance, and


vindictiveness. These are the occupational hazards of academic life the world over. Traditional and institutional allegiances may well breed prejudice and narrowness. Destructive sectarian intolerance of the kind that the Rime movement was in part designed to combat was one of the least attractive features of Tibetan society during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and it materially contributed, as the present Dalai Lama has observed, to the eventual catastrophe.


It is clear that Mipham Rinpoche had no interest in disputation as such. Neither could a polymath of such wide-ranging interests and capacity be expected to involve himself in narrow, factional attitudes. He is recorded as saying that he composed his commentaries for two reasons only: in obedience to the

command of his teacher and because the sutra traditions of the Nyingmapas were in a pitiful state of decline and in danger of extinction. No longer a source of light, he said, they had become little more than "the painting of a lamp," to the point where many Nyingmapas were themselves unaware even of their existence. It had become common practice, in philosophical subjects, to adopt the methods of other schools, so that few even wondered what the specifically Nyingma teachings might be.


One has only to read Mipham Rinpoche's writings to see that the spirit of faction is completely foreign to him. He is wholly free from a desire to vilify the positions of other schools, still less to criticize their spiritual endeavors. His remarks are never personal and his tone, though firm and

occasionally ironic, is never vituperative. This impartial search for the truth did not fail to elicit a warm response in sincere and sensitive minds, as is well illustrated by the famous debate between Mipham and the Gelugpa scholar Lozang Rabsel, following the composition of the Norbu Ketaka, Mipham's

commentary on the ninth chapter of the Bodhichary avatar a. The exchange was marked by mutual respect and good humor.- Kunzang Pelden records that by the end of the exchange, the minds of the two scholars had mingled perfectly and they complimented each other with expressions of mutual admiration.- It is not surprising that Mipham came to be universally respected in all the great monasteries of Eastern Tibet and attracted disciples from all four schools. Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo once exclaimed, uAt the present time, there is no one in the whole world more learned


than Lama Mipham!" Although he appeared at the very end of the period of Dharma in Tibet, it seems beyond question that Mipham is to be placed among the very greatest luminaries of the entire Tibetan tradition—in the same category, some would say, as Sakya Pandita and Tsongkhapa themselves.- Whereas throughout its history, the Nyingma tradition has produced teachers and scholars of the first rank, its importance in the development of Tibetan learning has frequently been overshadowed by the activities of other schools. The reason for this appears to be mainly cultural and circumstantial,- and it is no

doubt the origin of the vulgar error that all Nyingmapas are tantric practitioners who know nothing of scholarship一which is as much a caricature as to say that all Gelugpas are logicians who never meditate. In this connection, there is no doubt that, in addition to his immense labors on the tantra side, Mipham Rinpoche attempted and succeeded in preserving and refocusing the Nyingma approach with regard to the sutra teachings. His importance for the Nyingmapas can scarcely be exaggerated, and, grounded in the wider perspective of the Rime movement, his influence on subsequent generations of scholars has been decisive.


Nevertheless, a remark recorded in The Essential Hagiography- suggests that toward the end of his life Mipham was occasionally overtaken by a sense of disillusionment一a sadness that in the event he had been unable to achieve all that he had hoped. Perhaps he was wearied by the defense and counterattack

entailed in the controversies aroused by his writings一time-consuming and largely futile at a moment when the teachings themselves were under threat. For Tibet indeed, time was running out. The generation following Mipham Rinpoche was to be the last in Tibet that would have the freedom to pursue the goal of

spiritual perfection unhindered.- No doubt, like other great lamas of his time, Mipham noticed the lengthening shadows and sensed the uncertainties of the approaching end. Not long before his death, in a rare moment of self-disclosure, he acknowledged his own dignity as a great Bodhisattva who had appeared

intentionally in the world for the sake of others. His incarnation, he said, had been meant for the benefit of Buddhism in general and for the Nyingma tradition in particular. But the Nyingmapas, owing to their lack of merit, were troubled by obstacles, not excluding his own ill health, which had been

protracted and serious. Although a number of his intended writings had been completed, he said, other important projects remained unrealized (including a general study on Madhyamika).

Although in an introduction of this kind, one is naturally primarily concerned with Mipham Rinpoche's scholarly achievements, failure to mention his spiritual accomplishments would be a serious omission. As with other great masters of the Rime tradition, it is said of him that if one looks at his

scholarly writings one would think that he spent all his time in study; if one looked at his spiritual works, one would think they were written by one who spent his entire life in meditation. It is certainly true that, in addition to writing and teaching, Mipham Rinpoche spent many years in strict meditative retreat. His innumerable pith instructions bear witness to his absolute mastery of the view of the Great Perfection. The circumstances of his death attested to his supreme accomplishment.-