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TSONG-KHA-PA’S GRADUAL PATH SYSTEM FOR ENDING MENTAL AFFLICTIONS AND HIS METHODS FOR COUNTERING ANGER

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TSONG-KHA-PA’S GRADUAL PATH SYSTEM FOR ENDING MENTAL A FFLICTIONS AND HIS METHODS FOR COUNTERING ANGER

James Apple


Introduction


This chapter focuses on methods to counter anger according to Tsong-kha-pa, a fifteenth-century Tibetan Buddhist scholar and founding figure of the Gelukpa (dge lugs pa) tradition. After briefly introducing the figure of Tsong-kha-pa, we discuss elements in his Tibetan Buddhist worldview which are formative in his approach to anger. These elements include Tsong-kha-pa’s understanding of the nature of mind and mental states, his strict adherence to the principles of karma (action) and rebirth, and the correlation of actions with pleasant or unpleasant effects to virtuous and non-virtuous states of being. We then contextualize Tsongkha- pa’s countering of anger within the framework of his integrated system of Mahayana Buddhist moral and mental cultivations. This integrated system is known as the gradual stages on the path to awakening (lam rim). Tsong-kha-pa discusses the inappropriateness of anger and the countermeasures that one can cultivate against it in the context of developing the perfection of patient forbearance (Tibetan: bzod pa, Sanskrit: ksanti). Tsong-kha-pa’s discussion initially centers on generating an acute awareness for the negativities of anger and the benefits of patient forbearance. He then utilizes reasoning procedures to examine the casual factors that underlie the arousal of anger and then demonstrates how anger is considered inappropriate. Through the practice of patient forbearance, Tsong-kha-pa encourages the cultivation of the capacity to withstand adversities and the ability to remain undisturbed by either negative internal mental afflictions or external unfortunate circumstances.


Tsong-kha-pa blo-bzang-grags-pa1


Tsong-kha-pa blo-bzang grags-pa (1357–1419) was a renowned scholar, monk, philosopher, and meditation master who was one of the most profoundly influential Buddhist Thought and Applied Psychological Research : Transcending the Boundaries, edited by D.K. Nauriyal, et al., Taylor and Francis, 2005. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucalgary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=268611. Created from ucalgary-ebooks on 2017-10-26 15:31:57.

Copyright © 2005. Taylor and Francis. All rights reserved. and innovative minds in the history of Tibetan Buddhism. According to traditional biographies, Tsong kha pa, in a previous incarnation, was a young boy who offered Sakyamuni Buddha a crystal rosary and received a conch shell in return. The Buddha then prophesied the boy would be born in Tibet and be instrumental in the spread of Buddhism in the “Land of Snows.” This prophecy would be fulfilled in 1357 when Tsong-kha-pa was born as the fourth child to an ordinary nomadic family in the Tibetan province of Amdo. Tsong-kha-pa would go on to become a prominent figure in Tibetan Buddhist scholarship referred to in the later tradition as “the Second Buddha” (sang rgyas gnyis pa). An erudite and thoroughly trained scholar, Tsong-kha-pa was also an accomplished practitioner who blended together theory and practice, utilizing both an emphasis on monastic discipline and the techniques of Buddhist Tantric transformational technology. He is most widely known as the founder of the Ganden-pa (dga’-ldan pa) school, which later developed into the present-day Gelukpa (dge-lugs-pa) school, of which the fourteenth Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso is affiliated.


Tsong-kha-pa, also known as Jey Rimpochey (T: rje rin-po-che precious venerable one), lived during a unique period of Tibetan Buddhist history that provided the cultural conditions for his meticulous and erudite scholarship. This pivotal point, which D. S. Ruegg2 refers to as the “classical-systematic” period of Tibetan Buddhist doctrinal development, was the cusp between the full assimilation of Indian Buddhism and its systemization, the “high point of Tibetan textual exegesis, philosophical penetration and systematic hermeneutics.” This was a period of Tibetan Buddhist development in which all the major Indian Buddhist commentaries had been translated and several generations of indigenous Tibetan interpreters had composed commentaries to Indian Buddhist materials. As such, it was a period where it was possible for the first time to examine all Indian Buddhist commentaries in a standardized religious language (chos skad) that allowed for new intellectual developments to take place.


The Tibetan scholastic cultural purview that was inherited from India was modeled upon the study, reflection, and exegesis of Indian Buddhist fastras, technical texts composed of stanzas usually accompanied with a commentary (i.e. Madhyamakavatara, Pramajavarttika, Abhidharmakofa, etc.). This genre of Buddhist literature had been translated primarily during the second wave (phyi dar) of scriptural importation into Tibet several hundred years earlier (ninth to tenth century). Scholar-monks such as Tsong-kha-pa would have memorized such technical treatises and been able to utilize this mnemonic skill in debating and refining subtle hermeneutical points of textual exegesis. Our exegesis and interpretation of Tsong-kha-pa’s concept of virtue and spiritual exercises to counter anger will draw upon his Byang chub lam rim che ba, “The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment” (� Great Treatise hereafter).3 This text, completed in 1402, has been referred to as “one of the greatest religious or secular works in the library of our human heritage” (Thurman, p. 13 in Cutler et al. 2000) as well as “one of the most renowned works of Buddhist thought and practice to have been composed in Tibet


TSONG-KHA-PA’S GRADUAL PATH SYSTEM


Buddhist Thought and Applied Psychological Research : Transcending the Boundaries, edited by D.K. Nauriyal, et al., Taylor and Francis, 2005. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucalgary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=268611. Created from ucalgary-ebooks on 2017-10-26 15:31:57. Copyright © 2005. Taylor and Francis. All rights reserved. (Ruegg, ibid.: 17). We have focused on the Great Treatise as it provides an in-depth independent synthesis of his ethical, religious, and philosophical Buddhist soteriological system and explicitly discusses countermeasures to anger.


Tsong-kha-pa’s worldview


In order to understand how Tsong-kha-pa approaches the problem of anger and his countermeasures against it, we will first describe several important concepts assumed in his classical Tibetan Buddhist worldview. Tsong-kha-pa’s overarching soteriological worldview concerns the training or the transformation of the mind (blo sbyang ba) in a gradual sequence aimed ultimately at attaining full awakening for the sake of helping other beings. The program for achieving full awakening and the guidelines for each step along the way are extensively described in the Great Treatise. Here we will focus on aspects of those instructions that are relevant to understanding how countermeasures against anger can be developed and the capacity for patient forbearance (bzod pa) cultivated.


The mind and the mental


For Tsong-kha-pa, as well as most traditional Buddhists, the root at the whole of saÅsara, the repeated cycle of rebirth and re-death along with all its sufferings, and nirvaja, the complete cessation of all suffering, is the mind itself. Therefore, what is most important in the context of Tsong-kha-pa’s soteriological framework is that one understands the structure of the mind and mental states and then implements this knowledge as a means for training one’s mental continuum. Tsong-kha-pa understands the mind as an informative awareness endowed with a luminous and pure potential. He recognizes conscious awareness (shes pa), mind (blo) and cognitive knowledge (rig pa) to be synonyms that refer to mental events, or episodes, states of consciousness or awareness where a subject (yul can) cognizes an object that appears to it.4 Tsong-kha-pa also assumes that the mind in its natural state is “luminous” (gsal ba) and “pure” (rnam dag). Various impure mental afflictions such as anger and attachment are considered adventitious (glo bur ba). Luminosity and purity of the mind does not mean for Tsongkha- pa that the mind has always primordially been free from mental afflictions. Rather, luminosity and purity signify the potential to be free from negative mental afflictions, such as anger and hatred, based on the mind’s lacking intrinsic essence (rang bzhin med pa) or substantial existence (rdzas pa). Since mental afflictions lack intrinsic essence, the mind has the potential to be reconditioned and reoriented, purged of negative habituations and latent propensities.5


As Dreyfus (2002: 35) notes, Buddhist scholars such as Tsong-kha-pa consider the mind to consist of a flow of individual moments of awareness relating to their objects rather than being a storage bank of data or the apparatus of a mechanical brain that gives rise to thoughts and ideas. This sequential flow of causally interrelated moments of awareness constitutes a mental continuum (T: rgyud, S: santana).

The mental states that compose such a stream of awareness may apprehend real or imaginary things as their objects of cognition (shes bya). Based on this general definition of mind as “that which is clear and cognizes,” Tsong-kha-pa posits many different types of mind or consciousness (blo rigs) such as sense awareness, mental awareness, gross minds, subtle mind, and very subtle minds. He also posits different categories of mind dependent upon the mode of activity. So from the point of view of how they engage their objects, minds may be categorized into either conceptual (rtog pa) or non-conceptual minds (rtog med ). From the standpoint of the objects which dominate, minds may be classified into either sense awareness (dbang shes) or mental awareness (yid shes). A sevenfold scheme of minds drawn from the Indian Buddhist epistemological tradition is posited in relation to distinguishing valid (tshad ma) from non-valid (tshad min) modes of cognition and awareness. Important for our purposes here will be the analysis of the mind in terms of primary minds (sems) and mental factors or states (sems byung) and the distinction between ‘reasoned knowledge’ or reasoning consciousness (rig shes) and conventional everyday awareness (tha snyad pa’i shes pa). Within this typology, Tsong-kha-pa postulates the ways in which virtuous and accurate mental factors or states may be identified and cultivated while nonvirtuous and erroneous mental states may be replaced and discarded. The human mental continuum in Tsong-kha-pa’s worldview has the potential for reaching an extensively developed (rgyas) and perfectly purified (sangs) state of awakening (T: sangs rgyas, i.e. Buddha).


The principles of karma, rebirth, and sansara


Tsong-kha-pa completely assumes a classical Buddhist worldview in his articulation of the gradual stages leading to awakening. This worldview is comprised, in brief, of the idea that living beings undergo repeated cycles of rebirth and re-death (T: ‘khor ba, S: saÅsara) within an ancient Indian cosmological division of multiple heavenly and hellish spheres propelled by afflicted mental states (T: nyon mongs, S: klefa) and karma. Karma, literally “action” from Sanskrit – “kr” – “to do, to perform,” is understood as a universal principle of cause and effect. Deeds of body and speech, based on volitional mental impulses, produce results under certain circumstances. These actions are considered to ripen under the one responsible for a deed. In order for the deed to produce an effect, it must be morally good or bad and be conditioned by a volitional impulse. The impulse leaves a trace or propensity in the mental continuum of the individual life-stream that leads one’s destiny in the direction determined by the effect of the deed. The ripening and effect of actions may take necessarily one or more rebirths. Actions can be of the nature of body–physical, speech–verbal, and mind–mental. The effect is primarily determined by the intention of the action. In this regard Tsongkha- pa cites the Abhidharmasamuccaya6 in the Great Treatise [237]: “What is intention? It is mental karma (T: yid kyi las, S: manasakarma) that conditions the mind; it has the function of causing the mind to engage with what is virtuous,


non-virtuous, or neutral.” Intention, therefore, is perceived as a mental karma, a mental process that urges the mind with which it is associated toward objects. Tsong-kha-pa [238] understands physical and verbal actions to be motivated by such mental intentions. Abhidharmakofa states7 that “Karma is intention and that produced by intention; intention is mental karma; physical and verbal karma are produced by intention.”

In addition to these principles, Tsong-kha-pa provides four outlines of karma in his Great Treatise [158–162]. The first is that the force of karma is definite (las nges pa) in that virtuous actions always lead to happiness and non-virtuous leads to suffering. We will discuss below the manner in which Tsong-kha-pa’s concept of karma shapes his understanding of virtue and non-virtue. Second, karmic imprints increase in their magnification (las ‘phel ba) in that the result is greater than the cause. Third, one will never experience a karmic result of an action one has not done (las ma byas pa dang mi phrad pa). The fourth principle of Tsong-kha-pa’s description of the general characteristics of karma is that causes that have been created are never lost and actions that one has done do not perish (las byas pa chud mi za ba), unless one undertakes some type of countermeasure. Tsong-kha-pa posits different types of karma according to their theorized results. Virtuous actions are thought to leads to upper realms of rebirth among humans and gods. Non-virtuous action leads to lower realms of rebirth among hell-beings, ghosts, or animals. Tsong-kha-pa summarizes all the potential varieties of karma into ten unwholesome paths of action. These consist of three physical paths of action: killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct; four verbal paths: lying, slander, harsh words, and gossip, and three mental: greed, hatred, and ignorance. Each of the paths of karma takes place through the completion of four aspects. The first concerns the basis, that is, the thing or person towards whom the action is directed. Next is the attitude or the perceptions, motivations, and/or mental afflictions underlying the action. The third aspect is the performance or actual commission of the action. The fourth and final aspect is the culmination that gives rise to the corresponding reciprocal effects. We note these characteristics of Tsong-kha-pa’s understanding of karma in that this directly correlates with his understanding of virtuous or non-virtuous action, the soteriology of his Buddhist path system, and in the context of spiritual cultivations for counteracting anger.


Virtue


For Tsong-kha-pa, virtue and happiness have to be understood in relation to the aforementioned doctrine of karma and its result. Actions and mental states are defined as virtuous or non-virtuous in relation to the pleasant or unpleasant effect they are thought to bring upon an individual and his or her environment. Tsongkha- pa does not provide a clear definition of virtue in and of itself in the Great Treatise, rather, he connects virtue to pleasant results of action. The Indian Buddhist scholar Vasubandhu does this as well when he states: A virtuous (T: dge ba, S: kufala) act is salvific because it brings about pleasant retribution and in consequence protects from suffering for a certain time (this impure good act); or because it leads to the attainment of Nirvaja, and, in consequence, protects definitively from suffering (this is the pure good act).8 Actions and mental states are considered virtuous because they correlate to activity that produces beneficial results. Beneficial results may include temporal happiness in this life or future lives in higher states of rebirth or the long-term happiness of Arhatship and Buddhahood. The important point is that Tsong-kha-pa understands these states to strictly correspond with results from past actions. In this regard, Jey Rimpochey states in the Great Treatise that:9 The infallibility of our actions means that, whether we are ordinary individuals or Noble beings, any pleasure occurring as pleasant feelings – even just the pleasant sensation from a cool breeze experienced by those born in hell – arises from previously accumulated virtuous karma. It is not possible for happiness to arise from non-virtue. Also, any suffering occurring as unpleasant feelings – even just an unpleasant feeling that has arisen in the mental continuum of an Arhat – occur from the accumulation of non-virtuous karma. It is not possible for suffering to occur from virtuous karma. The Ratnavali states that “From nonvirtue comes all suffering, likewise all negative rebirths. From virtue come all positive rebirths, and the happiness within all births.”10 Therefore, happiness and suffering do not occur without a cause nor do they occur from inappropriate causes such as Primal Essence,11 Ifvara, and so forth. Rather, in general, happiness and suffering come from virtuous and non-virtuous karma, and the various particular forms of happiness and suffering arise distinctly, without even the slightest conflation, from various particular instances of these two types of karma. Attaining certain knowledge of this regularity (nges pa), or non-deceptiveness, of karma and its effects is called “the correct view of Buddhists” and is praised as the foundation of all positive qualities. As Dreyfus points out (1995: 43), determining which actions produces positive effects is a complicated and difficult task, and in the final analysis traditional Buddhist scholars like Tsong-kha-pa rely on the scriptural testimony of what enlightened beings have determined to be virtuous. In this way practices are determined as virtuous in relation to their results as attested in scriptural texts. This applies to the typology of virtuous mental states. Moreover, Tsong-kha-pa appeals to scriptural texts such as the Abhidharmasamuccaya and the Abhidharakofa


TSONG-KHA-PA’S GRADUAL PATH SYSTEM


for the types of mental states that are thought to be virtuous and non-virtuous. Based on these texts, 11 mental states are thought to be virtuous: faith (T: dad pa, S: fraddha), self-respect (T: ngo tsha, S: hri), embarrassment (T: khrel yod pa, S: apatrapa), non-attachment (T: ma chags pa, S: alobha), non-hatred (T: zhe sdang med pa, S: advesa), non-deludedness (T: gti mug med pa, S: amoha), diligence (T: brtson ‘grus, S: virya), pliancy (T: shin tu sbyangs pa, S: prafrabdhi), conscientiousness (T: bag yod, S: apramada), equanimity (T: btang snyoms, T: upeksa), and non-harm (T: rnam par mi ‘tshe ba, S: avihiÅsa). In general, virtuous mental states may be classified in terms of the context in which they occur or how they arise. Such mental states may arise due to the latent propensities of previous lives that are acquired before birth, on account of practice, or in the presence of a sacred teacher or special environment in which one listens to the Buddha’s teachings. Virtuous mental states may occur due to the performance of beneficial activities that help a being’s capacity for spiritual awakening. Virtuous mental states are regarded as protective in that distinct, wholesome karmic activity enables one to obtain higher forms of rebirth and definite liberation from suffering. Such virtuous mental states are understood by Tsong-kha-pa as remedies and antidotes in that they possess distinct powers that directly counter unharmonious factors and can lead to the complete pacification of suffering through actualizing the third Noble Truth of the cessation of suffering. The non-virtues for the most part are the opposite of virtuous qualities. The most basic of non-virtues are the primary mental afflictions (T: nyon mongs, S: klefas) and the secondary mental afflictions (upaklefas) and the imprints and activities that result from them. The six fundamental mental afflictions are considered to be attachment (T: ‘dod chags, S: raga), anger (T: khong khro, S: pratigha), pride (T: nga rgyal, S: mana), ignorance (T: ma rig pa, S: avidya), doubt (T: the tshom, S: vicikitsa), and false views (T: lta ba, S: drsti). We will focus on the mental afflictions of anger and ignorance below. Non-virtuous qualities permeate saÅsara and its sufferings in that negative activities of body and speech are motivated by afflictions. The non-virtuous can also be classified according to its circumstances: non-virtuous qualities acquired by birth for example, includes compulsively engaging in killing other beings through merely being born with latent propensities acquired in previous lives. Non-virtuous qualities may develop in the context of negative environmental circumstances or actions from misguided friends. Non-virtues in general are thought to consist of activities through body, speech, and mind that cause harm either oneself or sentient beings. The classification of virtuous and non-virtuous mental states and their karmic repercussions, which are based on the testimony of canonical texts, are essential for Tsong-kha-pa. They enable one to recognize the object and aspects of the virtuous and non-virtuous when practicing the stages of the path to awakening.


Tsong-kha-pa’s integrated system of Mahayana Buddhistmoral and mental cultivation


Tsong-kha-pa presents the Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path as a detailed set of instructions for those who wish to practice the Mahayana Buddhist path, namely bodhisattvas (T: byang chub sems pa), from the onset of the path up unto Omniscient Buddhahood. The Great Treatise instructions are set out in sections which are further divided into subsections and individual rubrics (Ruegg 2000: 17) with each division providing reasoned discourse and scriptural citations to guide the practitioner through a series of mental cultivations. In this manner, the analytical procedures, reasoned discourses, and scriptural quotations discussed in the Great Treatise are not primarily understood as polemical rhetoric against former commentators or partisan diatribes against opponent groups, but, rather, may be seen as an internal dialogue that leads the reader gradually through a series of cultivations aimed at profound mental transformation. This bears resemblance to the manner in which the classicist scholar, Pierre Hadot, has redescribed the ancient Greek term philosophia as the practice of spiritual exercises embodying a way of life in ancient Hellenistic culture. In Hadot’s view, philosophia is “a form of life defined by an ideal of wisdom” (1995: 59), where wisdom brings about a transformation of the person involving freedom from things such as “worries, passions, and desires” (1995: 103). To achieve such a transformation, the philosopher undertakes particular exercises of reason “designed to ensure spiritual progress toward the ideal state of wisdom.”12 Likewise, Tsong-kha-pa’s Great Treatise embodies a series of spiritual exercises utilizing reasoned discourse to bring about a transformation of the person from the mental afflictions (nyon mongs) and karmic propensities such that they are able to achieve long lasting peace beyond suffering (mya ngan las ‘das pa) and ultimately, through achieving complete Buddhahood, accomplish the welfare of others. The exercises in this instance are composed of a combination of meditative stabilizing procedures (‘jog sgom) and analytical meditative realizations (dpyad sgom) that familiarize and condition the mind (goms) with wholesome qualities and cognitive insight. The aim of such procedures is therefore to produce within the mental continuum qualities such as faith, love, and compassion that are focused upon and cultivated (Great Treatise: [71]). The Great Treatise is therefore considered to be an all-inclusive guide to training individuals in the path to full Buddhahood (rdzogs pa’i sangs rgyas). Each section describes the necessary meditative cultivations for proceeding in a gradual manner. The first section of the text lays out the manner of relying on the teacher (bla ma), which the Tibetan Buddhist tradition regards as an indispensable figure in a being’s spiritual development and who is considered the root of the path (lam gyi rtsa ba). The rest of the text focuses on the stages of training one’s mind. This basically consists of coming to understand the rare and precious opportunity that human rebirths provide for reaching Buddhahood and then the way in which one develops that opportunity into the occasion for full awakening


for the benefit of all sentient beings. The manner of actualizing the precious human rebirth for Buddhahood is encapsulated within a schema outlining three types of spiritual capacity: training the mind in the stages of the path in common with individuals of small capacity (skyes bu chung), mental training in the stages of the path in common with individuals of moderate spiritual capacity (skyes bu ‘bring), and mental training in the stages of the individual of great spiritual vision or capacity (skyes bu chen po).

Training the mind in the stages of the path in common with individuals of small capacity (skyes bu chung) consists of spiritual exercises designed to motivate a reader away from the concerns of the present life and encourage the seeking out forms of higher rebirth through Buddhist spiritual practice. These exercises include contemplating death and impermanence (‘chi ba mi rtag pa), the sufferings of the lower realms of existence (ngan ‘gro’ sdug bsngal ), taking refuge in the three jewels of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, and generating conviction in the karmic principles of cause and effect.

The second mental training articulates the stages of the path in common with individuals of moderate spiritual capacity (skyes bu ‘bring), who, on the basis of disenchantment with cyclic existence, strives for their own liberation from cyclic existence. These cultivations focus on the four truths of the Noble One, the Buddha.13 That is, the inherent suffering in cyclic existence (saÅsara), of how cyclic existence is perpetuated, the nature of its cessation, and training in the actualization of the truth of the path that leads to cessation. The truth of the path is subsumed under the three trainings (bslab pa gsum) of morality (tshul khrims), concentration (ting nge ‘dzin), and wisdom (shes rab). The third mental training consists of the stages of the path for the individual of great spiritual vision or capacity (skyes bu chen po) who, by way of the path of the perfections and tantra, strives for omniscient and compassionate Buddhahood, “in order to extinguish all the sufferings of all living beings” (Great Treatise: 131 [87]). The text elaborately details the manner of producing, cultivating, and actualizing the altruistic mind for awakening (T: byang chub sems skyed, S: bodhicittodpada), which is considered the entrance gate (‘jug sgo) to the Mahayana path of bodhisattvas. The Great Treatise then describes the manner of training in mental purification having generated that mind. The cultivation of the altruistic mind for awakening entails both training for the welfare of other beings and developing one’s own mental continuum with awakened qualities. Training for other’s welfare includes such practices as generating universal equanimity, love, and compassion for all beings and cultivating the exchange of one’s self with others (bdag gzhan mnyam brje). The practices that develop awakened qualities within one’s own mental continuum consist in the training of the six perfections (phar phyin drug). That is, the trainings in generosity (T: sbyin pa, S: dana), ethical discipline (T: tshul khrims, S: sila), patient forbearance (T: bzod pa, S: ksanti), energy (T: brtson ‘grus, S: virya), concentration meditation (T: bsam gtan, S; dhyana), and discriminative insight or wisdom (T: shes rab, S; prajña). The later two perfections, meditation and insight, are


treated in long and extensive sections of the Great Treatise. The section on insight is often commented on often as a separate independent text entitled Great [Treatise on] Insight (lhag mthong chen mo). It is within Tsong-kha-pa’s exegesis on the perfection of patient forbearance that the countermeasures against anger will be discussed.


Antidotes and afflictions


Tsong-kha-pa states that in order to eliminate mental afflictions one must undertake the path of the three trainings (bslab pa gsum): ethical discipline (tshul khrims), concentration (ting nge ‘dzin), and wisdom (shes rab). The training in ethical discipline is considered the basis of all good qualities (Great Treatise: [6]). It is the preeminent cause of achieving rebirths in realms of happiness ([204]) and provides the foundation for the trainings of concentration and wisdom. In brief, the training in ethical disciplines consists in restraining negative activities (nyes spyod sdom pa) through upholding the vows of individual liberation (so sor thar ba’i sdom pa), bodhisattva vows, and Vajrayana vows, gathering virtuous qualities (dge ba chos bsdus), and accomplishing the welfare of living beings (sems can don byed ). The training in concentration refers to cultivating bodily and mental calm that enables the mind to attain tranquility (zhi gnas), a state of non-discursiveness (mi rtog pa), clarity (gsal ba), and delight (dga’). This includes such exercises as the four meditative stabilizations (bsam gtan), the development of mindfulness (dran pa), and the meditative procedures for avoiding the excesses of laxity (bying ba) and agitation (rgod pa). The culmination in the training of concentration provides the mental continuum with the stability and pliancy to focus the mind on any subject for an extended period of time. This training serves for Tsong-kha-pa as the necessary prerequisite to the training in wisdom. The training in wisdom consists in cultivating the insight (lhag mthong) that properly discerns the lack of self or essence in things and persons. The proper training in wisdom severs the roots of cyclic existence and mental afflictions by eliminating the ignorance that grasps at an intrinsically existing self. In the context of the proper cultivation of insight, Tsong-kha-pa places importance on the valid means of knowledge (tshad ma), reasoned knowledge (rig shes), and cognitive ascertainment (nges pa). While the details of these factors within Tsong-kha-pa’s path system and his understanding of Madhyamaka (“middle way”) philosophy are beyond the scope of this chapter, we will note several features relevant to the topic at hand. Tsong-kha-pa notes that there are two types of objects to be negated: – the objects negated by the path and the objects negated by reason ([651]). The objects negated on the path are mental afflictions and cognitive obscurations that are abandoned while implementing the practice of the path-exercises of ethics, mental cultivation, and insight. The object negated by reason primarily refers to intrinsic or inherent nature (rang bzhin). For Tsong-kha-pa, a state of awareness that erroneously superimposes intrinsic natures upon things and persons is the fundamental mental affliction that perpetuates


karma and cyclic existence. In this regard, the Great Treatise (206 [654]) states that “what is this delusion like? It is ignorance, which in this context is an awareness that mistakenly superimposes intrinsic nature; it apprehends internal and external things as existing by way of their own intrinsic nature.” Later in the text, Tsong-kha-pa elucidates the relationship between the misconception of ignorance and cyclic existence in the following manner: This cyclic flow of birth and death arises from karma. Only physical, verbal, and mental compositional activity associated with an afflicted mind constitutes karma that established cyclic existence, so karma arises from afflictions. Afflictions that are rooted in the reifying view of the perishing five aggregates14 do not arise without the operation of misconceptions that superimpose upon indications such as pleasant and unpleasant. Thus, afflictions such as attachment and hostility, rooted in the reifying view of the perishing aggregates, are produced from such misconceptions. These misconceptions operate mistakenly only by clinging to the notion, “This is real,” in regard to the eight worldly concerns, or men or women, or pot, cloth, form, or feeling. Since it is these misconceptions that conceive these objects, they are generated from the elaboration of conceptions of true existence.

(321 [764])

Tsong-kha-pa advocates the utilization of reasoned knowledge and analytical procedures to counteract misconceptions of true or intrinsic existence and their derivative mental afflictions. In brief, reasoned knowledge or reasoning consciousness (rigs shes) is a type of certainty that recognizes things as they are. In order to stop erroneous consciousness (phyin ci log), one must first refute the object that consciousness apprehends. So, for instance, a reasoning procedure that analyses how things arise due to causes and conditions (as dependent-arisings) will refute one’s misconstrual that the experience of something pleasurable or unpleasurable is permanent (Great Treatise: 204 [652]). Reasoning consciousness has its sphere of authority in analyzing whether or not objects of knowledge have some sort of ultimate ontological or substantial existence. For Tsong-kha-pa, nothing can withstand this type of analytical reasoning and therefore things and persons lack substantial existence. However, “a reasoning consciousness that accurately analyzes whether something intrinsically exists does not contradict that which exists conventionally” (Great Treatise: 179 [628]). Things and persons do exist, but they exist in a conventional manner, that is, as a causal series of dependent-co-arisings imputed by a being’s mental continuum and acknowledged through common social consensus. Things and persons are thought to exist like illusions in that they lack substantial existence, yet they are not the same as illusions, mirages, dreams, and so forth in and of themselves as they are dependent-co-arisings subject to karmic effects of causes and conditions. Therefore, for example, an illusory-like person may suffer an illusory-like headache.


The headache is temporary, non-substantial, and lacks intrinsic existence, yet it still functions to provide a human’s cerebral region with discomfort and pain. A remedy or antidote, such as aspirin, may be applied to dissipate the headache. The remedy also lacks intrinsic existence and is illusory-like, yet still functions to lessen the headache. Likewise, for Tsong-kha-pa, illusory-like negative mental states and the erroneous states of consciousness that give rise to them can be replaced and remedied through analytical procedures. As Tsong-kha-pa states (Great Treatise: 204 [652]): “We carry out refutations with excellent reasoning so as to stop inaccurate and mistaken conceptions; proof by reasoning is a technique for developing accurate and certain knowledge.” In this context cognitive ascertainment of selflessness through reasoning cancels and replaces the mind that reifies. Tsong-kha-pa elaborates in this regard that: Ignorance superimposes an intrinsic nature on things; from this, attachment, hostility, and so forth arise, further superimposing features such as attractiveness or unattractiveness upon that intrinsic nature. Therefore, reason can also be used to eradicate the way that attachment and such apprehend objects.

(Great Treatise: 183 [632]) In the utilization of reasoning for cognitive ascertainment, Tsong-kha-pa’s system is based on what we might term an “antidote” model. The proper use of reasoning enables erroneous conceptual minds to be removed and replaced with accurate ones. Analytical procedures such as these have to be repeatedly cultivated and occur in advanced stages of practice. Nevertheless, Tsong-kha-pa also construes earlier phases of the path to awakening along the lines of the antidote model in which there is a struggle of “wholesomeconceptual consciousnesses against “unwholesome” ones. In this context one becomes knowledgeable in distinguishing what are virtuous mental states as opposed to non-virtuous mental states, and repeatedly examines one’s own mental continuum to identify primary and secondary afflictions, and through identifying them one can immediately apply the antidote and overcome the afflictions when they arise. Tsong-kha-pa (Great Treatise: 237) quotes the oral tradition of Gön-ba-wa (dgon-pa-ba) on this type of cultivation: To eliminate afflictions, you must know the afflictions’ faults, their characteristics, their remedies, and the causes for their arising. After you have recognized their faults, regard them as defective and consider them enemies. If you do not recognize their faults, you will not understand that they are enemies . . . Once you know the primary and secondary afflictions, then when any attachment, anger, and such arises in one’s mental continuum, one can identify it, thinking, “This is that; now it has arisen” and fight the affliction.15


In this phase of Tsong-kha-pa’s path system, eliminating negative mental afflictions entails that one must have an understanding of the afflictionscharacteristics, causes for their arising, and remedies for the countermeasures against them. Once negative mental afflictions such as attachment, anger, and so forth arise in one’s mental continuum, one can identify it, thinking, “This is it.” Then by examining the causes and conditions which produced the afflicted mental state and the object of observation to which it is related, one can then overcome it with its proper antidote or counter-agent mental state. As writers on comparative psychology have noted, this basic paradigm of replacing afflictive mental states with healthy mental factors is similar to that of cognitive psychotherapy. Here, the practitioner becomes aware of unhealthy mental factors, such as attachment and jealousy, and consciously substitutes the reciprocally inhibiting healthy opposite factor. The way in which one cultivates patient forbearance to replace the negative mental affliction of anger will be examined later.


In this context, afflictions are thought to be temporal mental qualities that once correctly identified and removed, cannot return to the mental continuum.16 Along these lines, Tsong-kha-pa states: When you rout ordinary enemies, they can take over another country, seize power, and then return again to challenge you. The afflictions are not like this. Once you expel them completely from your mind, there is no other country to which they can retreat; nor can they return. (2000: 348 [276]) Afflictions are therefore removable from the mental continuum and able to be eradicated. Tsong-kha-pa (Great Treatise: [233]) describes the general characteristic of afflictions based on the Abhidharmasamuccaya as follows:17 “This is the definition of an afflicted mental state: it arises with the characteristic of perturbation (rab tu ma zhi ba), and arising in that fashion, it perturbs the mental continuum.”

Mental states that perturb the mental continuum and provided the impetus for non-virtuous or unwholesome actions are classified as afflictions. Tsong-kha-pa defines ten primary afflictions in his Great Treatise (298–300 [233–234]): attachment (T: ‘dod chags, S: raga), anger (T: khong khro, S: pratigha), pride (T: nga rgyal, S: mana), ignorance (T: ma rig pa, S: avidya), doubt (T: the tshom, S: vicikitsa), false view that the perishable aggregates constitute a real self (T:‘jig tshog la lta ba, S: satkayadrsti), extreme views (T: mthar lta, S: antargrahadrsti), the belief that wrong views are supreme (T: lta mchog ‘dzin, S: drstiparamarfa), the belief that ethics and ascetic vows are supreme (T: tshul khrims dang brtul zhugs mchog ‘dzin, S: filavrataparamarfa), and wrong views (T: log lta, S: mithyadrstii). The afflictions develop from the misapprehension or false view that the perishing psychophysical continuum of the aggregates is composed of a self. Tsong-kha-pa


states (Great Treatise: 300 [235]) in this regard that: When the view of the perishing aggregates apprehends a self, discrimination arises between self and other. Once you have made that distinction, you become attached to what is associated with yourself and hostile toward that which pertains to others. As you observe the self, your mind also becomes inflated. You develop a belief that this very self is either eternal or subject to annihilation. You come to develop a belief in the supremacy of a view of the self and the like, and you also come to believe in the supremacy of the detrimental practices associated with such views. Jey Rimpochey’s path system of mental cultivations and spiritual exercises are oriented toward bringing this self-grasping to an end. Among afflictions other than ignorance, he considers anger to be particularly detrimental. Tsong-kha-pa (Great Treatise: [233]) defines anger in the following manner: “Anger (khong khro) is malevolence in relation to objects such as sentient beings, suffering, and bases of suffering such as weapons, etc. It is an abusive mind that intends to harm those objects.” We now turn our attention to Tsong-kha-pa’s techniques for countering anger in the context of developing the capacity for patient forbearance (bzod pa). Antidotes to anger


Tsong-kha-pa’s guidelines for cultivating the antidotes to anger are described in the Great Treatise’s section on the perfection of patient forbearance (bzod pa). Tsongkha- pa (Great Treatise: [397]) defines the nature of patient forbearance as follows: “[The nature of patient forbearance] does not give thought to another’s harm-doing, accepts the arising of suffering within one’s own mental continuum, and is firmly involved with ascertaining the doctrine (dharma)”. Based on this definition, Tsongkha- pa understands patient forbearance to be an interior mental quality that is developed within one’s own mind and is not contingent upon changing other people’s behavior or other external circumstances. The mental cultivation of the perfection of patient forbearance consists just in the perfect fulfillment of the mind’s proficiency in ceasing one’s own anger and does not depend upon freeing all sentient beings from their wicked ways. The essential point to cultivating patient forbearance is achieved by taming one’s own mental continuum. Tsong-kha-pa’s (Great Treatise: [397]) understanding of anger as an interior mental state to be cultivated reflects the Indian Buddhist scholar Fantideva’s statements in the Bodhicaryavatara (5.12–14): How many wicked people, as [unending] as space, can I kill? But when the mental-state of anger is slain, then all enemies are slain. Where would there be leather enough to cover the entire world? The earth is covered over merely with the leather of my sandals. Likewise, I am unable to control external things, but I shall control my own mind. What need is there to control anything else?


Tsong-kha-pa advocates that one should use all sorts of meditative techniques and procedures to increase familiarity with patient forbearance. The goal is the enhancement of one’s capacity for tolerance in counteracting negative mental forces such as anger. Among such mental techniques, Tsong-kha-pa initially discusses the mental cultivation of understanding the benefits of patient forbearance, recognizing the faults of impatient non-forbearance, and developing awareness for the gravity of anger both in this life and in future lives. In the classical Tibetan Buddhist worldview in which Tsong-kha-pa wrote, not only does the generation of anger have immediate consequences, but it can lead to undesirable forms of existence in future lives. Regarding the technique of reflecting upon the benefits of patient forbearance, Tsong-kha-pa (Great Treatise: [398]) cites the Bodhisattvabhumi:

The bodhisattva first of all views patient forbearance as beneficial and thinks, “The person who has patient forbearance in the future will not have many enemies and will not have many divisions, will have much happiness and satisfaction, will not have regret at the time of death, and with the perishing of the body will take rebirth among the gods in the realms of the upper happy heavens.” In such a way, by observing the benefit, oneself engages in patient forbearance and moreover, through correctly apprehending patient forbearance, one will proclaim and praise patient forbearance, having a happy heart when seeing a patient person, and always be happy.


Tsong-kha-pa then goes on to list the many benefits of patient forbearance. Patient forbearance enables a person to persevere in helping other beings despite their ingratitude. One becomes protected from anger, from being tormented by mental afflictions, and performing acts of malevolence. Cultivation of patient forbearance also has physical effects in that it brings a golden complexion and beautiful form that captivates others. For Tsong-kha-pa, patient forbearance enables one to be happy all the time in this life and to avoid taking rebirth in lower realms in future lives. The cultivation on the benefits should be carried out until one gains a firm and powerful ascertainment in the cause and effect relations that occur from patient forbearance.


Jey Rimpochey understands the faults of anger to be extremely detrimental to the bodhisattva path to awakening. He cites the Mañufri-vikridita-sutra as stating that anger destroys virtues accumulated over a hundred eons and the Bodhicaryavatara (6.1) which states that “all the good conduct, such as generosity and worshiping the Sugatas (i.e. Buddhas), that has accumulated over thousands of eons, anger destroys it all.” The Madhyamakavatara also says that producing a single moment of anger towards bodhisattvas destroys virtues accumulated from practicing the perfections of giving and ethics for a hundred eons. Tsong-kha-pa analyzes these statements and relates them to the weight of the causal basis through which anger is


produced, that if a bodhisattva destroys roots of virtue through anger, how much more so is the case when a non-bodhisattva becomes angry with a bodhisattva. In whichever context it occurs, for Tsong-kha-pa, anger tremendously incapacitates virtue (see Cozort 1995). In this way, the detrimental effects of harboring anger are manifold, for future lives as well as the present. Under the influence of anger, the mind does not experience peace nor happiness, former pleasures and joys perish, sleeplessness arises, the mind degenerates from its natural state, and one loses friends. Tsong-kha-pa (Great Treatise: [403]) cites the Bodhicaryavatara (6.3–5) for cultivating awareness of anger’s clear and present danger to one’s well being: One’s mind does not experience peace, obtain happiness or delight, go to sleep, nor feel secure when hatred embraces a tormented mind. Those whom one honors with wealth and respect, and also one’s dependents, even they wish to slay the master who has hatred. Even relatives are disenchanted with him. Even though he gives, he is not honored. In brief, there is no sense in which someone prone to anger is well off.

Tsong-kha-pa recommends cultivating a firm understanding of the faults that arise from anger. Tsong-kha-pa also notes at this point, drawing on the Bodhicaryavatara (6.2), that “There is no evil like hatred, and there is no austerity like patience.” On the reason for hatred or anger being unlike any other negative affliction, Tsong-kha-pa cites the Madhyamakavatara-bhasya (on 3.6): As the quantity of water in the great ocean cannot be ascertained through measurement, the extent of the [[[karmic]]] maturation concerning [[[anger]]] cannot be ascertained. Therefore, in this way, there does not exist another misdeed greater than impatience which casts unpleasant results and harms virtue.

In other words, anger, which is closely related to impatience, is considered to have unfathomable effects in this life and in future lives and undermines all wholesome actions that one has previously cultivated. One ascertains the benefits and faults of anger and also is aware of the uncertain extent to which anger is detrimental. The next step for Tsong-kha-pa is to cultivate the capacity for patient forbearance through multiple purviews of analysis. Tsong-kha-pa (Great Treatise: [405–410]) examines the inappropriateness of anger through three main avenues of analysis. First, he considers the object (yul), that is, others who provoke the cause of being angry, next, the subject (yul can), that is, one’s own responsibility for the situation based on former actions, and finally, the causal basis (rten) from which anger may arise. In considering the object (yul) (Great Treatise: [405–409]), one considers whether a harm-doer is acting independently or not. One examines the causes and conditions and sees that anger against others is not appropriate because they lack an independent status of their own. That is, they are helpless against their own conditioning, the aggregation of cause and conditions infused with mental afflictions and karmic propensities, which propels them to commit acts that provoke one to anger. They are like a servant under the power of the afflictive mental states. Tsong-kha-pa likens this process to a healer who, while trying to free a patient from an evil spirit, is struck and harmed by the patient. The healer understands that the patient is not acting independently, but under the influence of other forces, and so does not become angry toward the patient but endeavors to free the patient from the evil spirit. Likewise, the bodhisattva, a person of great spiritual capacity, when struck by a harm-doer understands that one who does harm lacks autonomy and is under the influence of the evil spirit of the mental afflictions (nyon mongs). The bodhisattva does not become angry toward the individual but undertakes activities to help them to become free from their afflictions. Tsongkha- pa also makes the point that beings lack autonomy because even though they themselves want happiness, they commit acts that lead to suffering.

In considering one who does harm, the Great Treatise ([407]) recognizes that anger is inappropriate when examining whether the fault is the essential nature (rang bzhin) of the one who commits the harm or is just a temporary circumstance (glo bur ba). If harming others is in some way an essential nature of a person, then there is no point in being angry since they cannot help the way they are. This is analogous to being angry toward a small child for being immature, cursing clouds because they produce rain, or resenting a fire because it burns. Begrudging things for possessing their essential qualities is thought to be pointless. Likewise, if harming others is not a person’s essential nature, but an adventitious or temporary circumstance, then there is no point in being angry at the person who is under the influence of circumstantial conditions. This is likened to being angry at the sky when overcast with clouds. The essential nature of the sky is not to be overcast, but due to certain circumstances the sky may be covered with clouds. The (Great Treatise [407]) also considers the inappropriateness of anger at a harm-doer from examining the direct (dngos) or indirect (brgyud ) factors that gave rise to an injurious act. From one perspective, a person should direct anger at the factor that directly causes the pain. On the other hand, one could direct anger at the indirect or underlying factor that gave rise to the act. From this perspective one should direct their anger at hatred, since it would be the underlying motivating factor, as the person is but the instrument of the hatred. Therefore, as in the previous analysis that revealed a harm-doer’s lack of autonomy, a person is only indirectly responsible for provocation; s/he is being used by hate in the same way that a person uses a weapon. Here, one should oppose the negative mental afflictions, rather than the person. The Bodhicaryavatara (6.41–42) states in this regard: If, disregarding the direct cause, such as a stick or other weapon, I become angry with the wielder, then, since he too is secondary, being incited in turn by hatred, it is better that I be angry with the hatred.


The last point that Tsong-kha-pa considers is (this from the perspective of the object), in terms of how it is inappropriate to be angry when examining the cause that urges the harm-doer. The suffering induced by a harm-doer does not arise without a cause nor does it arise from a cause that is not concordant with the harmful action. Accordingly, harm must arise from a corresponding cause: one’s own past non-virtuous actions. Infuriating people are not independent agents, but rather are agents of one’s own previous non-virtuous actions.

In terms of the subject (yul can), Tsong-kha-pa (Great Treatise: 409–410) encourages reflection upon the detrimental effects that will occur if one responds to harm-doing with anger. One should reflect “I am behaving foolishly” and endeavor to not let anger take over one’s mental stream. Since the suffering produced by harm is the result of former non-virtuous actions, experiencing the suffering is thought to purify and consume former negative actions. If one cultivates patient forbearance and withstands suffering, one does not amass any new unwholesome transgressions and greatly expands one propensity for meritorious and wholesome experiences. Therefore, one should view the harm-doer with kindness, looking beyond the damage they are doing to themselves, and perceive the harm-doer as engaging in the purification of one’s own transgressions. In this instance, a provocative person gives one the opportunity to amass merit and is beneficial for spiritual progress. Tsong-kha-pa cites Candrakirti’s Madhyamakavatara (3.5) on this point: “the result of previous non-virtuous deeds is itself called the destroyer [of non-virtuous karma]. How could one sow the seeds of suffering through anger and harm to another?”

Therefore, Tsong-kha-pa advocates that just as one would tolerate (bzod pa) bleeding and the burning of moxibustion as a means to healing a great sickness, likewise the most appropriate course of action is to tolerate or have patient forbearance with regard to minor suffering in order avert the potential greater suffering of unfortunate lower rebirths or negative karmic repercussions. Tsong-kha-pa’s analysis of the inappropriateness of anger concludes by briefly examining the causal basis (rten) from which anger may arise (Great Treatise: [410]). This analytical cultivation examines who is ultimately to blame and who is guilty as the source of harm. Tsong-kha-pa cites Bodhicaryavatara (6.43–44, 67) in this context: Both his weapon and my body are the causes of suffering. He gave rise to the weapon and I to the body. At which is there anger? Blinded by attachment I grasp this sore of a human form, which cannot bear to be touched and is suffering, with whom should I be angry when it is hurt? Some commit offenses out of delusion. Others, deluded, are angry. Who among them is free from blame? Which one is guilty? Tsong-kha-pa is stating that we are inclined to suffering and dissatisfaction so long as we remain overly attached to the psychophysical aggregates that are


the product of our karma and mental afflictions. The occurrence of pain and its potential derivatives such as anger arise through a combination of various factors and conditions.


Summary


Tsong-kha-pa understands anger to be a destructive force in this life and in future lives. His presentation is infused with and guided by the assumptions of suffering and pleasure correlated to wholesome or unwholesome actions causally connected over numerous lifetimes. In this worldview, anger incapacitates virtues, serves as an obstacle to the development of patient forbearance, and ultimately inhibits one’s ability to help others. At the same time, Tsong-kha-pa also assumes that the mental continuums of human beings are endowed with luminosity and clarity. Humans have the ability to overcome and avoid negative mental propensities such as anger through cultivating wholesome mental qualities and engaging in reasoning as a spiritual exercise. Cultivating wholesome or virtuous qualities are casually connected with beneficial states of existence and serve as antidotes to afflicted mental states. Reasoning is applied in order to gain cognitive ascertainment of the lack essence in things and persons. This type of ascertainment is thought to lessen self-grasping and its resultant negative mental conditioning. In this way, Tsong-kha-pa’s presentation contains several important elements in attempting to overcome anger. The cultivations initially provide a developed appreciation for the negativity of anger. Tsong-kha-pa’s spiritual exercises on the inappropriateness of anger demonstrate how the mind may be cultivated to analyze the underlying causal factors of anger’s occurrence. Countermeasures such as these condition the mind against the mental affliction of anger and allow for the mind to increases its capacity for patient forbearance (bzod pa).


Notes


1 On the life of Tsong-kha-pa see E. Obermiller, “Tsok-kha-pa le pandit” in Mélanges chinois et bouddhiques 3 (1935): 319–338, R. Thurman (ed.), The Life and Teachings of Tsong Khapa (Dharamsala 1982) and R. Kaschewsky, Das Leben des lamaistischen Heiligen Tsongkhapa Blo-bzak-grags-pa (Wiesbaden 1971). 2 Ruegg (1980: 278; 2000: 3–7) distinguishes four periods in the development of Buddhism in Tibet: (a) preliminary assimilation (eighth–ninth centuries), the early propagation (snga dar): (b) full assimilation (tenth–fourteenth centuries), during which doctrines were systematized; (c) the classical period (fourteenth–sixteenth centuries); and (d) the scholastic period (sixteenth–twentieth centuries), during which textbooks were systemized in an effort to reach definitive exegesis of previous interpretations. 3 I have used throughout this essay, unless otherwise noted, the English translation of the Lamrim Chenmo Translations Committee’s (Cutler, editor-in-chief ) The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, volumes one and three (Snow Lion, Ithaca, NY: 2000, 2002) and the 1985 Tibetan edition with the title Byang chub lam rim che ba published by Tsho Ngön (mtsho sngon) People’s Press based on the Bya khyung block prints. My translation of the Tibetan is followed by square bracketed references


to the Tibetan edition page number and numbers given in parentheses refers to the English translation of Cutler et al. 4 Tsong-kha-pa explains these concepts as being synonymous in his Sde bdun la ‘jug pa’i sgo don gnyer yid kyi mun sel. 5 Tsong-kha-pa notes the purity of the basic nature of the mind in his Elucidation of the Thought (dgongs ba rab gsal). See Hopkins 1980: 132–133. The luminous nature of mind in terms of its emptiness of intrinsic existence is found in the Legs bshad gser phreng (1986: 339–340): de nas dbu ma pa ni sems kyi rang bzhin gshis la cir yang ma grub pa’i stong nyid de rtogs pa na. 6 AS (1950: 5–6): cetana katama/cittabhisaÅskaro manaskarma/kufalakufalavyakrtesu cittaprarenakarmika.


7 AK, 4.1cd (1975: 192): (karmajaÅ lokavaicitrayaÅ/) cetana tatkrtaÅ ca tat / cetanÅ mansaÅ karma/tajjaÅ vakkayakarmaji. 8 Louis de la Vallée Poussin, trans, L’Abhidharmakofa de Vasubandhu, Bruxelles: Institut Belge des Haustes Etudes Chinoises, 1971, III.106. Cited by Dreyfus (1995: 42; 2002: 39). 9 Translation based on Apple and Dunne (2001). Great Treatise (210–211 [159]). 10 Ratnavali 1.21: afubhat sarvadu, khani sarva durgatayas tatha/fubhat sugatayah sarvah sarvajanmasukhani ca // Hahn, 1982: 10; Dunne/McClintock, 1997: 14. 11 In Tsong-kha-pa’s understanding of SaÅkhya theism, the world is created out of “fundamental nature” (rang bzhin, prakrti), also known as “primal essence” (gtso bo, pradhana), by the supreme deity Ifvara (dbang phyug). 12 Pierre Hadot (1995). See also McClintock 2002: 3.

13 The initial teachings of the Buddha are commonly known as “the four noble truths.” However, the term “noble” refers to how things “are seen by a Buddha, how things really are when seen correctly” (Williams 2001: 41). In this sense, they are “the truths of the nobles” or “the truths of, possessed by, the noble ones” (Norman 1993 volume: 174). Tsong-kha-pa concurs with this understanding as he articulates in the Legs bshad gser phreng (1986: 188–189) that the “truths of the noble ones’ (‘phags pa’i bden pa rnams) are based on noble beings” (‘phags pa) meditative transformation and cognitive insight. 14 False view of the perishing five aggregates (S: satkayadrsti, T: ‘jigs tshog la lta ba) is a technical term for the afflicted discernment that grasps onto the idea of “I” and “mine” when perceiving the fluctuating and transitory five aggregates. Tsong-kha-pa explains in the (Great Treatise [234]) that: . . . since “perishing” means impermanent and “collection” (i.e. the aggregates) means manifold, the locus of this view is merely an impermanent and manifold thing; nevertheless, one applies the term “false view that the perishable aggregates [constitute a Self]” for the purpose of teaching that “a permanent and unitary individual does not exist.” (. . . ‘jig pa ni mi rtag pa dang tshogs pa ni du ma yin pas ‘dis gang la lta ba’i gzhi ni mi rtag pa dang du ma’i chos tsam yin gyi/rtag pa dang gcig pu’i gang zag ni med do/zhes bstan pa’i phyir du ‘jig tshogs la lta ba zhes ming btags so.) 15 Great Treatise ([237]) translation based on Apple and Dunne (2001). 16 See Bodhicaryavatara: Even if banished, an enemy may acquire retinue and support in another country, and return from there with gathered strength. But there is no such resort for this enemy, the afflictions. Based in my mind, where might it go once cast out? Where might it stay and work towards my destruction? I make no effort simply because my mind is dull. The afflictions are weaklings to be subdued by the eye of wisdom. BCA (4.45–46): nirvasitasyapi tu nama fatror defantare sthanaparigrahahsyat/ yatah punah saÅbhrtafaktir eti na klefafatror gatir idrfi tu // 45 // kvasau yayan manmanah stho nirastahsthitvayasmin madvadharthaÅ yateta / nodyogo me kevalaÅ mandabuddheh klefah prajñadrstisadhya varakah // 46 //. 17 AS (Rahula, 70; Pradhan, 43): yo dharma utpadyamano ‘prafa ntalaksaja utpadyama nena yena kaya cittaprabandhaprafamapravrttih/idaÅ klesalaksajam.


18 This section is based on the Tibetan version of the Great Treatise: [397–425] All citations of the Bodhicaryavatara and other Indian texts are from the Tibetan as found in the 1985 Tibetan version of the Great Treatise. Tsong-kha-pa also discusses anger in his Elucidation of the Thought commentary for which see Hopkins (1980: 204–222) and Cozort (1995). Wayman has translated this section in his Ethics of Tibet (1991: 143–170). The Lamrim Translation Committee’s version of this section of the Great Treatise (volume 2) has not been published as of this writing. Cozort’s “ ‘Cutting the Roots of Virtue:’ Tsongkhapa on the Results of Anger” (1995) focuses on exegetical matters of Tsong-kha-pa’s understanding of anger, but does not extensively discuss Tsong-kha-pa’s countermeasures against anger.


References


Principle Indian sources


Abhidharmakofabhasya by Vasubandhu. Translated and annotated by Louis de La Vallée Poussin (1971) L’Abhidharmakofa de Vasubandhu, Nouvelle éd. anastatique présentée par Étienne Lamotte. Bruxelles: Institut belge des Hautes êtudes chinoises, 6 tomes. (MCB, XVI). English translation by Leo M. Pruden (1989) Volumes I to IV, Berkeley, CA: Asian Humanities Press. Abhidharmasamuccaya of Asanga. Edited by Pralhad Pradhan (1950), Abhidharmasamuccaya, Santiniketan: Visvabharati. Translated by Jinamitra Filendrabodhi. Ye she sde, Chos mngon pa kun las btus pa, Pk. 5550, Volume 112. Translated by Rahula (1971) Le Compendium de la super-doctrine (Philosophie) (Abhidharmasamuccaya) d’Asakga, Publications de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient, vol. LXXVIII, Paris: École française d’Extrême-Orient. Translation of Rahula (1971) by Boin-Webb (2001). Abhidharmasamuccaya. The Compendium of the Higher Teaching (Philosophy) by Asakga, Fremont, CA: Asian Humanities Press. Bodhicaryavatara of Fantideva. Also, Bodhisattvacaryavatara, Byang chub sems dpa’i spyod la ‘jug pa, Sanskrit and Tibetan edition, Vidhushekara Bhattacharya (1960) Bodhicaryavatara, Calcutta: the Asiatic Society. English translation, Kate Crosby and Andrew Skilton (1995), The Bodhicaryavatara, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. Principle indigenous Tibetan sources Tsong kha pa blo bzang grags pa (1357–1419) Khams gsum chos kyi rgyal po tsong kha pa chen po’i gsung ‘bum. Collected Works, Dge ldan gsung rab mi nyams rgyun phel series 79–105, published by Ngag dbang dge legs bde mo (1975–1979). —— (1357–1419) Drang nges legs bshad snying po � The Essence of Eloquent Speech on the Defintive and Interpretabl, Mundgod, District North Kanara, Karnataka, India: SOKU Publication (1991). ——(1357–1419) Sde bdun la ‘jug pa’i sgo don gnyer yid kyi mun sel, Kokonor, Tibet: mTsho ngon mi rigs dpe skrun khang (1986). —— (1357–1419) Dbu ma la ‘jug pa’i rnam bshad dgongs pa rab gsal, Sarnath: Gelupa Students Union (1973). —— (1357–1419) Dbu ma rtsa ba’i tshig le’ur byas pa shes rab ces bya ba’i rnam bshad rigs pa’i rgya mtsho, Va na mtho slob dge ldan spyi las khang nas (1975).


——(1357–1419) Shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa’i man ngag gi bstan bcos mngon par rtogs pa’i rgyan ‘grel pa dang bcas pa’i rgya cher bshad pa legs bshad gser phreng zhes bya ba bzhugs so (� Legs bshad gser phreng), Kokonor, Tibet: mTsho ngon mi rigs dpe skrun khang (1986). Also Collected Works, 1977, Volumes 26 and 27, gSung ‘bum lHa sa edition, v. tsa and tsha. ——(1357–1419) Zhugs pa dang gnas pa’i skyes bu chen bo rnams kyi rnam par bshag pa blo gsal bgrod pa’i them skad zhes bya ba bzhugs so in The Collected Works (gsun bum) of Rje Tson-kha-pa Blo bzan-grags-pa. Reproduced from an example of the old Bkra-sis-lhun po redaction from the library of Klukhyil Monastery of Ladhakh by Ngawang Gelek Demo, New Delhi (1977), Volume 27. —— (1357–1419) Yid dang kun gzhi’i dka’ ba’i gnad rgya cher ‘grel ba legs bshad rgya mtsho, New Delhi, Volume 27 (1977). Introduced and translated by Gareth Sparham in collaboration with Shotaro Iida. Ocean of Eloquence: Tsong Kha Pa’s commentary on the Yogacara Doctrine of Mind, Albany, NY: SUNY (1993).

—— (1357–1419) Lam rim chen mo. mNyam med tsong kha pa chen pos mdzad pa’i byang chub lam rim che ba, Kokonor, Tibet: mTsho ngon mi rigs dpe skrun khang (1985). Translated by the Lamrim Translation Committee. Joshua W. C. Cutler, editor-in-chief; Guy Newland, editor. The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion. Volume 1 (2000), Volume 3 (2002). Secondary sources Apple, James (2001) “Twenty Varieties of the SaÅgha: Tsong kha pa’s Soteriological Exegesis,” PhD dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison. University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, Michigan. ——(2003) “Twenty Varieties of the SaÅgha: A Typology of Noble Beings (Arya) in Indo-Tibetan Scholasticism (Part I),” Journal of Indian Philosophy 31/5: 503–592. ——(2004) “Tsong-kha-pa blo-bzang grag-pa” in Phyllis G. Jestice (ed.), Holy People of the World: A Cross-Cultural Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO Publications. Apple, James and John D. Dunne (trans.) (2001) The Necklace of Clear Understanding: An Elucidation of the System of Mind and Mental States by Tshe-mchog-gling yongs- ’dzin, Dka’chen Ye-shes rgyal-mtshan (Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Buddhism).

Cozort, Daniel (1995) “ ‘Cutting the Roots of Virtue:’ Tsongkhapa on the Results of Anger,” Journal of Buddhist Ethics 2: 83–104. Dreyfus, Georges (1995) “Meditation as Ethical Activity,” Journal of Buddhist Ethics 2: 28–54. Dunne, John D. and Sara McClintock (1997) The Precious Garland: An Epistle to a King, Boston, MA: Wisdom Publications. ——(2002) “Is compassion an emotion? A cross-cultural exploration of mental typologies,” in R. J. Davidson and A. Harrington (ed.) Visions of Compassion: Western Scientists and Tibetan Buddhists Examine Human Nature, New York: Oxford University Press. Hopkins, Paul Jeffrey (1980) Compassion in Tibetan Buddhism. With Kensur Lekden’s Meditations of a Tantric Abbot, New York: Snow Lion. ——(1998) “Delineating Reason’s Scope for Negation, Tsongkhapa’s Contribution to Madhyamaka’s Dialectical Method,” Journal of Indian Philosophy 26: 275–308. ——(1999) “Tsongkhapa’s Qualms about Early Tibetan Interpretations of Madhyamaka Philosophy,” Tibet Journal 24.2: 3–28.


Hopkins, Paul Jeffrey (2000) “The Question of ‘Development’ in Tsongkhapa’s Madhaymaka Philosophy,” Études Asiatiques 54.1: 5–44. Kaschewsky, Rudolf (1971) Das Leben des lamaistischen Heiligen Tsongkhapa Blo-BzaÔ Grags-Pa (1357–1419), dargestellt und erläutert anhand seiner Biographie “Quellenort allen Glücks,” 2 vol. Asiatische Forschungen, Vol. 32. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. McClintock, Sara L. (2002) “Omniscience and the Rhetoric of Reason in the TattvasaÅgraha and the TattvasaÅgrahapañjika,” PhD dissertation, Harvard University. Norman, K. R. (1990–96) Collected Papers, Oxford: Pali Text Society, Six volumes. Obermiller, Eugene (1935) “Tsok-kha-pa le Pandit,” Mélanges Chinois et Bouddhiques, Bruxelles 3: 319–338.

Pierre, Hadot (1995) Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault, New York: Blackwell. Ruegg, David Seyfort (1968) “The dGe-lugs-pa Theory of the Tathagatagarbha,” Pratidanam, Studies Presented to F. B. J. Kuiper, Janua Linguarum Series Maior, The Hague 34: 500–509. —— (1980) “On the Reception and Early History of the Dhuma (Madhyamaka) in Tibet.” M. Aris and A. Suu Kyi (eds) Tibetan Studies in Honor of Hugh Richardson. New Delhi: Vikas, pp. 277–279. —— (2000) Studies in Indian and Tibetan Madhyamaka Thought, Part 1. Wien: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien, Universität Wien. Thurman, Robert A. F. (1982) The Life and Teachings of Tsong Khapa, Dharamsala, India: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives. ——(1984) Tsong Khapa’s Speech of Gold in the Essence of True Eloquence, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Wayman, Alex (1991) Ethics of Tibet, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Williams, Paul (2001) Buddhist Thought. A Complete Introduction to the Indian Tradition, New York: Routledge. Wilson, Joe Bransford (1996) “The Monk as Bodhisattva,” Journal of Religious Ethics 24: 2.



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