Background of Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia

The Background of Buddhist Encyclopedia of China

Now Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia

Ven. Vello Väärtnõu

Ivolga monastery

One snowy day two fellows arrived to Beijing - one of them was older and bald, the other one younger. Both Buddhists. The younger came to do business to build a Temple and the older carried an Idea that was to create a positive attitude toward Buddhism in China again. The older fellow had been a Buddhist for years, the younger was a beginner, who considered the older to be his teacher.

Beijing was cold and ugly to arrivals. Tainted sky, here and there were a few patches of snow and cold winds awesome. As well, above the city there was frozen smog, which spouted out millions of cars that all were screaming in that snotty smog, trying to make the way in this metallic commotion.

They were the Red Guard, who had gone through the Cultural Revolution and the young Chinese, who were eager to dart into business, forgetting Chairman Mao’s advice and dreams.

Two Taoists, Buddhist’s, were taken aback staring at the westernised city image and there was no trail or sign of Old China. Only glass and concrete, between them the mighty river of cars, transferring new westernised Chinese to their westernised stores and homes. Farewell to old dim China with skills to tell stories, embedding philosophy and mysticism, offering so much inspiration and narratives to poets in beautiful pavilions.

All this was lost. Also masses of cyclists from the time of Chairman Mao and raving crowds with red flags in the background had vanished into history. It had been replaced with westernised China, where the power was still in the hands of the pippin party. Allowing Chinese to buy, sell, speculate, trade on a condition that the Chinese don’t think about the religion and politics, such a simple solution has been chosen by the ruling party of the biggest nation in the world.

China`s glory and splendour from culture, about what these two Taoists were dreaming of, all this was overlapped under the red history and today’s commercial campaign.

The Taoists stared at this phenomenon dimwittedly, because their minds were still dwelling in the philosophical landscapes of Confucius and Lao Tzu.

Some weeks ago I met two local Rinpoche’s in China. One of them belongs to the Nyingma tradition as well to the Bon tradition, and he was from Derge, Tibet, where they used to print all Gangyur and Tengyur editions. By now, he had abandoned this place, I guess.

Moreover, those two were brothers.

At first I talked with the younger brother about Buddhism and other matters for a few hours, and finally I explained that it would be very useful for China to put together the Buddhist Encyclopedia. Whereupon he answered, that right now he is only interested in restoring the old temples, in addition, in recent years his focus has been on old statues, and when all this is done, he could deal with the Encyclopaedia.

A little bit later his brother arrived, who was an older and who belonged to Bon and Nyingma tradition. His attitude was reluctant and sceptical towards me - whether I am a Buddhist at all. I explained to him that even if I was not a Buddhist, this idea is highly useful and necessary for China, but he was not interested in the Buddhist encyclopaedia. When I had talked to the Rinpoches, I started to look for ordinary people to put the idea to use, and after some while some candidates appeared.

Ivolga Monastery Monk doing morning ritual

For sure the statues are necessary, but to understand their essential necessity is mandatory to gather knowledge. Zimba, my rootguru explained to me, that most of what the eye can see cannot be touched by hand. And the sense is clinging to the mind like love to self. The first step for Buddhists was to give up things, also the statues.

Adding to this, one story of Zimba about the learning and monasteries. There are such monasteries that had to be with golden statues, soup kettle big like a yurta, and meat floating in the kettle. In these monasteries most of the time is spent on preparing food and eating. The other kind of monastery was tainted and with clay statues, the soup kettle is tiny and you need to look for the meat in this kettle. In such monasteries there is nothing else to do than learn and learn, because the meals of the day are rare and poor. Guru asked me which of them I would prefer.

The only answer that came to mind was – the golden Middle Way.

Dwelling on the first summer in Ivolga, in the monastery where I studied, I got an idea to go to the town of Ulan Ude. I went to the front of the monastery to wait for the bus and I saw and old granny, who had started investigating me already from a far distance with her intrinsic eye. When coming closer, the granny asked me - are you a lama? As I had been studying in the monastery only for some months, I didn’t know how to answer at once, and mumbled that I came here to study.

Granny asked again, is she talking to the lama, so I decided to pretend that I didn’t hear the question.

With them I have been carrying on recently. The problem is that I don’t speak Chinese, so I don’t have access to direct materials; and those people don’t know the terminology, so I have to go to Taiwan to find such people – I mean monks, who are educated and proficient in English and with them I can check the translations and terminology. Another important point should be mentioned, namely I want this encyclopaedia to be quite academic, to gather material widely and from everywhere but at the same time everybody should have access to it, be able to read it and get used to such textual style.

That’s why it will be difficult to do this, because everybody expects this site to be sweet and Buddhist, to be filled with stories written by Rinpoche’s to believers. I don’t have anything against believers; on the contrary, my aim is to educate people more on Buddhism. For me Buddhism has always been the source of knowledge and growth, and faith will develop itself, it is like a by-product. Moreover, I have been utterly fascinated in Buddhism and hoped that others would get part in this source of knowledge that has been in our disposal for more than two thousand years. It is strange that my fascination in Buddhism has only grown over the years and it seems not to end. I am almost sorry, that I don’t have anybody to share this fascination. I think that the only way to show my respect and exaltation to Buddhism is my activities in the scientific field of Buddhism. I don’t know how successful I have been, but I have done some things in my life.

I’m not tired of praising my Gurus. The more I think of them, the more I understand how dim-witted I am compared to them and it makes me enforce myself more and more.

Then granny said: Interesting, you were so blarney and clever when with Munko lama, but coming out from the monastery you were enshrouded by ignorance.

Interesting, that monastery has such effect on people.

I had a talk to Munko lama about how to learn, how much, how long and what to learn. I proposed a plan that covered about 30 years and Munko said that it would not be possible, because sooner or later I will lose interest in the surroundings, because with some people the mind will be buried under the knowledge and it would be impossible to find that person under this heap of knowledge. Then I proposed that maybe there is the way to get rid of the barriers of knowledge.

The next day I marched to my first retreat behind Munko.

For already some years I felt at home in Ivolga monastery, one day I found myself sitting with Baasan on the stairs of the house and slurped tea. Baasan was from Mongolia and he often visited Ivolga monastery to acquire knowledge and that was the beginning of our friendship. We were investigating Vasubandhu`s Abidharmakosha the whole day and were taking advantage of the tea break. We discussed the limit of our knowledge- is there a border that our mind cannot cross? And what could replace this experience of the mind. We both fell into deep thoughts, because there seemed to be no logical answer. Then at one moment Bair´s mother, at whose house we lived, entered the gate and clanged to us – already in Nirvana that you don’t know how to say Hello?

Vello Väärtnõu and Ven.Munko lama in Ivolga

Already long ago I thought of building a temple in their honour and now this idea has taken a more concrete form. I would like to build a temple, which is partly a mandala and the higher part of the temple would be the Bumbaa, like a stupas. So it would combine both principles. All those ideas that I haven’t had a chance to share, because I assume many people wouldn’t understand me, need to be fulfilled before death.

After the retreat I understood that I wouldn’t be a good teacher because I cannot communicate with people on Buddhist teachings, as I consider it is better to do it myself and as much possible for Buddhism.

I had been in Ivolga for many years and felt homey in Dharma and I was sure that my ability to differentiate people was well developed. In the evening Munko lama told me that tomorrow my new teacher would arrive.

In the morning I went as usual to make my three circles around the monastery, to make prostrations and to spin the prayer wheels. Half way under the prayer wheels a man was sleeping in a dirty coat. I thought it’s clear; some drunkard has got to the monastery and fell asleep. Let him sleep there, I thought, and be part of a better karma in this holy place. When I finished my circles I went to Munko`s house to meet my famous and powerful teacher, who was supposed to provide me the final grind in Dharma.

Stepping through the door, I saw that Munko lama was drinking tea with the same drunkard. He became my best teacher in philosophy for many years and my closest rootguru Zimba.

That’s why my thoughts are such with the Chinese Buddhist Encyclopaedia. How many people would support this idea, I don’t know, but I hope that at least some Buddhist will understand me and will find the wish within him to support this idea.

Avalokiteshvara temple in Ivolga

To compile Encyclopaedias you need to have a lot of money. I have never had money, because for me money is not a goal, but knowledge is. Again, I assume that there are people in the world who understand this project and would give their contribution.

These would be my thoughts in connection to my activities in Australia. It seems that the conference, Australian Buddhist encyclopaedia, building of a Fire temple and Stupa in WA would be too much for me, because lack of money is the problem that wouldn’t let me fulfil those ideas. Such a thought came to me in Beijing at night, when I was searching for materials and articles for the future Chinese Buddhist Encyclopaedia.

We were sitting with Zimba in the yard and talking about the validity of the mind to perceive the surroundings. I talked about the circus and magicians who are doing tricks. Zimba liked the story and added that the biggest magician for us is sansara itself. I agreed, because with Guru it is possible only to agree, but I thought that sometimes our senses are able to feed us truthfully.

After this, Zimba took a vajra from his pocket, showed it to me and even let me touch it, then threw the vajra few meters away, into the grass and told me to give it back to him.

I saw exactly where this vajra fell. I even noticed the tuft of grass behind which the powerful tantric hardware fell. I got up on the bench and started to investigate the ground, because the grass was not so high. I searched in depth but did not see anything, i squatted down and started to grope, but the fingers felt nothing. I made a bigger circle with my fingers –and nothing. I looked back, Zimba sat on the bench, his eyes laughing. I started even aggressively scour the grass, but the result was the same.

To explain further the reasons of my stay in China then at first I wanted to invite educated monks to the conference in Australia. Unfortunately, it turned out that the only wise were those monks who already participated in our previous conference. As well, the attempts to contact the Chinese Buddhist Association have had no results – because it was impossible to reach them. I see that official organizations keep away from me as if I had leprosy. Of course we could talk about the eternal suffering and the readiness to wait for years, but I don’t have this time any more, as I am Old. This forces me to find out other possibilities to get results that are useful to Buddhism.

I met many different people whose only interest was to make money until I finally met the right ones, who were Buddhists in their internal nature. At the first meeting, there was only me, two young ladies and one master, who had visited the Kalachakra celebrations in Bodhgaya and who had such an interest in Buddhism that he was also interested in compiling the Buddhist encyclopaedia.

Prayer flags in Australia Where Encyclopedia was born

At the next meeting already 8 people gathered, 3 of them were men and others were ladies. It seems that nowadays the interest in Buddhism is more popular amongst women than men. This evening it turned out that the level of knowledge about Buddhism is surprisingly low. Later, a lady arrived 1.5 hours late and began volubly speaking against the encyclopaedia. When I asked who she was, it turned out she’s the so called - sponsor. I told her that hardly anyone here is interested in money, here brains are more needed.

Upon which she stated that if I’m planning to translate Buddhist material without knowing the subject and context I would receive bad karma.

One of the men who arrived reported that Buddhism doesn’t need knowledge but faith and everything starts from believing. To what I responded that before he could start believing, the knowledge on that subject had to come to him first. Not withstanding my objection, this master stayed firm to his opinion. In addition, one man was displeased about how I dared to come to China with such an idea. I had to say that all this here is wasting my time.

Then Zimba got up the bench and picked up the vajra right in front of my nose from the grass, saying - so much about the philosophy and sansara.

We went with Zimba to visit his childhood friend who had been living in the steppe for many years. They had been together in the monastery for some months, before Zimba was sent to Drepong monastery in Tibet. We walked for some hours and then got a ride on a random car, the driver knew Zimba and offered to drive us to the house. We drove for a while and reached a big yurta. Zimba´s friend was a lama, so the conversation promised to be interesting. We stepped in and I was astonished that all the same neces-sities, as in the city, existed there– TV, refrigerator, kettle etc.

We sat down and the old lama made a fire in the stove and put there the old soiled teapot. I asked if it wasn’t easier to make hot water with a kettle. And the old lama answered, that he has no electricity. Then I understood that the yurta was in the middle of steppe and of course there were no electric circuits or posts. I asked from the lama, why he had a TV, refrigerator, kettle and all these things?

And got the answer. If all this stuff is in the city, then he can have it also, because anyway everything is unnecessary and vain in this life.

Buddhist shrine in Australia

I could also hear people from the crowd saying things like who am I to dare to speak about Buddhism and what have I ever done for Buddhism.

It was interesting – the people who came to the meeting, had received a brochure about the conference Buddhism & Australia, some of them had even read it, but it seemed that all that had disappeared from them, especially from the knowledge part.

By the way, I made a long speech as an introduction, where I talked about myself and about the history of Chinese Buddhism – I mentioned that the Heart Sutra was translated in China already in the 5th century and the first monastery in China was White Horse monastery and so on.

I also explained that it is a big historical moment in which they are involved in, to start to compiling an encyclopaedia in a language spoken by most of people in the world.

By the end of the meeting the company was divided into two. One that kept overflowing me with questions about how I dared to do it, who would allow it, and we need permission from the government, need to register etc. And the other majority of the people were listening in silence, because they seemed to have understood my idea and the necessity of my idea for China.

• * * The meeting lasted 5 hours and by the end you could clearly see how the two different companies were attuned. * * *

Stupas built by Vello Vaartnou

I rather imagine myself in the catalyst role, who should develop and encourage investigating and promoting Buddhism in China. Because online Buddhist encyclopaedia in Chinese would be available to everybody interested in Buddhism, giving them the access to Buddhist materials. In addition, the encyclopaedia would be the body of knowledge that could be used by scientists, Buddhists, monks and other people interested. Until now nobody has offered this online and this makes this project to be unique.

Computer makes this material accessible to all free of charge. This is my purpose in the life, to make Buddhism accessible to people for free. When Buddha Shakyamuni declared his teachings in the market-places, he didn’t ask money for this.

Nowadays, when everyone writes incompetently and sometimes wrongly about Buddhism, it’s only goal is to make money, and this is contrary to the original principle in Buddhism.

The aim of the Chinese Buddhist encyclopaedia(Now Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia) is to approach Buddhism from the academic aspect, so that it would contain terminology with Sanskrit counterparts, and also Tibetan language terminology.

Chinese Buddhist encyclopaedia (Now Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia) would be in Chinese, containing all the materials offered by the rich and historically far-reaching Chinese Buddhism. It can be expected to be the world’s most extensive Buddhist encyclopaedia and doing this, and it takes up with the innovations and improvements for decades. If it is possible, then an English version of this encyclopaedia should be made parallel to it, which gives the encyclopaedia the opportunity to conquer western readers. Then we could say that China has once again made something great like the Great Wall of China known from the history .

Chinese Buddhism has existed in time for a long time, already in the 5th century the Heart Sutra was translated, and we all know the White Horse Temple as the first temple in China.

We can freely say that the time has come to create the first Chinese Buddhist encyclopaedia. The encyclopaedia would help to get rid of the false beliefs and false notions on Buddhism.