After I read through theory of emptiness of all Tibetan
Buddhist Schools, I had a dream on the following night:
In that dream, I was sitting amongst a group of lamas, there
are the Ningma School, Kagyu School, Sakya School and Geluk School lamas.
A Ningma lama said: “I belonged to the Ningma emptiness.”
A Kagyu lama said: “Mine is the Kagyu emptiness.”
A Sakya lama said: “I follow the Sakya emptiness…”
Finally, a Geluk lama said: “I am absolutely the Geluk
emptiness school!”
Suddenly, Manjushri Bodhisattva appeared in the sky.
Everyone bowed to the bodhisattva. And the four lamas who
had spoken asked unanimously:
“The most honourable one, which school you belonged to?”
At this time, Manjushri smiled and said: “I belonged to none
of those…”
And, I woke up from my very strange dream.
I started to think about the contemporary teachings of
various Tibetan schools guessing what the Manjushri really meant. Of course,
the Manjushri in my dream may not be true as it was only a reflection of my own
mind indicating my doubts on Tantric Buddhism.
The teaching of Mahamudra and Great Perfection were touted
to be the Atiyoga or the ‘pinnacle of all yogas’ by Indian masters of that
time. In my view, this is not very wise because being called ‘unsurpassed’ by
itself limits the development of these practices. After all, all type of
knowledges must be able to be surpassed. No humanly made knowledge is so
perfect that it cannot be questioned.
The Geluk tradition on the other hand has limited its
development only to the completion stage (圆满次第) and nothing is allowed
beyond this point means the Geluk tradition does not really recognize the existence
of Atiyoga. This would be a little too autocratic and daunting for spiritual
development.
While we may be expert in winning all our debates with our
opponents, by winning debates alone does not also mean that we understand the
truth behind everything. So, it is not appropriate to say that there is a
teaching that can be so perfect that it cannot be questioned and surpassed. Let
us not forget, all theories are formed by human beings that may be prone to
errors. Of course, all theories should have some basis to start with; we must
still read and understand what other masters had concluded and surpassed them
whenever possible.
Let me conclude this with Dudjom Rinpoche’s last sentence of
‘The Dedication Of Great Perfection’ (大圆满祈愿文):
愿吾等法身悉自圆成，所证所断能超越是也。
It is hoped that our
dharmakaya shall automatically be perfected, whatever we have proven and
deduced can be surpassed.
The simplest, most profound and well-thought article ever posted about Buddhism.
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