62 Chapter : The Critical Reception of B sod nams rin chen's Mahamudrii S a Pai:i here makes reference to the exact same Indian masters whom B sod nams rin chen and his fol lowers considered the source for their Mahamudra teaching, namely Naropa and Maitrlpa To add weight to his argument, Sa Pai:i further quotes the Tantric author Nagarjuna, whom all Tibetan traditions consider supreme and whom the Bka ' brgyud pas consider to be a member of their Indian Mahamudra lineage, namely as a student of the Indian Mahamudra founder S araha Sa Pai:i further states that many other Indi an Tantric texts l ikewise not admit any Mahamudra teaching that is not related to the Tantric empowerments Finally, he rejects the Bka ' brgyud Mahamudra contempl ative principle o f abandoning all contrivance in order to realize the nature of the mind by saying that one should not stop relying on identifiable efforts until one has fully accomplished the wisdom of Maham udra by practicing the four Tantric empowerments 'Contrivance' (spros pa, *prapafica) or 'identifiable effort' (mtshan bcas, *salak�fffta ) refers in the Tantric context to making use of visualization, mantras, and yoga, including the Tantric sexual practices To sum up S a Pai:i ' s critique, three points can be drawn out: ( ) B sod nams rin chen's Mahamudra approach is at best equivalent to the Madhyamaka meditation of the Common Mahayana, which requires extremely long time to accomplish; (2) it is a disguised revival of the Chinese Chan tradition of Heshang Maheyan ; and (3) it does not accord with the authentic Indian tradition, where Mahamudra exclusively was taught in a Tantric context A Possible Contemporaneous Indian Instantaneous Approach Sa Pai:i thus criticized the Bka ' brgyud pas for propagating and practicing a Mahamudra doctrine that did not adhere to the orthodox Indian Tantric tradition taught by such Indian masters as Nagarjuna, Naropa, and Maitrlpa, and therefore regarded it as an entirely non Indian system If Sa Pai:i's critique has historical validity, it establi shes a contrast between B sod nams rin chen's Mahamudra teaching and the Indian Tantric tradition, which con sequently raises the questions of what the background and novelty of B sod nams rin chen's teaching might have been as well as what motive he may have fe lt in formulating his new approach to Mahiimudra Sa Pai:i ' s critique seems to have been ri ght in at least some regards It is true that there are several elements in the early Bka ' brgyud Mahamudra doctrines that are similar to Chan phyag rgya chen po bkag! /dbang bskur ba las byung ba yi! lye shes phyag rgya che rtogs na/ Ida gzad mtshan ma dang bcas pa 'ii /'bad rtsol kun la mi ltos sol For the identification of S a Pal).'S quote from Nagarjunagarbha's Caturmudriinifcaya, see RHO TON (2002 : 1 9, fn 6) For a later Bka ' brgyud Mahamudrii text asserting Nagarjuna as a student of S araha, see , e g , S gam po Bkra shis rnam rgyal's large Mahamudra treatise written in 565 or 577 (Ox year) , entitled Nges don phyag rgya chen po 'i sgom rim gsal bar byed pa 'i legs bshad zla ba 'i 'od zer, TBRC W23447- 89 , folio 05b, p 0; English translation by LHALUNGPA ( : 1 7) 86 S a Pal).'s Clear Differentiation continues at this point with a longer criticism o f using devotional practices for realizing Mahiimudra in the manner this was first taught by B sod n ams rin chen This critique shall not be discussed here For an English translation thereof, see RHOTON (2002 : 1 9- 20), verses - 20 Chapter 2: The Critical Reception of B sod nams rin chen's Mahamudrij 63 ·;_ � - co nc ep ts of me ditation practice and its notion of Awakening, although these similarities are very rigid doctrinal sense in which later Tibetans viewed and rej ected n ot to be found in the th e Ch an teaching of Heshang Maheyan Rather, it seems possible that some Bka ' brgyud Ma hamu d terms and tropes may have roots in Chinese Chan, perhaps introduced to B sod 87 nams rin chen' s teachings via the early traditions of Tibetan Rdzags chen Nev erth eless , it would be highly oversimplified to think that Indian B uddhists only taugh t the gradual approach to Awakening, whereas the instantaneous approaches exclu siv ely were taught by Chinese Buddhists To demonstrate the complexity and even hybridity of Buddhist doctrines in Tibet at the time when Sa Pa9 wrote his critique, a short contemplative text attributed to the Indian master S akyasribhadra will be considered next S akya5nohadra (died ca 225) was a Buddhist scholar-monk from Kasmir, who came to Tibet with a group of Indian monks in 204 at the invitation of the Bka ' brgyud teacher Khro Phu Lotsa ba Byams pa'i dpal ( 1 72- 236) In 205 , Sa Pa9 went to study with S akya5ribhadra, in particular to learn the Indian treatises on logic and epistemology (tshad p ram {i!ia) S a Pai:i studied with him and his monk s for several years and in I 208 S a Pai:i received full monastic ordination from this Indian master (VAN DER KUIJP, 994 : 2) In 14, S akyasribhadra returned to Kasmir accompanied by Khro phu Lotsa ba S akyasrI ma , bhadra is thus an example of a Kasmirian teacher, considered Indian and therefore orthodox in Tibetan eyes, who taught in Tibet in a number of different sectarian contexts, including those of the Bka ' gdams, Bka ' brgyud, and Sa skya traditions From the point of view of S a Pal)'s criticism that non-Tantric instantaneous approaches are purely Chinese in their origin, it would be expected that S akyasribhadra's teachings were wholly gradualist Nevertheless, the Bka ' brgyud pas have trans mitted a text attributed to S akyasrlbhadra, which - although not a Maham udra text per se - seems to be instanta neous in its meditative approach The text in question is entitled "Nine Jewel Pebbles of lnstruction" ( Gdam ngag rin chen 'bru dgu) 88 According to its colophon, the text was composed by S akyasrlbhadra After presenting some preliminaries, the text instructs that the practitioner should go to a remote place free from distractions and relax the body and mind Then the meditator should pray to the guru and to the meditational deity (yi dam) in order to form a strong resolve for attaining Awakening The meditator should contemplate death, karman, and suffering to produce a sense of renunciation Thereafter, the main meditation is explained in the follo wing words: See David P JACKSON ( 992) for an article that has initiated such a course of investigation 88 The text is found in Nges don phyag rgya chen po 'i khrid mdzad, edited by Zhwa dmar pa Mi pham chos kyi blo gros , New Delhi 997, TBRC W23447 , vol (A(1), folios 44b-48b (pp 8 - 96) The colophon mentions no date, place, or circumstance for its composition It only say s : " The Nine Jewel Pebbles of Instruction composed by the great scholar of Kasmir S akyasribhadra is finished " Folio 48b : !gdam ngag rin chen 'bru dgu ::,he bya ba kha che 'i p a!ic/i ta chen po shakya shrf bha dras mdzad pa rdzags sol/ 64 Chapter 2: The Critical Reception of B sod nams rin chen's MahZimudriJ When letting whatever is perceived j ust be, accomplishment happens spontaneous ly without acting When perceiving the essence of all that arises, awareness becomes liberated by itself When cutting off the trace of movement, thinking subsides in space Since these three are the nature of the mind, cultivate them as the main meditation.90 These verses explain what appears to be an instantaneous approach to A wakening This becomes especially clear when the explanatory prose section, which follows in the text, is taken into consideration One of the given prose explanations states that " the uncontrived awareness itself is buddha" (ma bcos pa 'i rig pa nyid sangs rgyas yin) and it is said that the meditator should practice compassion and insight instantaneously (cig car du) in unison, like the two wings of a bird It is also instructed that emptiness and compassion are to be perfected as being of one taste (ro gcig, *ekarasa) : The uncontrived awareness itself is buddha [The meditator] should never become distracted from [this] object [of meditation] When he focuses attentively on the instruction of recognizing awareness in this manner, then - as [the meditator] gains familiarity therewith - any form of awareness that appears will become liberated in and of itself In spite of having meditated on emptiness combined with engendering compassion toward those without reali-zation thereof, most practitioners not know how to make [this experience] continuous Lacking a strong continuity in the practice with [proper] understanding of the method [for proceeding] in this [manner] , it is [quite] difficult to complete the Mahayana path As long as these two aspects [of compassion and insight] have not been cultivated, the less competent meditator should cultivate these in unison by alternating [between them] Thereafter, letting the meditation become relaxed, he should practice them instantaneously in unison, like the [two] wings of a bird In general, a crucial key point [of the practice] is to mix emptiness and compassion as much as possible until they become perfe cted as being of a single taste and then rest in a meditative absorption therein.9 S everal key terms in the passage, including "uncontrived awarenes s " (ma bcos pa 'i rig pa, *ak!trimavidyii) , " instantaneously" (cig car du , *yugapad) , and " one taste" (ro gcig, *eka - 90 Gdam ngag rin chen 'bru dgu, folio 46a (p ) : cir snang rang sar gzhag na bya bra! lhun gyis grub/ /gang shar ngo bo gzung na rig pa rang sar grol/ /'gyu ba 'i rtsad rjes chod na dran rtog dbyings su ya!/ !'di gsum rang sems gnas lugs yin pas dngos gzhir bsgom/ Op cit: 46b-47b (pp 92-94) : ma bcos pa 'i rig pa nyid sangs rgyas yin/ yul dus nam yang de las ma g.yos sol Ides na rig pa ngos 'dzin gyi man ngag dran pas bzung la/ de bsgoms pas gang shar gyi rig pa thams cad rang gis rang nyid la rang grol du 'gyur ro/ I lsgrub pa po phal cher gyis stong pa nyid bsgom pa 'i zhor la de ma rtogs pa 'i yul la snying rje skyes kyang/ de don du mi gnyer bas rgyun mthud mi shes/ der thabs shes kyi nyam !en shed ma mthud pas theg pa ch en po 'i lam mthar than par dka ' ba yin/ goms pa zhan pa mams kyis de gnyis ma goms pa !tar re mos kyis zung 'jug dang/ goms pa klod du gyur pas bya 'i gshog pa !tar cig car du zung 'jug tu nyams su blang/ spyir stong nyid snying rje ro gcig tu mthar phyin par 'gyur ba ci nus kyis bsre zhing mnyam par 'jog pa 'i gnad gal che/ Chapter 2: The Critical Reception of B sod nams rin chen's Mahamudr(j 65 s a), are hi ghly reminiscent of corresponding Bka ' brgyud Mahiimudrii formulations Even th o ugh the text never actually employs the word Mahiimudrii, it may be observed that it teach es a meditative approach that is quite similar to the system introduced by B sod nams rin chen and his successors The text's similarity to Bka ' brgyud Mahiimudrii obviously raises the question whether it at all was composed by S akyasribhadra, as its colophon suggests , or whether it is an apo cryph al pseudepigraph wrongly attributed to him The text was never accepted widely en ough for it to gain canonical status by being included in the Bstan 'gyur, unlike so many oth er works by S akyasribhadra now found in the Tibetan canon.9 The Bka ' brgyud pa s , however, seem to have considered it a n authentic w ork, because the seventh Karma p a Chos grags rgya mtsho ( 454- 506) included it along with three other short texts ascribed to S akyasribhadra in his three-volume compilation entitled "The Indian Mahiimudrii Tre atise s " (Phyag rgya chen po 'i rgya gzhung).94 The other three texts by S akyasribhadra found in Chos grags rgya mtsho' s compilation are of less consequence to the present anal ysis and need not be considered here 92 It may, for example, be noted that David P JACKSON ( 994:68-70) in a different context has suggested that S akyasrTuhadra held a negative opinion about Bka ' brgyud Mahiimudrii, but JACKSON has not offered any textual proof for this claim 93 The Beij ing and Sde dge Bstan 'gyurs contain at least fifteen works authored by him 94 On the seventh Karma pa Chos grags rgya mtsho being the editor of this compilation, see folio 3a2_4 of the compilation's dkar chags entitled Gnas lugs phyag rgya chen po 'i rgya gzhung glegs bam gsum yi ge 'i 'byung gnas su ji !tar bkod pa 'i dkar chags bzhugs byang mdor bsdus pa sgrub brgyud grub pa 'i ma rgyan According to its colophon (folio 42a, p ) , the dkar chags was written by Karma Bkra shis chos 'phel (b nineteenth century) in the vicinity of Dpal spungs monastery in Sde dge Karma Bkra shis chos 'phel's dkar chags is a redaction of an earlier work first written in the eighteenth century It was possibly produced in connection with the Dpal spungs printing of the seventh Karma pa's compilation, a print which the dkar chags mentions was made at the occasion of a teaching and recitation-transmission (bklags lung) performed at Dpal spungs monastery by 'Jam mgon Kong sprul Blo gros mtha' yas ( 3- 899) Meanwhile, the Dpal spungs print of the seventh Karma pa's compilation has recently been incorporated as a facsimile into a larger compilation of both Indian and Tibetan Mahiimudrii works entitled Nges don phyag rgya chen po 'i khrid mdzod (TBRC W23447 , see fn 8 above) edited and published by the fourteenth Zhwa dmar pa Mi pham chos kyi blo gros ( 952-20 4) The Indian treatises (rgya gzhung) make up the first three volumes of this new compilation bearing the sub-title Phyag rgya chen po 'i rgya gzhung As a digression, it may further be remarked that Karma Bkra shis chos 'phel's dkar chags does not include S akyasrlbhadra's text in his listing of the contents of the second volume (A(1) on folio 23 a6 (p 45), but on folio 26b (p 52) he in stead enumerates all four of S akyasrTuhadra's works when listing the contents of the compilation's third and last volume (Hudi), including the above-cited work It is therefore concei vable that it was Bkra shi s chos 'phel's intention that all the four works by S akyasrlbhadra found in this compilation ought to have been kept together in the third volume, instead of being scattered across the second and third volume as is now the case 95 These works are: ( -2) two short non-canonical sets of verses supposed to have appeared mira culously out of the sky during S akyasrlbhadra's funeral entitled " Verses that Appeared in the Sky" 66 Chapter 2: The Critical Reception of B sod nams rin chen's Mahclmudrii Further, there seems to have existed another text attributed to S akyasr!bhadra, which contained explanations on an instantaneous approach This is a text referred to in other sources under the title " The Nine Golden Syllables " ( Gser gyi yi ge 'bru dgu pa) It has not been possible to locate this work anywhere, but the seventh Karma pa gave the fo llowing reference to it in one of his own works entitled " A Mahamudrii Instruction given by the Seventh Rgyal ba [Karmapa] " (Rgyal ba bdun pas stsal ba 'i phyag rgya chen po zhal gdams) : There are very many authentic treatises [that praise non-analytical meditation as the highest] such as [the writings by] the great scholar S akyasrl[bhadra] , who in "The Nine Golden Syllables" said that analytical meditation relying on various forms of reasoning, such as [the Madhyamaka argument of] neither being one nor many, is a practice [intended] for those of mediocre capacity, whereas uncontrived meditation, wherein whatever arises is left uncon-trived, is a practice for those of the highest capacity.9 This reference likewi se indicates a Bka ' brgyud interpretation or transmission of an instantaneous approach taught by S akyasr!bhadra Given the limited circulation and non-canonical status of these texts attributed to S akyasrlbhadra as well as the extant text's use of what appears to be Bka ' brgyud Mahii mudrii terminology, the works may be suspected of being pseudepigraphs that were not actually taught by the widely respected Indian master S akyasr!bhadra In fact, there i s currently n o philological evidence for their authenticity other than the above-cited colophon found in " The Nine Jewel Pebbles of Instruction " Nevertheless, there are two arguments that should be considered as weighing in favor of the authenticity of the two cited texts First, if these texts were forged by some Bka ' brgyud pa writers in order to lend support to the notion that a highly acclaimed Indian master, S akyasribhadra, taught an instantaneous approach , it would be expected that the texts would be sufficiently explicit on this point to warrant such support Nevertheless, " The Nine Jewel Pebbles " never uses the actual word Mahamudra, which weakens its support for claiming any Indian origin for the Bka ' brgyud (Nam mkha ' la byon pa 'i tsh igs su bead pa) and " [A Poem] with Seven Branches that Appeared from a Rumbling Cloud" ( Chu 'dzin gyi nga ro las byung ba 'i yan lag bdun pa) found in Nges don phyag rgya chen po 'i khrid mdzad, vol (A(1), folios 48b-50a, pp 96-99; and (3) two verses explaining the inseparability of emptiness and compassion entitled " Instruction in the Pure View and Conduct" (Lta spyod mam dag gi man ngag, * Vi§uddhadar.fonacaryopade.fo) found in vol (Hitdi) , folios 93b1 94a, pp 470-47 ) said to have been transl ated by Khro phu lotsa ba at Khro phu monastery i n the presence of S akyasrlbhadra himself The l atter short text was included in the Tibetan Bstan 'gyur (Q3292, D2464) and thus enjoys canonical status 96 Rgyal ba bdun pas stsal ba 'i phyag rgya chen po zhaZ gdams, contained in Nges don phyag rgya chen po 'i khrid mdzod, vol 1 (Nya), folio 7b-8a, pp 408-409 : pa7:1 chen shiikya shrfs! gser gyi yi ge 'bru dgu par! gcig du braZ sags rigs pa 'i mam grangs du mas dpyad nas bsgom pal blo 'bring gi nyams Zeni mi bcos par gang shar bcos med du nyams su Zen pa nil bZo rab kyi nyams Zen du gsungs pa 'i gzhung tshad ldan shin tu mang ngo!! ... interpretation or transmission of an instantaneous approach taught by S akyasr!bhadra Given the limited circulation and non-canonical status of these texts attributed to S akyasrlbhadra as well as the. .. po zhal gdams) : There are very many authentic treatises [that praise non-analytical meditation as the highest] such as [the writings by] the great scholar S akyasrl[bhadra] , who in "The Nine... space Since these three are the nature of the mind, cultivate them as the main meditation.90 These verses explain what appears to be an instantaneous approach to A wakening This becomes especially