Chen Po Research Articles

The Mahāmudrā of the bKa’ brgyud Sect: Through Consideration of the Original Texts

Mahāmudrā is the highest inner significance of the bKa’ brgyud sect, passed on to Nāropa by the adept of later Tantric Buddhism in India, Tilopa, and was brought into Tibet by the Tibetan translator Marpa. This paper examines the philosophy of Tilopa himself, regarded as the founder of bKa’ brgyud Mahāmudrā. I compare two poems: 1. the Tillopādasya dohākoṣa, which is considered as his autograph written by Apabhraṃśa; and 2. the Phyag rgya chen po ’i man ngag, which is extant only in Tibetan translation. This text is the source of many Mahāmudrā teachings and is well known as “Ganges Mahāmudrā” in the West.

Resilience and the Ethics of "Big Mind" Thinking in the Tibetan Diaspora

Drawing on extensive ethnographic research in Dharamsala, India, this article considers how sems pa chen po (vast or spacious mind) can be understood as emblematic of the Tibetan Buddhist view of resilience. The “big mind” view acts as a kind of north star principle, guiding the way, even and especially among those who are struggling. A spacious mind is not merely an outcome, but a pathway, a method, and a horizon, orienting those who are suffering toward recovery. This article explores resilience from a perspective that suffering is inherently workable, and in fact, can be a great teacher. This argument is framed theoretically within an “anthropology of the good,” which seeks to understand resilience as moral experience; more aptly explaining what Tibetan Buddhists do in the face of adversity than the dichotomy of trauma/resilience, which is rooted narrowly in a Euro-American view of mental health.

The Role of Oral Instructions as Exemplified in Kong sprul’s<i> Twenty-Three Mistaken Concepts Regarding the Great Madhyamaka of Definitive Meaning</i>

This article aims to explore the role of oral instructions in Tibetan Buddhism as a living religion, based on the author’s extensive fieldwork in India and Nepal. A text is examined: Kong sprul’s (1813–1899) A Golden Hammer of Fine Explanations that Crush Twenty-Three Mistaken Concepts Regarding the Great Madhyamaka of Definitive Meaning (Nges don dbu ma chen po la 'khrul rtog nyer gsum gyi ’bur ’joms pa legs bshad gser gyi tho ba) together with an oral commentary by Khenpo Karma Gendun of the Karma Bka’ brgyud tradition. The text expounds extrinsic emptiness in the context of the Mantrayāna stance of the inseparability of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa. The opponents whose concepts Kong sprul refutes are logicians who argue from non-implicative negation in support of intrinsic emptiness. In the logical context, extrinsic emptiness is what implicative negation points to. Emptiness, which is not nothingness, is synonymized in the text with various other terms, such as the Buddha-nature, primordial wisdom, and the naturally abiding lineage. The commentary interprets it as goodness. Kong sprul expounds Mahāmudrā and rDzogs chen as well in the context of the Great Madhyamaka of definitive meaning, i.e. extrinsic emptiness. The opponents’ misconceptions pertain to the Two Truths, the two kinds of negation, and the two chariots of Nāgārjuna and Asaṅga, and are said to have arisen from a misguided methodology based on textual interpretation. This text is instructive for students of Tibetan Buddhism. Among other things, it clearly testifies to the critical way in which a master’s oral instructions are able to illuminate the interpretation of texts. This clearly points out that the wrong methodology engaged in would lead to mistaken concepts.

The ground of knowing: on the different modes of knowing according to the “Great Perfection” (rDzogs pa chen po)

The phenomenon of ‘Knowing’ (Tib. Shes pa; Skt. Jnāna) has a crucial role in Buddhist explanations about the determination of individual realities. According to these explanations particular modes of knowing are connected to specific ways of perceiving and, even, constituting reality. As the ideal state of reality according to Buddhist doctrine is that of an unconditioned liberation, numerous traditions have examined and described the mode of knowing which characterizes such a state. Among these, we find several traditions that related such a mode with a claim concerning the innateness of an unconditioned state. This paper is meant to discuss some of these traditions, mainly ‘The Great Perfection’ (Tib. rDzogs pa chen po), a Tibetan non-dual tradition that asserted a mode of primordial knowing which is present in each moment of awareness. By discussing the intuitive qualities of this mode, we aim to show how an inherent mode of non-dual awareness can be explained through a comprehensive description of the basic aspects of lived experience.

Beyond Intentionality: On the Non-dual Contemplative Practices of the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition ‘The Great Perfection’

The Buddhist vision of liberation is intimately related with an experiential state that transcends intentionality, temporality and causality, owing to its non-directed, unchanging and unconditioned nature. As such, this vision reveals a novel mode of non-dual awareness, which is not divided into perceiving subject and perceived objects. In order to directly recognise this mode, several Buddhist traditions utilised diverse contemplative instructions that were meant to dissolve the intending tendencies of consciousness. This paper discusses one of these traditions – ‘The Great Perfection’ (Tib. rDzogs pa chen po) – which affirms an inherent experiential state that is open, luminous and all-encompassing. For the sake of realising such a state, this tradition advocates a contemplative approach which emphasises relaxation, spaciousness and non-intending. Through its view and practices, ‘The Great Perfection’ introduces a vision of lived experience that goes beyond the structures of intentional consciousness and entails a reassessment of our basic assumptions about human awareness.

Natural Awareness: The Discovery of Authentic Being in the rDzogs chen Tradition

According to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition ‘The Great Perfection’ (rDzogs pa chen po), we can distinguish between two basic dimensions of mind: an intentional dimension that is divided into perceiver and perceived and a non-dual dimension that transcends all distinctions between subject and object. The non-dual dimension is evident through its intuitional characteristics; an unbounded openness that is free from intentional limitations, a spontaneous luminosity which presences all phenomena, and self-awareness that recognizes the original resonance of beings. Owing to these characteristics, the descriptions of this dimension exemplify an integrative way of speaking about primordial reality, which resolves the assumed dichotomy between kataphatic and apophatic discourses by pointing to a dimension that pervades all phenomena without being identified with any of those. In this article, I intend to discuss the characteristics of the non-dual dimension and their implications for our understanding of human consciousness and the inherent co-emergence of positive and negative perceptions of reality.

The Synopsis of the Consecration Ceremony in the sNgags-rim chen po (Chapters V-X)

The Synopsis of the Consecration Ceremony in the sNgags-rim chen po (Chapters V-X)