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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Tsongkhapa vs. Nepalese vajrācāryas

This rather catty remark comes from the fifth chapter of the Sngags rim chen mo (p. 192)*:

phyag dang sems bskyed pa'i yul gyi sems can so so ba rnams dang nga rgyal gzung ba dang bka' bsgo ba'i yul la sogs pa la so so'i nyams bton pa'i gar mang po byed pa Phreng ba'i lugs su 'dod pa ni| Phreng ba dang Man snye dang Kha sbyor gyi 'grel pa gzhan gnyis dang Sgyu dra'i 'grel pa gnyis la sogs pa'i gzhung khungs thub sus kyang ma bshad pas| spros pa la dga' ba'i bod [pa] 'ga' zhig gis bal po'i sngags pa mi mkhas pa kha cig la brten nas rang gi blos btags pa tsam du zad do|| 

*Rgyal ba khyab bdag rdo rje 'chang chen po'i lam gyi rim pa gsang ba kun gyi gnad rnam par phye ba, Mtsho sngon mi rigs dpe skrun khang 1995, based on the Sku 'bum Byams pa gling blocks.

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9 Comments:

Blogger Dan said...

By catty do you mean snippy?

6:57 pm  
Blogger PDSz said...

snippy is perhaps even better.

7:54 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Then snippy it is.

9:12 pm  
Anonymous Christian K. Wedemeyer said...

I don't see a wholesale condemnation of "Nepalese Vajrācāryas" here. He's ripping on Tibetans, really, by claiming that they are (unadvisedly) relying on "some" Nepalese mantrins who (allegedly) aren't very learned (if at all). Presumably there are other Nepalese mantrins who are not so uninformed. Otherwise, if it were intended as a wholesale dismissal, there would be no need for the "kha cig."

8:18 pm  
Blogger PDSz said...

I agree, I don't see it as a wholesale condemnation either (the title is nothing more than a journalistic headline to get your attention - after all, this is only a blog). As you could no doubt observe, some of the entries and titles are written on a whim and without much reflection.

TIbetan attitudes towards Newars (and vice versa) would be a rather interesting topic of study, don't you think?

7:06 pm  
Anonymous Christian said...

Indeed, it would.

12:59 am  
Blogger Dan said...

"This is only a blog."

Right. Like H.H. the Dalai Lama always likes to say, "I am only a simple Buddhist monk."

2:49 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Tsong Kha Pa, eh? He tells us that it's quite OK to do dāna "only in the mind" (Mahāyāna Buddhism FAIL). Small wonder that the bankers setting up Nālandā Hindu University want nothing to do with his legacy.

5:28 pm  
Blogger PDSz said...

hmmm, I am very sceptical that the Nālandā bankers are aware of such subtleties in Tsongkhapa's thought. But if your reasoning is good, then the Nepalis are most likely left out because one of their scriptures identifies dāna-pāramitā with kissing etc.?

1:58 pm  

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