The Spirit of Tibetan
Buddhism
Sam van
Schaik May 10,
2016 Beliefnet
What
is the attraction for Tibetan Buddhism?
Tibetan Buddhism is attracting Buddhist from all over, but what
exactly is it? Sam van Schaik, a leading writer and researcher on
Tibet, offers an accessible introduction to Tibetan Buddhism by
examining key points. A comprehensive overview of the richness of
the popular teachings and concepts in Tibetan Buddhism will give
insight into rebirth, compassion, mindfulness and the graduated
path. Written for those new to the practice, this introduction into
the world of Tibetan Buddhism provides a deep and broad
understanding.
Excerpt
from The Spirit of
Tibetan Buddhism, pages 2-4
In a
wider circle around the teacher and his or her lay students is the
Buddhist community or sangha. In its broadest and most inclusive sense,
the sangha includes all
Buddhists, all over the world. But the word is more often used to
refer to smaller communities, the monks and lay people associated
with a particular monastery, teacher, or Buddhist centre. It is
these groups that will come together for the regular practices of
listening to teachings, meditation, recitation of prayers, and
other ritual activities. Thus Tibetan Buddhism is far from the
inward-looking, self-involved practice that images of meditating
monks might suggest.
What, then, is
Tibetan Buddhism for? Or, to put it another way, what is the
attraction for those who were not born into this tradition? Like
all other Buddhist traditions, Tibetan Buddhism is informed by the
original motivation expressed by the Buddha in his early sermons:
to escape the cycle of suffering by losing one’s illusions and
‘waking up’ (Sanskrit, budh) to the way things really are. The will to
become an awakened person (Skt. buddha) is motivated by love and
compassion, and the wish to free all sentient beings from
suffering.
As
in other Buddhist traditions, investigation into the nature of the
mind and reality plays an important part in Tibetan Buddhism. In
fact it is probably the most philosophically sophisticated modern
Buddhist tradition, not only having preserved the major
philosophical schools that developed in India, but also with a
vibrant tradition of philosophical thought, commentary, and debate.
Sometimes it is asked whether Buddhism should be considered a
religion or a philosophy. That question is based on a distinction
between religion and philosophy that arose in seventeenth-century
Europe; in Buddhism it makes little sense to try to tease them
apart. Philosophy is present in Buddhism, but always in the service
of liberation from suffering. Thus, despite certain similarities,
comparisons between Buddhist philosophies and modern academic
philosophy are likely to be unsatisfactory because of their quite
different aims.
What
makes Tibetan Buddhism different from other Buddhist traditions,
such as the Theravada, or the Zen schools of Japan, is the great
variety of practices that were brought to Tibet from India and
incorporated into the Buddhist path. These practices comprise the
three ‘vehicles’ (so called because each represents a way of
travelling the path to enlightenment): the early teachings of the
Buddha, known in Tibet as the vehicle of the hearers, or the lesser
vehicle (hīnayāna); the
scriptures and practices of the greater vehicle (mahāyāna); and the full range of
practices of the diamond vehicle (vajrayāna). Since the practices
of vajrayāna derive from
texts known as tantras, vajrayāna is also
commonly known as ‘tantric Buddhism.’
A
little more should be said about these three vehicles.
The hīnayāna refers to
teachings that are now practiced by the Theravada sect in South and
Southeast Asia, but since members of the Theravada certainly do not
consider their path to be ‘lesser,’ they do not accept it as a
description. Thus the term hīnayāna is only used by
those who consider themselves as belonging to
the mahāyāna, as a way of distinguishing scriptures
(sūtra) and practices that
are specific to their ‘greater’ vehicle. The main differentiating
feature of the mahāyāna is the
importance of the ideal of the bodhisattva, who strives for
liberation not only for him or herself, but for all living beings,
and the practices associated with bodhisattvas as Tārā, the
embodiment of compassionate activity.
For
most people it is the artwork, material culture, and ritual
practices of the vajrayāna that give
Tibetan Buddhism its distinct character. Yet
the vajrayāna is considered
to be an extension of the mahāyāna, not a departure, as
the vajrayāna is still based
on the motivation to save all sentient beings from the cycle of
suffering, but with more powerful practices to accomplish this aim.
Thus there is no great disconnect from other Buddhist traditions.
The great success of the practitioners and scholars of Tibet was to
integrate the tantric practices of the vajrayāna with the aims
and philosophy of mahāyāna in coherent
systems of practice (or ‘paths’), staring at the beginning of
spiritual practice and ending with the state of enlightenment
itself.