Question asked by Wanru Yan
Hello and I hope you're having a nice day so far. I have a few questions: ● I was reading volume one of Lamrim Chenmo and I was extremely stuck on chapter 6. I was conpletely lost. Everything from the terminology and the eording were all just confusing to me. I hope you can explain the chapter. ● What is stablization meditation and analytical meditation? ● Is our karma stronger than the Buddhas? Because I heard that Buddhas cannot save us ● I hear from some Theravadins that Mahayana is a perverted/mistakened path of Buddhism. They old this opinion stringly especially towards Vajrayana because how come the Buddha taught about "divine pride," "divine lust," and so on. Being that they are the oldest school of Buddhism, are they right or wrong?
Dear Wanru Yan,
Let me see how I can help:
1. In regards to Chapter 6 of the Lamrim Chenmo. This chapter is to clarifies misconceptions about what meditation is and it’s purpose and uses. It’s too much to go into here as it is very philosophical and goes into a lot of detail. Lama Tsongkhapa’s Lamrim Chenmo presupposes that the person who is reading it has a foundational level of knowledge in monastic education, which would already have covered some of what he is talking about. Hence, the text, and the English translation of the text can get very confusing for more people these days who do not have that foundation. That why, for modern lay people, is advisable to study a shorter Lamrim text first, so you can familiarise yourself with the concepts first, before moving on to Lama Tsongkhapa’s Lamrim Chenmo. Here at Kechara we use Pabongka Rinpoche’s Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand to study the Lamrim (https://www.vajrasecrets.com/lamrim-liberation-in-the-palm-of-your-hand). We do not public study the Lamrim Chenmo in Kechara, as it is simply to long and philisophical with very detailed points for most people.
2. Stabilisation meditation is Single-Pointed Concentration meditation, where you build up your focus/concentration sole on one thing without distraction. Analytical meditation is when you contemplate on a topic from many different angles. They are two distinct forms of meditation but must be used together. This is explained in the Lamrim teachings. Again, using a short/simpler text will be better to understand this.
3. Karma is not “stronger” than the Buddhas. The Buddhas cannot take us to enlightenment directly, we need to apply our own effort, but they can and do help us on the way there. Please scroll down on this page to see my reply to the question asked by Jerry.
4. There are differences in opinion that some practitioners of all schools have of other schools. From our Gelug tradition, as long as the teachings you are practising can be traced all the way to the Buddha, without a single break, then that teaching is authentic. For example, this is one of the reasons that Lama Tsongkhapa quotes so much from the legitimate Sutras in his Lamrim Chenmo. He is showing that what he is writing about comes from the Buddha. All Lamrim teachings start with the teachings that we share in common with the Theravada tradition. Then they move on to how the Buddha also taught the Mahayana and Vajrayana. Even within the Mahayana and Vajrayana, if they cannot be traced back to the Buddha, they are not considered legitimate. Within Tibetan Buddhism, all the teachings from the Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana align with each other. For example, all Vajrayana teachings are based on the Mahayana, and Mahayana is actually based on the Theravada. However, due to how the path of practise is presented in Vajrayana, and the prevalence of mistaken information out there about the path of practise and the terminology used, some people do not think it is Buddhist practice. However, that is simply because they do not understand what it really is and that it is 100% Buddhist in nature. Just for your information, there is such a thing as Divine Pride in Vajrayana, but there is no such thing as divine lust. In fact, this is the first time I have ever heard of something like that.
I hope all of this does help. Please do read Pabongka Rinpoche’s Lamrim text, it will provide you with a greater foundation to read and understand Lama Tsongkhapa’s Lamrim Chenmo if that is something you would still like to do. Thank you.