So, this box arrived this morning. And we restrained ourselves from opening it. It's
from Wisdom Publications and it has the new book "Buddhism: One Teacher, Many Traditions."
So... Blow the conch!
Oh, we should have brought the cymbals. [laughter]
Here it is.
[Some cheers from audience.]
So, yes, this is it. So, "Buddhism: One Teacher, Many Traditions."
So, this is the hard-cover book. And it'll come out in paperback afterwards.
It's 350 pages, and actually it's not (a very thick book).
Audience: Is the print big enough?
Is the print big enough? Well, let's see.
Yes, I can read it. Okay.
Actually, I just opened it-- There are some pictures inside.
I opened it to a page with a picture.
So, we put pictures inside from different Buddhist countries, and different Buddhists
practicing. And I'll read you... I just opened it randomly. And it says-- It's the chapter
on the higher training in ethical conduct. It says:
"The practice of Vinaya develops mindfulness and introspective awareness. If we are about
to do certain actions we train to immediately think: 'I am a monastic and I have chosen
not to do this.' By cultivating such mindfulness and checking if our behavior is proper when
we are awake, our mindfulness becomes stronger and will also arise in our dreams.
"The practice of Vinaya also helps us to develop fortitude. The Pratimoksha sutra says: 'Fortitude
is the first and foremost path. The Buddha declared it as the supreme way to attain nirvana.
One who has left the home life, yet harms others or injures others is not called a renunciate.'"
Maybe I'd better just tell people the table of contents first,
and a little bit about the history.
Okay, so the history of the book is, around 1993 or 1994, I had the idea of requesting
His Holiness to write a short root text that the geshes can use when they teach in the
West. And it took me a while to get an appointment, an interview, to see him, and I requested
him to do that, and he turned right around and said, "Well, it would be very good if
we put together a larger book first." You know, about the lamrim. And they gave me some
transcripts of his teachings that I started working on.
So I worked on that. And then some years later went to see him again and had a series of
interviews throughout the years, and at one of them he said, "This book needs to be unique,
it needs to have material about other Buddhist traditions in it." Because he said that he,
in recent years, had more contact with people of other religions than other Buddhist, and
he said it was really important that all the Buddhist traditions know about each other
and respect each other and work together. So he wanted this book to have material about
the other Buddhist traditions in it.
So then I went and added more material, and I went to Thailand and learned, and did all
of this. And then the book was getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And then the last time
I saw him it became clear that what he wanted was one more succinct volume. So the big book
is yet to come. But this is the succinct one...at 350 pages.
But the purpose is for people of the different Buddhist traditions to learn about each other.
So the audience--aside from being ALL sentient beings who should definitely stop whatever
they're doing and read this book, aside from that--
it's for people of all the different Buddhist traditions.
So let me tell you about what's the kind of material in the book, because you can't put
material from every single Buddhist tradition in a book like this, you would never finish.
So we followed kind of main-stream Tibetan tradition, predominately according to Je Rinpoche's
teachings, but with some of the other Tibetan traditions in it. And then the Pali tradition,
principally as in Sri Lanka, although with the other ones, but the mainstream Pali sutra
approach, including Vinaya. And then Chinese Buddhism, again, the general Chinese Buddhism,
even though within China there are many different Buddhist traditions. So at certain places
we may have quoted one or the other, but trying to present the general take on it.
So what's really sweet is Bhante Gunaratana wrote the foreword. And he is the abbot of
Bhavana Society in West Virginia. he's eighty-six years old. Fantastic monk and scholar. I have
a lot of respect for Bhante G. That's what we call him.
So, he wrote the foreword. There's a prologue by His Holiness, and a preface that I wrote.
And then most of the part about the Tibetan tradition was from His Holiness, and I edited
that. And then I added the part about the Chinese Buddhism and the Pali tradition.
So it starts out about the origin and spread of the Buddha's teachings. So, the Buddha's
life, Buddhist canons, the Pali tradition, Buddhism in China, Buddhism in Tibet, and
then our commonalities and diversity.
Then the second chapter is about refuge. And this is a beautiful chapter, talking about--I
won't read all the things in the table of contents--but about the Tathagata's qualities,
what are the Three Jewels according to the Pali tradition, according to the Sanskrit
tradition. And then a little bit of comparison about how the two traditions see the Buddha's
awakening, his parinirvana, is the Buddha omniscient or not? Okay?
And then the sixteen attributes of the four noble truths.
His Holiness was very clear he wanted those in.
Then a chapter--
And so you have refuge, the sixteen attributes of the four noble truths set out the framework.
And then of course the last of the noble truths is true path. And so that contains the three
higher trainings. So the next three chapters are about the three higher trainings.
So, the higher training in ethical conduct, and talking about the importance of ethical
conduct. Why is there celibacy? The value of the monastic community. Challenges for
western monastics. Full ordination for women. Some advice His Holiness has for monastics.
And then a poem His Holiness wrote about the joy of monastic life.
And then, the higher training in concentration. Again, about it's importance. About different
spheres of consciousness. The five hindrances according to the Pali tradition. The five
faults and eight antidotes according to the Sanskrit tradition. The eight meditative liberations
About the super-knowledges. All the different kinds of special powers you can get from concentration.
And so on. Those kinds of things. And then a discussion about blank-minded meditation
and refuting the Tibetan idea that that's what the Chinese do.
Then the higher training in wisdom. So here we have the 37 harmonies with awakening. So
four establishments of mindfulness, the four supreme strivings, four bases of supernormal
power, five faculties and five powers, seven awakening factors, eightfold noble path...
And then another chapter about selflessness and emptiness, taken from the Pali tradition
and the Sanskrit tradition. And I found, this chapter was really interesting to write because
you read some of Nagarjuna's things and then you find parallels in the Pali canon.
And then dependent arising, so about the twelve links of dependent arising. And who cycles
in cyclic existence if there is no self, if the self is empty. And then getting into different
levels of dependence: causal dependence, mutual dependence, dependent designation that His
Holiness talks about a lot.
Then a chapter on uniting serenity and insight, the union of shamatha and vipassana.
And then, progressing on the path. The different stages of realization as laid out in the Pali
tradition and the Sanskrit tradition. Then about nirvana, in this chapter also, the different
views of what nirvana is. That's really interesting.
Then a big chapter about the four immeasurables, which are practiced in both the Pali tradition
and the Sanskrit tradition.
Then a chapter on bodhicitta. So, the sevenfold cause-and-effect instruction and the equalizing
and exchanging self with others. The four great vows in the Chinese, Japanese tradition.
Aspiring and engaging bodhicitta. And also about bodhicitta and the bodhisattvas in the
Pali tradition. Because some people mistakenly think the Pali tradition teaches only the
hearer's path, and it doesn't. It also has the bodhisattva's path.
Then the next chapter, chapter 13, is the bodhisattva training in the perfections. And
so there are ten paramis, or perfections, in the Pali tradition. Ten in the Sanskrit
tradition. So talking about that, which some of the ten, there is some overlap. Some of
them, the terms are not the same but the meaning of each one is found in the other traditions.
Quite interesting.
Then a chapter about buddha nature and the nature of mind. Is liberation possible? What
is the nature of the mind? And here there are some quotations from the Pali scriptures
that talk about it, from the Cittamatra or Yogacara viewpoint. The Madhyamaka viewpoint.
The Tantrayana viewpoint.
And then a short chapter also on Tantra.
And then a conclusion. And the conclusion is taken froma talk that His Holiness gave.
There was a meeting in Delhi in December of 2012, sponsored by the Indian government.
And it had representatives from different Buddhist traditions. So His Holiness gave
the concluding talk there. So this chapter is extracted from that concluding talk that he gave.
So, that's the book.
No, I'm not excited. Boring. [Laughter]
So, there it is.
Okay, so Bhante G wrote the introduction. Bhikkhu Bodhi did an endorsement on the back.
As did Alan Wallace, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Sharon Salzberg, and Tulku Thondup.
So, there we go.
So, it finally happened.
When I was first writing "Open Heart, Clear Mind," I was in Dharamsala. And you know,
getting the proofs and everything, going through... And Peter Gold was there at the same time.
He's an anthropologist and a Buddhist. And he was writing a book. And he told me that
writing a book and getting it published is like having a baby. So, he and I were both
having babies. [Laughter] And everything you go through. You know? This rewrite, and that
rewrite, and then you send it off and it's delayed. You know, it's like your pregnancy
is out here [arms extended], you're ready to have the baby, but on and on. And then
finally it comes out and you're very happy. So. [Laughter]
Yes, this one had a long gestation. But, it finally happened. So that's good.
So, now you have to read it.
It's a very... It's concise, you know? Because I had to get so much material in not very
many pages. So it's concise. And you really have to focus when you read it. But it's quite beautiful.
Definitely a study group [book].
And then the longer book will have more explanation.
Okay? So many thanks to Wisdom Publications, Tim McNeill, and also David Kittelstrom, who
was my editor. And to Laura and all the other people at Wisdom. I can't remember all their
names. But they all contributed to make it a reality.
And also, incredible thanks to Samdhong Rinpoche for helping to facilitate it. And then also
all of the different people from whom I learned about Chinese Buddhism and the Pali tradition.
Because I had to go different places and study with different people and all, and so much
help. And also, definitely, to the Buddha and the lineage.