What are the differences between the four Tibetan Buddhist schools?
The four Tibetan Buddhist schools are what we call
Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, and Gelug.
Four.
The Nyingma is the earliest,
the early teachings.
It comes from India.
And the second is the Kagyupa.
Kagyupa starts from Marpa Lotsawa.
And then Sakyapa. And then Gelugpa.
In general, these four Tibetan Buddhist schools,
The differences between these four Tibetan Buddhist schools
is emphasis, and the words.
The meaning is the same,
with a slightly different emphasis.
OK, first the Nyingmapa.
The Nyingmapa is the earliest Tibetan lineage
and Tibetan Buddhist school.
And it started from…
what we call "Khen Lob Cho Sum."
"Khenpo" means "abbot."
Khenpo Bodhisattva.
And "lobpön" means "the master,"
which is Padmasambhava.
And "chogyal" means "king." King Trisong Detsen.
Three.
And from that,
all the teachings for that particular lineage,
which we call Nyingmapa, followed from that.
The main emphasis of the Nyingmapa is practice.
And among…
When you practice…
There's what we call "view, meditation, and action."
Three things. View, meditation, and action.
And the Nyingmapas put more focus on the view.
It's almost like…
introducing meditation through the view.
From the view, you can learn meditation.
And that view is…
There are two styles of the view.
One is
study style.
And the second is the practice style.
The view… In the Nyingmapa school,
they empasize more the practice style.
And in the Nyingmapa, they have nine "yanas."
What they call "nine yanas."
Nyento, ranggyal, changsem, kriya, upa, yoga,
maha, anu, and ati. This is too much, yeah?
Don't worry too much about the words.
But in general, they have nine yanas.
It's nine, yeah?
Maybe I will repeat it again.
Nyento, ranggayl, changsem, kriya, upa, yoga,
maha, anu, and ati.
The best is ati!
OK.
And…
Yeah, that's a little bit about…
That's a little bit about Nyingma.
And the second is Kagyupa.
Kagyupa began with Marpa Lotsawa.
"Marpa" is the name of the person. "Lotsawa" means "translator."
The great translator, Marpa Lotsawa.
He's Tibetan.
He went to India, and he saw a lot of great Indian masters.
There were especially two:
Naropa and Maitripa.
Naropa's root teacher was Tilopa.
And Tilopa was…
He was a really, really great enlightened master,
and a learned scholar, also. A realized master.
Tilopa had many, many, many, many teachers!
Mainly from the four lineages of the vajrayana from India -
from the south, east, north, and west.
And all these teachings came to Tilopa.
So it's what we call "ka-gyu-pa."
"Ka" means "teaching." "Speech" or "teaching."
And "gyu-pa" means "lineage."
So, at first,
all these vajrayana teachings in India came to Tilopa.
All these great masters gave all these teachings to Tilopa.
"Ka" means "the teachings," and these were given to Tilopa.
And "gyu" means that Tilopa gave all these teachings to Naropa,
and so it became the lineage called "Kagyupa."
So the meaning of "Kagyupa" is like all the teachings -
especially of the vajrayana - came first to Tilopa,
and then through the lineage, one by one,
to Naropa,
and Naropa gave all these teachings to Marpa Lotsawa.
And Marpa Lotsawa came to Tibet and gave his teachings to…
He had four main disciples.
All the teachings on practice he gave to Milarepa.
All the teachings on study he gave to Ngokton
And the other three students.
And Milarepa…
The main student of Milarepa was Gampopa.
Among the students of Gampopa, there are four main students.
And from these four main students came the four main Kagyu lineages.
One of the students of Gampopa is called
Phagmo Drupa, and he had eight disciples.
Great disciples!
And from there come the minor — or what we call "chung,"
"che zhi chung gye" —
the eight minor lineages of the Kagyupa.
OK, what is the main practice of the Kagyupa?
The emphasis is a little bit different from the Nyingmapa.
In the Nyingmapa, the main focus is the view.
But in the Kagyupa, the main focus is meditation.
So,
at first, you practice meditation.
And through experience, you know, you practice.
Then you see and gain experience, realization, and recognition.
And slowly, slowly, through meditation,
one is introduced to the view.
The view here, again…
Not the… what do you call it?
Not the view of…
the study style.
The view here is according to the practice style.
The meaning of the view here is to see your true nature.
What we call "buddha nature."
Yeah.
And the main focus of the Kagyupa is to meditate
and to do retreat, just like Milarepa, you know.
Just run into retreat - to go away to practice.
This is why it is mainly a practice lineage.
And now the third, Sakyapa.
The meaning of Sakyapa is: "Sa" means "land" and
"kya" means "a little bit fair," or "white."
And this is actually the place for a monastery, you know.
The first monastery was located in the Sakya area.
Sakya is the name of the land - the environment. Sakya.
And there was a lot of great masters,
like Drogon Phagpa, Kunga, Gyaltsen.
There's a lot of great Sakyapas -
"Gongma Nam Nga". They are five.
Drogon Chogyal Phagpa,
and many, many of them, like Sakya Pandita.
And these…
Sakyapa is…
During this time in Tibet, at some point,
the vajrayana practice became a bit like…
Some people, you know, they practice vajrayana
but they don't understand the deep meaning of vajrayana,
and it becomes a bit like… How to say?
Watered down. Do you understand "watered down?"
It becomes watered down, you know.
It loses meaning, and then...
Some people say, "I am a vajrayana practitioner,
"so I can do whatever I want!" And they drink too much, you know.
And they have no meditation, and no realization.
And then...
Sachen Kunga Nyingpo,
and many followers and great masters,
they thought, "Oh, maybe this is not so good."
So he went to India to see Birwapa [Virupa]
and a lot of great Indian masters. Then he came to Tibet
and really started the authentic vajrayana practice in Tibet.
So, the main view of…
The main focus of Sakyapa
is what we call
"development" practice and "completion stage" practice.
There are these two things in vajrayana practice,
and Sakyapa really emphasizes
what in Tibetan we call "kye rim" and "dzog rim."
"Kye rim" means "development stage" practice,
and "dzog rim" means "completion stage" practice.
They really emphasize this, and they really follow
the discipline.
And…
the mantras, deities, mandalas.
And then they practice and put more emphasis on the inner -
"prana, bindu, nadi," and also…
the view, meditation, and mainly what we call
kye rim and dzog rim.
The union of kye rim and dzog rim.
The union of development practice and completion stage practice,
together.
OK.
And, the last one,
Gelugpa.
Gelugpa was founded by Tsongkhapa,
the great master Tsongkhapa, who was a very, very great scholar
and a great realized master, also.
Tsongkhapa had never been to India,
but...
he especially emphasized studies and "vinaya."
Tsongkhapa was his name.
And "Gelugpa" means…
The first monastery of Tsongkhapa was a place called "Ganden."
He named the place Ganden, and a related name is Gelugpa.
It means the…
The lineage of the Gandenpa.
And then later it was translated as Gelugpa.
It's just playing with the words.
And,
Tsongkhapa saw that, during his time in Tibet,
there was a little lack of studies and vinaya [ethical conduct]
for some people — not with everyone, of course.
Still there was an authentic Nyingma lineage that remained,
and also authentic lineages of Kagyupa and Sakya.
They were all still there, but some, you know…
Tibetans were not really studying well,
so Tsongkhapa especially emphasized study.
The studies of Buddhist philosophy,
logic, and then practice.
The practice of vajrayana - kye rim, and dzog rim -
the accomplishment and development stages of practice —
were also emphasized.
And there was a special emphasis on vinaya [ethical conduct].
And this is why the emphasis of the Gelugpa is studies
and the view.
This kind of view is more like the study style.
Not meditation style, but study style.
Then eventually you will practice and meditate.
These four are the main lineages in the Tibetan tradition.
Four lineages. And there are also some
minor lineages that don't belong to any of these four lineages,
that still exist in Tibet now.
OK.