Compassion in Tibetan Buddhism

Abstract

Homage to Manjushri and Sarasvati. Kensur Lekden (1900-71) was abbot o f the Tan trie College o f Lower Lhasa prior to the invasion o f Tibet by the Chinese Communists. At the time o f the invasion, he had already been elevated to the position o f ‘abbot emeritus’ and, after fleeing to India, helped to re-establish centres o f Buddhist learning and meditation in India. Events brought him to France where he tutored several Tibetan monks, and in 1968 he came to a Tibetan and Mongolian Buddhist monastery in Freewood Acres, New Jersey, founded by Geshe Wangyal. In February o f 1970 he was invited to teach at Tibet House in Cambridge, Wisconsin, founded by the late Professor Richard Robinson and myself, where I served as his translator. Kensur Lekden, an embodiment o f the unified practice o f sutra and tantra and transmitter o f the ancient Tibetan knowledge o f meditation, taught at Tibet House for a year and a half. In a series o f lectures in the spring o f 1970, he set forth the paths common to sutra and tantra, freely and intimately, as part o f the transmission o f Buddhism to the West. Part One o f this book is comprised o f those lectures. Part Two is a translation o f the first five chapters o f Tsong-ka-pa’s commentary to Chandrakirti’s Supplement to the Middle Way (Madhyamakavatara), which Kensur Lekden taught me, along with Jam-yangshay- ba’s sub-commentary, while at Tibet House. The short introduction to Part Two is from his and the Dalai Lama’s oral teachings. The chapter divisions and other titles in Tsong-kapa’s text were added to facilitate understanding, and for the same reason Chandrakirti’s verses have been inserted into the commentary. The combination o f Kensur Lekden’s meditations and Tsongka- pa’s detailed explanation affords a unique blend o f the oral and written traditions o f Tibetan Buddhism on the principal motivation for enlightenment, compassion. Vast from the viewpoint o f setting forth the compassionate deeds o f Bodhisattvas (heroes with respect to contemplating enlightenment) and profound from the viewpoint o f presenting the empty nature o f phenomena, these teachings shine with the sun o f Buddha’s doctrine reflected so brightly in snowy Tibet.