The Lamp and the Wind in Tibetan Buddhism
By ALEX WAYMAN
Philosophy east and west
volume 5, no.2 (1955.07)
P.149-154
(C) by University of Hawaii Press
P.149
IN VIEW OF the importance to Indian
thought of the Bhagavad-giitaa--the "Hindu
Bible"--and its growing popularity in the West, it
should be of interest to observe that a simile in
that work is known to many a Tibetan or Mongolian
Buddhist. This is in verse VI. 19:
As a lamp in a windless place flickereth not, to
such is likened the yogi of subdued thought who
practices union with the Self (or discipline of
himself).(1)
It is worth mentioning that the Buddha
Diipankara--a name meaning "who makes a lamp"--was
once the guardian deity of Buddhist merchants as
"the calmer of the waves."(2) This twofold function
seems related to the simile. It shows that a
windless place is not enough; a lamp is
indispensable.
HOW THE SIMILE CAME TO TIBET
In the eighth century A.D., a vehement dispute
arose in Tibet between representatives of Indian
Buddhism, then predominately Maadhyamika, and
certain Chinese Buddhists who preached an extreme
quietism. The Tibetan king invited the great Indian
pandit Kamala`siila to represent the Maadhyamikas in
a debate to decide the issue. Accordingly,
Kamala`siila composed three treatises called
Madhyamaka-bhaavanaa-krama, "The Steps of
Cultivation According to the Madhyamaka School."(3)
In the second of these treatises, he wrote:
When there is only Higher Vision (vipa`syanaa) that
is unaccompanied by Calm (`samatha) the yogin's
thought (citta) fluctuates in the sensory domain,
just as a fire lamp in the wind is not steady.(4)
----------------
1 S. Radhakrishnan, The Bhagavadgiitaa (New
York: Harper & Brothers, 1948), p. 200.
2 K.A. Nilakanta Sastri, History of Sri Vijaya
(Madras: University of Madras,1949), p. 15.
3 For information on the dispute as a whole and
Kamala`siila's role, see Paul Demieville, Le Concile
de Lhasa (Paris: Bibliotheque de l'Institut des
Hautes Etudes Chinoises, 1952), Vol. VII. This work
is reviewed by R. A. Stein, in Journal Asiatique,
CCXLI, No. 2 (1953), 277-279; also reviewed by
Johannes Rahder in Philosophy East and West, IV, No.
1 (April, 1954), 87.
4 Tanjur, Dbu-ma, Derge edition, Ki, 45a-4, ff.
P.150
He then illustrated this by quotations from the
Parinirvaa.nasuutra and the Candrapradiipasuutra,
which quotations themselves did not have the simile.
Kamala`siila's familiarity with the
Bhagavad-giitaa(5) makes it strongly possible that
this was his source, but quite apart from whether a
borrowing can be proved in this case, the fact that
both the Hindu and the Buddhist theory of yoga could
look upon a certain simile as apt is sufficiently
important for our purposes. The Bhagavad-giitaa
itself was not translated into the Tibetan language,
except for some isolated stanzas.
THE SIMILE UTILIZED BY TSON-KHA-PA
In the meditative section of his Lam rim chen
mo,(6) Tson-kha-pa (A.D. 1357-1419), founder of the
Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism, quotes the above
passage of Kamala`siila and develops it in the
section from which the following summary by
Tson-kha-pa is given in my translation:
Now, why is it that a cultivation (bhaavanaa) of
either Calm
(`samatha) or Higher Vision (vipa`syanaa) does not
suffice, and that both must be cultivated? This is
to be explained.
for example, if, for the purpose of seeing icons in
the darkness of night, one lights a lamp, if the
lamp is very bright and not disturbed by the wind,
the icons are seen very clearly. However, if the
lamp is not bright, or, if bright, flickers in the
wind, the forms are not clearly seen.
In the same way, for seeing the profound meaning, if
one has the conclusive Wisdom (praj~naa) without
distortion of the meaning of reality, and also has
the motionless fixation, exactly as wished, on a
meditative object (aalambana) of thought (citta),
reality (tattva) is seen clearly.
However, even if there be the retention(7) without
discernment (nirvikalpa-samaadhi)(8)
----------
5 It is referred to and quoted polemically in
The Tattvasa^ngraha of `Saantarak.sita with the
Commentary of Kamala`siila, translated into English
by Ganganatha Jha, Gaekwad's Oriental Series,
LXXXIII (Baroda: Oriental institute, 1939), Vol. II,
pp. 1349, 1554.
6 I am translating this work from Tibetan under
the auspices of the Institute of East Asiatic
Studies, University of California. The texts
employed are in the form of block-print folios. Of
the editions available to me, two are referred to in
this article (notes 10, 17, and 21), namely, the
volume in Tso^n-kha-pa's collected works (gsu^n
.hbum) printed at Lhasa, and the edition of the
Tashilunpo Monastery, Tibet. The Lhasa edition is
assigned No. 5392 in A Catalogue of The Tohoku
University Collection of Tibetan Works on Buddhism,
eds., Yensho Kanakura, Ryujo Yamada, Tokan Tada, and
Hakuyu Hadano (Sendai: The Seminary of Indology,
Tohoku University, 1953). I am also using (note 11)
the revised edition of the Four Annotations
commentary on the Lam rim chen mo. This edition is
assigned Nos. 6976 and 6977 in the catalogue just
mentioned.
7 The usual translation of "samaadhi" is
"concentration." For "retention," s.v. Webster's New
International Dictionary, Second Edition, "4. A
retaining or holding fixed in some place or
position; state of being kept in place." What is
held fixed is thought (citta).
8 Because of the importance of this expression
to the article by A. C. Das, "Advaita Vedaanta and
Liberation in Bodily Existence," Philosophy East and
West, IV, No. 2, (July, 1954), 113, ff., it is well
to point out that the Sanskrit nirvikalpa-samaadhi
has the standard Tibetan equivalent of mi rtog Pahi
tin ne hdzin, which occurs in the text at this
point. The Tibetan could also represent avikalpa--
which amounts to the same.
P.151
having the fixation so that thought does not proceed
elsewhere, if the Wisdom with full comprehension of
Be-ness (T., yin lugs)(9) is lacking, then, because
there is a lack of the eye which sees reality, no
matter how one perseveres in retention (samaadhi),
there is no possibility of the full comprehension of
Be-ness.
Again, even if there be the view with full
comprehension of the reality of selflessness
(nairaatmya), if there is a lack of the retention
(samaadhi) with firm fixation in one-pointed
thought, then, because the self, powerless, is
agitated by the wind of shifting discernment
(cala-vikalpa), there is no possibility of seeing
clearly the meaning of Be-ness.
That is why both Calm (`sama.tha) and Higher Vision
(vipa`syanaa) are required.(10)
CALM AND HIGHER VISION
The simile has been illustrated by two important
terms of Buddhism. The place free from wind is Calm
(`samatha); the lamp is Higher Vision (vipa`syanaa).
In the Paali canon, the Buddha is represented as
saying:
Very well, very well, `Saariputra! Revata rightly
answers exactly as he should answer. For Revata has
a glade suitable for meditation, and delights in
retiring there for this purpose. He is intent on the
Calm (`samatha) of thought within and he does not
discard his Calm Abstraction (dhyaana) . He is
equipped with Higher Vision (vipa`syanaa) and
devoted to empty abodes (`suunya-aagaara).(11)
------------
9 The Tibetan term "yin lugs" does not seem to
be a translation from Sanskrit. In the work being
quoted (the Lam rim chen mo), it is employed
interchangeably with de kho no ~nid, which
corresponds to Sanskrit tattva (reality). "Yin lugs"
is properly rendered in full as "manner (lugs) of
being (yin)." It is not strictly equivalent in form
to "Being, " and this is one reason that the
expression "Be-ness" was adopted in preference to
this Western philosophical term.
10 Tson-kha-pa, Gsun hbum, Lhasa edition, Pa,
269b-4, ff.
11 For consistency, the equivalent Sanskrit
terms have been given in lieu of the Paali. For the
original passage, sec V. Trenckner, ed.,
Majjhima-Nikaaya, Pali Text Society, XVII (London:
Oxford University press, 1935 reprint), vol. I, p.
216. The expression "empty abodes" deserves comment.
It has been translated as "solitary abodes," or the
equal of this, with the implication that the
meditator is the only person present. Such an
interpretation has the difficulty that the word
"viveka," customarily employed in these contexts for
the meanings "solitary" and "solitude," did not
occur, while the Paali word "su~n~na" (Sanskrit,
`suunya), which means "empty, " "desolate, " and
"uninhabited," did occur. However, the literal
rendition of "empty" seems to be justified by the
formula of Dependent Origination
(pratiitya-samutpaada). The sixth of the twelve
members is called "contact" (spar`sa). This involves
a trisection of the world into perception
(vij~naana); a personal sensory source, or sense-
organ (indriya); and an external sensory source, or
sensory domain (vi.saya). If, by attainment in
meditation, one can collapse the distinction of
subject, agent, and object, it is a logical
consequence in Buddhist doctrine that the
immediately preceding condition of Dependent
Origination is reached. This is the fifth member,
called "six sensory sources" (.sa.aaayatana).In the
Four Annotations Commentary on the Lam rim chen mo,
Ba so chos kyi rgyal mtshan, Sixth Abbot of Galdan
Monastery (A.D. 1402-1473), annotates (Kha, 226a-2)
the Tibetan equivalent for.sa.daayatana with the
phrase gron ston hdra ("like an empty town"). He is
here describing the symbolic representation of this
member in the celebrated Tibetan Wheel of Life, of
which a good recent reproduction is given by Fosco
Maraini, Secret Tibet (New York: The Viking Press,
1952), photographic plate No. 60, picturing, at the
relevant place, six houses with no person in sight.
Since in the Paali passage the remark about the
"empty abodes" occurs promptly after the reference
to Higher Vision (vipa`syanaa), we may assume that
Revata was skilled in attaining the vision of
Voidness (`suunyataa). Consequently, the "abodes"
were completely uninhabited, devoid even of Revata,
who was devoted to attaining this vision of things.
P.152
Sometimes `samatha is translated as
"tranquillity" or "calmness, " vipa`syanaa as
"insight":
The object of meditation with the Buddha seems to
have been to attain first tranquillity of mind, and
then activity of insight. This idea is common to
both Hinayana and Mahayana.(12)
The two terms have also been translated,
respectively, as "mental tranquillity" and
"transcendental analysis."(l3) However, "insight"
and transcendental analysis" are explanations,
rather than literal translations, of vipa`syanaa,
and point to activities subsumed under the general
idea of this expression, for which the literal
rendition Higher (vi-) Vision (pa`syanaa) , is
satisfactory.(14)
The cultivation of Calm (`samatha-bhaavanaa) aims at
perfect steadiness of the reflected image
(pratibimba) in thought (citta) of the meditative
object (aalambana). Success is constituted by the
ninth (and last) thought-fixation (citta-sthiti)
which is the only mental orientation driving without
effort (anaabhogavaahana-manaskaara) , (15) due to
previous, but no longer required, eliminative
activation (prahaa.na-sa^mskaara), i.e., activations
eliminative of meditative faults in the first eight
thought-fixations. Thus, the ninth thought-fixation
is carried by habituation (svarasavaahita)
accomplished in the eighth thought-fixation, which
still had effort. This is equivalent to the
svarasika ("purely passive") of Stcherbatsky in this
passage:
It [the unexpressible reality] is--the pure object,
the object cognized by the senses in a pure
sensation, that is to say, in a sensation which is
purely passive, which is different in kind from the
spontaneity of the intellect.(16)
The meditative object of Calm alone is called
Reflected image devoid of discernment
(nirvikalpa-pratibimba); that of Higher Vision alone
is called Reflected image attended with discernment
(savikalpa-pratibimba). The meditative object of
combined Calm and Higher Vision
(`samatha-vipa`syanaayuganaddha) is called
Fulfillment of the requirement
(kaarya-parini.spatti).
---------
12 Junjiro Takakusu, The Essentials of Buddhist
Philosophy, W. T. Chan and Charles A. Moore, eds.,
(2d ed., Honolulu: University of Hawaii, 1949), p.
157.
13 E. Obermiller, " The Doctrine of Praj~naa-
paaramitaa as exposed in the Abhisamayaala.mkaara
of Maitreya," Acta Orientalia, XI, (1932), 17.
14 Alexandra David-Neel translates the Tibetan
equivalent, "Lhag mtho^n," as "1a vue penetrante"
and makes it a subtitle to her work, Les
Enseignements Secrets dans les Sectes Bouddhistes
Tibetaines (Paris: Adyar, 1951). Hsuan-tsang, in his
translation of the `Sravaka-bhuumi, transcribed
`samatha and vipa`syanaa phonetically, for example,
Tripi.taka, Taisho edition, XXX, 476c.
15 The nine thought-fixations, the six forces
which accomplish them, and the four mental
orientations under which they are grouped, are well
explained in the `Sravaka-bhuumi by the teacher of
Asa^nga, founder of the Yogaacaara school. I am
editing this text in Sanskrit through the kindness
of the Bihar Research Society, Patna, India.
16 Th. Stcherbatsky, Buddhist Logic, Bibliotheca
Buddhica, XXVI (Leningrad: Akademiia Nauk, 1932), I,
181.
P.153
Furthermore, the subject can be treated by using
different, but equivalent, terminology. Thus,
Tso^n-kha-pa writes:
While those benefits are discussed using the terms
"Calm" (`samatha) and "Higher Vision" (vipa`syanaa),
there are allusions to the benefits of Calm
Abstraction (dhyaana) and Wisdom (praj~naa), which
have a similar meaning, although not discussing the
matter using the terms "Calm" and "Higher
Vision."(17)
Also, it is said in the "General Summary of the
Tantras" (Rgyud sde spyi rnam) by Mkhas grub Dge
legs dpal bzan po:
In generality, the coupling of `samatha and
vipa`syanaa in samaadhi is, so to speak, the spine
of the ways, both of Paaramitaa-yaana (Vehicle of
Perfections) and of Mantrayaana (Vehicle of Magical
Practices).
In the Paaramitaa-yaana, one first perfects
`samatha. Having mastered this completely, one uses
it as the basis for practicing vipa`syanaa.
When that is accomplished with all its marks, there
is a proceeding into the coupling of `samatha and
vipa`syanaa.
The four Mantra-tantras do not especially explain
the method of `samatha, nor is this necessary.
Accomplishing the yoga of the deities involves a
complete `samatha, with all its marks.(18)
COMPARISON WITH THE HINDU PHILOSOPHICAL POSITION
Specialists in Indian philosophy may be able to
know whether or not the preceding illustration of
the simile conforms to its usage in the
Bhagavadgiitaa. Nevertheless, an elementary affinity
is suggested. That work has the basic dualism of
prak.rti, the substratum of matter, and puru.sa, the
perceiver. Hence, the "place free from wind" might
be prak.rti; the "lamp," puru.sa.
Again, if the "wind" be what is called praa.na,
we may consider this remark of Dasgupta:
But when the praa.na lies dormant in the hollow of
the veins (`siraa-sara.ni-ko.tare), then there is no
manifestation of mind, and its processes and the
cognitive functions do not operate.(19)
Using this terminology, perhaps the dormant state of
praa.na is necessary to have a "place free from
wind."
Finally, it is said by Das:
According to the Advaitist, nirvikalpa samaadhi is
the ultimate state of ecstatic trance, in which
Brahman in its true undifferentiated and
unconditioned nature is realized.
-------------
17 Tso^n-kha-pa, op. cit., 226a-2, 3.
18 Quoted from a manuscript translation of this
work from Tibetan by F. D. Lessing and Alex Way-man,
which is being readied for publication.
19 Surendranath Dasgupta, A History of Indian
Philosophy, Vol. II (Cambridge: The University
Press, 1932), p. 256. At this place, Dasgupta has a
note concerning his translation of `siraa as veins.
P.154
This state is one of absolute identity. The aspirant
merges into Brahman; his ego or individuality is
eliminated; all differentiation ceases; and he in
fact becomes Brahman. But, if that were really the
ultimate state, no one could ever return from it to
teach illusionism on earth.(20)
In my understanding of Tson-kha-pa's position, he
would agree that it is "the ultimate state of
ecstatic trance," but not that it is the highest
accomplishment. It represents the "place free from
wind" and then a "lamp" must he added. In regard to
how the latter is achieved, Tso^n-kha-pa quotes the
Kaa`syapa-parivarta:
Kaa`syapa, thus, for example, when two trees are
rubbed together by the wind, and fire arises [from
the friction], [that fire], having arisen, burns the
two trees. In the same way, Kaa`syapa, [when things
are analyzed] by right discrimination
(samyakpratyavek.sa.na), the faculty of Noble Wisdom
(aarya-praj~naa) is born; and, [that Fire] having
been born, it burns up that right discrimination
itself.(21)
Here, Noble Wisdom can be taken as the "lamp."(22)
----------------
20 A. C. Das (as cited in n.8), p. 113.
21 Lam rim chen mo, Tashilunpo edition, 476a-4,
ff. The Tibetan and the various Chinese versions for
this are given by Baron A. Von Stael-Holstein, The
Kaacyapa-parivarta (Shanghai: Commercial Press,
1926) , pp. 102, 103. The Sanskrit for this
particular passage is not exant. It may be observed
that the notion of "wind" is not essential for the
simile; indeed, it was called to my attention that
the early Chinese translations do not have the word
"wind." In sure a case, the translation would be
"... when two pieces of wood are rubbed together,
and fire arises".... It appears that the early
version of the text was comparing the production of
Wisdom (praj~naa) to the production of fire by two
friction sticks, called ara.ni.
22 It would also be germane to discuss in this
section the terms Nirgu.na Brahman (Brahman without
attributes) and Sagu.na Brahman (Brahman with
attributes) , but words would multiply out of
proportion to the title. For a brief introduction to
this topic, see Haridas Chaudhuri, "The Concept of
Brahman in Hindu Philosophy," Philosophy East and
West, IV, No. 1 (April, 1954), 47-66.
Printed by Mei-yu Chan
Proofread by Wen-ying Lai