The Genesis of Tibetan Buddhism

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Why does it matter that the Chinese have destroyed, and continue to destroy, the culture of Tibet? Aren't the Tibetans basically just a bunch of Asian hillbillies whose lot can only be improved by the civilizing influence of the Chinese? The truth is, it matters very much. But to explain why will require us to go to India, to the year 563 B.C.E., the time of the Buddha's birth.

Buddhism was born in India as an outgrowth of Hinduism. Simply put, Sidhartha Gautama, the original Buddha, was a Hindu, and the perception of Buddhism as a distinct and separate religion probably didn't take place until years, perhaps centuries, after the Buddha's death. Even today, many of the practices of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism share a similarity with many practices of esoteric forms of the Hindu faith.

Although Buddhism never supplanted Hinduism in overall popularity, Buddhism flourished and grew rapidly in India. As it grew, and distinguished itself from its Hindu roots, it began to splinter off into subgroups of its own, most notably the Buddhism as practiced by the masses, (Theravada, Sarvastivada, etc.), and a more sophisticated form of the religion, known as Mahayana. To oversimplify: the first group teaches that enlightenment should be sought for the self, and this is primarily accomplished through “insight meditation” and the study of the Sutras, which are the Buddhas teachings in written form. In a way, these forms of Buddhism represents Buddhist fundamentalism, as they take the view that if the Buddha didn't teach it, it can't be incorporated into the religion.

Mahayana Buddhism, developed primarily by urban intellectuals, took a different approach and decided to expand upon the Buddha's original ideas. The Buddha, they reasoned, didn't have time to learn or teach everything there is to know about enlightenment. They thought that the insights gleaned from their own meditative practices were also valid and worthy of being developed into “skillful means” to help others in their quest. They also believed that many of the Buddha's teachings were never spoken, but were demonstrated by his actions, which led to the concept of the Bodhisatva, which was to become the distinguishing key between the two major schools of Buddhism.

The Mahayanas observed that when the Buddha achieved enlightenment, becoming in essence the clear light of spirit with no need of the causal world, he did not give up this world and its suffering but remained behind to teach others what he had learned. This lead them to conclude that enlightenment is not sought for it's own sake, but that one attempts to attain an enlightened state for the purpose of lifting-up others. Since “we are all one,” they reasoned, true and complete enlightenment was not possible so long as a single being remained in the universe who was stuck on the karmic wheel of cause and effect. Thus, the Mahayana Buddhist vowed to achieve enlightenment not for his or her own sake, but “for the sake of all sentient beings.”

They also came to understand that the Buddha's enlightenment had been an extraordinary event, that sitting under a Bodhi tree in unfocused meditation, as the Buddha had done, was not going to work for most people. The Buddha had devoted his entire life, twenty-four hours a day, to meditation, and it had nearly killed him. He had also been born into a very privileged and sheltered life, thereby escaping many of the mental and emotional illnesses that can stand in the way of attainment. The average person could only spend an hour or two a day in meditation, and would be inflicted with the usual mental and emotional issues that are born in childhood.

This brought about the development of “skillful means,” special practices that would address the practitioners unique unconscious issues and speed-up the meditative process. The Mahayanas became masters at psychology, and developed practices to cover a wide range of mental and emotional disorders. Someone who suffers from separation anxiety would be given a particular meditation to perform that would address that issue. When the issue was relieved, the person would move on to another practice addressing another issue. The same would be true for people who suffered from panic attacks, agoraphobia, addiction, or a whole host of other issues.

This intellectual Buddhism flourished in India, and a great body of written work and scholarship was amassed, especially in the cities. Unfortunately, this golden age of Mahayana Buddhism was brought to an end sometime after 713 C.E., in the aftermath of the Islamic invasion of the Indian subcontinent, which destroyed all traces of Indian Mahayana thought and practice. To this day, Mahayana Buddhism is hardly evident at all in India, the place of it's birth, even though the more devotional Theravada form flourishes in parts of the country.

Fortunately, before the arrival of Islam, Mahayana Buddhism had been exported to Tibet.

In the eighth century of the current era, the Indian guru Padma Sambhava brought Buddhism to Tibet. According to legend, he was invited to the country by King Trisong Deutsen and ended-up converting the entire country. It's said that his main disciple was the Tibetan queen, who became his consort, the Dakini Yeshe Tsogyal, the first female lineage holder in Tibet. To this day, the Tibetans revere Padma Sambhava as the founder of their religion and consider him to be a “second Buddha.”

Little is known about the Tibet that Padma Sambhava, or Guru Rinpoche as he is also called, converted. We know that the indigenous spiritual practice was the Bon religion, much of which remains incorporated into Tibet's unique style of Buddhism. In fact, one of the most important rites of passage in Tibetan Buddhism, the Chod rite, has been taken, almost in it's entirety, from the old Bon beliefs.

This folding-in of a native religion to incorporate it into the local Buddhist practice is not unique to Tibet. Buddhism encourages converts to keep their old faith, to use Buddhism as a means to strengthen the spiritual practice that is already established. In Chinese Buddhism there is much Taoist thought. A great deal of Shintoism can be found in Japanese Buddhism. Jain and Hindu beliefs abide comfortably within Indian Buddhism. Like in the old Charter Hospital commercial, the Buddhist seem to say: “If you don't find help within Buddhism, please find help somewhere.”

Padma Sambhava did not just bring Buddhism to Tibet, however, which would have made Tibet just a mountainous version of Sri Lanka or Thailand. He did not just bring the teachings of the Buddha and attempt to teach people to get on the slow path to enlightenment. Instead, he brought Tantric practices, the secret teachings of the “quick path” that the Buddha is thought to have only taught to a few, and introduced them to the entire country. This is the Buddhism of magic and secret rites; the only form of Buddhism that can offer enlightenment within a single lifetime. In the thirteen centuries that have passed since Guru Rinpoche's time, the Tibetans have expanded this knowledge, creating the most complete system of “self help” that the world has ever seen – at least since the time of the ancient Egyptians.

It seems highly unlikely that the most highly developed form of the Buddha's teachings would evolve in the isolated and inhospitable climate of Tibet. The country is barely reachable by land. Sitting on “the roof of the world,” high in the Himalayas, the winters are among the most brutal in the world and the growing season is only 90 days, making the vegetarian diet preferred by Buddhists in other parts of the world impossible. But it was in this forsaken climate that Mahayana Buddhism reached it's zenith and in which Vajrayana, the diamond path, was brought to perfection.

Only a small percentage of Tibetan practices have been translated into English. Even so, a quick perusal of those practices make it obvious that Tibet was a land of great scholarship. There is power and thought behind the rites they developed. None of their practices are based on superstition, or for the purpose of extolling the Buddhist establishment. There is an uncanniness to the practices, which are designed with one purpose in mind: to help the practitioner to overcome personal obstacles in order to become a complete and whole human being. Today, as the Jungians delve deeper into understanding the nature of the unconscious, it become obvious that the Tibetans had an understanding of human psychology that we are only now appreciating in the West; an understanding that is not as evident in any other forms of Buddhism.

When the fifth Dalai Lama put to pen a meditation upon Vajra Sattva, he included a negative confession that is short but powerful. “I see that the result of my negativities and downfalls, which I have accumulated since beginningless time, will be but fuel for my burning in the hell without respite;” he has the practitioner recite. “Hence I regret them as if I had taken poison, and resolve to maintain further scrupulous restraint. Thus I admit and confess all my multitude of faults.”

Immediately, however, he moves the practitioner from this confession to positive affirmations for the present. “I rejoice in the cultivation of all wholesome activity,” the practitioner says. “Not merely my own, but I also take pleasure in the superlative meritorious endeavors of ordinary beings, Superiors and Conquerors, according to their respective capacities in virtuous work.”

Much of the written knowledge of the Tibetan people has been lost, turned into ashes by the Chinese. What has been lost only remains within the minds of Tibetans who were alive during the time when Mao took their country from them. Fortunately, all is not gone. The Tibetans were able to smuggle many of their writings out of the country before they could be destroyed by the communists.

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