2011 Class 2 - Abhisamayalamkara - Perfection of Wisdom - 4/13 UPDATE

On Wednesday, April 6, Gen Kelsang Wangmo continued reviewing the background of the Perfection of Wisdom course for the benefit of the many new students and to refresh the recollections of the long-term class members by explaining the subjects highlighted in Handout 1. She then explained Handout 2 - which contains the English translation of the opening of the Ornament for Clear Realizations together with some of the Tibetan.

You can download PDF's of Handouts used in this class, Class Notes, and MP3 Tracks from this class below. The Class Notes are a very rough DRAFT offered for 'what they're worth' to aid students of the course. The Notes are typed in class and corrected - but are definitely not a 'transcript' of the class. The MP3 Tracks are divided to ease both downloading and listening.

DOWNLOAD PDF's:

2011 Handout 1 - Perfection of Wisdom
2011 Handout 2 - Introduction to Ornament text
2011 Chart 1 - DIFFERENT VEHICLES - Trainees, Goals, Wisdoms, Results
Very ROUGH DRAFT of CLASS NOTES - NOW POSTED for DOWNLOAD.

DOWNLOAD MP3 Tracks:

Maitreya's Ornament for Clear Realizations - Abhisamayalamkara (Skt.) - “Key to Unlock” the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras

Track 1 -  Part One - Introduction to the Ornament for Clear Realizations:

English:  Ornament for Clear Realizations.

Sanskrit: Abisamaya-alamkara

Tibetan:  མངོན་རྟོགས་རྒྱན།Pོ﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽n s, including China − Pོ﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽n s, including China −  - Ngoen Tog Gyen (Ngoen = clear, Tog = realization, Gyen = ornament) .

• Distinguishing:  KNOWING, BELIEVING, REALIZING.
•   FAITH in Buddhism
•       Two Kinds of Faith:  
• Faith based on Reasoning 
• Blind faith (2 Types of Blind Faith) - Not in accord with Buddhism
•     Three-Fold Categorization of Faith: 
• Lucid Faith, Wishing Faith, Believing Faith.
•   E.g., Faith in Reincarnation.  
• Believing Faith [faith based on reasoning] & Blind Faith
•    Realization

Track 2 -  Preface & Table of Contents for the Ornament.  [Handout 1]

Perfection of Wisdom Sutras explicitly teach Wisdom of Emptiness and implicitly (or in a hidden fashion) teach the Meditational Paths leading to Enlightenment.

Although the Ornament is commentary on all the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras, its structure follows "Three Principal Sutra Sources".

"Table of Contents" - Ornament's Eight Chapters - in English & Tibetan

• The Ornament has eight chapters.  Each of those chapters explains one clear realization.  The Eight Clear Realizations are:

1.   Exalted Knower of Aspects (Omniscient Mind of a Buddha) - རྣམ་མཁྱེན། - Nam khyen (Nam=aspect, khyen=exalted knower)
2.   Knower of Paths - ལམ་ཤེས།་་- ་Lam she (Lam=path, she= knower)
3.   Knower of Bases - གཞི་ཤེས། - Zhi she ( Zhi=basis, she=basis)
4.   Application in Complete Aspects - རྣམ་རྫོགས་སྦྱོར་བ། - Nam dzog Jor wa  (Nam=aspect, dzog=complete, Jor wa=application, preparation, exertion)
5.  Peak Application - རྩེ་མོའི་སྦྱོར་བ། - Tse moi Jor wa  (Tsemoi=peak,  Jor wa=application)
6.   Serial Application - མཐར་གྱིས་སྦྱོར་བ། - Thar gyi Jor wa  (Thar gyi= Serial , Jor wa=application)
7.   Application in a Single Instant - སྐད་ཅིག་སྦྱོར་བ།  - Kae cig Jor wa  (Kae cig=single instant, Jor wa=application)
8.   Resultant Dharmakaya (Truth Body) - འབྲས་བུ་ཆོས་སྐུ། - Dre bu Choe ku  (Dre bu=result, Choe ku=dharmakaya).

• Seventy Topics explain/illustrate or characterize the Eight Clear Realizations.

Seventy Topics - Tibetan: - དོན་བདུན་བཅུ།  -  Doen Dun chu (Doen = topic, meaning, object, Dun ch = seventy).

• For example, the first Clear Realization, the Exalted Knower of Aspects is characterized by Ten Topics or Ten Dharmas.*  Therefore, Each Chapter of the Ornament explains its subject Clear Realization by way of:

1st Chapter - Exalted Knower of Aspects - ten [10] topics.
2nd Chapter - Knower of Paths - eleven [11] topics.
3rd Chapter - Knower of Bases - nine [9] topics.
4th Chapter - Application in Complete Aspects - eleven [11] topics.
5th Chapter - Peak Application - eight [8] topics.
6th Chapter - Serial Application - thirteen [13] topics.
7th Chapter - Application in a Single Instant - four [4] topics.
8th Chapter - Resultant Dharmakaya - four [4] topics.

In total, the Ornament expounds Seventy Topics which is why it is said that the Ornament explains the implicit or hidden meaning of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras by way of Eight Clear Realizations and Seventy Topics.

*Subject of this year’s course is a continuation from 2010 of the Ten Topics presented in the First Chapter on the Exalted Knower of Aspects, i.e., the Omniscient Mind of a Buddha. 

Track 3 -  Handout 2 – Text beginning Ornament for Clear Realizations.

• Complete Title of the Ornament in Sanskrit, Tibetan & English:

• "In Sanskrit:  Abhisamaya-alamkara-nama-prajnaparamita-upadesha-shastra-karika

•  In Tibetan: She rab kyi Pha rol du chin pai Men ngag gi Ten choe Ngoen bar Tog pai Gyen zhe ja wai Tshig Leur je pa"
  
  

 ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་དུ་ཕྱིན་པའི་མན་ངག་གི་བསྟན་བཅོས་མངོན་པར་རྟོགས་པའི་རྒྱན་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཚིག་ལེའུར་བྱས་པ།    

• Meaning of the words in Sanskrit: abhisamaya = clear realization; alamkara = ornament; nama = called; prajnaparamita = perfection of wisdom; upadesha = quintessential instructions; shastra = treatise; karika = verses [and chapters].
• Meaning of the words in Tibetan:    

ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་དུ་ཕྱིན་པ་  - She rab kyi Pha rol du chin pa = perfection of wisdom:

མན་ངག་ - Men ngag = quintessential instruction.  གི -  gi = genitive.   

བསྟན་བཅོས་ - Ten choe = treatise.

  མངོན་པར་རྟོགས་པའི་རྒྱན་ - Ngoen bar Tog pai Gyen = ornament for clear realizations. 

ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ - zhe ja wai = called. 

ཚིག་ལེའུར་བྱས་པ། - Tshig Leur je pa = verses and chapters.

• Full title of the Ornament in English:  "The Verses and Chapters of the So-Called 'Ornament for Clear Realization', a quintessential instruction treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom" 

• Three Reasons for beginning the Ornament with the Sanskrit title

• Meaning of the Tibetan Translator's Homage - "I bow down to all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas."

Track 4 -  Ornament's Homage by Maitreya.

• Purpose/Meaning of "Homage" in Buddhism. 

• Meaning of Maitreya's Homage to the Three Wisdom Mothers

"I prostrate to the Mother of Buddhas and of the groups of Hearers and Bodhisattvas, Who through the knower of bases leads Hearers seeking pacification to complete peace; Who through the knower of paths causes those helping migrators to achieve the aims of the world; And who, through possession of which (exalted knower of aspects), the Subduers set forth the varieties having all aspects." [1]

• Three types of wisdom:   Mother of all Arya beings is Wisdom because wisdom gives rise to attaining the two goals: Self-Liberation and Full Enlightenment.
• Suffering Nature of Samsara.  - Chart 1 - Different Vehicles
• three kinds of wisdom:
• Knower of Bases
• Knower of Paths
• Exalted Knower of All Aspects 

(Revised April 13, 2011)