Prayer to Jamyang Gyaltsen

Translator's Introduction

The text that follows, which is only twelve lines long, appears twice in the 2012 edition of Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö's writings. One version is included in the section of praises (bstod pa), where a note (yig chung) at the end simply states that Jamyang Khyentse composed it at the request of Jamyang Gyaltsen’s disciples. The version below is included in the prayers (gsol 'debs) section, where it appears with a different heading and colophon, both of which specify that the text was composed on the occasion of Jamyang Gyaltsen’s bestowal of the oral transmission for the collected writings of Gorampa Sönam Senggé (1429–1489). There is no date provided, but we know from David Jackson’s research that the transmission took place in 1926, when Jamyang Khyentse would have been thirty-four years old. This makes it one of his earliest known compositions.

The prayer is of historical interest not least because it contains what appears to be the only record of Jamyang Gyaltsen’s full name, Jamyang Gyaltsen Jampa Palden Sherab. More important, however, is the event that the text commemorates. The transmission of Gorampa’s writings was a significant moment in the history of Tibetan scholasticism, as it marked the culmination of Jamyang Gyaltsen’s long quest to collect and publish these writings, which subsequently became central to the curriculum at Dzongsar’s Kham-jé shedra and other centres of monastic education in the Sakya school.[1]

The writings of Gorampa were so restricted as to have been effectively banned. Jamyang Gyaltsen’s project was therefore controversial in and of itself. But one opponent of the publication, the Geluk master Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo (1878–1941) highlighted what he saw as a further controversy. In a letter to the Chinese warlord Liu Wenhui, Pabongka expressed disapproval that these writings, which include what he called "a mass of faulty explanations" and "egregious statements" were now in circulation. The reading transmissions were being given for them, he said, despite the absence of an unbroken lineage of transmission.[2]

This last point is true. In his biography of Jamyang Gyaltsen, Dezhung Rinpoche describes how Jamyang Gyaltsen realized that while the transmission lineage for Gorampa’s tantric works still existed, there was no such extant lineage for his exoteric writings. He explains that Jamyang Gyaltsen therefore resorted to an instruction attributed to Taklung Tashi Pal (1142–1209/1210), a disciple of Pakmodrupa, preserved in the Compendium of Sādhanas (sgrub thabs kun btus). This method for restoring a broken transmission involves arranging a statue of the Buddha behind which a lama (with whom one has a dharmic connection) reads the text aloud three times while one imagines that the words are coming from the Buddha himself. Finally, the lama says, "Uphold this! Read this! Disseminate it widely to others!"[3] This was apparently a tradition that Sachen Kunga Nyingpo passed on to Pakmodrupa Dorje Gyalpo. (The lama who did the reading for Jamyang Gyaltsen was Drakri Jamyang Chökyi Nyima,[4] and Dezhung Rinpoche tells us that he did so twice to alleviate Jamgyel’s concerns about drowsiness and lapses in concentration).

Beneath the surface of what appears to be a simple prayer, therefore, lies a complicated history of sectarian controversy over religious authority and legitimacy, as well as the strategies for negotiating such concerns.

Bibliography

Jackson, David P. A Saint in Seattle: The Life of the Tibetan Mystic Dezhung Rinpoche. Boston, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2003.

Mohr, Thea and Jampa Tsedroen, Dignity and Discipline: Reviving Full Ordination for Buddhist Nuns. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2010.

Pearcey, Adam Scott. A Greater Perfection? Scholasticism, Comparativism and Issues of Sectarian Identity in Early 20th Century Writings on rDzogs-chen. Unpublished PhD thesis. SOAS, University of London, 2018.

sde gzhung kun dgaʼ bstan paʼi nyi ma. rje btsun bla ma dam pa ʼjam dbyangs rgyal mtshan gyi rnam thar mdor sdus skal bzang rna rgyan. 1 vols. New Delhi: T.g. Dhongthog Rimpoche, 1983.

Schwieger, Peter, “What did the Chinese Warlord Liu Wenhui want from Pha bong kha”, Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines, no. 64, Juillet 2022, pp. 461-478.

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