Homage to the holy masters and supreme yidam deities!

To that which dispels entirely the darkness of our faults,

And is the source of every virtue, and all goodness and precious qualities,

To the ground sustaining the whole infinity of beings—

To the precious mind of bodhichitta, I pay homage!

Through the manifestation of inconceivable wisdom and love,

You work for those worn down and lacking all protection,

And liberate them from the vast ocean of existence and quiescence—

To you, the most compassionate and supreme of guides, I pay homage!

Always, you consider the benefit of beings,

Having realized the wondrous twofold bodhichitta,

You shed your brilliant light upon the supreme vehicle’s noble path—

Great bodhisattvas, grant me your protection!

Herein I shall now explain this flowing stream of nectar, a pith instruction

For meditating on bodhichitta, bestower of supreme immortality,

Wish-granting tree fulfilling the hopes of living beings,

And faultless pathway leading to the citadel of omniscience.

All you who seek to benefit beings for as long as space exists,

Having first flown across the ocean of unsurpassable qualities,

With the fully developed wings of the profound and vast—

All you fortunate ones, take joy in this and listen well!

Here, the topic to be explained is the pith instruction on mind training according to the great vehicle. This is the single path that is followed by all the buddhas of the three times and their heirs, the essence of the teachings of the great vehicle, the ultimate of all pith instructions, the most profound instruction of the oral lineage and the quintessence of the ocean of all the excellent teachings.

The completely and perfectly enlightened buddhas, with a view to the different capacities of beings to be helped, teach various systems of training, but all of them, whether directly or indirectly, lead eventually to the ultimate cause, which is the path of the great vehicle, and the ultimate fruition, which is omniscience. As it says in The Chapter of the Truthful One:

Manjushri, all the teachings I have given to sentient beings are for the sake of their attaining omniscient wisdom. They all lead to the same object. They all lead to awakening. They all arrive at the great vehicle and the attainment of omniscient wisdom. Therefore, I have not set forth various vehicles.

The reason for this is as follows. It is only in complete and perfect buddhahood that all faults without exception are eliminated and all qualities without exception are fully developed, and the attainment of this can come only through the profound and vast path of the great vehicle.

As it says in the Ornament of Mahayana Sutras:

Because it is profound and because it is vast,

It ripens fully and is beyond the conceptual,

Therefore, it teaches with two aspects,

And is the method of the unsurpassed.[1]

It is reasonable therefore for individuals with inquiring minds—those who have reflected on the potential benefits and losses to be incurred in future existences and who wish to secure their own and others’ benefit and happiness—to exert themselves on the path of the great vehicle, without undue concern for their present lives or physical wellbeing. Moreover, since the most important factors on this path are relative bodhichitta, which is rooted in great compassion, and ultimate bodhichitta, which is the wisdom that transcends the two extremes, we can be sure that these constitute the basic cause for the attainment of perfect enlightenment. With this point in mind, the sublime Arya Nagarjuna said:

If we, ourselves and all the world,
Wish for unsurpassed enlightenment,
Its basis is bodhichitta,
Stable as the king of mountains,
Compassion reaching out in all directions,
And wisdom that transcends duality.[2]

This explanation of the pith instructions for meditating on precious bodhichitta is divided into two parts: (1) the successive stages of the incomparable lineage, and (2) the method for putting the instructions into practice.

Part One - The Stages of the Lineage

The great and glorious bodhisattva Atisha Dipamkara, who was like a second buddha in this degenerate age, a beacon shedding the light of the teachings upon the world, and a guide for the Tibetan people, possessed unimaginable instructions on training in bodhichitta, but of these three streams of transmission are most important.

The first of these he received from his teacher, the mendicant Dharmarakshita, who actually offered his own flesh to heal a sick person and who was graced with a vision of Arya Avalokiteshvara. This is the tradition of first cultivating the bodhichitta of equalizing self and others.

The second he received from his teacher, Maitriyogi, also known as Kusali the younger, who through meditating entirely on love and compassion saw the Buddha Maitreya face to face, so that he became known as Maitriyogi, the yogin of Maitreya. Although this teacher also held the instructions of the third transmission and therefore appears in that lineage as well, he was mainly a holder of the teachings from Arya Manjushri, the instructions of Nagarjuna according to the lineage from Shantideva. This is the tradition of cultivating bodhichitta from the equalizing of self and others onwards.

The third transmission was that of the heart-practice and extraordinary pith instructions of the great scholar from Suvarnadvipa (Tib. Serlingpa). This is the tradition of meditating on exchanging oneself for others from the very beginning.

The extended lineage of this instruction is as follows:

Our teacher, the king of the Shakyas, during his life as the great brahmin Samudrarenu (Tib. rgya mtsho’i rdul), was overwhelmed by exceptionally great compassion, and as a result he made five hundred aspirations, including one to help the beings of a future age rife with the five degenerations, whose merit would be weak and who would be difficult to tame, by revealing to them a convenient path involving very little hardship. Through the force of these aspirations, he appeared during this age of conflict, manifested the attainment of enlightenment in this world of Patient Endurance and turned the inconceivable wheel of Dharma. The essence of these teachings, contained in this nectar-like instruction, he transmitted to the holy regent Maitreya, who during his previous life as the monk called Sthiramati had meditated solely on loving kindness and attained realization. Through the power of this meditation, on one occasion when he was setting foot on the threshold of a great city, he prayed, “May the minds of all who live in this land be filled with loving kindness!” As a result, in place of his ordination name, he became known simply as Maitreya, the Loving One. From that moment on, until his awakening, it is said, he will continue to be known by this name.

In turn, the Noble Asanga, who travelled to the heaven of Tushita, received from him inconceivable transmissions and instructions on the mahayana sutras, including the Five Treatises of Maitreya, and gained the realization of the third bodhisattva level. The Manjushri Mula Tantra states:

A bhikshu by the name of Asanga,

Who is learned in the treatises will appear,

And will make many clear distinctions

Between the sutras’ definitive and provisional meaning.

And it is also said:

So that the teachings may remain for long,

He will compile the actual meaning of the sutras.

He will live for a hundred and fifty years,

And, having left his body, will depart for the heavens.

While circling through the realms of existence,

He will enjoy the taste of lasting happiness,

And ultimately this great being

Will attain awakening.

It was to this great pioneering master, prophesied in many such statements from the sutras and tantras, that Maitreya transmitted the teachings.

Asanga, in turn, passed the teachings on to his own younger brother, the all-knowing Vasubandhu, who for five hundred lifetimes without interruption had been born as a pandita skilled in the five sciences. Vasubandhu had gained indomitable confidence through his learning. He recited aloud many thousands of texts[3] and composed several commentaries at the command of the noble Maitreya, becoming renowned throughout this world of Jambudvipa as a second omniscient one.

Vasubandhu had four great disciples who were more learned than himself in certain topics. Of these, it was to Arya Vimuktisena, who was more learned on the topic of the prajnaparamita, that Vasubandhu passed on the instructions. Vimuktisena was the nephew of the great master Buddhadasa. He reached the bodhisattva level of Perfect Joy and having received instructions on the prajnaparamita directly from the Buddha, composed his great commentary.

In turn, Arya Vimuktisena passed the instructions on to the great scholar Bhante Vimuktisena, who was on the stage of devotion, the mahayana path of accumulation, and composed several treatises including a commentary on the Prajnaparamita in 25,000 Verses.

Bhante Vimuktisena passed the instructions on to the master Gunamitra, who was a teacher of Haribhadra and a student of the greatly accomplished Buddhajnana, and who requested the composition of the commentary on the Condensed Prajnaparamita.

Gunamitra passed the instructions to Haribhadra, who having received authority from the Buddha Maitreya, composed many treatises such as the commentary on the 8000 verse text and worked for the sake of the teachings of the perfection of wisdom.

Haribhadra, in turn, passed the instructions to the master Purnavadhana, who was a great pandita and the author of several treatises including a commentary on the Abhidharmakosha.

Purnavadhana passed the instructions to Kusali the Elder, who spent all his time practising in isolated retreat and became known as a great adept of the two kinds of bodhichitta.

Kusali the Elder passed the teachings to Kusali the Younger, who was able to take the sufferings of others directly upon himself.

Kusali the Younger transmitted the instructions to Serlingpa.

As regards the more immediate lineage of transmission, Serlingpa is said to have received this directly from the Buddha Maitreya. The son of the king of the Golden Isle, Serlingpa possessed many exceptional qualities. It was said, for example, that at the very moment of his birth, he took refuge in the Three Jewels. His reputation as a great scholar spread throughout the whole of Jambudvipa, and by leading all the non-buddhists in his country to the Buddhadharma and in many other ways, he worked extensively for the sake of the teachings. He was a perfect embodiment of bodhichitta.

Serlingpa passed the transmission on to the glorious Lord Atisha, whose fame extends throughout the three worlds. The details of Atisha’s life can be learned from the extensive biographies, but here is a brief summary. He was born as the son of Kalyanashri, the king of Zahor, and immediately upon his birth he had a vision of Noble Tara. From an early age he studied the five sciences and especially the four classes of tantra, so that he became supremely learned. He served in the proper way his learned and accomplished teachers, who included Shantipa, Serlingpa, and Vidyakaulika. From the moment he first received the Hevajra empowerment from his guru Rahulagupta, he had visions of many yidam deities. He mastered inconceivable forms of samadhi meditation. In accordance with prophecies he had received from several masters and yidam deities, directly and in dreams, he took ordination in the Mahasanghika tradition. He gained clairvoyance and miraculous abilities and subjugated demons and tirthika extremists. He received instructions on mind training from the gurus mentioned above and from his yidam deities, and twofold bodhichitta flooded his mind, expanding like a river in summertime.

In particular, when he realized that the great master of Suvarnadvipa was a perfect embodiment of the bodhichitta teachings, he travelled to the Golden Isle to seek instruction. When the two masters met Atisha immediately recognized Serlingpa as his teacher from former lives and felt boundless devotion. The guru offered him a golden statue [of the Buddha] that he had found in the forest as a child, signifying his empowerment as the holder of his teachings. Atisha spent a total of twelve years receiving instructions, all the while staying close to his guru,[4] and the bodhichitta of cherishing others above himself was born in his mind.

He returned to India and became an elder at Vikramashila Monastery. From there his enlightened activity spread in all directions, East and West. He was revered as a master by followers of all schools without any sectarian bias, and he caused the teachings of sutra and mantra to spread far and wide both through teaching and through practice. His yidam deities, such as Tara and Kasharpani, and many of his teachers, such as Rahula, told him how beneficial it would be if he were to travel to Tibet, and especially how much it would benefit a certain lay practitioner[5] and cause the teachings of his oral lineage to flourish. He also received several invitations from the nephew of Lha Lama Yeshe Öd [i.e., Changchub Öd] who had himself been prophesied by the Buddha. So it was that he went to Tibet, where he took pity on the ignorant Tibetans and eradicated their mistaken views and practices through scriptural authority and logical reasoning, thereby setting them upon the genuine path. He caused the torch of the sacred Dharma to blaze, burning away the thickets of mistaken views. He developed people’s minds so that they could see the nature of reality, and he showed clearly the distinction between Dharma and non-Dharma. In the fertile minds of his fortunate disciples, he planted the seeds of bodhichitta and watered them with the finest nectar-like explanations, so that they ripened into the wonderful harvest of liberation. For his foremost heir, the great Dromtönpa in particular, he filled the fine mansion of his intellect with gems of transmission and realization. As if opening up the treasure chest of his precious oral lineage, he dispelled the spiritual poverty of the Land of Snows by bringing bountiful riches of virtue and goodness. Thus, we should know that the glorious Atisha, holder of this precious oral lineage, which is like a chain of golden mountains, was even kinder to us Tibetans than the Buddha himself.

Dromtönpa Gyalwé Jungné was a great life-pillar of the teachings. He had been blessed with visions of several yidams deities including Noble Tara, and had gained signs that in his next life he would go to Tushita and into the presence of his teacher Jowo Atisha. It was to this master, who was like the single eye of the Tibetan people, that Atisha transmitted all the general teachings of the sutras, tantras and pith instructions, just like a vase being filled to the brim, and gave this instruction too, transmitting it in secret, as if giving away his most treasured jewel that he kept deep inside his heart.

Dromtönpa gave the teachings to suitable disciples, including his foremost spiritual heirs known as the ‘three precious brothers’. In particular, he transmitted the teaching to the great Potowa Rinchen Salwa, that victory banner of the teachings who was renowned as an emanation of the great elder Angiraja, and who worked exclusively for the sake of the Dharma, in both study and practice, and lived together with more than 2000 monks. Not even for a single instant did this great master ever indulge in the eight worldly concerns in either thought or deed, and besides the immediate need to deal with comings and goings as they arose, he did not entertain any grand projects or speculations about the future.

Potowa had eight great spiritual heirs, but it was to the pair renowned as the sun and moon of Ü—Sharawa Yönten Drak, who possessed the vast vision of Dharma, and the great Langthangpa Dorje Senge, who had mastery over bodhichitta—that he transmitted these teachings in secret, having first extracted the main points and condensed them into pith instructions.

The great Sharawa had experienced countless visions in which he saw his personal yidam deities face to face. The light of his wisdom had expanded through the study of an unimaginably vast number of Dharma teachings, and his natural intelligence was unparalleled. It was from him that the precious master Chekawa Yeshe Dorje (1101-1175) received the transmission.

Chekawa Yeshe Dorje was born into a Nyingma family. From an early age, he took the sufferings of others upon himself and felt natural joy in doing so. His potential and capacity for the Mahayana were greatly developed. At the age of twenty-six, in Yarlung, he heard the Eight Verses of Langri Thangpa from Geshe Nyangchak Shingpa and this caused him to feel great devotion to the Kadampa teachings. He felt confident that the bodhichitta of exchanging oneself for other must be the fundamental basis of the mahayana teachings. For four years, he studied with Potowa’s disciples Geshe Dolpa and Luk Mepa, receiving all manner of instructions on the texts of the Kadampa tradition. Having developed deep confidence in bodhichitta, he arrived in Uri at the age of thirty, seeking instructions on mind training. He received teachings from the great Sharawa for two years, but during this time he never heard even a casual reference to the instructions he sought. Feeling somewhat doubtful, he asked his teacher, “Is the exchanging of oneself and others not the root of the Dharma?” To which Sharawa replied, “Indeed it is indispensable as a method for attaining awakening”, and he made this clear with a quotation from the Precious Garland. Gaining confidence, Chekawa requested the instructions. Sharawa accepted and Chekawa studied with him for nine years—six years at first and another three later on—focusing entirely on this practice, receiving teachings and meditating upon them, so that he cut through the bonds of self-cherishing, and bodhichitta was truly born within him.

Chekawa knew that mind training is the essence of the Dharma but he thought that few would be capable of receiving it, and so at first he was reluctant to teach it. Then, out of compassion, he taught it to some lepers who had been abandoned by the doctors and had given up any hope of finding happiness in life. As a result of the practice, they were cured of their leprosy and gained abundant realization. Before long, many more patients came to him and the instructions soon became known as ‘Chekawa’s Leprosy Dharma.’ In time, he saw that the teaching could benefit others on a vast scale, and he began to give them more widely, teaching before vast assemblies. So it was that he became a great master of these instructions and an incomparable bodhisattva.

It was from Chekawa that the great Sechilphuwa Özer Shyönnu [aka Chökyi Gyaltsen 1121-1189] received the teachings, spending twenty-four years in Chengyi Lhading and other places focusing entirely on these instructions, and meditating on whatever he had received. As a result, just as in the slogan, “You are well trained if you can practise even while distracted”, whenever he was faced with major difficulties, by applying the antidotes, he was always able to transform adversities and take them as part of his path. He gained many other unimaginable qualities too as signs of progress, and he taught these instructions widely, giving them to large gatherings or transmitting them in secret, according to the situation. Taking these teachings as the heart of his own practice, he became a great bodhisattva.

Sechilphuwa gave the teachings to the Lord of Lhalung, Özer Lama, who, in turn, gave them to Lhadingpa Changchub Bum, who passed them on to Lhading Ön [aka Kunga Gyatso]. He gave them to the diligent practitioner and khenpo, Dampa Yönten Pal, who gave them to the great khenpo Dewa Pal [1231-1297], who gave them to the learned and disciplined Kashipa Drakpa Shyönnu [1257-1315].[6]

He, in turn, gave them to Sonam Drakpa, who possessed inconceivable qualities of learning and realization, and was the most precious and sacred crown jewel of all the holders of the teaching.

Sonam Drakpa gave them to the emanation of Noble Avalokiteshvara, Gyalsé Tokmé Zangpo (1295-1369), who is as famous as the sun and moon, and who possessed unimaginable good qualities in great abundance. His fortunate disciples with purity of vision, for example, would perceive him directly as Avalokiteshvara, the Lord of the World. In fact, it was by means of these very instructions that this great bodhisattva became just like a second Buddha.

He in turn passed the instructions to the great bodhisattva known as Jñanashri. This master, having seen the nature of dependent origination just as it is, beyond conceptual elaboration, destroyed any conceptual focus involving grasping at characteristics, and from the clouds of his non-referential compassion there poured down rains of pure enlightened activity which ripened the crops of virtue in his disciples. In this, he was a precious and incomparable lord of Dharma, entirely without equal in this world.

In the presence of this great master, due to his inexpressible kindness, I received transmissions of texts, reasoning and pith instructions in general, and in particular, I received this very teaching many times in the manner of guidance according to experience (nyams khrid).

In addition, there are several other ways in which the lineage continued, including the lineage from the omniscient Vasubandhu to Sthiramati and the rest, the lineage from the great Chengawa to Shawo Gangpa and the rest, the lineage from the lord of Lhalung to Lha Drowa Gönpo and the rest, and the lineage from Gyalsé Tokmé to Gyamawa Yönten Ö and so on.

I myself also received this essence of the teachings many times as a result of my exceedingly great devotion and interest, firstly from the bodhisattva Samten Rinchenpa, then from the great bodhisattva and Lord of Dharma Radrengpa Shakya Sonam[7], and from the great renunciate of Drosa, Özer Kunga Pal, and finally from the great vajradhara of this degenerate age, [Ngorchen] Kunga Zangpo [1382-1456], but fearing that it might require too many words, I shall not describe these lineages in detail.

Abiding at the centre of the vast ocean of teachings,

You rule over the jewel island of transmission and realization,

And bring down a rain of nectar-like immaculate instructions—

Powerful naga-like lords of the oral lineage, in you I put my faith!