Abhisamayalankara
Abhisamayalankara (Skt. Abhisamayālaṃkāra; Tib. མངོན་རྟོགས་རྒྱན་, Ngöntok Gyen; Wyl. mngon rtogs rgyan), The Ornament of Clear Realization — one of the five treatises that were directly revealed to Asanga by the future Buddha Maitreya, it is a commentary on the hidden meaning of the Prajñaparamita Sutras, describing the entire journey of the bodhisattva, from the generation of bodhichitta to the attainment of full omniscience. It is included among the so-called "Thirteen great texts", which form the core of the curriculum in most shedras and on which Khenpo Shenga provided commentaries.
The text is divided into eight topics:
The Eight Topics
- knowledge of all aspects, omniscience (Skt. Sarvākārajñatā; Tib. རྣམ་ཀུན་མཁྱེན་ཉིད་, nam kun khyen nyi or རྣམ་མཁྱེན་, "namkhyen")
- path-knowledge (Skt. Mārgākārajñatā; Tib. ལམ་ཤེས་ཉིད་, lamshe nyi or ལམ་ཤེས་, lamshe)
- base-knowledge, knowledge of the bases, knowledge of the foundation (Skt. vastujñāna; Tib. གཞི་ཤེས་, zhishe) but also all-knowledge (Skt. Sarvajñatā; Tib. ཐམས་ཅད་ཤེས་པ་ཉིད་, tamche shepa nyi)
- complete application of all aspects, application of the realization of all aspects (Skt. Sarvākārābhisambodha; Tib. རྣམ་ཀུན་མངོན་རྫོགས་རྟོགས་པ་ but also རྣམ་རྫོགས་སྦྱོར་བ་, namdzog jorwa)
- culminating application, application when reaching the peak (Skt. Murdhābhisamaya; Tib. རྩེ་མོར་སྦྱོར་བ་, tsemor jorwa)
- progressive application, gradual training, gradual application of the bodhisattva path (Skt. Anupurvābhisamaya; Tib. མཐར་གྱིས་པའི་སྦྱོར་བ་, thar gyi jorwa)
- instantaneous application, momentary training (Skt. Ekakṣanābhisamaya; Tib. སྐད་ཅིག་མའི་སྦྱོར་བ་, kechigme jorwa)
- dharmakaya (Skt. dharmakāya but also Dharmakāyābhisambodha; Tib. ཆོས་སྐུ་, chö ku, Wyl. chos sku)
These eight topics are further divided into seventy points.
Quotations
Definition of Bodhichitta
སེམས་བསྐྱེད་པ་ནི་གཞན་དོན་ཕྱིར། །
ཡང་དག་རྫོགས་པའི་བྱང་ཆུབ་འདོད། །
ཡང་དག་རྫོགས་པའི་བྱང་ཆུབ་འདོད། །
Arousing bodhicitta is: For the sake of others,
Longing to attain complete enlightenment.
Not a thing to be removed, nothing to be added
འདི་ལས་བསལ་བྱ་ཅི་ཡང་མེད། །
གཞག་པར་བྱ་བ་ཅུང་ཟད་མེད། །
ཡང་དག་ཉིད་ལ་ཡང་དག་ལྟ། །
In this, there is not a thing to be removed,
Nor the slightest thing to be added.
It is looking perfectly into reality itself,
And when reality is seen, complete liberation.
- Maitreya, Ornament of Clear Realization, V, 21 and Sublime Continuum, I, 154[1]
Tibetan Text
Commentaries
Indian
- Arya Vimuktisena, Commentary on the Abhisamayalankara (Skt. abhisamayālaṅkārakārikāvārttika, Tib. ཉི་ཁྲི་སྣང་བ་, nyi khri snang ba)
- Haribhadra, Sphutartha (Skt. Sphuṭārthā; Tib. འགྲེལ་པ་དོན་གསལ་, Wyl. 'grel pa don gsal)
Tibetan
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- Tsongkhapa, Golden Garland of Eloquence (ལེགས་བཤད་གསེར་ཕྲེང་, legs bshad gser phreng) (translated by Gareth Sparham, Jain Publishing, 2008)
- Patrul Rinpoche, Overview
- Pöpa Tulku, The Oral Transmission of the Invincible Maitreya and An Adornment to the Vision of the Invincible Maitreya
ཤེར་ཕྱིན་མངོན་པར་རྟོགས་པའི་རྒྱན་གྱི་ཚིག་དོན་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པ་མ་ཕམ་ཞལ་ལུང་, sher phyin mngon par rtogs pa'i rgyan gyi tshig don rnam par bshad pa ma pham zhal lung- ཤེར་ཕྱིན་གྱི་ཟིན་བྲིས་, sher phyin gyi zin bris
- Amdo Geshe Jampal Rolwé Lodrö, The Essence of an Ocean of Fine Explanation
- Mipham Rinpoche ཤེར་ཕྱིན་མངོན་རྟོགས་རྒྱན་གྱི་མཆན་འགྲེལ་པུཎྜ་རི་ཀའི་དོ་ཤལ།, sher phyin mngon rtogs rgyan gyi mchan 'grel puN+Da ri ka'i do shal
Translations
- Abhisamayalankara, Edward Conze (Rome: Is.M.E.O., 1954).
- Gone Beyond: The Prajnaparamita Sutras, The Ornament of Clear Realization, and Its Commentaries in the Tibetan Kagyu Tradition, Volume One, translated and introduced by Karl Brunnhölzl (Ithaca: Snow Lion), Vol. One, July 2011
- Gone Beyond: The Prajnaparamita Sutras, The Ornament of Clear Realization, and Its Commentaries in the Tibetan Kagyu Tradition, Volume Two, translated and introduced by Karl Brunnhölzl (Ithaca: Snow Lion), Vol. Two, 2011
- Groundless Paths: The Prajnaparamita Sutras, The Ornament of Clear Realization, and Its Commentaries in the Tibetan Nyingma Tradition, translated and introduced by Karl Brunnhölzl (Ithaca: Snow Lion), 2012
- Ornament of Clear Realization: A Commentary on the Prajnaparamita of Maitreya, Thrangu Rinpoche, Zhyisil Chokyi Ghatsal, 2004.
- Abhisamayalankara (mngon rtogs rgyan), Maitreya – Asanga with commentary by Jamgön Mipham, Padmakara translation group, forthcoming
References
- ↑ This is also verse 7 of Nāgārjuna’s Heart of Dependent Origination.
Teachings Given to the Rigpa Sangha
- Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche – Rigpa Shedra West, Dzogchen Beara, 2003.
- Dzogchen Rinpoche – Rigpa Shedra West, Dzogchen Beara, 2004.
- Khenpo Jampal Dorje – Rigpa Shedra West, Lerab Ling, 2005.
- Khenpo Sönam Tobden - Rigpa Shedra East, 4 January to 30 April 2011.
Further Reading
- John Makransky, Buddhahood embodied: sources of controversy in India and Tibet, New York: SUNY, 1997
- James B. Apple, Stairway to Nirvana: A Study of the Twenty Samghas Based on the Works of Tsong kha pa, SUNY, 2008
- James B. Apple, Contributions to the Development and Classification of Abhisamayālaṃkāra Literature in Tibet from the Ninth to Fourteenth Centuries, JIATS, no. 5 (December 2009), available online here
