In the Presence of Masters (eBook)

FromPart One: The Buddha
HisLife, His Aspects, and His Legacy

Sometimesit is said that Shakyamuni Buddha plays a less prominent role in Tibetantradition than in, for example, Theravada. The reason given is that theTibetans speak of several bodies of the Buddha, of a larger array of teachingsthan the early schools, and of other celestial buddhas and bodhisattvas whoplay important roles in meditative and ritual life. It might be more accurateto say that, within Tibetan Buddhism, Shakyamuni Buddha is understood in a moreexpansive way than in some other traditions.

Asthe following passages show, Tibetans consider the human person, ShakyamuniBuddha, with unparalleled reverence and devotion. Tibetans might have hadspontaneous visions of him (1.1) and felt his ever ready availability (1.2). InTibetan tradition, the Buddha is seen as an exalted and inspiring example forall who aspire to realization. He was an ordinary person who, unsatisfied withreceived or partial truths, through his dedication and exertion, found a newway (1.3). He was, in fact, a revolutionary who freed himself from what wasconventionally accepted and attained the pinnacle of enlightenment itself(1.4). His attainment of the realization of egolessness (1.5) meant that he wasutterly insignificant but, because of that, the 'world enlightenedone'(1.6). From that point onward, the Buddha's sole purpose was to leadbeings to that same awakening (1.7). The method he taught was meditation (1.8).Tibetan tradition emphasizes the Buddha's compassion: he was not trying tocreate a new 'ism,' but gave himself utterly to the world, teachingand showing others the solitary path that he had found to the full realizationof what a human being can be (1.9).

Oneof the most interesting aspects of the practice lineage approach is itsunderstanding of the Buddha's attainment and its relation to us. There is astrong sense that the Buddha's experience of the awakened state is accessibleto us through the practice of meditation. While in some interpretations, theBuddha's awakening is considered so exalted and so far off as to be an objectof devotion but not emulation, in the practice lineage, it is precisely thatawakening that should be sought by meditators in this life. The great devotionfelt toward the Buddha is not because he is different from us, but ratherbecause he has shown us what we are and can be. He was the first to find this,the one whose attainment was complete and perfect, and the one who opened thedoor for the rest of us.

Theobject of devotion is not just the immediately manifest human Buddha, butrather the Buddha in his full reality, majesty, and humanity. These threeaspects are known as the three bodies of the buddha. What made Gautama theBuddha was his discovery of an awareness within his own human experience thatis beyond birth and death, beyond being and nonbeing. This 'fundamentalnature,' as it is called, is the 'ultimate body' (dharmakaya)ofthe Buddha. His corruptible form, his human body, is known as his 'createdbody' (nirmanakaya).Becauseof his attainment, he was able to show himself to his disciples and laterfollowers in a transcendent body, one made of form and light but not substance,known as the 'body of enjoyment' (sambhogakaya).These'three bodies' are not really three, but three different aspects ofthe same person, Shakyamuni Buddha (1.10). The essence of this person (the dharmakaya)isbeyond all manifestation, any kind of being or nonbeing (1.11, 1.12), and it isthis that makes the human person what he is (nirmanakaya)anddefines his glorious aspect...