On the Sources for Sa skya Panṇḍita's Notes on the Bsam yas Debate

7/29/2019 On the Sources for Sa skya Panita's Notes on the Bsam yas Debate

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THE JOURNAL

OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF

BUDDHIST STUDIES

C O - E D I T O R S - I N - C H I E FGregory Schopen RogerJackson

Indiana University Fairfield UniversityBloomington, Indiana, USA Fairfield, Connecticut, USA

E D I T O R SPeter N. Gregory Ernst Steinkellner

University of Illinois University of ViennaUrbana-C hampaign, Illinois, USA Wien, Austria

Alexander W. Macdon ald Jikido TakasakiUniversite de Paris X University of Tokyo

Nanterre, France Tokyo,JapanBardxvell Smith Robert ThurmanCarleton College Amherst CollegeNorthfteld, Minnesota, USA Amherst, Massachusetts, USA

A S S I S T A N T E D I T O RBruce Cameron Hall

College of William and MaryWilliamsburg, Virginia, USA

Volume 9 1986 Number 2


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C O N T E N T S

I . A R T I C L E S1. Signs , M emo ry an d His tory : A Ta ntr ic Budd his t

Th eor y o f Sc r ip tu ra l T ransm iss ion , by Janet Gyatso 72. Symbol ism of the Bu ddh is t Stupa, by Gerard Fussman 373. T h e Identif icat ion of dG a' rab rd o r je ,by A. W. Hanson-Barber 5 54 . An A pp roa ch to Do gen 's Dia lec tica l Th in k i ngand Method of Ins tan t ia t ion , by Shohei Ichimura 655. A R ep ort on Religious Activity in Cen tral Ti bet ,October , 1985 , by Donald S. Lopez, Jr. a n dCyrus Stearns 1016. A Stu dy of th e Earliest Garbha Vidhi of theShingon Sect , by Dale Allen Todaro 1097. O n the So urce s for Sa skya Panclita 's N ote s on th e"bSam yas D ebate ," by Leonard W .J. van der Kuijp 147

II . B O O K R E V I E W S1. The Bodymind Experience in Japanese Buddhism:A Phenomenological Study ofKukai and Dogen,by D. Sha ne r(Will iam W ald ron ) 1552. A Catalogue ofthe s Tog Palace Kanjur,by Ta deus z Skorupsk i

(Bruce C am ero n Hal l) 156


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3 . Early Buddhism and Christianity: A Comparative Study ofthe Founders' Authority, the Com munity, andthe Discipline, by Cha i-Shin Yu(Vijitha Ra japak se) 1624 . The Heart ofBuddhist Philosophy: Dinndgaand D harmakirti, by A m a r S ingh(Richard Hayes) 1665. Shobogenzo: Zen Essays by Dogen, t ransla ted byT h o m a s C l e a r y(Steven H ein e) 1736. Studies in C h 'an and Hua-yen, edi ted byRo ber t M. Gim el lo an d P e te r N. Grego ry( J o h n j o r g e n s e n ) 1 7 77. The Tantric Distinction, by Je f frey H op kin s(Bru ce Bu rril l) 181Jef f rey Hopkins Repl iesBruce Burr i l l RepliesN O TE S AN D NE W S [2 i te m s] 189

L I ST O F C O N T R I B U T O R S 191


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O n the Sources for Sa skya Pancjita's Noteson the Bsam yas Debate

by Leonard WJ. van der Kuijp

In an ear l ier i ssue of th is jo ur na l , R. Jack son (1982:89-99)publ ished a t rans la t ion of , and a commentary on , Sa skyaPancUta's (1182-1251) account of the well-known, if still historica l ly ques t ionable , S ino-Indian controvers ies in e ighth centuryTibet . His paper was based on a passage that occurs in Sa pan'sThub pa'i dgongs pa rab tu gsal ba (TGRG), a work which hecompleted towards the end of h is l i fe .1 This passage is foundin the section in which he discusses the s tatus and the reachand range of d iscr iminat ive awareness (prajnd), the s ixth transcend ing func t ion (pdramitd). In his survey, Sa pan takes theoppor tuni ty to assa i l cer ta in Bka ' brgyud pa doctr ines knownunder the gener ic name o f the "whi te panacea" (dkar po chigthub) tha t are pree m ine nt ly associa ted wi th the wr i tings of Zh an gg.yu brag pa br tson 'grus grags pa (1123-1193) .2 Sa pan linksthe do ctr in e of the "wh i te pan ace a" wi th the quiet ist ic teachingsof the Chinese Buddhis ts act ive in early Tibet which, as hepains takingly indicates , were a l ready d iscredi ted by the a l legedou tcome of the "deba te" be tween Kamalas i l a and h i s Ch inesec o u n t e r p a r t .

On the basis of the primary sources available to him, R.Jackson has a t tempted to show that Sa pan, perhaps wi l fu l ly ,employed "his tory as polemic" in order to cr i t icise the "whitepanacea" o f h i s immedia te p redecessors ( and con temporar ies )and that , moreover , he " . . . was the f irs t Tibetan scholar to 'use 'Hv a sha ng M aha yan a in th is way, an d . . . pe rh ap s th e mosteg reg iou s . . ." . H ow eve r, in the l ight of a co rp us of texts , a p p a r ently una vailab le to R. Jac ks on at the t im e of his writ ing, thes econclusions s tand in need of an about-face revis ion. As I shalltry to show as briefly and briskly as possible, these sources tell147


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148 J I A B S V O L . 9 N 0 . 2us quite a different story, decisively exculpate Sa pan from thosecharges , and r en de r R. Jackson ' s infe rences un tena ble .A most significant source for the Tibetan phyi dar pe rcep t ionof the "Bsam yas debate" , which has thus far escaped the a t tent ion of scholarly scrut iny, is the m on u m en ta l Chos 'byung me togsnying po'i sbrang rtsi'i bcud or M nga' bdag Nyan gi chos 'byungwrit ten by the Rnying ma pa scholar and " teacher of t reasures"(gter ston) Nyang ra l nyi-ma[ ' i ] 'od-zer (1124-1192 or 1136-1204) .3 Two sl ight ly different manuscripts of this text , Manusc r ip t A and M anuscr ip t B , were publ i shed in the "supp or t ivevo lumes" (rgyab chos) Five and Six of the Rin chen gter mdzodcol lec t ion in 1979 in Paro, Bhutan. Another curs ive dbu medmanuscr ip t of the same, housed a t the Deutsche S taa tsb ib-liothek, Berlin, was published this year (1985) by R. Meisezahlin a facsimile edi t ion. Based on a comparison of these threemanuscripts , Meisezahl (1985:14) came to the conclusion that :"W er s ie ( the Berl in man usc ript) be nu tz t , ka nn auf die in Bh ut anpubl iz ie r ten M anu skr ip te A" un d B" unb eden kl ich verz ichten ,falls nicht e ine kri t ische Edi t ion erw iinscht is t." T u r n in g to theuseful table of contents compiled by L.S. Dagyab of Bonn Uni

versity, we find th at N ya ng ral has de vo ted so m e fifteen foliato the "Bsam yas debate" (Meisezahl 1985: fols . 425-440). Thevery c lose , a t t imes vir tual ly l i te ra l correspondence between thew ord ing of N ya ng ra l 's acco un t an d th e various not ices in severa lof Sa pan 's texts can only lead one to conclude that e i ther Sapan made use of Nyang ra l ' s Chos 'byung, or that both derivetheir inform ation from a third , as of yet un kn ow n, earl ier sou rce .In o rde r t o show the degree o f co r re spondence , I r ep roducefi rs t a smal l segment of the account found in Sa pan 's "openletter", his Skyes bu dam pa mam s la spring ba'i yi ge, SSBB 5 , pp .331/4 /6 -332/1 /1 :

rgya nag mkhan po na re I 'khor bar skye ba'i rgyurang ngo rang gis ma shes pas Ian I rang ngo rang gisshes na 'tshang rgya I de'i phyir sems ngo 'phrod nadkar po chig thub yin I. . . zer nas IApart f rom the preamble of th i s passage , "The Chinese abbot ,a l leging 4 . . . ," N ya ng ral (M eisezahl 198 5: fol. 42 5, Ta fel 287 )reads vir tual ly the same:


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T H E "B SA M YA S D E B A T E " 149'khor bar skye ba'i rgyu I rang ngo rang gi ma shespas Ian I rang ngo shes nas rtogs na sangs rgya I de'iphyir sems ngo 'phrod dgos I de ngo shes na dkar pochig thub yin I

In the TGRG p . 24 /44/6 we have:. . . rgya nag gi dge slong na re I tshig la snying pomed tha snyad kyi chos kyis 'tshang mi rgya semsrtogs na dkar po chig thub yin zer I

And, on p. 25/3/6 Sa pan refers to some "later scholarly 'dge ba'ibshes gnyen mam s'" w h o a l l e g e d t h a t :

. . . sems ngo 'phrod pas sangs rgya bar 'dod pa dkar pochig thub du 'gro ba'i rgyu m tshan de yin gsung I

Each of these three texts , af ter having out l ined the sal ient features of the Chinese doctr ine, then proceed to g ive a l i s t ing off ive works which the Chinese abbot and/or monk had wri t ten .T o som e ex ten t these have been iden t if i ed in Karm ay (1975:153)an d K im ura (19 81:186-187 ) . S t r ik ing is the nu m be r o f "buzzwords" used in these character isat ions; such terms as rang ngo,sems ngo 'phrod, a n d rtogs are " loaded" wi th speci f ic connotat ionsfound especial ly in the Rnying ma pa rdzogs chen t radi t ion aswell as in certain mahdmudrd teachings of the Dwags po Bka 'brg yu d pa schools an d sects . Also notew orthy is the l inkageeffected between the "whi te panacea" and the teachings of theChinese, a l inkage first found in Nyang raPs text . As far as Iam aware , the express ion "dkar po chig thub" is only to be metwi th in the Tibetan medical l i terature and in ear ly Dwags poBka' brgyud pa texts . As for the former, modern dict ionariesindicate i t to denote renshen (ginseng), or the root of the Panaxg i n s e n g .5 Th is seems to ref lect a la ter de ve lop m en t of the sem ant ic range of th is express ion, for the Rgyud bzhi coun t s i t amongthe "un m el tab le ' s tones ' " an d i t is co m m en ted up on as such bySde sr id Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho in h is famous Vai4urya sngonpo.6 Other T ibe tan mater ia medica t ex t s p rov ide d i f fe ren t ident ificat ions7 and the g rea t fo rerunner o f the Zur- t rad i t ion o fTibe tan medic ine , Mnyam nyid rdo r j e (1439-1475) has even


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150 J I A B S V O L . 9 N 0 . 2wri t ten a "history" (lo rgyus) of the dkar po chig thub in his celeb ra ted Bye ba ring bsrel (Leh , 1975, 1977) . Interes t ingly , M nyamnyid rdo r je conn ects th e dkarpo chig thub d ru g with the o therw iseunknown Nepalese physic ia l Haka , suggest ing thereby tha t i t sor igin should be sought in Nepal . As far as I am aware, Nepalis not t radi t ional ly associated with the production of Panax ginsen g; the ot he r species of Panax kn ow n to m e is the Pa naxquinqu efo l ius fo und in N or th A m er ica . I t seems therefo re tha t ,broadly speaking, we wil l have to dist inguish between at leasttwo possible referents of "dkar po chig thub" an Indo -Nepa l i -T ibe tan one and a S ino -T ibe tan on e .

As I a l ready ment ioned , "dkarpo chig thub" is found am on gthe ear ly wri t ings of the Dwags po Bka ' brgyud pa masters . BothSgam po pa bsod nams r in chen (1079-1153) 1 0 and Zhang g .yu .bra g pa m ak e use of i t w he n i l lustrat ing the ir mahdmudrdtheor ies. Par t icular ly in Sgam po pa 's oeuvre, medical terminology is of ten res or te d to w hen he descr ibes cer ta in doctr in alposi t ions in a m eta ph ori c way. A n excel lent topic for futu reresearch would be a s tudy of such medical metaphors in l ightof the fact the Sg am po p a, alias Dw ags po lha rje, was a p hysiciano f some r epu te .Besides these terminological paral le ls between Nyang ral 'saccou nt and the T G R G p assage , the re is a l so o th er ev idencewhich, i f i t does not point to a direct dependence of Sa pan onthe former , a t least does not rule out the existence of an evenear l ie r common source . In bo th tex ts (TGRG p . 25 /2 /2-3 andM eisezahl 1985 : fol. 432 a-b) rep ort s that Kam alasl la a rg ue dagainst the validity of these il lustrations as well as against thesubstance of the Chinese a rgument , a l leg ing tha t "no t on ly i syour example false , but the substance (of your argument) is a lsoe r r o n e o u s . " (khyed kyi dpe nor bar ma zad I don yang 'khrul te . .) .T h e exac t w ord in g is a lso rep ro du ce d in the TG R G p . 25 /2 /4-5 .These and similar instances, which could be mult ip l ied ad infinitum, leave no doubt tha t Sa pan was s imply t ransmit t ing areceived tradi t ion and that he was by no means i ts or iginator .Of course , Nyang ra l does no t connect the dkar po chig thubnotion of the Ch ine se with his Dw ags po Bka* brg yu d pa co nte m porar ies as Sa pan has done . This would , however , no t appeari l legi t imate since the D wags po B ka ' brg yu d pa did m ak e use of it .

Sa pap lists his sources for his account of the "Bsam yas


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THE "BSAM YAS DEBATE" 151deba t e" a t TGRG p . 25 /3 /6 -4 /2 .1 2 There he re fers to "ano thertes tament , " the Rgyal bzhed, Dba' hiked (sic), and the 'Ba'-bzhed(sic).1 3 Van der Kui jp (1985a: appendix , o r ig ina l ly submi t tedin 1982) has dealt with the various quotat ions of the Sba bshedin the la ter Tibetan his tor ical l i terature , and there seems l i t t lepoint in reproducing those f indings here . Suff ice i t to say thatthe newly discovered curs ive sba bzhed manuscr ip t as ed i t ed inMgon po rgyal mtshan (1980: 72-75) contains a verbat im account of Sa pan 's TGRG which is pref ixed by the s ta tement" Fu r the rmore , acco rd ing t o one t r ad i t i on" (yang lugs gcig la).Abbrev ia ted vers ions of this account (and explici t ly ci ted fromth e "Sba bzhed") are also found in Spos khang pa r in chen rgyalmt s han ' s Sdom pa g sum gyi rab tu dbye ba'i gzhung lugs legs parbshad pa, Vol . 2 (Thimphu , 1979) , p . 295 which was comple tedin 1423 (water-female-hare) , and in Dpa ' bo gtsug lag 's Mkhaspa'i dga' ston. This would seem to indicate that the associat ionof dkar po chig thub with the Chinese goes back to pre-phyi darTib etan l i t e ra tu re , an d tha t there jus t migh t be som e subs tanceto Sa pan 's l inkage of some of the Dwags po Bka ' brgyud-padoct r ines wi th those p romulga ted by the Chinese in e igh th century Tibet . In this connection, i t wil l be essential to try andascertain the exact referents of "dkarpo chig thub" as one cannotof course a priori exclude the good possibi l i ty that i t was theterminological ambigui ty of "dkar po chig thub" which led to Sapan 's associat ion. I t ma y thu s very well tu rn o ut that the refe ren tof the "dkarpo chig thub" used by the Dwags po Bka ' brgyud pawas qu i te d i fferent f rom that of the C hin ese .

BIBLIOGRAPHIC ABBREVIATIONSDargyay, E. (1979), The Rise of Esoteric Buddhism in Tibet, New Delhi: MotilalBanarsidass.Dung dkar bio bzang 'phrin las (1981), Deb ther dmar po, Ed. comm., Beijing:People's Publishing House.Jackson, D. (1983), "Notes on Two Early Printed Editions of Sa-skya-paWorks", The Tibet Journal 8 (2), pp. 3-24.Jackson, D. (1983a), "Commentaries on the Writings of Sa-skya Pandita: A

Bibliographic Sketch", The Tibetan Journal 8 (3), pp. 3-23.Jackson , R. (1982), "Sa-skya pancjita's A ccount of the bSam yas Deb ate: Historyas Polemic", The Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies5 (2), pp. 89-99.Karmay, S. (1975), "A Discussion on the Doctrinal Position of Rdzogs-chen from


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152 J I A B S V O L . 9 N Q . 2the 10th to the 13th Centuries", Journal asiatique 263 (1), pp. 147-156.

Kimura, R. (1981) , "Le dhyana chinois au t ibet ancien", Journal asiatique, 2 69(1), pp . 181-192.

van der Kuijp, L.VV.J. (1985), "Some Recently Recovered Sa-skya-pa Texts,A Prelim inary Report" ' ,Journal ofthe Nepal\ Research Centre 7, pp . 87-94 .van der Kuijp , L.W.J. (1985a) , "Miscellanea to a Recent Contr ibution on / tothe Bsam-yas Debate", Kailash 10 (?).

Meisezahl, R. (1985), Die Grosse Geschichte des tibetischen Budd hismus nach alterTradition, Sankt Augustin: VGH Wissenschaftsver lag.

Mgon po rgyal mtshan (1980) , ed. Sba bzhed, Beij ing: People 's PublishingH o u s e .

Roerich, G. (1979) , The Blue Annah, New Delhi: Moti lal Banarsidass.SSBB .S' skya bka' 'bum, Sde dge ed i t ion , comp. Bsod nams rgya mtsho , 15

Vols., Tokyo: The Toyo Bunko , 1968-69 .TGRB Sa skya Pandita Kun dga ' rgyal rntshan, Thub pa'i dg ongs pa rab tu gsal

ba, SSB B 5, pp . Iff.Tshe tan Zhabs d rung (1982) , Bstan rlsis kun las btm p a, Xining : Qinghai

People ' s Publ ish ing House .

N O T E S1. For the available pr ints of , and commentar ies to , th is text , see D.Jack so n (1983 : 6-7) and (1983a: 4-5) ; for an addit ional commentary and a

cursive dbu med manuscript , see van der Kuijp (1985: 88-89) .2. On him and his life, see Dung dkar Bio bzang ' phrin las (19 8 1 : 126

H., 445 ff.) , where he gives the alternative birth-date of 1 122. He also mentionsthat Tshal pa kun dga ' rdo r je (1309-1364) had writ ten his biography, butthat i t was not available to him. See, fur thermore, Roerich (1979: 711-715)and 'Gos lo tsa-ba's Deb ther sngon po, Smad cha , Chengdu: Sechuan People ' sPubl ish ing House , 1985 , pp . 832-836 .

3. I am inclined to accept the latter dates as several of his biographiesassociate him with Sakyasr ibhadra who, having come to Tibet in 1204, apparently took par t in the ceremonies for Nyang ral 's funeral ; see Dargyay(1979:101) .

4. Despite recent reports to the contrary, I th ink i t necessary to emphasize that Sa pan never associates Hwa shang Mahayana with the actual"debates". A complete l is t ing of references to Sa Pan 's notes on Chinese Buddhism a nd Bu ddhis ts is provid ed in van de r Kuijp (19 85a :note 16).

5. See, for instance, the Rgya bod ming mdzod, Lanzhou: Gansu People ' sPub lishing H ou se, 1979, p . 23 . I t is, how ever , not l is ted in Y.N. R oerich 's'Tibetan-Russian-English Dictionary with Sanskrit Parallels, Issue 1, Moscow:N auka P ublishers, 1983, p . 95 .

6. See his Gso ba rig pa'i bstan bcos stnan b la'i dgongs rgyan rgyud bzhi'igsal byed vaidfirya sngon mallika, Stod cha, Lhasa: Tibetan People 's PublishingHouse, 1982 (Sde dge edit ion) , p . 255. This passage consists of his comment


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T H E ' B S A M Y A S D E B A T E " 15 3to the Rgyud bzhi, Bsfiad rgyud, chapter twenty , Lhasa: Tibetan People ' s Publ ishing House, 1982 (Sde dge edi t ion) , p . 67: dkar po sbal rgyab dkar po chig thubdang 11 smug po chig thub la sags de dang 'dra / / . A garb led (?) versio n of the setwo lines is found in Yuthok's Treatise on Tibetan Medicine, ed. L. Chandra , NewDelhi, 1968, p. 290 in the Ming dan brda sprod rnam Inga which omits dkar pochig thubl The verse of the Rgyud bzhi i s reproduced in Di l dmar dge bshesbs tan 'dzin phun tshogs ' Bdud rtsi sman gyi rnam dbye ngo bo nus pa ming rgyaspar bshad pa dri m ed shel phreng, Le h, 1983, p. 75. He glosses dkar po chig thubby "a whi te spear-head" {dkar po mdung rtse). According to Tshe tan zhabsdr un g (1982 :276) , Dil dm ar dge bshes com pleted th is work in 1840.

7. See, for instance, the recent Gso rig snying bsdus skya rengs gsar pa,Lhasa: Tibe tan People ' s Publ ish ing H ous e, 1974, pp . 194-195 and Dil dm ardge bshes ' tex t ( see above note 6) pp . 257-258. Note too that ' Jam dpal rdorje in An Illustrated Tibeto-Mongolian Materia M edica of Ayurveda, e d . L . C h a n d r a ,New De lhi, 19 71 , p . 146 also lists dkar po chig thub under the head ing o f"potion" {thang sman) and remarks on the diff iculty of es tablishing i ts preciseident i f ica t ion . This should be a mat ter of concern as he evinces a thoroughknowledge o f the t r ad i t iona l r eper to i r e o f Ch inese d rugs .

8 . T his work is , how ever , not avai lable to m e. T h e inform at ion g ivenhere is based on a chapter of this text which enjoyed separate circulation inthe mountainous regions of nor thern Nepal . I t bears the t i t le of Sman dkargyi lo rgyus . . . . Zur mkhar ba'i khyad chos, consists of two folia, and was filmedby my f r i end Chr . Cupper s o f the Nepa l -German Manuscr ip t P rese rva t ionProject .

9 . An admi t ted ly cu r so ry pe rusa l o f s evera l Dunhuang manuscr ip t sdealing with medicine has thus far not yielded the term dkar po chig thub.

10. See, for instance, the Rje phag mo gru pa'i dris Ian in The CollectedWorks of Sgam po pa bsod nams rin chen, Vol. 1 , New Delhi, 1975, p. 472.

11. I t occurs in his highly provocative Phyag rgya chen po'i lam mchogtnthar thug in the Gdams ngag mdzod, ed. Kong sprul b io gros mtha ' yas , Vol .V, New Delhi, 197 1, p. 76 9. Late r Sa skya pa scho larsh ip has identif ied thistext as one of the sources for Sa skya Pandita 's cr i t ical remarks in his Sdomgsum rab dbye.

12. Jacks on (1982:93) has om it ted the 'Ba bzhed (sic) from his translation.T he TG RG p . 25 /4 /1 r eads : . . .'dir yi ge mangs pas ma bris te I which Jacksonre nd er s as ". . . (but) s ince I hav e alre ady deta iled m uc h of this , I will w riteno more ." I th ink th is should be unders tood somewhat d i f ferent ly . In th ispassage, Sa pan comments on several o ther sources for the af termath of the"deba te" and dec l ines to r ep rod uce the i r r ead ings . Hence , I und er s ta nd th iss tate m en t to m ea n: " . . . s ince i t wo uld g et too wo rdy h er e ( in my acc oun t) , Ihave not wr i t ten (about them in deta i l ) . "

13. T h e Skyes bu dam pa rnams la spring ba'i yi ge, SSBB 5, p. 332/1/4 adds"chronic les" (lo rgyus rnams) to his l is t of source s for his vers ion of th e "de bat e",and provides bet ter readings for the three Bzhed-s: Rgyal bzhed, Dpa' bzhed (sic),an d 'Bangs bzhed.

On the Sources for Sa skya Panṇḍita's Notes on the Bsam yas Debate

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