Modern
Buddhism: The Path of Compassion and Wisdom
(By Geshe Kelsang Gyatso)
From the depth of the heart of Buddhism to the
profoundness of the enormous knowledge and spiritual guidance granted to
humankind by the modern approaches meant for the handling of the various sinful
encounters of our today’s cruel world, comes the book written by Geshe Kelsang
Gyatso which is entitled Modern Buddhism: The Path of Compassion and
Wisdom. Geshe Kelsang Gyatso’s book brightens the skies of our dawns
and dusks. It illuminates all that is needed to be conveyed to the modern world
with such passion and devotion from its written plot, which by itself is only
indebted to the sacred knowledge given to us by Buddha Shakyamuni (or,
originally known as Prince Gautama Siddhartha Shakya).
Geshe Kelsang Gyatso has two basic pillars from which
he derives his teachings in this book of his. These are SUTRA and TANTRA. The
main functions and true purposes of the teachings of Buddha Shakyamuni is
bestow mental peace and give blessings to all living beings—these serve as the
main causes to practise Kadam Lamrim.
Kadam Lamrim is the main root of the Sutra which is the union of the
teachings of Buddha Shakyamuni (Prince Gautama Siddhartha Shakya) and Atisha
(Birth name: Chandragarbha; Year: AD 982). Tantra (or, well-known as the secret
mantras) is also dictated and well-explained as per having been the chosen
pathway of Atisha who widespread Kadam
Lamrim through the might empowered over his blessed being by another
Spiritual Guide, Rahulagupta. Atisha has widespread Kadam Lamrim while having taken three major scopes as the means to
instruct his teachings.
Kadam Lamrim’s three stages of
instructions are no other than the following:
- The
instructions on the stages of the path of a person of initial scope;
- The instructions on the stages of the path of a person of middling scope;
- The instructions on the stages of the path of a person of great scope
While presenting such a pattern of the three sub-roots
of Kadam Lamrim (the stages of the Path of Enlightenment) towards the
eventual inclusions of Sutra and Tantra as the basis and fundamental
foundations of his book, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso targets the origins and natures
of our sufferings and miseries in the world we live in. Instead, the
instructions given state that all our miseries and sufferings are born at the
time we have our own natural human birth. Our prized possessions and prized
owning can not free us from the miseries and sufferings that will eventually
lead to a deadly encounter. The fear of death, as we call it, is the source of
all our miseries. The distress and pain encountered at the time of death and
the fact that the consciousness of the departure from our body at death, are
continuously giving rise to our accumulated virtuous and non-virtuous actions;
will always deceive us from countless painful situations and truly separate us
from our spiritual body to our spiritual ‘spirit’. Thus, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso
instructs his readers that by meditating on Death, we engage in the following
contemplation, “I may die today”; then, “Since I shall soon have to depart from
this world, there is no sense in my becoming attached to things in life.
Instead, from now on I will devote my whole life to practising Dharma purely
and sincerely.” (p. 31)
Geshe Kelsang Gyatso has very concisely put together
the motive behind this book of his: he wishes to promote the seeking of refuge
in the teachings of The Buddha through the waves of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Through meditation and by
meditating on the immense meanings of wisdom and non-ignorance, the fear of Death
and the solution to dissolving the realistic significations of the latter will
all result into making Buddha, Dharma and Sangha as the perfect protective means that will dissociate us from
such a dangerous happening—a happening which is nothing but mere reality to all
living entities.
The Yoga Sutra
and Yoga Tantra (or, Tantric Yoga)
are simply guides walking with us along the pathway of spiritual knowledge via
the medium which is taught to us through the art of creating compassion and
wisdom into our self (inner-self and outer-self). From our inner-self (our
inhalation, our senses, our inner organs and our mindful spiritual self) to our
outer-self (our speeches, our exhalation, our actions, our encounters, our
intentions and our influences), both Sutra
and Tantra appeal to us being
humongous and truly expressible as blessings in the ways they portray
themselves. Sutra is the direct connection
between the teachings from the spiritual guides to the spiritual apprentices—it
bonds and creates a very firm link between the master and the student (the one who
is learning to become enlightened); whereas, Tantra is the series of Mantras (or, secret mantras) which endorses
and reinforces what the connection between the spiritual master and spiritual
learner is truly worthy of. To reinstate harmony and maintain peace, and to promote
the wisdom of compassion in the relationships between human beings; Kadam Lamrim is taught to inspire one in
the realization of Boddhichitta. Kadam Lamrim (one of the flourished
instructions forming part of the teachings of the Buddha, Buddhadharma). Geshe Kelsang Gyatso focuses very deeply and very
profoundly on, and he explains the significant values of The Sutra and The Tantra. By explaining why and what are the real significances that
underlie these two notations, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso is able to bring light to
this book of his while stressing on its purpose of being entitled Modern
Buddhism: The Path of Compassion and Wisdom.
Modern Buddhism: The Path of Compassion and
Wisdom is
a very symbolic and meaningful book which has many such historical, spiritual
and enlightening facades of the pathways that lead to liberation from the ideal
of Death while it addresses that this latter ideal is neither terminal nor is it the
end result of our spiritual self. Modern Buddhism: The Path of Compassion and
Wisdom attaches many values and much profound meanings to the idea of why
our human body is so much tied to the universal and spiritual world. Thus, Modern
Buddhism: The Path of Compassion and Wisdom undoubtedly attempts to free
us from all sufferings and desperation, should the detachment from the
non-virtuous and material world be taken into account.
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