[eBook] Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche -- The Mahayana Councils and the Sutras, Tantras and Shastras (Buddhism, English).pdf

The Mahayana Councils

and the Sutras, Tantras

and Shastras

How the Bodhisattvas authentically

preserved the Buddha's Teachings

by Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche

This history of the three councils actually relates more directly to the way in

which the Hinayana teachings were preserved, particularly, the hinayana

tradition of the Vinaya.

But a similar councils occurred in the Mahayana tradition. Some time after

the passing away of the Buddha, one million bodhisattvas met together

under the leadership of the three great bodhisattvas Vajrapani, Maitreya

and Manjushri on the top of mount Vimalasvabhava, which lies south of

Rajagriha in southern India.

All the teachings of the Buddha were also collected in the three same

sections of Sutras, Vinaya, and Abhidharma. The bodhisattva Vajrapani

recited the Sutras. The bodhisattva Maitreya recited the Vinaya, and the

bodhisattva Manjushri recited the Abhidharma. So in this meeting they also

collected all the teachings of the Buddha and classified them into these

three main categories.

A similar thing took place with the Vajrayana teachings. The Buddha taught

four categories of tantras: the kriya tantra, the carya tantra, yoga tantra,

and anuttarayoga tantra.

With the lower three tantras, i. e. the kriya tantra, the carya tantra, and

yoga tantras there was a special meeting of all the bodhisattvas in the god

realm to gather all of these teachings led by Vajrapani. For this reason, in

the vajrayana tradition he is known as “the Lord of Secrets,” with secrets

referring to the secret mantra, that is, the vajrayana. How did he come to

be the Lord of Secrets? First he was the one who requested the Buddha to

turn the profound Dharma wheel of the tantras and then when it was

turned, he was the most prominent of the disciples. Later when there was

this meeting of all the bodhisattvas to collect all the lower tantras, Vajrapani

was the leader of this gathering and it is through his action that the tantras

have been preserved up to now.

As far as the anuttarayoga tantras, the father tantras and mother tantras

were mostly requested and received by dakinis such as Vajrayogini, and it

was also the wisdom dakinis who collected and preserved these teachings.

The Hevajra Tantra was transmitted mostly to the bodhisattva Vajragarbha.

He later on gathered the teaching and transmitted them in their integrity.

The Kalachakra Tantra was transmitted mostly to the Dharma King

Sucandra. He was actually an emanation of Manjushri. He was the one

who also kept the teaching, collected them, and passed them on.

What follows is an explanation of the Sutras, Tantras and Shastras.

The Sutras

Now the first turning of teachings were given in Varanasi which you can

visit in India nowadays. The Buddha taught in the deer park (which is now

called Sarnath) which at the time was a very remote and very solitary

place.9 After the Buddha reached his enlightenment, he remained

completely silent and didn’t teach for seven weeks. The reason for this was

to show that the Dharma is very rare, very special, very valuable, and this

is why the Buddha just remained silent for some time and until he was

requested to teach. The request was made by many gods including

Brahma.10 Having had the request to teach, the Buddha went to Varanasi

and gave the teachings in the deer park. He gave the teachings to five men

who were called “the five good followers” who were connected by previous

karma to the Buddha and who through this link, were the first ones to

receive his teaching.

The subject matter of this first turning of the wheel of Dharma was the

teaching of the Four Noble Truths. The Buddha expounding these Four

Noble Truths to make it very clear to all those who were going to follow the

Buddha’s path what the teaching was, why one needed to practice it, and

what kind of results one could be expected from the practice. So to clarify

the path the Buddha laid it out in a very clear form of the four truths.

He showed that if we don’t practice the path of Dharma, we will wander on

and on in samsara, but if we practice the Dharma, we will gain the

liberation of nirvana. The Buddha first taught that suffering is inherent to

samsara and that this is what we must really overcome. Secondly, he

taught that the cause of this suffering are the disturbing emotions or

kleshas and karma. To counteract samsara we must engage in the aspect

of nirvana which again has two parts. The third noble truth of cessation or

peace shows what we can achieve. Nirvana is cessation of suffering. And

fourth the way to achieve this is the truth of the path.

Since samsara is by nature suffering, we have to go beyond samsara to

eliminate samsara. Since nirvana is peace, this is what we have to try to

achieve. But achieving nirvana and eliminating samsara can not be done

automatically. So it is done through working on the causes of these that we

can achieve our goal. This is why the Buddha expounded on the four truths

in the form of causes and their effects. The causes of the suffering of

samsara are the disturbing emotions such as lust, anger, and ignorance

and karma which need to be overcome. In the same way, the cause of

peace and bliss of nirvana is the path which needs to be practiced.

So this is how the Buddha gave the whole outline of his teaching in the

form of these four truths. Within each aspect of samsara and nirvana, there

is this causal relationship between cause and effect. This series of

teachings which began in Varanasi were called the turning of the first wheel

of dharma.

Later the Buddha taught the second wheel of Dharma at Vulture Peak in

Rajagriha, India.12 The people who were present during this teaching were

arhats and bodhisattvas in great numbers. The teaching itself was mostly

the exposition of the Prajnaparamita. This is when the Buddha gave the

teachings on emptiness and on the conduct of a bodhisattva through the

teachings on the six paramitas.

In the first turning of the wheel of Dharma, the Buddha showed that one

had to abandon samsara to achieve nirvana. But how is this possible?

Does it mean that we have to go on a long journey to where we have never

been before to find nirvana? Does it mean that we have to create

something new called nirvana? In fact, it doesn’t mean that at all. All it

means is that we have to understand the actual nature of phenomena13

that we have to understand that our present view of reality is mistaken, and

we have to remove our impurities. And once we see things as they really

are, this is when we can achieve Buddhahood.

The third turning of the wheel of Dharma is also called the teachings that

gave complete clari-fication. These teachings were given in Shravasti and

other places in India in the presence of all the great bodhisattvas. These

teaching revealed that Buddha-nature is present in the mind of all beings.

We may wonder why this was taught last. The reason is that in the second

turning, the Buddha taught that everything was empty of inherent nature.

This teaching could lead to the belief that the goal of the Buddhist path—

nirvana—is actually simply complete emptiness or annihilation. To avoid

this mistake, the Buddha gave this third set of teachings showing that the

mind is not just nothingness. When one achieves Buddhahood, the original

intrinsic luminosity of the mind becomes manifest. This luminosity or clarity

of the mind means that the mind is not a dark, obscure thing by nature, but

it has its own inherent, intelligent clarity. Once one has removed the veils,

the thick shroud of ignorance, the inherent clarity of the mind, this brilliance

of the intelligence of mind, will shine in its fullness. Once this clarity of the

mind has manifest, then one can understand all things of nirvana and

samsara very clearly. One has the understanding of phenomena and this

knowledge is accompanied by the greatest of bliss and peace.

The Tantras

The three turnings of the wheel of Dharma that have just been described

correspond to the sutras taught of the Buddha. The Buddha also taught the

tantras which are the teachings of the vajrayana. The Buddha gave four

tantras: the kriya tantras, the carya tantras, the yoga tantras, and the

anuttarayoga tantras.

These teachings were given in many places. Sometimes the Buddha gave

these teachings in some of the god realms such as Tushita and some of

the teachings were given in physical places in India. Those receiving these

teachings were bodhisattvas and dakas and dakinis practicing the secret

mantas. The sutras already provided very deep and vast teachings on the

nature of phenomena. But with the vajrayana, the Buddha was able to give

people the possibility to achieve the fruition of the Buddhist path very

quickly and without major hardships. The vajrayana can do this by

providing special skillful means such as the meditation on the generation

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