Thursday, June 06, 2024

Women Disciples of Padampa: Very Early Ladakhi Zhijé Fragments from Matho

 

Matho manuscript fragment W1BL9 v314

It’s been two decades since that essay about early Tibetan women religious leaders entitled “The Woman Illusion?” The book is nowhere near being closed on this subject. But we can confidently start off where that essay concludes: Nowhere are more 12th-century women’s life stories told than in the immediate circle of Padampa and the early Zhijé school. This wasn’t only due to Padampa’s open attitude,* but perhaps even more to his Tibetan disciple Kunga, the one responsible for all or at least most of the relevant literary collections. Kunga was the one who, quite literally, took note and, well, took notes.**

(*I suppose this may have something to do with the fact that a lot of Padampa’s mentors while he was in India were women, and those same Indian women’s teachings feature prominently in the collections. Another factor to consider, since hardly any women in Tibetan history received full Bhikṣuṇī ordination as nuns, and since most streams of the established schools had little or nothing in the way of lay leadership, laywomen were in a similar, if somewhat worse situation as laymen. Padampa and his early Zhijé followers as well as the early Kagyü openly encouraged serious lay participation at every level of Buddhist endeavor. **Kunga took notes on bits and pieces of paper that he tied up in bags and hung from the ceiling, much as bags of salt might be hung to avoid damaging moisture. But more explorations into the process that led up to the Zhijé Collection as we know it another time. I find it fascinating, frankly.)

To introduce a few more threads before attempting to spin them together: In an earlier blog called “Alchi Padampa’s Meaning,” we considered in what ways Ladakh might be connected with Padampa and the early Zhijé tradition. Apart from artistic depictions that suggest Padampa’s special importance to Kagyu Ladakhis in the past, I admit I’ve hardly noticed anything. Even in the Alchi depiction, just to point out my best example, it seems (or rather seemed at the time) best explained as an esoteric Shangpa Kagyu visualization practice, and not anything pertaining to Zhijé traditions directly.

But all that has changed, and with unexpected speed. We now have evidence to show that Zhijé was much more important in Ladakh than has been thought, at least back in the 12th century. We can even state with confidence that local Ladakhi Zhijé practice is by itself sufficient to explain those uniquely Ladakhi depictions of Padampa holding a cane flute (see this recent blog for more).

Thanks to the Matho fragments, we have pre-1200 CE textual fragments taken from chortens that had been disassembled, their content now preserved for us in a monastic museum. You may be thinking I’ve recently traveled to Ladakh, otherwise how could I know this? Well, it can’t possibly be true, but still I sometimes imagine I am the only one who checks the weekly “recent acquisitions” list in BUDA website of new scans posted there.

The website and Tauscher’s essay agree that those no-longer-to-be-seen chortens in the vicinity of Matho were closed at the end of the 12th century (or possibly as late as two decades into the 13th, but really, no later than that), and in my judgement the couple of fragments that hold our attention today are no exception. More fragments with other revelations will figure in future blogs, but today we’ll focus on a few in particular.

The first you can see floating in the sky above the mountains in our frontispiece. If you are like me, you will notice the proper names, and your first idea might be that this is the relatively well-known set of Padampa’s women disciples’ life stories (in English in the Blue Annals, and in Italian in Gianotti’s book). This is not entirely wrong. But on closer inspection there is at least one thing very distinctive about it. It has not only brief sets of facts about their lives, usually limited to a line or two in the text, but many more lines record a master-disciple interview in which the disciple states a problem or asks a question, and Padampa in his inimitably elliptic and even cryptic way, answers her with answers that raise all kinds of robust and healthy questions for us 21st-century interpreters. These aren’t exactly the same as the encounter dialogues of early Chan/Zen. On the other hand, they aren’t entirely different. We should at least be prepared to reflect on them with an open mind.

I see no sign that these interviews were in any way public, although I suspect Kunga was present as a third participant. I think this is suggested by his words in the colophon. In any case his presence was often required because even if Padampa said what he said laconically and in Tibetan language, his poetically metaphoric/parabolic and spiritually symbolic expressions always required some unpacking. Although overstated, it could in some degree be true what is sometimes said, that Kunga was the only one who understood those symbolic expressions. And just because his presence as an interpreter was needed, it put him in a perfect position to record his sayings for posterity, and that is why we have the good fortune to be able to ponder them today.

Last year, when I first saw these Matho fragments of the teachings for women, I was troubled that they seemed to be unique in combining the precepts with the life stories. The Zhijé Collection has two titles involving three separate texts entirely devoted to women, two of them collections of precepts, the third a collection of life stories.* It is only this last mentioned text, the one with the life stories, that has been published about.

(*The first might be given the title Thun-tshags-kyi Dum-bu, or Interspersed Bits and Pieces, based on words found in the colophon, even though the real title would be the one that is entirely invisible in the published version: Dmug-po Mchong-gi Skor, or Maroon Carnelian Cycle. This is found in ZC, vol. 2, pp. 440-460. The other set of precepts is found under the title Jo-mo Nyi-shu-rtsa-bzhi’i Zhu-lan Lo-rgyus dang bcas-pa in at ZC, vol. 4, pp. 302-313. The collected biography follows at ZC, vol. 4, pp. 314-323. This last served as the basis for the passage in Blue Annals, pp. 915-920, although as we’ll see the Blue Annals is often severely abridged. See the example of Jomo Penmo, below, for further clarification. I’ve neglected the Maroon Carnelian for now, and may return to it another time.)

It seems like only yesterday that I first knew of any text, whether fragmentary or whole, that agreed with the Matho fragments in combining precepts with life stories. I located this largely parallel text in ZCK (see below for details). In my excitement which I can only hope some other people will share, I made a comparison of the two texts to try to understand better how things stand. This non-fragmented text was put up on the internet just a few years ago. In the appendix (see below) the Matho fragment is given primacy in large Tibetan letters, while the text found in ZCK is in smaller-sized Romanization.

If you are pressed for time, and the Tibetan-language text doesn’t hold attractions for you, have a look at the rough English translations, all in green font, in the appendix below. The study of the Zhijé fragments of Matho is only one of several large avenues that have opened up recently. They could lead beyond all their complications and details to a broadening of our horizons when it comes to the subject of enlightened women and their recognition as saints, as part of a better understood history of their 12th-century situations.


*   *   *


Written resonance

For an introductory account of the Matho fragments see a recent Tibeto-logic blog: The Only Terma among the Matho Termas

For the hurried handlist, look here.

Carla Gianotti, “Female Buddhist Adepts in the Tibetan Tradition: The Twenty-four Jo Mo, Disciples of Pha Dam Pa Sangs Rgyas,” Journal of Dharma Studies, vol. 2 (2019), pp. 15-29. Look here.

_____, Jo mo. Donne e realizzazione spirituale in Tibet, Ubaldini Editore (Rome 2020).

This contains an Italian-language translation of Kunga's collective biography of twenty-four women disciples of Padampa. The title that appears in the Zhijé Collection version reads: Jo-mo Nyi-shu-rtsa-bzhi’i Zhu-lan Lo-rgyus dang bcas-pa

_____, “The Lives of the Twenty-Four Jo-mos of the Buddhist Tradition: Identity and Religious Status,” contained in: Karma Lekshe Tsomo, ed., Contemporary Buddhist Women: Contemplation, Cultural Exchange, and Social Action, University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong 2017), pp. 238-244. 

Dan Martin, “The Woman Illusion? Research into the Lives of Spiritually Accomplished Women Leaders of the 11th and 12th Centuries,” contained in: Janet Gyatso and Hanna Havnevik, eds., Women in Tibet, Hurst & Co. (London 2005), pp. 49-82. A pre-published version is posted here.

Helmut Tauscher, “Manuscript Fragments from Matho: A Preliminary Report and Random Reflections,” Revue d'Etudes Tibetaines, vol. 51 (July 2019), pp. 337-378. Freely available online.

ZC — The Tradition of Pha Dampa Sangyas: A Treasured Collection of His Teachings Transmitted by Thugs-sras Kun-dga’, “reproduced from a unique collection of mss. preserved with ’Khrul-zhig Rinpoche of Tsa-rong Monastery in Ding-ri, edited with an English introduction to the tradition by B. Nimri Aziz,” Kunsang Tobgey (Thimphu 1979), in 5 volumes. It would be best to use the NGMPP photographed microfilm, and for details on it, you may look at this BUDA page about L/296/4.* Look at the illustration just below, the topmost text on the page, but also try seeing it in the 1979 "reprint" publication of the very same manuscript where it is entirely absent.

(*Or, to give the URL: http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/WA0NGMCP48027.)

 

ZC (film version) keyletter KHA, fol. 152 verso
(click to expand)

Several works of particular relevance to Padampa’s women disciples are contained in ZC, but the main one for present is the one at vol. 2, pp. 440-460. As we mentioned before, in the published volumes its title is not visible and must be restored from the NGMPP film version: Dmug-po Mchong-gi Skor. Although complete and detailed comparison remains to be done on how this Cycle of Maroon Carnelian differs from the Matho fragment and the work in ZCK

The other most important text devoted to Padampa’s women disciples is located in ZC, vol. 4, pp. 302-323, with the title Jo-mo Nyi-shu-rtsa-bzhi'i Zhu-lan Lor-rgyus dang bcas-pa.* It differs from the Matho fragment and the work in ZCK primarily in its different arrangement of the same or similar content. It supplies one set of precepts for women followed by a set of biographical sketches of the same women. The Matho and ZCK texts seem to be the only ones to combine the two into a single set.

(*Although this is not the place to list them all, there have by now been a number of republished versions of this. For instance:  Jo-mo Nyi-shu-rtsa-bzhi'i Zhu-lan Lo-rgyus dang bcas-pa, contained in:  Shug-gseb Rje-btsun-ma'i Gsung Rnam sogs, Gangs-can Skyes-ma'i Dpe-tshogs series no. 7, Si-khron Bod-yig Dpe-rnying Bsdu-sgrig-khang (Chengdu 2015), pp. 280-294. It is copyrighted and not made available, I have no print copy, and no straightforward way of ordering one.)

ZCK — This is my invented abbreviation for a one-volume manuscript set entitled Zhi-byed-kyi Chos-skor. It is unpublished, although posted by BDRC as a downloadable PDF (just place “W3CN25705” in the search box at the BDRC site). In today’s blog we only make use of its section with keyletter TSHA, a 7-folio collection of precepts for women with the title Gzhan-rkyen Jo-mo Nyi-shu-rtsa-lnga’i Zhus-lan, Answers to Questions of the Twenty-Five Jomo (for a discussion on the meaning of gzhan-rkyen, see below). 


+++  +++  +++  +++  +++


Appendices


Two of the Matho Fragments

Here and now two of the Matho fragments will be compared to the only known closely corresponding text. That means the one found in ZCK, a one-volume handwritten Zhijé set made available in scanned format by BDRC only in the year 2021 (it can be located using BDRC's call number W3CN25705).


The Content of Matho no. v314:

The first 4 fols.  actually have within them (at the end of the folio marked “48”) the colophon of the text of Padampa’s teachings to his women disciples, supplying the title Jo mo nyi shu rtsa bzhi la bsdams pa / Kun dgas yi ger bkod pa (“Precepts for the Twenty-Four Jomo, Set in Writing by Kunga”).  Now I believe this *is* the same as the biographies of the 24 Jomo, however the version represented in Matho fragments is different from those previously available (as found in ZC, in Blue Annals for examples), as each biography is preceded by a specific teaching Padampa gave to that woman disciple.  As the 2nd folio isn't presently relevant we will neglect it.  The 3rd folio marked fol. 42, is another folio from the same collection of teachings to Padampa's 24 women disciples.  (The 4th folio is just a repeat scan of fol. 48, as found in the 1st folio, just it is a little clearer to read.)


The Two Textual Witnesses for Comparison:

I’ve taken the two folios marked as “47” (from v249, where it also appears in a black-and-white and enlarged scan) and “48” (from v314) and transcribed their cursive into Tibetan block letters. I’ve extracted the corresponding passages from ZCK and transcribed them into Wylie transliterations, indented. I have for the time being neglected two other pages I’ve identified as belonging to the same text, folios 20 (from v324) and 42 (in both v246 and v314). For present purposes I have used the longest continuous piece of the text, and the one that includes its conclusion. Added notes (by the original author or by a later follower of the tradition, in either case dating no later than 1200 CE) are inserted in what I regard as an appropriate enough place using dark blue font color, while dark red font color is used for designations for the women (most are true proper names, but at least one is only descriptive). 


Nota bene!  I’ve made a beginning for a very tentative translation in green font color, and may revise it and add the other two folios as time goes by.*

(*This translation is based on whichever of the two versions makes better sense to me right now. I’m prepared to admit this is a problem, although I try, not always with success, to adhere to the Matho text.) 


Acknowledgement!  At one point I stopped and was unable to go further. I failed to make any sense at all of no. 19. It is only thanks to the help of Naljor Tsering that I could continue. It could not have been done without him. 


Apology!  I only supply this roughed out translation as a reference point for those who cannot despite their best efforts read Tibetan. Those who do read Tibetan with considerable ease are requested to ignore the English and limit themselves to enjoying, or struggling with, or enjoying the struggle with, the Tibetan. If I had started making philological discussions justifying each of my translation choices, there would be no end of it.




•18•

[47r from  duplicated scan in Matho v249] 

ཇོ་མོ་ཅན་མོ་ལ། དམ་པའི་ཞལ་ནས་། སྟོག་པ་མྱེད་པ་ལ་ནད་འདྲེ་ལ་ཉམ་ང་བྲག་ཚ་ཡོད་དེ་། སྟེ་།  ཚོགས་སོག་པ་ལ་དགའ་བྲོད་བྱེད་ཀྱིན་མཐའ་རུ་མྱི་འབོར་གྱིས་། 

[ZCK, fol. 6r.7] jo mo phan mos dam pa la zhus pas / rtog pa med pa la nyams nga ba [7r] bag tsha ba yod de / tshogs bsags pa la dka' na / longs spyod kyi mi 'bor gyis

When Jomo Penmo asked a question of Dampa, he said, “Those devoid of realization are possessed of weariness and shame [sickness and spirits]. If it is difficult to lay up stores of merit, don’t squander wealth and leisure.

སྨད་མ་ཁྱོད་ཚོ་། སྨད་ཀྱིས་ཅང་མ་ཉོ་བར་ཚེ་ཕྱི་མ་འི་ཆོས་དགོས་སམ་མྱི་དགོས སྣང་བ་ལྟོས་། རང་ལ་མ་སྟོད་། གཞན་ལ་མ་སྨོད་། ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་ལ་ཁའི་བྱ་སྐད་ངག་སྐུག་པར་སྡོད་ཅིག་མ་སྨ་བར་ཞོག་། བླ་མ་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་གསོལ་བ་སིངས་སིངས་ཐོབ་། ཕྱི་མའི་དོན་དེས་གྲུབ་ན་ཡོང་གསུང་ངོ་། 

smad ma 'tshong chang ma nyo / kha snang phyir phyir ma lta / rang la ma bstod / gzhan ma smad / ting nge 'dzin la ka'i bya sgro bzhag / gsol ba thobs / phyi ma'i don 'grub ste 'ong gsungs /

Don’t sell your loins, don’t buy beer. Have no regard for the superficial [for the sake of appearance]. Don’t praise yourself, and don’t put others down. Remain in meditative concentration, make birdcalls in space, don’t speak (live in silence). Make resounding prayers to the precious Lama. That will secure a better rebirth.”

ཇོ་མོས་དམ་པ་ལ་ཞུས་པ་། སྤྱད་རྒྱུ་ཚོགས་ལ་མྱེད་། དབུས་སུ་ཕྱིན་ན་ཡིད་དམ་དང་བྲལ་། དམ་པ་བདག་གིས་ཅི་ལྟར་བརྒྱི་ཞུས་པས་། 

phan mos zhus pa / spyod rgyu'i tshogs sogs nga la med / dbus na phyin / dam pa dang mjal / dam pa bdag gis ci ltar bgyis zhus pas /

Penmo addressed Padampa, “In the assembly I have nothing to do. If I go [back] to Central [Tibet] I will have no spiritual focus. Dampa, tell me what am I to do?”

དམ  དམ་པའི་ཞལ་ནས་བསླངས་ནས་ཟ་བ་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཡིན་། མྱི་ཟས་ཟ་བ་འཁོལ་པོ་ཡིན་། འཚོའ་བ་ནམ་ཀ་འི་དཀྱིལ་ནས་སྦྱོར་། དིང་རིའི་སྟོང་ན་མཛོད་ཡོད་། ཕྱག་འཚང་ཟུ་[?]མོ་ལ་འཁས་འགྲོ་སྡེ་བཞི་བྱེད་། གཟའ་དཔོན་དམ་པ་ཨ་ཙ་ར་ནག་པོ་བྱེད་། 

dam pa'i zhal nas / bslangs nas za ba rgyal po yin // mi zas za ba khol po yin // 'tsho ba namkha'i dkyil nas sbyor // mdzod ding ri gdong na yod // phyag tshang mkha' 'gro sde bzhi yod // gza' dpon nag po a tsa ra //    

Dampa said, “If you eat from a tureen, you're a king, but if you eat human fare you’re a slave. Prepare your meals from the center of space. In the empty place of Tingri is a storehouse. We have the four classes of skygoers as kitchen help. Our master chef is the black acharya Dampa.”

དེར་ཕན་མོས་འདུགས་པས་། ཟས་གོས་ཕྱིད་ཅིང་འདུགས་པས། ཡོན་ཏན་མང་པོ་ཤར་ནས་གྲོལ་ལོ་། ཇོ་མོ་ཕན་མོ་། ཡུལ་ཕན་ཡུལ་མ་། བླང་ཁོར་དུ་ལོ་བཅའ་བརྒྱད་བཞུགས། བླང་ཁོར་དུ་གྲོངས་སོ་།།  ༑  །།

der phan mos 'dug pas zas gos phyid cing / yon tan du ma shar ro // 

There Penmo remained, lived to her old age with sufficient food and clothing until she was finally liberated displaying various good qualities. Jomo Penmo was a native of Penyul, lived 18 years in Langkhor, and died in Langkhor.


•19•

ཇོ་མོ་རྗེ་འུ་ལ་། དམ་པའི་ཞལ་ནས་། ཁྱོད་རྒྱ་ཟོར་ཅིག་བསུངས་[~བརྡུངས་?]ལ་། རྩ་སྔ་རུ་བཏང་ངོ་། རྩ་གཤིན་མྱི་གཤིན་མྱེད་ཀྱིས་། གང་འདུག་ [47v] ཏུག་ཕྲད་དུ་སྦྲེག་ལ་ཤོག་ཅིག་། 

jo mo rje 'u la dam pa'i zhal nas / khyod rgya zer gcig brdung la rtsa rngar btang gsung / rtsa gshin mi gshin med kyis / thug gnyis snang gcod pa phrad breg la shog cig / 

Jomo Jeyu, Dampa said, “You are to forge a scythe and cut the grass.  No matter if it is thick or thin, whatever grass you encounter, mow it down!”

ཉོན་༷༷༷ [?] པ་ཐུག་སྤྲད་དུ་ཆོད  སྟ་ཁྲ་བོ་སྣང་བ་ཁྲོ་བོ་གང་ལ་ཡང་ཤེས་རབ་ཟས་སུ་ཟ་འོ་། ཁུ་རུ་དེ་སྙིང་གར་སེམས་ལ་ཁུར་ལ་ཤོག་ཅིག་གསུང་པ་། མོས་རྩ་མ་སྔས་པར་། བཅད་སྦྱོར་གྱི་སྣང་བ་ཐུག་ཕྲད་དུ་ཆོད་། སྣང་བ་ཆོས་ཉིད་དུ་སྦྱོར སྨན་ཅིག་བླ་མ་ལ་ཕུལ་བས་། བླ་མ་མོ་ལ་མཉེས་སྟེ་། 

rta khra bo shes rab za'o gang yang za'o // khur po snying khar khur la shog cig byas pas mos rtsa ma rngas bar / bcad sbyor gyi chos nyid rang la sbyor ba sman cig bla ma phul bas/ bla ma mnyes te 

The piebald horse (variegated phenomenon), regardless of what it is, eats it (insight has it for food).  For its heavy load bear the burden in the heart (in the mind).”  The woman didn’t go out to mow grass, but instead offered the Lama a prepared (the true nature of Dharmas compounded with itself) medicine. This pleased the Lama.

མོ་བརྡའ་དེས་གྲོལ་ནས་ སྣང་བ་ཏུག་ཕད་ལ་གཅོད་ཤེས་པ་ཅིག་བྱུང་ངོ་། ཇོ་མོ་རྗེ་འུ་མ་། ཡུལ་མྱེད་། བླ་འཁོར་དུ་ལོ་མང་དུ་བསྡད་། དམ་པས་གུང་ཐང་དུ་སྡོད་ཅིག་ལུང་བསྟན་། གུང་ཐང་རང་དུ་གྲོངས་སོ་། 

mos brda de khrol bas thug phrad gcod shes pa gcig byung ngo / 

She disentangled the meaning of the symbolic language, so she knew it meant to cut phenomenal appearances directly as they are encountered. Jomo Jeyuma had no home region, but she stayed many years in Langkhor. Once Dampa predicted, “You will stay in Gungtang,” so it was in Gungthang that she died.


•20•

ཇོ་མོ་འབར་མ་རོ་ཟན་མ་ལ་། དམ་པའི་ཞལ་ནས་། རི་འི་བུ་སྐྱེས་[illeg.]རི་དགས་ལྟར་དམན་བའི་ས་ཟུང་། འདོད་པ་ལྔ་སྤངས་ན་ཚོགས་རྫོགས་། བྱ་བ་བཏང་ན་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཆར་རེ་གསུངས་པས་། མོས་དེ་ལྟར་བྱས་པས་གྲོལ་ལོ་། ཇོ་མོ་འབར་མ་རོ་ཟན་མ་། ཡུལ་སྟམ་པ་མོ་། ་་་ས་[?]ནས་བླང་འཁོར་དུ་བསྡད་། གུ་ཐང་དུ་གྲོངས་སོ་།། ༑  །།

ro zan ma la lung bstan pa / ri'i bu gyis / dman pa'i sa zung / 'dod pa spangs nas tshogs rdzogs / bya ba btang nas ye shes 'char [ZCK 7r] gsung bas mo des grol /

To Barma Rozanma Dampa prophesied, “Be a child of the mountains, but (like the deer) keep a low profile. When you give up (the five) desires, the accumulations are complete, give up the busy life and Full Knowledge will appear.” Doing as he said the woman was liberated. Jomo Barma Rozanma was a woman of Tampa. Later she stayed in Langkhor. She died in Gungthang.


•21•

ཇོ་མོ་ཤངས་ཆུང་མ་ལ་དམ་པའི་ཞལ་ནས་།  ང་འི་སྦྲེ་གར་དུ་ཁྱོད་རང་ཅིག་པུ་་་[?]ཕེར་ན་གུད་དུ་ཤོག་། ཞ་ནག་པོ་ཕུད་ལ་ཤོག་། ང་འི་ལས་རྒྱ་བྱའོ་། ཁྱོད་དམ་ཚིག་དང་ལྡན་བ་དྲི་བཟང་པོ་བྱུག་ལ་ཤོག་ཅིག་། གོ་ཅ་བཟང་པོ་སྟན་མྱི་འགྱུར་པའི་གོན་ལ་ཤོག་ཅིག་། ལྷན་ཅིག་སྐྱེས་པའི་ལྟད་མོ་ཅིག་བསྟན་ནོ་གསུང་། མོ་བརྡའ་བདེའ་སྟོང་རྒྱུད་ལ་སྐྱེས དེ་གོ་བས་། ཤངས་ཆུང་མ་ནི་གྲོལ་ལོ་མཁས་སོ་གསུང་། མོ་དེ་ནས་གྲོལ་བ་ཅིག་བྱུང་ངོ་།། ཇོ་མོ་ཤངས་ཆུང་མ་། ཡུལ་ཤངས་པ་མོ་། གྲོངས་པ་ཆ་མྱེད་དོ་།། ༏ །།

shang chung ma la / bla mas gud du khrid de / nga'i skra dkar dkar ba'i chos nang du zha nag po sdig pa phud pa las rgya bya'o // dri bzang po tshul khrims dang byug la shog cig / go cha bzang po gon la shog cig / lhan cig skyes pa'i bltad mo bsten no // mos brda de go bas shangs chung ma grol lo mkhas so gsungs / mo dus de nas grol ba gcig byung ngo //

The Lama took Shangchungma aside and said to her, “Among these white hairs (virtuous Dharma) of mine there is a tuft of black hairs (sin). So be my Karmamudrā. When you come to me anoint yourself with fine scents (keeping the commitments). Dress yourself in fine armor (firm and unwavering) and come to me. Entertain me with a show of coemergence. The woman understood these symbolic expressions (bliss and emptiness united in her mind stream), and he said “Shangchungma is liberated, she is knowledgeable.” Then this woman turned out to be a liberated one after that.  Jomo Shangchungma was native to Shangpa Valley. Where she died we do not know.


•22•

[48r from Matho v314] 

ཇོ་མོ་ཞ་ཆུང་མས་དམ་པ་ལ་གདམ་ངག་ཅིག་ཞུ་འཚལ་བྱས་པས་། བར་ཆོད་ཁྲག་འཛག་པ་སེལ་། དབང་གི་ཡོན་བླ་མ་རྨ་ལ་ཕུལ་། རྐ་ཐུབ་ཚད་དུ་དམ་བཅའ་སྐྱོལ་བསྡམས་པས་ཐུན་བཞིར་སྲངས་ནས་ཐོན་། དེ་ལྟར་བྱས་ན་ཁྱོད་འབྲུག་གི་སྟ་ལ་ཞོན་ནས་སྒྲ་ཆེན་པོ་ཡོང། ནམ་ཀར་འགྲོ་བར་མཆིའ་སྟོང་ཉིད་དོན་རྟོགས་ནས་གསུང་ངོ་། དེ་ལྟར་བྱས་པས་བླ་མའི་བཀའ་བཞིན་དུ་དེ་ལྟར་བྱུང་ངོ་། ཇོ་མོ་ཞ་ཅུང་མ་རྒྱལ་མོ་སྐྱིད་། ཡུལ་ཕ་དྲུག་མ་། སྒོམ་སྤུབ་དིང་རི་ཤར་ལོགས་བྱས་མཛད་། ཤར་ལོགས་སུ་གྲོངས་སོ་།། ༑ །།

jo mo zha chung mas zhus pas / bar chod sol / rma lo tstsha ba la dbang gi yon phul / dka' thub sgrub pa tshad du skyol / gdams pa'i srang nas thon / de ltar byas na / 'brug gi grags pa 'byung ba'i brda rta zhon / namkha' la 'gro bar gda' gsungs / 

After Jomo Zhachungma said to Dampa, “I would like to request a precept,” he said to her, “Clear away the obstacle (dripping drops of blood), offer an empowerment fee (to Lama Ma), conduct the difficult practices (the sādhana) to full measure (vows), weigh the precepts in the balance.  If practiced in that way, you will ride on a dragon horse (symbol for her coming renown) and arrive with a roar traveling in space (after realizing the meaning of emptiness).” She did so (in accord with the words of the Lama) and it was just as he said. Jomo Zhachungma Gyelmokyid was native to Padrug. She kept to her meditation cave on the east face of Tingri, and it was on the east face that she died.*

(*If you feel the need to divine the correct sense of this story, you would be well advised to consult Cyrus Stearns, Taking the Result as the Path, Wisdom [Boston 2006], p. 209. The story, never told twice in the same way, is a particularly amazing one.)


•23•

བོ་མ བོ་མོ་གཞོན་ནུ་མ་ཅིག་ལ་། དམ་པས་མོ་འི་མེ་ལོང་སྐ་བསེབ་ནས་བཏོན་ནས་། འདི་ཁྱོད་རང་གི་མེ་ལོང་ཡིན་ནམ་། ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་མེ་ལོ་ལྟ་ཤེས་སམ་གསུངས་ནས་ཤེས་ཟེར་། ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་ལྟ་ཤེས་ན་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་བྱ་བ་ལ་ཞེན་པ་ལྡོག་། འཁྲུལ་པ་འཛིན་པ་མྱེད་པ་འཇིག་། ལས་མཛད་བདེའ་བ་རྒྱུད་ལ་ཤུགས་ལ་འབྱུང་། རང་གི་མེ་ལོང་ལ་ལྟ་བ་ཁྱོད་ལས་མྱེད་དོ་གསུངས་པས་། 

bu mo gzhon nu ma gcig la dam pas me long skra gseb nas bton[ n]as / 'di khyod rang yi me long yin nam / khyod kyi blta shes sam gsung / mo yi blta shes lags byas pas / lta shes na 'jig rten chos pa zhen pa ldog / rang gi las mdzad / bde ba sems la 'byung / 'khrul pa 'jig / rang gi me long la lta ba khyod las med gsungs pas /

To one young girl, Dampa said, after he pulled her mirror out of her sash, “Is this mirror your possession? Do you know how to look in a mirror?” “Yes, I know,” she said. “If you know how to look in a mirror, reverse attachments (to the busy life of the world), dissolve illusions (not having attachments), perform the rites and enjoyment will emerge in your mind stream (in force). To look in the mirror of yourself, there is no other than yourself.”

བོ་མོ་ལ་དུས་དེར་བྱི་རླབས་ཞུགས་། བརྡའ་དེས་མོ་གྲོལ་ནས་། ཁྱིམ་ཐབ་[erasure]སྤངས་ནས་། སྒོམ་མ་མྱི་བྱེད་ལུས་ཐ་མལ་དུ་ཡོད་། མོ་ངག་བཅད་ནས་སྐུགས་པ་མོར་གྱུར་ཏེ་། སུས་ཀྱང་མ་ཚོར་བར་སྦས་པའི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་མར་ཡོད་གསང་སྤྱོད་མར་ཡོད་དོ་།  བོ་མོ་འི་ཡུལ་དིང་རི་ས་མར་ཕུག་མ་། མེ་བུ་དཀོན་གྲགས་གྱི་བོ་མོ་། ཡུལ་ས་དམར་དུ་གྲོངས་སོ་།  [48v]

bu mo la byin brlabs zhugs te / brda khrol nas rang grol te / khyim spangs / sgom ma byed / ngag bcad / bsgrub pa mor gyur te sus kyang ma tshor ba gcig byung / 

At that moment the blessings entered into the girl. Through this symbolic language she was liberated, and abandoned her household life. She did not live as a hermit (she remained in an ordinary form). She stopped speaking and lived as a mute. Unperceived by anyone she remained in the secret activities (as a hidden yogini). The girl’s home country was Samar Phug in Tingri.  She was daughter of Mebu Köndrag. She died in the region of Samar. 


•24•

ཉ་མ་ཁྱིམ་པ་མ་ཅིག་གིས་། དམ་པ་ལ་གདམ་ངག་ཅིག་ཞུས་པས་། དམ་པའི་ཞལ་ནས་། ལོང་སྤྱོད་སྒྱུ་མར་ཁྱེར་། བུ་ཁྱོ་ཕྲོད་ནས་སུ་སངས་རྒྱས་དང་འདྲ་བར་འཁུར་། དངོས་པའི་ཆགས་ཞེན་བུ་ཁྱོ་ལ་སོགས་ལ་སྐྱུངས་། མྱི་རྟག་པ་ཡིན་བས་ཤི་ན་མྱི་དགའ་མ་བྱེད་ཞོག་། 

nya ma khyim pa mo gcig gis zhus pa la / longs spyod sgyu mar khyer / bu khyo mchod gnas su khur / dngos po la zhen chags bskyungs / shi na mi dga' zhog / 

A woman householder disciple requested a precept of Dampa, and the words came from Dampa's mouth, “Take wealth and leisure as illusions. Carry your children and husbands to the cemetery (like a Buddha). Cut down on attachments to things (to children, husbands and the rest). Do not be unhappy with death (as all is impermanent).

ཡོད་པ་རང་དབང་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཚོགས་སོག་གིས་། བླ་མ་མཆོད་ནས་དང་པོ་ཐེག་། བྱས་པ་གིས་ཡུལ་མི་སུན་མ་ཕྱུང་། ཉེ་ཐུ་བུ་ཚ་ལ་སོགས་ཆོས་ལ་ཁོད་། ལྟ་བའི་གོ་གོན་ཅིག་ཆོས་བའི་དྲས་ག་[~རལ་ག་?]༡་ཟུང་། ལས་རྒྱུ་འབྲས་ལ་ཡིད་ཆེས་པར་གིས་ཁུར་ཙ་བཟང་པོ་འཁུར་། རྒན་མོ་འཆིའ་ཀར་མ་འགྱོད་ཨང་གསུང་ངོ་།།  །།

nor yod pas tshog sogs gyis [ZKC 9v] bla ma mchod gnas thegs / nye du chos la khod / chos pa'i dras kha zung / khur tsa bzang po khur / rgan mo 'chi kar ma 'gyod ang gsungs / 

“What you have (what is within your power) make into virtuous accumulations. Elevate (first) the Lama and patronized priest. Don’t excoriate your countrymen (do your work). Establish those close to you in the Dharma (children and the rest). Wear the robe of a Dharma practitioner (put on the armor of the view). Bear the good burden (have confidence in karmic cause and effect). In old age, the moment of death will hold no regret.”

ཇོ་མོ་ཉི་ཤུ་རྩ་བཞི་ལ་བསྡམས་པ་། ཀུན་དགས་ཡི་གེར་བཀོད་པ་། ཇོ་མོ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ཞལ་ནས་བླས་པ་དང་གམ་དུ་བསྟད་པ་ཆ་འདོད་པ་(~དོད་པ་)།  གཞན་རྐྱེན་གྱི་བསྡམས་པ་།།  རྫོགས་སོ།། ༑ །།*

rje btsun dam pa rgya gar gyis / jo mo rnams la gdams pa'i chos skor rdzogs.ho //  zhuso |  dge'o //  shu wam //

Precepts for the Twenty-four Jomo, put into letters by Kunga. I have given fragments from what was relayed to me by the Jomos and from sitting by their side. These are other occasioned (gzhan rkyen) precepts.

[*I leave off the two lines that end the Matho version, as it is made up mostly of mantras that may have been placed there for protective purposes although this is unclear. The letters appear to be just as pre-13th century as the rest.]  


§   §   §


A SIDE ISSUE

What is the meaning of other occasioned (gzhan rkyen)? It appears not only at the end of the Matho version, but also in the title of the same (but not identical) text as found in ZCK. Padampa had two types of precepts, the ones occasioned by others (gzhan rkyen) and occasioned by himself (rang rkyen). Occasioned by others means that the precepts were aimed toward particular disciples, taking into account the ways they view their world, and thereby tailored for their special needs. Occasioned by himself would include raw and unfiltered words spontaneously pouring out from his mouth to suit the occasion.*

(*A BDRC search turned up this Zhijé definition:  de la rje dam pa sangs rgyas rin po ches gsungs pa'i gdams ngag ji snyed pa rnams/_rang rkyen dang gzhan rkyen rnam pa gnyis su 'dus/_gzhan rkyen ni gang zag gi yul lta mkhyen pas/_pha rol nang gi nyer len gyi steng du btabs pa rnams so/_/rang rkyen ni snying gtam me btsar btabs pa ste/_skabs la babs pa'i zhal ta thol smras kyi brjen gtam rnams so/_/'di rang rkyen las kyang snyan rgyud 'phrul tshig lag len gyi skor/_  This is from vol. 3 of the title Zhi-byed Snga Phyi Bar Gsum-gyi Chos-skor Phyogs-bsgrigs. No page no. can be given because the page correspondences are not supplied by BDRC. But wait, it ought to be on p. 452, so let me go check to be sure.)

If you just consider the examples from the Matho, you can see that not every woman is assumed to share the same religio-spiritual aims. Padampa is just as comfortable giving advice for achieving a better rebirth as for achieving Buddhahood in one lifetime.


+ + +


Sources on Jomo Penmo (no. 18)

Limiting ourselves to the first one in the translated section, I thought you may be curious to compare Jomo Penmo’s entry in the long-available Blue Annals, p. 919: 

“The lady ’Phan-mo: her native place was ’Phan-yul. She lived with one attendant at gLaṅ-’khor (near Diṅ-ri), and both died at the same time. (At the time of her death) the valley was filled with medicated perfume (sman-dri) and many auspicious signs were observed. All were filled with wonder.”*

(*The Tibetan of the Deb-ther Sngon-po, in transliteration, reads so: + jo mo 'phan mo ni / yul 'phan yul / mo rang dang nye gnas ma gnyis glang 'khor du bzhugs nas mnyam du grongs pas lung pa sman drir song / rtags bzang po mang po byung nas thams cad ngo mtshar skyes so.)

Passage on Penmo from the collection of precepts

In Jo-mo Nyi-shu-rtsa-bzhi'i Zhu-lan Lor-rgyus dang bcas-pa, containing two different texts, one on the precepts and the other on the lives. The one on the precepts as contained in ZC, vol. 4, p. 302 up to the end of p. 313, at p. 311, line 4:

jo mo 'phan mos zhus pa / rtog pa myed pa la nad 'dre yi nyam nga dang / bag tsha yod de / tshogs sog pa la dga' na yo byad kyis myi 'bor cig / khyod sman ma 'tshong / chang ma nyo / snang ba la kha phyir ma btang / rang la ma stod / gzhan la ma smod / ting nge 'dzin la kha'i bya sgrog gzhag / gsol ba thob / phyi ma la don grub ste 'ong gsung / pha pad mos zhus pa spyad rgyu yi tshogs gsog pa myed / dbus su phyin na dam pa dang 'bral / bdag gis ji lar bgyi zhus pas / bla sa nas za ba ra rdzi rgyal po yin / 'tsho ba nam ka'i dbyings nas sbyor / [311] mdzod de di ri sdong na yod / sgrub pa mo la phyag tsang mkha' 'gro sde bzhis byed / gzad dpon nag po a tsa ra / der 'phags chos / zas gos phyid cing yon tan du shar ro //

Passage on Penmo from the collective biography

The following is her entry from the collective biography put in writing by Kunga in ZC, vol. 4, pp. 314-323, starting at p. 320, line 4: 

bcwa brgyad pa jo mo 'phan mo ni / yul dbu ru 'phan yul ma yin / shin tu dgeg la gsol ba cig yin / dkon mchog mchod pa la mkhas shing brtson ba / spos sbyor ba la rem bas / bal 'khams kyi tshog pa sman 'bul ba mang po 'ong / mo dang nye gnas ma gnyis kas lo du ma glang 'khor du [321] bzhugs nas / de rang du mnyam du grongs pas lung pa sman dri ru song / rtags bzang po mang po byung ste / thams cad ngo mtshar skyes so.

It is this passage that is translated in Gianotti’s book, p. 131. 

It’s clear that the Blue Annals author took the liberty to even further abbreviate the version in the ZC's collective biography, and made use of nothing from the collections of precepts.


IF you see for yourself a future in the study of Tibetan women’s history as much as I hope you will, you may be interested in a searchable file with names of Padampa’s women disciples (indexing their appearances in five different texts exclusively devoted to them so they may be located with ease). It has been placed in “New Tibetological” website on the understanding that if it is there it is more likely to be indexed (and thereby made available to search engines*).  Here is the URL:

https://sites.google.com/view/newtibetological/women-disciples-of-padampa

Feel free to copy-paste or save it to your desktop for future reference.

(*As we speak, Google in particular is being surrendered to the control of inhuman AI entities — I think of them as the new archons — who mess things up at least as much as we humans do, just in oddly and awkwardly different ways.)


Friday, May 17, 2024

Turtle in a Bronze Basin Revisited, by Jean-Luc Achard



Today’s blog is a guest blog by Jean-Luc Achard. It was written in response to the immediately preceding blog, “Turtle in a Bronze Basin.”



The image of the turtle in a bronze basin is quite frequent in Dzogchen texts. For instance, it appears twice in the Zhangzhung Oral Transmission, although illustrating different issues or stages occurring during practice. First, in the mNyam bzhag sgom pa’i lag len, it says:


/rnam rtog ’phro rgod mang pa la/ /rus sbal mkhar gzhong bzhag ltar bcos/ 
“When you have too many scattered and agitated thoughts,
Correct that like placing a turtle in a bronze basin.”
 
The oral explanation given by Yongdzin Rinpoche on that part states that this means to control the body and the breath. By keeping the body straight, the channels are straight, and the winds circulating within them are not blocked anymore. Thus the mind remains fresh and naturally devoid of agitation, becoming scattered, and so forth.*

(*This is from the “main” practice work of the 1st section of the Zhang zhung snyan rgyud concerning “general sections on the View” [lta ba spyi  gcod]. I used the Triten Norbutse edition published ca. 2000 or 2002, at p. 344).  


The second occurrence is in the Commentary on the Twenty-One Seals  of the Zhangzhung Oral Transmission which reads: 

bzhi pa rus sbal mkhar gzhong tshud pa ’dra zhes pas/ snang ba rdzogs (756) pa’i dus su/ thugs rje’i nyag thag de g.yo ’gul med par gnas pa’o/ 

“It is said: ‘Fourthly, they* are similar to a tortoise placed in a bronze basin.’ This means that at the time of the perfection of the visions** the chains of Compassion remain without moving and quivering.”***
(*The third verse shows that this refers to the chains of Compassion (thugs rje nyag thag). **This is the fourth vision of Thögel in the scheme of five visions [snang ba lnga] according to the Zhangzhung Oral Transmission. ***gZer bu’i nyer gcig gi ’grel pa, p. 755.)
 
The image is the same as the previous one but the context is totally different. Here it refers to the fourth of the five visions of Thögel during which the “chains of Compassion” reach a stage of total stabilization. In actual practice, there are in fact more than “chains”, there are Thiglés, archetypal forms, all of them slowly evolving into mandalas, with half-bodies (phyed sku) and then full Buddhas appearing in Thiglés, etc. But here the idea is that when placing a turtle in a basin which is very small (preventing the animal from moving), the tortoise automatically retracts its legs and head and does not move (like the chains of Compassion which do not move anymore at that stage; it is only when they are immobile that mandalas and Bodies start to appear within the Thiglés making up these chains). What is interesting is that this very same image is also used by Shardza Rinpoche in his Treasury of Space and Awareness (dByings rig mdzod, II, p. 301) in which he describes what corresponds to the first vision of the Thögel (this time according to the “standard” scheme in four visions, not five). There he says:

dang po bon nyid mngon sum gyi dus na/ lus rus sbal mkhar gzhong du bcug pa ltar song ba ni rtsa dal bar gnas pa las 'byung ste/ rdzogs pa chen po byed pa dang bral ba'i gzer lus kyi yan lag thebs pa'i byed pa rang sar dag nas byed pa med pa'i ye shes rang byung du shar ba'o/   
“First, at the time of the Vision of Manifest Reality, the fact that the body becomes like (that of) a turtle placed in a bronze basin (implying its immobility) results from leaving the channels at ease: the seal of non-action characterizing Dzogchen is applied on the limbs of the body (so that with the latter) being naturally purified, the Wisdom of non-action arises in a self-occurring manner.”

 

In the Gab pa which as you know is quite older, the image of the turtle is used in a scheme associating View, Meditation, etc., with animals in the following manner: 

     View (lta ba) is associated with the Garuda (khyung)
     Conduct (spyod pa) is associated with the lion (seng ge)
     Samaya (dam tshig) is associated with the swan (ngang mo)
     Activities (phrin las) are associated with the cuckoo (khu byug), and
     Meditation (sgom pa) is associated with the turtle (rus sbal).
 
All this actually refers to methods of explanation (bshad thabs) to which “examples” (dpe) are applied (sbyar ba). Shardza (dByings rig mdzod, vol. I, p. 116) states:

sgom pa ni rus sbal rgya mtshor bskums pa ltar bshad de/ rnam rtog gis g.yo ba med par rang gsal du gnas par bstan pa'o
“Meditation is explained to be like a turtle contracting (its limbs) in the ocean, illustrating the fact that one should remain (absorbed) within one’s natural Clarity, without being moved/affected by discursive thoughts.”
 
Later (vol. II, p. 18), he explains that these methods associated with animals make up the “five contemplations” (dgongs pa lnga, another case where one sees dgongs pa cannot be translated as “intention” as it so often is). Regarding the turtle, he says: 

rus sbal bskum thabs kyi dgongs pa zhes bya ba/ sems nyid ye nas g.yo ba med cing ma bcos pa gnas pas/ reg pa dang rkyen gyi tshor ba las 'byung ba'i mtshan ma thams cad 'jom pa'o/
“The so-called ‘Contemplation on the turtle’s manner of contracting (its limbs)’ means that since Mind itself primordially abides without movement and without contrivance, all characteristics arising from contacts and conditioned sensations are subdued.”

 

This means that once this stage of stable contemplation is achieved, one remains naturally in the immutable and non-artificial nature of one’s Mind, just like a turtle naturally retracts its limbs and remains immobile when placed inside a small basin. At that stage, one subjugates any kind of characteristics associated with sensations, contacts, etc., because nothing can actually distract us anymore from one’s contemplative experience.

The tortoise in a small basin and the tortoise retracting its limb are images that one also finds in Nyingma works on Dzogchen (more the first than the second by the way), such as the sGra thal ’gyur commentary (associating the immobility of the turtle to that of the body), the mKha’ ’gro yang tig, etc., down to 20th century works (for instance, in at least one of Dudjom Rinpoche’s works, one of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche’s composition, etc.). Further examples could be given.




Response to Jean-Luc (May 28, 2024)

Dan:   Many thanks for sharing so much knowledge, much of it entirely new to me. I am particularly intrigued by the presence of the metaphorical turtle in the Gab-pa, and feel inclined to look into it more before long. 

With all these additional Bon examples, it seems all the more clear that already in the 11th and 12th centuries, three discrete Tibetan traditions — the Bon, Nyingma and Zhijé — were sharing the same four-syllable expression that means ‘turtle in a bronze basin.’ At the same time, it isn’t at all obvious that they mean exactly the same thing by it. The differences may in part be contextual, they may be employing it in different teaching situations. They do share one broadly similar idea, that something or another is, despite itself, getting locked into place and immobilized. The Bon Dzogchen examples are surely looking quite different from the Zhijé in their way of explaining it.

As I personally tend to understand it, the turtle, with its unusual ability to pull its legs as well as its head into its shell, is a natural symbol for the withdrawal of the five senses in meditation, the attention fully internalized. I know of no clear or direct Buddhist or Tibetan justification for this idea in my head. The best I can come up with is a verse from the Bhagavad Gita (ch. 2, v. 58): 

“When like the tortoise which withdraws on all sides its limbs, a man of perfection withdraws his senses at will from sense objects, then his wisdom becomes steady.” 

However, in my Zhijé examples the situation is different, the turtle in the bronze basin does have its head and limbs out (in my understanding, its senses are "out there," aware of external phenomenon) even while its body as a whole is immobilized. It is calm but alert, enjoying the light of the sun, basking in it.


§   §   §   §   §


Jean-Luc’s response (May 28, 2024)

In the Dzogchen sources that I have access to, the turtle in the basin is a metaphor for the immobility of the body but also, as shown above, a very rare reference to the stability of the visions arising during Thögel practice. But, certainly, it seems clear that in other contexts, such as in the Zhijé teachings, it definitely seems to refer to the senses. Your quote from the Gita is in this respect very interesting in this regard. That’s a fascinating find!

As the image was explained by Yongdzin Rinpoche, in the Bön sources that he used and where the expression occurs, it strictly points to the fact that when placed in a small basin a turtle contracts its limbs and head quasi-automatically because it cannot move due the size of the basin itself. In fact, the image is used to illustrate a sign (rtags). Thus, in chapter 16 of Ratna Lingpa’s Tantra of the Abyssal Clarity (Klong gsal gyi rgyud) for instance, it is explained that this image with the turtle is actually a sign that appears during the first vision of Thögel, the Vision of Manifest Reality (chos nyid mngon gsum gyi snang ba). Each of the four visions of Thögel has three signs (one for each of the three doors). Thus, during the Vision of Manifest Reality :

“ — As for the body, it remains without activities,

Like a turtle placed in a bronze basin.”

(lus ni bya byed me pa ru/ ru sbal mkhar gzhong bcug pa ‘dra/).

This is actually the result of the temporary dissolution of the wind of the earth element in the body. At that time, one feels like an immobile statue and prefers not to move at all. Of course, this is especially true during formal sessions. However, even during post-obtainment (rjes thob), the wind of the earth element can temporarily resorb itself,  particularly when one just rests, sitting while doing nothing in particular. This means that its dynamism (rtsal) has entered a year-long process of gradually reaching its exhaustion (like the other elemental winds).

Furthermore, at the beginning of the Gab pa, you’ll find the following reference to the turtle:

|ston pa thugs rje che mnga' ba| |thams cad mkhyen pas de bzhin gsungs| |de las rig pa thabs kyis brgyud| |skal ldan snod bzang 'ga' tsam la| |sems kyi dkyil du phog par bya| |rus sbal rgya mtshor bskums pa bzhin| |phal gyis mthong bar mi 'gyur te| |'di ni gsang ba'i gsang ba'o|

Here it is not associated with the immobility of the body or the senses but rather with the idea of a turtle contracting its limbs in the depths of the ocean and therefore being invisible to ordinary people. It thus illustrates the “secret of the secret”, i.e., the natural state that abides within all beings without the latter being conscious of it.

In the Gab pa rgya cher bshad pa, the line rus sbal rgya mtshor bskum pa bzhin is glossed as follows :

| rus sbal rgya mtsho= zhes pas| dper na rus sbal zhes bya ba'i sems can cig rgya mtsho'i gting na bskums nas 'dug pa de| sus kyang mi mthong ba dang 'dra ste| man ngag 'di yang kun gzhi ma g.yos pa'i klong rgya mtsho dang 'dra ba'i dbyings su| rig pa'i ye shes rus sbal bskum pa bzhin zhog cing...

So it points to an animal lying in the depths of the ocean, with its limbs contracted (bskums) so that it cannot be seen by anybody. The precept (man ngag) that uses this illustration actually means that within the immutable expanse of the Universal Base, the Wisdom of Awareness remains hidden like a turtle in the depths of the ocean... (until it is caused to arise by applying special key points). So this is still another usage of the turtle image.


Friday, May 10, 2024

Turtle in a Bronze Basin

 



... the thoughts of a turtle are turtles ...


If you never kept a turtle as a pet, I don’t recommend it. First and most seriously they are difficult to care for unless you know what you are doing, and largely for this very reason are prone to die a young and untimely death. Another problem is that they often get sick and tired of that terrarium you’ve locked them up in and start scratching nonstop on the walls trying to get out. You wonder if they are just bored or nervous, or in need of a larger living room. The constant scraping noise can be so irritating you could scream and throw a lamp across the room.

But this blog is more about us humans than it is about the challenges of turtle care. Do you ever even imagine that effort itself could, in some circumstances, prove to be an insurmountable impediment to progress? Counterintuitive insight at its best! 

I’m convinced the metaphoric image of the turtle in the bronze basin will be subject of this blog. At least I will try. Wait for the future, as I suppose we have all been doing, and we’ll get there. My primary aim is to persuade you how crucial it is for us to better know in practical terms what futile efforts entail. If I can convince you of this my struggles will not have been in vain. At long last I will be able to give it a rest.*

(*I suppose my further subterranean aim would be to show that there are connections such as this to be seen in the pre-Mongol era between the Bon, Zhijé and Nyingma schools.)

In a selection from one of the primary texts of the early Zhijé tradition containing words of Padampa we once translated as Padampa’s Animal Kingdom, we find these words:


17.  Unable to go anywhere, the turtle in the bronze basin tires itself out.


འགྲོ་བར་མྱི་ནུས་མཁར་ཞོང་ནང་གི་རུལ་རྦལ་ཚི་ཆད་འགྱུར་།། ZC vol. 1, p. 219.4.

 

The metaphor of the turtle in the bronze basin occurs at least twice in the Padampa Tanjur texts, but curiously in them the emphasis seems to be on how much the turtle in the bronze basin enjoys basking in the sun, and not on how thoroughly trapped it is.  The commentarial text explains Padampa’s precept and, as it often does, gives it an unexpected spin:


17.  “Unable to go...” — If you place a turtle in a bronze basin, it tries to climb out, but at the very first step it loses its footing. Likewise, no matter how high or low something may appear, the mind never moves from its empty nature.  It falls back on it.

འགྲོ་མྱི་ནུས་ཞེས་པ་ནི་། འཁར་གཞོང་དུ་རུ་རྦལ་བཅུག་ན་ཕྱིར་འཛེགས་ཀྱང་ཡང་དང་པོའི་ཤུལ་དུ་འདྲེད་ནས་འོང་། དེ་བཞིན་དུ་འཐོའ་དམན་ཇི་ལྟར་སྣང་ཡང་སེམས་ངོ་བོ་སྟོང་པ་ལས་འགྱུར་བ་མྱེད་དེ་། དེ་ཐོག་ཏུ་འབབས་གསུང་།  ZC, vol. 1, p. 426.

 

Our concern at the moment, and the very thing that made me return again to this subject, is the single-folio Khyunglung fragment at pp. 142-145 (marked as fol. 3) in the published volume.*

(*For the bibliographical details, refer to the recent blogs on the Four Caches). 

 


At first glance I had thought it might be a Zhijé text, seeing the words meaning ‘From the mouth of Dampa’ (dam pa’i zhal nas) that seemed to suggest it, although it soon turned out to be an illusion. I tried searching in BDRC, and found no matches to the phrases I was trying to check. However, I tried again and found this parallel to the Khyunglung fragment in vol. 121 of The Much Expanded Version of the Oral Scriptures of the Earlier Translations (Snga-’gyur Bka’-ma Shin-tu Rgyas-pa, W1PD100944). In this instance BDRC e-text provides us with no page correspondences (and this is my good excuse for not providing page numbers), although this volume does seem to be a commentary on the Eighty Precepts (Zhal-gdams Brgyad-cu-pa) of Zurchung: 

le'u bdun pa / gdams pa bcu gsum gyi gdams ngag lag len gdams pa ni / gdams pa bcu gsum la / bsgrub pa'i brtson 'grus kyi lcag tu bdag gzhan gyi 'chi ba la brtag / nam mchi nges pa med pas tshe 'di yi bya bzhag thams cad bor thongs / gus pa khyad par can skye bar 'dod pas bla ma'i phyi nang gi yon tan la brtag / skyon rtog spongs / skyon du snang ba de rang snang ma dag pas lan / spyod pa kun dang mthun par 'dod pas gzhan gyi rtsol ba mi dgag / theg pa thams cad rang sa bden pas chos dang grub mtha'i kha 'dzin che / bla ma'i thugs zin pa mi 'gyur bar bya ba'i phyir nyams su len pa drag tu bya / yon tan ma lus pa rang la 'ong / dngos grub myur du thob par 'dod na sdom pa dam tshig ma nyams par bsrung / bsrung mtshams mtha' dag mi dge bcu dang dug lnga rang mtshan la slong bar 'du / chu bo bzhin bcad par.*

(*Compare this to the Khyunglung fragment starting at its folio 3 recto, line 7, and you will see despite all the variant readings that they are the same text all the same.)



I see, too, that Khyunglung, p. 144, line 5 ff. (or fol. 3 verso, line 5) corresponds to section 13 in the English of Zurchungpa’s Testament (its pp. 94-95). The ordering of sections doesn’t seem to be the same in the Khyunglung when compared to later editions of the “same” text. This indicates that a close textual study would be in order. At the moment I cannot safely argue for dependence of one text on the other. A comparative text edition ought to be made, perhaps you would like to give it a try? 

In any case, as you may have suspected by now the Zurchung Eighty does contain the turtle in the bronze basin metaphor even if it may not look like it in the English:

“Cut the stream of the arising of dualistic thoughts and the following after them, taking the example of a tortoise placed on a silver platter.”  (no. 28 on p. 164, see also pp. 292, 346)

I find the Tibetan of it in my physical print volume of the text entitled

Zur-chung Shes-rab-grags-pa'i Gdams-pa Brgyad-cu-pa, Pema Thinley, Sikkim National Press (Gangtok 1999), a booklet in 64 pages not listed in BDRC, at p. 26:

རུས་སྦལ་མཁར་གཞོང་དུ་བཅུག་པའི་དཔེས་མཚོན་ནས། མཚན་མའི་འབྱུང་འཇུག་རྒྱུན་བཅད། 

I go to the trouble to give the Tibetan to convince Tibetan readers that it really does speak of the turtle stuck in a bronze basin, and that the published English translation, as wonderful as it is, is in my estimation slightly off on this particular point. I myself originally wanted to translate brass basin, liking the sound of it, but really, it’s a superior type of brass alloy, and that means some more expensive kind of bronze or bell metal.

To complicate matters necessarily, we find the turtle in the bronze basin in a Bon Dzogchen text of the pre-Mongol era that would need to be brought into a fuller and more adequate discussion. The Bon text I have in mind is Seeing Awareness in its Nakedness (Rig-pa Gcer Mthong), IsIAO Tucci text no. 528, section DA, folio 2 verso, line 6. I would give a quotation, but I no longer have a access to the Tucci manuscript and would need to search it out in one of the published editions of the massive cycle that contains it.

This section DA, according to the published catalog 

Elena De Rossi Filibeck, Catalogue of the Tucci Tibetan Fund in the Library of the IsIAO, Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente (Rome 2003), vol. 2, p. 296.

ought to be a 7-folio manuscript with the title Bsnyan-rgyud Gsal-bar Byed-pa'i Gsal-byed. I had thought I might have made a photo of the page, but no, to find it again I would have to fly back to Rome. That hardly seems likely to happen today. Anyway, I believe it ought to be locatable in a different published version of the cycle, so let me go over to BDRC and see what I can come up with. 

Well, I went there and came up with nothing, because the volume I’ll describe in a flash isn’t listed there:

Snyan-rgyud Gcer-Mthong, “Bonpo oral transmission precepts granted by Srid-pa-rgyal-mo to Bon-zhig Khyung-nag, reproduced from rare manuscript from Bsam-gling Monastery in Dol po,” Tibetan Bonpo Monastic Centre (Dolanji 1972).  

That’s a pity that BDRC didn’t scan it.* You might think I’m lucky to have a IASWR microfiche set that ought to include it, but then I don’t have any fiche reader available to me right now. 

(*Or didn’t scan it yet. Those 1960's-1980's Bon publications from India haven’t mostly been posted online, although they might be in the near future.)

Okay, now I think I can find it. As you may know the catalog of the Bon Katen goes with an index volume, 

Samten G. Karmay and Yasuhiko Nagano, eds., A Catalogue of the New Collection of Bonpo Katen Texts (Bon Studies 4), Senri Ethnological Reports series no. 24, National Museum of Ethnology (Osaka 2001).

and it locates the cycle of Seeing Awareness in Its Nakedness in volume 133 of the 300 (plus) volume set. That set is locatable with the title “Bon-gyi Bka’-brten” in BDRC as no. W30498, and its volume 133 is indeed scanned and made available there. What we find when we view the scans of vol. 133 is what looks very much like a photocopy of the 1972 publication listed above (absent only the added title page, and the Table of Contents that could have come in useful). A telltale sign is the Old Delhi style of the added Arabic numerals.* So we go back to the 1,692-page Osaka catalog and run through the titles it lists for vol. 133. Even if it isn’t exactly Gsal-bar Byed-pa’i Gsal-byed, we do see that part 15 (pp. 265-278, or 7 folios in length) has the title Snyan-rgyud Gsal-byed, which seems promising enough to have a look.

(*How can I tell?  It kind of looks like the numbers were applied with a rubber stamp.)

Could you hear the scratching?  A few hours have passed, and I wish I  could tell you that all those efforts had no result whatsoever. That would have made my point for me. But no, there it is on p. 269, line 4: ru[s] sbal mkhar gzhong du, or, turtle in a bronze basin. Have a look:



Of course, now we have the difficult task of understanding it in its special context, as part of a system of Dzogchen precepts. We’ve barely scratched the surface... Or... Perhaps we’ve scratched enough for one day. It may be time to give it a rest.



Originally from Buzzfeed, I linked it from here:
As you see this is a plastic, and not a bronze basin,
or the outcome would be different.


A poem by Emily Dickinson

has more of the “well turtle” or turtle-in-a-well in it, even if the turtle is disguised as a mole. The piece as a whole is usually taken to be about 19th-century disenchantment or, to put it in different words, our declining perception of the sacred dimensions of our existence.


1228


So much of Heaven has gone from Earth


That there must be a Heaven


If only to enclose the Saints


To Affidavit given.




The Missionary to the Mole


Must prove there is a Sky


Location doubtless he would plead


But what excuse have I?




Too much of Proof affronts Belief


The Turtle will not try


Unless you leave him - then return


And he has hauled away.



I’m fascinated how in the verse on the mole in a hole we easily perceive the well known Indic metaphor of the well turtle (he finds difficulty believing what he is told about the wider world beyond his ken), while the very next verse seems to have our turtle escaping from an unspecified container. Could she have gotten something from Emerson? But for her, okay, it is quite a different idea, the turtle only tries to get away when you aren’t looking. Then just disappears.





In John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, a turtle appears to be a symbol of the family’s struggle for freedom, but here the turtle is in a shirt pocket (or is he crossing the highway?) and not in any basin. And that family is trying to get out of the Dust Bowl where they had been trapped, rather than any metallic basin.





From Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Natural History of Intellect:


What strength belongs to every plant and animal in nature. The tree or the brook has no duplicity, no pretentiousness, no show. It is, with all its might and main, what it is, and makes one and the same impression and effect at all times. All the thoughts of a turtle are turtles, and of a rabbit, rabbits. But a man is broken and dissipated by the giddiness of his will ; he does not throw himself into his judgments ; his genius leads him one way but ’t is likely his trade or politics in quite another. He rows with one hand and with the other backs water, and does not give to any manner of life the strength of his constitution. Hence the perpetual loss of power and waste of human life. [emphasis added]


I like Emerson’s rowing metaphor that has the boat spinning in circles instead of going ahead. This happens to me a lot, although I hope you are kind enough not to notice.



The turtle in the bronze basin enjoys the light of the sun.  མཁར་གཞོང་ནང་གི་རུལ་སྦལ་ཉི་མའི་འོད་ལ་དགའ།  mkhar gzhong nang gi rul rbal [~rus sbal] nyi ma’i ’od la dga’.

Zhijé Collection, vol. 1, p. 268, line 7. The same text is in the Derge Tanjur, no. 2445, with the title Phyag-rgya-chen-po Rin-po-che Brda’i Man-ngag.


There are some interesting narratives about direct encounters of the early Zur family lineage of the Nyingmapa with practitioners of Bön. For references to the main sources, see Matthew Kapstein, “From Metaphor to Commentary and from Commentary to Catechism: The Formation of a Bon po Scriptural Corpus and Its Authentication,” contained in: Jonathan Silk and Leonard van der Kuijp, eds., From Khyung-lung to Lhasa [=Revue d'Etudes Tibétaines, no. 64, July 2022], pp. 290-306, at p. 291, footnote 4.

Note: Today’s blog was already promised in an earlier one: https://tibeto-logic.blogspot.com/2024/03/recovered-connections-1-four-caches.html.

If you have the time to spare, and need some Zen, search the internet for "the goose in the bottle." Use the quote marks in your search for better results, or just do nothing and sit there.

For a response to this blog by Jean-Luc Achard, look here (by clicking on this sentence!).

 
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