O Buddha who is the first of the holy ones,
If we were to summarize the way of delusion
For delusional sentient beings,
What would we summarize it into?
Please teach us!
The Buddha who is the first of the holy ones spoke:
O Mahāsattva who is president of your family,
Listen!
In times of yore,
When there was no liberation or delusion,
The way that our great ancestors lived
Was by not giving a name to ignorance or wisdom.
They did not limit the vastness of either samsara or nirvana.
They did not cling to the faces of either happiness or sorrow.
They lived in the essence of the majestic base of all things,
Which is beyond causes, conditions, and words.
As for the way of delusion
For delusional sentient beings,
We do not cut the roots
From the trunk that is the basis of all things.
We spread our branches
With the six collections of our consciousness.
The birds that are our six objects
Spread through the branches
Of the six collections of our consciousness,
And they soar.
We pick up the dirt
From our six kinds of emotional problems
And our face,
Which is the four kinds of birth,
Grows old.
Our faces mature through the four kinds of birth.
Our reward is that we spin through the three realms.
That is what he said.
There was a raging debate going on in Tibet during the Eighth Century of our era. Everyone was trying to decide whether we attain enlightenment suddenly or gradually. A huge debate was staged pitting the Indian Pandit Kamalashila against the Chinese Hvashang Mahayana. Many believe that gradualism was the Indian position while sudden enlightenment was the Chinese position. These accounts ignore the very substantial body of literature from India representing the Instantaneous view: the literature of the Great Perfection. Could it be that the Indian side was more inclusive of Buddhism as a whole, having both gradual and sudden viewpoints, while the Chinese were represented only by the sudden view? We may wonder if the King was unaware of the Great Perfection literature, due to its secrecy. It is therefore of great consequence that we find preserved in the Nyingma Gyubum, The Hundred Thousand Tantras of the Ancients, three Great Perfection Tantras of the Mind Section that were translated by Vimalamitra and gNyags Jñānakumara specifically for presentation to King Trisong Detsen, who ruled from 755 to 804 C.E. When we read these Tantras, we are granted a window into what the Great Perfection meant to those at court and to those who were the policy makers. This translation empowers English speakers of today’s world to reach our own understanding of these Tantras that were meant for a King.
Lama Christopher Wilkinson begon zijn loopbaan in de Dharma op 15-jarige leeftijd met het afleggen van de toevluchtsgeloften van zijn stamleraar Dezhung Rinpoche. In de jaren die volgden introduceerde Dezhung Rinpoche hem bij Geshe Ngawang Nornang, Lama Kalu Rinpoche, Dilgo Kyentse Rinpoche, Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche, en vele anderen. Christopher identificeerde zich vanaf het begin met de Rime Non-Sectarische beweging.
Na een formele opleiding in Tibetaanse en Sanskriet talen, studeerde hij in 1980 af met een BA in Aziatische Talen en Literatuur en een BA in Vergelijkende Religie aan de Universiteit van Washington. Na twee jaar rondreizen langs de heilige plaatsen van Azië, onder meer in India en Nepal, werkte hij vijf jaar in de vluchtelingenopvang in Seattle, Washington. Omdat hij zich weer wilde verdiepen in boeddhistische studies, ging hij naar de Universiteit van Calgary, waar hij in 1988 zijn MA behaalde.
In 1990 ging Chris naar Sulawesi in Indonesië, waar hij drie jaar lang docent Engels was en onderzoek deed naar het oude Sri Vijaya-rijk. Terug in Amerika werkte hij als Research Associate voor de Shelly and Donald Rubin Foundation, waar hij een kleine rol speelde bij de vroege ontwikkeling van het Rubin Museum. Daarna doceerde hij vijf jaar lang als adjunct-professor aan de Universiteit van Calgary. Hij werd ook gedurende twaalf jaar Research Fellow aan het Centre de Recherches sur les Civilisations de l’Asie Orientale, Collège de France.
Vanaf 2012 begon hij vertalingen van Tibetaanse literatuur uit te brengen, te beginnen met de zeven delen van de Sakya Kongma Serie en momenteel met inbegrip van 30 delen van Grote Perfectie Tantras, en hij gaat nog steeds door met deze inspanning.
