Bodhisattvacharyavatara

by Andreas Kretschmar | 246,740 words

The English translation of the Bodhisattvacharyavatara (“entering the conduct of the bodhisattvas”), a Sanskrit text with Tibetan commentary. This book explains the bodhisattva concept and gives guidance to the Buddhist practitioner following the Mahāyāna path towards the attainment of enlightenment. The text was written in Sanskrit by Shantideva ...

Khenpo Kunpal now quotes the Buddha from the Yum-Bar-Ma [yum bar ma], the Prajñāpāramitā in twenty-five thousand lines:

“Listen closely, in the proper manner, and retain it in your mind! I will explain it!”

[legs par rab tu nyon la yid la zungs shig dang / ngas bshad par bya’o].

Listen closely [rab tu nyon la] means to listen with open ears and not like a pot turned upside down; the mind should be focused on nothing else [sems gzhan pa gtad mi dgos pa]. Retain it in your mind [yid la zungs shig] means to remember the teaching and not to resemble a pot with a hole in it. In the proper manner [legs par] means to listen without your mind being contaminated with afflictions so that you are not like a poison-laden pot.

The Yum-Bar-Ma or ‘Medium-length Mother’ [yum bar ma; skr. mātṛkā-madhya] is a text of the Prajñāpāramitā literature. The Prajñāpāramitā literature is structured in the following way: first is the Extensive-length Mother [yum rgyas pa], then the Medium-length Mother [yum bar ma], and finally the Short-length Mother [yum bsdus pa].

The Extensive-length Mother is also called ‘the Hundred Thousand’ [‘bum], referring to the Prajñāpāramitā in one hundred thousand lines [sher phyin stong phrag brgya pa], the extensive collection in twelve volumes. The Medium-length Mother refers to the Prajñāpāramitā in twenty-five thousand lines [sher phyin stong phrag nyi shu lnga pa], the mid-sized collection in four volumes.

The Short-length Mother refers to the Prajñāpāramitā in eight thousand lines [brgyad stong pa], this being the short collection in one single volume.[1] The term Yum, ’mother’, is used to indicate that the transcendental wisdom [shes rab pha rol tu phyin pa] is the mother of all buddhas.

The quintessence of Prajñāpāramitā is summed up in the following quote:

The inexpressible and inconceivable transcendent intelligence
Is unborn and unobstructed like the essence of space.
Each individual has the capacity to experience his own awareness wisdom.
To the mother of all buddhas, I pay homage.

smra bsam brjod med shes rab pha rol phyin
ma skyes mi ’gag nam mkha’i ngo bo nyid
so so rang rig ye shes spyod yul ba
dus gsum rgyal ba’i yum la phyag ’tshal lo

The great master Gampopa, the physican from Dakpo [sgam po pa dvags po lha rje], said,

“Unless you practice the dharma according to the dharma, the dharma itself becomes the cause for going to the lower realms”

[chos chos bzhin du ma spyad na chos kyis slar yang ngan song du ’gro ba’i rgyu byed].

Merely attempting to practice the dharma is not at all sufficient. Clearly understanding the proper way to practice the dharma [chos sgrub stangs] is most important. If you practice improperly, without correct understanding of the meaning and intent of the dharma, your dharma practice can actually become the cause for taking rebirth in the three lower realms.

In particular you must avoid mingling the study and practice of dharma with ignorance, anger, desire, arrogance and so forth. Studying and practicing the dharma with these mind poisons will only create negative karma. Your so-called dharma practice will become nothing but an accumulation of negative karma. When studying and practicing, generate a pure motivation [kun slong dvangs ma], the motivation of bodhicitta.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

According to another classification it is said that the ‘Extensive-length Mother’ refers to the Prajñāpāramitā in one hundred thousand lines [yum rgyas pa ni sher phyin stong phrag brgya pa] (Peking 730); the ‘extensive of the Medium-length Mother’ refers to the Prajñāpāramitā in twenty-five thousand lines [’bring gi rgyas pa nyi khri lnga stong pa] (Peking 731); the ‘medium of the Medium-length Mother’ refers to the Prajñāpāramitā in eighteen thousand lines [’bring gi ’bring khri brgyad stong pa] (Peking 732); the ‘short of the Medium-length Mother’ refers to the Prajñāpāramitā in ten thousand lines [’bring gi bsdus pa shes rab khri ba] (Peking 733); the ‘extensive of the Short-length Mother’ refers to the Prajñāpāramitā in eight thousand lines [bsdus pa’i rgyas pa brgyad stong pa] (Peking 734); and the short of the Short-length Mother’ refers to the ‘Gathering of Precious Qualities’ [bsdus pa’i bsdus pa yon tan rin po che sdud pa] (Peking 735).

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