Journey to The West
Some Notes on Transmission for the International Karma Kagyu Meeting (IKKM)
Bodhgaya 2019
A couple of years ago, at the IKKM, I outlined some aspects of the situation facing the dharma in the West. Now, I’ve been asked to discuss the transmission of our tradition in the West with a focus on three particular questions:
1. What does our tradition offer the West?
2. What impact is our tradition having in the West?
3. How do we sustain and develop it?
1. What does our tradition offer the West?
Four things:
1A. It is a tradition with intelligence:
The decline of Christianity and the consequent rise of materialistic nihilism have left an absence of meaning in modern Western society. Although many try to fill this space with pleasure or politics, there are some who seek more profound solutions.
It is to these people, particularly those who no longer have faith in theism but are unconvinced by materialism, that the dharma can speak, due to its appeal to reasoning and direct experience. Of course, such an emphasis on intelligence goes back to the Buddha’s own insistence that his teachings were not to be accepted by blind faith but must be investigated with reasoning.
Yet, at the same time, Buddhism, including our Karma-Kagyu tradition, is a ‘tradition’, that is to say, it maintains and transmits a coherent and systematic body of wisdom and practice, and one that is derived ultimately from the realisation of the Buddha. In short, it is not a ‘make up your own religion’ of the type we see come and go, so often, these days. It has a seriousness and a solidity derived from its ancient roots that gives it a trustworthiness.
1B. It emphasises meditation:
The dharma provides a system of meditation through which the true nature of reality can be experienced directly, a vital point when, however correct a philosophical theory might be, it cannot, by itself, bring about liberation from suffering. Such liberation will only occur when one’s mind is transformed through meditative experience. In a world saturated by opinions but which hungers for authentic experience this emphasis on meditation practice is particularly compelling.
1C. It emphasises compassion
Since the Kagyu tradition shares the common inheritance of the Mahayana, it has a very strong emphasis on compassion. Its teachings are to be practised for the the benefit and happiness of all sentient beings without exception. In such a way, it is a tradition that can promote the common good and the welfare of each individual being.
In its ethical teachings, therefore, the Karma-Kagyu tradition, like the other Mahayana schools, offers an alternative to the selfish individualism that is sadly prevalent in the modern world. In contrast to this, it insists that both the welfare of oneself and others cannot be separated; one cannot truly achieve the benefit of oneself without working for the benefit of all. Thus, our tradition can be a voice for the moral life in the West.
1D. Its blessings are undiminished:
In common with other Vajrayana traditions, the Karma-Kagyu tradition holds an unbroken line of blessings. In this case, it is a line that has descended from Buddha Vajradhara through the ‘close’ and ‘distant’ lineages down to the present day. Even now, there are masters from whom we can receive these lineages of teachings and practice such as Mahamudra and the Six Dharmas of Naropa, together with the ripening blessings upon which realisation depends.
2. What impact is our tradition having in the West?
We are just over fifty years from the beginning of the Karma-Kagyu tradition in the West - counting from the establishment of the first Kagyu dharma centre in Europe. Although there is no reliable way of assessing the numbers involved, at least a million or so people in the West must have had contact with the Kagyu tradition during that time. Inevitably, the impact of such encounters has varied but a good number have become life-long practitioners of the dharma.
By now, several thousand Westerners have completed the Mahamudra preliminaries, many of whom have gone on to accomplish traditional retreats. Some have entered on to practice of the cycles of Anuttaratantra preserved within the Karma-Kagyu. Similarly, there are a number of people who have been able to receive some training in the key elements of philosophy from distinguished Karma-Kagyu scholars.
Translations of a number of important Karma-Kagyu texts have appeared in various Western languages, as have introductions to Buddhism newly composed by lamas. These have undoubtedly attracted some people to the dharma and, although, in many cases, these texts are spiritually incomplete without the transmission from a master, their existence serves as a support for such transmission.
Nonetheless, despite such positive developments, it must be admitted that, contrary to our expectations of fifty years ago, Buddhism has not yet been able to secure any real place for itself in Western culture; it exists on the disregarded margins of our societies, lacking any serious intellectual influence.
Now, you might object that the dharma seems to be quite successful in Europe and the USA. However, to take the latter case, it is easy to misread the wealth present in American Buddhism and the self-confidence of those involved as evidence of a true flourishing of dharma, when the reality is somewhat different.
For instance, it cannot be denied that, at the moment, relatively few young people attend Tibetan Buddhist centres. To this, one must add the observation that a large proportion of those people, who do attend, only do so because they have altered the dharma to fit with their pre-Buddhist opinions; their ‘Buddhism’ is a garment worn lightly, to be cast off or restyled, when it is inconvenient, personally or politically. As a consequence of this and, of course, the scandals that have emerged in the last few years, the dharma appears frivolous to spiritually serious people.
3. Developing and sustaining the lineage in the West:
As this mixed picture is the reality of Buddhism’s situation in the West, we have no choice but to be ambitious! Our aim must be to plant the undiluted Karma-Kagyu transmission of dharma in the West - both Europe and the Americas. Anything less will simply not be worth the effort, because, in the face of the obstacles that I have just outlined, it would not truly survive as dharma, even if people still used the term ‘Buddhism’.
Thus, our dharma in the West must be both scholarly and meditative, lay and monastic, and it must embody all three vehicles of doctrine and practice. In short, it must be faithful to the vision of Marpa, Milarepa and Gampopa and the line of Karmapas. Without this, what will be the purpose of our work? What is the point of a Kagyu tradition or a Buddhism that has been entirely stripped of what made it a way to liberation from suffering?
In other words, there must be a continuity between Kagyu dharma as it was in Tibet and how it manifests in the West. Only if it is founded in such a way in the West will it be the authentic Karma-Kagyu tradition, neither a preserved antique, nor a new invention, but preserving the very four features - intelligence, meditation, compassion and blessings - discussed above that comprise its special appeal in the modern world.
Such considerations prompt two questions:
1. Which teachings and practices should be emphasised at this time?
2. What organisational structures are needed?
3.1. The teachings and practices
For the Karma-Kagyu to succeed spiritually in the West, both its scholarly and meditative lineages have to be transmitted there, just as the success of the Kagyu tradition in Tibet owed much to Gampopa’s synthesis of the scholarly approach of Mahayana with the meditative approach of Mahamudra.
To make this point clear: obviously those in the West who are meeting dharma for the first time know very little. In such a situation, to omit the textual teachings and expose them instead only to the meditative teachings will most likely produce confusion. After all, it can easily be observed how quite a few of those who have gone into meditation retreats without sufficient prior grounding in the teachings have come to grief. Some have abandoned the dharma, while others think they have become enlightened (which is, in fact, another way to abandon the dharma!).
How they are to be transmitted:
The teachings, whether textual expositions or Vajrayana initiations, are to be transmitted from qualified master to disciple. It is this fact that endows the Karma-Kagyu with a great flexibility, since each master passes on the teaching with a unique sensibility.
Nevertheless, it is crucial that the training that people receive be ‘portable’ or ‘transferable’. In other words, teachings received in one institution from a particular teacher should fit with teachings received from other teachers in other Karma-Kagyu centres. In such a manner, a student would be able, in time, to receive a full education, receiving teachings, perhaps, from quite a few masters, each of whom may be a specialist in a particular cycle of texts and practice.
What is to be transmitted:
Of course, individual masters will make particular choices in designing curricula for their students but, to preserve the identity of the tradition, there needs to be a sufficient similarity in what is taught throughout our centres in the West that it still makes sense to talk of ‘Karma-Kagyu’.
For beginners, The Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind to Dharma and The Four Seals would seem to be most appropriate, since they can foster a real engagement with the dharma.
Nagarjuna’s Friendly Letter, would introduce the three trainings in moral discipline, meditation and wisdom and Gampopa’s two works - The Jewel Ornament and Precious Rosary of the Supreme Path - would elucidate key Mahayana topics such as Buddha Nature, the Bodhisattva Vow and the Six Perfections.
Mipham Rinpoche’s Rinpoche’s Gateway to Knowledge, would then be useful in developing certainty concerning the truths of the dharma and Shantideva’s Bodhisattvacharyavatara would provide a grounding in the Bodhisattva path and the general Madhyamaka view. Finally, the Uttaratantrashastra, together with related works by Karmapa Rangjung Dorje and Jamgon Kongtrul, would introduce our special Zhentong Madhyamaka system.
Although such a syllabus would be less extensive than that followed currently in the monastic colleges, its particular advantage for the West is that it could be pursued by lay-people as well as by monastics. In fact, much of this curriculum of studies is already being taught in a scattered way in the West (and in KIBI) but we need to bring together our efforts across the whole of our tradition in the West in order to emphasise the common foundations of our Karma-Kagyu system.
Turning now to the training in meditation:
For some, a practice syllabus emphasising Kadam Lojong and Sutra Mahamudra would work very well. For others, focussing on the preliminaries and main stage of Mahamudra alongside the Chenrezi sadhana might be more appropriate. As with the sequence of textual studies outlined above, the advantage of these two approaches is that they could be accomplished by lay-people as well as monastics.
Beyond such basic practice, there must be opportunities to train more extensively in Vajrayana, whether in brief or extensive retreats as has been done in Dhagpo Kundreul Ling, Dhagpo Dedrol Ling, Karma Migyur Ling and elsewhere. It would be desirable for such retreats to be supported by teachings on the vows and pledges and teachings on the Profound Inner Meaning and The Two-Part Tantra.
This stress on education in both textual teachings and meditation makes it very clear that there is a great need for qualified masters. Thus, someone might well ask, at this point, whether completing such meditative and textual training, as we have outlined here, would qualify someone to teach the dharma.
There are two points to make in answering this:
Firstly, I would suggest that it would be best to examine the specific qualities and qualities of teachers as defined in such authoritative texts as The Jewel Ornament (in relation to Mahayana teachers) and The Fifty Verses on the Guru and The Words of My Perfect Master (in relation to Vajrayana teachers).
Secondly, permission to teach the dharma (and the extent of that permission) of our tradition would surely be best received from its lineage holders - in particular HH Karmapa.
3.2. The Structures
In Tibet and the Himalayan region the primary structures that support the transmission of the dharma are the monasteries, with their colleges and retreat- centres. At the moment in the West, with the exception of Dhagpo Kundreul Ling, this is not generally the case.
The most common dharma-supporting structure in the West is the dharma group/ dharma-centre. Unlike monasteries, dharma-centres are only partially and occasionally residential. Most of their members live locally and attend for particular events. Furthermore, the vast majority of Karma-Kagyu followers in the West are lay-people.
Yet, we should also concede that the present situation is unsatisfactory for the long term, since a Buddhism without monasticism is impossible. If someone objects to this statement, I would simply point out that, without a monastic sangha, there would be:
No support for the veneration of the third Jewel
No field through which the lay-followers may gather merit
No repositories of scholarly excellence and ritual mastery
However, if monasticism is to flourish in the modern world, it cannot merely reproduce the models that previously worked in Tibet and elsewhere in Asia, as the economic and the social conditions are much altered. Thus, some thought will need to be given, in both West and East, as to how we deal with these changed circumstances. For instance, a viable future monasticism will most likely be one that is reduced in over-all numbers and one which recognises the validity of non-monastic Vajrayana (something which should not be difficult for a tradition founded by the lay-man, Marpa Lotsawa!). At the same time, Karma-Kagyu followers in the West will need to appreciate the role of monasticism in ensuring the continuation of the dharma. Only this will engender the necessary enthusiasm for the task of establishing successful monastic communities alongside our communities of lay-practitioners.
One final point that needs making is that, for the next generation, the breadth and depth of education that is current in our institutions in India and the Himalayan region will not be possible in the West - just one example of that would be training in the monastic arts. Consequently, the tradition, as it develops in the West, must remain in partnership with the tradition in Asia. Here, incidentally, one must not forget that Karma-Kagyu is also newly planted in east Asia and that too has important implications for the future.
To conclude, I offer these brief notes to His Holiness Karmapa Thaye Dorje with a request for His blessing and with prayers for the flourishing of the Practice Lineage throughout the world.
Lama Jampa Thaye.
London. December 2019