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ABSTRACT
Khenpo Sodargye is one of the key second-generation Tibetan Buddhist leaders at Larung Gar Buddhist Academy, who has been highly influential in transmitting the teachings of the Nyingma lineage to Chinese lay and monastic practitioners. Fundamental to this transmission is his ‘translation’ – in both linguistic and cultural terms – of the Tibetan tradition through the medium of both traditional and modern Chinese culture. Khenpo teaches Tibetan Buddhism to Chinese followers often using Chinese cultural terms and historiography, yet draws these into the Tibetan Buddhist, and specifically Nyingma lineage, normalising them with parallels already found in the Tibetan tradition. This cumulative ‘Eastern’ religiosity he sets up in oppositional terms to ‘Western’ modern influences which have led to a decline in values in modern China. One such example of using Chinese culture in this manner is his teaching on the Analects (Lunyu), which this paper seeks to explore.
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Notes
1. Ch: Wuming Foxueyuan, Tb: bla rung lnga rig nang bstan slob gling.
2. Tb: rtsa ba’i bla ma.
3. Tb: rdzogs chen, Ch: Dayuanman, Skt: Mahāsandhi/Atiyoga/Mahā Ati.
4. The International Campaign for Tibet, “Containing the ‘eastward movement of Tibetan mysticism’; Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, “Tightening the Noose”; ibid., “Undercover in Larung Gar”; US State Department, “Religious Freedom Report”; Batke, “PRC Religious Policy”; DuBois Citation2017, “China’s Religion Law”; and Masláková et al., “The Catholic Church”.
5. Khenpo Sodargye, “Biography”.
6. Ibid. These include Living through Suffering《苦才是人生》, Achieve by Doing《做才是得到》, What Makes You Busy?《你在忙什么》, and Youth is Cruel《残酷才是青春》.
7. Khenpo Sodargye: “Talks”.
8. e.g. the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Kṣitigarbha Sūtra, the Bequeathed Teachings Sūtra (Fu chui ban niepan lüe shuojiao jie jing), the Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa, and the Platform Sūtra of the Sixth Patriarch (Liuzu Tanjing).
9. A Qing-dynasty character-building booklet for children based on Confucian principles.
10. Jamyang, “A Spontaneous Song of Victory”, 39.
11. Gayley, “Heart Advice”, 17–36.
12. Ibid., 25.
13. See for example McMahan, Buddhist Modernism; Lopez, Buddhism and Science; and Hein & Prebish (eds.), Buddhism in the Modern World.
14. The importance of presenting religion in a manner that appeals to science in mainland Chinese universities is demonstrated in a paper on the perceptions of Chinese university students concerning the relevance of religion in relation to science. See Li et al. ‘Shaping the Religiosity of Chinese University Students’.
15. Tb: sa skya legs bshad, or legs par bshad pa rin po che’i gter.
16. The full title is A Treatise on Ethics for Kings: An Ornament for Rulers (Tb: Rgyal po’i lugs kyi bstan bcos sa gzhi skyong ba’i rgyan).
17. Gayley, “Heart Advice”, 17–36.
18. Cabezón, The Just King, xi.
19. Sakya Pandita’s legs bshad are the first of their kind in Tibet, based on the subhāṣita form of the traditional nīti treatises from India, or “eloquent sayings” concerning everyday secular affairs. Davenport (trans.), Ordinary Wisdom, 1.
20. Bianchi et al. Sino-Tibetan Buddhism; Esposito, Images of Tibet.
21. Yu, “Sino-Tibetan Buddhist Modernism”.
22. Bianchi, “The ‘Chinese Lama’”; “Tibet Fever”; “Nenghai’s Legacy”; and Kapstein, Buddhism between Tibet and China.
23. Bianchi, “The ‘Chinese Lama’”; ‘Tibet Fever’; and ‘Nenghai’s Legacy’.
24. Yu, “Sino-Tibetan Buddhist Modernism”.
25. Bianchi et al. Sino-Tibetan Buddhism; Esposito, Images of Tibet.
26. The term “Sino-Tibetan Buddhism” may particularly be sensitive in the current context, with new directives by the CCP to “Sinicize” all forms of religion in China, including Tibetan Buddhism, and wider efforts to Sinicize Tibetan culture. See US State Department, “Religious Freedom Report”, 50.
27. See Esposito, M, “rDzogs chen in China: From Chan to ‘Tibetan Tantrism’ in Fahai Lama’s (1920–1991) Footsteps”, in Esposito, Images of Tibet, 473–548.
28. Bianchi, “Nenghai’s Legacy”, Tuttle, Making of Modern China, Wu, Esoteric Buddhism in China.
29. Bianchi, “Tantric Rebirth”, 45.
30. Bianchi “The ‘Chinese Lama’”, 296.
31. e.g. regarding language in the tantras that is of a sexual or gruesome nature. Ibid., 316.
32. Bianchi, “A Gelugpa Nunnery”, 130–141, 136.
33. Khenpo Sodargye, “Relationship between Chan and Dzogchen”.
34. Respect, tolerance, trustworthiness, diligence, and benevolence (respectively, gong, 恭，kuan, 寬，xin, 信，min, 敏，hui, 惠).
35. In the Tibetan context, the development of a virtuous personality is for the ultimate purpose of liberation, as HH Sakya Trizin notes, with ethical conduct being ‘both a cause and result of purification’ at all stages of the Buddhist path. Cf. Davenport (trans.), Ordinary Wisdom, xi.
36. This state-led, Confucian-inspired ‘public religion’ has been further strengthened under Xi Jinping, who has emphasised that a combination of CCP rule and Chinese cultural tradition are the building blocks for a more modernized Chinese nation. Dessein, “Confucian Religious Nationalism”, 199–231, 222.
37. For one of many examples, the one-child policy which gave rise, in part, to the very individualism Khenpo seeks to address.
38. A term synonymous with “socialism with Chinese characteristics”, aimed at greater state involvement in and control over all forms of religion. See Batke, ‘PRC Religious Policy’, 1; Masláková et al., ‘The Catholic Church’, 6.
39. Bakte, “PRC Religious Policy”, 7.
40. Tb: thabs; Ch: fangbian; Skt: upāya.
41. https://www.khenposodargye.org/and. https://www.zhihuihai.net/, respectively.
42. See Esler, Tibetan Buddhism, 41–69.
43. See ibid, 194–195.
44. Sodargye, “The Analects”, 索达吉堪布, ‘论语’.
45. Ibid.
46. Ibid.
47. Ibid.
48. Abidharma, Vinaya, Buddhist Logic, Madhyamaka and Prajñāpāramitā.
49. Ch: Yueguang Pusa; Skt: Chandraprabha.
50. (c. 521–481 BC) Confucius’ favorite disciple.
51. Ch: Rutong, Skt: Mānava or Mānavaka, an emanation of Sakyamuni Buddha in a previous life, when he practiced as a bodhisattva. Nichiren Buddhist Library, “Learned Youth”.
52. For more on the early Buddhist representation of Confucius as Rutong bodhisattva, see Matsumura, ‘The Dīpaṃkara Buddha Prophecy’; Zhang, Kongzi Da Cidian, 19; and Hodous (ed.), Chinese Buddhist Terms, 446.
53. One of the principle disciples of the Buddha.
54. Khenpo Sodargye, “The Analects”, 索达吉堪布, ‘论语’.
55. Ibid.
56. Ibid.
57. e.g. His composition of The Epic of Gesar of Ling, based on the oral tradition of Tibet; his advice for just governance to the king of Dergé; and his works on astrology and divination, medicine, painting, poetry, and sculpture.
58. Khenpo advises practitioners elsewhere in his teaching on Di Zi Gui that although some people think this text is only for children and therefore they do not need to learn it, this is incorrect thinking. It is beneficial for developing a good personality and ‘worldly intelligence’ (世俗的智力, shisu de zhili). At the same time, however, he advises against thinking that if one studies a bit of Confucius they are at the right level for Buddhist studies. He adds that we also need to steer clear of the claim that Confucius said the same things as the Buddha. See 弟子规01 - 索达吉堪布.
59. Khenpo Sodargye, “The Analects”. It is important to note the phrase “zuo ren” in Chinese can be used for applications other than within a strictly Confucian context, and its Confucian origins are somewhat questionable. The phrase is often used, for example, by the CCP, when admonishing Chinese citizens to act in accordance with their presumed role of citizen. Concerning the equating of wei ren (為仁) as “zuo ren”, see Li, “Li as Cultural Grammar”, 316.
60. Khenpo is presumably referring here to Gu’s The Discourses and Sayings of Confucius.
61. Khenpo Sodargye, “The Analects”, 索达吉堪布, ‘论语’.
62. Ibid.
63. Sakya Pandita’s Advice is divided into the following sections: an examination of the wise, noble, and foolish, both the foolish and the wise; an examination of bad conduct, natural tendencies, unseemly tendencies, and deeds; and an examination of the Dharma. Tb: mkhas pa brtags pa, ya rabs brtags pa, blun po brtags pa, spel ma brtags pa, ngan spyod brtags pa, rang bzhin gyi tshul brtags pa, mi rigs pa’i tshul brtags pa, bya ba brtags pa, chos brtags pa. See Davenport (trans.), Ordinary Wisdom, and Legs par bshad pa rin po che’i gter. Patrul Rinpoche’s work outlines the whole path to enlightenment, from the external preliminaries through to the internal preliminaries, including guru yoga, and finally transference of consciousness. See Padmakara Translation Group, My Perfect Teacher. Tb: Rdzogs pa chen po klong chen snying tig gi sngon ’gro’i khrid yig kun bzang bla ma’i zhal lung zhes by aba bzhugs so.
64. However, he stops short of master Ouyi Zhixu’s interpretation of the Analects speaking of ‘no self’ (Ch: wu wo), which he sees as reading too much into the text. Although Khenpo draws readily from the commentary of this seventeenth-century Chinese Buddhist scholar during his teaching of the Analects, it would appear that Ouyi’s deliberate syncretic incorporation of Confucian ideas into Tiantai, Pure Land, and Chan Buddhism, are a step beyond the parallelisms being presented here by Khenpo. For an exploration of Ouyi Zhixu’s argument from the point of view that “all religions lead to the same end”, in reference to the Three Teachings (San jiao – Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism), see Chu, “Syncretism Reconsidered”, 71.
65. Awakening mind, employed for the benefit of others.
66. Khenpo Sodargye, “The Analects”, 索达吉堪布, ‘论语’.
67. Ibid.
68. Ibid.
69. Also known as Zeng Shen, a Chinese philosopher and disciple of Confucius.
70. 曾子曰。吾日三省吾身、爲人謀而不忠乎。與朋友交而不信乎。傳不習乎. Muller (trans.).
71. Khenpo Sodargye, “The Analects”.
72. …人不知而不慍、不亦君子乎, Muller (trans.).
73. Records of the Grand Historian, by Sima Qian (c. 145-c. 86 BCE).
74. Khenpo’s rendition of the story is taken from Shiji 47.1921. Defoort notes this account is also referenced in four other Han dynasty texts. Defoort, “A Homeless Dog”, 6.
75. 子曰。不患人之不己知、患不知人也, Muller (trans.).
76. Khenpo Sodargye, “The Analects”, 索达吉堪布, ‘论语’.
77. Quoted from verse sixty-seven of Sakya Pandita’s Advice (Davenport (trans.), Ordinary Wisdom, 74.
78. “Always ignoring the interests of others is to behave in the same way as cattle. Is it not possible even for animals merely to acquire food and drink?”, ibid. Tb: rtag tu gshan don mi sems pa, de yi spyod pa phyugs dang mtshungs, bza’ btung “ba” shig dud ’gros kyang, bsgrub par nus pa ma yin nam. Legs par bshad pa rin po che’i gter, 122.
79. Khenpo Sodargye, “The Analects”, 索达吉堪布, ‘论语’.
80. Ibid.
81. Padmakara (trans.), My Perfect Teacher, 200.
82. Khenpo Sodargye, “The Analects”, 索达吉堪布, ‘论语’.
83. … 主忠信。無友不如己者, Muller (trans.).
84. Padmakara (trans.), My Perfect Teacher, 241.
85. Davenport (trans.), Ordinary Wisdom, 33. Tb: mkhas pa yon tan dpag med kyang, gzhan gyi yon tan chung ngu len, de ltar rgyun du spyad pa yis, myur du thams cad mkyen par ’gro. Legs par bshad pa rin po che’i gter, 53.
86. Khenpo Sodargye, “The Analects”, 索达吉堪布, ‘论语’.
87. Ibid.
88. “Flattering” or “ingratiating” (諂, chan) is the original term used in this verse.
89. Khenpo Sodargye, “The Analects”, 索达吉堪布, ‘论语’.
90. 如切如磋、如琢如磨. Muller (trans.).
91. Ibid.
92. Ibid.
93. In particular sexual and gruesome imagery as noted earlier.
94. “Is it not a pleasure to learn, and when timely to practice what you have learned? To have friends come from afar? Is it not gentlemanly to not become resentful if no one takes notice of your learning?” 子曰。學而時習之、不亦說乎。 有朋自遠方來、不亦樂乎。人不知而不慍、不亦君子乎。Muller (trans.).
95. Ch: xiqi; Tb: bag chags; Skt: vāsanā.
96. Khenpo Sodargye, “The Analects”, 索达吉堪布, ‘论语’.
97. Padmakara (trans.), My Perfect Teacher, xxxv.
98. Khenpo Sodargye: “The Analects”, 索达吉堪布, ‘论语’.
99. Ibid.
100. Davenport (trans.), Ordinary Wisdom, 40. Tb: blo gros ldan pa gnyis bgros na, blo gros legs pa gzhan ’byung srid, yung ba dang ni tsha la las, kha dog gzhan zhig skye bar ’gyur. Legs par bshad pa rin po che’i gter, 64.
101. Khenpo Sodargye, “The Analects”, 索达吉堪布, ‘论语’.
102. Ibid.
103. Khenpo both directly and implicitly portrays the model of the ideal “spiritual friend” – the guru – in his teaching, as outlined in Patrul Rinpoche’s The Words of My Perfect Teacher, in the section on examining a teacher. Padmakara (trans.), My Perfect Teacher, 139.
104. ‘If you would govern a state of a thousand chariots … you must pay strict attention to business, be true to your word, be economical in expenditure and love the people. You should employ them … according to the seasons.’ (子曰。道千乘之國、敬事而信、節用而愛人。使民以時。Muller (trans.).
105. Khenpo Sodargye, “The Analects”, 索达吉堪布, ‘论语’.
106. “Compassionate rulers love their subjects as they would an only child. They care for their followers even at the cost of their own wealth and life.” The Just King, p. 123.
107. Khenpo Sodargye, “The Analects”, 索达吉堪布, ‘论语’.
108. You Zi said: “In the actual practice of propriety, flexibility is important. This is what the ancient kings did so well – both the greater and the lesser used flexibility. Yet there are occasions when this does not apply: If you understand flexibility and use it, but don’t structure yourself with propriety, things won’t go well.” (有子曰。禮之用、和爲貴。先王之道、斯爲美、小大由之。有所不行。知和而和、不以禮節之、亦不可行也。). Muller (trans.).
109. Khenpo Sodargye, “The Analects”.
110. See the Buddha Dharma Education Association, “Sigālovāda Sutta”.
111. Duke Jing of Qi (reigned 547–490 BC)?
112. Also known as Yan Ying.
113. Khenpo Sodargye, “The Analects”, 索达吉堪布, ‘论语’.
114. Khenpo seems to draw here on verse seventy-two of Sakya Pandita’s Advice: “Even if he is important, an arrogant fool [w]ho makes promises is disastrous. By giving away a one-step measure of land, Bali lost the three realms.” Davenport (trans.), Ordinary Wisdom, 76. Tb: dregs bcas blun po khas len chan, chen po yin yang nyams par ‘gyur, gom pa gang gi sab yin pas. Legs par bshad pa rin po che’i gter, 125.
115. Khenpo Sodargye, “The Analects”, 索达吉堪布, ‘论语’.
116. Ibid.
117. See Si Shu Ouyi Jie 四書蕅益解 [Ouyi’s Commentary on the Four Books]. Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, 30.
118. Mencius 2A:3. Muller (trans.).
119. Khenpo Sodargye, “The Analects”, 索达吉堪布, ‘论语’.
120. The Master said: “If you govern the people legalistically and control them by punishment, they will avoid crime, but have no personal sense of shame. If you govern them by means of virtue and control them with propriety, they will gain their own sense of shame, and thus correct themselves.” (子曰。道之以政、齊之以刑、民免而無恥。道之以德、齊之以禮、有恥且格) Muller (trans.).
Sakya Pandita similarly makes reference to shame in verse 252 of his Advice: ‘As long as one maintains a sense of shame, [o]ne’s personal qualities are like the finest jewels; [b]ut when shame is eclipsed, these qualities [b]ecome partial, and one’s speech coarsens.’ Davenport (trans.), Ordinary Wisdom, 100. Tb: ji srid ngo tsha yod gyur pa, de srid yon tan rgyan gyi mchog, ngo tsha brgal na yon tan nyid, phyogs su byas teg tam ngan ’phel. Legs par bshad pa rin po che’i gter, 172.
121. Sakya Pandita notes the impossibility of “taming” unreasonable or rough people through mild means: “Rough people are tamed by roughness; [h]ow can they be peacefully subdued? Boils are removed by burning and cutting; [m]ild treatment just makes them worse.” Ibid., 122. Tb: rtsub pas rtsub pa ’thul ’gyur gyi, zhi bas ’dul ba ga la nus, phol mig bsregs dang bcad pas gdon. Legs par bshad pa rin po che’i gter, 210.
122. Khenpo Sodargye, “The Analects”, 索达吉堪布, ‘论语’.
123. Ibid.
124. e.g. the imprisonment of large numbers of religious practitioners and Tibetans and Uyghurs.
125. Emperor Taizu (927–976)?
126. Khenpo Sodargye, “The Analects”, 索达吉堪布, ‘论语’. This saying reads as follows in Tibetan: gzhan gyi sdug bsngal ni khyod kyi la ba’i steng du me stag zegs pa dang ‘dra bsa. gal te khod kyis sdug bsngal de bzod bsran byed ‘dod na. rang nyid kyi skyi pags steng du me ‘bar ba dang “dra bo”.
127. In The Words of My Perfect Teacher, in the outer preliminaries concerning the proper way to listen to spiritual teaching, Patrul Rinpoche notes the importance of the spiritual teacher, even exceeding the buddhas, in that he is the only one able to reveal in the disciple the Buddha-nature. Padmakara (trans.), My Perfect Teacher, 9–10.
128. i.e. Duanmu Ci.
129. 己所不欲、勿施於人, quoted from the book of 顏淵 (Yan Yuan), 12.2. Muller (trans.).
130. Khenpo Sodargye, “The Analects”, 索达吉堪布, ‘论语’.
131. Ibid.
132. A minor disciple of Confucius.
133. Ziqin asked Zigong: “When our teacher (Confucius) arrives in any country, he invariably finds out everything about its government. Does he seek this information? Or is it given to him?’ Zigong said, ‘Our teacher gets it by being cordial, upright, courteous, frugal, and humble. His way of getting information is quite different from that of other men.” (子禽問於子貢曰。夫子至於是邦也、必聞其政、求之與 抑與之與 。子貢曰。夫子溫、良、恭、儉、讓以得之。夫子之求之也、其諸異乎人之求之與). Muller (trans.).
134. Khenpo Sodargye, “The Analects”, 索达吉堪布, ‘论语’; Gayley “Heart Advice”, 20–21.
135. Khenpo Sodargye, “The Analects”, 索达吉堪布, ‘论语’.
136. Ibid.
137. The Master said: “When your father is alive, observe his will. When your father is dead observe his former actions. If, for three years you do not change from the ways of your father, you can be called a ‘real son’ (xiao; 孝).” (子曰。父在、觀其志。父沒、觀其行。三年無改於父之道、可謂孝矣。) Muller (trans.).
138. Khenpo Sodargye, “The Analects”, 索达吉堪布, ‘论语’.
139. Ibid.
140. Ibid.
141. Ibid.
142. Ibid.
143. Ibid.
144. Ibid.
145. Esler, Tibetan Buddhism.
146. For these and other practitioner views on Confucianism, see “The Confucian Revival and Tibetan Buddhism”, in Esler, Tibetan Buddhism, 71–108.
147. Khenpo Sodargye, “The Key to Happiness”.
148. Khenpo Sodargye, “Ethics in the Age of Social Media”.
149. Khenpo Sodargye, “The Mysterious Journey”.
150. Muller (trans.), Book One, verse nine.
151. Although these took on new Buddhist meanings after the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet.
152. Khenpo Sodargye, “The Analects”, 索达吉堪布, ‘论语’.
153. ‘Ghosts’ here is not in reference to a shadow of the self as portrayed in Chinese folklore, but reconstituted beings whose existence is as substantive as a human being or any of the other being in the six realms of Saṃsāra.
154. A practice aimed at “cutting through” hindrances and obscurations, including the ego.
155. Khenpo Sodargye, “The Analects”, 索达吉堪布, ‘论语’.
156. By writing the names of ancestors on commemorative shrines, setting up prayer flags, or chiselling maṇi stones.
157. Khenpo Sodargye, “The Analects”, 索达吉堪布, ‘论语’.
158. He notes that the parinirvāṇa ceremony of Tsongkhapa has been held over six hundred times since his death, and that of Mipham Rinpoche (died 1912) over one hundred times.
159. Khenpo Sodargye, “The Analects”, 索达吉堪布, ‘论语’.
160. i.e. not a direct continuation of the self as it exists in this life.
161. Fisher, From Comrades to Bodhisattvas, 208.
162. Esler, Tibetan Buddhism, 93.
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Joshua Esler
Joshua Esler is a researcher and senior lecturer in Asian Studies at Sheridan Institute of Higher Education. His research is focused on the diffusion of Tibetan Buddhism among Chinese communities, both in historic and contemporary contexts, the subject of his book Tibetan Buddhism among Han Chinese (2020). His wider interests include the diffusion of Buddhism across maritime and land trade routes, and how this in turn influenced developments in both Chinese and Tibetan Buddhism. In line with these latter interests, he is also a director of the Indian Ocean Research Centre at Sheridan Institute, and co-editor of the book Indian Ocean Imaginings (2023), and a forthcoming book on faith and identity in the Indian Ocean region (2024).