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Entering the Way of the Great Vehicle

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Rongzom Chökyi Zangpo wrote this treatise in the eleventh century during the renaissance of Buddhism in Tibet that was spurred by the influx of new translations of Indian Buddhist texts, tantras, and esoteric transmissions from India. For political and religious reasons, adherents of the “new schools” of Tibetan Buddhism fostered by these new translations cast the older tradition of lineages and transmissions as impure and decadent. Rongzompa composed the work translated here in order to clearly and definitively articulate how Dzogchen was very much in line with the wide variety of sutric and tantric teachings espoused by all the Tibetan schools. Using the kinds of philosophic and linguistic analyses favored by the new schools, he demonstrates that the Great Perfection is indeed the culmination and maturation of the Mahāyāna, the Great Vehicle.

The central topic of the work is the notion of illusory appearance, for when one realizes deeply that all appearances are illusory, one realizes also that all appearances are in that respect equal. The realization of the equality of all phenomena is said to be the Great Perfection approach to the path, which frees one from both grasping at and rejecting appearances. However, for those unable to remain effortlessly within the natural state, in the final chapter Rongzompa also describes how paths with effort are included in the Great Perfection approach. (Source: Shambhala Publications)

Citation	Sur, Dominic, trans. Entering the Way of the Great Vehicle: Dzogchen as the Culmination of the Mahāyāna. By Rongzom Chökyi Zangpo (rong zom chos kyi bzang po). Boulder, CO: Snow Lion Publications, 2017.

ContentsSources

• Acknowledgmentsix
• Translator s Introductioni
  • The Audacity of Rongzom’s Worki
  • The Context for Rongzom’s Work2
  • The Story of Rongzom s Life6
  • Rongzompa’s Entering the Way of the Great Vehicle8
    • Summary of Chapter 112
    • Summary of Chapter 215
    • Summary of Chapter 319
    • Summary of Chapter 422
    • Summary of Chapter 526
    • Summary of Chapter 631
  • On the English Translation34

• The Commentarial Treatise Entitled Entering the Way of the Great Vehicle by
     Rongzom Chökyi Zangpo

• 1. The Reality of Affliction39
  • The Śrāvaka System39
  • The Pratyekabuddha System42
  • The Yogācāra System42
  • The Madhyamaka System44
  • The Madhyamaka and Guhyamantra Systems53
  • Conclusion56

• 2. Objections and Replies59
  • First Objection: Concerning the Reality of Illusions59
  • Second Objection: Concerning the Reality of Causality63
  • Third Objection: Concerning the Reality of Pure Phenomena66
  • Fourth Objection: Concerning the Reality of Samsara79

• 3. Distinguishing the Perfected System of the Illusory in the Great Perfection
      from the Other Vehicles That Retain the Nomenclature of Illusion89
  • First Objection: Concerning the Reality of Confused Appearances89
  • Second Objection: Concerning Reality in an Illusory World91
  • Third Objection: Concerning the Yogācāra View of Concepts99
  • Some Supplementary Explanation concerning the Differences between the
       Aforementioned Views with respect to Limitations and Power105
  • Great Perfection as a Vehicle106
  • Great Perfection as a Transmission106
  • Great Perfection as a Doctrinal Discourse107
  • Great Perfection as a Continuum107
  • Great Perfection as a Hidden Intention108
  • Great Perfection as Intimate Advice108

• 4. The Great Perfection Approach to the Path Is Not Undermined by Reason111
  • Bodhicitta111
  • Conceptual Frameworks, Appearance, and Nature112
  • General Systems for Such Things as the Establishment and Negation of
    Identity and Difference115
  • On the Two Methods of [Establishing] Proofs116
  • Grammatical Treatises122
  • Logical Treatises122
  • Conclusion126

• 5. Writings on Great Perfection129
  • The Nature of Bodhicitta129
  • The Greatness of Bodhicitta129
  • Deviations and Obscurations130
  • Methods for Settling Bodhicitta130
  • From the Writings of Great Perfection130
    • Eight Additional Rubrics131
    • All Phenomena Are Seen to Be Perfected within the Single Sphere of
         Bodhicitta131
    • All Confused Appearance Is Seen as the Play of Samantabhadra132
    • All Sentient Beings Are Seen as the Profound Field of Awakening132
    • All Domains of Experience Are Seen as Naturally Occurring Self-
         Appearing Gnosis133
    • All Phenomena Seen as Perfected within the Nature of the Five
         Types of Greatness133
    • The Six Great Spheres137
    • The Elimination of Deviations and Obscurations138
    • Twenty-Three Points of Deviation143
    • The Seven Obscurations155
    • The Three Beings158
    • The Three Great Assurances159
    • The Three Fundamental Esoteric Precepts159
    • Resolution through Bodhicitta160
    • What Is Resolved in Great Perfection160
    • The Disclosure of Methods for Consolidating Bodhicitta161
    • Disclosing Those Points through Scriptural Sources164
  • On Critical Impediments to Concentration175
  • Criteria for the Attainment of Mastery over the Ordinary Mind180
  • On the Signs of Warmth184
  • On the Qualities of Bodhicitta185

• 6. Instructions on Paths Encountered through Methods Connected with
      Effort for Those Who Are Unable to Remain Effortlessly within the Natural
      State according to the Great Perfection Approach191
  • Other Paths as Doors to Great Perfection191
  • Six Faults Connected with Concentration192
  • Conceptuality193
  • Nine Obscurations Associated with the Path194
  • The Eightfold Concentration That Eliminates the Five Faults193
  • Six-Limbed Yoga199
  • Five Signs of Mental Stability201
  • After Attaining Such Signs of Mental Stability202

• Closing Verses209

• Appendix: Tibetan Names in Phonetic and Transliterated Forms211
• Abbreviations213
• Notes215
• Works Cited239
• Index243

1. Rong zom chos kyi bzang po. theg pa chen po'i tshul la 'jug pa zhes bya ba'i bstan bcos. In rong zom chos bzang gi gsung 'bum, Vol. 1: 415-555. Chengdu: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1999.