Human transcription — may contain minor errors.
An explanation of the Three Precepts based on Sūtra alone
by Ngawang Belden (1797-?)
(translated by I. Durovic)
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2 The explanation of Bodhisattva Precepts
2.1 The two discordant factors with those
2.1.1 The section of defeats
The 1st root downfall of a Bodhisattva: Praising oneself or debasing others
Should a Bodhisattva vow holder, for his own sake, through desiring specifically a
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donation, have knowingly uttered any words praising himself and uttered any words debasing another endowed with qualities who is a locus of respect [to] a being who is of a similar type with himself and who understands the meaning, then, after the other party has understood the meaning, that downfall which is the actual base, having fulfilled the great binding factors, is the root downfall of either praising oneself or debasing others.
The 2nd root downfall of a Bodhisattva: not giving Dharma or wealth
Should a Bodhisattva through being oppressed with miserliness not give either Dharma or wealth to dispel the indigence in either Dharma or wealth of a beggar, lacking what he at present has, who is seeking for either of these, and who has come correctly in front of oneself, while he is present in front of oneself, then, upon having taken that decision, that downfall which is the actual base, having fulfilled the great binding factors, is the root downfall of not giving either Dharma or wealth out of miserliness.
The 3rd root downfall of a Bodhisattva: Not heeding despite confession
After having become angry with a being of a similar type to oneself, the downfall of either:
[i.] uttering harsh words and, let alone this, without giving up one’s anger, causing it to increase and, being overwhelmed by it beating, casting in jail and so forth as well as humbling them through violence, striking with iron rods and putting in chains
or:
[ii.] under the power of a vindictiveness which clings to a deep and broad sense of anger about former harm not relinquishing anger thinking that one will not listen to words [of apology] and not accepting to be forbearing towards one who conveys an entreaty for forbearance, at the right time and in accordance with Dharma, while thinking at present with heartfelt regret about previously inflicted harm.
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is the actual base, which having fulfilled the great binding factors, is the root downfall of either:
[i.] beating another out of anger
or:
[ii.] not accepting another’s regrets.
The 4th root downfall of a Bodhisattva: Abandoning the Great Vehicle
The root downfall which is the actual base having fulfilled the great binding factors through either :
[i]vilifying through saying: “The Basket of the Bodhisattvas which teaches the collection of the vast and the profound is not meaningful or is not Dharma” or
[ii] teaching others evil teachings or
[iii] spurious treatises which agree with those which one enjoys oneself, or
[iv] introducing others to these views
is the 4th root downfall of either abandoning the Great Vehicle or teaching spurious holy dharma.
The 5th root downfall of a Bodhisattva: Appropriating donations to the [Triple] Gem
The root downfall which is the actual base having fulfilled the great binding factors upon generating a mind of ownership through stealing or causing the theft of substances which are owned by any of the Three conventional or ultimate Gems for one’s one sake or in connection with the afflictions, is the root downfall of stealing donations to the Triple Gem.
The 6th root downfall of a Bodhisattva: Abandoning Dharma
In a similar fashion for the remainder: that [downfall] which occurs upon having deprecated the Collection of Sutras which explain the Definite Emergence of either the Hearers, Solitary Realizers or Bodhisattvas as perfect by saying :
These are not the utterances of the Buddha.
is abandoning Dharma.
The 7th root downfall of a Bodhisattva: Depriving of the saffron robes
Having either:
[i] deprived of the saffron robes a person who had been ordained following the Buddha or
[ii] caused to fall from ordination, i.e. to return to the lay state
is [depriving of the saffron robes] while thrashing or beating those who are ordained is taught to be included within the 5th downfall of the “Grounds of the Bodhisattvas”.
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The 8th root downfall of a Bodhisattva: Engaging in the 5 uninterrupted crimes
Engaging in the uninterrupted crimes is having engaged in any of the 5 uninterrupted crimes, here, in addition, it is taught that the four uninterrupted crimes excluding schism are included within the 5th downfall.
One must investigate whether these two root downfalls require that both the object and the base be beings of a similar type or not.
The 9th root downfall of a Bodhisattva: Wrong views
To deprecate by saying:
Past and future lives do not exist or that virtuous and non-virtuous karma and effect do not exist.
is holding wrong views.
The 10th root downfall of a Bodhisattva: Destroying cities
Destroying places is to destroy either cities, villages, countries or lands with a mindset beset by the afflictions.
The 11th root downfall of a Bodhisattva: Teaching emptiness to the untrained
When after teaching emptiness, which is bereft of all elaborations, to an unexamined vessel:
[i] a person who has generated a mind [wishing for] Perfect Enlightenment and
[ii] should emptiness be taught to him, will be afraid,
fear arises and, because of that, he turns away from the mind [wishing for] Perfect Enlightenment, generating a mind [wishing for] the Enlightenment of the Lower Vehicle, that [downfall] is explaining the Profound to those who are not [suitable] vessels.
The 12th root downfall of a Bodhisattva: Turning away from Perfect Enlightenment
Should a person who has engaged in the Great Vehicle after generating the mind wishing for Perfect Enlightenment turn another away from Perfect Enlightenment saying:
You are unable to practice the Six Perfections and should generate the mind of a Hearer or a Solitary Realizer who is unable to become enlightened and becomes liberated from cyclic existence !
The [downfall] which has occurred through generating a mind of the Lower Vehicle is turning away from the Great Vehicle.
The 13th root downfall of a Bodhisattva: Abandoning Individual Liberation
The [downfall] of causing a person who is training correctly in the ethics of Individual Liberation and the Vinaya to relinquish the precepts and vows of Individual Liberation through saying:
What is the point of pure Vinaya ethics ? After generating the mind [wishing] for Perfect Enlightenment you will gain the Great Vehicle and will purify all the faulty behavior of the three doors which has arisen conditioned by the afflictions.
is abandoning Individual Liberation.
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The 14th root downfall of a Bodhisattva: Deprecating Hearers
That [downfall] of deprecating through thinking from the depths [of one’s heart]:
However much one trains in the Lower Vehicle, it will not be possible to abandon all afflictions.
is the downfall of abandoning the Dharma of the realizations of the Lower Vehicle.
An excursus
That downfall which occurs when lies which are uttered regarding:
[i] qualities which one lacks or
[ii] faults which another lacks
under the power of desire for:
[i] whatever donations for oneself or
[ii] out of envy for whatever donations given to another
to either:
[i] a being wishing for the lower grounds or
[ii] a being on the lower grounds
are understood, is the [downfall] of praising oneself or debasing others. The “Highway to Enlightenment” says in this context:
When the Master Śantideva quotes the defeats mentioned in the “Bodhisattva Grounds”, [he] does not quote the first defeat inasmuch as he considers it synonymous with the the defeat taught here. One must act in accordance with the meaning explained in the “Bodhisattva Grounds” and, since, if one takes the “Bodhisattva Grounds” literally, that is not included in it, one might wonder whether one should quote that from the Bodhisattva Grounds or not.
The 15th root downfall of a Bodhisattva: Lying about the Profound
After teaching the Dharma of emptiness to a being who understands the meaning, the [downfall] which occurs after another who understands the meaning has been told the lie:
I have taught it out of love for you after having directly realized it, and should you also meditate in this way, you will become like me !
while oneself, with thoughts beset by an affliction other than envy, is lacking in such a realization is the downfall of a worldly Guru uttering lies.
The 16th root downfall of a Bodhisattva: Taking donations to the Three Supreme
When [donations] to ascetics surcease because of dwindling wealth, that is taking akin to the previously explained [spoliation] of the donations of any of the Three Jewels alternatively, that downfall which arises after taking possession, through theft or inducing theft, of the substances which were donated, i.e. whatever donations were made to persons ranging from the three Bhikşus downwards, is the downfall of taking donations made to the Three Supreme.
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The 17th root downfall of a Bodhisattva: Formulating bad ethics
That downfall of having bad ethics is the downfall which arises from giving victuals to to Bhikşus who practice Dharma after having either stolen the four substances which should not be enjoyed:
[i] with harmful thoughts, from those with faulty ethics arisen from numerous afflictions and who have relinquished mental attention concordant with calm abiding and insight
or
[ii] with thoughts loathing abandonment, from a Bhikşu who, while striving at abandonment, is not an Ārya,
The 18th root downfall of a Bodhisattva: Relinquishing Bodhicitta
The root downfall of relinquishing engaging Bodhicitta is to think:
I cannot attain Peerless Enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings.
The number of downfalls:
Within these 19 downfalls:
[i] the first 4 are taught in the “Bodhisattva Grounds”
[ii] the following 14 in the “Sūtra of the Heart of Space”
[iii] the last in the “Sūtra of Skillful Means”
Although there are 19 in this manner, since the 1st explained in the “Bodhisattva Grounds” and the 11th explained in the “Sūtra of the Heart of Space” are synonymous, they are known as the 18 root downfalls.
Exceptional severity of the 9th and 18th root downfall
Among these, since the mere occurrence of the relinquishing Engaging Bodhicitta and the arising of wrong views is sufficient to become a root downfall, the great binding factors do not have to be complete, while for the others they become root downfalls should the binding factors be complete while they become downfalls of small or middling contamination if performed with small or middling binding factors. The faults belonging to section of defeats have been explained.
The difference between the 3 [levels of] binding factors
If after the motivation has arisen and, at once after the completion of the actual base, all 4 binding factors are complete, i.e.:
[i] there does not arise even the slightest sense of either shame which hesitates for one’s own sake, or embarrassment which hesitates for another’s sake, regarding that wrong behavior and, in addition,
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[ii] one does not turn away from the desire for that behavior and
[iii] the mind does not turn away from both the satisfaction which delights in that wrong behavior and the joy which delights in applying to that wrong behavior and
[iv] one sees that wrong behavior as beneficial, not viewing it as a fault
then this is a great binding factor.
[i] If viewing as a fault is present, even should all the other [binding factors] be complete, it is said to be a small binding factor while,
[ii] if viewing as a fault is not present, even should all the other [binding factors] be absent, it is said to be a middling binding factor.
______________________________
. This text is at present accessible in the Drepung Loseling Mu tig ‘phreng ba collection. It is listed in vol. 7 of Ngag dbang dpal ldan’s “Collected Works” to which access is, unfortunately, at present not possible.
. Ngag dbang dpal ldan (1797-?) was a Hahl Mongolian scholar who became the Dharma Lord (chos rje) of Urga in 1836. Little is know of his life apart from the fact that he travelled to Tibet in 1843 in relation with the passing of the 5th Jetsün Dampa.
. p. 9 of the English translation of the “Six-Session Guru Yoga”, TBI, Adelaide (2011). All subtitles in italics are by the translator.
. The 4 binding factors are:
(1) not viewing as a fault,
(2) not turning away from the desire to behave like that,
(3) joy and satisfaction,
(4) the absence of shame and embarrassment.
. op. cit. p. 9
. op. cit. p. 9
. Archaic usage of གོ་ར།
. Reading མཐོ་འཚམ instead of འཐོ་འཚམས།
. Reading རྣམ་པར་འཚེ་བ instead of རྣམ་པར་འཚོ་བ།
. མཐུན་པ།is translated once as “right” and once as “similar” in accordance with English usage. The same term is used in Tibetan with the meaning of “appropriate”.
. op. cit. p. 9
. op. cit. p. 10
. op. cit. p. 10
. i.e. systematically inserting “The root downfall which is the actual base having fulfilled the great binding factors . . .”
. སྐུར་བ་འདེབས་པ has a very precise technical meaning in Tibetan which, unfortunately, no English verb, to my knowledge, conveys. It means: “asserting that an existent is non-existent”.
. The meaning here is to force monastics to disrobe and return to the lay state, which occurred periodically in both Chinese and Tibetan history when the monastic institution was considered as a threat to the state.
. op. cit. p. 10
. Asanga’s Bodhisattva-bhūmi.
. མཚམས་མེད་ལྔ། These five uninterrupted crimes, often called the “five heinous crimes”, are:
1. Patricide
2. Matricide
3. Killing an Arhat
4. Shedding the blood of a Buddha
5. Causing a schism in the Sangha.
They are called “uninterrupted” crimes, because the wrong-doer is precipitated without any interruption directly into the lower realms.
. Of the “Grounds of the Bodhisattvas, Asanga’s Bodhisattva-bhūmi.
. op. cit. p. 10
. Actually if such wrong views are sincerely held, they cause the total collapse of Refuge in the mind-stream of the person who, at that points not only ceases to be a Buddhist but also loses simultaneously all three categories of vows: whatever lay or monastic vows they may have had, Bodhisattva vows and Tantric vows.
. op. cit. p. 10
. op. cit. p. 10
. op. cit. p. 10
. Ngawang Belden conflates this with “turning away from Perfect Enlightenment” which is the term used in the description of the 12th root Bodhisattva vow in the “Six-Session Guru Yoga”.
. op. cit. p. 10
. op. cit. p. 10
. op. cit. p. 9.
. Je Tsong kha pa’s “Highway to Enlightenment: an explanation of the Ethics of a Bodhisattva”, བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་བཤད་བྱང་ཆུབ་གཞུང་ལམ།, Je Tsong kha pa’s “Collected Works”, Zhöl edition, vol.1, pp. 519-734
. Asanga’s Bodhisattva-bhūmi.
. op. cit. p. 10
. i.e emptiness
. op. cit. p. 10
. i.e. in the 5th downfall: Appropriating donations to the [Triple] Gem
. The three Bhikşus, or the three fully-ordained monks, are a terminological division of Bhikşus into:
1. Monks merely bearing the signs of ordination.
2. Nominal monks
3. Authentic monks.
. op. cit. p. 10
. བཞིར་མ་ལོངས་པའིས་རྫས།
. Reading ཆད་ instead of བཅས།
. The presentation of the 17th downfall is very unclear in Tibetan.
. op. cit. p. 10
. Asanga’s Bodhisattva-bhūmi.
. The Akaśagarbha Sūtra, ནམ་མཁའའི་སྙིང་པོའི་མདོ Kangyur (sde dge par phud) Vol. 66, p. 529 – 568.w
. Tentatively identified as the Jnana-uttara-bodhisattva-pariprccha-parivarta-sūtra
. Phabongka Rinpoche does not detail the manner in which the 19 vows are summarized into 18 in his commentary on the Six-Session Guru Yoga (TBI, 2011, p. 22).
. i.e. the 18th root downfall.
. The 9th root downfall.
. དངོས་གཞི།
. འཛེམ་པ།
. The 4th binding factor
. The 2nd binding factor
. མགུ།
. The 3rd binding factor
. The 1st binding factor.
. i.e. the 1st binding factor is absent.
. i.e. the 1st binding factor is present.
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