DharmakaraThrangu Dharmakara Publications was founded by Thrangu Rinpoche at Namo Buddha Monastery in the year 2000. The committee was formed to produce books in Tibetan from the many teachings that Thrangu Rinpoche has given to students in foreign countries.
The teachings are being transcribed from the tapes that Namo Buddha Publications in the U.S. has collected. Teachings given to Thrangu Rinpoche’s monk and nun students as well as other lamas are being stored in the library for future transcribing and publishing.
The project has been underway for many years. There are hundreds of tapes needing to be transcribed. The Dharmakara building contains an office, a large computer room, an audio/visual library for all the monks, and rooms for the Dharmakara main staff.
The Publications committee has published the teachings and commentaries on important texts of great masters beginning with Thrangu Rinpoche’s teachings on Ngondro practice (the four foundations practices), teachings on Mahamudra, teachings on the Uttaratantrashastra (gyu lama). They also plan to publish a book in colloquial language intended for beginners to Buddhism.
In general, the spoken precepts of our Teacher Buddha were promulgated in the manner of questions and answers, piecemeal, in a variety of different circumstances and conditions. The sum total of these precepts is extremely vast, the related oral traditions are innumerable, and it is hard to understand and fully penetrate their meaning.
The great realized Masters who appeared in India and Tibet summarized the vast (scriptures) and composed commentarial treatises that extracted the profound points, so that certainty about the meaning of the Conqueror’s precepts could arise easily in the mind.
These commentarial treatises were propagated at religious institutions for monastics, for lay practitioners of Secret Mantra, and at monastic universities. These treatises were addressed to a scholarly audience; if one analyzes them, one finds that their meaning and purpose is proving their own school of thought and refuting that of others —for all of which one needs a solid base of profound learning. Likewise, if one examines the words, one finds that they are linked together by the rules of meter and poetry. This established tradition of presenting the points under discussion is complicated and very hard to understand for most non-specialized people.
Yet at present, it is of the greatest importance that it is not just those staying at religious centers and Buddhist universities who have a command of the essential points of Dharma, but that the great majority of the people can also gain access to them. If one makes things easier to understand by means of examples, proof, and so forth, they too may gain certainty about the Profound (meaning) and the Vast (activities), which is of the greatest importance. Discourses on Dharma can then be recorded on tapes, transcribed, entered in to computers and printed. The various items thus available in Tibetan may then be translated into Chinese and English; those already available in English can be translated in Chinese and, vice versa, those available in Chinese be can translated and edited to make a definitive English version.
In this way, by ‘crossing the fences’ of the different languages, those with genuine faith and devotion in the genuine Teaching will be able to understand the meaning of the Dharma, including the various practice instructions of the uncommon teachings, so that they will be able to practice them.
Amazing treatises that benefit advanced students are (already) available in numbers beyond imagination. Our present project is aimed at serving the non-specialized common people. It is not meant for the graduates at religious centers and monastic universities, but for those who enter the gate of Dharma for the first time, for newcomers who just recently became devoted to the Buddha’s teaching, so that those who have no idea of the actual way of the Dharma may gain that knowledge; and so that people with no practical Dharma experience may become people with the experience of regular practice.
Hence the Dharmakara (‘Sources of Dharma’, ‘Transmission History’) Translation Committee has been newly established. I request everyone’s kind assistance.
Written by the bearer of the name “Thrangu Tulku”.
May positive potential hereby increase.
Sarva mangalam.
Most powerful Lord of compassion, Avalokiteshvara, All-encompassing Glance,
Appearing in human guise, to those to be trained,
As the garland of the exalted ones renowned as Karmapa
In their successive rebirths, please bestow your excellence.
For some with faith in Dharma,
A good bond has been formed through words of Dharma.
Therefore, the collection of these words by “Source of Dharma”,
Is excellent, as it is the flourishing of Dharma.
These days, through the might of the unchanging, inspiring strength of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, many different kinds of people from all different countries have generated an irreversible faith in the genuine Dharma. Not an ignorant faith devoid of any reason, nor one-arisen through following deceitful friends. Rather, it stems from acquaintance with our Teacher, the fully enlightened Buddha Bhagawan, with the precepts taught by him, such as the Tri-pitaka (‘Three Baskets’) and so on, the special uncommon Buddhist teaching whereby the pain and suffering of people in this world can be quelled. They have developed stable faith and conviction that it is by depending on this excellent path a fine result will ultimately and definitely be achieved.
They have invited many great beings who have taught the Dharma here; and they have also invited me, apparently mistaking a donkey for gold. As their guest, I have traveled to various countries, even though I am utterly devoid of the compassion, blessing, miraculous power or clairvoyance that protects beings from suffering. Nevertheless, through the kindness of my root Lama and spiritual friends, I have had the opportunity to receive many spiritual instructions, some of which I have taught in a manner easy to understand for beginners. They have been recorded on audio tape at various Dharma centers and Mr. Clark Johnson from the U.S.A. has now collected these recordings. Moreover, through the great effort of the Hwa-yu Aid Group and with the help of Karma Lodrö Tengyé who is very close to my heart, a Dharma translation committee under the name of Thrangu Dharmakara has now been established.
From my own travels to different countries a number of tape recordings of my teachings have been gathered and divided into six categories:
1. A cycle of explanations on the Sutras and major scriptures, which are quite easy to understand.
2. A cycle on the stages in visualization (dmigs rim), for practices of meditation with (mantra) recitation on various Yidam deities.
3. A cycle on the practice instructions for calm abiding and special insight, and on the stages in meditation (sgom rim) in the Great Seal, Mahamudra.
4. A cycle on generating devotion through the sacred biographies of Telo, Naro and others.
5. A cycle on the vows of individual liberation and on the Bodhisattva vows.
6. A cycle of public Dharma talks.
Of these six categories, some are addressed at Buddhist audiences, others at non-Buddhist ones; some to people with faith in the Dharma, others to people without any such conviction. So they are very diverse, ranging from teachings for the learned, to general talks for people without any specific faith. For a Buddhist audience the teaching style may differ from the usual Tibetan one; the teaching may not be based on a root text, and so forth. As a result, a number of faults or omissions may have occurred; I request learned ones to point these out when necessary and to implement changes where possible.
They are devoid of the excellent profound and vast meaning,
And my grammar is weak.
However, I have given these teachings with good intention,
In order to establish beginners in the Dharma.
Accordingly, all the errors made out of ignorance,
I confess before the vast eyes of wisdom.
May the little virtue achieved by this effort,
Bring beings onto the path to liberation.
– Composed by Thrangu Tulku in the southern land of Malaya, on the 5th of May, 2001.