The Pressing Need For This Forgotten Knowledge And Its Effect
¹ William Shakespeare, Sonnet 130
² Robert Merle, Malevil, 1972
³ A History Of Horrors, Committed In The Name Of Science, Lucinda Robb, The Washington Post, July 16, 2021 — a review of the book: “The Icepick Surgeon: Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science,” by Sam Kean, July 2021, Little, Brown and Company.
⁴ Footnote 102 in “The Treasury of Knowledge, Book 8, Part 4, Esoteric Instructions,” Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé, translated by Sarah Harding of the Kalu Rinpoché Translation Group, Snow Lion Publications, 2007, page 383
⁵ “Yeshe Lama,” translated by Lama Chönam and Sangye Khandro, Snow Lion Publications, 2008, page 21
⁶ Footnote 103 in Jamgön Kongtrul, Ibid
⁷ The writer of the “Reverberation of Sound” (sgra thal ‘gyur) tantra.
ཨེ་མ་ཧོ། ཕན་ནོ་ཕན་ནོ་སྭཱཧཱ།
The Name Avalokitasvara
¹ "The Origins of Om Manipadme Hum: A Study of the Karandavyuha Sutra," by Alexander Studholme, State University of New York Press, 2002, page 55
² Ibid
³ Ibid, page 57
⁴ Ibid
⁵ Ibid, page 58
ཨེ་མ་ཧོ། ཕན་ནོ་ཕན་ནོ་སྭཱཧཱ།
Manjushri's Recommendation
¹ "Sri Vijnana Bhairava Tantra,” Swami Satyasangananda Saraswati, Yoga Publications Trust, 2003, pages 184-189 & 477
² “The Śūraṅgama Sūtra,” Buddhist Text Translation Society, 2009, pages 253-257
ཨེ་མ་ཧོ། ཕན་ནོ་ཕན་ནོ་སྭཱཧཱ།
Inner Spontaneous Sound Meditation Practices
¹ Nādānusandhāna literally means “meditation on the sound.” This is one of the methods described by the works on Haṭhayoga for the laya, or dissolution, of the mind. Nādānusandhāna has four stages which have to be learned from competent teachers of Haṭhayoga. It leads to complete control over the mind and the senses. This practice, which involves a mudra consisting of putting one’s fingers in one’s ears while listening to a succession of internal sounds, is said to be a technique of laya (dissolution).
² This point was made by Mañjuśrī (“Manjushri”), the Buddhist Bodhisattva of transcendental wisdom, in the “Surangama Sutra,” Buddhist Text Translation Society, 2009, pages 253-257
However, using a practice and understanding the results of the practice are two different and unconnected things. Thus, while one can use this meditation technique and support without a doctrinal system to explain, or facilitate it, in any way, coming to terms with the resulting immediate experiences (“imperiences”) and accompanying insights requires a foundational shift in one’s understanding.
³ However, this equanimity does not preclude the behavioral manifestations due to having achieved the ninth insight into the true state, or reality, of naturing: “atammayata” (unconcoctability)
The nine insights are enumerated as: aniccata (impermanence), dukkhata (unsatisfactoriness), anattata (not-selfhood), dhammatthitata (naturalness), dhammaniyamata (lawfulness), idappaccayata (conditionality or interdependence), sunyata (voidness), tathata (thusness), and atammayata (unconcoctability).
ཨེ་མ་ཧོ། ཕན་ནོ་ཕན་ནོ་སྭཱཧཱ།
Mystery of The Four Elements Sound Practice
¹ “In Tibetan Buddhism the Nirmāṇakāya is envisioned as the manifestation of enlightenment, in an infinite variety of forms and ways, in the physical world. It is traditionally defined in three ways. One is the manifestation of a completely realized Buddha, such as Gautama Siddhartha, who is born into the world and teaches in it; another is a seemingly ordinary being who is blessed with a special capacity to benefit others: a tulku; and the third is actually a being through whom some degree of enlightenment works to benefit and inspire others through various arts, crafts, and sciences." The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, Sogyal Rinpoche, Rigpa Fellowship, page 355
² Note 102 on page 383 in The Treasury of Knowledge—Esoteric Instructions, Jamgön Kongtrul, Snow Lion Publications, 2007
³ Yeshe Lama, Jingmé Lingpa, translated by Lama Chönam and Sangye Khandro, Snow Lion Publications, 2008
⁴ Ibid, page 21
⁵ Note 103 on page 383 in The Treasury of Knowledge—Esoteric Instructions, Jamgön Kongtrul, Snow Lion Publications, 2007
⁶ Taken from: "https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/mipham/key-points-of-trekcho" on December 27th, 2019
⁷ As already explained in volume 1, The Way of Unsaying, there are no “external sounds” simply because sound is an imperience that arises spontaneously, either as a reverberation, or resonance, of the activity of mind, i.e., the naturing that we call “mind,” or as a reflexive or creative response to extant conditions, such as pressure changes in the air (“sound waves”).
⁸ The Tibetan Bön tradition points to a much earlier origin for the Dzogchen practices, roughly 18,000 years ago, in a country called Tazik, reputedly situated to the West of Tibet.
⁹ Avalokitasvara is the embodiment of great responsiveness in Buddhism.
¹⁰ Avalokitasvara
¹¹ See “The Śūraṅgama Sūtra,” Buddhist Text Translation Society, 2009, pages 253-257
¹² Sambhogakāya is “the intrinsic radiance of energy and light that is spontaneously displayed in the bardo of dharmata (after death), and which is the dimension of complete enjoyment, the field of total plenitude, of full richness, beyond all dualistic limitations, beyond space or time.” Ibid, page 347
¹³ Dharmakāya is “the absolute nature, uncovered at the moment of death in the Ground Luminosity, the dimension of “empty,” unconditioned truth, into which illusion and ignorance, and any kind of concept, have never entered.” Ibid.
¹⁴ The Garuḍa
¹⁵ This translation from the Reverberation of Sound Tantra (dra talgyur) is that of Kenpo Namdrol Rinpoche. My emphasis on the words "supreme” and “supreme attainment” in the quote.
¹⁶ Prashna Upanishad 5:1,5,7 Interestingly, the same misidentification of the focus of Pranava yoga occurred and today it is the human voice chanting “Aum” that is thought to bring about the supreme accomplishment of merger with the Light.
¹⁷ Śūrangama Sūtra, Buddhist Text Translation Society, 2009, page 252
¹⁸ And is the author’s own experience over decades of working with these sounds.
¹⁹ “Dra Thalgyur - The Characteristics of the Lamp of the Far-Reaching Lasso,” translation from the Tibetan and comments by Jean-Luc Achard, Khyung-mkhar, 2018, pages 8-9
²⁰ Excerpt From: “The Flight of the Garuda,” by Keith Dowman, Wisdom Publications, 2003, page 37, emphasis added.
²¹ Seed of Secret Conduct Tantra
ཨེ་མ་ཧོ། ཕན་ནོ་ཕན་ནོ་སྭཱཧཱ།
Is the Surangama Sutra Authentic?
¹ Ron Epstein, who I will introduce later, notes that he has found 127 commentaries on the Surangama Sutra: “From the early Sung dynasty the Sutra was widely studied by all the Chinese Buddhist schools and was particularly popular among those of the syncretic movement. I have found reference to 127 Chinese commentaries on the Sutra, quite a few for such a lengthy work, including 59 in the Ming dynasty alone, when it was especially popular. The Sutra is connected with the enlightenment of the Sung Master Ch'ang-shui Tzu-hsuan and the Ming Master Han-shan Te-ching, both of the Ch'an school.”
² Transcribed from Khenpo Sodargye’s first 2019 teaching on Surangama Sutra found at timemark 11:08 here: "https://youtu.be/KvDXT_c_bic"
³ Retrieved January 22, 2020 from: "http://khenposodargye.org/teachings/khenpos-classical-teachings/surangama-sutra/"
⁴ Transcribed from Khenpo Sodargye’s second 2019 teaching video at timemark 1:08:26 found here: "https://youtu.be/7gA0Cjc5GY8"
⁵ Transcribed from Khenpo Sodargye’s first 2019 teaching on Surangama Sutra found at timemark 12:25 here: "https://youtu.be/KvDXT_c_bic"
⁶ In the year 1953/54 Master Xu Yun was in his 114th year of life. In the 4th month of that year, the inaugural meeting of the Chinese Buddhist Association was held at the Guang Ji Temple situated in Beijing. Afterwards, Master Xu Yun wrote a document entitled the "Degeneration of the Sangha in the Dharma-ending Age." The quoted statement comes from that text. It was translated by Adrian Chan-Wyles (ShiDaDao). Source: "http://chanbuddhismuk.proboards.com/thread/614/degeneration-sangha-dharma-age"
⁷ “Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers,” Max Planck, 1949, Philosophical Library
⁸ “Śūraṃgamasamādhisūtra - The Concentration of Heroic Progress, An Early Mahāyāna Buddhist Scripture,” Translated and annotated by Étienne Lamotte, English translation by Sara Boin-Webb, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, Delhi, 2003, page 98
⁹ Ron Epstein, Phd, is a Buddhist scholar and practitioner. He is a trustee, chancellor emeritus and professor emeritus at Dharma Realm Buddhist University, and a lecturer emeritus at San Francisco State University. Dr. Epstein is a graduate of Harvard University, holds a Master's degree in Chinese language and literature from the University of Washington, and a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from University of California, Berkeley. Epstein commenced his life-long study and practice of Buddhism with the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua at the age of 24. Master Hua awarded Epstein the title Fojiao Jiaoshou (Professor of Buddhism) in 1978 and appointed him a chancellor of Dharma Realm Buddhist University in 1988. He served as co-chair of the translation committee responsible for translating and publishing “The Surangama Sutra: A New Translation with Excerpts from the Commentary by the Venerable Master Hsüan Hua.”
¹⁰ “The Shurangama-Sutra (T. 945): A Reappraisal Of Its Authenticity,” by Ronald Epstein, presented at the annual meeting of the American Oriental Society, March 16-18, 1976, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
¹¹ “Foreword” to the Commentary on The Surangama Sutra by Hsüan Hua, Volume 8, Second Edition, 2002
¹² “The Shurangama-Sutra (T. 945): A Reappraisal Of Its Authenticity,” by Ronald Epstein, presented at the annual meeting of the American Oriental Society, March 16-18, 1976, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
¹³ Li Xuezhu (李学竹) (2010). "Zhōng guó zàng xué - Zhōng guó fàn wén bèi yè gài kuàng" 中国藏学-中国梵文贝叶概况 [China Tibetan Studies - The State of Sanskrit Language Palm Leaf Manuscripts in China]. Baidu 文库. Vol. 1 No. 90 (in Chinese). pp. 55–56. Retrieved 2017-12-06. ‘河南南阳菩提寺原藏有1函梵文贝叶经，共226叶，其中残缺6叶，函上写有“印度古梵文”字样，据介绍，内容为 《楞严经》，很可能是唐代梵文经的孤本，字体为圆形，系印度南方文字一种，被国家定为一级文物，现存彭雪枫纪念馆。’(tr to English: Henan Nanyang Bodhi Temple originally had one Sanskrit language manuscript sutra, consisting in total 226 leaves, of which 6 were missing... according to the introduction, it contains the Śūraṅgama Sūtra and is most probably the only extant Sanskrit manuscript dating from the Tang Dynasty. The letters are roundish and belongs to a type used in South India and has been recognized by the country as a Category 1 cultural artifact. It is now located in the Peng Xuefeng Memorial Museum. (Footnote 3 taken from Wikipedia article on the Śūraṅgama Sūtra)
¹⁴ "The Shurangama Sutra Is Definitely Authentic," by the Venerable Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua, in a talk given on January 21, 1978, Translated by the Buddhist Text Translation Society. Retrieved from: "http://online.sfsu.edu/repstein/Buddhism/Shurangama/Shurangama%20Sutra%20Is%20Definitely%20Authentic.htm"
¹⁵ Transcribed from Khenpo Sodargye’s seventh 2019 teaching on Surangama Sutra found at timemark 14:10 here: "https://youtu.be/-Tpc7GW6KzY"
ཨེ་མ་ཧོ། ཕན་ནོ་ཕན་ནོ་སྭཱཧཱ།
The Rational Meaning Of This Tibetan Prophecy For 2026-2032
¹ “Tibetan Calendar Mathematics,” Svante Janson, Department of Mathematics, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden (svante.janson@math.uu.se)
² The Clarifying Light: A Prophecy of the Future from the Words of the Buddha compiled by Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö, translated by Adam Pearcey 2020.
³ This sadhana was authored by Thang Tong Gyalpo in the 14th Century. It was translated into English by Adam Pearcey in 2020.
⁴ "https://www.facebook.com/jonangtaiwan/photos/a.265362557133436/1082220295447654/?type=3&theater"
⁶ Taken from footnote 1 in "https://www.lotsawahouse.org/words-of-the-buddha/clarifying-light-prophecy"
ཨེ་མ་ཧོ། ཕན་ནོ་ཕན་ནོ་སྭཱཧཱ།
It Seems The Subject Of This Book Was Prophesized By The Buddha
¹ The Surangama Sutra, translated from Chinese by Bhikshu Wai-tao and edited by Dwight Goddard, “A Buddhist Bible,” Dwight Goddard, 1938, pgs 150-151
² Śūraṅgama Sūtra, with commentary by Venerable Hsuan Hua, Buddhist Text Translation Society, 2009, pg 54
³ Stevens, Wallace, The Collected Poems, Vintage Books, 1990, “The Man With the Blue Guitar”, Stanza 1, pg 165
⁴ The Shurangama Sutra - Volume One, Published and translated by: Buddhist Text Translation Society, 2002, pg 9
ཨེ་མ་ཧོ། ཕན་ནོ་ཕན་ནོ་སྭཱཧཱ།
The Complete Instructions for the Practice of the Buddha's Secret Path
¹ “The Shurangama-Sutra (T. 945): A Reappraisal Of Its Authenticity,” by Ronald Epstein, presented at the annual meeting of the American Oriental Society, March 16-18, 1976, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
² Taken from: “The Śūraṅgama Sūtra,” Buddhist Text Translation Society, 2009
³ Taken from: “The Shurangama Sutra - A Simple Explanation by Venerable Master Hsuan Hua,” Gold Wheel Sagely Monastery Newsletter, Issue #237, September/October 2014
⁴ Taken from an extract of the: “Driving Force of Subjective Intelligence” Seminar on 6/8/1987, Gold Wheel Sagely Monastery Newsletter, Issue #237, September/October 2014
⁵ “The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism, Its Fundamentals And History,” Dudjom Rinpoche (Jikdrel Yeshe Dorje), Wisdom Publications, 1991, pgs 393-394
⁶ For further information on this, I recommend reading Sam van Schaik’s series of articles on the subject. Sam is a Tibetologist working at the British Library in London. See: “The Decline of Buddhism I: Was Lang Darma a Buddhist?”
⁷ Taken from: “The Treasury of Good Sayings - A Tibetan History of Bon,” Edited and Translated by Smarten G. Karmay, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, Delhi, 1972, pgs 103-104
⁸ IBID, pg 612
⁹ IBID, pg 918
¹⁰ Benn, James A. 2008. “Another Look at the Pseudo-Śūraṃgama-sūtra.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 68 (1): 57–89.
¹¹ Statement of Malcolm Smith on DharmaWheel.net on July 25, 2022 4:05 pm
¹² Taken from: “Buton Rinchen Drub,” by Tsering Namgyal, The Treasury of Lives, accessed August 30, 2022
¹³ Statement of Malcolm Smith on DharmaWheel.net on March 19, 2022 2:27 pm
¹⁴ Taken from: "https://madhyamaka.com/tibetan-sanskrit/#sitatapatra" Accessed September 8, 2022
¹⁵ “The Shurangama-Sutra (T. 945): A Reappraisal Of Its Authenticity” by Ronald Epstein, Presented at the annual meeting of the American Oriental Society, March 16-18, 1976, Philadelphia, PA.
¹⁶ Taken from: “Changkya Khutukhtu Explained”
¹⁷ Take from: “Changkya Rölpé Dorjé Explained”
¹⁸ Taken from: "Jinamitra," by Alexander Gardner, The Treasury of Lives, accessed August 20, 2022,
¹⁹ Taken from: “Saints and Sages of Kashmir” by De Triloki Nath Dhar, APH Publishing Corporation, New Delhi, 2004, ISBN 81-7648-576-4, pg 21
²⁰ Take from: “The Stem Array” Chapter of the Mahāvaipulya Sūtra “A Multitude of Buddhas,” retrieved 20-08-2022
²¹ Taken from: "Nanam Yeshe De," by Arthur Mandelbaum, The Treasury of Lives, accessed August 19, 2022
²² Taken from: "Jinamitra," by Alexander Gardner, The Treasury of Lives, accessed August 20, 2022
²³ Taken from: “The Basket’s Display Sutra, Kāraṇḍavyūha," Translated by Peter Alan Roberts with Tulku Yeshi, pgs i-10 - i-13, Published by 84000 (2013) Retrieved August 21, 2022
²⁴ Taken from: "Śīlendrabodhi," Alexander Gardner, The Treasury of Lives, accessed August 20, 2022
²⁵ Taken from: "Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia” accessed September 5, 2022
²⁶ Found in “Personal Names Cited In Blue Annals (ka-kha-ga-nga)" Retrieved August 21, 2022
²⁷ Found in “The Beautiful Garland of Uḍumbara Flowers, A Prayer to the Previous Incarnations” by Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö, Note 8, Retrieved August 21, 2022
²⁸ Taken from “The Treasury of Lives” entry for “Zurmang Trungpa,” retrieved September 6, 2022
²⁹ “The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism, Its Fundamentals And History,” Dudjom Rinpoche (Jikdrel Yeshe Dorje), Wisdom Publications, 1991, pgs 887-889
³⁰ Ibid, Dudjom, pgs 890-891.
³¹ Foreword to “The Shurangama Sutra - Volume Eight,” Ronald Epstein, Professor Dharma Realm Buddhist University January 1, 1996.
³² From the Seng You Records, translator anonymous. Appended to the Song Annals. Buddhist Text Translation Society
³³ “The Precious Treasury of Pith Instructions” by Longchen Rabjam, Padma Publishing, 2006, pg 140
³⁴ “Treasury of Precious Qualities - A Commentary on the Root Text of Jigme Lingpa” by Longchen Yeshe Dorje, Kangyur Rinpoche, Padmakara Translation Group, Shambhala Publications, 2001, pg 215
³⁵ Statement of Malcolm Smith on DharmaWheel.net on January 01, 2022 2:35 pm
ཨེ་མ་ཧོ། ཕན་ནོ་ཕན་ནོ་སྭཱཧཱ།