Class 10 - Three Jewels per Hearer Tenets

Download PDF's of Class Handouts, Notes, and MP3 Tracks from the 10th class of Spring 2012 term held on Monday, April 30:

DOWNLOAD Handouts - text for Class 10:

Handout 10 (rev. 05/03/12) -  Asanga’s Four Aspects of Taking Refuge by, #2 - Knowing the distinctions (of the three Jewels) based on, cont.:  (e) Recollection; (f) How to Increase Merit.  #3 - Through Commitment.  #4 - Refusing to acknowledge other refuges. Introduction to IBD’s texts by Panchen Sonam Drakpa: General Meaning (སྤྱི་དོན།) and debate manual, Decisive Analysis (མཐའ་དཔྱོད།). General Meaning: 5 Topics explain Three Refuge Objects.  #1 -  Three- fold explanation of Necessity for Scriptures' presentation of Three Refuge Objects: (i) Buddha Jewel; (ii) Dharma Jewel.

Handout 11 - General Meaning's 5 Topics that explain Three Refuge Objects, cont.:  #1 - (iii) Necessity for Scriptural presentation of Sangha Refuge Object.  Causal & Refuge Objects for Bodhisattvas, Hearers & Solitary Realizers (chart).  #2 - Identifying the nature (i.e., meaning) of the three objects of refuge (in two ways):  Nature (i.e., meaning)  of the three Jewels according to a) Hearer Tenets (Vaibashika & Sautantrika Tenets) [i.e., Buddha & Sangha (as persons) are not Refuge Jewels; Buddha & Sangha Jewels are aspects of the Dharma].

ALL SPRING 2012 PDF Handouts are HERE.

DOWNLOAD MP3 TRACKS:

Track 1 - Review presentations of Refuge & sources for textbooks used in the Geluk tradition at IBD.  Panchen Sonam Drakpa’s General Meaning:

Five Topics expound Three Jewels.

• Topic 1 - Necessity for Scriptures' presentation of Three Refuge Objects: 
• Resultant Objects of Refuge - posited by different aims of Hearers, Solitary Realizers and Bodhisattvas:
• Buddha = Bodhisattva’s main Resultant Refuge Jewel.
• Dharma = Solitary Realizer’s main Resultant Refuge Jewel.
• Sangha = Hearer’s main Resultant Refuge Jewel.

• Causal Objects of Refuge 
• Six Persons (Three on Path and Three with inclinations) have three Goals.
• Why Handout 10 and Handout 11 have been revised:  Translation has been changed from potential to inclination, i.e., “Mahayana potential, Solitary Realizer potential, Hinayana potential” is changed to "Mahayana inclination," etc.

Track 2 - Hearer Tenet (ཉན་ཐོས་སྟེ་པ་) assertions that identify the meaning of each Jewel:  (i.e., Vaibhāṣika, Great Exposition - བྱེ་བྲག་སྨྲ་བ་ & Sautrāntika, Sutra School - མདོ་སྡེ་པ་ tenets.)

• re Buddha Jewel:
• Shakyamuni Buddha entered the world as an Ordinary Person: Born with an ordinary body that was retained after Enlightenment;
• Hence, Shakyamuni Buddha is not a Buddha Jewel.

Track 3 - Hearer Tenets distinguish Buddha from the Buddha Jewel & Sangha from the Sangha Jewel

• Qualities of Omniscient Mind of a Buddha per:
• Hearer Tenets – Buddha’s Mind Knows All Phenomena
• Mahayana Tenets – Buddha’s Mind Knows All Phenomena Simultaneously.

Buddha Jewel per Hearer Tenets:

• Exalted Wisdom that Knows the Extinction and Non-Production:  (i.e., Omniscient Mind knows the extinction of all obscurations and the non-production of all obscurations). (Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakhosha).
• What does it mean to be a Buddha?   
• Mahayana terminology:  Exalted Knower of All Aspects

Sangha Jewel per Hearer Tenets: 

• Uncontaminated Exalted Wisdom in the Continua of Learners & No-More-Learners.

•  Learner Paths:  Ordinary & Sublime. 
•  No Common Locus between the Three Jewels per Hearer Tenets.
• "Sangha Jewels which are No More Learners are those Two" (Arya Hearer No More Learners and Arya Solitary Realizer No More Learners), but "not the third" (Bodhisattva No More Learners)

Track 4 - Dharma Jewel per Hearer Tenets:

• Dharma Jewel is Nirvana, i.e., Cessation of Afflictive Obstructions & Cognitive Obstructions.

Three Jewels per Hearer tenets:

• Three Jewels are all aspects of the Dharma:
• Buddha Jewel - Path (of No More Learning) in the continuum of Buddha;
• Dharma Jewel - Cessations (Nirvana).
• Sangha Jewel -  Paths in the continuum of Aryas (not Buddhas). 

• Persons are not Buddha Jewels.  
• There is no common locus between the Three Jewels (e.g., Buddhas are not Sangha Jewels).
• assert Three Final Vehicles.
• Buddha is Not a Buddha Jewel because Shakyamuni Buddha has an ordinary (impure) body. 
• Theravadan practitioners today do not necessarily assert Hearer Tenets.

Three Jewels per Mahayana tenets:
(i.e., Cittamātra - Mind Only - སེམས་ཙམ་པ་  & Mādhyamika - Middle Way - དབུ་མ་པ་ tenets)

• Buddha Jewel refers to all the qualities of the Buddha.  
• Dharma Jewel refers to Cessations of Afflictive obstructions & Cognitive obstructions and Arya Paths.  
• Sangha Jewel refers to persons who have those Arya Paths and Cessations in their continua.
• Shakyamuni Buddha is a Buddha Jewel, a Supreme Nirmanakāya [བཟོ་བོ་སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་].
• Mahayana practitioners are not necessarily equivalent to Mahayana Tenet Holders .

NOTES of Class 10 (April 30) rough draft transcript of class offered for what it's worth.

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This is the 10th class of the Spring 2012 term Perfection of Wisdom course
which addresses Refuge, the 3rd sub-topic of the 2nd Topic
(Mahayana Practice Instructions) of Chapter 1 of Maitreya's
Ornament for Clear Realizations - Abhisamayalamkara.