Library of Ancient Wisdom
Different cultures throughout the
world have spiritual traditions of wisdom that teach man how he
can live in peace and in harmony with his surroundings. These
traditions have taught methods of how to examine their circumstances.
Establishing a mirror that allows the reflections of the layers
of obscurations and negative thoughts and feelings that temporally
stain what is the real nature. The traditions of wisdom are important
because they show how human beings can develop real inner peace
and true unlimited compassion. In contrast to today's ramppied
materialism that is flooding the planet this wisdom leads us back
to the true nature of who we are. It is unveiling the chaos and
confusion that will liberate all beings from this age of unnecessary
suffering. This wisdom has been passed down in indigenous societies
for the most part as oral traditions. In the chaos of our modern
world these truths have been lost or forgotten. Fortunately, from
very early times this wisdom was transmitted from teacher to disciple
maintaining an unbroken lineage. It was written down from the
first century on in the Indian subcontinent. In the 1st century
AD the great mahasiddha Nagarjuna and others developed the great
monastic universities which emphasized thousands of treatises
on epistemology, astrology, medicine, metaphysics, the inner energies
of the body in yoga, and, of course, meditation. Over 95% of these
texts were destroyed in India by the 12th century through successions
of Moslem invasions. However from the 8th through the 12 Th. centuries
practitioners from Tibet came and learned and gathered these teachings
and took them back to Tibet. In the isolation and protected environment
of this Himalayan country this ancient knowledge flourished and
continued until the Chinese invasion. Until 1959 this wisdom was
carefully preserved in over 6,000 monasteries and many individual's
homes in Tibet. In fact many of these texts which were translated
faithfully word-for-word were disseminated to the whole Himalayan
Region of Nepal, Bhutan, and Mustang. The actual practice instructions
were faithfully transmitted through well-defined lineages complementing
the written treatises brought from India by Guru Rinpoche Marpa
the translator and other great teachers. Then another cataclysm
occurred and Tibet was invaded by the Chinese and during the Cultural
Revolution the books in these 6,000 monasteries housing this wisdom
were taken out and burned and the monasteries were reduced to
rubble.
Here is an old photograph of a
Tibetan library. This entire room houses the 205 volumes of
the Tengyur--an extremely old compendium of wisdom--in the form
of wood blocks. These blocks were used for printing and distributed
to monasteries. When Thrangu Rinpoche and Khenpo Kathar escaped
from Tibet in 1959, they and other lamas who managed to escape
found that these texts of ancient wisdom had been lost or destroyed.
There was a good possibility that the Kagyu lineage would disappear.
However, with the efforts of His Holiness the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa,
the monasteries and libraries of countries bordering Tibet were
examined and copies of these rare wisdom texts were made. To
maintain the oral transmission of this wisdom, His Holiness
the Gyalwa Karmapa asked Thrangu Rinpoche, Khenpo Kathar, and
Khenpo Tsultrim to teach this to the Kagyu tulkus. After doing
this for 20 years and continuing the search for rare texts,
Thrangu Rinpoche then began teaching in the Far East and the
West. His vast scholarship and meditative accomplishment makes
him a precious resource rare in today's world. Because of his
awareness of what has been lost to mankind, he has also put
great effort into finding as many lost texts as possible. He
is the author of 26 books in Western languages on the Mahamudra
instructions. He has a small library in Sarnath, India and would
like to establish a similar library in the United States insuring
the preservation of these teachings. The Vajra Vidya Retreat
Center library would become an archive of these teachings. Thrangu
Rinpoche has seen how modern technology can help in the preservation
and dissemination of this knowledge. Therefore he has suggested
that the library input these texts into the computer in Tibetan.
The texts as well as old paintings and diagrams can be digitally
scanned onto CDs. Because of the capacity of the Internet he
has suggested that these resources be placed on the Internet
so that they will be available to the whole world. The meaning
of this ancient wisdom was traditionally transmitted orally.
The Vajra Vidya Retreat Center library would also have the archives
of the audio and videotapes of lineage masters teaching. Thrangu
Rinpoche has taught that if this ancient wisdom is simply preserved
and studied by scholastics, the actual wisdom will again be
lost. For the wisdom to actually continue the instructions have
to be practiced. This is why it is fitting that in the same
building a retreat center will also contain a practice environment
with support from traditionally trained monastics. The Vajra
Vidya Retreat Center will be built will the vision to integrate
all aspects of the nature of the profound view, meditation and
fruition as found in the ancient wisdom preserved from the grips
of extinction. Access to the instructions of this profound path
makes it possible for beings to achieve liberation.
Return
to Main
Menu -
Index
|
|