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This article was part of a series published in Mandala
Magazine (July-August 2000) about Ven. Choden Rinpoche.
To learn more about Rinpoche's visit to Kurukulla Center,
or to read more articles from this series, please go
here.
From 1961 until 1965 I studied with Sakya abbot in Lhasa.
There was a lot of fear even to study like that – fear
for the person teaching, fear for the student. I was
the only one studying with this lama.
I studied grammar and poetry, then Sanskrit. You study
what is known as study of the sound. There is another
Sanskrit study where you put the letters together
in the form of mantras. I also studied white astrology. I didn’t study
medicine at that time, but when I was back in my home town my teacher was a doctor,
so from having lived together with him I knew for what sickness what kind of
medicines would work.
The more well-versed in grammar you are, the more capable
you are read the scriptures, to get an in-depth understanding
of the Dharma. There’s a way that through
the study of the fine details of grammar you get a fine insight in reality. Grammar
is very deep in Tibetan, so your insight is sharpened. And when you read texts
you know exactly where the spelling mistakes are; Tibetan spelling is not like
Western spelling – it’s very subtle.
Learning poetry allows you to do prayers and praises
in the most eloquent and effective way, where you
take examples and analogies and form the analogy
into
a praise. And you can compose very poetically.
When you study poetry, there is a way you learn the
art of a certain way of writing and reading, where
if you read the lines forward there’s a meaning, and
if you read the lines backwards there is also a meaning. Both ways convey a meaning.
There is one composition of Lama Tsong Khapa known
as The Thought Training of the Great Sound of
Poetry that can be read forwards and backwards;
both ways
you can read and teach on it. Lama Tsong Khapa was a great poet – there’s
nothing Lama Tsong Khapa didn’t know! He’s the all-knowing mind.
Most of what I’ve written are the long-life prayers for many lamas, and
auspicious verses for new buildings. Many people have asked me to compose books,
but I don’t like to do that. The main purpose of learning poetry, grammar
and astrology is to understand Dharma properly, and to put it into practice.
I didn’t learn it to compose books. When people ask me I say we have so
many books – we have enough books. What’s lacking is practicing the
instructions in the books.
This article first appeared
in Mandala
Magazine,
July/August 2000. |
