Page 43

Debate has been a major part of Buddhist tradition from the days of the Buddha in the 6th century BCE. Buddhist debate has consistently weighed the merits of different paths to awakening and much of the formation of Tibetan Buddhist identity arguably revolves around what is takes to achieve Buddhahood. Tibetan teachers discuss the process of awakening in terms of view, path, and result. To walk the path (ie. one’s practice) to produce the desired result (buddhahood), you need to have the correct view (which acts as a kind of map). If you want to get Chicago, it helps to have a map of Illinois (and better yet, a map of the United States).

In the case of Mipham, this religious identity building probably occurred in his early education. Mipham was forced to flee Kham as a young monk. A local warlord, Gonpo Namgyal, began invading neighbouring kingdoms and quickly scored a series of victories, precipitating a regional crisis. Mipham had to flee his home in the kingdom of Derge and spent time in Sera monastery, one of three main Gelugpa monasteries in Central Tibet. Sera and the other seats, Ganden and Drepung, were huge institutions with populations numbering in the thousands. They were reknowned for their scholasticism and the other schools of Tibetan Buddhism, the Kagyu, the Sakya, and the Nyingma, as well as the Bön, were all compelled to respond to Gelugpa philosophy in some way.

The Gelugpa curriculum spends a lot of time gradually developing the views of monks and nuns so they are properly prepared when they later begin meditation. As a result, Gelugpa scholars were often critical of the other schools, the Nyingma, Kagyu, the Sakya, and Bön, and their perspectives on awakening. These debates focused on the concept of sunyata, or emptiness, and how various schools described the mind. The brilliant young Mipham benefited greatly from the debates at Sera monastery. Gelugpa positions helped Mipham wrestle with his understandings of Nyingma philosophy and he would go on to reformulate Nyingma practices in a philosophically rigourous manner, resulting in a more refined sense of Nyingma philosophy, practice, and arguably, identity.