On Tibetan Grammer, Goats, and so on

I started a class with David Curtis or the Tibetan Language Institute tonight, mainly on Tibetan grammar. He started to discuss the poem the Divine Tree (ljon pai dbangpo) tonight by teleconference. When I got off the line, I asked Lama Pema Dorje about it. Rinpoche is not a scholar, has little formal education, yet has an incredible wealth of knowledge--and a great memory for detail--based on extensive reading of Dharma texts and receiving oral teachings. We had an off-the-cuff conversation with various members of the family chiming in periodically with their memorized (sung!) renditions of this poem--all learned in different times and places.

He said the name of the author of our text Yangchen Drupei Dorje, is a name he was awarded based on his mastery of the first two of the five outer knowledges. He could not remember the other name the author is known by. To the best of his memory, and he is not sure of this without looking it up, these five are (phonetically, via my tin ear)
Sum da--grammer
Yeng Nga--poems, songs
Nyon Ju--many names
Do Kar--drama
Kat-di--astrology

When Sum da and Yeng nga are accomplished, one is given a lovely name related to Manjushri or Saraswati. Yangchen in this particular author’s name refers to Saraswati. Saraswati is a knowledge-language--music related female Buddha.

Rinpoche was in school for two years as a child in the 1940’s, before that he was home schooled by his father. His father was a Tibetan lama who settled in Dolpo, Nepal. The family followed their lama Golok Serthar Rinpoche for a couple of years when he taught throughout Nepal. This nomadic community of practitioners arranged a group teachings for the children each day with an old lama named Dorje. These were considered to be Dharma teachings, but they were learning the language at the same time. Rinpoche did not come in contact with Divine Tree text until he was older. First, the kids learned the alphabet by reciting it out loud for several years. Then, I think they did some spelling out loud. What they did during this two years in this little school was recite texts out load, both alone and in groups, starting slow and gaining speed. They traced the letters as they recited, because otherwise they would be reciting from memory and not learning how to read and write. If they looked up they were reprimanded.

The texts they learned from were:

Dorje Chopa (Diamond Cutter Sutra)--Lay households had a shrine at home and at minimum it always had a Dorje Chopa text--if they could afford more they had a whole collection of texts including many mantras and sutras, called sung du. As a young person, Rinpoche would copy out the Dorje Chopa for friends (for free), or for nomad people (for goats). He knew how to make the paper, the ink and the brushes--remember there was no industrial revolution there. Once the supplies were made, the process of copying took several days.

The other texts that were recited were the Seven Supplications to Guru Rinpoche, the long sutra level Twenty one Taras, and the Manjushri supplication.

If you are curious what happened to the goats: The females were milked, the males were saved from slaughter.

Sitting here after our conversation it sparked a few thoughts for me. I am always thinking about the drop-out rate of Americans who are dropped right into the foundational practices (ngondro), and read the Words of My Perfect Teacher, when they get inspired by a Nyingmapa lama to start practicing and studying the Dharma. Our Nyingmapa lamas often see how educated we are (and how old we are) in America and want us to move ahead very quickly. This is perhaps more true of us than of other schools of Tibetan Buddhism. But we see here that classic Nyingma ngakpas started studying and practicing the Mahayana--albeit by rote--in childhood.

I wonder if it wouldn't be good for many of us to start by studying the Dorje Chopa, and these Guru Rinpoche and Tara supplications, in a cultural appropriate way, as a pre-ngondro. The great unifying master of the 20th century Nyingmapas, HH Dudjom Rinpoche made his own daily practice compilation (chos spyod) of these Mahayana teacings, practices and supplications, plus some mantrayana practices, which can be found in volume Tsa (18) of his collected works. As I understand it, all his people used this daily practice book. Yet, no one has translated this. Not sexy enough?