Dolpopa's Mountain Dharma (PDF)

(Dolpopa’s Mountain Dharma (PDF)

One of the main concepts in Buddhism is that our external world is not solid and real. The Buddha in several sutras stated that this world is a dream, a mirage, an illusion.

This idea was further expanded by Nagarjuna and the Middle Way school around the first century of our era. He presented arguments that one could logically prove that all external phenomena are not solid and "real," but rather all phenomena are just mental concepts that we hold. They called this "emptiness" and the belief that every-thing is empty later became known in Tibet as the Rangtong (empty of self) view.

 A few centuries later, Asanga published the Five Treatises of the Maitreya that he had received directly from the Maitreya Buddha. These teachings extended the concept of emptiness to include buddha nature––the belief that all sentient beings have the potential for achieving enlightenment. The reason we are not all automatically enlightened is that our buddha nature is covered up by our disturbing emotions and false beliefs about reality.

Asanga was given five treatises from the Buddha Maitreya. Distinguishing Dharma from Dharmata was one of these texts. This text which is 1,400 years old and consists of 56 root verses. These root verses are often memorized and studied in the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages. This text is studied even today because it describes in a very lucid form, first of all dharmas or ordinary phenomena in the ordinary world that we live in. It explains how these dharmas leads human beings to adopt suffering and confusion in their lives. By explaining the origin, the characteristics, and our misconceptions about dharma or phenomena as it actually is by giving dharmata’s characteristics and explaining how we can develop a correct perception of the world so we that can begin to experience as it actually.

This book is an important text also in understanding the Mind-only school and also for understanding the Shentong view which aids us in the practice of Mahamudra and Dzogchen meditation.

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