A Study Of The Life And Philosophy

Tibetan Buddhists monks commonly tend to be interested in and attempted to spread certain ethical codes, which de-localize Tibetan Buddhism.They try to track the authentic Buddhism that originated in India only after the time of Atisa’s travels to Tibet, Atisa was actually spreaded Nalanda-style Buddhist theories in western and central Tibet during the eleventh-century. During this course, rNing-Ma and Bon-po were always rejected both theoretically and practically by those who traditionally belonged to bKa-gDams-pa, Sa-skya-pa and dge-Lugs-pa under the name of Tirthakara or non-Buddhism. Jo-Nang-Pa was rejected as well by other Tibetan Buddhist lineages for the long-term. Generally, after the eleventh-century, all lineages of Tibetan Buddhist traditions, especially bK’-gdams and Sa-skya, began to attach importance to Monastic education, such as epistemology, logic, Madhyamaka, and so on. In order to adapt to new conditions and scholarly transitions occurring in the Tibetan intellectual field, Bon-po scholars began to adopt theories of Buddhism properly. For instance, the fact that Bon-po monks uninterruptedly enrolled in the Monastery of gSang-pu and studied in this institute can indicate that the Bon-po monks themselves made great compromises to enter this Buddhist sect. Before Nyamme Sherab Gyeltsen, Me-sTon-Shes-rab-’od-zer and A-zha-blo-gros-rgayl-msthan made great effort to make composite various Bon-po theories, which to some extent were based on Buddhist tradition.However, their scholarly works weren’t accepted completely by the Bon-po disciples. During the fourteenth-century, Zon-kha-pa reached the peak of perfection in his scholarship career and his fame influenced other Buddhist scholars belonging to various other sects in Tibet. Under such circumstances, Nyamme Sherab Gyeltsen became a reformer in the Bon-po scholarship field. Mnyamme Sherab Gyeltsen was born in the region of Gyelrong, a region in southeastern Amdo. At the age of ten, he took novice vows from Chala Yung drung rgyal mtshan, who gave him the name Sherab-Gyeltsen. He then studied with numerous renowned masters in Dokham and Nyarong. Later in his early adult life, Sherab Gyeltsen met Rinchen Lodro on the way to Tibet and became his disciple. Then he entered the Monasteries of gSang-phu and studied under Buddhist master Rongton-Sheja-Rig. Under his tutelage, he studied Madhyamaka, Prajnaparamita, Vinaya, Abhidharma and in particular Logic. Ultimately, Nyamme Sherab Gyeltsen achieved the Rab-’byams-chen-mo degree in the monastery of gsang-phu. This dissertation was the reason why Nyamme Sherab Gyeltsen could accomplish the task of establishing the new monastic code and Bon-po theories, which were quite similar to those of Buddhism. At the age of thirty-one, Sherab Gyeltsen went to the Bon monastery of Yeru Wensaka in Tsang, where he studied with numerous masters. His knowledge became so famous that two members of the Bru clan offered him the abbot throne of two monastic colleges in Yeri-Wensakha. Thereafter, he basically became the authority in the Bon-po school. In 1045, at the age of fifty, Nyamme Sherab Gyeltsen founded the famed monastery of Tashi Menri on the slope of Mt. Shar-ri in Tobgyel. This Monastery emphasized the Monastic Code and epistemological education.Therefore, this monastery gradually became a kind of model or good example for Bon-po Monasteries in later history. We can conclude that the establishment of the monastic code and epistemological education in Bon-po monasteries was the biggest contribution this master ever made. I found four different versions of the biography of Nyamme Sherab Gyeltsen, which were written by later Bon-po scholars. However, all the biographies I collected were very short. Their length shows that Nyamme Sherab Gyeltsen’s life story is very brief and obscure. In addition, Numerous Miraculous stories are found in Sherab Gyeltsen’s biographies. Thus, one point of this dissertation is to inquire into four of Nyamme Sherab Gyeltsen’s biographies and to comb the life story of Sherab Gyeltsen in order to discern the false from the genuine, and to discover how these four biographies developed and transitioned.Nyamme Sherab Gyeltsen made great effort to study, collect and compose Bon-po theories along with Buddhist theories. At the same time, he inherited well theories of various clans in the Bon-po school and updated them. In this way, he formed systematic theories that the whole Bon-po clan completely accepted. Therefore, Nyamme Sherab Gyeltsen became the "Second Buddha."The Bonpo School and all disciples of the five clans worshipped him. Sherab Gyeltsen’s compositions were collected in ten volumes. He wrote on logic; Tantras; outer, inner and secret practices; monastic rules and discipline; philosophical commentaries, and other topics. All of his works are significant in Tibetan religious and philosophical history. But no scholar has ever written a dissertation or thesis on this topic. My dissertation will therefore break new ground in this field.This dissertation is a study of biographies and scholarly works of Sherab Gyeltsen. In the first chapter I analyze the socio-historical background of Sherab Gyeltsen, who lived during the late half of the fourteenth-century to the beginning of the fifteenth-century. This chapter mainly points out the view that the political and cultural policies regulated by the Pag-grub Regime made Sherab Gyeltsen’s intellectual career possible.The second chapter mainly discusses the life story of Sherab Gyeltsen. It corrects many oral stories mentioned in different versions of biographies on Nyamme Sherab Gyeltsen by means of comparing different versions and analyzing chronologies. This chapter also criticizes many points of views that were incorrectly mentioned by Tibetan scholars in their works.The third chapter inquires into the philosophical thoughts of Sherab Gyeltsen, and specifically analizes the thoughts of Pramana, Madhyamaka and Vinaya. More specifically, this chapter tries to trace the origin and development of Sherab Gyeltsen.That is to say, this chapter points out the philosophical thought of former scholars in the Bon-po School, such as Me-ston-shes-rab-’od-zer and A-zha-Blo-gros-rGyal-mthsn, so as to clarify the source of the thought of Sherab Gyeltsen. In this chapter I also compare the point of view of Sherab Gyeltsen with that of non-Bonpo scholars, such as Sa-skya-ban-ti-ta and rJe-zong-kha-pa, in order to identify the philosophical influences from Buddhist scholars on Sherab Gyeltsen’s scholarly works. As a conclusion, I fortunately found that Sherab Gyeltsen was either influenced by Bon-po scholars or Buddhist scholars in particularly Sa-skya pan-ti-ta and rJe-zong-kha-pa, but at the same time, I found that some theories of the Bon-po school were explicitly created by himself, which may indicate that Sherab Gyeltsen was prominent in the Bon-po field, and even in the Buddhist field.The fourth chapter analyzes Sherab Gyeltsen’s contributionsto the Bon tradition as well as to Tibetan culture. His contributions can be separated into four sections. First, this master integrated all Bon-po theories of all lineages; second, he reformed and integrated Bonpo’s Vinaya tradition; third, he created the system of campaigns for mKan-po in Man-ri Monastery; fourth, he drove and promoted the process of integration of Bon-poand Buddhism.The fifth chapter inquires into four biographies of Sherab Gyeltsen by using the methodology of philologyand historiography.