Quiz: The Graded Path in Tibetan Buddhism
- Question 1 of 10
1.
Which one of the following is a Tibetan religion widely practiced before the arrival of Buddhism?
Correct
Wrong — Correct Answer – Bon
Bon, the pre-Buddhist Tibetan religious practice, is a shamanistic religion. It contains a lot of superstitions, rites and rituals and developed in isolation from contemporary civilization. The government of Germany has prepared nearly two dozen documentary films depicting these practices. These films portrayed real people in real time and were produced when Tibetans were migrating to other countries in 1959.
- Question 2 of 10
2.
Which country among the following closely resembles Tibet in terms of cultural and religious practices?
Correct
Wrong — Correct Answer – Bhutan
The food habits, clothing and language of Bhutan have close resemblances to those of Tibet, with only small differences. The scripts used for Buddhist teachings are Ucjan and Dzonkha, respectively, but they are nearly identical. Both countries follow the Mahayana tradition of Buddhism. Almost all Buddhists in Bhutan are followers of Karkgyud pa, a school which was established in Tibet. The monks’ robes are also identical in the two lands.
- Question 3 of 10
3.
We now come to Lam Rim Teaching. What is the meaning of the word ‘Lam’?
Correct
Wrong — Correct Answer – Path
Buddhism advocates mendicancy, and every teaching in Buddhism is supposed to guide you toward the final goal, i.e. Nirvana.
- Question 4 of 10
4.
The second word in Lam Rim Teaching is ‘Rim’. Of the following English words, which comes closest to the meaning of ‘Rim’?
Correct
Wrong — Correct Answer – Stages
Unlike the sudden enlightenment of Chinese Buddhism, Tibet favoured the Indian school of Buddhism that was called the gradual school of Buddhism. It leads you to salvation in stages. With the completion of each step of practice, you elevate yourself and come closer to Nirvana — hence Lam Rim means the Gradual Path or Path of Stages.
- Question 5 of 10
5.
How many major stages are described in Lam Rim teaching?
Correct
Wrong — Correct Answer – Three
The three stages are as follows: Renunciation, Altruistic State of Mind and Correct View.
- Question 6 of 10
6.
Is it mandatory in Buddhism to renounce household life in order to achieve its highest goal, enlightenment?
Correct
Wrong — Correct Answer – Yes
Buddhism advocates mendicancy, or begging. Householders can also do penance and go up to a certain level. But in order to follow higher practices and Samdadhi etc., renunciation is a must.
- Question 7 of 10
7.
How many steps does Lam Rim teach are involved in the development of the altruistic state of mind, or Bodhicitta?
Correct
Wrong — Correct Answer – Seven
There are six points involved in practice where, after completion of one stage, you proceed to the next one. The seventh stage is just the achievement of the goal: realization of the altruistic state of mind!
- Question 8 of 10
8.
Tsongkhapa, or Je Rinpoche, is considered to be the greatest propagator of Lam Rim teachings. He wrote a book named Lam Rim Chen Po in which each and every step of the Path, along with its prerequisites, is explained in full. Tsongkhapa established a new sect in Tibetan Buddhism around 1417 AD. Name the sect.
Correct
Wrong — Correct Answer – Gelug
There are four sects of Buddhism that are practiced in Tibet: Nyingma (founded in 643 AD), Sakya (in the 11th Century), Karkgyud (in the 12th century), and Gelug, the latest one, founded by Tsongkhapa in the 15th Century.
- Question 9 of 10
9.
A holy book in Sanskrit contains the prophecy that a person will be born in a snowy province (which could mean Tibet) and will carry on the work of Buddha. Name the book.
Correct
Wrong — Correct Answer – Arya Manjusrimulakalpa
Manjusri is considered the embodiment of wisdom in Buddhism. Unlike Hinduism, where Saraswati is the goddess of wisdom, Manjusri is a male deity.
- Question 10 of 10
10.
Every monk receives an ordination name from his monastery. What is the ordination name of Tsongkhapa, the founder of a Tibetan Buddhist sect?
Correct
Wrong — Correct Answer – Lob Sang Drakpa
In Tibet, every monk has usually two names: one given by his family and the second name given by his monastery at the time of his ordination.
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Introduction to the Graded Path: Tibetan Buddhism Quiz
It is often said that Buddha gave 84,000 teachings, because what he taught was so varied and vast in topic and scope. While we can greatly benefit from reading the various sutras, it’s often difficult to extract the essence of the teachings in a way that truly benefits us. Here, we look at how Indian and Tibetan masters have done the work for us, organizing the entirety of Buddha’s message into a step-by-step program, known as “lam-rim” in Tibetan, which we can follow all the way to enlightenment.
How and Why to Follow the Graded Buddhist Path
What Is Lam-rim and How Did It Derive from Buddha’s Teachings?
The graded path, lam-rim, is a way to access and integrate the basic Buddhist teachings into our lives. Buddha lived 2,500 years ago, with a community of monks, and later on, a community of nuns. He not only taught the ordained communities, but was often invited to various people’s homes where he was offered a meal and, afterwards, would give a talk.
Buddha always taught with what we call “skillful means,” which refers to his method of teaching others in a way they would be able to understand. This was necessary because there were, and of course still are, so many different levels of intelligence and spiritual development. This led to Buddha teaching on a wide variety of topics at very different levels.
Many of Buddha’s followers had phenomenal memories. At that time nothing was written down and the teachings were memorized by the monks, to be passed down orally to later generations. Eventually, the teachings were written down, and became known as the sutras. Centuries after this, many great Indian masters tried to organize the material and write commentaries on it all. Atisha, one of the Indian masters who went to Tibet, created the prototype of this presentation, the lam-rim, in the eleventh century.
Atisha’s prototype presented a method through which everyone could develop themselves toward the state of a Buddha. Just to read sutras randomly doesn’t necessarily give us a clear spiritual path of where to start, or how to achieve enlightenment. All of the material is there, but it’s not easy to put it all together.
This is exactly what the lam-rim does, by presenting the material in a graded order. After Atisha, there have been many different, more elaborate versions written in Tibet. We’ll be looking at the version written in the fifteenth century by Tsongkhapa, which constitutes possibly the largest elaboration of the material. An outstanding feature of Tsongkhapa’s work is that it includes quotations from the sutras and Indian commentaries, so we can be confident that he isn’t just making anything up.
Another outstanding feature is that Tsongkhapa provides very elaborate, logical demonstrations of all the various points, so that we gain an even stronger confidence in the validity of the teachings based on logic and reason. Tsongkhapa’s special characteristic was that, unlike previous authors who tended to skip over the most difficult points, he would focus on them.
Of the four Tibetan Buddhist traditions, what originated with Tsongkhapa is known as the “Gelugpa” tradition.
What Is the Meaning of a Spiritual Path, and How to Structure It?
The question really is, how to structure a spiritual path? Many different methods were taught in general in India. Methods for developing concentration, for instance, were common in all of the other Indian traditions at Buddha’s time. It’s not something he discovered or made up. Everyone agreed that we need to look at how we can bring concentration and all the other facets into our spiritual path with regard to how we develop ourselves.
Buddha, naturally, had different explanations for understanding many of the points for how to develop ourselves, but what is really specific is his understanding of the spiritual goals. The main principle of these spiritual goals, and what is put into different grades, is our motivation.
The term given to this literature is lam-rim, with “lam” translated as “path”, and “rim” refers to the graded stages of this path. This path is the various states of mind that we need to develop, in a graded order, to reach our goal. It’s just like when we travel; if we want to go overland from Romania to India, then India is our ultimate goal. But first of all, we might need to go through Turkey, Iran and so forth, before we eventually reach India.