Table Of ContentA Joyful Ocean of Precious
Diversity
An unbiased summary of views and practices, gradually
emerging from the teachings of the world’s wisdom
traditions.
སྣ་ཚོགས་ནོར་བུའི་རོལ་མཚོ།
༄༅།།རིས་མེད་འཛམ་གླིང་རིག་པའི་གཞུང་ལུགས་བྱུང་རིམ་ལྟ་གྲུབ་ཉིང་བསྡུས།།
by Shar Khentrul Jamphel Lodrö
ཤར་མཁན་སྤྲུལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་འཇམ་དཔལ་བློ་གྲོས
Edited by Joe Flumerfelt
Copyright © 2015 Shar Khentrul Jamphel Lodrö
All rights reserved. No part of this book, either text or art, may be reproduced
in any form, electronic or otherwise, without written permission from
Khentrul Jamphel Lodrö or the Tibetan Buddhist Rimé Institute.
ISBN: 978-0-9944453-0-8 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-0-9944453-1-5 (e-book)
Published by:
THE TIBETAN BUDDHIST RIMÉ INSTITUTE
This work was produced by the Tibetan Buddhist Rimé Institute, a not-for-
profit organisation run entirely by volunteers. This organisation is devoted to
propagating a non-sectarian view of all the world’s spiritual traditions and
teaching Buddhism in a way that is completely authentic, yet also practical
and accessible to Western culture. It is especially dedicated to propagating
the Jonang tradition, a rare jewel from remote Tibet which holds the precious
Kalachakra teachings.
For more information on scheduled activities or available materials, or if you
wish to make a donation to support our work, please contact:
Tibetan Buddhist Rimé Institute Inc.
1584 Burwood Highway
Belgrave VIC 3160
AUSTRALIA
www.rimebuddhism.com
[email protected]
Contents
Acknowledgments
Editor’s Preface
Introduction
PART ONE: WORKING WITH DIVERSITY
1 The Nature of Belief
2 The Rimé Philosophy
PART TWO: THE WORLD’S BELIEF SYSTEMS
Systems with an Extrinsic Focus
3 Ancient Wisdom Traditions
4 Hinduism
5 Judaism
6 Christianity
7 Islam
Systems with an Intrinsic Focus
8 Jainism
9 Buddhism
10 Taoism
11 Scientism
PART THREE: THE SPIRITUAL LEGACY OF TIBET
12 The Land of Snows
13 Bön
14 Nyingma
15 Sakya
16 Kagyu
17 Jonang
18 Geluk
19 The Rimé Movement
Concluding Thoughts
About the Author
Rinpoche’s Vision
Acknowledgments
I really feel so fortunate to have finally completed this book on the diversity
of global wisdom and the belief systems that have arisen from them. None of
this would have happened without the kindness of my teachers from each of
the major Tibetan Buddhist traditions. The wisdom they shared with me was
the basis upon which this book took shape. This vision would also not have
been possible without the inspiration that I received from His Holiness the
Dalai Lama who encouraged me to expand on my ideas and to really think
globally.
For more than eleven years, with the kind help of others, I have tried to fulfill
his wishes and make this project manifest. Now in 2015, I feel like we have
achieved more in this one year than in all those other years combined. This is
in no small part due to the hard work and determination of Joe Flumerfelt,
who has put an enormous effort into bringing this book together. I would like
to express my heartfelt thanks and appreciation for his great intelligence and
perseverance.
There have been so many people who have contributed their valuable time to
this project in the form of discussing ideas, researching traditions and
compiling notes. While there are really too many to mention here, I would
like you all to know that your contributions have helped make this book what
it is today and for that I am so grateful.
I pray that through the power of interdependence, the wisdom of the two
truths, and the blessings of all the compassionate ones, may all kind mother
sentient beings connect with this meaningful reality and may they achieve
both temporary goodness and ultimate benefit.
Khentrul Rinpoche
August 2015
Editor’s Preface
When setting out on a spiritual journey it can sometimes be scary. You are
entering into unknown territory where the terrain is unfamiliar and the path
forward is not always clear. You meet many people, some who are
trustworthy and some who are not. It’s easy to get confused and to lose your
way. But no matter what happens, you carry on. Why? Because deep down
you know that the questions you are asking are worth asking and with each
answer you uncover, you move that much closer to achieving your heart’s
desire.
This book has been written with the seeker in mind. That person who has
come to the point in her life where the superficial is simply not enough. That
person who wants to go deeper, wants to understand, wants to connect with
something larger than himself. It is for the person who is actively seeking out
the wisdom that will bring meaning and purpose to his life.
This person, this seeker, is standing at a crossroad. She is faced with a very
difficult choice. With so many paths that one could take, how do you decide
which is the best for you? You could do a little bit of one and a little bit of
another, but that will only get you so far. You’ll never really be able to
achieve any depth if you aren’t willing to commit to something. But how can
you possibly commit to something when you are unsure of what you are
doing? This sort of doubt binds you and prevents you from moving forward.
It keeps you in a holding pattern, endlessly running around in circles.
Fear and doubt are a part of our journey, we cannot escape them. But we can
learn how to work with them so that they do not become an obstacle for us.
We can develop strategies for how we approach our spiritual development.
Strategies that will help us to embrace the very diversity that at times can be
so overwhelming.
When Khentrul Rinpoche asked me to collaborate with him on this project, I
was at once both excited by the opportunity and terrified by the sheer scope
of the endeavour. Rinpoche had written a short book called Paths of Pure
Vision, in which he had presented a summary of the six major traditions of
Tibet. He had presented this book to His Holiness the Dalai Lama who
commended him for the work and then asked him to expand upon the
premise.
That was more than ten years ago. Since then, Rinpoche has discussed his
ideas with a number of different collaborators, each helping him to develop
different aspects of the book and to conduct preliminary research into various
topics. So when I joined the project in late 2014, Rinpoche had already
gathered a fair deal of material. The challenge was now to put it all together
into an accessible format that could communicate clearly and concisely.
Through lengthy discussions between Rinpoche and myself, we eventually
developed a final structure and the key points of content that we wanted to
present. On the basis of that structure, I then conducted a series of interviews
with Rinpoche in order to draw forth his particular thoughts on the various
subjects. The material from those interviews were then combined with
extensive research notes in order to produce the bulk of the content for each
chapter.
The nature of this work has been largely a matter of synthesis as I have tried
to condense a wealth of information into only ten or twelve pages. This has
meant a great deal of detail had to be sacrificed in order to make the chapters
more manageable for the reader. In general I have chosen to focus on the
essential meaning of things rather than digressing too heavily into technical
terminology or philosophical subtleties. When dealing with history, I have
also focused more on the relative sequence and not so much on the exact
dates in which events took place.
It was always Rinpoche’s intention that this book be something that could be
read fairly quickly (ideally within a few days). With so much reference
material already available, it was never meant to be exhaustive in nature.
Instead, Rinpoche wanted to provide a very broad overview of the spiritual
landscape, a guidebook of sorts that was practical in its approach and could
help the reader to identify the main signposts for a given spiritual path.
Throughout the course of writing this book, I have done my best to stay as
true as possible to the source material for each tradition. That being said, I
must accept the fact that what I have written is still just an interpretation. I do
not profess to be an expert in any of these traditions and therefore I accept
full responsibility if my interpretations have introduced any errors into the
book. I welcome any suggestions for ways to improve the presentation of
these sometimes very complex and subtle ideas. Both Rinpoche and I see this
edition as a starting point for further discussion and we look forward to your
feedback.
It is my sincere aspiration that you may find some personal benefit through
reading this book. May it become a cause for Khentrul Rinpoche’s vision to
be realised and for each of us to cultivate greater peace and harmony in our
hearts and our relationships with others.
Joe Flumerfelt
Belgrave, Australia
August 2015
Introduction
I remember when I first arrived in India. It was like being transplanted into a
totally different world that resembled my own in only the most superficial of
ways. The landscape was different. The buildings were different. The people
were different. Sights, sounds, tastes, smells, even the very feeling of being
there, were different. Nothing of my past seemed at all familiar in this new
alien environment.
It didn’t take me long to realise that the thoughts and behaviours of the
Indians was completely unlike what I had expected.They spoke a language
that made no sense to me. Their culture was filled with customs that I didn’t
understand. It was a little surreal and unsettling. But at the same time, it
demonstrated to me just how incredibly diverse our world could be.
In the coming years, I would travel all over India and Nepal, spending my
summers in the foothills of the Himalayas and my winters visiting the many
sacred sites in the region. As I visited small villages and bustling cities, I
began to see this diversity playing out in a rich tapestry of expression. So
many lives, so many people; each with their own stories, their own desires,
their own realities.
Eventually I found myself in Australia, surrounded by another new world that
was again different to anything I had experienced before.The values of the
culture, the ways that people related to each other, the manner in which they
spoke; everything had shifted again.
I have been fortunate in my life to have encountered such a wide variety of
people and places and no two have ever been the same. Similar, yes, but
never exactly the same. Just as landscapes shift, so too do the people who
inhabit them. Some places lend themselves to harsher temperaments, some to
more philosophical endeavours. In some, the family is valued above all else;
while in others work plays a primary role. These small shifts in emphasis and
priorities can lead to drastically different expressions of what is essentially
