A Framework for Buddhist Practice and Study: Insights from Khenpo Ju Tenkyong

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This article outlines a proposed framework for the development of the “weBuddhist” mobile application and its associated study platform. The structure is based on a profound discussion with Khenpo Ju Tenkyong, who shared his wisdom on the essential elements of a modern Buddhist practitioner’s path, from foundational principles to the core texts of the tradition.

Part 1: A Structured Practice Plan for the “weBuddhist” App

A central theme of the discussion was the necessity of a structured, progressive practice plan. This approach mirrors traditional methods, such as the 100-day or 10-day plans found in manuscripts like Longchen Rabjam’s Semnyi Ngalso (Finding Comfort and Ease in the Nature of Mind). Khenpo emphasized that for a beginner to develop into a proficient practitioner, a clear, sequential path is crucial. He outlined an eight-level plan based on the preliminary practices, or Ngöndro (སྔོན་འགྲོ།).

Khenpo firmly believes that the foundational practices are paramount, referencing the great masters’ saying: ཆོས་མངོ་གཞི་ལས་ཀྱང་སྔོན་འགྲོ་གལ་ཆེ། (The preliminary practices are more important than the main practice). He stressed that while rare individuals might bypass these foundations, the vast majority of practitioners require a strong base. The order of practice is vital; without it, one might misuse profound Buddhist teachings for mundane, worldly benefits—akin to “using an axe to kill an insect.”

The proposed practice plan is as follows:

  • Level 1: བློ་ལྡོག་རྣམ་བཞི། (The Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind from Samsara)
    • Contemplation on the preciousness of a human life with leisure and opportunity (དལ་འབྱོར་གྱི་མི་ལུས་རིན་ཆེན་ལ་རྗེས་སུ་ཡི་རངས་བྱ་རྒྱུར་བསམ་པ།).
    • Contemplation on death and impermanence (འཆི་བ་དང་མི་རྟག་པར་བསམ་པ།).
    • Contemplation on karma, cause and effect (ལས་རྒྱུ་འབྲས་ལ་བསམ་པ།).
    • Contemplation on the defects of samsara (འཁོར་བའི་ཉེས་དམིགས་བསམ་པ།).
    • Milestone: Upon completing this level, one can be considered a spiritual person.
  • Level 2: སྐྱབས་འགྲོ། (Taking Refuge)
    • Understanding the qualities of the Three Jewels (ཡོན་ཏན།).
    • Understanding the distinctions between them (ཁྱེད་པར།).
    • Understanding the precepts of taking refuge (བསླབ་བྱ།).
    • Milestone: Upon completing this level, one can be considered a Buddhist.
  • Level 3: སེམས་བསྐྱེད། (Generating Bodhicitta - The Mind of Enlightenment)
    • The Seven-Point Cause and Effect Instruction (རྒྱུ་འབྲས་སྨན་ངག་བདུན།).
    • The Practice of Exchanging Self and Others (བདག་གཞན་ཉམས་སྐྱེས།).
    • Milestone: Upon completing this level, one can be considered a Mahayana Buddhist.
  • Level 4: མཎྜལ། (Mandala Offering)
    • Dharmakaya Mandala (ཆོས་སྐུ་མཎྜལ།)
    • Sambhogakaya Mandala (ལུང་སྐུ་མཎྜལ།)
    • Nirmanakaya Mandala (སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་མཎྜལ།)
    • Milestone: Upon completing this level, one can be consider entering Vajrayana Buddhism.
  • Level 5: རྡོ་རྗེ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྒོམས་གནས། (Vajrasattva Meditation and Recitation)
  • Level 6: བླ་མའི་རྣལ་འབྱོར། (Guru Yoga)
  • Level 7: སྤྱོད་ཀྱི་ཉམས་ལེན། (The Practice of Conduct / Bodhisattva’s Actions)
  • Level 8: འཕོ་བའི་ཉམས་ལེན། (The Practice of Phowa - Transference of Consciousness)
    • This is a special practice to be utilised at the moment of an untimely death, leveraging the near-death experience to achieve liberation.

Advanced Practices and App Limitations

Khenpo expressed reservations about including practices from Level 7 and above, such as Mahamudra and Dzogchen, in an app-based format. He believes these profound teachings require the transmission of personal experience from a realized master. It is not merely a transfer of knowledge but a transmission of wisdom, something an app or an individual who has not realized the teachings cannot provide. He believes only the foundational practices can be effectively guided through an app.

On Shamatha and Vipassana

When asked about Shamatha (calm abiding) and Vipassana (special insight), Khenpo noted that while they are included in traditions like Mahamudra preliminary practice, they are not always taught as a separate, structured curriculum. He suggested exploring dedicated texts such as ༄༅། །ཞི་གནས་སྒྲུབ་པའི་ཡིག་ཆུང་ཉུང་གསལ་བཞུགས་སོ།། (A Brief and Clear Manual for Accomplishing Shamatha) and the སེམས་གནས་པའི་ཐབས་དགུ། (The Nine Methods of Abiding Mind). A potential path forward would be to analyze how existing meditation apps with Buddhist backgrounds introduce these techniques and build a plan upon that research.

Part 2: Foundational Texts for the “weBuddhist” Study Platform

For the academic study platform, Khenpo suggested a collection of foundational texts that reflect the rigorous curriculum of traditional Tibetan Buddhist monastic universities. Compiling these texts with their translations and aligned commentaries would be an immense benefit to Buddhist scholars and serious students worldwide.

The proposed texts are categorised into Sutra and Tantra.

མདོ། (Sutra)

  1. འདུལ་བ་མདོ་རྩ་བ། (The Root Sutra of the Vinaya) :check_mark:
  2. མངོན་པ་མཛོད་རྩ་བ། (The Root Text of the Abhidharmakosha) :check_mark:
  3. དབུ་མ་འཇུག་པ། (Introduction to the Middle Way - Madhyamakāvatāra):check_mark:
  4. ཚད་མ་རྣམ་འབྲེལ། (Commentary on Valid Cognition - Pramāṇavārttika):check_mark:
  5. མངོན་རྟོགས་རྒྱན། (The Ornament of Clear Realization - Abhisamayālaṃkāra):check_mark:
  6. ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་མདོ་སྡེའི་རྒྱན། (The Ornament of the Mahayana Sutras - Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra)
  7. དབུས་མཐའ་རྣམ་འབྱེད། (Distinguishing the Middle from the Extremes - Madhyāntavibhāga)
  8. ཆོས་དང་ཆོས་ཉིད་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པ། (Distinguishing Phenomena and Pure Being - Dharma-dharmatā-vibhāga)
  9. རྒྱུད་བླ་མ། (The Sublime Continuum - Uttaratantra Shastra)

རྒྱུད། (Tantra)

  1. གསང་བ་འདུས་པའི་རྒྱུད། (The Guhyasamāja Tantra):check_mark:
  2. འཁོར་ལོ་སྡོམ་པའི་རྒྱུད། (The Chakrasamvara Tantra)
  3. ཀྱེའི་རྡོ་རྗེའི་རྒྱུད། (The Hevajra Tantra)
  4. དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོའི་རྒྱུད། (The Kalachakra Tantra)
  5. སྒྱུ་འཕྲུལ་གསང་བ་སྙིང་པོ། (The Secret Essence Illusion Tantra - Guhyagarbha Tantra)
  6. སྤྱི་མདོ་དགོངས་པ་འདུས་པ།
  7. རྫོགས་ཆེན་ཀུན་བྱེད་རྒྱལ་པོ། (The All-Creating King Tantra of Dzogchen)

Conclusion

The guidance from Khenpo Ju Tenkyong provides a clear and authentic roadmap. For the “weBuddhist” app, the focus must be on a well-structured, sequential journey through the foundational practices. For the study platform, the goal is to create a comprehensive digital library of the most essential sutric and tantric texts, thereby preserving and disseminating this profound wisdom for generations to come.