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The Mahayana Councils
and the Sutras, Tantras
and Shastras
How the Bodhisattvas authentically
preserved the Buddha's Teachings
by Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche
This history of the three councils actually relates more directly to the way in
which the Hinayana teachings were preserved, particularly, the hinayana
tradition of the Vinaya.
But a similar councils occurred in the Mahayana tradition. Some time after
the passing away of the Buddha, one million bodhisattvas met together
under the leadership of the three great bodhisattvas Vajrapani, Maitreya
and Manjushri on the top of mount Vimalasvabhava, which lies south of
Rajagriha in southern India.
All the teachings of the Buddha were also collected in the three same
sections of Sutras, Vinaya, and Abhidharma. The bodhisattva Vajrapani
recited the Sutras. The bodhisattva Maitreya recited the Vinaya, and the
bodhisattva Manjushri recited the Abhidharma. So in this meeting they also
collected all the teachings of the Buddha and classified them into these
three main categories.
A similar thing took place with the Vajrayana teachings. The Buddha taught
four categories of tantras: the kriya tantra, the carya tantra, yoga tantra,
and anuttarayoga tantra.
With the lower three tantras, i. e. the kriya tantra, the carya tantra, and
yoga tantras there was a special meeting of all the bodhisattvas in the god
realm to gather all of these teachings led by Vajrapani. For this reason, in
the vajrayana tradition he is known as “the Lord of Secrets,” with secrets
referring to the secret mantra, that is, the vajrayana. How did he come to
be the Lord of Secrets? First he was the one who requested the Buddha to
turn the profound Dharma wheel of the tantras and then when it was
turned, he was the most prominent of the disciples. Later when there was
this meeting of all the bodhisattvas to collect all the lower tantras, Vajrapani
was the leader of this gathering and it is through his action that the tantras
have been preserved up to now.
As far as the anuttarayoga tantras, the father tantras and mother tantras
were mostly requested and received by dakinis such as Vajrayogini, and it
was also the wisdom dakinis who collected and preserved these teachings.
The Hevajra Tantra was transmitted mostly to the bodhisattva Vajragarbha.
He later on gathered the teaching and transmitted them in their integrity.
The Kalachakra Tantra was transmitted mostly to the Dharma King
Sucandra. He was actually an emanation of Manjushri. He was the one
who also kept the teaching, collected them, and passed them on.
What follows is an explanation of the Sutras, Tantras and Shastras.
The Sutras
Now the first turning of teachings were given in Varanasi which you can
visit in India nowadays. The Buddha taught in the deer park (which is now
called Sarnath) which at the time was a very remote and very solitary
place.9 After the Buddha reached his enlightenment, he remained
completely silent and didn’t teach for seven weeks. The reason for this was
to show that the Dharma is very rare, very special, very valuable, and this
is why the Buddha just remained silent for some time and until he was
requested to teach. The request was made by many gods including
Brahma.10 Having had the request to teach, the Buddha went to Varanasi
and gave the teachings in the deer park. He gave the teachings to five men
who were called “the five good followers” who were connected by previous
karma to the Buddha and who through this link, were the first ones to
receive his teaching.
The subject matter of this first turning of the wheel of Dharma was the
teaching of the Four Noble Truths. The Buddha expounding these Four
Noble Truths to make it very clear to all those who were going to follow the
Buddha’s path what the teaching was, why one needed to practice it, and
what kind of results one could be expected from the practice. So to clarify
the path the Buddha laid it out in a very clear form of the four truths.
He showed that if we don’t practice the path of Dharma, we will wander on
and on in samsara, but if we practice the Dharma, we will gain the
liberation of nirvana. The Buddha first taught that suffering is inherent to
samsara and that this is what we must really overcome. Secondly, he
taught that the cause of this suffering are the disturbing emotions or
kleshas and karma. To counteract samsara we must engage in the aspect
of nirvana which again has two parts. The third noble truth of cessation or
peace shows what we can achieve. Nirvana is cessation of suffering. And
fourth the way to achieve this is the truth of the path.
Since samsara is by nature suffering, we have to go beyond samsara to
eliminate samsara. Since nirvana is peace, this is what we have to try to
achieve. But achieving nirvana and eliminating samsara can not be done
automatically. So it is done through working on the causes of these that we
can achieve our goal. This is why the Buddha expounded on the four truths
in the form of causes and their effects. The causes of the suffering of
samsara are the disturbing emotions such as lust, anger, and ignorance
and karma which need to be overcome. In the same way, the cause of
peace and bliss of nirvana is the path which needs to be practiced.
So this is how the Buddha gave the whole outline of his teaching in the
form of these four truths. Within each aspect of samsara and nirvana, there
is this causal relationship between cause and effect. This series of
teachings which began in Varanasi were called the turning of the first wheel
of dharma.
Later the Buddha taught the second wheel of Dharma at Vulture Peak in
Rajagriha, India.12 The people who were present during this teaching were
arhats and bodhisattvas in great numbers. The teaching itself was mostly
the exposition of the Prajnaparamita. This is when the Buddha gave the
teachings on emptiness and on the conduct of a bodhisattva through the
teachings on the six paramitas.
In the first turning of the wheel of Dharma, the Buddha showed that one
had to abandon samsara to achieve nirvana. But how is this possible?
Does it mean that we have to go on a long journey to where we have never
been before to find nirvana? Does it mean that we have to create
something new called nirvana? In fact, it doesn’t mean that at all. All it
means is that we have to understand the actual nature of phenomena13
that we have to understand that our present view of reality is mistaken, and
we have to remove our impurities. And once we see things as they really
are, this is when we can achieve Buddhahood.
The third turning of the wheel of Dharma is also called the teachings that
gave complete clari-fication. These teachings were given in Shravasti and
other places in India in the presence of all the great bodhisattvas. These
teaching revealed that Buddha-nature is present in the mind of all beings.
We may wonder why this was taught last. The reason is that in the second
turning, the Buddha taught that everything was empty of inherent nature.
This teaching could lead to the belief that the goal of the Buddhist path—
nirvana—is actually simply complete emptiness or annihilation. To avoid
this mistake, the Buddha gave this third set of teachings showing that the
mind is not just nothingness. When one achieves Buddhahood, the original
intrinsic luminosity of the mind becomes manifest. This luminosity or clarity
of the mind means that the mind is not a dark, obscure thing by nature, but
it has its own inherent, intelligent clarity. Once one has removed the veils,
the thick shroud of ignorance, the inherent clarity of the mind, this brilliance
of the intelligence of mind, will shine in its fullness. Once this clarity of the
mind has manifest, then one can understand all things of nirvana and
samsara very clearly. One has the understanding of phenomena and this
knowledge is accompanied by the greatest of bliss and peace.
The Tantras
The three turnings of the wheel of Dharma that have just been described
correspond to the sutras taught of the Buddha. The Buddha also taught the
tantras which are the teachings of the vajrayana. The Buddha gave four
tantras: the kriya tantras, the carya tantras, the yoga tantras, and the
anuttarayoga tantras.
These teachings were given in many places. Sometimes the Buddha gave
these teachings in some of the god realms such as Tushita and some of
the teachings were given in physical places in India. Those receiving these
teachings were bodhisattvas and dakas and dakinis practicing the secret
mantas. The sutras already provided very deep and vast teachings on the
nature of phenomena. But with the vajrayana, the Buddha was able to give
people the possibility to achieve the fruition of the Buddhist path very
quickly and without major hardships. The vajrayana can do this by
providing special skillful means such as the meditation on the generation
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