[n_nar:104]. Confinement of Contemplation: Any Buddhist who wants to practice meditation in a serious manner must retreat to solitude or strictly confine himself in hermitage for his devotion; he makes a vow not to go beyond the boundary

of his room, hermitage, or the like for a certain period of time in confinement to practice meditation.

[n_nar:105]. The translator feels that it is necessary to add this sentence to make the text understandable.

[n_nar:106]. This sentence is not clear, nor did the writer clearly state which book he referred to. [The Book of the Collected Pith-Instructions appears to be meant. See in the text five paragraphs above, <page 263>. Ed.]

[n_nar:107]. Here Tsong Khapa discredits the authenticity of the scriptures of the Nyingmapa. In the translator's opinion Tsong Khapa fails to remember that the entire Mahayana Buddhism, both Paramitayana and Vajrayana--the teaching that he himself follows--was based on the very Sutras and Tantras that have an accountable historical origin, so to speak; for most of the Sutras and Tantras of Mahayana were "brought out" through divine revelations. This is exactly the Nyingmapa way--receiving the teaching from the Heavenly Treasures. According to the Nyingmapa Lamas, the teachings from the visible human lineage are by no means better or more reliable than the teachings received from revelation. As a matter of fact, the latter are much superior, for they are closer, clearer, "warmer," and more direct. Besides, there are less human prejudice and dogmatic hocus-pocus involved.

Footnotes

^274:* [The translator here, we feel, is imposing a very restricted interpretation on the text, which may apply just as well to a female yogi, who also has Bodhi Heart. This term actually refers to the inner love-power which is released or "melted" by "the taming of prana." It is by no means simply to be conceived in any naive physical sense, which would succeed only in mis-defining it as a false limitation. The same is to be said of Pad.--Ed.]

^276:* We cannot agree with the translator here. Tsong Khapa at this point is simply referring to the error of the Nihilistic Extreme (see note 95). The Anuttara Tantra (which Tsong Khapa follows, thus being on no account a materialist, as the very next paragraph in the text also confirms) very explicitly states that to reduce all things to non-existence is as wrong as to affirm naively the ultimate reality of their phenomenal existence. The Sunyata is not in question at all here.--Ed.

APPENDIX

THE VOW OF MAHAMUDRA

TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION