The Wheel of Samsara: Buddhist Wisdom of the Buryats

Before the advent of Soviet power, there were 16 thousand lamas and many datsans in Buryatia. By the end of the Great Patriotic War, there were only five hundred lamas left, and the datsans were closed. In 1945, construction of the first datsan under Soviet rule began, and in 1991, a Buddhist university was founded there. The wheel of samsara has turned again.

Under the supervision of the deities

In the main cathedral church of the Ivolginsky datsan - Sogchen dugan - it is cool and calm. Worshipers enter through the left door, heading forward to the altar lined with statues of Buddha and bodhisattvas. In front of the altar there are long tables on which sweets, cookies, coins are piled in heaps, and there are open cartons of milk. Above the table, attached to the glass enclosing the altar, is a sheet of paper on which is printed large: “Do not place rice, grain, millet and other bulk products on the table.”

In the center of the hall, monks in saffron and burgundy robes sit at low tables. They either read or chant mantras in Old Tibetan, quietly turning over the wide pages of prayer books, traditionally made in the shape of the leaves of the sacred Bodhi tree. Each leads their own part, their voices fill the temple, reminiscent of the hum of bees on a summer afternoon.

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Buddhist lama.
Photo: Alexey Bushov Statues of saints are numerous and varied - bright, many-eyed, many-headed, many-armed. In the center is a large golden sculpture of Buddha Shakyamuni, made by Mongolian craftsmen as a gift to the Ivolginsky datsan. To her left is Green Tara. A person only has time to blink, and she has already flown around the Earth a thousand times, helping everyone who asks her for it. On the right is White Tara, symbolizing compassion, the goddess of meditation and the patroness of long life practices.

Having walked along the entire altar and left offerings, you need to back away towards the right door leading from the temple. It is impolite to turn your back on the deities; this can only be done by stepping back a few steps. The central doors are closed until special occasions, when lamas enter to conduct prayer services.

Tara means Savior. According to legend, having achieved perfection and liberation, she abandoned nirvana out of compassion for people. There are 21 incarnations of this goddess; among the Buryats, Green Tara and White Tara are most revered.
Green Tara sits on a lotus, lowering her right leg from it in order to come to the rescue at the first call. If a person is overcome by demons, it is enough to recite her mantra “Om Dari Dudari Duri Suha” for the evil forces to retreat. Moreover, the mantra works even if you don’t remember it in its entirety, it’s enough to say a part.
White Tara helps to escape from diseases and other threats to life. To protect yourself from trouble, just say her name. Russian Buddhists associated two empresses with her. Elizaveta Petrovna recognized Buddhism as one of the state religions of the country. Catherine II in 1764 established the post of Pandito Hambo Lama. She invited the first of them, Damba-Darzhu Zaryaev, to Moscow as a delegate when it was necessary to draw up a new religious code for followers of various religions. Since then, each Pandito Khambo Lama took a special oath of allegiance to the White Tsar, until the government changed in the country.

1. No one saves us except ourselves, no one has the right and no one is able to do this. We ourselves must walk the path, but the words of the Buddha will clearly show it.

2. Thoughts are the forerunner of (all bad) states. If anyone acts or speaks and his thoughts are unkind, suffering follows him like a wheel follows a buffalo's hoof.

3. As rain penetrates a thatched house, so lust penetrates the undeveloped mind.

4. Concentration is the path to immortality, frivolity is the path to death. Those who are collected by reason do not die, the frivolous are like the dead.

5. Curbing thoughts that are barely restrained, frivolous, and stumbling around is a blessing. A controlled thought leads to happiness.

6. The night is long for the awakened, the journey is long for the weary. The process of realizing (by repeated existence) spiritual immaturity is also long for someone who does not know the true essence of things.

7. One day of a wise and meditative person is truly better than a hundred years of a person who has neither wisdom nor self-control.

8. Renounce all evil, increase goodness, purify your mind: This is the advice of all Buddhas.

9. No attachments - no suffering.

10. Peace comes from within, don’t look for it outside.

11. There is no greater error than hatred, and nothing greater than patience. Therefore, I strive to learn patience always and everywhere.

12. What is the use of a person’s eloquence if he does not follow his words?

13. You will not be punished for your anger; you will be punished by your anger.

14. Your mind is everything. You become what you think.

15. We are what we think. Everything that we are arises with our thoughts. We create the world with our thoughts.

16. It is not life, nor wealth, nor power that makes a slave out of a person, but only his attachment to life, wealth and power.

17. If a wanderer does not meet someone like himself or better, let him strengthen himself in solitude: there is no friendship with a fool.

18. Even a shower of gold coins will not satisfy your passions. He is wise who knows: passions are painful and there is little joy in them.

19. - Don’t kill, take care of the life of all living things. - Don’t steal, don’t rob, don’t rob people of the product of their labor. - Be chaste both in thoughts and in life. - Do not lie; speak the truth when necessary, fearlessly but lovingly. - Don’t say bad things about people and don’t repeat the bad things they say about people. - Don't swear. - Don’t waste time on empty speeches, but speak up or be silent. - Do not be selfish and do not envy, but rejoice in the good of your neighbor. - Cleanse your heart of malice, hate no one and love everyone. - Conquer rage with love, respond with good to evil, conquer stinginess with generosity, conquer a liar with the word of truth.

20. Happiness is not a successful combination of external circumstances. It's just a state of your mind.

21. Patience is the antidote to anger.

22. There are two truths - about suffering and the emergence of suffering. The main cause of suffering is the insatiability of human desires. However, these desires do not lead to happiness. They are either unfulfilled, and this brings sadness, or they are fulfilled, and then we are convinced of the ephemeral nature of our happiness, and the fear of loss deprives it of meaning. But we continue to desire again and again, and it is this insatiable thirst that pushes us from one string of suffering to another.

23. He who devotes himself to vanity and does not devote himself to reflection, who has forgotten the goal, who clings to pleasure, envies the self-absorbed.

24. And there was not, and there will not be, and now there is no person who is worthy only of blame or only praise.

25. Just as rain seeps into a house with a thin roof, so lust seeps into a poorly developed mind.

26. Victory breeds hatred; the vanquished live in sorrow. The calm person who has renounced victory and defeat lives in happiness.

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Ivolginsky datsan.
Photo: wikipedia.org, Arkady Zarubin Obvious-incredible

One of the main shrines of the datsan is the body of the XII Pandito Khambo Lama Dashi-Dorzho Itigelov, who officially died in 1927. Sitting in the lotus position, he bequeathed to the disciples gathered around to check his body after 75 years, and then asked him to read him a prayer of good wishes for the deceased. They began to refuse, and the lama himself began to read the prayer, so the disciples had to join. When Itigelov stopped showing signs of life, he was buried in the same position in a cube made of cedar wood.

On September 7, 2002, eighty-year-old Amgalan Dabaev, the only one who still remembered the burial place of the lama who had passed into nirvana, pointed out this place to the XXIV Pandito Khambo Lama Damba Ayusheev. Three days later, Itigelov’s body was transferred to the datsan. Six years later, a special palace was built for him, a copy of the Devazhin dugan, which Itigelov himself had once designed for the Yangazhinsky datsan. There you can visit him and ask for help. The lama does not eat or drink, but in the six years after the opening of the sarcophagus he gained about ten kilograms. He also sweats regularly. The caretaker Bimbo Lama, who changes the body from time to time, notes that a fragrance emanates from it.

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Temple of Dashi-Dorzho Itigelov.
Photo: wikipedia.org, Arkady Zarubin A group of scientists led by Professor Viktor Zvyagin conducted research on the body of the Hambo Lama and noted the absence of a corpse odor, the elasticity of the skin, the mobility of the joints and the fact that the protein in Itigelov’s tissues does not differ in characteristics from the protein of living people . At the same time, the professor could not certify the lama as alive - the body temperature turned out to be below 20 degrees, and this is “an absolute sign of death.”

During eight large khural services, the body of Hambo Lama is transferred to Sogchen Dugan so that he can take part in prayer services. Servants say that during these periods Itigelov sweats especially heavily and has to be constantly wiped with napkins. People talk about magical healings and other miracles occurring in the immediate vicinity of the Precious Body.

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Pandito Khambo Lama Dashi-Dorzho Itigelov.
Photo: wikipedia.org However, Itigelov performed miracles during his lifetime. Thus, he blessed three hundred Yangazhin Cossacks leaving for the First World War. Every single one of them returned safe and sound. They tell how Hambo Lama hurried to the datsan and parted the waters of the lake so as not to go around it, but to gallop directly to the goal. At the beginning of the twentieth century, they say, Buryat lamas could do many things - levitate, become invisible, teleport from one place to another. When Buddhism fell into decline in Russia, practices of this level disappeared. But now the persecution of priests is far behind us. After 75 years, Itigelov returned to help those who need it. In the datsan, lamas again hold services and teach new students.

Light of teaching

In 1991, the Central Spiritual Administration of Buddhists of Russia decided to establish a higher educational institution. It was opened at the Ivolginsky datsan, giving the name “Dashi Choynkhorlin”, which translated from Tibetan means “Land of Happy Teaching”. The first teachers were invited from Tibet and India, in addition, there were several Buryat lamas who received Buddhist education in Mongolia.

The Faculty of Philosophy was the first to open at the Buddhist University. One of the forms of training is debates. Simple ones last one minute, complex ones can last up to several days. Great lamas are able to discuss philosophical issues for several days and nights without interruption. In addition, students study logic, general philosophy, old Mongolian writing, Tibetan and English languages and other subjects.

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Complex of Ivolginsky datsan.
Photo: Alexander Kiselyov Over time, other faculties were opened: medical, Buddhist painting (tank painting) and tantric. The last one is the most difficult: to enter this faculty, you must first study philosophy for eight years at the university and another eight in India.

“It is necessary to complete a sixteen-year course of general philosophical education, only after that those who wish can proceed to teaching tantra. Not everyone can do it; the practice requires a lot of discipline. One can compare sutra and tantra as two paths to the top of a mountain. The first one is flatter and safer, but it is longer and cannot be overcome in one incarnation. The second is cool and fast, allows you to achieve enlightenment within one life, but the risk of failure is very high.”
Did Khambo Lama of the Buddhist Traditional Sangha of Russia for the Republic of Buryatia Dagba Ochirov

Did Khambo Lama Dagba Ochirov is one of the first graduates of the university; he graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy. The fate of the lama was predicted to him by his grandfather, who in 1911, at the age of six, left Russia to study in Mongolia, and in the 1930s returned to the Soviet Union. “When he was sent home from Mongolia, everyone understood the situation in the country and warned: “Don’t go to temples,” recalls the Dagba Lama. — He went through the Great Patriotic War, then got married. When I was little, my grandfather told me: “You will become a lama.” I didn’t believe it, of course - Soviet times, what lamas! I graduated from a pedagogical institute with a degree in chemistry and biology, taught, worked as a chemical engineer, head of a laboratory, head of a wastewater treatment plant... And when our university opened in the 1990s, I came here to study. I was accepted under the condition: to complete the training completely from the first year, giving up my usual life. So I, a thirty-year-old mustachioed guy, sat with fourteen-year-old teenagers in the same class. It was the happiest time!”

The most important spiritual tenets of the Buddha

Buddha did not even allow the thought of publicly proclaiming himself God or a prophet; he simply modestly spoke about what appeared to him at the moment of enlightenment. His lessons reflect the extent of his understanding of the universe and the inner world of man. And this understanding, as time shows, is truly immeasurable. If we try to meaningfully follow these lessons, then in our life everything that is destined to blossom will blossom, without withering ahead of time due to banal spiritual callousness. Here are the most important of these covenants:

The greatest force in the universe is Love. The eternal law of the universe lies in its victorious power. Hatred and contempt are very dubious weapons against such manifestations. Only love can inspire and fill a good person with vitality and, on the contrary, disarm an evil one.
Every person is characterized not by what he says, but by what he does. If someone is gifted with eloquence and uses it for good, uttering irrefutable truths, this, of course, is wonderful, but it does not make him a sage. If a person lives according to the laws of the universe - in love, absence of fear, harmony with others, and also shows resistance to innumerable temptations and courage in the face of death - he is truly wise.
No one can live your life for you. Everyone must follow their own path, without, if possible, involving outsiders to solve their problems. And even if there is a well-wisher who, of his own free will, wants to do something for you, this will be a disservice that does not allow your own creative potential to be fully revealed.
The truth cannot be hidden. Everyone has probably heard that the secret becomes clear, but this truth was known back in hoary antiquity. The great Gautama taught that the sun, moon and truth cannot be hidden, no matter how hard you try.
Find peace within yourself. Calmness and tranquility live within each of us and no one can bestow them on us from the outside.
The secret to health is a fulfilled life in the present. You should not completely transfer your consciousness into vain memories or fruitless dreams of the future. The present is that golden thread that connects us with reality, and only those who are completely in the present gain mental and physical health.
Kindness should be extended to everyone. One should show gentleness towards the young, compassion towards the elderly and infirm, tolerance towards the weak in spirit and the erring. After all, there were and will be moments later when you imagined or will imagine something similar. Nobility and restraint are a real panacea for adversity, for in the future the same manifestations of the human soul will be mirrored to you.
Replace envy with admiration. Envy of someone else's happiness, luck or talent dries up the soul and de-energizes a person's nervous system. You need to try to find the strength in yourself to sublimate this destructive feeling into admiration, and through cultivating this state of mind you can cultivate in yourself those qualities that previously caused envy.
Words are a great medicine and a poison at the same time. A carelessly spoken word can have a murderous effect on your neighbor, but on the contrary, it has saving power. It all depends on what words they are and with what spiritual message they are spoken.
If you want something to be yours, let it go. There is the most reliable way to lose something - you just need to, with a death grip, not want to part with it for a moment. Accordingly, there is also the opposite effect, when the universe embodies in the life of an individual the innermost thing that he dreamed of, but let go of, without a priori appropriating it to himself.
Thoughts shape reality. We became what we are thanks to, and only thanks to, our thoughts. They are changeable and fleeting, in contrast to the current moment of life - at first glance, it is static and inert. But if you change your own thoughts and hold your attention on them for as long as possible, reality will begin to quickly transform in the direction in which we directed it with our thought stream.
Don't take everything for granted. Try to treat with the proper degree of indifference the various conjectures and gossip that are heard around you, do not allow them too close to your heart and mind, do not let them take over you, otherwise you risk becoming manipulated from the outside. The most valuable thing you have is your individual life experience, which, although it does not insure you against mistakes, guarantees personal improvement. It is useful to develop critical thinking without blindly relying on the authority of the speaker. There is, of course, the other side of this truth, which is that you cannot turn into an absolute cynic who does not accept any good advice. People like this are usually called unbelieving Thomas. To find harmony in the matter of faith or disbelief, you need to rely on your natural intuition, having previously developed it to the possible limit.
You need to be very selective when looking for friends. There is a modern, rather tired saying: tell me who your friend is, then I will tell you who you are.” She simply interprets the ancient Buddhist truth that we actually gradually, imperceptibly for ourselves, begin to resemble those with whom we are friends, or even turn into their spiritual phantoms. There is also a danger lurking in the insincerity and deceit of so-called friends, who in this case can replace several worst enemies.
Spiritual improvement is not a luxury for a select few, but a vital necessity for everyone. Like a candle that cannot burn without fire, a person cannot fully live without spiritual work on himself. Only an enlightened spirit can nourish the physical body with vital energy and prolong its health.
There is no one in the world who is more worthy of your love than yourself. There is almost no person in the entire universe who would appreciate you, especially if you yourself do not feel love for yourself and you are bored with yourself. God has placed in every soul a priceless treasure, beautiful in its uniqueness, and only for this reason is it worth finding a reason to love yourself. If, despite all the desire, such a reason is not found, it is worth thinking about returning your soul to its original divine appearance, and subsequently, love for yourself and for everything around you will become your normal state.
The three most significant things. As the great and kind Buddha teaches, by and large there are only three most important things that everyone needs to take care of while he is still breathing: how deeply we loved, how easily we lived and how easily we parted with unnecessary things.

Love, the liberator of the mind, contains everything within itself, shining, sparkling and radiating.

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View of the South Gate of the Ivolginsky Datsan.
Photo: Olga Ladygina There are about 120 huvarak students studying at the university. There are no stipends, but they receive housing and food for free, thanks to donations and alms from parishioners. Graduates are awarded state-issued diplomas in the specialty “philosopher”, “tank writer” or “emchi lama”, that is, a healer.

Visiting the Lama

To turn to the lama for advice, you need to check with the information center which healers or astrologers accept visitors. In the hallway of the wooden house where Did Khambo Lama Ochirov lives, there is an old, shabby sofa and an armchair for those waiting their turn. Quiet voices are heard from the room, interrupted from time to time by the tapping of pebbles - the lama throws them before answering this or that question. After a while, a couple of young people come out of the door, saying goodbye to the lama - you can go inside.

Before visiting, it is recommended to perform a goroo - a ritual walk around the territory of the monastery clockwise an odd number of times. Khurde installed along the path three times In each of them, from several hundred to a million scrolls with sutras are wound on an axis, so that by turning the drum once, a person “reads” many prayers at once.
As a sign of respect, you can offer the lama a khadak - a silk scarf symbolizing the wish for happiness and peace. It is served on the palms of both hands, lightly holding the top with your fingers. White hadak means pure thoughts, holiness, well-being. Blue - harmony, kindness and calm. Yellow - faith, prosperity, the teachings of Buddha, as well as prosperity and stability.
In gratitude for the consultation, the lama is given a donation in any form - money, food, a gift.

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The Dhammapada is a famous collection of Buddhist sayings composed in Pali. It is included as an integral, but completely independent part of the Buddhist Canon and is usually placed in the fifth part of the Sutta Pitaka, called the Khuddaka Nikaya.

The name Dhammapada consists of two words, each of which has multiple meanings. The word “dhamma” will be discussed in more detail below; now it is only worth noting that it could mean “virtue”, “law”, “teaching” (in particular, Buddhist), “religion”, “element”, “quality”, “thing”, “phenomenon”, etc. e. The word "pada" equally meant "path", "way", "place", "means", "reason", "base", "word", "verse", "foot", "trace" and etc. (See the explanation of the meaning of the word "pada" in the Abhidhanapadipika.) Therefore, theoretically, there are a very large number of possibilities for explaining the name of the Dhammapada. They are determined by the compatibility of words of one (dhamma) and another (pada) series. “The path of virtue”, “The path of law”, “The path of teaching”, “The path of religion”, “The basis of virtue”, “The basis of law”, “The basis of doctrine”, “The word about virtue”, “The word about law”, “The word about teaching”, “Poems on virtue”, “Poems on the law”, etc. - all these translations of the word Dhammapada, as well as a number of others, are almost equally successful or, on the contrary, unsuccessful. (It should be mentioned that S.F. Oldenburg, referring to the obvious play on words in the name of the monument, proposed translating it as “Feet of the Law.”) It is hardly advisable to try to choose the best option from them. And the point here, of course, is not so much that it is now difficult to get to the original meaning of the ancient word, but rather the fundamental ambiguity of the name Dhammapada, which, one must think, was understood differently depending on the era and on the school.

The ancient Indians had a creative attitude towards words. It manifested itself in two ways: on the one hand, long synonymous rows were attached to a certain word, sophisticated “figurative” words (often complex) were invented to denote the simplest concepts; on the other hand, in India they well understood the symbolic nature of the word, realized the enormous potential of the formally one and the same word to express a wide variety of concepts; knew that the meaning of a word is largely determined by the whole system of which the word is a part. That is why Indian literature, philosophy or religion is characterized by the use of approximately the same set of words and terms, which, however, in different directions and in different periods meant significantly different concepts. From the above it follows that it would be possible to determine the original meaning of the word Dhammapada only if the cultural and historical context in which this monument arose was precisely known. However, even in this case, the significance of decoding the name would be very small, since it would explain only one of the episodes in the general theme of the functioning of the Dhammapada as an artistic, religious, philosophical, dogmatic monument. It is hardly advisable to consider the Dhammapada only in a genetic or narrowly synchronic sense (for example, the 3rd century BC, the Theravadin sect, etc.): we must remember that it was a living, modern word even in the era of its creation and in each of the subsequent periods up to the present time. And the very concept of “era of creation” in this case is very vague. We can talk about the creation of a given text, a letter, but it is important not to forget that for more than two thousand years, more and more new concepts and ideas have been emerging almost continuously, based on the same old text. The letter of the text remains, but its spirit changes.

For the same reasons, the question of the chronology of the Dhammapada in absolute dating (apparently, the 3rd or even 4th century BC) is not of primary interest, especially since one exact date in the chronological chaos that characterizes the history of Indian literature in antiquity gives almost nothing. It would be more important to determine the relative chronology of the formation of the Dhammapada as a single whole. But, unfortunately, we are not sufficiently aware of the system of ideas and concepts of the previous period, reflected, perhaps, in the original Canon or in the texts intermediate between it and the text of the Tipitaka that has come down to us. Naturally, the observations usually made on the relative chronology of the Dhammapada are either very vague or concern only individual places of the monument, which, as a rule, belonging to the “general” places of Buddhist or, even more broadly, Indian literature, could wander from one text to another .

The special position of the Dhammapada and its exceptional popularity, in addition to a number of other data, is confirmed by the numerous reviews and versions of this monument.

The most famous and authoritative review is the Pali, consisting of 423 poetic sutras, divided into 26 chapters. It is from this that the translation published in this book was made.

There are other reviews of the Dhammapada, partly related to the Pali text, and in most cases quite significantly different from it, but ultimately going back with it to one common source.

One of the original versions of this common source is the Sanskrit version, associated with the name of Dharmatrata (which is also confirmed by Chinese and Tibetan traditions). The Sanskrit version is reflected in one of the versions of the Chinese Dhammapada, which is more a commentary than the actual text of the monument, and also more directly in the so-called Udanavarga, a Brahmi manuscript found for the first time during the third Turfan expedition of Grünwedel and Le Coq34. Udanavarga, belonging to the Sarvastivadin school, contains not only a number of chapters of the same name with the corresponding Pali ones (chapters on seriousness, pleasantness, desire, the path, flowers, anger, miscellaneous), but also supplements them with a number of new ones, missing from the Pali version (cf. Udana). Associated with the Sanskrit Udanavarga is the Tibetan version, published almost half a century ago and translated even earlier, as well as a translation into Tocharian B, found at the beginning of the 20th century. in East Turkestan.

They also suggest the existence of a special review in hybrid Sanskrit, which formed the basis of another Chinese version.

The Chinese varieties of the Dhammapada are represented by four main variants of lists, originating from different sources. Of these varieties, the best known is the one that is most closely related to the Pali version. Nevertheless, the differences between it and the Dhammapada in Pali are quite large. The Chinese version contains 39 chapters instead of 26 in the Pali text; Moreover, some things from the Chinese version are not reflected in the Pali version and vice versa.

Of all the reviews of the Dhammapada discovered at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, perhaps the greatest interest was caused by the discovery in Khotan of a manuscript in Kharosthi containing fragments of the Dhammapada. This manuscript, written in one of the northwestern Prakrits, was acquired by the French expedition of Dutreuil de Rens and the Russian Consul General in Kashgar N.F. Petrovsky, whose name is inextricably linked with the most valuable acquisitions of Central Asian manuscripts. E. Senard in France and S.F. Oldenburg in Russia published the found fragments, around which scientific disputes immediately flared up and continue to this day. They were caused by the fact that the Prakrit review of the Kharosthas, as well as other Prakrit versions of the Dhammapada that undoubtedly existed, were the most important link between the various versions known until then. It completely undermined the old opinion that the Pali version most accurately conveys the original text and is the oldest. In addition, the discovery of the Prakrit Dhammapada significantly advanced our knowledge of the relationship of the Prakrits and their use for preaching Buddhism, thereby confirming the famous passage from Chullavagga (5, 33), setting out the words of the Buddha (“You should not translate the words of the Buddha into the Vedic language. "Whoever does this commits a sin. I say to you, bhikkhus, learn the words of the Buddha, each one in his own dialect." Finally, the Prakrit Dhammapada gave new impetus to the study of the question of the language of the original Buddhist canon. The latest publications of fragments of the Prakrit Dhammapada provide more reliable material for further searches and solutions. It has now become completely clear that a researcher intending to work in the field of primitive Buddhism cannot limit himself only to Pali texts. The example of the Dhammapada is perhaps one of the most illustrative; it once again confirms the correctness of F. Weller’s words that “works based solely on the Pali Canon are fruitless and aimless.”

Due to the presence of a fairly large number of versions of the Dhammapada in different languages, the problem of reconstructing the original text of this monument arises, which, unfortunately, has not yet been raised. This circumstance makes it difficult to concretely reconstruct at least individual fragments of the text. Undoubtedly, the first priority is the critical publication of all versions and variants of the Dhammapada and the compilation of a dictionary of correspondences (similar to the Pali Tipitakam concordance), which would reflect all textual variants of discrepancies. In the future, it would be necessary to determine which reviews show predominant connections among themselves and what the nature of these connections is: this purely philological work should be supported by a careful linguistic analysis of interconnected lists, regardless of what language they are written in (in this regard, the first steps already done in the works of G. Lüders). After preliminary work involving textual criticism, evaluation of sources, and analysis of language, an attempt could be made to reconstruct the original text of the Dhammapada, especially in a number of key passages that have been reflected differently and contradictorily in various reviews. However, it would be wrong to think that such a reconstruction will lead to anything more than the establishment of a certain network of correspondences, to one degree or another characterizing certain links in the system of representations of the original text. The fact is that in a reconstruction of this kind, in essence, individual elements would be used, only formally correlated with each other, but taken out of the context of the particular systems in which they are included. More effective is the “internal” reconstruction of the original text, based on the fact that each version of the Dhammapada can be considered as a reflection (direct or indirect: first, second, etc. degrees) of the original text. When reconstructing this kind of reconstruction, the researcher has a guarantee that in his work he operates not with individual elements, but with entire systems or subsystems that ensure the reliability of the reconstructed picture; It is clear that such a method will most accurately reveal the dependence and derivativeness of some reviews from others and the degree of their authority and authenticity. It would be extremely useful to establish the characteristics by which a given system is contrasted with other systems of ideas that coexist with it. Only after such work, which makes it possible to consider each text of the Dhammapada as a kind of mirror, reflecting with varying degrees of accuracy the features of the original text, should the decisive stage of reconstruction begin, based on a comparison of the resulting “reflections” of the original text. It is clear that a scientist engaged in such work must know some provisions that are important in methodological terms (the more discrepancies and contradictions between different texts going back to the same source, or within the same text, the more profound and justified the reconstructed part; monolithicity and unification of the text, as well as its great prevalence, most often indicate the late origin of the text; among the various elements of the text, the most important are those that are least motivated or not motivated at all; to restore the original state, as a rule, those that are not essential texts that are formally closer to this state, and those - albeit very different from it, which are the result of at least numerous, but natural, if possible unambiguous, transformations, etc.).

Of course, the ways and means of reconstruction may be refined or even changed; now it is more important to emphasize the fundamental possibility of restoring the original text of the Dhammapada or its fragments. However, the possibility of restoration in no way prejudges the question of the feasibility of reconstruction. It is decided solely depending on how valuable a source for the history of early Buddhism should be considered the Dhammapada, in this case its Pali text.

Above, doubts were expressed as to whether the Pali review as a whole reflects original Buddhism more accurately or completely than others, and therefore one should immediately give up the idea that it is closer than others to the pracanonical ideas. In addition, there is every reason to think that the Pali text is genetically very heterogeneous: the most ancient are, apparently, those parts where the moral and ethical concept of Buddhism, which is still quite simple in form and not complicated by philosophical reasoning, is presented, where the word “dhamma” appears in a meaning extremely close to its use in the directions of Hinduism, and does not have those complex shades that are found, for example, at the beginning of the Dhammapada; The later passages are characterized by philosophical subtleties, the use of words "dhamma", which in many respects echoes Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakosha, a reflection of the growth and expansion of the Buddhist sangha and Buddhist doctrine becoming the official teaching. Nevertheless, the Pali review of the Dhammapada is a completely unique source on the history of early Buddhism, and its importance in this regard can hardly be overestimated.

The Pali Dhammapada is the most authoritative and traditional version of this text. Its place and relationship to the ideological content of all other works included in the Canon is quite well known, and therefore the Dhammapada can be studied not only from the inside, but also from the outside, negatively. The Pali text was sacred and most protected. It has been the source of Buddhist wisdom for thousands of years, and we are more or less fully aware of the evolution in the understanding of certain passages of the Pali version and in their interpretation, and this makes it possible to understand the dynamic balance of ideas in the ancient Pali text. Finally, the Pali review went far beyond the Hinayana, and the ideas of this text were further reflected in the prism of the Mahayana tradition. We can say that, continuing its existence in time, the Pali text acquired an additional function - timeless, becoming a certain symbol of Buddhism along with the corresponding monuments of Hinduism and Jainism. Nothing similar can be said about other reviews of the Dhammapada.

Anyone who has read the Dhammapada, no matter how captivated and amazed by the originality of this monument, will find that many of the ideas contained in this text have been encountered before, in other great works. There is a huge literature devoted to such comparisons (sometimes textual). Certain thoughts reflected in the Dhammapada are found in Indian literature of different peoples, times, movements, in Plato’s dialogues, in early Christian works, and among the mystics of the Middle Ages. The theme of man and death finds the most precise analogies in Pascal’s “Thoughts” and in Tyutchev, in the books of modern existentialists. Some passages are reminiscent of relevant statements by Kant, Nietzsche, Russell and other philosophers. Most often in such cases, of course, there can be no question of borrowing or influence. It’s just that the Dhammapada raises many “eternal” questions that have always worried people. And no matter how striking the analogies with other works may be, they should hardly be given as much importance as is customary to do so far, for the specificity of the Dhammapada is determined not by these extra-systemic similarities, but by that single configuration of ideas that is characteristic only of this monument, and signs by which the system of ideas of the Dhammapada is contrasted with other systems of ideas that partially overlap with it. From this we can draw one extremely important conclusion: the text of the Dhammapada must be considered, first of all, synchronically and consider it - for a certain period and for a certain environment - to be unified, without contradictions. What seems contradictory now was not so for the period under study; and even if all parts of the text did not form a perfectly harmonious fusion, then, in any case, all contradictions were neutralized. Such an approach would explain the apparent contradictions between calls to be energetic and at the same time humble, to rise above good and evil and not to cause harm (i.e., to be kind), etc. With its help, it would be at least partly possible to make the fact of using in this monument the words “dhamma” are used in a very large number of meanings (a phenomenon almost unprecedented for a sacred text intended for a huge number of followers of Buddhism).

Before moving on to the analysis of the artistic features of the Dhammapada, a few words should be said about two central concepts that occupy key positions in the system of ideas of Buddhism and are reflected in our monument - about the Dhamma and about Nirvana.

The word dhamma, as mentioned above, is extremely polysemantic. It comes from the verb dhar - “to hold”, “to support” and long before the first Buddhist texts it had a long path of development. In any case, in the Rig Veda, the word dharmarkrt (VIII, 87, 1) is found as an epithet for Indra, meaning “one who creates dharma.” Apart from a number of other words of the same root, especially noteworthy is the presence in the Rig Veda of the words dharmán (“carrier”, “manager”, “support”) and dhárman (“protection”, “support”, “strong establishment”, “law”, "order", etc.). Some hymns still quite clearly make one feel the initially concrete character of the word dharman and its differences from the more abstract word ṛtá, which was later sometimes confused with it (see: Rig Veda, IX, 97, 22 - 23, etc.). The Atharva Veda already contains the word dharma, meaning “rule” or “custom”. In Brahminical literature this word acquires some new shades of meaning - “virtue”, “law”, “moral duty”; combinations appear with the meaning “guardian of dharma”, “dharma is truth”, “dharma and truth”, etc. During the Upanishad period, the word dharma is increasingly identified with the concepts of “truth”, “true morality”, “true religion”. Along with this, there are other meanings, sometimes more specialized: a whole literature emerges, covering didactic, political, legal, etc. works and called dharmashastra. Most likely, the original Buddhism adopted the word “dharma” (in Pali - “dhamma”) precisely in that slightly vague, insufficiently terminological and widely known meaning that it had during the Upanishad period. Perhaps this assumption is justified by the use of the word dhamma in Ashoka's inscriptions. This is the background of this word in the ancient Indian language, described in detail in the article by E. Wilman-Grabovskaya. His further fate is no less rich and significant; There is no need here to go into details, so well and fully analyzed in Buddhist literature and especially in the works of O.O. Rosenberg and F.I. Shcherbatsky Suffice it to say that in the Mahayana the subsequent development of the theory of dharma was determined by the general idea according to which existence is the interweaving of many subtle ultimate elements of matter, mind and forces, and these elements represent the only reality, and the combination of them is nothing more than a name covering many elements, or dharmas. Entire trends in Buddhist philosophy were engaged in the study of dharmas, determining their properties and qualities. Despite the significant differences between schools of Buddhism and the transcendental nature of the dharmas (at least, this is what many authorities in the field of Buddhism believed), understanding them as elements of existence sets Buddhism apart from all other schools. However, the word dharma acquires this meaning in a much later period than the time of the formation of the Dhammapada and, most importantly, in a slightly different environment. The only exception seems to be the use of this word in the first verses of the Dhammapada, reflecting the Mahayanist understanding of dharma. One might think that these stanzas were included in the main text later (cf. their special position in Chapter 1). As for the first centuries of the existence of this monument, they did not yet know a dhamma that was different from the dharma of Hinduism, and therefore it is unlikely that the theory of dhamma was then the central concept of Buddhism and contrasted it on this basis with other directions in the history of the development of ancient Indian thought.

In the same way, it is hardly possible to talk about the developed theory of nirvana in relation to early Buddhist literature and in general about nirvana as an important feature of the Buddhist concept. Like dharma, nirvana became one of the fundamental concepts of Buddhism much later than the period of the Dhammapada. Misconceptions of researchers of the 19th and first quarter of the 20th centuries. precisely that the concept of nirvana was complicated by associations that arose when reading relatively late literature, and the far-fetched opposition of nirvana to parinirvana, which further confused the question of the essence of the term. Research by Vallee Poussin and F.I. Shcherbatsky, and after them a number of other researchers, showed that the development of the theory of nirvana dates back to a later time and is associated primarily with the names of the great philosophers of northern Buddhism (cf., for example, Madhyamikashastra - chapter 25 on the analysis of nirvana). In the era of primitive Buddhism, the theory of nirvana hardly existed (Buddha himself avoided direct answers to the question about the essence and nature of nirvana).

Taking this word to mean “quenching,” “cooling,” early Buddhist texts use it to denote a state when desires, hatred, and the darkness of ignorance cease. It is no coincidence, therefore, that in Buddhavansa the three fires of passion, hatred and delusion are contrasted with nirvana, and existence with non-existence; This view refutes the still widespread (especially in popularization works) point of view, according to which nirvana is the opposite of existence and a synonym for annihilation and passive peace. In fact, nirvana is a state of peace only in the sense of absence of passions; in all other respects, it is a manifestation of the highest activity and energy of the spirit, free from the shackles of base attachments. Such an understanding of nirvana would be in accordance with the personal experience of the Buddha, who, having achieved nirvana, continued his preaching for several decades.

There is no reason to believe that the Dhammapada's understanding of nirvana differed from the early Buddhist view just outlined. In any case, Max Muller pointed out that in no place in the Dhammapada is there a situation in which the word nirvana needs to be given the meaning of annihilation.

The Dhammapada is one of those works which, as tradition says, are composed of sayings attributed to the Buddha and spoken by him on a particular occasion (the commentators set them out in detail). If we take into account that the Dhammapada very fully and widely sets out the basic principles of the moral and ethical doctrine of early Buddhism, then the authority that it enjoyed and still enjoys among the followers of Buddhism, who rightly see in it a compendium of Buddhist wisdom, a work that claims to be the role of a life textbook.

For our time, the significance of the Dhammapada lies, perhaps, first of all in the fact that it is one of the highest achievements of ancient Indian and world fiction. The beauty of the Dhammapada lies in the extraordinary elegance of its sutras, each of which is a complete aphorism, striking in its capacious brevity and imagery. This laconicism is achieved not only due to the strict strophic form of the sutras (the Dhammapada is written in verses of two meters - the eleven-syllable triṣṭubh and the eight-syllable anuṣṭubh), but also due to the exceptional clarity of thought, expressed with skillful simplicity, often in the form of thesis and antithesis. Some special techniques related both to the construction of individual parts of the work and to style also serve the same purpose. Despite the fact that each aphorism can be considered as self-sufficient, usually a whole series of them are connected with each other by a chain of subtle transitions that smoothly develop the main idea of this part. This construction of each chapter allows us to omit some details, sometimes even important ones, in individual stanzas, since the reader or listener, who knows the aesthetic code of the chapter, will independently be able to extract the necessary additional information from the whole, that is, from the entire chapter, and thereby compensate for the ellipticality of one or another another stanza. Likewise, the system of images used in the Dhammapada most often presupposes knowledge of a certain aesthetic code of ancient Indian fiction, interpreted from a Buddhist point of view. Hence the images of a stream sweeping away a sleeping village; a beautiful lotus born from mud; a climbing plant strangling a tree; a flame that does not stop until they stop adding fuel; a patient elephant, etc. These images, even if they are barely outlined and extremely briefly expressed, evoked in the reader a whole picture or series of pictures, the depiction of which would require a lot of space. In this regard, it should be noted the simple and unpretentious language in which the Dhammapada is written, the transparency of the structure of short phrases and the almost complete absence of syntactic idioms and irregularities, pomposity and embellishment characteristic of the high Mahakavya style in which the works of Ashvaghosa were written.

Being a collection of sayings and, of course, pursuing didactic goals, the Dhammapada is nevertheless devoid of the dry rationalism, didactic tone and traces of dogmatism that characterized a number of Buddhist didactic works. Each sutra of the Dhammapada is a small discussion on a given topic, in which one or another stroke from ancient Indian everyday life or an unusually specific comparison, explaining a certain thought, translates it into the plane of everyday commentary, a parable, pushing the didactic side into the background. Perhaps it is in such cases that one should first of all see the folklore connections of the Dhammapada, which absorbed the best traditions of ancient Indian folk art (they can be judged by their reflection in literature) and many achievements of purely literary genres. Probably, beyond the boundaries of the literary forms itself, one should look for the reasons for the phenomenon so widespread in the Dhammapada (as, indeed, in other works of Buddhist and Hindu literature), such as various types of repetitions, which, along with a purely artistic function, also performed a pragmatic one - they helped to understand and memorize the text and made its structure clear. True, in the famous text of the Dhammapada, repetitions are usually concentrated within the same chapter; the repetitions found throughout the text are relatively few and are apparently explained by the insufficiently consistent editorial editing of the original version, which was richer in repetitions of this kind. If the original text of the Dhammapada were restored and indeed reflected such repetitions, then the exact meaning of this monument could be understood as it was understood when it was created. To do this, it would only be necessary to read the text not in the linear sequence, as is usually done, but first all the repetitions related to the first topic, then those related to the second, third, etc.

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The beginning of the mountain trail in the Ivolginsky datsan.
Photo: Olga Ladygina Dagba Ochirov sits at a large table littered with books, with a chair for visitors on the side. On a stool near the bookcase, a white and gray young cat curled up in a large cardboard box. While we are talking with Did Hambo Lama, she wakes up and goes to exercise around the room, feeling like a complete mistress there.

“Before the revolution, almost every family sent one of their children to the monastery for education,” says Dagba Ochirov. — Datsan at that time was a center of culture, those who entered it received an education inaccessible to others. Children began studying at six or seven years old; after 16–17, many defended their studies and completed their studies with a scientific degree. They were the elite. That is why, after the revolution, lamas were mercilessly sent into exile - they enjoyed very great authority.

— Have you personally managed to meet any of the lamas of the “old school”?

— Yes, I had the opportunity to communicate with those who received a pre-revolutionary education. In 2003, I saw off one of them on his last journey and asked him: “What can you say about your life?” He answered me: “I am happy. I saw the flourishing of Buddhism, saw great lamas - Dashi-Dorzho Itigelov, Agvan Dorzhiev and others. He saw Buddhism decline and lived to see its return to Russia. I’ve been waiting for this for more than half a century.”

Parables about Buddha and his disciples

The Master's lessons presented to humanity consist not only in instructions or commandments, but also in those life situations in which his fate brought him together with his students in order to convey to them direct life experience. These incidents from the life of Gautama Buddha, which have come down to us in several variations, still had a genuine historical basis. All these stories, carefully preserved and passed on to descendants by eyewitnesses, formed the basis of numerous parables. Our contemporaries have something to learn from the actions of the direct participants in these stories.

The Parable of the Pebbles and Butter
Once two newlyweds came to Buddha with the hope that the Master would give them a way to find family happiness until the end of their days. Buddha asked them to bring two pots, one with oil and the other with pebbles. Then he placed both pots in a vat of water, asking the young man for the favor of breaking them. The young man, having carried out the Buddha’s command, saw that the oil then floated to the surface, and the pebbles fell to the bottom of the vat. Buddha said: “Now start praying to your gods and miracle workers so that they lower the oil to the bottom and raise the pebbles to the surface of the water, and we’ll see how it all ends.” The young man immediately became indignant and complained that no gods could change the natural course of things, oil could not sink, and pebbles could not rise, since this was contrary to the laws of nature.
The Master’s answer was as follows: “When discussing the laws of nature, you were never able to comprehend the main rule, which is that heavy deeds, like pebbles, will inevitably pull you down, and noble deeds, which are light like butter, will lift you up, and no gods and miracle workers will not be able to change their weight subsequently. The sooner you follow this law of nature, the sooner what you asked for will be fulfilled.”

Parable of the Boatman and the Three Pennies
One day, Buddha and his disciples, while waiting for a boatman to cross to the other side, did not waste time and calmly contemplated the beauty of the river flow. His peace was interrupted by the following picture: right before his eyes, an unknown yogi crossed the river on the water without the help of a boatman, sliding along its surface as if on dry land. Noticing that the great Buddha himself had seen all this, he invited him to demonstrate the same, confirming his status as an enlightened one. Buddha asked the yogi how much time he spent learning how to cross the river in this way, to which he received the answer: “Master, my entire conscious life was spent on this, spent in severe, endless austerities.” At that moment, the boatman swam to the shore and the Master asked him: “What is the price of the crossing?” "Three pennies." came the answer. Buddha, turning to the yogi, said: “Did you hear? This is the real price of your life."

A parable about long silence and questions
Once upon a time, a famous learned man came to the Blessed Gautama with a large scroll in which his questions to the Master were written down. The scientist read them out so as not to miss anything. The Buddha listened carefully to all the questions to the last, but said that he would definitely answer them on one condition: he must wait one year in complete silence. The scientist agreed, but seeing how one of the Buddha’s disciples, sitting under a spreading tree, laughed, he embarrassedly asked the Master: “What’s the matter, why did he laugh?” The Buddha advised the scientist to ask himself.
When the visitor turned to the Buddha’s disciple for clarification, he replied that the Master was a cunning and deceiver, that he promised him the same thing, asking him to first wait in silence for only a year, excluding all thoughts and experiences. But it turned out that the thoughts disappeared, and along with them the questions disappeared. Therefore, the student told the scientist to ask now if he really wants to hear the answers, otherwise he is unlikely to ever hear them from the Master’s lips. But Buddha was firm in his thoughts, assuring that there was no trick, and that if in a year the visitor asked him, he would definitely answer, but if he didn’t ask, then there would be no need to answer. That's how it all happened. After a year, the Buddha asked the former scientist: “Well, my friend, do you still have any questions?” The newly arrived scientist, in turn, also burst out laughing and said: “Only now has it become clear why your student laughed. The questions really disappeared.”

The Parable of the Three Types of Listeners
A very cultured and educated man once came to Buddha Gautama, whose knowledge was a source of special pride for him. In addition, this man held a high position in his state, gaining fame and veneration. The reason for visiting the Master was one question that had been tormenting him for many years. Buddha, looking at him and without even waiting for the question itself, said that he could not answer now. The man thought that the Master was very busy with something and therefore neglected him for his own affairs. But he has come such a long way, putting state affairs aside. The master immediately dispelled his suspicions, saying that this was not the case at all. “What?” - the man was indignant. “Listen to my story about the three types of listeners.” Buddha addressed this man.
“The first one looks like a pot that is turned upside down. Nothing will fit into this one, no matter how much you speak the truths - it is tightly closed. The second is like a pot that stands as a container should, but it has a thin bottom. No matter how much water you pour into it, it will all pour out into this hole. A person like such a pot may perceive what he is taught, but will soon forget. And the third type is exactly like a pot filled with sewage. Firstly, there is nowhere to pour it - it is already filled, and secondly, even if some amount of water makes its way through these impurities, it will immediately mix with this dirt, ceasing to be pure water. You are exactly this type of listener - you are not ready to perceive what will be said, because you are filled to the brim with your own conjectures and judgments. At best, if you do manage to perceive something, your consciousness will distort it beyond recognition. Clear your mind first and then come.”

A parable about achievements and losses
When Gautama Siddhartha became an enlightened Buddha, he was asked what he had achieved. In response, he said, smiling: “Gautama has achieved nothing; on the contrary, he has lost too much.” The one who asked the question was seriously surprised: “It seemed to us that becoming a Buddha means achieving unattainable perfection, eternity, impeccable knowledge, but you, Teacher, say that you have achieved nothing, and even lost a lot. How can we understand this? The Buddha immediately replied, “Literally. Gautama lost everything he had by that time: his knowledge, his heart, his ignorance, his body. Gautama lost thousands of expensive things, ceasing to be himself, and ultimately gained nothing, because what he received was already with him. This was his original nature. Gautama simply left himself to return to himself. This should not be considered an achievement. To think in this category means to be in illusion.”

These are the behests of the great ascetic of spirit, the blessed Gautama Buddha. Everything that the Buddha so unobtrusively teaches us is absolutely devoid of any boring edification. And Buddhism is not a religion in the usual sense of the word. Rather, it is the oldest source of knowledge, a body of immutable truths about the universe, similar in some ways to the scientific theories of the great Newton or Einstein, with the only caveat that the picture of the world they offer may become outdated, and what the Buddha teaches us will forever remain indisputable, in the power of its divine universality.

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Khurde drums, Ivolginsky datsan.
Photo: wikipedia.org, Yana Krasnopevtseva - In addition to Buddhism, shamanism is widespread in Buryatia. Do they not contradict each other?

— Buddhism is the oldest of the world religions and the most democratic. Once, in front of me, the great Baba Lama was asked how he felt about shamanism, and he said: “This is fertile, noble soil, perfectly plowed. The seeds of Buddhism, Christianity or Islam grow well on it.” Sooner or later, people grow up to one of the world religions; many shamanists convert to Buddhism.

Spiritual basis of Buddhism

There is nothing in Buddhism that could contradict the fundamental principles of any other philosophical or religious teaching, because it is based on elementary common sense. Examples from the life of the great Mentor teach us extraordinary modesty, responsiveness, forgiveness and understanding. If at the end of our lives we want to touch what has no limit, or simply remain human, these qualities must be developed and cherished in ourselves from childhood.

Christ appealed primarily to the emotional component of the consciousness of the lost Jews, demonstrating his superhuman capabilities as the main argument in favor of his divine nature. In the life of the Buddha, such miracles are almost absent, or at least little noticed. This in itself, of course, does not mean that the Buddha lacked superpowers - he was also endowed with them by nature, for which there is a lot of evidence. The reason lies in the fact that the Indian people were not of little faith, and therefore did not need miracles. Being quite disciplined and prone to leisurely thoughts about eternity, the people of India needed someone to teach them spiritual lessons in achieving immortality.

According to the Buddha himself, time is the greatest teacher, but the whole problem is that it kills its faithful disciples. And Buddha teaches us how to distance ourselves from the category of time, since it is very conventional, how to take the position of an outside observer and, avoiding decay, touch eternity. In his commandment, addressed to the heart of man, there was a call for endless compassion, the acquisition of true freedom in the renunciation of everything mortal and transitory, to comprehend the highest spiritual laws of the alternation of life and death, the links of which make up the chain of eternity.