Course on Logic and Debate – July 5 – 30
Gateway for the Wise (Section III): Sakya Pandita

Introduction
Sakya Pandita (1182-1251), unanimously recognized as one of Tibet's most outstanding scholars, was most influential in the transmission of Indian Buddhist thought to "the Land of Snows". Through introducing traditional Indian scholarship to Tibet, he helped laying down the firm foundations of a tradition which is still very much alive today.
In his Gateway for the Wise (mkhas pa ‘jug pa’i sgo), Sapan introduces the reader to the authentic theory and practice of Buddhist learning by laying out the principles of the three main activities of a scholar: composition, teaching, and debate. Undertaken in a correct manner, those activities benefit sentient beings by dispelling their misconceptions about the path to buddhahood and are therefore essential for the authentic transmission and preservation of the Buddhadharma.

Course
Khenpo Dr. Ngawang Jorden will lecture directly in English focusing on the third chapter of Sapan’s Gateway: the practice of debate. The text is a doorway by which an intelligent person can enter into the City of Liberation. This particular chapter, on pramāṇa, elucidates the Indian and Tibetan traditions of valid cognition and logical reasoning. It is one of the key texts which helped establish the procedure used for philosophical debate in Tibet. In this text, Sakya Pandita clearly defines the way in which a debate is to be carried out in order for it to become a useful method of investigation. He explains the roles of the participants, the rules involved, the different types of debates and the manner in which scripture and reasoning are to be used as means of argumentation, as well as the actual procedure of a debate.

Benefit
Debate forms an essential part of Tibetan monastic education, pertaining mainly to the second stage of the threefold development of wisdom gained through listening to the teachings, contemplating their meaning and meditating on their import. It enables one to consolidate one’s understanding of any given topic by subjecting it to critical examination and thereby exposing any misconceptions one might hold. Through this process, one becomes able to remove one’s own and others’ doubts concerning both the theory and practice of the path to enlightenment. The firm conviction gained from the practice of debate thus represents an excellent tool to sharpen and refine one’s mental faculty, making it an ideal preparation for one’s meditation practice.

Sakya Pandita - Kunga Gyaltsen Pal Zangpo - The Great Sage Of Tibet [1182-1251]
When a person fully endowed with wisdom, compassion and spiritual power appears in this world where even lesser virtues are rare, he - like the sun - illumines the whole universe which cannot be brightened even by hundreds of learned but selfish men who may be likened to stars.

It happened thus, in a literal sense also, when the great being known as Kunga Gyaltsen Pal Zangpo took birth into the ancient royal family of Khön at Sakya in 1182 A.D. Rays of light illumined the country, whilst gods, rainbows and an auspicious rain of heavenly flowers appeared in the sky above the city.

Within a year of his birth, he began to speak and write in the Sanskrit language; while still a youth, he mastered the five major and five minor sciences which were taught him by the renowned Kashmiri Pandita, Śākyaśrībhādra, and by his other Indian tutors, Dānaśīla, Sanghaśrī and Sugataśrī. Through the grace of his spiritual preceptor, the great Jetsun Dagpa Gyaltsen, he attained the highest perfections and boundless meditative powers. Because of his flawless virtues and noble aspiration to free all beings from the sorrows of worldly existence, buddhas and bodhisattvas often revealed themselves and taught to him the Dharma's true meaning.

At the age of twenty-five, he was hailed as the 'Sakya Pandit' by Śākyaśrībhādra and other Indian masters. Amongst the 114 religious treatises he wrote, his most popular works - loved for their lucid wording by scholars and ordinary people alike - are still the Tshad-ma rigs-gter ("Treasury of Reasoning"), the Thub-pa'i dgongs-gsal ("Clarifying the Sage's Intent"), the Sdom-gsum rab-dbye ("Clear Differentiation of the Three Vows"), the Mkhas pa ‘jug pa’i sgo ("Gateway for the Wise"), and the Sa-skya legs-bshad ("Well-spoken Advice"). His Tshad-ma rigs-gter, which laid the foundation for the later development of Buddhist logic in Tibet, was the only book of Tibetan origin ever to have been translated into Sanskrit. Its translation was rendered by his Indian disciples from the Nalanda Monastery in Magadha, where it was received with much acclaim. He himself translated numerous Sanskrit texts into Tibetan and, through his own commentaries on philosophy, literature, Tantras, medicine, music, grammar, poetry and drama, he introduced a number of important Indian sciences into Tibetan culture. His knowledge of Sanskrit literature was comprehensive and his own works reveal that he was also familiar with Hindu and Jain scriptures, as well as those of other Buddhist schools in Tibet and elsewhere. As an artist, his masterpieces, painted on the walls of Samye and Sakya, are said never to have been equaled in Tibet.

Due to his victory - both in philosophical debate and miraculous powers - over the celebrated sage, Harinanda, the six other pandits from the south, his fame spread throughout India, Tibet, Mongolia and China. The Mongolian ruler, Godan, invited him to become the spiritual tutor of the Mongol's court. In Lan-chou, their capital, he expounded the Bodhisattva's way to enlightenment, and blessed their kingdom in order to prepare it for the Holy Dharma's advent. He persuaded the warlike Mongols to cease their cruel tortures and policies of genocide practised against the subjected Chinese. Learning that they lacked a script, he invented an alphabet which became the prototype of the modern Mongol script. Finally, at the Temple of Illusion, he vanquished the magical power of the Chinese magicians who sought to prevent him from teaching Dharma to people.

His mind was always filled with great love and compassion for beings who, through not perceiving reality, were swept away by the rivers of birth, disease, old age and death. Once, as he laboured at the bedside of a dying beggar, his compassionate heart was profoundly moved by the unending afflictions which living beings must experience in worldly existence. At that time, his spiritual preceptors appeared in the sky and he received from them a prophecy to Buddhahood. The uṣṇīṣa, ūrṇā, and other marks of perfection which, hitherto in this world, had adorned only the bodies of Gautama Śākyamuni and Ārya Nāgārjuna, appeared on his own body then, and he reached the final stage of the Bodhisattvas' Path.

At the time of his mahaparinirvana, in 1254 A.D., the earth shook six times and birds throughout the kingdom cried in lament. Wondrous signs were seen by the assembly of disciples and kings when the pyre was lit, and all who were present experienced blissful peace. Having attained perfect enlightenment by the grace of Mañjunātha, he is now known to the world as the Buddha Vimalaśrī:

'All cognisable things his wide eyes perceive,
the merciful one who achieves the weal of all living beings,
having the power to perform activities transcending thought -
at the feet of that Guru, Mañjunātha, we bow.'

[Published by the Sakya Students' Union, Central Institute of Tibetan Higher Studies, Sarnath, Varanasi (U.P.), India, 1975]