A Biography of Klong chen rab ’byams (2)

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1.1.2.2. Chos grags bzang po and the biography of which he is the author

Not much is known about Chos grags bzang po, sometimes mistaken for Klong chen pa’s son[1]. In addition to the biography that interests us, another of his works is preserved:  History of the Essential Drop of the ḍākiṇī, a Garland of Jewels (mKha’ ’gro snying thig gi lo rgyus rin chen phreng ba - pp. 556-609 of the section of mKha’ ’gro snying thig in which it is included). However, this text contains some autobiographical pages (p. 602-607).

Here is what we can learn from it.

Originally from Eastern Tibet, Chos grags bzang po went, in his fifteenth year, to ’Bri gung, in central Tibet, and received the minor ordination there.

Until his twenty-first year, by his own admission, he wasted his time; then, as a result of a vision telling him that he would die if he did not practice the Dharma, he took full ordination in his twenty-fifth year. It was then[2] that he met Klong chen rab ’byams. The corresponding passage in the mKha’ ’gro snying thig gi lo rgyus rin chen phreng ba (p. 604) is, to our knowledge, the only direct record of Klong chen rab ’byams’ teaching.

Chos grags bzang po was also the student of other masters, Blo bzang pa, rGyal rong pa, Tsā ri pa, Yon tan rgya mtsho,[3] Chos rje kun mkhyen pa,[4] Paṇ chen pa,[5] lHa khang pa, Rin chen gling pa, [6] and finally sPrul sku Legs ldan pa, that is, rGyal sras Legs pa or Legs pa’i rgyal mtshan, the chief disciple of Padma las ’brel rtsal, who will be discussed again below (we have placed him at the end of the list of Klong chen rab ’byams masters).

From an examination of this short autobiographical text, one can draw the conclusion that Chos grags bzang po was certainly a good meditator (rGyal sras Legs pa finally gave him permission to teach), but probably not a scholarly master, given the late and mainly tantric character of his training. Like many practitioners of this time, he does not strictly belong to one stream or another; but there is clearly a dominant pattern of both rDzogs chen pa and jo nang pa, with some minor bka’ brgyud pa elements, in the teachings he received.

He is mentioned by sMyo shul mkhan po in his list of the principal disciples of Klong chen rab ’byams (sMyo shul chos ’byung, vol. I, p. 345) under the name ’Dan sgom Chos grags bzang po. This author devotes a short biography to him (ibid, vol. II, pp. 91-96).

Chos grags bzang po is also the recipient of a small writing by our author, entitled Sems dang ye shes kyi dris lan (n° 271).

One should take into consideration the fact that Chos grags bzang po may have had an essentially jo nang pa background. The question of Klong chen rab ’byams’ relationship (or lack thereof) to this tradition is interesting for several reasons, as we shall see; but, at the same time, it is very poorly documented. The Sems dang ye shes kyi dris lan should therefore be reread in this perspective. In any case, Chos grags bzang po is reputed to have expressed his admiration for Klong chen rab ’byams in a series of verses in which he compares him to other illustrious masters of his time; two of them are of interest to us here:

No sooner have we glanced at the writings of the Great Omniscient

That the works of Bu[ston], Dol[po pa], and Shāk appear dull.[7]

If these verses are indeed by this author, he appears, in short, as a Khams pa, trained in gSang phu as far as philosophy is concerned, having then deepened the Kālacakra notably with masters jo nang pa before turning to rDzogs chen, apparently abandoning the doctrine of Jo nang.

One might wonder whether, through the way he calls himself “supreme son of [this] father” in the mKha’ ’gro snying thig gi lo rgyus rin chen phreng ba, Chos grags bzang po might not be posing as Klong chen rab ’byams’ successor in his spiritual lineage. The title of slob dpon given to him by the master of Gangs ri thod dkar could be an indication of a distinguished rank among his disciples. Indeed, even though Chos grags bzang po disappears from the most common later presentations of the lineage, sMyo shul mkhan po tells us (op. cit. p. 94) that he had a significant spiritual posterity, particularly through his disciples Ngam ston Nyi ma ’od zer and Kaḥ thog pa rdo rje ’bum pa.

In any case, it was the recipient of the clarifications of the Sems dang ye shes kyi dris lan who wrote the Life Worth Seeing (mThong ba don ldan), which is fairly composed, but does not bear the mark of a deep personal knowledge of the Klong chen pa’s works.

Let us add that the gross bibliographical errors in the table of works (similar to The Inventory of the Treasure of Jewels (dKar chag rin po che'i mdzod khang[8]) falsely attributed to Klong chen rab ’byams himself) on which this biography ends, if they are surprising on the part of a close disciple of the latter, could paradoxically be the indication of a rather high date of composition. Indeed, their presence is more understandable in an author who does not have first-hand information, thus at a time when no xylographic edition of Klong chen rab 'byams' works had yet been produced.[9]

One wonders whether the Inventory of the Treasure of Jewels (dKar chag rin po che’i mdzod khang), far from being the source of the table of works found in the biography of which Chos grags bzang po is the author, might not have been extracted from it, before being falsely imputed to Klong chen rab 'byams. This is what we are led to believe: a composition old enough to explain, as we have just said, the ignorance of the work of Klong chen rab 'byams (certainly still in the state of manuscripts, dispersed or made inaccessible by circumstances unknown to us, notably the long exile of Klong chen rab ’byams in Bhutan), and to cause confusion with the works of this author (attribution to Klong chen rab 'byams of this inventory of his works, which cannot reasonably be in his hand).[10]

The next chapter of this biography is here.