Illuminating the Path to Enlightenment

By His Holiness the Dalai Lama

In this book, His Holiness the Dalai Lama offers readers one of the clearest and most authoritative expositions of the Tibetan Buddhist path ever published. This is the first time a major teaching by the Dalai Lama has been published for free distribution.

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Illuminating the Path to Enlightenment: Notes

1. See Atisha’s Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment for a detailed commentary by Geshe Sonam Rinchen and www.LamaYeshe.com for a brief commentary by Khunu Lama Rinpoche. [Return to text]

2. See The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment for an English translation of this text. [Return to text]

3. See Opening the Eye of New Awareness, Chapter Two. [Return to text]

4. See Meditation on Emptiness, p. 321 ff. [Return to text]

5. See Meditation on Emptiness, “Non-associated compositional factors,” p. 268 ff. [Return to text]

6. In the present-day state of Bihar. For more information, see The Eight Places of Buddhist Pilgrimage on TeachingsFromTibet.com. [Return to text]

7. See Buddhist Advice for Living and Liberation, verses 176 ff. [Return to text]

8. See World of Tibetan Buddhism, pp. 15–30, for a detailed discussion of the three turnings. [Return to text]

9. Manjushri, Vajrapani, Avalokiteshvara, Ksitigarbha, Sarvanivaranaviskambini, Akashagarbha, Maitreya and Samantabhadra. [Return to text]

10. The three realms are the desire, form and formless realms. The desire realm is inhabited by hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, non-gods and the first six classes of god; the form realm by the next seventeen classes of god; and the formless realm by the top four classes of god. See Meditative States in Tibetan Buddhism for more details. [Return to text]

11. See Buddhist Advice for Living and Liberation, verses 380–89. Also, Essence of the Heart Sutra, p. 42–48, for much more on Nagarjuna’s defense of the Mahayana and its origins. [Return to text]

12. See Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, pp. 44–74, and the biography of Atisha on www.LamaYeshe.com for details of his life. [Return to text]

13. See Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, pp. 760–61, for the lineage of these teachings. [Return to text]

14. See Liberation in Our Hands, Part 1, p. 242 ff., for details of these three lineages. [Return to text]

15. Generosity, ethics, forbearance, enthusiastic perseverance, concentration and wisdom. [Return to text]

16. Beings from any of the three realms—desire, form and formless— can be reborn into any of the three. For example, desire realm beings can be reborn into the desire, form or formless realm and so forth. Thus, there are nine kinds of being. [Return to text]

17. See Liberation in Our Hands, Part 1, p. 71, for more on this. [Return to text]

18. The four foundations of mindfulness, the four correct trainings, the four supports for miraculous ability, the five faculties, the five powers, the seven branches of enlightenment and the eightfold path. See Essence of the Heart Sutra, pp. 26–29 for an enumeration and brief explanation of these thirty-seven aspects of the path. [Return to text]

19. See The Great Treatise, Volume 1, p. 71. [Return to text]

20. See World of Tibetan Buddhism, p. 160, n. 15, for questions about the source of this frequently-quoted verse of the Buddha. [Return to text]

21. See Essence of the Heart Sutra, pp. 104–106, for a discussion of definitive versus provisional interpretation. [Return to text]

22. This alludes to the four reliances of not relying merely on the person, but on the words; not merely on the words but on their meaning; not merely on the provisional meaning but on the definitive meaning; and not merely on intellectual understanding of the definitive meaning but on direct, non-conceptual experience of it. [Return to text]

23. The eight liberties, or freedoms, are freedom from the four nonhuman states of rebirth in the hell, hungry ghost, animal or longlived god realms and the four human states of rebirth when or where the Dharma teachings do not exist or with imperfect faculties or wrong views. In none of these states do we have the freedom to practice Dharma to the full. See Liberation in Our Hands, Part 2, p. 73 ff. for more details. [Return to text]

24. Wrong livelihoods include killing or abusing sentient beings for a living, living off the proceeds of selling holy objects such as texts, statues and thangkas and so forth. [Return to text]

25. See, for example, His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s The Meaning of Life for a detailed explanation of the twelve links. [Return to text]

26. See World of Tibetan Buddhism, p. 42: “Due to the existence of this, that arises; due to the production of this, that is engendered. It is thus: due to ignorance, there is the volitional action; due to action, there is consciousness,” which is attributed to the Rice Seedling Sutra (Shalistambhasutra). [Return to text]

27. Quoted in Liberation in our Hands, Part 2, pp. 140–141. [Return to text]

28. See Abhidharmakoshabhasyam, Chapter 3. [Return to text]

29. For an extremely detailed discussion of all aspects of karma, see Liberation in Our Hands, Part 2, Day Thirteen, p. 227 ff. [Return to text]

30. See Making Life Meaningful, p. 83 ff. for the practice of the “Bodhisattva’s Confession of Moral Downfalls.” [Return to text]

31. See Teachings from the Vajrasattva Retreat, p. 663. [Return to text]

32. See Liberation in our Hands, Part 1, pp. 209–213; The Tantric Path of Purification; and Everlasting Rain of Nectar. [Return to text]

33. See Daily Purification: A Short Vajrasattva Practice for a brief, easy method of purifying negativities. [Return to text]

34. See Meditative States in Tibetan Buddhism for details of the four concentrations and the four formless absorptions. [Return to text]

35. See Liberation in our Hands, Part 1, page 143, note 67. [Return to text]

36. See Liberation in our Hands, Part 1, page 143, notes 67 through 70. [Return to text]

37. The term unenlightened existence is used by established Theravada scholars and other academics to denote life in samsara, considering shravakas and pratyekabuddhas to have attained enlightenment, although not the complete, fully-perfected enlightenment of buddhahood. See Essence of the Heart Sutra, p. 80. In Illuminating the Path, we consider all sentient beings to be unenlightened; see the relevant glossary entries. [Return to text]

38. See His Holiness’s commentary on this in Healing Anger. [Return to text]

39. See Liberation in Our Hands, Part 3, pp. 256–260. [Return to text]

40. See The Yogic Deeds of Bodhisattvas, page 274, verse 348. [Return to text]

41. For more on the dispute between Buddhapalita and Bhavaviveka, see Essence of the Heart Sutra, pp. 108–111. [Return to text]

42. For more on the four schools, see Essence of the Heart Sutra, pp. 99–112. [Return to text]

43. See Nagarjuna’s Seventy Stanzas for a translation of this text. [Return to text]

44. See Meditation on Emptiness, p. 131 ff. [Return to text]

45. See His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s new commentary on this text, Essence of the Heart Sutra. See also pp. 91–97 of that work for a discussion of the four seals. [Return to text]

46. Heat, summit, patience and supreme Dharma. [Return to text]

47. See The Three Levels of Spiritual Perfection, p. 543, “Non-dual clarity and emptiness/voidness.” [Return to text]

48. With thanks to Jeff Cox of Snow Lion publications for permission to use Ruth Sonam’s excellent translation in this book. [Return to text]

49. Translated by Sherpa Tulku, Khamlung Tulku, Alexander Berzin and Jonathan Landaw, 1973, © LTWA, Dharamsala. This is essentially the translation that was used during His Holiness’s teachings, slightly modified with reference to Dr. Berzin’s revised translation on www.berzinarchives.com. You can find an alternate translation by Ven. Joan Nicell here. See also Door to Liberation p. 173, for another translation of Lines of Experience. [Return to text]