Garma CC Chang is a name that we first came across in an email from a Buddhist friend, inviting us to attend a two-hour special program delivered by his wife, Mrs. Helena Chang. We were intrigued by the brief biographical sketch of Prof. Chang given therein:“He went to eastern Tibet to study Buddhism at age 16 and stayed there for 9 years. Master Chang was professor of Eastern Philosophy at Pennsylvania State University. He had made tremendous contributions in bringing Buddhism to the western world.”
Wishing to learn more about the remarkable journey that Prof. Chang had carved out for himself on his chosen Buddhist path, we did the most natural thing in the Internet Era: googling. Starting from his English name, we managed to locate his name in Chinese, after a few twists and turns in the virtual world. The first impression we got is that his Chinese name seems familiar. Then a whole slew of information unraveled when we googled his Chinese name.
We learned that he was born into a well-established family of military repute in China. His mother was a devout Buddhist, whose reverence for the Buddhist teachings had rubbed off on him in his formative years. He was proficient in Chinese, English, Tibetan, and Sanskrit, a very rare combination of linguistic fluency these days. This rare endowment, some no doubt acquired with tremendous perseverance, had placed him in good stead to help bridge the subtle differences among the original and various translated Buddhist scriptures to get to the common underlying themes. Equally important is his eminently ambassadorial role in helping to propagate the Buddhist philosophy to the West, which he had fulfilled exemplarily, by both delivering Dharma talks and writing English Buddhist texts. One of his early Chinese Buddhist texts, What is Dharma? (translated from Chinese), has become a very popular introductory text on Buddhism. He passed away in 1988, leaving a wealth of legacy to guide lay buddhists like us.
Because of our seeming familiarity with his name in Chinese, wify started looking through her collection of Chinese Buddhist texts, and located the above text published by the Buddhist Association of US, the provenance of which (as in from where) we are unable to trace.
Unlike other texts in the same genre that relies on historical development, this rather thin text (numbering less than 100 pages in the B5 format, about half the size of a foolscap paper) employed an effective three-pronged approach to elucidating the salient facets embodied in the Buddhist teachings.
Prof. Chang first resorted to comparative analyses involving other major faith systems to evoke the uniqueness and profundity of the Buddhist teachings. Next, the Mahayana tradition that posits everyone as imbued with the Buddha nature was employed to explain why we have yet to attain Buddhahood, and to illuminate why meditation is the foundation from which stillness, consequent upon taming the mind, will emerge, thereby laying a viable path, paved with wisdom, toward enlightenment. This “straight to the gut” approach provides a direct conduit deep into the essence of Buddhism.
The third variant then pinpointed our errant ways of living that delude us into embarking on the wrong path and identified several modes of Buddhist practice that, when incorporated into our daily routine, would help put us on the right track.. The last experiential approach is meant to make us realize the meaning of Dharma through self actualization.
I finished the entire book in less than an hour of continuous reading, the speed no doubt aided by my prior exposure to similar contents. I particularly like the presentation in this version (unfortunately it's undated, but see the cover, which is different from this electronic text) where concise statements culled from the gist of a particular section are laid out on top of every page for easy and quick reference. Some translated examples follow:“A beginning is only relevant in the context of a particular event.”
“Buddhism is the belief of rationality; Dharma is the pursuit of wisdom.”
“The Buddha is not omnipotent. He is merely our teacher, and only our own efforts can truly liberate us.”
“The Buddha is the great emancipator through the elimination of greed, anger, and delusion. The Buddha will not be enraged into meting out disasters as punishment for our misdeeds.”
“If we descend into hell, it's because of our own karmic pull toward retribution. Such a cause leads to such an effect.”
“Equality, Tolerance, and All-inclusiveness lie in the core of the Buddhist Teachings.”
“Our experience through life is nothing but a journey of zero sum game of emotions and rationality where one can only grow at the expense of the other.”
“The co-arising of great compassion and great wisdom is the common goal of our learning efforts as lay Buddhists.”
“Our delusions are like torrents that escape our detection before we practice meditation.”
“The cause we plant in this life, may not reach fruition in this life. The effect in this life may also not be due to the cause we have planted in this life. “
I have also located his second Chinese Buddhist text on the Net: Buddhist Teachings in Four Communications (translated from Chinese), which will be my next reading assignment.
Prof. Chang also had several English books to his credit, one of which is entitled The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa, translated from the Tibetan text. According to Wikipedia, Jetsun Milarepa (c. 1052-c. 1135 CE) is “generally considered one of Tibet's most famous yogis and poets, a student of Marpa Lotsawa, and a major figure in the history of the Kagyu (Bka'-brgyud) school of Tibetan Buddhism. The essence of Milarepa lies in his writings rather than the legends that have grown up around him. The writings, often referred to as the Songs of Milarepa, are canonical Mahayana Buddhist texts and in particular emphasize the temporary nature of the physical body and the need for non-attachment.”
Then this morning I read this quote of him cited in Christina Feldman's The Buddhist Path to Simplicity (Thorsons, 2001, pg. 62):
“Long accustomed to contemplating compassion, I no longer see a difference between myself and other.”
And the barricade that we have placed around us, the so-called I/Ego, becomes emptiness. Instead, separate bodies and minds become connected and inter-dependent. This is the logical end that the noble path of compassion would take us, as was the case for Milarepa.
We are indeed fortunate and blessed that we have been invited to partake of the life of this great icon in the annals of Western Buddhism, through the words of his beloved wife, Mrs. Helena Chang. And we look forward to attending the occasion.
This image of the lotus flowers by wify is our tribute in memoriam of the late Prof. Chang.
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