Question asked by Dan
Prevously i watched H.E. Tsem Rinpoche's Q&A by his disciples. A lady asked him about termas, visions etc and his answer ia that in gelug there are no practice or such based on visions. All are based on buddha teachings. But in kyabje pabhongka's written sadhanas, there are from his visions. He saw the deities and he wrote down the practices. What your thought on these?
Dear Dan,
Thank you for your question. This question has been asked to His Eminence the 25th Tsem Rinpoche on numerous occasions. There is a slight difference between the two which may not have come across clearly in the video.
In the video, the lady was asking about Termas, which are also known as Hidden Teachings. These teachings are hidden in a number of ways and later these were found by various people and high lamas and are revealed through texts, visions, etc. His Eminence was referring to these types of teachings when he said that there are no such commonly practiced teachings within the Gelug tradition. Most teachings within the Gelug tradition instead trace their origins back to the historical Buddha or other enlightened beings directly, taught student to teacher. Take for example, two practices prevalent in the Kechara Organisation: Vajrayogini practice which traces back first through the Sakya tradition all the way back to the Mahasiddha Naropa who received the practice from Vajrayogini directly; and Manjushri Nagarakshasa practice which traces back through the Nyingma lineage to Guru Rinpoche.
In the cases of Pabongka Rinpoche and even his own teacher, Tagphu Pemavajra, the situation is different, they are not defined as Termas. Through their spiritual attainments, they received the practices from the deities directly and then passed them on to their disciples. This is similar to case of Naropa receiving the Vajrayogini practice from Vajrayogini herself. These practices would have been studied by scholars and mediators to make sure that the adhered to the norms of tantric practice and were beneficial and effective, which they are. You can read read about one such practice here: https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/cittamani-tara.html. Even the highest of Lama’s such as the Dalai Lama teaches this practice, which is known as Cittamani Tara.
So even though they may seem similar, there is a slight difference to the two. Within the Gelug tradition, practice is very much based on tracing an unbroken link via the lineage back to the enlightened source of the practice. Therefore, within the Gelug tradition at least, for practices that originate from the visions of high lamas, it speaks highly of their efficacy. And due to the tradition’s strong emphasis on an unbroken lineage stemming from the originating deity to current practitioners, it does not include Termas into the category of teachings that are commonly practiced. I hope this helps. Thanks.