Yogi C. M. Chen espousing Nyingmapa rhetoric?

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gzodzilpa
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Yogi C. M. Chen espousing Nyingmapa rhetoric?

Post by gzodzilpa »

In his publicly available book, Buddhist Meditation: Systemic and Practical, he relates a relatively detailed account of a thodgal method.

Elsewhere, in his short teaching called "How to Transform a Human Body into a Buddha Body", he specifically references the book and the aforementioned method. He asserts it as being taught by the Nyingmapa school and further claims the method is called "Getting the Buddha-body in Only a Week".

Is there any evidence that Nyingmapa used this or similar rhetoric of "Getting the Buddha-body in Only a Week"?
MiphamFan
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Re: Yogi C. M. Chen espousing Nyingmapa rhetoric?

Post by MiphamFan »

I think this is the same guy ChNN criticizes for making a bad translation of Patrul Rinpoche's Tregcho text.
Crazywisdom wrote:Mod note: Unfactual post removed.
This statement is kinda rude. Genuine knowledge from Larung Gar and other qualified teachers has been spreading in Chinese translations more and more.
Last edited by Ayu on Sun Aug 28, 2016 9:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Left note.
tingdzin
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Re: Yogi C. M. Chen espousing Nyingmapa rhetoric?

Post by tingdzin »

Yogi Chen was active a very long time ago, and his "Buddhist Meditation" is now in its umpteenth reprinting. At the time it first came out, it was probably unique in its presentation of key points of major schools of Buddhism; nowadays, with so much good and well-translated material at hand, it is easy to forget this. As far as his translations of Dzogchen material, there are still many inadequate ones currently flooding the market. His description of togal retreat is based on a single tradition, and is further not meant to be a cookbook, only a brief description. As a matter of fact, as I recall, the book specifically says DO NOT TRY THIS in all caps after the description.

Chen was also a sincere practitioner. It is useful to remember that at the time he was active, there were very few Chinese Buddhists in the least interested in taking time to present Buddhism to the West, in Western languages.
udawa
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Re: Yogi C. M. Chen espousing Nyingmapa rhetoric?

Post by udawa »

tingdzin wrote:Yogi Chen was active a very long time ago, and his "Buddhist Meditation" is now in its umpteenth reprinting. At the time it first came out, it was probably unique in its presentation of key points of major schools of Buddhism; nowadays, with so much good and well-translated material at hand, it is easy to forget this. As far as his translations of Dzogchen material, there are still many inadequate ones currently flooding the market. His description of togal retreat is based on a single tradition, and is further not meant to be a cookbook, only a brief description. As a matter of fact, as I recall, the book specifically says DO NOT TRY THIS in all caps after the description.

Chen was also a sincere practitioner. It is useful to remember that at the time he was active, there were very few Chinese Buddhists in the least interested in taking time to present Buddhism to the West, in Western languages.
Indeed, he was one of the pioneers and his work needs to be seen in that light. I got given a compilation of some of the 'Chenian Booklets' many years ago. They were often interesting, if you could find your way through the rather eccentric English.

D
Edwards: You are a philosopher. Dr Johnson: I have tried too in my time to be a philosopher; but, I don't know how, cheerfulness was always breaking in.
Knotty Veneer
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Re: Yogi C. M. Chen espousing Nyingmapa rhetoric?

Post by Knotty Veneer »

Yogi Chen was an eclectic figure active in Kalimpong around the 1950s. Triratna community guru Sangharakshita I think claims him as a teacher (or used to).

He wrote a lot of weird stuff. See in particular his fire puja to Jesus: http://www.yogichen.org/cw/cw40/bk123.html
This is not the wrong life.
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gzodzilpa
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Re: Yogi C. M. Chen espousing Nyingmapa rhetoric?

Post by gzodzilpa »

tingdzin wrote:His description of togal retreat is based on a single tradition
Thanks for the tertiary information, I however am interested in this statement as it most closely relates to my question. He claims this tradition falls under Nyingmapa, is there any evidence that any Nyingmapa tradition actually uses the specific rhetoric he claims it does?
tingdzin
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Re: Yogi C. M. Chen espousing Nyingmapa rhetoric?

Post by tingdzin »

If you mean "buddha-body in one week", I can't put my figurative finger on a citation, but I wouldn't be surprised -- such eye-catching rhetoric is far from unknown in the Nyingmapa tradition. If I come across it, I'll get back to you.
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gzodzilpa
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Re: Yogi C. M. Chen espousing Nyingmapa rhetoric?

Post by gzodzilpa »

tingdzin wrote:If you mean "buddha-body in one week", I can't put my figurative finger on a citation, but I wouldn't be surprised -- such eye-catching rhetoric is far from unknown in the Nyingmapa tradition. If I come across it, I'll get back to you.
Yeah I mean that rhetoric. I wouldn't be too surprised either. Yogi Chen is kind of an interesting, enigmatic character and am basically interested whether in this instance he was innovating, exaggerating, or faithfully relaying a teaching he had received.

:thanks:
mutsuk
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Re: Yogi C. M. Chen espousing Nyingmapa rhetoric?

Post by mutsuk »

Yogi Chen refers to his Chinese translation of the famed Kongtrül text entitled Sangs-rgyas zhag-bdun gyi sgrub pa. It is a reworking of the 3 Scrolls of Dungtso Repa's Yangti.
tingdzin
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Re: Yogi C. M. Chen espousing Nyingmapa rhetoric?

Post by tingdzin »

mutsuk wrote:Yogi Chen refers to his Chinese translation of the famed Kongtrül text entitled Sangs-rgyas zhag-bdun gyi sgrub pa. It is a reworking of the 3 Scrolls of Dungtso Repa's Yangti.
Thanks for that!
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