Theos-Talk Archives (October 1995 Message tl00555)

I've just had a synchronicity. The latest issue
of The Eclectic Theosophist arrived in the mail.
The feature article is by Lama Doboom Tulku, from
his forthcoming book. On page 4, he quotes from
A Guide to the Middle View by Acharya Chandrakirti:

The mind itself creates the various animate

 and inanimate worlds.

All the living beings are produced by karma,

And without mind there can be no karma.

This reminded me that about a week ago, I posted
an essay about Buddhism's no-creator doctrine and
quoted from Geshe Kelsang Gyatso's Ocean of Nectar.
It just so happens that Ocean of Nectar is a
complete translation of Chandrakirti's text (which
Gyatso translates as Guide to the Middle Way) together
with commentary. Gyatso's translation of the same
passage is:

All the various worldly environments

And the living beings, the inhabitants, are

 created by mind.

It is said that all living beings are born

 from karma;

And if there is no mind there is no karma.

You can see that both translations are
very close, and say the same thing - that Globe D
is created by mind, not by external Creators. Now,
several people did not agree with this teaching, which
is pure Mahayana Buddhism. Thats OK. I wasn't
concerned with agreement as much as presenting the
discrepancy here between HPB's SD and Mahayana
Buddhism. Of course, this "discrepancy" goes
away if we consider the "Creators" as archetypes.

Jerry S.