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Three Principal Aspects of the
Path
The Three Principal Aspects of the Path is a short verse letter written by Dzong-ka-ba, the founder
of the Ge-luk-ba order of Tibetan Buddhism, on the three principal aspects of the path to highest
enlightenment.
The essay is written from the point of view of the Great Vehicle (theg pa chen po), and, within that,
what is considered to be the highest of the philosophical schools, the Middle Way Consequence School
(dbu ma thal ‘gyur pa).
The text details the practices that are common requirements for both the sutra and tantra paths of the great
Vehicle.
The Three Aspects are:
- The intention definitely to leave cyclic existence;
- The altruistic aspiration to enlightenment for the sake of all beings which is the assumption of the
burdon of freeing all beings from misery and joining them with happiness and one’s consequent wish for
Buddhahood; and
- The correct view which is the realization of emptiness, the realization that all phenomena do not exist
inherently, are just imputations by thought, nominally existent and effective but not to be found under
ultimate analysis. Emptiness itself is the life of sutra and tantra.
Further Reading:
See, Geshe Lhundup Sopa and Jeffrey Hopkins, Cutting Through Appearances (Ithaca: Snow Lion
Publications, 1989).
Source:
Geshe Lhundup Sopa and Jeffrey Hopkins, Cutting Through Appearances (Ithaca: Snow Lion
Publications, 1989), pages 17-18.
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