Sūtra Vehicle and Buddhahood in One Lifetime
The general claim among Buddhist scholars about the philosophical sūtra vehicle (མདོ་མཚན་ཉིད་ཐེག་པ་) is that it takes three countless eons (1 followed by 59 zeros) for the bodhisattva with superior caliber and many more for those of mediocre and inferior caliber to reach perfect enlightenment, or buddhahood. The Vajrayāna path, or the vehicle of secret mantra (གསང་བ་སྔགས་ཀྱི་ཐེག་པ་), on the other hand, is considered to be swift and advantageous, with the possibility of bringing forth enlightenment in one lifetime or within sixteen lifetimes at the latest if one follows all the dos and don'ts. Thus, the Vajrayāna path is known as the fast path (མྱུར་ལམ་).
The Single Intention of the Drikung Kagyu, however, makes a bold and unusual claim that even the sūtra vehicle can bring about buddhahood in one lifetime. The locus classicus of Buddhist doctrine for the Drikung tradition, the Single Intention is a compendium of critical philosophical, soteriological, and moral positions taught by the Drikung master Jikten Gönpo and written down by his disciple and nephew Sherab Jungne. The text contains 150 critical vajra words (རྡོ་རྗེའི་གསུང་) in seven groups (ཚོམས་), along with another 47 appended points (ལྷན་ཐབས་). The root text composed by Sherab Jungne has seen several commentaries, including one by the first Drikung Chungtsang Chökyi Drakpa which has been translated by Markus Viehbeck and Jan-Ulrich Sobisch.
The 150 vajra words include many startling and controversial claims, including the assertion that one can attain buddhahood in one lifetime through the sūtra vehicle. Chökyi Drakpa writes in his commentary:
- བཅུ་གཉིས་པ་ནི། རྒྱུ་མཚན་ཉིད་ཀྱི་ཐེག་པས་ཀྱང་ཚེ་གཅིག་གིས་འཚང་རྒྱ་བར་བཞེད་པ་ནི། རང་གི་སྐལ་བ་དང་བསོད་ནམས་ཀྱི་མཐུ་ཡོད་ཅིང་། བླ་མ་མཚན་ལྡན་གྱིས་བསྟན་པའི་ལམ་ཚང་ལ་མ་ནོར་བ་དང་། རང་གིས་ཉམས་ལེན་བརྩོན་པ་རྨད་དུ་བྱུང་བ་ཞིག་སྟེ། རྒྱུ་ཚོགས་དེ་རྣམས་འཛོམས་ན་མཚན་ཉིད་ཐེག་པས་ཀྱང་ཚེ་གཅིག་ལ་ཡང་འཚང་རྒྱ་བ་འོང་ལ། རྒྱུ་ཚོགས་དེ་རྣམས་མ་འཛོམས་ན་སྔགས་ཀྱི་ཐེག་པས་ཀྱང་ཚེ་གཅིག་ལ་འཚང་རྒྱ་བ་མི་འགྲུབ་ལ། གཙོ་བོར་རྒྱུ་ཚོགས་དེ་འདྲ་བ་འཛོམས་པ་གལ་ཆེ་བ་སྟེ། ཞིབ་པ་སྔར་སྡོམ་པ་གསུམ་འཆད་པའི་སྐབས་སུ་བཤད་གྲུབ་བོ།།
- As for the twelfth point of asserting that even the causal philosophical vehicle can bring forth buddhahood in one lifetime, if one has the fortune and power of merit, an authentic teacher teaches the complete and correct path, one shows exceptional efforts in practice — if the assembly of causes is present, even the philosophical vehicle can reach one to buddhahood in one lifetime. If the assembly of causes is not present, even the mantra vehicle cannot take one to buddhahood. It is important primarily for such assembly of causes to be present. It has been explained in detail while explaining the three vows.
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