Is buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?
Do all beings have buddha-nature?
To which "turning of the wheel" do the buddha-nature teachings belong?
Is buddha-nature equated with emptiness or alayavijnana?
Yogācāra
Though his own view is based on Mahāmudrā, for which he asserts RGV is an important basis.
Do buddha-nature teachings belong to the zhentong or rangtong view of emptiness?
Are there one or three vehicles on the path to buddhahood?
Do the author's writings belong to the analytic or meditative tradition of Uttaratantra exegesis?
Meditative Tradition
"That Zhönu Pal comments on the Ratnagotravibhāga from within the tradition of meditation is also clear from his colophon:
The Dharma master Drigungpa [Jigten Sumgön] rejoiced in Jé Gampopas statement that the basic text of these mahāmudrā instructions of ours is the [Ratnagotravibhāga] Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra composed by the illustrious Maitreya; and since it is evident that the notes to [his] Uttaratantra explanations, the points he makes when presenting the three dharmacakras, and also the explanations deriving from Sajjana’s heart disciple Tsen Kawoché, are [all] in accordance with mahāmudrā proper, I have relied on them and have made [this] clear to others as best as I could. (DRSM, 574.9-12)" Mathes, K., A Direct Path to the Buddha Within, p. 368.
What is Buddha-nature?
Tathāgatagarbha as Mind's Luminous Nature
- "The determination of the ultimate as buddha nature or natural luminosity in the third dharmacakra is taken to be the direct mahāmudrā approach to the nature of mind. This approach is not really different from the emptiness of the second dharmacakra. While the analytical methods of the second dharmacakra deflate all concepts, coarse and subtle, about things, the third one purifies phenomenal appearances that hinder the proper perception of buddha nature." Mathes, K., A Direct Path to the Buddha Within, p. 373.
- "In the third dharmacakra, the scope of such a nonaffirming negation is restricted to the adventitious stains, whose lack of an own-being has been established by inferential valid cognitions. The ultimate that is beyond the intellect is taken to be the emptiness that is buddha nature, or the element of awareness." Mathes, K., A Direct Path to the Buddha Within, p. 374.
Does the author advocate the Svatantrika or Prasangika view of emptiness?