Atiśa
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On the topic of this person
Bu-ton's History of Buddhism proper is divided into the following principal parts: —
I. The Life of the Buddha Çākyamuni, the narrative of the so-called 12 Acts of the Buddha (mdzad-pa bcu-gñis), or rather of the 12 principal events in his life. The account of the first eleven, ending with the first "Swinging of the Wheel of the Doctrine" (chos-kyi ḥkhor-lo bskor-ba = dharma-cakra-pravartana) represents a summary of the Lalita-vistara-sūtra and contains numerous verses from it. Then, after a short indication of the Second and the Third Swingings (i.e. of the Scripture of the intermediate and the later period), there follows the story of the Buddha's attainment of Nirvāṇa. It is taken from the Vinayakṣudraka (tib. Ḥdul-ba-phran-tshegs, Kangyur ḤDUL, XI), being a summary of the corresponding part of the latter.
II. The Rehearsals of the Buddhist Scripture. This part begins with the account of the first Rehearsal (Mahākāçyapa, Ānanda, Upāli), of the death of Kāçyapa and Ānanda, and of the second Rehearsal (Yaças, Kubjita, Revata, etc.). The only source here is likewise the Vinaya-kṣudraka, the corresponding text of which is rendered in an abridged form, all the verses being quoted at full length. As concerns the 3d Rehearsal and the 18 Sects, the texts referred to on this subject are: —
1. The Nikāya-bheda-upadarçana-saṁgraha of Vinītadeva (Tg.
MDO. XC.).
2. The Bhikṣu-varṣāgra-pṛcchā. of Padmākaraghoṣa (Ibid).
3. The Prabhāvati of Çākyaprabha. (Tg. MDO. LXXXIX.)
4. The Tarkajvālā of Bhāvaviveka. (Tg. MDO. XIX.)
Ill. The different theories concerning the time of duration of the Buddhist Doctrine. Here we have quotations from the Karuñā-puṇḍarīka, from Vasubandhu's Commentary on the Akṣayamati-nirdeça-sūtra (Tg. MDO. XXXV.), the Commentary on the Vajracchedikā. (Tg. MDO. XVI), the Commentary on the 3 Prajñāpāramitā-Sūtras (Tg. MDO. XIV), etc. We have likewise the chronological calculations of the Sa-skya Paṇḍita and others concerning the time that has passed since the death of the Buddha.
IV. The "prophecies" concerning the persons that have furthered the spread of Buddhism. The most important are those contained in the Lankāvatāra, the Mahākaruṇā-puṇḍarīka (Kg. MDO. VI), and the Mañjuçrī-mūlatantra. (Kg. RGYUD. XI. Narthaṅ edition, or XII. Derge edition) A separate prophecy referring to the Tantric Ācāryas, that of the Kālacakra-uttaratantra (Kg. RGYUD. I) and the Mahākāla-tantra-rāja (Kg. RGYUD. V), is given at the end of this part. It is especially the Mañjuçrī-mūla-tantra which is to be regarded as a source of the greatest importance, not only for the History of Buddhism, but for the historiography of India in general. The most interesting is that part of it which refers to the Indian kings, — Açoka, Virasena, Nanda, Candragupta, etc. Noteworthy is the passage concerning Pāṇini who is spoken of as the friend of the king Nanda. — A detailed analysis of the historically important parts of all these texts will be published by me before long. —
V. The biographies of the celebrated Buddhist teachers, viz. Nāgārjuna, Āryadeva, Candragomin, Candrakīrti, Āryāsanga, Vasubandhu, Sthiramati, Dignāga, Dharmakīrti, Haribhadra, Çāntideva, etc. Each of these is followed by a list of the works composed by the teacher in question. An indication of the volumes of the Tangyur (Sūtra and Tantra) in which the works are contained is always given in the notes.
VI. A short summary of the history of the grammatical literature, or rather of the legends referring to it, viz. the stories about Bṛhaspati, Pāṇini, Sarvavarman (alias Çarvavarman, Saptavarman, or lçvaravarman), etc. After that comes an enumeration of the kanonical texts (Sūtra and Tantra) which have been lost or have not been translated into Tibetan. —
VII. Prophecies of an apocalyptic character foretelling the disappearance of the Buddhist Doctrine. Among these, that of the Candragarbha-paripṛcchā is quoted at full length with a very few abbreviations. This prophecy is treated in the Kangyur as a separate work (Kg. MDO. XXXII). In this place the text of the Lhasa block-print of Bu-ton's History contains a great number of mistakes in the proper names, which are sometimes quite illegible (e.g. Akandradha instead of Agnidatta !). A correct rendering of these names has been made possible with the help of the Derge (Sde-dge) edition of the Kangyur.
VIII. The History of Buddhism in Tibet. It begins with the genealogy of the early legendary Tibetan kings, commencing with Ña-ṭhi-tsen-po. Next come the legends about Tho-tho-ri-ñen-tsen and Sroṅ-tsen-gam-po. These are followed by a more detailed account concerning the spread of Buddhism in Tibet during the reign of Ṭhi-sroṅ-de-tsen, viz. the activity of Çāntirakṣita (called the "Ācārya Bodhisattva"), the selection of the first 7 Tibetan monks [Sad-mi mi bdun], the dispute between the adherents of Kamalaçīla and of the Chinese Hva-çaṅ Mahāyāna (the Tsen-min and the Tön-mün), etc. Then we have a brief account of the reign of Ral-pa-can, of the persecution by Laṅ-dar-ma, and of the restauration of the Church by the 10 monks of Ü and Tsaṅ, an indication of the monasteries and monastic sections founded by the said monks and their pupils and, finally, a narrative of the events that followed, viz. the arrival of Dīpaṁkaraçrījñāna (Atīça) in Tibet and the subsequent propagation of Buddhism. In particular we have an enumeration of the texts translated by some of the Lotsavas from the Sanskrit. It may be noted that, with very few exceptions, the texts mentioned belong to the Tantric parts of the Kangyur and Tangyur. Here ends the history proper. It is followed by a list containing the names of all the Paṇḍits and Lotsavas who have acted in Tibet, beginning with Çāntirakṣita and Padmasaṁbhava. With it ends the 3d Chapter (leḥu) of Bu-ton's text: "The History of the Doctrine in Tibet".
The last part is a systematical Index of all the Buddhist literature which has been translated from the Sanskrit by the Lotsavas and Paṇḍits. It is divided into 1. Sūtra Scripture (including the Vinaya, Prajñāpāramitā, Avataṁsaka, Ratnakūṭa, and Sūtra sections of the Kangyur), 2. Sūtra Exegesis, 3. Tantra Scripture, and 4. Tantra Exegesis. This Index, as well as the list of the Lotsavas and Paṇḍits, arranged in the alphabetical order, will form a separate 3d part which is to contain numerous other Indices and Appendices besides.
The part now published, similar to the first, includes a great number of smaller chapters and subdivisions. The system according to which these have been designated, is the same as in the first part, and is directly connected with the latter. A full table of the contents is given at the end. — (Obermiller, introduction, 3–6)
Notes
- Following Paul Harrison, I employ the term 'buddhology' (written in lower case) to refer to theories on and conceptions of the nature of a "buddha" (i.e., Buddhahood), while reserving 'Buddhology' (capitalized) for an alternative designation for Buddhist Studies. See Harrison 1995, p. 24, n. 4.
- In the present study I differentiate between a buddha (i.e., written in lower case and italicized), a title referring to any unspecified awakened person, and Buddha (i.e., written in roman and capitalized), a title referring to Śākyamuni Buddha or any other particular awakened person. (The same convention has been employed in the case of other titles: for example, bodhisattva versus Bodhisattva.) This differentiation is particularly important for the discussion of buddhology, or conceptions of Buddhahood, since some such conceptions (particularly the earlier ones) are clearly only associated with the person of the historical Buddha, while others, which commonly represent later developments in which a plurality of buddhas is affirmed, concern all awakened persons. To be sure, often there is no clear-cut borderline. In such cases I have employed both forms as alternatives.
- A considerably revised and enlarged version of the thesis is currently under preparation for publication in the near future.
Hardly any Sanskrit manuscripts of Buddhist scriptures remain in India today, even though such manuscripts have been discovered in surrounding regions. Tibet in particular is one of the richest treasuries of precious Sanskrit manuscripts from as early as the 8th century. These became widely known to the scholarly world in the 1930s thanks to discoveries by Rāhula Sāṅkṛtyāyana (1893-1963) in monasteries of Tsang (Tib. gTsang) province, in the Western part of Central Tibet. He had little success, however, in accessing Sanskrit manuscripts in monasteries of Ü (Tib. dBus) province, in the Eastern part of the Central Tibet among which Retreng (Tib. Rwa sgreng) monastery[1] was especially famous for its rare manuscript collection. Retreng, the former centre of the Kadam tradition located about 120 km to the Northwest of Lhasa, was founded by Dromtön Gyalwe jungne (Tib. 'Brom ston rGyal ba'i 'byung gnas, 1008-1064) in 1056. The aim of the present paper is to trace the Sanskrit manuscript collection once preserved at Retreng monastery by focusing on the transmission of individual manuscripts, and in the process to shed light on one historical aspect of Indo-Tibetan cross-cultural exchanges.
In the following, I shall (1) sketch the challenges faced by explorers trying to access the manuscript collection of Retreng monastery in the early 20th century, and then try to (2) trace the origin of the collection in Tibetan historical sources, (3) collect references to the manuscripts belonging to the collection, (4) draw up a title list of scriptural texts contained in it, (5) trace and identify its current location, and finally (6) evaluate the historicity of Atiśa's ownership of the manuscripts. (Kano, preliminary remarks, 82–83)
Notes
- For historical sources on Retreng, see Kano, "Rāhula," 123, n. 1.
Philosophical positions of this person
He uses it as a support for his position on a single vehicle and describe it is a disposition which is a causal potential for buddhahood.
"The term “innate śīla” means that all sentient beings have a single [or universal] spiritual disposition (gotra), Buddha-nature, or the spiritual disposition of the Mahāyāna." Kano, K., Buddha-Nature and Emptiness, p. 100.
Actually Great Madhyamaka. See Kano, K., Buddha-Nature and Emptiness, p. 101.
"In his auto-commentary on the Bodhipathapradīpa, Atiśa explains the term so sor thar pa’i sdom pa and associates the Buddha-nature doctrine with that of the Great Madhyamaka (dbu ma chen po), which teaches that there is nobody who is not a recipient of the Mahāyāna (i.e. ekayāna)." Kano, K., Buddha-Nature and Emptiness, p. 101.
"Atisa explains “the innate śīla" abiding in every being as a cause that brings one attainment (i.e. nirvāṇa), but as being covered with defilements in the state of ordinary beings. He takes it as synonymous with Buddha-nature or the mahāyānagotra." Kano, K., Buddha-Nature and Emptiness, p. 101.
Other names
- དཔལ་མར་མེད་མཛད་དཔལ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ · other names (Tibetan)
- སློབ་དཔོན་ཆེན་པོ་དཔལ་མར་མེ་མཛད་ཡེ་ཤེས་ · other names (Tibetan)
- རྒྱ་གར་གྱི་མཁན་པོ་དཔལ་ལྡན་མར་མེ་ · other names (Tibetan)
- རྒྱ་གར་གྱི་མཁན་པོ་དཔལ་ལྡན་མར་མེ་མཛད་བཟང་པོ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྙིང་པོ་ · other names (Tibetan)
- དཱི་པཾ་ཀ་ར་ཤྲཱི་ཛྙཱ་ན་ · other names (Tibetan)
- པཎྜིཏ་དཱི་པཾ་ཀ་ར་ · other names (Tibetan)
- མགོན་པོ་ཨ་ཏི་ཤ་ · other names (Tibetan)
- dpal mar med mdzad dpal ye shes · other names (Wylie)
- slob dpon chen po dpal mar me mdzad ye shes · other names (Wylie)
- rgya gar gyi mkhan po dpal ldan mar me · other names (Wylie)
- rgya gar gyi mkhan po dpal ldan mar me mdzad bzang po ye shes snying po · other names (Wylie)
- dI paM ka ra shrI dz+nyA na · other names (Wylie)
- paN+Dita dI paM ka ra · other names (Wylie)
- mgon po a ti sha · other names (Wylie)
- Atīśa · other names
- Atiśa Dīpaṃkara · other names
- Dīpaṃkara Śrījñāna · other names
- Śrī Dīpaṃkarajñānapada · other names
- Dīpaṃkararakṣita · other names
Affiliations & relations
- Nāropa · teacher
- Suvarṇadvīpa Dharmakīrti · teacher
- Bodhibhadra · teacher
- 'brom ston pa · student
- rin chen bzang po · student
- lha btsun byang chub 'od · student
- mgos khug pa lhas btsas · student
- rngog legs pa'i shes rab · student
Tertön Gyatsa Information from the Rinchen Terdzö
The full Tertön Gyatsa text can be found at the following page: Volume 1 (ཀ), 341-765, 1a1-213a4.
Name in Gyatsa: ཇོ་བོ་རྗེ་དཱི་པཾ་ཀ་ར་ (jo bo rje dI paM ka ra)
Page #s for bio of this person: 517 to 518
Folio #s for bio of this person: 89a3 to 89b4
།སངས་རྒྱས་སྣང་བ་མཐའ་ཡས་དང་གུ་རུ་པདྨ་དབྱེར་མེད་པའི་རྣམ་འཕྲུལ་ས་གསུམ་དུ་གྲགས་པས་ཁྱབ་པའི་དཔལ་ལྡན་ཇོ་བོ་རྗེ་དཱི་པཾ་ཀ་ར་ནི་འཕགས་བོད་གཉིས་ན་ཡོངས་སུ་གྲགས་པའི་མཁས་གྲུབ་ཆེན་པོ། བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ཀྱི་མངའ་བདག་བོད་ཁམས་ལ་བཀའ་དྲིན་ལྷག་པར་ཆེ་བ་སྟེ། རྣམ་ཐར་གྲགས་ཆེ་བས་འདིར་མ་བཀོད་ཅིང་། རྗེ་བཙུན་སྒྲོལ་མས་ལུང་གིས་བསྐུལ་ཞིང་བོད་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོས་སྤྱན་དྲངས་པ་ལྟར་གངས་ཅན་དུ་ཕྱགས་ཕེབས། སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་བསྟན་པའི་ག་དར་མཛད་ཅིང་ཉམས་པ་རྨང་ནས་གསོས། ལྷ་སར་རང་བཞིན་གྱི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་མ་ཕལ་པའི་སྣང་ངོར་སྨྱོན་མར་བརྫུ་བ་ཞིག་གིས་ལུང་བསྟན་ཏེ་ཀ་བ་བུམ་པ་ཅན་ནས་འདོམ་ཕྱེད་གཞལ་བའི་ས་ནས་ཆོས་རྒྱལ་སྲོང་བཙན་སྒམ་པོའི་བཀའ་ཆེམས་ཀྱི་ཡི་གེ་ཆེན་པོ། བཙུན་མོ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་བཀོད་པའི་ལོ་རྒྱུས་དར་དཀར་གསལ་བ། བློན་པོ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་བྱས་པའི་ལོ་རྒྱུས་ཟླ་བའི་འདོད་འཇོ་བཅས་དཀར་ཆག་ཤོག་དྲིལ་གསུམ་བཞེས། གཏེར་སྲུང་གཉན་པས་དེ་ཉིན་རང་དུ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་པ་སོགས་མི་བཞིས་ཞལ་བཤུས། དོ་ནུབ་སླར་སྦ་དགོས་པས་ལྷག་མ་བག་ཙམ་ལུས་པར་བཤད། ཇོ་བོས་རྣལ་འབྱོར་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ལ་གཏད། དེས་བྱ་ཡུལ་པ། དེས་ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོའི་ཆེ་བའི་ཡོན་ཏན་ཞིག་ལྷ་སའི་དཀོར་གཉེར་ལ་གནང་། མཐིང་ཤོག་ལ་གསེར་གྱིས་བྲིས་པའི་བུ་ཡིག་གདུང་རྟེན་དང་མ་ཕྱི་གློ་འབུར་གྱི་རྟ་མགྲིན་ལྡེར་སྐུ་ལ་བཅུག་སྐད། གཞན་ཡང་ཇོ་བོ་འདིས་འཕགས་ཡུལ་ནས་ཀྱང་བྷེ་ཏ་པདྨ་ཅན་གྱི་ལྷ་ཁང་ནས་གཙུག་ཏོར་སྡེ་ལྔའི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་འཛུག་པའི་ཆོ་ག་སོགས་གཏེར་ནས་བཞེས་པའང་གྲགས་སོ།
sangs rgyas snang ba mtha' yas dang gu ru pad+ma dbyer med pa'i rnam 'phrul sa gsum du grags pas khyab pa'i dpal ldan jo bo rje dI paM ka ra ni 'phags bod gnyis na yongs su grags pa'i mkhas grub chen po/_byang chub sems kyi mnga' bdag bod khams la bka' drin lhag par che ba ste/_rnam thar grags che bas 'dir ma bkod cing /_rje btsun sgrol mas lung gis bskul zhing bod kyi rgyal pos spyan drangs pa ltar gangs can du phyags phebs/_sangs rgyas kyi bstan pa'i ga dar mdzad cing nyams pa rmang nas gsos/_lha sar rang bzhin gyi rnal 'byor ma phal pa'i snang ngor smyon mar brdzu ba zhig gis lung bstan te ka ba bum pa can nas 'dom phyed gzhal ba'i sa nas chos rgyal srong btsan sgam po'i bka' chems kyi yi ge chen po/_btsun mo rnams kyis bkod pa'i lo rgyus dar dkar gsal ba/_blon po rnams kyis byas pa'i lo rgyus zla ba'i 'dod 'jo bcas dkar chag shog dril gsum bzhes/_gter srung gnyan pas de nyin rang du rnal 'byor pa sogs mi bzhis zhal bshus/_do nub slar sba dgos pas lhag ma bag tsam lus par bshad/_jo bos rnal 'byor pa chen po la gtad/_des bya yul pa/_des thugs rje chen po'i che ba'i yon tan zhig lha sa'i dkor gnyer la gnang /_mthing shog la gser gyis bris pa'i bu yig gdung rten dang ma phyi glo 'bur gyi rta mgrin lder sku la bcug skad/_gzhan yang jo bo 'dis 'phags yul nas kyang b+he ta pad+ma can gyi lha khang nas gtsug tor sde lnga'i rgyal mtshan 'dzug pa'i cho ga sogs gter nas bzhes pa'ang grags so