Bod sprul mdo sngags bstan pa'i nyi ma

Bötrul Dongak Tenpai Nyima

བོད་སྤྲུལ་མདོ་སྔགས་བསྟན་པའི་ཉི་མ་

1898 - 1959

Bötrul Dongak Tenpai Nyima was a Nyingma teacher based primarily at Dzogchen and Gegong Monasteries in Kham. A holder of the scholastic tradition begun by Mipam Gyatso, he also taught for several years at Drigung. He was considered by some to be a reincarnation of Patrul Rinpoche.
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Introduction to Dzogchen and Buddha-Nature

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Ostensen, Morten. "Introduction to Dzogchen and Buddha-Nature." Buddha-Nature: A Tsadra Foundation Initiative, July 11, 2019. https://buddhanature.tsadra.org/index.php/Articles/Introduction_to_Dzogchen_and_Buddha-nature.

Ostensen, Morten. "Introduction to Dzogchen and Buddha-Nature." Buddha-Nature: A Tsadra Foundation Initiative, July 11, 2019. https://buddhanature.tsadra.org/index.php/Articles/Introduction_to_Dzogchen_and_Buddha-nature.

Philosophical positions of this person

Is buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?

Definitive 

Do all beings have buddha-nature?

 

To which "turning of the wheel" do the buddha-nature teachings belong?

Third Turning 

Is buddha-nature equated with emptiness or alayavijnana?

Madhyamaka 

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?

 

What is Buddha-nature?

  Tathāgatagarbha as the Unity of Emptiness and Luminosity

"Thus, from the point of view of emptiness, buddha nature is the empty dharmadhātu (the object) and from the point of view of appearance, it is the wisdom (the subject) that is not empty of the inseparable qualities of a buddha. Both these aspects are inseparable and are empty of the adventitious stains that represent the delusive appearances of saṃsāra." Brunnhölzl, K., When the Clouds Part, p. 75.

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Does the author advocate the Svatantrika or Prasangika view of emptiness?

  Prāsaṅgika (ཐལ་འགྱུར་)

"...Pötrül says repeatedly that both the Madhyamakāvatāra and the Uttaratantra are scriptures of “the Great Prāsaṅgika Mahāyāna,” though he clearly rejects the Gelugpa understanding of this being the case because, he says, the Gelugpa position is solely based on a nonimplicative negation (the lack of real existence), while completely rejecting the notion of luminosity." Brunnhölzl, K., When the Clouds Part, p. 75.

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Other names

• བོད་སྤྲུལ་ · other names (Tibetan)
• བོད་པ་སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་མདོ་སྔགས་བསྟན་པའི་ཉི་མ་ · other names (Tibetan)
• ཐུབ་བསྟན་བཤད་སྒྲུབ་ཐོས་བསམ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ · other names (Tibetan)
• bod sprul · other names (Wylie)
• bod pa sprul sku mdo sngags bstan pa'i nyi ma · other names (Wylie)
• thub bstan bshad sgrub thos bsam rgya mtsho · other names (Wylie)

Affiliations & relations

• Nyingma · religious affiliation
• Studied at Dzogchen Monastery's Śrī Siṃha monastic college (shrI sing+ha bshad drwa) and served as abbot of Gegong monastery (rdza rgyud dge mang bshad grwa) for 8 years. · primary professional affiliation
• nil · teacher
• nil · student

Nyingma - The Nyingma, which is often described as the oldest tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, traces its origin to Padmasambhava, who is said to have visited Tibet in the eighth century. Tib. རྙིང་མ་

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Dzogchen - Dzogchen is an advanced system of meditation techniques to reveal the innate state of perfection primarily, but not exclusively, espoused by the Nyingma Buddhist tradition and the Tibetan Bön tradition. Skt. महासन्धि Tib. རྫོགས་ཆེན།

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neyārtha - Refers to something that is taught for a specific reason, rather than because it is entirely true. Skt. नेयार्थ Tib. དྲང་དོན་

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śūnyatā - The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics. Skt. शून्यता Tib. སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ Ch. 空,空門

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Madhyamaka - Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. Skt. मध्यमक Tib. དབུ་མ་ Ch. 中觀見

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gzhan stong - The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature. Tib. གཞན་སྟོང་

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rang stong - The state of being empty of self, which references the lack of inherent existence in relative phenomena. Tib. རང་སྟོང་

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These are the root verses of the Uttaratantra attributed to Maitreya by the Tibetan tradition.

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Uttaratantra - The Ultimate Continuum, or Gyü Lama, is often used as a short title in the Tibetan tradition for the key source text of buddha-nature teachings called the Ratnagotravibhāga of Maitreya/Asaṅga, also known as the Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra. Skt. उत्तरतन्त्र Tib. རྒྱུད་བླ་མ་ Ch. 寶性論

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tathāgatagarbha - Buddha-nature, literally the "womb/essence of those who have gone (to suchness)." Skt. तथागतगर्भ Tib. དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ Ch. 如来藏

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prabhāsvaratā - In a general sense, that which clears away darkness, though it often appears in Buddhist literature in reference to the mind or its nature. It is a particularly salient feature of Tantric literature, especially in regard to the advanced meditation techniques of the completion-stage yogas. Skt. प्रभास्वर Tib. འོད་གསལ་ Ch. 光明

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prabhāsvaratā - In a general sense, that which clears away darkness, though it often appears in Buddhist literature in reference to the mind or its nature. It is a particularly salient feature of Tantric literature, especially in regard to the advanced meditation techniques of the completion-stage yogas. Skt. प्रभास्वर Tib. འོད་གསལ་ Ch. 光明

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dharmadhātu - The fundamental expanse from which all phenomena emerge. Skt. धर्मधातु Tib. ཆོས་དབྱིངས་ Ch. 法界

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Mahāyāna - Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of Common Era, focusing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through the realization of the wisdom of emptiness and the cultivation of compassion. Skt. महायान Tib. ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ། Ch. 大乘

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Geluk - The Geluk tradition traces its origin to Tsongkhapa, who propagated a modified version of the Kadampa lojong and lamrim teachings. It is the dominant tradition of Tibet, having established its control of the government under the figure of the Dalai Lama. Tib. དགེ་ལུགས་

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prabhāsvaratā - In a general sense, that which clears away darkness, though it often appears in Buddhist literature in reference to the mind or its nature. It is a particularly salient feature of Tantric literature, especially in regard to the advanced meditation techniques of the completion-stage yogas. Skt. प्रभास्वर Tib. འོད་གསལ་ Ch. 光明

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prabhāsvaratā - In a general sense, that which clears away darkness, though it often appears in Buddhist literature in reference to the mind or its nature. It is a particularly salient feature of Tantric literature, especially in regard to the advanced meditation techniques of the completion-stage yogas. Skt. प्रभास्वर Tib. འོད་གསལ་ Ch. 光明

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