Rgyud bla ma'i 'grel bka' 'khor lo tha ma'i gsal byed

རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་འགྲེལ་བཀའ་འཁོར་ལོ་ཐ་མའི་གསལ་བྱེད།

rgyud bla ma'i 'grel bka' 'khor lo tha ma'i gsal byed

Commentary on the Ultimate Continuum Clarifying the Last Wheel of Teachings

Commentary of Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra

SOURCE TEXT

Recensions of This Text

Rgyud bla ma'i 'grel bka' 'khor lo tha ma'i gsal byed. (Commentary on the Ultimate Continuum Clarifying the Last Wheel of Teachings). Recension information:

Tibetan	Zhang ston bsod nams grags pa. རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་འགྲེལ་བཀའ་འཁོར་ལོ་ཐ་མའི་གསལ་བྱེད། (Rgyud bla ma'i 'grel bka' 'khor lo tha ma'i gsal byed). In Rgyud bla'i 'grel pa. Pe cin: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2008: 1-221.

Philosophical positions of this text

Is buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?

Definitive 

Does this text belong to definitive or provisional meaning?

Definitive 

Do all beings have buddha-nature?

Yes 

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

Third Turning 

Is buddha-nature equated with emptiness or alayavijnana?

 

Do buddha-nature teachings belong to the zhentong or rangtong view of emptiness?

Zhentong 

Are there one or three vehicles on the path to buddhahood?

1 

Do the author's writings belong to the analytic or meditative tradition of Uttaratantra exegesis?

Meditative Tradition 

What is Buddha-nature?

Tathāgatagarbha as the Emptiness That is an Implicative Negation (with enlightened qualities) 

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

 

Text Metadata

Text exists in	~ Tibetan
Commentary of	~ Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra

gotra - Disposition, lineage, or class; an individual's gotra determines the type of enlightenment one is destined to attain. Skt. गोत्र Tib. རིགས་ Ch. 鍾姓,種性

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

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་

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

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་

triyāna - Commonly seen in a Mahāyāna context, the three vehicles are the Śrāvakayāna, Pratyekabuddhayāna, and Bodhisattvayāna, which reference the three different types of Buddhist practitioners. However, these three vehicles can also reference the three types of Buddhist teachings of the Hīnayāna, Mahāyāna (or Pāramitāyāna), and the Vajrayāna. Skt. त्रियान Tib. ཐེག་པ་གསུམ་ Ch. 三乗

Tsen Tradition - Tsen Khawoche's "meditative tradition" of exegesis of the Uttaratantra; it is one of two major Tibetan traditions of exegesis, both stemming from students of Sajjana. Tib. བཙན་ལུགས་

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

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

Tsen Tradition - Tsen Khawoche's "meditative tradition" of exegesis of the Uttaratantra; it is one of two major Tibetan traditions of exegesis, both stemming from students of Sajjana. Tib. བཙན་ལུགས་

guṇa - The qualities or attributes of an enlightened being. Skt. गुण Tib. ཡོན་ཏན་ Ch. 功德