Gyalse Tokme Zangpo was a Kadampa master of the fourteenth century based at Ngulchu Monastery where he sat in retreat for twenty years. He had previously served as the abbot of Bodong E for about nine years, from 1326 to 1335. Significant in the transmission of Lojong teachings, his compositions include the famous Thirty-seven Practices of the Bodhisattva, one of the classics of Tibetan buddhist literature. A specialist in tantric Mahākaruṇā, he was a disciple of Butön Rinchen Drup and a teacher of Rendawa Zhönu Lodrö, and is counted as seventy-third in the Lamrim lineage. ... read more at
Philosophical positions of this person
Is buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?
Definitive
Do all beings have buddha-nature?
Yes
"Gyelsé Tokmé equates the naturally purified dharma-body with the tathāgata-essence by arguing that it is precisely because the latter exists in all beings that one can claim that the former exists in all beings also. However, unlike Dölpopa, he never explicitly says in his commentary that sentient beings have a fully enlightened buddha within." Wangchuk, Tsering, The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, p. 62.
To which "turning of the wheel" do the buddha-nature teachings belong?
Third Turning
Gyelsé Tokmé emphasizes that the last-wheel teachings teach the most definitive meaning of the Buddha's thought. He states, "This meaning, which is depicted by the nine examples in this way, is the profoundest of the profound, and it is the ultimate definitive meaning." Wangchuk, Tsering, The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, p. 61.
