Ngok Tradition
From Buddha-Nature
Tibetan Noun
Ngok Tradition
རྔོག་ལུགས་
Basic Meaning
Ngok Lotsāwa Loden Sherab's "analytic tradition" of exegesis of the Uttaratantra; one of two major Tibetan traditions of exegesis, both stemming from students of Sajjana.
Has the Sense of
Also known as the analytic tradition (thos bsam gyi lugs), literally, "the tradition of hearing and contemplating," this form of exegesis explicated the Uttaratantra through philosophical reasoning and debate and thus entailed a primarily scholastic approach to the treatise. However, both the Ngok Tradition and its opposing counterpart, the Tsen Tradition, reportedly came from a single source, the Kashmiri scholar-yogi Sajjana.
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Term Variations | |
---|---|
Key Term | Ngok Tradition |
Topic Variation | Analytic Tradition |
Tibetan | རྔོག་ལུགས་ ( ngok luk) |
Wylie Tibetan Transliteration | rngog lugs ( ngok luk) |
Term Information | |
Source Language | Tibetan |
Basic Meaning | Ngok Lotsāwa Loden Sherab's "analytic tradition" of exegesis of the Uttaratantra; one of two major Tibetan traditions of exegesis, both stemming from students of Sajjana. |
Has the Sense of | Also known as the analytic tradition (thos bsam gyi lugs), literally, "the tradition of hearing and contemplating," this form of exegesis explicated the Uttaratantra through philosophical reasoning and debate and thus entailed a primarily scholastic approach to the treatise. However, both the Ngok Tradition and its opposing counterpart, the Tsen Tradition, reportedly came from a single source, the Kashmiri scholar-yogi Sajjana. |
Related Terms | thos bsam gyi lugs |
Related Topic Pages | Tsen Tradition |
Term Type | Noun |
Definitions | |
Other Definitions | As cited in Kano 2006 (see Appendix H, p. 624), according to Jamgön Kongtrul's commentary on the Uttaratantra, The Unassailable Lion's Roar, the lineage of the Ngok Tradition is:
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Works About this Term
Books
Buddha-Nature and Emptiness
An essential study of a key text that presents buddha-nature theory and its transmission from India to Tibet, this book is the most thorough history of buddha-nature thought in Tibet and is exceptional in its level of detail and scholarly apparatus. It serves as a scholarly encyclopedia of sorts with extensive appendices listing every existent commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga (Uttaratantraśāstra), as well as covering Ngok Lotsawa's commentarial text and his philosophical positions related with other Tibetan thinkers.
Kano, Kazuo. Buddha-Nature and Emptiness: rNgog Blo-ldan-shes-rab and A Transmission of the Ratnagotravibhāga from India to Tibet. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 91. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2016.
Kano, Kazuo. Buddha-Nature and Emptiness: rNgog Blo-ldan-shes-rab and A Transmission of the Ratnagotravibhāga from India to Tibet. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 91. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2016.;Buddha-Nature and Emptiness;Buddha-nature as Emptiness;History;History of buddha-nature in Tibet;Madhyamaka;Ngok Tradition;Textual study;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Tibetan Buddhism;Theg chen rgyud bla ma'i don bsdus pa;Sajjana;Rngog blo ldan shes rab;Geluk;Maitrīpa;Jñānaśrīmitra;Ratnākaraśānti;Prajñākaramati;Vibhūticandra;Kazuo Kano; Ngok Lotsāwa Loden Sherab;རྔོག་བློ་ལྡན་ཤེས་རབ་;rngog blo ldan shes rab;rngog lo tsA ba;lo chen blo ldan shes rab;blo ldan shes rab;རྔོག་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་;ལོ་ཆེན་བློ་ལྡན་ཤེས་རབ་;Ngok Lotsāwa;Ngok Loden Sherab;Lochen Loden Sherab;Loden Sherab;Buddha-Nature and Emptiness: rNgog Blo-ldan-shes-rab and A Transmission of the Ratnagotravibhāga from India to Tibet;rngog blo ldan shes rab
Perfect or Perfected? Rongtön on Buddha-Nature
As the most important canonical treatise on Buddha-nature, the Ratnagotravibhaga (also known as Uttaratantrasastra, Tib. rgyud bla ma) established the doctrinal foundations for the Mahayana philosophy of tathāgatagarbha, the doctrine according to which all sentient beings are either inherently buddhas or endowed with the potential for awakening. Among the most prominent Tibetan commentaries on this text figures that of the Sakya master Rongtön Sheja Künrig, a prolific writer who was active during the golden age of Tibetan Buddhist philosophy. Refuting, on one hand, the notion that Buddha-nature is synonymous with mere emptiness, and on the other that the mind is inherently endowed with the Buddha qualities, Rongtön argues for an understanding of Buddha-nature that embraces both aspects of the nature of mind: cognizance and emptiness.
Bernert, Christian, trans. Perfect or Perfected? Rongtön on Buddha-Nature: A Commentary on the Fourth Chapter of the Ratnagotravibhāga (vv.1.27-95[a]). By Rongtön Sheja Künrig (rong ston shes bya kun rig). Kathmandu: Vajra Books, 2018.
Bernert, Christian, trans. Perfect or Perfected? Rongtön on Buddha-Nature: A Commentary on the Fourth Chapter of the Ratnagotravibhāga (vv.1.27-95[a]). By Rongtön Sheja Künrig (rong ston shes bya kun rig). Kathmandu: Vajra Books, 2018.;Perfect or Perfected? Rongtön on Buddha-Nature;Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;Rngog blo ldan shes rab;Analytic Tradition;Tsen Tradition;Btsan kha bo che;Rong ston shes bya kun rig;Sakya;rang stong;dharmakāya;gotra;prabhāsvaracitta;Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā;dhātu;Rongtön Sheja Kunrik;རོང་སྟོན་ཤེས་བྱ་ཀུན་རིག་;rong ston shes bya kun rig;shAkya rgyal mtshan;smra ba'i seng+ge;shes bya kun gzigs;rong TI ka pa;shes rab 'od zer;ཤཱཀྱ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་;སྨྲ་བའི་སེངྒེ་;ཤེས་བྱ་ཀུན་གཟིགས་;རོང་ཊཱི་ཀ་པ་;ཤེས་རབ་འོད་ཟེར་;Rongtön Shéja Günsi;Rongton Sheja Kunrig; Christian Bernert;Perfect or Perfected? Rongtön on Buddha-Nature: A Commentary on the Fourth Chapter of the Ratnagotravibhāga (vv.1.27-95a);Rong ston shes bya kun rig
The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows
Tsering Wangchuk's The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows is a clear and concise introduction to the history of the Uttaratantra and buddha-nature theory in pre-modern Tibet. It is an ideal introduction for someone familiar with Buddhism or Tibetan studies, but not yet familiar with the buddha-nature debate in Tibet. Wangchuk summarizes the writings and views of several of the most important Tibetan philosophers who weighed in on buddha-nature between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries from Ngok Lotsāwa through Sakya Paṇḍita to Dolpopa and Gyeltsap Je.
Wangchuk, Tsering. The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows: Tibetan Thinkers Debate the Centrality of the Buddha-Nature Treatise. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2017.
Wangchuk, Tsering. The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows: Tibetan Thinkers Debate the Centrality of the Buddha-Nature Treatise. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2017.;The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows;Uttaratantra;History of buddha-nature in Tibet;Debates / Debate;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Tibetan Buddhism;Ngok Tradition;Tsen Tradition;Kadam;Sakya;Geluk;Jonang;Rngog blo ldan shes rab;Phywa pa chos kyi seng+ge;Sa skya paN+Di ta;Bcom ldan rig pa'i ral gri;Karmapa, 3rd;Gsang phu ba blo gros mtshungs med;Rta nag rin chen ye shes;Bu ston rin chen grub;tridharmacakrapravartana;Madhyamaka;Yogācāra;Sa bzang ma ti paN chen blo gros rgyal mtshan;Klong chen pa;Dol po pa;Sgra tshad pa rin chen rnam rgyal;Red mda' ba gzhon nu blo gros;Tsong kha pa;Rgyal tshab rje dar ma rin chen;rang stong;gzhan stong;Provisional or definitive;Tsering Wangchuk; The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows: Tibetan Thinkers Debate the Centrality of the Buddha-Nature Treatise;Rngog blo ldan shes rab;phywa pa chos kyi seng ge;Sa skya rje btsun grags pa rgyal mtshan;Bu ston rin chen grub;blo gros mtshungs med;Sazang Mati Panchen;dge 'dun 'od zer;Thogs med bzang po;klong chen pa;sgra tshad pa rin chen rnam rgyal;Red mda' ba gzhon nu blo gros;tsong kha pa;Rgyal tshab rje dar ma rin chen;Dol po pa
When the Clouds Part
"Buddha nature" (tathāgatagarbha) is the innate potential in all living beings to become a fully awakened buddha. This book discusses a wide range of topics connected with the notion of buddha nature as presented in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism and includes an overview of the sūtra sources of the tathāgatagarbha teachings and the different ways of explaining the meaning of this term. It includes new translations of the Maitreya treatise Mahāyānottaratantra (Ratnagotravibhāga), the primary Indian text on the subject, its Indian commentaries, and two (hitherto untranslated) commentaries from the Tibetan Kagyü tradition. Most important, the translator’s introduction investigates in detail the meditative tradition of using the Mahāyānottaratantra as a basis for Mahāmudrā instructions and the Shentong approach. This is supplemented by translations of a number of short Tibetan meditation manuals from the Kadampa, Kagyü, and Jonang schools that use the Mahāyānottaratantra as a work to contemplate and realize one’s own buddha nature. (Source: Shambhala Publications)
Brunnhölzl, Karl. When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and Its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra. Tsadra Foundation Series. Boston: Snow Lion Publications, 2014.
Brunnhölzl, Karl. When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and Its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra. Tsadra Foundation Series. Boston: Snow Lion Publications, 2014.;When the Clouds Part;Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;History of buddha-nature in India;History of buddha-nature in Tibet;Mahamudra;Ngok Tradition;Tsen Tradition;Asaṅga;ཐོགས་མེད་;thogs med;slob dpon thogs med;སློབ་དཔོན་ཐོགས་མེད་;Āryāsaṅga; Maitreya;བྱམས་པ་;byams pa;'phags pa byams pa;byams pa'i mgon po;mgon po byams pa;ma pham pa;འཕགས་པ་བྱམས་པ་;བྱམས་པའི་མགོན་པོ་;མགོན་པོ་བྱམས་པ་;མ་ཕམ་པ་;Ajita;Karl Brunnhölzl;When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and Its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra;'jam mgon kong sprul;Asaṅga;Maitreya;Sajjana;Vairocanarakṣita;bdud mo bkra shis 'od zer;Skyo ston smon lam tshul khrims;Karmapa, 8th
Articles
Introduction to the Traditions of Ngok and Tsen
Ostensen, Morten. "Introduction to the Traditions of Ngok and Tsen." Buddha-Nature: A Tsadra Foundation Initiative, February 28, 2020. https://buddhanature.tsadra.org/index.php/Articles/Introduction_to_the_Traditions_of_Ngok_and_Tsen.
Ostensen, Morten. "Introduction to the Traditions of Ngok and Tsen." Buddha-Nature: A Tsadra Foundation Initiative, February 28, 2020. https://buddhanature.tsadra.org/index.php/Articles/Introduction_to_the_Traditions_of_Ngok_and_Tsen.
Ostensen, Morten. "Introduction to the Traditions of Ngok and Tsen." Buddha-Nature: A Tsadra Foundation Initiative, February 28, 2020. https://buddhanature.tsadra.org/index.php/Articles/Introduction_to_the_Traditions_of_Ngok_and_Tsen.;Introduction to the Traditions of Ngok and Tsen;Introduction to the Traditions of Ngok and Tsen;Ngok Tradition;Tsen Tradition;Rngog blo ldan shes rab;Btsan kha bo che;Morten Ostensen
Source Texts
Chapa Chökyi Senge: An Extensive Explanation that Illuminates the Subtle Points of the Words and Meaning of the Mahāyāna Uttaratantra Treatise
Commentary on the Uttaratantra by one of the early Kadam scholars representing the analytic exegesis of the treatise stemming from Ngok Lotsāwa (rngog lugs) and the scholastic tradition of Sangpu Neutok Monastery.
Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi tshig dang don gyi cha rgya cher bsnyad pa phra ba'i don gsal ba;Analytic Tradition;Chapa Chökyi Senge;ཕྱྭ་པ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སེངྒེ་;phywa pa chos kyi seng+ge;cha pa chos kyi seng+ge;phya pa chos kyi seng+ge;gsang phu ne'u thog mkhan rabs 06;ཆ་པ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སེངྒེ་;ཕྱ་པ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སེངྒེ་;གསང་ཕུ་ནེའུ་ཐོག་མཁན་རབས་༠༦་;theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi tshig dang don gyi cha rgya cher bsnyad pa phra ba'i don gsal ba;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་ཚིག་དང་དོན་གྱི་ཆ་རྒྱ་ཆེར་བསྙད་པ་ཕྲ་བའི་དོན་གསལ་བ།;An Extensive Explanation that Illuminates the Subtle Points of the Words and Meaning of the Mahāyāna Uttaratantra Treatise;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་ཚིག་དང་དོན་གྱི་ཆ་རྒྱ་ཆེར་བསྙད་པ་ཕྲ་བའི་དོན་གསལ་བ།
Ngok Lotsāwa Loden Sherab: Epistle: A Drop of Nectar
Instruction by Ngok Lotsāwa Loden Sherab written as a letter of advice on Buddhist practice framed as a formal correspondence to one Gatön Sherab Drak and other monks. Ngok Lotsāwa covers many topics in his advice from thinking of death and impermanence, cultivating enthusiasm, compassion, bodhicitta, etc., following the discipline and good teacher to cultivating the crop of Buddha's qualities having moistened the seed of buddha-nature by the rain of learning coming from the cloud of one's master. He advises monks to follow the words of Nāgārjuna and understand the notion of emptiness beyond existence and non-existence.
Springs yig bdud rtsi'i thig le;Ngok Tradition;Ngok Lotsāwa Loden Sherab;རྔོག་བློ་ལྡན་ཤེས་རབ་;rngog blo ldan shes rab;rngog lo tsA ba;lo chen blo ldan shes rab;blo ldan shes rab;རྔོག་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་;ལོ་ཆེན་བློ་ལྡན་ཤེས་རབ་;Ngok Lotsāwa;Ngok Loden Sherab;Lochen Loden Sherab;Loden Sherab;springs yig bdud rtsi'i thig le;སྤྲིངས་ཡིག་བདུད་རྩིའི་ཐིག་ལེ།;Epistle: A Drop of Nectar;སྤྲིངས་ཡིག་བདུད་རྩིའི་ཐིག་ལེ།
Ngok Lotsāwa Loden Sherab: Condensed Meaning of the "Ultimate Continuum of the Mahāyāna"
The first Tibetan commentary written on the Uttaratantra by the translator of the only extant Tibetan translation of the treatise. Furthermore, since the author is also the namesake of the Ngok tradition (rngog lugs) of exegesis of the Uttaratantra, known for its analytic take on the work, this text was highly influential in the conception of a uniquely Tibetan approach to the Uttaratantra and the notion of buddha-nature.
Theg chen rgyud bla ma'i don bsdus pa;Analytic Tradition;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Tibetan Buddhism;Buddha-nature as Emptiness;Ngok Lotsāwa Loden Sherab;རྔོག་བློ་ལྡན་ཤེས་རབ་;rngog blo ldan shes rab;rngog lo tsA ba;lo chen blo ldan shes rab;blo ldan shes rab;རྔོག་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་;ལོ་ཆེན་བློ་ལྡན་ཤེས་རབ་;Ngok Lotsāwa;Ngok Loden Sherab;Lochen Loden Sherab;Loden Sherab;Theg chen rgyud bla ma'i don bsdus pa;ཐེག་ཆེན་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་དོན་བསྡུས་པ།;Condensed Meaning of the "Ultimate Continuum of the Mahāyāna"
Chapa Chökyi Senge: A Synopsis of the Mahāyāna Uttaratantra
This is an outline and synopsis of the Uttaratantra by Chapa, one of the early Kadam scholars of Sangpu Neutok Monastery.
Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bsdus don;Analytic Tradition;Chapa Chökyi Senge;ཕྱྭ་པ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སེངྒེ་;phywa pa chos kyi seng+ge;cha pa chos kyi seng+ge;phya pa chos kyi seng+ge;gsang phu ne'u thog mkhan rabs 06;ཆ་པ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སེངྒེ་;ཕྱ་པ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སེངྒེ་;གསང་ཕུ་ནེའུ་ཐོག་མཁན་རབས་༠༦་;theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bsdus don;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྡུས་དོན།;A Synopsis of the Mahāyāna Uttaratantra;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྡུས་དོན།
Interviews
Buddha-Nature in Comparative Perspective, an Interview with Klaus-Dieter Mathes
Klaus-Dieter Mathes, Head of the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna, granted an interview to Marcus Perman and Alex Gardner @ buddha-nature.tsadra.org on April 24, 2018. The discussion is almost an hour long and ranges from Klaus' personal interest in buddha-nature teachings to his ongoing and detailed research projects on the subject. Mathes discusses buddha-nature and the key ideas behind it, the controversies it generates, and some of the related Buddhist philosophy in comparative perspective.
Mathes, Klaus-Dieter. "Buddha-Nature in Comparative Perspective, an Interview with Klaus-Dieter Mathes." Interview by Marcus Perman and Alexander Gardner, April 24, 2018. Audio, 53:03. https://buddhanature.tsadra.org/index.php/Articles/Klaus-Dieter_Mathes_Interview_on_Buddha-Nature.
Mathes, Klaus-Dieter. "Buddha-Nature in Comparative Perspective, an Interview with Klaus-Dieter Mathes." Interview by Marcus Perman and Alexander Gardner, April 24, 2018. Audio, 53:03. https://buddhanature.tsadra.org/index.php/Articles/Klaus-Dieter_Mathes_Interview_on_Buddha-Nature.;Klaus-Dieter Mathes Interview on Buddha-Nature;Buddha-Nature in Comparative Perspective, an Interview with Klaus-Dieter Mathes;Debate(s);History;The Problem of buddha-nature;Kagyu;Ngok Tradition;Tsen Tradition;Terms;Meditative Tradition;Klaus-Dieter Mathes; Marcus Perman;Alex Gardner
Multimedia
Khenpo Tamphel at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium
Drawing on the text entitled A Mahāmudrā Investigation into Confusion: An Instruction for Identifying the Process of Confusion by Jikten Sumgon, Khenpo Tamphel explains how, according to this text, sentient beings and buddhas are related, how confusion arises that leads to saṃsāra, and how recognition of the true nature of sentient beings is the way to enlightenment.
Tamphel, Khenpo Könchok. "The Difference Between a Sentient Being and a Buddha: 'Jig rten gsum mgon’s Instruction on the Process of Confusion." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 47:23. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GbYgx3ozDM.
Tamphel, Khenpo Könchok. "The Difference Between a Sentient Being and a Buddha: 'Jig rten gsum mgon’s Instruction on the Process of Confusion." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 47:23. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GbYgx3ozDM.;Khenpo Tamphel at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium;Sentient beings;Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;Drikung Kagyu;'bri gung skyob pa 'jig rten mgon po;Mahamudra;Ngok Tradition;Tsen Tradition;dharmakāya;dharmatā;kunshi;tathāgatagarbha;Khenpo Tamphel;The Difference Between a Sentient Being and a Buddha: 'Jig rten gsum mgon’s Instruction on the Process of Confusion