Phyir mi ldog pa seng ge'i nga ro

ཕྱིར་མི་ལྡོག་པ་སེང་གེའི་ང་རོ།

phyir mi ldog pa seng ge'i nga ro

The Unassailable Lion's Roar

Commentary of Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra

SOURCE TEXT

Jamgön Kongtrul's commentary on the Uttaratantra which, according to Brunnhölzl, draws heavily from Dölpopa's work on the same subject. Over the course of time since Kongtrul's passing at the dawn of the 20th century up until the present this text has become the primary commentary to the Uttaratantra used in the Kagyu tradition.

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Translations of This Text

• Fuchs, Rosemarie, trans. Buddha Nature: The Mahayana Uttaratantra Shastra. By Arya Maitreya. Written down by Arya Asanga. With a commentary by Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thayé ('jam mgon kong sprul blo gros mtha' yas) "The Unassailable Lion's Roar," and explanations by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamsto Rinpoche. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2000.

Recensions of This Text

Phyir mi ldog pa seng ge'i nga ro. (The Unassailable Lion's Roar). Recension information:

Tibetan

'Jam mgon kong sprul. ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་སྙིང་པོའི་དོན་མངོན་སུམ་ལམ་གྱི་བཤད་སྲོལ་དང་སྦྱར་བའི་རྣམ་པར་འགྲེལ་པ་ཕྱིར་མི་ལྡོག་པ་སེང་གེའི་ང་རོ།, (Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos snying po'i don mngon sum lam gyi bshad pa srol dang sbyar ba'i rnam par 'grel ba phyir mi ldog pa seng ge'i nga ro). Rumtek: Karma pa chos sgar, 1972. Printed from woodblocks preserved at Rumtek Monastery. Rumtek (Library of Congress, Microfiche number; R-1636; I (Sik)-Tib-63, 72-905654.) Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i tshig 'grel. New Delhi: Shechen Publications, 2005. In Mdo sngags mtshams sbyor. Zi ling: Mtsho sngon mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2004: 1-217. In Dpal spungs dpe rnying gsar bskrun las gzhung lugs phyogs bsgrigs (dang po), Vol. 10: 85-274. Kangra, H.P.: Dpal spungs gsung rab nyams gso khang, 2006. In Mkhas dbang rag+hu wIra dang lokesha tsan+dra rnam gnyis kyis nyar tshags byas pa'i dpe tshogs (A collection of tibetan texts by Dr. Raghu Vira and Dr. Lokesh Chandra), Vol. 48: 277-368.

Description from When the Clouds Part

Though this commentary (JKC) is the one that is used most widely in the Kagyü tradition at present, it is not translated in this volume for two reasons. First, except for its introduction (which incorporates a significant number of passages from BA and GC), JKC is for the most part an almost literal copy of Dölpopa’s commentary on the Uttaratantra. Interestingly, this commentary does not exhibit the strong Shentong approach so familiar from Dölpopa’s major other works (it probably was composed prior to the revelation that lead to the formulation of his Shentong view). Secondly, JKC has already been translated. However, some relevant excerpts from this commentary are incorporated throughout this book.

(p. 314)

Text Metadata

Other Titles	~ theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos snying po'i don mngon sum lam gyi bshad srol dang sbyar ba'i rnam par 'grel pa phyir mi ldog pa seng ge'i nga ro ~ theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i tshig 'grel
Text exists in	~ Tibetan
Literary Genre	~ Commentary on Words - tshig 'grel
Commentary of	~ Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra

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.

Kagyu - The Kagyu school traces its origin to the eleventh-century translator Marpa, who studied in India with Nāropa. Marpa's student Milarepa trained Gampopa, who founded the first monastery of the Kagyu order. As many as twelve subtraditions grew out from there, the best known being the Karma Kagyu, the Drikung, and the Drukpa. Tib. བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་

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

Kagyu - The Kagyu school traces its origin to the eleventh-century translator Marpa, who studied in India with Nāropa. Marpa's student Milarepa trained Gampopa, who founded the first monastery of the Kagyu order. As many as twelve subtraditions grew out from there, the best known being the Karma Kagyu, the Drikung, and the Drukpa. Tib. བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་

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་

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

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

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

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།

SUNY - State University of New York

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་

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

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.