Commentaries

109 Commentaries

Here we are collecting Buddhist commentaries on buddha-nature teachings alphabetized by Sanskrit or Wylie title. Please feel free to suggest additions and notes by sending an email to research at tsadra dot org.

Instruction for the Moment of Death

འདའ་ཀ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་འཆི་ཁ་མའི་མན་ངག།

'da' ka ye shes kyi 'chi kha ma'i man ngag

Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim

One of a series of short texts by the Kadam scholar Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim, which represent an intersection between the works of Maitreya, particularly the Ratnagotravibhāga, and the practical instructions of Mahāmudrā.

The Meaning of the Essence of Luminosity

འོད་གསལ་སྙིང་པོའི་དོན།

'od gsal snying po'i don

Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim

One of a series of short texts by the Kadam scholar Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim, which represent an intersection between the works of Maitreya, particularly the Ratnagotravibhāga, and the practical instructions of Mahāmudrā.

Music of the Sphere of Definitive Meaning: Detailed Explanation of the Mahamudra Prayer in Accordance with the Philosophy of the Great Emptiness-of-Other

ཆེན་པོ་གཞན་སྟོང་གི་ལྟ་བ་དང་འབྲེལ་བའི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོའི་སྨོན་ལམ་གྱི་རྣམ་བཤད་ངེས་དོན་དབྱིངས་ཀྱི་རོལ་མོ།

Chen po gzhan stong gi lta ba dang 'brel ba'i phyag rgya chen po'i smon lam gyi rnam bshad nges don dbyings kyi rol mo

Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche

Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche's explanation of the Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje's famous Mahāmudrā Aspiration Prayer.

Shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa'i snying po'i mdo rnam par bshad pa sngon med legs bshad

Tāranātha

Undermining the Haughtiness of Others by the Wheel of Brahma: A Treatise Clarifying Mahāmudrā

ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་གསལ་བར་བྱེད་པའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཚངས་པའི་འཁོར་ལོས་གཞན་བློའི་དྲེགས་པ་ཉམས་བྱེད།

Phyag rgya chen po gsal bar byed pa'i bstan bcos tshangs pa'i 'khor los gzhan blo'i dregs pa nyams byed

Śākya Chokden

The first text in Śākya Chokden's Mahāmudrā trilogy the Wheel of Brahma.

The Great Treasure of Faith and Devotion: A Praise to Sugatagarbha

བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་ལ་བསྟོད་པ་དད་གུས་ཀྱི་གཏེར་ཆེན་པོ།

Bde gshegs snying po la bstod pa dad gus kyi gter chen po

Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen

Verses of praise to sugatagarbha, or buddha-nature, composed by Dölpopa.

Commentary on the Tenth Section of the Single Intention

དགོངས་གཅིག་གི་གསུང་བཞི་བཅུ་པའི་འགྲེལ་པ།

Dgongs gcig gi gsung bzhi bcu pa'i 'grel pa

Eighth Karmapa Mikyö Dorje

The Eight Karmapa's commentary on the tenth section of the Sacred Teaching on the Single Intention (Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa).

The Great Calculation of the Doctrine Which Has the Significance of a Fourth Council

བཀའ་བསྡུ་བཞི་པའི་དོན་བསྟན་རྩིས་ཆེན་པོ།

Bka' bsdu bzhi pa'i don bstan rtsis chen po

Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen

The seminal work of Dölpopa often simply referred to as the Fourth Council. Structured around the notion of four eons drawn from the Kālacakra Tantra, it is one of the primary sources for Dölpopa's presentation of his other-emptiness (zhentong) philosophy.

Commentary on the Sūtra of the Descent to Laṅkā entitled Heart Ornament of the Tathāgatas

འཕགས་པ་ལང་ཀར་གཤེགས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོའི་འགྲེལ་པ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོའི་རྒྱན།

Tathāgatahṛdayālaṃkāra

Jñānavajra

Jñānavajra's commentary on the Laṅkāvatārasūtra, which is one of two Indian commentaries on the Sūtra that has survived only in Tibetan translation.

Great Commentary on the Sacred Teaching on the Single Intention: Illuminating Wisdom Lamp

དམ་པའི་ཆོས་དགོངས་པ་གཅིག་པའི་འགྲེལ་ཆེན་སྣང་མཛད་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྒྲོན་མེ།

Dam pa'i chos dgongs pa gcig pa'i 'grel chen snang mdzad ye shes sgron me

Dorje Sherab

Dorje Sherab's extensive commentary on the Sacred Teaching on the Single Intention (Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa), one of the core texts of the Drikung Kagyu tradition that is reported to be the oral teachings of Jikten Gönpo that were written down and edited together by his student Sherab Jungne.

Discourse on the Qualities of Sugatagarbha: The One Taste of the Manifold Dharmadhātu

ཆོས་དབྱིངས་དུ་མ་རོ་གཅིག་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོའི་ཡོན་ཏན་ཅན་གྱི་མདོ་སྡེ།

Chos dbyings du ma ro gcig bde gshegs snying po'i yon tan can gyi mdo sde

Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen

Dölpopa's praise to the enlightened qualities of sugatagarbha, or buddha-nature.

Aspiration Prayer of the Definitive Meaning of Mahāmudrā

ངེས་དོན་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོའི་སྨོན་ལམ།

Nges don phyag rgya chen po'i smon lam

Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje

The Mahamudra Prayer by the Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje is a short yet thorough and profound text which presents all the essential points of Mahamudra teaching in terms of view, practice, and fruition. It is a classic that, especially in the tradition of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, has been and is widely used whenever a disciple is given a first introduction into Mahamudra. The Third Karmapa shows how to recognize our ultimate potential as a buddha. (Source: Shambhala Publications)

The Marvelous Wish-fulfilling Harvest: An Eloquent Commentary on Ascertaining the Three Vows

སྡོམ་པ་གསུམ་རྣམ་པར་ངེས་པའི་འགྲེལ་པ་ལེགས་བཤད་ངོ་མཚར་དཔག་བསམ་གྱི་སྙེ་མ།

Sdom pa gsum rnam par nges pa'i 'grel pa legs bshad ngo mtshar dpag bsam gyi snye ma

Minling Lochen Dharmaśrī

Minling Lochen's voluminous commentary on Ngari Paṇchen's Ascertaining the Three Vows.

Epistle: A Drop of Nectar

སྤྲིངས་ཡིག་བདུད་རྩིའི་ཐིག་ལེ།

Springs yig bdud rtsi'i thig le

Ngok Lotsāwa Loden Sherab

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.

Benediction of Sugatagarbha

བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོའི་བཀྲ་ཤིས།

Bde gshegs snying po'i bkra shis

Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen

Verses of benediction to invoke the auspiciousness of sugatagarbha composed by Dölpopa.

General Outline of the Tenets of the Single Intention that Reveal Errors Concerning the Inner Meaning of the Profound Great Discourses that Distinguish Dharma from that which is not Dharma

ཆོས་དང་ཆོས་མ་ཡིན་པར་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པའི་གཏམ་ཆེན་པོ་ཟབ་མོར་ནང་དོན་འཁྲུལ་པར་ངོ་སྤྲོད་པར་བྱེད་པ་གྲུབ་མཐའི་སྤྱི་ཆིང་།

Chos dang chos ma yin par rnam par 'byed pa'i gtam chen po zab mor nang don 'khrul par ngo sprod par byed pa grub mtha'i spyi ching

Eighth Karmapa Mikyö Dorje

The Eight Karmapa's general outline of the tenets of the Sacred Teaching on the Single Intention (Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa).

Buddha Nature Treatise

Fo xing lun

Paramārtha

An influential text in East Asian on buddha-nature attributed in the Chinese canon to Vasubandhu. Though no Sanskrit recension nor Tibetan translation has ever been located it was reportedly translated into Chinese by Paramārtha in the 6th century. Much like the Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna, several modern scholars of East Asian Buddhism have surmised that the work may have been actually composed by Paramārtha.

Distinguishing the Middle from the Extremes

དབུས་དང་མཐའ་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པའི་ཚིག་ལེའུར་བྱས་པ།

Madhyāntavibhāga

Maitreya

In Sanskrit, “Differentiation of the Middle Way and the Extremes”; one of the Five Dharma Treatises of Maitreya (byams chos sde lnga) said to have been presented to Asaṅga by the bodhisattva Maitreya in the Tuṣita heaven. Written in verse, it is one of the most important Yogācāra delineations of the three natures (trisvabhāva), especially as they figure in the path to enlightenment, where the obstacles created by the imaginary (parikalpita) are overcome ultimately by the antidote of the consummate (pariniṣpanna). The “middle way” exposed here is that of the Yogācāra, and is different from that of Nāgārjuna, although the names of the two extremes to be avoided—the extreme of permanence (śāśvatānta) and the extreme of annihilation (ucchedānta)—are the same. Here the extreme of permanence is the existence of external objects, the imaginary nature (parikalpitasvabhāva). The extreme of annihilation would seem to include Nāgārjuna’s emptiness of intrinsic nature (svabhāva). The middle way entails upholding the existence of consciousness (vijñāna) as the dependent nature (paratantrasvabhāva) and the existence of the consummate nature (pariniṣpannasvabhāva). The work is divided into five chapters, which consider the three natures, the various forms of obstruction to be abandoned on the path, the ultimate truth according to Yogācāra, the means of cultivating the antidotes to the defilements, and the activity of the Mahāyāna path. (Source: The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, p. 489)

Treasury of the Precious Sūtras and Tantras

མདོ་རྒྱུད་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་མཛོད།

Mdo rgyud rin po che'i mdzod

Chöying Tobden Dorje

In 1838, Choying Tobden Dorje, a Buddhist yogi-scholar of eastern Tibet, completed a multivolume masterwork that traces the entire path of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism from beginning to end. Written by a lay practitioner for laypeople, it was intended to be accessible, informative, inspirational, and above all, practical. Its twenty-five books, or topical divisions, offer a comprehensive and detailed view of the Buddhist path according to the early translation school of Tibetan Buddhism, spanning the vast range of Buddhist teachings from the initial steps to the highest esoteric teachings of great perfection. (Source: Shambhala Publications)

An Excellent Ornament of a Brilliant Mind: A Concise Presentation of Buddhist and Non-Buddhist Tenets

ཕྱི་ནང་གྲུབ་མཐའི་རྣམ་བཞག་གི་བསྡུས་དོན་བློ་གསལ་ཡིད་ཀྱི་རྒྱན་བཟང་།

Phyi nang grub mtha'i rnam bzhag gi bsdus don blo gsal yid kyi rgyan bzang

Ngawang Lodrö Drakpa

A condensed presentation of the tenets of Buddhist and Non-Buddhist philosophical systems by a modern Jonang scholar.

Commentary on the Great Vehicle Treatise the Sublime Continuum

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་འགྲེལ་པ།

Theg pa chen po'i bstan bcos rgyud bla ma'i 'grel pa

Bodong Paṇchen Chokle Namgyal

A commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga by the famed scholar Bodong Paṇchen Chokle Namgyal.

Rain of Joy, Treasury of Precious Qualities

ཡོན་ཏན་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་མཛོད་དགའ་བའི་ཆར།

Yon tan rin po che'i mdzod dga' ba'i char

Jigme Lingpa

This is the root text of The Treasury of Precious Qualities, a famous treatise by Jikmé Lingpa, in which he expounds the entire Buddhist path, from the śrāvakayāna teachings up to the Great Perfection. The text has thirteen chapters:

1. The Difficulty of Gaining the Freedoms and Advantages
2. Death and Impermanence
3. Karma: Cause and Effect
4. The Sufferings of Samsara
5. The Four Wheels, which are the initial entry point for supreme beings
6. Taking Refuge, the entrance to the Buddhist Path
7. The Entrance to the Actual Mahayana (cultivating the four immeasurables)
8. Arousing Bodhichitta
9. The Bodhisattva Trainings
10. The Pitaka of the Vidyadharas
11. The Nature of the Ground
12. The Extraordinary Path of the Natural Great Perfection
13. The Kayas and Wisdoms of the Ultimate Fruition

The first nine chapters comprise the sūtra section, and the last four comprise the mantra section. You can download an English translation of the root text by the Padmakara Translation Group by clicking here.

An Extensive Commentary entitled the Illuminating Lamp

སྒྲོན་མ་གསལ་བར་བྱེད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་རྒྱ་ཆེར་བཤད་པ།

Pradīpoddyotana-nāma-ṭīkā

Candrakīrti

A commentary on the Guhyasamāja Tantra attributed to Candrakīrti. This extensive commentary on Guhyasamāja Tantra discusses the six hermeneutic strategies of provisional and ultimate meaning, literal and non-literal reading, and interpretable or non-interpretable meaning. It also highlights the natural state of all phenomena such as five aggregates and five elements as enlightened buddhas, and described the innate mind as luminous and endowed with qualities of enlightenment.

The commentary is said to have been written relying on instructions passed down from Nāgārjuna who is said to have been prophesied in the Descent to Laṅka Sūtra to be a promoter of the higher yoga tantras. If one accepts the author of this text to be Candrakīrti, who is the Mādhyamika author of the Madhyamakāvatāra, as tradition has it, then it is evident he adopted here a position on buddha-nature which is different from the one in Madhyamakāvatāra, where his focus is on establishing all things as emptiness, and he argues the sūtras advocating buddha-nature are provisional teachings to lead those beings scared of non-self. In this text, the author accepts the nature of all things to be enlightened, and he argues that 'sentient beings are the base of all buddhas because they possess buddha-nature'(རྒྱལ་བ་ཀུན་གྱི་གནས་ནི་སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་དེ། དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ཅན་ཡིན་པའི་ཕྱིར་རོ། །). Traditional scholars would generally explain such a shift in philosophical stance as context-based and not see it as a contradiction or inconsistency. In the context of Guhyasamāja tantra, Candrakīrti could be said to have accepted the concept of buddha-nature as innate enlightenment.

A Concise Presentation of Other-Emptiness Madhyamaka

གཞན་སྟོང་དབུ་མའི་རྣམ་གཞག་སྙིང་པོར་དྲིལ་བ།

Gzhan stong dbu ma'i rnam gzhag snying por dril ba

Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo

A brief overview of the philosophical positions and related terminology of other-emptiness (gzhan stong) Madhyamaka with an emphasis on the Jonang perspective developed by Dölpopa.

The Excellence of the Middle Position: Annotations on Thoroughly Ascertaining the Great Middle Way of the Expansive Supreme Vehicle

ཐེག་མཆོག་ཤིན་ཏུ་རྒྱས་པའི་དབུ་མ་ཆེན་པོ་རྣམ་པར་ངེས་པའི་རྣམ་བཤད་ཟིན་བྲིས་དབུ་ཕྱོགས་ལེགས་པ།

Theg mchog shin tu rgyas pa'i dbu ma chen po rnam par nges pa'i rnam bshad zin bris dbu phyogs legs pa

Kunga Yeshe Gyatso

A collection of annotations on Tāranātha's Dbu ma theg mchog composed by his disciple Kunga Yeshe Gyamtso.

Great Exposition on Other-Emptiness

གཞན་སྟོང་ཆེན་མོ།

Gzhan stong chen mo

Ngawang Lodrö Drakpa

Along with Dol po pa's Ri chos Nge don Rgya mtsho and Tāranātha’s Dbu ma Theg mchog Rab dbyed Brgyad, the Gzhan stong Chen mo comprises the third major textbook studied within the Gzhan stong Madhyamaka curriculum at major Jonang monastic universities, including 'Dzam thang Dgon pa, Bswe Dgon pa and Lcam mda' Dgon pa. For pedagogical reasons, and because of the structure of Mkhan po Blo grags' work, monks generally begin by studying sūtra gzhan stong separately from tantric gzhan stong in preparation for examining Dol po pa's synthetic masterpiece interweaving sūtra and tantra. In a coherent structure identical to the Ri chos, the Gzhan stong Chen mo presents gzhan stong philosophical thinking systematically in accord with the outline of ground (gzhi), path (lam) and fruition ('bras bu), treating sūtra gzhan stong within the main body of the text and tantric gzhan stong as an appendix.

Michael Sheehy, 2007.

Moon that Illuminates the Indian and Tibetan Interpretations of Buddha Nature

དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་སྙིང་པོའི་དོན་རྒྱ་བོད་ཀྱི་མཁས་པའི་བཞེད་སྲོལ་མ་འདྲེས་པར་གསལ་བར་བྱེད་པའི་ཟླ་གཞོན།

De bzhin gshegs pa snying po'i don rgya bod kyi mkhas pa'i bzhed srol ma 'dres par gsal bar byed pa'i zla gzhon

Jangtse Khenzur Sönam Kunga

A Response to the Question of How the Wheels of Dharma are Perfectly Resolved according to the Viewpoint of the Great Vehicle

ཆོས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ་ལེགས་པར་གཏན་ལ་ཕབ་པ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་ཚུལ་འོང་གེས་ཞུས་པ།

Chos kyi 'khor lo legs par gtan la phab pa theg pa chen po'i tshul 'ong ges zhus pa

Jikten Gönpo

A response to questions (zhus lan) work by the Drikung Kagyu forefather Jikten Gönpo that includes an account of the twelve great events of the buddha with special reference to the turnings of the wheel of dharma.

Entrance to the Middle Way

དབུ་མ་ལ་འཇུག་པ།

Madhyamakāvatāra

Candrakīrti

In Sanskrit, “Entrance to the Middle Way” (translated also as “Supplement to the Middle Way”); the major independent (as opposed to commentarial) work of the seventh-century Indian master Candrakīrti, who states that it is intended as an avatāra (variously rendered as “primer,” “entrance,” and “supplement”) to Nāgārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. The work is written in verse, to which the author provides an extensive prose commentary (bhāṣya). The work is organized around ten “productions of the aspiration to enlightenment” (bodhicittotpāda), which correspond to the ten stages (bhūmi) of the bodhisattva path (drawn largely from the Daśabhūmikasūtra) and their respective perfections (pāramitā), describing the salient practices and attainments of each. These are followed by chapters on the qualities of the bodhisattva, on the stage of buddhahood, and a conclusion. (Source: The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 489.)

Ornament of the Mahāyāna Sūtras

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་མདོ་སྡེའི་རྒྱན་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཚིག་ལེའུར་བྱས་པ།

Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārakārikā

Maitreya

In Sanskrit, the “Ornament for the Mahāyāna Sūtras”; one of the Five Dharma Treatises of Maitreya (byams chos sde lnga) said to have been presented to Asaṅga by the bodhisattva Maitreya in the Tuṣita heaven. Written in verse, the text offers a systematic presentation of the practices of the bodhisattva from the standpoint of the Yogācāra school and is one of the most important of the Indian Mahāyāna śāstras. Its twenty-one chapters deal with (1) the proof that the Mahāyāna sūtras are the word of the Buddha; (2) taking refuge in the three jewels (ratnatraya); (3) the lineage (gotra) of enlightenment necessary to undertake the bodhisattva path; (4) the generation of the aspiration to enlightenment (bodhicittotpāda); (5) the practice of the bodhisattva; (6) the nature of reality, described from the Yogācāra perspective; (7) the attainment of power by the bodhisattva; (8) the methods of bringing oneself and others to maturation; (9) enlightenment and the three bodies of a buddha (trikāya); (10) faith in the Mahāyāna; (11) seeking complete knowledge of the dharma; (12) teaching the dharma; (13) practicing in accordance with the dharma; (14) the precepts and instructions received by the bodhisattva; (15) the skillful methods of the bodhisattva; (16) the six perfections (pāramitā) and the four means of conversion (saṃgrahavastu), through which bodhisattvas attract and retain disciples; (17) the worship of the Buddha; (18) the constituents of enlightenment (bodhipākṣikadharma); (19) the qualities of the bodhisattva; and (20-21) the consummation of the bodhisattva path and the attainment of buddhahood. (Source: The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, p. 514)

The Profound Inner Meaning

ཟབ་མོ་ནང་དོན།

Zab mo nang don

Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje

Rang byung's most famous, and perhaps most difficult work is yet another verse text, his Zab mo nang don, on the Anuttarayogatantras. This eleven-chapter work is thirty-two folios in length. According to a colophon provided by Kong sprul, it was written in the Water Male Dog year, 1322, at Bde chen steng. The colophons to the present redactions say only that it was written in the Dog Year. (Source: Schaeffer, K., The Enlightened Heart of Buddhahood, p. 16)

Treatise on the History of Madhyamaka entitled a Mountain of Wish-fulfilling Stories

དབུ་མའི་བྱུང་ཚུལ་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པའི་གཏམ་ཡིད་བཞིན་ལྷུན་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་བསྟན་བཅོས།

Dbu ma'i byung tshul rnam par bshad pa'i gtam yid bzhin lhun po zhes bya ba'i bstan bcos

Śākya Chokden

A history of the Madhyamaka philosophy in India and Tibet written by Śākya Chokden between 1484-1490 in Lhasa with Kongtön Chökyi Gyaltsen as scribe.

An Exposition of Mahāmudrā: The Treasure Vault of the Victors

ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོའི་མན་ངག་གི་བཤད་སྦྱར་རྒྱལ་བའི་གན་མཛོད།

Phyag rgya chen po'i man ngag gi bshad sbyar rgyal ba'i gan mdzod

Pema Karpo

In his exposition of the Mahāmudrā view in the Phyag chen rgyal ba’i gan mdzod, Padma dkar po adopts Yang dgon pa’s famous distinction between the mahāmudrā in the modes of abiding (gnas lugs phyag chen) and error ( ’khrul lugs phyag chen) as an interpretive schema both for [1] clarifying the doctrine of the unity or nonduality of the two truths—which he takes as a central doctrine of the Madhyamaka, Mantrayāna and ’Brug pa Bka’ brgyud traditions—and [2] criticizing the rival Jo nang account of reality which posits the conventional and ultimate as two great kingdoms that have nothing in common. (Source: Mahamudra and the Middle Way - Vol. 2, 157.)

Quintessential Essence of the Condensed Ultimate Definitive Meaning: An Explanation of the Mahāyāna Uttaratantra

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་རྣམ་བཤད་དོན་དམ་རྣམ་ངེས་བསྡུས་པའི་སྙིང་པོའི་སྙིང་པོ།

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i rnam bshad don dam rnam nges bsdus pa'i snying po'i snying po

Gendun Özer

In his commentary [Gendun Özer] mentions that he composed it for his students who had requested that he write something that would differ from the "coarse explanation" (bshad nyog rtsing po) of the Uttaratantra offered by the "early commentators" (snga rabs pa) of the Kadam tradition. While Gendün Özer does not intend to succumb to a "coarse explanation" of the Indian treatise, he follows his early Kadam predecessors' exposition in terms of doctrinal position, even though his literary style is different, with numerous poetic verses of admiration. In this time period it is not surprising that he wrote the commentary primarily in consultation with Ngok's Tibetan translation (rngog 'gyur) of the Uttaratantra, but the author also used the translations made by Naktso and Patsap wherever necessary.

(Source: Tsering Wangchuk. The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, 59.)

The Blue Annals

དེབ་ཐེར་སྔོན་པོ་

Deb ther sngon po

Gö Lotsāwa Zhönu Pal

The famous historical work by Gö Lotsawa Zhönu Pal (1392-1481), likely referenced by more scholars than any other single work. It was translated into English by G. Roerich with the help of Gendün Chöpel.

Naturally Liberating Whatever You Meet: Instructions to Guide You on the Profound Path

ཟབ་ལམ་ཁྲིད་ཀྱི་མན་ངག་འཕྲད་ཚད་རང་གྲོལ།

Zab lam khrid kyi man ngag 'phrad tshad rang grol

Khenpo Gangshar

Thrangu Rinpoche met Khenpo Gangshar in the summer of 1957 when Khenpo Gangshar went to Thrangu Monastery in eastern Tibet. While there, Khenpo Gangshar gave these instructions, which are a distillation of the essential points ofthe practices of both mahamudra and dzogchen. Later they were written down, first in a very short form and then as the slightly longer text known as "Naturally Liberating Whatever You Meet." What makes them so beneficial for our time is that Khenpo Gangshar presents them in a way that is easy for anyone to understand and put into practice. (Source: Vivid Awareness, Translator's Introduction, pp. IX-X)

Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna

Dasheng qixin lun

Aśvaghoṣa

The Treatise on the Awakening of Faith According to the Mahāyāna is an immensely important treatise popular in all traditions of Buddhism in East Asia. It was written in China in the middle of the sixth century, heavily influenced by Indian Yogācāra and tathāgatagarbha teachings, providing a scriptural foundation for both buddha-nature theory and the doctrine of original enlightenment. The text synthesized tathāgatagarbha and ālayavijñāna theories to explain how the mind is the source for both enlightenment and ignorance. A relatively short text at just nine pages, it lucidly, if densely, explains important topics such as the nature of mind and consciousness and the threefold bodies of the Buddha, concluding with elegant meditation instructions. Although traditionally said to have been composed by Aśvaghoṣa and translated by Paramārtha, contemporary scholarly consensus has raised doubts about this attribution, and the text's authorship is typically said to be unknown.

Treasury of Knowledge

ཤེས་བྱ་ཀུན་ལ་ཁྱབ་པའི་མཛོད།

Shes bya kun la khyab pa'i mdzod

Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye

In Tibetan religious literature, its ten books stand out as a unique masterpiece embodying the entire range of Buddhist teachings as they were preserved in Tibet. In his monumental work, Jamgön Kongtrul presents an encyclopedic account of the major lines of thought and practice that comprise Tibetan Buddhism. (source: Tsadra Foundation's Treasury of Knowledge Series)

Supplication to the Profound Other-Emptiness Madhyamaka Lineage

ཟབ་མོ་གཞན་སྟོང་དབུ་མའི་བརྒྱུད་འདེབས།

Zab mo gzhan stong dbu ma'i brgyud 'debs

Tāranātha

Tāranātha's lineage supplication to the other-emptiness Madhyamaka tradition that was preserved by the Jonang school. Tāranātha traces the origin of the other-emptiness to the Buddha, who passed it down through Maitreya, Asaṅga, Vasubandhu to Maitripa or from Vasubandhu through Sthiramati, Guṇamāti, et al. to Maitrīpa, or from Buddha through Vajrapaṇi, Rahulabhadra, Nāgārjuna, Śabari, Maitrīpa, from Maitrīpa through Anandakīrti, Ratnakaraśānti, Sajjṇāna, Anandavajra, then in Tibet through Tsen Khawoche, et al. until Tāranātha.

A Brief Account of the View

ལྟ་བ་མདོར་བསྡུས་པ།

Lta ba mdor bsdus pa

Nāropa

A condensed explanation of the view of Mahāmudrā presented in verse. It is cataloged as an anonymous composition in the Derge Tengyur, however the closing line of the text attributes it to Nāropa, with the customary repetition of the title appearing as rje na ro pa'i lta ba mdor bsdus pa.

Ornament of Sugatagarbha

ངེས་དོན་དབུ་མ་ཆེན་པོའི་ཚུལ་རྣམ་པར་ངེས་པའི་གཏམ་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོའི་རྒྱན།

Nges don dbu ma chen po'i tshul rnam par nges pa'i gtam bde gshegs snying po'i rgyan

Getse Mahāpaṇḍita Tsewang Chokdrup

Getse Mahāpaṇḍita's work on Great Madhyamaka, the Ornament of Sugatagarbha.

Ornament of Clear Realization

མངོན་པར་རྟོགས་པའི་རྒྱན།

Abhisamayālaṃkāra

Maitreya

In Sanskrit, “Ornament of Realization”; a major scholastic treatise of the Mahāyāna, attributed to Maitreyanātha (c. 330 ce). Its full title is Abhisamayālaṃkāra-prajñāpāramitā upadeśa-śāstra (T. Shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa'i man ngag gi bstan bcos mngon par rtogs pa'i rgyan) or “Treatise Setting Forth the Perfection of Wisdom called ‘Omament for Realization.’” In the Tibetan tradition, the Abhisamayālaṃkāra is counted among the five treatises of Maitreya (Byams chos sde lnga). The 273 verses of the Abhisamayālaṃkāra provide a schematic outline of the perfection of wisdom, or prajñāpāramitā, approach to enlightenment, specifically as delineated in the Pañcaviṃśati-sāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā (“Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines”). This detailed delineation of the path is regarded as the “hidden teaching” of the prajñāpāramitā sūtras. Although hardly known in East Asian Buddhism (until the modern Chinese translation by Fazun), the work was widely studied in Tibet, where it continues to hold a central place in the monastic curricula of all the major sects. (Source: The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, p. 11)

Light of the Sun: Detailed Exposition of the Excellent Dharma, the Single Intention, a Well-Expressed Clarification of the Meaning of the Scriptures

དམ་པའི་ཆོས་དགོངས་པ་གཅིག་པའི་རྣམ་བཤད་ལུང་དོན་གསལ་བྱེད་ལེགས་བཤད་ཉི་མའི་སྣང་བ།

Dam pa'i chos dgongs pa gcig pa'i rnam bshad lung don gsal byed legs bshad nyi ma'i snang ba

The First Drikung Chungtsang, Rikdzin Chökyi Drakpa

Rikdzin Chökyi Drakpa's extensive commentary on the Sacred Teaching on the Single Intention (Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa), one of the core texts of the Drikung Kagyu tradition that is reported to be the oral teachings of Jikten Gönpo that were written down and edited together by his student Sherab Jungne.

The Vajra Convergence: A Teaching on How to Practice the View and Meditation of the Definitive Meaning

ངེས་དོན་གྱི་ལྟ་སྒོམ་ཉམས་སུ་ལེན་ཚུལ་ཇི་ལྟ་བར་སྟོན་པ་རྡོ་རྗེའི་མདོ་འཛིན།

Nges don gyi lta sgom nyams su len tshul ji lta bar ston pa rdo rje'i mdo 'dzin

Tsele Natsok Rangdrol

An overview of the views of Dzogchen, Mahāmudrā, and Madhyamaka and the methods of applying them in practice, with particular attention given to the ways in which these three converge.

Ornament That Illuminates and Beautifies the Tathāgata Heart

བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་གསལ་བའི་རྒྱན།

Bde gshegs snying po gsal ba'i rgyan

Butön Rinchen Drup

Butön's study on the theory of the tathāgatagarbha written in 1359. In this text he argues that the teachings on buddha-nature are of an expedient or provisional meaning, which is a position that is typical of the Sakya view as set forth by Sakya Paṇḍita and others. He backs up this position with citations from the Ghanavyūhasūtra, the Laṅkāvatārasūtra, the Śrīmālādevīsūtra, the Aṅgulimālīyasūtra, and the Ratnagotravibhāga.

Lion's Roar: Exposition of Buddha-Nature

བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོའི་སྟོང་ཐུན་ཆེན་མོ་སེངྒེའི་ང་རོ།

Bde gshegs snying po'i stong thun chen mo seng+ge'i nga ro

Mipam Gyatso

Mipam lays out his view of buddha-nature in a short text called Lion's Roar: Exposition of Buddha-Nature, which draws on another of the five treatises of Maitreya, the Sublime Continuum. Here he presents three main arguments showing why all beings have buddha-nature. He also distinguishes his view of buddha-nature, which he portrays as the unconditioned unity of emptiness and appearance, from other traditions' views. Namely, he contrasts his view with traditions that maintain buddhanature as truly real and not empty (Jonang), traditions that hold buddhanature to be simply the mind's absence of true existence (Geluk), and traditions that maintain that the cognitive quality of buddha-nature—the element that is in unity with emptiness—is impermanent (a Sakya view). (Source: Duckworth, Douglas. Jamgön Mipham: His Life and Teachings. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2011: p 58.)

Ascertaining the Dharmadhātu: a Detailed Explanation of the Dharmadhātustava

ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས་སུ་བསྟོད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས་རྣམ་པར་ངེས་པ།

Chos kyi dbyings su bstod pa zhes bya ba'i bstan bcos rnam par bshad pa chos kyi dbyings rnam par nges pa

Śākya Chokden

A commentary on Nāgārjuna's Dharmadhātustava by the renowned Sakya scholar Śākya Chokden.

Guiding Instructions on the Path of the Nature of Phenomena

ཆོས་ཉིད་ཀྱི་ལམ་ཁྲིད།

Chos nyid kyi lam khrid

Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim

One of a series of short texts by the Kadam scholar Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim, which represent an intersection between the works of Maitreya, particularly the Ratnagotravibhāga, and the practical instructions of Mahāmudrā.

Sacred Teaching on the Single Intention

དམ་ཆོས་དགོངས་པ་གཅིག་པ།

Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa

Jikten Gönpo

One of the core texts of the Drikung Kagyu tradition that is reported to be the oral teachings of Jikten Gönpo that were written down and edited together by his student Sherab Jungne. Although not all manuscripts are alike, a beautiful reproduction from Garchen Stiftung (2015) that was studied by Dr. Jan-Ulrich Sobisch contains the following chapter topics:

• (1) Pure View, Practice, and Conduct
• (2-4) The Three Vows
• (5) Three Dharma Wheels
• (6) Dependent Origination
• (7) The Resultant Stage of Buddhahood

Ornament of Precious Liberation: A Wish-Fulfilling Gem of Sublime Dharma

དམ་ཆོས་ཡིད་བཞིན་གྱི་ནོར་བུ་ཐར་པ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་རྒྱན།

Dam chos yid bzhin gyi nor bu thar pa rin po che'i rgyan

Gampopa

One of Gampopa's most enduring works. It was one of the first "stages of the path" (lam rim) texts to be written by a Tibetan, after the genre was introduced by Atiśa through his famous composition Bodhipathapradīpa, The Stages of the Path to Enlightenment.

An Explanation of In Praise of Madhyamaka-Dharmadhātu

དབུ་མ་ཆོས་དབྱིངས་བསྟོད་པའི་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པ།

Dbu ma chos dbyings bstod pa'i rnam par bshad pa

Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje

Among all available commentaries on the Dharmadhātustava, the Third Karmapa's is both the earliest and the longest, composed in either 1326 or 1327. Until the recent appearance of a single dbu med manuscript (fifty-two folios with eight lines each), the text had been considered lost at least since the Tibetan exodus in 1959. The title of Rangjung Dorje's commentary—An Explanation of In Praise of Madhyamaka-Dharmadhātu—already indicates that he obviously considers Nāgārjunas text to be a Madhyamaka work, not fundamentally different from what the latter says in his well-known collection of reasoning and elsewhere. Indeed then, considerable parts of the commentary are devoted to showing that the Dharmadhātustava does not conflict with Nāgārjuna's classical Madhyamaka works. Moreover, Rangjung Dorje freely uses typical terminologies from both the Indian Madhyamaka and Yogācāra traditions, such as the frameworks of the two realities, the three natures, the eight consciousnesses, the four wisdoms, and the two/three kāyas; the middle and extremes; false imagination; tathāgatagarbha; natural luminosity; and the fundamental change of state. Through both this and extensively quoting mainly Nāgārjuna, Maitreya, Asaṅga, and Candrakīrti, these two traditions are shown to perfectly accord in the essential points. Thus, the Karmapa's commentary often offers original interpretations and also elaborates on a number of supplementary topics, though it does not explicitly explain every single line of the Dharmadhātustava.

(Karl Brunnhölzl, In Praise of Dharmadhātu, 2007: pp. 193-194.)

The Lamp That Excellently Elucidates the System of the Proponents of the Other-Emptiness Madhyamaka

དབུ་མ་གཞན་སྟོང་སྨྲ་བའི་སྲོལ་ལེགས་པར་ཕྱེ་བའི་སྒྲོན་མེ།

Dbu ma gzhan stong smra ba'i srol legs par phye ba'i sgron me

Eighth Karmapa Mikyö Dorje

In terms of its contents, the Lamp represents a digest of the Uttaratantra, discussing its seven vajra points. In particular, the text’s structure closely follows the first chapter of the Uttaratantra and RGVV, explaining the first four vajra points in detail. Thus, the Lamp refers to both the Uttaratantra and RGVV throughout, though each one is only quoted explicitly once. In addition, the text cites the Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśaparivarta, the Avataṃsakasūtra, and the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārabhāṣya (once each). It also refers to the Dharmadharmatāvibhāga, the Madhyāntavibhāga, the Kālacakratantra, and six verses from the Dharmadhātustava.

(Karl Brunnhölzl. When the Clouds Part, 2015: p. 323.)

Chariot of the Siddhas of the Dakpo Kagyu: The Oral Instructions of Glorious Dusum Khyenpa, an Extensive Commentary on the Madhyamakāvatāra

དབུ་མ་ལ་འཇུག་པའི་རྣམ་བཤད་དཔལ་ལྡན་དུས་གསུམ་མཁྱེན་པའི་ཞལ་ལུང་དྭགས་བརྒྱུད་གྲུབ་པ་ཤིང་རྟ།

Dbu ma la 'jug pa'i rnam bshad dpal ldan dus gsum mkhyen pa'i zhal lung dwags brgyud grub pa'i shing rta

Eighth Karmapa Mikyö Dorje

The Eighth Karmapa's commentary on Candrakīrti's Madhyamakāvatāra (Entry into the Middle Way), presented as the oral instructions of the First Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa.

The Treatise on Pointing Out the Tathāgata Heart

དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་བསྟན་པའི་བསྟན་བཅོས།

De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po bstan pa'i bstan bcos

Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje

The Third Karmapa's treatise on buddha-nature written in verse, which is essentially a synopsis of the Uttaratantra. According to Schaeffer, "This verse text (De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po gtan la dbab pa, or De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po bstan pa) blends scriptural quotations from both sūtra and tantra with Rang byung's own words, creating an evocative picture of the relation between the primordially pure enlightened state- symbolized by the Enlightened Heart (snying po)- human existence, and Buddhahood. While Rang byung has relied heavily on the Ratnagotravibhāgaśāstra, (known in Tibet as the Uttaratantra, or Rgyud bla ma), the syncretism of various strands of Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna apparent in the text is particular to Tibet. Tathāgatagarbha, Madhyamaka, Yogācāra, Mahāmudrā, and Annuttarayogatantra all coalesce in this work, which is a testament to the hundreds of years of appropriation and synthesis of Indian and Tibetan Buddhist thought that preceded it. - Kurtis Schaeffer, from the introduction to The Enlightened Heart of Buddhahood.

Annotated Commentary on the Treatise on Pointing Out the Tathāgata Heart

དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་བསྟན་པའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་མཆན་འགྲེལ་བྱམས་མགོན་དགྱེས་པའི་ཞལ་ལུང་ནོར་བུ་དབང་གི་རྒྱལ་པོ་དྲི་མ་མེད་པའི་འོད།

De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po bstan pa'i bstan bcos kyi mchan 'grel

Fifteenth Karmapa Khakhyab Dorje

An annotated commentary written by the fifteenth Karmapa on the Third Karmapa's verses on buddha-nature, The Treatise on Pointing Out the Tathāgata Heart.

A Commentary on The Treatise on Pointing Out the Tathāgata Heart, Illuminating the Intention of Rangjung

དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་བསྟན་པའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་འགྲེལ་རང་བྱུང་དགོངས་གསལ།

De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po bstan pa'i bstan bcos kyi rnam 'grel rang byung dgongs gsal

Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye

Kongtrul's commentary on the Third Karmapa's short verse synopsis of the Uttaratantra, The Treatise on Pointing Out the Tathāgata Heart. As he states in the opening of the text:

"The Omniscient Victor spoke about [this Heart] in the collection of the sūtras of the final definitive meaning and in the very profound collection of tantras in an unconcealed and clear way. The illustrious sons of this victor, such as the mighty lords of the tenth bhūmi, the regent Ajita and Avalokiteśvara, as well as the mahāsiddha Saraha and his heirs, noble Nāgārjuna, venerable Asaṅga, and others commented on it as being [the Buddha's] direct and straightforward intention. The way of being of the very profound actuality of this Heart does not fit within the scope of the minds of those who roam the [sphere of] dialectics. It was extensively illuminated by the second mighty sage, Rangjung Dorje, the charioteer who was the first in the land of snow mountains to utter the unassailable great lion's roar of the Heart that is the definitive meaning. The quintessence of all his excellent words is this Treatise on Pointing Out the Tathāgata Heart."

Treatise on Pointing Out the Tathāgata Heart Together with Annotations

དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་གཏན་ལ་དབབ་པའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་མཆན་ཅན།

De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po gtan la dbab pa'i bstan bcos mchan can

Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje

This work is an edition of the Third Karmapa's Treatise on Pointing Out the Tathāgata Heart (De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po bstan pa'i bstan bcos) embellished with interlinear annotations by the Fifth Shamarpa.

Distinguishing Phenomena and Their Nature

ཆོས་དང་ཆོས་ཉིད་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པ།

Dharmadharmatāvibhāga

Maitreya

One of the Five Dharma Treatises of Maitreya (byams chos sde lnga). This work exists only in Tibetan translation, of which there are two versions: the Dharmadharmatāvibhāga (chos dang chos nyid rnam par 'byed pa) presented in prose, and the Dharmadharmatāvibhāgakārikā (chos dang chos nyid rnam par 'byed pa'i tshig le'ur byas pa) presented in verse.

"The text explains saṃsāra (= dharma) and the nirvāṇa (= dharmatā) attained by the śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha, and bodhisattva; like the Madhyāntavibhāga, it uses the three-nature (trisvabhāva) terminology to explain that, because there is no object or subject, the transcendent is beyond conceptualization. It presents the paths leading to transformation of the basis (aśrayaparāvṛtti), and enumerates ten types of tathatā (suchness)." (Source: The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, p. 244)

In Praise of Dharmadhātu

ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས་སུ་བསྟོད་པ།

Dharmadhātustava

Nāgārjuna

Also known as the Dharmadhātustotra, it is a praise written in verse attributed to Nāgārjuna. A Sanskrit manuscript found in Tibet was recently published in 2015. However, before this it was only extant in Tibetan and Chinese translations, though fragments of this text were found to be quoted in other Sanskrit texts. It is notable as perhaps the only work of Nāgārjuna that takes a positivistic view of emptiness and the existence of wisdom, in this case represented by the dharmadhātu. In fact much of the language echoes descriptions of buddha-nature. Though modern scholarship has thus called the attribution of this text to Nāgārjuna into question based on its contents, Tibetan scholars have utilized the text as a support for works that promote or defend tathāgatagarbha and it is especially prominently featured in works on other-emptiness (gzhan stong) and Great Madhyamaka.

Essential Points on the Origins of the Cycle of Teachings on the Kālacakra

དཔལ་དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོའི་ཆོས་བསྐོར་གྱི་བྱུང་ཁུངས་ཉེར་མཁོ།

Dpal dus kyi 'khor lo'i chos bskor gyi byung khungs nyer mkho

Tāranātha

Tāranātha's history of the Kālacakra teachings.

The Jewel Lamp Illuminating the Definitive Meaning of the Glorious Kālacakra

དཔལ་དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོའི་ངེས་དོན་གསལ་བར་བྱེད་པ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་སྒྲོན་མ།

Dpal dus kyi 'khor lo'i nges don gsal bar byed pa rin po che'i sgron ma

Rendawa Zhönu Lodrö

The Jewel Lamp Illuminating the Definitive Meaning of the Glorious Kālacakra was Rendawa Zhönu Lodrö's final work.

Distinguishing Dharma: A Letter to Pön Jangpa

དཔོན་བྱང་བའི་ཕྱག་ཏུ་ཕུལ་བའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཤན་འབྱེད།

Dpon byang ba'i phyag tu phul ba'i chos kyi shan 'byed

Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen

A lengthy polemical work by Dölpopa that addresses various disputed philosophical positions. Pön Jangpa sent Dolpopa some polemical writings with a measure of gold as gift asking him to send him response. In response, Dölpopa wrote this treatise explaining how self-emptiness as many Tibetan scholars understood is not the ultimate truth but buddha-nature endowed with buddha qualities is.

Immaculate Light Rays of the Vajra Moon: Instructions on the View of Other-Emptiness of Great Madhyamaka

གཞན་སྟོང་དབུ་མ་ཆེན་པོའི་ལྟ་ཁྲིད་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཟླ་བ་དྲི་མ་མེད་པའི་འོད་ཟེར།

Gzhan stong dbu ma chen po'i lta khrid rdo rje zla ba dri ma med pa'i 'od zer

Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye

Written at Dzamtang, a monastic city in southern Amdo that is the primary institutional base of the Jonang school, this work by the famed Kagyu scholar Jamgön Kongtrul is characterized by Brunnhölzl as "an eclectic blend of what could be called "Kagyü Shentong" (primarily based on Maitrīpa, the Third and Seventh Karmapas, and the Eighth and Ninth Situpas) and "Jonang Shentong" (based on Dölpopa and especially Tāranātha), as well as some elements of Śākya Chogden’s Shentong."

Ornament of Other-Emptiness Madhyamaka

གཞན་སྟོང་དབུ་མའི་རྒྱན།

Gzhan stong dbu ma'i rgyan

Tāranātha

A polemical work defending the other-emptiness view of the Jonang tradition that addresses the criticism of this position by other Tibetan schools. This discursive text discusses the provisional or ultimate nature of the three turnings of the wheel of dharma, the position of Indian masters and philosophical schools, the intent of the Mahāyāna sūtras and the rebuts the criticism of other-emptiness by proponents of the self-emptiness theory in Tibet.

The Scriptural Citations for the Ornament of Madhyamaka of Other-Emptiness

གཞན་སྟོང་དབུ་མའི་རྒྱན་གྱི་ལུང་སྦྱོར།

Gzhan stong dbu ma'i rgyan gyi lung sbyor

Tāranātha

A supplement to Tāranātha's Ornament of Madhyamaka of Other-Emptiness (Gzhan stong dbu ma'i brgyan) that focuses on the scriptural sources of the other-emptiness philosophy. The scriptural citations and reference which were barely mentioned or referred to in the Ornament of Madhyamaka of Other-Emptiness are quoted in full to substantiate the claims of the proponents of Other-Emptiness.

Lion's Roar: Affirming Other Emptiness

གཞན་སྟོང་ཁས་ལེན་སེང་གེའི་ང་རོ།

Gzhan stong khas len seng ge'i nga ro

Mipam Gyatso

Mipam's other "lion's roar"—his Lion's Roar: Affirming Other Emptiness—shows the way he establishes an other-emptiness view that affirms the existence of the ultimate truth as not empty of its own essence. (Source: Duckworth, Douglas. Jamgön Mipham: His Life and Teachings. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2011: p 58.)

Instructions on the View of Other-Emptiness

གཞན་སྟོང་ལྟ་ཁྲིད།

Gzhan stong lta khrid

Tsen Khawoche

A brief summary of the three natures (trisvabhāva / rang bzhin gsum) of the Yogācāra school that was reportedly reproduced from a manuscript of the writings of Tsen Khawoche and included in the One Hundred and Eight Instructions of the Jonang (Jo nang khrid brgya), that was edited together by Kunga Drolchok. If reports of its provenance are correct, then it would likely be the earliest appearance in a Tibetan work of the terms other-emptiness (gzhan stong) and Great Madhyamaka (dbu ma chen po).

Essence of Other-Emptiness

གཞན་སྟོང་སྙིང་པོ།

Gzhan stong snying po

Tāranātha

A fairly brief work by Tāranātha on the basic tenets of the four systems of Buddhist philosophy, namely the Vaibhāṣika, Sautrāntrika, Cittamātra, and Madhyamaka. His exposition culminates with a presentation of the Great Madhyamaka, the pinnacle of the four, which is synonymous with other-emptiness as represented by the Jonang tradition.

Dispelling the Darkness of Partiality: A Commentary on Illumination of the Topics of Tenet Systems by Omniscient Jonangpa

ཀུན་མཁྱེན་ཆེན་པོས་མཛད་པའི་གྲུབ་མཐའི་རྣམ་བཞག་དོན་གསལ་གྱི་འགྲེལ་བ་ཕྱོགས་ལྷུང་མུན་སེལ།

Kun mkhyen chen pos mdzad pa'i grub mtha'i rnam bzhag don gsal gyi 'grel ba phyogs lhung mun sel

Ngawang Tsoknyi Gyatso

This is a commentary by the Jonangpa scholar Ngawang Tsoknyi Gyatso on the treatise composed by Dolpopa entitled Illuminating the Topics of Tenet Systems. Dolpopa composed the treatise in verse for the Yuan emperor Toghon Temür, who invited Dolpopa to China but Dolpopa declined. Yet, he wrote the treatise for the emperor and he presents his theory of the Middle Way of Other-Emptiness. Ngawang Tsoknyi Gyatso provides a very clear and incisive commentary in prose for Dolpopa's verse text.

Removing the Anguish of Holding to Extremes: Explanation of Omniscient Jonangpa's Madhyamaka of Other Emptiness

ཀུན་མཁྱེན་ཇོ་ནང་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་དགོངས་པ་གཞན་སྟོང་དབུ་མའི་ཚུལ་ལེགས་པར་བཤད་པ་མཐར་འཛིན་གདུང་འཕྲོག།

Kun mkhyen jo nang pa chen po'i dgongs pa gzhan stong dbu ma'i tshul legs pa bshad mthar 'dzin gdung 'phrog

Ngawang Tsoknyi Gyatso

A treatise on the Madhyamaka philosophy of Other-Emptiness (gzhan stong) as inherited from Dölpopa by the influential modern Jonangpa scholar Ngawang Tsoknyi Gyatso (1880-1940). Tsoknyi Gyatso explains the system of the ground, path and result in this text, followed by a synopsis of the Ultimate Continuum.

Illuminating Light: An Exegesis of Omniscient Jonangpa's Intent Aligned with General Treatises of Madhyamaka and Pramāṇa

ཀུན་མཁྱེན་ཇོ་ནང་པའི་བཞེས་དགོངས་དབུ་ཚད་ཀྱི་གཞུང་སྤྱི་དང་གུང་བསྒྲིགས་ཏེ་སྤྱོད་པའི་སྤྱི་དོན་རབ་གསལ་སྣང་བ།

Kun mkhyen jo nang pa'i bzhes dgongs dbu tshad kyi gzhung spyi dang gung bsgrigs te spyod pa'i spyi don rab gsal snang ba

Ngawang Tsoknyi Gyatso

An explanation of the general meaning of the scriptures on Madhyamaka (dbu ma) and pramāṇa (tshad ma) by the influential modern Jonangpa scholar Ngawang Tsoknyi Gyatso (1880-1940).

Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra

ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོའི་སྨོན་ལམ་སྟོབས་པོ་ཆེ།

Kun tu bzang po'i smon lam stobs po che

Rigdzin Gödem

A Commentary on the Meaning of the Words of the “Uttaratantra”

རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་ཚིག་དོན་རྣམ་པར་འགྲེལ་པ་

Mahāyānottaratantraśāstraṭippaṇī

Vairocanarakṣita

One of only two extant Sanskrit commentaries to the Uttaratantra, the other being the pith instruction composed by Sajjana. However, this work seems to have not been translated into Tibetan and thus it had little, if any, influence on the development of the Tibetan exegesis of the Uttaratantra.

Pith Instructions on "The Treatise on the Ultimate Continuum of the Mahāyāna"

Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa

Sajjana

One of only two extant Sanskrit texts that comment on the Uttaratantra, this highly original work by Sajjana presents a contemplative approach to Maitreya's treatise from an author that was the veritable source for the Tibetan exegetical traditions spawned by his students Ngok Loden Sherab and Tsen Khawoche.

Ornament Illuminating the Essence: A Commentary on the Famous Text, the Four Dharmas of the Incomparable Dakpo

མཉམ་མེད་དྭགས་པོའི་ཆོས་བཞིར་གྲགས་པའི་གཞུང་གི་འགྲེལ་པ་སྙིང་པོ་གསལ་བའི་རྒྱན།

Mnyam med dwags po'i chos bzhir grags pa'i gzhung gi 'grel pa snying po gsal ba'i rgyan

Layakpa Jangchub Ngödrup

A detailed commentary on Gampopa's Four Dharmas (chos bzhi) instruction for fundamental Buddhist practice. The root verses containing the four dharma of Gampopa were written by his learned student from Laya, Jangchub Ngödup exactly according to how Gampopa taught, and the extensive commentary containing a rich array of citations and arguments was authored by Jangchub Ngödup himself. The topic four dharmas of Gampopa refers to the four points of making dharma practice a genuine dharma practice, making dharma progress on the path, dispelling confusion on the path, and see confusion as pristine wisdom.

The Unassailable Lion's Roar

ཕྱིར་མི་ལྡོག་པ་སེང་གེའི་ང་རོ།

Phyir mi ldog pa seng ge'i nga ro

Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye

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.

The Treatise on the Ultimate Continuum of the Mahāyāna

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས།

Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra

Maitreya

The Ratnagotravibhāga, commonly known as the Uttaratantra, or Gyu Lama in Tibetan, is one of the main Indian scriptural sources for buddha-nature theory. It was likely composed during the fifth century, by whom we do not know. Comprised of verses interspersed with prose commentary, it systematizes the buddha-nature teachings that were circulating in multiple sūtras such as the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra, the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra, and the Śrīmaladevisūtra. The Tibetan tradition attributes the verses to the Bodhisattva Maitreya and the commentary to Asaṅga, and treats the two as separate texts, although this division is not attested to in surviving Indian versions. The Chinese tradition attributes the text to *Sāramati (娑囉末底), but the translation itself does not include the name of the author, and the matter remains unsettled. It was translated into Chinese in the early sixth century by Ratnamati and first translated into Tibetan by Atiśa, although this text is not known to survive. Ngok Loden Sherab translated it a second time based on teachings from the Kashmiri Pandita Sajjana, and theirs remains the standard translation. It has been translated into English several times, and recently into French. See the Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā, read more about the Ratnagotravibhāga, or take a look at the most complete English translation in When the Clouds Part by Karl Brunnholzl.

Explanatory Commentary on the Treatise on the Ultimate Continuum of the Mahāyāna

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པ།

Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā

Asaṅga

In the Tibetan tradition, which parses out the root verses and refers to that as the treatise (bstan bcos, śāstra), this title references the full text complete with the root verses and the accompanying prose commentary (rnam par bshad pa, vyākhyā). While the earlier Chinese tradition attributes authorship of both aspects of the text to the as of yet still mysterious figure of Sāramati, the Tibetan tradition attributes the treatise to the Bodhisattva Maitreya and this commentary to the illustrious founder of the Yogācāra school, Asaṅga. However, unlike the Chinese tradition which delineates different aspects of the text into the basic verses, the commentarial verses, and the prose commentary, the Tibetan tradition actually preserves two separate versions of the text we know as the Ratnagotravibhāga.

The first, made up entirely of the so-called root verses, corresponds to the Sanskrit title Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra, though it is usually referenced in this tradition by the Tibetan equivalent of the latter subtitle, Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos, which is commonly rendered into English as the Treatise on the Ultimate Continuum of the Great Vehicle and is abbreviated as RGV. However, the full title, Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos dkon mchog gi rigs rnam par dbye ba, does appear at the end of each chapter of the canonical Tibetan recensions. Nevertheless, this version is likely a Tibetan redaction, in that thus far there is no evidence of a Sanskrit version written entirely in verse that excludes the commentarial sections that explain them.

The second, which combines the verses with their accompanying prose commentary, corresponds to the *Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā as it has become known in academic circles where it is referenced with the abbreviation RGVV. However, in Tibetan the subtitle is merely appended with the equivalent of vyākhyā, i.e. Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos rnam par bshad pa, and thus a translation of the Tibetan title of the complete text would be something akin to the Explanatory Commentary on the Treatise on the Ultimate Continuum of the Great Vehicle. However, the extant Sanskrit recension of the Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra directly corresponds to the Tibetan version known as the *Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā, in that it contains both the root verses and the prose commentary. Though, again, lacking a Sanskrit work entitled the Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā, we can surmise that its corresponding Tibetan title was likely manufactured in order to delineate it from the streamlined verse redaction, while the Sanskrit title *Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā was in turn a product of modern scholars. On the surface it would seem that this title is a combination of the Chinese title back translated into Sanskrit as the Ratnagotraśāstra and the one found in the Tibetan editions, which state the Sanskrit title as the Mahāyānottaratantraśāstravyākhya. Nevertheless, in terms of content, the Sanskrit RGV corresponds to the Tibetan RGVV, in that the Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra is the same text as Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos rnam par bshad pa.

Also, see the Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra and for a recent essay on the text: On the Ratnagotravibhāga by Alexander Gardner.

Illumination of the Definitive Meaning: A Commentary on the Uttaratantra in Relation to the Sūtras

རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་འགྲེལ་པ་མདོ་དང་སྦྱར་བ་ངེས་པའི་དོན་གྱི་སྣང་བ།

Rgyud bla ma'i 'grel pa mdo dang sbyar ba nges pa'i don gyi snang ba

Tanak Rinchen Yeshe

A voluminous commentary on the Uttaratantra, which, as its title suggests, presents the treatise as a definitive work and elucidates it vis-a-vis the sūtras that are cited within it. It is noteworthy for its scholarship, as an early example of a Tibetan locating the scriptural source material of the Uttaratantra, as well as being widely considered an influential precursor to Dölpopa's treatment of the text.

Summary of the Ultimate Continuum: Clarifying the Meaning of Buddha-Nature

རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་དོན་བསྡུས་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོའི་དོན་གསལ།

Rgyud bla ma'i don bsdus bde gshegs snying po'i don gsal

Rendawa Zhönu Lodrö

In this short work, the famous Sakya scholar Rendawa presents his interpretation of and positions on the main topics covered by the Ultimate Continuum. While summarising the text, he points out how buddha-nature is to be understood as the luminous nature of the mind, and not as an absolute nature separate from the luminous aspect of the mind. He argues that buddha-nature, which is present in all sentient beings, is endowed with the universal quality of luminosity of the mind but not with the specific enlightened qualities of the Buddha. Thus, employing the common hermeneutic tools of reference,་purpose and direct contradiction, he considered the teachings on buddha-nature to be provisional teachings, which are not to be taken literally.

An Explanation of the Uttaratantra in Four Chapters including the Peerless Sun and Others

རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་རྣམ་བཤད་སྔོན་མེད་ཉི་མ་སོགས་ཆོས་ཚན་བཞི།

Rgyud bla ma'i rnam bshad sngon med nyi ma sogs chos tshan bzhi

Śākya Chokden

A detailed commentary on the Uttaratantra by an important Sakya scholar known for taking, at times, controversial stances that challenged the philosophical positions of even his own school. This work, thus, represents a unique view of buddha-nature that is unconfined by the sectarian affiliations that otherwise dominated the Tibetan philosophical landscape.

Stages of Meditation of the Ultimate Continuum: Ornament of Maitreya's Intent

རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་སྒོམ་རིམ་མི་ཕམ་དགོངས་རྒྱན།

Rgyud bla ma'i sgom rim mi pham dgongs don

Rongtön Sheja Kunrik

This short text by Rongtön Sheja Kunrig contains instructions on how to put the topics contained in the Ultimate Continuum into actual practice. It is among the many practical instructions he has written pertaining to the classical texts which are widely studied in Tibetan scholarly centres. In the course of providing practical instructions, Rongtön makes clear his philosophical understanding of buddha-nature and his interpretation of the teachings on buddha-nature.

A Commentary on the Meaning of the Words of the Uttaratantra

རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་ཚིག་དོན་རྣམ་པར་འགྲེལ་པ།

Rgyud bla ma'i tshig don rnam par 'grel pa

Marpa Dopa Chökyi Wangchuk

An early Tibetan commentary on the Uttaratantra, both the śāstra and the vyākhyā, that purports to represent the teachings passed on by the Kashmiri Parahitabhadra to his Tibetan student Marpa, though it is not entirely clear whether this refers to Marpa Dopa or Marpa Chökyi Lodrö, both of whom were important early Kagyu masters and translators that travelled south to receive teachings which they imported and propagated in Tibet. Nevertheless, the text follows more closely Indian commentarial styles and includes typical Mahāmudrā type instructions in its exegesis. Thus it is a prime example of the lineage that descends from Maitrīpa that came to dominate the Kagyu school's approach to the Uttaratantra in later generations.

Mountain Dharma: An Ocean of Definitive Meaning

རི་ཆོས་ངེས་དོན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་མཐར་ཐུག་ཐུན་མོང་མ་ཡིན་པའི་མན་ངག་

Ri chos nges don rgya mtsho zhes bya ba mthar thug thun mong ma yin pa'i man ngag

Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen

Dolpopa's seminal work considered to be the most definitive philosophical treatise of the Jonang tradition. It became famous as the crucial source for the presentation of his view of other-emptiness (zhentong).

Essence of Sūtra and Tantra: An Explanation of Buddhagarbha

སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་སྙིང་པོའི་རྣམ་བཤད་མདོ་རྒྱུད་སྙིང་པོ།

Sangs rgyas kyi snying po'i rnam bshad mdo rgyud snying po

Śākya Chokden

Śākya Chokden on buddha-nature. This text is a section of a more expansive work on the Ratnagotravibhāga, titled the rgyud bla ma'i rnam bshad sngon med nyi ma sogs chos tshan bzhi.

The Essential Pith Instructions That Summarize the Quintessence of the Piṭakas

སྡེ་སྣོད་བཅུད་བསྡུས་མན་ངག་གི་སྙིང་པོ།

Sde snod bcud bsdus man ngag gi snying po

Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim

One of a series of short texts by the Kadam scholar Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim, this was composed in Narthang at the behest of Sonam Dar, a descendent of Kyide Nyima Gön and at the request of Geshe Gönden Ö and Yönten Ö. The text contains concise lamrim instructions starting with (1) instruction on the contemplation on precious humanhood, impermanence and the law of cause and effect, and the practice of taking refuge for the inferior individuals, (2) contemplation of defects of cycle of existence, renunciation and non-self for those following the path of the hearers and solitary realisers for the middling individuals, and (3) finally the cultivation of bodhicitta and meditation on non-conceptuality and luminous nature of the mind which is free from all elaborations for superior individuals. This brief teaching underscores the importance of eradicating conceptual thoughts and abiding in the non-conceptual luminous nature of the mind.

Distinguishing the Three Vows

སྡོམ་གསུམ་རབ་དབྱེ།

Sdom gsum rab dbye

Sakya Paṇḍita

Written circa 1232 when the author was about fifty years old, it is an expansive treatise on the three vows pertaining to the three vehicles of Buddhism that is one of Sakya Paṇḍita's most important and influential works. Nevertheless, it was controversial in its time for the criticism the author levels against the philosophical positions of various scholars and schools of thought.

Treasury of the True Dharma Eye

Shōbōgenzō

Dōgen

In Japanese, “Treasury of the True Dharma Eye”; the magnum opus of the Japanese Zen master Dōgen Kigen (1200-1253); the title refers to the Zen (C. Chan) school, which is considered to be the repository of the insights of the buddha Śākyamuni himself, transmitted through the lineage of the Chan patriarchs (zushi) starting with Mahākāśyapa... Dōgen’s oeuvre contains two works with this title...The second is a collection of essays written in Japanese, known as the Kana [viz., “vernacular”] Shōbōgenzō, which is the better known of the two and which will be the focus of this account. The Shōbōgenzō is a collection of individual essays and treatises that Dogen composed throughout his eventful career.... Six different editions of the Shōbōgenzō are known to exist: the “original” volume edited by Dōgen in seventy-five rolls, the twelve-roll Yōkōji edition, the sixty-roll Eiheiji edition edited by Giun (1253-1333), the eighty-four roll edition edited by Bonsei (d. 1427) in 1419, the eighty-nine roll edition edited by Manzan Dōhaku (1636-1715) in 1684 at Daishōji, and the ninety-five roll edition edited by Kōzen (1627-1693) in 1690 at Eiheiji. The seventy-five roll edition is today the most widely consulted and cited. Many of the essays were originally sermons delivered by Dōgen, such that some are written by him and others were recorded by his disciples. (Source: Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 810-811.)

Notes on the Essential Points of Mipam’s Exposition of Buddha-Nature

སྟོང་ཐུན་གནད་ཀྱི་ཟིན་ཐུན།

Stong thun gnad kyi zin thun

Bötrul Dongak Tenpai Nyima

Notes on Mipam's Lion’s Roar: Exposition of Buddha-Nature, by an influential 20th century Nyingma scholar that took great pains to uphold and further the legacy of Mipam's scholastic contributions.

Condensed Meaning of the "Ultimate Continuum of the Mahāyāna"

ཐེག་ཆེན་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་དོན་བསྡུས་པ།

Theg chen rgyud bla ma'i don bsdus pa

Ngok Lotsāwa Loden Sherab

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.

Instructions on "The Ultimate Continuum of the Mahāyāna"

ཐེག་ཆེན་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་གདམས་པ།

Theg chen rgyud bla ma'i gdams pa

Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim

This work details instructions on the Ratnagotravibhāga that Maitrīpa reportedly received directly from Maitreya in a dream, which he then later retrieved, in actuality, discovering the text concealed within in a stūpa. Mönlam Tsultrim, the attributed Tibetan author of this work that lived centuries later, thus claims that he copied and edited this work from the original manuscript that was passed down in a lineage coming from Maitrīpa, himself.

Thoroughly Ascertaining the Great Middle Way of the Expansive Supreme Vehicle

ཐེག་མཆོག་ཤིན་ཏུ་རྒྱས་པའི་དབུ་མ་ཆེན་པོ་རྣམ་པར་ངེས་པ།

Theg mchog shin tu rgyas pa'i dbu ma chen po rnam par nges pa

Tāranātha

Composition on select points considered essential for understanding the philosophical view of other-emptiness (zhentong) by the great Jonang scholar Tāranātha (1575-1635). It remains one of the most important works on zhentong in the Jonang order. Root text was composed by Tāranātha and an annotated commentary was compiled and edited by Tāranātha's disciple Yeshe Gyamtso according to oral teachings he received from Tāranātha, himself.

Ornamental Flowers: A Commentary on the Mahāyāna Uttaratantra

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མ་རྒྱན་གྱི་མེ་ཏོག།

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma rgyan gyi me tog

Chomden Rikpai Raldri

A rather brief work that, as Tsering Wangchuk states, is "the earliest extant Tibetan commentary on the Uttaratantra that cites both tantric and sutric sources to corroborate the claims made in the treatise."

Illuminating the Definitive Meaning of the Uttaratantra

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་འགྲེལ་པ་ངེས་དོན་གསལ་བར་བྱེད་པའི་འོད་ཟེར།

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i 'grel pa nges don gsal bar byed pa'i 'od zer

Gyalse Tokme Zangpo

This work presents a late (14th century) Kadampa view on the Ratnagotravibhāga and the associated buddha-nature teachings by an influential representative of this tradition, often referred to as "the second Asaṅga" (thogs med gnyis pa).

Heart of the Luminous Sun

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་འགྲེལ་བ་གསལ་བ་ཉི་མའི་སྙིང་པོ།

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi 'grel ba gsal ba nyi ma'i snying po

Dumowa Tashi Özer

Dumowa Tashi Özer's commentary on the Uttaratantra that is based on the Third Karmapa’s topical outline or summary (bsdus don).

The Commentary on the Treatise “Mahāyāna-Uttaratantra”: The Mirror Showing Reality Very Clearly

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་འགྲེལ་བཤད་དེ་ཁོ་ན་ཉིད་རབ་ཏུ་གསལ་བའི་མེ་ལོང་།

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi 'grel bshad de kho na nyid rab tu gsal ba'i me long

Gö Lotsāwa Zhönu Pal

Gö Lotsāwa Zhönu Pal's commentary to the Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā, that presents the text from within the mahāmudrā tradition of Maitrīpa and Gampopa. More specifically, as Mathes reports, the author, himself, states in his colophon that "he combined the commentarial tradition of Loden Sherab with Gampopa's and Drigung Jigten Sumgön's mahāmudrā interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhāga." (A Direct Path to the Buddha Within, p. 411.)

A Treasury of Jewels of the Definitive Meaning: An Explanation of the Treatise on the Ultimate Continuum of the Mahāyāna

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་བཤད་པ་ངེས་དོན་ནོར་བུའི་མཛོད།

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi bshad pa nges don nor bu'i mdzod

Minyak Lama Yeshe Dorje

According to Brunnhölzl, this work "clearly subscribes to the disclosure model of buddha nature, asserting that the stainless tathāgata heart adorned with all major and minor marks as well as awakening exists in all beings, refuting that the reality of cessation is a nonimplicative negation, and denying the position that the fully qualified sugata heart exists solely on the buddhabhūmi, while it is only nominal at the time of sentient beings. Also, besides CMW and Mipham’s commentary, YDC is the only other commentary I have reviewed that explicitly connects the name and contents of the Uttaratantra with the vajrayāna notion of tantra, thus underlining the text’s reputation as a bridge between the sūtras and tantras."

Words of Mipam: Interlinear Commentary on the Uttaratantra

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་མཆན་འགྲེལ་མི་ཕམ་ཞལ་ལུང་།

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi mchan 'grel mi pham zhal lung

Mipam Gyatso

Mipam's annotated commentary to the Uttaratantra, a commentarial style in which the root verses of the treatise are embedded in the text and are then explained word by word. This text overlaps significantly with his related work on this subject Lion’s Roar: Exposition of Buddha-Nature.

The Precious Lamp That Illuminates the Definitive Meaning of the Mahāyāna Uttaratantra Treatise

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་ངེས་དོན་གསལ་བར་བྱེད་པའི་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་གྲོན་མེ་

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi nges don gsal bar byed pa'i rin po che'i gron me

Sangpuwa Lodrö Tsungme

An extensive commentary on the Uttaratantra written by a contemporary of Dölpopa and Butön during the height of the debate over the definitive nature of the treatise and its teaching on buddha-nature.

Illuminating the Definitive Meaning

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པ་ངེས་དོན་རབ་གསལ་སྣང་བ།

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi rnam par bshad pa nges don rab gsal snang ba

Sabzang Mati Paṇchen Lodrö Gyaltsen

A detailed explanation of the Uttaratantra written by one of Dölpopa's chief disciples.

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།

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

Chapa Chökyi Senge

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.

The Sunlight Exposition: A Commentary on the Mahāyāna Uttaratantra Treatise

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ལེགས་བཤད་ཉི་མའི་འོད་ཟེར།

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos legs bshad nyi ma'i 'od zer

Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen

Dölpopa's commentary on the Uttaratantra, which, although it doesn't actually use the term "other-emptiness", is an important precursor and source to the formulation of his unique Zhentong view found in his seminal work Mountain Dharma: An Ocean of Definitive Meaning (ri chos nges don rgya mtsho).

Elegant Explanation of the Treatise of the Ultimate Continuum of the Mahāyāna

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ལེགས་པར་བཤད་པ།

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos legs par bshad pa

Rongtön Sheja Kunrik

An extensive explanatory commentary on the the Ultimate Continuum by one of the major scholastic voices of the Sakya school. As Bernert states, "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." (Christian Bernert. Perfect or Perfected? Rongtön on Buddha-Nature, 2018.

Interlinear Commentary on the Mahāyāna Uttaratantra Treatise

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་མཆན་འགྲེལ།

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos zhes bya ba'i mchan 'grel

Zhenpen Chökyi Nangwa

An interlinear commentary on the Uttaratantra by the famed Khenpo Zhenga. It is one of a series of such works on the thirteen major treatises of Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism that became the basis for the curriculum at several major Tibetan monastic universities, such as those at Dzogchen and Dzongsar monasteries.

The Precious Lamp: An Extensive Explanation of the Words and Meaning of the Mahāyāna Uttaratantra

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་ཚིག་དོན་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པ་རིན་ཆེན་སྒྲོན་མེ།

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i tshig don rnam par bshad pa rin chen sgron me

Je Khenpo Gendun Rinchen

This is a commentary on Ratnagotravibhāga by the 69th Je Khenpo of Bhutan, Gendun Rinchen. The commentary was composed in 1983 at the request of his students when he was giving lectures on Ratnagotravibhāga in the Maitreya Temple at Phajoding, Bhutan. It is most likely the first commentary by a Bhutanese scholar. The author claims to have based his commentary on the annotated commentary of Khenpo Zhenga while also including the best of other commentaries by Tibetan masters.

Commentary on the Ultimate Continuum of the Mahāyāna

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་ཊཱི་ཀྐ།

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i ṭīkka

Gyaltsap Je Darma Rinchen

Commentary on the Uttaratantra by a preeminent Geluk scholar that was a chief disciple of the school's founder, Tsongkhapa, as well as the Sakya scholar Rendawa Zhönu Lodrö, an outspoken critic of the treatise.

Outline of the Mahāyāna Treatise the Uttaratantra

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་ས་བཅད།

Theg pa chen po'i bstan bcos rgyud bla ma'i sa bcad

Patrul Rinpoche

A topical outline of the Ratnagotravibhāga written by the famed 19th century Nyingma scholar Paltrul Rinpoche, Orgyen Jigme Chökyi Wangpo.

Stainless Light

དྲི་མ་མེད་པའི་འོད།

Vimalaprabhā

Kalkī Śrī Puṇḍarīka

A crucial commentary to the Kālacakra Tantra purported to have been written by Kalkī Śrī Puṇḍarīka, the fabled Second King of Shambhala also known as Kulika Puṇḍarīka, though in the Tibetan tradition the work is sometimes attributed to the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara whom Puṇḍarīka was considered to be an emanation of. In the Tibetan tradition it is counted among the Three Cycles of Bodhisattva Commentaries (Sems 'grel skor gsum), which are a trilogy of canonical commentaries attributed to the transcendent Bodhisattvas Vajrapaṇi, Vajragarbha, and Avalokiteśvara on the Cakrasamvara, Hevajra, and Kālacakra Tantras, respectively.

The Repository of Wisdom

ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་འཇོག་ས།

Ye shes kyi 'jog sa

Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim

One of a series of short texts by the Kadam scholar Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim, which represent an intersection between the works of Maitreya, particularly the Ratnagotravibhāga, and the practical instructions of Mahāmudrā.

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Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim: Instruction for the Moment of Death

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Instructions on attaining Mahāmudrā in the intermediate state based on the Atyayajñānasūtra.

'da' ka ye shes kyi 'chi kha ma'i man ngag;Mahamudra;Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim;སྐྱོ་སྟོན་སྨོན་ལམ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་;skyo ston smon lam tshul khrims;'da' ka ye shes kyi 'chi kha ma'i man ngag;འདའ་ཀ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་འཆི་ཁ་མའི་མན་ངག།;Instruction for the Moment of Death

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Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim: The Meaning of the Essence of Luminosity

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A Kadam work on luminosity and buddha-nature.

'od gsal snying po'i don;Buddha-nature as Luminosity;Mahamudra;Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim;སྐྱོ་སྟོན་སྨོན་ལམ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་;skyo ston smon lam tshul khrims;'od gsal snying po'i don;འོད་གསལ་སྙིང་པོའི་དོན།;The Meaning of the Essence of Luminosity

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Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche: Music of the Sphere of Definitive Meaning: Detailed Explanation of the Mahamudra Prayer in Accordance with the Philosophy of the Great Emptiness-of-Other

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Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche's explanation of the Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje's famous Mahāmudrā Aspiration Prayer.

Chen po gzhan stong gi lta ba dang 'brel ba'i phyag rgya chen po'i smon lam gyi rnam bshad nges don dbyings kyi rol mo;Karma Kagyu;Mahamudra;gzhan stong;Karmapa, 3rd;Sangye Nyenpa Rinpoche;sangs rgyas mnyan pa rin po che;སངས་རྒྱས་མཉན་པ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་; chen po gzhan stong gi lta ba dang 'brel ba'i phyag rgya chen po'i smon lam gyi rnam bshad nges don dbyings kyi rol mo;ཆེན་པོ་གཞན་སྟོང་གི་ལྟ་བ་དང་འབྲེལ་བའི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོའི་སྨོན་ལམ་གྱི་རྣམ་བཤད་ངེས་དོན་དབྱིངས་ཀྱི་རོལ་མོ།;Music of the Sphere of Definitive Meaning: Detailed Explanation of the Mahamudra Prayer in Accordance with the Philosophy of the Great Emptiness-of-Other

Tāranātha: shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa'i snying po'i mdo rnam par bshad pa sngon med legs bshad

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Tāranātha;ཏཱ་ར་ནཱ་ཐ་;tA ra nA tha;kun dga' snying po;ཀུན་དགའ་སྙིང་པོ་;shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa'i snying po'i mdo rnam par bshad pa sngon med legs bshad;ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པའི་སྙིང་པོའི་མདོ་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པ་སྔོན་མེད་ལེགས་བཤད།

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Śākya Chokden: Undermining the Haughtiness of Others by the Wheel of Brahma: A Treatise Clarifying Mahāmudrā

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The first text in Śākya Chokden's Mahāmudrā trilogy the Wheel of Brahma.

Phyag rgya chen po gsal bar byed pa'i bstan bcos tshangs pa'i 'khor los gzhan blo'i dregs pa nyams byed;Mahamudra;Śākya Chokden;ཤཱཀྱ་མཆོག་ལྡན་;shAkya mchog ldan;phyag rgya chen po gsal bar byed pa'i bstan bcos tshangs pa'i 'khor los gzhan blo'i dregs pa nyams byed;ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་གསལ་བར་བྱེད་པའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཚངས་པའི་འཁོར་ལོས་གཞན་བློའི་དྲེགས་པ་ཉམས་བྱེད།;Undermining the Haughtiness of Others by the Wheel of Brahma: A Treatise Clarifying Mahāmudrā

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Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen: The Great Treasure of Faith and Devotion: A Praise to Sugatagarbha

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Verses of praise to sugatagarbha, or buddha-nature, composed by Dölpopa.

Bde gshegs snying po la bstod pa dad gus kyi gter chen po;Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen;དོལ་པོ་པ་ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་;dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan;shes rab rgyal mtshan;shes rab mgon;rton pa bzhi ldan;ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་;ཤེས་རབ་མགོན་;རྟོན་པ་བཞི་ལྡན་;bde gshegs snying po la bstod pa dad gus kyi gter chen po;བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་ལ་བསྟོད་པ་དད་གུས་ཀྱི་གཏེར་ཆེན་པོ།;The Great Treasure of Faith and Devotion: A Praise to Sugatagarbha

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Eighth Karmapa Mikyö Dorje: Commentary on the Tenth Section of the Single Intention

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The Eight Karmapa's commentary on the tenth section of the Sacred Teaching on the Single Intention (Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa).

Dgongs gcig gi gsung bzhi bcu pa'i 'grel pa;Kagyu;Drikung Kagyu;Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa;Eighth Karmapa Mikyö Dorje;མི་བསྐྱོད་རྡོ་རྗེ་;mi bskyod rdo rje;karma pa brgyad pa;chos kyi grags pa dpal bzang po;ཀརྨ་པ་བརྒྱད་པ་;ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་དཔལ་བཟང་པོ་;Karmapa, 8th;dgongs gcig gi gsung bzhi bcu pa'i 'grel pa;དགོངས་གཅིག་གི་གསུང་བཞི་བཅུ་པའི་འགྲེལ་པ།;Commentary on the Tenth Section of the Single Intention

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Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen: The Great Calculation of the Doctrine Which Has the Significance of a Fourth Council

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The seminal work of Dölpopa often simply referred to as the Fourth Council. Structured around the notion of four eons drawn from the Kālacakra Tantra, it is one of the primary sources for Dölpopa's presentation of his other-emptiness (zhentong) philosophy.

Bka' bsdu bzhi pa'i don bstan rtsis chen po;Jonang;gzhan stong;Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen;དོལ་པོ་པ་ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་;dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan;shes rab rgyal mtshan;shes rab mgon;rton pa bzhi ldan;ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་;ཤེས་རབ་མགོན་;རྟོན་པ་བཞི་ལྡན་;Bka' bsdu bzhi pa'i don bstan rtsis chen po;བཀའ་བསྡུ་བཞི་པའི་དོན་བསྟན་རྩིས་ཆེན་པོ།;The Great Calculation of the Doctrine Which Has the Significance of a Fourth Council

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Jñānavajra: Tathāgatahṛdayālaṃkāra

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Jñānavajra's commentary on the Laṅkāvatārasūtra, which is one of two Indian commentaries on the Sūtra that has survived only in Tibetan translation.

Tathāgatahṛdayālaṃkāra;Laṅkāvatārasūtra;Jñānavajra;Advayajñānavajra;'phags pa lang kar gshegs pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo'i 'grel pa de bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po'i rgyan;འཕགས་པ་ལང་ཀར་གཤེགས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོའི་འགྲེལ་པ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོའི་རྒྱན།;Commentary on the Sūtra of the Descent to Laṅkā entitled Heart Ornament of the Tathāgatas;Tathāgatahṛdayālaṃkāra;तथागतहृदयालंकार;འཕགས་པ་ལང་ཀར་གཤེགས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོའི་འགྲེལ་པ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོའི་རྒྱན།

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Dorje Sherab: Great Commentary on the Sacred Teaching on the Single Intention: Illuminating Wisdom Lamp

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Dorje Sherab's extensive commentary on the Sacred Teaching on the Single Intention (Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa), one of the core texts of the Drikung Kagyu tradition that is reported to be the oral teachings of Jikten Gönpo that were written down and edited together by his student Sherab Jungne.

Dam pa'i chos dgongs pa gcig pa'i 'grel chen snang mdzad ye shes sgron me;Drikung Kagyu;'bri gung skyob pa 'jig rten mgon po;Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa;Dorje Sherab;རྡོ་རྗེ་ཤེས་རབ་;rdo rje shes rab;spyan snga rdo rje shes rab;སྤྱན་སྔ་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཤེས་རབ་;dam pa'i chos dgongs pa gcig pa'i 'grel chen snang mdzad ye shes sgron me;དམ་པའི་ཆོས་དགོངས་པ་གཅིག་པའི་འགྲེལ་ཆེན་སྣང་མཛད་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྒྲོན་མེ།;Great Commentary on the Sacred Teaching on the Single Intention: Illuminating Wisdom Lamp

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Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen: Discourse on the Qualities of Sugatagarbha: The One Taste of the Manifold Dharmadhātu

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Dölpopa's praise to the enlightened qualities of sugatagarbha, or buddha-nature.

Chos dbyings du ma ro gcig bde gshegs snying po'i yon tan can gyi mdo sde;Jonang;Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen;དོལ་པོ་པ་ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་;dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan;shes rab rgyal mtshan;shes rab mgon;rton pa bzhi ldan;ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་;ཤེས་རབ་མགོན་;རྟོན་པ་བཞི་ལྡན་;chos dbyings du ma ro gcig bde gshegs snying po'i yon tan can gyi mdo sde;ཆོས་དབྱིངས་དུ་མ་རོ་གཅིག་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོའི་ཡོན་ཏན་ཅན་གྱི་མདོ་སྡེ།;Discourse on the Qualities of Sugatagarbha: The One Taste of the Manifold Dharmadhātu

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Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje: Aspiration Prayer of the Definitive Meaning of Mahāmudrā

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The Mahamudra Prayer by the Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje is a short yet thorough and profound text which presents all the essential points of Mahamudra teaching in terms of view, practice, and fruition. It is a classic that, especially in the tradition of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, has been and is widely used whenever a disciple is given a first introduction into Mahamudra. The Third Karmapa shows how to recognize our ultimate potential as a buddha. (Source: Shambhala Publications)

Nges don phyag rgya chen po'i smon lam;Karma Kagyu;Mahamudra;Karmapa, 3rd;Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje;རང་བྱུང་རྡོ་རྗེ་;rang byung rdo rje;karma pa gsum pa;ཀརྨ་པ་གསུམ་པ་;Karmapa, 3rd; nges don phyag rgya chen po'i smon lam;ངེས་དོན་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོའི་སྨོན་ལམ།;Aspiration Prayer of the Definitive Meaning of Mahāmudrā;ངེས་དོན་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོའི་སྨོན་ལམ།

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Minling Lochen Dharmaśrī: The Marvelous Wish-fulfilling Harvest: An Eloquent Commentary on Ascertaining the Three Vows

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Minling Lochen's voluminous commentary on Ngari Paṇchen's Ascertaining the Three Vows.

Sdom pa gsum rnam par nges pa'i 'grel pa legs bshad ngo mtshar dpag bsam gyi snye ma;Minling Lochen Dharmaśrī;སྨིན་གླིང་ལོ་ཆེན་དྷརྨ་ཤྲཱི་;smin gling lo chen d+harma shrI;smin gling mkhan chen gnyis pa;ngag dbang chos dpal rgya mtsho;སྨིན་གླིང་མཁན་ཆེན་གཉིས་པ་;ངག་དབང་ཆོས་དཔལ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་;sdom pa gsum rnam par nges pa'i 'grel pa legs bshad ngo mtshar dpag bsam gyi snye ma;སྡོམ་པ་གསུམ་རྣམ་པར་ངེས་པའི་འགྲེལ་པ་ལེགས་བཤད་ངོ་མཚར་དཔག་བསམ་གྱི་སྙེ་མ།;The Marvelous Wish-fulfilling Harvest: An Eloquent Commentary on Ascertaining the Three Vows;སྡོམ་གསུམ་རྣམ་ངེས་ཀྱི་འགྲེལ་པ་ལེགས་བཤད་ངོ་མཚར་དཔག་བསམ་གྱི་སྙེ་མ།

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Ngok Lotsāwa Loden Sherab: Epistle: A Drop of Nectar

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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།

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Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen: Benediction of Sugatagarbha

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Verses of benediction to invoke the auspiciousness of sugatagarbha composed by Dölpopa.

Bde gshegs snying po'i bkra shis;Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen;དོལ་པོ་པ་ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་;dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan;shes rab rgyal mtshan;shes rab mgon;rton pa bzhi ldan;ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་;ཤེས་རབ་མགོན་;རྟོན་པ་བཞི་ལྡན་;bde gshegs snying po'i bkra shis;བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོའི་བཀྲ་ཤིས།;Benediction of Sugatagarbha

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Eighth Karmapa Mikyö Dorje: General Outline of the Tenets of the Single Intention that Reveal Errors Concerning the Inner Meaning of the Profound Great Discourses that Distinguish Dharma from that which is not Dharma

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The Eight Karmapa's general outline of the tenets of the Sacred Teaching on the Single Intention (Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa).

Chos dang chos ma yin par rnam par 'byed pa'i gtam chen po zab mor nang don 'khrul par ngo sprod par byed pa grub mtha'i spyi ching;Kagyu;Drikung Kagyu;Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa;Eighth Karmapa Mikyö Dorje;མི་བསྐྱོད་རྡོ་རྗེ་;mi bskyod rdo rje;karma pa brgyad pa;chos kyi grags pa dpal bzang po;ཀརྨ་པ་བརྒྱད་པ་;ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་དཔལ་བཟང་པོ་;Karmapa, 8th;chos dang chos ma yin par rnam par 'byed pa'i gtam chen po zab mor nang don 'khrul par ngo sprod par byed pa grub mtha'i spyi ching;ཆོས་དང་ཆོས་མ་ཡིན་པར་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པའི་གཏམ་ཆེན་པོ་ཟབ་མོར་ནང་དོན་འཁྲུལ་པར་ངོ་སྤྲོད་པར་བྱེད་པ་གྲུབ་མཐའི་སྤྱི་ཆིང་།;General Outline of the Tenets of the Single Intention that Reveal Errors Concerning the Inner Meaning of the Profound Great Discourses that Distinguish Dharma from that which is not Dharma

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Buddha Nature Treatise

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An influential text in East Asian on buddha-nature attributed in the Chinese canon to Vasubandhu. Though no Sanskrit recension nor Tibetan translation has ever been located it was reportedly translated into Chinese by Paramārtha in the 6th century. Much like the Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna, several modern scholars of East Asian Buddhism have surmised that the work may have been actually composed by Paramārtha.

Fo xing lun;History of buddha-nature in China;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Chinese Buddhism;buddhadhātu;Paramārtha;Buddha Nature Treatise;佛性論

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Maitreya: Madhyāntavibhāga

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In Sanskrit, “Differentiation of the Middle Way and the Extremes”; one of the Five Dharma Treatises of Maitreya (byams chos sde lnga) said to have been presented to Asaṅga by the bodhisattva Maitreya in the Tuṣita heaven. Written in verse, it is one of the most important Yogācāra delineations of the three natures (trisvabhāva), especially as they figure in the path to enlightenment, where the obstacles created by the imaginary (parikalpita) are overcome ultimately by the antidote of the consummate (pariniṣpanna). The “middle way” exposed here is that of the Yogācāra, and is different from that of Nāgārjuna, although the names of the two extremes to be avoided—the extreme of permanence (śāśvatānta) and the extreme of annihilation (ucchedānta)—are the same. Here the extreme of permanence is the existence of external objects, the imaginary nature (parikalpitasvabhāva). The extreme of annihilation would seem to include Nāgārjuna’s emptiness of intrinsic nature (svabhāva). The middle way entails upholding the existence of consciousness (vijñāna) as the dependent nature (paratantrasvabhāva) and the existence of the consummate nature (pariniṣpannasvabhāva). The work is divided into five chapters, which consider the three natures, the various forms of obstruction to be abandoned on the path, the ultimate truth according to Yogācāra, the means of cultivating the antidotes to the defilements, and the activity of the Mahāyāna path. (Source: The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, p. 489)

Madhyāntavibhāga;byams chos sde lnga;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; Jinamitra;ཇིནམིཏྲ;slob dpon dzi na mi tra;Śīlendrabodhi;shi len+d+ra bo d+hi;tshul khrims dbang po byang chub;Yeshe De;ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ye shes sde;sna nam ye shes sde;zhang ban+de ye shes sde;སྣ་ནམ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;ཞང་བནྡེ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྡེ་;Xuanzang;Chen Hui (or Chen Yi);dbus dang mtha' rnam par 'byed pa'i tshig le'ur byas pa;དབུས་དང་མཐའ་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པའི་ཚིག་ལེའུར་བྱས་པ།;Distinguishing the Middle from the Extremes;Madhyāntavibhāga;辯中邊論頌;मध्यान्तविभाग

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Chöying Tobden Dorje: Treasury of the Precious Sūtras and Tantras

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In 1838, Choying Tobden Dorje, a Buddhist yogi-scholar of eastern Tibet, completed a multivolume masterwork that traces the entire path of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism from beginning to end. Written by a lay practitioner for laypeople, it was intended to be accessible, informative, inspirational, and above all, practical. Its twenty-five books, or topical divisions, offer a comprehensive and detailed view of the Buddhist path according to the early translation school of Tibetan Buddhism, spanning the vast range of Buddhist teachings from the initial steps to the highest esoteric teachings of great perfection. (Source: Shambhala Publications)

Mdo rgyud rin po che'i mdzod;Nyingma;Chöying Tobden Dorje;ཆོས་དབྱིངས་སྟོབས་ལྡན་རྡོ་རྗེ་;chos dbyings stobs ldan rdo rje;a lags rgyal po;ཨ་ལགས་རྒྱལ་པོ་;Alak Gyalpo;Mdo rgyud rin po che'i mdzod;མདོ་རྒྱུད་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་མཛོད།;Treasury of the Precious Sūtras and Tantras

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Ngawang Lodrö Drakpa: An Excellent Ornament of a Brilliant Mind: A Concise Presentation of Buddhist and Non-Buddhist Tenets

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A condensed presentation of the tenets of Buddhist and Non-Buddhist philosophical systems by a modern Jonang scholar.

Phyi nang grub mtha'i rnam bzhag gi bsdus don blo gsal yid kyi rgyan bzang;Jonang;Ngawang Lodrö Drakpa;ངག་དབང་བློ་གྲོས་གྲགས་པ་;ngag dbang blo gros grags pa;'dzam thang mkhan po blo gros grags pa;mkhan po blo grags;blo gros grags pa;འཛམ་ཐང་མཁན་པོ་བློ་གྲོས་གྲགས་པ་;མཁན་པོ་བློ་གྲགས་;བློ་གྲོས་གྲགས་པ་;Dzamthang Khenpo Lodrö Drakpa;Khenpo Lodrak;Phyi nang grub mtha'i rnam bzhag gi bsdus don blo gsal yid kyi rgyan bzang;ཕྱི་ནང་གྲུབ་མཐའི་རྣམ་བཞག་གི་བསྡུས་དོན་བློ་གསལ་ཡིད་ཀྱི་རྒྱན་བཟང་།;An Excellent Ornament of a Brilliant Mind: A Concise Presentation of Buddhist and Non-Buddhist Tenets

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Bodong Paṇchen Chokle Namgyal: Commentary on the Great Vehicle Treatise the Sublime Continuum

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A commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga by the famed scholar Bodong Paṇchen Chokle Namgyal.

Theg pa chen po'i bstan bcos rgyud bla ma'i 'grel pa;Bodong Paṇchen Chokle Namgyal;བོ་དོང་པཎ་ཆེན་ཕྱོགས་ལས་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་;bo dong paN chen phyogs las rnam rgyal;'jigs med grags pa;g.yung drung sangs rgyas skyid;gzhung lugs 'bum phrag brgya pa;'bum phrag brgya pa;chos kyi rgyal mtshan;gsang ba byin;dbyangs can dga' ba;འཇིགས་མེད་གྲགས་པ་;གཡུང་དྲུང་སངས་རྒྱས་སྐྱིད་;གཞུང་ལུགས་འབུམ་ཕྲག་བརྒྱ་པ་;འབུམ་ཕྲག་བརྒྱ་པ་;ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་;གསང་བ་བྱིན་;དབྱངས་ཅན་དགའ་བ་;theg pa chen po'i bstan bcos rgyud bla ma'i 'grel pa;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་འགྲེལ་པ།;Commentary on the Great Vehicle Treatise the Sublime Continuum

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Jigme Lingpa: Rain of Joy, Treasury of Precious Qualities

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This is the root text of The Treasury of Precious Qualities, a famous treatise by Jikmé Lingpa, in which he expounds the entire Buddhist path, from the śrāvakayāna teachings up to the Great Perfection. The text has thirteen chapters:

1. The Difficulty of Gaining the Freedoms and Advantages
2. Death and Impermanence
3. Karma: Cause and Effect
4. The Sufferings of Samsara
5. The Four Wheels, which are the initial entry point for supreme beings
6. Taking Refuge, the entrance to the Buddhist Path
7. The Entrance to the Actual Mahayana (cultivating the four immeasurables)
8. Arousing Bodhichitta
9. The Bodhisattva Trainings
10. The Pitaka of the Vidyadharas
11. The Nature of the Ground
12. The Extraordinary Path of the Natural Great Perfection
13. The Kayas and Wisdoms of the Ultimate Fruition

The first nine chapters comprise the sūtra section, and the last four comprise the mantra section. You can download an English translation of the root text by the Padmakara Translation Group by clicking here.

Yon tan rin po che'i mdzod dga' ba'i char;Nyingma;Jigme Lingpa;འཇིགས་མེད་གླིང་པ་;'jigs med gling pa;mkhyen brtse 'od zer;མཁྱེན་བརྩེ་འོད་ཟེར་;Yon tan rin po che'i mdzod dga' ba'i char;ཡོན་ཏན་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་མཛོད་དགའ་བའི་ཆར།;Rain of Joy, Treasury of Precious Qualities;ཡོན་ཏན་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་མཛོད་དགའ་བའི་ཆར།

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Candrakīrti: Pradīpoddyotana-nāma-ṭīkā

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A commentary on the Guhyasamāja Tantra attributed to Candrakīrti. This extensive commentary on Guhyasamāja Tantra discusses the six hermeneutic strategies of provisional and ultimate meaning, literal and non-literal reading, and interpretable or non-interpretable meaning. It also highlights the natural state of all phenomena such as five aggregates and five elements as enlightened buddhas, and described the innate mind as luminous and endowed with qualities of enlightenment. The commentary is said to have been written relying on instructions passed down from Nāgārjuna who is said to have been prophesied in the Descent to Laṅka Sūtra to be a promoter of the higher yoga tantras. If one accepts the author of this text to be Candrakīrti, who is the Mādhyamika author of the Madhyamakāvatāra, as tradition has it, then it is evident he adopted here a position on buddha-nature which is different from the one in Madhyamakāvatāra, where his focus is on establishing all things as emptiness, and he argues the sūtras advocating buddha-nature are provisional teachings to lead those beings scared of non-self. In this text, the author accepts the nature of all things to be enlightened, and he argues that 'sentient beings are the base of all buddhas because they possess buddha-nature'(རྒྱལ་བ་ཀུན་གྱི་གནས་ནི་སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་དེ། དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ཅན་ཡིན་པའི་ཕྱིར་རོ། །). Traditional scholars would generally explain such a shift in philosophical stance as context-based and not see it as a contradiction or inconsistency. In the context of Guhyasamāja tantra, Candrakīrti could be said to have accepted the concept of buddha-nature as innate enlightenment.

Pradīpoddyotana-nāma-ṭīkā;Vajrayana;Candrakīrti;ཟླ་བ་གྲགས་པ་;zla ba grags pa; Gö Khukpa Lhatse;འགོས་ཁུག་པ་ལྷས་བཙས;'gos khug pa lhas btsas;dbang phyug rgya mtsho;Śraddhākaravarman;Rinchen Zangpo;རིན་ཆེན་བཟང་པོ་;rin chen bzang po;lo tsA ba rin chen bzang po;ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་རིན་ཆེན་བཟང་པོ་;Śrījñānākara;dpal ye shes 'byung gnas;sgron ma gsal bar byed pa zhes bya ba'i rgya cher bshad pa;སྒྲོན་མ་གསལ་བར་བྱེད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་རྒྱ་ཆེར་བཤད་པ།;An Extensive Commentary entitled the Illuminating Lamp;Pradīpoddyotana-nāma-ṭīkā;प्रदीपोद्द्योतन-नाम-टीका;སྒྲོན་མ་གསལ་བར་བྱེད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་རྒྱ་ཆེར་བཤད་པ།

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Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo: A Concise Presentation of Other-Emptiness Madhyamaka

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A brief overview of the philosophical positions and related terminology of other-emptiness (gzhan stong) Madhyamaka with an emphasis on the Jonang perspective developed by Dölpopa.

Gzhan stong dbu ma'i rnam gzhag snying por dril ba;gzhan stong;Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo;འཇམ་དབྱངས་མཁྱེན་བརྩེའི་དབང་པོ་;'jam dbyangs mkhyen brtse'i dbang po;mkhyen brtse'i dbang po;rdzong gsar mkhyen brtse 01;kun dga' bstan pa'i rgyal mtshan dpal bzang po;rdo rje gzi brjid rtsal;'od gsal rdo rje thugs mchog rtsal;mtsho skyes bla ma dgyes pa'i 'bangs;Fifth Terton King;མཁྱེན་བརྩེའི་དབང་པོ་;རྫོང་གསར་མཁྱེན་བརྩེ་༠༡་;ཀུན་དགའ་བསྟན་པའི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་དཔལ་བཟང་པོ་;རྡོ་རྗེ་གཟི་བརྗིད་རྩལ་;འོད་གསལ་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཐུགས་མཆོག་རྩལ་;མཚོ་སྐྱེས་བླ་མ་དགྱེས་པའི་འབངས་;གཏེར་སྟོན་རྒྱལ་པོ་ལྔ་པ་;gzhan stong dbu ma'i rnam gzhag snying por dril ba;གཞན་སྟོང་དབུ་མའི་རྣམ་གཞག་སྙིང་པོར་དྲིལ་བ།;A Concise Presentation of Other-Emptiness Madhyamaka

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Kunga Yeshe Gyatso: The Excellence of the Middle Position: Annotations on Thoroughly Ascertaining the Great Middle Way of the Expansive Supreme Vehicle

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A collection of annotations on Tāranātha's Dbu ma theg mchog composed by his disciple Kunga Yeshe Gyamtso.

Theg mchog shin tu rgyas pa'i dbu ma chen po rnam par nges pa'i rnam bshad zin bris dbu phyogs legs pa;Jonang;gzhan stong;Kunga Yeshe Gyatso;ཀུན་དགའ་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་;Kun dga' ye shes rgya mtsho;Rgyal tshab ye shes rgya mtsho;Rje drung ye shes rgya mtsho;རྒྱལ་ཚབ་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་;རྗེ་དྲུང་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་;theg mchog shin tu rgyas pa'i dbu ma chen po rnam par nges pa'i rnam bshad zin bris dbu phyogs legs pa;ཐེག་མཆོག་ཤིན་ཏུ་རྒྱས་པའི་དབུ་མ་ཆེན་པོ་རྣམ་པར་ངེས་པའི་རྣམ་བཤད་ཟིན་བྲིས་དབུ་ཕྱོགས་ལེགས་པ།;The Excellence of the Middle Position: Annotations on Thoroughly Ascertaining the Great Middle Way of the Expansive Supreme Vehicle

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Ngawang Lodrö Drakpa: Great Exposition on Other-Emptiness

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Along with Dol po pa's Ri chos Nge don Rgya mtsho and Tāranātha’s Dbu ma Theg mchog Rab dbyed Brgyad, the Gzhan stong Chen mo comprises the third major textbook studied within the Gzhan stong Madhyamaka curriculum at major Jonang monastic universities, including 'Dzam thang Dgon pa, Bswe Dgon pa and Lcam mda' Dgon pa. For pedagogical reasons, and because of the structure of Mkhan po Blo grags' work, monks generally begin by studying sūtra gzhan stong separately from tantric gzhan stong in preparation for examining Dol po pa's synthetic masterpiece interweaving sūtra and tantra. In a coherent structure identical to the Ri chos, the Gzhan stong Chen mo presents gzhan stong philosophical thinking systematically in accord with the outline of ground (gzhi), path (lam) and fruition ('bras bu), treating sūtra gzhan stong within the main body of the text and tantric gzhan stong as an appendix. Michael Sheehy, 2007.

Gzhan stong chen mo;Jonang;gzhan stong;gzhi;Ngawang Lodrö Drakpa;ངག་དབང་བློ་གྲོས་གྲགས་པ་;ngag dbang blo gros grags pa;'dzam thang mkhan po blo gros grags pa;mkhan po blo grags;blo gros grags pa;འཛམ་ཐང་མཁན་པོ་བློ་གྲོས་གྲགས་པ་;མཁན་པོ་བློ་གྲགས་;བློ་གྲོས་གྲགས་པ་;Dzamthang Khenpo Lodrö Drakpa;Khenpo Lodrak;gzhan stong chen mo;གཞན་སྟོང་ཆེན་མོ།;Great Exposition on Other-Emptiness

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Jangtse Khenzur Sönam Kunga: Moon that Illuminates the Indian and Tibetan Interpretations of Buddha Nature

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A commentary on buddha-nature by twentieth-century Gelukpa scholar Jangtse Khenzur Sönam Kunga (1929–1995)

De bzhin gshegs pa snying po'i don rgya bod kyi mkhas pa'i bzhed srol ma 'dres par gsal bar byed pa'i zla gzhon;Geluk;Jangtse Khenzur Sönam Kunga;བྱང་རྩེ་མཁན་ཟུར་བསོད་ནམས་ཀུན་དགའ་;byang rtse mkhan zur bsod nams kun dga';de bzhin gshegs pa snying po'i don rgya bod kyi mkhas pa'i bzhed srol ma 'dres par gsal bar byed pa'i zla gzhon;དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་སྙིང་པོའི་དོན་རྒྱ་བོད་ཀྱི་མཁས་པའི་བཞེད་སྲོལ་མ་འདྲེས་པར་གསལ་བར་བྱེད་པའི་ཟླ་གཞོན།;Moon that Illuminates the Indian and Tibetan Interpretations of Buddha Nature

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Jikten Gönpo: A Response to the Question of How the Wheels of Dharma are Perfectly Resolved according to the Viewpoint of the Great Vehicle

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A response to questions (zhus lan) work by the Drikung Kagyu forefather Jikten Gönpo that includes an account of the twelve great events of the buddha with special reference to the turnings of the wheel of dharma.

Chos kyi 'khor lo legs par gtan la phab pa theg pa chen po'i tshul 'ong ges zhus pa;'bri gung skyob pa 'jig rten mgon po;Drikung Kagyu;Jikten Gönpo;འབྲི་གུང་སྐྱོབ་པ་འཇིག་རྟེན་མགོན་པོ་;'bri gung skyob pa 'jig rten mgon po;'jig rten mgon po;rin chen dpal;'jig rten gsum mgon;'bri gung gdan rabs 01;འཇིག་རྟེན་མགོན་པོ་;རིན་ཆེན་དཔལ་;འཇིག་རྟེན་གསུམ་མགོན་;འབྲི་གུང་གདན་རབས་༠༡་;chos kyi 'khor lo legs par gtan la phab pa theg pa chen po'i tshul 'ong ges zhus pa;ཆོས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ་ལེགས་པར་གཏན་ལ་ཕབ་པ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་ཚུལ་འོང་གེས་ཞུས་པ།;A Response to the Question of How the Wheels of Dharma are Perfectly Resolved according to the Viewpoint of the Great Vehicle

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Candrakīrti: Madhyamakāvatāra

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In Sanskrit, “Entrance to the Middle Way” (translated also as “Supplement to the Middle Way”); the major independent (as opposed to commentarial) work of the seventh-century Indian master Candrakīrti, who states that it is intended as an avatāra (variously rendered as “primer,” “entrance,” and “supplement”) to Nāgārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. The work is written in verse, to which the author provides an extensive prose commentary (bhāṣya). The work is organized around ten “productions of the aspiration to enlightenment” (bodhicittotpāda), which correspond to the ten stages (bhūmi) of the bodhisattva path (drawn largely from the Daśabhūmikasūtra) and their respective perfections (pāramitā), describing the salient practices and attainments of each. These are followed by chapters on the qualities of the bodhisattva, on the stage of buddhahood, and a conclusion. (Source: The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 489.)

Madhyamakāvatāra;Madhyamaka;Candrakīrti;ཟླ་བ་གྲགས་པ་;zla ba grags pa; Patsab Lotsāwa Nyima Drakpa;པ་ཚབ་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་ཉི་མ་གྲགས་པ་;pa tshab lo tsA ba nyi ma grags pa;Kṛṣṇapaṇḍita;Naktso Lotsāwa Tsultrim Gyalwa;ནག་འཚོ་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་རྒྱལ་བ་;Nag 'tsho lo tsA ba tshul khrims rgyal ba;dbu ma la 'jug pa;དབུ་མ་ལ་འཇུག་པ།;Entrance to the Middle Way;Madhyamakāvatāra;मध्यमकावतार;དབུ་མ་ལ་འཇུག་པ།

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Maitreya: Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārakārikā

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In Sanskrit, the “Ornament for the Mahāyāna Sūtras”; one of the Five Dharma Treatises of Maitreya (byams chos sde lnga) said to have been presented to Asaṅga by the bodhisattva Maitreya in the Tuṣita heaven. Written in verse, the text offers a systematic presentation of the practices of the bodhisattva from the standpoint of the Yogācāra school and is one of the most important of the Indian Mahāyāna śāstras. Its twenty-one chapters deal with (1) the proof that the Mahāyāna sūtras are the word of the Buddha; (2) taking refuge in the three jewels (ratnatraya); (3) the lineage (gotra) of enlightenment necessary to undertake the bodhisattva path; (4) the generation of the aspiration to enlightenment (bodhicittotpāda); (5) the practice of the bodhisattva; (6) the nature of reality, described from the Yogācāra perspective; (7) the attainment of power by the bodhisattva; (8) the methods of bringing oneself and others to maturation; (9) enlightenment and the three bodies of a buddha (trikāya); (10) faith in the Mahāyāna; (11) seeking complete knowledge of the dharma; (12) teaching the dharma; (13) practicing in accordance with the dharma; (14) the precepts and instructions received by the bodhisattva; (15) the skillful methods of the bodhisattva; (16) the six perfections (pāramitā) and the four means of conversion (saṃgrahavastu), through which bodhisattvas attract and retain disciples; (17) the worship of the Buddha; (18) the constituents of enlightenment (bodhipākṣikadharma); (19) the qualities of the bodhisattva; and (20-21) the consummation of the bodhisattva path and the attainment of buddhahood. (Source: The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, p. 514)

Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārakārikā;Maitreya;byams chos sde lnga;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; Śākyasiṁha;Kawa Paltsek;སྐ་བ་དཔལ་བརྩེགས་;ska ba dpal brtsegs;lo tsA ba ska ba dpal brtsegs;ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་སྐ་བ་དཔལ་བརྩེགས་;Prabhākaramitra;theg pa chen po mdo sde'i rgyan zhes bya ba'i tshig le'ur byas pa;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་མདོ་སྡེའི་རྒྱན་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཚིག་ལེའུར་བྱས་པ།;Ornament of the Mahāyāna Sūtras;Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārakārikā;大乘莊嚴經論;महायानसूत्रालंकारकारिका

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Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje: The Profound Inner Meaning

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Rang byung's most famous, and perhaps most difficult work is yet another verse text, his Zab mo nang don, on the Anuttarayogatantras. This eleven-chapter work is thirty-two folios in length. According to a colophon provided by Kong sprul, it was written in the Water Male Dog year, 1322, at Bde chen steng. The colophons to the present redactions say only that it was written in the Dog Year. (Source: Schaeffer, K., The Enlightened Heart of Buddhahood, p. 16)

Zab mo nang don;Karma Kagyu;Vajrayana;Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje;རང་བྱུང་རྡོ་རྗེ་;rang byung rdo rje;karma pa gsum pa;ཀརྨ་པ་གསུམ་པ་;Karmapa, 3rd;zab mo nang don;ཟབ་མོ་ནང་དོན།;The Profound Inner Meaning;ཟབ་མོ་ནང་གི་དོན།

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Śākya Chokden: Treatise on the History of Madhyamaka entitled a Mountain of Wish-fulfilling Stories

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A history of the Madhyamaka philosophy in India and Tibet written by Śākya Chokden between 1484-1490 in Lhasa with Kongtön Chökyi Gyaltsen as scribe.

Dbu ma'i byung tshul rnam par bshad pa'i gtam yid bzhin lhun po zhes bya ba'i bstan bcos;Madhyamaka;Sakya;Śākya Chokden;ཤཱཀྱ་མཆོག་ལྡན་;shAkya mchog ldan;dbu ma'i byung tshul rnam par bshad pa'i gtam yid bzhin lhun po zhes bya ba'i bstan bcos;དབུ་མའི་བྱུང་ཚུལ་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པའི་གཏམ་ཡིད་བཞིན་ལྷུན་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་བསྟན་བཅོས།;Treatise on the History of Madhyamaka entitled a Mountain of Wish-fulfilling Stories

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Pema Karpo: An Exposition of Mahāmudrā: The Treasure Vault of the Victors

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In his exposition of the Mahāmudrā view in the Phyag chen rgyal ba’i gan mdzod, Padma dkar po adopts Yang dgon pa’s famous distinction between the mahāmudrā in the modes of abiding (gnas lugs phyag chen) and error ( ’khrul lugs phyag chen) as an interpretive schema both for [1] clarifying the doctrine of the unity or nonduality of the two truths—which he takes as a central doctrine of the Madhyamaka, Mantrayāna and ’Brug pa Bka’ brgyud traditions—and [2] criticizing the rival Jo nang account of reality which posits the conventional and ultimate as two great kingdoms that have nothing in common. (Source: Mahamudra and the Middle Way - Vol. 2, 157.)

Phyag rgya chen po'i man ngag gi bshad sbyar rgyal ba'i gan mdzod;Pema Karpo;པདྨ་དཀར་པོ་;pad+ma dkar po;kun mkhyen pad+ma dkar po;ngag dbang nor bu;kun dga' rnam rgyal nor bu;mi pham pad+ma dkar po phyogs las rnam par rgyal ba'i sde;blo gsal dbang po;ཀུན་མཁྱེན་པདྨ་དཀར་པོ་;ངག་དབང་ནོར་བུ་;ཀུན་དགའ་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་ནོར་བུ་;མི་ཕམ་པདྨ་དཀར་པོ་ཕྱོགས་ལས་རྣམ་པར་རྒྱལ་བའི་སྡེ་;བློ་གསལ་དབང་པོ་;phyag rgya chen po'i man ngag gi bshad sbyar rgyal ba'i gan mdzod;ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོའི་མན་ངག་གི་བཤད་སྦྱར་རྒྱལ་བའི་གན་མཛོད།;An Exposition of Mahāmudrā: The Treasure Vault of the Victors

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Gendun Özer: Quintessential Essence of the Condensed Ultimate Definitive Meaning: An Explanation of the Mahāyāna Uttaratantra

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In his commentary [Gendun Özer] mentions that he composed it for his students who had requested that he write something that would differ from the "coarse explanation" (bshad nyog rtsing po) of the Uttaratantra offered by the "early commentators" (snga rabs pa) of the Kadam tradition. While Gendün Özer does not intend to succumb to a "coarse explanation" of the Indian treatise, he follows his early Kadam predecessors' exposition in terms of doctrinal position, even though his literary style is different, with numerous poetic verses of admiration. In this time period it is not surprising that he wrote the commentary primarily in consultation with Ngok's Tibetan translation (rngog 'gyur) of the Uttaratantra, but the author also used the translations made by Naktso and Patsap wherever necessary. (Source: Tsering Wangchuk. The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, 59.)

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i rnam bshad don dam rnam nges bsdus pa'i snying po'i snying po;Kadam;Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;Gendun Özer;དགེ་འདུན་འོད་ཟེར་;dge 'dun 'od zer;theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i rnam bshad don dam rnam nges bsdus pa'i snying po'i snying po;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་རྣམ་བཤད་དོན་དམ་རྣམ་ངེས་བསྡུས་པའི་སྙིང་པོའི་སྙིང་པོ།;Quintessential Essence of the Condensed Ultimate Definitive Meaning: An Explanation of the Mahāyāna Uttaratantra

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Gö Lotsāwa Zhönu Pal: The Blue Annals

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The famous historical work by Gö Lotsawa Zhönu Pal (1392-1481), likely referenced by more scholars than any other single work. It was translated into English by G. Roerich with the help of Gendün Chöpel.

Deb ther sngon po;Gö Lotsāwa Zhönu Pal;འགོས་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་གཞོན་ནུ་དཔལ་;'gos lo tsA ba gzhon nu dpal;yid bzang rtse ba;mgos lo tsA ba gzhon nu dpal;'gos lo tsā ba gzhon nu dpal;ཡིད་བཟང་རྩེ་བ་;མགོས་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་གཞོན་ནུ་དཔལ་;deb ther sngon po;དེབ་ཐེར་སྔོན་པོ་;The Blue Annals

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Khenpo Gangshar: Naturally Liberating Whatever You Meet: Instructions to Guide You on the Profound Path

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Thrangu Rinpoche met Khenpo Gangshar in the summer of 1957 when Khenpo Gangshar went to Thrangu Monastery in eastern Tibet. While there, Khenpo Gangshar gave these instructions, which are a distillation of the essential points ofthe practices of both mahamudra and dzogchen. Later they were written down, first in a very short form and then as the slightly longer text known as "Naturally Liberating Whatever You Meet." What makes them so beneficial for our time is that Khenpo Gangshar presents them in a way that is easy for anyone to understand and put into practice. (Source: Vivid Awareness, Translator's Introduction, pp. IX-X)

Zab lam khrid kyi man ngag 'phrad tshad rang grol;Dzogchen;Mahamudra;Khenpo Gangshar;མཁན་པོ་གང་ཤར་;Mkhan po gang shar;gang shar dbang po;gang shar dbang po 'jigs med phyogs las rnam rgyal;གང་ཤར་དབང་པོ་འཇིགས་མེད་ཕྱོགས་ལས་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་;གང་ཤར་རང་གྲོལ་དབང་པོ་;Khenpo Gangshar Wangpo;Khenpo Gangshar Rangdrol Wangpo;Zab lam khrid kyi man ngag 'phrad tshad rang grol;ཟབ་ལམ་ཁྲིད་ཀྱི་མན་ངག་འཕྲད་ཚད་རང་གྲོལ།;Naturally Liberating Whatever You Meet: Instructions to Guide You on the Profound Path;ཟབ་ལམ་ཁྲིད་ཀྱི་མན་ངག་འཕྲད་ཚད་རང་གྲོལ།

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Aśvaghoṣa: Mahāyānaśraddhotpādaśāstra

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The Treatise on the Awakening of Faith According to the Mahāyāna is an immensely important treatise popular in all traditions of Buddhism in East Asia. It was written in China in the middle of the sixth century, heavily influenced by Indian Yogācāra and tathāgatagarbha teachings, providing a scriptural foundation for both buddha-nature theory and the doctrine of original enlightenment. The text synthesized tathāgatagarbha and ālayavijñāna theories to explain how the mind is the source for both enlightenment and ignorance. A relatively short text at just nine pages, it lucidly, if densely, explains important topics such as the nature of mind and consciousness and the threefold bodies of the Buddha, concluding with elegant meditation instructions. Although traditionally said to have been composed by Aśvaghoṣa and translated by Paramārtha, contemporary scholarly consensus has raised doubts about this attribution, and the text's authorship is typically said to be unknown.

The Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna;History of buddha-nature in China;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Chinese Buddhism;Actualized Enlightenment;Original Enlightenment;Aśvaghoṣa;རྟ་དབྱངས་;rta dbyangs; Paramārtha;Śikṣānanda;Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna;Mahāyānaśraddhotpādaśāstra;大乗起信論

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Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye: Treasury of Knowledge

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In Tibetan religious literature, its ten books stand out as a unique masterpiece embodying the entire range of Buddhist teachings as they were preserved in Tibet. In his monumental work, Jamgön Kongtrul presents an encyclopedic account of the major lines of thought and practice that comprise Tibetan Buddhism. (source: Tsadra Foundation's Treasury of Knowledge Series)

Shes bya kun la khyab pa'i mdzod;'jam mgon kong sprul;Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye;འཇམ་མགོན་ཀོང་སྤྲུལ་;'jam mgon kong sprul;blo gros mtha' yas;yon tan rgya mtsho;'jam mgon chos kyi rgyal po;pad+ma gar dbang blo gros mtha' yas;pad+ma gar gyi dbang phyug rtsal;pad+ma gar dbang phrin las 'gro 'dul rtsal;བློ་གྲོས་མཐའ་ཡས་;ཡོན་ཏན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་;འཇམ་མགོན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་;པདྨ་གར་དབང་བློ་གྲོས་མཐའ་ཡས་;པདྨ་གར་གྱི་དབང་ཕྱུག་རྩལ་;པདྨ་གར་དབང་ཕྲིན་ལས་འགྲོ་འདུལ་རྩལ་;Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye;འཇམ་མགོན་ཀོང་སྤྲུལ་;'jam mgon kong sprul;blo gros mtha' yas;yon tan rgya mtsho;'jam mgon chos kyi rgyal po;pad+ma gar dbang blo gros mtha' yas;pad+ma gar gyi dbang phyug rtsal;pad+ma gar dbang phrin las 'gro 'dul rtsal;བློ་གྲོས་མཐའ་ཡས་;ཡོན་ཏན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་;འཇམ་མགོན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་;པདྨ་གར་དབང་བློ་གྲོས་མཐའ་ཡས་;པདྨ་གར་གྱི་དབང་ཕྱུག་རྩལ་;པདྨ་གར་དབང་ཕྲིན་ལས་འགྲོ་འདུལ་རྩལ་;shes bya kun la khyab pa'i mdzod;ཤེས་བྱ་ཀུན་ལ་ཁྱབ་པའི་མཛོད།;Treasury of Knowledge;ཤེས་བྱ་ཀུན་ལ་ཁྱབ་པའི་མཛོད།

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Tāranātha: Supplication to the Profound Other-Emptiness Madhyamaka Lineage

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Tāranātha's lineage supplication to the other-emptiness Madhyamaka tradition that was preserved by the Jonang school. Tāranātha traces the origin of the other-emptiness to the Buddha, who passed it down through Maitreya, Asaṅga, Vasubandhu to Maitripa or from Vasubandhu through Sthiramati, Guṇamāti, et al. to Maitrīpa, or from Buddha through Vajrapaṇi, Rahulabhadra, Nāgārjuna, Śabari, Maitrīpa, from Maitrīpa through Anandakīrti, Ratnakaraśānti, Sajjṇāna, Anandavajra, then in Tibet through Tsen Khawoche, et al. until Tāranātha.

Zab mo gzhan stong dbu ma'i brgyud 'debs;gzhan stong;Jonang;Tāranātha;ཏཱ་ར་ནཱ་ཐ་;tA ra nA tha;kun dga' snying po;ཀུན་དགའ་སྙིང་པོ་;zab mo gzhan stong dbu ma'i brgyud 'debs;ཟབ་མོ་གཞན་སྟོང་དབུ་མའི་བརྒྱུད་འདེབས།;Supplication to the Profound Other-Emptiness Madhyamaka Lineage;ཟབ་མོ་གཞན་སྟོང་དབུ་མའི་བརྒྱུད་འདེབས།

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Nāropa: Dṛṣṭisaṁkṣipta

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A brief song on the view of Mahāmudrā attributed to the famed Indian master Nāropa.

Lta ba mdor bsdus pa;Mahamudra; Marpa Chökyi Lodrö;མར་པ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་བློ་གྲོས་;mar pa chos kyi blo gros;mar pa lo tsA ba;མར་པ་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་;lta ba mdor bsdus pa;ལྟ་བ་མདོར་བསྡུས་པ།;A Brief Account of the View;Dṛṣṭisaṁkṣipta;ལྟ་བ་མདོར་བསྡུས་པ།

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Getse Mahāpaṇḍita Tsewang Chokdrup: Ornament of Sugatagarbha

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Getse Mahāpaṇḍita's work on Great Madhyamaka, the Ornament of Sugatagarbha.

Nges don dbu ma chen po'i tshul rnam par nges pa'i gtam bde gshegs snying po'i rgyan;Great Madhyamaka;Getse Mahāpaṇḍita Tsewang Chokdrup;དགེ་རྩེ་མ་ཧཱ་པཎྡི་ཏ་ཚེ་དབང་མཆོག་གྲུབ་;Dge rtse ma hA paN+Di ta tshe dbang mchog grub;dge rtse paN chen 'gyur med tshe dbang mchog grub;kaH thog dge rtse paN+Di ta;kaH thog dge rtse ma ha paN+Di ta;'gyur med tshe dbang mchog grub;དགེ་རྩེ་པཎ་ཆེན་འགྱུར་མེད་ཚེ་དབང་མཆོག་གྲུབ་;ཀཿ་ཐོག་དགེ་རྩེ་པཎྜི་ཏ་;ཀཿ་ཐོག་དགེ་རྩེ་མ་ཧ་པཎྜི་ཏ་;འགྱུར་མེད་ཚེ་དབང་མཆོག་གྲུབ་;Getse Panchen Gyurme Tsewang Chogdrup;Katok Getse Pandita;Katok Getse Mahapandita;Gyurme Tsewang Chokdrup;Nges don dbu ma chen po'i tshul rnam par nges pa'i gtam bde gshegs snying po'i rgyan;ངེས་དོན་དབུ་མ་ཆེན་པོའི་ཚུལ་རྣམ་པར་ངེས་པའི་གཏམ་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོའི་རྒྱན།;Ornament of Sugatagarbha

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Maitreya: Abhisamayālaṃkāra

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In Sanskrit, “Ornament of Realization”; a major scholastic treatise of the Mahāyāna, attributed to Maitreyanātha (c. 330 ce). Its full title is Abhisamayālaṃkāra-prajñāpāramitā upadeśa-śāstra (T. Shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa'i man ngag gi bstan bcos mngon par rtogs pa'i rgyan) or “Treatise Setting Forth the Perfection of Wisdom called ‘Omament for Realization.’” In the Tibetan tradition, the Abhisamayālaṃkāra is counted among the five treatises of Maitreya (Byams chos sde lnga). The 273 verses of the Abhisamayālaṃkāra provide a schematic outline of the perfection of wisdom, or prajñāpāramitā, approach to enlightenment, specifically as delineated in the Pañcaviṃśati-sāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā (“Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines”). This detailed delineation of the path is regarded as the “hidden teaching” of the prajñāpāramitā sūtras. Although hardly known in East Asian Buddhism (until the modern Chinese translation by Fazun), the work was widely studied in Tibet, where it continues to hold a central place in the monastic curricula of all the major sects. (Source: The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, p. 11)

Abhisamayālaṃkāra;Maitreya;byams chos sde lnga;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; Pal Gomi Chime;དཔལ་གོ་མི་འཆི་མེད;dpal go mi 'chi med;pan Di ta dpal go mi 'chi med;dpal btsun pa 'chi med;srigomiamar;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;mngon par rtogs ba'i rgyan;མངོན་པར་རྟོགས་པའི་རྒྱན།;Ornament of Clear Realization;Abhisamayālaṃkāra;अभिसमयालंकार

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The First Drikung Chungtsang, Rikdzin Chökyi Drakpa: Light of the Sun: Detailed Exposition of the Excellent Dharma, the Single Intention, a Well-Expressed Clarification of the Meaning of the Scriptures

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Rikdzin Chökyi Drakpa's extensive commentary on the Sacred Teaching on the Single Intention (Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa), one of the core texts of the Drikung Kagyu tradition that is reported to be the oral teachings of Jikten Gönpo that were written down and edited together by his student Sherab Jungne.

Dam pa'i chos dgongs pa gcig pa'i rnam bshad lung don gsal byed legs bshad nyi ma'i snang ba;Drikung Kagyu;'bri gung skyob pa 'jig rten mgon po;Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa;The First Drikung Chungtsang, Rikdzin Chökyi Drakpa;ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་;chos kyi grags pa;'bri gung rig 'dzin chos kyi grags pa;'bri gung pa chos kyi grags pa;rig 'dzin chos kyi grags pa;kun mkhyen rig 'dzin chos grags;rdo rje 'dzin pa chos kyi grags pa;shAkya'i dge slong chos kyi grags pa;dus mtha'i sngags 'chang chos kyi grags pa;dkon mchog phun tshogs;chos kyi grags pa phrin las rnam par rgyal ba'i sde;thugs kyi rdo rje;che mchog 'dus pa rtsal;pad+ma ba dz+ra rtsal;dbur smyon;rtag pa'i rdo rje;'bri gung pa gshin rje'i gshed kyi rnal 'byor pa rig 'dzin chos kyi grags pa;འབྲི་གུང་རིག་འཛིན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་;འབྲི་གུང་པ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་;རིག་འཛིན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་;ཀུན་མཁྱེན་རིག་འཛིན་ཆོས་གྲགས་;རྡོ་རྗེ་འཛིན་པ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་;ཤཱཀྱའི་དགེ་སློང་ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་;དུས་མཐའི་སྔགས་འཆང་ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་;དཀོན་མཆོག་ཕུན་ཚོགས་;ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་ཕྲིན་ལས་རྣམ་པར་རྒྱལ་བའི་སྡེ་;ཐུགས་ཀྱི་རྡོ་རྗེ་;ཆེ་མཆོག་འདུས་པ་རྩལ་;པདྨ་བ་ཛྲ་རྩལ་;དབུར་སྨྱོན་;རྟག་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་;འབྲི་གུང་པ་གཤིན་རྗེའི་གཤེད་ཀྱི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་པ་རིག་འཛིན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་;dam pa'i chos dgongs pa gcig pa'i rnam bshad lung don gsal byed legs bshad nyi ma'i snang ba;དམ་པའི་ཆོས་དགོངས་པ་གཅིག་པའི་རྣམ་བཤད་ལུང་དོན་གསལ་བྱེད་ལེགས་བཤད་ཉི་མའི་སྣང་བ།;Light of the Sun: Detailed Exposition of the Excellent Dharma, the Single Intention, a Well-Expressed Clarification of the Meaning of the Scriptures

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Tsele Natsok Rangdrol: The Vajra Convergence: A Teaching on How to Practice the View and Meditation of the Definitive Meaning

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An overview of the views of Dzogchen, Mahāmudrā, and Madhyamaka and the methods of applying them in practice, with particular attention given to the ways in which these three converge.

Nges don gyi lta sgom nyams su len tshul ji lta bar ston pa rdo rje'i mdo 'dzin;Tsele Natsok Rangdrol;རྩེ་ལེ་སྣ་ཚོགས་རང་གྲོལ་;rtse le sna tshogs rang grol;nges don gyi lta sgom nyams su len tshul ji lta bar ston pa rdo rje'i mdo 'dzin;ངེས་དོན་གྱི་ལྟ་སྒོམ་ཉམས་སུ་ལེན་ཚུལ་ཇི་ལྟ་བར་སྟོན་པ་རྡོ་རྗེའི་མདོ་འཛིན།;The Vajra Convergence: A Teaching on How to Practice the View and Meditation of the Definitive Meaning

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Butön Rinchen Drup: Ornament That Illuminates and Beautifies the Tathāgata Heart

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Butön's study on the theory of the tathāgatagarbha written in 1359. In this text he argues that the teachings on buddha-nature are of an expedient or provisional meaning, which is a position that is typical of the Sakya view as set forth by Sakya Paṇḍita and others. He backs up this position with citations from the Ghanavyūhasūtra, the Laṅkāvatārasūtra, the Śrīmālādevīsūtra, the Aṅgulimālīyasūtra, and the Ratnagotravibhāga.

Bde gshegs snying po gsal ba'i rgyan;Provisional or definitive;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Tibetan Buddhism;Sakya;Butön Rinchen Drup;བུ་སྟོན་རིན་ཆེན་གྲུབ་;bu ston rin chen grub;bu ston kha che;bu ston thams cad mkhyen pa;Buton Khache;Butön Tamche Khyenpa;Rinchen Drub;bde gshegs snying po gsal ba'i rgyan;བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་གསལ་བའི་རྒྱན།;Ornament That Illuminates and Beautifies the Tathāgata Heart;བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་གསལ་བའི་རྒྱན།

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Mipam Gyatso: Lion's Roar: Exposition of Buddha-Nature

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Mipam lays out his view of buddha-nature in a short text called Lion's Roar: Exposition of Buddha-Nature, which draws on another of the five treatises of Maitreya, the Sublime Continuum. Here he presents three main arguments showing why all beings have buddha-nature. He also distinguishes his view of buddha-nature, which he portrays as the unconditioned unity of emptiness and appearance, from other traditions' views. Namely, he contrasts his view with traditions that maintain buddhanature as truly real and not empty (Jonang), traditions that hold buddhanature to be simply the mind's absence of true existence (Geluk), and traditions that maintain that the cognitive quality of buddha-nature—the element that is in unity with emptiness—is impermanent (a Sakya view). (Source: Duckworth, Douglas. Jamgön Mipham: His Life and Teachings. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2011: p 58.)

Bde gshegs snying po'i stong thun chen mo seng+ge'i nga ro;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Tibetan Buddhism;Nyingma;Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;Mipam Gyatso;མི་ཕམ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་;mi pham rgya mtsho;mi pham 'jam dbyangs rnam rgyal rgya mtsho;'jam dpal dgyes pa'i rdo rje;'ju mi pham;མི་ཕམ་འཇམ་དབྱངས་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་;འཇམ་དཔལ་དགྱེས་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་;འཇུ་མི་ཕམ་;mipham;bde gshegs snying po'i stong thun chen mo seng+ge'i nga ro;བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོའི་སྟོང་ཐུན་ཆེན་མོ་སེངྒེའི་ང་རོ།;Lion's Roar: Exposition of Buddha-Nature;བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོའི་སྟོང་ཐུན་ཆེན་མོ་སེངྒེའི་ང་རོ།

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Śākya Chokden: Ascertaining the Dharmadhātu: a Detailed Explanation of the Dharmadhātustava

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A commentary on Nāgārjuna's Dharmadhātustava by the renowned Sakya scholar Śākya Chokden.

Chos kyi dbyings su bstod pa zhes bya ba'i bstan bcos rnam par bshad pa chos kyi dbyings rnam par nges pa;Śākya Chokden;ཤཱཀྱ་མཆོག་ལྡན་;shAkya mchog ldan;chos kyi dbyings su bstod pa zhes bya ba'i bstan bcos rnam par bshad pa chos kyi dbyings rnam par nges pa;ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས་སུ་བསྟོད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས་རྣམ་པར་ངེས་པ།;Ascertaining the Dharmadhātu: a Detailed Explanation of the Dharmadhātustava

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Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim: Guiding Instructions on the Path of the Nature of Phenomena

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One of a series of short texts by the Kadam scholar Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim, which represent an intersection between the works of Maitreya, particularly the Ratnagotravibhāga, and the practical instructions of Mahāmudrā.

Chos nyid kyi lam khrid;Buddha-nature as Luminosity;Mahamudra;Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim;སྐྱོ་སྟོན་སྨོན་ལམ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་;skyo ston smon lam tshul khrims;chos nyid kyi lam khrid;ཆོས་ཉིད་ཀྱི་ལམ་ཁྲིད།;Guiding Instructions on the Path of the Nature of Phenomena

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Jikten Gönpo, Sherab Jungne: Sacred Teaching on the Single Intention

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The primary text in the Drikung Kagyu tradition.

Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa;Drikung Kagyu;Jikten Gönpo;འབྲི་གུང་སྐྱོབ་པ་འཇིག་རྟེན་མགོན་པོ་;'bri gung skyob pa 'jig rten mgon po;'jig rten mgon po;rin chen dpal;'jig rten gsum mgon;'bri gung gdan rabs 01;འཇིག་རྟེན་མགོན་པོ་;རིན་ཆེན་དཔལ་;འཇིག་རྟེན་གསུམ་མགོན་;འབྲི་གུང་གདན་རབས་༠༡་; Sherab Jungne;འབྲི་གུང་སྤྱན་སྔ་ཤེས་རབ་འབྱུང་གནས་;'bri gung spyan snga shes rab 'byung gnas;spyan snga shes rab 'byung gnas;'bri gung dbon shes rab 'byung gnas;'bri gung gling pa;dbon shes rab 'byung gnas;སྤྱན་སྔ་ཤེས་རབ་འབྱུང་གནས;འབྲི་གུང་དབོན་ཤེས་རབ་འབྱུང་གནས;འབྲི་གུང་གླིང་པ;དབོན་ཤེས་རབ་འབྱུང་གནས;dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa;དམ་ཆོས་དགོངས་པ་གཅིག་པ།;Sacred Teaching on the Single Intention

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Gampopa: Ornament of Precious Liberation: A Wish-Fulfilling Gem of Sublime Dharma

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One of Gampopa's most enduring works. It was one of the first "stages of the path" (lam rim) texts to be written by a Tibetan, after the genre was introduced by Atiśa through his famous composition Bodhipathapradīpa, The Stages of the Path to Enlightenment.

Dwags po thar rgyan;The Path;Kagyu;Gampopa;སྒམ་པོ་པ་;sgam po pa;dwags po lha rje;bsod nams rin chen;dwags po zla 'od gzhon nu;dwags po rin po che;དྭགས་པོ་ལྷ་རྗེ་;བསོད་ནམས་རིན་ཆེན་;དྭགས་པོ་ཟླ་འོད་གཞོན་ནུ་;དྭགས་པོ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་;Jé Gampopa;Dakpo Rinpoche;Takpo Rinpoche;Je Dakpo Rinpoche;Je Takpo Rinpoche;Da'od Zhonnu;Dagpo Lhaje;The Physician from Dagpo;Nyamed Dakpo Rinpoche;The Incomparible Precious One from Dagpo;Ü-pa Tönpa;Dam chos yid bzhin gyi nor bu thar pa rin po che'i rgyan;དམ་ཆོས་ཡིད་བཞིན་གྱི་ནོར་བུ་ཐར་པ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་རྒྱན།;Ornament of Precious Liberation: A Wish-Fulfilling Gem of Sublime Dharma;དམ་ཆོས་ཡིད་བཞིན་གྱི་ནོར་བུ་ཐར་པ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་རྒྱན།

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Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje: An Explanation of In Praise of Madhyamaka-Dharmadhātu

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A commentary by the Third Karmapa on Nāgārjuna's Dharmadhātustava.

Dbu ma chos dbyings bstod pa'i rnam par bshad pa;Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje;རང་བྱུང་རྡོ་རྗེ་;rang byung rdo rje;karma pa gsum pa;ཀརྨ་པ་གསུམ་པ་;Karmapa, 3rd;dbu ma chos dbyings bstod pa'i rnam par bshad pa;དབུ་མ་ཆོས་དབྱིངས་བསྟོད་པའི་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པ།;An Explanation of In Praise of Madhyamaka-Dharmadhātu

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Eighth Karmapa Mikyö Dorje: The Lamp That Excellently Elucidates the System of the Proponents of the Other-Emptiness Madhyamaka

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In terms of its contents, the Lamp represents a digest of the Uttaratantra, discussing its seven vajra points. In particular, the text’s structure closely follows the first chapter of the Uttaratantra and RGVV, explaining the first four vajra points in detail. Thus, the Lamp refers to both the Uttaratantra and RGVV throughout, though each one is only quoted explicitly once. In addition, the text cites the Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśaparivarta, the Avataṃsakasūtra, and the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārabhāṣya (once each). It also refers to the Dharmadharmatāvibhāga, the Madhyāntavibhāga, the Kālacakratantra, and six verses from the Dharmadhātustava. (Karl Brunnhölzl. When the Clouds Part, 2015: p. 323.)

Dbu ma gzhan stong smra ba'i srol legs par phye ba'i sgron me;Karma Kagyu;Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;Zhentong;Eighth Karmapa Mikyö Dorje;མི་བསྐྱོད་རྡོ་རྗེ་;mi bskyod rdo rje;karma pa brgyad pa;chos kyi grags pa dpal bzang po;ཀརྨ་པ་བརྒྱད་པ་;ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་དཔལ་བཟང་པོ་;Karmapa, 8th;dbu ma gzhan stong smra ba'i srol legs par phye ba'i sgron me;དབུ་མ་གཞན་སྟོང་སྨྲ་བའི་སྲོལ་ལེགས་པར་ཕྱེ་བའི་སྒྲོན་མེ།;The Lamp That Excellently Elucidates the System of the Proponents of the Other-Emptiness Madhyamaka;དབུ་མ་གཞན་སྟོང་སྨྲ་བའི་སྲོལ་ལེགས་པར་ཕྱེ་བའི་སྒྲོན་མེ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ།

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Eighth Karmapa Mikyö Dorje: Chariot of the Siddhas of the Dakpo Kagyu: The Oral Instructions of Glorious Dusum Khyenpa, an Extensive Commentary on the Madhyamakāvatāra

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The Eighth Karmapa's commentary on Candrakīrti's Madhyamakāvatāra (Entry into the Middle Way), presented as the oral instructions of the First Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa.

Dbu ma la 'jug pa'i rnam bshad dpal ldan dus gsum mkhyen pa'i zhal lung dwags brgyud grub pa'i shing rta;Madhyamaka;Karmapa, 1st;Eighth Karmapa Mikyö Dorje;མི་བསྐྱོད་རྡོ་རྗེ་;mi bskyod rdo rje;karma pa brgyad pa;chos kyi grags pa dpal bzang po;ཀརྨ་པ་བརྒྱད་པ་;ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་དཔལ་བཟང་པོ་;Karmapa, 8th; dbu ma la 'jug pa'i rnam bshad dpal ldan dus gsum mkhyen pa'i zhal lung dwags brgyud grub pa'i shing rta;དབུ་མ་ལ་འཇུག་པའི་རྣམ་བཤད་དཔལ་ལྡན་དུས་གསུམ་མཁྱེན་པའི་ཞལ་ལུང་དྭགས་བརྒྱུད་གྲུབ་པ་ཤིང་རྟ།;Chariot of the Siddhas of the Dakpo Kagyu: The Oral Instructions of Glorious Dusum Khyenpa, an Extensive Commentary on the Madhyamakāvatāra

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Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje: The Treatise on Pointing Out the Tathāgata Heart

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The Third Karmapa's treatise on buddha-nature written in verse, which is essentially a synopsis of the Uttaratantra. According to Schaeffer, "This verse text (De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po gtan la dbab pa, or De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po bstan pa) blends scriptural quotations from both sūtra and tantra with Rang byung's own words, creating an evocative picture of the relation between the primordially pure enlightened state- symbolized by the Enlightened Heart (snying po)- human existence, and Buddhahood. While Rang byung has relied heavily on the Ratnagotravibhāgaśāstra, (known in Tibet as the Uttaratantra, or Rgyud bla ma), the syncretism of various strands of Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna apparent in the text is particular to Tibet. Tathāgatagarbha, Madhyamaka, Yogācāra, Mahāmudrā, and Annuttarayogatantra all coalesce in this work, which is a testament to the hundreds of years of appropriation and synthesis of Indian and Tibetan Buddhist thought that preceded it. - Kurtis Schaeffer, from the introduction to The Enlightened Heart of Buddhahood.

De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po bstan pa'i bstan bcos;Karma Kagyu;Vajrayana;Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje;རང་བྱུང་རྡོ་རྗེ་;rang byung rdo rje;karma pa gsum pa;ཀརྨ་པ་གསུམ་པ་;Karmapa, 3rd;de bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po bstan pa'i bstan bcos;དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་བསྟན་པའི་བསྟན་བཅོས།;The Treatise on Pointing Out the Tathāgata Heart;དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་བསྟན་པའི་བསྟན་བཅོས།

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Fifteenth Karmapa Khakhyab Dorje: Annotated Commentary on the Treatise on Pointing Out the Tathāgata Heart

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An annotated commentary written by the fifteenth Karmapa on the Third Karmapa's verses on buddha-nature, The Treatise on Pointing Out the Tathāgata Heart.

De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po bstan pa'i bstan bcos kyi mchan 'grel;Karma Kagyu;Karmapa, 3rd;De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po bstan pa'i bstan bcos;Fifteenth Karmapa Khakhyab Dorje;མཁའ་ཁྱབ་རྡོ་རྗེ་;mkha' khyab rdo rje;karma pa bco lnga pa;don grub rdo rje;ཀརྨ་པ་བཅོ་ལྔ་པ་;དོན་གྲུབ་རྡོ་རྗེ་;Karmapa, 15th; de bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po bstan pa'i bstan bcos kyi mchan 'grel byams mgon dgyes pa'i zhal lung nor bu dbang gi rgyal po dri ma med pa'i 'od;དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་བསྟན་པའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་མཆན་འགྲེལ་བྱམས་མགོན་དགྱེས་པའི་ཞལ་ལུང་ནོར་བུ་དབང་གི་རྒྱལ་པོ་དྲི་མ་མེད་པའི་འོད།;Annotated Commentary on the Treatise on Pointing Out the Tathāgata Heart

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Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye: A Commentary on The Treatise on Pointing Out the Tathāgata Heart, Illuminating the Intention of Rangjung

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Kongtrul's commentary on the Third Karmapa's short verse synopsis of the Uttaratantra, The Treatise on Pointing Out the Tathāgata Heart. As he states in the opening of the text: "The Omniscient Victor spoke about [this Heart] in the collection of the sūtras of the final definitive meaning and in the very profound collection of tantras in an unconcealed and clear way. The illustrious sons of this victor, such as the mighty lords of the tenth bhūmi, the regent Ajita and Avalokiteśvara, as well as the mahāsiddha Saraha and his heirs, noble Nāgārjuna, venerable Asaṅga, and others commented on it as being [the Buddha's] direct and straightforward intention. The way of being of the very profound actuality of this Heart does not fit within the scope of the minds of those who roam the [sphere of] dialectics. It was extensively illuminated by the second mighty sage, Rangjung Dorje, the charioteer who was the first in the land of snow mountains to utter the unassailable great lion's roar of the Heart that is the definitive meaning. The quintessence of all his excellent words is this Treatise on Pointing Out the Tathāgata Heart."

De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po bstan pa'i bstan bcos kyi rnam 'grel rang byung dgongs gsal;Karma Kagyu;Vajrayana;De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po bstan pa'i bstan bcos;Karmapa, 3rd;Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye;འཇམ་མགོན་ཀོང་སྤྲུལ་;'jam mgon kong sprul;blo gros mtha' yas;yon tan rgya mtsho;'jam mgon chos kyi rgyal po;pad+ma gar dbang blo gros mtha' yas;pad+ma gar gyi dbang phyug rtsal;pad+ma gar dbang phrin las 'gro 'dul rtsal;བློ་གྲོས་མཐའ་ཡས་;ཡོན་ཏན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་;འཇམ་མགོན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་;པདྨ་གར་དབང་བློ་གྲོས་མཐའ་ཡས་;པདྨ་གར་གྱི་དབང་ཕྱུག་རྩལ་;པདྨ་གར་དབང་ཕྲིན་ལས་འགྲོ་འདུལ་རྩལ་; de bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po bstan pa'i bstan bcos kyi rnam 'grel rang byung dgongs gsal;དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་བསྟན་པའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་འགྲེལ་རང་བྱུང་དགོངས་གསལ།;A Commentary on The Treatise on Pointing Out the Tathāgata Heart, Illuminating the Intention of Rangjung

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Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje, Fifth Shamarpa Könchok Yenlak: Treatise on Pointing Out the Tathāgata Heart Together with Annotations

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This work is an edition of the Third Karmapa's Treatise on Pointing Out the Tathāgata Heart (De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po bstan pa'i bstan bcos) embellished with interlinear annotations by the Fifth Shamarpa.

De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po gtan la dbab pa'i bstan bcos mchan can;Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje;རང་བྱུང་རྡོ་རྗེ་;rang byung rdo rje;karma pa gsum pa;ཀརྨ་པ་གསུམ་པ་;Karmapa, 3rd; Fifth Shamarpa Könchok Yenlak;དཀོན་མཆོག་ཡན་ལག་;dkon mchog yan lag;zhwa dmar lnga pa;dkon mchog 'bangs;zla ba chu skyes;spyan snga dkon mchog 'bangs;ཞྭ་དམར་ལྔ་པ་;དཀོན་མཆོག་འབངས་;ཟླ་བ་ཆུ་སྐྱེས་;སྤྱན་སྔ་དཀོན་མཆོག་འབངས་;Shamarpa, 5th;de bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po gtan la dbab pa'i bstan bcos mchan can;དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་གཏན་ལ་དབབ་པའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་མཆན་ཅན།;Treatise on Pointing Out the Tathāgata Heart Together with Annotations

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Maitreya: Dharmadharmatāvibhāga

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One of the Five Dharma Treatises of Maitreya (byams chos sde lnga). This work exists only in Tibetan translation, of which there are two versions: the Dharmadharmatāvibhāga (chos dang chos nyid rnam par 'byed pa) presented in prose, and the Dharmadharmatāvibhāgakārikā (chos dang chos nyid rnam par 'byed pa'i tshig le'ur byas pa) presented in verse. "The text explains saṃsāra (= dharma) and the nirvāṇa (= dharmatā) attained by the śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha, and bodhisattva; like the Madhyāntavibhāga, it uses the three-nature (trisvabhāva) terminology to explain that, because there is no object or subject, the transcendent is beyond conceptualization. It presents the paths leading to transformation of the basis (aśrayaparāvṛtti), and enumerates ten types of tathatā (suchness)." (Source: The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, p. 244)

Dharmadharmatāvibhāga;Maitreya;byams chos sde lnga;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; Śāntibhadra;Badantabarma;Bharohamtung;Chiterwa;Hangdu Karpo;Mahākarunika;Tsaham Pandita Zhiwa Zangpo (zhi ba bzang po);Naktso Lotsāwa Tsultrim Gyalwa;ནག་འཚོ་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་རྒྱལ་བ་;Nag 'tsho lo tsA ba tshul khrims rgyal ba;Mahājana;Lotsawa Senge Gyaltsen;ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་སེང་གེ་རྒྱལ་མཚན;lo tsA ba seng ge rgyal mtshan;sgra bsgyur gyi lo tsA ba seng ge rgyal mtshan;seng ge rgyal mtshan;chos dang chos nyid rnam par 'byed pa;ཆོས་དང་ཆོས་ཉིད་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པ།;Distinguishing Phenomena and Their Nature;Dharmadharmatāvibhāga;धर्मधर्मताविभाग

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Nāgārjuna: Dharmadhātustava

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Also known as the Dharmadhātustotra, it is a praise written in verse attributed to Nāgārjuna. A Sanskrit manuscript found in Tibet was recently published in 2015. However, before this it was only extant in Tibetan and Chinese translations, though fragments of this text were found to be quoted in other Sanskrit texts. It is notable as perhaps the only work of Nāgārjuna that takes a positivistic view of emptiness and the existence of wisdom, in this case represented by the dharmadhātu. In fact much of the language echoes descriptions of buddha-nature. Though modern scholarship has thus called the attribution of this text to Nāgārjuna into question based on its contents, Tibetan scholars have utilized the text as a support for works that promote or defend tathāgatagarbha and it is especially prominently featured in works on other-emptiness (gzhan stong) and Great Madhyamaka.

Dharmadhātustava;Nāgārjuna;ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་;klu sgrub;'phags pa klu sgrub;slob dpon chen po nA gardzu na;slob dpon klu sgrub;འཕགས་པ་ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་;སློབ་དཔོན་ཆེན་པོ་ནཱ་གརྫུ་ན་;སློབ་དཔོན་ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་;Ārya Nāgārjuna; Kṛṣṇapaṇḍita;Naktso Lotsāwa Tsultrim Gyalwa;ནག་འཚོ་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་རྒྱལ་བ་;Nag 'tsho lo tsA ba tshul khrims rgyal ba;Dānapāla;chos kyi dbyings su bstod pa;ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས་སུ་བསྟོད་པ།;In Praise of Dharmadhātu;Dharmadhātustava;讚法界頌;धर्मधातुस्तव

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Tāranātha: Essential Points on the Origins of the Cycle of Teachings on the Kālacakra

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Tāranātha's history of the Kālacakra teachings.

Dpal dus kyi 'khor lo'i chos bskor gyi byung khungs nyer mkho;Kālacakra;Tāranātha;ཏཱ་ར་ནཱ་ཐ་;tA ra nA tha;kun dga' snying po;ཀུན་དགའ་སྙིང་པོ་;dpal dus kyi 'khor lo'i chos bskor gyi byung khungs nyer mkho;དཔལ་དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོའི་ཆོས་བསྐོར་གྱི་བྱུང་ཁུངས་ཉེར་མཁོ།;Essential Points on the Origins of the Cycle of Teachings on the Kālacakra

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Rendawa Zhönu Lodrö: The Jewel Lamp Illuminating the Definitive Meaning of the Glorious Kālacakra

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The Jewel Lamp Illuminating the Definitive Meaning of the Glorious Kālacakra was Rendawa Zhönu Lodrö's final work.

Dpal dus kyi 'khor lo'i nges don gsal bar byed pa rin po che'i sgron ma;Sakya;Kālacakra;Rendawa Zhönu Lodrö;རེད་མདའ་བ་གཞོན་ནུ་བློ་གྲོས་;red mda' ba gzhon nu blo gros;dpal dus kyi 'khor lo'i nges don gsal bar byed pa rin po che'i sgron ma;དཔལ་དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོའི་ངེས་དོན་གསལ་བར་བྱེད་པ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་སྒྲོན་མ།;The Jewel Lamp Illuminating the Definitive Meaning of the Glorious Kālacakra

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Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen: Distinguishing Dharma: A Letter to Pön Jangpa

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A lengthy polemical work by Dölpopa that addresses various disputed philosophical positions. Pön Jangpa sent Dolpopa some polemical writings with a measure of gold as gift asking him to send him response. In response, Dölpopa wrote this treatise explaining how self-emptiness as many Tibetan scholars understood is not the ultimate truth but buddha-nature endowed with buddha qualities is.

Dpon byang ba'i phyag tu phul ba'i chos kyi shan 'byed;gzhan stong;Jonang;Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen;དོལ་པོ་པ་ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་;dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan;shes rab rgyal mtshan;shes rab mgon;rton pa bzhi ldan;ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་;ཤེས་རབ་མགོན་;རྟོན་པ་བཞི་ལྡན་;Dpon byang ba'i phyag tu phul ba'i chos kyi shan 'byed;དཔོན་བྱང་བའི་ཕྱག་ཏུ་ཕུལ་བའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཤན་འབྱེད།;Distinguishing Dharma: A Letter to Pön Jangpa;དཔོན་བྱང་པའི་ཕྱག་ཏུ་ཕུལ་བའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཤན་འབྱེད་

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Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye: Immaculate Light Rays of the Vajra Moon: Instructions on the View of Other-Emptiness of Great Madhyamaka

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Written at Dzamtang, a monastic city in southern Amdo that is the primary institutional base of the Jonang school, this work by the famed Kagyu scholar Jamgön Kongtrul is characterized by Brunnhölzl as "an eclectic blend of what could be called "Kagyü Shentong" (primarily based on Maitrīpa, the Third and Seventh Karmapas, and the Eighth and Ninth Situpas) and "Jonang Shentong" (based on Dölpopa and especially Tāranātha), as well as some elements of Śākya Chogden’s Shentong."

Gzhan stong dbu ma chen po'i lta khrid rdo rje zla ba dri ma med pa'i 'od zer;gzhan stong;Karma Kagyu;Vajrayana;Mahamudra;Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye;འཇམ་མགོན་ཀོང་སྤྲུལ་;'jam mgon kong sprul;blo gros mtha' yas;yon tan rgya mtsho;'jam mgon chos kyi rgyal po;pad+ma gar dbang blo gros mtha' yas;pad+ma gar gyi dbang phyug rtsal;pad+ma gar dbang phrin las 'gro 'dul rtsal;བློ་གྲོས་མཐའ་ཡས་;ཡོན་ཏན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་;འཇམ་མགོན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་;པདྨ་གར་དབང་བློ་གྲོས་མཐའ་ཡས་;པདྨ་གར་གྱི་དབང་ཕྱུག་རྩལ་;པདྨ་གར་དབང་ཕྲིན་ལས་འགྲོ་འདུལ་རྩལ་;gzhan stong dbu ma chen po'i lta khrid rdo rje zla ba dri ma med pa'i 'od zer;གཞན་སྟོང་དབུ་མ་ཆེན་པོའི་ལྟ་ཁྲིད་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཟླ་བ་དྲི་མ་མེད་པའི་འོད་ཟེར།;Immaculate Light Rays of the Vajra Moon: Instructions on the View of Other-Emptiness of Great Madhyamaka

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Tāranātha: Ornament of Other-Emptiness Madhyamaka

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A polemical work defending the other-emptiness view of the Jonang tradition that addresses the criticism of this position by other Tibetan schools. This discursive text discusses the provisional or ultimate nature of the three turnings of the wheel of dharma, the position of Indian masters and philosophical schools, the intent of the Mahāyāna sūtras and the rebuts the criticism of other-emptiness by proponents of the self-emptiness theory in Tibet.

Gzhan stong dbu ma'i rgyan;Jonang;Zhentong;Tāranātha;ཏཱ་ར་ནཱ་ཐ་;tA ra nA tha;kun dga' snying po;ཀུན་དགའ་སྙིང་པོ་;gzhan stong dbu ma'i rgyan;གཞན་སྟོང་དབུ་མའི་རྒྱན།;Ornament of Other-Emptiness Madhyamaka;གཞན་སྟོང་དབུ་མའི་རྒྱན།

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Tāranātha: The Scriptural Citations for the Ornament of Madhyamaka of Other-Emptiness

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A supplement to Tāranātha's Ornament of Madhyamaka of Other-Emptiness (Gzhan stong dbu ma'i brgyan) that focuses on the scriptural sources of the other-emptiness philosophy. The scriptural citations and reference which were barely mentioned or referred to in the Ornament of Madhyamaka of Other-Emptiness are quoted in full to substantiate the claims of the proponents of Other-Emptiness.

Gzhan stong dbu ma'i rgyan gyi lung sbyor;Jonang;Zhentong;Tāranātha;ཏཱ་ར་ནཱ་ཐ་;tA ra nA tha;kun dga' snying po;ཀུན་དགའ་སྙིང་པོ་;gzhan stong dbu ma'i rgyan gyi lung sbyor;གཞན་སྟོང་དབུ་མའི་རྒྱན་གྱི་ལུང་སྦྱོར།;The Scriptural Citations for the Ornament of Madhyamaka of Other-Emptiness;གཞན་སྟོང་དབུ་མའི་རྒྱན་གྱི་ལུང་སྦྱོར།

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Mipam Gyatso: Lion's Roar: Affirming Other Emptiness

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Mipam's other "lion's roar"—his Lion's Roar: Affirming Other Emptiness—shows the way he establishes an other-emptiness view that affirms the existence of the ultimate truth as not empty of its own essence. (Source: Duckworth, Douglas. Jamgön Mipham: His Life and Teachings. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2011: p 58.)

Gzhan stong khas len seng ge'i nga ro;Nyingma;Zhentong;Mipam Gyatso;མི་ཕམ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་;mi pham rgya mtsho;mi pham 'jam dbyangs rnam rgyal rgya mtsho;'jam dpal dgyes pa'i rdo rje;'ju mi pham;མི་ཕམ་འཇམ་དབྱངས་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་;འཇམ་དཔལ་དགྱེས་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་;འཇུ་མི་ཕམ་;mipham;gzhan stong khas len seng ge'i nga ro;གཞན་སྟོང་ཁས་ལེན་སེང་གེའི་ང་རོ།;Lion's Roar: Affirming Other Emptiness;གཞན་སྟོང་ཁས་ལེན་སེང་གེའི་ང་རོ།

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Tsen Khawoche: Instructions on the View of Other-Emptiness

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A brief summary of the three natures (trisvabhāva / rang bzhin gsum) of the Yogācāra school that was reportedly reproduced from a manuscript of the writings of Tsen Khawoche and included in the One Hundred and Eight Instructions of the Jonang (Jo nang khrid brgya), that was edited together by Kunga Drolchok. If reports of its provenance are correct, then it would likely be the earliest appearance in a Tibetan work of the terms other-emptiness (gzhan stong) and Great Madhyamaka (dbu ma chen po).

Gzhan stong lta khrid;Great Madhyamaka;gzhan stong;Kadam;trisvabhāva;Yogācāra;Tsen Khawoche;བཙན་ཁ་བོ་ཆེ་;btsan kha bo che;dri med shes rab;དྲི་མེད་ཤེས་རབ་;Gzhan stong lta khrid;གཞན་སྟོང་ལྟ་ཁྲིད།;Instructions on the View of Other-Emptiness;གཞན་སྟོང་ལྟ་ཁྲིད།

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Tāranātha: Essence of Other-Emptiness

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A fairly brief work by Tāranātha on the basic tenets of the four systems of Buddhist philosophy, namely the Vaibhāṣika, Sautrāntrika, Cittamātra, and Madhyamaka. His exposition culminates with a presentation of the Great Madhyamaka, the pinnacle of the four, which is synonymous with other-emptiness as represented by the Jonang tradition.

Gzhan stong snying po;Third Turning;Jonang;Zhentong;Meditative Tradition;Tāranātha;ཏཱ་ར་ནཱ་ཐ་;tA ra nA tha;kun dga' snying po;ཀུན་དགའ་སྙིང་པོ་;gzhan stong snying po;གཞན་སྟོང་སྙིང་པོ།;Essence of Other-Emptiness;གཞན་སྟོང་སྙིང་པོ།

Ngawang Tsoknyi Gyatso: Dispelling the Darkness of Partiality: A Commentary on Illumination of the Topics of Tenet Systems by Omniscient Jonangpa

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This is a commentary by the Jonangpa scholar Ngawang Tsoknyi Gyatso on the treatise composed by Dolpopa entitled Illuminating the Topics of Tenet Systems. Dolpopa composed the treatise in verse for the Yuan emperor Toghon Temür, who invited Dolpopa to China but Dolpopa declined. Yet, he wrote the treatise for the emperor and he presents his theory of the Middle Way of Other-Emptiness. Ngawang Tsoknyi Gyatso provides a very clear and incisive commentary in prose for Dolpopa's verse text.

Ngawang Tsoknyi Gyatso;ངག་དབང་ཚོགས་གཉིས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་;ngag dbang tshogs gnyis rgya mtsho;'dzam thang mkhan po tshogs gnyis rgya mtsho;tshogs gnyis rgya mtsho;འཛམ་ཐང་མཁན་པོ་ཚོགས་གཉིས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་;ཚོགས་གཉིས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་;kun mkhyen chen pos mdzad pa'i grub mtha'i rnam bzhag don gsal gyi 'grel ba phyogs lhung mun sel;ཀུན་མཁྱེན་ཆེན་པོས་མཛད་པའི་གྲུབ་མཐའི་རྣམ་བཞག་དོན་གསལ་གྱི་འགྲེལ་བ་ཕྱོགས་ལྷུང་མུན་སེལ།;Dispelling the Darkness of Partiality: A Commentary on Illumination of the Topics of Tenet Systems by Omniscient Jonangpa

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Ngawang Tsoknyi Gyatso: Removing the Anguish of Holding to Extremes: Explanation of Omniscient Jonangpa's Madhyamaka of Other Emptiness

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A treatise on the Madhyamaka philosophy of Other-Emptiness (gzhan stong) as inherited from Dölpopa by the influential modern Jonangpa scholar Ngawang Tsoknyi Gyatso (1880-1940). Tsoknyi Gyatso explains the system of the ground, path and result in this text, followed by a synopsis of the Ultimate Continuum.

Kun mkhyen jo nang pa chen po'i dgongs pa gzhan stong dbu ma'i tshul legs pa bshad mthar 'dzin gdung 'phrog;gzhan stong;Jonang;Ngawang Tsoknyi Gyatso;ངག་དབང་ཚོགས་གཉིས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་;ngag dbang tshogs gnyis rgya mtsho;'dzam thang mkhan po tshogs gnyis rgya mtsho;tshogs gnyis rgya mtsho;འཛམ་ཐང་མཁན་པོ་ཚོགས་གཉིས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་;ཚོགས་གཉིས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་;kun mkhyen jo nang pa chen po'i dgongs pa gzhan stong dbu ma'i tshul legs pa bshad mthar 'dzin gdung 'phrog;ཀུན་མཁྱེན་ཇོ་ནང་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་དགོངས་པ་གཞན་སྟོང་དབུ་མའི་ཚུལ་ལེགས་པར་བཤད་པ་མཐར་འཛིན་གདུང་འཕྲོག།;Removing the Anguish of Holding to Extremes: Explanation of Omniscient Jonangpa's Madhyamaka of Other Emptiness;ཀུན་མཁྱེན་ཇོ་ནང་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་དགོངས་པ་གཞན་སྟོང་དབུ་མའི་ཚུལ་ལེགས་པར་བཤད་པ་མཐར་འཛིན་གདུང་འཕྲོག།

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Ngawang Tsoknyi Gyatso: Illuminating Light: An Exegesis of Omniscient Jonangpa's Intent Aligned with General Treatises of Madhyamaka and Pramāṇa

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An explanation of the general meaning of the scriptures on Madhyamaka (dbu ma) and pramāṇa (tshad ma) by the influential modern Jonangpa scholar Ngawang Tsoknyi Gyatso (1880-1940).

Kun mkhyen jo nang pa'i bzhes dgongs dbu tshad kyi gzhung spyi dang gung bsgrigs te spyod pa'i spyi don rab gsal snang ba;Jonang;Madhyamaka;Ngawang Tsoknyi Gyatso;ངག་དབང་ཚོགས་གཉིས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་;ngag dbang tshogs gnyis rgya mtsho;'dzam thang mkhan po tshogs gnyis rgya mtsho;tshogs gnyis rgya mtsho;འཛམ་ཐང་མཁན་པོ་ཚོགས་གཉིས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་;ཚོགས་གཉིས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་;kun mkhyen jo nang pa'i bzhes dgongs dbu tshad kyi gzhung spyi dang gung bsgrigs te spyod pa'i spyi don rab gsal snang ba;ཀུན་མཁྱེན་ཇོ་ནང་པའི་བཞེས་དགོངས་དབུ་ཚད་ཀྱི་གཞུང་སྤྱི་དང་གུང་བསྒྲིགས་ཏེ་སྤྱོད་པའི་སྤྱི་དོན་རབ་གསལ་སྣང་བ།;Illuminating Light: An Exegesis of Omniscient Jonangpa's Intent Aligned with General Treatises of Madhyamaka and Pramāṇa;ཀུན་མཁྱེན་ཇོ་ནང་པའི་བཞེད་དགོངས་དབུ་ཚད་ཀྱི་གཞུང་སྤྱིའི་དགུང་བསྒྲིགས་ཏེ་དཔྱོད་པའི་སྤྱི་དོན་རབ་གསལ་སྣང་བ།

Rigdzin Gödem: Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra

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Rigdzin Gödem;རིག་འཛིན་རྒོད་ཀྱི་ལྡེམ་འཕྲུ་ཅན་;rig 'dzin rgod kyi ldem 'phru can;rig 'dzin rgod ldem;rig 'dzin dngos grub rgyal mtshan;rdor brag rig 'dzin gcig pa;རིག་འཛིན་རྒོད་ལྡེམ་;རིག་འཛིན་དངོས་གྲུབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་;རྡོར་བྲག་རིག་འཛིན་གཅིག་པ་;kun tu bzang po'i smon lam stobs po che;ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོའི་སྨོན་ལམ་སྟོབས་པོ་ཆེ།;Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra

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Vairocanarakṣita: Mahāyānottaratantraśāstraṭippaṇī

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One of only two extant Sanskrit commentaries to the Uttaratantra, the other being the pith instruction composed by Sajjana. However, this work seems to have not been translated into Tibetan and thus it had little, if any, influence on the development of the Tibetan exegesis of the Uttaratantra.

Mahāyānottaratantraśāstraṭippaṇī;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Indian Buddhism;Vairocanarakṣita;བཻ་རོ་ཙ་ན་རཀྵི་ཏ་;bai ro tsa na rak+Shi ta;rgyud bla ma'i tshig don rnam par 'grel pa;རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་ཚིག་དོན་རྣམ་པར་འགྲེལ་པ་;A Commentary on the Meaning of the Words of the “Uttaratantra”;Mahāyānottaratantraśāstraṭippaṇī;महायानोत्तरतन्त्रशास्त्रटिप्पणी

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Sajjana: Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa

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One of only two extant Sanskrit texts that comment on the Uttaratantra, this highly original work by Sajjana presents a contemplative approach to Maitreya's treatise from an author that was the veritable source for the Tibetan exegetical traditions spawned by his students Ngok Loden Sherab and Tsen Khawoche.

Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Indian Buddhism;Meditative Tradition;Sajjana;ས་ཛ་ན་;sa dza na;paN+Di ta sa dza na;sa dzdza na;པཎྜི་ཏ་ས་ཛ་ན་;ས་ཛཛ་ན་;Pith Instructions on "The Treatise on the Ultimate Continuum of the Mahāyāna";Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa;महायानोत्तरतन्त्रशास्त्रोपदेश

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Layakpa Jangchub Ngödrup: Ornament Illuminating the Essence: A Commentary on the Famous Text, the Four Dharmas of the Incomparable Dakpo

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A detailed commentary on Gampopa's Four Dharmas (chos bzhi) instruction for fundamental Buddhist practice. The root verses containing the four dharma of Gampopa were written by his learned student from Laya, Jangchub Ngödup exactly according to how Gampopa taught, and the extensive commentary containing a rich array of citations and arguments was authored by Jangchub Ngödup himself. The topic four dharmas of Gampopa refers to the four points of making dharma practice a genuine dharma practice, making dharma progress on the path, dispelling confusion on the path, and see confusion as pristine wisdom.

Mnyam med dwags po'i chos bzhir grags pa'i gzhung gi 'grel pa snying po gsal ba'i rgyan;Kagyu;Sgam po pa;Layakpa Jangchub Ngödrup;ལ་ཡག་པ་བྱང་ཆུབ་དངོས་གྲུབ་;la yag pa byang chub dngos grub;lho la yag pa;la yag jo sras;ལྷོ་ལ་ཡག་པ་;ལ་ཡག་ཇོ་སྲས་;mnyam med dwags po'i chos bzhir grags pa'i gzhung gi 'grel pa snying po gsal ba'i rgyan;མཉམ་མེད་དྭགས་པོའི་ཆོས་བཞིར་གྲགས་པའི་གཞུང་གི་འགྲེལ་པ་སྙིང་པོ་གསལ་བའི་རྒྱན།;Ornament Illuminating the Essence: A Commentary on the Famous Text, the Four Dharmas of the Incomparable Dakpo;མཉམ་མེད་དྭགས་པོའི་ཆོས་བཞིར་གྲགས་པའི་གཞུང་གི་འགྲེལ་པ་སྙིང་པོ་གསལ་བའི་རྒྱན།

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Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye: The Unassailable Lion's Roar

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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.

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;Kagyu;Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye;འཇམ་མགོན་ཀོང་སྤྲུལ་;'jam mgon kong sprul;blo gros mtha' yas;yon tan rgya mtsho;'jam mgon chos kyi rgyal po;pad+ma gar dbang blo gros mtha' yas;pad+ma gar gyi dbang phyug rtsal;pad+ma gar dbang phrin las 'gro 'dul rtsal;བློ་གྲོས་མཐའ་ཡས་;ཡོན་ཏན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་;འཇམ་མགོན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་;པདྨ་གར་དབང་བློ་གྲོས་མཐའ་ཡས་;པདྨ་གར་གྱི་དབང་ཕྱུག་རྩལ་;པདྨ་གར་དབང་ཕྲིན་ལས་འགྲོ་འདུལ་རྩལ་;phyir mi ldog pa seng ge'i nga ro;ཕྱིར་མི་ལྡོག་པ་སེང་གེའི་ང་རོ།;The Unassailable Lion's Roar

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Maitreya, Asaṅga: Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra

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The Ratnagotravibhāga, commonly known as the Uttaratantra, or Gyu Lama in Tibetan, is one of the main Indian scriptural sources for buddha-nature theory. It was likely composed during the fifth century, by whom we do not know. Comprised of verses interspersed with prose commentary, it systematizes the buddha-nature teachings that were circulating in multiple sūtras such as the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra, the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra, and the Śrīmaladevisūtra. The Tibetan tradition attributes the verses to the Bodhisattva Maitreya and the commentary to Asaṅga, and treats the two as separate texts, although this division is not attested to in surviving Indian versions. The Chinese tradition attributes the text to *Sāramati (娑囉末底), but the translation itself does not include the name of the author, and the matter remains unsettled. It was translated into Chinese in the early sixth century by Ratnamati and first translated into Tibetan by Atiśa, although this text is not known to survive. Ngok Loden Sherab translated it a second time based on teachings from the Kashmiri Pandita Sajjana, and theirs remains the standard translation. It has been translated into English several times, and recently into French. See the Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā, read more about the Ratnagotravibhāga, or take a look at the most complete English translation in When the Clouds Part by Karl Brunnholzl.

Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;Uttaratantra;byams chos sde lnga;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; Asaṅga;ཐོགས་མེད་;thogs med;slob dpon thogs med;སློབ་དཔོན་ཐོགས་མེད་;Āryāsaṅga;Sajjana;ས་ཛ་ན་;sa dza na;paN+Di ta sa dza na;sa dzdza na;པཎྜི་ཏ་ས་ཛ་ན་;ས་ཛཛ་ན་;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;Ratnamati;Rin chen blo gros;རིན་ཆེན་བློ་གྲོས;theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས།;The Treatise on the Ultimate Continuum of the Mahāyāna;Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;究竟一乘寶性論;रत्नगोत्रविभाग महायानोत्तरतन्त्रशास्त्र

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Asaṅga: Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā

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In the Tibetan tradition, which parses out the root verses and refers to that as the treatise (bstan bcos, śāstra), this title references the full text complete with the root verses and the accompanying prose commentary (rnam par bshad pa, vyākhyā). While the earlier Chinese tradition attributes authorship of both aspects of the text to the as of yet still mysterious figure of Sāramati, the Tibetan tradition attributes the treatise to the Bodhisattva Maitreya and this commentary to the illustrious founder of the Yogācāra school, Asaṅga. However, unlike the Chinese tradition which delineates different aspects of the text into the basic verses, the commentarial verses, and the prose commentary, the Tibetan tradition actually preserves two separate versions of the text we know as the Ratnagotravibhāga.

The first, made up entirely of the so-called root verses, corresponds to the Sanskrit title Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra, though it is usually referenced in this tradition by the Tibetan equivalent of the latter subtitle, Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos, which is commonly rendered into English as the Treatise on the Ultimate Continuum of the Great Vehicle and is abbreviated as RGV. However, the full title, Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos dkon mchog gi rigs rnam par dbye ba, does appear at the end of each chapter of the canonical Tibetan recensions. Nevertheless, this version is likely a Tibetan redaction, in that thus far there is no evidence of a Sanskrit version written entirely in verse that excludes the commentarial sections that explain them.

The second, which combines the verses with their accompanying prose commentary, corresponds to the *Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā as it has become known in academic circles where it is referenced with the abbreviation RGVV. However, in Tibetan the subtitle is merely appended with the equivalent of vyākhyā, i.e. Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos rnam par bshad pa, and thus a translation of the Tibetan title of the complete text would be something akin to the Explanatory Commentary on the Treatise on the Ultimate Continuum of the Great Vehicle. However, the extant Sanskrit recension of the Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra directly corresponds to the Tibetan version known as the *Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā, in that it contains both the root verses and the prose commentary. Though, again, lacking a Sanskrit work entitled the Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā, we can surmise that its corresponding Tibetan title was likely manufactured in order to delineate it from the streamlined verse redaction, while the Sanskrit title *Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā was in turn a product of modern scholars. On the surface it would seem that this title is a combination of the Chinese title back translated into Sanskrit as the Ratnagotraśāstra and the one found in the Tibetan editions, which state the Sanskrit title as the Mahāyānottaratantraśāstravyākhya. Nevertheless, in terms of content, the Sanskrit RGV corresponds to the Tibetan RGVV, in that the Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra is the same text as Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos rnam par bshad pa.

Also, see the Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra and for a recent essay on the text: On the Ratnagotravibhāga by Alexander Gardner.

Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā;Asaṅga;ཐོགས་མེད་;thogs med;slob dpon thogs med;སློབ་དཔོན་ཐོགས་མེད་;Āryāsaṅga; Sajjana;ས་ཛ་ན་;sa dza na;paN+Di ta sa dza na;sa dzdza na;པཎྜི་ཏ་ས་ཛ་ན་;ས་ཛཛ་ན་;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 pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos rnam par bshad pa;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པ།;Explanatory Commentary on the Treatise on the Ultimate Continuum of the Mahāyāna;Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā;रत्नगोत्रविभागव्याख्या;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པ།

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Tanak Rinchen Yeshe: Illumination of the Definitive Meaning: A Commentary on the Uttaratantra in Relation to the Sūtras

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A voluminous commentary on the Uttaratantra, which, as its title suggests, presents the treatise as a definitive work and elucidates it vis-a-vis the sūtras that are cited within it. It is noteworthy for its scholarship, as an early example of a Tibetan locating the scriptural source material of the Uttaratantra, as well as being widely considered an influential precursor to Dölpopa's treatment of the text.

Rgyud bla ma'i 'grel pa mdo dang sbyar ba nges pa'i don gyi snang ba;Zhentong;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Tibetan Buddhism;Provisional or definitive;Tanak Rinchen Yeshe;རྟ་ནག་རིན་ཆེན་ཡེ་ཤེས་;rta nag rin chen ye shes;rin chen ye shes;rta nag rin ye;རིན་ཆེན་ཡེ་ཤེས་;རྟ་ནག་རིན་ཡེ་;rgyud bla ma'i 'grel pa mdo dang sbyar ba nges pa'i don gyi snang ba;རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་འགྲེལ་པ་མདོ་དང་སྦྱར་བ་ངེས་པའི་དོན་གྱི་སྣང་བ།;Illumination of the Definitive Meaning: A Commentary on the Uttaratantra in Relation to the Sūtras

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Rendawa Zhönu Lodrö: Summary of the Ultimate Continuum: Clarifying the Meaning of Buddha-Nature

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In this short work, the famous Sakya scholar Rendawa presents his interpretation of and positions on the main topics covered by the Ultimate Continuum. While summarising the text, he points out how buddha-nature is to be understood as the luminous nature of the mind, and not as an absolute nature separate from the luminous aspect of the mind. He argues that buddha-nature, which is present in all sentient beings, is endowed with the universal quality of luminosity of the mind but not with the specific enlightened qualities of the Buddha. Thus, employing the common hermeneutic tools of reference,་purpose and direct contradiction, he considered the teachings on buddha-nature to be provisional teachings, which are not to be taken literally.

The Summary of the Ultimate Continuum: Clarifying the Meaning of Buddha-Nature;Rendawa Zhönu Lodrö;རེད་མདའ་བ་གཞོན་ནུ་བློ་གྲོས་;red mda' ba gzhon nu blo gros;rgyud bla ma'i don bsdus bde gshegs snying po'i don gsal;རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་དོན་བསྡུས་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོའི་དོན་གསལ།;Summary of the Ultimate Continuum: Clarifying the Meaning of Buddha-Nature;རྒྱུད་བླའི་དོན་བསྡུས་སམ་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོའི་དོན་གསལ།

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Śākya Chokden: An Explanation of the Uttaratantra in Four Chapters including the Peerless Sun and Others

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A detailed commentary on the Uttaratantra by an important Sakya scholar known for taking, at times, controversial stances that challenged the philosophical positions of even his own school. This work, thus, represents a unique view of buddha-nature that is unconfined by the sectarian affiliations that otherwise dominated the Tibetan philosophical landscape.

Rgyud bla ma'i rnam bshad sngon med nyi ma sogs chos tshan bzhi;Sakya;Buddha-nature as Luminosity;Provisional or definitive;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Tibetan Buddhism;Śākya Chokden;ཤཱཀྱ་མཆོག་ལྡན་;shAkya mchog ldan;rgyud bla ma'i rnam bshad sngon med nyi ma sogs chos tshan bzhi;རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་རྣམ་བཤད་སྔོན་མེད་ཉི་མ་སོགས་ཆོས་ཚན་བཞི།;An Explanation of the Uttaratantra in Four Chapters including the Peerless Sun and Others

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Rongtön Sheja Kunrik: Stages of Meditation of the Ultimate Continuum: Ornament of Maitreya's Intent

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This short text by Rongtön Sheja Kunrig contains instructions on how to put the topics contained in the Ultimate Continuum into actual practice. It is among the many practical instructions he has written pertaining to the classical texts which are widely studied in Tibetan scholarly centres. In the course of providing practical instructions, Rongtön makes clear his philosophical understanding of buddha-nature and his interpretation of the teachings on buddha-nature.

Rgyud bla ma'i sgom rim mi pham dgongs don;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;rgyud bla ma'i sgom rim mi pham dgongs rgyan;རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་སྒོམ་རིམ་མི་ཕམ་དགོངས་རྒྱན།;Stages of Meditation of the Ultimate Continuum: Ornament of Maitreya's Intent;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་མན་ངག་སྒོམ་ཚུལ་གྱི་རིམ་པ་མི་ཕམ་དགོངས་རྒྱན།

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Marpa Dopa Chökyi Wangchuk: A Commentary on the Meaning of the Words of the Uttaratantra

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An early Tibetan commentary on the Uttaratantra, both the śāstra and the vyākhyā, that purports to represent the teachings passed on by the Kashmiri Parahitabhadra to his Tibetan student Marpa, though it is not entirely clear whether this refers to Marpa Dopa or Marpa Chökyi Lodrö, both of whom were important early Kagyu masters and translators that travelled south to receive teachings which they imported and propagated in Tibet. Nevertheless, the text follows more closely Indian commentarial styles and includes typical Mahāmudrā type instructions in its exegesis. Thus it is a prime example of the lineage that descends from Maitrīpa that came to dominate the Kagyu school's approach to the Uttaratantra in later generations.

Rgyud bla ma'i tshig don rnam par 'grel pa;Kagyu;Mahamudra;Marpa Dopa Chökyi Wangchuk;མར་པ་དོ་པ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབང་ཕྱུག་;mar pa do pa chos kyi dbang phyug;mar pa do ba chos kyi dbang phyug;མར་པ་དོ་བ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབང་ཕྱུག་;rgyud bla ma'i tshig don rnam par 'grel pa;རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་ཚིག་དོན་རྣམ་པར་འགྲེལ་པ།;A Commentary on the Meaning of the Words of the Uttaratantra

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Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen: Mountain Dharma: An Ocean of Definitive Meaning

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Dolpopa's seminal work considered to be the most definitive philosophical treatise of the Jonang tradition. It became famous as the crucial source for the presentation of his view of other-emptiness (zhentong).

Ri chos nges don rgya mtsho zhes bya ba mthar thug thun mong ma yin pa'i man ngag;Jonang;Dol po pa;zhentong;Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen;དོལ་པོ་པ་ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་;dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan;shes rab rgyal mtshan;shes rab mgon;rton pa bzhi ldan;ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་;ཤེས་རབ་མགོན་;རྟོན་པ་བཞི་ལྡན་;ri chos nges don rgya mtsho zhes bya ba mthar thug thun mong ma yin pa'i man ngag;རི་ཆོས་ངེས་དོན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་མཐར་ཐུག་ཐུན་མོང་མ་ཡིན་པའི་མན་ངག་;Mountain Dharma: An Ocean of Definitive Meaning;རི་ཆོས་ངེས་དོན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་མཐར་ཐུག་ཐུན་མོང་མ་ཡིན་པའི་མན་ངག

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Śākya Chokden: Essence of Sūtra and Tantra: An Explanation of Buddhagarbha

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Śākya Chokden on buddha-nature. This text is a section of a more expansive work on the Ratnagotravibhāga, titled the rgyud bla ma'i rnam bshad sngon med nyi ma sogs chos tshan bzhi.

Sangs rgyas kyi snying po'i rnam bshad mdo rgyud snying po;Sakya;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Tibetan Buddhism;Śākya Chokden;ཤཱཀྱ་མཆོག་ལྡན་;shAkya mchog ldan;sangs rgyas kyi snying po'i rnam bshad mdo rgyud snying po;སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་སྙིང་པོའི་རྣམ་བཤད་མདོ་རྒྱུད་སྙིང་པོ།;Essence of Sūtra and Tantra: An Explanation of Buddhagarbha

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Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim: The Essential Pith Instructions That Summarize the Quintessence of the Piṭakas

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One of a series of short texts by the Kadam scholar Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim, this was composed in Narthang at the behest of Sonam Dar, a descendent of Kyide Nyima Gön and at the request of Geshe Gönden Ö and Yönten Ö. The text contains concise lamrim instructions starting with (1) instruction on the contemplation on precious humanhood, impermanence and the law of cause and effect, and the practice of taking refuge for the inferior individuals, (2) contemplation of defects of cycle of existence, renunciation and non-self for those following the path of the hearers and solitary realisers for the middling individuals, and (3) finally the cultivation of bodhicitta and meditation on non-conceptuality and luminous nature of the mind which is free from all elaborations for superior individuals. This brief teaching underscores the importance of eradicating conceptual thoughts and abiding in the non-conceptual luminous nature of the mind.

Sde snod bcud bsdus man ngag gi snying po;Buddha-nature as Luminosity;Mahamudra;Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim;སྐྱོ་སྟོན་སྨོན་ལམ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་;skyo ston smon lam tshul khrims;sde snod bcud bsdus man ngag gi snying po;སྡེ་སྣོད་བཅུད་བསྡུས་མན་ངག་གི་སྙིང་པོ།;The Essential Pith Instructions That Summarize the Quintessence of the Piṭakas;སྡེ་སྣོད་བཅུད་བསྡུས་ཀྱི་མན་ངག།

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Sakya Paṇḍita: Distinguishing the Three Vows

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Written circa 1232 when the author was about fifty years old, it is an expansive treatise on the three vows pertaining to the three vehicles of Buddhism that is one of Sakya Paṇḍita's most important and influential works. Nevertheless, it was controversial in its time for the criticism the author levels against the philosophical positions of various scholars and schools of thought.

Sdom gsum rab dbye;Debate(s);Provisional or definitive;Sakya;Sakya Paṇḍita;ས་སྐྱ་པཎྜི་ཏ་;sa skya paN+Di ta;kun dga' rgyal mtshan;sa skya paN+Di ta kun dga' rgyal mtshan;ཀུན་དགའ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་;ས་སྐྱ་པཎྜི་ཏ་ཀུན་དགའ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་;Sapaṇ;Sapen;Sapan;sdom gsum rab dbye;སྡོམ་གསུམ་རབ་དབྱེ།;Distinguishing the Three Vows;སྡོམ་པ་གསུམ་གྱི་རབ་དུ་དབྱེ་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ།

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Dōgen: Treasury of the True Dharma Eye

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“Treasury of the True Dharma Eye” is the magnum opus of the Japanese Zen master Dōgen (1200-1253).

Shōbōgenzō;History of buddha-nature in Japan;Zen - Chan;Dōgen;Dōgen Kigen (道元希玄);Dōgen Zenji (道元禅師);Eihei Dōgen (永平道元);Kōso Jōyō Daishi (高祖承陽大師);Busshō Dentō Kokushi (仏性伝東国師);Treasury of the True Dharma Eye;正法眼蔵

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Bötrul Dongak Tenpai Nyima: Notes on the Essential Points of Mipam’s Exposition of Buddha-Nature

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Notes on Mipam's Lion’s Roar: Exposition of Buddha-Nature, by an influential 20th century Nyingma scholar that took great pains to uphold and further the legacy of Mipam's scholastic contributions.

Stong thun gnad kyi zin thun;Nyingma;Bde gshegs snying po'i stong thun chen mo seng+ge'i nga ro;Mi pham rgya mtsho;Bötrul Dongak Tenpai Nyima;བོད་སྤྲུལ་མདོ་སྔགས་བསྟན་པའི་ཉི་མ་;bod sprul mdo sngags bstan pa'i nyi ma;bod sprul;bod pa sprul sku mdo sngags bstan pa'i nyi ma;thub bstan bshad sgrub thos bsam rgya mtsho;བོད་སྤྲུལ་;བོད་པ་སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་མདོ་སྔགས་བསྟན་པའི་ཉི་མ་;ཐུབ་བསྟན་བཤད་སྒྲུབ་ཐོས་བསམ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་;stong thun gnad kyi zin thun;སྟོང་ཐུན་གནད་ཀྱི་ཟིན་ཐུན།;Notes on the Essential Points of Mipam’s Exposition of Buddha-Nature

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Ngok Lotsāwa Loden Sherab: Condensed Meaning of the "Ultimate Continuum of the Mahāyāna"

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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"

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Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim: Instructions on "The Ultimate Continuum of the Mahāyāna"

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This work details instructions on the Ratnagotravibhāga that Maitrīpa reportedly received directly from Maitreya in a dream, which he then later retrieved, in actuality, discovering the text concealed within in a stūpa. Mönlam Tsultrim, the attributed Tibetan author of this work that lived centuries later, thus claims that he copied and edited this work from the original manuscript that was passed down in a lineage coming from Maitrīpa, himself.

Theg chen rgyud bla ma'i gdams pa;Mahamudra;Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim;སྐྱོ་སྟོན་སྨོན་ལམ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་;skyo ston smon lam tshul khrims;theg chen rgyud bla ma'i gdams pa;ཐེག་ཆེན་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་གདམས་པ།;Instructions on "The Ultimate Continuum of the Mahāyāna";ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་གདམས་པ།།

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Tāranātha: Thoroughly Ascertaining the Great Middle Way of the Expansive Supreme Vehicle

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An expansive work on the Zhentong philosophy known as Great Madhyamaka in the Jonang Tradition.

Theg mchog shin tu rgyas pa'i dbu ma chen po rnam par nges pa;Jonang;Zhentong;Tāranātha;ཏཱ་ར་ནཱ་ཐ་;tA ra nA tha;kun dga' snying po;ཀུན་དགའ་སྙིང་པོ་;theg mchog shin tu rgyas pa'i dbu ma chen po rnam par nges pa;ཐེག་མཆོག་ཤིན་ཏུ་རྒྱས་པའི་དབུ་མ་ཆེན་པོ་རྣམ་པར་ངེས་པ།;Thoroughly Ascertaining the Great Middle Way of the Expansive Supreme Vehicle

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Chomden Rikpai Raldri: Ornamental Flowers: A Commentary on the Mahāyāna Uttaratantra

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A rather brief work that, as Tsering Wangchuk states, is "the earliest extant Tibetan commentary on the Uttaratantra that cites both tantric and sutric sources to corroborate the claims made in the treatise."

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma rgyan gyi me tog;Buddha-nature as Luminosity;Vajrayana;Zhentong;Chomden Rikpai Raldri;བཅོམ་ལྡན་རིག་པའི་རལ་གྲི་;bcom ldan rig pa'i ral gri;bcom ldan ral gri;bcom ldan rigs pa'i ral gri;rig ral;dar ma rgyal mtshan;བཅོམ་ལྡན་རལ་གྲི་;བཅོམ་ལྡན་རིགས་པའི་རལ་གྲི་;རིག་རལ་;དར་མ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་;Rikrel;bCom-ldan-ral-gri;theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma rgyan gyi me tog;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མ་རྒྱན་གྱི་མེ་ཏོག།;Ornamental Flowers: A Commentary on the Mahāyāna Uttaratantra;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་ཏི་ཀ་རྒྱན་གྱི་མེ་ཏོག

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Gyalse Tokme Zangpo: Illuminating the Definitive Meaning of the Uttaratantra

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This work presents a late (14th century) Kadampa view on the Ratnagotravibhāga and the associated buddha-nature teachings by an influential representative of this tradition, often referred to as "the second Asaṅga" (thogs med gnyis pa).

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i 'grel pa nges don gsal bar byed pa'i 'od zer;Provisional or definitive;Gyalse Tokme Zangpo;ཐོགས་མེད་བཟང་པོ་;thogs med bzang po;rgyal sras thogs med bzang po;thogs med bzang po dpal;rgyal sras dngul chu thogs med;rgyal sras chos rdzong pa;dkon mchog bzang po;bzang po dpal;རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཐོགས་མེད་བཟང་པོ་;ཐོགས་མེད་བཟང་པོ་དཔལ་;རྒྱལ་སྲས་དངུལ་ཆུ་ཐོགས་མེད་;རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཆོས་རྫོང་པ་;དཀོན་མཆོག་བཟང་པོ་;བཟང་པོ་དཔལ་;theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i 'grel pa nges don gsal bar byed pa'i 'od zer;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་འགྲེལ་པ་ངེས་དོན་གསལ་བར་བྱེད་པའི་འོད་ཟེར།;Illuminating the Definitive Meaning of the Uttaratantra

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Dumowa Tashi Özer: Heart of the Luminous Sun

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Dumowa Tashi Özer's commentary on the Uttaratantra that is based on the Third Karmapa’s topical outline or summary (bsdus don).

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi 'grel ba gsal ba nyi ma'i snying po;Karma Kagyu;Dumowa Tashi Özer;བདུད་མོ་བ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་འོད་ཟེར་;bdud mo ba bkra shis 'od zer;Dümo Tashi Öser;Dümo Tashi Özer;Dümo Dashi Öser;theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi 'grel ba gsal ba nyi ma'i snying po;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་འགྲེལ་བ་གསལ་བ་ཉི་མའི་སྙིང་པོ།;Heart of the Luminous Sun;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་འགྲེལ་བ་གསལ་བ་ཉི་མའི་སྙིང་པོ།

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Gö Lotsāwa Zhönu Pal: The Commentary on the Treatise “Mahāyāna-Uttaratantra”: The Mirror Showing Reality Very Clearly

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Gö Lotsāwa Zhönu Pal's commentary to the Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā, that presents the text from within the mahāmudrā tradition of Maitrīpa and Gampopa. More specifically, as Mathes reports, the author, himself, states in his colophon that "he combined the commentarial tradition of Loden Sherab with Gampopa's and Drigung Jigten Sumgön's mahāmudrā interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhāga." (A Direct Path to the Buddha Within, p. 411.)

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi 'grel bshad de kho na nyid rab tu gsal ba'i me long;Kagyu;Mahamudra;Gö Lotsāwa Zhönu Pal;འགོས་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་གཞོན་ནུ་དཔལ་;'gos lo tsA ba gzhon nu dpal;yid bzang rtse ba;mgos lo tsA ba gzhon nu dpal;'gos lo tsā ba gzhon nu dpal;ཡིད་བཟང་རྩེ་བ་;མགོས་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་གཞོན་ནུ་དཔལ་;theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi 'grel bshad de kho na nyid rab tu gsal ba'i me long;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་འགྲེལ་བཤད་དེ་ཁོ་ན་ཉིད་རབ་ཏུ་གསལ་བའི་མེ་ལོང་།;The Commentary on the Treatise “Mahāyāna-Uttaratantra”: The Mirror Showing Reality Very Clearly

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Minyak Lama Yeshe Dorje: A Treasury of Jewels of the Definitive Meaning: An Explanation of the Treatise on the Ultimate Continuum of the Mahāyāna

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According to Brunnhölzl, this work "clearly subscribes to the disclosure model of buddha nature, asserting that the stainless tathāgata heart adorned with all major and minor marks as well as awakening exists in all beings, refuting that the reality of cessation is a nonimplicative negation, and denying the position that the fully qualified sugata heart exists solely on the buddhabhūmi, while it is only nominal at the time of sentient beings. Also, besides CMW and Mipham’s commentary, YDC is the only other commentary I have reviewed that explicitly connects the name and contents of the Uttaratantra with the vajrayāna notion of tantra, thus underlining the text’s reputation as a bridge between the sūtras and tantras."

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi bshad pa nges don nor bu'i mdzod;Disclosure model;Vajrayana;Minyak Lama Yeshe Dorje;མི་ཉག་བླ་མ་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྡོ་རྗེ་;mi nyag bla ma ye shes rdo rje;ye shes rdo rje dpal bzang po;ཡེ་ཤེས་རྡོ་རྗེ་དཔལ་བཟང་པོ་;Yeshé Dorje;Yeshé Dorje Bal Sangpo;theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi bshad pa nges don nor bu'i mdzod;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་བཤད་པ་ངེས་དོན་ནོར་བུའི་མཛོད།;A Treasury of Jewels of the Definitive Meaning: An Explanation of the Treatise on the Ultimate Continuum of the Mahāyāna

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Mipam Gyatso: Words of Mipam: Interlinear Commentary on the Uttaratantra

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Mipam's annotated commentary to the Uttaratantra, a commentarial style in which the root verses of the treatise are embedded in the text and are then explained word by word. This text overlaps significantly with his related work on this subject Lion’s Roar: Exposition of Buddha-Nature.

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi mchan 'grel mi pham zhal lung;Nyingma;Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;Mipam Gyatso;མི་ཕམ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་;mi pham rgya mtsho;mi pham 'jam dbyangs rnam rgyal rgya mtsho;'jam dpal dgyes pa'i rdo rje;'ju mi pham;མི་ཕམ་འཇམ་དབྱངས་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་;འཇམ་དཔལ་དགྱེས་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་;འཇུ་མི་ཕམ་;mipham;theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi mchan 'grel mi pham zhal lung;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་མཆན་འགྲེལ་མི་ཕམ་ཞལ་ལུང་།;Words of Mipam: Interlinear Commentary on the Uttaratantra;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་མཆན་འགྲེལ་མི་ཕམ་ཞལ་ལུང་།

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Sangpuwa Lodrö Tsungme: The Precious Lamp That Illuminates the Definitive Meaning of the Mahāyāna Uttaratantra Treatise

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An extensive commentary on the Uttaratantra written by a contemporary of Dölpopa and Butön during the height of the debate over the definitive nature of the treatise and its teaching on buddha-nature.

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi nges don gsal bar byed pa'i rin po che'i gron me;Sangpuwa Lodrö Tsungme;གསང་ཕུ་བ་བློ་གྲོས་མཚུངས་མེད་;gsang phu ba blo gros mtshungs med;theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi nges don gsal bar byed pa'i rin po che'i gron me;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་ངེས་དོན་གསལ་བར་བྱེད་པའི་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་གྲོན་མེ་;The Precious Lamp That Illuminates the Definitive Meaning of the Mahāyāna Uttaratantra Treatise

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Sabzang Mati Paṇchen Lodrö Gyaltsen: Illuminating the Definitive Meaning

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A detailed explanation of the Uttaratantra written by one of Dölpopa's chief disciples.

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi rnam par bshad pa nges don rab gsal snang ba;Jonang;Sabzang Mati Paṇchen Lodrö Gyaltsen;ས་བཟང་མ་ཏི་པཎ་ཆེན་བློ་གྲོས་རྒྱལ་མཚན་;sa bzang ma ti paN chen blo gros rgyal mtshan;'jam dbyangs blo gros;འཇམ་དབྱངས་བློ་གྲོས་;theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi rnam par bshad pa nges don rab gsal snang ba;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པ་ངེས་དོན་རབ་གསལ་སྣང་བ།;Illuminating the Definitive Meaning

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Chapa Chökyi Senge: An Extensive Explanation that Illuminates the Subtle Points of the Words and Meaning of the Mahāyāna Uttaratantra Treatise

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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

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Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen: The Sunlight Exposition: A Commentary on the Mahāyāna Uttaratantra Treatise

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Dölpopa's commentary on the Uttaratantra, which, although it doesn't actually use the term "other-emptiness", is an important precursor and source to the formulation of his unique Zhentong view found in his seminal work Mountain Dharma: An Ocean of Definitive Meaning (ri chos nges don rgya mtsho).

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos legs bshad nyi ma'i 'od zer;Jonang;Zhentong;Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen;དོལ་པོ་པ་ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་;dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan;shes rab rgyal mtshan;shes rab mgon;rton pa bzhi ldan;ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་;ཤེས་རབ་མགོན་;རྟོན་པ་བཞི་ལྡན་;theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos legs bshad nyi ma'i 'od zer;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ལེགས་བཤད་ཉི་མའི་འོད་ཟེར།;The Sunlight Exposition: A Commentary on the Mahāyāna Uttaratantra Treatise

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Rongtön Sheja Kunrik: Elegant Explanation of the Treatise of the Ultimate Continuum of the Mahāyāna

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An extensive explanatory commentary on the the Ultimate Continuum by one of the major scholastic voices of the Sakya school. As Bernert states, "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." (Christian Bernert. Perfect or Perfected? Rongtön on Buddha-Nature, 2018.

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos legs par bshad pa;Sakya;Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;Rangtong;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;theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos legs par bshad pa;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ལེགས་པར་བཤད་པ།;Elegant Explanation of the Treatise of the Ultimate Continuum of the Mahāyāna;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ལེགས་པར་བཤད་པ།

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Zhenpen Chökyi Nangwa: Interlinear Commentary on the Mahāyāna Uttaratantra Treatise

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An interlinear commentary on the Uttaratantra by the famed Khenpo Zhenga. It is one of a series of such works on the thirteen major treatises of Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism that became the basis for the curriculum at several major Tibetan monastic universities, such as those at Dzogchen and Dzongsar monasteries.

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos zhes bya ba'i mchan 'grel;Nyingma;Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;Zhenpen Chökyi Nangwa;གཞན་ཕན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྣང་བ་;gzhan phan chos kyi snang ba;mkhan po gzhan dga';rgya kong mkhan chen gzhan phan chos kyi snang ba;gzhan phan byams pa'i go cha;mkhas mchog gzhan phan snang ba;rdzogs chen mkhan rabs 19;rdzong sar mkhan rabs 01;མཁན་པོ་གཞན་དགའ་;རྒྱ་ཀོང་མཁན་ཆེན་གཞན་ཕན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྣང་བ་;གཞན་ཕན་བྱམས་པའི་གོ་ཆ་;མཁས་མཆོག་གཞན་ཕན་སྣང་བ་;རྫོགས་ཆེན་མཁན་རབས་༡༩་;རྫོང་སར་མཁན་རབས་༠༡་;Khenpo Zhenga;Khenpo Shenga;theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos zhes bya ba'i mchan 'grel;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་མཆན་འགྲེལ།;Interlinear Commentary on the Mahāyāna Uttaratantra Treatise

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Je Khenpo Gendun Rinchen: The Precious Lamp: An Extensive Explanation of the Words and Meaning of the Mahāyāna Uttaratantra

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This is a commentary on Ratnagotravibhāga by the 69th Je Khenpo of Bhutan, Gendun Rinchen. The commentary was composed in 1983 at the request of his students when he was giving lectures on Ratnagotravibhāga in the Maitreya Temple at Phajoding, Bhutan. It is most likely the first commentary by a Bhutanese scholar. The author claims to have based his commentary on the annotated commentary of Khenpo Zhenga while also including the best of other commentaries by Tibetan masters.

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i tshig don rnam par bshad pa rin chen sgron me;Je Khenpo Gendun Rinchen;དགེ་འདུན་རིན་ཆེན་;dge 'dun rin chen;brag phug dge shes;བྲག་ཕུག་དགེ་ཤེས་;theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i tshig don rnam par bshad pa rin chen sgron me;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་ཚིག་དོན་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པ་རིན་ཆེན་སྒྲོན་མེ།;The Precious Lamp: An Extensive Explanation of the Words and Meaning of the Mahāyāna Uttaratantra;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་ཚིག་དོན་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པ་རིན་ཆེན་སྒྲོན་མེ།

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Gyaltsap Je Darma Rinchen: Commentary on the Ultimate Continuum of the Mahāyāna

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Commentary on the Uttaratantra by a preeminent Geluk scholar that was a chief disciple of the school's founder, Tsongkhapa, as well as the Sakya scholar Rendawa Zhönu Lodrö, an outspoken critic of the treatise.

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i ṭīkka;Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;Rangtong;Buddha-nature as Emptiness;Madhyamaka;Geluk;Gyaltsap Je Darma Rinchen;རྒྱལ་ཚབ་རྗེ་དར་མ་རིན་ཆེན་;rgyal tshab rje dar ma rin chen;rgyal tshab rje;dga' ldan khri pa 02;རྒྱལ་ཚབ་རྗེ་;དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་པ་༠༢་;Ganden Tripa, 2nd;theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i ṭīkka;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་ཊཱི་ཀྐ།;Commentary on the Ultimate Continuum of the Mahāyāna

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Patrul Rinpoche: Outline of the Mahāyāna Treatise the Uttaratantra

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A topical outline of the Ratnagotravibhāga written by the famed 19th century Nyingma scholar Paltrul Rinpoche, Orgyen Jigme Chökyi Wangpo.

Theg pa chen po'i bstan bcos rgyud bla ma'i sa bcad;Nyingma;Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;Patrul Rinpoche;དཔལ་སྤྲུལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་;dpal sprul rin po che;o rgyan 'jigs med chos kyi dbang po;dpal sprul 'jigs med chos kyi dbang po;rdza dpal sprul;ཨོ་རྒྱན་འཇིགས་མེད་ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབང་པོ་;དཔལ་སྤྲུལ་འཇིགས་མེད་ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབང་པོ་;རྫ་དཔལ་སྤྲུལ་;theg pa chen po'i bstan bcos rgyud bla ma'i sa bcad;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་ས་བཅད།;Outline of the Mahāyāna Treatise the Uttaratantra;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་ས་བཅད།

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Kalkī Śrī Puṇḍarīka: Vimalaprabhā

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A crucial commentary to the Kālacakra Tantra purported to have been written by Kalkī Śrī Puṇḍarīka, the fabled Second King of Shambhala also known as Kulika Puṇḍarīka, though in the Tibetan tradition the work is sometimes attributed to the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara whom Puṇḍarīka was considered to be an emanation of. In the Tibetan tradition it is counted among the Three Cycles of Bodhisattva Commentaries (Sems 'grel skor gsum), which are a trilogy of canonical commentaries attributed to the transcendent Bodhisattvas Vajrapaṇi, Vajragarbha, and Avalokiteśvara on the Cakrasamvara, Hevajra, and Kālacakra Tantras, respectively.

Vimalaprabhā;Vajrayana;Kālacakra;Kalkī Śrī Puṇḍarīka;རིགས་ལྡན་པདྨ་དཀར་པོ་;rigs ldan pad+ma dkar po;rigs ldan gnyis pa pad+ma dkar po;རིགས་ལྡན་གཉིས་པ་པདྨ་དཀར་པོ་; Shongton Dorje Gyaltsen;ཤོང་སྟོན་རྡོ་རྗེ་རྒྱལ་མཚན;shong ston rdo rje rgyal mtshan;shong ston lo tsA ba rdo rje rgyal mtshan;Zhang mdo sde dpal;Mdo sde dpal;Zhang ston Mdo sde dpal;Drogön Chögyal Pakpa;འགྲོ་མགོན་ཆོས་རྒྱལ་འཕགས་པ་;'gro mgon chos rgyal 'phags pa;'phags pa blo gros rgyal mtshan;chos rgyal 'phags pa;'gro mgon 'phags pa blo gros rgyal mtshan;blo gros rgyal mtshan;འཕགས་པ་བློ་གྲོས་རྒྱལ་མཚན་;Pakpa Lodro Gyaltsen;Chögyal Phagpa;Chögyal Phakpa;Chogyal Phagpa;Drogön Chögyal Phagpa;Drogon Chogyal Phagpa;Drogön Phagpa Lodrö Gyaltsen;Drogon Phagpa Lodro Gyaltsen;dri ma med pa'i 'od;དྲི་མ་མེད་པའི་འོད།;Stainless Light;Vimalaprabhā;विमलप्रभा;དྲི་མ་མེད་པའི་འོད།

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Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim: The Repository of Wisdom

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One of a series of short texts by the Kadam scholar Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim, which represent an intersection between the works of Maitreya, particularly the Ratnagotravibhāga, and the practical instructions of Mahāmudrā.

Ye shes kyi 'jog sa;Meditative Tradition;Mahamudra;Buddha-nature as Luminosity;Disclosure model;Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim;སྐྱོ་སྟོན་སྨོན་ལམ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་;skyo ston smon lam tshul khrims;ye shes kyi 'jog sa;ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་འཇོག་ས།;The Repository of Wisdom