Mi nyag bla ma ye shes rdo rje

Minyak Lama Yeshe Dorje

མི་ཉག་བླ་མ་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྡོ་རྗེ་

14th Century

Yeshe Dorje (born fourteenth century) from Minyak in Kham was a student of the Karma Kamtsang master Mase Tönpa Rinchen Zangpo (1317–1383), the second Gangkar Lama. The latter is known as one of "the five learned ones from Minyak" and was a student of the Third and Fourth Karmapas, Dölpopa, Butön, and several Kadampa masters. (Adapted from When the Clouds Part, p. 309)

Philosophical positions of this person

Is buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?

Definitive 

Do all beings have buddha-nature?

  Yes

"YDC 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." Brunnhölzl, K., When the Clouds Part, p. 310.

Click for more on this topic

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

  Third Turning

However, his work has an interesting approach to the second and third wheel turnings: " The second dharma wheel is said to teach primarily the way in which the phenomena of which the basis of emptiness is empty do not exist, while the third wheel teaches mainly that basis of emptiness. Therefore, there is no inner contradiction between these two dharma wheels." Brunnhölzl, K., When the Clouds Part, p. 310.

Click for more on this topic

Is buddha-nature equated with emptiness or alayavijnana?

  Madhyamaka

"YDC denies that the Uttaratantra is a work that belongs to Mere Mentalism." Brunnhölzl, K., When the Clouds Part, p. 310.

Click for more on this topic

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

  Rangtong

It is not entirely clear that he would identify with the Rangtong view, but he seems to have issues with Zhentong, as Brunnhölzl points out: "Also, the emptiness taught in the buddha nature sūtras and the Uttaratantra is not "the emptiness of one’s being empty of something other," which is said to be the worst kind of emptiness in the Laṅkāvatārasūtra, but corresponds to this sūtra’s 'great ultimate emptiness of the wisdom of the noble ones.'" Brunnhölzl, K., When the Clouds Part, p. 310.

Click for more on this topic

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

 

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

  Analytic Tradition

The lineage included within his work on the Uttaratantra passes through Ngok and others who upheld his tradition. See Brunnhölzl, K., When the Clouds Part, p. 309.

Click for more on this topic

What is Buddha-nature?

  Tathāgatagarbha as the Latent State of Buddhahood that is Obscured in Sentient Beings

"YDC 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." Brunnhölzl, K., When the Clouds Part, p. 310.

Click for more on this topic

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

 

Other names

• ཡེ་ཤེས་རྡོ་རྗེ་དཔལ་བཟང་པོ་ · other names (Tibetan)
• ye shes rdo rje dpal bzang po · other names (Wylie)
• Yeshé Dorje · other names
• Yeshé Dorje Bal Sangpo · other names

Affiliations & relations

• Kadam · religious affiliation
• nil · teacher

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

Go to the page with the definition of 'provisional'

śūnyatā - The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics. Skt. शून्यता Tib. སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ Ch. 空,空門

Go to the page with the definition of 'emptiness'

Madhyamaka - Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. Skt. मध्यमक Tib. དབུ་མ་ Ch. 中觀見

Go to the page with the definition of 'Madhyamaka'

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

Go to the page with the definition of 'Uttaratantra'

Uttaratantra - The Ultimate Continuum, or Gyü Lama, is often used as a short title in the Tibetan tradition for the key source text of buddha-nature teachings called the Ratnagotravibhāga of Maitreya/Asaṅga, also known as the Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra. Skt. उत्तरतन्त्र Tib. རྒྱུད་བླ་མ་ Ch. 寶性論

Go to the page with the definition of 'Uttaratantra'

gzhan stong - The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature. Tib. གཞན་སྟོང་

Go to the page with the definition of 'zhentong'

gzhan stong - The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature. Tib. གཞན་སྟོང་

Go to the page with the definition of 'zhentong'

rang stong - The state of being empty of self, which references the lack of inherent existence in relative phenomena. Tib. རང་སྟོང་

Go to the page with the definition of 'rangtong'

rang stong - The state of being empty of self, which references the lack of inherent existence in relative phenomena. Tib. རང་སྟོང་

Go to the page with the definition of 'Rangtong'

gzhan stong - The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature. Tib. གཞན་སྟོང་

Go to the page with the definition of 'Zhentong'

gzhan stong - The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature. Tib. གཞན་སྟོང་

Go to the page with the definition of 'Zhentong'

Descent into Laṅka Sūtra, a very influential text in East Asia and Nepal.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Laṅkāvatārasūtra'

sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt. सूत्र Tib. མདོ། Ch. 佛经

Go to the page with the definition of 'sūtra'

tathāgatagarbha - Buddha-nature, literally the "womb/essence of those who have gone (to suchness)." Skt. तथागतगर्भ Tib. དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ Ch. 如来藏

Go to the page with the definition of 'Tathāgatagarbha'

Kadam - The Kadam tradition, which traces its origin to the teachings of Atiśa, was the first of the so-called New Schools of Tibetan Buddhism, traditions which arose during or after the Second Propagation of Buddhism (phyi dar) in the tenth century. Tib. བཀའ་གདམས་

Go to the page with the definition of 'Kadam'