People/'gos lo tsA ba gzhon nu dpal

The result is fetched from the commons remote source and it is likely for generated content to contain information that is not available from within the current wiki.

Gö Lotsāwa Zhönu Pal

འགོས་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་གཞོན་ནུ་དཔལ་

1392 – 1481

Go Lotsāwa Zhonnu Pel was the author of the important Tibetan history The Blue Annals. A Kagyu polymath, he studied under some sixty prominent lamas, chief among them the Fifth Karmapa Dezhin Shekpa. He was a Sanskrit scholar and served as translator to an Indian scholar Paṇḍit Vanaratna for five years. He was a teacher of the Seventh Karmapa, Chodrak Gyatso, and the Fourth Zhamar, Chodrak Yeshe.

... read more at

Philosophical positions of this person

Is buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?

Definitive 

Do all beings have buddha-nature?

 

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

Third Turning 

Is buddha-nature equated with emptiness or alayavijnana?

  Yogācāra

Though his own view is based on Mahāmudrā, for which he asserts RGV is an important basis.

Click for more on this topic

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

 

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?

  Meditative Tradition

"That Zhönu Pal comments on the Ratnagotravibhāga from within the tradition of meditation is also clear from his colophon: The Dharma master Drigungpa [Jigten Sumgön] rejoiced in Jé Gampopas statement that the basic text of these mahāmudrā instructions of ours is the [Ratnagotravibhāga] Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra composed by the illustrious Maitreya; and since it is evident that the notes to [his] Uttaratantra explanations, the points he makes when presenting the three dharmacakras, and also the explanations deriving from Sajjana’s heart disciple Tsen Kawoché, are [all] in accordance with mahāmudrā proper, I have relied on them and have made [this] clear to others as best as I could. (DRSM, 574.9-12)" Mathes, K., A Direct Path to the Buddha Within, p. 368.

Click for more on this topic

What is Buddha-nature?

  Tathāgatagarbha as Mind's Luminous Nature

• "The tathāgata heart’s own essence is not a nonimplicative negation but is the element of basic awareness." Brunnhölzl, K., When the Clouds Part, p. 69.

• "The determination of the ultimate as buddha nature or natural luminosity in the third dharmacakra is taken to be the direct mahāmudrā approach to the nature of mind. This approach is not really different from the emptiness of the second dharmacakra. While the analytical methods of the second dharmacakra deflate all concepts, coarse and subtle, about things, the third one purifies phenomenal appearances that hinder the proper perception of buddha nature." Mathes, K., A Direct Path to the Buddha Within, p. 373.

• "In the third dharmacakra, the scope of such a nonaffirming negation is restricted to the adventitious stains, whose lack of an own-being has been established by inferential valid cognitions. The ultimate that is beyond the intellect is taken to be the emptiness that is buddha nature, or the element of awareness." Mathes, K., A Direct Path to the Buddha Within, p. 374.

Click for more on this topic

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

 

Other names

• ཡིད་བཟང་རྩེ་བ་ · other names (Tibetan)
• མགོས་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་གཞོན་ནུ་དཔལ་ · other names (Tibetan)
• yid bzang rtse ba · other names (Wylie)
• mgos lo tsA ba gzhon nu dpal · other names (Wylie)
• 'gos lo tsā ba gzhon nu dpal · other names (Wylie)

Affiliations & relations

• Karma Kagyu · religious affiliation
• Shamarpa, 3rd · teacher
• Karmapa, 5th · teacher
• Tsong kha pa · teacher
• Rong ston shes bya kun rig · teacher
• Shamarpa, 4th · student
• Karmapa, 7th · student

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

Go to the page with the definition of 'Kagyu'

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'

Yogācāra - Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana). Skt. योगाचार Tib. རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྤྱོད་པ་ Ch. 瑜伽行派

Go to the page with the definition of 'Yogācāra'

Mahāmudrā - Mahāmudrā refers to an advanced meditation tradition in Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna forms of Into-Tibetan Buddhism that is focused on the realization of the empty and luminous nature of the mind. It also refers to the resultant state of buddhahood attained through such meditation practice. In Tibet, this tradition is particularly associated with the Kagyu school, although all other schools also profess this tradition. The term also appears as part of the four seals, alongside dharmamūdra, samayamudrā, and karmamudrā. Skt. महामुद्रा Tib. ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ།

Go to the page with the definition of 'Mahāmudrā'

RGV - Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra

Go to the page with the definition of 'RGV'

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

Go to the page with the definition of 'RGV'

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'

triyāna - Commonly seen in a Mahāyāna context, the three vehicles are the Śrāvakayāna, Pratyekabuddhayāna, and Bodhisattvayāna, which reference the three different types of Buddhist practitioners. However, these three vehicles can also reference the three types of Buddhist teachings of the Hīnayāna, Mahāyāna (or Pāramitāyāna), and the Vajrayāna. Skt. त्रियान Tib. ཐེག་པ་གསུམ་ Ch. 三乗

Go to the page with the definition of 'three vehicles'

Tsen Tradition - Tsen Khawoche's "meditative tradition" of exegesis of the Uttaratantra; it is one of two major Tibetan traditions of exegesis, both stemming from students of Sajjana. Tib. བཙན་ལུགས་

Go to the page with the definition of 'meditative tradition'

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'

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

Go to the page with the definition of 'Uttaratantra'

Tsen Tradition - Tsen Khawoche's "meditative tradition" of exegesis of the Uttaratantra; it is one of two major Tibetan traditions of exegesis, both stemming from students of Sajjana. Tib. བཙན་ལུགས་

Go to the page with the definition of 'Meditative Tradition'

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

Go to the page with the definition of 'Ratnagotravibhāga'

Mahāmudrā - Mahāmudrā refers to an advanced meditation tradition in Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna forms of Into-Tibetan Buddhism that is focused on the realization of the empty and luminous nature of the mind. It also refers to the resultant state of buddhahood attained through such meditation practice. In Tibet, this tradition is particularly associated with the Kagyu school, although all other schools also profess this tradition. The term also appears as part of the four seals, alongside dharmamūdra, samayamudrā, and karmamudrā. Skt. महामुद्रा Tib. ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ།

Go to the page with the definition of 'mahāmudrā'

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

Go to the page with the definition of 'Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra'

śrāvaka - The disciples of the Buddha who aspire to attain individual liberation or nirvāṇa. The final goal of the Hearers is to become an arhat, a state in which one has totally eliminated the inner problems of attachment, hatred and ignorance, the main causes for rebirth in this cycle of existence. There are four stages of a śrāvaka path including eight phases. Skt. श्रावक Tib. ཉན་ཐོས། Ch. 聲聞

Go to the page with the definition of 'disciple'

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'

prasajyapratiṣedha - A negation that merely denies the existence of something without implicitly suggesting an alternative. Skt. प्रसज्यप्रतिषेध Tib. མེད་དགག་

Go to the page with the definition of 'nonimplicative negation'

prabhāsvaratā - In a general sense, that which clears away darkness, though it often appears in Buddhist literature in reference to the mind or its nature. It is a particularly salient feature of Tantric literature, especially in regard to the advanced meditation techniques of the completion-stage yogas. Skt. प्रभास्वरता Tib. འོད་གསལ་ Ch. 光明

Go to the page with the definition of 'luminosity'

tridharmacakrapravartana - Three successive stages of the Buddhist teachings. Though they are traditionally attributed to the historical Buddha, modern scholarship tends to view them as developmental stages that occurred over the course of an extended period of time, with interludes of several centuries, in which we see major doctrinal shifts often based on seemingly newly emergent scriptural sources. Skt. त्रिधर्मचक्रप्रवर्तन Tib. ཆོས་འཁོར་རིམ་པ་གསུམ་

Go to the page with the definition of 'dharmacakra'

sems nyid - Commonly found in Dzogchen and Mahāmudrā literature, this term denotes the true, natural state of mind as it is. Often used in these traditions as a synonym for buddha-nature. Skt. चित्तत्व Tib. སེམས་ཉིད་

Go to the page with the definition of 'nature of mind'

prasajyapratiṣedha - A negation that merely denies the existence of something without implicitly suggesting an alternative. Skt. प्रसज्यप्रतिषेध Tib. མེད་དགག་

Go to the page with the definition of 'nonaffirming negation'

āgantukamala - Mental stains that are not inherent to the nature of the mind but are temporarily present as the residue of past actions or habitual tendencies. It is sometimes iterated as adventitious defilements (Skt. āgantukakleśa, Tib. glo bur gyi nyon mongs), which references the fickle and temporary nature of disturbing emotions that lack an ultimately established basis for existence. Skt. आगन्तुकमल Tib. གློ་བུར་གྱི་དྲི་མ་

Go to the page with the definition of 'adventitious stains'