Mi nyag bla ma ye shes rdo rje

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PeopleMi nyag bla ma ye shes rdo rje


མི་ཉག་བླ་མ་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྡོ་རྗེ་
Minyak Lama Yeshe Dorje(b. 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)

Library Items

Philosophical positions of this person


"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.

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.

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

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.

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.

"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.

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
  • Rma se ston pa rin chen bzang po · teacher
  • Karmapa, 3rd · teacher
  • Karmapa, 4th · teacher
  • bu ston rin chen grub · teacher