Chos dang chos nyid rnam par 'byed pa'i tshig le'ur byas pa'i 'grel pa ye shes snang ba rnam 'byed

ཆོས་དང་ཆོས་ཉིད་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པའི་ཚིག་ལེའུར་བྱས་པའི་འགྲེལ་པ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྣང་བ་རྣམ་འབྱེད།

chos dang chos nyid rnam par 'byed pa'i tshig le'ur byas pa'i 'grel pa ye shes snang ba rnam 'byed

Distinguishing Wisdom from Appearances: A Commentary on Distinguishing Phenomena and their Nature

Commentary of Dharmadharmatāvibhāga

SOURCE TEXT

Mipam's commentary on the Dharmadharmatāvibhāga, 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.

Recensions of This Text

Chos dang chos nyid rnam par 'byed pa'i tshig le'ur byas pa'i 'grel pa ye shes snang ba rnam 'byed. (Distinguishing Wisdom from Appearances: A Commentary on Distinguishing Phenomena and their Nature). Recension information:

Tibetan

Mi pham rgya mtsho. ཆོས་དང་ཆོས་ཉིད་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པའི་ཚིག་ལེའུར་བྱས་པའི་འགྲེལ་པ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྣང་བ་རྣམ་འབྱེད།, (Chos dang chos nyid rnam par 'byed pa'i tshig le'ur byas pa'i 'grel pa ye shes snang ba rnam 'byed). In Gsung 'bum/ Mi pham rgya mtsho: The expanded redaction of the complete works of collected writings of the famed Nyingma polymath, Jamgon Ju Mipam Gyatso, Vol. 4: 609-658. Paro, Bhutan: Lama Ngodrup and Sherab Drimey, 1984-1993. In Chos dang chos nyid rnam par 'byed pa'i tshig le'ur byas pa sogs tshan pa gsum. Bylakuppe: Snga 'gyur mtho slob mdo sngags rig pa'i 'byung gnas. 2002. In Mi pham bka' 'bum, Vol 15: 241-290. Khreng tu'u: Gangs can rig gzhung dpe rnying myur skyobs lhan tshogs, 2007. In Mi pham gsung 'bum las gzhung 'grel skor, Vol. 17: 180-216. Khreng tu'u: 'Jam dpal d+hI yig ser po'i dpe skrun tshogs pa, 2008

Philosophical positions of this text

Is buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?

 

Does this text belong to definitive or provisional meaning?

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?

 

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

 

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

1 

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

Analytic Tradition 

What is Buddha-nature?

Tathāgatagarbha as Mind's Luminous Nature 

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

 

Text Metadata

Text exists in	~ Tibetan
Literary Genre	~ Commentaries - 'grel pa
Commentary of	~ Dharmadharmatāvibhāga

byams chos sde lnga - This refers to a series of five texts that, according to the Tibetan tradition, Asaṅga received directly from Maitreya in the pure realm of Tuṣita. Tib. བྱམས་ཆོས་སྡེ་ལྔ་

byams chos sde lnga - This refers to a series of five texts that, according to the Tibetan tradition, Asaṅga received directly from Maitreya in the pure realm of Tuṣita. Tib. བྱམས་ཆོས་སྡེ་ལྔ་

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt. बोधिसत्त्व Tib. བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ། Ch. 菩薩

Nyingma - The Nyingma, which is often described as the oldest tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, traces its origin to Padmasambhava, who is said to have visited Tibet in the eighth century. Tib. རྙིང་མ་

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

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་

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

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

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

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་

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

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

Ngok Tradition - Ngok Lotsāwa Loden Sherab's "analytic tradition" of exegesis of the Uttaratantra; one of two major Tibetan traditions of exegesis, both stemming from students of Sajjana. Tib. རྔོག་ལུགས་