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

བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་ཡོན་ཏན་ཅན་གྱི་མེ་ལོང་།

bde gshegs snying po yon tan can gyi me long

Mirror of Buddha-Nature with Qualities

SOURCE TEXT

Dölpopa's responds to arguments against the theory that buddha-nature has the qualities of the buddha latent in it. He uses scriptural citations and reasonings to argue that the unconditioned buddha-nature must possess the qualities of the Buddha.

---

Read the text:

Access this text online

Adarsha
Buddhist Digital Resource Center

Recensions of This Text

Chos dbyings du ma ro gcig bde gshegs snying po yon tan can gyi mdo sde. (Discourse on the Qualities of Sugatagarbha: The One Taste of the Manifold Dharmadhātu). Recension information:

Tibetan

Dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan. ཆོས་དབྱིངས་དུ་མ་རོ་གཅིག་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་ཡོན་ཏན་ཅན་གྱི་མེ་ལོང་།, (Chos dbyings du ma ro gcig ces bya ba bde gshegs snying po yon tan can gyi me long). Bde gshegs snying po yon tan can gyi me long. In Gsung 'bum shes rab rgyal mtshan. Paro, Bhutan: Lama Ngodrup and Sherab Drimay, 1984: pp. 419-441. Chos dbyings du ma ro gcig bde gshegs snying po'i yon tan can gyi mdo sde. In Gsung 'bum shes rab rgyal mtshan ('dzam thang), Vol. 6: 637-650. 'Dzam thang: 'Dzam thang bsam 'grub nor bu'i gling gi par khang, 1998.

Philosophical positions of this text

Is buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?

Definitive 

Does this text belong to definitive or provisional meaning?

Definitive 

Do all beings have buddha-nature?

Yes 

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

Third Turning 

Is buddha-nature equated with emptiness or alayavijnana?

Madhyamaka 

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

Zhentong 

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 the Emptiness That is an Implicative Negation (with enlightened qualities) 

Text Metadata

Other Titles	~ Chos dbyings du ma ro gcig bde gshegs snying po yon tan can gyi me long ~ Bde gshegs snying po yon tan can gyi me long
Literary Genre	~ Polemical Literature - dgag lan

sugatagarbha - Literally, the "essence" or "heart of the Bliss Gone One(s)," a synonym for tathāgatagarbha that is likewise often rendered into English by the term buddha-nature. Though it is often back translated into Sanskrit as sugatagarbha, this term is not found in Sanskrit sources. Skt. सुगतगर्भ Tib. བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་

dharmadhātu - The fundamental expanse from which all phenomena emerge. Skt. धर्मधातु Tib. ཆོས་དབྱིངས་ Ch. 法界

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

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

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

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་

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་

guṇa - The qualities or attributes of an enlightened being. Skt. गुण Tib. ཡོན་ཏན་ Ch. 功德