Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa

དམ་ཆོས་དགོངས་པ་གཅིག་པ།

dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa

Sacred Teaching on the Single Intention

SOURCE TEXT

One of the core texts of the Drikung Kagyu tradition that is reported to be the oral teachings of Jikten Gönpo that were written down and edited together by his student Sherab Jungne. Although not all manuscripts are alike, a beautiful reproduction from Garchen Stiftung (2015) that was studied by Dr. Jan-Ulrich Sobisch contains the following chapter topics:

• (1) Pure View, Practice, and Conduct
• (2-4) The Three Vows
• (5) Three Dharma Wheels
• (6) Dependent Origination
• (7) The Resultant Stage of Buddhahood

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Translations of This Text

• Viehbeck, Markus, trans. Gongchig: The Single Intent, the Sacred Dharma. By Jigten Sumgon ('jig rten gsum mgon). With commentary entitled The Lamp Dispelling the Darkness by Rigdzin Chökyi Dragpa (rig 'dzin chos kyi grags pa). Munich: Otter Verlag, 2009.
• Sobisch, Jan-Ulrich, trans. The Buddha's Single Intention: Drigung Kyobpa Jikten Sumgön's Vajra Statements of the Early Kagyü Tradition. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2020.
• Dorje Sherab (rdo rje shes rab). Illuminator, a Light of Gnosis: The Great Commentary on the Single Intention (dGongs gcig 'grel chen snang mdzad ye shes sgron me). With an Introduction by Jan-Ulrich Sobisch. The Manuscript at the Musée Guimet in Paris Brought to France by Alexandra David-Néel. Reproduction of the Manuscript in Its Original Size and Colors. Munich: Edition Garchen Stiftung, 2015.
• Nielsen, Solvej Hyveled, trans. The Single Intention: The Root Text, a Commentary by Khenpo Kunpal, and an Overview by Rinchen Jangchub. Munich, Germany: Garchen Sriftung, 2022.

Recensions of This Text

Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa. (Sacred Teaching on the Single Intention). Recension information:

Tibetan	'Bri gung skyob pa 'jig rten mgon po; 'Bri gung spyan snga shes rab 'byung gnas. དམ་ཆོས་དགོངས་པ་གཅིག་པ།, (Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa'i rtsa tshig rdo rje'i gsung brgya lnga bcu pa). In Dgongs gcig yig cha. Bir: D. Tsondru Senge, 1975: 154-176. In 'Bri gung bka' brgyud chos mdzod chen mo, Vol. 38: 181-219. Lhasa, 2004.

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 

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

Rangtong 

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 Unity of Emptiness and Luminosity 

Text Metadata

Other Titles

~ dgongs gcig ~ dgongs gcig gi rtsa tshig ~ dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa'i rtsa tshig rdo rje'i gsung brgya lnga bcu pa ~ 'bri gung dgongs gcig

Commentaries on this text

'bri gung spyan snga shes rab 'byung gnas. dgongs gcig yig cha. Bir: D. Tsondru Senge, 1975. Rdo rje shes rab. dam pa'i chos dgongs pa gcig pa'i 'grel chen snang mdzad ye shes sgron me. Shang kang: Shang kang then mA dpe skrun khang gis bskrun zhing bkram, 2006. Dorje Sherab (rDo rje shes rab). Illuminator, a Light of Gnosis: The Great Commentary on the Single Intention - dGongs gcig 'grel chen snang mdzad ye shes sgron me. The Manuscript at the Musée Guimet in Paris Brought to France by Alexandra David-Néel. Reproduction of the Manuscript in Its Original Size and Colors. Munich: Edition Garchen Stiftung, 2015. Drikung Chungtsang, 1st, (Chos kyi grags pa). Dam pa'i chos dgongs pa gcig pa'i rnam bshad lung don gsal byed legs bshad nyi ma'i snang ba. In Gsung 'bum/ chos kyi grags pa, Vol. 3: 1-382. Kulhan: Drikung Kagyu Institute, 1999. Shamarpa, 4th. dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa'i gsal byed. Bir: D. Tsondru Senge, 1992. Karmapa, 8th. dgongs gcig rnam bshad. In 'bri gung bka' brgyud chos mdzod chen mo, Vol. 7, pp 1-598. Lhasa, 2004.

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་

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་

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

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

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. प्रभास्वर Tib. འོད་གསལ་ Ch. 光明

śrāvaka - The disciples of the Buddha who aspire to attain individual liberation or nirvāṇa. The final goal of the Hearers is to reach arhathood, a state in which one has totally eliminated the inner problems of attachment, hatred and ignorance, the main causes 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

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་

gotra - Disposition, lineage, or class; an individual's gotra determines the type of enlightenment one is destined to attain. Skt. गोत्र Tib. རིགས་ Ch. 鍾姓,種性

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

tha mal gyi shes pa - A Mahāmudrā term for the basic state of consciousness that has not been fabricated or altered in any way. Tib. ཐ་མལ་གྱི་ཤེས་པ་

ekayāna - The notion that ultimately there is only one vehicle, or means, of achieving enlightenment. Skt. एकयान Tib. ཐེག་པ་གཅིག་པ་ Ch. 一乘

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།