Dam pa'i chos dgongs pa gcig pa'i 'grel chen snang mdzad ye shes sgron me

དམ་པའི་ཆོས་དགོངས་པ་གཅིག་པའི་འགྲེལ་ཆེན་སྣང་མཛད་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྒྲོན་མེ།

dam pa'i chos dgongs pa gcig pa'i 'grel chen snang mdzad ye shes sgron me

Great Commentary on the Sacred Teaching on the Single Intention: Illuminating Wisdom Lamp

SOURCE TEXT

Dorje Sherab's extensive commentary on the Sacred Teaching on the Single Intention (Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa), 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.

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Recensions of This Text

Dam pa'i chos dgongs pa gcig pa'i 'grel chen snang mdzad ye shes sgron me. (Great Commentary on the Sacred Teaching on the Single Intention: Illuminating Wisdom Lamp). Recension information:

Tibetan	Rdo rje shes rab. དམ་པའི་ཆོས་དགོངས་པ་གཅིག་པའི་འགྲེལ་ཆེན་སྣང་མཛད་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྒྲོན་མེ།, (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.

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?

Meditative Tradition 

What is Buddha-nature?

Tathāgatagarbha as the Unity of Emptiness and Luminosity 

Text Metadata

Text exists in	~ Tibetan
Literary Genre	~ Commentaries - 'grel pa
Commentary of	~ Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa

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.

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་

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