De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po'i mdo'i 'grel pa snying po rab gsal

དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོའི་མདོའི་འགྲེལ་པ་སྙིང་པོ་རབ་གསལ།

de bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po'i mdo'i 'grel pa snying po rab gsal

Elucidating the Essence: A Commentary on the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra

Commentary of Tathāgatagarbhasūtra

SOURCE TEXT

Perhaps the first and only Tibetan commentary on the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra, Zhangtön Sonam Drakpa interprets the sūtra according to theory of Other-emptiness and also carries out refutation of those who identity Buddha-Nature with store-consciousness and consider Buddha-Nature sūtras as provisional teachings.

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Recensions of This Text

De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po'i mdo'i 'grel pa snying po rab gsal. (The Exceedingly Clear Essence: A Commentary on the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra). Recension information:

Tibetan	Zhang ston bsod nams grags pa. དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོའི་མདོའི་འགྲེལ་པ་སྙིང་པོ་རབ་གསལ། (De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po'i mdo'i 'grel pa snying po rab gsal). In Rgyud bla'i 'grel pa. Pe cin: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2008: 223-289.

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?

Zhentong 

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

1 

What is Buddha-nature?

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

Text Metadata

Text exists in	~ Tibetan
Commentary of	~ 'phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo

An important sūtra source for the Ratnagotravibhāga, particularly for its discussion of the nine examples that illustrate how all sentient beings possess buddha-nature.

sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt. सूत्र Tib. མདོ། Ch. 佛经

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

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

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་

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

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

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