Dharmadharmatāvibhāga

धर्मधर्मताविभाग

Dharmadharmatāvibhāga

ཆོས་དང་ཆོས་ཉིད་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པ།

chos dang chos nyid rnam par 'byed pa

Distinguishing Phenomena and Their Nature

D4022,4023

SOURCE TEXT

One of the Five Dharma Treatises of Maitreya (byams chos sde lnga). This work exists only in Tibetan translation, of which there are two versions: the Dharmadharmatāvibhāga (chos dang chos nyid rnam par 'byed pa) presented in prose, and the Dharmadharmatāvibhāgakārikā (chos dang chos nyid rnam par 'byed pa'i tshig le'ur byas pa) presented in verse.

"The text explains saṃsāra (= dharma) and the nirvāṇa (= dharmatā) attained by the śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha, and bodhisattva; like the Madhyāntavibhāga, it uses the three-nature (trisvabhāva) terminology to explain that, because there is no object or subject, the transcendent is beyond conceptualization. It presents the paths leading to transformation of the basis (aśrayaparāvṛtti), and enumerates ten types of tathatā (suchness)." (Source: The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, p. 244)

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Translations of This Text

• Scott, Jim, trans. Maitreya's Distinguishing Phenomena and Pure Being. With commentary by Mipham. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2004.
• Brunnhölzl, Karl, trans. Mining for Wisdom within Delusion: Maitreya's Distinction between Phenomena and the Nature of Phenomena and Its Indian and Tibetan Commentaries. Tsadra Foundation Series. Boston: Snow Lion Publications, 2012.
• Dharmachakra Translation Committee, trans. Distinguishing Phenomena from Their Intrinsic Nature: Maitreya's Dharmadharmatāvibhaṅga with Commentaries by Khenpo Shenga (mkhan po gzhan dga') and Ju Mipham ('ju mi pham). Boston: Snow Lion Publications, 2013.

Recensions of This Text

Maitreya. Dharmadharmatāvibhāga. (Distinguishing Phenomena and Their Nature). Recension information:

Sanskrit

धर्मधर्मताविभङ्गकारिका (dharmadharmatāvibhaṅgakārikā). Maitreyanātha. Dharmadharmatāvibhaṅgakārikā. Sarnath: Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies. Bibliotheca Indo-Tibetica XIX, 1990. Input by members of the Sanskrit Buddhist Canon Input Project: http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/1_sanskr/4_rellit/buddh/bsu021_u.htm.

Tibetan

ཆོས་དང་ཆོས་ཉིད་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པ། (chos dang chos nyid rnam par 'byed pa). BCRD Link: http://databases.aibs.columbia.edu/index.php?id=9059a2ca4221cb42d9f9e677e28a926c&enc=sanskrit_romanized_author&coll=tengyur. Derge 4022, sems tsam, phi 46b1-49a6 (vol. 123), translated by Śāntibhadra and Tshul khrims rgyal ba, revised by Pandit Parahita and Dga' rdor. Also appears in Q 5523, sems tsam, phi 48b1-51b6 (vol.108, p.21-22); N 4291, sems tsam, phi 42a6-45b3 (vol. 132). ཆོས་དང་ཆོས་ཉིད་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པའི་ཚིག་ལེའུར་བྱས་པ། (chos dang chos nyid rnam par 'byed pa'i tshig le'ur byas pa). BCRD Link: http://databases.aibs.columbia.edu/index.php?id=3af95d5169d3ec874e595375efd1cf0e&enc=sanskrit_romanized_author&coll=tengyur. Derge 4023, sems tsam, phi 50b1-53a7 (vol. 123), translated by Mahājana and Seng ge rgyal mtshan. Also appears in Q 5524, sems tsam, phi 51b6-54b7 (vol.108, p.22-24) (vol. 29, p.26); N 4292, sems tsam, phi 45b3-48b2 (vol. 132).

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 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 

Text Metadata

Other Titles	~ Dharmadharmatāvibhaṅga ~ Dharmadharmatāvibhaṅgakārikā
Text exists in	~ Tibetan
Canonical Genre	~ Tengyur · Sūtra · sems tsam · Cittamātra

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་

dharmatā - The true nature of phenomenal existence. Skt. धर्मता Tib. ཆོས་ཉིད་ Ch. 法性

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

Pratyekabuddha - Pratyekabuddhas are saints who, in their last birth in the cycle of existence, are said to become enlightened through solitary practice on the nature of dependent ordination. These saints are said to appear when there is no buddha around and work either alone or in small groups. Skt. प्रत्येकबुद्ध Tib. རང་སངས་རྒྱས། Ch. 緣覺

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

trisvabhāva - According to the Yogācāra school, all phenomena can be divided into three natures or characteristics: the imaginary nature (parikalpitasvabhāva), the dependent nature (paratantrasvabhāva), and the perfect or absolute nature (pariniṣpannasvabhāva). Skt. त्रिस्वभाव Tib. རང་བཞིན་གསུམ་

tathatā - Suchness itself, absolute reality, or thusness, as in the ultimate state of being of phenomena. Skt. तथता Tib. དེ་བཞིན་ཉིད་

tathatā - Suchness itself, absolute reality, or thusness, as in the ultimate state of being of phenomena. Skt. तथता Tib. དེ་བཞིན་ཉིད་

BCRD - The Buddhist Canons Research Database a project of the American Institute of Buddhist Studies (AIBS) and the Columbia University Center for Buddhist Studies (CCBS) http://databases.aibs.columbia.edu/

Cittamātra - Though it is sometimes used synonymously with Yogācāra, it is in fact one of the more prominent philosophical theories associated with this school. It asserts that the objects in the external world with which we interact are actually mentally created representations appearing as those objects. The character of these perceptions is predetermined by our own karmic conditioning that is stored in the ālayavijñāna. Skt. चित्तमात्र Tib. སེམས་ཙམ་

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

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་

Cittamātra - Though it is sometimes used synonymously with Yogācāra, it is in fact one of the more prominent philosophical theories associated with this school. It asserts that the objects in the external world with which we interact are actually mentally created representations appearing as those objects. The character of these perceptions is predetermined by our own karmic conditioning that is stored in the ālayavijñāna. Skt. चित्तमात्र Tib. སེམས་ཙམ་

paramārthasatya - "Ultimate truth" or "absolute truth"; the reality of things as they truly are. Skt. परमार्थसत्य Tib. དོན་དམ་བདེན་པ་ Ch. 第一義諦

Yogācāra - Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana). Skt. योगाचार Tib. རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྤྱོད་པ་ Ch. 瑜伽行派

Vajrayāna - The esoteric Buddhist tradition which developed as a syncretic system involving deity worship, use of mantras, physical energy, and mystical practices. It is also known as the mantra tradition and the tantric school as a result of being based on texts known as tantras. Skt. वज्रयान Tib. རྡོ་རྗེ་ཐེག་པ། Ch. 金剛乘