Dpal dus kyi 'khor lo'i chos bskor gyi byung khungs nyer mkho

དཔལ་དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོའི་ཆོས་བསྐོར་གྱི་བྱུང་ཁུངས་ཉེར་མཁོ།

dpal dus kyi 'khor lo'i chos bskor gyi byung khungs nyer mkho

Essential Points on the Origins of the Cycle of Teachings on the Kālacakra

SOURCE TEXT

Tāranātha's history of the Kālacakra teachings.

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Recensions of This Text

Dpal dus kyi 'khor lo'i chos bskor gyi byung khungs nyer mkho. (Essential Points on the Origins of the Cycle of Teachings on the Kālacakra). Recension information:

Tibetan

TA ra nA tha. དཔལ་དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོའི་ཆོས་བསྐོར་གྱི་བྱུང་ཁུངས་ཉེར་མཁོ།, (Dpal dus kyi 'khor lo'i chos bskor gyi byung khungs nyer mkho). In Bcom ldan 'das thub pa'i dbang po'i mdzad pa mdo tsam brjod pa mthong bas don ldan sogs: Tāranātha's life of the Buddha and his histories of the Kālacakra and Tārātantra. Edited and reproduced by Ngawang Gelek Demo. With a foreword by D. Seyfort Ruegg. New Delhi: Ngawang Gelek Demo, 1971: 385-427. In Gsung 'bum/ tA ra nA tha (Rtag brtan phun tshongs gling gi par ma), Vol. 2: 1-43. Leh: C. Namgyal and Tsewang Taru, 1982-1987. In Gsung 'bum/ tA ra nA tha ('Dzam thang par ma), Vol. 2: 179-219. 'Dzam thang; Dzam thang dgon, 199-. In Gsung 'bum/ tA ra nA tha (Dpe bsdur ma), Vol. 3: 325-367. Pe cin: Krung go'i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang, 2008.

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?

(Fourth 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	~ Dpal dus kyi 'khor lo'i chos skor gyi byung khungs nyer mkho bsdus pa
Literary Genre	~ History Texts - lo rgyus

Kālacakra - Can refer to either the Kālacakra Tantra and its derivative texts or to the systematic tantric tradition based on these texts, as well as the deity Kālacakra upon which the associated practices are centered. Skt. कालचक्र Tib. དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ། Ch. 時輪

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