Lam rim chen mo

ལམ་རིམ་ཆེན་མོ།

lam rim chen mo

The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment

SOURCE TEXT

Access this text online

Adarsha
Buddhist Digital Resource Center

Recensions of This Text

Lam rim chen mo. (The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment). Recension information:

Tibetan

Tsong kha pa. ལམ་རིམ་ཆེན་མོ། (Lam rim chen mo). In Gsung 'bum/ tsong kha pa (Zhol par khang): The Collected Works of the Incomparable Lord Tsong kha pa Blo bzang grags pa, Vol. 13: 39-1084. New Delhi: Mongolian Lama Guru Deva, 1978-1979. In Gsung 'bum/ tsong kha pa (Sku 'bum par ma), Vol. 13: 7-1044. Sku 'bum: Sku 'bum byams pa gling, 199?. In Gsung 'bum/ tsong kha pa (Bla brang par ma), Vol. 13: 5-1026. Bla brang: Bla brang bkra shis 'khyil, 199?. In Byang chub lam rim che ba. Scanned at the National Library of Mongolia. In Byang chub lam rim che ba. Bla brang: Bla brang bkra shis 'khyil par khang, n.d. In Lam rim chen mo. Khri ngag dbang chos 'phel. In Dpal mnyam med ri bo dge ldan pa'i gsung rab nying bcud phyogs bsgrigs rin chen nor bu'i phreng ba, Vol. 13: 1-900. Zi Ling: Mtsho sngon mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2011. In Byang chub lam rim chen mo. Gser rta dzong: Gser thang bla rung lnga rig nang bstan slob gling. Template:Bdrc:MW3CN4810 In Lam rim chen mo. New Jersey: Bslab gsum bshad sgrub gling chos tshogs, 2016.

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?

Second Turning 

Is buddha-nature equated with emptiness or alayavijnana?

Emptiness 

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 a Non-implicative Negation (without enlightened qualities) 

Does the author advocate the Svatantrika or Prasangika view of emptiness?

Prāsaṅgika (ཐལ་འགྱུར་) 

Text Metadata

Text exists in	~ Tibetan
Literary Genre	~ Stages of the Path - lam rim

This Text on Adarsha - If it doesn't load here, refresh your browser.

"Emptiness" is not in the list (Yogācāra, Madhyamaka) of allowed values for the "PosYogaMadhya" property.

lam rim - Lam rim refers to the stages on the path and, by extension, more commonly to the genre of teachings which contain practical instructions for training on the stages of the path to enlightenment. Related to the blo sbyong practice, it is particularly known among the Kadampa and Geluk schools. Tsongkhapa's Byang chub lam rim chen mo is the most well known in this genre and the term lam rim is often used specifically to refer to this text. Skt. मार्गक्रम Tib. ལམ་རིམ།

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

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་

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

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

lam rim - Lam rim refers to the stages on the path and, by extension, more commonly to the genre of teachings which contain practical instructions for training on the stages of the path to enlightenment. Related to the blo sbyong practice, it is particularly known among the Kadampa and Geluk schools. Tsongkhapa's Byang chub lam rim chen mo is the most well known in this genre and the term lam rim is often used specifically to refer to this text. Skt. मार्गक्रम Tib. ལམ་རིམ།

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

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