Ri chos nges don rgya mtsho zhes bya ba mthar thug thun mong ma yin pa'i man ngag

རི་ཆོས་ངེས་དོན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་མཐར་ཐུག་ཐུན་མོང་མ་ཡིན་པའི་མན་ངག་

ri chos nges don rgya mtsho zhes bya ba mthar thug thun mong ma yin pa'i man ngag

Mountain Dharma: An Ocean of Definitive Meaning

SOURCE TEXT

Dolpopa's seminal work considered to be the most definitive philosophical treatise of the Jonang tradition. It became famous as the crucial source for the presentation of his view of other-emptiness (zhentong).

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Translations of This Text

• Hopkins, Jeffrey, trans. Mountain Doctrine: Tibet's Fundamental Treatise on Other-Emptiness and the Buddha Matrix. By Döl-bo-ba Shay-rab-gyel-tsen (Dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan). Edited by Kevin Vose. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2006.

Recensions of This Text

Ri chos nges don rgya mtsho zhes bya ba mthar thug thun mong ma yin pa'i man ngag. (Mountain Dharma: An Ocean of Definitive Meaning). Recension information:

Tibetan

Dol po pa Shes rab rgyal mtshan. བཀའ་བསྡུ་བཞི་པའི་དོན་བསྟན་རྩིས་ཆེན་པོ།, (Ri chos nges don rgya mtsho zhes bya ba mthar thug thun mong ma yin pa'i man ngag). In Ri chos nges don rgya mtsho. Gangtok, Sikkim: Dodrup Sangyey Lama, 1976. In Ri chos nges don rgya mtsho. Bir: D. Tsondu Senghe, 1984. In Ri chos nges don rgya mtsho. No Publication Information. In Ri chos nges don rgya mtsho. Pe cin: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1998. In Ri chos nges don rgya mtsho. Pe cin: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2007. In Ri chos nges don rgya mtsho dang sa bcad. Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, n.d. In Jo nang dpe rnying thor bu, Vol. 5: 1-739. Based on manuscripts located from the library of Drepung Monastery: Reprinted under the direction of Jonangpa Lama Yeshe Tharchin Chogtrul, n.d. In Ri chos nges don rgya mtsho. New Delhi: Institute of Tibetan Classics, 2013.

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 

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?

Meditative Tradition 

What is Buddha-nature?

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

Text Metadata

Other Titles	~ Ri chos nges don rgya mtsho

Jonang - The Jonang tradition was established by Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen, a thirteenth-century Sakya monk famous for his Zhentong teachings. The Jonang teachings and monasteries were suppressed in Tibet in the seventeenth century but survived in Amdo. Tib. ཇོ་ནང་

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་

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་

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་

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

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.

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་

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

rang stong - The state of being empty of self, which references the lack of inherent existence in relative phenomena. Tib. རང་སྟོང་

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,眞諦

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་