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

More on this item

Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen

On the topic of this text

Book

A Complete Session of Meditation

This is a book of teachings on how to do a complete session of meditation. The book was composed by the Western teacher, Lama Tony Duff, to help those who would like to practise meditation in general. However, it will be especially useful for those who would like to practise according to the ways of the Kagyu and Nyingma traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. The book emphasizes the practical style of instruction found in those two traditions. It deliberately avoids the scholarly style taught in some other Tibetan Buddhist traditions and focusses on actually doing something with one’s own mind. Nonetheless, the book is very precise and clear about all of the key points involved in meditation practice.

The book emphasizes the Kagyu approach in particular. The author has received teachings from many Kagyu masters and used his knowledge of the tradition as a basis for making this book. He selected teachings from Gampopa and other early masters to set the basis for explaining meditation. Then he added other, necessary teachings according to the extensive teachings he has received over many years from many different Kagyu masters, such as Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Mingyur Rinpoche, and others. The result is a book that explains how to do a complete session of meditation in the style of the Kagyu and Nyingma traditions.

The book begins with a lengthy introduction by Lama Tony which is a teaching in its own right. He writes a lengthy piece about what can and cannot usefully be obtained from science in terms of dharma practice. Following the introduction, there are two chapters on the buddha nature, the second of which uses a significant portion of Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen’s explanation of the ground in his famous Mountain Dharma text. This is the first time that this part of Dolpopa’s text has been fully translated and published. After that are several chapters on the various steps of a complete session of meditation. Anyone who practises meditation will find this book useful in many ways.

The book contains a translation of the following text: “Mountain Dharma, An Ocean of Definitive Meaning” by Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsan, ground section

(Source: Padma Karpo Translations)

Duff, Tony. A Complete Session of Meditation: The Theory and Practice of Kagyü-Nyingma Meditation from Shamatha to Dzogchen. Kathmandu: Padma Karpo Translation Committee, 2014.

Duff, Tony. A Complete Session of Meditation: The Theory and Practice of Kagyü-Nyingma Meditation from Shamatha to Dzogchen. Kathmandu: Padma Karpo Translation Committee, 2014.;A Complete Session of Meditation;Ri chos nges don rgya mtsho zhes bya ba mthar thug thun mong ma yin pa'i man ngag;Dol po pa;Meditation;Tony Duff; Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen;དོལ་པོ་པ་ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་;dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan;shes rab rgyal mtshan;shes rab mgon;rton pa bzhi ldan;ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་;ཤེས་རབ་མགོན་;རྟོན་པ་བཞི་ལྡན་;A Complete Session of Meditation: The Theory and Practice of Kagyü-Nyingma Meditation from Shamatha to Dzogchen;Dol po pa

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Mountain Doctrine: Tibet's Fundamental Treatise on Other-Emptiness and the Buddha-Matrix

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