Theg pa chen po'i bstan bcos rgyud bla ma'i 'grel pa

མདོ་སྔགས་རྗེས་སུ་འབྲེལ་བར་བྱེད་པའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་འགྲེལ་པ།

mdo sngags rjes su 'brel bar byed pa'i bstan bcos chen po rgyud bla ma'i 'grel pa

Commentary on the Ultimate Continuum, a Great Treatise Connecting Sūtra and Mantra

Commentary of Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra

SOURCE TEXT

A commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga by the famed scholar Bodong Paṇchen Chokle Namgyal. He considers this text a connector between sūtra and mantra traditions and argues that buddha-nature does not possess the qualities of the Buddha but is luminous and pure by nature.

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Recensions of This Text

Theg pa chen po'i bstan bcos rgyud bla ma'i 'grel pa. (Commentary on the Great Vehicle Treatise the Sublime Continuum). Recension information:

Tibetan

Bo dong paN chen phyogs las rnam rgyal. ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་འགྲེལ་པ།, (Theg pa chen po'i bstan bcos rgyud bla ma'i 'grel pa). In Dpal ldan bla ma dam pa thams cad mkhyen pa bo dong phyogs las rnam rgyal gyi gsung 'bum. Encyclopedia Tibetica: The Collected Works of Bo-dong Pan-chen phyogs las rnam rgyal, Vol. 22: 1-253. New Delhi: Tibet House Library Publications, Series 1, 1971. In 'Phags yul rgyan drug mchog gnyis kyi zhal lung, Vol. 65: 1-134. Lhasa: Bod ljongs bod yig dpe rnying dpe skrun khang, 2015.

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 buddha-nature teachings belong to the zhentong or rangtong view of emptiness?

Rangtong 

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 Mind's Luminous Nature 

Text Metadata

Text exists in	~ Tibetan
Literary Genre	~ Commentaries - 'grel pa
Commentary of	~ Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra

sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt. सूत्र Tib. མདོ། Ch. 佛经

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་

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

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