Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i 'grel pa nges don gsal bar byed pa'i 'od zer

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་འགྲེལ་པ་ངེས་དོན་གསལ་བར་བྱེད་པའི་འོད་ཟེར།

theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i 'grel pa nges don gsal bar byed pa'i 'od zer

Illuminating the Definitive Meaning of the Uttaratantra

Commentary of Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra

SOURCE TEXT

This work presents a late (14th century) Kadampa view on the Ratnagotravibhāga and the associated buddha-nature teachings by an influential representative of this tradition, often referred to as "the second Asaṅga" (thogs med gnyis pa).

Relevance to Buddha-nature

This work presents a late (14th century) Kadampa view on the Ratnagotravibhāga and the associated buddha-nature teachings by an influential representative of this tradition, often referred to as the second Asaṅga (thogs med gnyis pa).

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Recensions of This Text

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i 'grel pa nges don gsal bar byed pa'i 'od zer. (Illuminating the Definitive Meaning of the Uttaratantra). Recension information:

Tibetan	Thogs med bzang po. ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་འགྲེལ་པ་ངེས་དོན་གསལ་བར་བྱེད་པའི་འོད་ཟེར།, (Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i 'grel pa nges don gsal bar byed pa'i 'od zer). In Rgyud bla ma'i 'grel pa nges don gsal bar byed pa'i 'od zer. Lhun grub steng: Sde dge par khang, n.d. In Bka' gdams gsung 'bum phyogs bsgrigs thengs gnyis pa, Vol. 59: 333-462. Khreng tu'u: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2007.

Philosophical positions of this text

Is buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?

  Definitive

Quoted as stating that Uttaratantra is "endowed with... the ultimate definitive meaning." See Wangchuk, Tsering The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, p. 60, for a full translation of the verse.

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Does this text belong to definitive or provisional meaning?

Definitive 

Do all beings have buddha-nature?

  Yes

He states: "The buddha-element, at the stage of complete purification, exists in the same way as it existed previously at the stage of impurity." Translated in Wangchuk, Tsering The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, p. 62.

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To which "turning of the wheel" do the buddha-nature teachings belong?

  Third Turning

He considers the emptiness taught in the Second Turning to only refer to conventional phenomena, such as afflictions, aggregates, and so forth, while the buddha-nature teachings in the Third Turning represent the ultimate truth. See Wangchuk, Tsering The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, pp. 61-62.

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Is buddha-nature equated with emptiness or alayavijnana?

 

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

  Rangtong

While he accepts Buddha-Nature to possess all the Buddha qualities, he also defines Buddha-Nature as emptiness.

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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 Unity of Emptiness and Luminosity

"Gyelsé Tokmé equates the naturally purified dharma-body with the tathāgata-essence by arguing that it is precisely because the latter exists in all beings that one can claim that the former exists in all beings also." Wangchuk, Tsering The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, p. 62.

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

 

Text Metadata

Other Titles	~ rgyud bla ma'i 'grel pa nges don gsal bar byed pa'i 'od zer
Text exists in	~ Tibetan
Literary Genre	~ Commentaries - 'grel pa
Commentary of	~ Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra

These are the root verses of the Uttaratantra attributed to Maitreya by the Tibetan tradition.

A 14th Century commentary on Uttaratantra from the Kadam tradition.

A 14th Century commentary on Uttaratantra from the Kadam tradition.

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་

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.

nītārtha - Refers to a teaching that is literally true. Skt. नीतार्थ Tib. ངེས་དོན་

kleśa - Often referred to as poisons, these are a class of disturbing or disruptive emotional states that when aroused negatively affect or taint the mind. Skt. क्लेश Tib. ཉོན་མོངས་ Ch. 煩惱

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

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,空門

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་

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་

prabhāsvaratā - In a general sense, that which clears away darkness, though it often appears in Buddhist literature in reference to the mind or its nature. It is a particularly salient feature of Tantric literature, especially in regard to the advanced meditation techniques of the completion-stage yogas. Skt. प्रभास्वर Tib. འོད་གསལ་ Ch. 光明

Sakya - The Sakya tradition developed in the eleventh century in the Khön family of Tsang, which maintained an imperial-era lineage of Vajrakīla and which adopted a new teaching from India known as Lamdre. Tib. ས་སྐྱ་

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་

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་

Kadam - The Kadam tradition, which traces its origin to the teachings of Atiśa, was the first of the so-called New Schools of Tibetan Buddhism, traditions which arose during or after the Second Propagation of Buddhism (phyi dar) in the tenth century. Tib. བཀའ་གདམས་

Geluk - The Geluk tradition traces its origin to Tsongkhapa, who propagated a modified version of the Kadampa lojong and lamrim teachings. It is the dominant tradition of Tibet, having established its control of the government under the figure of the Dalai Lama. Tib. དགེ་ལུགས་

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་

tridharmacakrapravartana - Three successive stages of the Buddhist teachings. Though they are traditionally attributed to the historical Buddha, modern scholarship tends to view them as developmental stages that occurred over the course of an extended period of time, with interludes of several centuries, in which we see major doctrinal shifts often based on seemingly newly emergent scriptural sources. Skt. त्रिधर्मचक्रप्रवर्तन Tib. ཆོས་འཁོར་རིམ་པ་གསུམ་

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

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

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