Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi rnam par bshad pa nges don rab gsal snang ba

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པ་ངེས་དོན་རབ་གསལ་སྣང་བ།

theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi rnam par bshad pa nges don rab gsal snang ba

Illuminating the Definitive Meaning: An Explanation of the Ultimate Continuum

Commentary of Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra

SOURCE TEXT

A detailed explanation of the Uttaratantra written by one of Dölpopa's chief disciples.

Access this text online

Adarsha
Buddhist Digital Resource Center

Recensions of This Text

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi rnam par bshad pa nges don rab gsal snang ba. (Illuminating the Definitive Meaning: A Detailed Explanation of the Mahāyāna Uttaratantra Treatise). Recension information:

Tibetan

Sa bzang ma ti paN chen blo gros rgyal mtshan. ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པ་ངེས་དོན་རབ་གསལ་སྣང་བ།, (Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi rnam par bshad pa nges don rab gsal snang ba). In Rgyud bla ma'i rnam bshad nges don rab gsal snang ba. Sa skya dgon pa, n.a., n.d. In Bka' gdams gsung 'bum phyogs bsgrigs thengs dang po, Vol. 27: 211-626. Khreng tu'u: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2006. In Rgyud bla sa 'grel. Pe cin: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2008. Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi rnam par bshad pa. Lhasa: Ser gtsug nang bstan dpe rnying 'tshol bsdu phyogs sgrig khang, 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

"Sazang also demonstrates that both tathāgata-essence and its attendant enlightened qualities exist inherently and permanently in the nature of all living beings. Wangchuk, Tsering, The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, p. 58.

Click for more on this topic

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

Third Turning 

Is buddha-nature equated with emptiness or alayavijnana?

  Madhyamaka

"Finally, although his Uttaratantra commentary does not explicitly raise the issue of whether last-wheel texts such as the Samdhinirmocanasūtra and the Mahāyānasūtrālamkāra explain the view of Cittamātra or Madhyamaka, his commentary on the Abhidharmasamuccaya addresses the question and follows Dolpopa's position quite closely. In it, he clearly demonstrates that these treatises explain Cittamātra temporarily, but ultimately they teach the ultimate truth of the Madhyamaka." Wangchuk, Tsering, The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, p. 58.

Click for more on this topic

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

  Zhentong

"While the commentary does not employ the word "other-emptiness" to describe the ultimate truth, it explains the ultimate truth or tathāgata-essence in the way that other-emptiness is delineated in Dolpopa's works." Wangchuk, Tsering, The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, p. 58.

Click for more on this topic

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 an Implicative Negation (with enlightened qualities) 

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

 

Text Metadata

Other Titles	~ rgyud bla ma'i rnam bshad nges don rab gsal snang ba
Text exists in	~ Tibetan
Commentary of	~ Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra

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.

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་

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

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

Cittamātra - Though it is sometimes used synonymously with Yogācāra, it is in fact one of the more prominent philosophical theories associated with this school. It asserts that the objects in the external world with which we interact are actually mentally created representations appearing as those objects. The character of these perceptions is predetermined by our own karmic conditioning that is stored in the ālayavijñāna. Skt. चित्तमात्र Tib. སེམས་ཙམ་

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་

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་

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་

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་

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་

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་