Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma rgyan gyi me tog

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མ་རྒྱན་གྱི་མེ་ཏོག།

theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma rgyan gyi me tog

Ornamental Flowers: A Commentary on the Mahāyāna Uttaratantra

Commentary of Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra

SOURCE TEXT

A rather brief work that, as Tsering Wangchuk states, is "the earliest extant Tibetan commentary on the Uttaratantra that cites both tantric and sutric sources to corroborate the claims made in the treatise."

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Relevance to Buddha-nature

An important synoptic outline and commentary giving sūtra and tantra sources for the buddha-nature teachings, and containing clear positions of the author on buddha-nature. The author claims buddha-nature to be topic of ultimate nature, buddha-nature to be endowed the qualities of the buddha, and buddha-nature to be not defined as mere emptiness but rather awareness indivisible from dharmatā.

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Recensions of This Text

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma rgyan gyi me tog. (Ornamental Flowers: A Commentary on the Mahāyāna Uttaratantra). Recension information:

Tibetan

Bcom ldan rig pa'i ral gri. ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མ་རྒྱན་གྱི་མེ་ཏོག།, (Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma rgyan gyi me tog). In Gsung thor bu bcom ldan rig pa'i ral gri, Vol. 1: 195a-209b. No publication information (scanned from microfilm copy of an dbu can and dbu med manuscript). In Bka' gdams gsung 'bum phyogs bsgrigs thengs gsum pa, Vol. 2: 745-774. Khreng tu'u: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2009.

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?

Rangtong 

Do the author's writings belong to the analytic or meditative tradition of Uttaratantra exegesis?

Analytic Tradition 

What is Buddha-nature?

Tathāgatagarbha as the Latent State of Buddhahood that is Obscured in Sentient Beings 

Text Metadata

Other Titles	~ theg pa chen rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos rgyan gyi me tog ~ rgyud bla rgyan gyi me tog
Text exists in	~ Tibetan
Literary Genre	~ Commentary with Annotations - mchan 'grel
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.

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

tantra - Tantra, when juxtaposed with Sūtra, generally refers to the scriptures and texts which discuss esoteric topics. While the term is used to refer to texts on other topics, it is mostly used to refer to the genre of scriptures and texts on themes and topics associated with Vajrayāna Buddhism. Skt. तन्त्र Tib. རྒྱུད། Ch. 密宗

dharmatā - The true nature of phenomenal existence. Skt. धर्मता Tib. ཆོས་ཉིད་ Ch. 法性

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

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

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་

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་

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

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

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

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་