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."

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

More on this item

Chomden Rikpai Raldri

Cover image:

This volume is a study and edition of Bcom ldan ral gri's (1227–1305) Bstan pa rgyas pa rgyan gyi nyi 'od. Likely composed in the last decades of the thirteenth century, this systematic list of Buddhist Sutras, Tantras, Shastras, and related genres translated primarily from Sanskrit and other Indic languages holds an important place in the history of Buddhist literature in Tibet. It affords a glimpse of one Tibetan scholar's efforts to classify more than two thousand titles of Buddhist literature in the decades before the canonical collections known as the Bka' 'gyur and the Bstan 'gyur achieved a relatively stable form. Tibetan historiography traces the origin of the Bka' 'gyur and Bstan 'gyur to Bcom ldan ral gri's efforts, though the unique structure of the Bstan pa rgyas pa rgyan gyi nyi 'od, which differs greatly from available Bka' 'gyur and Bstan 'gyur catalogs, shows that the situation is more complex. Known to contemporary scholars of Tibetan literature for some time through mention in other works, Bcom ldan ral gri's survey has recently become available for the first time in two manuscripts. The present work contains a detailed historical introduction, an annotated edition of the two manuscripts, as well as concordances and appendices intended to aid the comparative study of early Tibetan collections of Indic Buddhist literature. (Source: Harvard University Press)

Schaeffer, Kurtis R., and Leonard W. J. van der Kuijp. An Early Survey of Tibetan Buddhist Literature: The Bstan pa rgyas pa rgyan gyi nyi 'od of Bcom ldan ral gri. Edited by Michael Witzel. Harvard Oriental Series 64. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009.

Schaeffer, Kurtis R., and Leonard W. J. van der Kuijp. An Early Survey of Tibetan Buddhist Literature: The Bstan pa rgyas pa rgyan gyi nyi 'od of Bcom ldan ral gri. Edited by Michael Witzel. Harvard Oriental Series 64. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009.;An Early Tibetan Survey of Buddhist Literature;Bcom ldan rig pa'i ral gri;Textual study;Geluk;Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma rgyan gyi me tog;Rin chen bzang po;Nag 'tsho lo tsA ba tshul khrims rgyal ba;'brog mi lo tsA ba;Rngog blo ldan shes rab;Pa tshab lo tsA ba nyi ma grags pa;Kurtis Schaeffer; Leonard van der Kuijp;An Early Tibetan Survey of Buddhist Literature: The Bstan pa rgyas pa rgyan gyi nyi 'od of Bcom ldan ral gri

Article

BCom ldan rig ral cho Daijō kukyōron sōgonka: Wayaku oyobi kōtei tekusuto (1)

Kano, Kazuo. "bCom ldan rig ral cho Daijō kukyōron sōgonka: Wayaku oyobi kōtei tekusuto (1)" (A Critical Edition and Translation of bCom ldan rig ral's rGyud bla ma'i ṭī ka rgyan gyi me tog (1)). Kōyasan Daigaku Ronsō (Journal of Kōyasan University) 45 (2010): 13–55.

Kano, Kazuo. "bCom ldan rig ral cho Daijō kukyōron sōgonka: Wayaku oyobi kōtei tekusuto (1)" (A Critical Edition and Translation of bCom ldan rig ral's rGyud bla ma'i ṭī ka rgyan gyi me tog (1)). Kōyasan Daigaku Ronsō (Journal of Kōyasan University) 45 (2010): 13–55.

Kano, Kazuo. "bCom ldan rig ral cho Daijō kukyōron sōgonka: Wayaku oyobi kōtei tekusuto (1)" (A Critical Edition and Translation of bCom ldan rig ral's rGyud bla ma'i ṭī ka rgyan gyi me tog (1)). Kōyasan Daigaku Ronsō (Journal of Kōyasan University) 45 (2010): 13–55.; BCom ldan rig ral cho Daijō kukyōron sōgonka: Wayaku oyobi kōtei tekusuto (1); bCom ldan rig ral cho Daijō kukyōron sōgonka: Wayaku oyobi kōtei tekusuto (1) (A Critical Edition and Translation of bCom ldan rig ral's rGyud bla ma'i ṭī ka rgyan gyi me tog (1)); Bcom ldan rig pa'i ral gri; Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra; Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma rgyan gyi me tog; Kazuo Kano;

Article

BCom ldan rig ral cho Daijō kukyōron sōgonka: Wayaku oyobi kōtei tekusuto (2): Hōshōron I.4–22 no chūkai

Kano, Kazuo. "bCom ldan rig ral cho Daijō kukyōron sōgonka: Wayaku oyobi kōtei tekusuto (2): Hōshōron I.4–22 no chūkai" (A Critical Edition and Annotated Translation of bCom ldan rig ral's rGyud bla ma'i ṭī ka rgyan gyi me tog (2): Commentary on Ratnagotravibhāga I.4–22). Kōyasan Daigaku Ronsō (Journal of Kōyasan University) 48 (2013): 1–14.

Kano, Kazuo. "bCom ldan rig ral cho Daijō kukyōron sōgonka: Wayaku oyobi kōtei tekusuto (2): Hōshōron I.4–22 no chūkai" (A Critical Edition and Annotated Translation of bCom ldan rig ral's rGyud bla ma'i ṭī ka rgyan gyi me tog (2): Commentary on Ratnagotravibhāga I.4–22). Kōyasan Daigaku Ronsō (Journal of Kōyasan University) 48 (2013): 1–14.

Kano, Kazuo. "bCom ldan rig ral cho Daijō kukyōron sōgonka: Wayaku oyobi kōtei tekusuto (2): Hōshōron I.4–22 no chūkai" (A Critical Edition and Annotated Translation of bCom ldan rig ral's rGyud bla ma'i ṭī ka rgyan gyi me tog (2): Commentary on Ratnagotravibhāga I.4–22). Kōyasan Daigaku Ronsō (Journal of Kōyasan University) 48 (2013): 1–14.; BCom ldan rig ral cho Daijō kukyōron sōgonka: Wayaku oyobi kōtei tekusuto (2): Hōshōron I.4–22 no chūkai; bCom ldan rig ral cho Daijō kukyōron sōgonka: Wayaku oyobi kōtei tekusuto (2): Hōshōron I.4–22 no chūkai" (A Critical Edition and Annotated Translation of bCom ldan rig ral's rGyud bla ma'i ṭī ka rgyan gyi me tog (2): Commentary on Ratnagotravibhāga I.4–22); Bcom ldan rig pa'i ral gri; Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra; Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma rgyan gyi me tog; Kazuo Kano;

Translations & Scholarship

Book

Buddha-Nature and Emptiness

An essential study of a key text that presents buddha-nature theory and its transmission from India to Tibet, this book is the most thorough history of buddha-nature thought in Tibet and is exceptional in its level of detail and scholarly apparatus. It serves as a scholarly encyclopedia of sorts with extensive appendices listing every existent commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga (Uttaratantraśāstra), as well as covering Ngok Lotsawa's commentarial text and his philosophical positions related with other Tibetan thinkers.

Kano, Kazuo. Buddha-Nature and Emptiness: rNgog Blo-ldan-shes-rab and A Transmission of the Ratnagotravibhāga from India to Tibet. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 91. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2016.

Kano, Kazuo. Buddha-Nature and Emptiness: rNgog Blo-ldan-shes-rab and A Transmission of the Ratnagotravibhāga from India to Tibet. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 91. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2016.;Buddha-Nature and Emptiness;Buddha-nature as Emptiness;History;History of buddha-nature in Tibet;Madhyamaka;Ngok Tradition;Textual study;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Tibetan Buddhism;Theg chen rgyud bla ma'i don bsdus pa;Sajjana;Rngog blo ldan shes rab;Geluk;Maitrīpa;Jñānaśrīmitra;Ratnākaraśānti;Prajñākaramati;Vibhūticandra;Kazuo Kano; Ngok Lotsāwa Loden Sherab;རྔོག་བློ་ལྡན་ཤེས་རབ་;rngog blo ldan shes rab;rngog lo tsA ba;lo chen blo ldan shes rab;blo ldan shes rab;རྔོག་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་;ལོ་ཆེན་བློ་ལྡན་ཤེས་རབ་;Ngok Lotsāwa;Ngok Loden Sherab;Lochen Loden Sherab;Loden Sherab;Buddha-Nature and Emptiness: rNgog Blo-ldan-shes-rab and A Transmission of the Ratnagotravibhāga from India to Tibet;rngog blo ldan shes rab

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