Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa

महायानोत्तरतन्त्रशास्त्रोपदेश

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་མན་ངག

theg pa chen po'i bstan bcos rgyud bla ma'i man ngag

Commentary of Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra

SOURCE TEXT

One of only two extant Sanskrit texts that comment on the Uttaratantra, this highly original work by Sajjana presents a contemplative approach to Maitreya's treatise from an author that was the veritable source for the Tibetan exegetical traditions spawned by his students Ngok Loden Sherab and Tsen Khawoche.

Relevance to Buddha-nature

This is the essential source text for all lineages of Uttaratantra commentary in Tibet.

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Description from When the Clouds Part

As for the contents of Sajjana’s text, it is significant that its title identifies it as a "pith instruction" (upadeśa) on the Uttaratantra and not as a summary (saṃgraha, piṇḍārtha, or the like). Indeed, the text is not just a simple synopsis of Maitreya’s text but also presents Sajjana’s original interpretation that is based on his own contemplative approach to the Uttaratantra. Generally speaking, verses 1–15 of SM outline a contemplative system based on the seven vajra points, and verses 16–27 teach how "the threefold nature" of the basic element (the dharmakāya, suchness, and the disposition as briefly summarized in Uttaratantra I.27–28), the ten topics, and the nine examples fit into this system and flesh it out. In particular, Sajjana (explicitly or implicitly) reveals the mutual correlations between the Uttaratantra's key themes of "the threefold nature," the ten topics, the nine examples, and the nine afflictions illustrated by these examples. These correlations can be regarded as a brief contemplative manual for using the contents of the Uttaratantra (in particular its first chapter) as a soteriological path.

This soteriological approach to the Uttaratantra is explicitly outlined in verses 2–4, 6–7, 10–27, and 29–30. The purpose of teaching the ultimate refuge, the Buddha, is to generate bodhicitta, which eventually results in the attainment of full awakening (verses 2–3), through showing the ultimate fruition of this bodhicitta. Besides the well-known twofold classification of the disposition for awakening (the tathāgata heart) into the naturally abiding disposition and the accomplished (or unfolding) disposition (verse 10), Sajjana also presents his own threefold classification as the disposition that is suchness, naturally abiding, and accomplished (verse 15). He says that, in general, those who gradually purify the tathāgata heart progress through the paths of accumulation, preparation, seeing, and familiarization (verse 6). However, the actual path in terms of the unfolding of the naturally abiding disposition begins only with the path of seeing (verse 10), when the tathāgata heart is directly seen for the first time. In order to accomplish this, the causes or focal objects of the path of purifying the tathāgata heart are six—the three jewels and the three conditions that consist of the awakening of a buddha, its qualities, and the resulting enlightened activity for sentient beings, with the latter primarily manifesting as the teaching of the profound and the vast (verses 11–12). In particular, the three jewels manifest as (external) conditions for those who have not yet gathered the accumulations of merit and wisdom (verse 4).

Based on these causes and conditions, those who wish to reveal their tathāgata heart should engage in reflection and familiarization by relying on the ten topics discussing the basic element (verse 7). Among these ten topics, to contemplate (1) the "nature" of the basic element represents the foundation of the path. This nature is matured or comes to life through (2) its "cause" (faith in the dharma, supreme prajñā, samādhi, and compassion). To reflect on (3) "fruition" leads to firm conviction in the Buddhist path. Thus, the contemplation of topics (1)–(3) makes one free from mundane desire, that is, one is left only with the latencies of desire, hatred, and ignorance. Through contemplating (4) the "function" of the tathāgata heart (weariness of suffering and striving for nirvāṇa), one actually engages in the path. (5) "Endowment" in terms of the basic element’s being associated with three causal and three resultant qualities makes up the path of seeing. (6) "Manifestation" (the suchness of ordinary beings, noble ones, and buddhas) is the basis of the path of familiarization. The actual path of familiarization consists of (7) "phases" and (8) "all-pervasiveness," which leads to the relinquishment of obscurations such as aiming at lesser forms of awakening. The evolution of the path on the last three bhūmis is due to (9) the "changelessness" of the dharmadhātu. For, by virtue of its being nonempty, unbound, inexhaustible, and unceasing, the dharmadhātu has the intrinsic nature of nonconceptuality. That the final fruition of the path can be reasonably expected to occur is due to the nature of (10) the "inseparability" of the tathāgata heart and all buddha qualities, due to which it is identical with the final result of the path (verses 16–19). In this way, the ten topics not only describe the stages of the entire path, but the reflection on, and familiarization with, them is what actually constitutes the path. (pp. 290-292)

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Text exists in	~ Sanskrit
Commentary of	~ RKTST 3363

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Article

A Manuscript of the Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa, a Sanskrit Commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga

Takasaki, Jikidō. "A Manuscript of the Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa, a Sanskrit Commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga." (In Japanese.) Indogaku Bukkyōgaku Kenkyū (Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies) 23, no. 2 (1975) 52–59.

Takasaki, Jikidō. "A Manuscript of the Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa, a Sanskrit Commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga." (In Japanese.) Indogaku Bukkyōgaku Kenkyū (Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies) 23, no. 2 (1975) 52–59.

Takasaki, Jikidō. "A Manuscript of the Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa, a Sanskrit Commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga." (In Japanese.) Indogaku Bukkyōgaku Kenkyū (Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies) 23, no. 2 (1975) 52–59.;A Manuscript of the Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa, a Sanskrit Commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga;Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa;Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;Jikido Takasaki;&nbsp

Video

Klaus-Dieter Mathes at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium

Klaus-Dieter Mathes discusses Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen’s position on Buddha-nature. He describes how his student Zhangtön Sönam Drakpa defends his teacher's position by arguing that one faces eight undesired consequences if one does not strictly differentiate buddha-nature from the ground consciousness.

Mathes, Klaus-Dieter. “Zhang ston Bsod nams grags pa’s Defense of Dol po pa’s Clear-Cut Distinction between Buddha Nature and the Ground Consciousness.” Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 40:48. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-ALrY63cho.

Mathes, Klaus-Dieter. “Zhang ston Bsod nams grags pa’s Defense of Dol po pa’s Clear-Cut Distinction between Buddha Nature and the Ground Consciousness.” Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 40:48. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-ALrY63cho.;Klaus-Dieter Mathes at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium;Zhentong;Dol po pa;Zhang ston bsod nams grags pa;'gos lo tsA ba gzhon nu dpal;Laṅkāvatārasūtra;Tathāgatagarbhasūtra;Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā;Śrīmālādevīsūtra;ālayavijñāna;Jonang;Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśaparivarta;'gos lo tsA ba gzhon nu dpal;Karmapa, 3rd;Yogācāra;trisvabhāva;parikalpitasvabhāva;paratantrasvabhāva;pariniṣpannasvabhāva;Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa;Klaus-Dieter Mathes; Zhang ston Bsod nams grags pa’s Defense of Dol po pa’s Clear-Cut Distinction between Buddha Nature and the Ground Consciousness

Article

Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa of Sajjana: An Annotated Translation with a Reading Text

No abstract given. Here are the first relevant paragraphs:

The present paper provides an annotated translation of Sajjana’s Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa along with a reading text of this Sanskrit work (a critical edition of which is under preparation for publication). I started to work on this text in 2005 when I received a copy of a photographic image of a manuscript containing it from Professor Jikidō Takasaki. I published a study dealing with this manuscript in 2006 (Kano 2006b) and provided a critical edition of the Sanskrit text in my doctoral thesis, submitted to Hamburg University in 2006 (Kano 2006a). I also prepared a preliminary annotated translation of this text in 2006 and gave the draft to Karl Brunnhölzl together with my unpublished doctoral thesis.
It came as a surprise for me to learn that Brunnhölzl copied and published the draft of my translation under his name in his book When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and Its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra (Boston/London: Snow Lion, 2014), pp. 461–472. Brunnhölzl (p. 1121, n. 1718) says in his book: “All topical headings are inserted by the translator (corresponding to my outline above). Though my translation sometimes differs from Kano’s, I am indebted to both his translation and his Sanskrit edition of the text with critical apparatus (Kano 2006, 513–35), which in turn owe much to Profs. Schmithausen and Isaacson as well as Dr. Diwakar Acharya.” The fact is, however, that he has in many cases simply copied my earlier work.
Since the translation used by Brunnhölzl was an unpublished draft, my earlier mistakes found their way into his book, inasmuch as that draft was based in turn on an early draft of my Sanskrit edition, which itself contains serious misreadings, especially in verses 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, and 15, along with a number of errors in the interlinear glosses. All his striving to make sense of my misreadings of the Sanskrit have been to no avail; his interpretations and analysis (Brunnhölzl, ibid. pp. 288–300 ) based on these errors need to be fundamentally revised. I have since made improvements to the Sanskrit edition and translation, and this is reflected in the differences between his published translation and the one I offer here.[1] (Kano, preface, 1–2)

Notes

1. I am grateful for a number of suggestions and improvements of my critical edition of Sajjana's Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa to Prof. Harunaga Isaacson, Prof. Diwakar Acharya, Prof. Lambert Schmithausen, Dr. Pascale Hugon, and all participants of a workshop “From Kashmir to Tibet: A set of proto-Śāradā palm leaves and two works on the Ratnagotravibhāga” held on 21. April 2015 at Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften Institut für Kultur-und Geistesgeschichte Asiens. I would like to thank to Dr. David Reigle and Mr. Philip Pierce for much valuable information regarding difficult points of the text and English proof-reading of my translation.

Kano, Kazuo. "Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa of Sajjana: An Annotated Translation with a Reading Text." Kōyasan daigaku daigakuin kiyō (Bulletin of the Graduate School: Graduate Program of Liberal Arts, Kōyasan University) 14 (2015) 1–49.

Kano, Kazuo. "Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa of Sajjana: An Annotated Translation with a Reading Text." Kōyasan daigaku daigakuin kiyō (Bulletin of the Graduate School: Graduate Program of Liberal Arts, Kōyasan University) 14 (2015) 1–49.;Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa of Sajjana: An Annotated Translation with a Reading Text;Sajjana;Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa;Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;Kazuo Kano;&nbsp

Article

Sanskrit Manuscript of Sajjana's Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa

Kano, Kazuo. "Sanskrit Manuscript of Sajjana's Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa." (In Japanese.) Kōyasan daigaku mikkyō bunka kenkyūjo kiyō (Bulletin of the Research Institute of Esoteric Buddhist Culture, Kōyasan University) 19 (2006): 29–51.

Kano, Kazuo. "Sanskrit Manuscript of Sajjana's Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa." (In Japanese.) Kōyasan daigaku mikkyō bunka kenkyūjo kiyō (Bulletin of the Research Institute of Esoteric Buddhist Culture, Kōyasan University) 19 (2006): 29–51.

Kano, Kazuo. "Sanskrit Manuscript of Sajjana's Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa." (In Japanese.) Kōyasan daigaku mikkyō bunka kenkyūjo kiyō (Bulletin of the Research Institute of Esoteric Buddhist Culture, Kōyasan University) 19 (2006): 29–51.;Sanskrit Manuscript of Sajjana's Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa;Sajjana;Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa;Kazuo Kano;&nbsp

Audio

Uttaratantrashastra at Rigpa Shedra East 2009 with Klaus-Dieter Mathes

In this audio recording, Prof. Klaus-Dieter Mathes, the first Western scholar to be invited to give a talk at the Rigpa Shedra East, discusses the Uttaratantrashastra to a gathering of students.

Mathes, Klaus-Dieter. "Uttaratantrashastra at Rigpa Shedra East 2009 with Klaus-Dieter Mathes." Rigpa Shedra East, Pharping, Nepal, February 15, 2009. Audio, 1:37:40. http://www.rigpawiki.org/Media/Audio/2009/20090215PH1400-KD-Mathes-Uttaratantra.mp3.

Mathes, Klaus-Dieter. "Uttaratantrashastra at Rigpa Shedra East 2009 with Klaus-Dieter Mathes." Rigpa Shedra East, Pharping, Nepal, February 15, 2009. Audio, 1:37:40. http://www.rigpawiki.org/Media/Audio/2009/20090215PH1400-KD-Mathes-Uttaratantra.mp3.;Uttaratantrashastra at Rigpa Shedra East 2009 with Klaus-Dieter Mathes;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Tibetan Buddhism;Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa;Klaus-Dieter Mathes;Uttaratantrashastra at Rigpa Shedra East 2009 with Klaus-Dieter Mathes

Translations & Scholarship

Book

When the Clouds Part

"Buddha nature" (tathāgatagarbha) is the innate potential in all living beings to become a fully awakened buddha. This book discusses a wide range of topics connected with the notion of buddha nature as presented in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism and includes an overview of the sūtra sources of the tathāgatagarbha teachings and the different ways of explaining the meaning of this term. It includes new translations of the Maitreya treatise Mahāyānottaratantra (Ratnagotravibhāga), the primary Indian text on the subject, its Indian commentaries, and two (hitherto untranslated) commentaries from the Tibetan Kagyü tradition. Most important, the translator’s introduction investigates in detail the meditative tradition of using the Mahāyānottaratantra as a basis for Mahāmudrā instructions and the Shentong approach. This is supplemented by translations of a number of short Tibetan meditation manuals from the Kadampa, Kagyü, and Jonang schools that use the Mahāyānottaratantra as a work to contemplate and realize one’s own buddha nature. (Source: Shambhala Publications)

Brunnhölzl, Karl. When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and Its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra. Tsadra Foundation Series. Boston: Snow Lion Publications, 2014.

Brunnhölzl, Karl. When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and Its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra. Tsadra Foundation Series. Boston: Snow Lion Publications, 2014.;When the Clouds Part;Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;History of buddha-nature in India;History of buddha-nature in Tibet;Mahamudra;Ngok Tradition;Tsen Tradition;Asaṅga;ཐོགས་མེད་;thogs med;slob dpon thogs med;སློབ་དཔོན་ཐོགས་མེད་;Āryāsaṅga; Maitreya;བྱམས་པ་;byams pa;'phags pa byams pa;byams pa'i mgon po;mgon po byams pa;ma pham pa;འཕགས་པ་བྱམས་པ་;བྱམས་པའི་མགོན་པོ་;མགོན་པོ་བྱམས་པ་;མ་ཕམ་པ་;Ajita;Karl Brunnhölzl;When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and Its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra;'jam mgon kong sprul;Asaṅga;Maitreya;Sajjana;Vairocanarakṣita;bdud mo bkra shis 'od zer;Skyo ston smon lam tshul khrims;Karmapa, 8th

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