Thupten Jinpa: Emptiness and Buddha-Nature: A Creative Tension Between Two Fundamental Concepts of Mahayana Thought

From Buddha-Nature

Thupten Jinpa
Emptiness and Buddha-Nature: A Creative Tension Between Two Fundamental Concepts of Mahayana Thought
29 January 2022 · 9:00 AM Eastern Standard Time
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Description & Participants

Emptiness and Buddha-Nature: A Creative Tension Between Two Fundamental Concepts of Mahayana Thought
29 January 2022 · 9:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

Please join us online for a special event at the start of 2022 with the world-renowned speaker, author, and translator, Thupten Jinpa.

Thupten Jinpa is a former Tibetan monk and a Geshe Lharampa with B.A. in philosophy and a Ph.D. in religious studies, both from Cambridge University. Since 1985, he has been the principal English translator to H.H. the Dalai Lama and has translated and edited numerous books by the Dalai Lama, including the New York Times Bestsellers Ethics for the New Millennium and The Art of Happiness. Jinpa’s own publications include works in Tibetan, English translations as well as books, the latest being Tsongkhapa: A Buddha in the Land of Snows and Illuminating the Intent, a translation of Je Tsongkhapa's commentary on Entering the Middle Way. Jinpa is the general series editor of the 32-volume Bod kyi tsug lag gces btus series, whose translations are published in English as The Library of Tibetan Classics. His current projects include the editing of classical Indian Buddhist texts from Tengyur for a special anthology known as Rgya gzhung gnad che bdam bsgrigs (Selected Indian Buddhist treaties). He is the main author of CCT (Compassion Cultivation Training), an eight-week formal program developed at Stanford University, and co-founder and president of the Compassion Institute. He is the Chair of Mind and Life Institute, founder of the Institute of Tibetan Classics, and an adjunct professor at the School of Religious Studies at McGill University. Jinpa lives in Montreal and is married with two daughters.

Guest

Thupten Jinpa
Your Host

Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho

Conversations on Buddha-Nature

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A Tsadra Foundation Event
Regular live interviews with Buddhist practitioners, scholars, and thinkers.
This is a space for stimulating and inspiring conversations on Buddha-Nature and related subjects. As a part of the Buddha-Nature Project of the Tsadra Foundation, Karma Phuntsho will host conversations with a Buddhist leader, influencer or expert each month on the theories and practices of Buddha-Nature, which will be live on Facebook. As an exercise of mindful listening, right speech, and wholesome exploration of meaning and nature of life and existence, these conversations aim to enhance the understanding and awareness of Buddha-Nature and promote the ethos of innate goodness and positive perception.

Recommended content

Book
A Lamp to Illuminate the Five Stages
Tsongkhapa’s A Lamp to Illuminate the Five Stages (1419) is a comprehensive presentation of the highest yoga class of Buddhist tantra, especially the key practices—the so-called five stages (pancakrama)—of the advanced phase of Guhyasamāja tantra. Beginning with a thorough examination of the Indian sources, Tsongkhapa draws particularly from the writings of Nāgārjuna, Aryadeva, Candrakīrti, and Nāropā to develop a definitive understanding of the Vajrayana completion stage. Whereas in the generation stage, meditators visualize the Buddha in the form of the deity residing in a mandala palace, in the completion stage discussed in the present volume, meditators transcend ordinary consciousness and actualize the state of a buddha themselves. Among other things, Tsongkhapa’s work covers the subtle human physiology of channels and winds along with the process of dying, the bardo, and rebirth. This definitive statement on Guhyasamāja tantra profoundly affected the course of Buddhist practice in Tibet. (Source: Wisdom Experience)
Kilty, Gavin, trans. A Lamp to Illuminate the Five Stages: Teachings on Guhyasamāja Tantra. By Tsongkhapa (tsong kha pa). Edited by Thupten Jinpa. Library of Tibetan Classics 15. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2013.
Book
Bde gshegs snying po rigs kyi chos skor
This collection includes a history of buddha-nature theory in Tibet by Thupten Jinpa and seven texts influential in the development of buddha-nature teachings in Tibet. The texts included represent many lineages and historical periods. Along with the root text the following texts appear: 1) Butön's commentary to the Uttaratantrashastra (བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་གསལ་བར་བྱེད་པ་མཛེས་བྱེད་ཀྱི་རྒྱན། pp 3-63). 2) The Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje's commentary (བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་བསྟན་པ། pp 65-69). 3) The Fifteenth Karmapa Khakyap Dorje's commentary (དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་བསྟན་པའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་མཆན་འགྲེལ། pp 71-88). 4) Rongton's commentary (ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ལེགས་པར་བཤད་པ། pp 89-206). 5) Shakya Chokden's commentary (ཆོས་དབྱིངས་བསྟོད་པའི་འགྲེལ་པ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས་རྣམ་པར་ངེས་པ། pp 207-238). 6) Jetsun Chokyi Gyaltsen's text on the disposition (gotra, rigs) (རིགས་ཀྱི་སྤྱི་དོན། pp 239-287) 7) Mipham Gyatso's Lion's Roar (བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོའི་སྟོང་ཐུན་ཆེན་མོ་སེངྒེའི་ང་རོ། pp 289-316).
Jinpa, Thupten, ed. Treatises on the Buddha Nature. Tibetan Classics Series 17. New Delhi: Institute of Tibetan Classics, 2007.glang ri ba thub bstan sbyin pa. bde gshegs snying po rigs kyi chos skor. bod kyi gtsug lag gces btus 17. bod kyi gtsug lag zhib dpyod khang, 2007. གླང་རི་བ་ཐུབ་བསྟན་སྦྱིན་པ། བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་རིགས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་སྐོར། བོད་ཀྱི་གཙུག་ལག་གཅེས་བཏུས། ༡༧ བོད་ཀྱི་གཙུག་ལག་ཞིབ་དཔྱོད་ཁང་།, 2007.

External resources

Link
Tsongkhapa: A Buddha in the Land of Snows
The new standard work and definitive biography of Tsongkhapa, one of the principle founders of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism–the school of the Dalai Lamas.
external link
Link
Masterclass in Translating Tibetan
The Art of Translating Tibetan with Thupten Jinpa
external link
Link
Wisdom Dharma Chat with Thupten Jinpa
Illuminating the Intent: This Dharma Chat was a special book launch where we celebrated the release of Jinpa’s translation of Tsongkhapa’s Illuminating the Intent: An Exposition of Candrakīrti’s Entering the Middle Way. Topics discussed include the significance of this text, common misunderstandings of Nāgārjuna’s Madhyamaka, some of Tsongkhapa’s most important ideas and philosophies, and much more.
external link
Link
A Fearless Heart
How the courage to be compassionate can transform our lives
external link

sugatagarbha - Literally, the "essence" or "heart of the Bliss Gone One(s)," a synonym for tathāgatagarbha that is likewise often rendered into English by the term buddha-nature. Though it is often back translated into Sanskrit as sugatagarbha, this term is not found in Sanskrit sources. Skt. सुगतगर्भ Tib. བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་

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

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