Books/When the Clouds Part/Contents

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

Root Text in translation

The Treatise on the Ultimate Continuum of the Mahāyāna: The Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra in English

Introductory Materials

• The Sūtra Sources of the Tathāgatagarbha Teachings, pages 3–12.
• Different Ways of Explaining the Meaning of Tathāgatagarbha, pages 53–80.
• The Uttaratantra and Mahāmudrā, pages 151–282.
• The Emptiness Endowed with All Supreme Aspects, pages 953–961.
• The Meanings of the Titles Ratnagotravibhāga and Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra, pages 95–103
• The Meditative Tradition of the Uttaratantra and Shentong, pages 123-150.

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.

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་

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