|ArticleTitle=Buddha-Nature in Comparative Perspective, an Interview with Klaus-Dieter Mathes
|ArticleTitle=Buddha-Nature in Comparative Perspective, an Interview with Klaus-Dieter Mathes
|AuthorName=Klaus-Dieter Mathes
|AuthorPage=People/Mathes, K.; People/Perman, M.; People/Gardner, A.
|AuthorPage=Mathes, K.
|AuthorAffiliation=University of Vienna, Austria
|PubDate=2018/04/24
|PubDate=2018/04/24
|ArticleSummary=Klaus-Dieter Mathes, Head of the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna, granted an interview to Marcus Perman and Alex Gardner @ buddha-nature.tsadra.org on April 24, 2018. The discussion is almost an hour long and ranges from Klaus' personal interest in buddha-nature teachings to his ongoing and detailed research projects on the subject.
|ArticleContent=Klaus-Dieter Mathes, Head of the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna, granted an interview to Marcus Perman and Alex Gardner @ buddha-nature.tsadra.org on April 24, 2018. The discussion is almost an hour long and ranges from Klaus' personal interest in buddha-nature teachings to his ongoing and detailed research projects on the subject. Mathes discusses buddha-nature and the key ideas behind it, the controversies it generates, and some of the related Buddhist philosophy in comparative perspective.
|ArticleContent=<div class="bnw-jumbotron depth-1">In this interview, Professor Klaus-Dieter Mathes discusses buddha-nature and the key ideas behind it, the controversies it generates, and some of the related Buddhist philosophy in comparative perspective.</div>
::Prof. Dr. Klaus-Dieter Mathes is the Head of the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna. His current research deals with Tibetan Madhyamaka, Yogācāra and the interpretations of Buddha-nature in the 15th and 16th centuries. Klaus-Dieter Mathes was born in Mannheim (Germany) as the son of the businessman Kurt Mathes and the accountant Christel Mathes, née Gerner. He attended the Volksschule Wendelstein in the 1960s and graduated from the Pirckheimer Gymnasium in Nuremberg in 1977, after which he performed basic military service for one year and then began to study math and physics at the University of Erlangen.
::From 1980-1984 he lived in the Himalayas and studied Buddhism, later obtaining a master's degree in Tibetology from the University of Bonn and then a Doctorate from Marburg in 1994 with a study of the Yogācāra text ''Dharmadharmatāvibhāga'' (published in 1996 in the series Indica et Tibetica). He served as the director of the Nepal Research Centre and the Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project in Kathmandu from 1993 to 2001. He was then a lecturer and visiting professor variously at the University of Hamburg, Vienna, and EPHE, Paris, until his current appointment in March 2010 as full Professor of Tibetology and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna.
::His publications include ''[[A Direct Path to the Buddha Within]]. Gö Lotsawa's Mahāmudrā Interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhāga'' (Wisdom, 2008), ''[[Books/A_Fine_Blend_of_Mahamudra_and_Madhyamaka| A Fine Blend of Mahāmudrā and Madhyamaka]]. Maitrīpa's Collection of Texts on Non-conceptual Realization (Amanasikāra)'' (Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, 2015). He is also a regular contributor to the ''Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies''. ''[[The Other Emptiness: Rethinking the Zhentong Buddhist Discourse in Tibet]]'' was published by SUNY Press in 2019.
|PostStatus=Needs Copy Editing
|ExtraCategories=Multimedia; Audio
|ExtraCategories=Multimedia; Audio
|AuthorName=Klaus-Dieter Mathes
|AuthorAffiliation=University of Vienna, Austria
}}
}}
Latest revision as of 06:45, 8 July 2025
Buddha-Nature in Comparative Perspective, an Interview with Klaus-Dieter Mathes
Klaus-Dieter Mathes
2018/04/24
Lua error in Module:GetMediaValue at line 1: Module:MediaData returned boolean, table expected.
Klaus-Dieter Mathes, Head of the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna, granted an interview to Marcus Perman and Alex Gardner @ buddha-nature.tsadra.org on April 24, 2018. The discussion is almost an hour long and ranges from Klaus' personal interest in buddha-nature teachings to his ongoing and detailed research projects on the subject. Mathes discusses buddha-nature and the key ideas behind it, the controversies it generates, and some of the related Buddhist philosophy in comparative perspective.
Listen to Audio Only or Download mp3:
Clips from the Interview
Buddha-nature has controversial points.
Do you accept buddhahood or not?
Mathes talks about reification and two approaches in the Karma Kagyu Tradition.
Mystic comes from a word that means to close ones eyes, but in Buddhism you are opening your eyes.
Different approaches to buddha-nature—the debates are alive and well in contemporary Tibetan Buddhist communities.
[[Topics/Lua error in Module:GetMediaValue at line 1: Module:MediaData returned boolean, table expected.|Lua error in Module:GetMediaValue at line 1: Module:MediaData returned boolean, table expected.]]
<ul><li>"Lua error in Module:GetMediaValue at line 1: Module:MediaData returned boolean, table expected." is not recognized as a Boolean (true/false) value.</li> <!--br--><li>Property "LocalMediaFile" (as page type) with input value "Lua error in Module:GetMediaValue at line 1: Module:MediaData returned boolean, table expected." contains invalid characters or is incomplete and therefore can cause unexpected results during a query or annotation process.</li> <!--br--><li>Property "Frontcoverimg" (as page type) with input value "Lua error in Module:GetMediaValue at line 1: Module:MediaData returned boolean, table expected." contains invalid characters or is incomplete and therefore can cause unexpected results during a query or annotation process.</li> <!--br--><li>"Lua error in Module:GetMediaValue at line 1: Module:MediaData returned boolean, table expected." contains an extrinsic dash or other characters that are invalid for a date interpretation.</li> <!--br--><li>"Lua error in Module:GetMediaValue at line 1: Module:MediaData returned boolean, table expected." is not in the list (Definitive, Provisional) of allowed values for the "PosBuNayDefProv" property.</li> <!--br--><li>"Lua error in Module:GetMediaValue at line 1: Module:MediaData returned boolean, table expected." is not in the list (Yes, No, Qualified Yes, Qualified No) of allowed values for the "PosAllBuddha" property.</li> <!--br--><li>"Lua error in Module:GetMediaValue at line 1: Module:MediaData returned boolean, table expected." is not in the list (First Turning, Second Turning, Third Turning, (Fourth Turning)) of allowed values for the "PosWheelTurn" property.</li> <!--br--><li>"Lua error in Module:GetMediaValue at line 1: Module:MediaData returned boolean, table expected." is not in the list (Yogācāra, Madhyamaka) of allowed values for the "PosYogaMadhya" property.</li> <!--br--><li>"Lua error in Module:GetMediaValue at line 1: Module:MediaData returned boolean, table expected." is not in the list (Zhentong, Rangtong) of allowed values for the "PosZhenRang" property.</li> <!--br--><li>"Lua error in Module:GetMediaValue at line 1: Module:MediaData returned boolean, table expected." is not in the list (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) of allowed values for the "PosVehicles" property.</li> <!--br--><li>"Lua error in Module:GetMediaValue at line 1: Module:MediaData returned boolean, table expected." is not in the list (Analytic Tradition, Meditative Tradition) of allowed values for the "PosAnalyticMedit" property.</li> <!--br--><li>"Lua error in Module:GetMediaValue at line 1: Module:MediaData returned boolean, table expected." is not in the list (Tathāgatagarbha as the Emptiness That is a Non-implicative Negation (without enlightened qualities), Tathāgatagarbha as the Emptiness That is an Implicative Negation (with enlightened qualities), Tathāgatagarbha as Mind's Luminous Nature, Tathāgatagarbha as the Unity of Emptiness and Luminosity, Tathāgatagarbha as a Causal Potential or Disposition (gotra), Tathāgatagarbha as the Resultant State of Buddhahood, Tathāgatagarbha as the Latent State of Buddhahood that is Obscured in Sentient Beings, There are several types of Tathāgatagarbha, Tathāgatagarbha was Taught Merely to Encourage Sentient Beings to Enter the Path) of allowed values for the "PosEmptyLumin" property.</li> <!--br--><li>"Lua error in Module:GetMediaValue at line 1: Module:MediaData returned boolean, table expected." is not in the list (Svātantrika (རང་རྒྱུད་), Prāsaṅgika (ཐལ་འགྱུར་)) of allowed values for the "PosSvataPrasa" property.</li> <!--br--><li>Property "BuNayPublisher" (as page type) with input value "Lua error in Module:GetMediaValue at line 1: Module:MediaData returned boolean, table expected." contains invalid characters or is incomplete and therefore can cause unexpected results during a query or annotation process.</li> <!--br--><li>Property "BuNayTopicTags" (as page type) with input value "Lua error in Module:GetMediaValue at line 1: Module:MediaData returned boolean, table expected." contains invalid characters or is incomplete and therefore can cause unexpected results during a query or annotation process.</li> <!--br--><li>Property "Translator" (as page type) with input value "Lua error in Module:GetMediaValue at line 1: Module:MediaData returned boolean, table expected." contains invalid characters or is incomplete and therefore can cause unexpected results during a query or annotation process.</li></ul>[[Category:Lua error in Module:GetMediaValue at line 1: Module:MediaData returned boolean, table expected.]][[Category:Lua error in Module:GetMediaValue at line 1: Module:MediaData returned boolean, table expected.]][[Category:Lua error in Module:GetMediaValue at line 1: Module:MediaData returned boolean, table expected.]][[Category:Lua error in Module:GetMediaValue at line 1: Module:MediaData returned boolean, table expected.]][[Category:Lua error in Module:GetMediaValue at line 1: Module:MediaData returned boolean, table expected.]][[Category:Lua error in Module:GetMediaValue at line 1: Module:MediaData returned boolean, table expected.]]
Kagyu - The Kagyu school traces its origin to the eleventh-century translator Marpa, who studied in India with Nāropa. Marpa's student Milarepa trained Gampopa, who founded the first monastery of the Kagyu order. As many as twelve subtraditions grew out from there, the best known being the Karma Kagyu, the Drikung, and the Drukpa. Tib. བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་
Yogācāra - Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana). Skt. योगाचार Tib. རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྤྱོད་པ་ Ch. 瑜伽行派
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་
tathāgatagarbha - Buddha-nature, literally the "womb/essence of those who have gone (to suchness)." Skt. तथागतगर्भ Tib. དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ Ch. 如来藏
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
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
