People/Sajjana

Sajjana

सज्जन, ས་ཛ་ན་

11th century

An eleventh-century Kashmiri scholar that was the source from which many prominent Tibetan scholars and translators of the day received teachings. Most notably he taught the Ratnagotravibhāga to Ngok Lotsāwa and Tsen Khawoche, which spread in Tibet as the Ngok and Tsen traditions and became the two primary trends that influenced much of the history of the Tibetan exegesis of the treatise. He also helped Ngok translate the text and worked with several other Tibetan translators on works that were later included in the Tibetan canon.

Philosophical positions of this person

Is buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?

Definitive 

Do all beings have buddha-nature?

 

To which "turning of the wheel" do the buddha-nature teachings belong?

 

Is buddha-nature equated with emptiness or alayavijnana?

 

Do buddha-nature teachings belong to the zhentong or rangtong view of emptiness?

 

Are there one or three vehicles on the path to buddhahood?

 

Do the author's writings belong to the analytic or meditative tradition of Uttaratantra exegesis?

 

What is Buddha-nature?

  Tathāgatagarbha as Mind's Luminous Nature

"As to the interpretation of Buddha-nature, on the other hand, Sajjana and rNgog hold different views, for Sajjana equates Buddha-nature with the luminous mind, which is not empty, while rNgog equates it with emptiness." Kano, K., Buddha-Nature and Emptiness, p. 239.

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Does the author advocate the Svatantrika or Prasangika view of emptiness?

 

Other names

• པཎྜི་ཏ་ས་ཛ་ན་ · other names (Tibetan)
• ས་ཛཛ་ན་ · other names (Tibetan)
• paN+Di ta sa dza na · other names (Wylie)
• sa dzdza na · other names (Wylie)
• Notes on names: In some of the recensions of the Ratnagotravibhāga, such as in the Derge Tengyur, as well as in Dölpopa's commentary we find Sajjana's name rendered into Sanskrit as Sadjñāna.

Affiliations & relations

• nil · familial relation
• Ratnavajra · teacher
• nil · student