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<div class="h1 large text-center">Selected Bibliography & Resources</div>
 


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== Academic Sources (582) ==
== Academic Sources (582) ==


*[[Bailey, Harold W.]] ''[[Indo-Scythian Studies: Being Khotanese Texts]]''. Vol. 5. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1963.
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*[[Bernert, Christian]], trans. ''[[Perfect or Perfected? Rongtön on Buddha-Nature]]: A Commentary on the Fourth Chapter of the Ratnagotravibhāga (vv.1.27-95[a])''. By [[Rongtön Sheja Künrig]] (rong ston shes bya kun rig). Kathmandu: [[Vajra Books]], 2018.
<li class="filterable">[[Bailey, Harold W.]] ''[[Indo-Scythian Studies: Being Khotanese Texts]]''. Vol. 5. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1963.</li>
*[[Brown, Brian Edward]]. ''[[The Buddha Nature: A Study of the Tathāgatagarbha and Ālayavijñāna]]''. Buddhist Tradition Series 11. Delhi: [[Motilal Banarsidass]], 1991. https://archive.org/details/tathagatgarbhabuddhanatureastudyofthetathagatagarbhaandalayavijnanabrianedwardbr/mode/2up.
<li class="filterable">[[Bernert, Christian]], trans. ''[[Perfect or Perfected? Rongtön on Buddha-Nature]]: A Commentary on the Fourth Chapter of the Ratnagotravibhāga (vv.1.27-95[a])''. By [[Rongtön Sheja Künrig]] (rong ston shes bya kun rig). Kathmandu: [[Vajra Books]], 2018.</li>
*[[Brunnhölzl, Karl]], trans. ''[[In Praise of Dharmadhātu]].'' By [[Nāgārjuna]] and the Third Karmapa, [[Rangjung Dorje]] (rang byung rdo rje). Nitartha Institute Series. Ithaca, NY: [[Snow Lion Publications]], 2007.
<li class="filterable">[[Brown, Brian Edward]]. ''[[The Buddha Nature: A Study of the Tathāgatagarbha and Ālayavijñāna]]''. Buddhist Tradition Series 11. Delhi: [[Motilal Banarsidass]], 1991. https://archive.org/details/tathagatgarbhabuddhanatureastudyofthetathagatagarbhaandalayavijnanabrianedwardbr/mode/2up.</li>
*[[Brunnhölzl, Karl]], trans. ''[[Luminous Heart: The Third Karmapa on Consciousness, Wisdom, and Buddha Nature]]''. Nitartha Institute Series. Ithaca, NY: [[Snow Lion Publications]], 2009.
<li class="filterable">[[Brunnhölzl, Karl]], trans. ''[[In Praise of Dharmadhātu]].'' By [[Nāgārjuna]] and the Third Karmapa, [[Rangjung Dorje]] (rang byung rdo rje). Nitartha Institute Series. Ithaca, NY: [[Snow Lion Publications]], 2007.</li>
*[[Brunnhölzl, Karl]], trans. ''[[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.
<li class="filterable">[[Brunnhölzl, Karl]], trans. ''[[Luminous Heart: The Third Karmapa on Consciousness, Wisdom, and Buddha Nature]]''. Nitartha Institute Series. Ithaca, NY: [[Snow Lion Publications]], 2009.</li>
*[[Coleman, James William]]. ''[[The Buddha's Dream of Liberation: Freedom, Emptiness, and Awakened Nature]]''. Somerville, MA: [[Wisdom Publications]], 2017.
<li class="filterable">[[Brunnhölzl, Karl]], trans. ''[[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.</li>
*[[Dalai Lama, 14th]], and [[Peter Michel]]. ''[[The Buddha Nature: Death and Eternal Soul in Buddhism]]''. Woodside, CA: Bluestar Communications, 1997.
<li class="filterable">[[Coleman, James William]]. ''[[The Buddha's Dream of Liberation: Freedom, Emptiness, and Awakened Nature]]''. Somerville, MA: [[Wisdom Publications]], 2017.</li>
*[[Duckworth, Douglas S.]] ''[[Mipam on Buddha-Nature: The Ground of the Nyingma Tradition]]''. Albany: [[State University of New York Press]], 2008. http://promienie.net/images/dharma/books/mipham_buddha-nature.pdf.
<li class="filterable">[[Dalai Lama, 14th]], and [[Peter Michel]]. ''[[The Buddha Nature: Death and Eternal Soul in Buddhism]]''. Woodside, CA: Bluestar Communications, 1997.</li>
*[[Duckworth, Douglas S.]] ''[[Jamgön Mipam: His Life and Teachings]]''. Boston: [[Shambhala Publications]], 2011.
<li class="filterable">[[Duckworth, Douglas S.]] ''[[Mipam on Buddha-Nature: The Ground of the Nyingma Tradition]]''. Albany: [[State University of New York Press]], 2008. http://promienie.net/images/dharma/books/mipham_buddha-nature.pdf.</li>
*[[Khyentse, Dzongsar]]. ''[[Buddha-Nature: Mahayana-Uttaratantra-Shastra]]''. By [[Arya Maitreya]]. With commentary by [[Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche]]. Edited by [[Alex Trisoglio]]. n.p.: Siddhartha's Intent, 2007. http://www.siddharthasintent.org/assets/pubs/UttaratantraDJKR.pdf.
<li class="filterable">[[Duckworth, Douglas S.]] ''[[Jamgön Mipam: His Life and Teachings]]'
*[[Fuchs, Rosemarie]], trans. ''[[Buddha Nature: The Mahayana Uttaratantra Shastra]]''. By [[Arya Maitreya]]. Written down by


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<h2>Multimedia Sources ({{#ask: [[Category:Multimedia]]OR[[Category:Articles]][[BuNayPageType::Audio||Video||Interview]]|format=count}})</h2>
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<h2>[[Library/Sutras|Sutra Sources]] (25)</h2>
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<h2>[[Library/Commentaries|Commentary Sources]] (104)</h2>
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Latest revision as of 18:07, 15 January 2025


Selected Bibliography & Resources


This is the most complete bibliography of academic and related references on the concept of buddha-nature and the Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra and its commentaries. On this page you can find secondary sources first, followed by multimedia citations with links and then primary source citations with links to relevant recension information and online resources in each available language.


812 Citations

Academic Sources (582)

Multimedia Sources (421)

Sutra Sources (36)

Nyi ma dang zla ba kha sbyor ba chen po gsang ba'i rgyud
One of the seventeen tantras belonging to the Unsurpassable Secret Cycle (ཡང་གསང་བླ་མེད་ཀྱི་སྐོར་) or Seminal Heart (སྙིང་ཐིག་) series of the Secret Instruction Class (མན་ངག་སྡེ་) of Dzogchen teachings, this was considered to have been passed down from Vimalamitra in the 8th century although modern scholars consider this be a Tibetan composition of later period. The tantra discusses the dissolution of human body at the time of death and the various funerary practices in detail.
Gaganagañjaparipṛcchāsūtra
The Sūtra of the Questions of Gaganagañja (Gaganagañjaparipṛcchāsūtra, Toh 148) is an important canonical work centering on the bodhisattva Gaganagañja’s inquiries to the Buddha, his display of seven miracles, and dialogue between various figures about core Mahāyāna principles. The sūtra covers topics such as the bodhisattva path, bodhicitta, concentration, buddha activity, wisdom (jñāna), as well as predictions about the future enlightenment of disciples. Throughout the discourse, the sky (gagana) is used as the central metaphor for emptiness (śūnyatā) and nonduality (advaya) to describe the nature of reality. (Source: 84000)
Rig pa rang shar chen po'i rgyud
One of the seventeen tantras belonging to the Unsurpassable Secret Cycle (ཡང་གསང་བླ་མེད་ཀྱི་སྐོར་) or Seminal Heart (སྙིང་ཐིག་) series of the Secret Instruction Class (མན་ངག་སྡེ་) of Dzogchen teachings, this was considered to have been passed down from Vimalamitra in the 8th century although modern scholars consider this be a Tibetan composition of later period. The tantra discusses luminosity and awareness.
Aṅgulimālīyasūtra
The Mahāyāna version of this sūtra, like the earlier Pali sutta of the same name, recounts a sorted tale of jealousy and revenge that spirals out of control, in which a once promising disciple is set on the path to become a vicious murderer in search of a thousand victims in order to create a garland strung with their severed fingers. That is, of course, until he encounters the final victim needed to complete his task, the Buddha. (You can read the story here). The Mahāyāna version is routinely included among the lists of so-called tathāgatagarbha sūtras, the reason likely being the extensive discussion the protagonist has with Mañjuśrī on the proper view of emptiness. The position presented in the text has been taken by some to be an early precursor to the view of other-emptiness.
RKTSK 417
The Hevajratantra is the most important scripture of the yoginītantra class. Shortly after its appearance around 900 CE in East India, it engendered - or promoted in a codified form - a widespread and influential cult of its eponymous deity and his retinue; its teachings became of such authority that there were hardly any esoteric Buddhist authors who could afford to ignore them. While the text continued the antinomian tradition set out in the Guhyasamājatantra and the Sarvabuddhasamāyogaḍākinījālaśaṃvara, it also introduced a number of innovations - most importantly the doctrine of the four blisses - and it is noted for skillfully blending the world of tantric ritual practice and non-esoteric Mahāyāna doctrine. Compared to the other emblematic yoginītantra, the Herukābhidhāna, the Hevajratantra can be said to contain much more theological and philosophical material, showing a confident grounding in the Buddhist world. (Source: Brill's Encyclopedia of Buddhism: Literature and Languages, edited by Jonathan A. Silk, Oskar von Hinüber, and Vincent Eltschinger, 334. Leiden: Brill, 2015.)
Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśaparivarta
One of the sūtra sources cited in the Ratnagotravibhāga, especially in relation to the fourth and sixth of the seven vajra topics discussed therein—namely, the teachings on the element, which in this case is a synonym for buddha-nature, and the teachings on the qualities. Though much of it is quoted in the Ratnagotravibhāga, the full text is only extant in a single Chinese translation.
Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra
A crucial source text for the Yogācāra school and many of its central tenets, including the theories of consciousness-only, all-ground consciousness (Skt. ālayavijñāna; Tib. kun gzhi rnam par shes pa), and the three natures. It is also noteworthy for its discussion of the relationship between the two truths (Ch.3), the three turnings of the wheel of Dharma (Ch.7), and meditation (Ch.8). Furthermore, it is commonly included in the Tibetan lists of sūtras that teach buddha-nature and/or the definitive meaning.
Lalitavistarasūtra
The Play in Full tells the story of how the Buddha manifested in this world and attained awakening, as perceived from the perspective of the Great Vehicle. The sūtra, which is structured in twenty-seven chapters, first presents the events surrounding the Buddha’s birth, childhood, and adolescence in the royal palace of his father, king of the Śākya nation. It then recounts his escape from the palace and the years of hardship he faced in his quest for spiritual awakening. Finally the sūtra reveals his complete victory over the demon Māra, his attainment of awakening under the Bodhi tree, his first turning of the wheel of Dharma, and the formation of the very early saṅgha. (Source: 84000)
Ratnacūḍaparipṛcchāsūtra
Part of the Ratnakūṭa collection of sūtras, the Ratnacūḍaparipṛcchāsūtra is quoted briefly in the Ratnagotravibhāga without mentioning it by name.
Sgra thal 'gyur chen po'i rgyud
One of the seventeen tantras belonging to the Unsurpassable Secret Cycle (ཡང་གསང་བླ་མེད་ཀྱི་སྐོར་) or Seminal Heart (སྙིང་ཐིག་) series of the Secret Instruction Class (མན་ངག་སྡེ་) of Dzogchen teachings, this was considered to have been passed down from Vimalamitra in the 8th century although modern scholars consider this be a Tibetan composition of later period. The tantra has six chapters and discusses awareness and luminosity.
Dhāraṇīśvararājasūtra
Also known as Questions of Dhāraṇīśvararāja Sūtras (Dhāraṇīśvararājasūtra), this lengthy sūtra is stated to be the primary source for the Ratnagotravibhāga since it touches upon all seven vajra topics discussed in the treatise.
Sarvabuddhaviśayāvatārajñānālokālaṃkārasūtra
The main topic of this sūtra is an explanation of how the Buddha and all things share the very same empty nature. Through a set of similes, the sūtra shows how an illusion-like Buddha may dispense appropriate teachings to sentient beings in accordance with their propensities. His activities are effortless since his realization is free from concepts. Thus, the Tathāgata’s non-conceptual awareness results in great compassion beyond any reference point. (Source: 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha)
Mahāmeghasūtra
Mahāmeghasūtra. (T. Sprin chen po'i mdo; C. Dafangdeng wuxiang jing/Dayun jing; J. Daihōdō musōkyō/Daiungyō; K. Taebangdǔng musang kyǒng/Taeun kyǒng 大方等無想經/大雲經). In Sanskrit, the "Great Cloud Sūtra"; it is also known in China as the Dafangdeng wuxiang jing. The Mahāmeghasūtra contains the teachings given by the Buddha to the bodhisattva "Great Cloud Secret Storehouse" (C. Dayunmizang) on the inconceivable means of attaining liberation, samādhi, and the power of dhāraṇīs. The Buddha also declares that tathāgatas remain forever present in the dharma and the saṃgha despite having entered parinirvāṇa and that they are always endowed with the four qualities of nirvāṇa mentioned in the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra, namely, permanence, bliss, purity, and selfhood (see guṇapāramitā). The Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra's influence on the Mahāmeghasūtra can also be witnessed in the story of the goddess "Pure Light" (C. Jingguang). Having heard the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra in her past life, the goddess is told by the Buddha that she will be reborn as a universal monarch (cakravartin). The sūtra is often cited for its prophecy of the advent of Nāgārjuna, as well as for its injunctions against meat-eating. It was also recited in order to induce rain. In China, commentators on the Mahāmeghasūtra identified the newly enthroned Empress Wu Zetian as the reincarnation of the goddess, seeking thereby to legitimize her rule. As Emperor Gaozong (r. 649–683) of the Tang dynasty suffered from increasingly ill health, his ambitious and pious wife Empress Wu took over the imperial administration. After her husband's death she exiled the legitimate heir Zhongzong (r. 683–684, 703–710) and usurped the throne. One of the many measures she took to gain the support of the people was the publication and circulation of the Mahāmeghasūtra. Two translations by Zhu Fonian and Dharmakṣema were available at the time. Wu Zetian also ordered the establishment of monasteries called Dayunsi ("Great Cloud Monastery") in every prefecture of the empire. (Source: "Mahāmeghasūtra." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 500. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)
Laṅkāvatārasūtra
An important Mahāyāna sūtra that was highly influential in East Asia as well as in Nepal, where a manuscript was discovered that remains the only extant Sanskrit recension of this text. It is notable for its inclusion of many doctrinal features that would come to be associated with the Yogācāra philosophy of Mind-Only (Cittamātra), such as the ālayavijñāna, or store-house consciousness, that acts as a repository for the seeds of karmic actions. It also includes several lengthy discussions of tathāgatagarbha and, though it is never actually referenced in the Uttaratantra, it is often listed among the so-called tathāgatagarbha sūtras. While its lack of mention in the Uttaratantra has been interpreted by scholars as evidence that the sūtra postdates the treatise, it should be noted that the ways in which the tathāgatagarbha is discussed in the sūtra is often at odds with its presentation in the Uttaratantra.
Ratnadārikāsūtra
An important sūtra source for the Uttaratantra in its discussion of the third of the seven topics (buddha) in which the qualities of awakening are listed.
Bkra shis mdzes ldan chen po'i rgyud
One of the seventeen tantras belonging to the Unsurpassable Secret Cycle (ཡང་གསང་བླ་མེད་ཀྱི་སྐོར་) or Seminal Heart (སྙིང་ཐིག་) series of the Secret Instruction Class (མན་ངག་སྡེ་) of Dzogchen teachings, this was considered to have been passed down from Vimalamitra in the 8th century although modern scholars consider this be a Tibetan composition of later period. The tantra explains the different manners in which empirical experiences appear from the ground reality or luminous awareness, also called the youthful vase body.
Sāgaramatiparipṛcchāsūtra
This sūtra details the story of the bodhisattva Sāgaramati and his questioning of the Buddha. A couple of the Buddha's responses to the bodhisattva are quoted at length in the Ratnagotravibhāga, which explain how bodhisattvas utilize the afflictions to anchor them to saṃsāra in order to benefit sentient beings. However, since the afflictions are merely adventitious, these bodhisattvas are not affected by them and they are, likewise, able to mature sentient beings who can also be cleansed of these adventitious afflictions to reveal the innate purity of the mind.
Kālacakratantra
The Kālacakratantra is an early eleventh-century esoteric treatise belonging to the class of unexcelled yoga-tantras (anuttara-yoga-tantra). To the best of our knowledge, it was the last anuttara-yoga-tantra to appear in India.
According to the Kālacakra tradition, the extant version of the Kālacakratantra is an abridged version of the larger original tantra, called the Paramādibuddha, that was taught by the Buddha Śākyamuni to Sucandra, the king of Śambhala and an emanation of Vajrapāṇi, in the Dhānyakaṭaka stūpa, a notable center of Mahāyāna in the vicinity of the present-day village of Amarāvatī in Andhra Pradesh. Upon receiving instruction on the Paramādibuddhatantra and returning to Śambhala, King Sucandra wrote it down and propagated it throughout his kingdom. His six successors continued to maintain the inherited tradition, and the eighth king of Śambhala, Mañjuśrī Yaśas, composed the abridged version of the Parāmadibuddhatantra, which is handed down to us as the Sovereign Abridged Kālacakratantra (Laghukālacakratantrarāja). It is traditionally taught that it is composed of 1,030 verses written in the sradgharā meter. However, various Sanskrit manuscripts and editions of the Laghukālacakratantra contain a somewhat larger number of verses, ranging from 1,037 to 1,047 verses. The term an “abridged tantra” (laghu-tantra) has a specific meaning in Indian Buddhist tantric tradition. Its traditional interpretation is given in Naḍapādas (Nāropā) Sekoddeśaṭīkā, which states that in every yoga, yoginī, and other types of tantras, the concise, general explanations (uddeśa) and specific explanations (nirdeśa) make up a tantric discourse (tantra-saṃgīti), and that discourse, which is an exposition (uddeśana) there, is an entire abridged tantra.
The tradition tells us that Mañjuśrī Yaśas's successor Puṇḍarīka, who was an emanation of Avalokiteśvara, composed a large commentary on the Kālacakratantra, called the Stainless Light (Vimalaprabhā), which became the most authoritative commentary on the Kālacakratantra and served as the basis for all subsequent commentarial literature of that literary corpus. The place of the Vimalaprabhā in the Kālacakra literary corpus is of great importance, for in many instances, without the Vimalaprabhā, it would be practically impossible to understand not only the broader implications of the Kālacakratantra' cryptic verses and often grammatically corrupt sentences but their basic meanings. It has been said that the Kālacakratantra is explicit with regard to the tantric teachings that are often only implied in the other anuttara-yoga-tantras, but this explicitness is actually far more characteristic of the Vimalaprabhā than of the Kālacakratantra itself. (Source: Wallace, Vesna A. The Inner Kālacakratantra: A Buddhist Tantric View of the Individual. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001: pp. 2-3.)
Buddhāvataṃsakasūtra
One of the longest works in the entire Buddhist canon, the Buddhāvataṃsakasūtra is widely considered to be a compilation of independent scriptures, which was expanded upon over the course of time. It was extremely influential in East Asia, where it was preserved in an eighty-scroll recension. The Tibetan translation of this work fills four volumes in the Derge Kangyur. Though only two sections—namely, the Gaṇḍavyūhasūtra and the Daśabhūmikasūtra—have survived in Sanskrit, both of which have also circulated as independent works.
Atyayajñānasūtra
While the Buddha is residing in the Akaniṣṭha realm, the bodhisattva mahāsattva Ākāśagarbha asks him how to consider the mind of a bodhisattva who is about to die. The Buddha replies that when death comes a bodhisattva should develop the wisdom of the hour of death. He explains that a bodhisattva should cultivate a clear understanding of the non-existence of entities, great compassion, non-apprehension, non-attachment, and a clear understanding that, since wisdom is the realization of one’s own mind, the Buddha should not be sought elsewhere. After these points have been repeated in verse form, the assembly praises the Buddha’s words, concluding the sūtra. (Source: 84000 Reading Room)
Śrīmālādevīsūtra
One of the more prominent sūtra sources for the Ratnagotravibhāga, this text tells of the story of Śrīmālādevī taking up the Buddhist path at the behest of her royal parents based on a prophecy of the Buddha. It includes mention of important concepts related to the teachings on buddha-nature, such as the single vehicle and the four perfections, or transcendent characteristics, of the dharmakāya. It also mentions the notion that buddha-nature, which is equated with mind's luminous nature, is empty of adventitious stains but not empty of its limitless inseparable qualities. In his commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga, Asaṅga quotes this sūtra more than any other source text. In particular, it is considered a source for the fifth of the seven vajra topics, enlightenment.
Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra
Commonly referred to as the Lotus Sūtra, this text is extremely popular in East Asia, where it is considered to be the "final" teaching of the Buddha. Especially in Japan, reverence for this text has put it at the center of numerous Buddhist movements, including many modern, so-called new religions. The esteemed status of this scripture is epitomized in the Nichiren school's sole practice of merely paying homage to its title with the prayer "Namu myōhō renge kyō".
Kun tu bzang po thugs kyi me long gi rgyud
One of the seventeen tantras belonging to the Unsurpassable Secret Cycle (ཡང་གསང་བླ་མེད་ཀྱི་སྐོར་) or Seminal Heart (སྙིང་ཐིག་) series of the Secret Instruction Class (མན་ངག་སྡེ་) of Dzogchen teachings, this was considered to have been passed down from Vimalamitra in the 8th century although modern scholars consider this be a Tibetan composition of later period. The tantra explains how the myriad phenomenological world arises from luminosity or Buddha-Nature.
Dṛḍhādhyāśayaparivarta
One of the sūtra sources for the Ratnagotravibhāga, especially for the first three of the seven vajra topics discussed therein—namely, the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha. Also known as Dṛḍhādhyāśayaparivarta, the main protagonist is Bodhisattva Dṛḍhādhyāśaya, who sees a beautiful girl on his alms round. He is attracted to the girl and tries to meditate on ugliness but fails and thus runs away to the mountains. The Buddha sees this, manifest as the beautiful girl, and chases him to say: "I should be relinquished in your mind. What use is giving up with your body. Dṛḍha! Running away physically cannot help you abandon attachment." Having said this, she jumps off a cliff and Dṛḍha reports to the Buddha who reminds him that the Buddha does not teach physical escape in order to eliminate attachment, hatred and ignorance.
Sekoddeśa
This is the first tantric text in the Kangyur canon related to the Kālacakra cycle. It is a summary of the third chapter of the longer Kālacakra tantra dealing with the ritual of initiation or empowerment. The Kālacakra teachings presents a unique set of seven initiations to conduct the ordinary/childlike initiate (བྱིས་པ་འཇུག་པའི་དབང་བདུན་) and then the four main initiations of the vase, secret, wisdom and word, which are also divided into two sets of the conventional and superior types. The Kālacakra cycle is considered to be very explicit in revealing the luminous nature of the mind through these initiatory rituals and tantric methods employing bodily energy and fluids.
Mahābherīsūtra
One of the so-called tathāgatagarbha sūtras that features teachings on buddha-nature. In this text buddha-nature is possessed by all sentient beings and is described as luminous and pure. It is also attributed characteristics, such as being permanent, eternal, everlasting, peaceful, and a self, that echo the four perfect qualities (guṇapāramitās) often ascribed to the dharmakāya when it is treated as a synonym for buddha-nature. It also connects tathāgatagarbha to the notion of a single vehicle and asserts the definitive nature of the buddha-nature teachings in general and within this sūtra in particular.
Aṣṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā
The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines, like other sūtras on the Perfection of Wisdom, deal with the topic of emptiness and the understanding of the ultimate truth or the way things are. Modern scholars date the sūtra roughly to 2nd and 1st century BC and consider it to be the earliest sūtra on which other sūtras on the Perfection of Wisdom are based while its adherents claim the sūtra to be a part of the words of the Buddha. It is believed taken to the subterranean world and brought back to the human world by Nāgārjuna. It is sometimes known as the Condensed Mother (ཡུམ་བསྡུས་པ་), the term mother referring to the Perfection of Wisdom, which give rise to all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. It is said to be the condensed version of the long version in hundred thousand lines and the middle version in twenty-five thousand lines. Having spread across Asia and beyond and translated into many languages, it is one of the most common books to be found in the Buddhist Himalayas. The sūtras takes the form of a series of dialogues between the Buddha Śākyamuni, Subhūti, Śāriputra, and others such as Indra, the king of gods, and a Goddess of the Ganges. In the final chapters, the sūtra contains the inspirational narratives of Sadāprarudita and his quest for the teachings on the Perfection of Wisdom from the Bodhisattva Dharmodgata. The sūtra is also one of the earliest Mahāyāna sources proclaiming the luminous nature of the mind.
Abhidharmamahāyānasūtra
This text is a lost Yogācāra sūtra. It is preserved only in a few quotes in other Yogācāra texts.
Ghanavyūhasūtra
Only extant in Chinese and Tibetan translations, this sūtra, which is centered around Buddha Śākyamuni's visit to the pure land of the Buddha Vairocana, is an important source for the Yogācāra notions of the three natures, tathāgatagarbha, and the ālayavijñāna. These latter two terms are often treated as synonyms in the text, especially in their pure form, while in its impure form the ālayavijñāna is designated as the source from which all ordinary phenomena emerge.
Rdo rje sems dpa' snying gi me long gi rgyud
One of the seventeen tantras belonging to the Unsurpassable Secret Cycle (ཡང་གསང་བླ་མེད་ཀྱི་སྐོར་) or Seminal Heart (སྙིང་ཐིག་) series of the Secret Instruction Class (མན་ངག་སྡེ་) of Dzogchen teachings, this was considered to have been passed down from Vimalamitra in the 8th century although modern scholars consider this be a Tibetan composition of later period. The tantra explains how Buddha-Nature abides at the heart of a person, in the midst of five coloured lights, like 'a vase body' along with the peaceful deities, from which pristine wisdom shines forth to the crown where the wrathful deities abide.
Tathāgataguṇajñānācintyaviṣayāvatāranirdeśa
One of the sūtra sources for the Ratnagotravibhāga, especially in terms of the last of the seven vajra topics discussed therein—namely, the activities.
Fanwang jing
Fanwang jing. (J. Bonmōkyō; K Pǔmmang kyǒng 梵網經). In Chinese, "Brahmā's Net Sūtra," the scripture is often cited by its reconstructed, but unattested, Sanskrit title, the *Brahmajālasūtra. This scripture is reputed to have been translated by KumārajIva in 406, but it is most likely an indigenous Chinese scripture (see apocrypha) composed during the middle of the fifth century. The Fanwang jing, in its current recension in two rolls, purports to be the tenth chapter of a much longer, 120-roll scripture tided the Bodhisattvaśīlasūtra, which is otherwise unknown. The first roll provides a description of the buddha Vairocana and the ten different stages of the bodhisattva path. Because subsequent Chinese indigenous scriptures that were closely related to the Fanwang jing, such as the Pusa yinluo penye jing, provided more systematic presentations of these soteriological models, this first roll was not widely studied and was typically omitted in commentaries on the scripture. Far more important to the tradition is the second roll, which is primarily concerned with the "bodhisattva precepts" (bodhisattvaśīla); this roll has often circulated independently as Pusajie jing (*Bodhisattvaśīlasūtra) "The Book of the Bodhisattva Precepts"). This roll provides a list of ten major and forty-eight minor Mahāyāna precepts that come to be known as the "Fanwang Precepts," which became a popular alternative to the 250 monastic precepts of the Dharmaguptaka vinaya (also known as the Sifen Lü). Unlike the majority of rules found in other non-Mahāyāna vinaya codes, the bodhisattva precepts are directed not only at ordained monks and nuns, but also may be taken by laymen and laywomen. The Fanwang jing correlates the precepts with Confucian virtues such as filial piety and obedience, as well as with one's buddha-nature (foxing). Numerous commentaries on this text were composed, and those written by Fazang, Mingkuang (fl. 800 CE), and the Korean monk T'aehyǒn (d.u.) were most influential. As the primary scriptural source in East Asia for the bodhisattva precepts, the Fanwang jing was tremendously influential in subsequent developments in Buddhist morality and institutions throughout the region. In Japan, for example, the Tendaishū monk Saichō (767-822) disparaged the prātimokṣa precepts of the traditional vinaya as being the precepts of hInayāna adherents, and rejected them in favor of having all monastics take instead the Mahāyāna precepts of the Fanwang jing. In Korea, all monastics and laypeople accept the bodhisattva precepts deriving from the Fanwang jing, but for monks and nuns these are still seen as complementary to their main monastic vows. (Source: "Fanwang jing." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 295. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)
Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra
There are three translations in the Tibetan canon under this name:
  1. Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra (RKTSK 119)
  2. Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra (RKTSK 120)
  3. Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra (RKTSK 121)


The Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra is one of the main scriptural sources for buddha-nature in China and Tibet. Set around the time of Buddha's passing or Mahāparinirvāṇa, the sūtra contains teachings on buddha-nature equating it with the dharmakāya—that is, the complete enlightenment of a buddha. It also asserts that all sentient beings possess this nature as the buddhadhātu, or buddha-element, which thus acts as a cause, seed, or potential for all beings to attain enlightenment. Furthermore, the sūtra includes some salient features related to this concept, such as the single vehicle and the notion that the dharmakāya is endowed with the four pāramitās of permanence, bliss, purity, and a self.

It may be noted that there are three different texts with similar titles in the Chinese and Tibetan canons. Of the three Tibetan texts with Mahāparinirvāṇa in their title, a short one (Derge Kangyur, No. 121) called Āryamahāparinirvāṇasūtra contains prophecies of events in the centuries after the Buddha's Mahāparinirvāṇa but has nothing on buddha-nature. Thus, this is not the Mahāparinirvāṇāsūtra which is considered as a Tathāgatagarbhasūtra. The two which deal with buddha-nature are Mahāyānasūtras and contain detailed accounts of the final teachings of the Buddha. The first sūtra, the longer one covering two volumes of Derge Kangyur (mdo sde Nya and Ta) is a translation from Chinese, while the second one is a translation from Sanskrit. They appear to be two different recensions of the same original sūtra as they have similar titles and overlapping content. However, the one translated from Chinese is much longer and also contains information on the events after the Buddha entered Mahāparinirvāṇa.
Kǔmgang sammae kyǒng
This text, also known as the *Vajrasamādhisūtra, is a Korean apocryphon, meaning an indigenous scripture that claimed to be a translation of an Indic original. It was composed at the end of the seventh century and continues to have widespread appeal across Asia as a source for buddha-nature and original enlightenment teachings. It belongs to the genre of "samādhi sūtra" in that it offers contemplative techniques designed to lead to enlightenment. The scripture reveals influences of early Chan and the Chinese Yogācāra tradition of Paramārtha, containing an extensive discussion of "immaculate consciousness" (amalavijñāna), the ninth consciousness which unites saṃsāra and nirvāṇa in a "single taste." The great Korean scholiast Wǒnhyo (617–686, 體用) wrote the most famous commentary, in which he outlined six successive steps for realizing original enlightenment. It is translated in Buswell, The Formation of Ch'an Ideology in China and Korea, 1989.
Tathāgatagarbhasūtra
The Tathāgatagarbhasūtra (TGS) is a relatively short text that represents the starting point of a number of works in Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism centering around the idea that all living beings have the buddha-nature. The genesis of the term tathāgatagarbha (in Tibetan de bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po, in Chinese rulai zang 如來藏, the key term of this strand of Buddhism and the title of the sūtra), can be observed in the textual history of the TGS. (Zimmermann, A Buddha Within: The Tathāgatagarbhasūtra, p. 7)
Vajracchedikāprajñāpāramitāsūtra
One of the most revered and recited scriptures of the perfection of wisdom genre (prajñāpāramitāsūtras), perhaps second only to the Heart Sūtra, both of which became especially popular in the East Asian Buddhist traditions. It is a crucial source for Mahāyāna tenets of selflessness and the emptiness of phenomena, and its discourse is framed as an explanation of how to enter into the vehicle of the bodhisattvas by developing and sustaining their enlightened perspective.

Commentary Sources (167)

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i zin bris byams mgon gyi dgongs pa phyin ci ma log pa
གྲགས་པ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ (Rje btsun grags pa rgyal mtshan)
Rgyud bla ma'i 'grel pa Ti ka nyi 'od gsal ba
ལྷོ་བྲག་པ་དྷརྨ་སེངྒེ་ (Lho brag dar ma seng ge)
Among the numerous texts discovered at Drepung monastery's library through the efforts of Alak Zenkar Rinpoche and his team is a hitherto unknown commentary [on the Ultimate Continuum] by one Lhodrak Dharma Senge. Although the manuscript is incomplete and missing the final pages which may have contained the colophon, the title on the first page and a note at the start of the commentary explicitly mention Lhodrakpa Dharma Senge as the author. Yet, apart from the obvious association of the author with the southern Lhodrak region of Central Tibet, we have no information on when and where he lived. The style and content of the commentary suggest its composition was completed in the early classical period of the twelfth-thirteenth centuries, most likely before the well-known commentaries on the Ultimate Continuum appeared at the peak of the classical period in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The manuscript itself, in dbu med script, bears some archaic characteristics, including the writing of the negative med (མེད་) as myed (མྱེད་) and the use of numerals instead of spelling numbers in full, such as རྣམ་འབྱེད་རྣམ་པ་༣་ instead of རྣམ་འབྱེད་རྣམ་པ་གསུམ་ and ༢་མྱེད་ in the place of གཉིས་མེད།. Read more here.
Rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi 'grel mchan
Rgyud bla ma'i sa bcad mtshungs med legs bshad
ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་སྐྱབས་མཆོག་དཔལ་བཟང་ (Lo tsA ba skyabs mchog dpal bzang)
An outline of the Ultimate Continuum attributed to Lochen Kyapchok Palzang has verses in the beginning and end written with play of words used in a difficult poetic compositions. The outlines divides the main text into three sections, unlike most other outlines which presents the Ultimate Continuum in four sections.
Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i dka' gnad kyi mtha' dpyad mun sel
This commentary is included in the fourth set of bKa' gdams gsung 'bum phyogs bsgrigs but the name of the author is partially erased and not clear. The author was a student of one Sonam Zangpo and Palden Gyaltsen and the commentary was written in Sakya. Using dialectical arguments, the author discusses the crucial points in the Ultimate Continuum to present a very clear interpretation of Buddha-Nature in the tradition of zhentong.
Fo xing lun
An influential text in East Asian on buddha-nature attributed in the Chinese canon to Vasubandhu. Though no Sanskrit recension nor Tibetan translation has ever been located it was reportedly translated into Chinese by Paramārtha in the 6th century. Much like the Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna, several modern scholars of East Asian Buddhism have surmised that the work may have been actually composed by Paramārtha. The Saṃdhigambhīranirmocanasūtratīkā composed by Wan tshik translated from Chinese to Tibetan by Gö Chodrub mentions this treatise about ten times.
Rgyud bla rong ston 'grel pa'i kha skong
ཀུན་དགའ་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་ (Kun dga' rnam rgyal)
Rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos gsal byed
ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་སྐྱབས་མཆོག་དཔལ་བཟང་།? (Lo tsA ba skyabs mchog dpal bzang)
This is a commentary on the Ultimate Continuum which was discovered in the Nechu library in Drepung monastery recently. Although the compilers of the bKa' gdams gsung 'bum phyogs bsgrigs have attributed this to Lochen Kyapchok Palzang, the commentary does not have the same outline as the one said to have been authored by him. It also presents interpretations which align with the interpretations of Gyaltsap. Thus, it is possible the commentary is by a later Geluk author but nothing can be confirmed as the book has no colophon.
Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos zhes bya ba'i mchan 'grel gyi mchan bu
ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ (Tshul khrims rgyal mtshan)
Bde gshegs snying po'i skor zin bris
Tsul
Found among the rare old manuscripts from Kham area, these notes appear in vols. 44 and 45 of the collection. They discuss the three types of the Buddha element at three stages and also link them to the ground, path and resultant stages and other aspects of the Dzogchen system. Some of the notes are signed by one named Tsul but it is not clear who the Tsul is.
Rgyud bla ma'i gsal byed bsam mi khyab pa'i yi ge
ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་སྐྱབས་མཆོག་དཔལ་བཟང་།? (Lo tsA ba skyabs mchog dpal bzang)
This text, published as part of the bka' gdams gsung 'bum phyogs bsgrigs, is attributed to Lochen Kyapchok Palzang. It was found in the Nechu Lhakhang library in Drepung monastery. However, the text does not have a colophon and the content points to an earlier author named Chöshe, who was a disciple of Zulphowa. Presenting an early version of other-emptiness, this treatise presents different topics of advanced meditation based on the Ultimate Continuum. At the end of the text, one finds an account of how the teachings were passed down from Maitrīpa to Kashmir and then through the Tsen contemplative lineage. The account is almost identical to the account found in Kyotön Monlam Tsultrim's work with minor variations.
Rgyud bla ma'i spyi don
ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་སྐྱབས་མཆོག་དཔལ་བཟང་ (Lo tsA ba skyabs mchog dpal bzang)
This is a short treatise from the collection of bka' gdams gsung 'bum phyogs bsgrigs which was recently published containing books from Drepung Nechu library. Although the compilers attributed this work to Lochen Kyapchok Palzang, there is no colophon to confirm it. The work discusses the adamantine and luminous nature of Buddha-Nature.
Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i zin bris tI kA
སྟག་ལུང་ཆོས་རྗེ་ (Stag lung chos rje)
A very clear commentary on the Ultimate Continuum by Taglung Choje according to the title page, the treatise presents a brief history of the teachings on the Ultimate Continuum and follows the meditative tradition from Tsen Khawoche. The authors also cites and critiques some Tibetan interpretations and is perhaps unique in arguing Dhammakāya pervades all phenomena and not just sentient beings.
Lta ba mdor bsdus pa
Nāropa
A condensed explanation of the view of Mahāmudrā presented in verse. It is cataloged as an anonymous composition in the Derge Tengyur, however the closing line of the text attributes it to Nāropa, with the customary repetition of the title appearing as rje na ro pa'i lta ba mdor bsdus pa.
De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po bstan pa zhis bya ba'i bstan bcos kyi 'grel pa don gsal lung gi 'od zer
གློ་བོ་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་ཤེས་རབ་རིན་ཆེན་ (Glo bo lo tsA ba shes rab rin chen)
Commentary by Sherab Rinchen on The Third Karmapa's treatise on buddha-nature, which is essentially a synopsis of the Uttaratantra.
Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā
ཐོགས་མེད་ (Asaṅga)
In the Tibetan tradition, which parses out the root verses and refers to that as the treatise (bstan bcos, śāstra), this title references the full text complete with the root verses and the accompanying prose commentary (rnam par bshad pa, vyākhyā). While the earlier Chinese tradition attributes authorship of both aspects of the text to the as of yet still mysterious figure of Sāramati, the Tibetan tradition attributes the treatise to the Bodhisattva Maitreya and this commentary to the illustrious founder of the Yogācāra school, Asaṅga. However, unlike the Chinese tradition which delineates different aspects of the text into the basic verses, the commentarial verses, and the prose commentary, the Tibetan tradition actually preserves two separate versions of the text we know as the Ratnagotravibhāga.

The first, made up entirely of the so-called root verses, corresponds to the Sanskrit title Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra, though it is usually referenced in this tradition by the Tibetan equivalent of the latter subtitle, Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos, which is commonly rendered into English as the Treatise on the Ultimate Continuum of the Great Vehicle and is abbreviated as RGV. However, the full title, Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos dkon mchog gi rigs rnam par dbye ba, does appear at the end of each chapter of the canonical Tibetan recensions. Nevertheless, this version is likely a Tibetan redaction, in that thus far there is no evidence of a Sanskrit version written entirely in verse that excludes the commentarial sections that explain them.

The second, which combines the verses with their accompanying prose commentary, corresponds to the *Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā as it has become known in academic circles where it is referenced with the abbreviation RGVV. However, in Tibetan the subtitle is merely appended with the equivalent of vyākhyā, i.e. Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos rnam par bshad pa, and thus a translation of the Tibetan title of the complete text would be something akin to the Explanatory Commentary on the Treatise on the Ultimate Continuum of the Great Vehicle. However, the extant Sanskrit recension of the Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra directly corresponds to the Tibetan version known as the *Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā, in that it contains both the root verses and the prose commentary. Though, again, lacking a Sanskrit work entitled the Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā, we can surmise that its corresponding Tibetan title was likely manufactured in order to delineate it from the streamlined verse redaction, while the Sanskrit title *Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā was in turn a product of modern scholars. On the surface it would seem that this title is a combination of the Chinese title back translated into Sanskrit as the Ratnagotraśāstra and the one found in the Tibetan editions, which state the Sanskrit title as the Mahāyānottaratantraśāstravyākhya. Nevertheless, in terms of content, the Sanskrit RGV corresponds to the Tibetan RGVV, in that the Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra is the same text as Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos rnam par bshad pa.

Also, see the Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra and for a recent essay on the text: On the Ratnagotravibhāga by Alexander Gardner.
Dasheng qixin lun
Aśvaghoṣa
The Treatise on the Awakening of Faith According to the Mahāyāna is an immensely important treatise popular in all traditions of Buddhism in East Asia. It was written in China in the middle of the sixth century, heavily influenced by Indian Yogācāra and tathāgatagarbha teachings, providing a scriptural foundation for both buddha-nature theory and the doctrine of original enlightenment. The text synthesized tathāgatagarbha and ālayavijñāna theories to explain how the mind is the source for both enlightenment and ignorance. A relatively short text at just nine pages, it lucidly, if densely, explains important topics such as the nature of mind and consciousness and the threefold bodies of the Buddha, concluding with elegant meditation instructions. Although traditionally said to have been composed by Aśvaghoṣa and translated by Paramārtha, contemporary scholarly consensus has raised doubts about this attribution, and the text's authorship is typically said to be unknown. There is no known Tibetan translation but the text is mentioned three times in Saṃdhigambhīranirmocanasūtratīkā written by the Chinese scholar Wan tshik (རྒྱའི་སློབ་དཔོན་ཝན་ཚིག་གིས་མཛད་པ་ འཕགས་པ་དགོངས་པ་ཟབ་མོ་ངེས་པར་འགྲེལ་བའི་མདོ་རྒྱ་ཆེར་འགྲེལ་པ།) and translated by Gö Chödrup.
Theg pa chen po'i bstan bcos rgyud bla ma'i 'grel pa
བོ་དོང་པཎ་ཆེན་ཕྱོགས་ལས་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་ (Bo dong paN chen phyogs las rnam rgyal)
A commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga by the famed scholar Bodong Paṇchen Chokle Namgyal. He considers this text a connector between sūtra and mantra traditions and argues that buddha-nature does not possess the qualities of the Buddha but is luminous and pure by nature.
Bde gshegs snying po gsal ba'i rgyan
བུ་སྟོན་རིན་ཆེན་གྲུབ་ (Bu ston rin chen grub)
Butön's study on the theory of the tathāgatagarbha written in 1359. In this text he argues that the teachings on buddha-nature are of an expedient or provisional meaning, which is a position that is typical of the Sakya view as set forth by Sakya Paṇḍita and others. He backs up this position with citations from the Ghanavyūhasūtra, the Laṅkāvatārasūtra, the Śrīmālādevīsūtra, the Aṅgulimālīyasūtra, and the Ratnagotravibhāga.
Stong thun gnad kyi zin thun
བོད་སྤྲུལ་མདོ་སྔགས་བསྟན་པའི་ཉི་མ་ (Bod sprul mdo sngags bstan pa'i nyi ma)
Notes on Mipam's Lion’s Roar: Exposition of Buddha-Nature, by an influential 20th century Nyingma scholar that took great pains to uphold and further the legacy of Mipam's scholastic contributions.
Pradīpoddyotana-nāma-ṭīkā
ཟླ་བ་གྲགས་པ་ (Candrakīrti)
A commentary on the Guhyasamāja Tantra attributed to Candrakīrti. This extensive commentary on Guhyasamāja Tantra discusses the six hermeneutic strategies of provisional and ultimate meaning, literal and non-literal reading, and interpretable or non-interpretable meaning. It also highlights the natural state of all phenomena such as five aggregates and five elements as enlightened buddhas, and described the innate mind as luminous and endowed with qualities of enlightenment. The commentary is said to have been written relying on instructions passed down from Nāgārjuna who is said to have been prophesied in the Descent to Laṅka Sūtra to be a promoter of the higher yoga tantras. If one accepts the author of this text to be Candrakīrti, who is the Mādhyamika author of the Madhyamakāvatāra, as tradition has it, then it is evident he adopted here a position on buddha-nature which is different from the one in Madhyamakāvatāra, where his focus is on establishing all things as emptiness, and he argues the sūtras advocating buddha-nature are provisional teachings to lead those beings scared of non-self. In this text, the author accepts the nature of all things to be enlightened, and he argues that 'sentient beings are the base of all buddhas because they possess buddha-nature'(རྒྱལ་བ་ཀུན་གྱི་གནས་ནི་སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་དེ། དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ཅན་ཡིན་པའི་ཕྱིར་རོ། །). Traditional scholars would generally explain such a shift in philosophical stance as context-based and not see it as a contradiction or inconsistency. In the context of Guhyasamāja tantra, Candrakīrti could be said to have accepted the concept of buddha-nature as innate enlightenment.
Madhyamakāvatāra
ཟླ་བ་གྲགས་པ་ (Candrakīrti)
Madhyamakāvatāra. (T. Dbu ma la 'jug pa). In Sanskrit, "Entrance to the Middle Way" (translated also as "Supplement to the Middle Way"); the major independent (as opposed to commentarial) work of the seventh-century Indian master Candrakīrti, who states that it is intended as an avatāra (variously rendered as "primer," "entrance," and "supplement") to Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. The work is written in verse, to which the author provides an extensive prose commentary (bhāṣya). The work is organized around ten "productions of the aspiration to enlightenment" (bodhicittotpāda), which correspond to the ten stages (bhūmi) of the bodhisattva path (drawn largely from the Daśabhūmikasūtra) and their respective perfections (pāramitā), describing the salient practices and attainments of each. These are followed by chapters on the qualities of the bodhisattva, on the stage of buddhahood, and a conclusion. The lengthiest (comprising approximately half of the work) and most important chapter of the text is the sixth, dealing with the perfection of wisdom (prajñāpāramitā). This is one of the most extensive and influential expositions in

Indian literature of Madhyamaka philosophical positions. In it, Candrakīrti provides a detailed discussion of the two truths—ultimate truth (paramārthasatya) and conventional truth (saṃvṛtisatya)—arguing that all things that have these two natures and that conventional truths (which he glosses as "concealing truths") are not in fact true because they appear falsely to the ignorant consciousness. He also discusses the crucial question of valid knowledge (pramāṇa) among the unenlightened, relating it to worldly consensus (lokaprasiddha). The sixth chapter also contains one of the most detailed refutations of Yogācāra in Madhyamaka literature, treating such topics as the three natures (trisvabhāva), the foundational consciousness (ālayavijñāna), and the statements in the sūtras that the three realms of existence are "mind-only" (cittamātra). This chapter also contains Candrakīrti's most famous contribution to Madhyamaka reasoning, the sevenfold reasoning designed to demonstrate the absence of a personal self (pudgalanairātmya). Adding to and elaborating upon a fivefold reasoning found in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, Candrakīrti argues that the person does not intrinsically exist because of it: (1) not being the aggregates (skandha), (2) not being other than the aggregates, (3) not being the basis of the aggregates, (4) not depending on the aggregates, (5) not possessing the aggregates, (6) not being the shape of the aggregates, and (7) not being the composite of the aggregates. He illustrates this reasoning by applying it to the example of a chariot, which, he argues, is not to be found among its constituent parts. The sixth chapter concludes with a discussion of

the sixteen and the twenty forms of emptiness (śūnyatā), which include the emptiness of emptiness (śūnyatāśūnyatā). The work was the most widely studied and commented upon Madhyamaka text in Tibet among all sects, serving, for example, as one of the "five texts" (zhung lnga) that formed the Dge lugs scholastic curriculum. The work is preserved only in Tibetan, although a Sanskrit manuscript of verses has been discovered in Tibet. (Source: "Madhyamakāvatāra." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 489. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)
Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bsdus don
ཕྱྭ་པ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སེངྒེ་ (Phywa pa chos kyi seng+ge)
This is an outline and synopsis of the Uttaratantra by Chapa, one of the early Kadam scholars of Sangpu Neutok Monastery.
Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi tshig dang don gyi cha rgya cher bsnyad pa phra ba'i don gsal ba
ཕྱྭ་པ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སེངྒེ་ (Phywa pa chos kyi seng+ge)
Commentary on the Uttaratantra by one of the early Kadam scholars representing the analytic exegesis of the treatise stemming from Ngok Lotsāwa (rngog lugs) and the scholastic tradition of Sangpu Neutok Monastery.
Byams pa dang 'brel chos kyi byung tshul
བཅོམ་ལྡན་རིག་པའི་རལ་གྲི་ (Bcom ldan rig pa'i ral gri)
Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma rgyan gyi me tog
བཅོམ་ལྡན་རིག་པའི་རལ་གྲི་ (Bcom ldan rig pa'i ral gri)
A rather brief work that, as Tsering Wangchuk states, is "the earliest extant Tibetan commentary on the Uttaratantra that cites both tantric and sutric sources to corroborate the claims made in the treatise."
Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i don gyi snying po gsal byed kyi snang ba chen po
ཅོ་ནེ་གྲགས་པ་བཤད་སྒྲུབ་ (Co ne grags pa bshad sgrub)
An articulate synopsis of the seven vajra points in the Ultimate Continuum based on mainstream Geluk interpretation. Chone Drakpa Shedrup makes a clear distinction between the naturally abiding spiritual and the developed spiritual gene identifying the former with the emptiness of the mind and the latter with spiritual qualities such as compassion, renunciation and mind of awakening.
Mdo rgyud rin po che'i mdzod
ཆོས་དབྱིངས་སྟོབས་ལྡན་རྡོ་རྗེ་ (Chos dbyings stobs ldan rdo rje)
In 1838, Choying Tobden Dorje, a Buddhist yogi-scholar of eastern Tibet, completed a multivolume masterwork that traces the entire path of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism from beginning to end. Written by a lay practitioner for laypeople, it was intended to be accessible, informative, inspirational, and above all, practical. Its twenty-five books, or topical divisions, offer a comprehensive and detailed view of the Buddhist path according to the early translation school of Tibetan Buddhism, spanning the vast range of Buddhist teachings from the initial steps to the highest esoteric teachings of great perfection. (Source: Shambhala Publications)
Rgyud bla ma'i 'grel ba rin po che'i snang ba
དོན་གྲུབ་རིན་ཆེན་ (Don grub rin chen)
Composed by Dondup Rinchen, the first teacher of Tsongkhapa, this clear and moderate-size commentary presents an interpretation of Buddha-Nature as reality which has latent qualities of the Buddha. Thus, Dhondup Rinchen's interpretations differs from the position held by his student Tsongkhapa and the latter's followers. He refutes the position held by earlier Tibetan scholars, which one finds later adopted by the Gelukpa tradition.
Dam pa'i chos dgongs pa gcig pa'i 'grel chen snang mdzad ye shes sgron me
རྡོ་རྗེ་ཤེས་རབ་ (Rdo rje shes rab)
Dorje Sherab's extensive commentary on the Sacred Teaching on the Single Intention (Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa), one of the core texts of the Drikung Kagyu tradition that is reported to be the oral teachings of Jikten Gönpo that were written down and edited together by his student Sherab Jungne.
Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi 'grel pa byams mgon dgyes pa'i mchod sprin
བྲག་དཀར་བློ་བཟང་དཔལ་ལྡན་བསྟན་འཛིན་སྙན་གྲགས་ (Brag dkar blo bzang dpal ldan bstan 'dzin snyan grags)
Rang stong dang gzhan stong gi khyad par cung zad brjod pa tshul gnyis rnam gsal lung rigs sgron me
བྲག་དཀར་བློ་བཟང་དཔལ་ལྡན་བསྟན་འཛིན་སྙན་གྲགས་ (Brag dkar blo bzang dpal ldan bstan 'dzin snyan grags)
Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi bsdus pa'i don
འགྲོ་མགོན་ཆོས་རྒྱལ་འཕགས་པ་ ('gro mgon chos rgyal 'phags pa)
Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi 'grel ba gsal ba nyi ma'i snying po
བདུད་མོ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་འོད་ཟེར་ (Bdud mo bkra shis 'od zer)
Dumowa Tashi Özer's commentary on the Uttaratantra that is based on the Third Karmapa’s topical outline or summary (bsdus don).
Bde gshegs snying po la bstod pa dad gus kyi gter chen po
དོལ་པོ་པ་ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ (Dol po pa)
Verses of praise to sugatagarbha, or buddha-nature, composed by Dölpopa.
Bka' bsdu bzhi pa'i don bstan rtsis chen po
དོལ་པོ་པ་ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ (Dol po pa)
The seminal work of Dölpopa often simply referred to as the Fourth Council. Structured around the notion of four eons drawn from the Kālacakra Tantra, it is one of the primary sources for Dölpopa's presentation of his other-emptiness (zhentong) philosophy.
Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos legs bshad nyi ma'i 'od zer
དོལ་པོ་པ་ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ (Dol po pa)
Dölpopa's commentary on the Uttaratantra, which, although it doesn't actually use the term "other-emptiness", is an important precursor and source to the formulation of his unique Zhentong view found in his seminal work Mountain Dharma: An Ocean of Definitive Meaning (ri chos nges don rgya mtsho).
Bde gshegs snying po'i bkra shis
དོལ་པོ་པ་ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ (Dol po pa)
Verses of benediction to invoke the auspiciousness of sugatagarbha composed by Dölpopa.
Chos dbyings du ma ro gcig bde gshegs snying po'i yon tan can gyi mdo sde
དོལ་པོ་པ་ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ (Dol po pa)
Dölpopa's responds to arguments against the theory that buddha-nature has the qualities of the buddha latent in it. He uses scriptural citations and reasonings to argue that the unconditioned buddha-nature must possess the qualities of the Buddha.
Ri chos nges don rgya mtsho zhes bya ba mthar thug thun mong ma yin pa'i man ngag
དོལ་པོ་པ་ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ (Dol po pa)
Dolpopa's seminal work considered to be the most definitive philosophical treatise of the Jonang tradition. It became famous as the crucial source for the presentation of his view of other-emptiness (zhentong).
Dpon byang ba'i phyag tu phul ba'i chos kyi shan 'byed
དོལ་པོ་པ་ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ (Dol po pa)
A lengthy polemical work by Dölpopa that addresses various disputed philosophical positions. Pön Jangpa sent Dolpopa some polemical writings with a measure of gold as gift asking him to send him response. In response, Dölpopa wrote this treatise explaining how self-emptiness as many Tibetan scholars understood is not the ultimate truth but buddha-nature endowed with buddha qualities is.
Shōbōgenzō
Dōgen
In Japanese, “Treasury of the True Dharma Eye”; the magnum opus of the Japanese Zen master Dōgen Kigen (1200-1253); the title refers to the Zen (C. Chan) school, which is considered to be the repository of the insights of the buddha Śākyamuni himself, transmitted through the lineage of the Chan patriarchs (zushi) starting with Mahākāśyapa... Dōgen’s oeuvre contains two works with this title...The second is a collection of essays written in Japanese, known as the Kana [viz., “vernacular”] Shōbōgenzō, which is the better known of the two and which will be the focus of this account. The Shōbōgenzō is a collection of individual essays and treatises that Dogen composed throughout his

eventful career.... Six different editions of the Shōbōgenzō are known to exist: the “original” volume edited by Dōgen in seventy-five rolls, the twelve-roll Yōkōji edition, the sixty-roll Eiheiji edition edited by Giun (1253-1333), the eighty-four roll edition edited by Bonsei (d. 1427) in 1419, the eighty-nine roll edition edited by Manzan Dōhaku (1636-1715) in 1684 at Daishōji, and the ninety-five roll edition edited by Kōzen (1627-1693) in 1690 at Eiheiji. The seventy-five roll edition is today the most widely

consulted and cited. Many of the essays were originally sermons delivered by Dōgen, such that some are written by him and others were recorded by his disciples. (Source: Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 810-811.)
Chos dang chos ma yin par rnam par 'byed pa'i gtam chen po zab mor nang don 'khrul par ngo sprod par byed pa grub mtha'i spyi ching
མི་བསྐྱོད་རྡོ་རྗེ་ (Karmapa, 8th)
The Eight Karmapa's general outline of the tenets of the Sacred Teaching on the Single Intention (Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa).
Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa'i kar TIka chen mo
མི་བསྐྱོད་རྡོ་རྗེ་ (Karmapa, 8th)
The 8th Karmapa's commentary on the famous treatise, the Sacred Teaching on the Single Intention (Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa) by Drikungpa master Jikten Gönpo. The Single Intention is a compendium of critical philosophical, soteriological, and moral positions taught by Jikten Gönpo and written down by his disciple and nephew Sherab Jungne. The text contains 150 critical vajra words (རྡོ་རྗེའི་གསུང་) in seven groups (ཚོམས་), along with another 47 appended points (ལྷན་ཐབས་). The root text composed by Sherab Jungne has seen several commentaries, including one by the first Drikung Chungtsang Chökyi Drakpa. This extensive commentary by the 8th Karmapa Mikyö Dorje is perhaps the only long commentary by Karma Kagyu master on the Single Intention.
Dbu ma la 'jug pa'i rnam bshad dpal ldan dus gsum mkhyen pa'i zhal lung dwags brgyud grub pa'i shing rta
མི་བསྐྱོད་རྡོ་རྗེ་ (Karmapa, 8th)
The Eighth Karmapa's commentary on Candrakīrti's Madhyamakāvatāra (Entry into the Middle Way), presented as the oral instructions of the First Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa. This extensive commentary covers the transmission of the teachings of Middle Way to Tibet, polemical discussions on the difference between Middle Way in sūtra and mantra traditions and the proper commentary on the root verses. The author also comments on Candrakīrti's interpretation of buddha-nature teachings as provisional.
Dbu ma gzhan stong smra ba'i srol legs par phye ba'i sgron me
མི་བསྐྱོད་རྡོ་རྗེ་ (Karmapa, 8th)
In terms of its contents, the Lamp represents a digest of the Uttaratantra, discussing its seven vajra points. In particular, the text’s structure closely follows the first chapter of the Uttaratantra and RGVV, explaining the first four vajra points in detail. Thus, the Lamp refers to both the Uttaratantra and RGVV throughout, though each one is only quoted explicitly once. In addition, the text cites the Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśaparivarta, the Avataṃsakasūtra, and the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārabhāṣya (once each). It also refers to the Dharmadharmatāvibhāga, the Madhyāntavibhāga, the Kālacakratantra, and six verses from the Dharmadhātustava. (Karl Brunnhölzl. When the Clouds Part, 2015: p. 323.)
De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po bstan pa'i bstan bcos kyi mchan 'grel
མཁའ་ཁྱབ་རྡོ་རྗེ་ (Karmapa, 15th)
An annotated commentary written by the fifteenth Karmapa on the Third Karmapa's verses on buddha-nature, The Treatise on Pointing Out the Tathāgata Heart.
Dam chos yid bzhin gyi nor bu thar pa rin po che'i rgyan
སྒམ་པོ་པ་ (Sgam po pa)
One of Gampopa's most enduring works. It was one of the first "stages of the path" (lam rim) texts to be written by a Tibetan, after the genre was introduced by Atiśa through his famous composition Bodhipathapradīpa, The Stages of the Path to Enlightenment.
Rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi rnam bshad bde gshegs snying po'i mdzes rgyan
དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་པ་བློ་གྲོས་བརྟན་པ་ (Dga' ldan khri pa blo gros brtan pa)
Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i rnam bshad don dam rnam nges bsdus pa'i snying po'i snying po
དགེ་འདུན་འོད་ཟེར་ (Dge 'dun 'od zer)
In his commentary [Gendun Özer] mentions that he composed it for his students who had requested that he write something that would differ from the "coarse explanation" (bshad nyog rtsing po) of the Uttaratantra offered by the "early commentators" (snga rabs pa) of the Kadam tradition. While Gendün Özer does not intend to succumb to a "coarse explanation" of the Indian treatise, he follows his early Kadam predecessors' exposition in terms of doctrinal position, even though his literary style is different, with numerous poetic verses of admiration. In this time period it is not surprising that he wrote the commentary primarily in consultation with Ngok's Tibetan translation (rngog 'gyur) of the Uttaratantra, but the author also used the translations made by Naktso and Patsap wherever necessary. (Source: Tsering Wangchuk. The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, 59.)
Nges don dbu ma chen po'i tshul rnam par nges pa'i gtam bde gshegs snying po'i rgyan
དགེ་རྩེ་མ་ཧཱ་པཎྡི་ཏ་ཚེ་དབང་མཆོག་གྲུབ་ (Dge rtse ma hA paN+Di ta tshe dbang mchog grub)
In this work on Great Madhyamaka, the Ornament of Sugatagarbha, Getse Mahāpaṇḍita discusses the different tenet systems and their brief history and aligns them to the three Turnings of the Wheel of Dharma. He delves into discussion of Madhyamaka and includes both traditions from Nāgārjuna and Asaṅga was Middle Way. He introduces the term coarse outer Middle Way (རགས་པ་ཕྱིའི་དབུ་མ་) to refer to the Mādhyamika tradition which focusses on emptiness as taught in the Perfection of Wisdom sūtras and the subtle inner Middle Way (ཕྲ་བ་ནང་གི་དབུ་མ་) to refer to the teachings on buddha-nature in the last Turning. Getse Mahāpaṇḍita underscores how buddha nature, the innate nature of the mind, or the self cognising awareness is the ultimate reality. He highlights the Great Madhyamaka of other-emptiness as the ultimate truth and identifies that with the final message of the Kālacakra, Mahāmudrā and Dzogchen teachings as well as the final intent of the great masters.
Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i TIk+ka de nyid snang ba
གྷ་རུང་པ་ལྷའི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ (Gha rung pa lha'i rgyal mtshan)
Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i 'grel pa nges don gsal bar byed pa'i 'od zer
ཐོགས་མེད་བཟང་པོ་ (Thogs med bzang po)
This work presents a late (14th century) Kadampa view on the Ratnagotravibhāga and the associated buddha-nature teachings by an influential representative of this tradition, often referred to as "the second Asaṅga" (thogs med gnyis pa).
Mdo sde rgyan dang rgyud bla ma spyod 'jug rnams kyi 'grel TIk+ka gi dbu zhabs kyi tshigs bcad
ཐོགས་མེད་བཟང་པོ་ (Thogs med bzang po)
Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i ṭīkka
རྒྱལ་ཚབ་རྗེ་དར་མ་རིན་ཆེན་ (Rgyal tshab rje dar ma rin chen)
Commentary on the Uttaratantra by a preeminent Geluk scholar that was a chief disciple of the school's founder, Tsongkhapa, as well as the Sakya scholar Rendawa Zhönu Lodrö, an outspoken critic of the treatise.
Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi 'grel bshad de kho na nyid rab tu gsal ba'i me long
འགོས་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་གཞོན་ནུ་དཔལ་ ('gos lo tsA ba gzhon nu dpal)
Gö Lotsāwa Zhönu Pal's commentary to the Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā, that presents the text from within the mahāmudrā tradition of Maitrīpa and Gampopa. More specifically, as Mathes reports, the author, himself, states in his colophon that "he combined the commentarial tradition of Loden Sherab with Gampopa's and Drigung Jigten Sumgön's mahāmudrā interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhāga." (A Direct Path to the Buddha Within, p. 411.)
Deb ther sngon po
འགོས་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་གཞོན་ནུ་དཔལ་ ('gos lo tsA ba gzhon nu dpal)
The famous historical work by Gö Lotsawa Zhönu Pal (1392-1481), likely referenced by more scholars than any other single work. It was translated into English by G. Roerich with the help of Gendün Chöpel.
De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po bstan pa'i bstan bcos kyi rnam 'grel rang byung dgongs gsal
འཇམ་མགོན་ཀོང་སྤྲུལ་ ('jam mgon kong sprul)
Kongtrul's commentary on the Third Karmapa's short verse synopsis of the Uttaratantra, The Treatise on Pointing Out the Tathāgata Heart. As he states in the opening of the text: "The Omniscient Victor spoke about [this Heart] in the collection of the sūtras of the final definitive meaning and in the very profound collection of tantras in an unconcealed and clear way. The illustrious sons of this victor, such as the mighty lords of the tenth bhūmi, the regent Ajita and Avalokiteśvara, as well as the mahāsiddha Saraha and his heirs, noble Nāgārjuna, venerable Asaṅga, and others commented on it as being [the Buddha's] direct and straightforward intention. The way of being of the very profound actuality of this Heart does not fit within the scope of the minds of those who roam the [sphere of] dialectics. It was extensively illuminated by the second mighty sage, Rangjung Dorje, the charioteer who was the first in the land of snow mountains to utter the unassailable great lion's roar of the Heart that is the definitive meaning. The quintessence of all his excellent words is this Treatise on Pointing Out the Tathāgata Heart."
Phyir mi ldog pa seng ge'i nga ro
འཇམ་མགོན་ཀོང་སྤྲུལ་ ('jam mgon kong sprul)
Jamgön Kongtrul's commentary on the Uttaratantra which, according to Brunnhölzl, draws heavily from Dölpopa's work on the same subject. Over the course of time since Kongtrul's passing at the dawn of the 20th century up until the present this text has become the primary commentary to the Uttaratantra used in the Kagyu tradition.
Gzhan stong dbu ma chen po'i lta khrid rdo rje zla ba dri ma med pa'i 'od zer
འཇམ་མགོན་ཀོང་སྤྲུལ་ ('jam mgon kong sprul)
Written at Dzamtang, a monastic city in southern Amdo that is the primary institutional base of the Jonang school, this work by the famed Kagyu scholar Jamgön Kongtrul is characterized by Brunnhölzl as "an eclectic blend of what could be called "Kagyü Shentong" (primarily based on Maitrīpa, the Third and Seventh Karmapas, and the Eighth and Ninth Situpas) and "Jonang Shentong" (based on Dölpopa and especially Tāranātha), as well as some elements of Śākya Chogden’s Shentong."
Shes bya kun la khyab pa'i mdzod
འཇམ་མགོན་ཀོང་སྤྲུལ་ ('jam mgon kong sprul)
In Tibetan religious literature, its ten books stand out as a unique masterpiece embodying the entire range of Buddhist teachings as they were preserved in Tibet. In his monumental work, Jamgön Kongtrul presents an encyclopedic account of the major lines of thought and practice that comprise Tibetan Buddhism. (source: Tsadra Foundation's Treasury of Knowledge Series)
Gzhan stong dbu ma'i rnam gzhag snying por dril ba
འཇམ་དབྱངས་མཁྱེན་བརྩེའི་དབང་པོ་ ('jam dbyangs mkhyen brtse'i dbang po)
A brief overview of the philosophical positions and related terminology of other-emptiness (gzhan stong) Madhyamaka with an emphasis on the Jonang perspective developed by Dölpopa.
De bzhin gshegs pa snying po'i don rgya bod kyi mkhas pa'i bzhed srol ma 'dres par gsal bar byed pa'i zla gzhon
བྱང་རྩེ་མཁན་ཟུར་བསོད་ནམས་ཀུན་དགའ་ (Byang rtse mkhan zur bsod nams kun dga')
In this treatise, a contemporary Geluk scholar Sönam Kunga presents the understanding of the spiritual gene or rigs according to the different Buddhist philosophical schools culminating in the theory of buddha-nature in the Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna traditions. He elaborates the transmission of buddha-nature teachings and the interpretation of buddha-nature in the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism.
Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i tshig don rnam par bshad pa rin chen sgron me
དགེ་འདུན་རིན་ཆེན་ (Rinchen, Gendun)
This is a commentary on Ratnagotravibhāga by the 69th Je Khenpo of Bhutan, Gendun Rinchen. The commentary was composed in 1983 at the request of his students when he was giving lectures on Ratnagotravibhāga in the Maitreya Temple at Phajoding, Bhutan. It is most likely the first commentary by a Bhutanese scholar. The author claims to have based his commentary on the annotated commentary of Khenpo Zhenga while also including the best of other commentaries by Tibetan masters.
Rgyud bla ma'i bsdus don rin chen sgron me
རྗེ་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ (Rje ye shes rgya mtsho)
A commentary on the Ultimate Continuum composed by the Gelukpa master Yeshe Gyatso in 1992 in Chentsa Mani temple in Qinghai province, this concise and clear work generally follows the interpretations of Gyaltsap Darma Rinchen.
Yon tan rin po che'i mdzod dga' ba'i char
འཇིགས་མེད་གླིང་པ་ ('jigs med gling pa)
This is the root text of The Treasury of Precious Qualities, a famous treatise by Jikmé Lingpa, in which he expounds the entire Buddhist path, from the śrāvakayāna teachings up to the Great Perfection. The text has thirteen chapters:
  1. The Difficulty of Gaining the Freedoms and Advantages
  2. Death and Impermanence
  3. Karma: Cause and Effect
  4. The Sufferings of Samsara
  5. The Four Wheels, which are the initial entry point for supreme beings
  6. Taking Refuge, the entrance to the Buddhist Path
  7. The Entrance to the Actual Mahayana (cultivating the four immeasurables)
  8. Arousing Bodhichitta
  9. The Bodhisattva Trainings
  10. The Pitaka of the Vidyadharas
  11. The Nature of the Ground
  12. The Extraordinary Path of the Natural Great Perfection
  13. The Kayas and Wisdoms of the Ultimate Fruition
The first nine chapters comprise the sūtra section, and the last four comprise the mantra section. You can download an English translation of the root text by the Padmakara Translation Group by clicking here.
Phyag rgya chen po lnga ldan rtogs pa'i mgur
འབྲི་གུང་སྐྱོབ་པ་འཇིག་རྟེན་མགོན་པོ་ ('bri gung skyob pa 'jig rten mgon po)
Chos kyi 'khor lo legs par gtan la phab pa theg pa chen po'i tshul 'ong ges zhus pa
འབྲི་གུང་སྐྱོབ་པ་འཇིག་རྟེན་མགོན་པོ་ ('bri gung skyob pa 'jig rten mgon po)
These are teachings delivered by Drikung Kagyu master Jikten Sumgön that includes an account of the twelve great events of the buddha and the detailed explanation of the three turnings of the wheel of dharma and written down by his student Onge. The text also contains a praise of the Ultimate Continuum as containing the gist of the third wheel.
Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa
འབྲི་གུང་སྐྱོབ་པ་འཇིག་རྟེན་མགོན་པོ་,འབྲི་གུང་སྤྱན་སྔ་ཤེས་རབ་འབྱུང་གནས་ ('bri gung spyan snga shes rab 'byung gnas)
One of the core texts of the Drikung Kagyu tradition that is reported to be the oral teachings of Jikten Gönpo that were written down and edited together by his student Sherab Jungne. Although not all manuscripts are alike, a beautiful reproduction from Garchen Stiftung (2015) that was studied by Dr. Jan-Ulrich Sobisch contains the following chapter topics:
  • (1) Pure View, Practice, and Conduct
  • (2-4) The Three Vows
  • (5) Three Dharma Wheels
  • (6) Dependent Origination
  • (7) The Resultant Stage of Buddhahood
Tathāgatahṛdayālaṃkāra
Jñānavajra
Jñānavajra's commentary on the Laṅkāvatārasūtra, which is one of two Indian commentaries on the Sūtra that has survived only in Tibetan translation.
Vimalaprabhā
རིགས་ལྡན་པདྨ་དཀར་པོ་ (Kalkī Śrī Puṇḍarīka)
A crucial commentary to the Kālacakra Tantra purported to have been written by Kalkī Śrī Puṇḍarīka, the fabled Second King of Shambhala also known as Kulika Puṇḍarīka, though in the Tibetan tradition the work is sometimes attributed to the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara whom Puṇḍarīka was considered to be an emanation of. In the Tibetan tradition it is counted among the Three Cycles of Bodhisattva Commentaries (Sems 'grel skor gsum), which are a trilogy of canonical commentaries attributed to the transcendent Bodhisattvas Vajrapaṇi, Vajragarbha, and Avalokiteśvara on the Cakrasamvara, Hevajra, and Kālacakra Tantras, respectively.
Rgyud bla ma'i bsdus don rton pa bzhi ldan mkhas pa dga' byed
ཀརྨ་དཀོན་མཆོག་གཞོན་ནུ་ (Karma dkon mchog gzhon nu)
Rgyud bla ma'i 'grel pa rton pa bzhi ldan mkhas pa dga' byed
ཀརྨ་དཀོན་མཆོག་གཞོན་ནུ་ (Karma dkon mchog gzhon nu)
A commentary on the the Ultimate Continuum containing word by word explanation as well as scriptural citations, the author critiques both the understanding of Buddha-Nature as mere emptiness of non-implicative negation and as absolute reality.
Zab lam khrid kyi man ngag 'phrad tshad rang grol
མཁན་པོ་གང་ཤར་དབང་པོ་ (Mkhan po gang shar)
Thrangu Rinpoche met Khenpo Gangshar in the summer of 1957 when Khenpo Gangshar went to Thrangu Monastery in eastern Tibet. While there, Khenpo Gangshar gave these instructions, which are a distillation of the essential points ofthe practices of both mahamudra and dzogchen. Later they were written down, first in a very short form and then as the slightly longer text known as "Naturally Liberating Whatever You Meet." What makes them so beneficial for our time is that Khenpo Gangshar presents them in a way that is easy for anyone to understand and put into practice. (Source: Vivid Awareness, Translator's Introduction, pp. IX-X)
Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos zhes bya ba'i mchan 'grel
གཞན་ཕན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྣང་བ་ (Gzhan phan chos kyi snang ba)
An interlinear commentary on the Uttaratantra by the famed Khenpo Zhenga. It is one of a series of such works on the thirteen major treatises of Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism that became the basis for the curriculum at several major Tibetan monastic universities, such as those at Dzogchen and Dzongsar monasteries.
Theg mchog shin tu rgyas pa'i dbu ma chen po rnam par nges pa'i rnam bshad zin bris dbu phyogs legs pa
ཀུན་དགའ་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ (Kun dga' ye shes rgya mtsho)
A collection of explanatory notes on Tāranātha's Theg mchog shin tu rgyas pa'i dbu ma chen po rnam par nges pa compiled by his disciple Yeshe Gyamtso, the book presents in detail the concepts of the Middle Way, the understanding of the ground, general phenomenology, Buddhist theories of consciousness and Mahāyāna path leading to Buddhahood, which is considered to be a quality latent in all sentient beings obscured by adventitious afflictions. The notes on the last two chapters were either not written or lost. Lobsang Chogdrub Gyatso added the commentary on the last two chapters in 1894.
'da' ka ye shes kyi 'chi kha ma'i man ngag
སྐྱོ་སྟོན་སྨོན་ལམ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་ (Skyo ston smon lam tshul khrims)
One of a series of short texts by the Kadam scholar Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim, which represent an intersection between the works of Maitreya, particularly the Ratnagotravibhāga, and the practical instructions of Mahāmudrā.
Ye shes kyi 'jog sa
སྐྱོ་སྟོན་སྨོན་ལམ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་ (Skyo ston smon lam tshul khrims)
One of a series of short texts by the Kadam scholar Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim, which represent an intersection between the works of Maitreya, particularly the Ratnagotravibhāga, and the practical instructions of Mahāmudrā.
'od gsal snying po'i don
སྐྱོ་སྟོན་སྨོན་ལམ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་ (Skyo ston smon lam tshul khrims)
One of a series of short texts by the Kadam scholar Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim, which represent an intersection between the works of Maitreya, particularly the Ratnagotravibhāga, and the practical instructions of Mahāmudrā.
Theg chen rgyud bla ma'i gdams pa
སྐྱོ་སྟོན་སྨོན་ལམ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་ (Skyo ston smon lam tshul khrims)
This work details instructions on the Ratnagotravibhāga that Maitrīpa reportedly received directly from Maitreya in a dream, which he then later retrieved, in actuality, discovering the text concealed within in a stūpa. Mönlam Tsultrim, the attributed Tibetan author of this work that lived centuries later, thus claims that he copied and edited this work from the original manuscript that was passed down in a lineage coming from Maitrīpa, himself.
Sde snod bcud bsdus man ngag gi snying po
སྐྱོ་སྟོན་སྨོན་ལམ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་ (Skyo ston smon lam tshul khrims)
One of a series of short texts by the Kadam scholar Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim, this was composed in Narthang at the behest of Sonam Dar, a descendent of Kyide Nyima Gön and at the request of Geshe Gönden Ö and Yönten Ö. The text contains concise lamrim instructions starting with (1) instruction on the contemplation on precious humanhood, impermanence and the law of cause and effect, and the practice of taking refuge for the inferior individuals, (2) contemplation of defects of cycle of existence, renunciation and non-self for those following the path of the hearers and solitary realisers for the middling individuals, and (3) finally the cultivation of bodhicitta and meditation on non-conceptuality and luminous nature of the mind which is free from all elaborations for superior individuals. This brief teaching underscores the importance of eradicating conceptual thoughts and abiding in the non-conceptual luminous nature of the mind.
Chos nyid kyi lam khrid
སྐྱོ་སྟོན་སྨོན་ལམ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་ (Skyo ston smon lam tshul khrims)
One of a series of short texts by the Kadam scholar Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim, which represent an intersection between the works of Maitreya, particularly the Ratnagotravibhāga and Dharmadharmatāvibhāga, and the practical instructions of Mahāmudrā, this text discusses the spiritual gene, the genesis of saṃsāra, the path to awakening and the nature of Buddhahood.
Mnyam med dwags po'i chos bzhir grags pa'i gzhung gi 'grel pa snying po gsal ba'i rgyan
ལ་ཡག་པ་བྱང་ཆུབ་དངོས་གྲུབ་ (La yag pa byang chub dngos grub)
A detailed commentary on Gampopa's Four Dharmas (chos bzhi) instruction for fundamental Buddhist practice. The root verses containing the four dharma of Gampopa were written by his learned student from Laya, Jangchub Ngödup exactly according to how Gampopa taught, and the extensive commentary containing a rich array of citations and arguments was authored by Jangchub Ngödup himself. The topic four dharmas of Gampopa refers to the four points of making dharma practice a genuine dharma practice, making dharma progress on the path, dispelling confusion on the path, and see confusion as pristine wisdom.
Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi mchan 'grel
བློ་བཟང་དཔལ་ལྡན་བསྟན་འཛིན་ཡར་རྒྱས་ (Blo bzang dpal ldan bstan 'dzin yar rgyas)
Grub mtha' mdzod
ཀློང་ཆེན་རབ་འབྱམས་ (Klong chen pa)
This book is among the Seven Treasures Longchenpa composed. The Seven Treasures today represent the best Tibetan literary collection for the systemisation of the Dzogchen tradition. In his Treasury of Tenet Systems, Longchenpa carries a detailed exegesis of the buddha-nature in chapter 4 on the spiritual gene required for the practice of Mahāyāna path. He cites several sūtras and many critical verses from the Ultimate Continuum, on which he comments to make clear his interpretation of buddha-nature teachings. He considers buddhahood as being identical with buddha-nature latent in all sentient beings and argues that buddhahood is a result which is revealed rather than a fruit which is cultivated and produced. Thus, all qualities of the Buddha are primordially present in the nature of all sentient beings.
Chos dbyings rin po che'i mdzod kyi 'grel pa lung gi gter mdzod
Klong chen pa
Longchenpa's autocommentary on the Precious Treasury of Dharmadhātu
Rdzogs pa chen po sems nyid ngal gso'i 'grel pa shing rta chen po
ཀློང་ཆེན་རབ་འབྱམས་ (Klong chen pa)
In his Relaxation in the Nature of Mind and its auto-commentary the Great Chariot, Longchenpa deals with buddha-nature in the opening verse while paying homage to the ultimate truth, in chapter 9 while discussing the generation-stage- and completion-stage practices, and in chapter 10 on the topic of wisdom which comprehends the ground reality free from the two extremes. He presents buddha-nature as the ground maṇḍala, which forms the basis of temporary confusion, while at the same time being the uncontrived, unborn, unchanging nature of the mind to be realized on the path. Ordinary beings do not perceive this buddha-nature, but bodhisattvas on the stages see it partially and the buddhas see it fully. Longchenpa blends the sūtra presentation of buddha-nature with the esoteric exposition of the spontaneous primordial ground in the tantras. He uses terms such as essence, element, spiritual gene, innate mind, pristine wisdom, vajra mind, primordial ground, the ultimate, ground gnosis, sphere of reality, Middle Way, nondual truth, thatness, Perfection of Wisdom, etc., to refer to the same luminous nature of mind which is buddha-nature.
Yid bzhin mdzod kyi 'grel pa pad+ma dkar po
ཀློང་ཆེན་པ་ (Klong chen pa)
The root text of the Treasury of Wishfulfilling Jewel along with its auto-commentary the White Lotus make up one of the main books among the Seven Treasures of Longchenpa. In chapter 1 of his Treasury of Wishfulfilling Jewel, he expounds the theory of buddha-nature as the primordial ground from which both nirvāṇa and saṃsāra arise. In chapter 18 he discusses the abiding nature of reality, which is the ultimate truth, and presents the experiences of saṃsāra as temporary illusions arising from adventitious misconception. Buddha-nature is understood to be the empty, luminous nature of things which abides as the ontic reality in all sentient beings and is free from all fabrications. Using the terms from the sūtras teaching buddha-nature and the Ultimate Continuum, he characterizes buddha-nature as the ultimate pure, eternal, blissful self. He considers the teachings on buddha-nature which form part of the third wheel as definitive teachings, which expound the same ground nature presented in both the sūtra and tantra literature. In summary, he writes in the Treasury of Wishfulfilling Jewel:

འོད་གསལ་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་སྟེ། །སྟོང་གསལ་རིག་པ་དབྱེར་མེད་ཆོས་ཉིད་དོ།། The luminous buddha-nature is indivisible reality Which is spontaneous, empty, and clear awareness.

His presentation on buddha-nature theory and associated practices in his writings became the most authoritative references which determine the interpretation of buddha-nature theory and practice in the Nyingma tradition to this day.
Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra
བྱམས་པ་,ཐོགས་མེད་ (Maitreya)
The Ratnagotravibhāga, commonly known as the Uttaratantra, or Gyu Lama in Tibetan, is one of the main Indian scriptural sources for buddha-nature theory. It was likely composed during the fifth century, by whom we do not know. Comprised of verses interspersed with prose commentary, it systematizes the buddha-nature teachings that were circulating in multiple sūtras such as the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra, the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra, and the Śrīmaladevisūtra. The Tibetan tradition attributes the verses to the Bodhisattva Maitreya and the commentary to Asaṅga, and treats the two as separate texts, although this division is not attested to in surviving Indian versions. The Chinese tradition attributes the text to *Sāramati (娑囉末底), but the translation itself does not include the name of the author, and the matter remains unsettled. It was translated into Chinese in the early sixth century by Ratnamati and first translated into Tibetan by Atiśa, although this text is not known to survive. Ngok Loden Sherab translated it a second time based on teachings from the Kashmiri Pandita Sajjana, and theirs remains the standard translation. It has been translated into English several times, and recently into French. See the Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā, read more about the Ratnagotravibhāga, or take a look at the most complete English translation in When the Clouds Part by Karl Brunnholzl.
Madhyāntavibhāga
བྱམས་པ་ (Maitreya)
In Sanskrit, “Differentiation of the Middle Way and the Extremes”; one of the Five Dharma Treatises of Maitreya (byams chos sde lnga) said to have been presented to Asaṅga by the bodhisattva Maitreya in the Tuṣita heaven. Written in verse, it is one of the most important Yogācāra delineations of the three natures (trisvabhāva), especially as they figure in the path to enlightenment, where the obstacles created by the imaginary (parikalpita) are overcome ultimately by the antidote of the consummate (pariniṣpanna). The “middle way” exposed here is that of the Yogācāra, and is different from that of Nāgārjuna, although the names of the two extremes to be avoided—the extreme of permanence (śāśvatānta) and the extreme of annihilation (ucchedānta)—are the same. Here the extreme of permanence is the existence of external objects, the imaginary nature (parikalpitasvabhāva). The extreme of annihilation would seem to include Nāgārjuna’s emptiness of intrinsic nature (svabhāva). The middle way entails upholding the existence of consciousness (vijñāna) as the dependent nature (paratantrasvabhāva) and the existence of the consummate nature (pariniṣpannasvabhāva). The work is divided into five chapters, which consider the three natures, the various forms of obstruction to be abandoned on the path, the ultimate truth according to Yogācāra, the means of cultivating the antidotes to the defilements, and the activity of the Mahāyāna path. (Source: The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, p. 489)
Dharmadharmatāvibhāga
བྱམས་པ་ (Maitreya)
One of the Five Dharma Treatises of Maitreya (byams chos sde lnga). This work exists only in Tibetan translation, of which there are two versions: the Dharmadharmatāvibhāga (chos dang chos nyid rnam par 'byed pa) presented in prose, and the Dharmadharmatāvibhāgakārikā (chos dang chos nyid rnam par 'byed pa'i tshig le'ur byas pa) presented in verse. "The text explains saṃsāra (= dharma) and the nirvāṇa (= dharmatā) attained by the śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha, and bodhisattva; like the Madhyāntavibhāga, it uses the three-nature (trisvabhāva) terminology to explain that, because there is no object or subject, the transcendent is beyond conceptualization. It presents the paths leading to transformation of the basis (aśrayaparāvṛtti), and enumerates ten types of tathatā (suchness)." (Source: The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, p. 244)
Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārakārikā
བྱམས་པ་ (Maitreya)
In Sanskrit, the “Ornament for the Mahāyāna Sūtras”; one of the Five Dharma Treatises of Maitreya (byams chos sde lnga) said to have been presented to Asaṅga by the bodhisattva Maitreya in the Tuṣita heaven. Written in verse, the text offers a systematic presentation of the practices of the bodhisattva from the standpoint of the Yogācāra school and is one of the most important of the Indian Mahāyāna śāstras. Its twenty-one chapters deal with (1) the proof that the Mahāyāna sūtras are the word of the Buddha; (2) taking refuge in the three jewels (ratnatraya); (3) the lineage (gotra) of enlightenment necessary to undertake the bodhisattva path; (4) the generation of the aspiration to enlightenment (bodhicittotpāda); (5) the practice of the bodhisattva; (6) the nature of reality, described from the Yogācāra perspective; (7) the attainment of power by the bodhisattva; (8) the methods of bringing oneself and others to maturation; (9) enlightenment and the three bodies of a buddha (trikāya); (10) faith in the Mahāyāna; (11) seeking complete knowledge of the dharma; (12) teaching the dharma; (13) practicing in accordance with the dharma; (14) the precepts and instructions received by the bodhisattva; (15) the skillful methods of the bodhisattva; (16) the six perfections (pāramitā) and the four means of conversion (saṃgrahavastu), through which bodhisattvas attract and retain disciples; (17) the worship of the Buddha; (18) the constituents of enlightenment (bodhipākṣikadharma); (19) the qualities of the bodhisattva; and (20-21) the consummation of the bodhisattva path and the attainment of buddhahood. (Source: The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, p. 514)
Abhisamayālaṃkāra
བྱམས་པ་ (Maitreya)
In Sanskrit, “Ornament of Realization”; a major scholastic treatise of the Mahāyāna, attributed to Maitreyanātha (c. 330 ce). Its full title is Abhisamayālaṃkāra-prajñāpāramitā upadeśa-śāstra (T. Shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa'i man ngag gi bstan bcos mngon par rtogs pa'i rgyan) or “Treatise Setting Forth the Perfection of Wisdom called ‘Omament for Realization.’” In the Tibetan tradition, the Abhisamayālaṃkāra is counted among the five treatises of Maitreya (Byams chos sde lnga). The 273 verses of the Abhisamayālaṃkāra provide a schematic outline of the perfection of wisdom, or prajñāpāramitā, approach to enlightenment, specifically as delineated in the Pañcaviṃśati-sāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā (“Perfection of Wisdom in Twenty-Five Thousand Lines”). This detailed delineation of the path is regarded as the “hidden teaching” of the prajñāpāramitā sūtras. Although hardly known in East Asian Buddhism (until the modern Chinese translation by Fazun), the work was widely studied in Tibet, where it continues to hold a central place in the monastic curricula of all the major sects. (Source: The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, p. 11)
Tattvadaśaka
Maitrīpa
In this work of ten verses on true reality, Maitrīpa presents the luminous nature of reality which is beyond any duality and apprehension. The text underscores the non-abiding and luminous nature of reality and how the instructions of the master is crucial for realising the authentic nature of Madhyamaka. Through this, Maitrīpa rules out that the True Aspectarian and False Aspectarian traditions of the Mind Only school and the scholastic Mādhyamika which do not rely on direct pith instructions of the guru can realise the true nature of reality.
Rgyud bla ma'i tshig don rnam par 'grel pa
མར་པ་དོ་པ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབང་ཕྱུག་ (Mar pa do pa chos kyi dbang phyug)
An early Tibetan commentary on the Uttaratantra, both the śāstra and the vyākhyā, that purports to represent the teachings passed on by the Kashmiri Parahitabhadra to his Tibetan student Marpa, though it is not entirely clear whether this refers to Marpa Dopa or Marpa Chökyi Lodrö, both of whom were important early Kagyu masters and translators that travelled south to receive teachings which they imported and propagated in Tibet. Nevertheless, the text follows more closely Indian commentarial styles and includes typical Mahāmudrā type instructions in its exegesis. Thus it is a prime example of the lineage that descends from Maitrīpa that came to dominate the Kagyu school's approach to the Uttaratantra in later generations.
Sdom pa gsum rnam par nges pa'i 'grel pa legs bshad ngo mtshar dpag bsam gyi snye ma
སྨིན་གླིང་ལོ་ཆེན་དྷརྨ་ཤྲཱི་ (Smin gling lo chen d+harma shrI)
Minling Lochen's voluminous commentary on Ngari Paṇchen's Ascertaining the Three Vows.
Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi bshad pa nges don nor bu'i mdzod
མི་ཉག་བླ་མ་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྡོ་རྗེ་ (Mi nyag bla ma ye shes rdo rje)
According to Brunnhölzl, this work "clearly subscribes to the disclosure model of buddha nature, asserting that the stainless tathāgata heart adorned with all major and minor marks as well as awakening exists in all beings, refuting that the reality of cessation is a nonimplicative negation, and denying the position that the fully qualified sugata heart exists solely on the buddhabhūmi, while it is only nominal at the time of sentient beings. Also, besides CMW and Mipham’s commentary, YDC is the only other commentary I have reviewed that explicitly connects the name and contents of the Uttaratantra with the vajrayāna notion of tantra, thus underlining the text’s reputation as a bridge between the sūtras and tantras."
Gzhan stong khas len seng ge'i nga ro
མི་ཕམ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ (Mi pham rgya mtsho)
Mipam's other "lion's roar"—his Lion's Roar: Affirming Other Emptiness—shows the way he establishes an other-emptiness view that affirms the existence of the ultimate truth as not empty of its own essence. (Source: Duckworth, Douglas. Jamgön Mipham: His Life and Teachings. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2011: p 58.)
Chos dang chos nyid rnam par 'byed pa'i tshig le'ur byas pa'i 'grel pa ye shes snang ba rnam 'byed
མི་ཕམ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ (Mi pham rgya mtsho)
Mipam's commentary on the Dharmadharmatāvibhāga, one of the Five Dharma Treatises of Maitreya (byams chos sde lnga) said to have been presented to Asaṅga by the bodhisattva Maitreya in the Tuṣita heaven.
Bde gshegs snying po'i stong thun chen mo seng+ge'i nga ro
མི་ཕམ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ (Mi pham rgya mtsho)
Mipam lays out his view of buddha-nature in a short text called Lion's Roar: Exposition of Buddha-Nature, which draws on another of the five treatises of Maitreya, the Sublime Continuum. Here he presents three main arguments showing why all beings have buddha-nature. He also distinguishes his view of buddha-nature, which he portrays as the unconditioned unity of emptiness and appearance, from other traditions' views. Namely, he contrasts his view with traditions that maintain buddhanature as truly real and not empty (Jonang), traditions that hold buddhanature to be simply the mind's absence of true existence (Geluk), and traditions that maintain that the cognitive quality of buddha-nature—the element that is in unity with emptiness—is impermanent (a Sakya view). (Source: Duckworth, Douglas. Jamgön Mipham: His Life and Teachings. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2011: p 58.)
Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi mchan 'grel mi pham zhal lung
མི་ཕམ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ (Mi pham rgya mtsho)
Mipam's annotated commentary to the Uttaratantra, a commentarial style in which the root verses of the treatise are embedded in the text and are then explained word by word. This text overlaps significantly with his related work on this subject Lion’s Roar: Exposition of Buddha-Nature.
Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi tshig 'grel thub bstan yar rgyas
དམུ་དགེ་བསམ་གཏན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ (Dmu dge bsam gtan rgya mtsho)
A clear commentary on the Ultimate Continuum composed by the 20th century Gelukpa scholar Muge Samten at the request of Lobzang Tashi, it is based on the commentary by Gyaltsap Je. The work is incomplete due to the author's illness.
Gzhan stong chen mo
ངག་དབང་བློ་གྲོས་གྲགས་པ་ (Ngag dbang blo gros grags pa)
Along with Dol po pa's Ri chos Nges don Rgya mtsho and Tāranātha’s Dbu ma Theg mchog Rab dbyed Brgyad, the Gzhan stong Chen mo comprises the third major textbook studied within the Gzhan stong Madhyamaka curriculum at major Jonang monastic universities, including 'Dzam thang Dgon pa, Bswe Dgon pa and Lcam mda' Dgon pa. For pedagogical reasons, and because of the structure of Mkhan po Blo grags' work, monks generally begin by studying sūtra gzhan stong separately from tantric gzhan stong in preparation for examining Dol po pa's synthetic masterpiece interweaving sūtra and tantra. In a coherent structure identical to the Ri chos, the Gzhan stong Chen mo presents gzhan stong philosophical thinking systematically in accord with the outline of ground (gzhi), path (lam) and fruition ('bras bu), treating sūtra gzhan stong within the main body of the text and tantric gzhan stong as an appendix. Michael Sheehy, 2007.
Phyi nang grub mtha'i rnam bzhag gi bsdus don blo gsal yid kyi rgyan bzang
ངག་དབང་བློ་གྲོས་གྲགས་པ་ (Ngag dbang blo gros grags pa)
A condensed presentation of the tenets of Buddhist and Non-Buddhist philosophical systems by a modern Jonang scholar. This treatise presents the main advocates, the main literary sources, the view or ground reality, the practice on the path and resultant states. The highest Buddhist tenet system, the Mādhyamika school, is divided into the rangtong or the self-emptiness sub-school and the zhentong or the other-emptiness sub-school.
Kun mkhyen chen pos mdzad pa'i grub mtha'i rnam bzhag don gsal gyi 'grel ba phyogs lhung mun sel
ངག་དབང་ཚོགས་གཉིས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ (Ngag dbang tshogs gnyis rgya mtsho)
This is a commentary by the Jonangpa scholar Ngawang Tsoknyi Gyatso on the treatise composed by Dolpopa entitled Illuminating the Topics of Tenet Systems. Dolpopa composed the treatise in verse for the Yuan emperor Toghon Temür, who invited Dolpopa to China but Dolpopa declined. Yet, he wrote the treatise for the emperor and he presents his theory of the Middle Way of Other-Emptiness. Ngawang Tsoknyi Gyatso provides a very clear and incisive commentary in prose for Dolpopa's verse text.
Kun mkhyen jo nang pa chen po'i dgongs pa gzhan stong dbu ma'i tshul legs pa bshad mthar 'dzin gdung 'phrog
ངག་དབང་ཚོགས་གཉིས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ (Ngag dbang tshogs gnyis rgya mtsho)
A treatise on the Madhyamaka philosophy of Other-Emptiness (gzhan stong) as inherited from Dölpopa by the influential modern Jonangpa scholar Ngawang Tsoknyi Gyatso (1880-1940). Tsoknyi Gyatso explains the system of the ground, path and result in this text, followed by a synopsis of the Ultimate Continuum.
Kun mkhyen jo nang pa'i bzhes dgongs dbu tshad kyi gzhung spyi dang gung bsgrigs te spyod pa'i spyi don rab gsal snang ba
ངག་དབང་ཚོགས་གཉིས་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ (Ngag dbang tshogs gnyis rgya mtsho)
An explanation of the general meaning of the scriptures on Madhyamaka (dbu ma) and pramāṇa (tshad ma) by the influential modern Jonangpa scholar Ngawang Tsoknyi Gyatso (1880-1940).
Theg chen rgyud bla ma'i don bsdus pa
རྔོག་བློ་ལྡན་ཤེས་རབ་ (Rngog blo ldan shes rab)
The first Tibetan commentary written on the Uttaratantra by the translator of the only extant Tibetan translation of the treatise. Furthermore, since the author is also the namesake of the Ngok tradition (rngog lugs) of exegesis of the Uttaratantra, known for its analytic take on the work, this text was highly influential in the conception of a uniquely Tibetan approach to the Uttaratantra and the notion of buddha-nature.
Springs yig bdud rtsi'i thig le
རྔོག་བློ་ལྡན་ཤེས་རབ་ (Rngog blo ldan shes rab)
Instruction by Ngok Lotsāwa Loden Sherab written as a letter of advice on Buddhist practice framed as a formal correspondence to one Gatön Sherab Drak and other monks. Ngok Lotsāwa covers many topics in his advice from thinking of death and impermanence, cultivating enthusiasm, compassion, bodhicitta, etc., following the discipline and good teacher to cultivating the crop of Buddha's qualities having moistened the seed of buddha-nature by the rain of learning coming from the cloud of one's master. He advises monks to follow the words of Nāgārjuna and understand the notion of emptiness beyond existence and non-existence.
Dharmadhātustava
ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་ (Nāgārjuna)
Also known as the Dharmadhātustotra, it is a praise written in verse attributed to Nāgārjuna. A Sanskrit manuscript found in Tibet was recently published in 2015. However, before this it was only extant in Tibetan and Chinese translations, though fragments of this text were found to be quoted in other Sanskrit texts. It is notable as perhaps the only work of Nāgārjuna that takes a positivistic view of emptiness and the existence of wisdom, in this case represented by the dharmadhātu. In fact much of the language echoes descriptions of buddha-nature. Though modern scholarship has thus called the attribution of this text to Nāgārjuna into question based on its contents, Tibetan scholars have utilized the text as a support for works that promote or defend tathāgatagarbha and it is especially prominently featured in works on other-emptiness (gzhan stong) and Great Madhyamaka.
Rājopadeśadarśanamālā (RKTST 2725)
Pad+ma 'byung gnas
A Garland of Views presents a concise commentary by the eighth-century Indian Buddhist master Padmasambhava on a chapter from the Guhyagarbha Tantra on the different Buddhist and non-Buddhist philosophical views, including the Great Perfection (Dzogchen). (Source: Shambhala Publications)
RKTST 2725
Pad+ma 'byung gnas
A Garland of Views presents a concise commentary by the eighth-century Indian Buddhist master Padmasambhava on a chapter from the Guhyagarbha Tantra on the different Buddhist and non-Buddhist philosophical views, including the Great Perfection (Dzogchen). (Source: Shambhala Publications)
Theg pa chen po'i bstan bcos rgyud bla ma'i sa bcad
དཔལ་སྤྲུལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ (Dpal sprul rin po che)
A topical outline of the Ratnagotravibhāga written by the famed 19th century Nyingma scholar Paltrul Rinpoche, Orgyen Jigme Chökyi Wangpo.
Rgyud bla ma'i dka' 'grel gnad kyi zla 'od
པཎ་ཆེན་བསོད་ནམས་གྲགས་པ་ (PaN chen bsod nams grags pa)
Rgyud bla ma'i don bsdus bde gshegs snying po'i don gsal
རེད་མདའ་བ་གཞོན་ནུ་བློ་གྲོས་ (Red mda' ba gzhon nu blo gros)
In this short work, the famous Sakya scholar Rendawa presents his interpretation of and positions on the main topics covered by the Ultimate Continuum. While summarising the text, he points out how buddha-nature is to be understood as the luminous nature of the mind, and not as an absolute nature separate from the luminous aspect of the mind. He argues that buddha-nature, which is present in all sentient beings, is endowed with the universal quality of luminosity of the mind but not with the specific enlightened qualities of the Buddha. Thus, employing the common hermeneutic tools of reference,་purpose and direct contradiction, he considered the teachings on buddha-nature to be provisional teachings, which are not to be taken literally.
Dpal dus kyi 'khor lo'i nges don gsal bar byed pa rin po che'i sgron ma
རེད་མདའ་བ་གཞོན་ནུ་བློ་གྲོས་ (Red mda' ba gzhon nu blo gros)
In the Jewel Lamp Illuminating the Definitive Meaning of the Glorious Kālacakra, Rendawa Zhönu Lodrö presents the content of Kālacakra tantra using the scheme of the causal continuum or the ground nature, the method continuum or the path, and the resultant continuum or the all pervading adamantine body of the Buddha. Though not a polemical work, he repeatedly refutes the position holding buddha-nature and resultant Buddha body to be identical, absolute and eternal. He provides a very clear and comprehensive presentation of the causal continuum through conventional and ultimate types of the ground nature, the method or path continuum by discussing the six limbs of yogic applications in Kālacakra, and the resultant state by discussing its nature, cause, duration, forms and qualities.
Kun tu bzang po'i smon lam stobs po che
རིག་འཛིན་རྒོད་ཀྱི་ལྡེམ་འཕྲུ་ཅན་ (Rig 'dzin rgod kyi ldem 'phru can)
The Powerful Aspiration Prayer of Samantabhadra comes from the dGongs pa zang thal or Penetrating Intent cycle of Dzogchen teachings by Rigdzin Gödem. The prayer explains how saṃsāra and nirvāṇa emerge from the same ground of primordial reality through awareness and unawareness. The cognitive glitch of dualistic clinging and ego-grasping is explained to have led to the many afflictive emotions and the corresponding resultant states of rebirth. The prayers instructs practitioners to rest in the natural state of the mind without attachment or aversion. The prayer is very widely chanted in the Himalayan communities.
Rgyud bla ma'i sgom rim mi pham dgongs don
རོང་སྟོན་ཤེས་བྱ་ཀུན་རིག་ (Rong ston shes bya kun rig)
This short text by Rongtön Sheja Kunrig contains instructions on how to put the topics contained in the Ultimate Continuum into actual practice. It is among the many practical instructions he has written pertaining to the classical texts which are widely studied in Tibetan scholarly centres. In the course of providing practical instructions, Rongtön makes clear his philosophical understanding of buddha-nature and his interpretation of the teachings on buddha-nature.
Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos legs par bshad pa
རོང་སྟོན་ཤེས་བྱ་ཀུན་རིག་ (Rong ston shes bya kun rig)
An extensive explanatory commentary on the the Ultimate Continuum by one of the major scholastic voices of the Sakya school. As Bernert states, "Refuting, on one hand, the notion that Buddha-nature is synonymous with mere emptiness, and on the other that the mind is inherently endowed with the Buddha qualities, Rongtön argues for an understanding of Buddha-nature that embraces both aspects of the nature of mind: cognizance and emptiness." (Christian Bernert. Perfect or Perfected? Rongtön on Buddha-Nature, 2018.
Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi rnam par bshad pa nges don rab gsal snang ba
ས་བཟང་མ་ཏི་པཎ་ཆེན་བློ་གྲོས་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ (Sa bzang ma ti paN chen blo gros rgyal mtshan)
A detailed explanation of the Uttaratantra written by one of Dölpopa's chief disciples.
Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa
ས་ཛ་ན་ (Sajjana)
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.
Sdom gsum rab dbye
ས་སྐྱ་པཎྜི་ཏ་ (Sa skya paN+Di ta)
Written circa 1232 when the author was about fifty years old, it is an expansive treatise on the three vows pertaining to the three vehicles of Buddhism that is one of Sakya Paṇḍita's most important and influential works. Nevertheless, it was controversial in its time for the criticism the author levels against the philosophical positions of various scholars and schools of thought.
Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi nges don gsal bar byed pa'i rin po che'i gron me
གསང་ཕུ་བ་བློ་གྲོས་མཚུངས་མེད་ (Gsang phu ba blo gros mtshungs med)
An extensive commentary on the Uttaratantra written by a contemporary of Dölpopa and Butön during the height of the debate over the definitive nature of the treatise and its teaching on buddha-nature. Lodrö Tsungme presents an interpretation of buddha-nature which is different from what is given by many masters of Sangphu including Ngok Loden Sherab. As his position are quite similar to what Longchenpa espoused later, the commentary was mistakenly attributed to Longchenpa by some Nyingma followers.
Chen po gzhan stong gi lta ba dang 'brel ba'i phyag rgya chen po'i smon lam gyi rnam bshad nges don dbyings kyi rol mo
སངས་རྒྱས་མཉན་པ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ (Sangye Nyenpa, 10th)
A clear explanation of the Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje's famous Mahāmudrā Aspiration Prayer in colloquial Tibetan by a leading contemporary Karma Kagyu master Sangay Nyenpa Rinpoche.
Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi mchan 'grel legs bshad thogs med zhal lung
དཀོན་མཆོག་བསྟན་འཛིན་འཕྲིན་ལས་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་ (Drikung Chetsang, 7th)
A commentary on the Ultimate Continuum by living master Seventh Drikung Chetsang, it follows the mainstream Kagyu interpretation of Buddha-Nature as a union of emptiness and luminosity endowed with latent qualities of the Buddha. He rejects both the understanding of Buddha-Nature as emptiness of mere negation and an absolute and truly existent entity. The commentary was finished in 2008, probably in Lhasa, and he also wrote a long preface underscoring the importance of studying the Ultimate Continuum in the Kagyu tradition to its publication in 2017.
Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bsdus pa'i don
བསོད་ནམས་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ (Bsod nams rgyal mtshan)
Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i 'grel pa dgongs pa nges gsal
བསོད་ནམས་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ (Bsod nams rgyal mtshan)
Rgyud bla ma'i 'grel pa mdo dang sbyar ba nges pa'i don gyi snang ba
རྟ་ནག་རིན་ཆེན་ཡེ་ཤེས་ (Rta nag rin chen ye shes)
A voluminous commentary on the Uttaratantra, which, as its title suggests, presents the treatise as a definitive work and elucidates it vis-a-vis the sūtras that are cited within it. It is noteworthy for its scholarship, as an early example of a Tibetan locating the scriptural source material of the Uttaratantra, as well as being widely considered an influential precursor to Dölpopa's treatment of the text.
Dam pa'i chos dgongs pa gcig pa'i rnam bshad lung don gsal byed legs bshad nyi ma'i snang ba
ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་ (Drikung Chungtsang, 1st)
Rikdzin Chökyi Drakpa's extensive commentary on the Sacred Teaching on the Single Intention (Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa), one of the core texts of the Drikung Kagyu tradition that is reported to be the oral teachings of Jikten Gönpo that were written down and edited together by his student Sherab Jungne.
Phyag rgya chen po'i man ngag gi bshad sbyar rgyal ba'i gan mdzod
པདྨ་དཀར་པོ་ (Drukchen, 4th)
In his exposition of the Mahāmudrā view in the Phyag chen rgyal ba’i gan mdzod, Padma dkar po adopts Yang dgon pa’s famous distinction between the mahāmudrā in the modes of abiding (gnas lugs phyag chen) and error ( ’khrul lugs phyag chen) as an interpretive schema both for [1] clarifying the doctrine of the unity or nonduality of the two truths—which he takes as a central doctrine of the Madhyamaka, Mantrayāna and ’Brug pa Bka’ brgyud traditions—and [2] criticizing the rival Jo nang account of reality which posits the conventional and ultimate as two great kingdoms that have nothing in common. (Source: Mahamudra and the Middle Way - Vol. 2, 157.)
Nges don phyag rgya chen po'i smon lam
རང་བྱུང་རྡོ་རྗེ་ (Karmapa, 3rd)
The Mahamudra Prayer by the Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje is a short yet thorough and profound text which presents all the essential points of Mahamudra teaching in terms of view, practice, and fruition. It is a classic that, especially in the tradition of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, has been and is widely used whenever a disciple is given a first introduction into Mahamudra. The Third Karmapa shows how to recognize our ultimate potential as a buddha. (Source: Shambhala Publications)
De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po gtan la dbab pa'i bstan bcos mchan can
རང་བྱུང་རྡོ་རྗེ་,དཀོན་མཆོག་ཡན་ལག་ (Shamarpa, 5th)
This work is an edition of the Third Karmapa's Treatise on Pointing Out the Tathāgata Heart (De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po bstan pa'i bstan bcos) embellished with interlinear annotations by the Fifth Shamarpa.
Dbu ma chos dbyings bstod pa'i rnam par bshad pa
རང་བྱུང་རྡོ་རྗེ་ (Karmapa, 3rd)
Among all available commentaries on the Dharmadhātustava, the Third Karmapa's is both the earliest and the longest, composed in either 1326 or 1327. Until the recent appearance of a single dbu med manuscript (fifty-two folios with eight lines each), the text had been considered lost at least since the Tibetan exodus in 1959. The title of Rangjung Dorje's commentary—An Explanation of In Praise of Madhyamaka-Dharmadhātu—already indicates that he obviously considers Nāgārjunas text to be a Madhyamaka work, not fundamentally different from what the latter says in his well-known collection of reasoning and elsewhere. Indeed then, considerable parts of the commentary are devoted to showing that the Dharmadhātustava does not conflict with Nāgārjuna's classical Madhyamaka works. Moreover, Rangjung Dorje freely uses typical terminologies from both the Indian Madhyamaka and Yogācāra traditions, such as the frameworks of the two realities, the three natures, the eight consciousnesses, the four wisdoms, and the two/three kāyas; the middle and extremes; false imagination; tathāgatagarbha; natural luminosity; and the fundamental change of state. Through both this and extensively quoting mainly Nāgārjuna, Maitreya, Asaṅga, and Candrakīrti, these two traditions are shown to perfectly accord in the essential points. Thus, the Karmapa's commentary often offers original interpretations and also elaborates on a number of supplementary topics, though it does not explicitly explain every single line of the Dharmadhātustava. (Karl Brunnhölzl, In Praise of Dharmadhātu, 2007: pp. 193-194.)
Zab mo nang don
རང་བྱུང་རྡོ་རྗེ་ (Karmapa, 3rd)
Rang byung's most famous, and perhaps most difficult work is yet another verse text, his Zab mo nang don, on the Anuttarayogatantras. This eleven-chapter work is thirty-two folios in length. According to a colophon provided by Kong sprul, it was written in the Water Male Dog year, 1322, at Bde chen steng. The colophons to the present redactions say only that it was written in the Dog Year. (Source: Schaeffer, K., The Enlightened Heart of Buddhahood, p. 16)
De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po bstan pa'i bstan bcos
རང་བྱུང་རྡོ་རྗེ་ (Karmapa, 3rd)
The Third Karmapa's treatise on buddha-nature written in verse, which is essentially a synopsis of the Uttaratantra. According to Schaeffer, "This verse text (De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po gtan la dbab pa, or De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po bstan pa) blends scriptural quotations from both sūtra and tantra with Rang byung's own words, creating an evocative picture of the relation between the primordially pure enlightened state- symbolized by the Enlightened Heart (snying po)- human existence, and Buddhahood. While Rang byung has relied heavily on the Ratnagotravibhāgaśāstra, (known in Tibet as the Uttaratantra, or Rgyud bla ma), the syncretism of various strands of Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna apparent in the text is particular to Tibet. Tathāgatagarbha, Madhyamaka, Yogācāra, Mahāmudrā, and Annuttarayogatantra all coalesce in this work, which is a testament to the hundreds of years of appropriation and synthesis of Indian and Tibetan Buddhist thought that preceded it. - Kurtis Schaeffer, from the introduction to The Enlightened Heart of Buddhahood.
Bka' yang dag pa'i tshad ma zhes bya ba mkha' 'gro ma'i man ngag
Tilopa
The text, Instructions of Ḍākiṇīs entitled Validity of the True Word (བཀའ་ཡང་དག་པའི་ཚད་མ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་མཁའ་འགྲོ་མའི་མན་ངག) is one of the primary sources for Mahāmudrā meditation and six yogas of Naropas passed down through the Kagyu tradition. In this text, one finds the six dharmas of Tilopa (ཏི་ལི་ཆོས་དྲུག་) which are fundamental techniques for meditation to cultivate single-pointed concentration and non-conceptuality, and account of the six yogas of Naropa in some detail. The text is said to be teachings received by Tilopa from Vajradhara and then passed down through Naropa and Marpa who translated it into Tibetan.
Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi 'grel ba rigs khams bde gshegs snying po'i me long
ཁྲོ་རུ་ཚེ་རྣམ་ (Khro ru tshe rnam)
Nges don gyi lta sgom nyams su len tshul ji lta bar ston pa rdo rje'i mdo 'dzin
རྩེ་ལེ་སྣ་ཚོགས་རང་གྲོལ་ (Rtse le sna tshogs rang grol)
An overview of the views of Dzogchen, Mahāmudrā, and Madhyamaka and the methods of applying them in practice, with particular attention given to the ways in which these three converge.
Bar do spyi'i don thams cad rnam pa gsal bar byed pa dran pa'i me long
རྩེ་ལེ་སྣ་ཚོགས་རང་གྲོལ་ (Rtse le sna tshogs rang grol)
The Mirror of Mindfulness is a presentation of Tibetan Buddhist teachings on the endless cycle of experience, the four bardos — life, death, after-death, and rebirth. It is aimed at inspiring and helping the practitioner achieve liberation from deluded existence and awaken to complete enlightenment for the benefit of others. (Source: Rangjung Yeshe Publications)
Gzhan stong lta khrid
བཙན་ཁ་བོ་ཆེ་ (Btsan kha bo che)
A brief summary of the three natures (trisvabhāva / rang bzhin gsum) of the Yogācāra school that was reportedly reproduced from a manuscript of the writings of Tsen Khawoche and included in the One Hundred and Eight Instructions of the Jonang (Jo nang khrid brgya), that was edited together by Kunga Drolchok. If reports of its provenance are correct, then it would likely be the earliest appearance in a Tibetan work of the terms other-emptiness (gzhan stong) and Great Madhyamaka (dbu ma chen po).
Drang nges legs bshad snying po
ཙོང་ཁ་པ་ (Tsong kha pa)
Dbu ma la 'jug pa'i rnam bshad dgongs pa rab gsal
ཙོང་ཁ་པ་ (Tsong kha pa)
This work is perhaps the most influential explanation of Candrakīrti's seventh-century classic Entering the Middle Way (Madhyamakāvatāra).

Written as a supplement to Nagarjuna’s Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way, Candrakīrti’s text integrates the central insight of Nagarjuna’s thought—the rejection of any metaphysical notion of intrinsic existence—with the well-known Mahayana framework of the ten levels of the bodhisattva, and it became the most studied presentation of Madhyamaka thought in Tibet.

Completed the year before the author’s death, Tsongkhapa’s exposition of Candrakīrti's text is recognized by the Tibetan tradition as the final standpoint of Tsongkhapa on many philosophical questions, particularly the clear distinctions it draws between the standpoints of the Madhyamaka and Cittamatra schools.

Written in exemplary Tibetan, Tsongkhapa’s work presents a wonderful marriage of rigorous Madhyamaka philosophical analysis with a detailed and subtle account of the progressively advancing mental states and spiritual maturity realized by sincere Madhyamaka practitioners. (Source: Thupten Jinpa, Illuminating the Intent, 2021.)
Legs bshad gser phreng
ཙོང་ཁ་པ་ (Tsong kha pa)
Tsongkhapa's comprehensive treatise on both Maitreya's Abhisamayālaṃkāra and the commentary on this work by Haribhadra, the Abhisamayālaṃkāravrtti.
Lam rim chen mo
ཙོང་ཁ་པ་ (Tsong kha pa)
Lam rim chen mo. In Tibetan, "Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path"; the abbreviated title for one of the best-known works on Buddhist thought and practice in Tibet, composed by the Tibetan luminary Tsong khapa Blo bzang Grags pa in 1402 at the central Tibetan monastery of Rwa sgreng. A lengthy treatise belonging to the lam rim, or stages of the path, genre of Tibetan Buddhist literature, the Lam rim chen mo takes its inspiration from numerous earlier writings, most notably the Bodhipathapradīpa ("Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment") by the eleventh-century Bengali master Atiśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna. It is the most extensive treatment of three

principal stages that Tsong kha pa composed. The others include (1) the Lam rim chung ba ("Short Treatise on the Stages of the Path"), also called the Lam rim 'bring ba ('"Intermediate Treatise on the States of the Path") and (2) the Lam rim bsdus don ("Concise Meaning of the Stages of the Path"), occasionally also referred to as the Lam rim chung ngu ("Brief Stages of the Path"). The latter text, which records Tsong kha pa's own realization of the path in verse form, is also referred to as the Lam rim nyams mgur ma ("Song of Experience of the Stages of the Path"). The Lam rim chen mo is a highly detailed and often technical treatise presenting a comprehensive and synthetic overview of the path to buddhahood. It draws, often at length, upon a wide range of scriptural sources including the Sūtra and śāstra literature of both the hīnayāna and Mahāyāna; Tsong kha pa treats tantric practice in a separate work. The text is organized under the rubric of the three levels of spiritual predilection, personified as "the three individuals" (skyes bu gsum): the beings of small capacity, who engage in religious practice in order to gain a favorable rebirth in their next lifetime; the beings of intermediate capacity, who seek liberation from rebirth for themselves as an arhat; and the beings of great capacity, who seek to liberate all beings in the universe from suffering and thus follow the bodhisattva path to buddhahood. Tsong kha pa's text does not lay out all the practices of these three types of persons but rather those practices essential to the bodhisattva path that are held in common by persons of small and intermediate capacity, such as the practice of refuge (śaraṇa) and contemplation of the uncertainty of the time of death. The text includes extended discussions of topics such as relying on a spiritual master, the development of bodhicitta, and the six perfections (pāramitā). The last section of

the text, sometimes regarded as a separate work, deals at length with the nature of serenity (śamatha) and insight (vipaśyanā); Tsong kha pa's discussion of insight here represents one of his most important expositions of emptiness (śūnyatā). Primarily devoted to exoteric Mahāyāna doctrine, the text concludes with a brief reference to Vajrayāna and the practice of tantra, a subject discussed at length by Tsong kha pa in a separate work, the Sngags rim chen mo ("Stages of the Path of Mantra"). The Lam rim chen mo's full title is Skyes bu gsum gyi rnyams su blang ba'i rim pa thams cad tshang bar ston pa'i byang chub lam gyi rim pa. (Source: "Lam rim chen mo." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 465-66. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)
Gzhan stong snying po
ཏཱ་ར་ནཱ་ཐ་ (TA ra nA tha)
A fairly brief work by Tāranātha on the basic tenets of the four systems of Buddhist philosophy, namely the Vaibhāṣika, Sautrāntrika, Cittamātra, and Madhyamaka. His exposition culminates with a presentation of the Great Madhyamaka, the pinnacle of the four, which is synonymous with other-emptiness as represented by the Jonang tradition.
Zab mo gzhan stong dbu ma'i brgyud 'debs
ཏཱ་ར་ནཱ་ཐ་ (TA ra nA tha)
Tāranātha's lineage supplication to the other-emptiness Madhyamaka tradition that was preserved by the Jonang school. Tāranātha traces the origin of the other-emptiness to the Buddha, who passed it down through Maitreya, Asaṅga, Vasubandhu to Maitripa or from Vasubandhu through Sthiramati, Guṇamāti, et al. to Maitrīpa, or from Buddha through Vajrapaṇi, Rahulabhadra, Nāgārjuna, Śabari, Maitrīpa, from Maitrīpa through Anandakīrti, Ratnakaraśānti, Sajjṇāna, Anandavajra, then in Tibet through Tsen Khawoche, et al. until Tāranātha.
Theg mchog shin tu rgyas pa'i dbu ma chen po rnam par nges pa
ཏཱ་ར་ནཱ་ཐ་ (TA ra nA tha)
Composition on select points considered essential for understanding the philosophical view of other-emptiness (zhentong) by the great Jonang scholar Tāranātha (1575-1635). It remains one of the most important works on zhentong in the Jonang order. Root text was composed by Tāranātha and an annotated commentary was compiled and edited by Tāranātha's disciple Yeshe Gyamtso according to oral teachings he received from Tāranātha, himself.
Gzhan stong dbu ma'i rgyan
ཏཱ་ར་ནཱ་ཐ་ (TA ra nA tha)
A polemical work defending the other-emptiness view of the Jonang tradition that addresses the criticism of this position by other Tibetan schools. This discursive text discusses the provisional or ultimate nature of the three turnings of the wheel of dharma, the position of Indian masters and philosophical schools, the intent of the Mahāyāna sūtras and the rebuts the criticism of other-emptiness by proponents of the self-emptiness theory in Tibet.
Sher snying gi tshig 'grel
ཏཱ་ར་ནཱ་ཐ་ (TA ra nA tha)
Tāranātha presents an interpretation of the Heart Sūtra in accordance with his philosophical espousal of the other-emptiness in this short word-for-word commentary. At the very outset, he states in this commentary that the main referent of the term Perfection of Wisdom is buddha-nature, the non-dual wisdom which is the true nature of all phenomena. This, he argues, is not empty of its nature. The Heart Sūtra sufficiently makes it clear that the five skandhas and other conventional phenomena are empty of their nature, but not buddha-nature or the ultimate truth. ‘Form is emptiness’ indicates that form is utterly non-existent and empty. ‘Emptiness is form’ indicates that emptiness, which is the ultimate reality, is what appears as form to ordinary beings. ‘Emptiness is not other than form’ shows there is no emptiness which exists separately from form but reality qua emptiness is rather the true nature of form. ‘Form is not other than emptiness’ states there is no real form that is different from emptiness in the ultimate sense, because emptiness qua reality exists whereas form doesn’t.
Gzhan stong dbu ma'i rgyan gyi lung sbyor
ཏཱ་ར་ནཱ་ཐ་ (TA ra nA tha)
A supplement to Tāranātha's Ornament of Madhyamaka of Other-Emptiness (Gzhan stong dbu ma'i brgyan) that focuses on the scriptural sources of the other-emptiness philosophy. The scriptural citations and reference which were barely mentioned or referred to in the Ornament of Madhyamaka of Other-Emptiness are quoted in full to substantiate the claims of the proponents of Other-Emptiness.
'phags ma shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa'i snying po'i dka' 'grel 'gran zla med pa'i rgyal po tshig le'ur byas pa
ཏཱ་ར་ནཱ་ཐ་ (TA ra nA tha)
One of the Tāranātha's three commentaries on the Heart Sūtra, he presents the ultimate purport of the sūtras as being the ultimate other-emptiness. He comments on the sūtra and its transmission in verses, a very rare style for a work considered to be a commentary. Like his short word for word commentary and the detailed exegesis, this verse commentary explains the Heart Sūtra in accordance with the theories of other-emptiness. Tāranātha also claims he is unique in showing how the Heart Sūtra also captures the hidden themes of the eight topics discussed in some other longer versions of Perfection of Wisdom texts. The commentary was written when Tāranātha was 29 by Tibetan reckoning.
Shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa'i snying po'i mdo rnam par bshad pa sngon med legs bshad
ཏཱ་ར་ནཱ་ཐ་ (TA ra nA tha)
In this commentary on the Heart Sūtra, Tāranātha starts with the discussion of the different forms of Perfection of Wisdom in relation to the nature of phenomena, the path to enlightenment, the resultant state, and the doctrinal teachings which discuss the topic. He cites Dignāga to claim that the true Perfection of Wisdom is the resultant wisdom of the buddhas. However, the most important point he underscores is that the ultimate message of all three Turning of the Wheels and the Heart Sūtra is the great other-emptiness. All conventional phenomena are primordially empty of their own nature but the ultimate nature is only empty of other conventional phenomena but not empty of its own nature. This, he argues, is the ultimate truth, the reality and the intent of all buddhas. Commenting on the four statements on form and emptiness in the Heart Sūtra, he presents what he considers to be the interpretations among the proponents of the Mind Only (སེམས་ཙམ་པ་) and Naturelessness (ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་མེད་པར་སྨྲ་བ་), both of which are acceptable in certain contexts but do not capture the ultimate reality. The ultimate understanding, he reasons, must be obtained by putting the four statements in the context of the three characteristics (མཚན་ཉིད་གསུམ་). He goes on to explain how the four statements should be understood in relation to the imputed nature, the dependent nature and the consummate nature, through which one can grasp the meaning of the emptiness of that which is non-existent (མེད་པའི་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་), the emptiness of that which is existent (ཡོད་པའི་སྟོང་ཉིད་), and the emptiness of true nature (རང་བཞིན་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་) taught by Maitreya.
Dpal dus kyi 'khor lo'i chos bskor gyi byung khungs nyer mkho
ཏཱ་ར་ནཱ་ཐ་ (TA ra nA tha)
Tāranātha's history of the Kālacakra teachings.
Mahāyānottaratantraśāstraṭippaṇī
Vairocanarakṣita
One of only two extant Sanskrit commentaries to the Uttaratantra, the other being the pith instruction composed by Sajjana. However, this work seems to have not been translated into Tibetan and thus it had little, if any, influence on the development of the Tibetan exegesis of the Uttaratantra.
'phags pa dgongs pa zab mo nges par 'grel pa'i mdo rgya cher 'grel pa
ཝན་ཚིག་ (Wǒnch'ǔk)
Wǒnch'ǔk's commentary to the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra was extremely popular in the Chinese outpost of Dunhuang, where Chos grub (Ch. Facheng; c. 755–849) translated it into Tibetan during the reign of King Ral pa can (r. 815–838). Only nine of the ten rolls of the commentary are still extant in Chinese; the full text is available only in its Tibetan translation, which the Tibetans know as the "Great Chinese Commentary" (Rgya nag gi 'grel chen) even though it was written by a Korean. (Source: "Wǒnch'ǔk." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 996–97. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)
Theg chen bstan pa'i snying po'i 'grel pa nyi ma'i 'od zer
ཡོངས་འཛིན་ཨ་དབྱངས་ཐུབ་བསྟན་ (Yongs 'dzin a dbyangs thub bstan)
Ayang Thubten Rinpoche’s Rays of Sunlight is a commentary on Zhedang Dorje’s The Heart of the Mahayana Teachings (Theg chen bstan pa'i snying po'i gzhung), a detailed guide to the stages of the path to awakening. Containing all of the Drikung Kagyu tradition’s essential teachings on sutra and tantra, Rays of Sunlight is one of the most treasured works in the Drikung Kagyu tradition. Like Gampopa's Jewel Ornament of Liberation, the text Rays of Sunlight begins with a discussion of Buddha-nature, the nascent buddha within all beings, before presenting the sequential practices we must cultivate to fully awaken its transcendent qualities. With its lucid explanation of how a single individual can uphold the pratimoksha vows, bodhisattva precepts, and tantric samaya without contra-diction, Rays of Sunlight is sure to be of interest to dedicated practitioners of all traditions. And for those with an affinity for the profound path of meditation, the text closes with an extraordinary explanation of “The Fivefold Path of Mahamudra.” (Source: Edition Garchen Stiftung)
De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po'i mdo'i 'grel pa snying po rab gsal
ཞང་སྟོན་བསོད་ནམས་གྲགས་པ་ (Zhang ston bsod nams grags pa)
Perhaps the first and only Tibetan commentary on the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra, Zhangtön Sonam Drakpa interprets the sūtra according to theory of Other-emptiness and also carries out refutation of those who identity Buddha-Nature with store-consciousness and consider Buddha-Nature sūtras as provisional teachings.
Rgyud bla ma'i 'grel bka' 'khor lo tha ma'i gsal byed
ཞང་སྟོན་བསོད་ནམས་གྲགས་པ་ (Zhang ston bsod nams grags pa)
Dbu ma'i byung tshul rnam par bshad pa'i gtam yid bzhin lhun po zhes bya ba'i bstan bcos
ཤཱཀྱ་མཆོག་ལྡན་ (ShAkya mchog ldan)
A history of the Madhyamaka philosophy in India and Tibet written by Śākya Chokden between 1484-1490 in Lhasa with Kongtön Chökyi Gyaltsen as scribe. In this text, he defines what is a Middle Way and presents the transmission of different Middle Way thoughts.
Phyag rgya chen po'i shan 'byed ces bya ba'i bstan bcos
ཤཱཀྱ་མཆོག་ལྡན་ (ShAkya mchog ldan)
The second work in Śākya Chokden's trilogy of short writings on Mahāmudra, he points out in this text a list of the five types of misinterpretation of the actual point of Mahāmudrā practice:

1. The emptiness posited through Mādhyamika reasoning. 2. The union of emptiness and bliss which fills the network of channels after tantric practice of consecration. 3. Experience of bare consciousness free from all mentation. 4. Non-apprehension of the mind either inside or outside, having colour and shape, etc. 5. The ground consciousness which is the cause of all experience.

Śākya Choden states that none of these capture the profound, precise, effective Mahāmudrā technique of Gampopa, which is compared to the Single White Remedy, and explains how they are not the same as Gampopa’s Mahāmudrā. Śākya Chokden also distinguishes the Chinese Chan practice from Gampopa’s Mahāmudrā and goes on to explain their differences. He elaborates on the practice of Mahāmudrā through the four points of single-pointedness (རྩེ་གཅིག་), non-elaboration (སྤྲོས་བྲལ་), one taste (རོ་གཅིག་), and non-meditation (སྒོམ་མེད་).
Phyag rgya chen po gsal bar byed pa'i bstan bcos tshangs pa'i 'khor los gzhan blo'i dregs pa nyams byed
ཤཱཀྱ་མཆོག་ལྡན་ (ShAkya mchog ldan)
In this book, Śākya Chokden seeks to explain the luminous nature of the mind which he says is also popularly given the name Mahāmudrā in Tibet (སེམས་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན་འོད་གསལ་ལ།། ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོའི་མཚན་གསོལ་ནས། །གངས་ཅན་ལྗོངས་སུ་ཆེར་གྲགས་པ། །དེ་ཉིད་མདོ་ཙམ་གསལ་བར་བྱ།།). In elucidating the Mahāmudrā advocated by Gampopa, he presents a detailed explanation of it by pointing out that the Mahāmudrā in this context is the luminous nature of the mind, which is common to all Mahāyāna traditions, and the one which is explicitly taught in the works of Maitreya, particularly in the Ultimate Continuum. This nature is totally obscured or tainted in the ground phase (གཞི་དུས་མ་དག་པ་), partially tainted or obscured at the path phase (ལམ་དུས་ཕྱོགས་གཅིག་དག་པ་) and fully purified at the fruition phase (འབྲས་དུས་ཐམས་ཅད་དག་པ་). He writes that the basic element of buddha nature is the ground to be purified, the stains to be removed are nine-fold perhaps referring to the nine analogies used to illustrate how buddha-nature is obscured by the afflictive emotions, the antidote which purifies is the discernment of buddha-nature and the final result the perfection of purity, self and bliss. A resemblance of the final result is already perceived on the Path of Seeing, and such experience of buddha nature is said to be the seeing of Mahāmudrā. He states that Mahāmudrā in this context is not the emptiness of non-implicative negation as argued in the scholastic writings of Nāgārjuna but what is taught in the writings of Maitreya, or the definitive ultimate reality taught in the Third Turning after having taught self-emptiness in the Middle Turning. He then explains how such nature is actualized through meditation by removing the dualistic conceptual thoughts and emotions which are included in the eight types of consciousness that characterize the three realms of cycle of existence. In the final section, he refutes several misunderstanding and criticism concerning Mahāmudrā and argues that this Mahāmudrā cannot be realized merely through conceptual reasoning but through practice of non-mentation with the help of instructions which points out the nature of the mind and devotion to guru. Intellectual study and single-pointed concentration are not prerequisites for the experience of Mahāmudrā. He adds that positing the emptiness, which is a non-implicative negation after a reductionist analysis, as Mahāmudrā is not in accordance with the Ultimate Continuum or the purport of the hymns by Saraha.
Dpal gsang ba 'dus pa'i rnam bshad rin po che'i gter mdzod bdun pa
ཤཱཀྱ་མཆོག་ལྡན་ (ShAkya mchog ldan)
The Seventh Precious Treasury: An Explanation of Śrī Guhyasamāja is a treatise on the two stages of the path in the Guhyasamāja tradition and delineates the ultimate truth and reality in the context of the sūtra and tantras. It also carries out discussion of different Tibetan interpretations of ultimate truth and buddha-nature. The text is also given the titles Twenty-One Doors of Liberation and Sixty-three Distinctions of Tenet Systems of Oneself and Others.
Chos kyi dbyings su bstod pa zhes bya ba'i bstan bcos rnam par bshad pa chos kyi dbyings rnam par nges pa
ཤཱཀྱ་མཆོག་ལྡན་ (ShAkya mchog ldan)
In this commentary on Nāgārjuna's Dharmadhātustava, the renowned Sakya scholar Śākya Chokden reasons that he wrote this commentary because many scholars misunderstand dharmadhātu or sphere of reality to be mere emptiness that is non-implicative negative and do not understand that it has a luminous aspect of awareness.
Rgyud bla ma'i rnam bshad sngon med nyi ma sogs chos tshan bzhi
ཤཱཀྱ་མཆོག་ལྡན་ (ShAkya mchog ldan)
Four works including an exegesis on the Uttaratantra by an important Sakya scholar known for taking, at times, controversial stances that challenged the philosophical positions of even his own school. These works, thus, represent a unique view of buddha-nature that is unconfined by the sectarian affiliations that otherwise dominated the Tibetan philosophical landscape.
Chos dbyings rnam par nges pa'i gter sgo brgya 'byed
ཤཱཀྱ་མཆོག་ལྡན་ (ShAkya mchog ldan)
Sangs rgyas kyi snying po'i rnam bshad mdo rgyud snying po
ཤཱཀྱ་མཆོག་ལྡན་ (ShAkya mchog ldan)
Śākya Chokden on buddha-nature. This text is a section of a more expansive work on the Ratnagotravibhāga, titled the rgyud bla ma'i rnam bshad sngon med nyi ma sogs chos tshan bzhi.
Lung rigs gnyis kyis phyag rgya chen po'i bzhed tshul la 'khrul pa sel ba'i bstan bcos zung 'jug gru chen
ཤཱཀྱ་མཆོག་ལྡན་ (ShAkya mchog ldan)
One of the three short texts on Mahāmudrā by Śākya Choden, this was written in response to a list of questions raised by a certain scholar named Karma Wangchuk Pel with regard to Sakya Paṇḍita’s critique of Neo-Mahāmudrā and Single White Remedy in his Distinguishing the Three Vows.

He begins with a cogent presentation of Mahāmudrā covering its sources, the objective Mahāmudrā, the subjective Mahāmudrā, its synonyms, the actual Mahāmudra experience among sublime beings, the analogous Mahāmudrā understanding among ordinary practitioners, and the Mahāmudrā concept according to the philosophical and tantric schools. Following this, he delves into how some later followers of Sakya and Kagyu tradition do not fathom the understanding of their respective teachings. He also points out how the followers of Kadampa tradition have missed the important original teachings of Atīśa and founding fathers.

In summary, Śākya Chokden underscores the point that there are two ways in which misconceptions are overcome: through an extrovert rational analysis and an introvert yogic contemplation. The Mahāmudrā tradition of Gampopa belongs to the latter category while the former includes the postulations of self-emptiness and other-emptiness.
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