Texts/Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos legs par bshad pa

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ལེགས་པར་བཤད་པ།

theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos legs par bshad pa

Elegant Explanation of the Treatise of the Ultimate Continuum of the Mahāyāna

Commentary of Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra

SOURCE TEXT

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.

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Scholarly notes

Rongtön composed exegetical treatises on all five Maitreya texts and, as mentioned above, was particularly renowned for his explanations of the Abhisamayālamkāra, on which he is reported to have authored seven commentaries.1 His commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga was composed at Sangphu (the date of composition is not given in the colophon).2 In his exposition, he follows Loden Sherab's analytical tradition of bringing the teachings on buddha-nature in line with the Madhyamaka doctrine of emptiness. Another important feature of his commentary, as I will try to show below, is his use of Asaṅga's vyākhyā that he follows verbatim in many places. However, he consistently reinterprets and to greater extent omits all passages and quotations that favour a zhentong interpretation of buddha-nature. This comes without surprise considering his education at the monastery of Sangphu Ne'u Thog, the famous learning centre established in 1073 by Ngog Legpe Sherab (a student of Atīśa and Loden Sherab's paternal uncle). On the other hand, it would have been at odds with the exegetical tradition of the meditation school of Karma Könchog Zhönnu, who taught him the treatises attributed to Maitreya.3 As stated above, the analytical school of Ngog followed by Rongtön and the meditative school of Tsen both go back to Sajjana and are thus complementary according to Shākya Chokden.4 However, the differences in those two approaches added to doctrinal controversies already prevalent during Rongtön's time. This eventually led to the rangtong versus zhentong debate. - Bernert, C. Perfect or Perfected? Rongtön on Buddha-Nature, pp. 24-25.

Notes

1. Cf. Jackson 1988, V.
2. Kano (2006, 218) notes that Rongtön probably composed this commentary in the 1380s, around the time he was engaged in the study of Ngog's tradition.
3. Unfortunately no commentary by this master is available today. Mathes notes, however, that his RGV commentary has been supplemented by the notes of Karma Trinlepa (1456-1539), inserted as corrections in the text. This text—also unavailable—is mentioned next to Zhönnu Pel's RGV commentary in Kongtrul's presentation of the meditative school of Tsen. From this, Mathes concludes that looking at Zhönnu Pel's commentary would help understand this tradition since no written commentary has surfaced so far. Cf. Mathes 2008, 33.
4. Cf. van der Kuijp 1983,43.

Philosophical positions of this text

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Commentary of	~ RKTST 3363

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Sakya - The Sakya tradition developed in the eleventh century in the Khön family of Tsang, which maintained an imperial-era lineage of Vajrakīla and which adopted a new teaching from India known as Lamdre. Tib. ས་སྐྱ་

śūnyatā - The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics. Skt. शून्यता Tib. སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ Ch. 空,空門

sems nyid - Commonly found in Dzogchen and Mahāmudrā literature, this term denotes the true, natural state of mind as it is. Often used in these traditions as a synonym for buddha-nature. Skt. चित्तत्व Tib. སེམས་ཉིད་

'jog sgom - This is the meditation of directly observing the mind without engaging in any analytical or intellectual activity. (Thrangu Rinpoche, Transcending Ego, 102). Skt. स्थाप्यभावना Tib. འཇོག་སྒོམ་

These are the root verses of the Uttaratantra attributed to Maitreya by the Tibetan tradition.

Madhyamaka - Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. Skt. मध्यमक Tib. དབུ་མ་ Ch. 中觀見

gzhan stong - The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature. Tib. གཞན་སྟོང་

rang stong - The state of being empty of self, which references the lack of inherent existence in relative phenomena. Tib. རང་སྟོང་

These are the root verses of the Uttaratantra attributed to Maitreya by the Tibetan tradition.

RGV - Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra

These are the root verses of the Uttaratantra attributed to Maitreya by the Tibetan tradition.

rang stong - The state of being empty of self, which references the lack of inherent existence in relative phenomena. Tib. རང་སྟོང་

Rong ston shes bya kun rig. Erudite Commentary on the Treatise of the Sublime Continuum of the Mahayana