Books/The Sublime Continuum and Its Explanatory Commentary

The Sublime Continuum and Its Explanatory Commentary

Book

Book

 Search online

The original Sublime Continuum Explanatory Commentary was written by Noble Asaṅga to explain the verses by the bodhisattva Maitreyanātha around the 4th CE century in North India. Here it is introduced and presented in an original translation from Sanskrit and Tibetan, with the translation of an extensive Tibetan Supercommentary by Gyaltsap Darma Rinchen (1364–1432 CE), whose work is considered to follow the view of his teacher, Tsong Khapa (1357–1419 CE).

Contemporary scholars have widely mis-understood the Buddhist Centrist teaching of emptiness, or selflessness, as either a form of nihilism or a radical skepticism. Yet Buddhist philosophers from Nāgārjuna on have shown that the negation of intrinsic reality affirms the supreme value of relative realities if accurately understood. Gyaltsap Darma Rinchen, in his Supercommentary, elucidates a highly positive theory of the “buddha-nature,” showing how the wisdom of emptiness empowers the compassionate life of the enlightened, as it is touched by its oneness with the truth body of all buddhas. With his clear study of Gyaltsap’s insight and his original English translation, Bo Jiang, Ph.D. completes his historic project of studying and presenting these works from Sanskrit and Tibetan both in Chinese and, now, English translations, in linked publications.

Marty Bo Jiang is a research fellow at the American Institute of Buddhist Studies at the Columbia University Center for Buddhist Studies. (Source: AIBS)

Citation	Jiang, Bo, trans. The Sublime Continuum and Its Explanatory Commentary. By Maitreyanātha and Noble Asaṅga. With The Sublime Continuum Supercommentary by Gyaltsap Darma Rinchen. Treasury of the Buddhist Sciences. New York: American Institute of Buddhist Studies, Columbia University Center for Buddhist Studies, and Tibet House US, 2017.

ContentsSources

• Editor's/Series Editor's Prefaceix
• Author's Preface and Acknowledgementsxv
• Abbreviations, Sigla, and Typographical Conventionsxvi
• Author's Preface and Acknowledgementsxv xvi
  • Part One: Introduction
    • 1. Introduction to The Sublime Continuum and Its Commentary 3
    • 2. Introduction to Gyaltsap's Supercommentary 17
  • Part Two: Translations
  • Maitreyanatha's Sublime Continuum and Noble Asanga's

Commentary

• • • I: Tathagata Essence 53
    • II: Enlightenment 145
    • III: Excellences 159
    • IV: Enlightened Activities 166
    • V: Benefit 184
  • Gyaltsap's Supercommentary
    • Introduction 193
    • I: Tathagata Essence 205
    • II: Enlightenment 479
    • III: Excellences 511
    • IV: Enlightened Activities 524
    • V: Benefit 555
  • Appendix
    • Tibetan Names (Phonetic-Transliterated Equivalents) 570
  • Selected Bibliographies
    • Template:Canonical Sources
    • Template:Modern Sources
  • Indexes
    • Template:Index of Canonical Texts Cited
    • Template:Index of Canonical Authors Cited
    • Template:General Index

1. Maitreya/Asaṅga. Mahāyānottaratantraśāstravyākhyā (theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos dang de'i rnam par bshad pa). (D 4025) sems tsam, phi 74b1-129a7. Translators: T. Sajjana, Blo ldan shes rab. Columbia AIBS ACIP
2. Rgyal tshab rje dar ma rin chen. theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i TIk+ka. In Collected Works of Rgyal-tsab dar-ma rin-chen, vol. 3 (GA). bka shis lhun po, n.d.
   1. See Dharamsala: sherig parkhang, 1997.

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt. बोधिसत्त्व Tib. བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ། Ch. 菩薩

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattva'

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

Go to the page with the definition of 'emptiness'

anātman - The nonexistence of the self as a permanent, unchanging entity. Skt. अनात्मन् Tib. བདག་མེད་པ་ Ch. 无我

Go to the page with the definition of 'selflessness'