People/Sgra tshad pa rin chen rnam rgyal

Dratsepa Rinchen Namgyal

སྒྲ་ཚད་པ་རིན་ཆེན་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་

1318 - 1388

A prominent 14th century scholar associated with Kadam and Skya schools that was a student of Butön, as well as his biographer. He was also an early teacher of Tsongkhapa and is reported to have given the bodhisattva vow to Rongtön.

Philosophical positions of this person

Is buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?

Provisional 

Do all beings have buddha-nature?

  Qualified No

Only Buddhas

• "Taking the reverse position of the Gelugpas on this, both Butön and his student and commentator Dratsépa Rinchen Namgyal (1318–1388) identify the actual tathāgata heart as being solely the final fruition of buddhahood. As the latter says: The fully qualified sugata heart is the dharmakāya of a perfect buddha but never exists in the great mass of sentient beings." Brunnhölzl, K., When the Clouds Part, pp. 67-68.
• Bu-ston and his disciple sGra-tshad-pa assert that Buddha-nature should be understood only in its resultant aspect, namely as only the dharmakäya of a buddha." Kano, K., Buddha-Nature and Emptiness, p. 343.
• See also Wangchuk, Tsering, The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, p. 73.

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

  Third Turning

Both second and third, though third is higher. Wangchuk, Tsering, The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, p. 74.

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Is buddha-nature equated with emptiness or alayavijnana?

 

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

  

Deems zhentong as conventional truth and the lowest form of emptiness and rangtong as the ultimate truth. Wangchuk, Tsering, The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, p. 79.

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

 

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

 

What is Buddha-nature?

  Tathāgatagarbha as the Resultant State of Buddhahood

• Bu-ston and his disciple sGra-tshad-pa assert that Buddha-nature should be understood only in its resultant aspect, namely as only the dharmakāya of a buddha." Kano, K., Buddha-Nature and Emptiness, p. 343.
• Wangchuk, Tsering, The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, p. 73.

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

 

Other names

• སེམས་དཔའ་ཆེན་པོ་རིན་ཆེན་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་ · other names (Tibetan)
• ཐུགས་སྲས་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་རིན་ཆེན་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་ · other names (Tibetan)
• ཞྭ་ལུ་མཁན་ཆེན་༠༡་ · other names (Tibetan)
• sems dpa' chen po rin chen rnam rgyal · other names (Wylie)
• thugs sras lo tsA ba rin chen rnam rgyal · other names (Wylie)
• zhwa lu mkhan chen 01 · other names (Wylie)
• Zhalu Khenchen, 1st · other names
• Dratsepa · other names

Affiliations & relations

• nil · religious affiliation
• Bu ston rin chen grub · teacher
• nil · student

Kadam - The Kadam tradition, which traces its origin to the teachings of Atiśa, was the first of the so-called New Schools of Tibetan Buddhism, traditions which arose during or after the Second Propagation of Buddhism (phyi dar) in the tenth century. Tib. བཀའ་གདམས་

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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

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neyārtha - Refers to something that is taught for a specific reason, rather than because it is entirely true. Skt. नेयार्थ Tib. དྲང་དོན་

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dharmakāya - "Truth body" or "true being" — One of the three bodies of a buddha. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, it often refers to a kind of fundamental principle or the true nature of reality itself. Skt. धर्मकाय Tib. ཆོས་སྐུ་ Ch. 法身

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śrāvaka - The disciples of the Buddha who aspire to attain individual liberation or nirvāṇa. The final goal of the Hearers is to become an arhat, a state in which one has totally eliminated the inner problems of attachment, hatred and ignorance, the main causes for rebirth in this cycle of existence. There are four stages of a śrāvaka path including eight phases. Skt. श्रावक Tib. ཉན་ཐོས། Ch. 聲聞

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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

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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་

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

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

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Uttaratantra - The Ultimate Continuum, or Gyü Lama, is often used as a short title in the Tibetan tradition for the key source text of buddha-nature teachings called the Ratnagotravibhāga of Maitreya/Asaṅga, also known as the Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra. Skt. उत्तरतन्त्र Tib. རྒྱུད་བླ་མ་ Ch. 寶性論

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tathāgatagarbha - Buddha-nature, literally the "womb/essence of those who have gone (to suchness)." Skt. तथागतगर्भ Tib. དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ Ch. 如来藏

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