Ratnacūḍaparipṛcchāsūtra

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Relevance to Buddha-nature

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Description from When the Clouds Part

The Ratnakūṭa

It seems that this sūtra collection is mainly mentioned above in relation to tathāgatagarbha because the Śrīmālādevīsūtra is a part of it. The Ratnakūṭa also includes the Ratnacūḍaparipṛcchāsūtra, in which we find the example of the painters illustrating the emptiness endowed with all supreme aspects, which is also used in the Uttaratantra (without mentioning this sūtra source). However, in themselves, both this example and this emptiness are not usually a part of the teachings on buddha nature. In addition, a passage from the Kāśyapaparivarta in the Ratnakūṭa is quoted in RGVV but without being related to tathāgatagarbha. Still, the Kāśyapaparivarta discusses the related notions of "the disposition of the noble ones" (āryagotra) and "buddha lineage or pedigree" (buddhavaṃśa). It says that the former is as equal and undifferentiated as space, devoid of both body and mind, in accordance with nirvāṇa, stainless, ultimately real, imperishable, permanent, without self, and nonreferential. The continuity of "the buddha lineage" prevents bodhisattvas from entering the limited personal nirvāṇa of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas. Also, compared to arhats, the gods have more love even for beginner bodhisattvas who have just given rise to bodhicitta and whose faculties are not yet matured. For those bodhisattvas maintain "the buddha lineage" without interruption.

Philosophical positions of this text

Is buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?

  

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Does this text belong to definitive or provisional meaning?

  

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Do all beings have buddha-nature?

  This is a nuanced position. Read notes for details.

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

  

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Is buddha-nature equated with emptiness or alayavijnana?

  

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

  

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

  

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

  

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What is Buddha-nature?

  

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

  

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Bsod nams rgyal mtshan

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Sonam Gyeltsen was a prolific author, although many of his writings were never printed. Most famously, he was the author of the genealogy, Gyal rab sal ba'i me long (rgyal rabs sal ba'i me long), commonly translated as The Clear Mirror: A Royal Genealogy. He wrote on various tantric subjects, particularly the Kālacakratantra, and composed a commentary on Shantideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra. His influential writings on the Lamdre (lam 'bras) tradition were collected in a volume called the Lamdre Ponak (lam 'bras pod nag), one of the first major written works on Lamdre. He also sponsored the first edition of the collected works of the Five Patriarchs of Sakya (sa skya gong ma lnga).

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Sönam Gyaltsen, Sönam Gyaltsen: Commentary on the Ultimate Continuum Called Definitive Clarification of the Intent

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Sönam Gyaltsen, Sönam Gyaltsen: A Synopsis of the Mahāyāna Uttaratantra

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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་

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Mahāyāna - Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of Common Era, focusing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through the realization of the wisdom of emptiness and the cultivation of compassion. Skt. महायान Tib. ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ། Ch. 大乘

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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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sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt. सूत्र Tib. མདོ། Ch. 佛经

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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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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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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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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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RGVV - Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā

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According to the Tibetan tradition this is Asaṅga's commentary to the Uttaratantra.

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Mahāyānottaratantraśāstravyākhyā - This is the title of Asaṅga's commentary to the Gyü Lama that is given by Tibetan sources instead of the Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā. Skt. महायानोत्तरतन्त्रशास्त्रव्याख्या Tib. ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པ།

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gotra - Disposition, lineage, or class; an individual's gotra determines the type of enlightenment one is destined to attain. Skt. गोत्र Tib. རིགས་ Ch. 鍾姓,種性

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gotra - Disposition, lineage, or class; an individual's gotra determines the type of enlightenment one is destined to attain. Skt. गोत्र Tib. རིགས་ Ch. 鍾姓,種性

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bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt. बोधिचित्त Tib. བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས། Ch. 菩提心

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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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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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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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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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Yogācāra - Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana). Skt. योगाचार Tib. རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྤྱོད་པ་ Ch. 瑜伽行派

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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

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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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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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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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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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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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prabhāsvaratā - In a general sense, that which clears away darkness, though it often appears in Buddhist literature in reference to the mind or its nature. It is a particularly salient feature of Tantric literature, especially in regard to the advanced meditation techniques of the completion-stage yogas. Skt. प्रभास्वर Tib. འོད་གསལ་ Ch. 光明

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gotra - Disposition, lineage, or class; an individual's gotra determines the type of enlightenment one is destined to attain. Skt. गोत्र Tib. རིགས་ Ch. 鍾姓,種性

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gotra - Disposition, lineage, or class; an individual's gotra determines the type of enlightenment one is destined to attain. Skt. गोत्र Tib. རིགས་ Ch. 鍾姓,種性

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Taishō - Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō, Chinese Tripiṭaka

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