Klaus-Dieter Mathes, Head of the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna, granted an interview to Marcus Perman and Alex Gardner @ buddha-nature.tsadra.org on April 24, 2018. The discussion is almost an hour long and ranges from Klaus' personal interest in buddha-nature teachings to his ongoing and detailed research projects on the subject. Mathes discusses buddha-nature and the key ideas behind it, the controversies it generates, and some of the related Buddhist philosophy in comparative perspective.
Clips from the Interview
| Buddha-nature has controversial points. | |
|---|---|
| Do you accept buddhahood or not? | |
| Mathes talks about reification and two approaches in the Karma Kagyu Tradition. | |
| Mystic comes from a word that means to close ones eyes, but in Buddhism you are opening your eyes. | |
| Different approaches to buddha-nature—the debates are alive and well in contemporary Tibetan Buddhist communities. |
