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''Wangchuk, Dorji. "On the Relationship between Tathāgatagarbha Theory and Pratītyasamutpāda." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, July 31, 2021. Video, 7:34. https://youtu.be/OxvIEFyhvKA.'' +
''Wangchuk, Dorji. "Resources for the Nyingma Understanding of Buddha-Nature." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, July 31, 2021. Video, 2:59. https://youtu.be/jRFZpWF2brA.'' +
''Wangchuk, Dorji. "Rongzompa and His Position on Buddha-Nature." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, July 31, 2021. Video, 10:03. https://youtu.be/yj6k07_8gIU.'' +
Media/Dorji Wangchuk: The Textual Sources and Advocates of Buddha-Nature Theory in the Early Transmission Period +
''Wangchuk, Dorji. "The Textual Sources and Advocates of Buddha-Nature Theory in the Early Transmission Period." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, July 31, 2021. Video, 3:56. https://youtu.be/hOM2RwrLroI.'' +
Douglas Duckworth presents how buddha-nature is interpreted by Mipam Gyatso (1846–1912). He shows that while Mipam accepts that the qualities of the buddha are primordially present, unconditioned, and not newly produced, they are also empty of inherent existence. +
''Dusting Off Your Buddha Nature'' derives principally from a series of Dharma teachings given in Italy on the Dzogchen Namchö Cycle of Ngöndro, known as "Buddha in the Palm of Your Hand." As taught in the Palyul lineage of the Nyingma sect of Tibetan Buddhism, these teachings include the Ten Steps to Buddhahood, the Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind Toward Dharma, the Four Uncommon Preliminary Practices of Refuge/Bodhicitta, Mandala, Vajrasattva, and Guru Yoga, as well as the supplemental practices of Phowa and Kusali Chod. The work culminates in a teaching on the dangers of skipping these preliminary practices, lest the Vajrayana practitioner misconstrue the higher teachings of Dzogchen and inadvertently "turn the medicine into poison." The key to understanding the higher teachings, explains Khenpo Norgay, is to "dust off" your Buddha Nature through these purification practices. As a bonus, a guided practice of the long Guru Yoga is appended for those new to Palyul practices. (Source: Back Cover) +
This article provides an introduction to Dzogchen. Dzogchen refers to an integrated set of texts, practices, philosophical perspectives, and theories of subjectivity unique to the most esoteric Buddhist and Bon traditions of Tibet. The philosophical core of Dzogchen is its emphasis on experiencing mind-nature and understanding its relationship to ordinary mental states. To be fully and nonconceptually aware of one's nature is called open presence. Dzogchen philosophy elaborates the issues and conundrums raised by this core tenet. Among Tibet's Buddhist traditions, it is only Nyingma, the most ancient school, that explicitly takes Dzogchen as its esoteric tradition. Both Nyingma and Bon see Dzogchen as the highest in a ninefold system known as the Nine Vehicles. ([https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195328998.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780195328998-e-24 Source Accessed July 24, 2020]) +
Roger Jackson reviews ''Heart of the Great Perfection: Dudjom Lingpa’s Visions of the Great Perfection, Vol. 1'' by B. Alan Wallace. From the Spring 2017 issue of Buddhadharma: The Practitioner’s Quarterly. +
With roots stretching back to the eighth century, the notion of tathāgatagarbha was initially introduced into the lexicon of what would become the Nyingma tradition through scholastic works that sought to reconcile the philosophy of Madhyamaka and Yogācāra, as well as through tantric literature that presented advanced paradigms for the path and the immediacy of enlightenment. Over the centuries these two streams of influence wove themselves together to help form the basis of a unique synthesis of sūtra-based philosophical inquiry and tantric theories of praxis that would come to define the Nyingma approach. At the pinnacle of this system are the teachings of Dzogchen, the Great Perfection, the supreme vantage to which all these intertwined approaches aspire. As such, this lofty perspective has a tendency to draw everything it encounters into its fold and reimagine it in its own image. The relationship between Dzogchen and buddha-nature is one example of this trend, though one which is deeply intertwined with the development of the Nyingma view.
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Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche talks about buddha-nature and offers a brief guided meditation. This segment is part of a larger talk on the ''Lotus Sūtra'' given in New Delhi on March 18, 2018. +
DŌGEN (1200–1253) is one of the most outstanding and unique Buddhists in the history of Japanese Buddhism. He is unique in at least the following three senses.
First, rejecting all existing forms of Buddhism in Japan as unauthentic, he attempted to introduce and establish what he believed to be the genuine Buddhism, based on his own realization which he attained in Sung China under the guidance of the Zen Master Ju-ching (Nyojō, 1163-1228). He called it "the Buddha Dharma directly transmitted from the Buddha and patriarchs." He emphasized ''zazen'''"`UNIQ--ref-00000004-QINU`"'(seated meditation) as being "the right entrance to the Buddha Dharma" in the tradition of the Zen schools in China since Bodhidharma, originating from Śākyamuni Buddha. Yet he strictly refused to speak of a "Zen sect," to say nothing of a "Sōtō sect," that he was later credited with founding. For Dōgen was concerned solely with the "right Dharma," and regarded ''zazen'' as its "right entrance." "Who has used the name 'Zen sect'? No buddha or patriarch spoke of a 'Zen sect.' You should realize it is a devil that speaks of 'Zen sect.' Those who pronounce a devil's appellation must be confederates of the devil, not children of the Buddha.",'"`UNIQ--ref-00000005-QINU`"'He called himself "the Dharma transmitter Shamon Dōgen who went to China"'"`UNIQ--ref-00000006-QINU`"'with strong conviction that he had attained the authentic Dharma that is directly transmitted from buddha to buddha, and that he should transplant it on Japanese soil. Thus he rejected the idea of ''mappo'''"`UNIQ--ref-00000007-QINU`"', i.e., the last or degenerate Dharma, an idea with wide acceptance in the Japanese Buddhism of his day. It may not be too much to say of Dōgen that just as Bodhidharma transmitted the Buddha Dharma to China, he intended to transmit it to Japan.
Secondly, though Dōgen came to a realization of the right Dharma under the guidance of a Chinese Zen master whom he continued to revere throughout his life, the understanding of the right Dharma is unique to Dogen. With religious awakening and penetrating insight, Dōgen grasped the Buddha Dharma in its deepest and most authentic sense. In doing so, he dared to reinterpret the words of former patriarchs, and even the sutras themselves. As a result, his idea of the right Dharma presents one of the purest forms of Mahayana Buddhism, in which the Dharma that was realized in the Buddha's enlightenment reveals itself most profoundly. All of this, it is noteworthy, is rooted in Dōgen's own existential realization, which he attained in himself through long and intense seeking. Based on this idea of the right Dharma, he not only rejected, as stated above, all existing forms of Buddhism in Japan, but also severely criticized certain forms of Indian and Chinese Buddhism, though, it is true, he generally considered Buddhism in these two countries as more authentic than that in Japan.
The third reason Dōgen is unique in the history of Japanese Buddhism, is because of his speculative and philosophical nature. He was a strict practicer of ''zazen'', who earnestly emphasized ''shikantaza'''"`UNIQ--ref-00000008-QINU`"', i.e., just sitting. His whole life was spent in rigorous discipline as a monk. He encouraged his disciples to do the same. Yet he was endowed with keen linguistic sensibility and a philosophical mind. His main work, entitled ''Shōbōgenzō'''"`UNIQ--ref-00000009-QINU`"', "A Treasury of the Right Dharma Eye," perhaps unsurpassable in its philosophical speculation, is a monumental document in Japanese intellectual history. In Dōgen, we find a rare combination of religious insight and philosophical ability. In this respect, he may be well compared with Thomas Aquinas, born twenty five years after him.
He wrote his main work, ''Shōbōgenzō'', in Japanese, in spite of the fact that leading Japanese Buddhists until then had usually written their major works in Chinese. Dōgen made penetrating speculations and tried to express the world of the Buddha Dharma in his mother tongue by mixing Chinese Buddhist and colloquial terms freely in his composition. The difficult and unique style of his Japanese writing is derived from the fact that, in expressing his own awakening, he never used conventional terminology, but employed a vivid, personal style grounded in his subjective speculations. Even when he used traditional Buddhist phrases, passages, etc., he interpreted them in unusual ways in order to express the Truth as he understood it. In Dōgen, the process of the search for and realization of the Buddha Dharma and the speculation on and expression of that process are uniquely combined.'"`UNIQ--ref-0000000A-QINU`"'
In this paper I shall discuss Dōgen's idea of Buddha nature, which may be regarded as a characteristic example of his realization. (Abe, "Dōgen on Buddha Nature", 28–30)
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Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism was popularized in the West by writers such as D.T. Suzuki and Alan Watts as a kind of 'romantic abstraction' outside of history. The papers in this volume, originally presented at a unique conference sponsored by U.C. Berkeley and the San Francisco Zen Center, go a long way
towards revealing the complex historical development of Ch'an theory and practice both in China and Tibet.<br>
The papers on China reveal Ch' an not as a single line of transmission from Bodhidharma, but as a complex of contending and even hostile factions. Furthermore, the view which sees Ch'an as the sinicization of Buddhism through Taoism is questioned through an examination of the Taoism that was actually prevalent during the establishment of Ch' an
in China.<br>
The papers on Tibet take us to the heart of the controversies surrounding the origins of Buddhism in that country, based on exciting research into the
Tunhuang materials, the indigenous rDzogs-chen system, and the 'Sudden vs. Gradual Enlightenment' controversy.<br>
Of particular note in this volume is the inclusion of several translations of papers by noted Japanese scholars who have led the way in this type of research,
made available to the Western reader for the first time. (Source: inside jacket) +
Articles/Eight Folios from a Sanskrit Manuscript of the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārabhāṣya from Ngor Monastery +
The Sanskrit text of the ''Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārabhāṣya'' (abbr. MSABh) was published for the first time by Sylvain Levi in 1907. This ''editio princeps'' was prepared based on a paper manuscript (NGMPP Reel No. A114/1; siglum Ns) written in Nepal in Samvat 798 (A.D. 1677 or 1678). All other Sanskrit manuscripts of MSABh from the Kathmandu Valley so far reported have been identified as apographs of this single manuscript. A single manuscript dating from the 17th century is, however, not sufficient in itself to base the editing of a text composed before the 5th century on. Other witnesses, namely, older Sanskrit manuscripts belonging to other transmission lines separate from that of Ns, can therefore be expected to help improve upon the ''editio princeps''.<br> The present paper offers just such crucial material: eight folios from a Sanskrit manuscript of MSABh from Tibet. This is the first part of a series of studies dealing with the subject. +
Elizabeth Callahan discusses buddha-nature and its related concepts in an interview with Marcus Perman of Tsadra Foundation. +
''Sheehy, Michael R., trans. "Elucidating the Zhentong View: A Condensation of the Threefold Nature of Reality." By Tsen Kawoche (btsan kha bo che). JonangFoundation.org, n.d. https://jonangfoundation.org/sites/default/files/translation-elucidatingzhentong.pdf.'' +
Emerson wrote with excitement of his discovery of "God-within" in his poem "Gnothi Seauton": "There doth sit the Infinite embosomed in a man." He furthermore preached in his sermon "The Genuine Man" that "the essential man" dwells in the innermost soul, and that this indwelling essential self is a higher self, God's image, and "Reason." The doctrine of "Buddha-womb," tathāgatagarbha meaning "essence of self" or "Buddha-nature," buddhadātu meaning "true self," is an important teaching in Mahāyāna Buddhism, which affirms that each sentient being contains the indwelling potency for attaining Buddhahood and enlightenment. This notion is explained when referring to the boundless, nurturing, sustaining, and deathless Self of the Buddha. The affinities between Emersonian Transcendentalism and Mahāyāna Buddhism, especially Zen, have often been pointed out. In this article the comparison between Emerson's "God-within" and Mahāyāna Buddhism's "Buddha-womb" or "Buddha-nature" will be examined. +
''Jinpa, Thupten. "Emptiness and Buddha-Nature: A Creative Tension between Two Fundamental Concepts of Mahayana Thought." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, January 29, 2022. Video, 1:21:49. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thvDcHQyazg.'' +
In his 1997 teaching at Open Secret Bookstore in San Rafael, California, Lama Tharchin Rinpoche explains how emptiness, or shunyata, is viewed from the Hinayana, Mahayana, and Vajrayana perspectives, and the Great Emptiness of Dzogchen Great Perfection. Hinayana focuses on the emptiness of the self, Mahayana on the emptiness of self and other, and Vajrayana on the clarity and luminous nature of the mind. Realization of emptiness, ultimate truth, is free from dualism and extremes, and is essential for liberation from suffering. Rinpoche speaks about the importance of recognizing one's Buddha nature, the role of meditation in becoming familiar with this nature, and the inseparability of emptiness and phenomena.
Posted in honor of the Wood Snake Lunar New Year, February 28, 2025. +
Karl Brunnhölzl discusses the qualities of buddha-nature as they relate to emptiness or luminosity with insightful comments about how to relate to each concept in our practice. +
