Rta nag rin chen ye shes

Tanak Rinchen Yeshe

རྟ་ནག་རིན་ཆེན་ཡེ་ཤེས་

13th Century - 1345/1346

"Rinchen Yeshe, an expert on the five works of Maitreya, flourished in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and was primarily a teacher of Tokme Zangpo (1295–1369). He also briefly taught Dölpopa and is mentioned in Butön’s biography as an esteemed colleague." (Adapted from When the Clouds Part, p. 308.)

Philosophical positions of this person

Is buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?

Definitive 

Do all beings have buddha-nature?

  Yes

• "Rinchen Yeshé quotes from these last-wheel sutras to show that the tathāgata-essence endowed with the marks and signs of a buddha (sangs rgyas kyi mtshan dang dpe byad) naturally exists in all sentient beings."
• "Therefore, for Rinchen Yeshé, buddha-nature is not simply a causal potential to achieve enlightenment; rather it is endowed with an inherent enlightened entity that is naturally free from all delusions, but temporarily covered by adventitious defilements."

Wangchuk, Tsering. The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, pp. 35-36

Click for more on this topic

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

  Third Turning

• "He obviously contrasts the last-wheel teachings that teach ultimate definite meaning from the middle-wheel sutras such as the Prajñāpāramitāsūtras that, according to him, do not primarily teach the ultimate definitive meaning. Rather, as Rinchen Yeshé argues: 'All phenomena that are taught as empty of true existence in the middle wheel teachings, like illusions and so forth, refer [only] to conditioned conventional phenomena. The sugata-essence (bde gshegs snying po) that is explained as true and unchanging in the last wheel teachings refers to the ultimate dharma-reality, an unconditioned phenomenon.' Therefore, the middle-wheel teachings explain how conventional phenomena, such as tables, chairs, and the like, are empty of inherent existence like an illusory image. These sutras do not explicate the unconditioned ultimate truth that is primarily taught in the definitive last-wheel

sutras." Wangchuk, Tsering. The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, p. 36.

Click for more on this topic

Is buddha-nature equated with emptiness or alayavijnana?

  Yogācāra

Though this is perhaps up for debate, he certainly sides with the works of Maitreya and the last wheel sūtras over those of the Prajñāpāramitāsūtras and the associated Madhyamaka works, which he labels as a "nihilistic emptiness (chad pa'i stong pa nyid). See Wangchuk, Tsering. The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, p. 36.

Click for more on this topic

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

  Zhentong

Technically he was more of a precursor to this view, though as an important teacher to Dölpopa, especially for the Five Treatises of Maitreya it is no wonder that the latter's view is heavily indebted to Rinchen Yeshe. See

• Wangchuk, Tsering. The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, pp. 35-36.
• Brunnhölzl, K., When the Clouds Part, pp. 308-309.

Click for more on this topic

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 Emptiness That is an Implicative Negation (with enlightened qualities)

He doesn't state this explicitly but his presentation fall within this category. For instance:

• "...he argues, 'Because freedom from adventitious defilements is the very nature of the tathāgata-element since the primordial time, there are no afflictive emotions that need to be eliminated [from the element]. Because the perfect dharma-reality that is indivisible from enlightened qualities is the very nature of the tathāgata-element, there are no virtuous qualities that need to be newly acquired.'" Wangchuk, Tsering. The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, p. 35.

Click for more on this topic

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

 

Other names

• རིན་ཆེན་ཡེ་ཤེས་ · other names (Tibetan)
• རྟ་ནག་རིན་ཡེ་ · other names (Tibetan)
• rin chen ye shes · other names (Wylie)
• rta nag rin ye · other names (Wylie)
• Notes on names: There seems to be some confusion with this person and Zhang rin chen ye shes. In terms of the authorship of this work rgyud bla ma'i 'grel pa, BDRC attributes it to Zhang rin chen ye shes, while Tsering Wangchuk in The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows repeatedly associates this work with rta nag rin chen ye shes, though this assessment seems to be based, at least partially, on the research of Cyrus Stearns found in The Buddha from Dölpo.

Affiliations & relations

• Kadam · religious affiliation
• smon lam mgon · teacher
• nil · student

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

Go to the page with the definition of 'provisional'

āvaraṇa - Literally, that which obscures or conceals. Often listed as a set of two obscurations (sgrib gnyis): the afflictive emotional obscurations (Skt. kleśāvaraṇa, Tib. nyon mongs pa'i sgrib pa) and the cognitive obscurations (Skt. jñeyāvaraṇa, Tib. shes bya'i sgrib pa). By removing the first, one becomes free of suffering, and by removing the second, one becomes omniscient. Skt. आवरण Tib. སྒྲིབ་པ་

Go to the page with the definition of 'defilements'

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'

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

Go to the page with the definition of 'Yogācāra'

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

Go to the page with the definition of 'Madhyamaka'

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་

Go to the page with the definition of 'zhentong'

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་

Go to the page with the definition of 'zhentong'

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

Go to the page with the definition of 'rangtong'

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་

Go to the page with the definition of 'Zhentong'

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་

Go to the page with the definition of 'Zhentong'

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

Go to the page with the definition of 'Uttaratantra'

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

Go to the page with the definition of 'Uttaratantra'

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

Go to the page with the definition of 'Tathāgatagarbha'

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

Go to the page with the definition of 'rgyud bla ma'

BDRC - Buddhist Digital Resource Center https://www.tbrc.org/

Go to the page with the definition of 'BDRC'

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་

Go to the page with the definition of 'Kadam'