Jñānaśrīmitra

Jñānaśrīmitra

ཡེ་ཤེས་དཔལ་བཤེས་གཉེན

975/980 - 1025/1030

Late Indian Yogācāra philosopher and logician of the school of Dharmakīrti at Vikramaśīla monastery, born between 975 and 1000. Within the Yogācāra, he held the so-called “aspectarian” (sākāra) position regarding the nature of cognition, taking a position opposed to that of Ratnākaraśānti. He is credited as the author of twelve treatises, including an important work on apoha, the Apohaprakaraṇa. In his works on logic, he upholds the interpretation of Dharmakīrti by Prajñākaragupta against the interpretation by Dharmottara. (Source: "Jñānaśrīmitra." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 398. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)

Philosophical positions of this person

Is buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?

Definitive 

Do all beings have buddha-nature?

 

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

Third Turning 

Is buddha-nature equated with emptiness or alayavijnana?

  Yogācāra

Sākāravāda to be specific.

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

 

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 Mind's Luminous Nature

There are different takes on what is view was:

• Karl includes him in the category of those assert buddha-nature to be Mind's Luminous Nature. Stating, "Jñānaśrīmitra cites Uttaratantra I.154 and RGVV and explains that real aspects are mental forms that have the nature of being appearances of lucidity (prakāśarūpa), which he equates with buddha nature—the tathāgata element (tathāgatadhātu)." Brunnhölzl, K., When the Clouds Part,pp. 57-58.
• However, Kano suggests his view is is that buddha-nature shares features (or coincides) with emptiness and is a property (dharma) of the image (ākāra), which in turn is its possessor (dharmin). In this he was a precursor to Ngok's innovative equation of buddha-nature = emptiness. See Kano, K., Buddha-Nature and Emptiness, p. 61.

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

 

Affiliations & relations

• Vikramaśilā · religious affiliation
• Maitrīpa · student

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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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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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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RGVV - Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā

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

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