Ideas

Key Binaries

• Is Buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?
• All beings have Buddha-nature
• Which Wheel Turning
• Yogācāra vs Madhyamaka
• Zhentong vs Rangtong
• Svātantrika (རང་རྒྱུད་) vs Prāsaṅgika (ཐལ་འགྱུར་པ་)
• Promotes how many vehicles?
• Analytic vs Meditative Tradition
• What is Buddha-nature?
  • Buddha-nature as the Emptiness That is a Nonimplicative Negation
  • Buddha-nature as Mind's Luminous Nature
  • Buddha-nature as the Alaya Consciousness
  • Buddha-nature as a Sentient Being
  • Buddha-nature as the Dharmakaya
  • Buddha-nature as Suchness
  • Buddha-nature as the Disposition
  • Buddha-nature as Nonconceptuality

Interesting Areas of Debate

Zhentong

• See Cyrus Stearns' Survey of Shentong in Tibet

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

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

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

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་

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

Tsen Tradition - Tsen Khawoche's "meditative tradition" of exegesis of the Uttaratantra; it is one of two major Tibetan traditions of exegesis, both stemming from students of Sajjana. Tib. བཙན་ལུགས་