Post-44

Choying Tobden Dorje’s Encyclopedic Work and Buddha-Nature

[[ |300px|thumb| ]] In 1838, Choying Tobden Dorje, one of the leading Nyingma figures of the Amdo region, completed his encyclopedic work entitled the Treasury of Precious Sūtras and Tantras. This multivolume work is today being translated into English by Ngawang Sangpo and Gyurme Dorje and published in the Complete Nyingma Tradition from Sutra to Tantra series. Choying Tobden Dorje was one of the four leading students of the first Dodrup Jigme Thinley Özer and thus a teacher of the Nyingthig tradition. Following the model of Jigme Lingpa's Treasury of Precious Qualities and Longchenpa's Treasury of Wish-Fulfilling Jewel, Choying Tobden Dorje presents the entire span of the Buddhist path in twenty-five chapters starting from following a virtuous teacher and culminating in the Dzogchen tradition of which he was a staunch advocate and practitioner.

After discussing the type of teachers, etiquette for studying, four points of mind turning, and taking refuge in the first seven chapters, Choying Tobden Dorje discusses bodhicitta and the ground Madhyamaka in the process of which he discusses buddha-nature.

དེ་ལྟར་སྐྱབས་འགྲོའི་སྡོམ་པ་གཞི་བཟུང་ནས། །ཐེག་ཆེན་སེམས་མཆོག་བསྐྱེད་ལ་རིགས་ཁམས་དོན། །ཤཱཀྱ་ཐུབ་པས་སྣ་ཚོགས་འཁོར་རྣམས་ལ། །ལྷ་དང་ཀླུ་ཡི་གནས་ལ་སོགས་པ་ནས།། འཁོར་ལོ་ཐ་མ་དོན་དམ་ངེས་པ་བསྟན། །སྔ་འགྱུར་ཕལ་ཆེན་དཀོན་བརྩེགས་མྱང་འདས་མདོ། །གཟུངས་ཀྱི་དབང་ཕྱུག་སེང་གེ་ང་རོའི་མདོ། །བུ་མོ་རིན་ཆེན་ལྷ་མོ་དྲི་མེད་མདོ། །སོར་ཕྲེང་བྱམས་ཞུས་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོའི་མདོ། །ལ་སོགས་དགུ་བཅུ་གསར་འགྱུར་ཉི་ཤུ་བཞི། །དགོངས་པ་འགྲེལ་པའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་བཅུ་ཕྲག་བཞི། །དོན་དམ་བདེན་པ་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་ཡི། །སྣང་བའི་ཡོན་ཏན་སྐུ་དང་ཞིང་ཁམས་དང་། །སྟོང་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན་སྟོབས་བཅུ་མི་འཇིགས་སོགས། །ཡེ་ནས་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་འགྱུར་མེད་རང་རིག་ཁམས། །གློ་བུར་གཟུང་འཛིན་ལས་ཉོན་འཁྲུལ་པས་བསྒྲིབས། །

Having thus the foundation of vows of taking refuge
In order to generate the thought of great vehicle
The Buddha has taught the topic of gene or element
Which constitutes the last wheel of definitive ultimate truth
To various disciples in the lands of gods and nāgas.
Among the early translation are ninety sūtras including Avataṃsaka,
Ratnakūṭa, Mahāparinirvāṇa, Dhāraṇīśvara, Siṃhanādasūtra,
Ratnadārikā, Vimalaprabhabparipṛcchā
Aṅgulimālīya, Maitreyaparipṛcchā and Tathāgatagarbhasūtra.
Among new translations are twenty-four.
There are forty commentarial treatises.
The ultimate truth that is buddha-nature
Has features of appearance such as enlightened bodies and realms
And features of emptiness such as ten powers and four forms of fearlessness.
The immutable self-aware gene, which has qualities primordially and naturally present,
Is obscured by the adventitious, dualistic, deceptive afflictions and actions.

Weekly quote

 

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Nyingma - The Nyingma, which is often described as the oldest tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, traces its origin to Padmasambhava, who is said to have visited Tibet in the eighth century. Tib. རྙིང་མ་

tantra - Tantra, when juxtaposed with Sūtra, generally refers to the scriptures and texts which discuss esoteric topics. While the term is used to refer to texts on other topics, it is mostly used to refer to the genre of scriptures and texts on themes and topics associated with Vajrayāna Buddhism. Skt. तन्त्र Tib. རྒྱུད། Ch. 密宗

Dzogchen - Dzogchen is an advanced system of meditation techniques to reveal the innate state of perfection primarily, but not exclusively, espoused by the Nyingma Buddhist tradition and the Tibetan Bön tradition. Skt. महासन्धि Tib. རྫོགས་ཆེན།

bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt. बोधिचित्त Tib. བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས། Ch. 菩提心

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

paramārthasatya - "Ultimate truth" or "absolute truth"; the reality of things as they truly are. Skt. परमार्थसत्य Tib. དོན་དམ་བདེན་པ་ Ch. 第一義諦,眞諦

An important sūtra source for the Ratnagotravibhāga, particularly for its discussion of the nine examples that illustrate how all sentient beings possess buddha-nature.

svasaṃvedana - An important term for the Yogācāra that refers to a consciousness of consciousness itself, or how one knows that they know something. It was a hotly debated topic that was disputed by followers of the Madhyamaka. In Tibet it would later become a common Dzogchen term, though with the entirely different meaning of one's own innate awareness (rig pa), a crucial concept in the Dzogchen teachings. Skt. स्वसंवेदन Tib. རང་རིག་ Ch. 自證分

kleśa - Often referred to as poisons, these are a class of disturbing or disruptive emotional states that when aroused negatively affect or taint the mind. Skt. क्लेश Tib. ཉོན་མོངས་ Ch. 煩惱