Zab mo gzhan stong dbu ma'i brgyud 'debs

ཟབ་མོ་གཞན་སྟོང་དབུ་མའི་བརྒྱུད་འདེབས།

zab mo gzhan stong dbu ma'i brgyud 'debs

Supplication to the Profound Other-Emptiness Madhyamaka Lineage

SOURCE TEXT

Tāranātha's lineage supplication to the other-emptiness Madhyamaka tradition that was preserved by the Jonang school. Tāranātha traces the origin of the other-emptiness to the Buddha, who passed it down through Maitreya, Asaṅga, Vasubandhu to Maitripa or from Vasubandhu through Sthiramati, Guṇamāti, et al. to Maitrīpa, or from Buddha through Vajrapaṇi, Rahulabhadra, Nāgārjuna, Śabari, Maitrīpa, from Maitrīpa through Anandakīrti, Ratnakaraśānti, Sajjṇāna, Anandavajra, then in Tibet through Tsen Khawoche, et al. until Tāranātha.

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Recensions of This Text

Zab mo gzhan stong dbu ma'i brgyud 'debs. (Supplication to the Profound Other-Emptiness Madhyamaka Lineage). Recension information:

Tibetan

TA ra nA tha. ཟབ་མོ་གཞན་སྟོང་དབུ་མའི་བརྒྱུད་འདེབས།, (Zab mo gzhan stong dbu ma'i brgyud 'debs). In Gsung 'bum/ tA ra nA tha (Rtag brtan phun tshongs gling gi par ma), Vol. 4: 483-489. Leh: C. Namgyal and Tsewang Taru, 1982-1987. In Gsung 'bum/ tA ra nA tha ('Dzam thang par ma), Vol. 18: 3-8. 'Dzam thang; Dzam thang dgon, 199-. In Gsung 'bum/ shes rab rgyal mtshan ('Dzam thang), Vol. 3: 159-168. 'Dzam thang: 'Dzam thang bsam 'grub nor bu'i gling gi par khang, 199-. In Dpal jo nang ba'i zhal 'don phyogs bsgrigs. Pe cin: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2002: 365-376. In Rdzogs ldan chos mchog dbu ma gzhan stong gi chos skor. Shang kang: Shang kang then mA dpe skrun khang, 2005: 20-24. In Gsung 'bum/ tA ra nA tha (Dpe bsdur ma), Vol. 36: 1-5. Pe cin: Krung go'i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang, 2008. In Rnam grol 'dod 'jo ris med dpe rnying khang gi tshad ldan nges don dpe tshogs, Vol. 4: 1-8. Zi ling: Rnam grol 'dod 'jo dpe rnying khang, 2007-2009.

Philosophical positions of this text

Is buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?

Definitive 

Does this text belong to definitive or provisional meaning?

Definitive 

Do all beings have buddha-nature?

Yes 

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

Third Turning 

Is buddha-nature equated with emptiness or alayavijnana?

Madhyamaka 

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

Zhentong 

Are there one or three vehicles on the path to buddhahood?

1 

Do the author's writings belong to the analytic or meditative tradition of Uttaratantra exegesis?

Meditative Tradition 

What is Buddha-nature?

Tathāgatagarbha as the Emptiness That is an Implicative Negation (with enlightened qualities) 

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

Prāsaṅgika (ཐལ་འགྱུར་) 

Text Metadata

Text exists in	~ Tibetan ~ English
Literary Genre	~ Supplications - gsol 'debs

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་

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

Jonang - The Jonang tradition was established by Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen, a thirteenth-century Sakya monk famous for his Zhentong teachings. The Jonang teachings and monasteries were suppressed in Tibet in the seventeenth century but survived in Amdo. Tib. ཇོ་ནང་

gotra - Disposition, lineage, or class; an individual's gotra determines the type of enlightenment one is destined to attain. Skt. गोत्र Tib. རིགས་ Ch. 鍾姓,種性

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

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་

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

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་

triyāna - Commonly seen in a Mahāyāna context, the three vehicles are the Śrāvakayāna, Pratyekabuddhayāna, and Bodhisattvayāna, which reference the three different types of Buddhist practitioners. However, these three vehicles can also reference the three types of Buddhist teachings of the Hīnayāna, Mahāyāna (or Pāramitāyāna), and the Vajrayāna. Skt. त्रियान Tib. ཐེག་པ་གསུམ་ Ch. 三乗

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་

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

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

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་

guṇa - The qualities or attributes of an enlightened being. Skt. गुण Tib. ཡོན་ཏན་ Ch. 功德