Topics

The Topics

In the latter stages of its historical development in India, the idea of buddha-nature emerged as one of the most salient features of the Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition. As this form of Buddhism spread beyond the cultural milieu of ancient India, the importance of buddha-nature became evermore pronounced. In East Asian and Tibetan Buddhism, buddha-nature came to be a major keystone in the assimilation and adaptation of the Indian scriptural tradition. And, as these forms of Buddhism expanded upon that Indian heritage and developed their own literary expression of the Buddhist teachings, buddha-nature continued to be a major theme that was revisited again and again. Thus buddha-nature was weaved into the very fabric of these Buddhist traditions. Below you will find a list of pertinent topics related to buddha-nature, along with some of the major themes in which it played a crucial role.

Buddha-Nature Themes

Here you will find some examples of major themes in which the influence of buddha-nature is readily apparent. The first two are directly related to the Ratnagotravibhāga and address topics discussed in the treatise. The following themes are mostly related to the Tibetan tradition and detail how these teachings entered Tibet, as well as several important developments that arose based upon the buddha-nature teachings and how these intersected with other prominent forms of Buddhism that spread in Tibet. These pages are intended as basic introductions to these themes and include citations from traditional sources as well as suggestions for further reading in modern publications.

Theme

The Seven Vajra Topics

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The Ratnagotravibhāga is based around the explanation of seven topics or subjects, known as the seven vajrapada. These seven are the buddha, dharma, sangha, the element (dhātu), enlightenment (bodhi), enlightened qualities (guṇa), and enlightened activities (karman).

Theme

The Nine Similes

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The Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra utilizes a series of nine similes to describe how buddha-nature exists within sentient beings— a state in which this basic element is ever-present, but obscured by the adventitious stains of afflictive emotions. These nine are repeated and explained in the first chapter of the Ratnagotravibhāga, in which they are enumerated as 1) a buddha in a decaying lotus, 2) honey amid bees, 3) kernels in their husks, 4) gold in filth, 5) a treasure in the earth, 6) a sprout and so on from a small fruit, 7) an image of the victor in a tattered garment, 8) royalty in the womb of a destitute woman, and 9) a precious statue in clay.

Theme

The Traditions of Ngok and Tsen

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The analytic tradition (thos bsam gyi lugs) and the meditative tradition (sgom lugs) originated with the Tibetan disciples of the Kashmiri master Sajjana, namely Ngok Lotsāwa and Tsen Khawoche, respectively.

Theme

Other-Emptiness and the Great Middle Way

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The philosophical concept of other-emptiness (zhentong) has long since been a lightning rod for controversy on the Tibetan plateau. Some of its most ardent supporters have had their works banned, yet it not only endured, but gained the support of prominent adherents of almost every one of the major Tibetan schools.

Theme

Mahāmudrā & Buddha-Nature

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For the Kagyu, the lines of transmission of the Ratnagotravibhāga and the Mahāmudrā teachings converge with the Indian teacher Maitrīpa. In terms of the former, Maitrīpa is believed to have extracted the treatise from a stūpa after receiving instructions from Maitreya in a dream.

Theme

Dzogchen & Buddha-Nature

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With roots stretching back to the 8th century, the notion of tathāgatagarbha was initially introduced into the lexicon of what would become the Nyingma Tradition through scholastic works that sought to reconcile the philosophy of Madhyamaka and Yogācāra, as well as through Tantric literature that presented advanced

Theme

Tantra & Buddha-Nature

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Though the theory of buddha-nature is more readily associated with certain Mahāyāna Sūtras and related treatises, such as the Ratnagotravibhāga, in the Tibetan tradition there also developed a strong association between this concept and the Vajrayāna. For instance, terms like tathāgatagarbha and sugatagarbha also appear in tantric literature and in the Jonang tradition Dolpopa's development of his famed view of other-emptiness (zhentong) was directly linked with a profound realization he attained through his practice of the Kālacakra Tantra.

Theme

Contemporary Masters on Buddha-Nature

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Though the teachings of buddha-nature have a long and storied history, that is not to say that it is an idea which is merely consigned to the past. It is not something that Buddhists once believed, but have since abandoned for new paradigms of how one might now, in our modern times, progress along the path. Rather buddha-nature remains a key feature of many of the Buddhist traditions that exist today.

Topics

Topic Pages

Below you will find a list of topics that touch upon issues related to buddha-nature. Follow the links to view the pages on which content on this site related to these topics is aggregated.

Against Buddha-Nature

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Buddha-nature as Emptiness

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Buddha-nature as Luminosity

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Buddha-nature as Self - Atman

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Buddha-nature of insentient things

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Christian thought and Buddha-Nature

11 items

Consciousness

10 items

Contemporary

72 items

Contemporary American Buddhist

15 items

Critical Buddhism

19 items

Debate(s)

24 items

Debate

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Defining buddha-nature

63 items

Disclosure model

31 items

Doctrine

34 items

Drikung Kagyu

15 items

Drukpa Kagyu

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Dzogchen

64 items

History of buddha-nature in China

15 items

History of buddha-nature in India

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History of buddha-nature in Japan

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History of buddha-nature in Korea

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History of buddha-nature in Tibet

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Karma Kagyu

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Mahamudra

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Meditation

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Metaphors for buddha-nature

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Potential or already-perfected

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Production model

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Provisional or definitive

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Pure Land

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Rime

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Sentient beings

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Shakyamuni Buddha

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Shangpa Kagyu

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Terma Traditions and Buddha-Nature

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Terminology

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Textual study

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The Path

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The Problem of buddha-nature

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The doctrine of buddha-nature in Chinese Buddhism

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The doctrine of buddha-nature in Early Buddhism

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The doctrine of buddha-nature in Indian Buddhism

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The doctrine of buddha-nature in Japanese Buddhism

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The doctrine of buddha-nature in Theravadin Buddhism

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The doctrine of buddha-nature in Tibetan Buddhism

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Third Turning

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Tien Tai

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Transformation model

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Two Truths

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Vajrayana

39 items

Zen - Chan

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Chan

83 items

śamatha

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Two Extremes

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Terms

Below you will find a list of key terms. Follow the links to view the individual glossary entries for these terms, as well as a listing of content on this site related to these as topics.

Placement Meditation

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abhidharma

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shijue

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advaya

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immaculate consciousness

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Anuyoga

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anātman

24 items

arhat

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Atiyoga

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avidyā

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bhūmi

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bodhi

2 items

bodhicitta

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bodhigarbha

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Bodhisattva

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Brahman

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buddhadhātu

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byams chos sde lnga

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bīja

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Cittamātra

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dharmadhātu

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dharmakāya

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dharmatā

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dhātu

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analytical meditation

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Dzogchen

64 items

ekayāna

10 items

Geluk

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gotra

36 items

Great Madhyamaka

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enlightened qualities

7 items

guṇapāramitā

3 items

Zhentong

106 items

gzhi

9 items

Hīnayāna

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icchantika

4 items

Jonang

2 items

ka dag

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Kadam

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Kagyu

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kleśa

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universal ground

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Kālacakra

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lam rim

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Madhyamaka

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Mahāmudrā

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Mahāyoga

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Mahāyāna

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Mahāyānottaratantraśāstravyākhyā

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neyārtha

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ngo bo

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Analytic Tradition

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nirmāṇakāya

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niḥsvabhāva

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niḥsvabhāvatā

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nonconceptuality

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Nyingma

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nītārtha

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original enlightenment

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paramārthasatya

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paratantrasvabhāva

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parikalpitasvabhāva

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pariniṣpannasvabhāva

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paryudāsapratiṣedha

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prabhāsvaracitta

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luminosity

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prajñā

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Prajñāpāramitā

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prakṛtisthagotra

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pramāṇa

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prasajyapratiṣedha

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pratipakṣa

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Pratyekabuddha

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pratītyasamutpāda

13 items

pāramitā

3 items

Rangtong

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causal continuum

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Sakya

6 items

samudānītagotra

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Sangpu Neutok

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Sarma

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emptiness endowed with all supreme aspects

2 items

saṃbhogakāya

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saṃvṛtisatya

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nature of mind

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sugatagarbha

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svabhāva

15 items

svasaṃvedana

8 items

sādhana

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sūtra

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tantra

21 items

tathatā

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tathāgatagarbha

159 items

tattva

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Ordinary Mind

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thugs dam

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tridharmacakrapravartana

9 items

trikāya

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trisvabhāva

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Three poisons

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triyāna

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Meditative Tradition

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Uttaratantra

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vajrapada

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Vajrayāna

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vinaya

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viparyāsa

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freed effect

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Yogācāra

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Adventitious stains - defilements

18 items

ālayavijñāna

29 items

ātmaka

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ātman

35 items

obscurations

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śrāvaka

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emptiness

33 items

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prabhāsvaratā - In a general sense, that which clears away darkness, though it often appears in Buddhist literature in reference to the mind or its nature. It is a particularly salient feature of Tantric literature, especially in regard to the advanced meditation techniques of the completion-stage yogas. Skt. प्रभास्वर Tib. འོད་གསལ་ Ch. 光明

abhidharma - Abhidharma generally refers to the corpus of Buddhist texts which deals with the typological, phenomenological, metaphysical, and epistemological presentation of Buddhist concepts and teachings. The abhidharma teachings present a meta-knowledge of Buddhist sūtras through analytical and systemic schemas and are said to focus on developing wisdom among the three principles of training. The Abhidharma is presented alongside Sūtra and Vinaya as one of the three baskets of the teachings of the Buddha. Skt. अभिधर्म Tib. ཆོས་མངོན་པ། Ch. 阿毗达磨

advaya - Literally, "without duality," it refers to that which is indivisible, in that it is not divided into two. Skt. अद्वय Tib. གཉིས་མེད་ Ch. 不二

Anuyoga - The second set of the three inner tantras and the eighth of the nine vehicles according to the Nyingma tradition. Anuyoga includes many yogini tantras and focuses on the Completion Stage practices of sacred channels, energies and essential fluids and espouses the actualisation of empty bliss. Skt. अनुयोग Tib. ཨ་ནུ་ཡོ་ག

anātman - The nonexistence of the self as a permanent, unchanging entity. Skt. अनात्मन् Tib. བདག་མེད་པ་ Ch. 无我

arhat - A person who has reached nirvāṇa by eliminating the three poisons of attachment, hatred and ignorance having followed the path of seeking individual liberation as a Śrāvaka or a Pratyekabuddha. An arhat, thus, is a person who has overcome the cause of rebirth in the cycle of existence and will not take an ordinary birth again. Skt. अर्हत् Tib. དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ། Ch. 阿羅漢

Atiyoga - A system of esoteric thought and practice associated with the Nyingma tradition and equivalent to Great Perfection, it is considered as the pinnacle of the nine vehicles or paths one can follow to reach Buddhahood. The system focusses on the pure, luminous and empty nature of the mind as the ground reality which must be realised through the path of trekchö and thögal practice. Skt. अतियोग Tib. ཨ་ཏི་ཡོ་ག,ཤིན་ཏུ་རྣལ་འབྱོར།

avidyā - Literally "unknowing," it refers to a lack of knowledge or misunderstanding of the nature of reality. As such, it is considered to be the root cause of suffering and the basis for the arising of all other negative mental factors. Skt. अविद्या Tib. མ་རིག་པ་ Ch. 無明

bhūmi - A plateau of spiritual development. Skt. भूमि Tib. ས་

bodhi - Enlightenment or awakening. In Tibetan it is translated as "purified" (byang) and "perfected" (chub), which corresponds to Siddhartha Gautama's achievement of purifying all obscurations and perfecting or attaining all qualities associated with a buddha. Skt. बोधि Tib. བྱང་ཆུབ་ Ch. 菩提,悟,覺

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

bodhigarbha - An alternative term for tathāgatagarbha found in early Nyingma sources. Though it is back-translated as bodhigarbha, this term does not seem to be found in Sanskrit sources. However, in other contexts, the Tibetan byang chub snying po is often used to translate the Sanskrit term bodhimaṇḍa, which is often translated as the "seat of enlightenment." Skt. बोधिगर्भ Tib. བྱང་ཆུབ་སྙིང་པོ་

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt. बोधिसत्त्व Tib. བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ། Ch. 菩薩

Brahman - Brahman is the universal principle, supreme truth or ultimate reality in the Hindu religion considered to be absolute, eternal and blissful. A metaphysical concept, it is described as the single binding unity behind the diversity of all that exists. In Buddhism, while this metaphysical principle is not presented, one finds frequent mention of the deity named Brahmā, who is the personification of this principle. Skt. ब्रह्मन् Tib. ཚངས་པ།

buddhadhātu - A synonym for tathāgatagarbha widely used throughout the East Asian Buddhist traditions, as found in its translations as the Chinese term fó xìng and Japanese term busshō. Skt. बुद्धधातु Tib. སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཁམས་ Ch. 佛性

byams chos sde lnga - This refers to a series of five texts that, according to the Tibetan tradition, Asaṅga received directly from Maitreya in the pure realm of Tuṣita. Tib. བྱམས་ཆོས་སྡེ་ལྔ་

bīja - A seed, commonly used figuratively in the sense of something which has the potential to develop or grow, and likewise as the basic cause for this development or growth. Skt. बीज Tib. ས་བོན་ Ch. 無漏種

Cittamātra - Though it is sometimes used synonymously with Yogācāra, it is in fact one of the more prominent philosophical theories associated with this school. It asserts that the objects in the external world with which we interact are actually mentally created representations appearing as those objects. The character of these perceptions is predetermined by our own karmic conditioning that is stored in the ālayavijñāna. Skt. चित्तमात्र Tib. སེམས་ཙམ་

Ngok Tradition - Ngok Lotsāwa Loden Sherab's "analytic tradition" of exegesis of the Uttaratantra; one of two major Tibetan traditions of exegesis, both stemming from students of Sajjana. Tib. རྔོག་ལུགས་

prabhāsvaratā - In a general sense, that which clears away darkness, though it often appears in Buddhist literature in reference to the mind or its nature. It is a particularly salient feature of Tantric literature, especially in regard to the advanced meditation techniques of the completion-stage yogas. Skt. प्रभास्वर Tib. འོད་གསལ་ Ch. 光明

sugatagarbha - Literally, the "essence" or "heart of the Bliss Gone One(s)," a synonym for tathāgatagarbha that is likewise often rendered into English by the term buddha-nature. Though it is often back translated into Sanskrit as sugatagarbha, this term is not found in Sanskrit sources. Skt. सुगतगर्भ Tib. བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་

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་

vinaya - Vinaya refers to the corpus of Buddhist teachings on moral discipline and precepts and is one of the three canonical sets of teachings alongside Sūtra and Abhidharma. It also refers to the monastic tradition which has been passed down since the Buddha's time until our time. Skt. विनय Tib. འདུལ་བ། Ch. 毘奈耶