Tenpa Tshering, Ngagyur Nyingma Khenpo
རྣམ་ཐར་སྙིང་བསྡུས།
ཁམས་གོ་འཇོ་ཨ་ལོ་གྲོང་དུ་འཁྲུངས་ཤིང་། ཆུང་ངུའི་དུས་ནས་རབ་ཏུ་བྱུང་སྟེ་རྒོད་མགོ་དགོན་དུ་འདོན་ཆོག་སོགས་ལ་སྦྱང་བརྩོན་གནང་། སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༠༤ ་ལོར་བོད་ནས་བལ་ཡུལ་བརྒྱུད་རྒྱ་གར་ལྷོ་ཕྱོགས་སུ་འབྱོར་ཏེ་ཐེག་མཆོག་རྣམ་གྲོལ་བཤད་སྒྲུབ་དར་རྒྱས་གླིང་དུ་སུམ་རྟགས་དག་གསུམ་སོགས་ལ་འབད་འབུངས་མཛད། སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༠༥ ་ནས་སྔ་འགྱུར་མཐོ་སློབ་ཆེན་མོར་འཛུལ་ཞུགས་གནང་སྟེ་ཐེག་པ་རིམ་འཛེགས་ཀྱིས་མདོ་སྔགས་རིག་གནས་དང་བཅས་པར་སྦྱང་བརྩོན་ལྷོད་མེད་ཀྱི་འཛིམ་རིམ་བརྒྱད་པ་ནས་སྐྱོར་དཔོན་དང་དབྱར་བདག་སོགས་ཀྱི་ལས་འགན་ཞུས་ཤིང་སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༡༥ ་ལོར་སློབ་མཐར་སོན། དེ་ནས་ཕྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༢༢ ་བར་ལོ་ངོ་ཧྲིལ་པོ་བརྒྱད་ཀྱི་རིང་མཐོ་སློབ་ཆེན་མོར་དགེ་རྒན་གྱི་ལས་འཁུར་བཞེས་ཏེ་གཞུང་ཆེན་ཁག་དཔེ་ཁྲིད་ཀྱིས་ཞབས་ཞུ་སྒྲུབ་བཞིན་མཐོ་སློབ་ཆེན་མོའི་རྒྱུན་ལས་ནང་དངུལ་གཉེར་རྒན་གཞོན་གྱི་ལས་འགན་ལོ་གཉིས་བསྣམས། ཕྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༢༣ ་ལོར་ཤར་རྒྱལ་བ་དཔལ་ཡུལ་བའི་བསྟན་པའི་མངའ་བདག་ ༧ སྐྱབས་རྗེ་ཀརྨ་སྐུ་ཆེན་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་མཆོག་ནས་མཁན་ཐོག་བརྒྱད་པ་མངའ་གསོལ་མཛད་སྒོའི་སྐབས་མཁན་པོའི་མཚན་གནས་བཞེས་ཐོག རྣམ་གླིང་བཙུན་དགོན་གྱི་བཤད་གྲྭར་དཔེ་ཁྲིད་གནང་བཞིན་པ་ལགས།།
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Nyingma Interpretation of the Three Wheels and Buddha-Nature
Buddha-nature is a central topic in the Nyingma tradition and very important for study and practice. Of the two transmissions of Maitreya's works, i.e. of the intellectual exegetical transmission based on inferential understanding passed down from Ngok Lotsāwa and the mystical meditative transmission based on direct experience passed down from Tsen Khawoche, the Nyingma tradition is more aligned to the latter tradition. Of the two schools of thought focusing on luminosity or emptiness, Khenpo explains that the Nyingma tradition puts equal emphasis on both aspects of reality. The emptiness aspect of buddha-nature is taught in the middle wheel and the luminosity of buddha-nature is taught explicitly in the final wheel of dharma. Although the middle wheel presents luminosity, it does not do so explicitly or in detail. For this reason, both the middle wheel and the final wheel of dharma are considered as definitive in the Nyingma tradition.
Although Longchenpa does not clearly state that the middle wheel is definitive, this can be inferred from his words. In his Treasury of Wish Fulfilling Jewel, Longchenpa explains how buddha-nature is also free from all elaborations in the ultimate sense. In his commentary on the Relaxation in the Nature of Mind, Longchenpa also explains how the buddha-nature teachings are definitive as buddha-nature is the ultimate truth and all other phenomena are illusory.
The theory of buddha-nature being empty of its nature, or rangtong, is presented in the context of two truths of emptiness and appearance. In this context, the Middle Wheel focusing on the concept of emptiness is the definitive teaching and buddha-nature, like all phenomena, lacks true existence. Thus, it is empty. However, in the context of the two truths of ontic existence and appearance associated with the Final Wheel, buddha-nature is presented as the ultimate. Thus, the final wheel is considered as the definitive teaching. Some sūtras such as the Laṅkāvatāra, which present the philosophical position of Mind Only, are, however, not considered definitive.
Khenpo then mentions that the presentation of this nature of buddha-nature which is the union of emptiness and luminosity varies from sūtra to tantra. What is emptiness and luminosity in the sūtra system is presented as purity and equality in Mahāyoga, Samantabhadra and Samantabhadri in Anuyoga and primordial purity and spontaneity in Atiyoga. The luminosity presented in these systems refers to the Buddha's pristine wisdom and not to any state of the ordinary mind. Ordinary mental states are impure, illusory, deceptive, and not worthy of being objects of refuge. The luminous nature is Buddha's pristine wisdom which is eternal and unconditioned. Such buddha-nature also has all the sublime qualities of the Buddha, including the three bodies. However, the three bodies latent in buddha-nature refer to the emptiness, luminosity, and nonduality and should not be understood as the Buddha bodies perceived by sentient beings.
In the state of buddhahood, all ordinary senses of individuality and phenomena are exhausted. That is why the state of ultimate enlightenment is called chos zad, or exhaustion of phenomena, in the Nyingma tradition. Only the latent sublime qualities of the Buddha remain.
