On the Commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga by Dol po pa

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On the Commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga by Dol po pa
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Article
Citation: Mochizuki, Kaie. "On the Commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga by Dol po pa." Indogaku Bukkyōgaku Kenkyū [Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies] 57, no. 3 (2009): 111–18. https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/ibk/57/3/57_KJ00005488021/_pdf/-char/en

Article Summary

I refer to the commentary on the Dharmadhātustava by Dol po pa Shes rab rgyal mtshan (l292-1361) in the last volume of this Journal[1] and make it clear that this text is one of the important texts for him to establish the theory of other-emptiness (gzhan stong) or the great Madhyamaka (dbu ma chen po) in the Jo nang pa[2] Though it is not so cited as the five Treatises of Maitreya, he seems to acknowledge the reason why he must depend on it. Though the authorship of Nāgārjuna is doubted on the ground of reference to the tathāgatagarbha idea, this is convenient for Dol po pa who wants to establish the great Madhyamaka mixed the Madhyamaka idea with the Yogācāra idea or the tathāgatagarbha idea. That is to say, he uses it in order to prove that the idea of tathāgatagarbha is also taught in the Mādhyamika literature of Nāgārjuna.
      Then which text does he depend on to establish his original idea? As the Ratnagotravibhāga is cited most frequently in his bDen gnyis gsal ba'i nyi ma[3], it seems to be the most important text in his great Madhyamaka. I consider his commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga[4] attributed to Maitreya here[5]. (Mochizuki, introduction, 111)
  1. Kaie Mochizuki, "On the Commentary to the Dharmadhātustava by Dol po pa (in Japanese)", in the Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies 56-2, 2008, pp. (85) - (91) and Id., "On the Commentary to the Dharmadhātustava by Dol po pa (II)", in Acta Tibetica et Buddaica 1, 2008, pp. 17–44.
  2. Cyrus Stearns, "Dol-po-pa Shes-rab gyal-mtshan and the Genesis of the Gzhan stong Position in Tibet," in Asiatische Studies 49-4, I995, pp. 829–852. See also Matthew Kapstein, "From Kun-mknyen Dol-po-pa to 'Ba'-mda' dGe-legs: Three Jo-nang-pa Masters on the Interpretation of the Prajñāpāramitā" in Proceedings of the 7th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Graz i995, Volume I: Tibetan Studies, Ernst Steinkellner ed., 1997, Wien, pp. 457–475.
  3. K. Mochizuki, "On the bDen gnyis gsal ba'i nyi ma of Dol po pa (in Japanese),' in Bukkyogaku 48, 2006, pp. 21-51, and Id., "On the "bDen gnyis gsal ba'i nyi ma of Dol po pa (II) (in Japanese)," 7 in Bulletin of the Faculty of Buddhism, Minobusan University 8, 2007, pp. 23-64.
  4. On the Sanskrit text see E. H. Johnston, The Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśastra, 1950, Patna and Zuiryu Nakamura, The Ratnagotravibhāga in contrast with the Sanskrit Text with its Chinese Translation, 1961, Tokyo; on the Tibetan text James M. Valby, Theg-pa chen po rgyud-bla-ma'i bstan bcos (Mahāyānottaratantraśastra): by Maitreya, 1978, Saskatoon and Z. Nakamura, A Study on the Ratnagotravibhāga in Contrast with the Tibetan Textwith its Japanese Translation, 1967, Tokyo.
  5. The Ratnagotravibhāga is one of the most popular texts in the Tibetan Buddhism and it is reported that there are over fifty commentaries on it. See Kazuo Kano, "A Study of Commentaries on the Ratnagotravibhāga," in Journal of lndian and Buddhist Studies 51-2, 2003, p. (109) and Anne Burchardi, "A Provisional List of Tibetan Commentaries on the Ratnagotravibhāga," in The Tibet Journal XXXI-4, 2006, pp. 3-46. See also David Jackson, "Rngog Lo tsa-ba's Commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga: An early-20th Century Lhasa printed Edition," in Ernst Steinkellner ed., Proceedings of the 7th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Graz 1995, Volume I: Tibetan Studies,1997, Wien, pp. 439-456 on the commentary of rNgog Blo ldan shes rab (1059-1109), Kano 2003 on that of Phywa pa Chos kyi seng ge (1109-1169), Ichijo Ogawa, A Study on the Tathāgatagarbha and Buddha Nature: Deciphering the Commentary to the Ratnagotravibhāga by Dar ma rin chen, 1969, Kyoto on that of rGyal tshab Dar ma rin chen (1364-1432), Klaus-Dieter Mathes, "'Gos lo tsā ba Gzhon nu dpal's Extensive Commentary on and Study of the Ratnagotravibhāga," in Henk Blezer ed., Religion and Secular Culture in Tibet: Tibetan Studies II: PIATS 2000: Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the Ninth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Leiden 2000, 1996. Leiden, pp. 79-95, Id., 'Gos lo tsā ba Gzhon nu dpal's Commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā [ 'Gos lo tsā ba gZhon nu dpal gyis mdzad pa'i / Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi 'grel bshad de kho na nyid rab tu gsal ba'i me iong], 2003, Stuttgart and Id., Direct Path to the Buddha Within: Gö Lotsāwa's Mahāmudrā interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhāga, 2008, Boston on that of 'Gos Lo tsa ba gZhun nu dpal (1392-1481) and S.K. Hookham, "The Practical Implications of the Doctrine of Buddha-nature," in The Buddhist Forum, Volume ll; Tadeusz Skorupski ed., 1991, London, pp.149-161 on that of 'Jam mgon kong sprul blo gros mtha' yas (l813-1899. See also Mathes 2008, pp. 75-84, A. Burchardi, Anne "Towards an Understanding of Tathāgatagarbha Interpretation in Tibet with Special Reference to the Ratnagotravibhāga," in Religion and Secular Culture in Tibet: Tibetan Studies II (PIATS 2000: Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the Ninth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Leiden 2000), Henk Blezer ed., 2002, Leiden, pp. 59-77 and Douglas S. Duckworth, Mipam on Buddha-Nature: The Ground of the Nyingma Tradition, 2008, Albany.