Tsultrim Norbu, Ngagyur Nyingma Khenpo

མཁན་པོ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་ནོར་བུ།

Khenpo Tsultrim Norbu(b. 1984 - )

Born in Serta in Kham in 1984, he started learning Tibetan language at the age of nine. From the age of 15, he studied at Jamyangling Academy for three years. In 2005, he arrived in India and got the opportunity to see both H.H. the Dalai Lama and H.H. Penor Rinpoche, and in 2006 he joined the Ngagyur Nyingma Institute to pursue higher Buddhist education and completed the course in 2015. Between 2015 and 2019, he served as a teacher at Ngagyur Nyingma Institute, Serme Thoesamling, and Zhichen Vairoling. In 2020, he joined the research team at Ngagyur Nyingma Institute and worked on a shared topic of Twenty Lines on Vows and an individual topic of The Lock of Secret Mantra Teachings. In 2023, he was conferred the title of Khenpo in Namdrolling. He has published a book on poetry called The Splendor of Youth and authored many other writings, lectures, and presentations in magazines and online forums.

རྣམ་ཐར་སྙིང་བསྡུས།

བོད་མདོ་ཁམས་གསེར་རྟ་རུ་སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༡༩༨༤ ་ལ་འཁྲུངས། དགུང་ལོ་ ༩ ་ལ་བོད་ཡིག་སློབ་འགོ་ཚུགས། བཅོ་ལྔ་ཡས་མས་ནས་འཇམ་དབྱངས་གླིང་ཞེས་རིག་གནས་སྦྱོང་ས་ཞིག་ལ་ཆེད་ཞུགས་ཀྱིས་ལོ་ངོ་གསུམ་ཙམ་བཞུགས། སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༠༥ ་ལོར་ ༸ གོང་ས་མཆོག་དང་གྲུབ་དབང་པད་ནོར་རིན་པོའི་ཆེའི་ཞལ་མཇལ་ཏེ། ༢༠༠༦ ་ལ་སྔ་འགྱུར་མཐོ་སློབ་མདོ་སྔགས་རིག་པའི་གླིང་ལ་འཛུལ་ཞུགས་ཀྱིས་ ༢༠༡༥ ་ལ་སློབ་མཐར་ཕྱིན། ༢༠༡༥ ནས་ ༢༠༡༩ ་བར་སྔ་འགྱུར་མཐོ་སློབ་ཆེན་མོ་དང་། སེར་སྨད་ཐོས་བསམ་སློབ་གྲྭ། གཞི་ཆེན་བཻ་རོ་གླིང་བཅས་ལ་ལོ་ངོ་ལྔའི་རིང་དགེ་རྒན་གནང་། ༢༠༢༠ ་ལོར་སྔ་འགྱུར་རྙིང་མའི་ཞིབ་འཇུག་ལྟེ་གནས་ཁང་ལ་འཛུལ་ཞུགས་ཀྱིས་ད་ལྟའི་ཆར་ཐུན་མོང་གི་བརྗོད་གཞི་ “སྡོམ་པ་ཉི་ཤུ་པ་” རྩ་འགྲེལ་གཉིས་དང་། སྒེར་གྱི་བརྗོད་གཞི་ “གསང་སྔགས་བཀའི་ཐ་རམ་” བཅས་ཀྱི་ཐོག་ཞིབ་འཇུག་གི་ཕྱག་ལས་གནང་བཞིན་པ་དང་། ༢༠༢༣ ་སྤྱི་ཟླ་ ༤ ་པའི་ནང་རྒྱལ་བ་དཔལ་ཡུལ་བའི་བསྟན་བདག་གདན་རབས་བཅུ་གཉིས་པ་༸ སྐྱབས་རྗེ་ཀརྨ་སྐུ་ཆེན་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་མདུན་མཁན་པོའི་མཚན་གནས་ཐོབ། “གཞོན་པའི་ལང་ཚོ་” ཞེས་པའི་སྙན་དེབ་གཅིག་དང་། དུས་དེབ་དང་དྲྭ་ལམ་འདྲ་མིན་བརྒྱུད་སྙན་རྩོམ་དང་། དཔྱད་རྩོམ། འབོལ་རྩོམ་སོགས་རྩོམ་ཡིག་ཁག་མ་འདྲ་བ་དུ་མ་ཞིག་སྤེལ་མྱོང་།།

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Khenpo Tsultrim Norbu on Buddha-Nature among Mipam Gyatso and his Students

མི་ཕམ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་སློབ་བརྒྱུད་བཅས་པའི་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོའི་བཞེད་ཚུལ།
The Understanding of Buddha-Nature by Mipam Gyatso, His Students, and Scholars on Mipam

Khenpo starts his presentation by discussing the transmission of buddha-nature literature, particularly the Ultimate Continuum, to Tibet. Khenpo suspects that Mipam Gyatso might have considered the Ultimate Continuum and Distinguishing Phenomena and Their Nature to have been translated during the early diffusion of the dharma in the late eighth and early ninth century. This is different from the general claim that the Ultimate Continuum reached Tibet only in the later diffusion after Maitrīpa revealed it from a stūpa in the 11th century. It is likely that Mipam used the mention of the five treatises of Maitreya in Ugyen Lingpa's kathang biography of Guru Rinpoche as the main reason for this.

Khenpo then explains how Mipam saw the five works of Maitreya in terms of their doxographical affiliation, which Mipam explains in his commentary on Distinguishing Phenomena and Their Nature. Although Mipam takes the Ultimate Continuum, the main classic on buddha-nature, to be Mādhyamika in its ultimate purport, he does not mention whether it is aligned to Prāsaṅgika or Svātantrika Mādhyamika. It appears he considered it as a primary or root text (gzhung phyi mo) of the Mādhyamikas. The students of Mipam, including Zhechen Gyaltsab, Bodpa Trulku, Kaḥthog Situ, and Kunzang Palden also carried on his interpretation and understanding of the Ultimate Continuum as a Mādhyamika text, some classifying it as a text of the Prāsaṅgika school.

Discussing Mipam's understanding of buddha-nature, Khenpo states that Mipam did not accept buddha-nature to be mere emptiness as the Gelukpas accepted it or a truly established entity as some Tibetan scholars taught. He says Mipam considered buddha-nature to be empty because it is negated by the ultimate analysis. Yet, on the highest conventional level, buddha-nature exists latent in all sentient beings with all the sublime qualities of the Buddha. Thus, in this context, buddha-nature is empty of other afflictive emotions and impurities but not of the sublime qualities which are innate traits of buddha-nature. Before Mipam, Rongzom focused on the emptiness aspect of buddha-nature and Longchenpa on the luminosity of the nature of the mind. Mipam sought a balanced presentation, resulting in the union of emptiness and luminosity.

While Mipam's position may be considered to be rangtong because he asserted the lack of the true self-existence of buddha-nature, he also defended the zhentong position, leading many modern scholars to mistakenly think he is an adherent of the zhentong tradition. Khenpo Tsultrim Norbu explores the position of Mipam in his various writings, of his disciples, and also of the modern scholars who work on Mipam.

Tsultrim Norbu, Khenpo. "Khenpo Tsultrim Norbu at the 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference." Day 2, Talk 6. 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference, Shechen Monastery, Kathmandu. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department. Video, 58:51. https://youtu.be/7_Exz6x36lw.

Tsultrim Norbu, Khenpo. "Khenpo Tsultrim Norbu at the 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference." Day 2, Talk 6. 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference, Shechen Monastery, Kathmandu. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department. Video, 58:51. https://youtu.be/7_Exz6x36lw.;Khenpo Tsultrim Norbu on Buddha-Nature among Mipam Gyatso and his Students;Mi pham rgya mtsho;Khenpo Tsultrim Norbu;མཁན་པོ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་ནོར་བུ།;Khenpo Tsultrim Norbu at the 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference