Basics of Buddha-Nature: Mipham's Roaring Lions Public
Audio
Audio
Dr. Pettit speaks about the basics of Buddha-Nature (bde gshegs snying po’i rigs = sugatagarbhagotra) according to Mipham Rinpoche, with additional reference to some Pāli Suttas, Nāgārjuna’s Praise of Dharmadhatu, and the Uttaratantra. He bases his remarks on Mipham’s text, The Lion’s Roar: Exposition on Buddha Nature (bde gshegs snying po stong thun chen mo seng ge nga ro). John Whitney Pettit holds graduate degrees from Harvard University and Columbia University in the study of World Religions and Buddhist Studies. He has been the student of the previous Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and also heard or translated teachings from prominent masters representing the Nyingma tradition and the other schools of Tibetan Buddhism. He is the translator and author of Mipham’s Beacon of Certainty (1999) and of a forthcoming anthology volume on the subject of Buddha-nature. Since 1998 he has lived in or near New York’s Hudson Valley, working on occasional translations, carving mani stones and communing with the genius loci. He spoke with students at RYI on the 27th of March, 2019. (Adapted from Source Aug 13, 2020)
Sources Mentioned
- Lion's Roar: Exposition of Buddha-Nature
Mipam lays out his view of buddha-nature in a short text called Lion's Roar: Exposition of Buddha-Nature, which draws on another of the five treatises of Maitreya, the Sublime Continuum. Here he presents three main arguments showing why all beings have buddha-nature. He also distinguishes his view of buddha-nature, which he portrays as the unconditioned unity of emptiness and appearance, from other traditions' views. Namely, he contrasts his view with traditions that maintain buddhanature as truly real and not empty (Jonang), traditions that hold buddhanature to be simply the mind's absence of true existence (Geluk), and traditions that maintain that the cognitive quality of buddha-nature—the element that is in unity with emptiness—is impermanent (a Sakya view).
(Source: Duckworth, Douglas. Jamgön Mipham: His Life and Teachings. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2011: p 58.)
Bde gshegs snying po'i stong thun chen mo seng+ge'i nga ro;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Tibetan Buddhism;Nyingma;Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;Mipam Gyatso;མི་ཕམ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་;mi pham rgya mtsho;mi pham 'jam dbyangs rnam rgyal rgya mtsho;'jam dpal dgyes pa'i rdo rje;'ju mi pham;མི་ཕམ་འཇམ་དབྱངས་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་;འཇམ་དཔལ་དགྱེས་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་;འཇུ་མི་ཕམ་;mipham;bde gshegs snying po'i stong thun chen mo seng+ge'i nga ro;བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོའི་སྟོང་ཐུན་ཆེན་མོ་སེངྒེའི་ང་རོ།;བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོའི་སྟོང་ཐུན་ཆེན་མོ་སེངྒེའི་ང་རོ།
- Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra
The Ratnagotravibhāga, commonly known as the Uttaratantra, or Gyu Lama in Tibetan, is one of the main Indian scriptural sources for buddha-nature theory. It was likely composed during the fifth century, by whom we do not know. Comprised of verses interspersed with prose commentary, it systematizes the buddha-nature teachings that were circulating in multiple sūtras such as the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra, the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra, and the Śrīmaladevisūtra. The Tibetan tradition attributes the verses to the Bodhisattva Maitreya and the commentary to Asaṅga, and treats the two as separate texts, although this division is not attested to in surviving Indian versions. The Chinese tradition attributes the text to *Sāramati (娑囉末底), but the translation itself does not include the name of the author, and the matter remains unsettled. It was translated into Chinese in the early sixth century by Ratnamati and first translated into Tibetan by Atiśa, although this text is not known to survive. Ngok Loden Sherab translated it a second time based on teachings from the Kashmiri Pandita Sajjana, and theirs remains the standard translation. It has been translated into English several times, and recently into French. See the Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā, read more about the Ratnagotravibhāga, or take a look at the most complete English translation in When the Clouds Part by Karl Brunnholzl.
Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;byams chos sde lnga;Uttaratantra; Sajjana;ས་ཛ་ན་;sa dza na;paN+Di ta sa dza na;sa dzdza na;པཎྜི་ཏ་ས་ཛ་ན་;ས་ཛཛ་ན་;Ratnamati;Rin chen blo gros;རིན་ཆེན་བློ་གྲོས;theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས།;Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;究竟一乘寶性論;रत्नगोत्रविभाग महायानोत्तरतन्त्रशास्त्र;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས།
Nāgārjuna: Dharmadhātustava
Also known as the Dharmadhātustotra, it is a praise written in verse attributed to Nāgārjuna. A Sanskrit manuscript found in Tibet was recently published in 2015. However, before this it was only extant in Tibetan and Chinese translations, though fragments of this text were found to be quoted in other Sanskrit texts. It is notable as perhaps the only work of Nāgārjuna that takes a positivistic view of emptiness and the existence of wisdom, in this case represented by the dharmadhātu. In fact much of the language echoes descriptions of buddha-nature. Though modern scholarship has thus called the attribution of this text to Nāgārjuna into question based on its contents, Tibetan scholars have utilized the text as a support for works that promote or defend tathāgatagarbha and it is especially prominently featured in works on other-emptiness (gzhan stong) and Great Madhyamaka.
RKTST 10;Nāgārjuna;ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་;klu sgrub;'phags pa klu sgrub;slob dpon chen po nA gardzu na;slob dpon klu sgrub;འཕགས་པ་ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་;སློབ་དཔོན་ཆེན་པོ་ནཱ་གརྫུ་ན་;སློབ་དཔོན་ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་;Ārya Nāgārjuna; Kṛṣṇapaṇḍita;Naktso Lotsāwa Tsultrim Gyalwa;ནག་འཚོ་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་རྒྱལ་བ་;Nag 'tsho lo tsA ba tshul khrims rgyal ba;Dānapāla;chos kyi dbyings su bstod pa;ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས་སུ་བསྟོད་པ།;Dharmadhātustava;讚法界頌;धर्मधातुस्तव;ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས་སུ་བསྟོད་པ།
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Related Multimedia
Buddha Nature in Tibet: Transformation of the Ground: Talk by Douglas Duckworth
This talk will address syntheses forged in Tibet among the doctrines of Madhyamaka, Yogācāra, and buddha-nature (tathāgatagarbha). Buddha-nature is a distinctively Mahāyāna Buddhist doctrine, taking a place along side of the Yogācāra doctrine of the basic consciousness (ālayavijñāna) and the universal emptiness (śūnyatā) of Madhyamaka. In Tibet we see buddha-nature converge with and transform these central Mahāyāna doctrines. Paired with buddha-nature, the doctrine of emptiness in Madhyamaka pivots from a “self-empty” lack of intrinsic nature to an “other-empty,” pure ground that remains. In narratives of disclosure characteristic of the doctrine of buddha-nature, we see parallel shifts in the foundations of Yogācāra, as grounds of distortion like the basic consciousness, the dependent nature, and self-awareness are reinscribed into a causal story that takes place within a pure, gnostic ground. (Source Accessed July 15, 2020)
Duckworth, Douglas S. "Buddha Nature in Tibet: Transformation of the Ground." Recorded 2017 at Rangjung Yeshe Institute, Nepal. Audio, 1:24:26. https://soundcloud.com/rangjung-yeshe-institute/dr-douglas-duckworth-buddha-nature-in-tibet-transformations-of-the-ground.
Duckworth, Douglas S. "Buddha Nature in Tibet: Transformation of the Ground." Recorded 2017 at Rangjung Yeshe Institute, Nepal. Audio, 1:24:26. https://soundcloud.com/rangjung-yeshe-institute/dr-douglas-duckworth-buddha-nature-in-tibet-transformations-of-the-ground.;Buddha Nature in Tibet: Transformation of the Ground: Talk by Douglas Duckworth;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Tibetan Buddhism;Douglas Duckworth;Buddha Nature in Tibet: Transformation of the Ground
About the recording
Featuring | John W. Pettit |
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Creator | Rangjung Yeshe Institute |
Related Website | https://www.ryi.org/ |
Citation | Pettit, John W. "Basics of Buddha-Nature: Mipham's Roaring Lions Public." Recorded March 27, 2019 at Rangjung Yeshe Institute, Nepal. Audio, 1:14:20. https://soundcloud.com/rangjung-yeshe-institute/basics-of-buddha-nature-miphams-roaring-lions-public. |