Ngawang Thokmey, CIHTS Khenpo
རྣམ་ཐར་སྙིང་བསྡུས།
བོད་གཙང་རུ་ལག་གི་ཆ། ལ་སྟོད་ལྷོ་པ་དྲུག་རས་ཕུད་ཅེས་པའི་གྲོང་གསེབ་ཏུ་འཁྲུངས། དགུང་ལོ་ ༧ ་ནས་ལོ་ ༨ ་ཀྱི་རིང་བོད་དུ་སློབ་གྲྭར་ཕེབས། སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༠༥ ་ལ་ཤར་ཁུམ་བུར་མདོ་སྔགས་ཆོས་རྫོང་དགོན་དུ་ཆོས་སྒོར་ཞུགས། སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༠༧ ་ལ་གདན་ས་ཆེན་པོ་དཔལ་ལྡན་ས་སྐྱ་མཐོ་རིམ་སློབ་གྲྭར་འཛུལ་ཞུགས་ཀྱིས་མི་ལོ་༡༠ ་ཡི་རིང་ལ་གཞུང་ལུགས་གྲགས་ཆེན་བཅོ་བརྒྱད་ཆ་ལག་བཅས་པས་གཙོས་རིག་གནས་ཁག་ལ་བརྩོན་པ་གང་ཐུབ་མཛད་དེ། སྤྱི་ལོ་ ༢༠༡༥ ་ལ་བཀའ་བཅུ་པ་དང་། ༢༠༡༧ ་ལ་སློབ་དཔོན་གྱི་མཚན་གནས་དང་། ༢༠༢༢ ་ལོར་མཁན་པོའི་གོ་གནས་བཞེས། ས་སྐྱ་མཐོ་སློབ་ཁང་དུ་ལོ་ ༢ ་ཀྱི་རིང་སྐྱོར་དཔོན་མཛད་དེ་འཛིན་གྲྭ་ཁྲིད། ༢༠༡༧ ་ནས་ཝཱ་ཎ་བོད་ཀྱི་གཙུག་ལག་སློབ་གྲྭ་ཆེན་མོར་ས་སྐྱ་རང་གཞུང་གི་སློབ་ཁྲིད་དགེ་རྒན་གནང་མུས་ཡིན།།
Library Items
Śākya Chokden’s Unique Understanding of Buddha-Nature
Stating that his presentation will be on Śākya Chokden, Khenpo gives a brief introduction to the figure of Śākya Chokden, who was a brilliant scholar with many unique interpretations and explanations of many topics. Although a Sakyapa, he posed questions about some points made by Sakya Paṇḍita in his Distinguishing Three Vows. This spurred an explanation from other Sakya scholars, which led to much greater clarity in understanding this work and the issues it raised.
Regarding buddha-nature, Śākya Chokden held a very unique position in the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist world, asserting that buddha-nature, or tathāgatagarbha, is synonymous with buddha and that it is only fully present in the state of buddhahood. Buddha-nature is equivalent to resultant dharmakāya according to Śākya Chokden, and it exists only after someone reaches the stage of being a sublime being on the Mahāyāna path. Khenpo points out that Śākya Chokden also argued that buddha-nature is a conscious awareness or cognition, not a mere emptiness which is a non-implicative negation.
In connection to buddha-nature, Śākya Chokden also argued that the False Aspectarian school is not part of the Mind Only school but rather a Middle Way school. Śākya Chokden saw Nāgārjuna as highlighting the rangtong view and Maitreya as underscoring the zhentong system, and they are ultimately the same. He took the five writings of Maitreya as texts propounding Middle Way thought. Among twenty-four volumes of his writings, he has four commentaries on the Ornament of Realization in which he discusses buddha-nature in the section on gotra, or spiritual gene.
Śākya Chokden was emphatic in claiming that sentient beings do not possess buddha-nature, as buddha-nature is the sphere of reality which is endowed with inseparable qualities such as ten powers, and such qualities cannot coexist with the impurities of the ordinary beings. He argued that the three reasons presented by Maitreya only proves that sentient beings have the possibility to attain buddha-nature, not that they already have it. He rejects buddha-nature being a non-implicative negation and asserts that the final wheel shows buddha-nature fully, while the first and middle wheels only help overcome the clinging to self.
