Skyo ston smon lam tshul khrims

From Buddha-Nature


སྐྱོ་སྟོན་སྨོན་ལམ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་
Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim(1219 - 1299) 
Buddhist Digital Resource Center

Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim was born into the Kyo (skyod) clan at a place named Tanakyang (rta nag yang), in U (dbus), in 1219, the earth-rabbit year of fourteenth sexagenary cycle.

He studied the complete Kadam traditions under the guidance of the sixth abbot, Sanggye Gompa Sengge Kyab (sangs rgyas sgom pa seng ge skyabs, 1179-1250) and the seventh abbot of Nartang Monastery (snar thang dgon), Chim Namkha Drak (mchims nam mkha’ grags, 1210-1285).
... read more at The Treasury of Lives

Library Items

Book
Prajñāpāramitā, Indian "gzhan stong pas", and the Beginning of Tibetan gzhan stong
In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, there is an ongoing debate about whether the gzhan stong system was "invented" by Tibetans, in particular by Dol po pa Shes rab rgyal mtshan (1292–1361), or whether there are Indian precursors of that view. Here, I will (1) discuss evidence for a number of typical positions of the gzhan stong system in several Indian texts, (2) provide a sketch of the transmission of the five works of Maitreya from India to Tibet and the beginning of a Tibetan gzhan stong tradition preceding Dol po pa, and (3) trace some typical gzhan stong assertions in a few early Tibetan works before Dol po pa that are considered by Tibetan writers as belonging to the gzhan stong system. (Brunnhölzl, introduction, 9)
Brunnhölzl, Karl. Prajñāpāramitā, Indian "gzhan stong pas", and the Beginning of Tibetan gzhan stong. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 74. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2011.
Book
The Life and Works of Kyotön Monlam Tsultrim
Many important early Tibetan works on Buddha-Nature are reproduced in this volume.
Phuntsho, Karma, ed. སྐྱོ་སྟོན་སྨོན་ལམ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་ཀྱི་མཛད་རྣམ་དང་གསུང་རྩོམ། The Life and Works of Kyotön Monlam Tsultrim. Bhutan: Loden Foundation, 2023.
Book
When the Clouds Part
"Buddha nature" (tathāgatagarbha) is the innate potential in all living beings to become a fully awakened buddha. This book discusses a wide range of topics connected with the notion of buddha nature as presented in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism and includes an overview of the sūtra sources of the tathāgatagarbha teachings and the different ways of explaining the meaning of this term. It includes new translations of the Maitreya treatise Mahāyānottaratantra (Ratnagotravibhāga), the primary Indian text on the subject, its Indian commentaries, and two (hitherto untranslated) commentaries from the Tibetan Kagyü tradition. Most important, the translator’s introduction investigates in detail the meditative tradition of using the Mahāyānottaratantra as a basis for Mahāmudrā instructions and the Shentong approach. This is supplemented by translations of a number of short Tibetan meditation manuals from the Kadampa, Kagyü, and Jonang schools that use the Mahāyānottaratantra as a work to contemplate and realize one’s own buddha nature. (Source: Shambhala Publications)
Brunnhölzl, Karl. When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and Its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra. Tsadra Foundation Series. Boston: Snow Lion Publications, 2014.
Text
Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim: Instructions on "The Ultimate Continuum of the Mahāyāna"
This work details instructions on the Ratnagotravibhāga that Maitrīpa reportedly received directly from Maitreya in a dream, which he then later retrieved, in actuality, discovering the text concealed within in a stūpa. Mönlam Tsultrim, the attributed Tibetan author of this work that lived centuries later, thus claims that he copied and edited this work from the original manuscript that was passed down in a lineage coming from Maitrīpa, himself.
Text
Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim: Instruction for the Moment of Death
Instructions on attaining Mahāmudrā in the intermediate state based on the Atyayajñānasūtra.
Text
Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim: The Repository of Wisdom
One of a series of short texts by the Kadam scholar Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim, which represent an intersection between the works of Maitreya, particularly the Ratnagotravibhāga, and the practical instructions of Mahāmudrā.
Text
Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim: The Meaning of the Essence of Luminosity
A Kadam work on luminosity and buddha-nature.
Text
Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim: The Essential Pith Instructions That Summarize the Quintessence of the Piṭakas
One of a series of short texts by the Kadam scholar Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim, this was composed in Narthang at the behest of Sonam Dar, a descendent of Kyide Nyima Gön and at the request of Geshe Gönden Ö and Yönten Ö. The text contains concise lamrim instructions starting with (1) instruction on the contemplation on precious humanhood, impermanence and the law of cause and effect, and the practice of taking refuge for the inferior individuals, (2) contemplation of defects of cycle of existence, renunciation and non-self for those following the path of the hearers and solitary realisers for the middling individuals, and (3) finally the cultivation of bodhicitta and meditation on non-conceptuality and luminous nature of the mind which is free from all elaborations for superior individuals. This brief teaching underscores the importance of eradicating conceptual thoughts and abiding in the non-conceptual luminous nature of the mind.
Text
Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim: Instructions on the Path to Reality
One of a series of short texts by the Kadam scholar Kyotön Mönlam Tsultrim, which represent an intersection between the works of Maitreya, particularly the Ratnagotravibhāga and Dharmadharmatāvibhāga, and the practical instructions of Mahāmudrā, this text discusses the spiritual gene, the genesis of saṃsāra, the path to awakening and the nature of Buddhahood.

On the topic of this person

Video
Lopon Karma Phuntso's Introduction of Kyoton's Life and Works
Khenpo Gyurme Tshultrim and Lopon Karma Phuntsho launch the new book The Life and Works of Kyotön Monlam Tsultrim (སྐྱོ་སྟོན་སྨོན་ལམ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་ཀྱི་མཛད་རྣམ་དང་གསུང་རྩོམ།). Following the formal release, Lopon Karma Phuntsho presents the account of why and how the book was created. The original texts, he shares, are in dbu med manuscript and were discovered about twenty years ago in the Nechu temple of Drepung monastery in Tibet. The texts are in volumes 50 and 61 of the Collection of Kadam Writings published by Paltsek Bodyig Penying Zhibjugkhang. The original texts, which are in archaic and difficult dbu med script with many abbreviations, were rendered in modern computer typeset so as to make the writings easily available to all Tibetan readers.

The book contains 32 works, including 30 titles attributed to Kyotön Monlam Tshultrim, one biography of Kyotön by his student, and a long introduction by the editor in English. He mentions how some titles from the two volumes from Drepung were excluded from this book, as they appear to be by other authors. He also explains the significance of Narthang and the early Kadam tradition for buddha-nature studies and how Kyotön lived at an interesting period of Tibetan religious history. The interest to publish the writings of this master came about as Kyotön has written several short and interesting works related to buddha-nature, which present the meditative tradition of Maitreya's teachings passed down from Tsen Khawoche.

The typeset was created and the layout and design done by the staff of Loden Foundation, which published the book with funding from Tsadra Foundation.
Karma Phuntsho. "Lopon Karma Phuntso's Introduction of Kyoton's Life and Works." 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference, Shechen Monastery, Kathmandu. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department. Video,
Book
The Life and Works of Kyotön Monlam Tsultrim
Many important early Tibetan works on Buddha-Nature are reproduced in this volume.
Phuntsho, Karma, ed. སྐྱོ་སྟོན་སྨོན་ལམ་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་ཀྱི་མཛད་རྣམ་དང་གསུང་རྩོམ། The Life and Works of Kyotön Monlam Tsultrim. Bhutan: Loden Foundation, 2023.

Mentioned in

Article
Introduction to Mahāmudrā and Buddha-Nature
Ostensen, Morten. "Introduction to Mahāmudrā and Buddha-Nature." Buddha-Nature: A Tsadra Foundation Initiative, August 23, 2019. https://buddhanature.tsadra.org/index.php/Articles/Introduction_to_Mah%C4%81mudr%C4%81_and_Buddha-Nature.
Ostensen, Morten. "Introduction to Mahāmudrā and Buddha-Nature." Buddha-Nature: A Tsadra Foundation Initiative, August 23, 2019. https://buddhanature.tsadra.org/index.php/Articles/Introduction_to_Mah%C4%81mudr%C4%81_and_Buddha-Nature.
Article
A History of Buddha-Nature Theory: The Literature and Traditions
A lengthy historical survey of buddha-nature theory through the literature and traditions, based on academic scholarship.
Gardner, Alex. "A History of Buddha-Nature Theory: The Literature and Traditions." Buddha-Nature: A Tsadra Foundation Initiative, October 9, 2019. https://buddhanature.tsadra.org/index.php/Articles/A_History_of_Buddha-Nature_Theory:_The_Literature_and_Traditions.


Affiliations & relations

  • Kadam · religious affiliation
  • mchims nam mkha' grags · teacher
  • bcom ldan rig pa'i ral gri · student
  • grags pa brtson 'grus · student
  • Btsun pa sangs rgyas yon tan bzang po · student
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