Mi nyag bla ma ye shes rdo rje

མི་ཉག་བླ་མ་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྡོ་རྗེ་

Minyak Lama Yeshe Dorje(b. 14th Century - )

Yeshe Dorje (born fourteenth century) from Minyak in Kham was a student of the Karma Kamtsang master Mase Tönpa Rinchen Zangpo (1317–1383), the second Gangkar Lama. The latter is known as one of "the five learned ones from Minyak" and was a student of the Third and Fourth Karmapas, Dölpopa, Butön, and several Kadampa masters. (Adapted from When the Clouds Part, p. 309)

Library Items

Text

Minyak Lama Yeshe Dorje: A Treasury of Gems of the Definitive Meaning: An Explanation of the Treatise on the Ultimate Continuum of the Mahāyāna

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According to Brunnhölzl, this work "clearly subscribes to the disclosure model of buddha nature, asserting that the stainless tathāgata heart adorned with all major and minor marks as well as awakening exists in all beings, refuting that the reality of cessation is a nonimplicative negation, and denying the position that the fully qualified sugata heart exists solely on the buddhabhūmi, while it is only nominal at the time of sentient beings. Also, besides CMW and Mipham’s commentary, YDC is the only other commentary I have reviewed that explicitly connects the name and contents of the Uttaratantra with the vajrayāna notion of tantra, thus underlining the text’s reputation as a bridge between the sūtras and tantras."

Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi bshad pa nges don nor bu'i mdzod;Disclosure model;Vajrayana;Minyak Lama Yeshe Dorje;མི་ཉག་བླ་མ་ཡེ་ཤེས་རྡོ་རྗེ་;mi nyag bla ma ye shes rdo rje;ye shes rdo rje dpal bzang po;ཡེ་ཤེས་རྡོ་རྗེ་དཔལ་བཟང་པོ་;Yeshé Dorje;Yeshé Dorje Bal Sangpo;theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos kyi bshad pa nges don nor bu'i mdzod;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་བཤད་པ་ངེས་དོན་ནོར་བུའི་མཛོད།;ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་བཤད་པ་ངེས་དོན་ནོར་བུའི་མཛོད།

Philosophical positions of this person

Is buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?

Definitive 

Do all beings have buddha-nature?

  Yes

"YDC clearly subscribes to the disclosure model of buddha nature, asserting that the stainless tathāgata heart adorned with all major and minor marks as well as awakening exists in all beings, refuting that the reality of cessation is a nonimplicative negation, and denying the position that the fully qualified sugata heart exists solely on the buddhabhūmi, while it is only nominal at the time of sentient beings." Brunnhölzl, K., When the Clouds Part, p. 310.

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To which "turning of the wheel" do the buddha-nature teachings belong?

  Third Turning

However, his work has an interesting approach to the second and third wheel turnings: " The second dharma wheel is said to teach primarily the way in which the phenomena of which the basis of emptiness is empty do not exist, while the third wheel teaches mainly that basis of emptiness. Therefore, there is no inner contradiction between these two dharma wheels." Brunnhölzl, K., When the Clouds Part, p. 310.

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Is buddha-nature equated with emptiness or alayavijnana?

  Madhyamaka

"YDC denies that the Uttaratantra is a work that belongs to Mere Mentalism." Brunnhölzl, K., When the Clouds Part, p. 310.

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Do buddha-nature teachings belong to the zhentong or rangtong view of emptiness?

  Rangtong

It is not entirely clear that he would identify with the Rangtong view, but he seems to have issues with Zhentong, as Brunnhölzl points out: "Also, the emptiness taught in the buddha nature sūtras and the Uttaratantra is not "the emptiness of one’s being empty of something other," which is said to be the worst kind of emptiness in the Laṅkāvatārasūtra, but corresponds to this sūtra’s 'great ultimate emptiness of the wisdom of the noble ones.'" Brunnhölzl, K., When the Clouds Part, p. 310.

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Are there one or three vehicles on the path to buddhahood?

 

Do the author's writings belong to the analytic or meditative tradition of Uttaratantra exegesis?

  Analytic Tradition

The lineage included within his work on the Uttaratantra passes through Ngok and others who upheld his tradition. See Brunnhölzl, K., When the Clouds Part, p. 309.

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What is Buddha-nature?

  Tathāgatagarbha as the Latent State of Buddhahood that is Obscured in Sentient Beings

"YDC clearly subscribes to the disclosure model of buddha nature, asserting that the stainless tathāgata heart adorned with all major and minor marks as well as awakening exists in all beings, refuting that the reality of cessation is a nonimplicative negation, and denying the position that the fully qualified sugata heart exists solely on the buddhabhūmi, while it is only nominal at the time of sentient beings." Brunnhölzl, K., When the Clouds Part, p. 310.

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Does the author advocate the Svatantrika or Prasangika view of emptiness?

 

Other names

• ཡེ་ཤེས་རྡོ་རྗེ་དཔལ་བཟང་པོ་ · other names (Tibetan)
• ye shes rdo rje dpal bzang po · other names (Wylie)
• Yeshé Dorje · other names
• Yeshé Dorje Bal Sangpo · other names

Affiliations & relations

• Kadam · religious affiliation
• Rma se ston pa rin chen bzang po · teacher
• Karmapa, 3rd · teacher
• Karmapa, 4th · teacher
• bu ston rin chen grub · teacher