The Seven Vajra Topics

The Seven Vajra Subjects

The Ratnagotravibhāga is divided into five chapters. However, the treatise itself is based around the explanation of seven topics or subjects, known as the seven vajrapada. These seven are the buddha, dharma, sangha, the element (dhātu), enlightenment (bodhi), enlightened qualities (guṇa), and enlightened activities (karma).

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Watch & Learn

Video

Katrin Querl at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium

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Katrin Querl presents an overview of Jikten Gonpo's position on Buddha-nature as outlined in the textual corpus known as the Single Intention (Dgongs gcig) and in two of this work's earliest commentaries.

Querl, Katrin. "Preliminary Notes on the Notion of Buddha Nature in the Single Intention." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 43:53. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp3GJz3-5DY.

Querl, Katrin. "Preliminary Notes on the Notion of Buddha Nature in the Single Intention." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 43:53. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp3GJz3-5DY.;Katrin Querl at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium;'bri gung skyob pa 'jig rten mgon po;Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa;Mahamudra;Drikung Kagyu;Kagyu;Tsen Tradition;gotra;guṇa;'bri gung spyan snga shes rab 'byung gnas;Ngo rje ras pa;Rdo rje shes rab;Drikung Chungtsang, 1st;Rin chen byang chub;History of buddha-nature in Tibet;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Tibetan Buddhism;Buddha-nature as Emptiness;Ordinary Mind;ekayāna;Katrin Querl; Preliminary Notes on the Notion of Buddha Nature in the Single Intention

Video

Martina Draszczyk at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium

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Martina Draszczyk discusses the early Kagyu masters and explores how their meditation-oriented approach is based in both affirming buddha-nature as the ground and goal of Buddhist soteriology and avoiding its reification into an entity with real properties.

Draszczyk, Martina. "Buddha Nature as Seen by Early Bka’ brgyud Masters." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 37:27. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoMUdg40Qv8.

Draszczyk, Martina. "Buddha Nature as Seen by Early Bka’ brgyud Masters." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 37:27. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoMUdg40Qv8.;Martina Draszczyk at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium;Sgam po pa;Buddha-nature as Emptiness;guṇa;Defining buddha-nature;Kagyu;Dam chos yid bzhin gyi nor bu thar pa rin po che'i rgyan;Mahamudra;Kadam;La yag pa byang chub dngos grub;Karmapa, 3rd;Tsen Tradition;paryudāsapratiṣedha;Btsan kha bo che;prasajyapratiṣedha;dharmakāya;Martina Draszczyk; Buddha Nature as Seen by Early Bka’ brgyud Masters

From the Masters

Maitreya

Verse I.155 of the Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra states:

།རྣམ་དབྱེར་བཅས་པའི་མཚན་ཉིད་ཅན།
།གློ་བུར་དག་གིས་ཁམས་སྟོང་གི།
།རྣམ་དབྱེར་མེད་པའི་མཚན་ཉིད་ཅན།
།བླ་མེད་ཆོས་ཀྱིས་སྟོང་མ་ཡིན།

The basic element is empty of what is adventitious,
Which has the characteristic of being separable.
It is not empty of the unsurpassable attributes,
Which have the characteristic of being inseparable. 

~ Brunnhölzl, Karl. When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra. Boston: Snow Lion Publications, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, 2014, p. 411.

Asaṅga

In the commentary to verse I.155, it states:

།འདིས་ཅི་བསྟན་ཞེ་ན། གང་གི་ཕྱིར་རང་བཞིན་གྱིས་ཡོངས་སུ་དག་པ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་ཁམས་འདི་ལས་བསལ་བར་བྱ་བ་ཀུན་ནས་ཉོན་མོངས་པའི་རྒྱུ་མཚན་ནི་འགའ་ཡང་མེད་ལ། གློ་བུར་བའི་དྲི་མ་དང་བྲལ་བ་ནི་འདིའི་རང་བཞིན་ཡིན་པའི་ཕྱིར་རོ། །འདི་ལ་རྣམ་པར་བྱང་བའི་རྒྱུ་མཚན་ཅན་གཞག་པར་བྱ་བ་ཡང་ཅུང་ཟད་ཀྱང་ཡོད་པ་མ་ཡིན་ཏེ། རྣམ་པར་དབྱེ་བ་མེད་པའི་ཆོས་དག་པའི་ཆོས་ཉིད་ནི་རང་བཞིན་ཡིན་པའི་ཕྱིར་རོ། །དེས་ན་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ནི། རྣམ་པར་དབྱེ་བ་ཡོད་པ། བྲལ་ཤེས་པ། ཉོན་མོངས་པའི་སྦུབས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱིས་ནི་སྟོང་པ་ཡིན་ལ། རྣམ་པར་དབྱེ་བ་མེད་པ། བྲལ་མི་ཤེས་པ། བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་གང་གཱའི་ཀླུང་གི་བྱེ་མ་ལས་འདས་པ་ནི་མི་སྟོང་ངོ་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ། །དེ་ལྟར་ན་གང་ཞིག་གང་ན་མེད་པ་དེ་ནི་དེས་སྟོང་ངོ་ཞེས་ཡང་དག་པར་རྗེས་སུ་མཐོང་ལ། གང་ཞིག་ལྷག་པར་གྱུར་པ་དེ་ནི་དེ་ལ་རྟག་པར་ཡོད་དོ་ཞེས་ཡང་དག་པ་ཇི་ལྟ་བ་བཞིན་དུ་ཤེས་སོ། །ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་འདི་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་ནི་སྒྲོ་འདོགས་པ་དང་སྐུར་པ་འདེབས་པའི་མཐའ་དང་བྲལ་བའི་ཕྱིར། ཕྱིན་ཅི་མ་ལོག་པ་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་མཚན་ཉིད་བསྟན་ཏོ། །དེ་ལ་གང་ཞིག་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་ཚུལ་འདི་ལས་སེམས་ཕྱི་རོལ་ཏུ་རྣམ་པར་གཡེང་ཞིང་རྣམ་པར་འཕྲོ་ལ་མཉམ་པར་མི་འཇོག་ཅིང་རྩེ་གཅིག་ཏུ་མི་འགྱུར་བ་དེས་ན་དེ་དག་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ལས་སེམས་རྣམ་པར་གཡེངས་པ་ཞེས་བརྗོད་དོ། །དེ་ལ་དོན་དམ་པ་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་ཡེ་ཤེས་མེད་པར་ནི་རྣམ་པར་རྟོག་པ་མེད་པའི་དག་པའི་དབྱིངས་རྟོགས་ཤིང་མངོན་པར་འདུ་བྱ་བར་མི་ནུས་སོ།

What is taught by this? There is no characteristic of afflicted phenomena to be removed from the basic element of the tathāgatas that is completely pure by nature because it has the nature of being the emptiness of adventitious stains. Nor is the slightest characteristic of purified phenomena to be added to it because it has the nature of inseparable pure attributes. Therefore, [the Śrīmālādevīsūtra] says:

The tathāgata heart is empty of all cocoons of afflictions that are separable [from it] and [can] be realized as being divisible [from it]. It is not empty of the inconceivable buddha attributes that are inseparable [from it], [can]not be realized as being divisible [from it], and far surpass the sand grains in the river Gaṅgā [in number].

Thus, one clearly sees that when something does not exist somewhere, the [latter] is empty of the [former]. In accordance with actual reality, one understands that what remains there exists as a real existent. These two verses elucidate the unmistaken defining characteristic of emptiness [in the case of the tathāgata heart] since it [thus] is free from the extremes of superimposition and denial.

Here, those whose minds are distracted from, and stray outside of, this principle of the meaning of emptiness, do not cultivate it in samādhi, and are not one-pointed [with regard to it] are therefore called "those whose minds are distracted from emptiness." Without being introduced to the wisdom of ultimate emptiness, one is not able to realize and directly perceive the nonconceptual basic element.

 

~ Brunnhölzl, Karl. When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra. Boston: Snow Lion Publications, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, 2014, p. 411.

Ngok Lotsāwa Loden Sherab

In his Epistle: A Drop of Nectar, Ngok Lotsāwa writes the following verse utilizing similes to depict a model of the path:

།བཤེས་གཉེན་སྤྲིན་ལས་ལེགས་བྱུང་མང་དུ་ཐོས་པ་ཡི།
།ཆར་རྒྱུན་བསིལ་བས་ཉོན་མོངས་གདུང་བ་ཞི་བྱེད་ཀྱིས།
།བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོའི་ས་བོན་རབ་ཏུ་བརླན་བྱས་ནས།
།སངས་རྒྱས་ཡོན་ཏན་ཕུན་ཚོགས་ལོ་ཏོག་རབ་རྒྱས་བྱ༎

After allaying the "heat" of defilements, with the "cool rainwater" of repeated study, carried by the "clouds" of good teachers; and after moistening the "seeds" of Buddha-nature (bde gshegs snying po), you should cultivate "crops" of perfect Buddha-qualities. 

~ Rngog lo tsA ba blo ldan shes rab. Springs yig bdud rtsi'i thig le. In Rngog lo tsA ba blo ldan shes rab kyi gsung chos skor. Beijing: Krung go'i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang, 2009, p. 659.

~ Translation from Kano, Kazuo. Buddha-Nature and Emptiness: rNgog Blo-ldan-shes-rab and A Transmission of the Ratnagotravibhāga from India to Tibet. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 91. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2016, p. 232.

Tsen Khawoche

Tsen Khawoche

1021

In the only surviving literary work attributed to Tsen Khawoche entitled Instructions on the View of Other-Emptiness, which is preserved among the 108 Profound Instructions of the Jonang, he gives the following practical instructions on the three natures:

ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་མེད་གསུམ་དུ་བཞག་ཀྱང་། དཔྱད་ན། སེམས་ལས་མ་གཏོགས་པའི་གཟུང་འཛིན་མེད་པའི་ཕྱིར་ཆོས་ཅན་གཞན་དབང་དང་། ཆོས་ཉིད་ཡོངས་གྲུབ་ཁོ་ན་དྲི་མ་དང་བྲལ་ཞིང་ལྷུན་གྱིས་གྲུབ་པའི་ཆོས་ཉིད་གཅིག་པུ།

Although classified as three natures without an inherent essence, if you analyze — since there are no fixations and nothing to fixate upon besides the mind, only the phenomenal quality of the relational nature and the phenomenal actuality of the perfected nature are free from defilements. They are the identical ultimate actuality of phenomena which is spontaneous presence. 

~ Btsan kha bo che. Gzhan stong lta khrid. In Zab khrid brgya dang brgyad kyi yi ge. Edited by Kun dga' grol mchog. Gdams ngag mdzod. New Delhi: Shechen Publications, 1999, Vol. 18, p. 171.
~ Translation from Tsen Kawoche. "Elucidating the Zhentong View: A Condensation of the Threefold Nature of Reality." Translated by Michael Sheehy. Jonang Foundation’s Digital Library, n.d.

Gö Lotsāwa Zhönu Pal

Gö Lotsāwa on the origins of the Tibetan exegesis of the Ratnagotravibhāga:

With regard to the [Maitreya works], three among the works of the Illustrious Maitreya, [namely] the Abhisamayālaṁkāra, the Mahāyānasūtrālaṁkāra, and the Madhyāntavibhāga, were translated by the translators Paltseg (Dpal brtsegs), Yeshé Dé (Ye shes sde), and others during the first period of the spread of the doctrine [in Tibet]. As for the [remaining] two, the [Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyāna-]Uttaratantra[śāstra] and the Dharmadharmatāvibhāga together with its commentary, Lord Maitrīpa saw light shining from a crack in a stūpa and, wondering what the source of the light was, tried to determine it. As a consequence, he obtained the texts of the two treatises. He rejoiced [in them] and prayed to the venerable [Maitreya], whereupon he arrived—directly visible in an opening between clouds—and duly bestowed [on Maitrīpa] the "oral transmission" (lung) [of both texts]. Thus it is known.

Then he who is called Paṇḍita Ānandakīrti heard [the teaching of both texts] from Lord Maitrīpa and carried the texts to Kashmir disguised as a beggar. Upon his arrival, the great paṇḍita Sajjana recognized him as a scholar and invited him to his home. [Sajjana] listened to [the teaching of] both treatises and copied the texts. The great translator Loden Sherab heard them [from Sajjana], translated them in Śrīnagar in Kashmir, and composed an extensive explanation in Tibet.

Also, the [well-] known Tsen Kawoché, a disciple of Drapa Ngönshé, came with the great translator (i.e., Ngog Loden Sherab) to Kashmir. He requested Sajjana to bestow on him [the Maitreya works] along with special instructions, since he wanted to make the works of the Illustrious Maitreya his "practice [of preparing] for death" ('chi chos). Thereupon [Sajjana] taught all five works, with Lotsāwa Zu Gawa Dorjé serving as translator. He also gave special instructions with regard to the Uttaratantra in the due way, and back in Tibet, Tsen explained it to numerous [spiritual friends] in Ü and Tsang. The translator Zu Gawa Dorjé wrote a commentary on the Uttaratantra in accordance with the teaching of Sajjana, and translated the [Dharma]dharmatāvibhāga, both root-text and commentary. Thus neither the Uttara[tantra] nor the [Dharma]dharmatāvibhāga was spread in India before the time of Lord Maitrīpa. Neither is found in the great treatises such as the Abhisamayālaṁkārāloka, not even "a single phrase of them" (zur tsam). 

~ Mathes, Klaus-Dieter. A Direct Path to the Buddha Within: Go Lotsāwa's Mahāmudrā Interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhāga. Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2008, pp. 161–63.

Gö Lotsāwa on the view of the Tsen tradition:

བཙན་ལུགས་པ་རྣམས་ནི་སེམས་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན་འོད་གསལ་བ་བདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ཡིན་པས་།་དེ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་རྒྱུ་ཡང་གྲུང་པོར་བཞེད།

The followers of the tradition of Tsen (Btsan) maintain that since the luminous nature of mind is the buddha nature, the cause of buddha[hood] is fertile. 

~ 'Gos lo tsA ba gzhon nu dpal. Deb ther sngon po. Chengdu: si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1984, p. 424.
~ Translation from Mathes, Klaus-Dieter. A Direct Path to the Buddha Within: Go Lotsāwa's Mahāmudrā Interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhāga. Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2008, p. 33.

Śākya Chokden

In his Essence of Sūtra and Tantra: An Explanation of Buddhagarbha, Śākya Chokden implicitly describes the stance of the meditative tradition in relation to the Third Turning of the Dharma Wheel:

འཁོར་ལོ་ཐ་མ་ཡིས། བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོའི་དགོངས་གཞི་ནི། སྤྲོས་པའི་མཐའ་ཀུན་དང་བྲལ་བའི། རང་བཞིན་འོད་གསལ་ཅེས་བྱ་བ། སོ་སོ་རང་གིས་རིག་པ་ཡི། ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་ནི་མྱོང་བྱ་ལ། གསལ་བར་བཤད་པ་ཉིད་ཡིན་ཕྱིར། མ་ཡིན་དགག་པར་འཆད་དགོས་སོ།

According to the final turning, the underlying intent of *sugatagarbha is the so-called natural luminosity that is free from all extremes of elaborations. Because it is that which is clearly explained as the object of experience of wisdom that is personally realized, it is necessary to characterize it as an affirming negation. 

~ ShAkya mchog ldan. Sangs rgyas kyi snying po'i rnam bshad mdo rgyud snying po. In Gser mdog paN chen shAkya mchog ldan gyi gsung 'bum. rdzong sar: rdzong sar khams bye'i slob gling thub bstan dar rgyas gling, 2006-2007, Vol. 13, p. 161.
~ Translation from Higgins, David, and Martina Draszczyk. Mahāmudrā and the Middle Way: Post-Classical Kagyü Discourses on Mind, Emptiness and Buddha-Nature. Vol 1: Introduction, Views of Authors and Final Reflections. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 90. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2016, p. 83n203.

Śākya Chokden explains that the two exegetical traditions are complimentary in the following way:

བྱམས་པའི་ཆོས་གསན་པ་ལས་རྙེད་པའི་ངེས་དོན་ནི། སངས་རྒྱས་ནས་སེམས་ཅན་གྱི་བར་ལ་ཁྱབ་པའི་རང་བཞིན་རྣམ་དག་གི་ཡེ་ཤེས། རང་བཞིན་གྱི་འོད་གསལ་བ་དེ་ཉིད་བདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོར་གསུངས་པ་ཡིན་ནོ་ཞེས། ཁོང་ནས་རྒྱུད་པ་དག་འཆད་ལ། འདི་ལ་སྔོན་གྱི་དུས་སུ་བྱམས་ཆོས་མཚན་ཉིད་ཀྱི་ལུགས་སུ་འཆད་པ་དང་། སྒོམ་ལུགས་སུ་འཆད་པའི་ཁྱད་པར་རོ་ཞེས་གྲགས་མོད། །གཉིས་ཀ་ལྟར་ཡང་འགལ་བ་མེད་དེ། མཚན་འཛིན་སེལ་བའི་ཚེ་ནི་སྔ་མ་ལྟར་ཟབ་ལ། ཡོན་ཏན་གྱི་རྟེན་དུ་བྱེད་པ་ལ་ནི་ཕྱི་མ་ལྟར་དགོས་པས་སོ།

The definitive meaning that he found from having studied the dharmas of Maitreya is explained by those in his lineage as follows. The sugata heart is the naturally pure wisdom, luminous by nature, that pervades [everyone] from buddhas to sentient beings. In earlier times these [two approaches] were known as "the difference between explaining the dharmas of Maitreya as the tradition of characteristics (mtshan nyid kyi lugs) and explaining them as the meditative tradition (sgom lugs)." However, in both cases there is no contradiction because the [explanation] according to the first [approach] is more profound at the time of eliminating the clinging to characteristics, while the [explanation] according to the latter [approach] is needed so that [the sugata heart] can function as the support of qualities. 

~ ShAkya mchog ldan. Dbu ma'i byung tshul rnam par bshad pa'i gtam yid bzhin lhun po zhes bya ba'i bstan bcos. In Gsung 'bum shAkya mchog ldan. New Delhi: Ngawang Topgyel, 1995, Vol. 4, p. 240.
~ Translation from Brunnhölzl, Karl. When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra. Boston: Snow Lion Publications, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, 2014, p. 124.

Tāranātha

Tāranātha

1575 ~ 1634

In his Supplication to the Lineage of Profound Zhentong Madhyamaka, Tāranātha includes the following verse for Tsen Khawoche:

།མི་ཕམ་གཞུང་ལ་མཁས་པའི་ཕུལ་དུ་གྱུར།
།དབུ་མའི་ལམ་ལས་ཆོས་ཉིད་ཟབ་མོ་གཟིགས།
།སྡོམ་བརྩོན་དམ་པ་བཙན་རིགས་ཁ་བོ་ཆེ།
།དྲི་མེད་ཤེས་རབ་ཞབས་ལ་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས།

Due to the scriptures of the invincible one, you attained the highest degree of learning,
From the path of Madhyamaka, you profoundly gazed upon the actuality of phenomena,
Sublime observer of precepts, Khawoché from the family of Tsen,
To you, Drimé Sherab, I supplicate! 

~ Tāranātha. Zab mo gzhan stong dbu ma'i brgyud 'debs. In Gsung 'bum shes rab rgyal mtshan. 'Dzam thang: 'Dzam thang bsam 'grub nor bu'i gling gi par khang, 199?, Vol. 3, p. 164.
~ Translation from Tāranātha. "Supplication to the Profound Zhentong Madhyamaka Lineage." Translated by Michael Sheehy. Jonang Foundation’s Digital Library, n.d., p. 2.

Jamgön Kongtrul

Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye

1813 ~ 1899

In his Treasury of Knowledge, Jamgön Kongtrul summarizes the lineages stemming from Sajjana in the following verse:

།ས་ཛྫ་ན་ལས་རྔོག་དང་བཙན་གྱིས་ཞུས།
།བཤད་སྒྲུབ་བཀའ་བབས་དབུ་སེམས་གཉིས་སུའང་བཞེད།
།གཙང་ནག་རང་བྱུང་ཀུན་མཁྱེན་ཡབ་སྲས་སོགས།
།ཕྱིར་མི་ལྡོག་པ་སེང་ངེའི་སྒྲ་ཆེན་བསྒྲགས།

Translator Ngok Loden Sherab and Tsen Kawoché received from Sajjana
The teaching and practice transmissions thought to be two—the middle way and mind-only.
Tsang Nakpa Tsöndru Sengé, Rangjung Dorjé, the omniscient master [Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen] and his spiritual children, and others
Sounded a lion's great roar of the incontrovertible meaning. 

~ 'Jam mgon kong sprul. Shes bya kun khyab. Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1982: Vol. 1, p. 460.
~ Jamgön Kongtrül ('jam mgon kong sprul). The Treasury of Knowledge: Books Two, Three and Four: Buddhism's Journey to Tibet. Translated by Ngawang Zangpo. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2010, p. 269–70.

In his commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga, the Unassailable Lion's Roar, Jamgön Kongtrul echoes Gö Lotsāwa, stating:

གྲྭ་པ་མངོན་ཤེས་ཀྱི་མཁན་བུ་བཙན་ཁ་བོ་ཆེ་ཞེས་གྲགས་པའང་ལོ་ཙཱ་ཆེན་པོ་དང་ལྷན་ཅིག་ཁ་ཆེར་བྱོན། སཛྫ་ན་ལ་ཁོ་བོས་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་བྱམས་པའི་ཆོས་རྣམས་ལ་འཆི་ཆོས་བགྱིད་པ་ལགས་པས་གདམས་པ་བཅས་ཏེ་ཐུགས་ལ་གདགས་པར་ཞུས་པས་གཟུས་དགའ་བའི་རྡོ་རྗེས་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་བྱས་ནས་བྱམས་ཆོས་ལྔ་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་གསུངས། རྒྱུད་བླ་མ་ལ་གདམས་པའང་ལེགས་པར་གནང་བས་བཙན་དྲི་མེད་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱིས་བོད་དུ་བྱོན་ཏེ་དབུས་གཙང་རྣམས་སུ་བཤད་པ་མཛད། གཟུས་དགའ་བའི་རྡོ་རྗེས་རྒྱུད་བླ་མ་ལ་སཛྫ་ནའི་གསུང་དང་མཐུན་པར་རྒྱན་ཊཱིཀ་མཛད་ཅིང་ཆོས་ཉིད་རྣམ་འབྱེད་རྩ་འགྲེལ་ཡང་བསྒྱུར། འདི་ལ་བྱམས་ཆོས་སྒོམ་ལུགས་པའང་གྲགས་ཤིང་ཐུན་མོང་མ་ཡིན་པའི་བཤད་པ་དང་ཉམས་ལེན་གྱི་རྒྱུན་ཁྱད་པར་འཕགས་པ་ཡིན་ལ།

Drapa Ngönshe's disciple, widely known as Tsen Khawoche, having gone to Kashmir with the great translator [Ngok], made a request to Sajjana asking him, "Please take me under your guidance and grant me instructions so that I may make the Dharma teachings of the Transcendant Conqueror Maitreya my practice [to prepare] for death." And so, with Zu Gawai Dorje acting as the translator, [Sajjana] taught him all of the Five Dharma Teachings of Maitreya. Since he gave him very thorough instructions on the Uttaratantra, having arrived back in Tibet, Tsen Drime Sherab gave explanations [of this text] to those [people living] in U and Tsang. Zu Gawai Dorje composed a supplemental commentary to the Uttaratantra in accordance with the teachings of Sajjana and also translated the root text and commentary of the [Dharma]dharmatāvibhāga. This is what is widely-renowned as the Meditative Tradition of the Dharma Teachings of Maitreya, and is a remarkably distinguished line of extraordinary explanatory teachings and [instructions for] practice. 

~ 'Jam mgon kong sprul. Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos snying po'i don mngon sum lam gyi bshad pa srol dang sbyar ba'i rnam par 'grel ba phyir mi ldog pa seng ge'i nga ro. In Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i tshig 'grel. New Delhi: Shechen Publications, 2005, pp. 101–2.
~ For an alternative translation of the above passage, see Hookham, S. K. The Buddha Within: Tathagatagarbha Doctrine According to the Shentong Interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhaga. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991, p. 271.

Further Readings

Book: A Direct Path to the Buddha Within

Loden Sherab (1059-1109) played a crucial role in the transmission of the Ratnagotravibhāga in Tibet. Not only were his translations of the Ratnagotravibhāga and its vyākhyā the ones included in the Tengyur, but he also composed a "summarized meaning" or commentary of the Ratnagotravibhāga, in which he tries to bring the teaching of buddha nature into line with his Madhyamaka position. The latter is usually identified as being Svātantrika. Since this summary, which is of great significance for the understanding of Zhönu Pal's mahāmudrā interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhāga, has received little attention by Western scholars up till now, the main points of Loden Sherab's strategy will be presented in this section.

Ngog Loden Sherab's Analytical Interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhāga

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~ Mathes, Klaus-Dieter. A Direct Path to the Buddha Within: Go Lotsāwa's Mahāmudrā Interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhāga. Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. Boston:Wisdom Publications, 2008: p. 1.

Book: When the Clouds Part

For the transmission of the five works of Maitreya from India to Tibet, there are the four principal lineages through Ngog Lotsāwa, Dsen Kawoché (two), and Marpa Dopa, all of whom traveled to Kashmir and studied the Maitreya works with the great paṇḍitas there (primarily Sajjana and Parahita). The lineage through Ngog Lotsāwa is often called "the exegetical tradition of the dharma works of Maitreya" (byams chos bshad lugs), while Dsen Kawoché’s transmissions represent "the meditative tradition of the dharma works of Maitreya" (byams chos sgom lugs). Judging from CMW, Marpa Dopa’s lineage contains elements of both approaches since CMW’s introduction consists of Mahāmudrā-style meditation instructions based on the Uttaratantra, while its actual commentary on the words of the Uttaratantra and RGVV consists almost exclusively of scriptural exegesis of a scholarly nature.

The Meditative Tradition of the Uttaratantra and Shentong

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~ Brunnhölzl, Karl. When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra. Boston: Snow Lion Publications, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, 2014.

Book: The Blue Annals Parts I & II

bTsan Kha-bo-che has been a disciple of Grwa-pa mNgon-śes (here mkhan-bu means a disciple ordained by Grwa-pa mNgon-śes). Before going to Kāśmīra, he requested his upādhyāya (Grwa-pa mNgon-śes) to perform an offering ceremony. The upādhyāya said to him : 'Till your return from Kāśmīra, I shall be responsible for your safety, and you will never get even a toothache!" bTsan Kha-bo-che was born in the Iron-Female-Hen year (lcags-mo-bya -I021 A.D.). At the age of 56 he proceeded to Kāśmīra, and said to Sañjana: "Now I have grown old! I cannot master many books. I wish to make the Doctrine of the Blessed Maitreya my death prayer ('chi-chos-byed-pa, to recite a religious text at death time). Pray Instruct me in it!"

Gö Lotsāwa on the Tsen Tradition of the Dharma Treatises of Maitreya

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~ Roerich, George N., and Gendun Chöpel. The Blue Annals Parts I & II. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 2007: pp. 475-350.

Book: Buddha-Nature and Emptiness

An essential study of a key text that presents buddha-nature theory and its transmission from India to Tibet, this book is the most thorough history of buddha-nature thought in Tibet and is exceptional in its level of detail and scholarly apparatus. It serves as a scholarly encyclopedia of sorts with extensive appendices listing every existent commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga (Uttaratantraśāstra), as well as covering Ngok Lotsawa's commentarial text and his philosophical positions related with other Tibetan thinkers.

~ Kano, Kazuo. Buddha-Nature and Emptiness: rNgog Blo-ldan-shes-rab and A Transmission of the Ratnagotravibhāga from India to Tibet. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 91. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2016.

Book: Visions of Unity

Yaroslav Komarovski's Visions of Unity is a thick study of Śākya Chokden, a fifteenth-century Sakya philosopher who wrote extensively on Yogācāra and Madhyamaka in an attempt to synthesize the two. He wrote at a time that a strict interpretation of Madhyamaka was in ascendence and Yogācāra was dismissed as a lesser teaching. Śākya Chokden was a passionate critic of Tsongkhapa, and stridently faulted the Geluk patriarch for spreading nihilism to his own beloved Sakya tradition. He was himself a follower of Madhyamaka, but he embraced many elements of Yogācāra; his attempt at a synthesis was to reclassify the different strands of Yogācāra and Madhyamaka so as to combine those that he liked and dispense with those he did not. Although his writings were recognized for their brilliance, his criticisms of Tsongkhapa and Sakya Paṇḍita, and his qualified acceptance of "other-emptiness" (gzhan stong) meant that he was almost entirely rejected by his peers.

~ Komarovski, Yaroslav. Visions of Unity: The Golden Paṇḍita Shakya Chokden's New Interpretation of Yogācāra and Madhyamaka. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2011.

Book: The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows

The book is divided into three main sections: early Kadam thinkers who attempted to fold the Uttaratantra's positive-language teaching on buddha-nature into mainstream Madhyamaka doctrine of non-affirming negation. They did so by asserting that buddha-nature was, in fact, a synonym of emptiness, and was, therefore, a definitive teaching. The second stage was reactions during the thirteenth century. Sakya Paṇḍita, for example, rejected the conflation of buddha-nature and emptiness and declared the teaching to be provisional; early Kagyu thinkers revived the positive-language teachings and asserted that such statements were definitive, and Dolpopa taught "other-emptiness," the strongest expression of positive-language doctrine ever advocated in Tibet. Finally, in the fourteenth century, a number of mainly Geluk thinkers, such as Gyaltsap Je, reacted against Dolpopa and all synthesis of Yogācāra and Madhyamaka thought, relegating the Uttaratantra again to provisional status.

~ Wangchuk, Tsering. The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows: Tibetan Thinkers Debate the Centrality of the Buddha-Nature Treatise. Albany: SUNY Press, 2017.

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