People/Bod sprul mdo sngags bstan pa'i nyi ma

བོད་སྤྲུལ་མདོ་སྔགས་བསྟན་པའི་ཉི་མ་

Bötrul Dongak Tenpai Nyima(1898 - 1959) 

Born in:

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rgya tsha rdzong (dwags po)

Tibetan date of birth:

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Year of the Male Earth Dog, 15^th sexagenary cycle.

Tibetan date of passing:

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15^th day, 9^th month, Year of the Female Earth Pig, 16^th sexagenary cycle.

Notes on dates:

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Alternate dates given for his birth are 1900 and 1902.

Bötrul Dongak Tenpai Nyima was a Nyingma teacher based primarily at Dzogchen and Gegong Monasteries in Kham. A holder of the scholastic tradition begun by Mipam Gyatso, he also taught for several years at Drigung. He was considered by some to be a reincarnation of Patrul Rinpoche.

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Library Items

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Bötrul Dongak Tenpai Nyima: Notes on the Essential Points of Mipam’s Exposition of Buddha-Nature

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Notes on Mipam's Lion’s Roar: Exposition of Buddha-Nature, by an influential 20th century Nyingma scholar that took great pains to uphold and further the legacy of Mipam's scholastic contributions.

Stong thun gnad kyi zin thun;Nyingma;Bde gshegs snying po'i stong thun chen mo seng+ge'i nga ro;Mi pham rgya mtsho;Bötrul Dongak Tenpai Nyima;བོད་སྤྲུལ་མདོ་སྔགས་བསྟན་པའི་ཉི་མ་;bod sprul mdo sngags bstan pa'i nyi ma;bod sprul;bod pa sprul sku mdo sngags bstan pa'i nyi ma;thub bstan bshad sgrub thos bsam rgya mtsho;བོད་སྤྲུལ་;བོད་པ་སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་མདོ་སྔགས་བསྟན་པའི་ཉི་མ་;ཐུབ་བསྟན་བཤད་སྒྲུབ་ཐོས་བསམ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་;stong thun gnad kyi zin thun;སྟོང་ཐུན་གནད་ཀྱི་ཟིན་ཐུན།;སྟོང་ཐུན་གནད་ཀྱི་ཟིན་ཐུན།

Mentioned in

Article

Introduction to Dzogchen and Buddha-Nature

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With roots stretching back to the eighth century, the notion of tathāgatagarbha was initially introduced into the lexicon of what would become the Nyingma tradition through scholastic works that sought to reconcile the philosophy of Madhyamaka and Yogācāra, as well as through tantric literature that presented advanced paradigms for the path and the immediacy of enlightenment. Over the centuries these two streams of influence wove themselves together to help form the basis of a unique synthesis of sūtra-based philosophical inquiry and tantric theories of praxis that would come to define the Nyingma approach. At the pinnacle of this system are the teachings of Dzogchen, the Great Perfection, the supreme vantage to which all these intertwined approaches aspire. As such, this lofty perspective has a tendency to draw everything it encounters into its fold and reimagine it in its own image. The relationship between Dzogchen and buddha-nature is one example of this trend, though one which is deeply intertwined with the development of the Nyingma view. Read more here.

Ostensen, Morten. "Introduction to Dzogchen and Buddha-Nature." Buddha-Nature: A Tsadra Foundation Initiative, July 11, 2019. https://buddhanature.tsadra.org/index.php/Articles/Introduction_to_Dzogchen_and_Buddha-nature.

Ostensen, Morten. "Introduction to Dzogchen and Buddha-Nature." Buddha-Nature: A Tsadra Foundation Initiative, July 11, 2019. https://buddhanature.tsadra.org/index.php/Articles/Introduction_to_Dzogchen_and_Buddha-nature.;Introduction to Dzogchen and Buddha-Nature;Dzogchen;Nyingma;Morten Ostensen;&nbsp

Philosophical positions of this person

Is buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?

Definitive 

Do all beings have buddha-nature?

 

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

Third Turning 

Is buddha-nature equated with emptiness or alayavijnana?

Madhyamaka 

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

 

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?

 

What is Buddha-nature?

  Tathāgatagarbha as the Unity of Emptiness and Luminosity

"Thus, from the point of view of emptiness, buddha nature is the empty dharmadhātu (the object) and from the point of view of appearance, it is the wisdom (the subject) that is not empty of the inseparable qualities of a buddha. Both these aspects are inseparable and are empty of the adventitious stains that represent the delusive appearances of saṃsāra." Brunnhölzl, K., When the Clouds Part, p. 75.

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

  Prāsaṅgika (ཐལ་འགྱུར་)

"...Pötrül says repeatedly that both the Madhyamakāvatāra and the Uttaratantra are scriptures of “the Great Prāsaṅgika Mahāyāna,” though he clearly rejects the Gelugpa understanding of this being the case because, he says, the Gelugpa position is solely based on a nonimplicative negation (the lack of real existence), while completely rejecting the notion of luminosity." Brunnhölzl, K., When the Clouds Part, p. 75.

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Other names

• བོད་སྤྲུལ་ · other names (Tibetan)
• བོད་པ་སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་མདོ་སྔགས་བསྟན་པའི་ཉི་མ་ · other names (Tibetan)
• ཐུབ་བསྟན་བཤད་སྒྲུབ་ཐོས་བསམ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ · other names (Tibetan)
• bod sprul · other names (Wylie)
• bod pa sprul sku mdo sngags bstan pa'i nyi ma · other names (Wylie)
• thub bstan bshad sgrub thos bsam rgya mtsho · other names (Wylie)

Affiliations & relations

• Nyingma · religious affiliation
• Studied at Dzogchen Monastery's Śrī Siṃha monastic college (shrI sing+ha bshad drwa) and served as abbot of Gegong monastery (rdza rgyud dge mang bshad grwa) for 8 years. · primary professional affiliation
• Kun bzang dpal ldan · teacher
• g.yu khog bya bral chos dbyings rang grol · teacher
• 'jigs med yon tan mgon po · teacher
• Nyoshul Khenpo · student
• Mkhan po 'jigs med phun tshogs · student
• rdzogs chen mkhan po zla ba'i 'od zer · student
• Tarthang Tulku · student
• rdzogs chen mkhan po thub bstan brtson grus · student