Topics

The Topics

In the latter stages of its historical development in India, the idea of buddha-nature emerged as one of the most salient features of the Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition. As this form of Buddhism spread beyond the cultural milieu of ancient India, the importance of buddha-nature became evermore pronounced. In East Asian and Tibetan Buddhism, buddha-nature came to be a major keystone in the assimilation and adaptation of the Indian scriptural tradition. And, as these forms of Buddhism expanded upon that Indian heritage and developed their own literary expression of the Buddhist teachings, buddha-nature continued to be a major theme that was revisited again and again. Thus buddha-nature was weaved into the very fabric of these Buddhist traditions. Below you will find a list of pertinent topics related to buddha-nature, along with some of the major themes in which it played a crucial role.

Buddha-Nature Themes

Here you will find some examples of major themes in which the influence of buddha-nature is readily apparent. The first two are directly related to the Ratnagotravibhāga and address topics discussed in the treatise. The following themes are mostly related to the Tibetan tradition and detail how these teachings entered Tibet, as well as several important developments that arose based upon the buddha-nature teachings and how these intersected with other prominent forms of Buddhism that spread in Tibet. These pages are intended as basic introductions to these themes and include citations from traditional sources as well as suggestions for further reading in modern publications.

Theme

The Seven Vajra Topics

The Ratnagotravibhāga 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 (karman).

Theme

The Nine Similes

The Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra utilizes a series of nine similes to describe how buddha-nature exists within sentient beings— a state in which this basic element is ever-present, but obscured by the adventitious stains of afflictive emotions. These nine are repeated and explained in the first chapter of the Ratnagotravibhāga, in which they are enumerated as 1) a buddha in a decaying lotus, 2) honey amid bees, 3) kernels in their husks, 4) gold in filth, 5) a treasure in the earth, 6) a sprout and so on from a small fruit, 7) an image of the victor in a tattered garment, 8) royalty in the womb of a destitute woman, and 9) a precious statue in clay.

Theme

The Traditions of Ngok and Tsen

The analytic tradition (thos bsam gyi lugs) and the meditative tradition (sgom lugs) originated with the Tibetan disciples of the Kashmiri master Sajjana, namely Ngok Lotsāwa and Tsen Khawoche, respectively.

Theme

Other-Emptiness and the Great Middle Way

The philosophical concept of other-emptiness (zhentong) has long since been a lightning rod for controversy on the Tibetan plateau. Some of its most ardent supporters have had their works banned, yet it not only endured, but gained the support of prominent adherents of almost every one of the major Tibetan schools.

Theme

Mahāmudrā & Buddha-Nature

For the Kagyu, the lines of transmission of the Ratnagotravibhāga and the Mahāmudrā teachings converge with the Indian teacher Maitrīpa. In terms of the former, Maitrīpa is believed to have extracted the treatise from a stūpa after receiving instructions from Maitreya in a dream.

Theme

Dzogchen & Buddha-Nature

With roots stretching back to the 8th 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

Theme

Tantra & Buddha-Nature

Though the theory of buddha-nature is more readily associated with certain Mahāyāna Sūtras and related treatises, such as the Ratnagotravibhāga, in the Tibetan tradition there also developed a strong association between this concept and the Vajrayāna. For instance, terms like tathāgatagarbha and sugatagarbha also appear in tantric literature and in the Jonang tradition Dolpopa's development of his famed view of other-emptiness (zhentong) was directly linked with a profound realization he attained through his practice of the Kālacakra Tantra.

Theme

Contemporary Masters on Buddha-Nature

Though the teachings of buddha-nature have a long and storied history, that is not to say that it is an idea which is merely consigned to the past. It is not something that Buddhists once believed, but have since abandoned for new paradigms of how one might now, in our modern times, progress along the path. Rather buddha-nature remains a key feature of many of the Buddhist traditions that exist today.

Topics

Topic Pages

Below you will find a list of topics that touch upon issues related to buddha-nature. Follow the links to view the pages on which content on this site related to these topics is aggregated.

Against Buddha-Nature

2 items

Buddha-nature as Emptiness

45 items

Buddha-nature as Luminosity

53 items

Buddha-nature as Self - Atman

15 items

Buddha-nature of insentient things

24 items

Christian thought and Buddha-Nature

11 items

Consciousness

10 items

Contemporary

73 items

Contemporary American Buddhist

15 items

Critical Buddhism

19 items

Debate(s)

24 items

Debate

4 items

Defining buddha-nature

63 items

Disclosure model

31 items

Doctrine

34 items

Drikung Kagyu

15 items

Drukpa Kagyu

2 items

Dzogchen

68 items

History of buddha-nature in China

15 items

History of buddha-nature in India

29 items

History of buddha-nature in Japan

6 items

History of buddha-nature in Korea

3 items

History of buddha-nature in Tibet

40 items

Karma Kagyu

25 items

Mahamudra

60 items

Meditation

23 items

Metaphors for buddha-nature

23 items

Potential or already-perfected

6 items

Production model

5 items

Provisional or definitive

17 items

Pure Land

4 items

Rime

2 items

Sentient beings

21 items

Shakyamuni Buddha

3 items

Shangpa Kagyu

3 items

Terma Traditions and Buddha-Nature

3 items

Terminology

40 items

Textual study

61 items

The Path

10 items

The Problem of buddha-nature

3 items

The doctrine of buddha-nature in Chinese Buddhism

68 items

The doctrine of buddha-nature in Early Buddhism

25 items

The doctrine of buddha-nature in Indian Buddhism

45 items

The doctrine of buddha-nature in Japanese Buddhism

61 items

The doctrine of buddha-nature in Theravadin Buddhism

14 items

The doctrine of buddha-nature in Tibetan Buddhism

109 items

Third Turning

9 items

Tien Tai

19 items

Transformation model

1 items

Two Truths

15 items

Vajrayana

39 items

Zen - Chan

81 items

Chan

85 items

śamatha

1 items

Two Extremes

0 items

Terms

Below you will find a list of key terms. Follow the links to view the individual glossary entries for these terms, as well as a listing of content on this site related to these as topics.

Placement Meditation

0 items

abhidharma

0 items

shijue

3 items

advaya

0 items

immaculate consciousness

3 items

Anuyoga

0 items

anātman

24 items

arhat

0 items

Atiyoga

0 items

avidyā

0 items

bhūmi

0 items

bodhi

2 items

bodhicitta

0 items

bodhigarbha

2 items

Bodhisattva

0 items

Brahman

0 items

buddhadhātu

11 items

byams chos sde lnga

21 items

bīja

5 items

Cittamātra

0 items

dharmadhātu

9 items

dharmakāya

30 items

dharmatā

7 items

dhātu

22 items

analytical meditation

0 items

Dzogchen

68 items

ekayāna

10 items

Geluk

0 items

gotra

36 items

Great Madhyamaka

0 items

enlightened qualities

7 items

guṇapāramitā

3 items

Zhentong

106 items

gzhi

9 items

Hīnayāna

0 items

icchantika

4 items

Jonang

2 items

ka dag

0 items

Kadam

0 items

Kagyu

42 items

kleśa

4 items

universal ground

3 items

Kālacakra

0 items

lam rim

0 items

Madhyamaka

0 items

Mahāmudrā

0 items

Mahāyoga

0 items

Mahāyāna

0 items

Mahāyānottaratantraśāstravyākhyā

0 items

neyārtha

3 items

ngo bo

0 items

Analytic Tradition

0 items

nirmāṇakāya

0 items

niḥsvabhāva

2 items

niḥsvabhāvatā

0 items

nonconceptuality

3 items

Nyingma

0 items

nītārtha

4 items

original enlightenment

19 items

paramārthasatya

2 items

paratantrasvabhāva

2 items

parikalpitasvabhāva

2 items

pariniṣpannasvabhāva

3 items

paryudāsapratiṣedha

3 items

prabhāsvaracitta

17 items

luminosity

16 items

prajñā

4 items

Prajñāpāramitā

0 items

prakṛtisthagotra

2 items

pramāṇa

0 items

prasajyapratiṣedha

4 items

pratipakṣa

0 items

Pratyekabuddha

0 items

pratītyasamutpāda

13 items

pāramitā

3 items

Rangtong

35 items

causal continuum

1 items

Sakya

6 items

samudānītagotra

0 items

Sangpu Neutok

0 items

Sarma

0 items

emptiness endowed with all supreme aspects

2 items

saṃbhogakāya

0 items

saṃvṛtisatya

1 items

nature of mind

2 items

sugatagarbha

4 items

svabhāva

15 items

svasaṃvedana

8 items

sādhana

0 items

sūtra

0 items

tantra

21 items

tathatā

8 items

tathāgatagarbha

159 items

tattva

0 items

Ordinary Mind

7 items

thugs dam

0 items

tridharmacakrapravartana

9 items

trikāya

7 items

trisvabhāva

13 items

Three poisons

0 items

triyāna

5 items

Meditative Tradition

0 items

Uttaratantra

0 items

vajrapada

0 items

Vajrayāna

0 items

vinaya

0 items

viparyāsa

0 items

freed effect

0 items

Yogācāra

0 items

Adventitious stains - defilements

18 items

ālayavijñāna

29 items

ātmaka

0 items

ātman

35 items

obscurations

0 items

śrāvaka

0 items

emptiness

33 items

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