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From Buddha-Nature
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If [[People/Mi_pham_rgya_mtsho|Ju Mipam Gyatso]], who composed commentaries on many classical texts and articulated specific Nyingma philosophical positions on critical and popular topics in the Tibetan scholarly world, can be considered the father of Nyingma scholasticism, it was his disciples and followers who carried on this legacy and gave a sustained and strong philosophical voice for the Nyingma school. This can be seen in hermeneutics pertaining to buddha-nature, which was initiated by Mipam and later on reinforced by his followers, such as [[People/Bod_sprul_mdo_sngags_bstan_pa%27i_nyi_ma|Bötrul Dongak Tenpai Nyima]].
Bötrul, in his [[Texts/Stong_thun_gnad_kyi_zin_thun|''Notes on the Essential Points of Exegesis'']] (སྟོང་ཐུན་གནད་ཀྱི་ཟིན་ཐུན་), captures the gist of interpretations, analyses, and arguments which Mipam has presented in his writings, particularly in [[Texts/Bde_gshegs_snying_po%27i_stong_thun_chen_mo_seng%2Bge%27i_nga_ro|''Lion's Roar: Exposition of Buddha-Nature'']]. This concise and clear synopsis was initially written at the behest of Choying Rangdrol in Kham and later extended at Drigung Nyima Changra, when Bötrul taught there for a year. The crux of Mipam and Bötrul's exposition of buddha-nature and related literature and formulation of buddha-nature as a union of emptiness and luminosity is the two sets of two truths and the fourfold scheme of correct cognition. Mipam endorses the importance of distinguishing the two different sets of two truths in order to understand the intent of the many sūtras and their commentaries. The first set of two truths, which is well known particularly in the Mādhyamika literature, is two truths comprising emptiness and appearance (སྣང་སྟོང་བདེན་གཉིས་). In this context, emptiness is the ultimate truth and all knowable phenomena or appearances fall under the category of conventional truth. Buddha-nature, in this case, is a conventional truth just as the wisdom and qualities of the fully enlightened Buddha are. Emptiness, which is free from all extremes or elaborations, is the only real ultimate truth. The Buddha's middle turning of the wheel and the scholastic writings of Nāgārjuna, according to Mipam and Bötrul, focus on this set of two truths.
Mipam calls the second set the two truths of abiding/ontic and appearing/phenomenal modes (གནས་་སྣང་བདེན་གཉིས་). In this context, a thing for which its ontic existence and phenomenal appearance are consistent (གནས་ཚུལ་དང་སྣང་ཚུལ་མཐུན་པ་), such as the Buddha's wisdom, is the ultimate truth, while a thing for which its appearance does not conform with its ontic reality, such as the illusory experience of hell through misconception, is a worldly or conventional truth. Thus, buddha-nature, which is the innate nature of all beings, falls under the ultimate truth because it exists ontologically as it appears, whereas suffering, for instance, is a part of the conventional truth because it is an illusory experience triggered by adventitious afflictions and does not exist objectively.
In tandem with this distinction of two sets of two truths, Mipam and his followers also underscored the theory of fourfold correct cognition. Firstly, correct cognition is divided, as is popularly done, into two categories of the cognition examining the ultimate (དོན་དམ་དཔྱོད་བྱེད་ཀྱི་ཚད་མ་) and the cognition examining the conventional (ཐ་སྙད་དཔྱོད་བྱེད་ཀྱི་ཚད་མ་). The correct cognition discerning the ultimate is then divided into the correct cognition discerning the notational ultimate (རྣམ་གྲངས་པའི་དོན་དམ་) and the one discerning the non-notational ultimate (རྣམ་གྲངས་མ་ཡིན་པའི་དོན་དམ་). The first one apprehends merely the emptiness or absence of real existence, while the second is the awareness of emptiness free from all extremes or elaborations. The understanding of the lack of self-existence or hypostatic existence is considered only a partial emptiness and the notational ultimate. The real ultimate is said to transcend all points of fixation, mental constructions, and conceptual elaborations.
The correct cognition perceiving the conventional is also divided into two categories of the limited mundane cognition (ཚུར་མཐོང་ཚད་མ་) and cognition of pure discernment (དག་གཟིགས་ཚད་མ་). Ordinary phenomena such as the things of saṃsāra are objects of limited mundane cognition which does not have ontic reality. Thus, they fall within the conventional truth, while things associated with nirvāṇa, such as buddha-nature, which exist as the true nature of things, are objects of the latter. Because they are confirmed by the higher cognition of pure discernment or the pristine wisdom of the enlightened beings, these things are ultimately existent (དོན་དམ་པར་ཡོད་པ་).
The rejection of buddha-nature as the ultimate truth in the sūtras of the middle turning of the wheel and works of masters such as [[People/Candrakīrti|Candrakīrti]] is in the context of the first set of two truths. Buddha-nature is negated when examined by the cognition examining the ultimate truth in this context. Thus, buddha-nature is considered a provisional teaching. However, buddha-nature is part of the ultimate truth in the context of the second set of two truths as it is ascertained by the enlightened wisdom or cognition of pure discernment. Therefore, it is considered as a definitive teaching in the sūtras of the third turning of the wheel and in texts such as Maitreya's [[Texts/Ratnagotravibhāga_Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra|''Ultimate Continuum'']]. In this manner, Mipam and his followers adopt a hermeneutic approach to reconcile the divergent positions of the sūtras and classical Mādhyamika authors and claim them to be noncontradictory.
[[People/Rinchen,_Gendun|Gendün Rinchen]] alias Geshe Jyaku, the sixty-ninth Je Khenpo of Bhutan, is one of the most prolific monk-scholars Bhutan ever produced. A Bhutanese Buddhist luminary of the twentieth century, he has left behind an impressive literary legacy of nine volumes of compositions and commentarial literature, most of which he wrote while teaching in the shedra colleges in Bhutan. A scholar of great depth and vast knowledge, his works are marked by clarity and an exceptionally beautiful writing style, whether they are in prose or poetry. His creative play with words and lucid writing skills can be seen in his wit and humor-laden ''Biography of Drukpa Kunley'' and the very informative ''Religious History of Bhutan''.
On buddha-nature, Gendün Rinchen wrote a commentary on the [[Texts/Ratnagotravibhāga_Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra|''Ultimate Continuum'']] entitled [[Texts/Theg_pa_chen_po_rgyud_bla_ma%27i_tshig_don_rnam_par_bshad_pa_rin_chen_sgron_me|''Precious Lamp: A Literal Explanation of the Ultimate Mahāyāna Continuum'']]. In explaining the content of verses I.154 and 155, he clearly expresses his understanding of buddha-nature as a union of emptiness and luminosity endowed with latent qualities of the Buddha. He writes:
:If asked what is the ontic nature of the element which is taught to be unfathomed by others, this natural purity of the essence, which is free from stains, has no need for preexisting elements of flaws to be cleared because being free from all kinds of stains is the nature of this intrinsically empty [essence]. This natural luminosity of the essence, which is free from stains, has no need for new aspects of qualities to be maintained because possessing all qualities in an indivisible manner is the nature of this intrinsically luminous [essence].
He comments further:
:If asked what are the characteristics of such element, the naturally pure element is separable from the conditioned phenomena, which are divisible from it, because the afflictions which have arisen from the assembly of causes and conditions do not penetrate its innate character and the stains are empty of their nature, just like space. The pure element is inseparable from the unconditioned attributes of the Buddha, which are indivisible from it, because it naturally possesses the unsurpassable qualities of the Buddha, such as powers, and the qualities are not empty of their nature, just like the sun. It is empty of that which does not exist in it, thus transcending the extreme of exaggeration, and it is not empty of that which exists in it, thus transcending the extreme of denial, just as Maitreya has said: "What exists in it cannot be nonexistent and what does not exist can neither be existent."
Gendün Rinchen explicitly endorses a buddha-nature that is a union of emptiness and luminosity, but he also argues that the Buddha qualities which are latent in buddha-nature are not empty of their being. Thus, he adopts a position which is slightly different from the main advocates of self-emptiness and other-emptiness.
Can buddha-nature be instantly actualized at the time of death? Death, in Tibetan Buddhism, is seen as a powerful opportunity for enlightenment. As one’s bodily organs stop functioning and the support of the physical elements break down, one’s ordinary consciousness ceases to function. At this point one is said to go through a psychological and existential hiatus in which all thoughts, emotions, and activities momentarily come to a halt and the luminous nature of mind, the clear light, like a vast, clear sky, is laid bare and open. Those who become aware of this and rest in this state of the ground nature overcome the temporary obscurations and let their buddha-nature shine forth unobstructed and free forever. They are said to have actualized the pristine wisdom of the ground and remain in ''thugs dam'', a meditative equipoise at death.
Find more on buddha-nature and death in [[Texts/%27da%27_ka_ye_shes_kyi_%27chi_kha_ma%27i_man_ngag|'' ’Da’ ka ye shes kyi 'chi kha ma’i man ngag'']] by Mönlam Tsultrim, [[Books/The_Buddha_Nature:_Death_and_Eternal_Soul_in_Buddhism|''The Buddha: Death and Eternal Soul in Buddhism'']] by the 14th Dalai Lama, and [[Articles/Death,_Sleep,_and_Orgasm:_Gateways_to_the_Mind_of_Clear_Light|"Death, Sleep, and Orgasm: Gateways to the Mind of Clear Light"]] by Jeffrey Hopkins. +
Gampopa Sonam Rinchen was undoubtedly one of the earliest scholarly masters of the Kagyu school. He effectively combined the monastic and mind-training tradition of Kadam, in which he received his first training, with the tantric meditation tradition, which he received from [[People/mi_la_ras_pa|Milarepa]]. He left behind a rich collection of teachings and meditation instructions, among which his teachings known as the Four Dharmas of Gampopa (སྒམ་པོའི་ཆོས་བཞི་) stand out as very well-known axiomatic teachings.
His learned disciple [[People/La_yag_pa_byang_chub_dngos_grub|Jangchub Ngödup]] wrote down the four axiomatic instructions as it was taught to him in his work entitled ''Treatise Known as Four Dharmas of Incomparable Gampopa''. Jangchub Ngödup, from the southern region of Layak, also authored an extensive commentary on the instructions entitled ''Ornament Illuminating the Essence: A Commentary on the Famous Text, the Four Dharmas of the Incomparable Dakpo'' in which he presents buddha-nature as a definitive teaching and directly links it to Mahāmudrā. The four dharmas are presented as:
:1. ཆོས་ཆོས་སུ་འགྲོ་བ། Making dharma a [genuine] dharma practice
:2. ཆོས་ལམ་དུ་འགྲོ་བ། Turning dharma into the path
:3. ལམ་འཁྲུལ་པ་སེལ་བ། Clearing confusion on the path
:4. འཁྲུལ་པ་ཡེ་ཤེས་སུ་ཤར་བ། Seeing confusion as pristine wisdom
Jangchub Ngödup elaborates on these four points in great detail, providing a very rich array of citations and arguments to underscore his points. +
The [[Texts/Kālacakratantra|Kālacakra]] (དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ་) teachings, which were introduced to Tibet sometime around 1027 by Kyijo Lotsawa and fully translated by Dro Lotsāwa Sherub Drak and Ra Lotsāwa Chorab (leading to two early lineages), had a major impact on the tantric tradition in Tibet. The most common historical tradition claims that the Kālacakra teachings were imparted by the Buddha in Dhānyakaṭaka stūpa on the full moon of the Caitra month (the third month in Tibetan calendar today) in the year after he reached full enlightenment. According to another tradition, the Buddha gave these teachings in the final year of his life. The teachings were dispensed to a large gathering of disciples, including King Sucandra of Śambhala kingdom. King Sucandra is said to have taken the teachings to Śambhala where it flourished for many centuries.
Seven generations later, King Yaśas, who is believed to have been an emanation of Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, united the different subjects of his kingdom into a single Vajrayāna caste and composed the summarized version entitled ''Summarized King Kālacakra Tantra Extracted from the Supreme Primordial Buddha'', commonly known as the ''Summarized Kālacakratantra'', or ''Kālacakralaghutantra''. His son, Puṇḍarīka, who is considered to have been an emanation of Avalokiteśvara, composed the commentary on the ''Summarized Kālacakratantra'' entitled ''Vimalaprabhā'', or ''Stainless Light''. The original ''Root Tantra'', said to be 12,000 verses containing 384,000 syllables in length, is no longer extant, but many of its verses are cited in the ''Stainless Light''.
The ''Summarized King Kālacakra'' and its commentary ''Stainless Light'' were first passed down to India from where it was taken to Tibet in the eleventh century. Since its arrival, the Kālacakra teachings have not only changed the Tibetan concepts of time and space and informed its calendar and cosmology but also impacted the understanding and practice of Vajrayāna Buddhism. The ''tantra'', with five chapters discussing the concepts of external cosmology, internal sentient beings and energies, the rites of empowerment, instructions for deity yoga, and the cultivation of pristine wisdom, became one of the most encompassing and influential sources for Vajrayāna theory and practice and was embraced by all major traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, with many considering it a very advanced and superior form of tantric teachings.
The impact of the Kālacakra on the understanding of buddha-nature can be best seen in the explicit and emphatic teachings the Kālacakra text professes on the actualization of the blissful, empty, luminous nature of the mind, often referred to as the pristine wisdom of the fourth empowerment (དབང་བཞི་པའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་) and aroused through sexual yoga and control of energy fluids. It is this aspect of the Kālacakra teachings and the related sixfold yoga practices in the Kālacakra that inspired [[People/Dol_po_pa|Dolpopa]] to rise as a strong advocate of other-emptiness and formulate an absolutist understanding of buddha-nature. It is this aspect that also aroused [[People/Mi_pham_rgya_mtsho|Mipam Gyatso]] to praise the Kālacakra as exceptionally effective in revealing the innate nature of the mind.
More on the link between buddha-nature and "the image of emptiness" (སྟོང་གཟུགས་) in the Kālacakra and other-emptiness can be found in [[Media/Michael_Sheehy_at_the_2019_Tathāgatagarbha_Symposium|Michael Sheehy’s presentation at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium in Vienna]] and in Robert Thurman's explanation [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6_uwmxdgRg here].
Gö Lotsāwa Zhönu Pal was one of the most illustrious Tibetan scholars of the fifteenth century, not least for being the author of the famous historical work called [[Texts/Deb_ther_sngon_po|''Blue Annals'']]. This history gives a brief account of how the five works of Maitreya, including the ''Ultimate Continuum'', were transmitted in Tibet. Although not as well known as his historical work, Gö Lotsāwa also wrote a monumental commentary on the ''Ultimate Continuum'' and its ''vyākhyā'' entitled [[Texts/Theg_pa_chen_po_rgyud_bla_ma%27i_bstan_bcos_kyi_%27grel_bshad_de_kho_na_nyid_rab_tu_gsal_ba%27i_me_long|''The Commentary on the Treatise "Mahāyāna-Uttaratantra": The Mirror Showing Reality Very Clearly'']]. The work, amounting to nearly seven hundred folios, is most likely the longest commentary on the ''Ultimate Continuum'' to have ever been written and contains not only detailed philosophical interpretations and arguments but also historical accounts of how the ''Ultimate Continuum'' was transmitted in India and Tibet. The text contains rich citations from the canonical texts, including sūtras and tantras, Indian commentarial literature, and the works of many Tibetan scholars and masters. It is almost unique in blending the Indian sources and inspirational Tibetan writings on buddha-nature, particularly from the Kagyu tradition.
Styled on Indian commentarial writings and not laid out using the ''sa bcad'' outline which is the norm in Tibetan scholarship, Gö Lotsāwa presents the commentary in three main parts. The title, for which he gives an elaborate explanation of each word, is the first part and is the concise statement through which people of superior caliber can comprehend the content of the text. The second part consists of the first three verses of the ''Ultimate Continuum'', which present the summary of the content of the text. These verses are considered sufficient to give the complete picture of the content of the text for those of middling caliber. The first verse enumerates the seven ''vajra'', or adamantine, topics, which form the content of the ''Ultimate Continuum'', the second verse shows the sūtra sources for these topics, and the third verse presents how the seven topics are connected to each other in a rational and coherent manner.
The third and main part of the commentary is the explanation of the main text of the ''Ultimate Continuum'', in which Gö Lotsāwa first cites the verses and provides a very incisive and detailed explanation. This is said to be required for those of inferior mental caliber. Gö Lotsāwa presents an elaborate commentary on the verses, often exhibiting his ecumenical approach to bring all schools of Mahāyāna thought to a harmonious phase. With his knowledge of Sanskrit, he also compares the different translations and explains some concepts using original Sanskrit terms. For example, he states that the Tibetan term ''snying po'' (སྙིང་པོ་) is translated from the Sanskrit terms ''sāra'', ''hridaya'', ''garbha'' and ''maṇḍa''. While these can be used synonymously to refer to the same thing, ''sāra'' implies being the essence or center from which things emit, ''hridaya'' to the heart which is cherished, ''garbha'' to the seed or womb which remains at the core, and ''maṇḍa'' to the crux or center. His reading of the ''Ultimate Continuum'' in his commentary is said to be more aligned to the original Sanskrit than the versions currently available in the Tibetan Tengyur canons.
Another striking feature of his commentary is his merging of the two traditions of the scholastic commentarial tradition, or analytic tradition, passed down from [[People/Rngog_blo_ldan_shes_rab|Ngok Lotsāwa Loden Sherab]] and the meditative tradition passed down from [[People/Btsan_kha_bo_che|Tsen Khawoche]]. This is particularly palpable in his writing given his scholastic training under masters such as [[People/Tsong_kha_pa|Tsongkhapa]] and his deep connection to Mahāmudrā and the Kagyu tradition of [[People/Sgam_po_pa|Gampopa]]. While being very critical and scholarly in his exegetical approach, he frequently draws inspiration from the experiential teachings of meditation masters such as [[People/Sgam_po_pa|Gampopa]], Dampa Sangay, and [[People/%27bri_gung_skyob_pa_%27jig_rten_mgon_po|Drigung Kyobpa Jigten Sumgön]].
Gö Lotsāwa summarizes the meaning of buddha-nature in the scripture into four categories as (1) emptiness which is a nonimplicative negation, (2) the luminous nature of the mind, (3) the store consciousness, and (4) the bodhisattvas and sentient beings. His own understanding of buddha-nature is aligned to the second one, and he uses terms such as ''element of awareness'' (རིག་པའི་ཁམས་) and ''emptiness of awareness'' (རིག་པའི་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་) to refer to buddha-nature, which appears to be seen as a coalescence of emptiness and appearance.
The version of Gö Lotsāwa's commentary which was critically edited by Klaus-Dieter Mathes can be found [[Books/%27Gos_Lo_tsā_ba_gZhon_nu_dpal%27s_Commentary_on_the_Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā|here]].
Rongtön Sheja Kunrik alias Shakya Gyaltsen is one of the towering Sakya scholars who has left behind a rich corpus of commentaries on the five works of Maitreya. Among them, we find two works he composed pertaining to the ''Ultimate Continuum'': a full commentary entitled [[Texts/Theg_pa_chen_po_rgyud_bla_ma%27i_bstan_bcos_legs_par_bshad_pa | ''Elegant Explanation of the Treatise of the Ultimate Continuum of the Mahāyāna'']] and a short synopsis entitled [[Texts/Rgyud_bla_ma%27i_sgom_rim_mi_pham_dgongs_don |''Stages of Meditation of the Ultimate Continuum: Ornament of Maitreya's Intent'']], which contains instructions on how to put the ''Ultimate Continuum'' into practice. As one of the preeminent figures who shaped the philosophical assertions of the Sakya school, Rongtön presents a clear philosophical interpretation of the main topics discussed in the ''Ultimate Continuum''.
For instance, while discussing the Buddha among the Three Jewels and explaining the unconditioned nature of the Buddha, Rongtön explains that the concept of being unconditioned must be understood in four different ways: not being conditioned by causes and conditions like the compounded phenomena are, not being conditioned by actions and afflictive emotions like ordinary sentient beings are, not being conditioned by the birth with mental body and inconceivable death and transfer like the enlightened saints on the path are, and not appearing to be conditioned like the physical forms of the Buddha are. Thus, only the aspect of the Buddha's ultimate state which is the sphere of reality or emptiness is truly unconditioned in the first sense; even the cognitive aspect of the Buddha's enlightenment is conditioned.
While commenting on [[Texts/Ratnagotravibhāga_Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra/Root_Verses/Verse_I.154 | Verses I.154]] and [[Texts/Ratnagotravibhāga_Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra/Root_Verses/Verse_I.155 | 155]], Rongtön refutes the interpretation given by former scholars and explains that there are no real adventitious defilements to be overcome, as they are empty by nature, and the defilements are separable from buddha-nature by their nature. Similarly, the natural purity of the buddha-nature need not be maintained, as it is an inherent and inseparable quality of the mind. Thus, he understands buddha-nature to be the luminous nature of the mind, combining both emptiness and awareness, and claims that it is free from truly existent defilements but endowed with the natural purity which unfolds into the sublime qualities of the Buddha when fully enlightened. If it were merely the unconditioned nature of emptiness, it could not be the main cause of Buddha's wisdom.
Although Rongtön presents in his commentary an analytical and scholarly exegesis of the ''Ultimate Continuum'' following the tradition passed down from the famous translator [[People/Rngog_blo_ldan_shes_rab | Ngok Loden Sherab]], in his synoptic work on the practice of the ''Ultimate Continuum'' he lays out the structure in which this text can be put into practice. Firstly, one identifies the element/buddha-nature, which is the main cause of enlightenment, and the four obscuring thoughts and emotions, including aversion to dharma, view of self, fear of cyclic existence, and disregard for others' welfare. Then, one takes refuge in the Three Jewels to start the practice of the path to enlightenment and begins to cultivate the four antidotes to the four obscuring thoughts and emotions—namely, interest (seed), wisdom (mother), meditation (womb), and compassion (nanny). The path results in the state of enlightenment described as pure, self, permanent, and blissful. More on Rongtön’s commentary and the positions he held on buddha-nature and related topics can be read in Christian Bernert's [[Books/Perfect_or_Perfected%3F_Rongtön_on_Buddha-Nature | ''Perfect or Perfected? Rongtön on Buddha-Nature'']].
The philosophy of buddha-nature in Tibet is often thought to have been split into a dichotomy of the ''rangtong'', or self-emptiness, and ''zhentong'', or other-emptiness. The advocates of these two traditions are seen to present two contradictory interpretations of the Tathāgatagarbha sūtras. While the classic rangtong philosophers such as the mainstream Sakya and Geluk scholars consider the Tathāgatagarbha sūtras as provisional teachings, reject an intrinsically existent buddha-nature and the latent Buddha qualities in all sentient beings, and adopt a rationalist approach to the nature of the mind, the main zhentong thinkers such as the leading Jonangpa masters take the Tathāgatagarbha sūtras to be definitive teachings, accept innate buddha-nature endowed with all enlightened qualities of the Buddha, and primarily maintain a cataphatic, mystical approach to the nature of the mind. Apart from the followers of the Nyingma and Kagyu, who profess a kind of a middle ground between the two by accepting the emptiness and illusory state of buddha-nature while espousing also that it is fully endowed with the Buddha qualities, the followers belonging to the mainstream rangtong and zhentong camps are seen to oppose each other, not finding a common ground. Instead, the Jonangpas and Gelukpas accuse each other of adopting extremist views and faltering from the Middle Way philosophy.
Thus, it is intriguing that some Jonangpa masters in the twentieth century who were based in the Jonang establishments of Zamthang in eastern Tibet adopted an inclusive approach to reconcile the Gelukpa rangtong theories and [[People/Dol_po_pa|Dolpopa]]'s zhentong theories. One such scholar was [[People/Ngag_dbang_tshogs_gnyis_rgya_mtsho|Ngawang Tsoknyi Gyatso]], who was the author of ''Removing the Anguish of Holding to Extremes: Explanation of Omniscient Jonangpa's Madhyamaka of Other Emptiness'' and ''Illuminating Light: An Exegesis of Omniscient Jonangpa's Intent Aligned with General Treatises of Madhyamaka and Pramāṇa''. Perhaps influenced by his teacher [[People/Thub_bstan_dge_legs_rgya_mtsho|Bamda Thubten Gelek]], who had direct connections with Geluk teachers and is also considered to be an incarnation of the Geluk master Jamyang Zhepa, Tsoknyi Gyatso in these two writings on other-emptiness makes a concerted effort to bring Dolpopa's Jonangpa and Gelukpa understanding of emptiness and the ultimate to a noncontradictory phase using various hermeneutic tools. A substantive treatment of Tsoknyi Gyatso's inclusivistic and conciliatory interpretations has been carried out by [[People/Brambilla,_F.|Filippo Brambilla]] in his article [[Articles/A_Late_Proponent_of_the_Jo_nang_gZhan_stong_Doctrine:_Ngag_dbang_tshogs_gnyis_rgya_mtsho_(1880–1940)|"A Late Proponent of the Jo nang gZhan stong Doctrine."]]
At the end of his [[Texts/Kun_mkhyen_jo_nang_pa_chen_po%27i_dgongs_pa_gzhan_stong_dbu_ma%27i_tshul_legs_pa_bshad_mthar_%27dzin_gdung_%27phrog|''Removing the Anguish of Holding to Extremes'']], Tsoknyi Gyatso presents a synopsis of the [[Texts/Ratnagotravibhāga_Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra|''Ultimate Continuum'']], which effectively captures his understanding of the teachings on buddha-nature. He writes:
:As for presenting a short summary of the ''Ultimate Continuum'', this great treatise entitled the ''Ultimate Continuum'', which is primarily a major commentary on the last turning of the wheel, shows that a buddha element which is a naturally luminous and pure awareness, empty of hypostatic existence and primordially free from harsh characteristics of conceptuality, exists in all sentient beings without difference. It is obscured like treasure underneath the ground and butter lamp in a vase. Such an element is fully fathomed only by the Buddha and out of great compassion shown to the sentient beings, who are to be tamed, according to their mental capacity in the manner of cleansing a gem. In the first turning of the wheel, all appearances such as form are maintained as they appear and taught to be impermanent, suffering, empty and without self. These teachings show merely the techniques to approach liberation after the sentient beings have renounced saṃsāra and entered the path of liberation from saṃsāra.
:For those whose mindset is mature, the middle turning shows how all phenomena from form to the qualities aligned with enlightenment are by nature thatness which is free from all elaborations being empty of inherent existence, just like seeing the colorful rope as a snake. For those whose mindset is further matured through [the second turning] having confirmed the lack of elaborations or characteristics, the last turning shows how the sphere of reality which is empty of hypostatic existence and without the depth of characteristics is not a mere nonexistence when accessed by nonconceptual pristine wisdom free from elaborations. It is shown to possess all pure and ultimate aspects such as the marks, tokens, and strengths.
In recent decades, many Nyingma scholars and lamas have expressed jubilation in supposedly finding a commentary on the ''Ultimate Continuum'' by [[People/Klong_chen_pa|Longchenpa]], perhaps the most important figure for the systematization of Dzogchen thought and a leading patriarch of the Nyingma tradition. A commentary by a Nyingma master, especially by someone of Longchenpa's stature, would certainly add to the wealth of Nyingma philosophical literature and give Nyingmapas their own voice on important philosophical topics contained in the ''Ultimate Continuum''. The need for hermeneutics and clear interpretations of Indian classics became more evident as the Nyingma scholastic literature and study saw unprecedented development since [[People/Mi_pham_rgya_mtsho|Mipam]] wrote his scholastic commentaries and as interschool exposure and exchanges became heightened in the second half of the twentieth century. But the school did not have a thoroughgoing commentary on the ''Ultimate Continuum'' apart from the annotation and short exegesis by Mipam. A commentary from an authority like Longchenpa would have given Nyingmapas a clear and firm position to follow.
The commentary entitled [[Texts/Theg_pa_chen_po_rgyud_bla_ma%27i_bstan_bcos_kyi_nges_don_gsal_bar_byed_pa%27i_rin_po_che%27i_gron_me|''The Precious Lamp That Illuminates the Definitive Meaning of the Mahāyāna Uttaratantra Treatise'']] (ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་ངེས་དོན་གསལ་བར་བྱེད་པའི་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་སྒྲོན་མེ།) was written by someone called [[People/Gsang_phu_ba_blo_gros_mtshungs_med|Lodrö Tsungme]] of Sangpu Neutok monastery in the early part of the thirteenth century. As some Nyingma lamas, such as [[People/Gter_bdag_gling_pa_%27gyur_med_rdo_rje|Minling Terchen Gyurme Dorje]], considered Lodrö Tsungme to be another name for Longchenpa, and since Sangpu Neutok monastery was clearly Longchenpa's alma mater, there were reasonable grounds for them to attribute the commentary to Longchenpa. The commentary also mentioned the author being from the Ü region of Tibet, which Longchenpa was. In addition, there was a widespread rumor being passed down that Longchenpa had composed a commentary on the ''Ultimate Continuum''. The content of this commentary was also generally consistent with the philosophical views of Longchenpa found in his popular writings. [[People/Sherab,_Khenchen_Palden|Khenpo Palden Sherab]], a scholar based in New York, went on to claim that even the style of writing is that of Longchenpa and that the commentary is unmistakably the one authored by Longchenpa. He rejoices in the fact that the commentary, after over six hundred years, has come to light through the kindness of the great Nyingma figures.
Following Khenpo Palden Sherab's claims, the Ngagyur Nyingma College of Lhodrak Kharchhu Dudjomling monastery in Bhutan, in the preface to their publication of the commentary in 2014, laments how the text has remained inaccessible for nearly seven hundred years and adds that it has finally come to light through the kindness of Longchenpa and the merit of sentient beings. Namkhai Nyingpo Rinpoche recounts how he heard of the existence of a commentary on the ''Ultimate Continuum'' by Longchenpa as a young boy and how, in 1995 during the Nyingma Prayer Festival, he came across an important person who claimed to have a copy in his possession. He did not pursue the book then, but after many years he saw the book listed in the catalogue of the extensive edition of Kama teachings published in Kham. The Lhodrak Kharchhu edition was published after one of the teachers at his monastery downloaded the electronic version, most likely from the website of the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center. The text is reproduced in neat typeset, making it very accessible to readers, and it is clearly attributed to Longchenpa based on Khenpo Palden Sherab's claims. Even an annotation that reads "born in Yoru Draichatö drong" (གཡོ་རུ་གྲའི་ཆ་སྟོད་གྲོང་) is newly inserted while discussing the author's origin in Ü in order to specify the birthplace of Longchenpa.
The editors of the extensive Kama teachings in Tibet were, however, a little more scrupulous in their recent publication after having recognized an error they made previously. They first encountered a copy of the manuscript of this commentary in 1997 in Shechen monastery in Nepal with a note saying it was written by Longchenpa. In order to protect the text, which was at that time available only in a few copies, the editors included it in their new extensive edition of the Kama teachings published in 1999 in Tibet. However, as they delved deeper into codicological considerations and enhanced their textual preservation programs, it became clear that the commentary was composed by Lodrö Tsungme, the Kadampa scholar of Sangpu Neutok, who was an older contemporary of Longchenpa. For many reasons, including differences in the writing styles, they attributed the commentary to this Kadam scholar and excluded it from the collection of Longchenpa's writings, which they published as part of the ''Mes po'i shul bzhag'' series through dPal brtsegs bod yig dpe rnying zhib 'jug khang. Instead, they included the commentary within their ''bKa' gdams gsung 'bum'' series alongside other works of Lodrö Tsungme.
Both redactions of the commentary available as part of ''bKa' gdams gsung 'bum'' series from dPal brtsegs bod yig dpe rnying zhib 'jug khang in Tibet and the typeset version from Lhodrak Kharchhu monastery in Bhutan are based on the copy of the manuscript which is available from the Buddhist Digital Resource Center (numbered [https://www.tbrc.org/#!rid=W465 W465] on www.tbrc.org). This photo offset print of the book was published in 1974 by Tseten Dorji of Tibetan Nyingmapa monastery in Tezu, Arunachal Pradesh, India. According to the preface for the publication written in 1974, most likely by E. Gene Smith, the book was created by copying a manuscript in the library of Ri-bo-che Rje-drung and is described as "a beautiful but faded ancient piece of calligraphy with numerous bsdu-yig." The original manuscript was "unfortunately unsuitable for direct reproduction," and "a careful copy was prepared preserving the old orthography and checked several times against the original." The preface identified the author to be Lodrö Tsungme, a contemporary of [[People/Bu_ston_rin_chen_grub|Butön]], whose famous treatise [[Texts/Bde_gshegs_snying_po_gsal_ba%27i_rgyan|''Ornament That Illuminates and Beautifies the Tathāgata Heart'']] (བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་གསལ་ཞིང་མཛེས་པར་བྱེད་པའི་རྒྱན།) was triggered by Butön's philosophical discussions with Lodrö Tsungme.
Riwoche Jedrung, whose library contained the book, must be the 7th Riwoche Jedrung, Jampal Jungne (1856–1922), who lived in Pemakoe, a hidden land in Arunachal Pradesh, and was a staunch follower of both Nyingma and Kagyu traditions and a teacher of modern Nyingma masters such as [[People/Dudjom_Rinpoche|Dudjom Jigdrel Yeshe Dorje]] and [[People/Kangyur_Rinpoche|Kangyur Rinpoche]]. Yet, it is not clear how his library was created and where it was located. Thus, nothing can be said about the provenance and history of the original manuscript besides what the above-mentioned preface contains.
Similarly, not much is known about its author Lodrö Tsungme although a little more information has come to light in the recent decades. Buddhist Digital Resource Center has him registered him under the names Nyalpa Lodrö Tsungme (''gnyal ba blo gros mtshungs med'') and Sangpuwa Lodrö Tsungme (''gsang phu ba blo gros mtshungs med'') and his writings are found within first and third batches of ''bKa’ gdam gsungs ‘bum phyogs bsgrigs''. Although we do not have a biography for him, he is mentioned in a number of sources which helps us roughly place him in the late 13th and first half of the 14th century. He was the 14th throne holder of Lingme College at Sangpu Neutok monastery and well known for his scholarship on the five treatises of Maitreya (བྱམས་ཆོས་སྡེ་ལྔ་). He was student of Jamyang Śākya Zhönu and a teacher of the 1st Shamarpa Drakpa Sengge, Yakde Paṇchen Tsondru Dargye, and also of the 3rd Karmapa Rangjung Dorje according to the résumé in bKa’ gdam gsung ‘bum phyogs bsgrigs thengs dang po. His works include a commentary on the ''Bodhicaryāvatāra'', ''Madhyāntavibhāga'', a condensed exegesis of pramāṇa, an exposition on dedication of merit and an explanation of the precious vehicle. These works were recently discovered in the Neychu temple library of Drepung monastery and published as part of the ''bKa’ gdams gsung ’bum phyogs bsgrigs'' series.
With sparse knowledge of the author and manuscript and close affinity of content and writing styles between this text and writings of Longchenpa, can we then categorically say whether the author of this commentary, Lodrö Tsungme, is Longchenpa or not? The clear answer perhaps lies in the detailed reading of this commentary and the works of Longchenpa, which those who attributed this commentary to Longchenpa clearly did not do. A cursory search carried out by this author to verify certain orthographic issues for the current project of compiling a new edition of Longchenpa's writing has led to the following revelation. In the sixth chapter of the ''Great Chariot'', an auto-commentary on his [[Books/Finding_Rest_in_the_Nature_of_the_Mind|''Finding Rest in the Nature of the Mind'']], Longchenpa discusses the concept of the Three Jewels and refutes the interpretation of a certain lama.
:Here, a certain lama says that the followers of Mahāyāna claim the dharmakāya buddha, which one will attain, is the only thing that can protect one from even the fears of inferiority and fears of very subtle impurities, thus it is posited as resultant state of refuge. The followers of the vehicle of pratyekabuddhas claim the dharma jewel which is the realization that will naturally arise in one's mindstream in the future to be the result. Thus, that is posited as the resultant state of refuge. The followers of the vehicle of śrāvakas posit the saṅgha of arhats that will arise in one's mindstream in the future as the resultant state of refuge. Thus, the three vehicles are each said to have one resultant state of refuge. This is slightly not right.
:འདིར་བླ་མ་ཁ་ཅིག་ནི་ཐེག་ཆེན་པས་སྨན་[དམན་]པའི་འཇིགས་པ་དང་སྒྲིབ་པ་ཕྲ་ཤིང་ཕྲ་བའི་འཇིགས་པ་ལས་ཀྱང་སྐྱོབ་པར་བྱེད་པ་ནི་རང་གིས་ཐོབ་པར་འགྱུར་བའི་སངས་རྒྱས་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྐུ་ཅན་དེ་ཁོ་ན་ཡིན་པས་འབྲས་བུའི་སྐྱབས་གནས་སུ་བཞག་གོ། རང་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཐེག་པས་མ་འོངས་པ་ན་རང་རྒྱུད་ལ་རྟོགས་པ་རང་བྱུང་དུ་སྐྱེ་བར་འགྱུར་བའི་ཆོས་དཀོན་མཆོག་ནི་འབྲས་བུ་སྟེ། འབྲས་བུའི་སྐྱབས་གནས་སུ་བཞག་གོ། ཉན་ཐོས་ཀྱི་ཐེག་པས་རང་རྒྱུད་ལ་མ་འོངས་པ་ན་འབྱུང་བའི་དགྲ་བཅོམ་པའི་དགེ་འདུན་དེ་འབྲས་བུའི་སྐྱབས་གནས་སུ་བཞག་པས། ཐེག་པ་གསུམ་པོ་སོ་སོ་ལ་འབྲས་བུའི་སྐྱབས་གནས་ནི་རེ་རེ་ཡིན་ནོ་ཞེས་གསུངས་པ་ཡང་ཅུང་ཟད་མི་རིགས་ཏེ།
Longchenpa goes on to refute such claims and argues that followers of each vehicle consider their final state of enlightenment as the resultant state of refuge. This passage which Longchenpa cites as opposition in his ''Great Chariot'' can be found, with slight differences, in Lodrō Tsungme's commentary on page 165 of the BDRC redaction and on page 131 of the Lhodrak Kharchhu edition. Thus, by "a certain lama," Longchenpa is referring to the author of this commentary. This makes it very clear that this commentary was not written by the Nyingma master Longchenpa and that Longchenpa was fully aware, and perhaps also had a copy, of Lodrō Tsungme's commentary when he wrote his ''Great Chariot''.
However, this finding then leaves us with the same old question: Where can Longchenpa's commentary be found if he has written one? Are there any chances that it exists as many lamas believe? The chapter of finding Longchenpa's commentary on the ''Ultimate Continuum'' remains far from closed and the search must continue.
[[People/ShAkya_mchog_ldan|Paṇchen Śākya Chokden]] is perhaps the earliest Tibetan scholar to write a history of Madhyamaka thought. In his [[Texts/Dbu_ma%27i_byung_tshul_rnam_par_bshad_pa%27i_gtam_yid_bzhin_lhun_po_zhes_bya_ba%27i_bstan_bcos|''Discourse on the History of Madhyamaka entitled Wish-fulfilling Mountain'']] (དབུ་མའི་བྱུང་ཚུལ་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པའི་གཏམ་ཡིད་བཞིན་ལྷུན་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་བསྟན་བཅོས།), he defines what Middle Way is and presents the transmission of the different Middle Way schools of thought. At the outset he points out that all Buddhists follow the Middle Way, while the non-Buddhist philosophical systems fall to the extremes. Thus, the view of the Middle Way is a hallmark of the Buddhist system and explains how even the substantialist schools of thought, which include Cittamātra, claim to adopt a philosophical Middle Way.
The main topic of the text is the history of what is commonly known as the Madhyamaka school, which is considered the fourth and highest tenet system in the Tibetan scholarly world. Śākya Chokden divides this into two groups: the Yogacāra and the Niḥsvabhāvavādin. He argued that the former, based on the five treatises of Maitreya, adopted a Middle Way which is free from subject-object dualism and centered on the self-conscious nature of the mind. He emphatically distinguishes this from the view of Cittamātra, as the luminous or self-conscious mind, which constitutes the Middle Way in this tradition, is the sphere of reality or dharmadhātu, and not mere mind. The Niḥsvabhāvavādin, or proponents of lack of own-being, he argued, abided in the Middle Way by avoiding eternalism, as they argued that all phenomena do not truly exist, and by avoiding nihilism, as such negation is not forced through reasoning or other causes but is the true nature of things. In the course of this, he criticizes the interpretation given by later Tibetan scholars, that this Middle Way school abides in the Middle Way and avoids eternalism by rejecting hypostatic existence and avoids nihilism by accepting conventional existence.
Śākya Chokden also presents the Middle Way topic in the two categories of the nonanalytical Middle Way experienced through meditation (རྣམ་པར་མ་བརྟགས་པ་སྒོམ་པས་ཉམས་སུ་མྱོང་བའི་དབུ་མ་) and the analytical Middle Way which cuts the superimposition of characteristics (རྣམ་པར་བརྟགས་པ་མཚན་འཛིན་གྱི་སྒྲོ་འདོགས་གཅོད་པའི་དབུ་མ་). The former is equated with buddha-nature, pristine wisdom of reality, emptiness endowed with supreme aspects, etc., and taught in the third wheel and the tantras, while the latter, taught primarily in the Perfection of Wisdom sūtras of the Middle Wheel, is identified with the emptiness established by study, emptiness which is a nonimplicative negation, emptiness which excludes aggregates, etc. He also classifies Middle Way into a) the Middle Way system of all phenomena without own-being taught in scholastic works of Nāgārjuna, b) the Middle Way system of propounding the absolute as nature taught in the works of Maitreya, and c) the Middle Way of the tantras.
Having discussed the different understandings of the Middle Way, Śākya Chokden presents the history of Middle Way thought in India and Tibet. He begins the history in India with a claim that Saraha, who is a slightly early contemporary of Nāgārjuna, spread the teachings of the Middle Way through his songs, although Nāgārjuna is generally considered the pioneer of the Middle Way school. This is then followed by his account of how the Middle Way traditions from Nāgārjuna and Maitreya and the Middle Way of secret mantra first spread in India and was later propagated in Tibet. He gives the names of the many masters who advocated the different interpretations of the Middle Way philosophy and championed the various subschools of Middle Way thought. While presenting the gist of their interpretation, Śākya Chokden also refutes the later Tibetan interpretations, most of which are associated with the new Gelukpa school.
Śākya Chokden’s history, written at the behest of the [[People/Karmapa,_7th|7th Karmapa, Chödrak Gyatso]], is perhaps the earliest Tibetan record giving a fairly detailed account of the masters of the Middle Way, their students, seats, and philosophical positions. He also amply demonstrates his own inclination for the Middle Way of other-emptiness and the espousal of the Great Middle Way, or innate reality qua buddha-nature, which is absolute and empty of only temporary afflictions and impurities. The full text can be viewed [[Texts/Dbu_ma%27i_byung_tshul_rnam_par_bshad_pa%27i_gtam_yid_bzhin_lhun_po_zhes_bya_ba%27i_bstan_bcos|here]].
The ''Ultimate Continuum'', the main classic on the theory of buddha-nature in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, is considered to be a commentary on the last turning of the wheel of dharma. According to the Indo-Tibetan Mahāyāna tradition, the teachings of the Buddha are classified into three successive turnings or pronouncements (བཀའ་འཁོར་ལོ་རིམ་པ་གསུམ་). Based primarily on the content and purport and only secondarily on the time of the sermons, the three wheels are the first wheel of pronouncements on the four noble truths (བཀའ་འཁོར་ལོ་དང་པོ་བདེན་པ་བཞིའི་ཆོས་འཁོར་), the middle wheel of pronouncements on absence of characteristics (བཀའ་འཁོར་ལོ་བར་པ་མཚན་ཉིད་མེད་པའི་ཆོས་འཁོར་), and the last wheel of pronouncements on proper differentiation (བཀའ་འཁོར་ཐ་མ་ལེགས་པར་རྣམ་པར་ཕྱེ་བའི་ཆོས་འཁོར་).
The first wheel or set of sermons is said to have been delivered to a general audience—including followers of both Mahāyāna and Śrāvaka vehicles—and to have contained topics commonly accepted by most followers of the Buddha. It was kicked off at Deer Park in Varanasi, when the Buddha gave the sermon on the four noble truths to the five ascetics. The second wheel or set of teachings is said to have been delivered on Vulture Peak and other places mainly on the topic of emptiness or absence of characteristics or self-existence about a year after the Buddha gave his first sermon. The teachings mainly include what is known as the Perfection of Wisdom sūtras, which deal with the cultivation of the wisdom that discerns reality or the way things are. The final wheel is composed of teachings delivered at places such as Vaiśālī and Kushinagara on the topic of the ultimate and provisional truths and on how to distinguish different realities. Sūtras on buddha-nature generally fall into the category of this final wheel.
For this reason, the ''Ultimate Continuum'' is considered a commentarial treatise which synthesizes and encapsulates the purport of the sūtras of the third wheel and highlights the differentiation of different realities. Yet, the ''Ultimate Continuum'' also contains verses which capture the gist of the teachings belonging to the first and second wheels. As the world observes the day of the Buddha’s first sermon on the four noble truths, it is worth noting that Verse IV.52 of the ''Ultimate Continuum'' contains one of the most succinct explanations of the four noble truths using the medical analogy.
:vyādhir jñeyo vyādhihetuḥ praheyaḥ svāsthyaṃ prāpyaṃ bheṣajaṃ sevyam evam/<br>duḥkhaṃ hetus tannirodho ’tha mārgo jñeyaṃ heyaḥ sparśitavyo niṣevyaḥ//
:ནད་ནི་ཤེས་བྱ་ནད་ཀྱི་རྒྱུ་ནི་སྤང་བྱ་ལ། །<br>བདེ་གནས་ཐོབ་བྱ་སྨན་ནི་བསྟེན་པར་བྱ་བ་ལྟར། །<br>སྡུག་བསྔལ་རྒྱུ་དང་དེ་འགོག་པ་དང་དེ་བཞིན་ལམ། །<br>ཤེས་བྱ་སྤང་བྱ་རེག་པར་བྱ་ཞིང་བསྟེན་པར་བྱ། །
:Just as a disease is to be known, the cause of the disease is to be relinquished,<br>The state of well-being is to be attained, and medicine is to be relied upon,<br>Suffering, [its] cause, its cessation, and likewise the path, respectively,<br>Are to be known, to be relinquished, to be reached, and to be relied upon.
Similarly, Verse IV.46 talks about how the shower of the right eightfold path is released from the vast cloud of the Buddha’s compassion.
:śītaṃ svādu prasannaṃ mṛdu laghu ca payas tat payodād vimuktaṃ/<br>kṣārādisthānayogād atibahurasatām eti yadvat pṛthivyām//<br>āryāṣṭāṅgāmbuvarṣaṃ suvipulakaruṇāmeghagarbhād vimuktaṃ/<br>santānasthānabhedād bahuvidharasatām eti tadvat prajāsu//
:ཇི་ལྟར་བསིལ་དང་ཞིམ་དང་འཇམ་པ་དང་། །ཡང་བའི་ཆུ་ནི་སྤྲིན་དེ་ལས་ཐོན་པ། །<br>ས་ལ་བ་ཚ་ལ་སོགས་གནས་འབྲེལ་བས། །ཤིན་ཏུ་མང་པོའི་རོར་ནི་འགྱུར་བ་བཞིན། །<br>དེ་བཞིན་འཕགས་པའི་ཡན་ལག་བརྒྱད་ཆུའི་ཆར། །རབ་ཡངས་བརྩེ་སྤྲིན་སྙིང་པོ་ལས་ཐོན་པ། །<br>འགྲོ་བའི་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་གནས་ཀྱི་དབྱེ་བ་ལས། །རྣམ་པ་མང་པོའི་རོ་དང་ལྡན་པར་འགྱུར། །
:Cool, sweet, clear, soft, and light is the rain that is released from clouds,<br>[But] it assumes a great many tastes due to coming in contact with places on earth that are full of salt and so on.<br>Likewise, the rainwater of the eightfold [path of the] noble ones that is released from being contained in the vast cloud of compassion<br>Assumes many kinds of tastes due to the differences in the places that are the mind streams of beings.<br>
(English translations of the verses from ''[[When the Clouds Part]]'')
The sūtras on buddha-nature use a large number of similes and analogies to illustrate the existence of buddha-nature in all sentient beings. The ''Ultimate Continuum'', following the ''Tathāgatagarbhasūtra'', explains nine similes. However, in the ''Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra'' one can find an interesting simile of mother's milk. The Buddha compares the teachings on buddha-nature to mother's milk—the main and best nourishment that a sick child may have to be deprived of temporarily while going through medication for an illness. ''Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra'', Derge 119, folio 104 states:
:The Blessed One said: O son of noble family. For example, a woman has a child who is ill. The woman, at that time, summons a doctor, and the doctor feeds the child medicine mixed with butter and sugar and instructs the woman to not breastfeed the child until the medicine has melted. The woman, in order to stop the child from breastfeeding, puts a paste of neem and tells the child that her breast is anointed with poison and he should not breastfeed. The child, out of thirst, would think of breastfeeding, but sensing the smell and taste of neem, would cry and give up until the medication is done. When the medication is over, the mother would wash the two breasts with water and tell the child: "Son, you can breastfeed now." The child would cry and resist breastfeeding with the fear of poison. He would not even look at them. The mother would then explain: "Earlier, with the fear of you becoming more ill or dying, the breasts were anointed with neem paste until the medication was over. Now, you can suckle." The child would gradually breastfeed.
:O son of noble family. In the same way, previously, for the sake of the beings to be tamed, just as the medicine with butter for the child has to be melted, the monks have to destroy the view of the world, have to show properly the greatness of going beyond the world, have to show properly the falsity of worldly truth of the self, and have to purify the body through meditation on non-self, I have instructed the monks "meditate on all phenomena being without self, by doing so self-clinging will be eliminated, having eliminated self-clinging totally, one can reach nirvāṇa." Just as the mother of the child has anointed her breasts with the paste of neem, I have also said: "meditate on all phenomena being without self and empty." Just as the mother of the child washed her breasts and said "Earlier, I have anointed the breasts with neem and stopped you from suckling. Now you can suckle," in the same way, I have also, in order to turn people away from worldly matters, taught there is no self. Now, I teach buddha-nature exists. O monks. Not being scared like the child, just as the child investigated and again suckled, in the same way, O monks, investigate to see there is buddha-nature, meditate on it, and persevere. I have shown you this.
Buddha-nature, like breast milk, is shown to be the true and ultimate nourishment, and the teachings of non-self and emptiness are considered to be provisional teachings dispensed, like neem paste, to turn people away from worldly desires and afflictions.
The ''Zhentong Chenmo'', or ''Fearless Lion's Roar: The Tradition of Jonang Which Ascertains the Profound Meaning of the Supreme Vehicle of Cause and Result'' (རྒྱུ་དང་འབྲས་བུའི་ཐེག་པ་མཆོག་གི་གནས་ལུགས་ཟབ་མོའི་དོན་རྣམ་པར་ངེས་པ་རྗེ་ཇོ་ནང་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་རིང་ལུགས་འཇིགས་མེད་གདོང་ལྔའི་ང་རོ།), is perhaps the last great work to be written on buddha-nature, particularly highlighting its interpretation in association with the philosophy of zhentong, or other-emptiness. Commonly known as the ''Zhentong Chenmo'', or ''Great Other-Emptiness'', this treatise is a work of [[People/Ngag_dbang_blo_gros_grags_pa|Ngawang Lodrö Drakpa]] (1720-75), a luminary of the Zamthang monastery in Amdo. Ngawang Lodrö Drakpa, also known as Mati Rinpoche, was a leading scholar of Jonang centers in Zamthang in the twentieth century and was considered an incarnation of great Jonang hierarchs such as [[People/Dol_po_pa|Dolpopa]] and [[People/TA_ra_nA_tha|Tāranātha]], although he himself mentions the 8th Tsechu Ratnakīrti, who requested him to compose this work, as the incarnation of Dolpopa.
Ngawang Lodrö Drakpa studied with leading Jonangpa figures of his time and composed many works which today fill ten volumes of his collected writings. Most of his works were transcribed by his disciple Ngawang Yonten Zangpo, who not only served as the scribe for this work but also made offerings to Ngawang Lodrö Drakpa requesting him to compose it. He started the composition of this work on the 10th day of the 5th Tibetan month, 1965 and completed it in the 7th month of the same year in Zamthang, months before the horrific destruction of the Cultural Revolution started to take place across China.
Composed at the cusp of tragic cultural and religious persecution in Tibet, the Zhentong Chenmo is the most outstanding philosophical work by Ngawang Lodrö Drakpa, presenting his detailed explanation and arguments for zhentong philosophy espoused by the Jonang school. Alongside Dolpopa's [[Texts/Ri_chos_nges_don_rgya_mtsho_zhes_bya_ba_mthar_thug_thun_mong_ma_yin_pa%27i_man_ngag|''Mountain Doctrine'']] and Tāranātha's [[Texts/Theg_mchog_shin_tu_rgyas_pa%27i_dbu_ma_chen_po_rnam_par_nges_pa|''Thoroughly Ascertaining the Great Middle Way of the Expansive Supreme Vehicle'']], the treatise today ranks among the most authoritative writings on zhentong philosophy of the Jonang school. The work starts with the discussion of the three wheels and delves into the topic of the ground reality, or ''zhi'', by discussing it through ten different modes. He points out how Ngok Lotsāwa understood buddha-nature as emptiness which is a nonimplicative negation, [[People/Sa_skya_paN%2BDi_ta|Sakya Paṇḍita]] took buddha-nature to be an emptiness free from elaborations, [[People/Bu_ston_rin_chen_grub|Butön]] equated it with store-consciousness, and Dolpopa, whose tradition he follows, defines buddha-nature as the innate pristine awareness which has all qualities of the Buddha latent in it. [[People/Sheehy,_M.|Michael Sheehy]]'s [[Books/The_Gzhan_stong_Chen_mo|"The Gzhan stong Chen mo: A Study of Emptiness according to the Modern Tibetan Buddhist Jo Nang Scholar 'Dzam Thang Mkhan Po Ngag Dbang Blo Gros Grags Pa (1920–75)"]], comprehensively renders this section of the book while also providing clear and insightful contextual information on this work, its author, and the tradition.
The work is generally laid out, as shown in the author's own outline, into the ground, path, and fruition for both the exoteric sūtra system and the esoteric tantric system. In order to substantiate his claims in both systems, the author provides scriptural citations and references as well as rational arguments in support of his philosophical position. The philosophical presentation is interspersed with poetic composition at the conclusion of the chapters. While the work clearly promotes the philosophical position of the Jonang tradition, Ngawang Lodrö Drakpa also adopts a very respectful and ecumenical approach and acknowledges in the colophon that the ultimate intent of the different traditions in India, which were received from [[People/Nāgārjuna|Nāgārjuna]] and [[People/Asaṅga|Asaṅga]], and the different traditions in Tibet, including the Kagyu, Sakya, Nyingma and Geluk received through their respective founding fathers, all converge in the ultimate understanding of the Great Definitive Middle Way (ངེས་དོན་དབུ་མ་ཆེན་པོ་). Thus, all teachings are seen as noncontradictory and all texts as instructions leading to the realization of the ultimate buddha-nature.
The book is available online in two versions. Digital copies of the old pecha published from xylographic blocks made in 1999 in Zamthang Samdrup Norbuling monastery are available through the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center [https://library.bdrc.io/show/bdr:W19762 (W19762)], and copies of the more recent edition in book format published by the Tibetan Buddhist College of Yonghegong Temple in Beijing are also available. The latter is an incomplete and almost verbatim reproduction of the former but attributed to Ngawang Lodrö Drakpa's disciple and scribe Ngawang Yonten Zangpo. It also does not contain texts from f.4 to f.32 in the former version and differs significantly toward the end of the book. Thus, the book published in Beijing must have relied on an exemplar which is incomplete, while the former contains the complete text with a long colophon and information on the publication and also artistic renderings of deities at the beginning and end.
The Three Jewels form one of the fundamental concepts in Buddhism. The Buddha as the teacher, his teachings, or the Dharma, as the path, and his followers, or Sangha, as the companion are known as ''triratna'' in Sanskrit, ''triratana'' in Pali, and ''könchosum'' (དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་, Wyl. ''dkon mchog gsum'') in Tibetan. The Sanskrit term ''ratna'' and Pali ''ratana'' means jewel, gem, or treasure. The Tibetan word ''köncho'' literally means rare and supreme. Why are the Buddha, his teachings, and his followers considered to be jewels or to be rare and supreme? What is the reason behind the term ''Three Jewels'' or ''Triple Gem''?
The ''Ratnagotravibhāga'', which is a treatise on the spiritual gene of the Three Jewels, states in [[Texts/Ratnagotravibhāga_Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra/Root_Verses/Verse_I.22|Verse l.22]] that they are considered jewels or gems because they are rare, stainless, powerful, supreme, immutable, and ornaments of the world. Find more translations and explanations of this verse [[Texts/Ratnagotravibhāga_Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra/Root_Verses/Verse_I.22|here]]. +
[[People/Klong_chen_pa|Longchenpa]], or Longchen Rabjampa Drime Õzer, is undoubtedly the most influential philosopher of the Nyingma school and the main promoter of the teachings of Nyingthig (སྙིང་ཐིག་), or Seminal Quintessence. He was a scholar, poet, and mystic of phenomenal caliber, and it was for his vast learning that he was given the honorary title of Longchenpa (ཀློང་ཆེན་པ་), or "Vast One," by Tai Situ Jangchub Gyaltsen, the Tibetan ruler of his time.
Longchenpa synthesized the Buddhist teachings in general and Dzogchen thought in particular for the Nyingma school and left behind a large literary legacy which includes the Seven Treasures (མཛོད་བདུན་), Trilogy of Self-Liberation (རང་གྲོལ་སྐོར་གསུམ་), Trilogy of Relaxation (ངལ་གསོ་སྐོར་གསུམ་), and Seminal Quintessence in Four Parts (སྙིང་ཐིག་ཡ་བཞི་). Although we do not have a commentary on the ''Ultimate Continuum'' by Longchenpa (see the June 2021, Week 3 post in this blog for more discussion on this), he has commented on the most critical verses, including Verses I.128, 154, and 155 of the ''Ultimate Continuum'' in his other writings. As a prolific writer on the theory and practice of Dzogchen, the topic of buddha-nature appears in most of his writings in the context of the ultimate nature of the mind which one needs to realize and the ground reality from which the phenomenal world and empirical experience arise.
Longchenpa blends the sūtra presentation of buddha-nature with the esoteric exposition of the spontaneous primordial ground in the tantras. He uses terms such as ''essence'', ''element'', ''spiritual gene'', ''innate mind'', ''pristine wisdom'', ''vajra mind'', ''primordial ground'', ''the ultimate'', ''ground gnosis'', ''sphere of reality'', ''Middle Way'', ''nondual truth'', ''thatness'', ''Perfection of Wisdom'', etc., to refer to the same luminous nature of mind which is buddha-nature. His exposition on buddha-nature occurs most saliently in three of his main writings. In his [[Books/Finding_Rest_in_the_Nature_of_the_Mind|''Relaxation in the Nature of Mind'']], Longchenpa deals with buddha-nature in the opening verse while paying homage to the ultimate truth, in chapter 9 while discussing the generation-stage- and completion-stage practices, and in chapter 10 on the topic of wisdom which comprehends the ground reality free from the two extremes. He presents buddha-nature as the ground maṇḍala, which forms the basis of temporary confusion, while at the same time being the uncontrived, unborn, unchanging nature of the mind to be realized on the path. Ordinary beings do not perceive this buddha-nature, but bodhisattvas on the stages see it partially and the buddhas see it fully.
In his [[Texts/Grub_mtha%27_mdzod|''Treasury of Tenet Systems'']], Longchenpa carries a more detailed exegesis of the buddha-nature in chapter 4 on the spiritual gene required for the practice of Mahāyāna path. He cites several sūtras and many critical verses from the ''Ultimate Continuum'', on which he comments to make clear his interpretation of buddha-nature teachings. He considers buddhahood as being identical with buddha-nature latent in all sentient beings and argues that buddhahood is a result which is revealed rather than a fruit which is cultivated and produced. Thus, all qualities of the Buddha are primordially present in the nature of all sentient beings.
Similarly, in chapter 1 of his ''Treasury of Wishfulfilling Jewel'', he expounds the theory of buddha-nature as the primordial ground from which both nirvāṇa and saṃsāra arise. In chapter 18 he discusses the abiding nature of reality, which is the ultimate truth, and presents the experiences of saṃsāra as temporary illusions arising from adventitious misconception.
Buddha-nature is understood to be the empty, luminous nature of things which abides as the ontic reality in all sentient beings and is free from all fabrications. Using the terms from the sūtras teaching buddha-nature and the ''Ultimate Continuum'', he characterizes buddha-nature as the ultimate pure, eternal, blissful self. He considers the teachings on buddha-nature which form part of the third wheel as definitive teachings, which expound the same ground nature presented in both the sūtra and tantra literature. In summary, he writes in the ''Treasury of Wishfulfilling Jewel'':
:འོད་གསལ་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་སྟེ། །སྟོང་གསལ་རིག་པ་དབྱེར་མེད་ཆོས་ཉིད་དོ།།<br>The luminous buddha-nature is indivisible reality<br>Which is spontaneous, empty, and clear awareness.
His presentation on buddha-nature theory and associated practices in his writings became the most authoritative references which determine the interpretation of buddha-nature theory and practice in the Nyingma tradition to this day.
The Middle Way promoted by the Buddha has been a subject of much interpretation and debate. From a simple understanding of it as a way of seeking moderation in lifestyle to a highly sophisticated notion of going beyond all concepts and cognitive fixations, the Middle Way (Madhyamaka, དབུ་མ།) has come to mean different things to different people in different contexts. It is one of the most popular Buddhist terms with a wide range of varying and even contradictory meanings. Different masters and schools of thought use the term to delineate their distinct philosophical and moral theories and approaches.
In his major work on the philosophy of other-emptiness entitled [[Texts/Theg_mchog_shin_tu_rgyas_pa%27i_dbu_ma_chen_po_rnam_par_nges_pa|''Thoroughly Ascertaining the Great Middle Way of the Expansive Supreme Vehicle'']] (ཐེག་མཆོག་ཤིན་ཏུ་རྒྱས་པ་དབུ་མ་ཆེན་པོ་རྣམ་པར་ངེས་པ་), [[People/TA_ra_nA_tha|Tāranātha]], the famous Jonang scholar and acclaimed historian, lists some fourteen different ways of understanding the Middle Way. His treatise features as one of the three most important works on the Jonang philosophy of other-emptiness, alongside [[People/Dol_po_pa|Dolpopa]]'s [[Texts/Ri_chos_nges_don_rgya_mtsho_zhes_bya_ba_mthar_thug_thun_mong_ma_yin_pa%27i_man_ngag|''Mountain Doctrine'']] and [[People/Ngag_dbang_blo_gros_grags_pa|Ngawang Lodrö Drakpa]]'s [[Texts/Gzhan_stong_chen_mo|''Fearless Lion's Roar'']]. It is an extensive work in verse that includes verbatim citations of many critical and controversial verses from authoritative Indian works.
His student [[People/Kun_dga%27_ye_shes_rgya_mtsho|Yeshe Gyatso]] compiled the [[Texts/Theg_mchog_shin_tu_rgyas_pa%27i_dbu_ma_chen_po_rnam_par_nges_pa%27i_rnam_bshad_zin_bris_dbu_phyogs_legs_pa|''Commentarial Notes'']] (རྣམ་བཤད་ཟིན་བྲིས་) on Tāranātha's treatise after receiving the teachings from Tāranātha. The ''Commentarial Notes'', now available in Volume 10 of the Jo nang dPe tshogs series published by Pe cin mi rigs dpe skrun khang in 2007, and in Volume 43 of the ''Jo nang rje btsun tā ra nā tha'i gsung 'bum dpe bsdur ma'', from the Mes po’i shul bzhag series of dPal brtsegs bod yig dpe rnying zhib ’jug khang in 2008, is a long prose commentary on Tāranātha's treatise, which is a verse composition. The colophon of this commentary reports that the commentary on the last two chapters were either never written or were lost in the transmission process. Thus, Lobzang Chogdrub Gyatso composed the commentary on the last two chapters in Wood Horse year, 1894, at a hermitage in upper Tsakho.
Tāranātha and Yeshe Gyatso explain that there are two main categories of the Middle: the Middle which is the topic to be understood/realized and the Middle which is the path that understands/realizes the topic. The first also subsumes what are commonly presented as Middle of the ground and the Middle of the result. If the Middle is about avoiding the extremes of thought and practice such as eternalism and nihilism, singularity and plurality, arising and ceasing, etc., then the ultimate Middle is the state of absolute reality which transcends all these and is the sphere of pristine wisdom. Only someone who fathoms such reality can understand the true Middle, avoid the pitfalls of extremes, and grasp also the entire Mahāyāna system. Then, Tāranātha goes on to list the different notions of the Middle starting from the Middle of practical application.
:1. The Middle of the right lifestyle, which avoids the extremes of self-indulgent decadence and self-mortifying austerity.<br>2. The Middle of the right conduct, which adopts what has to be adopted and avoids what is to be relinquished.<br>3. The Middle of the right practice, which combines both calm abiding and insight meditation and avoids the extreme of relying only on either one of them.
Coming to the philosophical Middle of the view, he enumerates:
:4. The Middle of the view of non-self, which avoids the extreme of eternalism by rejecting a true, personal self, creator, etc., and avoids the extreme of nihilism by accepting undeniable empirical experience of dependently originated phenomena.<br>5. The Middle of the view of mindstream, which avoids the extreme of eternalism by rejecting a static, permanent store-consciousness and avoids the extreme of nihilism by accepting a store-consciousness which is a transient and momentary stream.<br>6. The Middle with regard to conventional truth, which avoids the extreme of eternalism by rejecting that imputed things have essential nature or self-existence and avoids the extreme of nihilism by accepting the illusory appearance of imputed phenomena.<br>7. The Middle associated with the yogi practitioners, which avoids the extreme of eternalism by rejecting the true existence of external material phenomena and avoids the extreme of nihilism by accepting the diverse appearance of external things to the mind.<br> 8. The Middle of notational ultimate, which avoids the extreme of eternalism by rejecting the true existence of external and internal phenomena and avoids the extreme of nihilism by accepting the subject-object appearance of things.<br>9. The Middle of absolute reality, which avoids the extreme of eternalism by rejecting the true existence of imputed and dependent phenomena and avoids the extreme of nihilism by accepting the true existence of absolute reality.<br>10. The Middle pertaining to two truths, which avoids the extreme of eternalism by rejecting the existence of all conventional and relative phenomena on the level of the ultimate truth and avoids the extreme of nihilism by accepting the diverse appearance of all conditioned phenomena on the level of the conventional truth.
The Middle with regard to the state of result is presented in four ways.
:11. The Middle of purpose, in which the pristine wisdom, representing benefit for one self, is free from all fabrications and thus eliminates the extreme of eternalism while the illusory activities, representing benefit for others, engages in the welfare of beings and eliminates the extreme of nihilism.<br>12. The Middle of the enlightened body, in which the truth body being free from all fabrications eliminates eternalism, and the form body appearing interrupted in many forms eliminates nihilism.<br>13. The Middle of the enlightened qualities, in which qualities such as the ten powers are of singular nature in being free from fabrications and thus eliminates eternalism while the myriad display of the Buddha's qualities eliminates nihilism.<br>14. The Middle of the enlightened activities, in which the lack of contrived effort and elaborate actions eliminate the extreme of eternalism while the magic-like, effortless engagement of the Buddha in the world eliminates the extreme of nihilism.
Tāranātha and Yeshe Gyatso finally state that to argue all phenomena are totally empty of self-existence is a nihilistic view and to argue that even the emptiness of self-existence is empty of its nature is a gravely nihilistic view. Through this, Tāranātha points out the ''zhentong'' view that the ultimate nature of the mind, the buddha-nature, the ground of all existence, the supreme self, the universal reality, the Great Middle, is absolute and real, while all conventional phenomena as conceived by ordinary consciousness is unreal and empty of true nature.
Both at the beginning and end of the treatise, Tāranātha extols this ''zhentong'' understanding, or the Great Middle Way. To paraphrase, he writes that it is better to engage in this teaching even for a moment than to engage in other teachings for eons (ཆོས་གཞན་བསྐལ་པར་སྤྱོད་ལས་ཀྱང་། །འདི་ནི་ཡུད་ཙམ་སྤྱད་པའང་མཆོག།). This profound and vast teaching is the fortune of some supreme intelligent ones and not within the reach of many who claim to be learned and highly accomplished practitioners. It is preferable to read the Perfection of Wisdom sūtras with faith in this system once than to read them with the view of the ''rangtong,'' or self-emptiness, for eons. One who honors the books by Maitreya on his crown is closer to enlightenment than someone who engages in the erudite works of the ''rangtong'' philosophers for a hundred years. Tāranātha claims it is proven that those who endeavor in the ''rangtong'' system cannot even stop rebirth in the lower realms, but those who have mere faith in this ''zhentong'' system take rebirth in the celestial realms without any effort. "Strive on this path if you have the fortune (སྐལ་བཟང་ཡོད་ན་ལམ་འདིར་འབད་པར་རིགས།།)" Tāranātha advises his readers in the final verse of his influential work.
The general claim among Buddhist scholars about the philosophical sūtra vehicle (མདོ་མཚན་ཉིད་ཐེག་པ་) is that it takes three countless eons (1 followed by 59 zeros) for the bodhisattva with superior caliber and many more for those of mediocre and inferior caliber to reach perfect enlightenment, or buddhahood. The Vajrayāna path, or the vehicle of secret mantra (གསང་བ་སྔགས་ཀྱི་ཐེག་པ་), on the other hand, is considered to be swift and advantageous, with the possibility of bringing forth enlightenment in one lifetime or within sixteen lifetimes at the latest if one follows all the dos and don'ts. Thus, the Vajrayāna path is known as the fast path (མྱུར་ལམ་).
The [[Texts/Dam_chos_dgongs_pa_gcig_pa|''Single Intention'']] of the Drikung Kagyu, however, makes a bold and unusual claim that even the sūtra vehicle can bring about buddhahood in one lifetime. The ''locus classicus'' of Buddhist doctrine for the Drikung tradition, the ''Single Intention'' is a compendium of critical philosophical, soteriological, and moral positions taught by the Drikung master [[People/%27bri_gung_skyob_pa_%27jig_rten_mgon_po|Jikten Gönpo]] and written down by his disciple and nephew [[People/%27bri_gung_spyan_snga_shes_rab_%27byung_gnas|Sherab Jungne]]. The text contains 150 critical vajra words (རྡོ་རྗེའི་གསུང་) in seven groups (ཚོམས་), along with another 47 appended points (ལྷན་ཐབས་). The root text composed by Sherab Jungne has seen several commentaries, including one by the first Drikung Chungtsang [[People/Drikung_Chungtsang,_1st|Chökyi Drakpa]] which has been translated by [[People/Viehbeck,_M.|Markus Viehbeck]] and [[People/Sobisch,_J.|Jan-Ulrich Sobisch]].
The 150 vajra words include many startling and controversial claims, including the assertion that one can attain buddhahood in one lifetime through the sūtra vehicle. Chökyi Drakpa writes in his commentary:
:བཅུ་གཉིས་པ་ནི། རྒྱུ་མཚན་ཉིད་ཀྱི་ཐེག་པས་ཀྱང་ཚེ་གཅིག་གིས་འཚང་རྒྱ་བར་བཞེད་པ་ནི། རང་གི་སྐལ་བ་དང་བསོད་ནམས་ཀྱི་མཐུ་ཡོད་ཅིང་། བླ་མ་མཚན་ལྡན་གྱིས་བསྟན་པའི་ལམ་ཚང་ལ་མ་ནོར་བ་དང་། རང་གིས་ཉམས་ལེན་བརྩོན་པ་རྨད་དུ་བྱུང་བ་ཞིག་སྟེ། རྒྱུ་ཚོགས་དེ་རྣམས་འཛོམས་ན་མཚན་ཉིད་ཐེག་པས་ཀྱང་ཚེ་གཅིག་ལ་ཡང་འཚང་རྒྱ་བ་འོང་ལ། རྒྱུ་ཚོགས་དེ་རྣམས་མ་འཛོམས་ན་སྔགས་ཀྱི་ཐེག་པས་ཀྱང་ཚེ་གཅིག་ལ་འཚང་རྒྱ་བ་མི་འགྲུབ་ལ། གཙོ་བོར་རྒྱུ་ཚོགས་དེ་འདྲ་བ་འཛོམས་པ་གལ་ཆེ་བ་སྟེ། ཞིབ་པ་སྔར་སྡོམ་པ་གསུམ་འཆད་པའི་སྐབས་སུ་བཤད་གྲུབ་བོ།།
:As for the twelfth point of asserting that even the causal philosophical vehicle can bring forth buddhahood in one lifetime, if one has the fortune and power of merit, an authentic teacher teaches the complete and correct path, one shows exceptional efforts in practice — if the assembly of causes is present, even the philosophical vehicle can reach one to buddhahood in one lifetime. If the assembly of causes is not present, even the mantra vehicle cannot take one to buddhahood. It is important primarily for such assembly of causes to be present. It has been explained in detail while explaining the three vows.
[[People/%27gos_lo_tsA_ba_gzhon_nu_dpal|Gö Lotsāwa Zhönu Pal]] wrote one of the most elaborate commentaries on the [[Texts/Ratnagotravibhāga_Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra|''Ultimate Continuum'']] sometime in 1473 according to his biography. In this, he expounded an ecumenical theory of buddha-nature. A few years later, he finished his renowned historical work, the [[Texts/Deb_ther_sngon_po|''Blue Annals'']], in which he included a lot of information on the transmission of buddha-nature teachings. The following section on the Tsen tradition of the exposition of the ''Ultimate Continuum'' gives rich information on the transmission of buddha-nature teachings in Tibet. (''Bod kyi lo rgyus rnam thar phyogs bsgrigs'', Ziling: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, vol. 14, p. 338-40 and ''Deb ther sngon po'', Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, Vol. 1, pp. 422-25.)
བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་བྱམས་པའི་ཆོས་ལྔ་པོ་འདི་ལ། ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་ཆེན་པོ་བློ་ལྡན་ཤེས་རབ་དང་བཙན་ཁ་བོ་ཆེ་གཉིས་གསན་སའི་བླ་མ་སཛྫནར་གཅིག་ཀྱང་། གཞུང་གི་བཤད་པའི་ཚུལ་ནི་མི་འདྲ་བར་སྣང་སྟེ། དེ་ཡང་བཙན་ལུགས་ཀྱི་ལོ་རྒྱུས་ལ། ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མ་དང་ཆོས་ཆོས་ཉིད་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པ་གཉིས་པཎྜི་ཏ་གཞན་ལ་ཡང་མ་གྲགས། རྗེ་མེེ་ཏྲི་པས་མཆོད་རྟེན་ཞིག་གི་སེར་ཁ་ནས་འོད་འབྱུང་གི་འདུག་པ་གཟིགས་པས་ཆོས་གཉིས་པོའི་དཔེ་བྱུང་། དེ་ནས་རྗེ་བཙུན་མ་ཕམ་པ་ལ་གསོལ་བ་བཏབ་པས་སྤྲིན་གྱི་མཐོངས་སུ་བྱོན་ཏེ། དེ་གཉིས་ལེགས་པར་གནང་། མེེ་དྲི་པས་པཎྜི་ཏ་དགའ་བའི་གྲགས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ལ་བཤད། དགའ་བའི་གྲགས་པས་སྤྲང་པོའི་ཆ་བྱད་ཀྱིས་ཁ་ཆེར་བྱོན། སཛྫ་ནས་དགའ་བའི་གྲགས་པ་ངོ་མཚར་ཅན་དུ་གཟིགས་ཏེ་བསྙེན་བཀུར་ནས་གཞུན་གཉིས་པོའི་བཤད་པ་ཞུས་ཤིང་། དཔེ་ཡང་ཁ་ཡར་བྲིས་ནས་མཁས་པ་ཛྙཱན་ཤྲཱི་ལ་སོགས་པ་ལ་ཕུལ།
Although the translator [[People/Rngog_blo_ldan_shes_rab|Loden Sherab]] and [[People/Btsan_kha_bo_che|Tsen Khawoche]] have the same teacher, [[People/Sajjana|Sajjana]], from whom they received the teachings on the five works of Buddha Maitreya, their explanation of the texts appear to be different. As for the story of the Tsen tradition, the [[Texts/Ratnagotravibhāga_Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra|''Ultimate Continuum'']] and the [[Texts/Dharmadharmatāvibhāga|''Distinguishing Phenomena and Their Nature'']] were not known to other scholars. Lord [[People/Maitrīpa|Maitripa]] found the texts of these two works when he investigated the light shining out of a crack in the stūpa. Then, he prayed to Lord Maitreya, who appeared in the clouds and gave teachings on these two texts. Maitripa explained them to Paṇḍita Anandakīrti. Anandakīrti visited Kashmir in the guise of a beggar, and Sajjana, who found him amazing and offered him services, received teachings from him on the two texts. Some copies of texts were also written and offered to the scholar [[People/Jñānaśrīmitra|Jñānaśrī]] and others.
དེ་ཡང་བཙན་ཁ་བོ་ཆེ་དེ་གྲྭ་པ་མངོན་ཤེས་ཀྱི་མཁན་བུ་ཡིན་པས། ཁ་ཆེར་འབྱོན་ཁར་མཁན་པོ་ལ་གཏོར་མ་ཞུས་པས། མཁན་པོའི་ཞལ་ནས། ཁྱོད་ཁ་ཆེ་ནས་མ་འཁོར་བར་ལ་སོ་ན་བ་ཙམ་ཡང་མི་ཡོང་བར་ངས་ཁག་ཁུར་ཅིག་གསུངས་ནས། ལྕགས་མོ་བྱ་ལོ་པ་ལོ་ལྔ་བཅུ་རྩ་དྲུག་བཞེས་པ་ཞིག་ཁ་ཆེར་ཕྱིན་པ་ཡིན་པས། སཛྫ་ན་ལ། ད་ང་རྒས་པས་ཆོས་མང་པོ་མི་ལོབས། བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་བྱམས་པའོ་ཆོས་ལ་འཆི་ཆོས་བྱེད་པས་དེའི་བཤད་པ་ཡང་དག་པ་ཞིག་གནང་བར་ཞུ་ཞེས་ཞུས། སཛྫ་ནས་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་གཟུ་དགའ་བའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་ལ་བཅོལ་ནས། བཙན་ཁ་བོ་ཆེ་ལ་གདམས་པ་དང་བཅས་པ་གནང་ཟེར། དེ་དུས་སུ་གཟུས་བྲིས་བྱས་པའི་རྒྱུད་བླ་མ་ལ་ཡིག་ཆ་ཡང་ཡོད་པར་འདུག པདྨ་སེང་གེ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་ཞིག་ལ་ཡང་བཙན་དང་བཤད་པ་མཐུན་པར་བྱུང་འདུག་སྟེ། དེས་ཀྱང་སཛྫ་ན་ལ་གཏུགས་པའི་སྐབས་ཀྱི་ཟིན་བྲིས་བྱས་པའི་མདོ་སྡེ་རྒྱན་གྱི་ཊཱིཀ་ཆེན་པོ་ཞིག་ཀྱང་སྣང་ངོ་། །
Tsen Khawoche was a pupil of Drapa Ngonshe. He asked his master for torma [ritual protection] before departing to Kashmir, to which his master said: "Until you return from Kashmir, may I guarantee that not even a toothache will befall you." At the age of 56, Tsen, who was born in the Iron Bird year, went to Kashmir. He submitted to Sajjana: "I am old and cannot train in many dharmas. I shall adopt the teachings of Lord Maitreya as my dharma for dying. Please grant me authentic teachings on them." Sajjana is said to have given teachings including instructions to Tsen Khawoche, relying on [[People/Gzus_dga%27_ba%27i_rdo_rje|Zu Gawai Dorje]] as translator. There seems to be some documents on the ''Ultimate Continuum'' written by Zu at that time. A translator named Pema Singye also appears to have received the same teachings as Tsen. There appears to exist also a commentary by him on the [[Texts/Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārakārikā|''Ornament of Mahāyāna Sūtras'']], for which he too notes when he studied with Sajjana.
བཙན་གྱིས་རྔོག་ལོ་ཙཱ་བའི་སྔ་རོལ་དུ་བོད་དུ་ཕེབས། གནས་ཐ་དད་པ་རྣམས་སུ་ཇི་ལྟར་རིགས་པར་དགེ་བའི་བཤེས་གཉེན་དོན་དུ་གཉེར་བ་རྣམས་ལ་བྱམས་ཆོས་ཀྱི་བཤད་པ་མཛད། ཕན་ཡང་ཆེ་བར་བྱུང་། དེའི་གནས་གཞི་ནི་ཡར་སྟོད་ཀྱི་བྲག་རྒྱ་ཡིན། དེས་དགེ་བའི་བཤེས་གཉེན་ལྕང་ར་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ལ་གསུངས། དེས་འཕྱོས་ཀྱི་མདོ་སྡེ་སྦུག་པ་དར་མ་བརྩོན་འགྲུས་ལ་བཤད། དར་མ་བརྩོན་འགྲུས་ཀྱི་མདོ་སྡེའི་རྒྱན་ལ་ཊཱི་ཀ་ཆེ་བ་ཞིག་ཀྱང་མཛད་དེ། དེའི་གླེགས་བམ་ནི་མང་དུ་སྣང་། རྒྱུད་བླ་མ་ལ་བཙན་ལུགས་ཀྱི་ཊཱི་ཀ་ཡིན་ཟེར་བའི་མཛད་པ་པོ་མ་སྨོས་པ། བཤད་པ་རྣམས་མན་ངག་ཉམས་ལེན་ཁོ་ན་དང་སྦྱར་བ་ཞིག་ཀྱང་སྣང་། བཙན་ལུགས་ཀྱི་མན་ངག་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་བཞགས་ལ་སོགས་ཡིག་ཆུང་ཡང་འགའ་ཡར་འདུག དིང་སང་ལུགས་དེ་དགེ་བའི་བཤེས་གཉེན་འདི་ལ་བཞུགས་སོ་བྱ་བ་ནི་མ་ཐོས།
Tsen came to Tibet before the translator Ngok and gave teachings on the works of Maitreya to interested scholars in different places as was appropriate. This resulted in great benefits. His base was in Drakgya in Yartö, and he taught the scholar Changrawa, who taught it to Dode Bukpa Darma Tsöndru. Darma Tsöndru wrote a major commentary on the [[Texts/Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārakārikā|''Ornament of Mahāyāna Sūtras'']], of which there are many books. There exists also a commentary on the ''Ultimate Continuum''—written by an unnamed author—which claims to follow the Tsen tradition and blends the explanation with instructions for practice. There also exists some notes on the instructions according to Tsen tradition, such as Abode of Pristine Wisdom (ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་བཞག་ས་). However, we do not hear of this tradition held by any scholar nowadays.
དེ་ཡང་རྔོག་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་བློ་ལྡན་ཤེས་རབ་ནས་རིམ་པར་བརྒྱུད་པའི་མཁས་པ་མང་པོས་ཊཱི་ཀ་ཡང་མཛད། དེ་ལ་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་ཆེན་པོ་དང་སློབ་དཔོན་གཙང་ནག་པ་ནི་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་དོན་དམ་པའི་བདེན་པ་ལ་ཟེར་མོད་ཀྱི། དོན་དམ་པའི་བདེན་པ་ནི་སྒྲ་དང་རྟོག་པའི་དངོས་ཀྱི་ཡུལ་མ་ཡིན་པ་ལྟ་ཞོག ཞེན་པའི་ཡུལ་ཙམ་ཡང་མ་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུང་། སློབ་དཔོན་ཕྱྭ་པ་ནི་དངོས་པོ་རྣམས་བདེན་པས་སྟོང་པའི་མེད་པར་དགག་པ་ནི་དོན་དམ་པའི་བདེན་པ་ཡིན་ཞིང་། དེ་སྒྲ་རྟོག་གི་ཞེན་པའི་ཡུལ་དུ་ཡང་བཞེད།
Many of the scholars who held the transmission from the translator Ngok Loden Sherab even composed commentaries. In this context, the great translator and the master Tsang Nakpa claimed that what is called buddha-nature is the ultimate truth and such ultimate truth is not even the referential object of thought and language, let alone being a direct object. The master Chapa asserted that the nonimplicative negation (that is, all phenomena being empty of true existence) is the ultimate truth, and such [ultimate truth] is a referential object of thought and language.
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། རྗེ་བཙུན་རེད་མདའ་བས་དང་པོར་རྒྱུད་བླ་མ་སེམས་ཙམ་གྱི་བསྟན་བཅོས་སུ་མཛད་ནས་སེམས་ཙམ་དང་མཐུན་པའི་ཊཱི་ཀ་ཡང་མཛད། ཕྱིས་དབེན་པ་བསྟེན་ནས་ནི། དེ་ཕྱིར་རང་སེམས་རིག་སྟོང་དབྱེར་མེད་འདི། །སེམས་ཅན་ཀུན་ལ་ཁྱབ་པར་ཡོད་གཟིགས་ནས། །ས་འོག་གཏེར་དང་སྦྲུམ་མའི་མངལ་སོགས་དཔེས། །འགྲོ་ཀུན་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་ཅན་དུ་གསུངས། །ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་མགུར་བླངས།
The adherents of the Tsen tradition espouse the luminous nature of the mind to be buddha-nature, and that is a vigorous seed of buddhahood. [[People/Red_mda%27_ba_gzhon_nu_blo_gros|Lord Rendawa]] initially considered the ''Ultimate Continuum'' to be a treatise of the Mind Only school and even wrote a commentary according to the Mind Only philosophy. Later, he took up the hermetic life and proclaimed the hymn:
:Thus, this mind, which is indivisible awareness and emptiness,<br>Is seen to pervade all sentient beings<br>And, through analogies of underground treasure, pregnant woman’s womb and so forth,<br>It was taught that all sentient beings possess buddha-nature.
སྤྱིར་བྱམས་པའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་[ཕྱི་]མ་གཉིས་པོ་འདི་རྗེ་བཙུན་མེེ་ཏྲི་པས་གསར་དུ་རྙེད་པ་ནི་བདེན་པ་འདྲ་སྟེ། བརྒྱད་སྟོང་འགྲེལ་ཆེན་སོགས་སུ་དབུས་དང་མཐའ་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པ་དང་། མདོ་སྡེའི་རྒྱན་ནས་ལུང་དྲངས་ཤིང་། བསྟན་བཅོས་ཕྱི་མ་གཉིས་པོའི་ལུང་ཅུང་ཟད་ཀྱང་མ་དྲངས་པར་སྣང་བའི་ཕྱིར་རོ།། ཁ་ཆེ་པཎ་ཆེན་གྱིས་ཀྱང་སྲིན་པོ་རིར་བྱམས་ཆོས་ལྔའི་མན་ངག་གནང་ཟེར་བ་ནི་འདུག དིང་སང་ནི་དེའི་སྒྲ་མི་གྲག་གོ། ཀུན་མཁྱེན་ཇོ་མོ་ནང་པས་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་བདེན་རྟག་ཏུ་ཁས་བླངས་པ་ནོར་རོ་ཞེས་ཁ་ཟེར་བ་དག་ཡོད་ཀྱང་། རྒྱུད་བླ་མ་ཡི་དམ་དུ་བྱེད་པ་དབུས་གཙང་ན་མང་དུ་འདུག་པ་རྣམས་ནི་ཁོང་གི་དྲིན་ལས་ཡིན་པས་སྣང་ངོ་།། རྒྱུད་བླ་མ་འགྲེལ་པ་དང་བཅས་པ་ཇོ་བོ་དང་ནག་ཚོས་ཐོག་མར་བསྒྱུར། དེ་ནས་རྔོག་ལོ། སྤ་ཚབ་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ། ཡར་ཀླུངས་ལོ་ཙཱ་བ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་བསྒྱུར། ཇོ་ནང་ལོ་ཙཱ་བས་གཞུང་རྐྱང་ལ་འགྱུར་མཛད། མར་པ་དོ་པས་བྱམས་ཆོས་ལྔ་ཀ་ལ་འགྱུར་མཛད་ཡོད་ཅེས་ཀྱང་ཟེར་རོ།། བྱམས་ཆོས་བཙན་ལུགས་ཀྱི་སྐབས་སོ།།
In general, it seems true that these two [later] treatises of Maitreya were newly obtained by Maitripa. In the ''Great Commentary on 8000 Verses'', there are citations from [[Texts/Madhyāntavibhāga|''Distinguishing the Middle from the Extremes'']] and the [[Texts/Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārakārikā|''Ornament of Mahāyāna Sūtras'']], but there are no traces of citations from these two later treatises. There is a claim that the Kashmiri paṇchen gave instructions on the five works of Maitreya at Srinpori, but there is not a word of that today. There are some who say that the omniscient [[People/Dol_po_pa|Jomonangpa]] assertion of buddha-nature as real and permanent is wrong. Yet, it appears that it is thanks to him that there are many who hold the ''Ultimate Continuum'' dear in the Ü and Tsang areas. Lord [[People/Atiśa|[Atiśa]]] and [[People/Nag_%27tsho_lo_tsA_ba_tshul_khrims_rgyal_ba|Naktso]] first translated the ''Ultimate Continuum'' and its commentary. Then, [[People/Rngog_blo_ldan_shes_rab|Ngok Lotsāwa]], [[People/Pa_tshab_lo_tsA_ba_nyi_ma_grags_pa|Patsab Lotsāwa]], and [[People/Yar_klungs_lo_tsA_ba_grags_pa_rgyal_mtshan|Yarlung Lotsāwa]] translated it. It is said [[People/Jo_nang_lo_tsA_ba_blo_gros_dpal|Jonang Lotsāwa]] also translated the main text and [[People/Mar_pa_do_pa_chos_kyi_dbang_phyug|Marpa Dopa]] translated all five works of Maitreya. This is the section on the Tsen tradition of Maitreya's works.
In 1838, [[People/Chos_dbyings_stobs_ldan_rdo_rje|Choying Tobden Dorje]], one of the leading Nyingma figures of the Amdo region, completed his encyclopedic work entitled the [[Texts/Mdo_rgyud_rin_po_che%27i_mdzod|''Treasury of Precious Sūtras and Tantras'']]. This multivolume work is today being translated into English by [[People/Zangpo,_N.|Ngawang Zangpo]], [[People/Dorje,_G.|Gyurme Dorje]], and Heidi Nevin, and published in the ''Complete Nyingma Tradition from Sutra to Tantra'' series. Choying Tobden Dorje was one of the four leading students of the first Dodrup Jigme Thinley Özer and thus a teacher of the Nyingthig tradition. Following the model of [[People/%27jigs_med_gling_pa|Jigme Lingpa]]'s [[Texts/Yon_tan_rin_po_che%27i_mdzod_dga%27_ba%27i_char|''Treasury of Precious Qualities'']] and [[People/Klong_chen_pa|Longchenpa]]'s ''Treasury of Wish-Fulfilling Jewel'', Choying Tobden Dorje presents the entire span of the Buddhist path in twenty-five chapters starting from following a virtuous teacher and culminating in the Dzogchen tradition of which he was a staunch advocate and practitioner.
After discussing the type of teachers, etiquette for studying, four points of mind turning, and taking refuge in the first seven chapters, Choying Tobden Dorje discusses bodhicitta and the ground Madhyamaka in the process of which he discusses buddha-nature.
:དེ་ལྟར་སྐྱབས་འགྲོའི་སྡོམ་པ་གཞི་བཟུང་ནས། །ཐེག་ཆེན་སེམས་མཆོག་བསྐྱེད་ལ་རིགས་ཁམས་དོན། །ཤཱཀྱ་ཐུབ་པས་སྣ་ཚོགས་འཁོར་རྣམས་ལ། །ལྷ་དང་ཀླུ་ཡི་གནས་ལ་སོགས་པ་ནས།། འཁོར་ལོ་ཐ་མ་དོན་དམ་ངེས་པ་བསྟན། །སྔ་འགྱུར་ཕལ་ཆེན་དཀོན་བརྩེགས་མྱང་འདས་མདོ། །གཟུངས་ཀྱི་དབང་ཕྱུག་སེང་གེ་ང་རོའི་མདོ། །བུ་མོ་རིན་ཆེན་ལྷ་མོ་དྲི་མེད་མདོ། །སོར་ཕྲེང་བྱམས་ཞུས་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོའི་མདོ། །ལ་སོགས་དགུ་བཅུ་གསར་འགྱུར་ཉི་ཤུ་བཞི། །དགོངས་པ་འགྲེལ་པའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་བཅུ་ཕྲག་བཞི། །དོན་དམ་བདེན་པ་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་ཡི། །སྣང་བའི་ཡོན་ཏན་སྐུ་དང་ཞིང་ཁམས་དང་། །སྟོང་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན་སྟོབས་བཅུ་མི་འཇིགས་སོགས། །ཡེ་ནས་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་འགྱུར་མེད་རང་རིག་ཁམས། །གློ་བུར་གཟུང་འཛིན་ལས་ཉོན་འཁྲུལ་པས་བསྒྲིབས། །
:Having thus the foundation of vows of taking refuge<br>In order to generate the thought of great vehicle<br>The Buddha has taught the topic of gene or element<br>Which constitutes the last wheel of definitive ultimate truth<br>To various disciples in the lands of gods and nāgas.<br>Among the early translations are ninety sūtras including Avataṃsaka,<br>Ratnakūṭa, Mahāparinirvāṇa, Dhāraṇīśvara, Siṃhanādasūtra,<br>Ratnadārikā, Vimalaprabhabparipṛcchā<br>Aṅgulimālīya, Maitreyaparipṛcchā and Tathāgatagarbhasūtra.<br>Among new translations are twenty-four.<br>There are forty commentarial treatises.<br>The ultimate truth that is buddha-nature<br>Has features of appearance such as enlightened bodies and realms<br>And features of emptiness such as ten powers and four forms of fearlessness.<br>The immutable self-aware gene, which has qualities primordially and naturally present,<br>Is obscured by the adventitious, dualistic, deceptive afflictions and actions.
:སྒྲིབ་ཀུན་སངས་ཚེ་དྲི་མེད་ཡོན་ཏན་རྒྱས། །འགྲོ་བ་ཡོངས་ལ་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོས་ཁྱབ། །རིགས་སད་རྟགས་སུ་སྲིད་ཞིའི་སྐྱོན་ཡོན་མཐོང་། །ཡོན་ཏན་རྒྱ་ཆེ་སྲིད་པའི་མཚོ་ལས་སྒྲོལ། །ཆོས་དབྱིངས་རྟེན་དང་སྣང་བ་བརྟེན་པ་དང་། །མ་དག་དག་པ་ཤིན་ཏུ་དག་པའི་རིགས་། །མར་དང་མར་མེ་ནོར་བུ་གསེར་དང་འབྲུ། །ཤིང་འབྲས་དཔེ་དྲུག་གཞི་ལམ་འབྲས་བུའི་ཚུལ། །པདྨའི་སྦུབས་ཀྱི་སངས་རྒྱས་སྦྲང་མ་སྦྲང་། །སྦུན་པའི་འབྲས་བུ་འདམ་རྫབ་ནང་གི་གསེར། །ས་འོག་གཏེར་དང་ཤུན་པའི་མྱུ་གུ་དང་། །གོས་རུལ་ནོར་བུ་མངལ་གྱི་མི་བདག་དང་། །ས་ཡིས་བཏུམ་པའི་གསེར་སྟེ་དཔེ་དོན་དགུ །དབྱིངས་དང་སངས་རྒྱས་སྙིང་པོ་ཁམས་དོན་དམ། །འོད་གསལ་སྟོང་ཉིད་ཤེར་ཕྱིན་དེ་བཞིན་ཉིད། །ཁམས་ཡོད་མོས་པ་ཕྱོགས་རེ་མངོན་གྱུར་པ། །སྐྱོན་དང་འདུས་བྱས་ཀྱིས་སྟོང་ཡོན་ཏན་རྫོགས། །ཉེས་པ་ལྔ་སེལ་སྤྲོ་བརྩོན་གཞན་དོན་འགྲུབ། །
:When the obscurations are cleared, the stainless qualities shine.<br>The buddha-nature pervades all sentient beings.<br>As signs of awakening, flaws of saṃsāra and qualities of liberation are seen.<br>The qualities, being vast, will deliver beings from the ocean of existence.<br>The sphere of reality is the support and appearance is what is supported.<br>The gene comes in impure, pure, and very pure phases.<br>Six analogies of butter, lamp, gem, gold, grains, and fruits<br>Illustrate it in relation to the ground, path, and fruition.<br>Nine analogies showing the point are a buddha image in a bud,<br>Honey within the bees, grain in the husk,<br> Piece of gold in the mud, an underground treasure,<br>A shoot in the bark, a gem in a rag,<br>A monarch in the womb, and gold covered by earth.<br>It is the sphere, the essence of buddhas, the element, the ultimate,<br>The luminous, emptiness, perfection of wisdom and reality.<br>The element is believed to exist, seen partially, and fully realized.<br>It is empty of flaws and conditioned things but complete with enlightened qualities.<br>It removes the five faults, and inspires interest, diligence, and benevolent actions.
He unpacks these concise verses on buddha-nature, as with the rest of the treatise, through a summary, a word-for-word commentary, and then an elaborate exegesis which fills five volumes in its most recent publication by Sitron Mirig Petrun Khang.
In three short works in the seventeenth volume of his Collected Writings, [[People/ShAkya_mchog_ldan|Śākya Chokden]] discusses his understanding of Mahāmudrā as presented by [[People/Sgam_po_pa|Gampopa]] through the latter's practical instruction of the Single White Remedy (སྨན་དཀར་པོ་གཅིག་ཐུབ་).
In the first book entitled [[Texts/Phyag_rgya_chen_po_gsal_bar_byed_pa%27i_bstan_bcos_tshangs_pa%27i_%27khor_los_gzhan_blo%27i_dregs_pa_nyams_byed|''Undermining the Haughtiness of Others by the Wheel of Brahma: A Treatise Clarifying Mahāmudrā'']] (ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་གསལ་བར་བྱེད་པའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཚངས་པའི་འཁོར་ལོས་གཞན་བློའི་དྲེགས་པ་ཉམས་བྱེད།), he seeks to explain the luminous nature of the mind, which he says is also popularly given the name Mahāmudrā in Tibet (སེམས་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན་འོད་གསལ་ལ།། ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོའི་མཚན་གསོལ་ནས། །གངས་ཅན་ལྗོངས་སུ་ཆེར་གྲགས་པ། །དེ་ཉིད་མདོ་ཙམ་གསལ་བར་བྱ།།). In elucidating the Mahāmudrā advocated by [[People/Sgam_po_pa|Gampopa]], he presents a detailed explanation of it by pointing out that the Mahāmudrā in this context is the luminous nature of the mind which is common to all Mahāyāna traditions and the one which is explicitly taught in the works of [[People/Maitreya|Maitreya]], particularly in the [[Texts/Ratnagotravibhāga_Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra|''Ultimate Continuum'']]. This nature is totally obscured or tainted in the ground phase (གཞི་དུས་མ་དག་པ་), partially tainted or obscured at the path phase (ལམ་དུས་ཕྱོགས་གཅིག་དག་པ་), and fully purified at the fruition phase (འབྲས་དུས་ཐམས་ཅད་དག་པ་). He writes that the basic element of buddha-nature is the ground to be purified, the stains to be removed are ninefold (perhaps referring to the nine analogies used to illustrate how buddha-nature is obscured by the afflictive emotions), the antidote which purifies is the discernment of buddha-nature, and the final result is the perfection of purity, self, and bliss. A resemblance of the final result is already perceived on the path of seeing, and such experience of buddha-nature is said to be the seeing of Mahāmudrā.
In brief, he states that Mahāmudrā in this context is not the emptiness of nonimplicative negation as argued in the scholastic writings of [[People/Nāgārjuna|Nāgārjuna]] but what is taught in the writings of [[People/Maitreya|Maitreya]], or the definitive ultimate reality taught in the third turning after having taught self-emptiness in the middle turning. He then explains how such nature is actualized through meditation by removing the dualistic conceptual thoughts and emotions which are included in the eight types of consciousness that characterize the three realms of the cycle of existence. In the final section, he refutes several misunderstandings and criticisms concerning Mahāmudrā and argues that this Mahāmudrā cannot be realized merely through conceptual reasoning but through the practice of nonmentation, with the help of instructions which point out the nature of the mind and devotion to the guru. Intellectual study and single-pointed concentration are not prerequisites for the experience of Mahāmudrā. He adds that positing the emptiness which is a nonimplicative negation after a reductionist analysis as Mahāmudrā is not in accordance with the [[Texts/Ratnagotravibhāga_Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra|''Ultimate Continuum'']] or the purport of the hymns by Saraha.
In the second work, [[Texts/Phyag_rgya_chen_po%27i_shan_%27byed_ces_bya_ba%27i_bstan_bcos|''A Treatise on the Distinctions of Mahāmudrā'']] (ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོའི་ཤན་འབྱེད་ཅེས་བྱ་བའི་བསྟན་བཅོས།), Śākya Chokden lists the five types of misinterpretation of the actual point of Mahāmudrā practice:
:1. The emptiness posited through Mādhyamika reasoning.<br>2. The union of emptiness and bliss which fills the network of channels after the tantric practice of consecration.<br>3. Experience of bare consciousness free from all mentation.<br>4. Nonapprehension of the mind either inside or outside, having color and shape, etc.<br>5. The ground consciousness which is the cause of all experience.
He states that none of these capture the profound, precise, effective Mahāmudrā technique of [[People/Sgam_po_pa|Gampopa]], which is compared to the Single White Remedy, and explains how they are not the same as Gampopa's Mahāmudrā. For instance, the first position concerns emptiness which is a nonimplicative negation espoused by Mādhyamika thinkers, associated with conceptual thought and established through logical reasoning, whereas Mahāmudrā is primordial wisdom which is discerned by direct experience triggered by devotion, blessings of the guru, and one's karmic merit. The second case is what is taught in the tantras and not the one advocated by Gampopa in the context of the sūtras.
Śākya Chokden distinguishes the above positions and also Chinese Chan practice from Gampopa's Mahāmudrā and goes on to explain their differences and elaborate the practice of Mahāmudrā through the four points of single-pointedness (རྩེ་གཅིག་), nonelaboration (སྤྲོས་བྲལ་), one taste (རོ་གཅིག་), and nonmeditation (སྒོམ་མེད་).
The third book in his trilogy on Mahāmudrā, [[Texts/Lung_rigs_gnyis_kyis_phyag_rgya_chen_po%27i_bzhed_tshul_la_%27khrul_pa_sel_ba%27i_bstan_bcos_zung_%27jug_gru_chen|''The Great Ship Unity: A Treatise that Dispels Misinterpretations of the Perspective of Mahāmudrā in Terms of Both the Scriptures and Reasonings'']] (ལུང་རིགས་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོའི་བཞེད་ཚུལ་ལ་འཁྲུལ་པ་སེལ་བའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཟུང་འཇུག་གྲུ་ཆེན།), comprises his responses to a list of questions raised by a certain scholar named Karma Wangchuk Pel with regard to [[People/Sa_skya_paN%2BDi_ta|Sakya Paṇḍita]]'s critique of neo-Mahāmudrā and Single White Remedy in his [[Texts/Sdom_gsum_rab_dbye|''Distinguishing the Three Vows'']].
He begins with a cogent presentation of Mahāmudrā, covering its sources, the objective Mahāmudrā, the subjective Mahāmudrā, its synonyms, the actual Mahāmudrā experience among sublime beings, the analogous Mahāmudrā understanding among ordinary practitioners, and the Mahāmudrā concept according to the philosophical and tantric schools. Following this, he delves into how some later followers of the Sakya and Kagyu traditions do not fathom the understanding of the their respective teachings. He also points out how the followers of the Kadampa tradition have missed the important original teachings of [[People/Atiśa|Atīśa]] and founding fathers.
In summary, [[People/ShAkya_mchog_ldan|Śākya Chokden]] underscores the point that there are two ways in which misconceptions are overcome: through an extroverted rational analysis and an introverted yogic contemplation. The Mahāmudrā tradition of [[People/Sgam_po_pa|Gampopa]] belongs to the latter category, while the former includes the postulations of self-emptiness and other-emptiness.
