David Jackson
David P. Jackson received his doctorate in 1985 from the University of Washington and studied and translated for many years in Seattle for the polymath Tibetan scholar Dezhung Rinpoche. Until 2007, he was a professor of Tibetan Studies at Hamburg University in Germany and is now a curator for the Rubin Museum of Art in New York. He is the author of numerous articles and books on Tibetan art, literature, and history, including A Saint in Seattle, Tibetan Thangka Painting, The Mollas of Mustang, and Enlightenment by a Single Means. He lives in Washington State. (Source Accessed Oct 19, 2019)
Library Items
RNgog lo-tsā-ba's Commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga: An Early-20th-Century Lhasa Printed Edition
rNgog Io-tsa-ba Blo-ldan-shcs-rab (1059-1109) was more than anyone else responsible for the establishment of Tibetan Buddhist scholasticism.'"`UNIQ--ref-000063B6-QINU`"' He founded in Tibet not only the main enduring lineages of logic and epistemology (Tshad-ma: Pramāṇa) studies but also of two other major branches of Mahāyāna Buddhist philosophy and doctrine—those of the Five Dharmas of Maitreya (Byams chos sde Inga) and of the Svātantrika Yogācāra-Madhyamaka.'"`UNIQ--ref-000063B7-QINU`"' rNgog-lo furthermore trained virtually the entire next generation of important Tibetan scholastics, his "four chief spiritual sons" being: (1) Zhang Tshe-spong-ba, (2) Gro-lung-pa Blo-gros-'byung gnas, (3) Khyung Rin-chen-grags, and (4) 'Bre Shes-rab-'bar.'"`UNIQ--ref-000063B8-QINU`"' Yet in spite of rNgog's central position in the history of Tibetan philosophical and doctrinal studies, until recently only a very small number of his works were known to survive, and of these the two most extensive and important have remained for decades largely inaccessible outside of Tibet, existing only as isolated xylographs in private collections.'"`UNIQ--ref-000063B9-QINU`"' Now, however, with the reprinting of two of his major works by the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, including his very important commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga described here, some of the seminal contributions of rNgog-lo can at last be easily assessed in the original.'"`UNIQ--ref-000063BA-QINU`"'
Both of these major works of rNgog-lo were commentaries on fundamental works of the Maitreyanātha tradition within the Yogācāra branch of Mahāyana Buddhism,'"`UNIQ--ref-000063BB-QINU`"' namely on the Ratnagotravibhāga and Abhisamayālaṃkāra.'"`UNIQ--ref-000063BC-QINU`"' The works thus reflected another aspect of his illustrious career, for in addition to—and indeed in tandem with—his importance as a great teacher, he was also of crucial significance as a composer of commentaries on the works he expounded. (Jackson, "rNgog lo-tsa-ba's Commentary of the Ratnagotravibhāga," 339–340)
Both of these major works of rNgog-lo were commentaries on fundamental works of the Maitreyanātha tradition within the Yogācāra branch of Mahāyana Buddhism,'"`UNIQ--ref-000063BB-QINU`"' namely on the Ratnagotravibhāga and Abhisamayālaṃkāra.'"`UNIQ--ref-000063BC-QINU`"' The works thus reflected another aspect of his illustrious career, for in addition to—and indeed in tandem with—his importance as a great teacher, he was also of crucial significance as a composer of commentaries on the works he expounded. (Jackson, "rNgog lo-tsa-ba's Commentary of the Ratnagotravibhāga," 339–340)
Jackson, David. "rNgog lo-tsā-ba's Commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga: An Early-20th-Century Lhasa Printed Edition." In Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the 7th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Graz 1995, Vol. 1, edited by Helmut Krasser, Michael Tortsen Much, Ernst Steinkellner, and Helmut Tauscher, 439–56. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1997.
Jackson, David. "rNgog lo-tsā-ba's Commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga: An Early-20th-Century Lhasa Printed Edition." In Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the 7th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Graz 1995, Vol. 1, edited by Helmut Krasser, Michael Tortsen Much, Ernst Steinkellner, and Helmut Tauscher, 439–56. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1997.;RNgog lo-tsā-ba's Commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga: An Early-20th-Century Lhasa Printed Edition;Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;David Jackson; 
Stages of the Buddha’s Teachings
The "Stages of the Teachings," or tenrim, genre of Tibetan spiritual writing expounds the Mahayana Buddhist teachings as a systematic progression, from the practices required at the start of the bodhisattva's career to the final perfect awakening of buddhahood. The texts in the present volume each exerted seminal influence in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. The first text, The Blue Compendium, presents the instructions of the Kadam teacher Potowa (1027/31-1105) as recorded by his student Dölpa (1059-1131). This verse work is followed by Gampopa's (1079-1153) revered Ornament of Precious Liberation, which, with its extensive quotations from the Indian scriptures, remains the most authoritative text on the path to enlightenment within the Kagyü school. The final selection is Clarifying the Sage's Intent, a masterwork by the preeminent sage of the Sakya tradition, Sakya Pandita (1182-1251). (Source: Wisdom Publications)
Another version of Holmes's translation of Gampopa's Ornament of Precious Liberation is found in Ornament of Precious Liberation (Holmes).
Roesler, Ulrike, Ken Holmes, and David P. Jackson, trans. Stages of the Buddha's Teachings: Three Key Texts. By Dölpa (Dol pa shes rab rgya mtsho), Gampopa (Sgam po pa), and Sakya Paṇḍita (Sa skya paN+Di ta). Library of Tibetan Classics 10. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2015.
Roesler, Ulrike, Ken Holmes, and David P. Jackson, trans. Stages of the Buddha's Teachings: Three Key Texts. By Dölpa (Dol pa shes rab rgya mtsho), Gampopa (Sgam po pa), and Sakya Paṇḍita (Sa skya paN+Di ta). Library of Tibetan Classics 10. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2015.;Stages of the Buddha’s Teachings;The Path;Kadam;Kagyu;Sakya;Sgam po pa;Sa skya paN+Di ta;Dol pa shes rab rgya mtsho;Dam chos yid bzhin gyi nor bu thar pa rin po che'i rgyan;Dölpa Sherab Gyatso;དོལ་པ་ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་;Dol pa shes rab rgya mtsho;dol pa dmar zhur ba;rog shes rab rgya mtsho;དོལ་པ་དམར་ཞུར་བ་;རོག་ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་; Gampopa;སྒམ་པོ་པ་;sgam po pa;dwags po lha rje;bsod nams rin chen;dwags po zla 'od gzhon nu;dwags po rin po che;དྭགས་པོ་ལྷ་རྗེ་;བསོད་ནམས་རིན་ཆེན་;དྭགས་པོ་ཟླ་འོད་གཞོན་ནུ་;དྭགས་པོ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་;Jé Gampopa;Dakpo Rinpoche;Takpo Rinpoche;Je Dakpo Rinpoche;Je Takpo Rinpoche;Da'od Zhonnu;Dagpo Lhaje;The Physician from Dagpo;Nyamed Dakpo Rinpoche;The Incomparible Precious One from Dagpo;Ü-pa Tönpa;Sakya Paṇḍita;ས་སྐྱ་པཎྜི་ཏ་;sa skya paN+Di ta;kun dga' rgyal mtshan;sa skya paN+Di ta kun dga' rgyal mtshan;ཀུན་དགའ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་;ས་སྐྱ་པཎྜི་ཏ་ཀུན་དགའ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་;Sapaṇ;Sapen;Sapan;Ulrike Roesler;Ken Holmes;David Jackson;Stages of the Buddha’s Teachings: Three Key Texts;dol pa shes rab rgya mtsho;sgam po pa;sa skya paN+Di ta
Affiliations & relations
- Rubin Museum · workplace affiliation
