bodhigarbha

Tibetan Noun

bodhigarbha

quintessence of awakening

बोधिगर्भ

བྱང་ཆུབ་སྙིང་པོ་

Basic Meaning

An alternative term for tathāgatagarbha found in early Nyingma sources. Though it is back-translated as bodhigarbha, this term does not seem to be found in Sanskrit sources. However, in other contexts, the Tibetan byang chub snying po is often used to translate the Sanskrit term bodhimaṇḍa, which is often translated as the "seat of enlightenment."

On this topic

Article

*Bodhigarbha: Preliminary Notes on an Early Dzokchen Family of Buddha-Nature Concepts

It has recently been alleged by scholars of the Tibetan "Ancient" (rnying ma) tradition that although buddha-nature theory was well known in Tibet from as early as the eighth century, it played quite an insignificant role in early Nyingma exegesis.'"`UNIQ--ref-00006412-QINU`"' I intend in this chapter to challenge this assertion by demonstrating that buddha-nature concepts played a highly significant part in Dzokchen thought during the so-called early diffusion (snga dar) period, albeit mostly in the form of autochthonous *bodhigarbha (byang chub snying po) or bodhi-nature concepts rather than their well-known Indian counterpart tathāgatagarbha"`UNIQ--ref-00006413-QINU`"' (de bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po), as well as the as yet unattested but virtually synonymous *sugatagarbha"`UNIQ--ref-00006414-QINU`"' (bde bar gshegs pa'i snying po), which are both usually translated as buddha-nature. Although this family of terms is widespread in preclassical Dzokchen exegesis and therefore of inestimable importance for understanding the early development of buddha-nature theories in Tibet, it has hitherto received no attention in contemporary Buddhist studies. In determining the reasons for the obvious predilection for this indigenous family of buddha-nature concepts from the eighth to eleventh centuries, my aim is to clarify how bodhi-nature was understood by early Dzokchen authors, why it was distinguished from mainstream Mahāyāna-based buddha-nature concepts, and how it eventually became overshadowed by these latter during the classical period (13th–14th c.) as Indian non-tantric buddha-nature theories and controversies took center stage.'"`UNIQ--ref-00006415-QINU`"' It is hoped that this short survey of Dzokchen bodhi-nature ideas and their cultural milieu will fill some gaps in our still fragmentary understanding of the origins of Tathāgatagarbha theory in Tibet. At the very least, it will show that a decidedly affirmative indigenous current of buddha-nature teachings flourished in Tibet several centuries prior to the ascendancy of the New (gsar ma) traditions and their polemically heated debates over rangtong (rang stong) and zhentong (gzhan stong) interpretations of buddha-nature. (Higgins, "*Bodhigarbha," 29)

Higgins, David. "*Bodhigarbha: Preliminary Notes on an Early Dzokchen Family of Buddha-Nature Concepts." In The Other Emptiness: Rethinking the Zhentong Buddhist Discourse in Tibet, edited by Michael R. Sheehy and Klaus-Dieter Mathes, 29–52. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2019.

Higgins, David. "*Bodhigarbha: Preliminary Notes on an Early Dzokchen Family of Buddha-Nature Concepts." In The Other Emptiness: Rethinking the Zhentong Buddhist Discourse in Tibet, edited by Michael R. Sheehy and Klaus-Dieter Mathes, 29–52. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2019.;Bodhigarbha: Preliminary Notes on an Early Dzokchen Family of Buddha-Nature Concepts;Dzogchen;Terminology;History of buddha-nature in Tibet;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Tibetan Buddhism;bodhigarbha;David Higgins;&nbsp

Book

The Other Emptiness: Rethinking the Zhentong Buddhist Discourse in Tibet

This book brings together perspectives of leading international Tibetan studies scholars on the subject of zhentong or “other-emptiness.” Defined as the emptiness of everything other than the continuous luminous awareness that is one’s own enlightened nature, this distinctive philosophical and contemplative presentation of emptiness is quite different from rangtong—emptiness that lacks independent existence, which has had a strong influence on the dissemination of Buddhist philosophy in the West. Important topics are addressed, including the history, literature, and philosophy of emptiness that have contributed to zhentong thinking in Tibet from the thirteenth century until today. The contributors examine a wide range of views on zhentong from each of the major orders of Tibetan Buddhism, highlighting the key Tibetan thinkers in the zhentong philosophical tradition. Also discussed are the early formulations of buddhanature, interpretations of cosmic time, polemical debates about emptiness in Tibet, the zhentong view of contemplation, and creative innovations of thought in Tibetan Buddhism. Highly accessible and informative, this book can be used as a scholarly resource as well as a textbook for teaching graduate and undergraduate courses on Buddhist philosophy. (Source: SUNY Press)

Sheehy, Michael R., and Klaus-Dieter Mathes, eds. The Other Emptiness: Rethinking the Zhentong Buddhist Discourse in Tibet. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2019.

Sheehy, Michael R., and Klaus-Dieter Mathes, eds. The Other Emptiness: Rethinking the Zhentong Buddhist Discourse in Tibet. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2019.;The Other Emptiness: Rethinking the Zhentong Buddhist Discourse in Tibet;Doctrine;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Tibetan Buddhism;gzhan stong;Dzogchen;Jonang;Great Madhyamaka;Mi pham rgya mtsho;Dol po pa;TA ra nA tha;ShAkya mchog ldan;Karma Kagyu;Bcom ldan rig pa'i ral gri;bodhigarbha;Klaus-Dieter Mathes; Michael Sheehy;The Other Emptiness: Rethinking the Zhentong Buddhist Discourse in Tibet

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Term Variations
Key Term	bodhigarbha
Topic Variation	bodhigarbha
Tibetan	བྱང་ཆུབ་སྙིང་པོ་ ( jangchub nyingpo)
Wylie Tibetan Transliteration	byang chub snying po ( jangchub nyingpo)
Devanagari Sanskrit	बोधिगर्भ
Romanized Sanskrit	bodhigarbha
Buddha-nature Site Standard English	quintessence of awakening
Dan Martin's English Term	bodhi heart
Ives Waldo's English Term	essence of enlightenment
Term Information
Usage Example	Rongzompa states in his commentary on the Guhyagarbha Tantra, དེ་ལ་བདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ནི། །ཐུན་མོང་དུ་གྲགས་པ་སེམས་ཅན་རྣམས་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་རྒྱུ་ཅན་ཟག་མེད་ཀྱི་ས་བོན་དང་ལྡན་པ་འོ།་།ཞེས་འདོད་དོ། །ཟབ་མོ་ལྟར་ན་སེམས་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན་ཉིད་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཡིན་པས་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སྙིང་པོའོ། "The term sugatagarbha is widely known in ordinary [scriptures] which claim that all sentient beings possess the cause of awakening [and] are endowed with the seed of incorruptibility. According to the profound [scriptures], it is called the ‘quintessence of awakening’ (bodhigarbha) because the very nature of mind is awakening." -Translated in David Higgins. The Philosophical Foundations of Classical rDzogs chen in Tibet: Investigating the Distinction Between Dualistic Mind (sems) and Primordial Knowing (ye shes). Wien: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien, Universität Wien, 2013, p. 177.
Source Language	Tibetan
Basic Meaning	An alternative term for tathāgatagarbha found in early Nyingma sources. Though it is back-translated as bodhigarbha, this term does not seem to be found in Sanskrit sources. However, in other contexts, the Tibetan byang chub snying po is often used to translate the Sanskrit term bodhimaṇḍa, which is often translated as the "seat of enlightenment."
Term Type	Noun
Definitions