Potential or already-perfected

From Buddha-Nature
Topic: Potential or already-perfected

Interviews

Interview
The Basis for Buddhahood: The Naturally Luminous Mind and Buddha-Nature in the Early Mahāmudrā Tradition by Casey Forgues
Why are we able to attain enlightenment? Is buddha-nature merely a metaphor for emptiness or something more? Is buddhahood something that is produced or uncovered? In this conversation, Casey Forgues explores these questions and more with Lopen Karma Phuntsho by referencing some of the earliest Mahāmudrā masters, including Nāropa, Marpa, and Gampopa. This discussion focuses on how the luminous mind (also sometimes known as clear light) was emphasized in terms of the basis, path, and fruition in this tradition, and how the three can be merged through meditative practices on luminosity.

In the recent publication Buddha Nature Across Asia, edited by Klaus-Dieter Mathes and Casey Forgues (Kemp), Casey contributes a chapter focused on an important concept related to buddha-nature and our innate propensity for buddhahood—natural luminosity (prakṛtiprabhāsvaratā), the theory that the inherent condition of mind is luminous and pure, and afflictions (kleśa) are merely adventitious. While this idea is found in the Pāli canon, it came to be particularly thematized as the basis for buddhahood among the various Mahāyāna traditions. The natural luminosity of mind is a central topic in the Ratnagotravibhāga and came to be understood by some commentators to be synonymous with buddha-nature, especially within the Tibetan Kagyü Mahāmudrā tradition. Casey provides a semantic gloss of the term among key Indian canonical texts, including sūtra, tantra, and dohā sources, that directly influenced the doctrine of natural luminosity among the early Mahāmudrā teachings. She looks into how Maitrīpa (986–1063), Nāropa (1016–1041), and Marpa (1012–1097) in particular understood the luminous mind to be inseparable from the dharmakāya, which led to later traditional Mahāmudrā understandings of buddha-nature. While buddha-nature sources are not extensively referenced in the earliest available Mahāmudrā teachings, Casey demonstrates how the doctrine of natural luminosity directly influenced teachings on buddha-nature, and vice versa, in the tradition.

You can download the PDF of the book for free online here: https://wstb.univie.ac.at/wp-content/uploads/WSTB_103.pdf

Casey Forgues (Kemp) is a PhD candidate at the University of Vienna and editorial director of Khyentse Vision Project. Casey received her MPhil in Tibetan Studies at the University of Oxford and has translated sūtras for 84000. Her research focuses on tantric philosophical views of the luminous nature of mind in the early Mahāmudrā tradition (eleventh-thirteenth centuries). She is the coeditor of Buddha Nature Across Asia and has published on topics including death and dying in tantric Buddhism, buddha-nature, the six yogas of Nāropa, and the Kalācakra tradition.
Forgues, Casey. "The Basis for Buddhahood: The Naturally Luminous Mind and Buddha-Nature in the Early Mahāmudrā Tradition." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, July 27, 2024. Video, 1:09:48. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tg9Oia359A.

Multimedia

Video
Dealing with Depression: Interview with Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo on Study Buddhism
Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo discusses buddha-nature beautifully for a general audience.
Palmo, Tenzin. "Dealing with Depression." Interview by Matt Linden and Yura Milyutin. Produced by Study Buddhism (Website), September 2016. Video, 3:30. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0ChZpIBgSo.
Video
John Canti: On the Relationship between Buddha-Nature and lhan cig skyes pa'i ye shes
Canti, John. "On the Relationship between Buddha-Nature and lhan cig skyes pa'i ye shes." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, June 25, 2022. Video, 7:57. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQCoD5qgJcQ.
Canti, John. "On the Relationship between Buddha-Nature and lhan cig skyes pa'i ye shes." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, June 25, 2022. Video, 7:57. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQCoD5qgJcQ.
Video
Karl Brunnhölzl: On the Naturally Abiding Gotra and the Developing Gotra
Brunnhölzl, Karl. "On the Naturally Abiding Gotra and the Developing Gotra." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, February 26, 2022. Video, 4:31. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kDlMb-ahy0.
Brunnhölzl, Karl. "On the Naturally Abiding Gotra and the Developing Gotra." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, February 26, 2022. Video, 4:31. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kDlMb-ahy0.
Video
Peter Skilling: Reflections on a Middle-Indic Verse from a Ratnagotravibhāga Commentary
Skilling, Peter. "Reflections on a Middle Indic Verse from a Ratnagotravibhāga Commentary." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, Oct 29, 2022. Video, 17:28. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTDvxdjffro.
Skilling, Peter. "Reflections on a Middle Indic Verse from a Ratnagotravibhāga Commentary." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, Oct 29, 2022. Video, 17:28. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTDvxdjffro.
Video
Vajrayana Practice & Buddha-Nature by Karl Brunnhölzl
Karl Brunnhölzl discusses the relationship between buddha-nature teachings and practice. He explains that, from a disclosure model perspective, practice primarily entails working on the obscurations that cover over one's innate buddha-nature. Furthermore, practice also entails the subtle refinement of practice and eventually the giving up of working on the obscurations, as, from the perspective of buddha-nature, both the obscurations and their remedies reflect a dualistic mind and are both part of the obscurations. The issue then becomes one of recognizing or not recognizing one's own buddha-nature.
Brunnhölzl, Karl. “Vajrayana Practice & Buddha-Nature.” Interview by Marcus Perman. Tsadra Foundation Research Department, December 3, 2018. Video, 7:20. https://youtu.be/fEwwwz_dmx8.
Video
Yaroslav Komarovski: On Shakya Chokden's Terminology in Articulating the Buddha-Nature
Komarovski, Yaroslav. "On Shakya Chokden's Terminology in Articulating the Buddha-Nature." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, October 30, 2021. Video, 9:56. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXeVspw-zfY.
Komarovski, Yaroslav. "On Shakya Chokden's Terminology in Articulating the Buddha-Nature." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, October 30, 2021. Video, 9:56. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXeVspw-zfY.
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