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This page provides a listing of some of the key sources for buddha nature teachings found in the sutras, as well as the key texts found in Sanskrit, Chinese, and Tibetan traditions, as well as influential commentaries from centuries of traditional scholarship on the subject.  
This page provides a listing of some of the key sources for buddha nature teachings found in the sutras, as well as the key texts found in Sanskrit, Chinese, and Tibetan traditions, as well as influential commentaries from centuries of traditional scholarship on the subject.  


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[[Library|''Head over to the library to browse Sutras and Commentaries'' <i class="fas fa-caret-right fa-xs" data-fa-transform="down-6"></i>]]


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Revision as of 10:57, 3 October 2018

The Source Texts


A note about source texts
In relation to source literature, on this site, we generally divide these into the two broad categories of sūtras and commentaries. While traditionally both of these categories entail a wide range of internal divisions and classifications, here these two can be simply understood to demarcate the difference between scriptures orated by the Buddha, or his attendant Bodhisattvas, and authored works, which draw upon those discourses in order to elucidate a particular aspect of the Buddhist teachings. In terms of the former, these texts are traditionally referred to as “buddhavacana,’’ literally “the speech of the Buddha,’’ and are considered to represent actual discourses that were recalled and passed down through oral lineages until they were eventually set into writing in the ensuing centuries. And though much has been written about these works in academic literature, especially in terms of the potential dates and locals of their composition, little is known of the actual authorship of these works and thus they are generally considered to be anonymous compositions. On the other hand, what we are referring to here as commentaries are generally signed by their authors, even if the contents of these compositions are credited to earlier figures. Though again, exact authorship of a particular text might still be uncertain or contested, in either traditional or academic circles, these types of texts, as opposed to sūtras, are universally considered to have been intentionally composed.


Sources for buddha-nature Teachings

The seeds of buddha-nature teachings are sprinkled throughout the sutras and tantras of the Buddhist canon. However, without doubt, the single most influential teaching that has spread the idea of buddha-nature to traditions all across the world is Maitreya's Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra or "Gyu Lama" as it is known in the Tibetan traditions.

This page provides a listing of some of the key sources for buddha nature teachings found in the sutras, as well as the key texts found in Sanskrit, Chinese, and Tibetan traditions, as well as influential commentaries from centuries of traditional scholarship on the subject.

Head over to the library to browse Sutras and Commentaries


Sutra Sources

Pecha-icon.png Details on the sutra sources for the Ratnagotravibhāga by Karl Brunnhölzl
Pecha-icon.png Dhāraṇīśvararājasūtra = ārya-tathāgata-mahākaruṇā-nirdeśa-nāma-mahāyāna-sūtra
Pecha-icon.png Śrīmālādevīsūtra
Pecha-icon.png Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśaparivarta
Pecha-icon.png Sarvabuddhaviśayāvatārajñānālokālaṃkārasūtra
Pecha-icon.png Tathāgatagarbhasūtra
Pecha-icon.png Sāgaramatiparipṛcchāsūtra
Pecha-icon.png Mahāyānābhidharmasūtra
Pecha-icon.png Dṛḍhādhyāśayaparivarta (or Sthirādhyāśayaparivartasūtra)
Pecha-icon.png Tathāgataguṇajñānācintyaviṣayāvatāranirdeśa
Pecha-icon.png Buddhāvataṃsakasūtra
Pecha-icon.png Kāśyapaparivartasūtra
Pecha-icon.png Gaganagañjaparipṛcchāsūtra
Pecha-icon.png Ratnacūḍaparipṛcchāsūtra
Pecha-icon.png Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra
Pecha-icon.png Vajracchedikāprajñāpāramitāsūtra
Pecha-icon.png Samyutta Nikāya
Pecha-icon.png Ratnadārikāsūtra
Pecha-icon.png Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra

The titles of the Gyu Lama

The title Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra[1] is attested in the surviving Sanskrit manuscripts. It roughly translates as “The Superior Continuum (uttaratantra) of the Mahāyāna, A Treatise (śāstra) Analyzing (vibhāga) the Source (gotra) of the Three Jewels (ratna).” One surviving Sanskrit reference, Abhayākaragupta’s Munimatālaṃkāra, gives the name as Mahāyānottara: [Treatise] on the Superior Mahāyāna [Doctrine].[2] Western scholars only became aware of Sanskrit versions in the 1930s (see below); prior to this, they knew the text only in Chinese or Tibetan translation, and this was complicated by the fact that both the Chinese and the Tibetan traditions divide the text into two. Where in India the Ratnagotravibhāga was a single work comprised of root verses, explanatory verses, and prose commentary, the Chinese and Tibetan translators and commentators considered the root and explanatory verses to be one text and the complete text, including the prose commentary, to be a second. Thus not only do we have multiple names in multiple languages for the treatise, but multiple names in Chinese and Tibetan for its different parts.... Read the whole essay here

Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra

Text
Maitreya, Asaṅga: Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra
The Ratnagotravibhāga, commonly known as the Uttaratantra, or Gyu Lama in Tibetan, is one of the main Indian scriptural sources for buddha-nature theory. It was likely composed during the fifth century, by whom we do not know. Comprised of verses interspersed with prose commentary, it systematizes the buddha-nature teachings that were circulating in multiple sūtras such as the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra, the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra, and the Śrīmaladevisūtra. The Tibetan tradition attributes the verses to the Bodhisattva Maitreya and the commentary to Asaṅga, and treats the two as separate texts, although this division is not attested to in surviving Indian versions. The Chinese tradition attributes the text to *Sāramati (娑囉末底), but the translation itself does not include the name of the author, and the matter remains unsettled. It was translated into Chinese in the early sixth century by Ratnamati and first translated into Tibetan by Atiśa, although this text is not known to survive. Ngok Loden Sherab translated it a second time based on teachings from the Kashmiri Pandita Sajjana, and theirs remains the standard translation. It has been translated into English several times, and recently into French. See the Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā, read more about the Ratnagotravibhāga, or take a look at the most complete English translation in When the Clouds Part by Karl Brunnholzl.

Sanskrit Recensions

Tibetan Recensions

Chinese Texts

  • Ratnamati 勒那摩提 (508 A.D.), 究竟一乘寶性論 (Chinese translation of Rgvbh), in T 1611. Attributed author is Sāramati.

Commentaries on Ratnagotravibhāga

Indian Commentaries

Tibetan Commentaries

Select Tibetan Texts[4]

English Translations

When the Clouds Part

When the Clouds Part-front.jpg

"Buddha nature" (tathāgatagarbha) is the innate potential in all living beings to become a fully awakened buddha. This book discusses a wide range of topics connected with the notion of buddha nature as presented in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism and includes an overview of the sūtra sources of the tathāgatagarbha teachings and the different ways of explaining the meaning of this term. It includes new translations of the Maitreya treatise Mahāyānottaratantra (Ratnagotravibhāga), the primary Indian text on the subject, its Indian commentaries, and two (hitherto untranslated) commentaries from the Tibetan Kagyü tradition. Most important, the translator’s introduction investigates in detail the meditative tradition of using the Mahāyānottaratantra as a basis for Mahāmudrā instructions and the Shentong approach. This is supplemented by translations of a number of short Tibetan meditation manuals from the Kadampa, Kagyü, and Jonang schools that use the Mahāyānottaratantra as a work to contemplate and realize one’s own buddha nature. (Source: Shambhala Publications)
... read more
Brunnhölzl, Karl. When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and Its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra. Tsadra Foundation Series. Boston: Snow Lion Publications, 2014.

French Translations

German Translations

  1. According to the Sanskrit grammatical rules associated with sandhi, the word boundaries of the “a” of Mahāyāna and the “u” of Uttaratantra combine as “o.” The title could just as easily be rendered “Mahāyāna Uttaratantra Śāstra.”
  2. Kano, Buddha-Nature and Emptiness, 27, note #41.
  3. Besides this text, the only other two known Indian “commentaries” on the Uttaratantra are Vairocanarakṣita’s (eleventh century) very brief ahāyānottaratantraṭippaṇī (eight folios) and Sajjana’s (eleventh/twelfth century) Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa (a summary in thirty-seven verses). Brunnholzl, K. Luminous Heart pg 403 note 24
  4. For an extensive list of Tibetan Commentaries, see A List of the Commentaries on the Ratnagotravibhāga


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