Mahāmudrā and Buddha-Nature: Difference between revisions

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|description=With roots stretching back to the 8th century, the notion of tathāgatagarbha was initially introduced into the lexicon of what would become the Nyingma Tradition through scholastic works that sought to reconcile the philosophy of Madhyamaka and Yogācāra, as well as through Tantric literature that presented advanced paradigms for the path and the immediacy of enlightenment. Over the centuries these two streams of influence wove themselves together to help form the basis of a unique synthesis of Sūtra based philosophical inquiry and Tantric theories of praxis that would come to define the Nyingma approach. At the pinnacle of this system are the teachings of Dzogchen, the Great Perfection, the supreme vantage to which all these intertwined approaches aspire. As such, this lofty perspective has a tendency to draw everything it encounters into its fold and reimagine it in its own image. The relationship between Dzogchen and buddha-nature is one example of this trend, though one which is deeply intertwined with the development of the Nyingma view.
|description=For the Kagyu, the lines of transmission of the ''Ratnagotravibhāga'' and the Mahāmudrā teachings converge with the Indian teacher [[Maitrīpa]]. In terms of the former, Maitrīpa is believed to have extracted the treatise from a stūpa after receiving instructions from Maitreya in a dream. It is this lineage passing from Maitrīpa to Ānandakīrti, who traveled to Kashmir where he passed it onto Sajjana, that is considered the ''de facto'' line of transmission of the treatise for the Kagyu...
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<h2>From the Masters</h2>
<h2>From the Masters</h2>


{{CommentatorSeparator|Gampopa}}
{{CommentatorSeparator|Maitrīpa}}
 
In the first verse of his ''Tattavadaśaka'', Maitrīpa states:
                 {{Blockquote
                  
|As told by Gö Lotsāwa Zhönu Pal:</em>
{{Blockquote|</em>सदसद्योगहीनायै तथतायै नमो नमः।<br>अनाविला यतः सैव बोधतो बोधिरूपिणी॥१॥<br><br>''Homage to you, suchness,<br>Which has no association with existence and non-existence,<br>Because, [when] stainless, this very [suchness]<br>Has the form of enlightenment in virtue of realization''.<em>|[[Mathes, Klaus-Dieter]]. ''[[A Fine Blend of Mahāmudra and Madhyamaka: Maitrīpa's Collection of Texts on Non-Conceptual Realization (Amanasikāra)]]''. Vienna: Österreichischen Akademie Der Wissenschaften, 2015, p. 211.
::དེ་ཡང་དྭགས་པོ་རིན་པོ་ཆེས་དཔལ་ཕག་མོ་གྲུ་པ་ལ། འོ་སྐོལ་གྱི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་འདིའི་གཞུང་ནི་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་བྱམས་པས་མཛད་པའི་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་འདི་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས་ཤིང་། དཔལ་ཕག་མོ་གྲུ་པས་ཀྱང་རྗེ་འབྲི་ཁུང་པ་ལ་དེ་སྐད་དུ་གསུངས་པས། རྗེ་འབྲི་ཁུང་པ་དཔོན་སློབ་ཀྱི་གསུང་རབ་རྣམས་སུ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བཤད་པ་མང་དུ་འབྱུང་བ་དེ་ཡིན་ནོ།<em>
                        |[['gos lo tsA ba gzhon nu dpal]]. Deb ther sngon po, Vol. 2: p. 847. Chengdu: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1984.
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{{Blockquote
|As quoted by Śākya Chokden:</em>
::དེ་ཡང་སྒམ་པོ་པས་གསུངས་པ། ང་ཡི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་ཡི། ངོས་འཛིན་རང་གི་རིག་པ་སྟེ། གཞུང་ནི་རྒྱུད་བླའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཞེས།
::<em>In that regard Gampopa says, “the hallmark of my Mahāmudrā is self-awareness and its scriptural source is the ''Uttaratantraśāstra''”.
                        |[[shAkya mchog ldan]]. gzhan blo’i dregs pa nyams byed in gsung 'bum. (Sachen International: Kathmandu, 2006), Vol. 17: p. 364.<br> Translation adapted from Higgins, David and Martina Draszczyk. Mahāmudrā and the Middle Way: Post-Classical Kagyü Discourses on Mind, Emptiness and Buddha-Nature (Wien, 2016). Vol. 2: p. 17.
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{{CommentatorSeparator|Gampopa}}


{{CommentatorSeparator|Rongzompa}}


{{Blockquote
As told by Gö Lotsāwa Zhönu Pal:
|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.
                {{Blockquote|</em>དེ་ཡང་དྭགས་པོ་རིན་པོ་ཆེས་དཔལ་ཕག་མོ་གྲུ་པ་ལ། འོ་སྐོལ་གྱི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་འདིའི་གཞུང་ནི་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་བྱམས་པས་མཛད་པའི་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་འདི་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས་ཤིང་། དཔལ་ཕག་མོ་གྲུ་པས་ཀྱང་རྗེ་འབྲི་ཁུང་པ་ལ་དེ་སྐད་དུ་གསུངས་པས། རྗེ་འབྲི་ཁུང་པ་དཔོན་སློབ་ཀྱི་གསུང་རབ་རྣམས་སུ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བཤད་པ་མང་དུ་འབྱུང་བ་དེ་ཡིན་ནོ།<br><br>''Moreover, Dagpo Rinpoché (Gampopa) said to Pagmo Drupa:<br>"The basic text of this mahāmudrā of ours is the Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra (Ratnagotravibhāga) by Venerable Maitreya." Pagmo Drupa in turn said the same thing to Jé Drigungpa (Rje 'Bri gung pa), and for this reason many explanations of the Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra are found in the works of Jé Drigungpa and his<br>disciples''.<em>|[['Gos lo tsA ba gzhon nu dpal]]. ''[[Deb ther sngon po]]''. Chengdu: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1984, Vol. 2, p. 847.<br>
                        |Higgins, David. ''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.
~ Translation from [[Mathes, Klaus-Dieter]]. ''[[A Direct Path to the Buddha Within: Gö Lotsāwa's Mahāmudrā Interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhāga]]''. Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2008, pp. 34–35.
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As quoted by Śākya Chokden:


{{Blockquote
{{Blockquote|</em>དེ་ཡང་སྒམ་པོ་པས་གསུངས་པ། ང་ཡི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་ཡི། ངོས་འཛིན་རང་གི་རིག་པ་སྟེ། གཞུང་ནི་རྒྱུད་བླའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཞེས།<br><br>''In that regard Gampopa says, "the hallmark of my Mahāmudrā is self-awareness and its scriptural source is the Uttaratantraśāstra".''<em>|[[ShAkya mchog ldan]]. ''[[Phyag rgya chen po gsal bar byed pa'i bstan bcos tshangs pa'i 'khor los gzhan blo'i dregs pa nyams byed]]''. In gser mdog paN chen shAkya mchog ldan gyi gsung 'bum. rdzong sar: rdzong sar khams bye'i slob gling thub bstan dar rgyas gling, 2006–2007: Vol. 17, p. 443.<br> ~ Translation adapted from [[Higgins, David]], and [[Martina Draszczyk]]. ''[[Mahāmudrā and the Middle Way: Post-Classical Kagyü Discourses on Mind, Emptiness and Buddha-Nature]]''. Vol. 2, ''Translations, Critical Texts, Bibliography and Index''. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2016, p. 17.
|In the higher vehicles, the characteristic of the ālaya [''kun gzhi''] is that it is the primordial awakened mind [''bodhicitta'']. The afflictions and the imprints that lead to birth in the lower realms are adventitious obscurations, like oxide covering gold, or dirt covering a precious jewel. Although the buddha qualities are temporarily hidden, their nature is not defiled.
                        |van Schaik, Sam. ''Approaching the Great Perfection: Simultaneous and Gradual Approaches to Dzogchen Practice in Jigme Lingpa's Longchen Nyingtig''. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2004: p. 63.
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{{Blockquote
{{CommentatorSeparator|Layakpa Jangchub Ngödrup}}
|In sum, then, consider the nature of bodhicitta: all phenomena, outer and inner, appearance and existence, are nondual bodhicitta—the primordial nature of the quintessence of awakening (''*bodhigarbha, snying po byang chub'') is primordially perfected (''yas nas sangs rgyas ba''), not something refined and corrected through a path, and is accomplished spontaneously, without effort.
 
                        |Sur, Dominic, trans. ''Entering the Way of the Great Vehicle: Dzogchen as the Culmination of the Mahāyāna''. Boulder: Snow Lion, 2017: p. 129.
In his commentary on his teacher Gampopa's famous instruction known as the Four Dharmas, Layakpa states:
                {{Blockquote|</em>སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་རྒྱུད་ལ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་གང་སེམས་ཉིད་རང་བཞིན་གྱིས་འོད་གསལ་བ་སྐྱེ་འགག་མེད་ཅིང་སྤྲོས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཉེར་བར་ཞི་བ། སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་པ་རྣམས་དང་མ་བྲལ་བའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཅན་ཡིན་<br><br>''Buddha nature in the mind-streams of all sentient beings is mind as such, natural luminosity, free from any arising and ceasing, and is the complete pacification of all proliferations. [Thus beings] are endowed with wisdom that is inseparable from inconceivable buddha-qualities.''<br><br>''[...]''<br><br>གང་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོའམ །ལྷན་ཅིག་སྐྱེས་པའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་སེམས་ཉིད་རང་བཞིན་གྱིས་འོད་གསལ་ཞིང་རྣམ་པར་དག་པ་<br><br>''That which is called "buddha nature" (tathāgatagarbha) or coemergent wisdom (sahajajñāna) is mind as such (sems nyid), which is naturally luminous and utterly pure''.<em>|[[La yag pa byang chub dngos grub]]. ''[[Mnyam med dwags po'i chos bzhir grags pa'i gzhung gi 'grel pa snying po gsal ba'i rgyan]]'': A Detailed Study on Sgam po pa's chos bzhi Presentation of Fundamental Buddhist Practice. Bir: D. Tsondu Senghe, 1978, p. 189 and 210.<br> ~ Translation from [[Higgins, David]], and [[Martina Draszczyk]]. ''[[Buddha Nature Reconsidered: The Eighth Karma pa's Middle Path]]''. Vol. 1, ''Introduction and Analysis''. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2019, p. 51.
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{{CommentatorSeparator|Jikten Gönpo}}


{{CommentatorSeparator|Longchenpa}}
In his ''Chos kyi 'khor lo legs par gtan la phab pa'' Jikten Gönpo states:


{{Blockquote
                {{Blockquote|</em>ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་ཐེག་ཆེན་བླ་མའི་རྒྱུད། འདི་ཡི་ཁྲིད་ལ་འབད་པས་ནན་ཏན་བྱས།<br><br>''Mahāmudrā is [taught on the basis of] the Mahāyānottaratantra [Ratnagotravibhāga]. Great effort was taken to explain the latter...''<em>|[['Jig rten mgon po]]. ''[[Chos kyi 'khor lo legs par gtan la phab pa theg pa chen po'i tshul 'ong ges zhus pa]]''. Dehra Dun: Drikung Kagyu Institute, 1998, p. 15.<br>~ Translation from [[Mathes, Klaus-Dieter]]. ''[[A Direct Path to the Buddha Within: Gö Lotsāwa's Mahāmudrā Interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhāga]]''. Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2008, p. 41.
|The primordial, luminous nature of the mind is self-arisen primordial wisdom, empty and clear. By nature, it is empty like space, yet its character is luminous like the sun and moon. And the radiance of its cognitive potency manifests unceasingly and unobstructedly like the surface of a limpidly clear mirror, free from stain. Having thus the nature of the dharmakāya, saṃbhogakāya, and nirmāṇakāya, the sugatagarbha is unconfined and is not limited either to saṃsāra or nirvāṇa. Its empty nature provides the open arena necessary for the manifestation of all things; its luminous character allows the five self-arisen lights to appear as sense-objects; and its cognitive potency—self-cognizing primordial wisdom—manifests as the detecting cognition owing to which, delusion is said to occur.
                        |Longchenpa. ''Finding Rest in the Nature of the Mind''. Translated by the Padmakara Translation Group. The Trilogy of Rest Volume 1. Boulder: Shambhala, 2017: pp. 235-236.
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{{CommentatorSeparator|Jikme Lingpa}}
{{CommentatorSeparator|Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje}}
 
In his ''The Treatise on Pointing Out the Tathāgata Heart'', the Third Karmapa states:


{{Blockquote
                {{Blockquote|</em>།ཐ་མལ་ཤེས་པ་དེ་ཉིད་ལ།<br>།ཆོས་དབྱིངས་རྒྱལ་བའི་སྙིང་པོ་ཟེར།<br>།བཟང་དུ་འཕགས་པས་བཏང་བ་མེད།<br>།ངན་དུ་སེམས་ཅན་གྱིས་མ་བཏང་།<br>།ཐ་སྙད་དུ་མ་བརྗོད་མོད་ཀྱང།<br>།རྗོད་པས་དེ་ཡི་དོན་མི་ཤེས།<br><br>''Just this ordinary mind<br>Is called "dharmadhātu" and "Heart of the victors."<br>It is neither to be improved by the noble ones<br>Nor made worse by sentient beings.<br>It may no doubt be expressed through many conventional terms,<br>But its actual reality is not understood through expressions''.<em>|[[Rang byung rdo rje]], (Karmapa, 3rd). ''[[De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po bstan pa'i bstan bcos]]''. In gsung 'bum rang byung rdo rje. Zi ling: mtshur phu mkhan po lo yag bkra shis, 2006, Vol. 7, p. 285.<br>~ Translation from Karmapa, The Third, [[Rang byung rdo rje]]. ''[[Luminous Heart: The Third Karmapa on Consciousness, Wisdom, and Buddha Nature]]''. Translated by [[Karl Brunnhölzl]]. Nitartha Institute Series. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2009, pp. 354–55.
|In the context of the ground of Dzogchen, Jigme Lingpa begins chapter 11 of The Treasury of Precious Qualities with a clear statement about the importance of buddha-nature, given in the text as bde gshegs snying po (sugatagarbha):</em>
::།།རྒྱལ་བས་འཁོར་ལོ་བར་པར་རྣམ་ཐར་གསུམ། <br> །བསྟན་བྱའི་ངོ་བོ་སོ་སོ་རང་རིག་ཉིད། <br> །སེམས་ཅན་ཁམས་ལ་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་རུ། <br> །རང་བཞིན་བཞུགས་ལ་རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོར་གྲགས།
::<em>In the second turning of the Dharma wheel, <br> The Conqueror explained three doors of perfect liberation, <br> The essence of this teaching is awareness that is self-cognizing, <br> Which, celebrated as the Great Perfection, <br> Naturally resides in beings as their buddha-nature.
|Rigdzin Jigme Lingpa. ''The Treasury of Precious Qualities called The Rain of Joy''. Translated by the Padmakara Translation Group. New Delhi: Shechen Publications. Tibetan Text: རིག་འཛིན་འཇིགས་མེད་གླིང་པ། ཡོན་ཏན་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་མཛོད་དགའ་བའི་ཆར་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་བཞུགས་སོ༎ New Delhi: Shechen Publications, 2018: p. 113.  
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In Jamgön Kongtrul's ''Treasury of Knowledge'', he references the Third Karmapa from an unknown source, claiming:
{{CommentatorSeparator|Dudjom Lingpa}}
              {{Blockquote|</em>རང་བྱུང་ཞབས་ཀྱིས།<br>།གནས་ལུགས་སྤྲོས་བྲལ་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་ནི།<br>།རྣམ་རྟོག་སྤྲོས་པའི་མཚན་མ་ཀུན་གྱིས་སྟོང།<br>།གསལ་ལ་འཛིན་མེད་དག་པའི་རང་བཞིན་ཏེ།<br>།དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ཞེས་ཀྱང་བྱ།<br><br>''Venerable Rangjung [Dorje] states:<br><br>The basic nature free from reference points, Mahāmudrā,<br>Is empty of all characteristics of the reference points of<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;thoughts.<br>This pure nature, lucid and yet without grasping,<br>Is also called "the tathāgata heart."''<em>|[['Jam mgon kong sprul]]. [[Shes bya kun khyab]]. Pe cin: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1982, Vol. 3, p. 378.<br>~ Translation from [[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, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, 2014, p. 154.
 
{{Blockquote
|In the collection of his accounts of visionary encounters, known as Refining Apparent Phonemena (snang sbyang), Dudjom Lingpa states:
::།སེམས་ཉིད་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ནི་ཕྱལ་བ་སྐྱོན་གྱིས་མ་གོས་པ།
::The nature of mind itself, referred to as 'buddha nature,' is a uniform pervasiveness unsullied by flaws.
|Dudjom Lingpa. ''Buddhahood Without Meditation: A Visionary Account Known as Refining Apparent Phenomena (Nang-Jang)''. Translated by Richard Barron. Junction City, CA: Padma Publishing, 1994: pp. 108-109.
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{{CommentatorSeparator|Mipam Gyamtso}}
{{CommentatorSeparator|Gö Lotsāwa Zhönu Pal}}


{{Blockquote
Gö Lotsāwa on the origins of the Tibetan exegesis of the ''Ratnagotravibhāga'':
|In his ''Trilogy of Innate Mind'', Mipam states:
::གཤེགས་སྙིང་ནི་སྟོང་ཀྱང་ཙམ་མིན་ཏེ། སྟོང་ཉིད་འོད་གསལ་ཡིན།<br>དེ་ཆོས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་ཡེ་ཐོག་གཞི་ཡི་གནས་ལུགས་ཡིན།<br>ཟུང་འཇུག་བདེན་པ་དབྱེར་མེད་ཀྱི་གནས་ལུགས་རྣམ་ཀུན་མཆོག་ལྡན་གྱི་སྟོང་ཉིད་ཡིན་ལ་<br>
::Buddha-nature is not a mere absence; it is emptiness and luminous clarity.<br> It is the abiding reality of the ground of the primeval beginning of all phenomena,<br> the abiding reality that is the indivisible truth of unity—emptiness endowed with all supreme aspects.
|Duckworth, Douglas S. ''Mipam on Buddha-Nature: The Ground of the Nyingma Tradition''. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2008: p. 105.
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{{CommentatorSeparator|Zhechen Gyaltsab, 4th}}
              {{Blockquote|</em>''With regard to the [Maitreya works], three among the works of the Illustrious Maitreya, [namely] the Abhisamayālaṁkāra, the Mahāyānasūtrālaṁkāra, and the Madhyāntavibhāga, were translated by the translators Paltseg (Dpal brtsegs), Yeshé Dé (Ye shes sde), and others during the first period of the spread of the doctrine [in Tibet]. As for the [remaining] two, the [Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyāna-]Uttaratantra[śāstra] and the Dharmadharmatāvibhāga together with its commentary, Lord Maitrīpa saw light shining from a crack in a stūpa and, wondering what the source of the light was, tried to determine it. As a consequence, he obtained the texts of the two treatises. He rejoiced [in them] and prayed to the venerable [Maitreya], whereupon he arrived—directly visible in an opening between clouds—and duly bestowed [on Maitrīpa] the "oral transmission" (lung) [of both texts]. Thus it is known''.<br><br>''Then he who is called Paṇḍita Ānandakīrti heard [the teaching of both texts] from Lord Maitrīpa and carried the texts to Kashmir disguised as a beggar. Upon his arrival, the great paṇḍita Sajjana recognized him as a scholar and invited him to his home. [Sajjana] listened to [the teaching of] both treatises and copied the texts. The great translator Loden Sherab heard them [from Sajjana], translated them in Śrīnagar in Kashmir, and composed an extensive explanation in Tibet''.<br><br>''Also, the [well-] known Tsen Kawoché, a disciple of Drapa Ngönshé, came with the great translator (i.e., Ngog Loden Sherab) to Kashmir. He requested Sajjana to bestow on him [the Maitreya works] along with special instructions, since he wanted to make the works of the Illustrious Maitreya his "practice [of preparing] for death" (''<nowiki>'</nowiki>chi chos''). Thereupon [Sajjana] taught all five works, with Lotsāwa Zu Gawa Dorjé serving as translator. He also gave special instructions with regard to the Uttaratantra in the due way, and back in Tibet, Tsen explained it to numerous [spiritual friends] in Ü and Tsang. The translator Zu Gawa Dorjé wrote a commentary on the Uttaratantra in accordance with the teaching of Sajjana, and translated the [Dharma]dharmatāvibhāga, both root-text and commentary. Thus neither the Uttara[tantra] nor the [Dharma]dharmatāvibhāga was spread in India before the time of Lord Maitrīpa. Neither is found in the great treatises such as the Abhisamayālaṁkārāloka, not even "a single phrase of them" (zur tsam)''.<em>|[[Mathes, Klaus-Dieter]]. ''[[A Direct Path to the Buddha Within: Gö Lotsāwa's Mahāmudrā Interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhāga]]''. Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2008, pp. 161–63.
 
{{Blockquote
|Buddha-nature is immaculate. It is profound, serene, unfabricated suchness, an uncompounded expanse of luminosity; nonarising, unceasing, primordial peace, spontaneously present nirvana.
|''The Great Medicine: Steps in Meditation on the Enlightened Mind'' by Shechen Rabjam, p. 4.
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                {{CommentatorSeparator|Yukhok Chatral Chöying Rangdrol}}
{{CommentatorSeparator|Śākya Chokden}}


{{Blockquote
In the opening lines of his ''Undermining the Haughtiness of Others by the Wheel of Brahma: A Treatise Clarifying Mahāmudrā'', Śākya Chokden states:
|In regards to the lama's introduction Yukhok Chatralwa states:
::སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་རྒྱུད་ལ་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་ཡེ་ནས་བཞུགས་པ་ལ་ཆོས་སྐུ་གཞི་གནས་ཀྱི་རིག་པ་ཟེར། དེ་བླ་མའི་མན་ངག་གི་ངོ་སྤྲོད།  <br> དེ་ལ་གོམས་ནས་སྒྲིབ་པ་ཅི་རིགས་པ་དག་པའི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་ལམ་གྱི་ལྟ་བ་ཡིན། ངོ་སྤྲད་པ་དེ་ནི་གཞིའི་འོད་གསལ་དེ་ལས་གཞན་མ་ཡིན་པས་འདི་ཁོ་ནའོ།


:Dwelling from time immemorial as buddha-nature (sugatabarbha) in the mind-streams of all sentient beings, is that which we call the awareness (rigpa) of the abiding ground of the dharmakāya. That is the introduction of the lama’s pith instructions. It is the view of the path of yogis that have purified all manner of obscurations through familiarization with that. Since that which is introduced in none other than the luminosity of the ground, there is only this.
              {{Blockquote|</em>རང་བཞིན་རྣམ་དག་རྫོགས་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་བློ།<br>།གློ་བུར་དྲི་མའི་ཚོགས་དང་མ་འདྲེས་པ།<br>།དུས་རྣམས་རྟག་ཏུ་ཀུན་ལ་བཞུགས་གྱུར་པ།<br>།གཡོ་མེད་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ནས།<br><br>''I pay homage to the unwavering mahāmudrā,<br>The naturally pure perfect buddha-mind—<br>Unadulterated by the host of adventitious stains—<br>That has been ever-present in all for all time''.<em>|[[ShAkya mchog ldan]]. ''[[Phyag rgya chen po gsal bar byed pa'i bstan bcos tshangs pa'i 'khor los gzhan blo'i dregs pa nyams byed]]''. In gser mdog paN chen shAkya mchog ldan gyi gsung 'bum. rdzong sar: rdzong sar khams bye'i slob gling thub bstan dar rgyas gling, 2006–2007, Vol. 17, p. 438.<br>~ Translation from [[Higgins, David]], and [[Martina Draszczyk]]. ''[[Mahāmudrā and the Middle Way: Post-Classical Kagyü Discourses on Mind, Emptiness and Buddha-Nature]]''. Vol. 2, ''Translations, Critical Texts, Bibliography and Index''. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 90.2. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2016, p. 14.
                        |G.yu khog bya bral chos dbying rang grol. ''Tshig gsum gnad brdeg gi zin bris kyi don bkrol ba''. In G.yu khog bla ma bya bral chos dbyings rang grol gyi gsung 'bum. Chengdu: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 2007: Vol 2, p. 198.  
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In the same text he equates buddha-nature and mahāmudrā, stating:
{{CommentatorSeparator|Dudjom Jikdral Yeshe Dorje}}
              {{Blockquote|</em>བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོའི་ཁམས་གང་ལ། །ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོར་མཚན་གསོལ་བ ། །གང་འདི་དྲི་མའི་སྦྱང་གཞི་ལ། །སྦྱང་བྱའི་དྲི་མ་རྣམ་དགུ་པོ། །སྦྱོང་བྱེད་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་དེ། །རིག་པའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱིས་སྦྱངས་པས། །སྦྱང་འབྲས་གཙང་བདག་བདེ་སོགས་ཀྱི། །ཡོན་ཏན་ཕ་རོལ་ཕྱིན་པ་འབྱུང༌། །ཡོན་ཏན་འདི་དག་རྗེས་མཐུན་པ། །གནས་སྐབས་མཐོང་བའི་ལམ་གནས་ཏེ། །བདག་དང་བདག་མེད་སྤྲོས་པ་དག །ཉེ་བར་ཞི་བའི་བདག་མཐོང་ནས། །དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་སྙིང་མཐོང་བའི་ཕྱིར། །ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་མཐོང་བར་བཤད།<br><br>''The element of *sugatagarbha is that which has been given the name mahāmudrā. In this which is the ground for the clearing (sbyang gzhi) of stains, the *sugatagarbha that is the cleanser (sbyong byed) of the nine kinds of stains that are the objects to be cleared (sbyang bya) clears them by means of the wisdom of awareness, whereby the fruition of the clearing process emerges, i.e., the transcendent qualities of purity, selfhood, bliss, etc.''<br><br>''The phase that is concordant with these qualities is present [as] the Path of Seeing because when one sees the selfhood wherein the elaborations of self and no self are pacified, one sees tathāgatagarbha, [and] it is said that one thereby sees<br>mahāmudrā''.<em>|[[ShAkya mchog ldan]]. ''[[Phyag rgya chen po gsal bar byed pa'i bstan bcos tshangs pa'i 'khor los gzhan blo'i dregs pa nyams byed]]''. In gser mdog paN chen shAkya mchog ldan gyi gsung 'bum. rdzong sar: rdzong sar khams bye'i slob gling thub bstan dar rgyas gling, 2006–2007, Vol. 17, p. 443–44.<br>~ Translation from [[Higgins, David]], and [[Martina Draszczyk]]. ''[[Mahāmudrā and the Middle Way: Post-Classical Kagyü Discourses on Mind, Emptiness and Buddha-Nature]]''. Vol. 2, ''Translations, Critical Texts, Bibliography and Index''. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 90.2. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2016, pp. 17–18.
 
{{Blockquote
|In the mind of everyone, of every living, sentient being, there is a fundamental nature or ground, the so-called ''sugatagarbha''. This is the seed of Samantabhadra, the seed of buddhahood. Although this is something we all have, we do not recognize it. It is unknown to us. This ground, which is our spontaneous awareness, has been with us "from the beginning." It is like a mirror. When someone with a happy face looks in a mirror, the reflection of a happy face appears. When someone with a sad face looks into it, a sad face appears. The primordial ground is just like a mirror. The reflection of a person with a happy face looking into a perfectly clear mirror, the primordial ground, is like Samantabhadra, who awoke to his ultimate nature. Samantabhadra, it is said, "captured the citadel of the primordial ground, awoke, recognized his own nature, and was free." But we ordinary beings fail to recognize this nature, the mirrorlike primordial ground. For us, the situation is like someone with a downcast face looking into the mirror: a sad reflection appears!
|Dudjom Rinpoche. ''Counsels from My Heart''. Shambhala Publications: 2003, p. 17.
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{{CommentatorSeparator|Dilgo Khyentse Tashi Paljor}}
{{CommentatorSeparator|Eighth Karmapa Mikyö Dorje}}


{{Blockquote
In his ''Chariot of the Siddhas of the Dakpo Kagyu'', a commentary on the ''Madhyamakāvatāra'', Mikyö Dorje states:
|As you progress through these three steps, spiritual qualities will naturally arise, and you will see the truth of the teachings. Those qualities will bloom spontaneously because the buddha nature within you is being revealed. The buddha nature, or tathagatagarbha, is present in all beings, but is hidden by obscurations, in the same way that buried gold is hidden by the earth under which it lies. As you listen to, reflect, and meditate on the Dharma, all the inherent qualities of your buddha nature will be actualized.
 
|The Heart of Compassion (2006), [https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dilgo_Khyentse Wikiquote.org].
              {{Blockquote|</em>ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོའི་ཆོས་ཚུལ་འདིའི་མྱོང་ཁྲིད་འདེབས་པ་ལ་མཛད་པ་ལ་གསང་སྔགས་ཀྱི་དབང་བསྐུར་བ་ཡང་མི་མཛད་ལ། ཕྱག་ཆེན་འདིའི་དངོས་བསྟན་མདོ་ལུགས་ཀྱི་སྤྲོས་བྲལ་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་དབུ་མ་དང། ཤུགས་ལས་མདོ་སྔགས་ཀྱི་ཟབ་དོན་མཐར་ཐུག་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་ཐུན་མོང་དང་ཐུན་མོང་མིན་པའང་སྟོན་པ་ལ་<br><br>''In this Mahāmudrā teaching method, experiential instructions (myong khrid) may be given without Secret Mantra empowerments first being bestowed. Rather, the principal teaching of this Mahāmudrā is the Madhyamaka of emptiness free from elaborations belonging to the Sūtra tradition. And, implicitly, it teaches ordinary and extraordinary buddha nature, the final profound meaning of the sūtras and<br>tantras''.<em>|[[Mi bskyod rdo rje]]. ''[[Dbu ma la 'jug pa'i rnam bshad dpal ldan dus gsum mkhyen pa'i zhal lung dwags brgyud grub pa'i shing rta]]''. Gangtok: Rumtek Monastery, 1974, pp. 13–14.<br>~ Translation from [[Higgins, David]], and [[Martina Draszczyk]]. ''[[Buddha Nature Reconsidered: The Eighth Karma pa's Middle Path]]''. Vol. 1, ''Introduction and Analysis''. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2019, pp. 53–54.
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{{CommentatorSeparator|Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche}}
{{CommentatorSeparator|Dakpo Tashi Namgyal}}


{{Blockquote
              {{Blockquote|</em>''To summarize, the teachings in the sūtras and tantras on the ground abiding state- such as that of tathāgatagarbha [buddha nature] abides primordially in the mindstreams of sentient beings and that the nature of mind is luminosity- are presentations of ground mahāmudrā. Teachings on the development of the dhātu of [tathāgata]garbha, on freedom from elaborations, instances of emptiness, the unreality of phenomena, their absence of a self-entity, their equality, and their unification are all considered path mahāmudrā. Teachings on the awakening of the wisdom of complete omniscience (such as the four kāyas and five wisdoms) are presentations of fruition mahāmudrā''.<em>|[[Callahan, Elizabeth M.]], trans. ''[[Moonbeams of Mahāmudrā]]''. By [[Dakpo Tashi Namgyal]] (dwags po bkra shis rnam rgyal). With ''Dispelling the Darkness of Ignorance'' by [[Wangchuk Dorje]] (dbang phyug rdo rje), the Ninth Karmapa. Tsadra Foundation Series. Boulder, CO: Snow Lion Publications, 2019, p. 121.
|If you believe there is a thing called mind, it is just a thought. If you believe there is no thing called mind, it’s just another thought. Your natural state, free of any kind of thought about it—that is buddha-nature. In ordinary sentient beings, this natural state is carried away by thinking, caught up in thought. Involvement in thinking is like a heavy chain that weighs you down. Now it is time to be free from that chain. The moment you shatter the chain of thinking, you are free from the three realms of samsara.<br>
[...]<br>
Our enlightened essence, the buddha-nature, is like the sun itself, present as our very nature. Its reflection can be compared to our thoughts—all our plans, our memories, our attachments, our anger, our closed-mindedness, and so on. One thought aris­es after the other, one movement of mind occurs after the other, just like one reflection after another appears. If you control this one sun in the sky, don’t you automatically control all its reflec­tions in various ponds of water in the whole world? Why pay attention to all the different reflections? Instead of circling end­lessly in samsara, recognise the one sun. If you recognise the nature of your mind, the buddha-nature, that is sufficient.
|"As the Clouds Vanish", Tricycle, Winter 1999 [https://tricycle.org/magazine/clouds-vanish/]
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{{Blockquote
{{CommentatorSeparator|Pema Karpo}}
|Empty cognizance is our nature. We cannot separate aspect of it from the other. Empty one aspect of it from the other. Empty means "not made out of anything whatsoever"; our nature has always been this way. Yet, while being empty, it has the capacity to cognize, to experience, to perceive. It's not so difficult to comprehend this; to get the theory that this empty cognizance is buddha nature, self-existing wakefulness. But to leave it at that is the same as looking at the buffet and not eating anything. Being told about buddha nature but never really making it our personal experience will not help anything. It's like staying hungry. Once we put the food in our mouth, we discover what the food tastes like. This illustrates the dividing line between idea and experience.<br>
[...]<br>
We must grow up, just like a new-born baby. The infant born today and the adult 25 years later is essentially the same person, isn't he? He is not someone else. Right now, our nature is the buddha nature. When fully enlightened, it will also be the buddha nature. Our nature is unfabricated naturalness. It is this way by itself: like space, it does not need to be manufactured. But we do need to allow the experience of buddha nature to continue through unfabricated naturalness.
|Excerpt from ''As It Is'' by Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Rangjung Yeshe Publications, 1999. Accessed in "Dzogchen, by Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche", Buddhism now, 3 July 2013 [https://buddhismnow.com/2013/07/03/dzogchen-by-urgyen-rinpoche/]
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{{CommentatorSeparator|Yangthang_Rinpoche}}
              {{Blockquote|</em>''Among the two, buddha nature and adventitious stains, buddha nature is luminous dharmakāya because it is genuine coemergent spontaneity, indomitable and imperishable supreme joy, encompassing like the sky. Adventitious stains are mind and mental factors of the three realms, together with the breath movements [that fuel them], which have not eliminated the latent tendencies for transmigration''.<br><br>[...]<br><br>''In this way, dharmakāya, the ground that is free from stains, is naturally present potential, the expanse of reality that is thoroughly devoid of having all aspects, like a preexistent great treasure''.<em>|[[Higgins, David]], and [[Martina Draszczyk]]. ''[[Mahāmudrā and the Middle Way: Post-Classical Kagyü Discourses on Mind, Emptiness and Buddha-Nature]]''. Vol. 2, ''Translations, Critical Texts, Bibliography and Index''. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 90.2. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2016, pp. 159–60.
 
{{Blockquote
|The view of the Great Perfection is that now, as we consider all sentient beings, we consider that they all possess the essence of the sugatas, the foundational buddha nature. This is the basis of all sentient beings. From the time of becoming a sentient being until the time of becoming a buddha, all beings possess this nature. There is no one who does not possess this nature—it is utterly all-pervasive. It is not the case that buddhas, who obviously possess this nature, are better than sentient beings, who also possess this nature but are considered not to be as good as buddhas because they are sentient beirigs. There is actually not even a hair's-worth of difference between a buddha and a sentient being when it comes to the buddha nature. The foundational nature possesses all of the qualities of enlightened body, speech, mind, pure qualities, and concerned activity of an enlightened being. Without exception, all of these qualities are perfected in the buddha nature.<br>
[...]<br>
The "mind nature teaching", the "practice experience", and the "meditation" are all different names for the same thing, which essentially is that all sentient beings possess the foundational buddha nature. How is it that they have come to possess this buddha nature, which is, in fact, their innate presence, their inherent essence? How is it that this is the fundamental nature of all living beings? This is what the lama reveals to the disciples in what is called the "sem tri", which is an introduction to the mind's nature. After receiving this introduction, through training and through one's ability to naturally comprehend, when one ascertains the nature as it is, this ascertainment is called "the view". The view is then the primary practice. Maintaining the view for months and years, with enthusiastic effort, is called "meditation". While one is engaged in meditation, the unfailing ability to observe one's behavior according to cause and result is called the "conduct". When view, meditation, and conduct reach their resultant stage through the effort of the practitioner, then in dependence upon the capabilities of the practitioner—be they superior, mediocre, or inferior—the corresponding result will occur. In the superior case the result will be the dharmakaya realization, in the mediocre case realization will occur at the moment of death, and so forth. The threefold practice of view, meditation, and conduct, and the results achieved thereby, are the subject of this type of mind nature teaching.
|Introduction to the Nature of Mind, Yeshe Melong Publications, 1994
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{{CommentatorSeparator|Nyoshul Khenpo Jamyang Dorje}}
{{CommentatorSeparator|Tsele Natsok Rangdrol}}


{{Blockquote
On the correlation of various terms Tsele Natsok Rangdrol states:
|Buddha-nature is pure, undefiled, unelaborated, unconditioned, transcending all concepts. It is not an object of dualistic thought and intellectual knowledge. It is, however, open to gnosis, intuition, the nondual appercception of intrinsic awareness itself, prior to or upstream of consciousness. Adventitious obscurations temporarily veil and, like clouds, obscure this pristine, sky-like, luminous fundamental nature or mind essence- also known as tathagatagarbha, buddha-nature.
             
|Nyoshul Khenpo and Lama Surya Das. ''Natural Great Perfection: Dzogchen Teachings and Vajra Songs''. Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 1995: p. 79.
{{Blockquote|</em>།རང་བྱུང་རང་ཤར་རང་རིག་ཆོས་ཉིད་དོན། །འདི་ལ་མིང་གི་རྣམ་གྲངས་སྣ་ཚོགས་ཏེ། །ཕར་ཕྱིན་ཐེག་པར་ཆོས་ཉིད་བདེན་པ་ཟེར། །སྔགས་ཀྱི་ཐེག་པ་རང་བཞིན་འོད་གསལ་ཟེར། །སེམས་ཅན་དུས་ན་བདེར་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོའི་ཁམས། །ལམ་གྱི་སྐབས་སུ་ལྟ་སྒོམ་ལ་སོགས་མིང། །འབྲས་བུའི་དུས་ན་སངས་རྒྱས་ཆོས་སྐུ་ཟེར། །དེ་སོགས་མིནད་དང་དབྱེ་བ་དུ་མ་ཡང་། །དོན་ལ་ད་ལྟའི་ཐ་མལ་ཤེས་པ་འདིའོ།<em><br><br>This self-existing and self-manifest natural awareness, your basic state,<br>Has a variety of names:<br>In the Prajnaparamita vehicle it is called innate truth.<br>The vehicle of Mantra calls it natural luminosity.<br>While a sentient being it is named sugata-garbha.<br>During the path it is given names which describe the view, meditation, and so forth.<br>And at the point of fruition it is named the dharmakaya of buddhahood.<br>All the different names and classifications<br>Are nothing other than this present ordinary mind.|[[Rtse le sna tshogs rang grol]]. ''[[Nges don gyi lta sgom nyams su len tshul ji lta bar ston pa rdo rje'i mdo 'dzin]]''. In Rtse le sna tshogs rang grol gyi gsung gdams zab phyogs bsgrigs. Kathmandu: Khenpo Shedup Tenzin and Lama Thinley Namgyal, 2007, pp. 13–14.<br>~ [[Kunsang, Erik Pema]], trans. ''[[The Heart of the Matter]]''. By [[Tsele Natsok Rangdröl]] (rtse le sna tshogs rang grol). Edited by [[Marcia Binder Schmidt]] and [[Michael Tweed]]. Buddhist Classics. Hong Kong: Rangjung Yeshe Publications, 1996, pp. 30–31.
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{{CommentatorSeparator|Lama Tharchin Rinpoche}}
              {{Blockquote|As for the cognizant quality or wisdom aspect of this self-luminous consciousness, its essence is empty, its nature is cognizant, and these two are inseparable as the core of awareness. Being the seed or cause of all the buddha qualities and attributes of the pure paths, this is also known as the "true all-ground of application," "sugata-essence," "dharmakaya of self-cognizance," "transcendent knowledge," "buddha of your own mind," and so forth. All of these names given to the classifications of nirvanic attributes are synonymous. This wisdom aspect is exactly what should be realized and recognized by everyone who has entered the path.|[[Kunsang, Erik Pema]], trans. [[Books/Lamp_of_Mahamudra_(Shambhala)|''Lamp of Mahamudra: The Immaculate Lamp That Perfectly and Fully Illuminates the Meaning of Mahamudra, the Essence of All Phenomena'']]. By [[Tsele Natsok Rangdröl]] (rtse le sna tshogs rang grol). Boston: [[Shambhala Publications]], 1989. pp. 6–7.
 
{{Blockquote
|We are sentient beings. This means that our mind's fundamentally confused. Still at the essence level, we are buddhas because our essence is the buddha-nature which is always free of causes and conditions. Our buddha-nature can never be dissected into many parts and it cannot be said to be singular. It is beyond singularity and plurality. It is uncompounded like the sky and never changes. Therefore, there is no way for suffering to arise within the experience of the buddha-nature.<br>
[...]<br>
The solution is to realize our buddha-nature, the esence of our mind, the undeluded state that never leaves us even for a single moment. But, even though we can understand that this is the solution, we still have a problem because our confused mind cannot recognize our buddha-nature. And why is that? It's simply because confused mind doesn't believe in buddha-nature. It believes in itself, in its own power, and in the power of circumstances. If it tries to see the buddha-nature, it says ''do it this way, don't do it that way; this is right, this is wrong''. Using this approach, no matter how hard confused mind tries to see the buddha-nature, it never will because it is fundamentally confused and deluded. Of course, confused mind can create temporary happiness and success but that will, sooner or later, become suffering. So, to solve the problem, what must be identified, one way or the other, is the unchangeable, uncompounded buddha-nature, the essence of deluded mind.
|Guru Yoga In the Foundational Practices, Austin, Texas 2009, [https://www.scribd.com/document/65780770/Lama-Tharchin-Rinpoche-Vol-2-Excerpt Scribd].
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{{CommentatorSeparator|Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche}}
{{CommentatorSeparator|Jamgön Kongtrul}}


{{Blockquote
In his ''Treasury of Knowledge'' Jamgön Kongtrul states:
|One should first recognize the Buddha-Nature, then train in it, and finally attain stability. In order to recognize the Buddha-Nature, we must identify exactly what is preventing us from realizing it now and what needs to be cleared away - all the passing stains of confusion. Where did these passing stains come from? The ground itself, the Buddha-Nature, is without impurity or confusion, but the temporary defilements, the stains of confusion, result from not having recognized the state of the ground.
              {{Blockquote|</em>ཀུན་མཁྱེན་རང་བྱུང་རྒྱལ་བ་འཇིག་རྟེན་ཏུ་བྱོན་པ་ནས་ནང་བརྟག་རྒྱུད་གསུམ་ཞེས་གྲགས་པའི་བཤད་པའི་བཀའ་གཙོ་བོར་མཛད་དེ་ [...] རྒྱུད་བླ་མ་ནི་རྗེ་སྒམ་པོ་པའི་ཞལ་ནས། འོ་སྐོལ་གྱི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོའི་གདམས་པ་འདིའི་གཞུང་ནི་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་བྱམས་པས་མཛད་པའི་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཡིན་ནོ། ཞེས་གསུངས་པ་ལྟར་བདེ་གཤེགས་ཕག་མོ་པ་གྲུ་པ། སྐྱོབ་པ་འཇིག་རྟེན་གསུམ་མགོན་སོགས་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་ལུགས་དེའི་གྲུབ་མཐའ་འཆའ་ཞིང། རང་བྱུང་རྒྱལ་བ་སོགས་ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་པ་ན་རིམ་གྱིས་ཀྱང་དེའི་དགོངས་པ་རྩ་བའི་དོན་ཏུ་མཛད་པ་འབའ་ཞིག་ཡིན་པས་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་སྒོམ་པ་ལའང་འདི་ཉིད་ཤེས་པ་གལ་ཆེ་བ་ཡིན། དེས་ན་གཞུང་འདི་གསུམ་ནི་ཁ་བཤད་དང་རྩོད་པའི་ཆོས་མ་ཡིན་གྱི་ཉམས་ལེན་དང་ལྟོ་སྦྱར་བའི་ཆོས་ཡིན་པས་སྒྲུབ་བརྒྱུད་འཛིན་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་བཤད་པའི་རྒྱུན་མ་ཉམས་པར་བཟུང་བ་ཅི་ནས་ཀྱང་གནད་ཆེ་བར་ཡོད་དོ།<br><br>''When Kun mkhyen Rang byung rgyal ba appeared in this world he primarily emphasized the Buddhist teachings known as Zab mo nang don, Hevajratantra, and Uttaratantra. [...] As for the Uttaratantra, Rje Sgam po pa stated, “The scriptural source for our Mahāmudrā instructions is the Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra composed by Bhagavān Maitreya.” Accordingly, Bde gshegs Phag mo gru pa, Skyob pa ’Jig rten gsum mgon, and others outlined the philosophy of this tradition. And the succession of omniscient ones, such as Rang byung rgyal ba, solely made the intent of this [śāstra] their fundamental concern. Therefore, even where Mahāmudrā meditation is concerned, the knowledge of this very [treatise] is of utmost importance. Hence, these three scriptures are not teachings for theoretical explanation and debate but are rather teachings to integrate with one’s meditative practice. Therefore, what could be a more important essential key for those who uphold the practice lineage than to unfailingly maintain the transmission of these explanations?''<em>|[['Jam mgon kong sprul]]. ''[[Shes bya kun khyab]]''. Vol. 1. Pe cin: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1982, 505–6.<br>~ Translation from [[Higgins, David]] and [[Martina Draszczyk]]. ''[[Buddha Nature Reconsidered: The Eighth Karma pa's Middle Path]]''. Vol. 1, ''Introduction and Analysis''. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2019, pp. 51–53.
|"Quotes by Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche", [https://tzal.org/quotes-by-chokyi-nyima-rinpoche/ Tzal.org].
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{{CommentatorSeparator|Dzongsar Khyentse}}
{{CommentatorSeparator|Khenpo Gangshar}}


{{Blockquote
In his ''Naturally Liberating Whatever You Meet: Instructions to Guide You on the Profound Path'',  Khenpo Gangshar states:
|When we talk about emptiness, something beyond fabrication, we immediately think of a state of being that has no function, like a couch potato or piece of stone, but that is absolutely not correct. It is not merely a negation, elimination, or denial. It is not like the exhaustion of a fire or the evaporation of water. It is full of function, and we call this function buddha activity, which is one aspect of buddhanature. This buddhanature has an aspect of uninterrupted wisdom. This is the difficulty, because as soon as we talk about wisdom, we think in terms of cognition and the senses and their sense objects. We are curious about how a buddha perceives things. But although buddhanature is seemingly a cognizer, it has no object, and therefore it cannot be a subject. Furthermore, it’s not inanimate, nor is it animate, in the sense of mind. This is why the Uttaratantra Shastra is really complementary to the Mahasandhi (Dzogchen) teachings, which always say that mind and wisdom are separate—the dualistic mind of subject and object is separate from the nondual wisdom, which is not other than buddhanature.
             
|"Spotless from the Start", Lion's Roar, 2008 [https://www.lionsroar.com/spotless-from-the-start/]
{{Blockquote|</em>འདི་སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་སེམས་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན། དུས་གསུམ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་དགོངས་པ། ཆོས་སྒོ་བརྒྱད་ཁྲི་བཞི་སྟོང་གི་སྙིང་པོ། འདྲེན་མཆོག་དཔལ་ལྡན་བླ་མའི་ཐུགས། བཀའ་བར་པ་ནས་ཤེར་ཕྱིན་དང་འཁོར་ལོ་ཐ་མ་ནས་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ། སྔགས་ཐུན་མོང་བའི་སྐབས་སུ། གཞི་རྒྱུད་རང་བཞིན་ལྷུན་གྱིས་གྲུབ་པའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་<br><br>''The mind-essence is the nature of all sentient beings, the realization of the buddhas of the three times, the essence of the eighty-four thousand Dharma-doors and the heart of the glorious master, the supreme guide. It is the transcendent knowledge of the second set of teachings and the sugata-essence of the last turning of the wheel of the Dharma. According to the general system of mantra it is called continuity of ground, the spontaneously present mandala of the innate nature''.<em>|[[Mkhan po gang shar]]. ''[[Zab lam khrid kyi man ngag 'phrad tshad rang grol]]''. In gsung 'bum Gang shar dbang po. Kathmandu: thrangu tashi choling, 2008, p. 121.<br> ~ Translation from [[Thrangu Rinpoche]]. ''[[Vivid Awareness: The Mind Instructions of Khenpo Gangshar]]''. Translated and edited by [[David Karma Choephel]]. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2011, p. 226.
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<h2>Further Readings</h2>
{{CommentatorSeparator|Thrangu Rinpoche}}
 
{{BookExceprt
                {{Blockquote|</em>''The Uttara Tantra belongs mainly to the sutra classification, the Third Turning of the Wheel of Dharma, because the text contains sections concerning the view, path, and fruition as well as many other topics. In combination, they are classified as sutra because the word 'sutra' literally means 'confluence' or 'that which has many parts gathered together.' Since it emphasizes the enlightened essence, the sugatagarbha, and because it is inseparable from the very basis of Mahamudra, this teaching is considered of great importance in the Kagyu tradition''.<em>|[[Thrangu Rinpoche]]. ''[[Buddha Nature: Ten Teachings on the Uttara Tantra Shastra]]''. Translated by [[Erik Pema Kunsang]]. Edited by S. Lhamo. Hong Kong: Rangjung Yeshe Publications, 1988, p. 16.
|title=Article: Dzogchen Explained
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|coverLink=https://www.lionsroar.com/dzogchen-explained/
|text=The key to ascending through the eight phases [of Dzogchen practice] is to appreciate and settle into the Dzogchen perspective on reality, according to which the fundamental nature of ourselves—and the cosmos—is our inner pristine awareness (rikpa), also described by terms such as buddhanature, the dharma-body of a buddha, or pure, absolute space.<br>
[...]<br>
Dzogchen asserts, with other Mahayana traditions, not only that we all have within us the capacity to become fully enlightened buddhas but also that in some sense we already are buddhas, in that pristine awareness is the fundamental nature of ourselves and the world simply waiting to be rediscovered. This sort of "gospel of buddhanature," running counter to the "tragic sense of life" influential in traditional European culture, is more appealing to many Western seekers, accustomed as they are to the psychological lingo of self-improvement, than are accounts of Buddhism that dwell on our delusion and the sufferings they incite and emphasize that attaining enlightenment is a process requiring years, and perhaps lifetimes, of effort.
|source=Roger Jackson reviews [https://www.wisdompubs.org/book/heart-great-perfection Heart of the Great Perfection]: Dudjom Lingpa’s Visions of the Great Perfection, Vol. 1 by B. Alan Wallace. From the Spring 2017 issue of [https://www.lionsroar.com/dzogchen-explained/ Buddhadharma: The Practitioner’s Quarterly].
}}
{{BookExceprt
|title=Book: Finding Rest in the Nature of Mind
|cover=File:Finding Rest in the Nature of the Mind-front.jpg
|coverLink=https://www.shambhala.com/finding-rest-in-the-nature-of-the-mind-14951.html
|text=The sutras of definitive meaning belonging to the final turning of the wheel of the Dharma clearly reveal the great secret of all the Buddhas just as it is. These sutras are the ''Dhāraṇīśvararājaparipṛcchā-sūtra'', the ''Śrīmālādevīsiṃhanādaparipṛcchā-sūtra'', the ''Ratnadārikāparipṛcchā-sūtra'', the ''Vimaladevīparipṛcchā-sūtra'', the ''Aṅgulimālīya-sūtra'', the ''Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra'', the ''Maitreya-paripṛcchā-sūtra'', and the ''Tathāgatagarbha-sūtra''. These sutras teach that the dharmadhātu, that is, the intrinsically pure nature of the mind or buddha-element (''khams''), the essence of the Tathāgatas (the ''tathāgatagarbha''), is primordially present in all beings. It is present from the very beginning and it is unchanging. Spontaneously, and from the very first, its appearing aspect is the source of the major and minor marks of the rūpakāya (the body of form); and its emptiness aspect is the dharmakāya (the body of ultimate reality) beyond all conceptual extremes. Since all enlightened qualities are naturally present within it, it is like a jewel; since it is unchanging, it is like space; and since it pervades all beings, as if moistening them, it is like water. By means of all such metaphors the tathāgatagarbha is set forth.  
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|source=Longchenpa. ''Finding Rest in the Nature of the Mind''. Translated by the Padmakara Translation Group. The Trilogy of Rest Volume 1. Boulder: Shambhala, 2017: p. 205.
}}
{{BookExceprt
|title=Book: Refining Our Perception of Reality
|cover=File:Refining Our Perception of Reality-front.jpg
|coverLink=https://www.shambhala.com/refining-our-perception-of-reality.html
|text=The main presentation of pervasive insubstantial evenness has three parts: pervasive insubstantial evenness of the ground of being, of the spiritual path, and of the result.<br>


First, the ground of being is the nature of mind endowed with buddha nature. Before sentient beings became deluded, no faults, defilements, or habitual patterns whatsoever stained them. Thus, this is the pervasive insubstantial evenness of the ground of being.<br>
{{Blockquote|</em>''The root of the wisdom that arises in Mahamudra is buddha nature, or buddha essence,''<br>
''[...]''<br>''Buddha nature is realized through listening, contemplating, and meditating. This is the explanation according to the Sutra path. In terms of the Mahamudra path, realization occurs through the combination of the blessing of a true teacher and the arising of devotion within the pupil; through the combination of these two, buddha nature, the nature of the mind, manifests. Jamgon Kongtrul says buddha nature is realized either through the Sutra path of listening, contemplating, and meditating or through blessing and devotion of the Mahamudra path''.<em>|[[Thrangu Rinpoche]]. ''[[On Buddha Essence: A Commentary on Rangjung Dorje's Treatise]]''. Translated by [[Peter Alan Roberts]]. Edited by Clark Johnson. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006, pp. xxi and 133.
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Second, during the circumstance of sentient beings’ delusion, that delusion’s power prevents them from seeing the characteristics of the ground of their being. Nevertheless, the nature of that ground is pure; the fact that that enlightenment’s supreme bodies and wisdoms naturally dwell there is the pervasive insubstantial evenness of the spiritual path.<br>
            {{Blockquote|</em>''The Kagyu masters of the past as an instruction called this the ordinary mind, or the natural state. They called it this out of their experience. This ordinary mind itself is the dharma expanse and the essence of the buddhas: it is our buddha nature. This is exactly what the term means; this is what we need to experience and recognize''.<em>|[[Thrangu Rinpoche]]. ''[[Vivid Awareness: The Mind Instructions of Khenpo Gangshar]]''. Translated and edited by [[David Karma Choephel]]. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2011, p. 124.
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Third, at the time of final enlightenment, the ground of being (the lord that no faults, defilements, or habitual patterns have ever stained since primordial time) becomes manifest, without the addition of any new qualities. For instance, the sun’s essence during three circumstances—before clouds cover it, during its covering, and once it is free from clouds—has no change whatsoever, positive or negative. Lord Bodhisattva Maitreya states:
<h2>Further Readings</h2>


:As it was before, so it is later:
{{BookExceprt
:it is the changeless nature.
|title=Book: A Direct Path to the Buddha Within
|cover=File:A_Direct_Path_to_the_Buddha_Within-front.jpg
|coverLink=A Direct Path to the Buddha Within
|text=One of the main goals of Zhönu Pal's Ratnagotravibhāga commentary is to show that the Kagyü path of mahāmudrā is already taught in the Maitreya works and the Laṅkāvatārasūtra. This approach involves resting your mind in a nonconceptual experience of luminosity or the dharmadhātu (the expanse or nature of all phenomena) with the help of special "pith instructions" (Tib. man ngag) on how to become mentally disengaged. A path of directly realizing buddha nature is thus distinguished from a Madhyamaka path of logical inference and it is with this in mind that Zhönu Pal's commentary can be called a "direct path to the buddha within."
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            |source=[[Mathes, Klaus-Dieter]]. ''[[A Direct Path to the Buddha Within]]: Gö Lotsāwa's Mahāmudrā Interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhāga''. Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2008, p. 1.
}}
{{BookExceprt
|title=Book: When the Clouds Part
|cover=File:When the Clouds Part-front.jpg
|coverLink=When the Clouds Part
|text=As stated before, texts such as CMW, those by Mönlam Tsültrim, GC, the Eighth Karmapa’s Lamp, and GISM all establish connections between the Uttaratantra and Mahāmudrā. Such connections are also found in a number of Indian and Tibetan Mahāmudrā works. Usually, these connections are made in the wider context of the Mahāmudrā approaches that came to be called "sūtra Mahāmudrā" or "essence Mahāmudrā" (the Mahāmudrā approach that is beyond "sūtra Mahāmudrā" and "tantra Mahāmudrā"). In order to provide some background against which the Uttaratantra-based Mahāmudrā instructions in the above texts can be appreciated more fully, I will next present an overview of the key elements of the different approaches to Mahāmudrā, their origins, their scriptural sources, and the different ways in which they are taught.


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|link=/index.php/Dudjom Lingpa's Usage of Buddha-Nature in ''Buddhahood Without Meditation'', with Commentary by Sera Khandro
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|text=Dudjom Lingpa's Usage of Buddha-Nature in ''Buddhahood Without Meditation''
|text=The Uttaratantra and Mahāmudrā
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|source=Zangpo, Ngawang (Hugh Thompson), trans. ''Refining Our Perception of Reality: Sera Khandro's Commentary on Dudjom Lingpa's Account of His Visionary Journey''. Boston: Snow Lion Publications, 2013.
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{{BookExceprt
|title=Book: The Life of Shabkar
|cover=File:The Life of Shabkar-front.jpg
|coverLink=https://www.shambhala.com/life-of-shabkar.html
|text=''"Pure vision," the extraordinary outlook of the Vajrayana or Adamantine Vehicle, is to recognize Buddha-nature in all sentient beings and to see primordial purity and perfection in all phenomena. Every sentient being is endowed with the essence of Buddhahood, just as oil pervades every sesame seed. Ignorance is nothing more than lack of awareness of this very Buddha-nature, as when a pauper does not see the golden pot buried beneath his own hut. The spiritual path is thus a rediscovery of this forgotten nature, just as one sees again the immutable brilliance of the sun once the clouds that were masking it have been blown away.''


<span style="font-size: .8em; font-style: normal;">~ Translator's Introduction, pg. xvii</span>
|source=[[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, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, 2014, p. 151.
}}
                      {{BookExceprt
|title=Book: Mind at Ease
|cover=File:Mind at Ease-front.jpg
|coverLink=Mind at Ease
|text=We come now to a discussion of ground Mahamudra and some of the more philosophical elements of Mahamudra meditation. The notion of the ground-also called the basis-is a key concept for Mahayana and later forms of Buddhism. ''Ground of being'' refers to the Mahamudra itself, or to our true nature, our authentic state of being. In Mahayana Buddhism, this ground is also known as buddha-nature. I will begin with this more widely known concept from the perspective of the exoteric approach and then proceed to link the idea of buddha-nature to the mystical notion of the ground of being, or ground Mahamudra.


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''The Vajrayana path is based on pure perception and is motivated by the aspiration to free swiftly oneself and others from delusion through skillful means. The Mahayana chiefly considers that the Buddha nature is present in every sentient being like a seed, or potentiality. The Vajrayana considers that this nature is fully present as wisdom or pristine awareness, the undeluded aspect and fundamental nature of the mind. Therefore, while the former vehicles are known as "causal vehicles," the Vajrayana is known as the "resultant vehicle." As it is said, "In the causal vehicles one recognizes the nature of mind as the cause of Buddhahood; in the resultant vehicle one regards the nature of mind as Buddhahood itself." Since the "result" of the path, Buddha hood, is primordially present, one only needs to actualize it or divest it of its veils.''
|source=[[Kyabgon, Traleg]]. ''[[Mind at Ease]]: Self-Liberation Through Mahamudra Meditation''. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2004, p.121.
}}
{{BookExceprt
|title=Book: Mahāmudrā and the Middle Way
|cover=File:Mahamudra and the Middle Way - Vol. 2-front.jpg
|coverLink=Mahāmudrā and the Middle Way
|text=This two-volume publication explores the complex philosophy of Mahāmudrā that developed in Tibetan Dwags po Bka’ brgyud traditions between the 15th and 16th centuries CE. It examines the attempts to articulate and defend Bka’ brgyud views and practices by four leading post-classical thinkers: (1) Shākya mchog ldan (1423‒1507), a celebrated yet controversial Sa skya scholar who developed a strong affiliation with the Karma Bka’ brgyud Mahāmudrā tradition in the last half of his life, (2) Karma phrin las Phyogs las rnam rgyal (1456‒1539), a renowned Karma Bka’ brgyud scholar-yogin and tutor to the Eighth Karma pa, (3) the Eighth Karma pa himself, Mi bskyod rdo rje (1507‒1554), who was among the most erudite and influential scholar-hierarchs of his generation, (4) and Padma dkar po (1527‒1592), Fourth ’Brug chen of the ’Brug pa Bka’ brgyud lineage who is generally acknowledged as its greatest scholar and systematizer. (Source: [https://www.istb.univie.ac.at/cgi-bin/wstb/wstb.cgi?ID=93&show_description=1 WSTB Description])
    |source=[[Higgins, David]], and [[Martina Draszczyk]]. ''[[Mahāmudrā and the Middle Way]]: Post-Classical Kagyü Discourses on Mind, Emptiness and Buddha-Nature''. 2 vols. Vol. 1, ''Introduction, Views of Authors and Final Reflections''. Vol. 2, ''Translations, Critical Texts, Bibliography and Index''. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 90.1–90.2. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2016.
}}


<span style="font-size: .8em; font-style: normal;">~ pg. 551</span>
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|title=Book: Buddha Nature Reconsidered
 
|cover=File:Buddha Nature Reconsidered-front.jpg
''The fruit of the Great Perfection<br>Is primordially present as the Buddha nature.<br>It does not need to be obtained:<br>It is ripe within oneself.''
|coverLink=Buddha Nature Reconsidered
 
|text=As a Mahāmudrā proponent, Mi bskyod rdo rje gives primacy to innate modes of being and awareness, such as coemergent wisdom or buddha nature naturally endowed with qualities, that are amenable only to direct yogic perception and revealed through the personal guidance of a qualified teacher. As an exponent of ''yuganaddha'' (''zung ’jug''), i.e., unity (literally, “yoking together”), he espouses the tantric goal of unity beyond extremes, a goal grounded in the inseparability of the two truths or realities (''bden gnyis dbyer med''), of appearance and emptiness (''snang stong dbyer med''). In his eyes, this unity is only fully realized when one understands that the conventional has no independent existence apart from the ultimate and that the latter is a condition of possibility of the former. As an advocate of ''apratiṣṭhāna'' (''rab tu mi gnas pa''), i.e., nonfoundationalism, he resolutely maintains that all outer and inner phenomena, including deep features of reality disclosed through meditation, lack any ontic or epistemic essence or foundation that the mind can lay hold of. Finally, as a champion of Madhyamaka, i.e., the Buddhist Middle Way, the author attempts to ply a middle course between the extremes of existence and nonexistence, eternalism and nihilism. These various doxographical strands are deftly interwoven in the Karma pa’s view of buddha nature, which affirms the innate presence of buddha nature and its qualities in all sentient beings as well as their soteriological efficacy while denying either any ontological status.
<span style="font-size: .8em; font-style: normal;">~ pg. 554</span>
    |source=[[Higgins, David]], and [[Martina Draszczyk]]. ''[[Buddha Nature Reconsidered]]: The Eighth Karma pa's Middle Path''. Vol. 1, ''Introduction and Analysis''. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2019, p. 14.
}}
}}
{{BookExceprt
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|title=Article: Grounds of Buddha-Nature in Tibet
{{StickySideBar
|cover=File:Grounds of Buddha-Nature in Tibet-front.png
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|coverLink=https://www.academia.edu/27899718/Grounds_of_Buddha-Nature_in_Tibet
|text=The distinction that Śākya Chokden makes between two types of self-awareness reflects the distinction Longchenpa made between self-awareness (rang rig) in Yogācāra (or "Mind-Only") and the gnosis of self-awareness (so sor rang rig pa'i ye shes) in the Great Perfection (rdzogs chen). Longchenpa's distinction between the basic consciousness (kun gzhi) and the Truth Body (chos sku) similarly conveys this fundamental difference between distorted and undistorted worlds. In fact, Longchenpa distinguished his view of the Great Perfection from that of "Mind-Only" in terms of buddha-nature, expressed as the "basic element" (khams):
:: Proponents of Mind-Only assert a changeless permanence and mere [ordinary] awareness as self-illuminating, but this position differs because we assert the unconditioned spontaneous presence beyond permanence and annihilation, and the spontaneously present qualities of the basic element."
|source=Grounds of Buddha-Nature in Tibet by [[Douglas Duckworth]]: [https://www.academia.edu/27899718/Grounds_of_Buddha-Nature_in_Tibet Academia.edu].
}}
}}
{{BookExceprt
|title=Book: Approaching the Great Perfection
|cover=File:Approaching_The_Great_Perfection-front.jpg
|coverLink=https://wisdomexperience.org/product/approaching-great-perfection/?attribute_pa_format=ebook
|text=The conflict between immanence and distinction is present within the scriptural texts of the Seminal Heart, from the ''Seventeen Tantras'' down to the ''Longchen Nyingtig's'' treasure texts. And it is in the ''Longchen Nyingtig's'' treasure texts themselves that some attempt to reconcile that conflict can be detected in the frequent appearance of the buddha nature model.
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|image=http://commons.tsadra.org/images-commons/thumb/e/ef/%27jigs_gling_statue.jpg/214px-%27jigs_gling_statue.jpg
|text=Buddha-Nature in the Longchen Nyingtig
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|source=[[Schaik, S.]] ''[[Approaching the Great Perfection]]: Simultaneous and Gradual Approaches to Dzogchen Practice in Jigme Lingpa's Longchen Nyingtig''. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2004: p. 63.
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Latest revision as of 11:10, 31 January 2023

Mahāmudrā & Buddha-Nature
For the Kagyu, the lines of transmission of the Ratnagotravibhāga and the Mahāmudrā teachings converge with the Indian teacher Maitrīpa. In terms of the former, Maitrīpa is believed to have extracted the treatise from a stūpa after receiving instructions from Maitreya in a dream. It is this lineage passing from Maitrīpa to Ānandakīrti, who traveled to Kashmir where he passed it onto Sajjana, that is considered the de facto line of transmission of the treatise for the Kagyu...

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Watch & Learn

Video
Casey Kemp at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium
Casey Kemp presents an overview and analysis of Jigten Gonpo’s explanation of luminosity as outlined in his text 'Od gsal rnam lnga gcig tu bsre ba'i man ngag, a pith instruction on merging (bsre ba).
Kemp, Casey. "The Luminous Basis for Buddhahood: ’Jig rten mgon po’s Pith Instructions for Merging the Nature of Mind with the Dharmakāya." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 41:36. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7VQkhK1CE0.
Video
Martina Draszczyk at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium
Martina Draszczyk discusses the early Kagyu masters and explores how their meditation-oriented approach is based in both affirming buddha-nature as the ground and goal of Buddhist soteriology and avoiding its reification into an entity with real properties.
Draszczyk, Martina. "Buddha Nature as Seen by Early Bka’ brgyud Masters." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 37:27. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoMUdg40Qv8.

From the Masters

Maitrīpa
986 ~ 1063

In the first verse of his Tattavadaśaka, Maitrīpa states:

सदसद्योगहीनायै तथतायै नमो नमः।
अनाविला यतः सैव बोधतो बोधिरूपिणी॥१॥

Homage to you, suchness,
Which has no association with existence and non-existence,
Because, [when] stainless, this very [suchness]
Has the form of enlightenment in virtue of realization. 
~ Mathes, Klaus-Dieter. A Fine Blend of Mahāmudra and Madhyamaka: Maitrīpa's Collection of Texts on Non-Conceptual Realization (Amanasikāra). Vienna: Österreichischen Akademie Der Wissenschaften, 2015, p. 211.
Gampopa
1079 ~ 1153


As told by Gö Lotsāwa Zhönu Pal:

དེ་ཡང་དྭགས་པོ་རིན་པོ་ཆེས་དཔལ་ཕག་མོ་གྲུ་པ་ལ། འོ་སྐོལ་གྱི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་འདིའི་གཞུང་ནི་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་བྱམས་པས་མཛད་པའི་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་འདི་ཡིན་ཞེས་གསུངས་ཤིང་། དཔལ་ཕག་མོ་གྲུ་པས་ཀྱང་རྗེ་འབྲི་ཁུང་པ་ལ་དེ་སྐད་དུ་གསུངས་པས། རྗེ་འབྲི་ཁུང་པ་དཔོན་སློབ་ཀྱི་གསུང་རབ་རྣམས་སུ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བཤད་པ་མང་དུ་འབྱུང་བ་དེ་ཡིན་ནོ།

Moreover, Dagpo Rinpoché (Gampopa) said to Pagmo Drupa:
"The basic text of this mahāmudrā of ours is the Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra (Ratnagotravibhāga) by Venerable Maitreya." Pagmo Drupa in turn said the same thing to Jé Drigungpa (Rje 'Bri gung pa), and for this reason many explanations of the Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra are found in the works of Jé Drigungpa and his
disciples. 
~ 'Gos lo tsA ba gzhon nu dpal. Deb ther sngon po. Chengdu: Si khron mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1984, Vol. 2, p. 847.

~ Translation from Mathes, Klaus-Dieter. A Direct Path to the Buddha Within: Gö Lotsāwa's Mahāmudrā Interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhāga. Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2008, pp. 34–35.


As quoted by Śākya Chokden:

དེ་ཡང་སྒམ་པོ་པས་གསུངས་པ། ང་ཡི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་ཡི། ངོས་འཛིན་རང་གི་རིག་པ་སྟེ། གཞུང་ནི་རྒྱུད་བླའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཞེས།

In that regard Gampopa says, "the hallmark of my Mahāmudrā is self-awareness and its scriptural source is the Uttaratantraśāstra". 
~ ShAkya mchog ldan. Phyag rgya chen po gsal bar byed pa'i bstan bcos tshangs pa'i 'khor los gzhan blo'i dregs pa nyams byed. In gser mdog paN chen shAkya mchog ldan gyi gsung 'bum. rdzong sar: rdzong sar khams bye'i slob gling thub bstan dar rgyas gling, 2006–2007: Vol. 17, p. 443.
~ Translation adapted from Higgins, David, and Martina Draszczyk. Mahāmudrā and the Middle Way: Post-Classical Kagyü Discourses on Mind, Emptiness and Buddha-Nature. Vol. 2, Translations, Critical Texts, Bibliography and Index. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2016, p. 17.
Layakpa Jangchub Ngödrup
early 12th century ~ late 12th century

In his commentary on his teacher Gampopa's famous instruction known as the Four Dharmas, Layakpa states:

སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་རྒྱུད་ལ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་གང་སེམས་ཉིད་རང་བཞིན་གྱིས་འོད་གསལ་བ་སྐྱེ་འགག་མེད་ཅིང་སྤྲོས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཉེར་བར་ཞི་བ། སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་པ་རྣམས་དང་མ་བྲལ་བའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཅན་ཡིན་

Buddha nature in the mind-streams of all sentient beings is mind as such, natural luminosity, free from any arising and ceasing, and is the complete pacification of all proliferations. [Thus beings] are endowed with wisdom that is inseparable from inconceivable buddha-qualities.

[...]

གང་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོའམ །ལྷན་ཅིག་སྐྱེས་པའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་སེམས་ཉིད་རང་བཞིན་གྱིས་འོད་གསལ་ཞིང་རྣམ་པར་དག་པ་

That which is called "buddha nature" (tathāgatagarbha) or coemergent wisdom (sahajajñāna) is mind as such (sems nyid), which is naturally luminous and utterly pure. 
~ La yag pa byang chub dngos grub. Mnyam med dwags po'i chos bzhir grags pa'i gzhung gi 'grel pa snying po gsal ba'i rgyan: A Detailed Study on Sgam po pa's chos bzhi Presentation of Fundamental Buddhist Practice. Bir: D. Tsondu Senghe, 1978, p. 189 and 210.
~ Translation from Higgins, David, and Martina Draszczyk. Buddha Nature Reconsidered: The Eighth Karma pa's Middle Path. Vol. 1, Introduction and Analysis. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2019, p. 51.
Jikten Gönpo
1143 ~ 1217

In his Chos kyi 'khor lo legs par gtan la phab pa Jikten Gönpo states:

ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་ཐེག་ཆེན་བླ་མའི་རྒྱུད། འདི་ཡི་ཁྲིད་ལ་འབད་པས་ནན་ཏན་བྱས།

Mahāmudrā is [taught on the basis of] the Mahāyānottaratantra [Ratnagotravibhāga]. Great effort was taken to explain the latter... 
~ 'Jig rten mgon po. Chos kyi 'khor lo legs par gtan la phab pa theg pa chen po'i tshul 'ong ges zhus pa. Dehra Dun: Drikung Kagyu Institute, 1998, p. 15.
~ Translation from Mathes, Klaus-Dieter. A Direct Path to the Buddha Within: Gö Lotsāwa's Mahāmudrā Interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhāga. Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2008, p. 41.
Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje
1284 ~ 1339

In his The Treatise on Pointing Out the Tathāgata Heart, the Third Karmapa states:

།ཐ་མལ་ཤེས་པ་དེ་ཉིད་ལ།
།ཆོས་དབྱིངས་རྒྱལ་བའི་སྙིང་པོ་ཟེར།
།བཟང་དུ་འཕགས་པས་བཏང་བ་མེད།
།ངན་དུ་སེམས་ཅན་གྱིས་མ་བཏང་།
།ཐ་སྙད་དུ་མ་བརྗོད་མོད་ཀྱང།
།རྗོད་པས་དེ་ཡི་དོན་མི་ཤེས།

Just this ordinary mind
Is called "dharmadhātu" and "Heart of the victors."
It is neither to be improved by the noble ones
Nor made worse by sentient beings.
It may no doubt be expressed through many conventional terms,
But its actual reality is not understood through expressions. 
~ Rang byung rdo rje, (Karmapa, 3rd). De bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po bstan pa'i bstan bcos. In gsung 'bum rang byung rdo rje. Zi ling: mtshur phu mkhan po lo yag bkra shis, 2006, Vol. 7, p. 285.
~ Translation from Karmapa, The Third, Rang byung rdo rje. Luminous Heart: The Third Karmapa on Consciousness, Wisdom, and Buddha Nature. Translated by Karl Brunnhölzl. Nitartha Institute Series. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2009, pp. 354–55.

In Jamgön Kongtrul's Treasury of Knowledge, he references the Third Karmapa from an unknown source, claiming:

རང་བྱུང་ཞབས་ཀྱིས།
།གནས་ལུགས་སྤྲོས་བྲལ་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་ནི།
།རྣམ་རྟོག་སྤྲོས་པའི་མཚན་མ་ཀུན་གྱིས་སྟོང།
།གསལ་ལ་འཛིན་མེད་དག་པའི་རང་བཞིན་ཏེ།
།དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ཞེས་ཀྱང་བྱ།

Venerable Rangjung [Dorje] states:

The basic nature free from reference points, Mahāmudrā,
Is empty of all characteristics of the reference points of
    thoughts.
This pure nature, lucid and yet without grasping,
Is also called "the tathāgata heart." 
~ 'Jam mgon kong sprul. Shes bya kun khyab. Pe cin: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1982, Vol. 3, p. 378.
~ Translation from 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, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, 2014, p. 154.
Gö Lotsāwa Zhönu Pal
1392 ~ 1481

Gö Lotsāwa on the origins of the Tibetan exegesis of the Ratnagotravibhāga:

With regard to the [Maitreya works], three among the works of the Illustrious Maitreya, [namely] the Abhisamayālaṁkāra, the Mahāyānasūtrālaṁkāra, and the Madhyāntavibhāga, were translated by the translators Paltseg (Dpal brtsegs), Yeshé Dé (Ye shes sde), and others during the first period of the spread of the doctrine [in Tibet]. As for the [remaining] two, the [Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyāna-]Uttaratantra[śāstra] and the Dharmadharmatāvibhāga together with its commentary, Lord Maitrīpa saw light shining from a crack in a stūpa and, wondering what the source of the light was, tried to determine it. As a consequence, he obtained the texts of the two treatises. He rejoiced [in them] and prayed to the venerable [Maitreya], whereupon he arrived—directly visible in an opening between clouds—and duly bestowed [on Maitrīpa] the "oral transmission" (lung) [of both texts]. Thus it is known.

Then he who is called Paṇḍita Ānandakīrti heard [the teaching of both texts] from Lord Maitrīpa and carried the texts to Kashmir disguised as a beggar. Upon his arrival, the great paṇḍita Sajjana recognized him as a scholar and invited him to his home. [Sajjana] listened to [the teaching of] both treatises and copied the texts. The great translator Loden Sherab heard them [from Sajjana], translated them in Śrīnagar in Kashmir, and composed an extensive explanation in Tibet.

Also, the [well-] known Tsen Kawoché, a disciple of Drapa Ngönshé, came with the great translator (i.e., Ngog Loden Sherab) to Kashmir. He requested Sajjana to bestow on him [the Maitreya works] along with special instructions, since he wanted to make the works of the Illustrious Maitreya his "practice [of preparing] for death" ('chi chos). Thereupon [Sajjana] taught all five works, with Lotsāwa Zu Gawa Dorjé serving as translator. He also gave special instructions with regard to the Uttaratantra in the due way, and back in Tibet, Tsen explained it to numerous [spiritual friends] in Ü and Tsang. The translator Zu Gawa Dorjé wrote a commentary on the Uttaratantra in accordance with the teaching of Sajjana, and translated the [Dharma]dharmatāvibhāga, both root-text and commentary. Thus neither the Uttara[tantra] nor the [Dharma]dharmatāvibhāga was spread in India before the time of Lord Maitrīpa. Neither is found in the great treatises such as the Abhisamayālaṁkārāloka, not even "a single phrase of them" (zur tsam). 
~ Mathes, Klaus-Dieter. A Direct Path to the Buddha Within: Gö Lotsāwa's Mahāmudrā Interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhāga. Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2008, pp. 161–63.
Śākya Chokden
1428 ~ 1507

In the opening lines of his Undermining the Haughtiness of Others by the Wheel of Brahma: A Treatise Clarifying Mahāmudrā, Śākya Chokden states:

རང་བཞིན་རྣམ་དག་རྫོགས་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་བློ།
།གློ་བུར་དྲི་མའི་ཚོགས་དང་མ་འདྲེས་པ།
།དུས་རྣམས་རྟག་ཏུ་ཀུན་ལ་བཞུགས་གྱུར་པ།
།གཡོ་མེད་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ནས།

I pay homage to the unwavering mahāmudrā,
The naturally pure perfect buddha-mind—
Unadulterated by the host of adventitious stains—
That has been ever-present in all for all time. 
~ ShAkya mchog ldan. Phyag rgya chen po gsal bar byed pa'i bstan bcos tshangs pa'i 'khor los gzhan blo'i dregs pa nyams byed. In gser mdog paN chen shAkya mchog ldan gyi gsung 'bum. rdzong sar: rdzong sar khams bye'i slob gling thub bstan dar rgyas gling, 2006–2007, Vol. 17, p. 438.
~ Translation from Higgins, David, and Martina Draszczyk. Mahāmudrā and the Middle Way: Post-Classical Kagyü Discourses on Mind, Emptiness and Buddha-Nature. Vol. 2, Translations, Critical Texts, Bibliography and Index. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 90.2. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2016, p. 14.

In the same text he equates buddha-nature and mahāmudrā, stating:

བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོའི་ཁམས་གང་ལ། །ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོར་མཚན་གསོལ་བ ། །གང་འདི་དྲི་མའི་སྦྱང་གཞི་ལ། །སྦྱང་བྱའི་དྲི་མ་རྣམ་དགུ་པོ། །སྦྱོང་བྱེད་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་དེ། །རིག་པའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱིས་སྦྱངས་པས། །སྦྱང་འབྲས་གཙང་བདག་བདེ་སོགས་ཀྱི། །ཡོན་ཏན་ཕ་རོལ་ཕྱིན་པ་འབྱུང༌། །ཡོན་ཏན་འདི་དག་རྗེས་མཐུན་པ། །གནས་སྐབས་མཐོང་བའི་ལམ་གནས་ཏེ། །བདག་དང་བདག་མེད་སྤྲོས་པ་དག །ཉེ་བར་ཞི་བའི་བདག་མཐོང་ནས། །དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་སྙིང་མཐོང་བའི་ཕྱིར། །ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་མཐོང་བར་བཤད།

The element of *sugatagarbha is that which has been given the name mahāmudrā. In this which is the ground for the clearing (sbyang gzhi) of stains, the *sugatagarbha that is the cleanser (sbyong byed) of the nine kinds of stains that are the objects to be cleared (sbyang bya) clears them by means of the wisdom of awareness, whereby the fruition of the clearing process emerges, i.e., the transcendent qualities of purity, selfhood, bliss, etc.

The phase that is concordant with these qualities is present [as] the Path of Seeing because when one sees the selfhood wherein the elaborations of self and no self are pacified, one sees tathāgatagarbha, [and] it is said that one thereby sees
mahāmudrā. 
~ ShAkya mchog ldan. Phyag rgya chen po gsal bar byed pa'i bstan bcos tshangs pa'i 'khor los gzhan blo'i dregs pa nyams byed. In gser mdog paN chen shAkya mchog ldan gyi gsung 'bum. rdzong sar: rdzong sar khams bye'i slob gling thub bstan dar rgyas gling, 2006–2007, Vol. 17, p. 443–44.
~ Translation from Higgins, David, and Martina Draszczyk. Mahāmudrā and the Middle Way: Post-Classical Kagyü Discourses on Mind, Emptiness and Buddha-Nature. Vol. 2, Translations, Critical Texts, Bibliography and Index. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 90.2. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2016, pp. 17–18.
Eighth Karmapa Mikyö Dorje
1507 ~ 1554

In his Chariot of the Siddhas of the Dakpo Kagyu, a commentary on the Madhyamakāvatāra, Mikyö Dorje states:

ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོའི་ཆོས་ཚུལ་འདིའི་མྱོང་ཁྲིད་འདེབས་པ་ལ་མཛད་པ་ལ་གསང་སྔགས་ཀྱི་དབང་བསྐུར་བ་ཡང་མི་མཛད་ལ། ཕྱག་ཆེན་འདིའི་དངོས་བསྟན་མདོ་ལུགས་ཀྱི་སྤྲོས་བྲལ་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་དབུ་མ་དང། ཤུགས་ལས་མདོ་སྔགས་ཀྱི་ཟབ་དོན་མཐར་ཐུག་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་ཐུན་མོང་དང་ཐུན་མོང་མིན་པའང་སྟོན་པ་ལ་

In this Mahāmudrā teaching method, experiential instructions (myong khrid) may be given without Secret Mantra empowerments first being bestowed. Rather, the principal teaching of this Mahāmudrā is the Madhyamaka of emptiness free from elaborations belonging to the Sūtra tradition. And, implicitly, it teaches ordinary and extraordinary buddha nature, the final profound meaning of the sūtras and
tantras. 
~ Mi bskyod rdo rje. Dbu ma la 'jug pa'i rnam bshad dpal ldan dus gsum mkhyen pa'i zhal lung dwags brgyud grub pa'i shing rta. Gangtok: Rumtek Monastery, 1974, pp. 13–14.
~ Translation from Higgins, David, and Martina Draszczyk. Buddha Nature Reconsidered: The Eighth Karma pa's Middle Path. Vol. 1, Introduction and Analysis. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2019, pp. 53–54.
Dakpo Tashi Namgyal
1513 ~ 1587
To summarize, the teachings in the sūtras and tantras on the ground abiding state- such as that of tathāgatagarbha [buddha nature] abides primordially in the mindstreams of sentient beings and that the nature of mind is luminosity- are presentations of ground mahāmudrā. Teachings on the development of the dhātu of [tathāgata]garbha, on freedom from elaborations, instances of emptiness, the unreality of phenomena, their absence of a self-entity, their equality, and their unification are all considered path mahāmudrā. Teachings on the awakening of the wisdom of complete omniscience (such as the four kāyas and five wisdoms) are presentations of fruition mahāmudrā. 
~ Callahan, Elizabeth M., trans. Moonbeams of Mahāmudrā. By Dakpo Tashi Namgyal (dwags po bkra shis rnam rgyal). With Dispelling the Darkness of Ignorance by Wangchuk Dorje (dbang phyug rdo rje), the Ninth Karmapa. Tsadra Foundation Series. Boulder, CO: Snow Lion Publications, 2019, p. 121.
The Fourth Drukchen Pema Karpo
1527 ~ 1592
Among the two, buddha nature and adventitious stains, buddha nature is luminous dharmakāya because it is genuine coemergent spontaneity, indomitable and imperishable supreme joy, encompassing like the sky. Adventitious stains are mind and mental factors of the three realms, together with the breath movements [that fuel them], which have not eliminated the latent tendencies for transmigration.

[...]

In this way, dharmakāya, the ground that is free from stains, is naturally present potential, the expanse of reality that is thoroughly devoid of having all aspects, like a preexistent great treasure. 
~ Higgins, David, and Martina Draszczyk. Mahāmudrā and the Middle Way: Post-Classical Kagyü Discourses on Mind, Emptiness and Buddha-Nature. Vol. 2, Translations, Critical Texts, Bibliography and Index. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 90.2. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2016, pp. 159–60.
Tsele Natsok Rangdrol
1608

On the correlation of various terms Tsele Natsok Rangdrol states:

།རང་བྱུང་རང་ཤར་རང་རིག་ཆོས་ཉིད་དོན། །འདི་ལ་མིང་གི་རྣམ་གྲངས་སྣ་ཚོགས་ཏེ། །ཕར་ཕྱིན་ཐེག་པར་ཆོས་ཉིད་བདེན་པ་ཟེར། །སྔགས་ཀྱི་ཐེག་པ་རང་བཞིན་འོད་གསལ་ཟེར། །སེམས་ཅན་དུས་ན་བདེར་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོའི་ཁམས། །ལམ་གྱི་སྐབས་སུ་ལྟ་སྒོམ་ལ་སོགས་མིང། །འབྲས་བུའི་དུས་ན་སངས་རྒྱས་ཆོས་སྐུ་ཟེར། །དེ་སོགས་མིནད་དང་དབྱེ་བ་དུ་མ་ཡང་། །དོན་ལ་ད་ལྟའི་ཐ་མལ་ཤེས་པ་འདིའོ།

This self-existing and self-manifest natural awareness, your basic state,
Has a variety of names:
In the Prajnaparamita vehicle it is called innate truth.
The vehicle of Mantra calls it natural luminosity.
While a sentient being it is named sugata-garbha.
During the path it is given names which describe the view, meditation, and so forth.
And at the point of fruition it is named the dharmakaya of buddhahood.
All the different names and classifications
Are nothing other than this present ordinary mind. 
~ Rtse le sna tshogs rang grol. Nges don gyi lta sgom nyams su len tshul ji lta bar ston pa rdo rje'i mdo 'dzin. In Rtse le sna tshogs rang grol gyi gsung gdams zab phyogs bsgrigs. Kathmandu: Khenpo Shedup Tenzin and Lama Thinley Namgyal, 2007, pp. 13–14.
~ Kunsang, Erik Pema, trans. The Heart of the Matter. By Tsele Natsok Rangdröl (rtse le sna tshogs rang grol). Edited by Marcia Binder Schmidt and Michael Tweed. Buddhist Classics. Hong Kong: Rangjung Yeshe Publications, 1996, pp. 30–31.
As for the cognizant quality or wisdom aspect of this self-luminous consciousness, its essence is empty, its nature is cognizant, and these two are inseparable as the core of awareness. Being the seed or cause of all the buddha qualities and attributes of the pure paths, this is also known as the "true all-ground of application," "sugata-essence," "dharmakaya of self-cognizance," "transcendent knowledge," "buddha of your own mind," and so forth. All of these names given to the classifications of nirvanic attributes are synonymous. This wisdom aspect is exactly what should be realized and recognized by everyone who has entered the path. 
~ Kunsang, Erik Pema, trans. Lamp of Mahamudra: The Immaculate Lamp That Perfectly and Fully Illuminates the Meaning of Mahamudra, the Essence of All Phenomena. By Tsele Natsok Rangdröl (rtse le sna tshogs rang grol). Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1989. pp. 6–7.
Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye
1813 ~ 1899

In his Treasury of Knowledge Jamgön Kongtrul states:

ཀུན་མཁྱེན་རང་བྱུང་རྒྱལ་བ་འཇིག་རྟེན་ཏུ་བྱོན་པ་ནས་ནང་བརྟག་རྒྱུད་གསུམ་ཞེས་གྲགས་པའི་བཤད་པའི་བཀའ་གཙོ་བོར་མཛད་དེ་ [...] རྒྱུད་བླ་མ་ནི་རྗེ་སྒམ་པོ་པའི་ཞལ་ནས། འོ་སྐོལ་གྱི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོའི་གདམས་པ་འདིའི་གཞུང་ནི་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་བྱམས་པས་མཛད་པའི་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་ཡིན་ནོ། ཞེས་གསུངས་པ་ལྟར་བདེ་གཤེགས་ཕག་མོ་པ་གྲུ་པ། སྐྱོབ་པ་འཇིག་རྟེན་གསུམ་མགོན་སོགས་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་ལུགས་དེའི་གྲུབ་མཐའ་འཆའ་ཞིང། རང་བྱུང་རྒྱལ་བ་སོགས་ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་པ་ན་རིམ་གྱིས་ཀྱང་དེའི་དགོངས་པ་རྩ་བའི་དོན་ཏུ་མཛད་པ་འབའ་ཞིག་ཡིན་པས་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་སྒོམ་པ་ལའང་འདི་ཉིད་ཤེས་པ་གལ་ཆེ་བ་ཡིན། དེས་ན་གཞུང་འདི་གསུམ་ནི་ཁ་བཤད་དང་རྩོད་པའི་ཆོས་མ་ཡིན་གྱི་ཉམས་ལེན་དང་ལྟོ་སྦྱར་བའི་ཆོས་ཡིན་པས་སྒྲུབ་བརྒྱུད་འཛིན་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་བཤད་པའི་རྒྱུན་མ་ཉམས་པར་བཟུང་བ་ཅི་ནས་ཀྱང་གནད་ཆེ་བར་ཡོད་དོ།

When Kun mkhyen Rang byung rgyal ba appeared in this world he primarily emphasized the Buddhist teachings known as Zab mo nang don, Hevajratantra, and Uttaratantra. [...] As for the Uttaratantra, Rje Sgam po pa stated, “The scriptural source for our Mahāmudrā instructions is the Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra composed by Bhagavān Maitreya.” Accordingly, Bde gshegs Phag mo gru pa, Skyob pa ’Jig rten gsum mgon, and others outlined the philosophy of this tradition. And the succession of omniscient ones, such as Rang byung rgyal ba, solely made the intent of this [śāstra] their fundamental concern. Therefore, even where Mahāmudrā meditation is concerned, the knowledge of this very [treatise] is of utmost importance. Hence, these three scriptures are not teachings for theoretical explanation and debate but are rather teachings to integrate with one’s meditative practice. Therefore, what could be a more important essential key for those who uphold the practice lineage than to unfailingly maintain the transmission of these explanations? 
~ 'Jam mgon kong sprul. Shes bya kun khyab. Vol. 1. Pe cin: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1982, 505–6.
~ Translation from Higgins, David and Martina Draszczyk. Buddha Nature Reconsidered: The Eighth Karma pa's Middle Path. Vol. 1, Introduction and Analysis. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2019, pp. 51–53.
Khenpo Gangshar
1925 ~ 1959?

In his Naturally Liberating Whatever You Meet: Instructions to Guide You on the Profound Path, Khenpo Gangshar states:

འདི་སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་སེམས་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན། དུས་གསུམ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་དགོངས་པ། ཆོས་སྒོ་བརྒྱད་ཁྲི་བཞི་སྟོང་གི་སྙིང་པོ། འདྲེན་མཆོག་དཔལ་ལྡན་བླ་མའི་ཐུགས། བཀའ་བར་པ་ནས་ཤེར་ཕྱིན་དང་འཁོར་ལོ་ཐ་མ་ནས་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ། སྔགས་ཐུན་མོང་བའི་སྐབས་སུ། གཞི་རྒྱུད་རང་བཞིན་ལྷུན་གྱིས་གྲུབ་པའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་

The mind-essence is the nature of all sentient beings, the realization of the buddhas of the three times, the essence of the eighty-four thousand Dharma-doors and the heart of the glorious master, the supreme guide. It is the transcendent knowledge of the second set of teachings and the sugata-essence of the last turning of the wheel of the Dharma. According to the general system of mantra it is called continuity of ground, the spontaneously present mandala of the innate nature. 
~ Mkhan po gang shar. Zab lam khrid kyi man ngag 'phrad tshad rang grol. In gsung 'bum Gang shar dbang po. Kathmandu: thrangu tashi choling, 2008, p. 121.
~ Translation from Thrangu Rinpoche. Vivid Awareness: The Mind Instructions of Khenpo Gangshar. Translated and edited by David Karma Choephel. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2011, p. 226.
Thrangu Rinpoche
1933 ~ 2023
The Uttara Tantra belongs mainly to the sutra classification, the Third Turning of the Wheel of Dharma, because the text contains sections concerning the view, path, and fruition as well as many other topics. In combination, they are classified as sutra because the word 'sutra' literally means 'confluence' or 'that which has many parts gathered together.' Since it emphasizes the enlightened essence, the sugatagarbha, and because it is inseparable from the very basis of Mahamudra, this teaching is considered of great importance in the Kagyu tradition. 
~ Thrangu Rinpoche. Buddha Nature: Ten Teachings on the Uttara Tantra Shastra. Translated by Erik Pema Kunsang. Edited by S. Lhamo. Hong Kong: Rangjung Yeshe Publications, 1988, p. 16.
The root of the wisdom that arises in Mahamudra is buddha nature, or buddha essence,
[...]
Buddha nature is realized through listening, contemplating, and meditating. This is the explanation according to the Sutra path. In terms of the Mahamudra path, realization occurs through the combination of the blessing of a true teacher and the arising of devotion within the pupil; through the combination of these two, buddha nature, the nature of the mind, manifests. Jamgon Kongtrul says buddha nature is realized either through the Sutra path of listening, contemplating, and meditating or through blessing and devotion of the Mahamudra path. 
~ Thrangu Rinpoche. On Buddha Essence: A Commentary on Rangjung Dorje's Treatise. Translated by Peter Alan Roberts. Edited by Clark Johnson. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006, pp. xxi and 133.
The Kagyu masters of the past as an instruction called this the ordinary mind, or the natural state. They called it this out of their experience. This ordinary mind itself is the dharma expanse and the essence of the buddhas: it is our buddha nature. This is exactly what the term means; this is what we need to experience and recognize. 
~ Thrangu Rinpoche. Vivid Awareness: The Mind Instructions of Khenpo Gangshar. Translated and edited by David Karma Choephel. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2011, p. 124.

Further Readings

Book: A Direct Path to the Buddha Within

A Direct Path to the Buddha Within-front.jpg

One of the main goals of Zhönu Pal's Ratnagotravibhāga commentary is to show that the Kagyü path of mahāmudrā is already taught in the Maitreya works and the Laṅkāvatārasūtra. This approach involves resting your mind in a nonconceptual experience of luminosity or the dharmadhātu (the expanse or nature of all phenomena) with the help of special "pith instructions" (Tib. man ngag) on how to become mentally disengaged. A path of directly realizing buddha nature is thus distinguished from a Madhyamaka path of logical inference and it is with this in mind that Zhönu Pal's commentary can be called a "direct path to the buddha within."

The Mahāmudrā Interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhāga

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~ Mathes, Klaus-Dieter. A Direct Path to the Buddha Within: Gö Lotsāwa's Mahāmudrā Interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhāga. Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2008, p. 1.

Book: When the Clouds Part

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As stated before, texts such as CMW, those by Mönlam Tsültrim, GC, the Eighth Karmapa’s Lamp, and GISM all establish connections between the Uttaratantra and Mahāmudrā. Such connections are also found in a number of Indian and Tibetan Mahāmudrā works. Usually, these connections are made in the wider context of the Mahāmudrā approaches that came to be called "sūtra Mahāmudrā" or "essence Mahāmudrā" (the Mahāmudrā approach that is beyond "sūtra Mahāmudrā" and "tantra Mahāmudrā"). In order to provide some background against which the Uttaratantra-based Mahāmudrā instructions in the above texts can be appreciated more fully, I will next present an overview of the key elements of the different approaches to Mahāmudrā, their origins, their scriptural sources, and the different ways in which they are taught.

The Uttaratantra and Mahāmudrā

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~ 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, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, 2014, p. 151.

Book: Mind at Ease

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We come now to a discussion of ground Mahamudra and some of the more philosophical elements of Mahamudra meditation. The notion of the ground-also called the basis-is a key concept for Mahayana and later forms of Buddhism. Ground of being refers to the Mahamudra itself, or to our true nature, our authentic state of being. In Mahayana Buddhism, this ground is also known as buddha-nature. I will begin with this more widely known concept from the perspective of the exoteric approach and then proceed to link the idea of buddha-nature to the mystical notion of the ground of being, or ground Mahamudra.

GROUND MAHAMUDRA: Buddha-Nature

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~ Kyabgon, Traleg. Mind at Ease: Self-Liberation Through Mahamudra Meditation. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2004, p.121.

Book: Mahāmudrā and the Middle Way

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This two-volume publication explores the complex philosophy of Mahāmudrā that developed in Tibetan Dwags po Bka’ brgyud traditions between the 15th and 16th centuries CE. It examines the attempts to articulate and defend Bka’ brgyud views and practices by four leading post-classical thinkers: (1) Shākya mchog ldan (1423‒1507), a celebrated yet controversial Sa skya scholar who developed a strong affiliation with the Karma Bka’ brgyud Mahāmudrā tradition in the last half of his life, (2) Karma phrin las Phyogs las rnam rgyal (1456‒1539), a renowned Karma Bka’ brgyud scholar-yogin and tutor to the Eighth Karma pa, (3) the Eighth Karma pa himself, Mi bskyod rdo rje (1507‒1554), who was among the most erudite and influential scholar-hierarchs of his generation, (4) and Padma dkar po (1527‒1592), Fourth ’Brug chen of the ’Brug pa Bka’ brgyud lineage who is generally acknowledged as its greatest scholar and systematizer. (Source: WSTB Description)

~ Higgins, David, and Martina Draszczyk. Mahāmudrā and the Middle Way: Post-Classical Kagyü Discourses on Mind, Emptiness and Buddha-Nature. 2 vols. Vol. 1, Introduction, Views of Authors and Final Reflections. Vol. 2, Translations, Critical Texts, Bibliography and Index. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 90.1–90.2. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2016.

Book: Buddha Nature Reconsidered

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As a Mahāmudrā proponent, Mi bskyod rdo rje gives primacy to innate modes of being and awareness, such as coemergent wisdom or buddha nature naturally endowed with qualities, that are amenable only to direct yogic perception and revealed through the personal guidance of a qualified teacher. As an exponent of yuganaddha (zung ’jug), i.e., unity (literally, “yoking together”), he espouses the tantric goal of unity beyond extremes, a goal grounded in the inseparability of the two truths or realities (bden gnyis dbyer med), of appearance and emptiness (snang stong dbyer med). In his eyes, this unity is only fully realized when one understands that the conventional has no independent existence apart from the ultimate and that the latter is a condition of possibility of the former. As an advocate of apratiṣṭhāna (rab tu mi gnas pa), i.e., nonfoundationalism, he resolutely maintains that all outer and inner phenomena, including deep features of reality disclosed through meditation, lack any ontic or epistemic essence or foundation that the mind can lay hold of. Finally, as a champion of Madhyamaka, i.e., the Buddhist Middle Way, the author attempts to ply a middle course between the extremes of existence and nonexistence, eternalism and nihilism. These various doxographical strands are deftly interwoven in the Karma pa’s view of buddha nature, which affirms the innate presence of buddha nature and its qualities in all sentient beings as well as their soteriological efficacy while denying either any ontological status.

~ Higgins, David, and Martina Draszczyk. Buddha Nature Reconsidered: The Eighth Karma pa's Middle Path. Vol. 1, Introduction and Analysis. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2019, p. 14.
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