Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa

Latest revision as of 09:46, 24 August 2020

དམ་ཆོས་དགོངས་པ་གཅིག་པ།

dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa

Sacred Teaching on the Single Intention

SOURCE TEXT

One of the core texts of the Drikung Kagyu tradition that is reported to be the oral teachings of Jikten Gönpo that were written down and edited together by his student Sherab Jungne. Although not all manuscripts are alike, a beautiful reproduction from Garchen Stiftung (2015) that was studied by Dr. Jan-Ulrich Sobisch contains the following chapter topics:

(1) Pure View, Practice, and Conduct
(2-4) The Three Vows
(5) Three Dharma Wheels
(6) Dependent Origination
(7) The Resultant Stage of Buddhahood

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Other Titles

~ dgongs gcig
~ dgongs gcig gi rtsa tshig
~ dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa'i rtsa tshig rdo rje'i gsung brgya lnga bcu pa
~ 'bri gung dgongs gcig

Commentaries on this text

'bri gung spyan snga shes rab 'byung gnas. dgongs gcig yig cha. Bir: D. Tsondru Senge, 1975.
Rdo rje shes rab. dam pa'i chos dgongs pa gcig pa'i 'grel chen snang mdzad ye shes sgron me. Shang kang: Shang kang then mA dpe skrun khang gis bskrun zhing bkram, 2006.
Dorje Sherab (rDo rje shes rab). Illuminator, a Light of Gnosis: The Great Commentary on the Single Intention - dGongs gcig 'grel chen snang mdzad ye shes sgron me. The Manuscript at the Musée Guimet in Paris Brought to France by Alexandra David-Néel. Reproduction of the Manuscript in Its Original Size and Colors. Munich: Edition Garchen Stiftung, 2015.
Drikung Chungtsang, 1st, (Chos kyi grags pa). Dam pa'i chos dgongs pa gcig pa'i rnam bshad lung don gsal byed legs bshad nyi ma'i snang ba. In Gsung 'bum/ chos kyi grags pa, Vol. 3: 1-382. Kulhan: Drikung Kagyu Institute, 1999.
Shamarpa, 4th. dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa'i gsal byed. Bir: D. Tsondru Senge, 1992.
Karmapa, 8th. dgongs gcig rnam bshad. In 'bri gung bka' brgyud chos mdzod chen mo, Vol. 7, pp 1-598. Lhasa, 2004.

More on this item

Jikten Gönpo

Sherab Jungne

On the topic of this text

Book

Illuminator, a Light of Gnosis

It was the Buddhist nun and travel writer Alexandra David-Néel (1868–1969) who brought the manuscript “Illuminator, a Light of Gnosis – The Great Commentary on The Single Intention” by Dorje Sherab from Asia to France. The German foundation Garchen Stiftung reproduced the precious manuscript in its original size and colors. Thus the work is available to an audience of traditional and western experts as well as students of the Tibetan language.

Dorje Sherab (rdo rje shes rab). Illuminator, a Light of Gnosis: The Great Commentary on the Single Intention (dGongs gcig 'grel chen snang mdzad ye shes sgron me). With an Introduction by Jan-Ulrich Sobisch. The Manuscript at the Musée Guimet in Paris Brought to France by Alexandra David-Néel. Reproduction of the Manuscript in Its Original Size and Colors. Munich: Edition Garchen Stiftung, 2015.

Dorje Sherab (rdo rje shes rab). Illuminator, a Light of Gnosis: The Great Commentary on the Single Intention (dGongs gcig 'grel chen snang mdzad ye shes sgron me). With an Introduction by Jan-Ulrich Sobisch. The Manuscript at the Musée Guimet in Paris Brought to France by Alexandra David-Néel. Reproduction of the Manuscript in Its Original Size and Colors. Munich: Edition Garchen Stiftung, 2015.;Illuminator, a Light of Gnosis;Drikung Kagyu;Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa;Dorje Sherab;རྡོ་རྗེ་ཤེས་རབ་;rdo rje shes rab;spyan snga rdo rje shes rab;སྤྱན་སྔ་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཤེས་རབ་; Jan-Ulrich Sobisch;Illuminator, a Light of Gnosis: The Great Commentary on the Single Intention - dGongs gcig 'grel chen snang mdzad ye shes sgron me. The Manuscript at the Musée Guimet in Paris Brought to France by Alexandra David-Néel. Reproduction of the Manuscript in Its Original Size and Colors;rdo rje shes rab

Video

Katrin Querl at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium

Katrin Querl presents an overview of Jikten Gonpo's position on Buddha-nature as outlined in the textual corpus known as the Single Intention (Dgongs gcig) and in two of this work's earliest commentaries.

Querl, Katrin. "Preliminary Notes on the Notion of Buddha Nature in the Single Intention." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 43:53. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp3GJz3-5DY.

Querl, Katrin. "Preliminary Notes on the Notion of Buddha Nature in the Single Intention." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 43:53. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp3GJz3-5DY.;Katrin Querl at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium;'bri gung skyob pa 'jig rten mgon po;Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa;Mahamudra;Drikung Kagyu;Kagyu;Tsen Tradition;gotra;guṇa;'bri gung spyan snga shes rab 'byung gnas;Ngo rje ras pa;Rdo rje shes rab;Drikung Chungtsang, 1st;Rin chen byang chub;History of buddha-nature in Tibet;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Tibetan Buddhism;Buddha-nature as Emptiness;Ordinary Mind;ekayāna;Katrin Querl; Preliminary Notes on the Notion of Buddha Nature in the Single Intention

Video

Khenpo Dawa Tsering on Buddha-Nature in the Single Intent and Drikung Tradition

དམ་ཆོས་དགོངས་གཅིག་གཞིར་བཟུང་ནས་དཔལ་འབྲི་གུང་བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་པའི་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོའི་དགོངས་བཞེད་བཤད་པ།
Explaining the Drigung Kagyu Understanding of Buddha-Nature Based on the Single Intent

Khenpo Dawa Tsering starts by mentioning how buddha-nature is a profound and difficult topic to fathom even by enlightened beings, and he can merely make an attempt. In his presentation, Khenpo presents the theory and practice of buddha-nature in the Drigung Kagyu tradition, primarily based on the two verses on buddha-nature found in the Single Intent of Drigung Kyobpa Jikten Gönpo. To put it in historical context, he shares that Jikten Sumgon lived in the 12th century and the Single Intent has since had commentaries written on it not only by Drigung masters but also by Kagyu and Nyingma masters.

Based on the Single Intent, he confirms that the Drigung understanding of buddha-nature aligns with the direct experiential meditative tradition rather than the inferential and exegetical tradition. Out of many verses comprising 150 points in the Single Intent, there are only two lines explicitly mentioning buddha-nature. Like the Kagyu and Nyingma schools, the Drigung school also accepts that buddha-nature has the sublime qualities of the Buddha latent in it. These sublime qualities are, however, obscured by the impurities, which do not really penetrate or contaminate the actual state of buddha-nature.

In this respect, the term glo bur, or adventitious, does not have a temporal connotation of something happening suddenly and temporarily. The impurities have been around since the beginning. Rather, the term refers to the removable or separable nature of the impurities which cover buddha-nature. Following the Kagyu tradition originating in Dvagpopa, or Gampopa Sonam Rinchen, the Drigung school asserts that buddha-nature avoids the problems of denial and exaggeration. Because buddha-nature is free from or empty of impurities, it avoids the problem of imposition or exaggeration. Because buddha-nature primordially possesses noble qualities, it avoids the problem of denial or rejection.

Buddha-nature endowed with all sublime qualities of enlightenment is presented as being unconditioned and eternal, and three names of the impure, partially pure, and fully pure are used to refer to it in three stages. Just like Devadatta is known as a gardener for gardening, cook while cooking, etc., buddha-nature is also given three different titles at three stages, although it is one and the same in its essence.

According to the Single Intent, the third wheel of dharma on buddha-nature is said to be clearly definitive, while the middle wheel is not fully definitive, as it also teaches emptiness which is a nominal ultimate. Khenpo also adds that the two truths are perspectives and not two different ontological states and that the sūtras often classed as Mind Only-sūtras are considered as ultimately Mādhyamika. Sūtras themselves cannot be classed as Mind Only or Middle Way sūtras. While the three wheels of dharma are considered as progressive teachings for a person to follow gradually, the Single Intent also claims that the three wheels of dharma differ in focus and emphasis and they share all aspects with varying stress.

Dawa Tsering, Khenpo. "Khenpo Dawa Tsering at the 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference." Day 2, Talk 2. 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference, Shechen Monastery, Kathmandu, June 1–3. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department. Video, 59:21. https://youtu.be/_TvzvS2GUt4.

Dawa Tsering, Khenpo. "Khenpo Dawa Tsering at the 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference." Day 2, Talk 2. 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference, Shechen Monastery, Kathmandu, June 1–3. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department. Video, 59:21. https://youtu.be/_TvzvS2GUt4.;Khenpo Dawa Tsering on Buddha-Nature in the Single Intent and Drikung Tradition;Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa;Khenpo Dawa Tsering;མཁན་པོ་ཟླ་བ་ཚེ་རིང་།;Khenpo Dawa Tsering at the 2023 Buddha-Nature Conference

Book

The Buddha's Single Intention

This book presents an influential and extraordinary teaching of the Kagyü tradition of Tibetan Buddhism known as the Single Intention by the master Drigung Kyobpa Jikten Sumgön (1143–1217), along with its chief commentaries, principally the Light of the Sun by Rikzin Chökyi Drakpa (1595–1659).

Early in the history of the Kagyü school, the teachings of Jikten Sumgön were condensed into 150 core formulations called vajra statements. These pithy, revelatory statements comprise the Single Intention (Dgongs gcig), which presents the thought of the Buddha and the nature of the ineffable (brjod du med pa) in concise and direct expression. The Single Intention weaves the thread of ineffable mahāmudrā through the entire fabric of Buddhism. It presents mahāmudrā as pervading disciplined conduct, meditative concentration, and discriminative knowledge; ground, path, and result; view, practice, and conduct; and the “three vows” of prātimokṣa, of the bodhisattvas, and of mantra. Jikten Sumgön teaches how the fundamental values and insights revealed by the Buddha are woven into reality and therefore accessible to all.

Jan-Ulrich Sobisch manages to convey the unity of the Buddha’s message both in its particulars and in its scope. His deep and authoritative skill makes this the definitive presentation of one of the most unique and compelling works of classical Tibetan literature. (Source: Wisdom Publications)

Sobisch, Jan-Ulrich, trans. The Buddha's Single Intention: Drigung Kyobpa Jikten Sumgön's Vajra Statements of the Early Kagyü Tradition. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2020.

Sobisch, Jan-Ulrich, trans. The Buddha's Single Intention: Drigung Kyobpa Jikten Sumgön's Vajra Statements of the Early Kagyü Tradition. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2020.;The Buddha's Single Intention;Drikung Kagyu;Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa;'bri gung skyob pa 'jig rten mgon po;Jan-Ulrich Sobisch; The Buddha's Single Intention: Drigung Kyobpa Jikten Sumgön's Vajra Statements of the Early Kagyü Tradition;Drikung Chungtsang, 1st

Text

The First Drikung Chungtsang, Rigdzin Chökyi Drakpa: Light of the Sun: Detailed Exposition of the Excellent Dharma, the Single Intention, a Well-Expressed Clarification of the Meaning of the Scriptures

Rikdzin Chökyi Drakpa's extensive commentary on the Sacred Teaching on the Single Intention (Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa), one of the core texts of the Drikung Kagyu tradition that is reported to be the oral teachings of Jikten Gönpo that were written down and edited together by his student Sherab Jungne.

Dam pa'i chos dgongs pa gcig pa'i rnam bshad lung don gsal byed legs bshad nyi ma'i snang ba;Drikung Kagyu;Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa;'bri gung skyob pa 'jig rten mgon po;The First Drikung Chungtsang, Rigdzin Chökyi Drakpa;ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་;chos kyi grags pa;'bri gung rig 'dzin chos kyi grags pa;'bri gung pa chos kyi grags pa;rig 'dzin chos kyi grags pa;kun mkhyen rig 'dzin chos grags;rdo rje 'dzin pa chos kyi grags pa;shAkya'i dge slong chos kyi grags pa;dus mtha'i sngags 'chang chos kyi grags pa;dkon mchog phun tshogs;chos kyi grags pa phrin las rnam par rgyal ba'i sde;thugs kyi rdo rje;che mchog 'dus pa rtsal;pad+ma ba dz+ra rtsal;dbur smyon;rtag pa'i rdo rje;'bri gung pa gshin rje'i gshed kyi rnal 'byor pa rig 'dzin chos kyi grags pa;འབྲི་གུང་རིག་འཛིན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་;འབྲི་གུང་པ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་;རིག་འཛིན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་;ཀུན་མཁྱེན་རིག་འཛིན་ཆོས་གྲགས་;རྡོ་རྗེ་འཛིན་པ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་;ཤཱཀྱའི་དགེ་སློང་ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་;དུས་མཐའི་སྔགས་འཆང་ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་;དཀོན་མཆོག་ཕུན་ཚོགས་;ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་ཕྲིན་ལས་རྣམ་པར་རྒྱལ་བའི་སྡེ་;ཐུགས་ཀྱི་རྡོ་རྗེ་;ཆེ་མཆོག་འདུས་པ་རྩལ་;པདྨ་བ་ཛྲ་རྩལ་;དབུར་སྨྱོན་;རྟག་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་;འབྲི་གུང་པ་གཤིན་རྗེའི་གཤེད་ཀྱི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་པ་རིག་འཛིན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་;dam pa'i chos dgongs pa gcig pa'i rnam bshad lung don gsal byed legs bshad nyi ma'i snang ba;དམ་པའི་ཆོས་དགོངས་པ་གཅིག་པའི་རྣམ་བཤད་ལུང་དོན་གསལ་བྱེད་ལེགས་བཤད་ཉི་མའི་སྣང་བ།;དམ་པའི་ཆོས་དགོངས་པ་གཅིག་པའི་རྣམ་བཤད་ལུང་དོན་གསལ་བྱེད་ལེགས་བཤད་ཉི་མའི་སྣང་བ།

Text

Dorje Sherab: Great Commentary on the Sacred Teaching on the Single Intention: Illuminating Wisdom Lamp

Dorje Sherab's extensive commentary on the Sacred Teaching on the Single Intention (Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa), one of the core texts of the Drikung Kagyu tradition that is reported to be the oral teachings of Jikten Gönpo that were written down and edited together by his student Sherab Jungne.

Dam pa'i chos dgongs pa gcig pa'i 'grel chen snang mdzad ye shes sgron me;Drikung Kagyu;Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa;'bri gung skyob pa 'jig rten mgon po;Dorje Sherab;རྡོ་རྗེ་ཤེས་རབ་;rdo rje shes rab;spyan snga rdo rje shes rab;སྤྱན་སྔ་རྡོ་རྗེ་ཤེས་རབ་;dam pa'i chos dgongs pa gcig pa'i 'grel chen snang mdzad ye shes sgron me;དམ་པའི་ཆོས་དགོངས་པ་གཅིག་པའི་འགྲེལ་ཆེན་སྣང་མཛད་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྒྲོན་མེ།;དམ་པའི་ཆོས་དགོངས་པ་གཅིག་པའི་འགྲེལ་ཆེན་སྣང་མཛད་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྒྲོན་མེ།

Text

Eighth Karmapa Mikyö Dorje: Karmapa's Great Commentary on the Sacred Teaching of the Single Intention

The 8th Karmapa's commentary on the famous treatise, the Sacred Teaching on the Single Intention (Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa) by Drikungpa master Jikten Gönpo. The Single Intention is a compendium of critical philosophical, soteriological, and moral positions taught by Jikten Gönpo and written down by his disciple and nephew Sherab Jungne. The text contains 150 critical vajra words (རྡོ་རྗེའི་གསུང་) in seven groups (ཚོམས་), along with another 47 appended points (ལྷན་ཐབས་). The root text composed by Sherab Jungne has seen several commentaries, including one by the first Drikung Chungtsang Chökyi Drakpa. This extensive commentary by the 8th Karmapa Mikyö Dorje is perhaps the only long commentary by Karma Kagyu master on the Single Intention.

Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa'i kar TIka chen mo;Drikung Kagyu;Kagyu;Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa;Eighth Karmapa Mikyö Dorje;མི་བསྐྱོད་རྡོ་རྗེ་;mi bskyod rdo rje;karma pa brgyad pa;chos kyi grags pa dpal bzang po;ཀརྨ་པ་བརྒྱད་པ་;ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་དཔལ་བཟང་པོ་;Karmapa, 8th;dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa'i kar TIka chen mo;དམ་ཆོས་དགོངས་པ་གཅིག་པའི་ཀར་ཊཱིཀ་ཆེན་མོ།;དམ་ཆོས་དགོངས་པ་གཅིག་པའི་ཀར་ཊཱིཀ་ཆེན་མོ།

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Eighth Karmapa Mikyö Dorje: General Outline of the Tenets of the Single Intention that Reveal Errors Concerning the Inner Meaning of the Profound Great Discourses that Distinguish Dharma from that which is not Dharma

The Eight Karmapa's general outline of the tenets of the Sacred Teaching on the Single Intention (Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa).

Chos dang chos ma yin par rnam par 'byed pa'i gtam chen po zab mor nang don 'khrul par ngo sprod par byed pa grub mtha'i spyi ching;Drikung Kagyu;Kagyu;Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa;Eighth Karmapa Mikyö Dorje;མི་བསྐྱོད་རྡོ་རྗེ་;mi bskyod rdo rje;karma pa brgyad pa;chos kyi grags pa dpal bzang po;ཀརྨ་པ་བརྒྱད་པ་;ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་དཔལ་བཟང་པོ་;Karmapa, 8th;chos dang chos ma yin par rnam par 'byed pa'i gtam chen po zab mor nang don 'khrul par ngo sprod par byed pa grub mtha'i spyi ching;ཆོས་དང་ཆོས་མ་ཡིན་པར་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པའི་གཏམ་ཆེན་པོ་ཟབ་མོར་ནང་དོན་འཁྲུལ་པར་ངོ་སྤྲོད་པར་བྱེད་པ་གྲུབ་མཐའི་སྤྱི་ཆིང་།;ཆོས་དང་ཆོས་མ་ཡིན་པར་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པའི་གཏམ་ཆེན་པོ་ཟབ་མོར་རློམ་པའི་ནང་དོན་འཁྲུལ་པར་ངོ་སྤྲོད་པར་བྱེད་པ་གྲུབ་མཐའི་སྤྱི་ཆིངས།

Translations & Scholarship

Book

The Buddha's Single Intention

This book presents an influential and extraordinary teaching of the Kagyü tradition of Tibetan Buddhism known as the Single Intention by the master Drigung Kyobpa Jikten Sumgön (1143–1217), along with its chief commentaries, principally the Light of the Sun by Rikzin Chökyi Drakpa (1595–1659).

Early in the history of the Kagyü school, the teachings of Jikten Sumgön were condensed into 150 core formulations called vajra statements. These pithy, revelatory statements comprise the Single Intention (Dgongs gcig), which presents the thought of the Buddha and the nature of the ineffable (brjod du med pa) in concise and direct expression. The Single Intention weaves the thread of ineffable mahāmudrā through the entire fabric of Buddhism. It presents mahāmudrā as pervading disciplined conduct, meditative concentration, and discriminative knowledge; ground, path, and result; view, practice, and conduct; and the “three vows” of prātimokṣa, of the bodhisattvas, and of mantra. Jikten Sumgön teaches how the fundamental values and insights revealed by the Buddha are woven into reality and therefore accessible to all.

Jan-Ulrich Sobisch manages to convey the unity of the Buddha’s message both in its particulars and in its scope. His deep and authoritative skill makes this the definitive presentation of one of the most unique and compelling works of classical Tibetan literature. (Source: Wisdom Publications)

Sobisch, Jan-Ulrich, trans. The Buddha's Single Intention: Drigung Kyobpa Jikten Sumgön's Vajra Statements of the Early Kagyü Tradition. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2020.

Sobisch, Jan-Ulrich, trans. The Buddha's Single Intention: Drigung Kyobpa Jikten Sumgön's Vajra Statements of the Early Kagyü Tradition. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2020.;The Buddha's Single Intention;Drikung Kagyu;Dam chos dgongs pa gcig pa;'bri gung skyob pa 'jig rten mgon po;Jan-Ulrich Sobisch; The Buddha's Single Intention: Drigung Kyobpa Jikten Sumgön's Vajra Statements of the Early Kagyü Tradition;Drikung Chungtsang, 1st

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