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14th Shamar Rinpoche's teachings on the Uttaratantra using the 3rd Karmapa's text, Revealing Buddha Nature. +
The tathāgatagarbha or buddha nature doctrine is centered on sentient beings’ potential for buddhahood—sometimes understood in the sense that all beings already contain a “buddha within.” This notion is found through various strands of early Mahāyāna sources that, notwithstanding their complex and interwoven development, came to share enough common features to summarize them under the doxographical category of Tathāgatagarbha.
The chapters contained in this volume represent the latest research into buddha nature theory that covers a range of topics across major Buddhist traditions. These contributions were originally presented as papers during the symposium “Tathāgatagarbha across Asia: The Reception of an Influential Mahāyāna Doctrine in Central and East Asia,” held at the University of Vienna in 2019. This symposium brought together academic scholars focusing on religio-historical developments of buddha nature theory as well as traditional teachers and monastics who offered emic perspectives on the relevance of the concept within the context of their own tradition. The resulting volume, therefore, aims at contributing to the overall better understanding of tathāgatagarbha doxography, both historically and in living Buddhist communities. [https://wstb.univie.ac.at/product/wstb-103/ (Source: WSTB)] +
This is David Higgins and Martina Draszczyk's second book together and comes out of their first study, ''[[Mahāmudrā And The Middle Way]]''. In their follow up they have delivered another two volumes on the writings of the Eighth Karmapa Mikyö Dorje (1507-1554) and his nuanced approach to the intricacies of the buddha-nature debate. It is an approach that combines the yogic sensibilities of Mahāmudrā with the dialectic approach of the Madhyamaka, which, according to the authors, Mikyö Dorje characterizes as the Yuganaddha-Apratiṣṭhāna-Madhyamaka (''zung ’jug rab tu mi gnas pa’i dbu ma''), that is, as a “Nonfoundational (or Nonabiding) Middle Way consisting in Unity.” As the authors explain,
"This nomenclature tells us much about the central philosophical aims and presuppositions of the Eighth Karma pa and his Karma bka’ brgyud tradition. 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 and Draszczyk, preface, 14)
The present compendium aims to give the Buddhist student an opportunity to come into direct contact with these very positive and cataphatic (Truth-affirmative) doctrines and therewith enrich his or her practice of the Dharma. The Nirvana Sutra gives us the Buddha's own direct teachings, and the Srimala Sutra communicates similar doctrines through the person of the great Buddhist queen, while speaking in the approving presence of the Buddha himself. (Tony Page, preface, 4) +
Sallie B. King, in her essay "Buddha Nature Thought and Mysticism", offers a characterization of the phenomenon of mysticism and analyzes three Buddha Nature texts to see whether and to what extent the thought of those texts may properly be called 'mystical'. All three of the texts she discusses are extant only in Chinese. Two of them—the ''Buddha Nature Treatise'' (''Fo hsing lun'') and the ''Supreme Basis Sūtra'' (''Fo shuo wu shang i ching'')—are translations made by Paramārtha in the sixth century CE; and there is some question as to whether he may have actually composed them rather than simply translated them. The third, the ''No Increase, No Decrease Sutra'', was also translated into Chinese in the sixth century CE (by Bodhiruci), and there almost certainly was an Indic original for this text. Each of these texts belongs, more or less, to the Tathāgatagarbha tradition, but King wishes to classify only the Buddha Nature Treatise and the ''No Increase, No Decrease Sūtra'' as properly mystical texts. The ''Supreme Basis Sūtra'', she argues, endorses devotionalism rather than direct mystical experience for the practitioner; it cannot therefore be classified as a mystical text. King therefore distinguishes different threads or emphases within the Buddha Nature thought of the period with which she deals. (Griffiths and Keenan, introduction to ''Buddha Nature'', 5–6) +
''Buddha Nature and Animality'' is about peaceful living. In discussions about the relation between humans and their animal relatives, a central theme is that Buddhism represents the most viable philosophical/religious alternative to the malaise surrounding us when we confront ecological problems. This recognition points to the notion of compassion. ''Karuna'' is given expression as an alternative to stewardship since stewardship too falls into the dualistic trap of privileging the human. Authors seek beyond the limits imposed by discourses of ethics and assume a more radical approach to seek the roots of the perspectives that allow the conceptual space for the problematic dialogues in the first place. Rather than viewing animals as distinct beings sharing our environs, authors attempt to give the animal soul back to spirituality. They argue for the naturally enlightened spontaneity arising in animal nature and that animal nature is Buddha-nature. This "animal-buddha" nature is fundamental to understanding Buddhism as a 21st century philosophy for living and dying. (Source: [https://www.jainpub.com/inc/sdetail/1229 Jain Publishing Company]) +
"Your buddha-nature is really all there is. And it is never ever violated." +
This book contains the first 2 topics from an 18-topic Dharma course taught at Losang Dragpa Centre, Malaysia, where Geshela is the Resident Teacher. Key points from the Lam Rim and other texts are woven into these early chapters, with elaborations to follow in subsequent publications of teachings from this course. ([http://www.tenzinzopa.com/Ebooks/buddhanature.pdf Source Accessed Jan 15, 2021]) +
No abstract given. Here are the first relevant paragraphs:<br><br>Buddhism has a profound and thoroughly developed set of teachings on human being. One might well argue that the question of human being is the question ''par excellence'' with which the Buddhist tradition as a whole struggles. According to the traditional account, for example, the point of departure for the Buddha's own search, discoveries, and teachings was the dilemma of the human condition. Moreover, vast numbers of Buddhist texts speak out of or address human experience as such, consciously focusing upon it as the source of both question and answer. Nonetheless, many questions a modern Westerner asks as a matter of course about human being are not directly addressed in the Buddhist texts. There are of course important reasons for this. Our concept of and assumptions about human individuality are profoundly different from Buddhist views of the same. Our two worlds of discourse about the value and meaning of finite bodily existence, the course of history, the meaning of suffering, and the nature of possible human greatness are set up on entirely different foundations. Thus, for a contemporary Westerner to ask the question "What is a person? What is a human being?" of a Buddhist text is to set oneself up to receive an answer that does not satisfy the intent of the question. Yet, while Buddhist views and assumptions differ so markedly from our own, Buddhist texts reveal in their own way a preoccupation with the human condition as intent as that of our own hyperindividualistic, anthropocentric culture.<br> With such a shared fixation, it is inevitable that persons on both sides of the cultural boundaries will attempt to gain light from the other side on this subject, despite the incommensurability of each other's questions and answers. The present essay is one such attempt: not an East-West comparison, but an effort to address a Buddhist text from the perspective of cross-cultural philosophy (still, despite the name, a thoroughly Western enterprise) . Herein I will engage in dialogue the ''Buddha Nature Treatise'' (Chinese: ''Fo Hsing Lun''<sup>a</sup>; hereafter, ''BNT''), a text representative of the Buddha nature tradition that contains an extensive discussion of the concept of Buddha nature, a crucial component, if not the most crucial component, of the East Asian Buddhist concept of human being. I will attempt to wrest from the text answers to two categories of questions-it s view of the ontological nature of human being and its view of the existential status of human beings. In the course of the discussion I will ask such questions as: What roles do individuality and freedom play in the view of human being portrayed in this text? What value, if any, does an individual human personality possess? Is there anything of value in human history? Clearly, the text itself does not speak in these terms; these are the questions of a twentieth-century, philosophically inclined American. In order to bridge the cultural gap, I will first give a summary account of the text's concept of Buddha nature in its own terms and in its own format. Then, acknowledging that the text itself neither speaks this language nor shares my concerns, I will put my questions to the text and attempt to extract from the text its implications for the subject of my concern. In other words, I cannot claim that the author of the ''BNT'' does make the statements I will give as responses to my questions about human being, but I do claim that these views are implicit in and follow from the statements he does make about Buddha nature. Granting that human freedom requires us to expect the unexpected, nonetheless, I believe that if the author of the ''BNT'' were here today and could engage in dialogue with me, as long as my interlocutor remained consistent, something close to the views I will articulate in the course of this essay would emerge. (King, "Buddha Nature and the Concept of Person," 151–52)
Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche explained how we can attain the state of the omniscient mind at the 14th Kopan Course in 1981. This is an edited excerpt from Lecture 3, Section One of the course. [https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/chapter/section-one-lectures-1-5 Click here] to read more. +
Ven. Dhammadipa (“Island of Dharma”) is ordained in both Theravāda and Mahāyāna traditions and teaches śamatha and vipaśyanā meditation at monasteries and universities worldwide in addition to studying and translating Buddhist texts from Pali, Sanskrit, and Chinese. He spoke with students at RYI on October 6, 2015 about the topic of Buddha-Nature in the text ''The Awakening of Faith in Mahāyāna''. +
William G. Grosnick, in his essay "Buddha Nature as Myth", makes a distinction between "empirically verifiable propositions", statements that make claims about the nature of reality whose truth both is and is expected to be capable of clear articulation and demonstration, and "mythic views of reality" that provide a nonverifiable framework of great religious power for the expression of fundamentally important religious orientations. He then argues that Buddha Nature thought—at least as expressed in the early Indic sūtras devoted to it—is of the latter kind. Its function, he suggests, is to provide a mythic orientation toward the world and the religious potential of the individual Buddhist, and so to make the practice of Buddhism possible. It is just because "all beings universally possess Buddha
Nature" that the practice of the path is possible. (Griffiths and Keenan, introduction to ''Buddha Nature'', 4) +
''Ringu Tulku. "Buddha Nature." Pt. 1 of 3. Produced by and filmed at Karma Sonam Dargye Ling Temple, December 1, 2015. Video, 1:37:22. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8BD50jtFgg.'' +
Ajahn Brahm responds to a question about whether human nature is closer to the Mahayana Buddhist idea of “buddha nature” or the Christian idea of “original sin.” +
This talk will address syntheses forged in Tibet among the doctrines of Madhyamaka, Yogācāra, and buddha-nature (tathāgatagarbha). Buddha-nature is a distinctively Mahāyāna Buddhist doctrine, taking a place along side of the Yogācāra doctrine of the basic consciousness (ālayavijñāna) and the universal emptiness (śūnyatā) of Madhyamaka. In Tibet we see buddha-nature converge with and transform these central Mahāyāna doctrines. Paired with buddha-nature, the doctrine of emptiness in Madhyamaka pivots from a “self-empty” lack of intrinsic nature to an “other-empty,” pure ground that remains. In narratives of disclosure characteristic of the doctrine of buddha-nature, we see parallel shifts in the foundations of Yogācāra, as grounds of distortion like the basic consciousness, the dependent nature, and self-awareness are reinscribed into a causal story that takes place within a pure, gnostic ground. ([https://soundcloud.com/rangjung-yeshe-institute/dr-douglas-duckworth-buddha-nature-in-tibet-transformations-of-the-ground Source Accessed July 15, 2020]) +
This is a collection of audio and video recordings of Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso's teachings on the topic of buddha-nature. The years in which these teachings were given currently span from 1979 to 2001. Represented are translations of his teachings (given in Tibetan) into several languages. Some talks are translated into English and French, some are translated into German, while in others the teachings are translated into English only. While not all of the translators are named, those that are include Shenpen Hookham, Jerome Edou, Ari Goldfield, and Acharya Tenpa Gyaltsen Negi.<br>
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[http://ktgr.dscloud.me/moodle/course/view.php?id=46 Buddha Nature, Karma Chodrub Gyamtso Ling, 1979]<br>
[http://ktgr.dscloud.me/moodle/course/view.php?id=368 Buddha Nature, Munich 1987]<br>
[http://ktgr.dscloud.me/moodle/course/view.php?id=315 Buddha Nature, Karma Theksum Choling, Albany 1998]<br>
[http://ktgr.dscloud.me/moodle/course/view.php?id=451 Buddha Nature, Karma Triyana Dharmachakra 1999]<br>
[http://ktgr.dscloud.me/moodle/course/view.php?id=495 Buddha Nature and Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, Hawaii 1999]<br>
[http://ktgr.dscloud.me/moodle/enrol/index.php?id=163 Buddha Nature, Karmê Chöling 2000]<br>
[http://ktgr.dscloud.me/moodle/course/view.php?id=345 Buddha Nature, Dechen Chöling, 2000]<br>
[http://ktgr.dscloud.me/moodle/course/view.php?id=384 Buddha Nature, Melbourne 2000]<br>
[http://ktgr.dscloud.me/moodle/course/view.php?id=413 Buddha Nature, New York 2001]<br>
[http://ktgr.dscloud.me/moodle/course/view.php?id=172 Buddha Nature, Hartford 2001]<br>
[http://ktgr.dscloud.me/moodle/course/view.php?id=266 Buddha Nature, Florida 2001]<br>
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Visit the Marpa Foundation's [http://ktgr.dscloud.me/moodle/ Digital Library of Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso]. +
This book contains ten essays on the topic of buddha-nature by prominent Buddhist Studies scholars, written in honor of Professor Minoru Kiyota (1923–2013), who taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1962 to 2008. +
A blog post about buddha-nature by a contemporary American teacher. +
In this short book, a teaching given by Thrangu Rinpoche and translated by Erik Pema Kunsang, Thrangu Rinpoche uses the ''Uttaratantrashastra'' to outline ten points of focus, including the seven vajra points. Each chapter contains comments related to each point and a transcript of questions from the participants and answers from Thrangu Rinpoche. +
No abstract given. Here are the first relevant paragraphs
To understand what is meant by “Buddha Nature,” we can look at the story of the three turnings of the wheel of Dharma taught by Shakyamuni Buddha. The first turning of the Dharma wheel is the four noble truths: that discontent arises from grasping the ever-changing phenomena of body and mind as “me,” and that freedom from this discontent is revealed through the path of not grasping anything as truly me. The
four noble truths is a kind of deconstruction method. However, in this first turning, all the different elements that we can deconstruct this person into really do exist. Earth, wind, fire and water, for example: those kind of physical elements, when you break them down into their smallest bits, are indestructible elemental energies or physical matter, atoms. Early Buddhists, who were first turning exponents, had this kind of theory—that the world is made up of atoms—several centuries B.C., long before modern scientists discovered atoms. We don’t really exist as independent “persons”; we are a conglomeration of all this stuff that we think is a real “me,” but if we look closely, we only find atoms. This turning of the Dharma wheel was only the first.
Read more [https://kokyohenkel.weebly.com/uploads/1/2/7/4/127410773/buddha_nature.pdf here] +
