Haribhadra

Haribhadra on the DRL

Classical Indian Authors

སེངྒེ་བཟང་པོ་

Wylie	seng+ge bzang po
English Phonetics	Haribhadra

Dates

Birth:	c. 800

Tibetan calendar dates

Dates of birth

Day
Month
Gender
Element
Animal
Rab Jyung

Dates of passing

Day
Month
Gender
Element
Animal
Rab Jyung

About

Religious Affiliation

Yogācāra-*Svātantrika

Teachers

Vairocanabhadra

Other Biographical info:

Links

BDRC Link

https://www.tbrc.org/#!rid=P7297

Wiki Pages

• Haribhadra on the DRL
• Haribhadra on the LIB
• Haribhadra on the BNW

Buddha Nature Project

Person description or short bio

Haribhadra. (T. Seng ge bzang po) (c. 800). Indian Buddhist exegete during the Pāla dynasty, whom later Tibetan doxographers associate with the Yogācāra-*Svātantrika syncretistic strand of Indian philosophy. He may have been a Student of Śāntarakṣita and was a contemporary of Kamalaśīla; he himself lists Vairocanabhadra as his teacher. Haribhadra is known for his two commentaries on the Aṣṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitāsūtra ("Prajñāpāramitā in Eight Thousand Lines"): the longer Abhisamayālaṃ kārālokā-Prajñāpãramitãvyãkhyã, and its summary, the Abhisamayālaṃkāravivṛti. He is also known for his recasting of the twenty-five-thousand-line version of the prajñāpāramitā (Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikāprajñāpāramitāsūtra) in a work entitled the Le'u brgyad ma in Tibetan. Each of these works is based on the interpretative scheme set forth in the Abhisamayālaṃkāra ("Ornament for Clear Realizations"), a guide to the Pañcaviṃśati that Haribhadra explicitly attributes to Maitreya. His Abhisamayālaṃkārālokā builds upon Pramāṇa, Madhyamaka, and Abhidharma literature and was extremely influential in Tibet; its summary (known as "’grel pa don gsal" in Tibetan) is the root text (rtsa ba) for commentaries in the Gsang phu ne’u thog monastery tradition originating with Rngog Blo ldan shes rab. It is the most widely studied prajñāpāramitā commentary in Tibetan Buddhism to the present day. Haribhadra is known for his explanation of a jñānadharmakāya (knowledge truth-body) in addition to a svābhāvakāya, viz., the eternally pure dharmadhātu that is free from duality. He is characterized as an alīkākāravādin ("false-aspectarian") to differentiate him from Kamalaśīla, a satyākāravãdin ("true- aspectarian") who holds that the objects appearing in the diverse forms of knowledge in a buddha's all-knowing mind are truly what they seem to be. He cites Dharmakīrti frequently but appears to accept that scripture (āgama) is also a valid authority (pramāṇa). There are two principal commentaries on his work, by Dharmamitra and Dharmakīrtiśrī. Buddhaśrījñāna (or simply Buddhajñāna) was his disciple. The Subodhinī, a commentary on the Ratnaguṇasaṃcayagāthā, is also attributed to him. (Source: "Haribhadra." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 345. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)

Expand to see this person's philosophical positions on Buddha-nature.

Is Buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?
Position:
Notes:
All beings have Buddha-nature
Position:
If "Qualified", explain:
Notes:
Which Wheel Turning
Position:
Notes:
Yogācāra vs Madhyamaka
Position:
Notes:
Zhentong vs Rangtong
Position:
Notes:
Promotes how many vehicles?
Position:
Notes:
Analytic vs Meditative Tradition
Position:
Notes:
What is Buddha-nature?
Position:
Notes:
Svātantrika (རང་རྒྱུད་) vs Prāsaṅgika (ཐལ་འགྱུར་པ་)
Position:
Notes:
Causal nature of the vajrapāda
Position:

Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana).

Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā

Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā.

The fundamental expanse from which all phenomena emerge.

In the Buddhist literature on pramāṇa, it refers to cognition that correctly apprehends its object without any deception or mistake. Such correct cognition include direct perception and inferential cognition.

The disciples of the Buddha who aspire to attain individual liberation or nirvāṇa. The final goal of the Hearers is to become an arhat, a state in which one has totally eliminated the inner problems of attachment, hatred and ignorance, the main causes for rebirth in this cycle of existence. There are four stages of a śrāvaka path including eight phases.

Refers to something that is taught for a specific reason, rather than because it is entirely true.

The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature.

The state of being empty of self, which references the lack of inherent existence in relative phenomena.

Tsen Khawoche's "meditative tradition" of exegesis of the Uttaratantra; it is one of two major Tibetan traditions of exegesis, both stemming from students of Sajjana.