Karmapa, 3rd

Karmapa, 3rd on the DRL

Classical Tibetan Authors • Tertons • Tulkus

རང་བྱུང་རྡོ་རྗེ་

Wylie	rang byung rdo rje
English Phonetics	Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje
Sort Name	Karmapa, 3rd

 

Himalayan Art Resources

Other names

• ཀརྨ་པ་གསུམ་པ་

• karma pa gsum pa

Alternate names

• Karmapa, 3rd

Dates

Birth:	1284
Death:	1339
Place of birth:	tsa phu gangs zhur mo

Tibetan calendar dates

Dates of birth

Day
Month
Gender	Male
Element	Wood
Animal	Monkey
Rab Jyung	5

Dates of passing

Day
Month
Gender
Element
Animal
Rab Jyung

About

Religious Affiliation

Karma Kagyu

Is emanation of

Second Karmapa Karma Pakshi

Teachers

o rgyan pa rin chen dpal · rig 'dzin ku mA ra rA dza · Pad+ma las 'brel rtsal · Rgyal sras legs pa

Students

klong chen rab 'byams · Rgyal sras legs pa · G.yung ston rdo rje dpal bzang po · g.yag sde paN chen · Shamarpa, 1st

Biographical Information

The Third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje, was a prominent Karma Kagyu hierarch who also held Nyingma and Chod lineages. He was likely the first man to carry the title of Karmapa, following his identification by Orgyenpa Rinchen Pel as the reincarnation of Karma Pakshi, whom Orgyenpa posthumously identified as the reincarnation of Dusum Khyenpa. He spent much of his life traveling across Tibet and made two visits to the Yuan court in China. (Read more at the source: Treasury of Lives)
Other Biographical info:

Important master of the karma kaM tshang tradition

• He is regarded as the first of the incarnation lamas in tibet, since he became widely recognized as the embodiment of karma pak+Si.
• He was installed first at karma dgon and then established at kam po gnas nang.
• He is famed for the building of the iron bridge over the sog chu.
• In 1331 he was invited to court by the yuan emperor and received by prince rat+na shrI.
• After the prince's demise, his elder brother brought him to sman rtse.
• According to the bod kyi gal che'i lo rgyus he died at 56.

Links

BDRC Link (P66)

https://www.tbrc.org/#!rid=P66

Treasury of Lives Link

http://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Third-Karmapa-Rangjung-Dorje/9201

Treasury of Lives Excerpt

The Third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje, was a prominent Karma Kagyu hierarch who also held Nyingma and Chod lineages. He was likely the first man to carry the title of Karmapa, following his identification by Orgyenpa Rinchen Pal as the reincarnation of Karma Pakshi, whom Orgyenpa posthumously identified as the reincarnation of Dusum Khyenpa. He spent much of his life traveling across Tibet and made two visits to the Yuan court in China.

Himalayan Art Resources Link or Other Art Resource

https://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=4741

Wiki Pages

• Karmapa, 3rd on the DRL
• Karmapa, 3rd on the LIB
• Karmapa, 3rd on the RTZ
• Karmapa, 3rd on the DNZ
• Karmapa, 3rd on the BNW

Tertön Gyatsa Information from the Rinchen Terdzö

[edit]

• Text
• Tibetan
• Wylie
• English

The full Tertön Gyatsa text can be found at the following page: Volume 1 (ཀ), 341-765, 1a1-213a4.

Name in Gyatsa: ཀརྨ་པ་གསུམ་པ་རང་བྱུང་རྡོ་རྗེ་ (karma pa gsum pa rang byung rdo rje)

Page #s for bio of this person: 702 to 703

Folio #s for bio of this person: 181b4 to 182a4

སྐལ་བཟང་སངས་རྒྱས་དྲུག་པ་སེང་གེའི་རྣམ་འཕྲུལ་འཇིག་རྟེན་དབང་ཕྱུག་ཀརྨ་པ་གསུམ་པ་རང་བྱུང་རྡོ་རྗེའི་རྣམ་པར་ཐར་པ་ནི་ཡོངས་སུ་གྲགས་པ་ལྟར་ལ། བྱེ་བྲག་དག་སྣང་གི་བཀའ་བབ་ཚུལ་ནི། ས་སྤྱོད་གསུང་གི་འཁོར་ལོ་འོག་མིན་ཀརྨའི་ཡང་དབེན་དེང་སང་རི་བར་གྲགས་པའི་གནས་དེར་ཐུགས་དམ་ལ་བཞུགས་པའི་སྐབས་ཤར་ཕྱོགས་ཀྱི་ནམ་མཁར་མཁས་པ་བི་མ་ལ་དངོས་སུ་བྱོན་ནས་མཛོད་སྤུར་ཐིམ་པའི་རྐྱེན་གྱིས། བི་མ་སྙིང་ཐིག་ཆེན་མོའི་ཚིག་དོན་མ་ལུས་པ་ཐུགས་ལ་ཤར་ནས་གདམས་ངག་གི་རྩ་བ་རྡོ་རྗེའི་ཚིག་རྐང་དང་། སྨིན་གྲོལ་གྱི་ཡིག་ཆ་རྫོགས་པར་མཛད་ནས་སྤེལ་བའི་རྒྱུན་ད་ལྟའང་བཞུགས་པ་ཁོ་བོས་ཀྱང་ཐོབ། སློབ་དཔོན་ཆེན་པོ་པདྨའི་བྱིན་རླབས་ཀྱིས་རྩ་གསུམ་དྲིལ་སྒྲུབ་ཀྱི་གདམས་སྐོར་ཟབ་མོ་དགོངས་པའི་གཏེར་ལས་ཕྱུངས་པ་ཕྱིས་རྗེ་བརྒྱད་པ་མི་བསྐྱོད་རྡོ་རྗེས་ཐུགས་ཉམས་སུ་བཞེས་པས་དག་སྣང་ཉེ་བརྒྱུད་དུ་བྱུང་བ་ལྟར་ལོ་རྒྱུས་དང་། རྩ་ཚིག་ཡི་གེར་བཀོད། རྗེ་དགུ་པ་དབང་ཕྱུག་རྡོ་རྗེས་ལས་བྱང་དབང་ཆོག་རྒྱས་པར་བཀོད་པ་ལྟར་ཁོ་བོས་ཀྱང་དཔལ་ཀརྨ་པ་བཅུ་བཞི་པའི་བཀའ་དྲིན་ལས་ནོས་ཤིང་ཡིག་ཆའི་ཞབས་ཏོག་ཀྱང་སྤེལ་བ་སྟེ། འདི་ཉིད་ཕྱིས་རིག་འཛིན་ཆོས་རྗེ་གླིང་པའི་གཏེར་བྱོན་འཆི་མེད་རྩ་གསུམ་དྲིལ་སྒྲུབ་དང་ལྷ་སྔགས་ངོ་བོ་གཅིག་པས་བརྒྱུད་པའི་ཆུ་བོ་གཉིས་འདྲེས་སུའང་འགྱུར་རོ།

skal bzang sangs rgyas drug pa seng ge'i rnam 'phrul 'jig rten dbang phyug karma pa gsum pa rang byung rdo rje'i rnam par thar pa ni yongs su grags pa ltar la/_bye brag dag snang gi bka' bab tshul ni/_sa spyod gsung gi 'khor lo 'og min karma'i yang dben deng sang ri bar grags pa'i gnas der thugs dam la bzhugs pa'i skabs shar phyogs kyi nam mkhar mkhas pa bi ma la dngos su byon nas mdzod spur thim pa'i rkyen gyis/_bi ma snying thig chen mo'i tshig don ma lus pa thugs la shar nas gdams ngag gi rtsa ba rdo rje'i tshig rkang dang /_smin grol gyi yig cha rdzogs par mdzad nas spel ba'i rgyun da lta'ang bzhugs pa kho bos kyang thob/_slob dpon chen po pad+ma'i byin rlabs kyis rtsa gsum dril sgrub kyi gdams skor zab mo dgongs pa'i gter las phyungs pa phyis rje brgyad pa mi bskyod rdo rjes thugs nyams su bzhes pas dag snang nye brgyud du byung ba ltar lo rgyus dang /_rtsa tshig yi ger bkod/_rje dgu pa dbang phyug rdo rjes las byang dbang chog rgyas par bkod pa ltar kho bos kyang dpal karma pa bcu bzhi pa'i bka' drin las nos shing yig cha'i zhabs tog kyang spel ba ste/_'di nyid phyis rig 'dzin chos rje gling pa'i gter byon 'chi med rtsa gsum dril sgrub dang lha sngags ngo bo gcig pas brgyud pa'i chu bo gnyis 'dres su'ang 'gyur ro

Buddha Nature Project

Person description or short bio

The Third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje, was a prominent Karma Kagyu hierarch who also held Nyingma and Chod lineages. He was likely the first man to carry the title of Karmapa, following his identification by Orgyenpa Rinchen Pal as the reincarnation of Karma Pakshi, whom Orgyenpa posthumously identified as the reincarnation of Dusum Khyenpa. He spent much of his life traveling across Tibet and made two visits to the Yuan court in China.

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

Is Buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?
Position:	Definitive
Notes:	"Furthermore, the Third Karmapa composed a summary of the Uttaratantra in accordance with the meditative tradition, which establishes the Uttaratantra as a definitive text included in the last wheel of the Buddha's teachings." Wangchuk, Tsering. Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, pp. 30-31.
All beings have Buddha-nature
Position:	Qualified Yes
If "Qualified", explain:	"Rangjung Dorjé says in accordance with RGV I.27-28 that only the dharmakāya of all buddhas truly abides in sentient beings. The form kāyas are then explained as the outflow of the Dharma teachings on the level of the fruit, which corresponds to the pertinent passages in the first and third chapters of the Ratnagotravibhāga."
Notes:	Mathes, K., A Direct Path to the Buddha Within, p. 72.
Which Wheel Turning
Position:	Third Turning
Notes:	"Furthermore, the Third Karmapa composed a summary of the Uttaratantra in accordance with the meditative tradition, which establishes the Uttaratantra as a definitive text included in the last wheel of the Buddha's teachings." Wangchuk, Tsering. Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, pp. 30-31.
Yogācāra vs Madhyamaka
Position:	Yogācāra
Notes:	*"To sum up, in his explanation of buddha nature, Rangjung Dorjé combines three different strands of interpretations: 1. The mahāmudrā interpretation stemming from Saraha. 2.The interpretation according to Asaṅga's Mahāyānasaṁgraha. 3.The dzogchen interpretation. In other words, for Rangjung Dorjé, well-founded mahāmudrā and dzogchen explanations need be combined with Asaṅgas Yogācāra distinction." Mathes, K., A Direct Path to the Buddha Within, p. 65. See also Wangchuk, Tsering. Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, p. 30.
Zhentong vs Rangtong
Position:	Zhentong
Notes:	*He never actually uses this term, so this is a later attribution imputed on to his exegesis of the RGV and other works by his commentators such as Karma Trinlepa and eventually Kongtrul, which is labeled the Zhentong Tradition of the Karma Kagyu, which differs considerably from Dölpopa's tradition. See Mathes, K., A Direct Path to the Buddha Within, pp. 54-57. For more on the difference between the Third Karmapa and Dölpopa see Mathes, K., A Direct Path to the Buddha Within, p. 69-70. See also Brunnhölzl, K., Luminous Heart, pp. 95-109.
Promotes how many vehicles?
Position:
Notes:
Analytic vs Meditative Tradition
Position:	Meditative Tradition
Notes:	"Furthermore, the Third Karmapa composed a summary of the Uttaratantra in accordance with the meditative tradition, which establishes the Uttaratantra as a definitive text included in the last wheel of the Buddha's teachings." Wangchuk, Tsering. Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, pp. 30-31.
What is Buddha-nature?
Position:	Tathāgatagarbha as Mind's Luminous Nature
Notes:	*"The tathāgata heart is mind’s luminous ultimate nature or nondual wisdom, which is the basis of everything in saṃsāra and nirvāṇa. Its essence is empty, its nature is lucid, and its display is unimpeded (this is also how the nature of the mind is presented in the Mahāmudrā tradition, and the Karmapa’s commentary on the Dharmadhātustava indeed equates the tathāgata heart with Mahāmudrā)." Brunnhölzl, K., When the Clouds Part, p. 72. Another take on this is found in Mathes, K., A Direct Path to the Buddha Within, pp. 51-54, in which he seems to suggest that his views are more inclined to view it as the dharmadhātu, which is equivalent to dharmakāya. "This becomes clear from an answer to a rhetorical question in the autocommentary of the Zab mo nang gi don: Question: How are the properties of purification produced? They are supported by buddha nature, [in as much as] it is the dharmakāya of the above-mentioned purity of mind." Mathes, K., A Direct Path to the Buddha Within, p. 58.
Svātantrika (རང་རྒྱུད་) vs Prāsaṅgika (ཐལ་འགྱུར་པ་)
Position:
Notes:
Causal nature of the vajrapāda
Position:

The Kagyu school traces its origin to the eleventh-century translator Marpa, who studied in India with Nāropa. Marpa's student Milarepa trained Gampopa, who founded the first monastery of the Kagyu order. As many as twelve subtraditions grew out from there, the best known being the Karma Kagyu, the Drikung, and the Drukpa.

The Nyingma, which is often described as the oldest tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, traces its origin to Padmasambhava, who is said to have visited Tibet in the eighth century.

Persons who have experience in meditation on the nature of the mind or emptiness are said to be able to remain in a meditative equipoise after death. Although they have stopped breathing and are clinically dead, they are said to be able to retain their body without decay, often with lustre and flexibility. They are believed to have actualised their buddha-nature at the time of death and attained the state of enlightenment.

Essence or the most basic, fundamental nature or natural state of being. It is often used as a synonym for rang bzhin.

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

The Ultimate Continuum, or Gyü Lama, is often used as a short title in the Tibetan tradition for the key source text of buddha-nature teachings called the Ratnagotravibhāga of Maitreya/Asaṅga, also known as the Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra.

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.

Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra

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).

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.

Mahāmudrā refers to an advanced meditation tradition in Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna forms of Into-Tibetan Buddhism that is focused on the realization of the empty and luminous nature of the mind. It also refers to the resultant state of buddhahood attained through such meditation practice. In Tibet, this tradition is particularly associated with the Kagyu school, although all other schools also profess this tradition. The term also appears as part of the four seals, alongside dharmamūdra, samayamudrā, and karmamudrā.

Dzogchen is an advanced system of meditation techniques to reveal the innate state of perfection primarily, but not exclusively, espoused by the Nyingma Buddhist tradition and the Tibetan Bön tradition.

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.

Literally, "without duality," it refers to that which is indivisible, in that it is not divided into two.

Mahāmudrā refers to an advanced meditation tradition in Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna forms of Into-Tibetan Buddhism that is focused on the realization of the empty and luminous nature of the mind. It also refers to the resultant state of buddhahood attained through such meditation practice. In Tibet, this tradition is particularly associated with the Kagyu school, although all other schools also profess this tradition. The term also appears as part of the four seals, alongside dharmamūdra, samayamudrā, and karmamudrā.

The fundamental expanse from which all phenomena emerge.