Parahitabhadra

Parahitabhadra on the DRL

Classical Indian Authors

གཞན་ལ་ཕན་པ་བཟང་པོ་

Wylie	gzhan la phan pa bzang po
Devanagari	परहितभद्र
Romanized Sanskrit	Parahitabhadra

Alternate names

• Parahita

Dates

Birth:	11th Century
Notes on dates:	BDRC dates this figure (naming him Parahitaprabha) in the 14th Century, though this is clearly mistaken based on what we know of his teachers and students.
Place of birth:	Kashmir

Tibetan calendar dates

Dates of birth

Day
Month
Gender
Element
Animal
Rab Jyung

Dates of passing

Day
Month
Gender
Element
Animal
Rab Jyung

About

Teachers

Somaśrī · Ratnavajra

Students

rngog blo ldan shes rab · mar pa do pa chos kyi dbang phyug · gzus dga' ba rdo rje · gzhon nu mchog

Other Biographical info:

Links

BDRC Link

https://www.tbrc.org/#!rid=P8225

Wiki Pages

• Parahitabhadra on the DRL
• Parahitabhadra on the LIB
• Parahitabhadra on the BNW

Buddha Nature Project

Person description or short bio

Kashmiri Paṇḍita who became an important teacher and collaborator for several influential Tibetan scholars and translators that spent time studying in Kashmir in the 11th Century. According to Karl Brunnhölzl in When the Clouds Part:

Parahitabhadra was a student of the Kashmirian Mahāpaṇḍita Somaśrī and also studied Madhyamaka with Ratnavajra. Parahitabhadra's main Indian student was Mahāsumati, and he also taught Ngog Lotsāwa, Patsab Lotsāwa, Sangkar Lotsāwa Pagpa Sherab (a student of Jñānaśrībhadra), Sherab Gyaltsen (a student of Atiśa), Shönnu Cho, Su Gawé Dorje, and Marpa Dopa. Together with these translators, Parahita translated or revised many sūtras, tantras, and treatises (more than twenty works in the Tengyur, among them the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra and the Dharmadharmatāvibhāga). There is also evidence that he collaborated with Sajjana, as their common revision of the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra shows. In addition, the Tengyur contains three works authored by Parahitabhadra (a Śūnyatāsaptativṛtti, a Maṇḍalābhiṣekavidhi, and a rather extensive commentary on the first two verses of the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra). Besides Kashmir, he was active in Toling in western Tibet. It seems that he was more of a Madhyamaka and Pramāṇa specialist, but there is no doubt that he was a part of the eleventh-century Kashmirian paṇḍita scene that was involved with the Maitreya texts and transmitted them to Tibet (he is also mentioned in one of the Tibetan transmission lineages of the Uttaratantra). (88)

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

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

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 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.

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

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).

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.