Śākya Chokden

PersonType	Category:Classical Tibetan Authors
MainNamePhon	Śākya Chokden
MainNameTib	ཤཱཀྱ་མཆོག་ལྡན་
MainNameWylie	shAkya mchog ldan
YearBirth	1428
YearDeath	1507
BornIn	gsang mda' bang rim
TibDateGender	Male
TibDateElement	Earth
TibDateAnimal	Monkey
TibDateRabjung	7
ReligiousAffiliation	sa skya
StudentOf	rong ston shes bya kun rig  ·  don yod dpal ba  ·  Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo  ·  spyang lung chos sdings gzhon nu blo gros
BDRC	https://www.tbrc.org/#!rid=P396
Treasury of Lives	https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/%C5%9A%C4%81kya-Chokden/6351
IsInGyatsa	No
BnwShortPersonBio	Śākya Chokden was one of the most important thinkers of the Sakya tradition. His teachers were Rongtön Sheja Kunrik, Dönyo Pelwa and Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo. A thinker who accepted both the rangton and zhentong, or "self-empty" and "other empty" views of Madhyamaka, Śākya Chokden's seat was at Serdokchen Monastery near Shigatse in Tsang. Influential and controversial in his own day, his writings fell out of favor over time and many were banned in the seventeenth century.
PosBuNayDefProv	Definitive
PosBuNayDefProvNotes	Both
PosAllBuddha	Qualified No
PosAllBuddhaNote	All beings possess a "nominal" buddha-nature as is taught in the second-wheel teachings, while only bodhisattvas on the first bhumi and up (i.e. Noble Bodhisattvas) possess the "actual" buddha-nature as it was taught in the third-wheel teachings. (see note from Karl below)
PosAllBuddhaMoreNotes	"Though everyone including ordinary beings possesses wisdom in a nonmanifest manner, only bodhisattvas on the first bhūmi onward manifest this wisdom as the direct realization of ultimate reality. This means that only such bodhisattvas possess the actual tathāgata heart in that they see at least certain degrees of purification of the stains that cover the tathāgata heart as well as its inseparability from certain degrees of buddha qualities. Ordinary beings thus do not possess this actual tathāgata heart at all, while buddhas possess it in its completeness. In other words, the close connection between seeing the tathāgata heart free from adventitious stains and possessing it, as well as between becoming free from adventitious stains and “attaining” the qualities of a buddha, is a prominent feature of Śākya Chogden’s interpretation of tathāgatagarbha." Karl Brunnhölzl, When the Clouds Part, p. 78. See also Wangchuk, Tsering, The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, p. 114.
PosWheelTurn	Third Turning
PosWheelTurnNotes	He distinguishes between different types of buddha-nature taught in the second and third wheels, though the third is the more definitive and represents the "actual" tathāgatagarbha.
PosYogaMadhya	Madhyamaka
PosEmptyLuminNotes	"In sum, Śākya Chogden distinguishes three kinds of tathāgata hearts: (1) the nominal tathāgata heart that is the mere natural purity (as taught in the second dharma wheel and its Madhyamaka commentaries), (2) the actual tathāgata heart that is the purity of adventitious stains and represents the relative tathāgata heart (as taught in the third dharma wheel and the Nonaspectarian system of Maitreya and Asaṅga, as well as in the teachings of expedient meaning in the second dharma wheel as these are interpreted by the third dharma wheel), and (3) the actual tathāgata heart that is the natural purity that is inseparable from all buddha qualities and represents the ultimate tathāgata heart (as taught in the system of Maitreya and Asaṅga and in the third dharma wheel)." Karl Brunnhölzl, When the Clouds Part, p. 78. See also Wangchuk, Tsering, The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, p. 115.
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The Sakya tradition developed in the eleventh century in the Khön family of Tsang, which maintained an imperial-era lineage of Vajrakīla and which adopted a new teaching from India known as Lamdre.

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.

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.

A plateau of spiritual development.

"Ultimate truth" or "absolute truth"; the reality of things as they truly are.

Mental stains that are not inherent to the nature of the mind but are temporarily present as the residue of past actions or habitual tendencies. It is sometimes iterated as adventitious defilements (Skt. āgantukakleśa, Tib. glo bur gyi nyon mongs), which references the fickle and temporary nature of disturbing emotions that lack an ultimately established basis for existence.

Buddha-nature, literally the "womb/essence of those who have gone (to suchness)."

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