Sakya Paṇḍita

PersonType	Category:Classical Tibetan Authors
MainNamePhon	Sakya Paṇḍita
MainNameTib	ས་སྐྱ་པཎྜི་ཏ་
MainNameWylie	sa skya paN+Di ta
AltNamesTib	ཀུན་དགའ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་ · ས་སྐྱ་པཎྜི་ཏ་ཀུན་དགའ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་
AltNamesWylie	kun dga' rgyal mtshan · sa skya paN+Di ta kun dga' rgyal mtshan
AltNamesOther	Sapaṇ · Sapen · Sapan
YearBirth	1182
YearDeath	1251
TibDateGender	Male
TibDateElement	Water
TibDateAnimal	Tiger
TibDateRabjung	3
TibDateDeathGender	Female
TibDateDeathElement	Iron
TibDateDeathAnimal	Pig
TibDateDeathRabjung	4
ReligiousAffiliation	Sakya
PersonalAffiliation	Grandson of Sachen Kunga Nyingpo and nephew of rje btsun grags pa rgyal mtshan and bsod nams rtse mo, and uncle of chos rgyal 'phags pa.
StudentOf	Kha che paN chen shAkya shrI · rje btsun grags pa rgyal mtshan
TeacherOf	gu ru chos kyi dbang phyug · chos rgyal 'phags pa · yang dgon pa rgyal mtshan dpal · lho pa kun mkhyen rin chen dpal
BDRC	https://www.tbrc.org/#!rid=P1056
Treasury of Lives	http://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Sakya-Pan%E1%B8%8Dita-Kunga-Gyeltsen/2137
Himalayan Art Resources	https://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=325
IsInGyatsa	No
PosBuNayDefProv	Provisional
PosBuNayDefProvNotes	Kano, K., Buddha-Nature and Emptiness, p. 309. "As a proponent of the Madhyamaka view of the emptiness of inherent existence privileging the Madhyamakāvatāra, Sapen strongly argues against the tathāgata-essence concept that is central in the Uttaratantra. In his important work, Distinguishing the Three Vows, Sapen shows that the Uttaratantra requires interpretation." Wangchuk, Tsering, The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, p. 26. "In verses 138-42 of Distinguishing the Three Vows, Sapen further argues that the tathāgata-essence teaching in the Uttaratantra and other works of the tathāgata-essence literary corpus are provisional, because it meets the three criteria that are characteristics of the Buddha's provisional teachings. The three criteria are the point of reference (dgongs gzhi), purpose (dgos pa), and counter to the fact (dngos la gnod byed)." Wangchuk, Tsering, The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, p. 27.
PosAllBuddha	Qualified No
PosAllBuddhaNote	There is some discrepancy between Sapen's use of the term tathāgata-essence and buddha-nature and other thinkers that use these terms synonymously. In Sapen's view, sentient beings do not possess the former, but do possess a more general form of the latter. So while the answer is a qualified "no" in terms of the more general debate on this issue and the way others have addressed it and asserted Sapen's position, strictly speaking from Sapen's view the answer could more accurately be a qualified "yes" as he does state all beings have a basic "inherent" buddha-nature, though this does not correspond to an essence that is endowed with enlightened qualities. The tricky issue being the equivalency of these terms tathāgata-essence and buddha-nature and the perception of the Sakya position by later authors.
PosAllBuddhaMoreNotes	"In verses 59-63 of Sapen's Distinguishing the Three Vows, he argues against the presentation of the existence of a tathāgata-essence or sugata-essence endowed with enlightened qualities in sentient beings. Sapen demonstrates that such a position would be tantamount to holding the view of the Sāṃkhya School, that the "result is present in its cause." Wangchuk, Tsering, The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, p. 27. "It is evident from Distinguishing the Three Vows that the tathāgata-essence endowed with enlightened qualities does not exist in sentient beings. But does that mean that Sapen completely rejects the existence of tathāgata-essence in sentient beings?" Wangchuk, Tsering, The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, pp. 27-28. "In Distinguishing the Three Vows, Sapen argues that tathāgata-essence, sugata-essence, buddha-essence, and buddha-element are synonyms, but, interestingly, he never mentions the associated term "buddha-nature" in this context. However, in his Illuminating the Thoughts of the Buddha (thub pa'i dgongs pa rab tu gsal ba), Sapen explains buddha-nature in this way: "The inherent [buddha-]nature exists in all sentient beings. The developmental [buddha-]nature exists [from the time that] one has developed bodhicitta. [The latter] does not exist in those who have not developed [bodhicitta]....So Sapen obviously has a problem accepting tathāgata-essence teachings as definitive, whereas he has no issue asserting that buddha-nature exists in all beings." Wangchuk, Tsering, The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, p. 28.
PosYogaMadhya	Madhyamaka
PosZhenRang	Rangtong
PosZhenRangNotes	He predates the distinction but is clearly in line with the rangtong perspective.
PosAnalyticMedit	Analytic Tradition
PosEmptyLumin	Tathāgatagarbha as the Emptiness That is a Non-implicative Negation (without enlightened qualities)
PosEmptyLuminNotes	"An opinion shared by rNgog and Sapan is that Buddha-nature should be understood in the sense of emptiness. The difference is that rNgog directly equates Buddha-nature with emptiness, whereas Sapan regards the intentional ground (dgongs gzhi) of Buddha-nature to be emptiness." Kano, K., Buddha-Nature and Emptiness, pp. 309-310.
PosSvataPrasa	Prāsaṅgika (ཐལ་འགྱུར་)
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