Avalokitavrata

Avalokitavrata on the DRL

Classical Indian Authors

སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་བརྟུལ་ཞུགས

Wylie	Spyan ras gzigs brtul zhugs
English Phonetics	Avalokitavrata
Sort Name	Avalokitavrata

Dates

Birth:	8th century

Tibetan calendar dates

Dates of birth

Day
Month
Gender
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Animal
Rab Jyung

Dates of passing

Day
Month
Gender
Element
Animal
Rab Jyung

About

Religious Affiliation

Svātantrika Madhyamaka

Other Biographical info:

Links

Wiki Pages

• Avalokitavrata on the DRL
• Avalokitavrata on the LIB
• Avalokitavrata on the BNW

Buddha Nature Project

Person description or short bio

Indian scholiast of the eighth century CE and successor to Bhāvaviveka [alt. Bhāvya] in the Svātantrika school of Madhyamaka. Avalokitavrata wrote the Prajñapradīpaṭīkā, an extensive subcommentary to Bhāvaviveka's Prajñāpradīpa, his commentary on Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, in which he defends Bhāvaviveka from Candrakīrti's critiques. That subcommentary is extant only in Tibetan translation. (Source: "Avalokitavrata." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 82. 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?
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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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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.

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.