Thogs med bzang po

Thogs med bzang po on the DRL

Classical Tibetan Authors

རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཐོགས་མེད་བཟང་པོ་

Wylie	rgyal sras thogs med bzang po
English Phonetics	Gyalse Tokme Zangpo
Sort Name	Tokme Zangpo

 

 

Other names

• རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཐོགས་མེད་བཟང་པོ་
• ཐོགས་མེད་བཟང་པོ་དཔལ་
• རྒྱལ་སྲས་དངུལ་ཆུ་ཐོགས་མེད་
• རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཆོས་རྫོང་པ་
• དཀོན་མཆོག་བཟང་པོ་
• བཟང་པོ་དཔལ་

• rgyal sras thogs med bzang po
• thogs med bzang po dpal
• rgyal sras dngul chu thogs med
• rgyal sras chos rdzong pa
• dkon mchog bzang po
• bzang po dpal

Dates

Birth:	1295
Death:	1369
Place of birth:	phul byung brag skya (sa skya)

Tibetan calendar dates

Dates of birth

Day
Month
Gender	Female
Element	Wood
Animal	Sheep
Rab Jyung	5

Dates of passing

Day
Month
Gender
Element
Animal
Rab Jyung

About

Religious Affiliation

Kadam

Students

red mda' ba gzhon nu blo gros · 'jam dbyangs don yod rgyal mtshan

Other Biographical info:

Links

BDRC Link

https://www.tbrc.org/#!rid=P1830

Treasury of Lives Link

https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Gyelse-Tokme-Zangpo/3153

Wiki Pages

• Thogs med bzang po on the DRL
• Thogs med bzang po on the DNZ
• Thogs med bzang po on the BNW

Buddha Nature Project

Person description or short bio

Gyalse Tokme Zangpo was a Kadampa master of the fourteenth century based at Ngulchu Monastery where he sat in retreat for twenty years. He had previously served as the abbot of Bodong E for about nine years, from 1326 to 1335. Significant in the transmission of Lojong teachings, his compositions include the famous Thirty-seven Practices of the Bodhisattva, one of the classics of Tibetan buddhist literature. A specialist in tantric Mahākaruṇā, he was a disciple of Butön Rinchen Drup and a teacher of Rendawa Zhönu Lodrö, and is counted as seventy-third in the Lamrim lineage.

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

Is Buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?
Position:	Definitive
Notes:	Wangchuk quotes Tokme's praise of the Uttaratantra, which states: "Endowed with the essence of stamens of the ultimate definitive meaning, Is this lotus grove of the teaching of the Lord Maitreya." Wangchuk, Tsering, The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, p. 60.
All beings have Buddha-nature
Position:	Yes
If "Qualified", explain:
Notes:	"Gyelsé Tokmé equates the naturally purified dharma-body with the tathāgata-essence by arguing that it is precisely because the latter exists in all beings that one can claim that the former exists in all beings also. However, unlike Dölpopa, he never explicitly says in his commentary that sentient beings have a fully enlightened buddha within." Wangchuk, Tsering, The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, p. 62.
Which Wheel Turning
Position:	Third Turning
Notes:	Gyelsé Tokmé emphasizes that the last-wheel teachings teach the most definitive meaning of the Buddha's thought. He states, "This meaning, which is depicted by the nine examples in this way, is the profoundest of the profound, and it is the ultimate definitive meaning." Wangchuk, Tsering, The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, p. 61.
Yogācāra vs Madhyamaka
Position:
Notes:
Zhentong vs Rangtong
Position:
Notes:
Promotes how many vehicles?
Position:
Notes:
Analytic vs Meditative Tradition
Position:
Notes:
What is Buddha-nature?
Position:	Tathāgatagarbha as the Latent State of Buddhahood that is Obscured in Sentient Beings
Notes:	Wangchuk, Tsering, The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, p. 62.
Svātantrika (རང་རྒྱུད་) vs Prāsaṅgika (ཐལ་འགྱུར་པ་)
Position:
Notes:
Causal nature of the vajrapāda
Position:

A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses.

The disciples of the Buddha who aspire to attain individual liberation or nirvāṇa. The final goal of the Hearers is to become an arhat, a state in which one has totally eliminated the inner problems of attachment, hatred and ignorance, the main causes for rebirth in this cycle of existence. There are four stages of a śrāvaka path including eight phases.

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.

Refers to a teaching that is literally 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).

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 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.