Ratnagotravibhāga
[2] The Ratnagotra focuses on the buddha nature present in all sentient beings, which is eternal, blissful, unconditioned and originally pure.
[10][11] In Yogacara Buddhism, gotra has the meaning of certain "dispositions" or "innate potential for spiritual achievement" that sentient beings have and which place them in five "families" corresponding to the three vehicles, undefined and icchantikas (deluded hedonists).
[12][10][13] The Ratnagotravibhāga focuses on the family lineage and inner disposition (gotra) which allows all beings to become Buddhas, and thus is compared to a precious jewel (ratna).
[22] The work of Takasaki and Johnston has been critiqued by the extensive reviews of such scholars as De Jong [23] and Lambert Schmithausen.
"[25] The text is attributed to the Indian Jianyi (賢慧, Sanskrit reconstruction: *Sāramati or *Sthiramati) in the earlier Chinese tradition, a claim first found in the work of the sixth century scholar Zhiyi.
[2] The attribution of both the root verses and commentary to bodhisattva Maitreya is found in some late Indian sources (post 11th century).
[2][b] According to Karl Brunnhölzl, modern scholars have varying opinions on the authorship of the RGV: "the main positions include a total denial of a historic person named Maitreya, the author of these texts being someone called Maitreya but not the great bodhisattva Maitreya, and these works being composed by Asanga or other persons"[26] The Japanese scholar Takasaki Jikido is certain that the author of the commentary is Sāramati through his comparison of the RGVV with the Chinese translation of the Dharmadhātvaviśeṣaśāstra (Dasheng fajie wuchabie lun 大乘法界無差別論) which is also said to have been authored by the same figure.
[36] According to Takasaki (1966: p. 7), the Chinese Canon retains one translation of the RGVV, which is titled Jiūjìng yìchéng bǎoxìng lùn (究竟一乘寶性論, which can be back-translated into Sanskrit as: Uttara-ekayāna-ratnagotra-śāstra).
Li writes that "in comparison to the surviving Sanskrit text, the Chinese version of the Ratnagotravibhāga downplays the significance of the expression gotra and instead reflects a strong interest in zhenru 真如 (Skt.
tathatā) acts like a conditioned dharma, an idea that deeply influenced later understanding of Buddha-nature in East Asian Buddhism.
[46] The text consists of about 430 Sanskrit verses with a prose commentary (vyākhyā) that includes substantial quotations from tathāgatagarbha oriented sutras (amounting to up to one third of the RGVV).
The attainment of that wisdom is the supreme awakening that is endowed with the attributes such as the powers that promote the welfare of all sentient beings.
The RGV verses describe buddha nature as follows:Always, by nature, unafflicted; like a clear jewel, the sky, or water; it follows from faith in the dharma, superior insight, concentration and compassion (30); [its] results are the perfected qualities of purity, selfhood, bliss, and permanence, with the functions that are aversion to suffering and the appetite and aspiration for the achievement of peace (35); like the ocean, being an inexhaustible store of treasured qualities, and like a lamp, being naturally conjoined with qualities that are inseparable from it (42).
[69] Regarding the main function of buddha nature, the RGV states that it is what causes sentient beings to seek an escape from samsara, and to aspire to nirvana.
[78] The dharmakāya is held to be originally pure (prakṛtipariśuddha), unconditioned (asaṃskṛta), unborn (ajāta), unarisen (anutpanna), eternal (nitya), changeless (dhruva), and permanent (śāśvata).
These are the ways in which the tathāgatagarbha can be “cleansed” to reveal the dharmakāya, and they are: (1) faith in the dharma (dharmādhimukti), (2) superior insight (adhiprajñā), (3) concentration (samādhi), and (4) compassion (karuṇā).
[80] Furthermore, the RGVV also lists various obstructions to the path, such as hostility to the dharma, false views of the self (ātmadarśana) and indifference to sentient beings.
[82] The RGVV makes it clear that the dharmakāya as “supreme self” (paramātman), is not the self of the non-buddhists or a self amid the five aggregates, but rather is something that is realized after understanding the absence of self in all phenomena (dharmanairātmya).
(RGV I.157-58)[89]To support this, the commentary quotes the Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda which states that "Buddha nature is empty of the sheath of all defilements, which are separable and recognized as something disconnected.
[97][98][99] Jñānaśrīmitra interprets the RGV teaching of buddha nature in line with his sākāravada yogacara view which holds that the Buddha-body is represented by images (ākāras) that exist ultimately.
[97] Ratnākaraśānti disagrees with this view, since for him it is the dharmakāya (which lacks any images or forms) that is the ultimate reality, and this gives rise to the saṃbhogakāya as its outflow (niṣyanda).
[100] Maitripa, a student of both Jñānaśrīmitra and Ratnākaraśānti, is closely associated with the RGV by the Tibetan tradition, though he wrote no work on it and only quotes it twice in his corpus.
[101] Meanwhile, the Kashmiri pandit Jayānanda sees buddha-nature as a way of attracting inferior people and as a provisional teaching (as stated in the Lankavatara sutra).
[104] Another important commentary is Dashi Oser's (15th-16th century) Heart of the luminous sun, which is based on the Third Karmapa's (1284–1339) topical outline of the RGV.
Various Tibetan Buddhist scholars (especially those of the Gelug and Sakya schools) follow the RGVV tradition of Ngok Loden Sherab which "identifies the tathagatagarba as the factor of the natural purity of all phenomena, which pervades all knowable objects and is a space-like nonimplicative negation.
"[106] This interpretation generally understands buddha-nature to be just a term for emptiness as it is explained in the Madhyamaka treatises of Nagarjuna and Candrakirti.
[110] In the Dzogchen system of the Nyingma school, the three jewels of Sangha, Dharma and Buddha are identified as the three vajras (body, speech and mind).
[d][114] An important Dzogchen doctrinal view on buddha-nature (also called sugatagarbha) is how it explains it in terms of the 'basis' (gzhi) and its three aspects: 'essence' (i.e. purity, emptiness), 'nature' (rang bzhin, i.e. natural perfection) and 'compassionate energy' (thugs rje).
[118] Khenchen Namdrol Rinpoche (2008/2009) commenced the Rigpa Shedra teachings on Mipham's view of Buddha Nature[119] which has been followed by Khenpo Dawa Paljor (2009) of Rigpa Shedra's oral word by word commentary of Ju Mipham's exegesis of RGV[120] in Tibetan with English translation.
[122] The RGVV also impacted other East Asian scholars, traditions and texts, including Paramārtha 真諦 (499-569), the Mahayana Awakening of Faith (Dasheng qixin lun 大乘起信論), the Sanjie school (三階教), Wonhyo 元曉 (617-686) and the Japanese authors Juryō (寿霊) and Chikei (智憬) of Nara Japan (710-784).
