Book Review Of La Theorie Du Tathagatagarbha Et Du Gotra

SR No.: 269237
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Total Pages: 12
Language: English
Classification: Article
File Size: 993 KB

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BOOK REVIEW to some sutras beginning with the Dasadharmakasutra and the Madhyamakavatara of Canadrakirti. His selection of the materials is based on the relevant section of the Legs bsad gser phren, which is made accessible to us in good translation at the end of Chapter II (pp. 118-122). Owing to his profound scholarship in Tibetan Buddhism, we are now able to learn in full detail Tson kha pa's view of the gotra-theories of the different schools, which was briefly introduced to us some decades ago by Obermiller.15 In the AA and its commentaries the gotra is identified with the Ultimate Reality which is undifferentiated and universal. After giving valuable information regarding the doctrinal standpoint of the Indian and the Tibetan commentators of the AA, Ruegg explains the gotra-theory in the AA, attaching importance to AA, I.37-39, where the gotra is recognized as the basis (pratistha) of the thirteen aspects of the practice (pratipatti) of the bodhisattva, and where the distinction of the gotra is ultimately annulled with the following statement: dharmadhator asambhedad gotrabhedo na yujyate / adheyadharmabhedat tu tadbhedah parigiyate // The resumes of the topics of AA, I.37-38 by 'Jam dbyans bzad pa (1648-1722) and Klon rdol bla ma (1719-1805), and the discussions on the gotra found in the Yid kyi mun sel of Ra dbon kun dga' dpal (14th century), who gave instruction on the Prajnaparamitasutras to Tson kha pa, and in the rNam bsad snin po'i rgyan of rGyal tshab rje (1362-1432), a high disciple of Tson kha pa, are made available to us in translation with copious notes (pp. 134-173). Especially in the last mentioned work * a penetrative interpretation of the AA from the Madhyamika standpoint is fully displayed, and it is understandable that the later philosophical manuals (yig cha) of the dGe lugs pa school were written on the basis of this work. In Part II, Ruegg examines the ekayana-theory as put forward in some Mahayana sutras, in the AA and its commentaries, and in the works of the Tibetan authors. As the difference of the yana (vehicle) leading to the liberation is grounded on the difference of the gotra, the ekayanadoctrine must be supported by the thought that the gotra is ultimately undifferentiated, but in the Mahayana sutras the ekayana-doctrine is advocated without reference to the gotra-theory. It is the commentaries of the AA and of the Prajnaparamitasutras that furnished a solid foundation to the ekayana-theory through the identification of the gotra with the undifferentiated Reality.