The Content and Contemporary Uses of the 'Guhyagarbha' in Buddhist Monastic Colleges in Tibet

FAIN: FT-55100-07

Douglas Duckworth
University of North Carolina, Greensboro (Greensboro, NC 27412-5068)

My research concerns the most important text of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, the “Guhyagarbha.” I plan to return to the largest Buddhist monastic college in the world, the Larung Gar Buddhist Institute in Serta (Sichuan, P.R. of China) to continue the research I have done there on the “Guhyagarbha” and the on-going tradition of its study and practice. This summer I intend to continue to research the content and uses of this text, and write a study that introduces my translation of Mipham’s influential commentary. In the study, I will shed new light on the role of tantra and its role within monastic colleges, and also address broader issues of the nature of reasoning and intellectual inquiry within religious traditions.

Associated Products

Mipam on Buddha-Nature (Book)
Title: Mipam on Buddha-Nature
Author: Douglas S. Duckworth
Abstract: Mipam (’ju mi pham rgya mtsho, 1846–1912) is one of the most prolific thinkers in the history of Tibet and is a key figure in the Nyingma tradition of Buddhism. His works continue to be widely studied in the Tibetan cultural region and beyond. This book provides an in-depth account of Mipam’s view, drawing on a wide range of his works and offering several new translations. Douglas S. Duckworth shows how a dialectic of presence and absence permeates Mipam’s writings on the Middle Way and Buddha-nature. Arguably the most important doctrine in Buddhism, Buddha-nature is, for Mipam, equivalent to the true meaning of emptiness; it is the ground of all and the common ground shared by sentient beings and Buddhas. This ground is the foundation of the path and inseparable from the goal of Buddhahood. Duckworth probes deeply into Mipam’s writings on Buddha-nature to illuminate its central place in a dynamic Buddhist philosophy.
Year: 2008
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/title/mipam-on-buddha-nature-the-ground-of-the-nyingma-tradition/oclc/173182555&referer=brief_results
Secondary URL: http://www.sunypress.edu/p-4644-mipam-on-buddha-nature.aspx
Publisher: SUNY Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 978-0-7914-75

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