Mipam on Buddha-Nature: The Ground of the Nyingma Tradition by Douglas S. Duckworth

Author:Douglas S. Duckworth
Language: eng
Format: azw3, pdf
Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr
Published: 2008-08-07T00:00:00+00:00

We saw how Mipam uses reason to affirm the presence of Buddha-nature and to support his tradition's claims that all appearances are divine by nature. The reasonings he employs are similar to those that he uses to establish the emptiness of phenomena. Indeed, emptiness has the same meaning as Buddha-nature, but Buddha-nature evokes more of the quality of presence. Unlike emptiness' quality of absence, however, the qualities of Buddhanature's presence are not known through ordinary reason; another approach to truth is necessary: the reflexive awareness of meditative experience. Until directly known as such, Buddha-nature is to be acknowledged through an appeal to scriptural testimony and the experience of Sublime Ones. Such knowledge is not accessible to reason alone, but is not necessarily incompatible with reason either.

We can understand Mipam's use of reasoning to establish the existence of Buddha-nature by appreciating the integral role of the subject. Subjectivity comes to play a particularly important role in Mantra, as Mantra is distinguished from Sutra by means of the subject. In Mantra, where the subject is wisdom and appearances are divine, we find the culmination of Mipam's interpretation of Buddha-nature. The full disclosure of Buddhanature is found in Mantra, and the Great Perfection in particular, where Buddha-nature is the immanent Buddha, the present reality to be ascertained right now.

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