<\/p>\n
The Dharmadh\u00e2tu<\/strong> in Buddhist Scriptures<\/p>\n Going to the sources for esoteric subjects is always a challenge, as explained many times by David.<\/p>\n The Dharmadathu<\/strong>,\u00a0 is of such importance for our quest, that all tracks sould be explored, together with the risk of misunderstanding. If we operate as researchers do, we will try to identify as many different sources, together with their environment , when they were taught, written, translated, commented, in order to extract, when possible, a commun understanding.<\/p>\n Nagarjuna wrote a treatise on it \u2013 the Dharmadh\u00e2tustava<\/em> \u2013 in his collection of praises. It seems a not-very-well-known text with a few commentaries. The most extant is the one written by the Third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje. These were translated and published recently (2007) by Karl Brunnh\u00f6lz \u2013 In Praise of Dharmadh\u00e2tu<\/strong> by Nagarjuna, Commentary by the IIIrd Karmapa \u2013 ISBN 1-55939-286-X.<\/p>\n Before that, D. Seyfort Ruegg wrote an article on it, and it can be a good introduction to the subject. Here are the main ideas which can be of interest for our purpose.<\/p>\n First, an overview of Nagarjuna history may help putting the texts in perspective.<\/p>\n According to Bu ston and T\u00e2ran\u00e2tha, Nagarjuna was born 400 years after the Buddha nirvana in the Vidarbha province (Ber\u00e2r).During the first part of his life, he worked for the goodness of the people. This was called the First Promulgation of the Law (chos kyi sgra chen po<\/em>). He mainly worked at cleaning the then-current degenerated practices in the monasteries.<\/p>\n Then, he moved to the Naga world where he got the Prajn\u00e2p\u00e2ramit\u00e2s\u00fbtras<\/em>, brought them back, and spend the second part of his life writing scolastic works (rigs tshogs<\/em>) to explain the meaning of the sutras. It is called the Second Promulgation of the Law, dedicated to the teaching of sunyata.<\/p>\n Then he traveled again, to spend years in Uttarakuru. From there, he brought back scriptures like the Mah\u00e2bher\u00ees\u00fbtra<\/em> and the Mah\u00e2meghas\u00fbtra<\/em>. To explain these sutras, he then wrote a group of hymns (bstod tshogs<\/em>). It is called the Third Promulgation of the Law.<\/p>\n The Dharmadh\u00e2tustava<\/em> is considered as one of the most important hymn According to ‘Jam dbyans bzad pa, the author of the <\/em>Grub mtha’ chen mo<\/em>, this last Promulgation main theme is the existence of the spiritual Element (khams=dh\u00e2tu<\/em>) of the buddha in all animated beings. ‘Jam dbyans bzad pa considers the Dharmadh\u00e2tustava<\/em> doctrine in conformity with the teachings of the Dh\u00e2ranisvarar\u00e2jas\u00fbtra<\/em> and the Ratnagotravibh\u00e2ga<\/em>.<\/p>\n At first, the philosophical vocabulary found inside the Dharmadh\u00e2tustava<\/em> is far different from the one used inside the M\u00fblamadhyamakak\u00e2rika<\/em>, as already identified by E. Frauwallner in his \u00ab\u00a0Philosophie des Buddhismus\u00a0\u00bb\u00a0; together with some other words like p\u00e2ramit\u00e2, bodhicitta, etc. But some other texts (Niraupamyastava<\/em> – 6.21, Acintyastava<\/em> \u2013 fol 90a7, and the Param\u00e2rthastava<\/em> -8 are using the dharmadh\u00e2tu<\/strong> and the dharmata<\/strong> words.<\/p>\n Candrakirti quote seven stanzas which are related to the dharmadh\u00e2tu<\/strong> in his Madhyamak\u00e2vat\u00e2ra<\/em> self-commentary\u00a0:<\/p>\n ZIG PA MED CIN SKYE MED LA\/ \/CHOS DBYINS DAN MNAM PAR GYUR KYAN\/\/SREG PA’I BSKAL PA BRJOD MDZAD PA\/ \/’DI NI ‘JIG RTEN MTHUN ‘JUG YIN\/\/ DUS GSUM DAG TU SEMS CAN GYI\u00a0\/ \/RAN BZIN DMIGS PA MA YIN LA\/\/ SEMS CAN KHAMS KYAN STON MDZAD PA\/ \/’DI NI ‘JIG RTEN MTHUN ‘JUG YIN\/\/<\/p>\n in which one can find : \u00ab\u00a0Exempt from destruction and birth, the world is equivalent to the dharmadh\u00e2tu<\/strong>…\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n Two similar stances can be found inside the Prasannapad\u00e2<\/em> of Candrakirti (26.2 in La Vall\u00e9e Poussin translation), and also inside the Niraupamyastava<\/em>.<\/p>\n The Dharmadh\u00e2tustava in Sanskrit is no more available, and there are no indian commentaries known.. A chinese version was written around 980 AD, and a tibetan translation was made by Krishna Pandita and Nag tsho lo ts\u00e2 ba Tshul khrims rgyal ba (born in 1011).<\/p>\n This first post was to help substantiating the fact that the dharmadh\u00e2tu is an integral part of the Nagarjuna teachings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Dharmadh\u00e2tu in Buddhist Scriptures Going to the sources for esoteric subjects is always a challenge, as explained many times by David. The Dharmadathu,\u00a0 is of such importance for our quest, that all tracks sould be explored, together with the risk of misunderstanding. If we operate as researchers do, we will try to identify […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dhatu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":264,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions\/264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}