The Lion's Roar: A Commentary on Sugatagarbha

By Jamgön Mipham Rinpoche

Prologue

 1st teaching, 16-Dec-2008: How is buddha nature taught in sutra, tantra and Dzogchen?
online: 20081216PH0930KN.mp3

Introduction

 2nd teaching, 17-Dec-2008: Our teacher the Buddha has taught on buddha nature
emphazising sugatagarbha's essence (Wyl. ngo bo) by teaching on emptiness. On other
occasions, he gave clarifications on its nature (Wyl. rang bzhin) by explaining its
primordially present qualities. It is crucial to understand that those two aspects are in
union.
online: 20081217PH0930KN.mp3
See Tibetan: Mipham gsung 'bum, Vol 4., p. 564-565. English: Duckworth, p.147-148

 3rd teaching, 18-Dec-2008: Accuracy of scriptures can be examined by the three types of
investigation and understanding establishes irreversible trust by means of the three types
of valid cognition.[1] How can buddha nature (tathagatagarbha) be established in this way,
as being empty in essence while cognizant in nature?
online: 20081218PH0930KN.mp3
See Tibetan: Mipham gsung 'bum, Vol 4., p. 566-567. English: Duckworth, p.148-149

1. Proof of the Presence of the Tathagatagarbha in all Sentient Beings

The Uttaratantra Shastra says:
27. Because the perfect buddhas’s kaya is all-pervading,
Because reality is undifferentiated,
And because they possess the potential,[2]
Beings always have the buddha nature.[3]

2.The alternative translation for potential (Tib. rig; Wyl. rigs) used during the teachings is nature or the Sanskrit gotra
(here go comes from guna, quality. Tra means to protect. So gotra means to protect the qualities (Wyl. yon ten skyob pa) [RY])

1.1 The Mistaken Apprehension of Others

 4th teaching, 19-Dec-2008: A refutation of the position of early Tibetan commentators

concerning the interpretation of the meaning of the Uttaratantra Shastra verse. Neither is
the fact that the dharmakaya pervades everything sufficient for the existent of the nature
(Tib. rigs) nor can suchness be simply understood as mere emptiness in the sense of the
approximate ultimate.
online: 20081219PH0930KN.mp3
See Tibetan: Mipham gsung 'bum, Vol 4., p. 567-569. English: Duckworth, p.149-151
Nature (rigs) as the union of the two truths

 5th teaching, 20-Dec-2008: The sugatagarbha is the indivisible union, beyond any
possibility of being united or separated, of the primordial purity of the cause and effect of
samsara, and untainted appearances which are natural and spontaneous clear light.
online: 20081220PH0930KN.mp3
See Tibetan: Mipham gsung 'bum, Vol 4., p. 569-572. English: Duckworth, p.151-153

1.2 Our Tradition

1.2.1 The Meaning of the First Line: Because the perfect buddhas’s kaya is all-
pervading

1.2.1.1 General Reasoning

1.2.1.2 Specific Points

 6th teaching, 22-Dec-2008: How to establish by reasoning that the sugatagarbha is already
present in all beings?
online: 20081222PH0930KN.mp3
See Tibetan: Mipham gsung 'bum, Vol 4., p. 572-575. English: Duckworth, p.153-156

From the Uttaratantra Shastra:

The disposition[4] is empty of the adventitious stains,

Which are characterized by their total separateness.
But it is not empty of the unsurpassed qualities,
Which have the character of total inseparability.
4. (Wyl. khams), translated as element during the teachings

 7th teaching, 23-Dec-2008: The nature as the great uncompounded which is unchanging
and never separated from it's qualities.
online: 20081223PH0930KN.mp3
See Tibetan: Mipham gsung 'bum, Vol 4., p. 575-577. English: Duckworth, p.156-158

1.2.2 The Second Line: Because Suchness is Indivisible

 8th teaching, 24-Dec-2008: An answer to objections concerning the presence of the essence
of enlightenment in all sentient beings. Why the all-pervasiveness of gotra (rigs) is not
refuted by stating that stones have no nature?
online: 20081224PH0930KN.mp3
See Tibetan: Mipham gsung 'bum, Vol 4., p. 577-580. English: Duckworth, p.158-160

 9th teaching, 25-Dec-2008: Individual deluded perception does not contradict the authentic
viewpoint that all perceptions appear without ever moving from the primordially
enlightened state of dharmata. Anwers to objections.
online: 20081225PH0930KN.mp3
See Tibetan: Mipham gsung 'bum, Vol 4., p. 580-583. English: Duckworth, p.160-162
1.2.3 The Third Line: Because They have the Nature

 10th teaching, 26-Dec-2008: Each of the three lines relates to one of the first three principles
of reasoning thus establishing that all beings have buddha-nature.
online: 20081226PH0930KN.mp3
See Tibetan: Mipham gsung 'bum, Vol 4., p. 583-585. English: Duckworth, p.162-164

 11th teaching, 27-Dec-2008: The teachings on sugatagarbha focus on the inseparability of

the appearance of kayas and wisdom with their emtpy nature. Both, the teachings of the
intermediate turning, which focus more on the emptiness aspect, and the teachings of the
final turning, which focus more on the spontaneous presence aspect are therefore definitive
teachings and need to be seen in union.
online: 20081227PH1330KN.mp3
See Tibetan: Mipham gsung 'bum, Vol 4., p. 585-587. English: Duckworth, p.164-165

2. Refuting Some Misconceptions Concerning the Nature of the Element

 12th teaching, 28-Dec-2008: How the element (khams) abides within the continua of
sentient beings. The refutation of some misconceptions concerning the nature of the
element.
online: 20081228PH0930KN.mp3
See Tibetan: Mipham gsung 'bum, Vol 4., p. 587-590. English: Duckworth, p.165-168

2.1 Refuting the view that the element is truly existent and not empty

2.2 Refuting the view that the element is an empty void

2.3 Refuting the view that the element is impermanent and compounded

 13th teaching, 30-Dec-2008: A refutation of misconceptions by scripture and by reasoning:

the element is neither truly existent, nor an empty void, nor is it impermanent and
compounded.
online: 20081230PH0930KN.mp3
See Tibetan: Mipham gsung 'bum, Vol 4., p. 590-594. English: Duckworth, p.168-171

 14th teaching, 31-Dec-2008: For those who have not transformed themselves and have
dualistic perceptions, there is the incontrovertible and undeniable appearance of inequality.
Yet the fundamental nature abides as the great equality in which arising, ceasing, and
dualistic phenomena do not exist.
online: 20081231PH0930KN.mp3
See Tibetan: Mipham gsung 'bum, Vol 4., p. 594-598. English: Duckworth, p.171-174

 15th teaching, 01-Jan-2009: The benefits and the purpose of studying buddha-nature. The
dedication. This concludes Khen Rinpoche Namdrol's teachings on the sengge naro, the
Lion's Roar by Mipham Rinpoche.
online: 20090101PH0930KN.mp3
See Tibetan: Mipham gsung 'bum, Vol 4., p. 598-606. English: Duckworth, p.174-180