Talk:Ratna-gotra-vibhaga

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[edit] Meaning of Uttara Tantra

"Tantra", so I am told, refers originally to the weft in weaving, so it is a "thread". "Uttara" means "highest". Tibetans translate the title as "Gyud Lama", where "Lama" literally means "highest" or "unsurpassed", and "gyud" is an exact translation of "tantra". So the Uttara Tantra is "the highest thread" or (I prefer this, although its klunky) The Unsurpassed Continuum. Taken in this way, the title is referring not to the fact that the teaching is of the Third Turning, and so in some way superior, but that the Tathagatagarbha itself is undivided, and without beginning or end.

I have seen "gotra" in ratnagotravibhaga explained as a seed or kernel, or an embryo - something from which things might grow; and thence as "lineage". The resulting translation would then become "Analysis Of The Jewel Lineage", or "Distinguishing The Jewel Seed". This latter rendition would then fit with the common translation of "Dharmadharmatavibhaga" (usually ascribed to the same author, whoever it was) as "Distinguishing Dharmas From The Dharmata"; and with "Madhyantavibhaga", glossed as "Distinguishing The Middle From The Extremes". It would also fit with my casting of Uttara Tantra, because the "Jewel Seed" would again be the Tathagatagarbha itself.

Is this controversial?

--MrDemeanour 19:09, 19 September 2005 (UTC)