Arya Maitreya - Buddha Nature

This is a translation of the Mahayana Uttara Tantra Shastra (root text by Arya Maitreya, written down by the noble Asanga, with commentary by the first Jamgn Kongtrl Rinpoche Lodr Thay) as explained by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche in 1978 in La Poujade, France, and in 1979 in Brussels, Belgium. It is the first translation of this particular commentary into a Western language. Throughout Buddhist history, the words of the Buddha and the scriptures explaining their meaning were translated when they were imported into different cultures. Though the first translation was never a final or flawless one, it constituted a basis for better ones to come in the future. I hope that this present text may continue this tradition. As it has been created at the advice and under the guidance of a truly accomplished master, there should be some virtue in it, and I wish that it may be of utmost benefit to any reader.

The introduction to Jamgn Kongtrl Rinpoches commentary is not translated here, but can be found in S.K. Hookhams book The Buddha Within (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991), pp. 263-288.

I would like to express my deep gratitude to Dzogchen Pnlop Rinpoche, Sangj Nyenpa Rinpoche, Ringu Tulku Rinpoche, Acharya Lama Tenpa Gyaltsen, the late Acharya Tenpa Gyaltsen Negi, and Burkhard Quessel for their kind and invaluable help in the translation of passages that I found myself unable to do on my own. My further thanks go to Ani Jinpa for kindly proofreading the root text, to Lama Alaisdar MacGeaugh, and to Alexander Wilding for his incessant willingness to share his knowledge of dharma, improve my command of English, and to eliminate my old-fashioned reluctance to use computers. Special heartfelt thanks are owed to Katia Holmes who translated Khen Rinpoches teachings on the root text in 1978 and thus made his instructions accessible for me and was my first teacher of his native language. Finally, I would like to thank Chris Hatchell for his careful and considerate help in editing the text.

The stanzas of the root text are presented in accordance with their explanation in the commentary. To stay as closely as possible to the original, the translation keeps the number of lines of the Tibetan text. As to the use of brackets, the content therein was added when it seemed necessary to facilitate understanding. In the case of the root text, these interpolations are derived from the commentary by Jamgn Kongtrl Lodr Thay; in the case of the commentary they are based on the explanations given by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche.

One final point should be noted. Unlike Tibetan, the English language frequently requires the introduction of a pronoun, so a choice between he and she seemed necessary to avoid clumsiness. As buddha nature is neither male nor female, the term he, when used for a buddha or bodhisattva, should be understood as meaning he or she. Being a woman myself and convinced of the possibility of reaching enlightenment in female appearance, I thought it permissible to make this decision and hope it will not cause offense.

Rosemarie Fuchs

Hamburg, 23rd of July, 1999