This article looks into the concept of the Buddha-nature in the Maṇi bka’ ’bum, a revealed text (gter ma) ascribed to the ancient Tibetan king Srong bstan sgam po, who is considered an incarnation of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, the tutelary deity of Tibet. There are two main technical terms that designate this concept in this text. One is the well-known bde bar gshegs pa’i snying po, used to express the idea that all sentient beings have the Buddha-nature, which is in turn equated with emptiness, reality (chos nyid), and the ultimate (don dam); the other is rang sems sangs rgyas (‘One’s own mind [is] buddhahood’). The Buddha-nature is taught on the basis of these two expressions in the Maṇi bka’ ’bum, with Tibetan esoteric teachings from the Three Greats (chen po gsum) woven in, namely, the Great Madhyamaka (dbu ma chen po), Mahāmudrā (phyag rgya chen po), and Atiyoga (rdzogs pa chen po). The Maṇi bka’ ’bum equates ‘one’s own mind’ (rang sems), or ‘the true nature of the mind’ (sems nyid), with the state of being enlightened (sangs rgyas); it is one’s own teacher, a buddha (sangs rgyas), and the primordially pure (ka dag) Great Compassionate One, the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. Purification is attained through a practice of the Bodhisattva’s quintessential six-syllable mantra, oṃ ma ṇi pad me hūṃ. Through this practice one becomes a buddha within a lifetime.
