The Changeless Nature

texts. He read them but found them so profound that he doubtedhaving understood their meaning absolutely clearly. He prayedearnestly to Maitreya, who appeared to him in a vision, gave him theverbal transmission of the text and inspired in him a confidence inits true meaning. Maitripa instructed many great scholars in themeaning of the Uttara Tantra and from them the teaching went toTibet. Two streams of transmission emerged; one the 'explanationlineage' and the other the 'meaning lineage'.The explanation lineage has its main origination in Loden Sherab,a Tibetan scholar who spent much time in India and who receivedthere teachings upon the two less widely known sastra of Maitreyawhich he translated into Tibetan according to the madhyamaka standpoint.One of his friends, called Tsen Kawo Che had receivedinstruction in this text from Guru Tsatsana and favoured a meditativeapproach to its meaning; he wanted to experience it rather than graspit intellectually. From him comes the meditation lineage. The maindifference between these two traditions is in their approach tovoidness (sunyata).The meditation tradition tends to a more positive appreciation ofvoidness, understanding it as the intangible, untainted plenitude ofqualities inherent to the buddha-nature (tathagatagarbha) rather thanjust an absence or blankness. There developed a tradition in which themahamudra 7 understanding was fused with the theoretical subjectmatterof the Uttara Tantra Sastra. This meditative tradition ofabsorbing the five great teachings of Maitreya eventually reached thethird Gyalwa Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje, who composed a summary,and from it it reached all the renowned Kagyu 8 lamas such as theeighth Shamarpa Chuji Dondrup, the eighth Tai Situpa Chuji Jungne,Jamgon Kongtrul Yonten Gyamtso etc.5. SUBJECT-MATTERThe essence of the teachings of all three dharmachakras is thesame, examining the absence of self-entity in phenomena andindividuals. Some religions postulate the existence of a god, whorewards one when one is good and punishes one when one is bad. The