དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་རིགས། | Glossary of Terms

One of the five buddha families, the one in the center, also called the buddha family.

In the Kriyā tantras this family has a dual definition: it is either the all-inclusive family that incorporates also the Vajra, the Lotus, the Jewel, and the other families, or it is the Tathāgata family proper, where belong the deified buddha Śakyamuni, the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, and other deities. In the higher tantras, depending on the system, this family is presided over by either the tathāgata Vairocana or the tathāgata Akṣobhya.

One of the five buddha families, it is presided over by the Tathāgata Vairocana.

This term arises from a classification of beings into different groups (lineages) according to their destinies: disciple lineage, solitary buddha lineage, buddha lineage, etc. The Mādhyamika school, and the sūtras that are its foundation, maintains that all living beings belong to the buddha lineage, that Disciple Vehicle nirvāṇa is not a final destiny, and that arhats must eventually enter the Mahāyāna path. Mañjuśrī carries this idea to the extreme, finding the tathāgata lineage everywhere, in all mundane things. See UT22084-060-005-21, and Lamotte, Appendice, Note VII.

In the CMT system, this is the family of the buddha Akṣobhya, one of the five buddhas.