Bu ston was a conservative editor. As D. S. Ruegg
says in The Life of Bu ston Rinpoche(1966), “Bu ston
... follows an objective criterion of authenticity which
can be accepted by any editor” (p. 28). In practice this
led Bu ston to exclude some tantras accepted as au-
thentic by the RNYING MA(NYINGMA), or Old School,
of Tibetan Buddhism on the grounds that no original
Indian version could be located.
Bu ston’s collected works (gsung ’bum) include
more than two hundred titles in seventeen volumes.
Besides his work on the canon, Bu ston composed im-
portant commentaries on the yoga set of tantras and
on the KALACAKRATantra.He also wrote a well-known
commentary on the Perfection of Wisdom sutras
called Lung gi nye ma,as well as a commentary on the
Abhidharmasamuccayaof ASAN ̇GA. Even before Bu
ston, Zhwa lu Monastery was known for its expertise
in these two areas, and a Zhwa lu school of Tibetan
Buddhism is mentioned in earlier histories. After Bu
ston, the Zhwa lu school went into decline and was
largely eclipsed by the SA SKYA(SAKYA), BKA’ BRGYUD
(KAGYU), and DGE LUGS(GELUK) sects, but the tradi-
tion of studying Bu ston’s works continued. It became
so widespread that the study of Bu ston’s works (bu
lugs) became a minor tradition in itself.
Bu ston’s views were highly influential in his day
(for example, TSONG KHA PA’s Sngags rim chen mo—
partially translated into English by Jeffrey Hopkins as
Tantra in Tibet—draws heavily on Bu ston’s work on
the yoga tantras) and remain so today. Bu ston’s works
are still the central texts for study in a number of Ti-
betan monasteries.See also:TibetBibliography
Eimer, Helmut, ed. Transmission of the Tibetan Canon: Papers
Presented at a Panel of the 7th Seminar of the International
Association for Tibetan Studies, Graz 1995.Vienna: Verlag der
Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1997.
Obermiller, Eugène, trans. History of Buddhism.Heidelberg,
Germany: Harrassowitz, 1931–1932.
Ruegg, David Seyfort, trans. The Life of Bu ston Rinpoche.Rome:
Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estreme Oriente, 1966.GARETHSPARHAMBU STON(BU TÖN)