The major Indian treatise on Buddha nature is the Ratnagotravibhaga, also known as the Uttaratantra, and it is this core text that Klaus-Dieter Mathes focuses on in this book. Mathes demonstrates how its author, Go Lotsawa, ties the teachings on Buddha nature in with mainstream Mahayana thought while avoiding the pitfalls of the zhentong approach favored by the Jonang tradition. He also evaluates Go Lotsawa's position on Buddha nature against the background of interpretations by masters of the Kagyu, Nyingma, and Jonang schools.

Klaus-Dieter Mathes is a professor of Buddhist studies at the University of Hong Kong and was previously the head of the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna. His current research deals with exclusivism, inclusivism, and tolerance in Mahayana Buddhism. He obtained a Ph.D. from Marburg University and completed his habilitation at Hamburg University. His major publications include a study of the Yogacara text Dharmadharmatavibhaga (published in 1996 in the Indica et Tibetica series), A Direct Path to the Buddha Within: Gö Lotsawa’s Mahamudra Interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhaga, and Maitripa: India’s Yogi of Nondual Bliss.