The Other Emptiness: Rethinking the Zhentong Buddhist Discourse in Tibet

The Other Emptiness: Rethinking the Zhentong Buddhist Discourse in Tibet

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This book brings together perspectives of leading international Tibetan studies scholars on the subject of zhentong or “other-emptiness.” Defined as the emptiness of everything other than the continuous luminous awareness that is one’s own enlightened nature, this distinctive philosophical and contemplative presentation of emptiness is quite different from rangtong—emptiness that lacks independent existence, which has had a strong influence on the dissemination of Buddhist philosophy in the West. Important topics are addressed, including the history, literature, and philosophy of emptiness that have contributed to zhentong thinking in Tibet from the thirteenth century until today. The contributors examine a wide range of views on zhentong from each of the major orders of Tibetan Buddhism, highlighting the key Tibetan thinkers in the zhentong philosophical tradition. Also discussed are the early formulations of buddhanature, interpretations of cosmic time, polemical debates about emptiness in Tibet, the zhentong view of contemplation, and creative innovations of thought in Tibetan Buddhism. Highly accessible and informative, this book can be used as a scholarly resource as well as a textbook for teaching graduate and undergraduate courses on Buddhist philosophy. (Source: SUNY Press)

Citation	Sheehy, Michael R., and Klaus-Dieter Mathes, eds. The Other Emptiness: Rethinking the Zhentong Buddhist Discourse in Tibet. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2019.

Contents

• Acknowledgments vii
• Introduction 1
• The Philosophical Grounds and Literary History of Zhentong
  • Klaus-Dieter Mathes and Michael R. Sheehy
• CHAPTER 1
• *Bodhigarbha: Preliminary Notes on an Early Dzokchen Family of Buddha-Nature Concepts 29
  • David Higgins
• CHAPTER 2
• On the Inclusion of Chomden Rikpai Raldri in Transmission Lineages of
  Zhentong53
  • Tsering Wangchuk
• CHAPTER 3
• The Dharma of the Perfect Eon: Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen's Hermeneutics of Time
  and the Jonang Doxography of Zhentong Madhyamaka 65
  • Michael R. Sheehy
• CHAPTER 4
• Buddha-Nature in Garungpa Lhai Gyaltsen's Lamp That Illuminates the Expanse of Reality and among Tibetan Intellectuals 95
  • Dorje Nyingcha
• CHAPTER 5
• Zhentong Views in the Karma Kagyu Order 115
  • Klaus-Dieter Mathes
• CHAPTER 6
• Buddha-Nature: "Natural Awareness Endowed with Buddha Qualities" as
  Expounded by Zhamar Kacho Wangpo 145
  • Martina Draszczyk
• CHAPTER 7
• "There Are No Dharmas Apart from the Dharma-Sphere": Shakya Chokden's Interpretation of the Dharma-Sphere 171
  • Yaroslav Komarovski
• CHAPTER 8
• Tāranātha's Twenty-One Differences with Regard to the Profound Meaning: Comparing
  the Views of the Two Zhentong Masters Dolpopa and Shakya Chokden 197
  • Klaus-Dieter Mathes
• CHAPTER 9
• Zhentong Traces in the Nyingma Tradition: Two Texts from Mindroling235
  • Matthew T. Kapstein
• CHAPTER 10
• Zhentong as Yogācāra: Mipam's Madhyamaka Synthesis 257
  • Douglas Duckworth
• CHAPTER 11
• Where Buddhas and Siddhas Meet: Mipam's Yuganaddhavāda Philosophy 273
  • Dorji Wangchuk
• CHAPTER 12
• Along the Middle Path in the Quest for Wisdom: The Great Madhyamaka in
  Rime Discourses 323
  • Marc-Henri Deroche
• CHAPTER 13
• The Zhentong Lion Roars: Dzamtang Khenpo Lodro Drakpa and the Jonang
  Scholastic Renaissance 351
  • Michael R. Sheehy
• Contributors 379
• Index 383

gzhan stong - The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature. Tib. གཞན་སྟོང་

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gzhan stong - The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature. Tib. གཞན་སྟོང་

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gzhan stong - The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature. Tib. གཞན་སྟོང་

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gzhan stong - The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature. Tib. གཞན་སྟོང་

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gzhan stong - The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature. Tib. གཞན་སྟོང་

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gzhan stong - The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature. Tib. གཞན་སྟོང་

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śūnyatā - The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics. Skt. शून्यता Tib. སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ Ch. 空,空門

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prabhāsvaratā - In a general sense, that which clears away darkness, though it often appears in Buddhist literature in reference to the mind or its nature. It is a particularly salient feature of Tantric literature, especially in regard to the advanced meditation techniques of the completion-stage yogas. Skt. प्रभास्वर Tib. འོད་གསལ་ Ch. 光明

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rang stong - The state of being empty of self, which references the lack of inherent existence in relative phenomena. Tib. རང་སྟོང་

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bodhigarbha - An alternative term for tathāgatagarbha found in early Nyingma sources. Though it is back-translated as bodhigarbha, this term does not seem to be found in Sanskrit sources. However, in other contexts, the Tibetan byang chub snying po is often used to translate the Sanskrit term bodhimaṇḍa, which is often translated as the "seat of enlightenment." Skt. बोधिगर्भ Tib. བྱང་ཆུབ་སྙིང་པོ་

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Jonang - The Jonang tradition was established by Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen, a thirteenth-century Sakya monk famous for his Zhentong teachings. The Jonang teachings and monasteries were suppressed in Tibet in the seventeenth century but survived in Amdo. Tib. ཇོ་ནང་

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Madhyamaka - Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. Skt. मध्यमक Tib. དབུ་མ་ Ch. 中觀見

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Kagyu - The Kagyu school traces its origin to the eleventh-century translator Marpa, who studied in India with Nāropa. Marpa's student Milarepa trained Gampopa, who founded the first monastery of the Kagyu order. As many as twelve subtraditions grew out from there, the best known being the Karma Kagyu, the Drikung, and the Drukpa. Tib. བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་

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Nyingma - The Nyingma, which is often described as the oldest tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, traces its origin to Padmasambhava, who is said to have visited Tibet in the eighth century. Tib. རྙིང་མ་

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Yogācāra - Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana). Skt. योगाचार Tib. རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྤྱོད་པ་ Ch. 瑜伽行派

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