Other-Emptiness in the Jonang School: The Theo-logic of Buddhist Dualism

Article

Citation:	Duckworth, Douglas S. "Other-Emptiness in the Jonang School: The Theo-logic of Buddhist Dualism." Philosophy East and West 65, no. 2 (2015): 485–97. https://sites.temple.edu/duckworth/files/2013/07/duckworth_other-emptiness-and-theo-logic.pdf.

Abstract

No abstract given. Here are the first relevant paragraphs:

In this essay I aim to clarify the meaning of other-emptiness in the Jonang (jo nang) tradition of Buddhism of Tibet. I will focus on the writings of Dölpopa (dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan) (1292–1361), the renowned forefather of this tradition. Dölpopa famously differentiated two types of emptiness, or two ways of being empty—self-emptiness (rang stong) and other-emptiness (gzhan stong)—and proclaimed the superiority of the latter.

In contrast to the meaning of self-emptiness, other-emptiness is not a phenomenon’s emptiness of its own essence. It refers to ultimate reality’s emptiness of all that it is not. Also, it does not just refer to a (relative) phenomenon being empty of another phenomenon (like an ox lacking the quality of a sheep), but rather refers to the ultimate ground that is empty of all relative phenomena. Other-emptiness also is a way of articulating that the qualities of nirvāṇa lack the qualities of saṃsāra (i.e., nirvāṇa is empty of its other). By endorsing the superiority of other-emptiness, Dölpopa laid out a distinctive claim that became the hallmark of his Jonang tradition’s interpretation of emptiness:

All that is said about emptiness is not exclusively self-emptiness; there is a division between the emptiness that is the profound other-emptiness and the emptiness that is selfemptiness, which is not profound. Moreover, there are two: the emptiness that is ultimate and the emptiness that is relative. And there are two: the emptiness that is thoroughly established and the emptiness that is imputed. Furthermore, there are two: the emptiness that is natural and innate and the emptiness that is artificial and contingent.[1]

While it is not controversial for a Buddhist to claim that the ultimate truth is not the relative truth or that nirvāṇa lacks the qualities of saṃsāra, it is controversial to claim that other-emptiness is a more profound form of emptiness than self-emptiness, or that it is the most profound meaning of emptiness. This is just what Dölpopa claims.

Notes

Dölpopa, Elucidation of Emptiness, pp. 294–295.

References

Dölpopa. [a] The 'Dzam-thang Edition of the Collected Works of Kun-mkhyen Dolpo-pa Shes-rab-rgyal-mtshan: Introduction and Catalogue. By Matthew Kapstein. Delhi: Shedrup Books, 1992.

_____. [b] The Categories of the Possible and the Impossible (srid mi srid kyi rab dbye dbu phyogs legs par bzhugs so). In Dölpopa, The 'Dzam-thang Edition of the Collected Works, vol. 6, pp. 305–316.

_____. [c] Dispelling the Darkness in the Mind: Distinguishing the Views (lta ba shan 'byed yid kyi mun sel). In Dölpopa, The 'Dzam-thang Edition of the Collected Works, vol. 6, pp. 677–694.

_____. [d] Elucidation of Emptiness (stong nyid rab tu dbye ba). In Dölpopa, The 'Dzam-thang Edition of the Collected Works, vol. 6, pp. 293–303.

_____. [e] The Great Assessment of the Doctrine Which Has the Significance of the Fourth Council (bka' bdus bzhi pa don bstan rtsis chen po). In bka' bdus bzhi pa don bstan rtsis rtsa 'grel, pp. 1–36. Hong Kong: Tupten Ewam Publications, n.d. English translation in Cyrus Stearns, The Buddha from Dolpo. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999.

_____. [f] The Mountain Doctrine: Ocean of Definitive Meaning (ri chos nges don rgya mtsho). In Dölpopa, The 'Dzam-thang Edition of the Collected Works, vol. 3, pp. 189–742. English translation in Jeffrey Hopkins, Mountain Doctrine: Tibet's Fundamental Treatise on Other-Emptiness and the Buddha Matrix. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2006.

_____. [g] The Sun Elucidating the Two Truths (bden gnyis gsal ba'i nyi ma). In Dölpopa, The 'Dzam-thang Edition of the Collected Works, vol. 6, pp. 695–726.

Duckworth, Douglas. Mipam on Buddha-Nature: The Ground of the Nyingma Tradition. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2008.

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Ibn Sina (Avicenna). “On the Nature of God.” In Avicenna on Theology, translated by Arthur Arberry, pp. 25–35. London: John Murray, 1951.

Leibniz, Gottfried. The Monadology and Other Philosophical Writings. Translated by Robert Latta. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1898/1965.

Stearns, Cyrus. The Buddha from Dolpo: A Study of the Life and Thought of the Tibetan Master Sherab Gyaltsen. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999.

Tsongkhapa. The Lesser Exposition of the Stages of the Path (lam rim chung ba). In Collected Works, vol. 21, pp. 1–438. New Delhi: Ngawang Gelek Demo, 1979.