Presenting a Controversial Doctrine in a Conciliatory Way: Mkhan chen Gang shar dbang po's (1925–1958-59?) Inclusion of Gzhan stong ("Emptiness of Other") within Prāsaṅgika

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|ArticleLayout=Academic Layout
|ArticleTitle=Presenting a Controversial Doctrine in a Conciliatory Way: Mkhan chen Gang shar dbang po&#39;s (1925–1958-59?) Inclusion of Gzhan stong (&#34;Emptiness of Other&#34;) within Prāsaṅgika
|AuthorPage=People/Mathes, K.
|PubDate=2016
|ArticleSummary=In . . .  "Presenting a Controversial Doctrine in a Conciliatory Way: Mkhan-chen Gang-shar dbang-po’s (1925-1958/59?) Inclusion of ''Gzhan-stong'' ('Emptiness of Other') within Prāsaṅgika," I investigate the ''gzhan stong'' position of an influential rNying-ma-pa thinker, a learned master from Zhe-chen Monastery, who was among other things, a highly esteemed teacher of Thrangu Rinpoche, and thus influential in the latter's own understanding of ''gzhan stong''. Unlike Dol-po-pa or Shākya-mchog-ldan, mKhan-po Gang-shar does not present his ''gzhan stong'' against the backdrop of the three natures theory, but rather elucidates the distinction he makes between ''rang stong'' and ''gzhan stong'' within a Prāsaṅgika Madhyamaka framework. In a way similar to Klong-chen-pa, Gang-shar insists that everything from material form up to omniscience is ''rang stong'' only. This is when the two truths are presented as
appearance and emptiness in terms of valid cognition that analyzes for the ultimate abiding nature. In the context of a conventional valid cognition, however, which analyzes for the mode of appearances (i.e., perception), the two truths are defined in terms of the way things appear versus the way they truly are. When the abiding nature is perceived as it truly is, there is still awareness, albeit in a form beyond the duality of ordinary perception. For Gang shar it is only in this phenomenological sense that the ''rang stong'' of samsara and ''gzhan stong'' of ''nirvāṇa'' need to be distinguished. (Mathes, "Introduction: The History of the ''Rang stong/Gzhan stong'' Distinction," 7)]
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