Other-Emptiness and the Great Middle Way

Other-Emptiness and the Great Middle Way

There is no monolithic Shentong School but a great variety of ways in which different Tibetan masters understand this term and how they formulate the associated view. A text by the twentieth-century Kagyü scholar Surmang Padma Namgyal (Zur mang pad ma rnam rgyal n.d., 60.3–61.6) lists seven different kinds of views held by various Jonang, Sakya, Kagyü, and Nyingma masters on the distinction between rangtong and shentong (I am indebted to Anne Burchardi for drawing my attention to this text and providing me with a copy of it). According to this text, (1) Dölpopa and his followers hold consciousness to be rangtong and wisdom to be shentong. (2) Śākya Chogden considers phenomena—appearances—as rangtong and the nature of phenomena—luminosity—as shentong. (3) Sabsang Mati Paṇchen maintains subject and object to be rangtong and expanse (dbyings) and wisdom to be shentong. (4) The Thirteenth Karmapa considers saṃsāra to be rangtong and nirvāṇa to be shentong. (5) The Eighth Karmapa and his followers take the pure kāyas and wisdom to be rangtong in terms of their actual mode of being and to be shentong in terms of the way they appear. (6) The Eighth Situpa considers the side of negation as rangtong and the side of affirmation as shentong. (7) The Nyingma master Gédsé Paṇchen from Gaḥto Monastery (Tib. Kaḥ thog dge rtse paṇ chen, 1761–1829) regards the phase of conclusive resolve during meditative equipoise to be rangtong and the phase of clearly distinguishing during subsequent attainment to be shentong. Among these seven views, Padma Namgyal explicitly considers views (4), (6), and (7) to be good positions.

- Karl Brunnhölzl, When the Clouds Part, p. 1018, nt. 532.

Watch & Learn

Video

Discovering Buddha Nature: Talk by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

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In this short teaching, Mingyur Rinpoche describes buddha-nature with the metaphor of a diamond covered in mud, explaining how the innate purity of awareness can be obscured, but never changed.

Mingyur, Yongey, 7th. "Discovering Buddha Nature." Produced by Tergar Learning Community, April 7, 2014. Video, 1:48. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srRcHz9jVrg.

Mingyur, Yongey, 7th. "Discovering Buddha Nature." Produced by Tergar Learning Community, April 7, 2014. Video, 1:48. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srRcHz9jVrg.;Discovering Buddha Nature: Talk by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche;Contemporary;Defining buddha-nature;Metaphors for buddha-nature;Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche;Discovering Buddha Nature

Video

Revealing Your Buddha-Nature: Teaching by Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche at the 2012 PBC Dzogchen Winter Retreat

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On January 14, 2012, during the first teaching of the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center's Dzogchen Winter Retreat on the Buddha of Compassion in West Palm Beach, Florida, Venerable Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche taught on how to reveal the buddha-nature within us by using the Vajrayana methods taught by Buddha Shakyamuni, Guru Padmasambhava, Tsasum Lingpa, Venerable Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche, and so many great lineage masters.

In English with his direct, characteristic humor, Khenpo Rinpoche presents the "shining star" of buddha-nature in the minds of sentient beings as the same nature as the buddhas. He says, "We are always guided by this nature all the time whether we realize it or not."

Rinpoche talks about two techniques: the gradual approach and the instant approach. The sūtra approach, the causal Mahayana using of kindness, compassion, joy to achieve the result through gradual effort, and the tantra approach: the resultant Mahayana. Whether it's the causal or resultant approach, the same motivation needs to be present.

Dongyal, Khenpo Tsewang. "Revealing Your Buddha-Nature." Filmed January 14, 2012 in West Palm Beach, FL. Video, 9:55, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFDWZyMgOQQ.

Dongyal, Khenpo Tsewang. "Revealing Your Buddha-Nature." Filmed January 14, 2012 in West Palm Beach, FL. Video, 9:55, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFDWZyMgOQQ.;Revealing Your Buddha-Nature: Teaching by Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche at the 2012 PBC Dzogchen Winter Retreat;Tsewang Dongyal;Revealing Your Buddha-Nature: Teaching by Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche at the 2012 PBC Dzogchen Winter Retreat

Jonang

Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen

Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen

1292 ~ 1361

As a basic definition, Dölpopa states:

དེ་ལ་ཀུན་རྫོབ་གློ་བུར་བའི་དངོས་པོ་རྣམས་ནི་གནས་ལུགས་ལ་གཏན་ནས་མེད་པའི་ཕྱིར་རང་གི་ངོ་བོས་སྟོང་སྟེ་དེ་ནི་རང་སྟོང་ངོ་། ཀུན་རྫོབ་དེ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སྟོང་པའི་དོན་དམ་སྟོང་པའི་དོན་དམ་གཉུག་མ་ནི་ནམ་ལང་མེད་པ་མ་ཡིན་པའི་ཕྱིར་གཞན་སྟོང་ངོ་།

Since adventitious, relative entities do not exist at all in reality, they are empty of their own essences; they are self-empty. The innate ultimate, which is the ultimate emptiness of these relative things, is never non-existent; therefore, it is other-empty.

 

~ Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen, Collected Works ('Dzamthang ed., 1998), Vol. 6: 416.
-Translated by Douglas Duckworth in "Onto-theology and Emptiness: The Nature of Buddha-Nature." (2014), page 1075.

Kagyu

Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje

Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje

1284 ~ 1339

In his The Treatise on Pointing Out the Tathāgata Heart, the Third Karmapa states:

།ཐ་མལ་ཤེས་པ་དེ་ཉིད་ལ།
།ཆོས་དབྱིངས་རྒྱལ་བའི་སྙིང་པོ་ཟེར།
།བཟང་དུ་འཕགས་པས་བཏང་བ་མེད།
།ངན་དུ་སེམས་ཅན་གྱིས་མ་བཏང་།
།ཐ་སྙད་དུ་མ་བརྗོད་མོད་ཀྱང།
།རྗོད་པས་དེ་ཡི་དོན་མི་ཤེས།

Just this ordinary mind
Is called "dharmadhātu" and "Heart of the victors."
It is neither to be improved by the noble ones
Nor made worse by sentient beings.
It may no doubt be expressed through many conventional terms,
But its actual reality is not understood through expressions.

 

~ rang byung rdo rje, (Karmapa, 3rd). de bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po bstan pa'i bstan bcos. In gsung 'bum rang byung rdo rje. Zi ling: mtshur phu mkhan po lo yag bkra shis, 2006: Vol. 7, p. 285.
-Translation from Karmapa, The Third, Rang byung rdo rje. Luminous Heart: The Third Karmapa on Consciousness, Wisdom, and Buddha Nature. Translated by Karl Brunnhölzl. Nitartha Institute Series. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2009: pp. 354-355.

Sakya

Śākya Chokden

Śākya Chokden

1428 ~ 1507

In the opening lines of his Undermining the Haughtiness of Others by the Wheel of Brahma: A Treatise Clarifying Mahāmudrā Śākya Chokden states:

རང་བཞིན་རྣམ་དག་རྫོགས་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་བློ།
།གློ་བུར་དྲི་མའི་ཚོགས་དང་མ་འདྲེས་པ།
།དུས་རྣམས་རྟག་ཏུ་ཀུན་ལ་བཞུགས་གྱུར་པ།
།གཡོ་མེད་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ནས།

I pay homage to the unwavering mahāmudrā,
The naturally pure perfect buddha-mind—
Unadulterated by the host of adventitious stains—
That has been ever-present in all for all time.

 

~ shAkya mchog ldan. phyag rgya chen po gsal bar byed pa'i bstan bcos tshangs pa'i 'khor los gzhan blo'i dregs pa nyams byed. In gser mdog paN chen shAkya mchog ldan gyi gsung 'bum. rdzong sar: rdzong sar khams bye'i slob gling thub bstan dar rgyas gling, 2006-2007: Vol. 17, p. 438.
-Higgins, David and Martina Draszczyk. Mahāmudrā and the Middle Way: Post-Classical Kagyü Discourses on Mind, Emptiness and Buddha-Nature. Volume 2: Translations, Critical Texts, Bibliography and Index. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 90. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2016: p. 14.

Nyingma

In his Naturally Liberating Whatever You Meet: Instructions to Guide You on the Profound Path, Khenpo Gangshar states:

འདི་སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་སེམས་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན། དུས་གསུམ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་དགོངས་པ། ཆོས་སྒོ་བརྒྱད་ཁྲི་བཞི་སྟོང་གི་སྙིང་པོ། འདྲེན་མཆོག་དཔལ་ལྡན་བླ་མའི་ཐུགས། བཀའ་བར་པ་ནས་ཤེར་ཕྱིན་དང་འཁོར་ལོ་ཐ་མ་ནས་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ། སྔགས་ཐུན་མོང་བའི་སྐབས་སུ། གཞི་རྒྱུད་རང་བཞིན་ལྷུན་གྱིས་གྲུབ་པའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་

The mind-essence is the nature of all sentient beings, the realization of the buddhas of the three times, the essence of the eighty-four thousand Dharma-doors and the heart of the glorious master, the supreme guide. It is the transcendent knowledge of the second set of teachings and the sugata-essence of the last turning of the wheel of the Dharma. According to the general system of mantra it is called continuity of ground, the spontaneously present mandala of the innate nature.

 

~ Mkhan po gang shar. zab lam khrid kyi man ngag 'phrad tshad rang grol. In gsung 'bum gang shar dbang po. Kathmandu: thrangu tashi choling, 2008: p. 121.
-Translation from Thrangu Rinpoche. Vivid Awareness: The Mind Instructions of Khenpo Gangshar. Translated by David Karma Choephel. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2011: p. 226.

Further Readings

[When the Clouds Part]

As stated before, texts such as CMW, those by Mönlam Tsültrim, GC, the Eighth Karmapa’s Lamp, and GISM all establish connections between the Uttaratantra and Mahāmudrā. Such connections are also found in a number of Indian and Tibetan Mahāmudrā works. Usually, these connections are made in the wider context of the Mahāmudrā approaches that came to be called "sūtra Mahāmudrā" or "essence Mahāmudrā" (the Mahāmudrā approach that is beyond "sūtra Mahāmudrā" and "tantra Mahāmudrā"). In order to provide some background against which the Uttaratantra-based Mahāmudrā instructions in the above texts can be appreciated more fully, I will next present an overview of the key elements of the different approaches to Mahāmudrā, their origins, their scriptural sources, and the different ways in which they are taught.

The Uttaratantra and Mahāmudrā

continue reading

~ Brunnhölzl, Karl. When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra. Boston: Snow Lion Publications, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, 2014.

[Mahāmudrā and the Middle Way]

This two-volume publication explores the complex philosophy of Mahāmudrā that developed in Tibetan Dwags po Bka’ brgyud traditions between the 15th and 16th centuries CE. It examines the attempts to articulate and defend Bka’ brgyud views and practices by four leading post-classical thinkers: (1) Shākya mchog ldan (1423‒1507), a celebrated yet controversial Sa skya scholar who developed a strong affiliation with the Karma Bka’ brgyud Mahāmudrā tradition in the last half of his life, (2) Karma phrin las Phyogs las rnam rgyal (1456‒1539), a renowned Karma Bka’ brgyud scholar-yogin and tutor to the Eighth Karma pa, (3) the Eighth Karma pa himself, Mi bskyod rdo rje (1507‒1554), who was among the most erudite and influential scholar-hierarchs of his generation, (4) and Padma dkar po (1527‒1592), Fourth ’Brug chen of the ’Brug pa Bka’ brgyud lineage who is generally acknowledged as its greatest scholar and systematizer.

~ Higgins, David and Martina Draszczyk. Mahāmudrā and the Middle Way: Post-Classical Kagyü Discourses on Mind, Emptiness and Buddha-Nature. 2 Volumes: Volume 1: Introduction, Views of Authors and Final Reflections. Volume 2: Translations, Critical Texts, Bibliography and Index. Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde 90. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2016.

[[|Book: Buddha Nature Reconsidered]]

As a Mahāmudrā proponent, Mi bskyod rdo rje gives primacy to innate modes of being and awareness, such as coemergent wisdom or buddha nature naturally endowed with qualities, that are amenable only to direct yogic perception and revealed through the personal guidance of a qualified teacher. As an exponent of yuganaddha (zung ’jug), i.e., unity (literally, “yoking together”), he espouses the tantric goal of unity beyond extremes, a goal grounded in the inseparability of the two truths or realities (bden gnyis dbyer med), of appearance and emptiness (snang stong dbyer med). In his eyes, this unity is only fully realized when one understands that the conventional has no independent existence apart from the ultimate and that the latter is a condition of possibility of the former. As an advocate of apratiṣṭhāna (rab tu mi gnas pa), i.e., nonfoundationalism, he resolutely maintains that all outer and inner phenomena, including deep features of reality disclosed through meditation, lack any ontic or epistemic essence or foundation that the mind can lay hold of. Finally, as a champion of Madhyamaka, i.e., the Buddhist Middle Way, the author attempts to ply a middle course between the extremes of existence and nonexistence, eternalism and nihilism. These various doxographical strands are deftly interwoven in the Karma pa’s view of buddha nature, which affirms the innate presence of buddha nature and its qualities in all sentient beings as well as their soteriological efficacy while denying either any ontological status.

~ Higgins, David and Draszczyk, Martina. Buddha Nature Reconsidered: The Eighth Karma pa's Middle Path. Vol. 1: Introduction and Analysis. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2019.

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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་

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་

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་

Sakya - The Sakya tradition developed in the eleventh century in the Khön family of Tsang, which maintained an imperial-era lineage of Vajrakīla and which adopted a new teaching from India known as Lamdre. Tib. ས་སྐྱ་

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་

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

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་

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

Dzogchen - Dzogchen is an advanced system of meditation techniques to reveal the innate state of perfection primarily, but not exclusively, espoused by the Nyingma Buddhist tradition and the Tibetan Bön tradition. Skt. महासन्धि Tib. རྫོགས་ཆེན།

sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt. सूत्र Tib. མདོ། Ch. 佛经

tantra - Tantra, when juxtaposed with Sūtra, generally refers to the scriptures and texts which discuss esoteric topics. While the term is used to refer to texts on other topics, it is mostly used to refer to the genre of scriptures and texts on themes and topics associated with Vajrayāna Buddhism. Skt. तन्त्र Tib. རྒྱུད། Ch. 密宗

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་

tha mal gyi shes pa - A Mahāmudrā term for the basic state of consciousness that has not been fabricated or altered in any way. Tib. ཐ་མལ་གྱི་ཤེས་པ་

dharmadhātu - The fundamental expanse from which all phenomena emerge. Skt. धर्मधातु Tib. ཆོས་དབྱིངས་ Ch. 法界

The Third Karmapa's treatise on buddha-nature written in verse.

Mahāmudrā - Mahāmudrā refers to an advanced meditation tradition in Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna forms of Into-Tibetan Buddhism that is focused on the realization of the empty and luminous nature of the mind. It also refers to the resultant state of buddhahood attained through such meditation practice. In Tibet, this tradition is particularly associated with the Kagyu school, although all other schools also profess this tradition. The term also appears as part of the four seals, alongside dharmamūdra, samayamudrā, and karmamudrā. Skt. महामुद्रा Tib. ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ།

Mahāmudrā - Mahāmudrā refers to an advanced meditation tradition in Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna forms of Into-Tibetan Buddhism that is focused on the realization of the empty and luminous nature of the mind. It also refers to the resultant state of buddhahood attained through such meditation practice. In Tibet, this tradition is particularly associated with the Kagyu school, although all other schools also profess this tradition. The term also appears as part of the four seals, alongside dharmamūdra, samayamudrā, and karmamudrā. Skt. महामुद्रा Tib. ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ།

āgantukamala - Mental stains that are not inherent to the nature of the mind but are temporarily present as the residue of past actions or habitual tendencies. It is sometimes iterated as adventitious defilements (Skt. āgantukakleśa, Tib. glo bur gyi nyon mongs), which references the fickle and temporary nature of disturbing emotions that lack an ultimately established basis for existence. Skt. आगन्तुकमल Tib. གློ་བུར་གྱི་དྲི་མ་

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

sugatagarbha - Literally, the "essence" or "heart of the Bliss Gone One(s)," a synonym for tathāgatagarbha that is likewise often rendered into English by the term buddha-nature. Though it is often back translated into Sanskrit as sugatagarbha, this term is not found in Sanskrit sources. Skt. सुगतगर्भ Tib. བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་

Uttaratantra - The Ultimate Continuum, or Gyü Lama, is often used as a short title in the Tibetan tradition for the key source text of buddha-nature teachings called the Ratnagotravibhāga of Maitreya/Asaṅga, also known as the Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra. Skt. उत्तरतन्त्र Tib. རྒྱུད་བླ་མ་ Ch. 寶性論

These are the root verses of the Uttaratantra attributed to Maitreya by the Tibetan tradition.

Tsen Tradition - Tsen Khawoche's "meditative tradition" of exegesis of the Uttaratantra; it is one of two major Tibetan traditions of exegesis, both stemming from students of Sajjana. Tib. བཙན་ལུགས་

sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt. सूत्र Tib. མདོ། Ch. 佛经

tantra - Tantra, when juxtaposed with Sūtra, generally refers to the scriptures and texts which discuss esoteric topics. While the term is used to refer to texts on other topics, it is mostly used to refer to the genre of scriptures and texts on themes and topics associated with Vajrayāna Buddhism. Skt. तन्त्र Tib. རྒྱུད། Ch. 密宗

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