The Other Emptiness

Description

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.
Acknowledgments

Introduction: The Philosophical Grounds and Literary History of Zhentong
Klaus-Dieter Mathes and Michael R. Sheehy

1. *Bodhigarbha: Preliminary Notes on an Early Dzokchen Family of Buddha-Nature Concepts
David Higgins

2. On the Inclusion of Chomden Rikpai Raldri in Transmission Lineages of Zhentong
Tsering Wangchuk

3. The Dharma of the Perfect Eon: Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen’s Hermeneutics of Time and the Jonang Doxography of Zhentong Madhyamaka
Michael R. Sheehy

4. Buddha-Nature in Garungpa Lhai Gyaltsen’s Lamp That Illuminates the Expanse of Reality and among Tibetan Intellectuals
Dorje Nyingcha

5. Zhentong Views in the Karma Kagyu Order
Klaus-Dieter Mathes

6. Buddha-Nature: “Natural Awareness Endowed with Buddha Qualities” as Expounded by Zhamar Kacho Wangpo
Martina Draszczyk

7. “There Are No Dharmas Apart from the Dharma-Sphere”: Shakya Chokden’s Interpretation of the Dharma-Sphere
Yaroslav Komarovski

8. Tāranātha’s Twenty-One Differences with Regard to the Profound Meaning: Comparing the Views of the Two Zhentong Masters Dolpopa and Shakya Chokden
Klaus-Dieter Mathes

9. Zhentong Traces in the Nyingma Tradition: Two Texts from Mindroling
Matthew T. Kapstein

10. Zhentong as Yogācāra: Mipam’s Madhyamaka Synthesis
Douglas Duckworth

11. Where Buddhas and Siddhas Meet: Mipam’s Yuganaddhavāda Philosophy
Dorji Wangchuk

12. Along the Middle Path in the Quest for Wisdom: The Great Madhyamaka in Rime Discourses
Marc-Henri Deroche

13. The Zhentong Lion Roars: Dzamtang Khenpo Lodro Drakpa and the Jonang Scholastic Renaissance
Michael R. Sheehy

Contributors
Index

Sujets

• Asia
• History of Asia
• Tibetan Buddhism

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 décembre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438477596
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 11 Mo

Extrait

The Other Emptiness
The Other Emptiness
R ETHINKING THE Z HENTONG B UDDHIST D ISCOURSE IN T IBET
Edited by
MICHAEL R. SHEEHY and KLAUS-DIETER MATHES
Cover photograph by Michael R. Sheehy
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2019 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu
L IBRARY OF C ONGRESS C ATALOGING-IN -P UBLICATION D ATA
Names: Sheehy, Michael R, [date– ] editor. | Mathes, Klaus-Dieter, editor.
Title: The other emptiness : rethinking the Zhentong Buddhist discourse in Tibet / edited by Michael R. Sheehy and Klaus-Dieter Mathes.
Description: First edition. | Albany : State University of New York Press, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019037744 (print) | LCCN 2019037745 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438477572 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781438477596 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Sunyata | Buddhism—China—Tibet Autonomous Region—Doctrines.
Classification: LCC BQ4275 .O58 2020 (print) | LCC BQ4275 (ebook) | DDC 294.3/420423—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019037744
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019037745
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Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
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
David Higgins
CHAPTER 2
On the Inclusion of Chomden Rikpai Raldri in Transmission Lineages of Zhentong
Tsering Wangchuk
CHAPTER 3
The Dharma of the Perfect Eon: Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen’s Hermeneutics of Time and the Jonang Doxography of Zhentong Madhyamaka
Michael R. Sheehy
CHAPTER 4
Buddha-Nature in Garungpa Lhai Gyaltsen’s Lamp That Illuminates the Expanse of Reality and among Tibetan Intellectuals
Dorje Nyingcha
CHAPTER 5
Zhentong Views in the Karma Kagyu Order
Klaus-Dieter Mathes
CHAPTER 6
Buddha-Nature: “Natural Awareness Endowed with Buddha Qualities” as Expounded by Zhamar Kacho Wangpo
Martina Draszczyk
CHAPTER 7
“There Are No Dharmas Apart from the Dharma-Sphere”: Shakya Chokden’s Interpretation of the Dharma-Sphere
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
Klaus-Dieter Mathes
CHAPTER 9
Zhentong Traces in the Nyingma Tradition: Two Texts from Mindroling
Matthew T. Kapstein
CHAPTER 10
Zhentong as Yogācāra: Mipam’s Madhyamaka Synthesis
Douglas Duckworth
CHAPTER 11
Where Buddhas and Siddhas Meet: Mipam’s Yuganaddhavāda Philosophy
Dorji Wangchuk
CHAPTER 12
Along the Middle Path in the Quest for Wisdom: The Great Madhyamaka in Rimé Discourses
Marc-Henri Deroche
CHAPTER 13
The Zhentong Lion Roars: Dzamtang Khenpo Lodro Drakpa and the Jonang Scholastic Renaissance
Michael R. Sheehy
Contributors
Index
Acknowledgments
This anthology on zhentong was several years in the making. The concept for this book first emerged with a conversation between Michele Martin and Michael Sheehy, and Michele kindly made the connection with State University of New York Press. The coeditors discussed the book in 2010 during the twenty-second congress of the International Association for Tibetan Studies in Vancouver. During that conference, Klaus-Dieter Mathes convened a panel on “The History of the Rang-stong / Gzhan-stong Distinction from Its Beginning through the Ris-med Movement,” which included many of the authors contributing to the present volume. The proceedings of this panel were published in the Journal of Buddhist Philosophy 2 (2016): 4–131. The following year, Michael Sheehy convened a similar panel on “ Rang stong / Gzhan stong : Perspectives on the Discourse in India and Tibet” at the sixteenth congress of the International Association of Buddhist Studies at Dharma Drum Buddhist College in Taipei, Taiwan. Though not all of the presenters in this panel are authors in this volume, and not all of the chapters by the authors in this volume were presented at the conference, it considerably helped to further organize the current authors into a cohort that catalyzed the contributions published in this book.
The editors would like to acknowledge and express their gratitude to the late Nancy Ellegate at State University of New York Press for taking an interest in publishing this volume, and for whimsically suggesting the title, The Other Emptiness , based on the literal translation (“being empty of other”) of the topic that was mentioned offhand in an early conversation about the project. We would also like to thank James Peltz, codirector at State University of New York Press, for keeping the project alive after Nancy’s untimely passing. And finally, we thank Christopher Ahn, senior acquisitions editor at the press, for his commitment to publishing this volume as quickly as possible. Last but not least, we would also like to express our gratitude to Michele Martin for critically reading the introduction.
Introduction
The Philosophical Grounds and Literary History of Zhentong
K LAUS -D IETER M ATHES AND M ICHAEL R. S HEEHY
Though the subject of emptiness ( śūnyatā , stong pa nyid ) is relatively well established in English-language texts on Buddhism, it is usually presented only as the emptiness of lacking independent existence or, more literally, the emptiness of an own nature ( svabhāva , rang bzhin ). However, the general reader of English literature on Buddhism may not be aware that such an understanding of emptiness reflects a particular interpretation of it, advanced predominantly by the Sakya, Kadam, and Geluk orders, which has exercised a particularly strong influence on the dissemination of Buddhist studies and philosophy in the West. In Tibetan discourse, this position is referred to as rangtong ( rang stong ), which means that everything, including the omniscience of a Buddha, is taken to be empty of an own nature. It is this lack of independent, locally determined building blocks of the world that allows in Madhyamaka the Buddhist axiom of dependent origination. In other words, rangtong emptiness is the a priori condition for a universe full of open, dynamic systems. The union of dependent origination and emptiness—the inseparability of appearance and emptiness—sets the ground for philosophical models of interrelatedness that are increasingly used in attempts to accommodate astonishing observations being made in the natural sciences, such as wave-particle duality or quantum entanglement.
Throughout the long intellectual history of Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, one of the major questions that remains unresolved is whether a systematic presentation of the Buddha’s doctrine requires challenging rangtong as the exclusive mode of emptiness, which has led some to distinguish between two modes of emptiness: (1) Rangtong (rang stong) , that is, being empty of an own nature on the one hand, and (2) Zhentong (gzhan stong) , that is, being empty of everything other than luminous awareness or buddha-nature ( tathāgatagarbha , de bzhin gshegs pa’i snying po ). In later Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, when such tensions emerged, the issue was not so much about a possible justification for this distinction on the basis of certain philosophical scriptures, but rather competing hermeneutical schemes that consistently interpret the entire corpus of what was accepted to be the words of the Buddha.
While proponents of zhentong ( zhentongpas ) underline the necessity of this “empty of other emptiness,” the followers of rangtong ( rangtongpas ) oppose it. Rangtongpas insist that one must follow the seventh-century Indian Buddhist scholar Candrakīrti’s lead in taking the second turning cycle of teachings, which he defines as exclusively emphasizing rangtong emptiness, to be the underlying intention of any positive statement about the ultimate. Zhentongpas do not consider themselves in direct opposition to Candrakīrti but follow a strategy of inclusivism. Within their system, rangtong is understood to be a necessary basis for a correct realization of zhentong. Even though they repeatedly describe ultimate truth or reality as possessing qualities that are not empty of their own nature, it is critical to realize that these are beyond mental fabrications or reifications that are empty of an own nature as in the rangtong system.
Zhentongpas thus argue that Candrakīrti must have tacitly admitted something more than the mere nominal existence of everything (rangtong). In fact, MacDonald observes that for the Mādhyamika as a yogin, the final goal and state is not nothingness but transcendent knowing or wisdom ( jñāna ). 1 Moreover, one can discern in the Lokātītastava that Nāgārjuna (fl. 200 CE) indirectly accepts something more real behind the seeming, when he says in verse 7ab: “If a name and its object were not different, one’s mouth would be burned by [the word] fire.” 2 It should also be noted that the Samādhirāja Sūtra , which lends support to Madhyamaka, recognizes the ordinary factors of existence ( dharma s) as buddha-qualities ( buddhadharma s) for those who are trained in the “true nature of dharmas” ( dharmatā ). 3 In other words, all factors of existence, inasmuch as they are a mentally created misperception, need to be established as rangtong. This leads to a nonconceptual realization of their inconceivable and ineffable true reality that is zhentong in the sens