Other-Emptiness and the Great Middle Way: Difference between revisions
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|title=Book: | |title=Book: When the Clouds Part | ||
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|coverLink= | |coverLink=https://www.shambhala.com/when-the-clouds-part-3265.html | ||
|text= | |text=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. | ||
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|text=The Mahāmudrā | |text=The Uttaratantra and Mahāmudrā | ||
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|source=[[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. | |||
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|title=Book: Mahāmudrā and the Middle Way | |title=Book: Mahāmudrā and the Middle Way | ||
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|text=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. | |text=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. | ||
|source=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. | |source=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. | ||
}} | |||
{{BookExceprt | |||
|title=Book: Buddha Nature Reconsidered | |||
|cover=File:Buddha Nature Reconsidered-front.jpg | |||
|coverLink= | |||
|text=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. | |||
|source=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. | |||
}} | }} | ||
</div> | </div> | ||
Revision as of 12:45, 13 August 2019
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. Summarizing the seven into three, Padma Namgyal says that Dölpopa asserts wisdom to be shentong, Śākya Chogden holds the expanse to be shentong, and all others take both wisdom and the expanse to be shentong. When summarized into two, the first five are said to present rangtong and shentong mainly by way of what is to be determined, while the latter two do so primarily by way of the means to determine that. Note though (and this complicates matters further) that these seven distinctions are obviously based on three very different categories of comparison in terms of what rangtong and shentong mean. The first—and most common—category takes rangtong and shentong to refer to phenomena as belonging to two different levels of reality (seeming and ultimate), which underlies views (1)–(5). The second category refers to rangtong and shentong as two approaches to conceptually determine the subject in question (6). The third category considers rangtong and shentong as distinct (nonconceptual) experiences or phases in the process of attaining realization (7). - Karl Brunnhölzl, When the Clouds Part, p. 1018, nt. 532.
Watch & Learn
Discovering Buddha Nature: Talk by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
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
Revealing Your Buddha-Nature: Teaching by Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche at the 2012 PBC Dzogchen Winter Retreat
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."
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
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
Khenpo Gangshar
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.
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.
~ 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.
