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|BookEssay= | |BookEssay=Within non-tantric, Mahāyāna literature, sūtras along with their complimentary scholastic commentarial treatises or śāstras, are further subdivided into the literary genres concerning the Buddha's discourses on the perfect wisdom that discerns emptiness (''śūnyatā'', ''stong pa nyid'') known as the ''Prajñāpāramiā-sūtras, and sūtras that elucidate an innate luminous essence (''garbha'', ''snying po'') that pervades living beings known as "buddhanature" (''tathāgatagarbha'', ''de bzhin gshegs pa’i snying po''). These two subgenres of Mahāyāna sūtra and śāstra literature are at the heart of the Indian and Tibetan hermeneutic enterprise—the search for how these seemingly paradoxical doctrines of ''śūnyatā'' (a lack of any enduring essence) and ''tathāgatagarbha'' (an enduring enlightened essence) interrelate.<br> In an effort to reconcile this great paradox and synthesize these classical Indian Buddhist doctrines, the Tibetan Jo nang scholar and Kālacakra master Kun mkhyen Dol po pa Shes rab Rgyal mtshan (1292-1361)—known by his epithet, "the Buddha from Dolpo”—formulated a technical language and interpretive model for distinguishing two definitions of emptiness: emptiness devoid of an intrinsic nature (*''svabhāvaśūnyatā'', ''rang stong'') and what is empty or devoid of everything other than buddha-nature (*''parabhāvaśūnyatā'', ''gzhan stong''). This multivalent formulation and codification of śūnyatā and tathāgatagarbha provoked historic controversy and polemic in Tibet, leading to a so-called "rang stong" versus "gzhan stong" debate that has infused Tibetan Buddhist philosophical discourse for centuries.<br> Over seven hundred years after Dol po pa's interpretive formula and philosophical articulation known as "gzhan stong"—regarding how the nature of relative reality empty of intrinsic characteristics while ultimately full of enlightened qualities—these writings as well as the larger body of Jo nang gzhan stong literature have received little attention within the Western academy. Due to the historical accident of privileged access to diasporaic Tibetan traditions emphasizing "rang stong"—in contrast to "gzhan stong"—a premature normative has been set within Western studies on Tibetan Buddhist interpretations of emptiness, resulting in the gzhan stong formulation of the Jo nang tradition being less well-known. However, due to more recent access to the living Jo nang Tibetan Buddhist tradition in the Amdo region of the northwestern cultural domain of Tibet, and due to more regular availability of gzhan stong literature, we now have opportunities to re-consider this normative and re-evaluate the gzhan stong understanding of the Jo nang. (Sheehy, introductory remarks, 8–9) | ||
|BookToc=*{{i|Abstract|5-6}} | |BookToc=*{{i|Abstract|5-6}} | ||
*{{i|Acknowledgements|6-7}} | *{{i|Acknowledgements|6-7}} | ||
Revision as of 12:35, 9 April 2020
Abstract
Among the magnificently diverse syntheses of Indian Buddhist thought elaborated in Tibet, the understanding of gzhan stong (zhentong) or “extrinsic emptiness” as articulated through authors of the Jo nang tradition has come to inhabit a distinctive place within Tibetan Buddhist philosophical discourse. Exploring the history and literary heritage of gzhan stong philosophical thinking within the Jo nang tradition, we trace the sequential lineage (rings lugs) of the Jo nang pa, examining the distinctive gzhan stong view through a study and translation of the gzhi (ground) section of 'Dzam thang Mkhan po Ngag dbang Blo gros grags pa's (1920-75) seminal text titled, the “Gzhan stong Chen mo” or the “Great
Exposition on Extrinsic Emptiness.”
Part I presents the genesis of Jo nang gzhan stong thought. Situating the Jo nang within the history of Buddhism in India and Tibet, this section explores the lives of selected forefathers of the Jo nang pa and central figures in Tibet, as well as the life and works of Mkhan po Blo grags. Emphasis is placed on both the sūtra and tantra lineages of gzhan stong thought and attention is given to the specific lineage of the Kālacakra within the Jo nang.
Part II is on the exegesis of the Tibetan Buddhist genre of Jo nang gzhan stong literature. Here, we discuss Mahāyāna Buddhist hermeneutical schemas employed by the tradition to interpret what is of definitive (nges don) and provisional (drang don) meaning, as well as the core textual basis for sūtra gzhan stong.
Part III is an annotated translation of chapter I.A of the gzhi (ground) section of the Gzhan stong Chen mo. This part provides readers with the first English translation of a text explicitly on the gzhan stong view from a modern Jo nang author, and one of the few translations of a text from the Jo nang tradition. Here, Mkhan po Blo grags explains the abiding reality (gnas lugs) of the ground for reality, the principles that the ground relies upon, and how reality's basic ground is effulgently full of enlightened qualities while devoid of superficial phenomena.
| Citation | Sheehy, Michael. "The Gzhan stong Chen mo: A Study of Emptiness according to the Modern Tibetan Buddhist Jo nang Scholar 'Dzam thang Mkhan po Ngag dbang Blo gros Grags pa (1920-75)." PhD diss., California Institute of Integral Studies, 2007. |
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