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The Gzhan stong Chen mo

Dissertation

Dissertation

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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.

Table of Contents About the Book Texts Translated Quotes

• Abstract5-6
• Acknowledgements6-7
• Introductory Remarks8-9
• The Present Study9-10
• Review of Literature
  • Primary Sources and Editions10-18
    • Modern Works and Authors
    • Pre-Modern Works and Authors
    • Secondary Sources and Studies18-44
• Methodological Considerations44-46
  • Translation Method 47-49
• Contributions of the Present Work49-52
• I. Jo nang Gzhan stong Genesis
  • A) The Tibetan Gzhan stong Discourse 52-57
  • B) Historical Sources for Gzhan stong Madhyamaka
    • Sūtra Gzhan stong and Tantra Gzhan stong
      • Sūtra and Tantra57-59
      • Sūtra Gzhan stong59-62
      • Tantra Gzhan stong63-65
    • Mkhan po Blo grags’ History of Sūtra Gzhan stong
      • Early Mahāyāna Tradition in India66‐69
      • Later Mahāyāna Tradition in India69‐71
      • Indian Masters in the Sūtra Gzhan stong Lineage72‐74
      • Tibetan Forefathers in the Sūtra Gzhan ston Lineage75‐76
    • Mkhan po Blo grags’ History of Tantra Gzhan stong
      • Indian Masters in the Tantra Gzhan ston Lineage 76-78
      • Tibetan Forefathers in the Tantra Gzhan stong Lineage78-80
    • Early Jo nang pa and the Synthesis of Sūtra and Tantra
      • Early Jo nang Lineage Masters80-83
      • Dol po pa and his Dharma Heirs83-86
    • Later Jo nang pa and the Transmission to ‘Dzam thang
      • Later Jo nang Lineage Masters86-89
      • The Jo nang pa in A mdo 89-92
  • C) Mkhan po Blo grag’s Life and Works
    • Mkhan po Blo grag’s Essential Hagiography92-97
• II. Jo nang Gzhan stong Exegesis
  • A) Literary Sources for Gzhan stong Madhyamaka
    • Māhāyana Hermeneutics
      • The Indic Context97-99
      • The Four-fold Reliance 99-104
    • Śākyamuni’s Three Turnings 104-109
      • Defining Neyārtha and Nītārtha109‐113
    • Gzhan stong Canonical Literature
      • Core Gzhan stong Sources113-117
      • Great Madhyamaka and the Cittamātra Sūtras117‐122
  • B.) The Gzhan stong Chen mo
    • Gzhi, Lam, ‘Bras bu as a Coherent Structure122-124
    • The Gzhan stong Chen mo in its Curricular Context124-128
• III. The Gzhi Section of the Gzhan stong Chen mo
• Technical Notes128-129
• Annotated Translation: Chapter I.A
• An Explanation of Profound Abiding Reality's Ground [folio #86-180]129-143
• I. Actual abiding reality of the distinctive ground
  • A. How enlightened essence is the ground expanse
    • (1) How Profound Pristine Awareness is the Actuality of Phenomena143-146
    • (2) How the Expanse and Awareness Encompasses Everything Stable
      and Wavering 146-150
    • (3) How the Three Precious Jewels are the Actuality of Phenomena
      Resides150-155
    • (4) How Enlightened Essence is Taught in Examples155-193
    • (5) How the Naturally Abiding Spiritual Affinity is Equal193-197
    • (6) How the Three Patterns of Phenomena Reside197-200
    • (7) How the Three Patterns of What Exists Reside200-202
    • (8) How the Dimension of Phenomena Does Not Divide Ground
      from Fruition202-207
    • (9) How Every Enlightened Quality is Subsumed207-219
    • (10) How to Unravel the Intent of the Master Nāgārjuna and
      His Heirs219-226
    • Epilogue226-228
• Appendix I.: Mkhan po Blo gros Grags pa's Topical Outline (sa bcad) of the
  Gzhan stong Chen mo: Chapter I.A 229-248
• Appendix II: Tā ra nā tha's "Supplication to the Profound Gzhan stong
  Madhyamaka Lineage"249-269
• Appendix III: Btsan Kha bo che’s Condensation of the Three Natures270-271
• Endnotes272
• Primary Source Reference List293
• Secondary Source Reference List300

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.
      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.
      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)

Ngag dbang blo gros grags pa. rgyu dang 'bras bu'i theg pa mchog gi gnas lugs zab mo'i don rnam par nges pa rje jo nang pa chen po'i ring lugs 'jigs med gdong lnga'i nga ro. In Blo gros grags pa'i Gsung 'bum, Vol 1: pp. 35-516. 'Dzam thang: 'dzam thang bsam 'grub nor bu'i gling gi par khang, 199?.