Recent Essays/Post-47

Tāranātha's Three Commentaries on the Heart Sūtra

Tāranātha perhaps stands as the most prolific commentator on the Heart Sūtra, having written three commentaries on it of different style and length. The first is a commentary in verse, which he wrote at the age of 29 at the request of a master named Śākya Gyaltsen. Containing 90 verses to explain the 25 stanzas of the Heart Sūtra, he called the commentary Incomparable King: A Verse Commentary of the Heart Sūtra (འཕགས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པའི་སྙིང་པོའི་དཀའ་འགྲེལ་འགྲན་ཟླ་མེད་པའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཚིག་ལེའུར་བྱས་པ།) and indeed claimed the commentary to be unique in explicating how the Heart Sūtra treats the hidden theme of the eight topics (སྦས་དོན་དངོས་པོ་བརྒྱད་) of the Perfection of Wisdom teachings. In verses 85–86, Tāranātha declares that such sagacious interpretation, apart from his own writings, may be found only in the writings of his followers and those who may steal the idea from his works.

The Heart Sūtra, Tāranātha argues, is the epitome of the Perfection of Wisdom teachings, although there are numerous other minor sūtras on Perfection of Wisdom. For this reason, masters throughout the ages have cherished this sūtra, and it was initially promoted in Tibet by Vimalamitra. The ultimate purport of the Heart Sūtra, Tāranātha states, is of Vijñaptimādhyamika, although the sūtra can be interpreted according to other Mādhyamika philosophical positions. Building on this, Tāranātha argued that the Heart Sūtra presented the three forms of emptiness: (1) the emptiness of what is nonexistent (i.e., the nonexistence of what is imputed or superimposed, such as external matter even on the relative or conventional level), (2) the emptiness of what is existent (i.e., the lack of inherent existence of the dependent nature), and (3) the emptiness of real nature (i.e., the lack of duality in the consummate nature). Thus, Tāranātha's comment that "form is emptiness" indicates the utter emptiness or nonexistence of external form, and his comment that "emptiness is form" indicates how the mental cognition which is empty of form appears as form and how "emptiness is not other than form" and "form is not other than emptiness" negates the identity and difference between the consummate nature and mental cognition which is projected as form.

He presents such an interpretation of the Heart Sūtra in accordance with his philosophical espousal of the other-emptiness more articulately in his second word-for-word commentary entitled the Marvellous Word Commentary on the Heart Sūtra (ཤེར་སྙིང་གི་ཚིག་འགྲེལ་རྨད་དུ་བྱུང་བ་). At the very outset, he states in this commentary that the main referent of the term Perfection of Wisdom is buddha-nature, the nondual wisdom which is the true nature of all phenomena. This, he argues, is not empty of its nature. The Heart Sūtra sufficiently makes it clear that the five skandhas and other conventional phenomena are empty of their nature, but not buddha-nature or the ultimate truth. "Form is emptiness" means that form is utterly nonexistent and empty. "Emptiness is form" means that emptiness, which is the ultimate reality, is what appears as form to ordinary beings. "Emptiness is not other than form" means there is no emptiness which exists separately from form, but reality qua emptiness is rather the true nature of form. "Form is not other than emptiness" means there is no real form that is different from emptiness in the ultimate sense, because emptiness qua reality exists, whereas form doesn't.

Tāranātha presents a detailed exposition of his understanding of the Heart Sūtra in accordance with the theories of other-emptiness in his long commentary entitled the Unprecedented Elegant Exposition: An Exegesis on the Heart Sūtra (ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པའི་སྙིང་པོའི་མདོ་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པ་སྔོན་མེད་ལེགས་བཤད།). In this treatise, Tāranātha starts with the discussion of the different forms of Perfection of Wisdom in relation to the nature of phenomena, the path to enlightenment, the resultant state, and the doctrinal teachings which discuss the topic. In both this and the verse commentary, he cites Dignāga to claim that the true Perfection of Wisdom is the resultant wisdom of the buddhas. However, the most important point he underscores is that the ultimate message of all three turnings of the wheel and of the Heart Sūtra is the great other-emptiness. All conventional phenomena are primordially empty of their own nature, but the ultimate nature is only empty of other conventional phenomena but not empty of its own nature. This, he argues, is the ultimate truth, the reality, and the intent of all buddhas.

Commenting on the four statements on form and emptiness, he presents what he considers to be the interpretations among the proponents of the Mind Only (སེམས་ཙམ་པ་) and the Naturelessness (ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་མེད་པར་སྨྲ་བ་), both of which are acceptable in certain contexts but do not capture the ultimate reality. The ultimate understanding, he reasons, must be obtained by putting the four statements in the context of the three characteristics (མཚན་ཉིད་གསུམ་). He goes on to explain how the four statements should be understood in relation to the imputed nature, the dependent nature, and the consummate nature. In the first case, "form is emptiness" refers to form and all other phenomena of imputed and illusory nature being empty or utterly nonexistent even in relative terms. "Emptiness is form" refers to such emptiness appearing as an illusory form to ordinary beings. "Emptiness is not other than form" and "form is not other than emptiness" refer to there being no form and emptiness which are distinct and separate from each other. This is the first emptiness of what is actually nonexistent (མེད་པའི་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་).

In the case of the dependent nature, "form is emptiness" refers to the mental cognition that is projected as form being empty of real external existence and subject-object duality, although it seemingly appears as form. "Emptiness is form" refers to such emptiness or lack of subject-object duality being the nature of the mental cognition which is projected as form. "Emptiness is not other than form and form is not other than emptiness" refers to how emptiness of a real existence of form and the mental cognition projected as form are not different or distinct entities. This is the explanation of the emptiness of that which exists (ཡོད་པའི་སྟོང་ཉིད་) in relation to the dependent nature.

In the context of the final understanding in connection to the consummate nature, "form is emptiness" refers to the form of reality — which in this case may be understood as a metaphorical body of truth or reality instead of external physical form — being ultimate emptiness, and "emptiness is form" refers to emptiness of duality that is the consummate nature being the form of reality. The emptiness qua consummate nature and form of reality are not separable and different. This is the exposition of the emptiness of nature (རང་བཞིན་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་). These three understandings of emptiness, Tāranātha asserts, are the true understanding of emptiness as taught by Maitreya.

Weekly quote

 

~