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Rangtong and shentong are two distinctive views on emptiness (sunyata) and the two truths doctrine within Tibetan Buddhism. Rangtong (Tibetan: རང་སྟོང་, Wylie: rang stong; "empty of self-nature") is a philosophical term in Tibetan Buddhism that is used to distinguish the majority Madhyamaka teaching on the meaning of śūnyatā or "emptiness", namely that all phenomena are empty of an enduring and/or unchanging essence or "self," and that this emptiness is not an absolute reality, but a mere nominal characterisation of phenomena. It is related to the prasangika approach, which argues that no syllogistic forms of reasoning should be used to debate the notion of inherent existence, but only arguments which show the logical implications and absurdity of positions based upon inherent existence. This position is the mainstream Gelugpa interpretation of Madhyamaka, one of the main Mahayana schools, which dominates Vajrayana Buddhism. Shentong (Tibetan: གཞན་སྟོང་, Wylie: gzhan stong, Lhasa dialect: [ɕɛ̃̀tṍŋ], also transliterated zhäntong or zhentong; literally "other-emptiness") is a position within Tibetan Madhyamaka. It applies śūnyatā in a specific way, agreeing that relative reality is empty of self-nature, but stating that absolute reality (Paramarthasatya)[note 1] is "non-dual Buddhajnana"[note 2] and "empty" (Wylie: stong) only of "other," (Wylie: gzhan) relative phenomena, but is itself not empty and "truly existing." This absolute reality is described by positive terms, an approach which helps "to overcome certain residual subtle concepts" and "the habit [...] of negating whatever experience arises in his/her mind." It destroys false concepts, as does prasangika, but it also alerts the practitioner "to the presence of a dynamic, positive Reality that is to be experienced once the conceptual mind is defeated." Shentong was systematized and articulated under that name by Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen (1292–1361), who identified absolute reality with the Buddha-nature. Shentong was suppressed by the dominant Gelug school for several hundred years, equally for political reasons as doctrinal reasons. In 1658, the Gelug authorities banned the Jonang school for political reasons, forcibly converting its monks and monasteries to the Gelug school, as well as banning shentong philosophy and books, thus making the rangtong position the overwhelmingly majority one in Tibetan Buddhism. After this suppression various shentong views were propagated mainly by Karma Kagyu and Nyingma lamas. The 19th century saw a revival of Shentong-views, and continued with the Rimé movement. Nowadays Shentong is present primarily as the main philosophical theory of the Jonang school, although it is also taught by the Sakya and Kagyu schools, where it is identified with centerless awareness.
References
- Stearns, Cyrus (2010). The Buddha from Dölpo: A Study of the Life and Thought of the Tibetan Master Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen (Rev. and enl. ed.). Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications. ISBN 9781559393430. https://books.google.com/books?id=t9rlyjOHZ98C&q=autonym&pg=PP1. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
- Brunholzl 2009, p. 446.
- Hookham 1991, p. 22.
- Pettit 1999, p. 113.
- Alexander Berzin, In Praise of Dependent Arising http://studybuddhism.com/en/tibetan-buddhism/original-texts/sutra-texts/in-praise-of-dependent-arising
- Robert Thurman, Praise of Buddha Shakyamuni for his teaching of Relativity. The Short Essence of Eloquence http://www.bodhicitta.net/Essence%20of%20Eloquence.htm
- Patrick Jennings, Tsongkhapa: In Praise of Relativity; The Essence of Eloquence http://thenonbuddhist.com/2014/01/12/tsongkhapa-in-praise-of-relativity-the-essence-of-eloquence/
- Susan Kahn, The Two Truths of Buddhism and The Emptiness of Emptiness http://emptinessteachings.com/2014/09/11/the-two-truths-of-buddhism-and-the-emptiness-of-emptiness/
- Stearns 1999, p. 3.
- Stearns 1999, p. 82.
- Hookham 1991, p. 19.
- Hookham 1991, p. 19-26.
- Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso 1994.
- Hookham 1991, p. 21.
- According to Hookham, non-dual experience is Ultimate Reality.[20]
- According to Hookham, "The Chinese Tathagarba schools describe Buddhajnana as the totality of all that is, which pervades every part of all that is in its totality."[20] According to Hookham, for Shentong Buddhajnana is "the non-dual nature of Mind completely unobscured and endowed with its countless Buddha Qualities (Buddhagunas).[20]
- Hookham 1991, p. 23.
- Stearns 1999, p. 1.
- Hokham 1991.
- Brunnhölzl 2008.
- Stearns 1999.
- Stearns 1999, p. 2.
- Stearns 1999, p. 17, 47-48, 51-52, 61.
- See also Karl Brunnhölzl (2008), In Praise of Dharmadhatu, a translation of Rangjung Dorje's commentary on the Dharmadhātustava, "I Parise of the Dharmadhatu," a treatise which is (incorrectly) attributed to Nagarjuna.
- Dolpopa: "I discovered many profound essential points which have not been discovered, have not been realized, and have not been mastered by egotistical scholars, most great meditators endowed with experience and realization, and most of those who are arrogant as great upholders of secret mantra. Because a fine realization burst forth from within, and because I have an exceptional certainty untainted by doubts, not only most great meditators endowed with experience and realization, and those who are arrogant as great upholders of secret mantra, but even the Buddha definitely could not turn me back from this."[27]
- Stears 1999, p. 46-47.
- Stears 1999, p. 48-49.
- Stearns 1999, p. 60-63.
- Stearns 1999 p.68
- Tomlin 2017
- Stearns, Cyrus (2003). The Buddha from Dolpo: A Study of the Life and Thought of the Tibetan Master Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen. Motilal Banarsidass Publ.. p. 76. ISBN 81-208-1833-4. https://books.google.com/books?id=zYiWkLTrU3oC&q=Situ+Panchen&pg=PA75.
- I.e., in his Lion's Roar of Extrinsic Emptiness (q.v. external link cited below) and in his Long Excursus on the Core of Thus-Arrivedness i.e., tathãgatagarbha (bde-gshegs snying-po stong-thun chen-mo seng-ge'i nga-ro). In the Long Excursus Mipham Rinpoche follows closely the gist of an historically much earlier discussion of the subject of "lineage", [note 5] that of Longchenpa's Treasure of Philosophical Systems (grub mtha' mdzod). There Mipham identifies two general extremes of interpretation, the nihilistic identification of Buddha-nature with emptiness to the exclusion of form, and the identification of Buddha-nature as a substantially real entity that is "empty-of-other" (gzhan-gyis stong-pa). Thus it appears that Mipham Rinpoche wished to distance himself from both the Gelug/Sakya mainstream (e.g., rangtong or self-emptiness) interpretation as well as the shentong mainstream. However, what Mipham refers to in the Long Excursus as shentong is only vaguely defined as such, and to that extent, bears more resemblance to the stock misinterpretations of shentong as given by its ideological opponents, than with any actual position held by classical Shentongpas themselves. In the final analysis, both Longchenpa's and Jamgon Ju Mipham Gyatso's interpretations of Buddha-nature in the aforementioned texts are substantially identical with most (though not all) of the most important philosophical distinctions invoked by Dolpopa and others in propounding the superiority and definitude of shentong approaches. Where Longchenpa and Mipham differ most obviously from self-identified Shentongpa commentators is in not applying the shentong label to their positions, such as Great Madhyamaka of Other-Emptiness" (gzhan-stong dbu-ma chen-po).
- Burchardi, Anne (2007). A Look at the Diversity of the Gzhan stong Tradition. JIATS, no. 3 (December 2007), THDL #T3128, 24 pp. 2007 by Anne Burchardi, IATS, and THDL. Source: [1] (accessed: Sunday August 17, 2008) p.1
