Establishing Appearances as Divine: Rongzom Chokyi Zangpo on Reasoning, Madhyamaka, and Purity

161 Pages·2008·0.78 MB·English

by  Heidi I. Koppl

Rongzom Chökyi Zangpo
on Reasoning, Madhyamaka, and Purity
EEssttaabblliisshhiinngg
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by Heidi I. K(cid:154)ppl
Establishing Appearances as Divine

Establishing Appearances as Divine:
Rongzom Chözang on Reasoning,
Madhyamaka, and Purity
by
Heidi I. Köppl
Snow Lion Publications
Ithaca, New York
Snow Lion Publications
P. O. Box 6483, Ithaca, NY 14851 USA
[phone] • www.snowlionpub.com
Copyright © Heidi I. Köppl 2008
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced
by any means without prior written permission from the publisher.
Printed in USA on acid-free recycled paper.
Designed and typeset by Gopa & Ted2, Inc.
ISBN-10: 1-55939-288-6
ISBN-13: 978-1-55939-288-4
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Köppl, Heidi I.
Establishing appearances as divine: Rongzom Chözang on reasoning,
Madhyamaka, and purity / by Heidi I. Köppl.
p. cm.
Includes Tibetan text and its English translation.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-13: 978-1-55939-288-4 (alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-55939-288-6 (alk. paper)
1. Roṅ-zom Chos-kyi-bzaṅ-po, 11th cent. Gsaṅ sṅags rdo rje theg pa’i
tshul las snaṅ ba lhar bsgrub pa. 2. Rñiṅ-ma-pa (Sect)—Doctrines.
I. Roṅ-zom Chos-kyi-bzaṅ-po, 11th cent. Gsaṅ sṅags rdo rje theg pa’i
tshul las snaṅ ba lhar bsgrub pa. English & Tibetan. II. Title.
BQ7662.4.K686 2008
294.3'420423—dc22 2007052671
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments 7
Introduction 9
1. Rongzom’s Environment, Life, and Works 15
2. Introduction to Mantra from
a Nyingma Perspective 23
2.1 A Comparison of Esoteric Systems 24
2.2 The Relationship between Sūtra and Mantra
in the Nyingma School 29
2.2.1 Use of Sūtric Terms in Esoteric Writings 29
2.2.2 The Superiority of Mantra According to
the Nyingma School 30
3. Rongzom’s View on Madhyamaka
in Relation to Mantra 37
3.1 Rongzom’s Madhyamaka 38
3.2 Rongzom’s Reservations Regarding a Relative
Truth Held to Be Distinct from the Ultimate 42
 establishing appearances as divine
3.3 Rongzom’s Influence on Mipham’s Madhyamaka 51
3.4 Concluding Reflections 57
4. Rongzom’s Four Principles of Reasoning
as Means for Establishing Purity 61
4.1 The Reasoning of Intrinsic Nature
(chos nyid kyi rigs pa, dharmatāyukti) 66
4.2 The Reasoning of Efficacy
(bya ba ’byed pa’i rigs pa, kāryakaranayukti) 76
4.3 The Reasoning of Dependency
(ltos pa’i rigs pa, apekṣāyukti) 78
4.4 The Reasoning of Valid Proof
(’thad pa sgrub pa’i rigs pa, upapattisādhanayukti) 80
4.5 Rongzom’s Influence on Mipham’s
Epistemological Account of Purity 82
5. Conclusion 89
Translation and Comparative Edition
of Establishing Appearances as Divine
Translation 95
Comparative Edition of
Establishing Appearances as Divine 109
Bibliography 129
Notes 135
Acknowledgments
The present work could not have come into being with-
out kind help from many sides. First and foremost, I wish to
thank Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche who introduced me to pure per-
ception (dag snang) as taught in the Nyingma tradition, and who
continues to make me aware of its importance and implications. I
am thankful also to Khenpo Chöga who inspired me to study the
works of Rongzom Chökyi Zangpo and to Khenpo Sherab Zangpo
from whom I received lectures and clarifications on Establishing
Appearances as Divine. To the learned Sakya master Khenpo Ape
and the Nyingma Khenchen Padma Sherab, I wish to express my
gratitude for their insightful explanations and comments. In gen-
eral, I would here like to thank everyone at the Kathmandu Uni-
versity Centre for Buddhist Studies and at Ka-Nying Shedrup Ling
Monastery, where the Centre is housed, for providing a fertile and
three-dimensional environment for my studies. I am indebted also
to Christian Wedeymeyer, who as my master’s thesis adviser at the
University of Copenhagen provided many constructive comments
and suggestions for my study of Rongzom and his Establishing
Appearances as Divine. I likewise thank Andreas Doctor for much
helpful advice during the various stages of my work. To Georges
Dreyfus, John Makransky, and José Cabezón I am most grateful for
 establishing appearances as divine
their constructive critique and kind encouragement, and I wish to
thank Gene Smith for his insightful comments on the genealogy
of the editions of Establishing Appearances as Divine. I would also
like to thank my friends James Gentry, Douglas Duckworth, Adam
Pearcey, and Cortland Dahl for their beneficial feedback. Last but
not least, this work owes much to the perceptive suggestions and
loving support of my husband, Thomas Doctor.
Introduction
Transformation not only of one’s identity but also one’s
environment is an important principle of Buddhist esoteric
philosophy. In esoteric scriptures one is instructed to visualize one-
self as a deity (lha, devatā),1 a divine identity who resides in a per-
fect sphere (dkyil ’khor, maṇḍala), and through repeatedly training
in that one will finally perfect the transformation and become the
deity itself. However, one may wonder whether sentient beings are
held to be intrinsically pure (dag pa) and divine, or whether they
merely become purified by the visualization of purity? Is the practice
of deity yoga merely a means (thabs, upāya), or is it more fundamen-
tally connected to the nature of things? These questions appear to
have been among the main concerns of Rongzom Chökyi Zangpo,2
a proponent of the Early Translations (snga ’gyur)3 who was active
in Tibet during the eleventh century, when he composed a concise
treatise on this topic called Establishing Appearances as Divine. The
text’s fascinating objective consists in establishing appearances as
divine by means of mahāyānic reasoning. In the following, we shall
investigate Rongzom’s philosophy of purity, along with his assess-
ment and application of reasoning, with special reference to this
text. Subsequently I present a translation of Establishing Appear-
ances as Divine itself. The translation is accompanied by a compara-
tive edition of the Tibetan text.