Instructions for Practising the View of Other Emptiness - A Text of Oral Instructions by Jamgon Kongtrul

152 Pages·6.176 MB·English

by  Tony Duff

INSTRUCTIONS FOR
PRACTISING THE VIEW
OF OTHER EMPTINESS
A TEXT OF ORAL INSTRUCTIONS
BY )AMGON KONGTRUL

INSTRUCTIONS FOR
11
PRACTISING THE VIEW OF
OTHER EMPTINESS"
A TEXT OF ORAL INSTRUCTIONS BY
]AMGON KONGTRUL
BY TONY DUFF
PADMA KARPO TRANSLATION COMMITTEE
Copyright© 2011 Tony Duff. All rights reserved. No
portion of this book may be reproduced in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photography, recording, or by any information storage or
retrieval system or technologies now known or later
developed, without permission in writing from the
publisher.
First edition, November, 2011
ISBN: paper book 978-993 7-572-03-0
ISBN: e-book 978-993 7-572-02-6
Janson typeface with diacritical marks and
Tibetan Classic typeface
Designed and created by Tony Duff
Tibetan Computer Company
http://www. pktc.org/tcc
Produced, Printed, and Published by
Padma Karpo Translation Committee
P.O. Box4957
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NEPAL
Committee members for this book: translation and
composition, Lama Tony Duff; editorial, Tom Anderson;
cover design, Christopher Duff.
Web-site and e-mail contact through:
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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION • • • • . • • • • • • • . • • • • • • . • • • • • • • • • • • • v
INSTRUCTIONS FOR PRACTISING THE VIEW OF THE
OTHER EMPTINESS GREAT MIDDLE WAY, "LIGHT
RAYs oF STAINLESS VAJRA MooN" BY ]AMGON
KoNGTRUL YoNTAN GYATSO • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 1
TEXTS CITED •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 41,61
GLOSSARY • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 65
llBETAN TEXT • • • • • • • • • . • • • • • • • . • . • • . • • • • • . • • • 89
INDEX •••.••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Ill
111

INTRODUCTION
The Buddha declared before he began his formal teaching in
Varanasi that emptiness would be a fundament of his teach
ing.
Later, after he had been teachings for some years, he ex
plained that he had been presenting his teaching in stages,
with each stage showing an increasingly profound meaning;
for example, he stated in the Great Vehicle siitra called
Unravelling the Intent Sutra, that he had presented the exo
teric or siitra teachings in three stages. In addition to that, it
is accepted by his followers that his presentation of the eso
teric or tantra teachings was a fourth stage. Each of these
four stages was called a "turning of the wheel of dharma",
with "wheel" meaning a "complete level or sphere" of dharma
or spiritual truth, and "turning'' meaning that the teaching of
that particular level of spiritual truth, one which had been
either lost from or not previously taught in human society,
was being set in motion.
v
vi INSTRUCTIONS FOR OTHER EMPTINESS
The Buddha also explained in the Unravelling the Intent Sutra,
that he taught in stages like that for the sake of his disciples,
so thatthey could gradually led from their state of confusion
into full realization of the truth and illustrated his method
with the analogy of spoon-feeding children.
Thus, the Buddha himself said before he began teaching that
emptiness would be a fundament of his teaching. However,
when he turned the wheels of dharma, he showed emptiness
in varying degrees of profunqity and it is not always obvious
exactly how he taught emptiness within them. Therefore, it
became essential for. all of his followers to determine exactly
how emptiness had been taught through the various turnings
of the wheel.
This matter of emptiness and how it is to be understood
throughout the turnings of the wheel of dharma is very subtle,
so his followers arrived at varying ways of explaining it in
accordance with their own capacity to understand the subtlety
involved. Generally speaking, their determinations resulted
in four main schools of Buddhist philosophy: two for those
who accepted only the first turning of the wheel of dharma
called Particularist and Sutra Followers-and two for follow
ers who either accepted all three sutra turnings or accepted
both those three and the fourth tantra turning-called Mind
Only and Middle Way.
Of the four main schools, the Middle Way school is regarded
as the one having the highest presentation of how the Buddha
taught emptiness. Many sub-schools of the Middle Way
arose in India, as the great Indian masters who were both
INTRODUCTION vii
studied and practised turned their attention to this matter and
arrived at their own determinations of them.
The various schools of thought mentioned spread from India
to other countries. Three of the four major schools of Ti
betan Buddhism-the Nyingma, Kagyu, and Sakya schools
and a couple of smaller schools-such as theJonang school
which is important to this book and about which more will be
said later-were direct continuations of Indian Buddhist
schools of thought that received their views on emptiness and
the turnings of the wheel directly from Indian sources. These
schools arose in the period from the eighth to twelfth centu
ries C.E. Much later, in the fifteenth century, a fourth major
school of Tibetan Buddhism-the Gelugpa school-arose
based on the teachings of its founder Lord Tsongkhapa
[13 57-1419]; it is noteworthy that this school was not a direct
continuation of an Indian school of Buddhism and therefore
did not get the teaching regarding emptiness and the turnings
of the wheel directly from Indian sources.
All of these Tibetan Buddhist schools accepted and followed
all four turnings of the wheel of dharma, and all of them
followed one or another of the Middle Way sub-schools of
thought regarding emptiness.
Generally speaking, the Nyingma, Kagyu, Jonang, and some
followers of the Sakya school had a common approach to
emptiness and howithad been taught through the four turn
ings and agreed that, in essence, their views were the same.
The remaining Sakya school followers and the Gelugpa
school had their own, common approach to this matter that
was different to that of the first group. The difference
viii INSTRUCTIONS FOR OTHER EMPTINESS
between the two groups succinctly stated is that the first
group claims that emptiness was taught in both the second
and third turnings and that the ultimate teaching on empti
ness is to be found in the third turning, whereas the second
group claimed that it emptiness was only to taught in the
second turning and that the presentation of emptiness found
there is ultimate. There are many other points of difference
that follow on from that, for instance differences of under
standing how emptiness was taught in the fourth turning, but
to go into that here would complicate this discussion un
necessarily.
The view of emptiness held by the Gelugpa school was, as
could be guessed from the foregoing information, a minority
view in Tibet. However, the school became the established
church in Lhasa, the seat of political power in Central Tibet,
and made a concerted effort during many centuries to domi
nate the other schools in Tibet. Its views spread widely and
even today it is still thought by many outside Tibet that the
view of Tsongkhapa and his Gelugpa school is the accepted
view within all schools of Tibetan Buddhism. In fact, it is a
minority view, with the majority of Tibetan Buddhists not
subscribing to Tsongkhapa's explanations of emptiness.
Thus, one reason for writing this book is to draw attention to
the majority view of emptiness in Tibet in which the ultimate
teaching on emptiness is found in the third turning of the
wheel.