No abstract given. Here are the first relevant paragraphs:
In this essay I aim to clarify the meaning of other-emptiness in the Jonang (jo nang)
tradition of Buddhism of Tibet. I will focus on the writings of Dölpopa (dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan) (1292–1361), the renowned forefather of this tradition. Dölpopa famously differentiated two types of emptiness, or two ways of being empty—self-emptiness (rang stong) and other-emptiness (gzhan stong)—and proclaimed the
superiority of the latter.
In contrast to the meaning of self-emptiness, other-emptiness is not a phenomenon’s emptiness of its own essence. It refers to ultimate reality’s emptiness of all that it is not. Also, it does not just refer to a (relative) phenomenon being empty of another phenomenon (like an ox lacking the quality of a sheep), but rather refers to the ultimate ground that is empty of all relative phenomena. Other-emptiness also is a way of articulating that the qualities of nirvāṇa lack the qualities of saṃsāra (i.e., nirvāṇa is empty of its other). By endorsing the superiority of other-emptiness, Dölpopa laid out a distinctive claim that became the hallmark of his Jonang tradition’s interpretation of emptiness:
- All that is said about emptiness is not exclusively self-emptiness; there is a division between the emptiness that is the profound other-emptiness and the emptiness that is selfemptiness, which is not profound. Moreover, there are two: the emptiness that is ultimate and the emptiness that is relative. And there are two: the emptiness that is thoroughly established and the emptiness that is imputed. Furthermore, there are two: the emptiness that is natural and innate and the emptiness that is artificial and contingent.[1]
While it is not controversial for a Buddhist to claim that the ultimate truth is not the
relative truth or that nirvāṇa lacks the qualities of saṃsāra, it is controversial to claim
that other-emptiness is a more profound form of emptiness than self-emptiness, or
that it is the most profound meaning of emptiness. This is just what Dölpopa claims.
Notes
- Dölpopa, Elucidation of Emptiness, pp. 294–295.