Rangtong and shentong
[1] The classic shentong view was developed and defended by the Jonang school of Tibetan Buddhism, especially by the great scholar Dölpopa Shérap Gyeltsen (1292–1361).
"[11] Shentong was also called "Great Mādhyamaka" (dbu ma chen po), a term which has also been used by other figures to refer to their Madhyamaka views, like Longchenpa and Mipham.
[5] The notion of shentong grew out of various Indian and Tibetan doctrinal discussions on the topics of Madhyamaka, Yogacara, and the theory of Buddha-nature.
[12][1] Shentong adherents generally trace the shentong view back to India, pointing to numerous Indian sources, ranging from early suttas like the Cula-suññata Sutta[13] to the tathagatagarbha sutras, a group of treatises variously attributed jointly to Asanga and Maitreya (especially the Ratnagotravibhāga), and a body of praises attributed to Nāgārjuna (the "Four Hymns" and the Dharmadhātustava).
[1] According to Jamgon Kongtrul's Treasury of Knowledge, shentong is associated with the "third wheel" of Dharma, the highest intention of the Buddha, which can be found in various Indian sources like the treatises of Maitreya (Dharmadharmatāvibhāga and Ratnagotravibhāga) and some of Nāgārjuna's hymns.
This lineage was transmitted to Tibet by Ānandakīrti and Sajjana, through Ngog Lotsāwa (1059–1109), Su Gawé Dorje, Dsen Kawoché, and entered the Kagyu tradition through Gampopa and Padampa Sangyé.
He also made use of terms from Mahayana scriptures which were not in use in Tibet at the time, for example, he referred to the ultimate truth as atman (self), nitya (eternal), and dhruva (immovable).
The Sakya lama Rendawa Shonu Lodro (1348-1413) was one of the earliest critics of the view, and so was his student, Je Tsongkhapa (1357–1419), the founder of the Gelug school.
[34] The great fourteenth-century Sakya master Buton Rinchen Drub (1290–1364) was also very critical of shentong views, although he was unwilling to directly debate Dölpopa on the matter.
Tsewang Norbu was a student of the Jonang lama Künsang Wangpo, and he introduced shentong and the Kālacakra tantra tradition into Kagyu and Nyingma.
[6] A key Rime defender of a strong Dölpopa influenced shentong was Jamgön Kongtrül (1813–1899), and his work remains influential in Kagyu circles today.
As Brunnhölzl writes, "the first—and most common—category takes rangtong and shentong to refer to phenomena as belonging to two different levels of reality (seeming and ultimate), which underlies views (1)–(5).
[42]This "other-empty" (shentong) absolute reality is the "all-basis wisdom" or "gnosis of the ground of all" (kun gzhi ye shes, Skt.
[42] According to Stearns, Dölpopa also considers this absolute as "natural luminosity (which is synonymous with the dharmakaya) and a primordial, indestructible, eternal great bliss inherently present in every living being.
[45] According to Dölpopa, the tathāgatagarbha (buddha-nature, synonymous with the dharmadhātu) refers to the Ratnagotravibhāga's perfections of supreme purity, permanence, self, and bliss.
[1] Brunnhölzl writes that for Dölpopa, this buddha-nature "is liberated from all characteristics of reference points, is beyond terms and thoughts, and is the object of unmistaken nonconceptual wisdom.
What makes "rangtong" a different view is that it rejects the idea that there is anything (even Buddhahood) that is not empty of essential nature (svabhava) and as such, all phenomena only exist dependently (even nirvana and the buddha's wisdom).
[50] Dölpopa draws on various Indian sources to defend this position, including the Maitreya Chapter of the Large Prajñāpāramitā sutra, the Bṛhaṭṭīkā commentary (which he attributed to Vasubandhu) and Nagarjuna's Collection of Hymns.
[1] According to Karl Brunnhölzl Rangjung Dorje, the Third Karmapa "is traditionally considered the foremost authority on the view of buddha nature in the Karma Kagyü School.
"[1] Brunnhölzl notes that his view "neither matches Shentong as understood by Dölpopa, Tāranātha, and other Jonangpas, nor Śākya Chogden’s or Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé’s presentations of it.
"[1] The Third Karmapa's view is that the dharmakāya is an "unconditioned and spontaneously present mind" which transcends all concepts and reference points and is all pervading, like space.
"[1] This is the view also defended by the Chödrak Gyatso (1454–1506), the Seventh Karmapa, in his Ocean of Texts on Reasoning, who also argues that "rangtong and shentong are not contradictory".
[1] The Seventh Karmapa held that the buddha-nature taught in the true shentong is "the great freedom from extremes, the inseparability of appearance and emptiness, and the union of the two realities".
Similarly, the Thirteenth Karmapa, Düdül Dorje (1733–1797) states:[1] both the middle and the final wheel [of dharma] have the purport of the sugata heart, the unity of emptiness and luminosity.
[52] One popular living exponent of Kagyu shentong is Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso, and his view is taught in Progressive Stages of Meditation on Emptiness, translated by his student Lama Shenpen Hookham.
These five are:[54][55] Accoriding to Lama Shenpen Hookham, the absolute reality is described in positive terms by the shentong view because this approach helps one "overcome certain residual subtle concepts"[57] and the habit "of negating whatever experience arises.
"[4] While the shentong view destroys false concepts (like all madhyamaka), it also alerts the practitioner "to the presence of a dynamic, positive Reality that is to be experienced once the conceptual mind is defeated.
[1] The noted nineteenth-century Nyingma lama Jamgon Ju Mipham Gyatso wrote works both supportive and critical of shentong positions.
[58] One recent Nyingma lama that taught a shentong view (combined with prasangika madhyamaka) was Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche.
[59][60] In the Kagyu tradition, the main method of practice used by shentong adherents are Mahāmudrā style meditations which are strongly influenced by the Ratnagotravibhāga.
