Other-Emptiness in the Jonang School: The Theo-logic of Buddhist Dualism

Abstract

This paper aims to clarify the meaning of other-emptiness in the Jonang (jo nang) tradition of Buddhism of Tibet. The focus is 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. Dölpopa maintains that other-emptiness is better because it represents what really exists while self-emptiness does not, and that it also offers a more effective means to access the real. While Dölpopa is famous for asserting the real existence of a nondual ultimate reality, it is argued here that his depiction of other-emptiness represents a fairly clear-cut account of dualism.