Fourteenth  this not say that the entities of afflictive emotions are purified through knowledge itself that they are self-empty?  Answer: This is in consideration of temporarily suppressing or reducing the pointedness of coarse afflictive emotions because even this very passage says that, in the end, the conventional knowledge that afflictive emotions are self-empty must also be purified by non-conceptual pristine wisdom, meditative stabilisation actualising the ultimate. Meditation on self-emptiness brings about a temporary reduction of the coarse level of obstructions, but meditation on other-emptiness is required for eliminating them entirely. He explains what it means to not be self-empty and to be other-empty, on the basis of which he shows how to interpret scriptures.  Concerning this-whether form bodies of buddhas come to the world or do not come, whether persons realise it or do not realise it, see it or do not see it-the limit of reality, which has many synonyms such as source of attributes and so forth, has abided thusly without changing, indestructible and not susceptible to being abandoned, without difference earlier and later, always part less, omnipresent, and all-pervasive. That is the meaning of not being empty of its own entity. Concerning the emptiness of other entities, the emptiness of imputational phenomena such as self, sentient being, living being, transmigrating being, nourisher, creature, and so forth and the primordial emptiness even of: other-powered conventional aggregates such as forms and so forth constituents sense-spheres dependently arisen phenomena and sentient beings traveling in the cyclic existences of the five transmigrating beings. is the meaning of other-entity emptiness. Similarly, with respect to the statement: Because the element of attributes is void, bodhisattvas do not apprehend a prior limit. Because thusness, the limit of reality, and the inconceivable basic element are void, bodhisattvas do not apprehend a prior limit.

Part Ten  Since endowment with pre-existent ultimate buddha qualities does not eliminate the need for practice of the path, when describing the final Buddha-qualities, he titles the section on the path “Explaining how effects of separation and of production are attained through the path.” As Taranatha, second only to Döl-bo-ba in importance in Jo-nang, says: Therefore, newly attained effects that are to be produced through cultivating the path are produced effects, due to which they do not truly exist, whereas the primordially abiding buddha is merely separated through cultivating the path from the covering over that buddha, due to which it is called an “effect of separation” and the path also is called a “cause of its separation.” These [effects of separation] are merely imputed cause and effect, not actual cause and effect. These effects of separation also are not the analytical separations described in Manifest Knowledge, “Separation is a mental extinguishment.” Rather, it is an ultimate effect of separation and an ultimate true cessation in accordance with the statement in the Questions of King Dharanishvara Sutra, “Since it is primordially extinguished, it is called ‘extinguishment.’ In this way, the natural lineage is called a “cause” but does not produce effects, and the body of attributes is called an “effect” but it is not produced. Two Emptinesses Since the matrix-of-one-gone-thus, also called the immutable thoroughly established nature, is empty of all compounded phenomena but replete with the ultimate phenomena, or attributes, of enlightenment, it is not self-empty. If the matrix-of-one-gone-thus were self-empty, it would not exist at all (213). Rather, the matrix-of-one-gone-thus is empty in the sense of being empty of the other two natures, imputations and other-powered natures respectively conceptually dependent factors and phenomena produced by causes and conditions. In this way, Döl-bo-ba recognises two important types of emptiness-self-emptiness and other-emptiness. He calls the first “empty-emptiness” and the second “non-empty-emptiness (213, 252, 301). Self-emptiness means that an object is empty of its own entity. A table is entity; a mind is empty of its own entity, and so forth.

Part Nine Döl-bo-ba argues hat although the ultimate, the body of attributes, not produced, is not contradictory for it to be an effect. its attainment is a separative effect, an effect of having been separated from peripheral defilements. The presence of self-arisen pristine wisdom’ is not sufficient; other-arisen pristine wisdom must be produced through practising the path. He uses the metaphor of the sky to convey the point: That which is self-arisen pristine wisdom, ultimate truth, abiding pervasively in all do not differ in anyone as to its natural purity, but through the force of persons, there are the differences of purity from adventitious defilements and of impurity due to adventitious defilements, like the fact that the sole sky which by its own nature does not exist as entities of clouds and is purified of entities of clouds not purified of clouds in some areas and is purified of clouds in other areas. Therefore, it is not contradictory that just as sky that is not purified of clouds does not exist in any area, so sky that is purified of clouds does not exist in any area, but, due to the area, there is impure sky and there is pure sky. Similarly, while the naturally pure, sole, basic element of the ultimate abides together with defilements in some persons and abides without defilements in some, it is posited as the basis and the fruit through the force of the presence or the absence of defilements in persons, but the entity of the noumenon does not differ. The noumenon is the same, whether realised or not. However, dependent upon realisation, beings come to be termed impure, partially pure, and pure. Two Lineages in order to show how the matrix-of-one-gone-thus yields Buddhahood, Döl-bo-ba addresses the topics of its two divisions, called the two causal lineages. The first is the noumenon clear light itself, the natural lineage, and the other consists of the spiritual activities of accumulating wisdom and merit, the developmental lineage. From those two, respectively, arise the two buddha bodies-the body

Part Six Thus he was bucking two popular trends-separation of the classical texts of the great vehicle into isolated systems and separate  Tibetan scholars from sütra and tantra into isolated camps and (2) reduction of the inal path to self-recognition of basic mind. Breaking boundaries between set system: his grand, over-arching, iconoclastic perspective shocked Tibetan scholars his own day to the present. The Sa-gya scholar Ren-da-wa Shön-nu lodrö over three readings-first found it unappealing, then appealing, and then unappealing. Ren-da-wa’s student, Dzong-ka-bab found it so provocative that he took Döl-bo-ba’s views as his chief opponent in his works on the view of emptiness. Dil-bo-ba’s View of Reality Basis and Fruit Un-differentiable  The Ocean of Definitive Meaning is divided into three sections of roughly equal length basis, path, and fruit–preceded by a brief overview and to lowed by a short summary. The basis is the ground on which the spiritual path acts to rid it of peripheral obstructions, thereby yielding the fruit of practice. The basis is the matrix-of-one-gone-thus. which itself is the thoroughly established nature, the uncontaminated primordial wisdom empty of all compounded phenomena-permanent, stable, eternal, everlasting. Not compounded by causes and conditions, the matrix-of-one-gone-thus is intrinsically endowed with ultimate buddha qualities of body, speech mind such as the ten powers, it is not something that did not exist D and is newly produced; it is self-arisen. From this point of view, Do1-bo-ba emphasise that the basis ( the actual way things are even in an ordinary state) and the fruit (as manıfest Buddhahood) are un-differentiable. At the beginning of the Mountain Doctrine he inspiringly speaks of the matrix-of-one-gone-thus as the basic reality and pristine wisdom, and although ultimate Buddha qualities of body, speech, and mind pre-exist in the matrix one-gone-thus, effort at the spiritual path is nevertheless required cause there are two types of effects, separative and produced separative effects being already existent factors that need only to be separated from defilement and do not require production, whereas produced effects have to be generatedthrough practice. 

Part five Tantras should be understood by means of other Tantras. Sūtras should be understood by means of other Sūtras. Stras should also be understood by means of the Tantras Tantras should also be understood by means of the Sūtras. Both should be understood by means of both. This all-encompassing approach, simultaneously drawing on Sütras and Tantras, puts to pics rather than just the differentiation of systems-to the forefront in a search for meaning. In presentations that are usually considered the classical texts of separate systems, he sees in each of those texts multiple systems crowned by the great middle way. For instance, he considers separate passages of the Sütra Unraveling the Thought, considered by many to be just mind-only, to present the views of mind-only and the great middle way, the latter being ultimate mind-only,’ also called supra mundane mind-only and final mind-only, which is beyond consciousness. Also, in certain Indian treatises usually taken to be strictly mind-only he finds passages teaching conventional mind-only and others teaching the great middle way. Still, Döl-bo-ba’s presentation is by no means a collage drawing a little from here and a little from there and disregarding the rest. Rather, he has a comprehensive overarching perspective born from careful analysis, like other great synthesisers of his period. For him, others had just not seen what the texts themselves were saying, and instead read into classical texts the views of single systems. Since he draws from a great variety of Sütras, tantras, and treatises, Döl-bo-ba’s perspective is syncretic, but it is perhaps synthetic only in the sense that he found within these an exposition of a view beyond what had become the traditional schools. It was not a mere putting together of pieces from here and there. He also criticised the then (and still) popular notion that recognition of Conceptions themselves as the body of attributes of a buddha “would alone bring about enlightenment, “without requiring abandonment of any mis- conceptions. 

Part Four  The Title The Mountain Doctrine. Ocean of Definitive Meaning: Final Unique Quint Instructions, a long text of247 folios, is a sustained argument about the Buddha-nature, also called the matrix-of-one-gone-thus and matrix-of-one-gone-to-bliss, replete with citations of Sütras, tantras, and Indian treaties and interspersed with objections and answers. It thereby follows the Inherited from India, of a presentation by way of both reasoning and scripture the scriptural citations being so rich that the book can also be considered an inspiring anthology, a veritable treasure-trove of literature about the matrix-of-one-gone-thus. In the dedication of virtue at the end of the book, Döl-bo-ba Shay-rap-gyel-tsen explains the meaning of his title. This final definitive meaning thus of all the excellent profound scriptures of the conqueror Realised through the kindness of foremost venerable lamas rom being illuminated By profound instructional counsel from the mouths of conqueror-children such as the protectors of the three lineages and so forth-Is the mountain doctrine of profound yogic practitioners in isolated mountain retreats, training the entirety of the rivers of definitive meaning of all the elevated pure sütras, tantras, and treatises, and hence is an ocean of definitive meaning, Teaching the unique finality of the spectrum of basis, paths, and fruit and also the spectrum of view, meditation, and behaviour, an hence it is concordant in name and meaning. Since it comments on profound thought, it is a commentary on the conqueror’s thought, And since it comments on all vajra words, it unravels the knots of vajra words, l since it clearly teaches the profound noumenon, it is a lamp to the matrix-of-one-gone-to-bliss, and since it contains all profound scriptures, reasonings, and quintessential instructions, it is also a supreme wish-granting Jewel. His text is aimed at presenting not what is tentative, provisional, and requiring interpretation in the Indian source texts but the definitive meaning of ultimate reality itself, so profound and difficult to realise that it is a doctrine practiced in mountain retreats by yogis. Containing a plethora of citations from Indian sütras and tantras as well as expositions

Part Two On the basis of both pratyāhara [withdrawal] and dbyāna (concentration), he beheld immeasurable figures of the Buddhas and pure lands. On the basis of prānāyāma (stopping-vitality] and dhāranã [retention], exceptional experience and realisation was born due to the blazing of blissful warmth. During this retreat Döl-bo-ba realized the view of “other-emptiness” but did not speak about it for several years. In 1326 he was installed as the head of the Jo-nang Monastery and in 1327 began work on a gigantic monument-the Glorious Stūpa of the Constellations-which was completed in 1333, restored by Tāranātha in 1621, and refurbished in 1990. Either during or after the building of the Stüpa, for the first time he taught that conventional phenomena are self-empty, in the sense that they lack any self-nature, whereas the ultimate is other-empty, in the sense that it is empty of the conventional but has its own self-nature. This latter realization Döl-bo-ba himself stated to be previously unknown in Tibet and spoke of it this way: To bow in homage to the gurus, buddhas and kalkīs by whose kindness the essential points which are difficult for even the exalted ones to realise are precisely realised, and to their great Stüpa. During this period Döl-bo-ba wrote and taught a great deal, while also working on the stüpa. His monumental Mountain Doctrine, Ocean of De-Jinitive Meaning: Final Unique Quintessential Instructions “was completed well before the final consecration of the Stūpa on October 30, 1333. His view of “other-emptiness” is based on profound understanding of three Indian expositions of tantras, the “three cycles of bodhisattva commentaries”

Part one Döl-bo-ba Šhay-rap-gyel-tsen, author of the Mountain Doctrine, Ocean of Definitive Meaning: Final Unique Quintessential Instructions, was one of the most influential figures of fourteenth-century Tibet, a dynamic period of doctrinal formulation. As Cyrus Stearns says in his excellent biography: Without question, the teachings and writing of Dol po pa, who was also known as “The Buddha from Dol po” (Dol po sangs rgyas), and “The Omniscient One from Dol po who Embodies the Buddhas of the Three Times” (Dus gsum sangs vgas kun mkhyen dol po pa), contain the most controversial and stunning ideas ever presented by a great Tibetan Buddhist master. The controversies which stemmed from his teachings are still very much alive today among Tibetan Buddhists, more than 600 years after Dol po pa’s death. His works were monumental and seminal in that they present a penetrating and controversial re-formulation of doctrines on emptiness and buddha-nature influential through to the present day. Döl-bo-ba Šhay-rap-gyel-tsen was born in the Döl-bo area of present day Nepal in 1292 in a family practicing tantric rites of the Nying-ma order. It is reported that after receiving tantric initiation at the age of five, he had a vision of Red Mañjushri, and subsequently his intelligence burgeoned. At twelve he was ordained and at seventeen fled, against his parents’ wishes, to study with Gyi-dön Jam-jang-drak-ba-gyel-tsen in Mustang, where in a month he learned the doctrinal vocabulary of the path-structure studies associated with the perfection of wisdom teachings, epistemology and logic and  phenomenology.” His new new teacher wa called to Ša-gya, then the greatest learning center in Tibet, and two years ater Döl-bo-ba joined him, where he continued studies on the three above mentioned topics, as well as Shãntideva’s Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds’-simultaneously mastering them in a year and and half.  From this master he also received teachings on the Kalachakara, Tantra nad related Sütras and commentaries that shaped his practice and outlook.  After receiving many other teachings, when he was twenty-one, his parents “who had now forgiven him for running away,””

Part 16 Giving the escorts a handful of mustard seeds, the Master instructed, “Throw these at yesterday’s assassins. I am going to tame the demons on the southwest border.” Everyone witnessed the Master departs—flying into the sky on his horse, with his Dharma robes flapping and staff clattering. The Tibetans assert the Gungthang Pass to be the site of the Master’s departure. However, since it is described as being on the other side of that precipitous path at Dongbab, it is more likely to have been a mountain on the border of India and Tibet. The Master’s escorts left and headed back. When they reached the would-be assassins, they threw the mustard seeds on them, at which they were once again able to move and talk. The two escorts offered the Master’s words to the king’s ear and his heart filled with deep remorse. It is said that then, in order to receive the remaining teachings of the Master, the king invited the paṇḍitas Vimalamitra and Śāntigarbha. If we follow its words literally, it is after this that the events in The Supplement to the Testimony of Ba, such as the king building the temple, occurred. But the ancient documents are known as the Nyingma tantras unanimously agree that the Master consecrated the Ārya Palo Ling Temple and performed the ground-blessing ritual at Samyé Monastery, and I also agree with that. It is also clear that the stories above, such as the drawing out of the thread when building the temple, refer to the Ārya Palo Ling Temple. The Testimony of Ba states that the Master remained in central Tibet for eighteen months. The Supplement to the Testimony of Ba agrees that he stayed in Tibet for eighteen months, but in The Testimony of the Lama the number of months is not specified. In the ancient documents said to be written based on an understanding of The Testimony of the King, it says the Master remained in Drakmar in central Tibet for eighteen months. Therefore, apart from small details, there is general agreement. Many of the great

Part 15  The Master did not complete the pith instructions. The intended fire offering to secure the king’s lineage and increase his power was left unfinished. Nor did the Master complete the necessary third binding under of oath of the gods and nāgas. The Master could foresee the future, however, and therefore he taught his students many wrathful mantras and likewise hid them, and many profound teachings, in clay pots. His miraculously emanated forms concealed one hundred and eight great treasures of wealth and Dharma. Finally, he said: In this and all the lives to comeMay I and my ever-generous benefactors,Enjoy the fruits of Mahāyoga practiceIn Akaniṣṭha, the sublime and perfect realm. The Master gave advice to each and every student and then suddenly departed, taking the Rulak road. Leading a horse, he was escorted by two loyal ministers, Loté Gunagong and Shang Nyangtang, as far as Mangyul. Even then, however, a few ministers conspired, “That tantrika has great power. If we do not kill him now, he will surely cast a curse on Tibet.” Secretly, they sent eighteen fierce assassins on horseback in pursuit of the Master. As the Master arrived in Mangyul-Gungthang, he warned his escorts, “In the morning, we will encounter harm-doers.” The following day, when they reached the precipitous path at Dongbab, the eighteen assassins, weapons in hand, were about to strike when the Master suddenly made a mudrā and they froze—motionless as clay statues and unable to utter a single word. The Master went only that far with his escort. When the escort was about to return from that mountain pass, the Master said: Tibet’s evil hordes of demons, rākṣasas, gods, and nāgas needed to be tamed three times, but one round remains undone. Had I completed the task, the king would have a long life, the kingdom would become great, the king’s lineage would become ever more powerful and the Dharma would remain for a long time. I will remember what has been left undone. One cycle of teaching will be completed and then