The Buddha From Dolpo: A Study Of The Life And Thought Of The Tibetan Master Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen (Tsadra)

Let’s say it: I started writing “this” review, enthusiastically, a few months ago… only to realize that “this” review was not giving to the perspective Reader a true idea of the great value of this work by Cyrus Stearns.To put it simply, this work by Stearns is so important that it is difficult to write a review of it : it is a work of deep scholarly erudition but at the same time it is a work of serious doctrinal reflection that never forgets the soteriological intention and value of the arguments it presents and…again, at the same time, it is a work that presents to our reflection some very deep theoretical thoughts.I would like to present to the perspective Readers an exhaustive review, but this work by Stearns could be “exhaustively” reviewed only with a very long essay.So, the Reader of this review be warned: we are sailing here with a very little boat (i.e., this review) in a wide and beautiful ocean of higher learning, compassionate thinking, and philosophical reflection.Stearns does mainly three things:- he tells us the story of the “fall” (the prosecution) of the School of the JonangPas and the story of the rediscovery of their message- he translates two of the three most important texts by Dölpopa (plus, in this second edition, Dölpopa’s Autocommentary to his “Fourth Council ”)- he discusses some of the main doctrinal points of the Shentong doctrine and in so doing he highlights a theoretical thought that goes well beyond the limits of a strictly “Buddhist doctrinal debate”.There is no doubt that two points are immediately evident at a first reading of Dölpopa’s works translated here by Stearns: one is Dölpopa’s thought’s soteriological character and the other is his goal of defeating any form of nihilism possibly hiding in some (mis-)interpretations of the Dharma.The immense erudition that Dölpopa shows in his works is not “academic”, if by the adjective “academic” we mean an attitude in which the scholarly erudition is reduced to an end in and to itself. Dölpopa’s scholarly erudition is actually unfathomable, the quotations of the Tantric and Mahayana texts in his works are an infinite ocean, but such astonishing knowledge is always inspired by a soteriological goal, and a very precise soteriological goal for that: the salvation of the individual from the possible misunderstanding(s) – or worse, misrepresentations - of the BuddhaDharma.And certainly Dölpopa moved all his decisive doctrinal steps precisely with the intent to cancel one terrible danger: the danger of nihilistic interpretations of the BuddhaDharma.Clearing the misunderstandings (or defeating the misrepresentations) of the BuddhaDharma, and defeating the most radically destructive of all misrepresentations - i.e., nihilism – the one that can wipe away the very possibility of the Dharma : this is the depth of Dölpopa’s intention.And such a deep positive intention moves Dölpopa’s reflection up to a level that is truly “ecumenical” (when “ecumenical” is not taken as meaning “the universe of those who share a certain group of beliefs” and is instead taken in its original meaning of “the (whole of the) inhabited world”). Thus, Dölpopa expresses some thoughts that are truly of “universal value”, so much so that, as the Reader will see a few lines below, I will have to compare them to some fundamental classics of philosophy.But even there STEARNS does a great job : Stearns certainly highlights, throughout the texts, the main points of discussion specific to the Buddhist Doctrine, but he also highlights what we can certainly call Dölpopa’s central theoretical thought:in a footnote to the Fourth Council, (note 486, p.388) Stearns says: “Dölpopa frequently emphasizes in his writings that relative phenomena would be impossible without the existence of a fully established and real absolute, or Dharmakaya.”This footnote refers to the sentence at page147 in which Dölpopa concludes that (IF you claim that the Absolute is not pure awareness, hence omniscient, hence the Buddha, hence the Dharmakaya, THEN : )“If you claim that, you contradict even the existence of phenomena ”.The content of Stearns’ footnote is confirmed by many pages in the same text by Dölpopa. See, just to quote a few of them: p.152, the entire page 153, and the strategic formulation at page 189:“I cannot yield to those who accept,“All is groundless and rootless”,So joining my palms together,I call out and offer advice.Please consider that the Krtayuga Dharma [MY NOTE FOR THIS REVIEW : read this as “THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE DHARMA”]Also teaches that the universal groundPrimordial awareness, the space of thusness,Is the partless, omnipresent, all-pervasive ground,Place and support of all phenomena.”Dölpopa is saying :if you deny the Absolute, you deny the relative.As we know, the problem HAD been stated, both in the East and in the West.The groundless relative – that we could also call “the finite” – is in fact, when examined only in and by itself, quite that, groundless. Even its temporary, illusory, conditioned, limited, “existence” (or, if it seems to you that “existence” gives to the “relative” an ontological status that it does not deserve, or that anyway we cannot fathom, let us say: “appearance”) cannot be thought without the Absolute – the “Infinite”.We know that Dölpopa here raises a very specific problem of the Doctrine:the fundamental Buddhist Teaching of the Pratītyasamutpāda ( Skr. प्रतीत्यसमुत्पाद , dependent origination, or dependent arising) asserts in fact that every phenomenon in the world is only the result of causes which are themselves the result of causes.The theoretical, and doctrinal, problem, is evident and evidently very dangerous: the Pratītyasamutpāda teaching could be interpreted as teaching an absolute nihilism.And for a western perspective on the same problem we can just quote from a great classic of history of philosophy, Étienne Gilson’s La Philosophie Au Moyen Age - Des Origines Patristiques a la fin du XIV Siecle , Payot, Paris, 1922 (2011), p. 364 [ Philosophy in the Middle Ages - From the Patristic Origins to the end of the XIV Century ] : we will immediately notice that Gilson is discussing here the same theoretical problem.Gilson says:“En effet, l’expérience ne nous fait connaître que des objets dont l’existence depend de certaines causes. Chacun d’eux est donc simplement “possible”; mais leurs causes aussi ne sont que “possibles”; la série totale des êtres est donc un simple possible, et, comme le possible est ce qui requiert une cause pour exister, s’il n’y avait que des possibles, rien n’existerait.”“In fact, experience allows us to know only objects whose existence depends on certain causes. Each one of them, thus, is simply “possible”, but their causes also are only “possible”: thus, the complete series of the beings is a simple possible, and, since the possible is what requires a cause to exist, if there were only possibles, nothing would exist.”Thus, the theoretical relevance of the thought of Dölpopa cannot be ignored by the Buddhist Schools of thought, but also by anyone else:anyone familiar with the Buddhist doctrine of the Pratītyasamutpāda will immediately recognize, when confronted with the quotation from Gilson that we have just presented, the extraordinary doctrinal, and theoretical, problem that Dölpopa is facing, and solving, here. Yes, all the phenomena are results of causes that are results of causes…but the ultimate truth CANNOT BE the sheer, utter, nothing, otherwise … nothing would exist, not even illusions.Rarely in the history of human thought we have witnessed nihilism being assaulted so frontally.(Certainly, Parmenides can be mentioned here…but there have been nihilist readings even of Parmenides, i.e. some shallow fatalistic readings of his thought).The works of Dölpopa tell us that for him the ultimate Truth is the Infinite Absolute Bliss, Gnosis (Ye Shes), Radiant Light (‘od gsal , Ö Sel) … and we could quote many other names (in fact, there are entire pages of such “names” in his works), but all of them are synonyms of:standing, abiding, permanent “place and support of all phenomena”.The space of this review does not allow us to inspect thoroughly other works of Dölpopa, but let’s at least say that the fundamental theoretical thought that we are discussing here does return, in identical terms, in other works of Dölpopa, like for the example in his fundamental and extensive “Mountain Doctrine ” (Ithaca, New York, 2006). The Ultimate as “the basis of all phenomena ” returns there at pp. 89, 124, 137 (in a quotation from the Hevajra Tantra), and at pages 154, 194, 511, 563, 565.And in the same work, Ye Shes (Skrt. Jnana, Gnosis) is declared “beyond dependent-arising ” (p.598), thus confirming the reflections that we were presenting a few lines above.Thus, in truly MahaYana and Madhyamaka terms: “emptiness” is empty of any “finite” but not empty of Truth.Thus, the Pratītyasamutpāda is not a way to prove that everything is nothing : and thus, the danger of nihilism is removed.AND the Way remains the Way: we still must walk it because of course the “causes” do not disappear in Dölpopa’s thought - therefore neither our obscurations do, without a serious Quest for the Radiant Light.But the danger of nihilism does disappear.Thus, the goal of the true understanding is not the utter annihilation of everything IF it is the theoretical understanding - lived in an authentic existential experience - of the radical irrelevance of any hypostatization /concept /idea/ imagination /illusion of a “thing” (including “ego” things) (i.e., if it is a realization of the Prajnaparamita’s teaching, “emptiness of self” or, in a better translation of Shunya: “NO---thingness of self” ) AND IF IT IS AT THE SAME TIME the ecstatic, abiding, experience of the Presence of the radiant Wonder and Bliss of the Truth (that is “empty of other”, ShenTong).It is impossible to overestimate the relevance of these theoretical positions of Dölpopa. They put Dölpopa at the heart of that immense and immensely deep theoretical thought that, although born out of a purely soteriological intent, stands - together with the deepest thoughts of the human kind - at the very center of theoretical thought. It has been called “the monist Absolute of the Mahayanists ” [this sentence is originally by Prof. St. Schayer, in Ueber den Somatismus der indischen Psychologie, in Bulletin de l’Academie Polonaise des Sciences et des Lettres, Cracow, 1936, p. 161, but we would have certainly missed this fundamental milestone if another giant of thought of the twentieth century, Maryla Falk, had not quoted it, at p.58 of her masterly work “Nama-Rupa and Dharma-Rupa, Origin and Aspects of an Ancient Indian Conception ”, originally “Calcutta”,1942, but now Jain Publishing, Fremont, no date].[You can find that work by Maryla Falk here at Amazon and you will find there, also, my review of it].[CORRECTION:Maryla Falk does quote the sentence I just mentioned, but some time ago, while I was reviewing JIKIDO TAKASAKI’s 1966 edition of the UttaraTantra – A Study on the Ratnagotravibhaga (Uttaratantra), ISMEO, Rome 1966 – I noticed that “Buddhist Monism ” appears in the title of the first translation of the UttaraTantra in a western language – ibid. p.5, footnote 2 – by Dr. E. Obermiller. That translation is dated 1931, 5 years earlier than the work quoted by Maryla Falk. Anyway of course “Buddhist Monism” and “the monist Absolute of the Mahayanists” are not exactly identical expressions, so we can keep both the quotations. ].Thus, it is also impossible to overestimate this work by Stearns : with his scholarly erudition and his careful translation he gives us decisively important texts to study and decisively important reflections to cultivate…and “a way” to the Way that we could have missed without his help.This is a precious help.And this kind of work distinguishes the truly profound scholar from those who are only interested in proposing their own - often eccentric and irrelevant - excogitations, sometimes presented as “translations”.

This is a masterful work on a tradition of Tibetan Buddhism that has been largely overlooked by Western scholars in the past. Perhaps this is because the Jonang tradition, based in the practice and view of the Kalachakra (Wheel of Time) Tantra, was severally suppressed in the 17th Century by the Central Tibetan government and monastic hierarchy, because it did not match their prescribed view of the Buddhist teachings. But the Jonang tradition survived, and is a strong force again today, particularly in Eastern Tibet and among many exiled Buddhist teachers. It is based in the teachings of Buddha Nature as the fundamental nature of all beings, and the inherent qualities associated with the realization of that nature. Cyrus Stearn's translations and commentaries are masterful, and portray the brilliance of the great Jonangpa master Dolpopa with grace, depth and clarity.

Rare and thorough research

Excellent book. Will buy again from this seller who was very prompt with delivery.

3rd time I've gotten an email to leave a review. The purchase was flawless. Thank you

quality book, very pleased.