Dol po pa

Dol po pa on the DRL

Classical Tibetan Authors

དོལ་པོ་པ་ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་

Wylie	dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan
English Phonetics	Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen

 

Himalayan Art Resources

Other names

• ཤེས་རབ་རྒྱལ་མཚན་
• ཤེས་རབ་མགོན་
• རྟོན་པ་བཞི་ལྡན་

• shes rab rgyal mtshan
• shes rab mgon
• rton pa bzhi ldan

Dates

Birth:	1292
Death:	1361
Place of birth:	gtsang stod mnga' ris dol po gru gsum spu mdo

Tibetan calendar dates

Dates of birth

Day
Month
Gender	Male
Element	Water
Animal	Dragon
Rab Jyung	5

Dates of passing

Day
Month
Gender
Element
Animal
Rab Jyung

About

Religious Affiliation

Jonang

Teachers

tshul khrims snying po · skyi ston 'jam dbyangs · skyi ston grags pa rgyal mtshan · sa skya slob dpon shes rab bzang po · gzhon nu bzang po · blo gros bstan pa · jo gdan mkhan po bsod nams grags pa · nag 'bum · jo nang chos rje yon gtan rgya mtsho

Students

jo nang lo tsA ba blo gros dpal · g.yag sde paN chen · bsod nams rgyal mtshan · phyogs las rnam rgyal · sa bzang ma ti paN chen blo gros rgyal mtshan · 'bri gung lo tsA ba ma Ni ka shrI · nya dbon kun dga' dpal · kun spangs chos grags dpal bzang

Other Biographical info:

Links

BDRC Link

https://www.tbrc.org/#!rid=P139

Treasury of Lives Link

https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Dolpopa-Sherab-Gyeltsen/2670

Treasury of Lives Excerpt

Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen was one of the most influential Buddhist masters in Tibetan history. He first became an important scholar of the Sakya tradition, but then moved to Jonang Monastery. There he became the fourth holder of the monastic seat and constructed a monumental stupa. Dölpopa’s ideas, specifically his famous formulation of the zhentong view and his interpretations of Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna doctrine, have elicited controversy for nearly seven hundred years.

Himalayan Art Resources Link or Other Art Resource

https://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=1595

Wiki Pages

• Dol po pa on the DRL
• Dol po pa on the LIB
• Dol po pa on the DNZ
• Dol po pa on the BNW

Buddha Nature Project

Person description or short bio

Dölpopa Sherab Gyaltsen was one of the most influential Buddhist masters in Tibetan history. He first became an important scholar of the Sakya tradition, but then moved to Jonang Monastery. There he became the fourth holder of the monastic seat and constructed a monumental stupa. Dölpopa’s ideas, specifically his famous formulation of the zhentong view and his interpretations of Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna doctrine, have elicited controversy for nearly seven hundred years.

Expand to see this person's philosophical positions on Buddha-nature.

Is Buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?
Position:	Definitive
Notes:	"For Dölpopa, the teaching on buddha nature is of definitive meaning and serves as one of the cornerstones of his Shentong view. He typically describes both buddha nature and the dharmakāya as being ultimately really established, everlasting, eternal, permanent, immutable (ther zug), and being beyond dependent origination." Brunnhölzl, K., When the Clouds Part, p. 68.
All beings have Buddha-nature
Position:	Yes
If "Qualified", explain:
Notes:	"The crucial stanza [RGV] I.27, in which the three reasons for the presence of a buddha nature in sentient beings are presented, is thus explained in the following way: Since the dharmakāya of the perfect buddha embraces and pervades all phenomena, since there is no differentiation [to be made] within the dharmatā concerning all samsāra and nirvāna, and since the potential of the tathāgata exists in all sentient beings as the natural purity of the dharmadhātu, which can be purified of hindrances, truly every being possesses, always, continuously, and throughout beginningless time, the ultimate essence of the Buddha." Mathes, K., A Direct Path to the Buddha Within, p. 82.
Which Wheel Turning
Position:	Third Turning
Notes:
Yogācāra vs Madhyamaka
Position:
Notes:	Dolpopa has a unique view on this issue as Wangchuk points out: "Dölpopa argues the following: (1) Cittamātra is categorized into Conventional Cittamātra (kun rdzob pa'i sems tsam) and Ultimate Cittamātra (don dam pa'i sems tsam); (2) Cittamātra must not be conflated with Vijnānavāda; (3) Madhyamaka is grouped into Madyamaka without Appearance (snang med dbu ma) and Madhyamaka with Appearance (snang bcas dbu ma). His Mahäyäna doxography differs significantly from that of other fourteenth-century Tibetan scholars." Wangchuk, Tsering, The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, p. 47. It seems that the simple answer is that Dolpopa espoused Great Madhyamaka (dbu ma chen mo) or Madhyamaka with Appearance (snang bcas dbu ma), which is equivalent to Ultimate Cittamātra (don dam pa'i sems tsam). See Wangchuk, Tsering, The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows, pp. 49-50.
Zhentong vs Rangtong
Position:	Zhentong
Notes:	He was not the first to use the term, but he was the one to define and make it a central feature of his innovative philosophical position: "According to traditional Tibetan accounts, the revolutionary theory that the ultimate is not "empty of an own-being” (rang stong) but “empty of other” (gzhan stong) arose in Dölpopas mind during a Kālacakra retreat at Jonang. Lhai Gyaltsen informs us that Dölpopas realization was connected with the Kālacakratantra and the construction of the great stūpa in Jonang, which was consecrated in 1333. One of the first works in which Dölpopa expressed his new zhentong understanding of the Buddhist doctrine was his famous Ri chos nges don rgya mtsho. His last major work was the Bka bsdu bzhi pa (Bka' bsdu bzhi pa'i don bstan rtsis chen po, The Great Reckoning of the Doctrine That Has the Significance of a Fourth Council), which can be seen as a final summary of Dölpopas views." Mathes, K., A Direct Path to the Buddha Within, p. 75.
Promotes how many vehicles?
Position:
Notes:
Analytic vs Meditative Tradition
Position:
Notes:
What is Buddha-nature?
Position:	Tathāgatagarbha as the Emptiness That is an Implicative Negation (with enlightened qualities)
Notes:	"He typically describes both buddha nature and the dharmakāya as being ultimately really established, everlasting, eternal, permanent, immutable (ther zug), and being beyond dependent origination. He also equates the tathāgata heart with “ālaya-wisdom” as opposed to the ālaya-consciousness." Brunnhölzl, K., When the Clouds Part, p. 68.
Svātantrika (རང་རྒྱུད་) vs Prāsaṅgika (ཐལ་འགྱུར་པ་)
Position:
Notes:
Causal nature of the vajrapāda
Position:

The Sakya tradition developed in the eleventh century in the Khön family of Tsang, which maintained an imperial-era lineage of Vajrakīla and which adopted a new teaching from India known as Lamdre.

The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature.

Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of Common Era, focusing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through the realization of the wisdom of emptiness and the cultivation of compassion.

Refers to something that is taught for a specific reason, rather than because it is entirely true.

Refers to a teaching that is literally true.

The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature.

The notion that all phenomena arise in dependence on causes and conditions.

Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra

The fundamental expanse from which all phenomena emerge.

Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana).

Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā.

Though it is sometimes used synonymously with Yogācāra, it is in fact one of the more prominent philosophical theories associated with this school. It asserts that the objects in the external world with which we interact are actually mentally created representations appearing as those objects. The character of these perceptions is predetermined by our own karmic conditioning that is stored in the ālayavijñāna.

The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature.

The state of being empty of self, which references the lack of inherent existence in relative phenomena.

The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature.

Can refer to either the Kālacakra Tantra and its derivative texts or to the systematic tantric tradition based on these texts, as well as the deity Kālacakra upon which the associated practices are centered.

Tsen Khawoche's "meditative tradition" of exegesis of the Uttaratantra; it is one of two major Tibetan traditions of exegesis, both stemming from students of Sajjana.

The qualities or attributes of an enlightened being.

A neutral base consciousness that is posited as the storehouse for the seeds of past karmic actions in which they remain in a latent state until the circumstances arise for them to ripen as karmic consequences.