Dzogchen by The Dalai Lama

Dzogchen by The Dalai Lama

Author:The Dalai Lama [Lama, Dalai]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shambhala
Published: 2020-04-14T00:00:00+00:00


The terms ultimate and conventional are also found employed in the Sublime Continuum, in relation to taking refuge in the Three Jewels.22 Here, they denote ultimate and conventional refuge, ultimate and conventional determined by whether or not the source of refuge has attained complete fulfillment and is ultimately liberated and released from the bondage of saṃsāra.

Let us return to the presentation of the two truths. Since the fundamental innate mind is empty of adventitious phenomena like conceptual processes and circumstantial conditions, and has always retained its continuity, so it is spoken of as emptiness or ultimate truth. This interpretation gave rise to a view of emptiness in Tibet where this fundamental innate mind, described as ultimate truth, was taken to mean something independently and ultimately existent. This type of view of emptiness is called “emptiness of other” or shyentong. It has been refuted by many great Tibetan masters in the past, but Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche stated that there are two different interpretations of shyentong, one of which is authentic and valid and one of which is erroneous and invalid.23

The reason why I am reviewing all these different references to ultimate and conventional truth in specific settings is so that you will not allow yourselves to be confused by the uniformity of a term that is being used in different contexts. For instance, if you are reading a text like the Treasury of Knowledge,24 a text on the Vaibhāṣika philosophy, and you find mention of the terms ultimate and conventional truth, it is very dangerous to seek to understand those terms from the point of view of the Madhyamaka Prāsaṅgika. In fact, there is no way you can do that. As a rule, if you find terms such as the two truths and so on in the text of a lower philosophical school, the correct way to interpret them is in their own right. If you find the very same term used in a source from a higher school of thought, it is most important to examine whether the meaning remains the same and is common to both schools, or whether it has a different sense in that particular context. The same holds true when you find the term ultimate truth in tantra. You should begin by examining whether the meaning of that term in that particular context is one that is common to both sūtra and tantra, or whether it has acquired a different sense. And the same applies to ultimate truth in the context of Dzogchen practice. So, all in all, it is very important to examine what the reference of any particular term may be.



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