Reprint of The Buddha from Dolpo
The key in Dölpopa’s approach [to ultimate reality) is to link his view of the absolute as empty only of other relative phenomena (gzhan stong) to the teachings of the Kṛtayuga, as opposed to the teachings of the Tretāyuga and later eons that emphasize even absolute reality is empty of self-nature (rang stong). This he makes clear early in The Fourth Council:
Fully understanding each
of those divisions,
I wish to purge the doctrine,
and wishing for myself and others
to enter the fine path,
I honor the sublime Kṛtayuga Dharma
as the witness.
The Tretāyuga and later eons
are flawed, and their treatises
that have been diluted like milk
in the market are in every case
unfit to act as witnesses.
The higher refute the lower,
as the higher philosophical tenets
refute the lower.
The Kṛtayuga Dharma is the stainless
words of the Conqueror,
and what is carefully taught
by the lords on the tenth level
and by the great system founders,
flawless and endowed with sublime qualities.
In that tradition all is not
empty of self-nature.
Carefully distinguishing
empty of self-nature and empty of other,
what is relative is all taught
to be empty of self-nature,
and what is absolute is taught
to be precisely empty of other.
Dölpopa speaks of two modes of emptiness that correspond to the two truths and to phenomena and the true nature of reality. He emphasizes that absolute truth is not empty of itself, but is the basis or ground empty of all other relative phenomena, described as the profound emptiness of other. This is the mode of emptiness for the true nature of reality. Absolute truth is uncreated and indestructible, unconditioned and beyond the chain of dependent origination. Relative truth and ordinary phenomena are empty of self-nature and completely unestablished. The relative is the created and destructible phenomena that are conditioned and dependent on causes and conditions.
