Dolpopa's view of Emptiness
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"I bow at the feet of the masters
who carefully distinguish, 'All imagined
and dependent phenomena are nonexistent,
but the fully established true nature
is never nonexistent,'
teaching what transcends existence
and nonexistence, and eternalism and nihilism."
Dolpopa, General Commentary on the Doctrine
Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen, a 14th century Tibetan Master, most known for his development of the shentong (empty of other) view, to describe the absolute reality as empty of other relative phenomena, but not itself empty. Though many before him in India and Tibet held this view, Dolpopa was the first to write this teaching with new language that was quite shocking for his contemporaries. He held that the two truths, the relative and ultimate or absolute were both empty (as posited in all Buddhist teachings) yet empty in two quite different ways. Relative phenomena are empty of independent existence or self-nature, and ultimate reality is empty only of other relative phenomena. Therefore, Dolpopa posited that the ultimate reality was self-luminous, unchanging, unbounded and empty.