Tenet Systems

Basic Points about Voidness and Mental Labeling Tsongkhapa studied and debated with masters from all traditions current at his time. He was a revolutionary.  Here are some of his unique points about the assertions of selflessness and voidness in the four Indian Buddhist tenet...

Basic Definitions A deluded outlook toward a transitory network (’jig-lta) concerns how we view ourselves as persons (gang-zag) in relation to the aggregate factors of our experience (phung-po). It deals with only ourselves as persons and not with any other persons. It has...

When we speak about voidness, which is the translation term that I prefer over “emptiness,” it refers to an absence of a way of existing that does not exist, which never existed and never will exist. We project impossible ways of existing onto ourselves, others and all...

Introduction The Tibetan term rigs, meaning “caste” or “family,” appears in the technical term sangs-rgyas-kyi rigs (Buddha-caste, Buddha-family) and is usually translated as “Buddha-nature.” More specifically, in the context of the discussion of Buddha-nature, it means a...

In order to rid ourselves of the second noble truth, true causes of suffering, we need to gain non-conceptual cognition of the lack of an impossible soul (bdag-med, selflessness, identitylessness) with relation to each of the four noble truths. In Mahayana terminology, this...

The Lack of an Impossible “Soul” The Hinayana schools, including Vaibhashika, Sautrantika and Theravada, assert the lack of an impossible “soul” – or selflessness – with respect only to persons, not all phenomena. Although they do not use the term voidness for this...

Origin of the Tenet Systems Indian Buddhism, as transmitted to Tibet, had four main schools of philosophical tenets (grub-mtha’). According to tradition, Buddha is the source of them all. Various Indian masters wrote the major treatises presenting the views of the four. [See:...

From the traditional point of view of the Indo-Tibetan form of Mahayana Buddhism, Buddha himself taught four major tenet systems (grub-mtha’, Skt. siddhanta) to suit the dispositions and capacities of different disciples. Hinayana had eighteen schools and within one of them,...