Rangtong and shentong

Rangtong and shentong are two distinctive views on emptiness and the two truths doctrine within Tibetan Buddhism.
'Rangtong' is a philosophical term in Tibetan Buddhism which is used by Tibetan defenders of shentong, like Dölpopa, to distinguish the majority Madhyamaka teaching on the nature of śūnyatā or "emptiness", namely that all phenomenon are empty of an enduring and/or unchanging essence or "self," and that this emptiness is not an absolute reality, but a mere nominal characterisation of phenomena. It is related to the prasangika approach, which argues that no positive statements should be made to deconstruct the notion of inherent existence, but only arguments which show the logical implications and absurdity of statements. This position is the mainstream Gelugpa interpretation of Madhyamaka, one of the main Mahayana schools, which dominates Vajrayana Buddhism.
Shentong refers to a range of views held by different Tibetan Buddhist figures. Classic Jonang shentong holds that while all relative phenomena are empty of inherent existence, ultimate reality is not empty of its own inherent existence. In this view, ultimate reality, the buddha-wisdom or buddha-nature, is only empty of relative and defiled phenomena, but it is not empty of its countless awakened qualities. The classic shentong view was developed and defended by the Jonang school of Tibetan Buddhism, especially by the great scholar Dölpopa Shérap Gyeltsen. The view also has precursors in some Indian Buddhist works, such as the Ratnagotravibhāga and the writings of Indian figures like Ratnākaraśānti and Sajjana.
Jonang shentong later influenced the views of various figures in the other schools of Tibetan Buddhism, like Sakya Chokden and Situ Panchen, becoming popular in various lineages. The shentong view was officially banned by Gelug authorities in the 17th century, due to political and doctrinal conflicts with the Jonang school, and shentong texts were sometimes destroyed in this period. After this period of suppression, various shentong views were propagated mainly by Jonang, Kagyu and Nyingma lamas. The 19th century saw a revival of shentong, particularly within the non-sectarian Rimé movement. Nowadays, classic shentong remains the main philosophical theory of the Jonang school, and various other forms of shentong are also taught by some lamas of the Kagyu, Sakya, and Nyingma schools.

Etymology

Shentong is a Tibetan Buddhist philosophical view. It applies the Mahayana theory of emptiness in a specific way. While shentong sees relative reality as empty of self-nature, it argues that absolute reality is a positive "non-dual buddhajñana" which is only "empty" of "other," relative phenomena. This positive ultimate reality is not empty of its own nature, and is thus "truly existing."
Another English translation of shentong is "extrinsic emptiness." Shentong was also called "Great Mādhyamaka", a term which has also been used by other figures to refer to their Madhyamaka views, like Longchenpa and Mipham.
The term rangtong was coined by shentong theorist Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen, who used the term "shentong" to characterise his own teachings and "rangtong" to refer to the teachings he saw as lesser to shentong. Rangtong generally refers to the Madhyamaka view which holds that all phenomena are empty of self, i.e., no-self, and inherent nature and that this emptiness is not an absolute reality, but a mere nominal designation.

Rangtong

Rangtong is the majority Tibetan teaching on the nature of śūnyatā or "emptiness", namely that all phenomena are empty of a self-nature in both the relative and absolute sense, without positing anything beyond that. This position is the mainstream Tibetan interpretation of Madhyamaka, especially by the followers of Prasaṅgika Mādhyamaka
Tsongkhapa, who also wrote in response to shentong, is the most outspoken defendant of rangtong. He saw emptiness as a consequence of pratītyasamutpāda, the teaching that no dharma has an existence of its own, but always comes into existence in dependence on other dharmas.
Tsongkhapa's view on "ultimate reality" is condensed in the sort text In Praise of Dependent Arising c.q. In Praise of Relativity c.q. The Essence of Eloquency. It states that "things" do exist conventionally, but ultimately everything is dependently arisen, and therefore void of inherent existence:
This means that conventionally things do exist, and that there is no use in denying that. But it also means that ultimately those things have no 'existence of their own', and that cognizing then as such results from cognitive operations, not from some unchangeable essence. Tsongkhapa:
It also means that there is no "transcendental ground," and that "ultimate reality" has no existence of its own, but is the negation of such a transcendental reality, and the impossibility of any statement on such an ultimately existing transcendental reality: it is no more than a fabrication of the mind. Susan Kahn further explains:

History of shentong

Indian origin and sources

The notion of shentong grew out of various Indian and Tibetan doctrinal discussions on the topics of Madhyamaka, Yogacara, and the theory of Buddha-nature.
Shentong adherents generally trace the shentong view back to India, pointing to numerous Indian sources, ranging from early suttas like the Cula-suññata Sutta to the tathagatagarbha sutras, a group of treatises variously attributed jointly to Asanga and Maitreya, and a body of praises attributed to Nāgārjuna. The Ratnagotravibhāga's statement that "the true end is void of conditioned phenomena in all aspects" is a key source for shentong reasoning. The same text also contains a key passage which states: "the basic element is empty of what is adventitious, which has the characteristic of being separable. It is not empty of the unsurpassable attributes, which have the characteristic of being inseparable."
In developing the shentong view, Dolpopa draws on several Indian Mahayana sutras which he considered to be of definitive meaning including: Tathāgatagarbha sūtra, Avikalpapraveśa dhāraṇī, Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra, Mahābherīsūtra, Aṅgulimālīya Sūtra, Tathāgatamahākaruṇānirdeśasūtra, Mahāmegha sūtra, the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, the “Maitreya Chapter”, the Pañcaśatikāprajñāpāramitā, the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra, the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, and the Buddhāvataṃsakasūtra.
Karl Brunnhölzl notes that several Indian sources contain a view similar to shentong. This view is an alternate interpretation of the yogacara model of the three natures which states that the perfected nature is empty of both the imaginary nature and the dependent nature. This view is found in the Bṛhaṭṭīkā, the Bhagavatyāmnāyānusāriṇī '', as well as in some texts by Ratnākaraśānti, which also state that the perfected nature is the buddha-nature.
The Bṛhaṭṭīkā states that the perfected nature is empty of the dependent nature and the imaginary nature:

Here, what is the perfect - dharmata-form - characteristics such as existing as imaginary form and is empty of the form that appears as the aspect of an object that is conceived as form. It is therefore that it is called "empty."

Furthermore, the Bṛhaṭṭīkā states that "being empty means being devoid of what is other". The Prajñāpāramitā commentaries like the Bṛhaṭṭīkā also state that the perfected nature is a naturally luminous mind which is unchanging, and free of adventitious stains. Brunnhölzl also writes that Jñānaśrīmitra’s Sākārasiddhiśāstra also promotes similar ideas.
Another Indian source, Sajjana's Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa, a commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga, states:

the heart of a tathāgata, because the disposition for the exists . The suchness of the dhātu is devoid of what is afflicted—the dependent.

According to Jamgon Kongtrul's Treasury of Knowledge, shentong is associated with the "third wheel" of Dharma, the highest intention of the Buddha, which can be found in various Indian sources like the treatises of Maitreya and some of Nāgārjuna's hymns. Kongtrul traces the lineage of the third wheel of Dharma through Indian figures like Asaṅga, Vasubandhu, Dharmapāla, Candragomī, Ratnākaraśānti, Maitrīpa and his student Vajrapāṇi, who wrote a commentary on Maitrīpa's Tattvadaśaka. This lineage was transmitted to Tibet by Ānandakīrti and Sajjana, through Ngog Lotsāwa, Su Gawé Dorje, Dsen Kawoché, and entered the Kagyu tradition through Gampopa and Padampa Sangyé.

Development in Tibet

In the Jonang tradition of Kālacakra, Yumo Mikyö Dorje is considered the key founder of shentong in Tibet. Jonang histories state he was a Kashmiri pandit and a student of a siddha named Candranātha. The only surviving texts of this figure are his "Four Lucid Lamps", which focus on the six-branch yoga of Kālacakra. In his Lamps, Dorje discusses the visible forms of emptiness seen during the Kālacakra yogas. To him, these forms reveal emptiness as a "path" that can be perceived, affirmed, and engaged with, compared to emptiness as a "view" which is a purely intellectual negation that cannot be perceived and engaged with, and is thus of lesser value.
Image:Karmapa7.jpg|right|thumb|Chödrak Gyatso, seventh Karmapa, head of the Kagyu School
Shentong was systematized and spread by Dölpopa Shérap Gyeltsen, a Sakya trained lama who later joined the Jonang school, studied under Khetsun Yonten Gyatso, and became a great scholar practitioner of Jonang Kālacakra. In 1321 Dölpopa visited Tsurphu Monastery for the first time, and had extensive discussions with the third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje. Rangjung Dorje may have influenced the development of some of Dölpopa's theories.
Dölpopa claimed to have extraordinary insights, and his meditational experience seems to have played a great role in the development of his shentong view. Dölpopa developed a new philosophical vocabulary, based on Sanskrit and Tibetan, to express his insights. He coined new terms including shentong, and khunzhi yeshe, and popularized other terms like "Great Madhyamaka". He also made use of terms from Mahayana scriptures which were not in use in Tibet at the time, for example, he referred to the ultimate truth as atman, nitya, and dhruva. According to Tāranātha, Dölpopa also unified two shentong lineages, the sūtra lineage of Maitreya-Asaṅga and the Kālacakratantra shentong lineage of Kālacakrapāda the Elder.
In the 15th century, shentong had become accepted by some figures in the Sakya and Kagyu schools. Sakya scholar Shakya Chokden, Shakya's teacher Rongton, and Chödrak Gyatso, 7th Karmapa Lama, were all proponents of a shentong view, though they had their own unique interpretations of shentong that are not identical to the stronger Jonang form of shentong.
In the Jonang tradition, Tāranātha is second in importance only to Dölpopa himself. He was responsible for the short-lived renaissance of the school as a whole in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and of the widespread revitalization of the shentong theory in particular. Tāranātha wrote a commentary on the Heart Sutra which asserts that the Sutra, and prajñāpāramitā, teaches the shentong view. He also wrote important texts explaining and justifying the shentong view of the three natures based on arguments from the Madhyāntavibhāga and ''Ratnagotravibhāga''.