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Tsong-kha-pa: Supramundane Special Insight
entering into suchness, one initially enters by way of the selflessness of persons, and Shāntideva also says the same. The reason why it must be done this way is that although there is no difference in subtlety with regard to the selflessness to be ascertained in terms of the persons or phenomena that are its substrata, selflessness is easier to ascertain in terms of a person due to essentials of the substratum,a whereas it is more difficult to ascertain in terms of [other] phenomena. This is like the fact that, for example, since it is more difficult to ascertain the selflessness of phenomena in terms of an eye, ear, and so forth and easier to ascertain it in terms of a reflection and so forth, the latter are posited as examples for delineating selflessness in terms of the former.b In consideration of this fact, the King of Meditative Stabilization Sūtra also says (see also Insight, 87; Illumination, 204):c Just as you know [how to generate] discrimination [taking to mind the delineation of the mode of subsistence] of a self, Apply this mentally to all [phenomena]. [The reason for this is that] all phenomena are [established as a
In his 1972 lectures, the Dalai Lama suggested that a reason for this is that the person is already considered by the other Buddhist systems to be imputedly existent. b In his 1972 lectures, the Dalai Lama noted that Tsong-kha-pa’s presentation here differs slightly from that in his Great Exposition of the Stages of the Path, where he uses as an example the coarse falsity of a reflection of a face being empty of establishment as a face, which, of course, is realized by ordinary beings who have not realized emptiness. That is used as an example, or analog, of a reflection of a face being empty of inherent existence. However, here the emptiness of inherent existence of a reflection is used as a similar example in the process of realizing the emptiness of inherent existence of phenomena such as an eye, an ear, and so forth. The difference between the two is explained as being for different trainees; the description in the Great Exposition of the Stages of the Path is for those whose continuums have not matured, whereas the description in the Medium-Length Exposition of the Stages of the Path is for those whose continuums have matured. The Dalai Lama reported that according to Jam-yang-shay-pa it could be that first one contemplates coarse falsity and then as one’s understanding becomes more profound, one realizes subtle selflessness with respect to a reflection of a face, whereupon this is used as an example for realizing the subtle selflessness of other phenomena. c ting nge ’dzin rgyal po’i mdo, samādhirājasūtra, XII.7; Toh. 127, mdo sde, vol. da, 44a.244a.3; cited in Prasannapadā, in commentary to stanza IV.9; Toh. 3860, dbu ma, vol. ’a, 43b.1-43b.2; La Vallée Poussin, Mūlamadhyamakakārikās (Mādhyamikasūtras) de Nāgārjuna avec la Prasannapadā Commentaire de Candrakīrti (Osnabrück, Germany: Biblio Verlag, 1970), 128.11-128.13: yathā jñāta tayā ’tmasaṃjña tathaiva sarvatra peṣitā buddhiḥ / sarve ca tatsvabhāvā dharma viśuddhā gagaṇakalpāḥ // ekena sarvaṃ jñānāti sarvam ekena paśyati /. Brackets are from Four Interwoven Annotations, vol. 2, 686.6. Cited in Great Treatise, vol. 3, 311.