TANTRIC BUDDHISM (INCLUDING CHINA AND JAPAN)BNTh
BrCh
RM
TPS= Bu stan rnam thar (appearing shortly in the Serie Orientale Roma);
= 'Brug pa chos 'bywi of Padma dkar po;
= Re 'u mig in PSJZ, part II (Delhi edition);
= Tibetan Painted Scrolls by G. Tucci (Roma, 1940).
2 The text referred to here is the * Aryasatasiihasrikii-paiicavif!lsatisiihasrikii'!tii-
dasasiihasrikiiprajnapiiramitii-brhat{ikii, which is known as the Yum gsum gnod
'jams (che ba) (mDo 'grel, vol. pha) and is attributed generally to the Kasmlrl teacher
Da!llWiisena.
2a The Jo nan pas might then be described as advocates of a kind of substantialistic
theory, though they are not ontologist supporters of the reality of a composite
(saf!lskrta) thing. Even the Yogiiciiras are considered in the Tibetan histories of philo-
sophy to be 'ontologists' (diws po smra ba) because they hypostasize not only the
parini!)panna but also the paratantra as something established in reality.-However,
the entire question of ontology and substantialism in Buddhist philosophy requires
further study before such terms can be meaningfully applied to a given school. One
authority for example--dKon mchog 'Jigs med dban po in his Grub mtha' rin chen
phren ba (6b0 and 9a2)--went so far as to ascribe to the Sii!llmatlya!Vatslputrlyas the
doctrine of the substantial existence (rdsas yod: dravyasat) of the pudgala; but this
view has been questioned by followers such as Gun than dKon mchog bsTan pa'i
sgron me (Legs bSad sfiin po 'i mchan 19a).
The discussion on the gian stan refers back to the itaretarasiinyatii and the Sutra
text which gives as an example of one kind of Voidness a residence for the commun-
ity (gtsug lag khan, kiitiigiira or vihiira) empty of elephants, cows, sheep, etc., but not
empty of all monks, etc. Since the comparison made between the author of the Yum
gsum gnod 'jams and the Jo nan pas concerns only the method of expounding Void-
ness (stoli tshul), there need be no contradiction with what is said in the ThG trans-
lated below concerning the Jo nan pa doctrines being a Tibetan invention.
The exact significance of this comparison with Da!ll~trasena is in any case difficult
to evaluate since the authorship of the Yum gsum gnod '}oms is disputed. Bu ston
(Lun gi siie ma, 3a6) states that Dalll~trasena was the author of the 'Bum gyi {ik, i.e.
the gNod 'jams chun ba (mDo 'grel, volumes na and pa) on the Satasiihasrikii. But,
while noting the ascription of the Yum gsum gnod 'jams also to Da!ll~trasena, the Bu
ston Ohos 'byun (156a5-6) considers this commentary to be in fact a Paddhati by
Vasubandhu; and this last ascription is also found in Bu ston's gSan yig (17b2).
(Exactly how Bu ston could attribute this work to Vasubandhu is not altogether clear.
Could he possibly have had in mind the slob dpon dByig giien or Vasubandhu to
whom another work of doubtful authorship preserved in the bsTan 'gyur-the Don
gsali ba-is ascribed? But see the dKar chag of the Peking edition as quoted by P.
Cordier, Catalogue du fonds tibetain, Troisieme partie, p. 284.)-In any case, the
ascription to Vasubandhu is cogently rejected by Tson kha pa, who ascribes it tenta-
tively to Dalll~triisena (gSer phren, 4b-5b, and Legs bSad sfiili po, 37b6), (This ques-
tion has been touched on by E. Obermiller, Bu stan's History of Buddhism, II, p. 146
note, and Doctrine ofPrajiiaparamitii, AO, II (1932), p. 5 note.)
3 See my Introduction to the BNTh, Serie Orientale Roma, p. I 0-12, concerning the
school of Madhyamikas with which Bu ston is to be connected. Sum pa mkhan po
(PSJZ, p. 175.2) states that he is a Prasangika; while the other authorities cited agree
that he was in fact a Prasangika, they point out that some of his teachings were for-
mulated from the point of view of the Yogacara-Madhyamika-Svatantrika method.
4 TPS, p. 128b; however, as Tucci explains, this comparison refers to the fact that
Taranatha was especially interested in the teachings of the Siddhas connected in Tibet
with the bKa' brgyud pa line.
5 This is stated to be the case especially for Mi bskyod rdo rje (1507-1554), who held