Establishing Appearances As Divine: Rongzom Chökyi Zangpo On Reasoning, Madhyamaka, And Purity

by Heidi I. Koppl

Rongzom Chökyi Zangpo's concise treatise, Establishing Appearances as Divine, sets out to prove the provocative point that everything that appears is actually the deity manifest. Transformation of both one's identity and the environment is an important principle of Tantric Buddhist philosophy. In Tantric scriptures, one is instructed to visualize oneself as a deity, a divine identity who resides in a perfect sphere. By repeatedly training in this visualization, one perfects the transformation and ultimately becomes the deity itself.

Do the Tantric teachings hold sentient beings to be intrinsically pure and divine, or do they consider them initially flawed to be later purified through the visualization of divinity? Is the practice of deity yoga merely a means, or is it more fundamentally connected to the nature of things? These questions were among the main concerns of Rongzom Chökyi Zangpo, the illustrious philosopher of the Nyingma School of the Early Translations. Establishing Appearances as Divine sets out to prove the provocative point that the tradition still highly regards the point of view that everything which appears is actually the deity manifest. Many books on Tibetan Buddhism address the important themes of mind training, compassion, and proper conduct. This book goes beyond that in its aim to bring the reader face to face with his or her divine and pure nature. Its method is unusual: the author uses reasoned philosophical arguments to argue for esoteric Tantric Buddhist ideas and practices. The result itself is an unusual book held in high esteem for nearly a thousand years. The comprehensive introduction explores Rongzom's philosophy of purity by juxtaposing it with his view of Madhyamaka, while also relating the discussion to his assessment and application of reasoning. For readers of Tibetan, the book contains a comparative edition of the Tibetan text as well.

Establishing Appearances as Divine, translated here for the first time, embarks on the project of unraveling the magical interplay between rationality, truth, and divinity, bringing to light the view that underlies Tantric Buddhist practices.

Genres: Buddhism, Spirituality

160 pages, Hardcover

First published May 25, 2007

Reviews

[Yontan Gyatso]

A commentary on the short text of the same name makes up the bulk of this book. It is well put together, placing Rangzom's thought within the larger context of Nyingma and Buddhist thought. Unfortunately for us, Candrakirti's seminal text had not yet been introduced into Tibet, so much of Rongzompa's "beef" with madhyamaka analysis seems to have been undone by Candrakirti, which is to say Rangzompa seems to have been inventing Prasangika of sorts on his own. How great it would have been to hear his thoughts on the avatara.

[Petra · Rating 2 out of 5]

My problems with Rongzom's argument can be summarised by Bertrand Russell:

"Skepticism, while logically impeccable, is psychologically impossible, and there is an element of frivolous insincerity in any philosophy which pretends to accept it."

Rongzom is trying to argue that all appearances are themselves a part of ultimate truth, which is a position I'm sympathetic to. But his method for doing that is arguing that because people perceive things differently, then any appearance is as good as any other.

And I'm sorry but that's just flagrantly untrue, and ultimately a performative contradiction: Rongzom might claim that someone could mistake a rope for a snake, but if there truly were a venomous snake before him, he would not be reassured by my suggestion that it actually is a rope. He does not eat dirt or faeces, or drink pus because the hungry ghosts in his example view water and food as such.

No one actually lives like this or actually believes this, and even on top of this, differences in appearance, when not clouded by dogma, self-interest and prejudice, are almost always reconcilable. That most people are unable to have such an honest conversation is not proof that such knowledge is impossible.

[Duncan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short but very dense text. Definitely warrants another read, maybe more!

[David Patterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A struggle with unfamiliar terminology and approach for this Gelugpa. The Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism has gotten the lion's share of attention from Western scholars. It is time for the riches of the Nyigma to be made more available.

[Todd Marek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting source text, but bizarre translation.

[Tyler]

I just didn't understand it.