Jonang School

[DharmaSpace]

The Jonang School was thought to be extinguished during the time of the 5th Dalai Lama, as the 5th Dalai Lama wanted to suppress this school who were supporters of the rivals to the 5th Dalai Lama. Civil war broke out in Tibet. Historians also came to the conclusion that the Jonang was suppressed not so much of that they were heretical, but it was purely due to politics as the Great 5th needed to bring stability to the country once again after the civil war. The Gelug school also embraced the Jonang tradition of Kalachkara, and Kalachakara is being propitiated by the Dalai Lama up to now. 

In recent times it had been discovered that Jonang Monasteries are still active in Sichuan, China areas.
The 14th Dalai Lama confirmed this view in Glenn Mullin's The Fourteen Dalai Lamas (Clear Light Publishers, p. 207):
"These monasteries were closed for political reasons, not religious ones, and their closing had nothing to do with sectarianism. They had supported the Tsangpa king in the uprising, thus committing treason. The Great Fifth believed that they should be closed in order to insure the future stability of the (Tibetan) nation, and to dissuade other monasteries from engaging in warfare."

Rediscovery - From Wikipedia

The Jonangpa were until recently thought to be an extinct heretical sect. Thus, Tibetologists were astonished when fieldwork turned up several active Jonangpa monasteries, including the main monastery called Tsangwa located in Tibet, Dzamthang County, Sichuan, China. Almost 40 monasteries, comprising about 5,000 monks, have subsequently been found, including some in the Amdo and Gyarong districts of Qinghai and the Tibet Autonomous Region.[2]
Interestingly, one of the primary supporters of the Jonang lineage in exile has been the 14th Dalai Lama of the Gelugpa. The Dalai Lama donated buildings in Himachal Pradesh state in Shimla, India for use as a Jonang monastery (now known as the Main Takten Phuntsok Choeling Monastery) and has visited during one of his recent teaching tours. The Karmapa of the Karma Kagyu lineage has visited there as well.
The Jonang tradition has recently officially registered with the Tibetan Government in exile to be recognized as the fifth living Buddhist tradition of Tibet. The 14th Dalai Lama assigned Khalkha Jetsun Dampa Rinpoche or the 'Bogd Gegeen' of Mongolia (who is considered to be an incarnation of Taranatha) as the leader of the Jonang tradition.

So if the 14th Dalai Lama could reverse what the 5th Dalai Lama he can surely reverse his stance on the ban. Stay tuned, this forum and website has the coolest news on the lifting of the ban!

[DharmaDefender]

Hmmm seems like the Fifth Dalai Lama and 14th Dalai Lamas decisions are much more related than previously thought...or at least, I had previously thought. Theyre both very much against sectarianism and the instability of Tibet. From what I can tell, both have been more political than the other Dalai Lamas and and apparently neither have any problems wading deep into controversy. I wonder though if its all about timing, that the Fifth Dalai Lama started a lot of things that its now time for the 14th Dalai Lama to bring up / finish off.

[hope rainbow]

Yet, there were differences in the teachings also.

from WIKIPEDIA:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonang

The Jonang tradition combines two specific teachings, what has come to be known as the zhentong (or shentong) philosophy of emptiness, and the Dro-lineage of the Kalachakra tantra.
The origin of this combination in Tibet is traced to the master Yumo Mikyo Dorje - an 11th/12th century pupil of the Kashmiri master Somanatha.

While the Gelugpa embraced the Jonang teaching on the Kalachakra, they ultimately opposed the Jonangpa  over a difference in philosophical view.
Yumo Mikyo Dorje, Dolpopa Sherab Gyeltsen and subsequent lamas maintained a teaching known as zhentong, which holds that only the clear-light, non-dual nature of the mind is "real", and everything else is empty of inherent existence.
The Gelug school held the distinct but related rangtong view that all phenomena are empty (of inherent existence) and no thing or process (including Mind and its qualities) may be asserted as independent or inherently real (neither may phenomena be asserted as "unreal" - in short, all assertions are seen to be groundless).

After the Jonang monasteries were forcibly converted to the Gelug lineage, their Kalachakra teachings were however absorbed into the Gelug school.
The present 14th Dalai Lama actively promotes initiation into Kalachakra.

[Ensapa]

The Jonang school was founded by Taranatha. When there was a political problem with the school, it was banned. Taranatha's incarnation was banned, needless to say, and until now the ban has not been lifted, but he returned as Jetsundampa Hutuku of Mongolia as head of the Mongolian Buddhists and as a Gelug. Taranatha is the author of many important texts and is a renowned scholar during his time but yet the CTA banned him. Why unban the school but not the founder? I find this kinda funny and illogical.

[DharmaSpace]

I read on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonang
that Dalai Lama assigned http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalkha_Jetsun_Dampa (who recently went to parinirvana in 2012) as the head of Jonangpas.

So if the 14th Dalai Lama can unban the Jonangpas, surely the the Dorje Shugden ban can be lifted.

[Ensapa]

I have found a more extensive research on the Jonang school, and also on its founder, Taranatha. The ban was not lifted without petitions and without much effort from people who believe in the Jonang School. If they can do it, we can too with Dorje Shugden! From here, we can see how the Jonang School was banned, why and what happened after that.

Indeed, Jonang tradition was banned and monasteries were closed at the
time of the Great Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso. But from
19th century AD onwards, Jonangpa order is freely to teach in the
public. Today in Tibet, there are more than 50 Jonangpa monasteries
throughout the country, supporting approximately 10,000 monks.

http://www.jonang.org/index.asp

Jetsun Taranatha's works were once banned during that period. However,
his works are once again studied in the Tibetan monasteries, such as the
one translated by Naropa University, "The Essence of Shentong", and his
other works, such as
"History Of Buddhism In India", "Golden Rosary" and many others, are
also studied in some monasteries and modern scholars.

So therefore, Jonang tradition IS a living tradition.

One may ask what did the Great Fifth Dalai Lama want to ban Jonang
tradition in the 17th century AD?

The Great Fifth Dalai Lama banned the Jonang school due to both
political and religious reasons:

1. The cause for the downfall of the Jonang school is generally seen in
the exegesis of Asanga's Mind-Only-School by Sherab Gyatsen, the first
great exponent of the order. He had formulated a philosophical position
that later was considered 'heretical', for it offered a way of
conceptualizing the process of Enlightenment that was close to the
thoughts of early mediaeval Chan Buddhism of the Chinese monk Hvashang.
The latter had taught the possibility of a sudden awakening of the
Enlightenment state through the absence of mental activity. This
position was to provide the pretext for proscribing the Jonang order.

This is much to do with the debates based on Rang tong and Sheng tong
views, and not forget to mention an unique Sheng tong views of the
Jonang school. I will not elaborate here as I am not a
scholarly-trained.

2. From the religious-dogmatic point of view the proponents of the
Indian Buddhist school, such as Kamasila and his students, had triumphed
over those of Hvashang’s Chinese Chan tradition. Yet, records of the
Jonangpa tradition claim the victory of the Hvashang tradition at the
Samye Council. Thus the Jonang teachings only became a deviation from
the ‘unvarnished truth’ when later Tibetan apologists identified
themselves with the Indian parties.

For better understanding on this subject, please refer to "Enlightenment
by a Single Means: Tibetan controversies on the 'Self-Sufficient White
Remedy (Dkar Po Chig Thub)" by David Jackson. From page 178 to 180,
there is a very detail Tibetan account on this debate.

3. There were some more reasons why the Jonangpa were taken between two
fires of the doctrinal disputes. Their notion that gifts to monasteries
as a means for the path to Enlightenment would be dispensable were
sowing seeds of discontent for these gifts were an important base to the
political power of several Buddhist orders, namely the rising Gelugpa.

4. The objective of power politics had the Jonangpa being on the
'politically wrong side' as they were, like the Karma-Kagyu, closely
associated with the Gelugpa’s main rivals for power in central Tibet,
the princes of Tsang. Any significant influence of the Jonangpa thus was
a thorn in the Gelugpa’s side.

During that period of time, the new central government, Ganden Phodrang,
was just formed in Lhasa. Any rivals for power from supporters of/and
the princes of Tsang, will definitely threaten the new government and
the unification of all the Tibetans.

5. Jetsun Taranatha who had been sent to Urga in Khalkha Mongolia by the
prince of Tsang, was staying there for two decades. When in 1634 he died
in Urga, his reputation endured for his reincarnation was discovered in
a son of the Khalkha Mongol prince Tusiyetu Khan. The boy was declared
to be the spiritual leader of Mongolia and given the title of "Holy
Venerable Lord" (Jetsundampa). Thus the Jonangpa, and together with them
the princes of Tsang, were about to secure the support of one of the
most mighty central Asian powers. The decisive political move was then
made by the Great Fifth Dalai Lama by eliminating the Jonangpa order,
yet expressing his support for the Jetsundampa incarnation and thus
integrating him into the Gelugpa system.

For those who are familiar with Mongolian Buddhist Arts, Under Gegen
Zanabazar, the First Bogdo Zabzundamba or Hutuktu Zabzundamba, is the
first Mongol reincarnation line of Jetsun Taranatha.

Now, in a recent article "A Survey of the Paths of Tibetan Buddhism",
His Holiness the Fourthteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, wrote about the
doctrine views of the Jonangpas:

"Amongst the definitive sutras are also included sutras belonging to the
third turning of the wheel of doctrine, particularly the Tathagata
Essence Sutra, which is actually the fundamental source of such Middle
Way treatises as the Sublime Continuum and the Collection of Praises
written by Nagarjuna. Also included in the third turning were other
sutras such as the Sutra Unravelling the Thought of the Buddha, which
according to some Tibetan masters are also categorized as definitive.

These scholars (such as the Jonangpas) maintain an unique view of
emptiness, which is technically called 'emptiness of other', and they
speak of different kinds of emptiness qualifying different phenomena.
They maintain that conventional phenomena are empty of themselves and
ultimate phenomena are empty of conventional phenomena.

You could interpret this explanation of emptiness, that conventional
phenomena are empty of themselves, to mean that because conventional
phenomena are not their own ultimate nature, they are empty of
themselves. But these Tibetan scholars do not interpret it in such a
way, they maintain that because phenomena are empty of themselves, they
do not exist.

As we know from history that many masters belonging to this group of
scholars actually achieved high realizations of the generation and
completion stages of tantra, they must have had a profound understanding
of their particular interpretation of emptiness. But if we were to
interpret emptiness as things being empty of themselves in such a manner
that they do not exist at all, it would be like saying that nothing
exists at all.

Because they maintain that conventional phenomena do not exist, being
empty of themselves, they maintain that their ultimate nature is truly
existent phenomenon that exists in its own right, is inherent existent.
And when they speak of the emptiness of this ultimate truth they refer
to its being empty of being a conventional phenomenon."

So from this quotation, we can see that early Jonangpa masters are all
accomplished masters through the practice of tantric Vajrayana
teachings. And they do not interpret it in such a way like those
standard Rang tong and Shen tong explanations. Thus, in the official
website for Dorje Ling Buddhist Center, a Jonangpa Dharma centre, wrote
"The Jonangpa tradition is famous because of its strong historical
connection dedicated to the instruction and practice of Kalachakra
Tantra. The Jonang tradition differs from other Buddhist schools of
thought due to its philosophical viewpoint on the nature of reality".

Your Dharma pal,
Geleg-la.