Rang stong
Basic Meaning
The state of being empty of self, which references the lack of inherent existence in relative phenomena.
Has the Sense of
Since relative phenomena arise in dependence on causes and conditions, they cannot be said to exist based solely on their own defining characteristics. Thus they are deemed to be empty of an innate nature. As a noun, this term generally refers to the more traditional, or orthodox, philosophical stance of the Madhyamaka school and its view of emptiness, as opposed to those who profess other-emptiness (gzhan stong). For the latter group, self-emptiness is also asserted to be true, but it is only used to describe the relative truth. However, for traditional Mādhyamikas, emptiness is universally applied, and thus the lack of inherent existence is itself the ultimate truth.
Read it in the Scriptures
| Term Variations | |
| Key Term | Rang stong |
|---|---|
| Topic Variation | Rangtong |
| Tibetan | རང་སྟོང་ ( rangtong) |
| Wylie Transliteration | rang stong ( rangtong) |
| Buddha-nature Site Standard English | self-emptiness |
| Karl Brunnhölzl's English Term | self-empty, self-emptiness |
| Richard Barron's English Term | unqualified emptiness |
| Jeffrey Hopkin's English Term | emptiness of self |
| Ives Waldo's English Term | intrinsic emptiness |
| Term Information | |
| Usage Example | :དེ་ལ་ཀུན་རྫོབ་གློ་བུར་བའི་དངོས་པོ་རྣམས་ནི་གནས་ལུགས་ལ་གཏན་ནས་མེད་པའི་ཕྱིར་རང་གི་ངོ་བོས་སྟོང་སྟེ་དེ་ནི་རང་སྟོང་ངོ་། ཀུན་རྫོབ་དེ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སྟོང་པའི་དོན་དམ་སྟོང་པའི་དོན་དམ་གཉུག་མ་ནི་ནམ་ལང་མེད་པ་མ་ཡིན་པའི་ཕྱིར་གཞན་སྟོང་ངོ་།
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| Source Language | Tibetan |
| Basic Meaning | The state of being empty of self, which references the lack of inherent existence in relative phenomena. |
| Has the Sense of | Since relative phenomena arise in dependence on causes and conditions, they cannot be said to exist based solely on their own defining characteristics. Thus they are deemed to be empty of an innate nature. As a noun, this term generally refers to the more traditional, or orthodox, philosophical stance of the Madhyamaka school and its view of emptiness, as opposed to those who profess other-emptiness (gzhan stong). For the latter group, self-emptiness is also asserted to be true, but it is only used to describe the relative truth. However, for traditional Mādhyamikas, emptiness is universally applied, and thus the lack of inherent existence is itself the ultimate truth. |
| Related Terms | gzhan stong |
| Term Type | Adjective |
| Definitions | |
| Tshig mdzod Chen mo | jo nang pa'i lugs kyi kun rdzob kyi cha nas chos thams cad rang ngos su bden pas stong pa'i lta ba'o |
| Other Definitions | Generally speaking, the [other-emptiness] refers to the idea that ultimate truth is empty of defilements that are naturally other than ultimate truth, whereas self-emptiness implies that everything including ultimate truth is empty of its own inherent nature. - Wangchuk, Tsering. The Uttaratantra in the Land of Snows (2017), page 4.
The term “zhentong” is used in contrast to “rangtong” (rang stong; “self-emptiness”), which refers to the school that adheres to the views of Nāgārjuna’s brand of Madhyamaka, which asserts that all phenomena, including the mind, are empty of self-nature. - Bernert, Christian. Adorning Maitreya's Intent (2017), page 11. |
