Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen

The Omniscient Buddha from Dolpo

I pray to you Dolpopa. You are the omniscient Lord of Dharma, who perfectly understands the three turnings of the wheel of Dharma and the four classes of tantra. 

Please show the unmistaken path to all beings!

Who is Kunkyen Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen?

Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen is one of the most well known lineage lamas in the Jonang Tradition of Vajrayana. Dolpopa was born in 1292 in a remote region of western Tibet, modern day Nepal. Dolpopa’s birth had been prophesied by Shakyamuni Buddha in many sutras and tantras such as the Great Drum Sutra. Buddha Shakamuni prophecies that Dolpopa would be the omniscient one, the same as his own title, and would distinguish clearly and victoriously what are the provisional and definitive teachings of dharma. Khunkhen Dolpopa unified the system of Jonang practice by strongly establishing and clarifying the Zhentong view, the completion Golden Dharma, bringing together the sutra lineage of Zhentong Madhyamaka with the tantric Zhentong lineage, especially in the Kalachakra Tantra. He was an outstanding scholar and highly realized meditation master of the six vajra yogas of Kalachakra. Dolpopa is an emanation of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara as well as the Shambhala King Pundarika.

Dolpopa’s Journey to find the Completion Golden Dharma

Even before he came to the Jonang, Dolpopa was already believed to be omniscient by practitioners of all Tibetan Buddhist lineages. Initially as Vajra Master of the Sakya Monastery and known to be a very pure monk with perfect moral conduct, Dolpopa traveled to many of the surrounding monasteries and lineages to debate their views. Dolpopa’s fame was so widespread it even reached the Emperor of China in Beijing. He was undefeatable; earning himself the title, omniscient one, from the throne holders of other lineages. When he was thirty, he journeyed to the Jomonang Valley to visit the Jonang Mountain Retreat. He was so amazed by the realizations of the Jonang practitioners that he chose to become a disciple of Jonang Khunkyen Öser rather than remain a throne holder of the Sakya.

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Commentary on Dolpopa's Letter to the Emperor of China

Khentrul Rinpoche gives a commentary on Dolpopa's letter which expounds the tenets of Zhentong Madhyamaka View. It's a good way to familiarize yourself further with this philosophy.

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Founder of the Zhentong Middle Way Philosophy

Dolpopa spent much of his life in retreat, attaining realizations of the first four Vajra Yogas and complete mastery of the first three. It was at this time the Zhentong View manifested clearly in his mind, revealing to him the definitive meaning of the Buddha’s final teachings on Buddha-nature and showing him how all the teachings could be understood without conflict. This philosophy, which relied heavily on the Five Great Treatises of Maitreya, would become the cornerstone of the Jonang curriculum and provide a crucial method for connecting the theory and practice of both sutra and tantra. It was due to Dolpopa’s brilliant writings that the Zhentong View grew in prominence and was accepted by most to be the pinnacle of philosophical thought. Like snow falling into the ocean, anyone who came to debate Dolpopa’s provocative view was fully defeated and then became one of Dolpopa’s disciples.

Mountain Dharma: The Ocean of Definitive Meaning

By Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen
Translated By Rimé Lodrö (Ives Waldo)

This key text is an import work on the Zhentong View. Reading it even once will bring many blessings to you and help you understand this view. 

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Ocean Like Dharma Comes From

Building the Mountain Like Stupa for His Lama

As the fourth lineage holder and vajra master of the Jonang Monastery, Dolpopa traveled throughout the region of Ü-Tsang, giving empowerments, teachings, composing texts and debating with all the prominent scholars of his time. During the construction of the Great Stupa of Jonang, Dolpopa finished work on his excellent text known as The Mountain Doctrine. Within an ocean of scriptural quotations, Dolpopa systematically overcame all objections that had been raised by his contemporaries and demonstrated the profound truth behind the Zhentong view. It is said that during this time, there was no one throughout Tibet who did not count Dolpopa as one of their most revered teachers.

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Liberation Upon Seeing 100,000 Buddhas
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The Fourth Council
བཀའ་བསྡུ་བཞི་པའི་དོན་བསྟན་རྩིས་ཆེན་པོ།

The Great Calculation of the Doctrine Which Has the Significance of a Fourth Council

The seminal work of Dölpopa is often simply referred to as the Fourth Council. It is one of the primary sources for Dölpopa’s presentation of the other-emptiness (Zhentong) philosophy. After the Buddha passed away, in India, when the Dharma had become diluted, then there was one council. This was a big conference where they purified the diluted Dharma. This happened three times in India after the Buddha passed away, up until Buddhism was almost fully lost in India.

But in Tibet, Buddhism was not lost. Before Dolpopa became a Jonangpa, he went everywhere to debate and everybody agreed he was fully omniscient. So everybody called him omniscient. His party did not name him, nor did the followers who venerated him. Everybody called him this. This was also very unusual. There’s nobody in Tibet like this. And then finally, he convened a meeting where all the scholars came together. And then he told everybody his understanding of the Completion Golden Dharma. This meant that everybody had a chance to debate if they did not agree.

But everybody agreed. Nobody was able to debate with him. So that’s how the texts for the Fourth Council were made. It was in this text that great details of the complete golden Dharma (Dzokden Dharma) were written. This text would take several months full time to read and understand. So if you want to know the essence of the complete golden Dharma, the Dzokden Dharma, this view is called Zhengong Madhyamaka.

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The Great Mahasiddha

In his later years, Dolpopa passed his Dharma responsibilities onto his regent and dedicated himself to meditation and practice. Subsequently, his realizations became even more profound and subtle. As a result, he displayed many extraordinary capacities such as no longer needing to eat or drink. When he did take food however, it seemed as if there was no limit to the amount he could eat, and yet, no matter how much he ate, there was never any waste, as it was all consumed by the blazing of his inner fire.

In 1361, soon after Dolpopa had returned from a long journey to Lhasa, he passed into parinirvana amidst countless auspicious signs. While his physical body has long since dissolved, his spiritual presence continues until this day. For this reason we pray that he will continue to show the unmistaken path to all beings.

Dolpopa’s Parinirvana

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