Serdok Penchen Sakya Chokden (gser mdog pan chen shakya mchog ldan, 1428–1507) (also transliterated as ''Shakya Chogden'') was one of the most important religious thinkers of the
Sakya school of
Tibetan Buddhism. He was a student of Rongtön Shecha Kunrig (1367-1449), Dönyö Pelwa, Künga Zangpo and many other Tibetan scholars.
[Komarosvski, Yaroslav. ''Visions of Unity: The Golden Pandita Shakya Chokden's New Interpretation of Yogacara and Madhyamaka'', SUNY 2011, page 4.] He also received empowerments and studied under several Kagyu lineages. Sakya Chokden's seat was the Thubten Serdogchen monastery in south Shigatse.
Philosophy
Sakya Chokden broke from Sakya orthodoxy and wrote a highly critical commentary to
Sakya Pandita's "A thorough differentiation of the three vows" posing over 100 questions to Sakya scholars on this text. This event caused some controversy and Chokden answered his own questions in his subsequent "Golden lancet". Sakya Chokden's ''Definite ascertainment of the middle way'' criticized
Tsongkhapa's Madhyamaka views as being too logo-centric and still caught up in conceptualization about the ultimate reality which is beyond language.
[Leaman, Oliver d. Encyclopedia of Asian Philosophy; Sakya Chokden]
In his later years, Sakya Chokden moved away from a strictly
Prasangika Madhyamika view (as held by
Chandrakirti) and adopted a kind of
Shentong (emptiness of other) view influenced by the works of
Asanga
Asaṅga (, ; Romaji: ''Mujaku'') ( fl. 4th century C.E.) was "one of the most important spiritual figures" of Mahayana Buddhism and the "founder of the Yogachara school".Engle, Artemus (translator), Asanga, ''The Bodhisattva Path to Unsurpassed ...
,
Vasubandhu and
Maitreya-nātha.
His later work attempted to reconcile the philosophies of
Yogacara and
Madhyamaka as valid and complementary perspectives on Ultimate Truth. Chokden saw the Yogacara "Alikakaravada" view as also being a form of Madhyamaka because it holds that mental objects are ultimately unreal or false (''alika'') and worked to prove its compatibility with the Madhyamaka Nihsvabhavavada view (emptiness of inherent existence).
Madhyamaka is seen by Chokden as removing the fault of taking the unreal as being real, and Yogacara removes the fault of the denial of Reality. Likewise, the
Shentong and
Rangtong views are seen as complementary by Sakya Chokden; Rangtong negation is effective in cutting through all clinging to wrong views and conceptual rectification while Shentong is more amenable for describing and enhancing meditative experience and realization. Therefore, for Sakya Chokden, the same realization of ultimate reality can be accessed and described in two different but compatible ways. Sakya Chokden held that this view was more in concordance with
Vajrayana teachings and Tantras.
Perhaps his most controversial view was that Ultimate reality or Primordial Mind is an impermanent phenomenon and that this is supported by Yogacara, Sutra and Tantra.
[Komarosvski, Yaroslav. ''Visions of Unity: The Golden Pandita Shakya Chokden's New Interpretation of Yogacara and Madhyamaka'', SUNY 2011, page 14.]
Since his views conflicted with those of
Sakya Pandita, they were not well received by the Sakya school. In the 17th century, followers of the politically dominant
Gelug school proscribed his writings and shut down the printery where his works were kept.
Works
*Good Questions about the ‘Thorough Differentiation of the Three Types of Vows.’
*Golden Lancet: Resolved Abundant Discourse on the ‘Thorough Differentiation of the Three Types of Vows’ Treatise.
*Garlands of Waves of Assertions
*Great Path Compressing the Two Chariot Ways into One: Explanation of
aitreya's‘Ornament of Clear Realizations’ Together with
aribhadra's‘Clear Meaning’ Commentary.
*Ocean of Scriptural Statements and Reasoning
*Definite ascertainment of the middle way
*Profound Thunder amidst the Clouds of the Ocean of Definitive Meaning: Differentiation of the Two Systems of the Great Madhyamaka Deriving from the Two Great Chariot Ways
*Rain of Ambrosia: Extensive
uto-ommentary on the ‘Profound Thunder amidst the Clouds of the Ocean of Definitive Meaning.’
*Great Path of Ambrosia of Emptiness: Explanation of Profound Pacification Free from Proliferations
*Guiding Instructions on the Madhyamaka View
*Abbreviated Meaning of the ‘
evajra inTwo Chapters’
See also
*
Gorampa
*
Sakya Pandita
References
Sources
*Komarovski, Yaroslav. ''Radiant Emptiness'', Oxford University Press 2020
*Komarovski, Yaroslav. ''Echoes of empty luminosity: Reevaluation and unique interpretation of Yogacara and Nihsvabhavavada Madhyamaka by the fifteenth century Tibetan thinker Sakya mchog ldan'', Ph.D. dissertation, University of Virginia (2007).
*Komarovski, Yaroslav. ''Visions of Unity: The Golden Pandita Shakya Chokden's New Interpretation of Yogacara and Madhyamaka'', SUNY 2011
*Shakya Chokden, ''Three Texts on Madhyamaka'', trans. Komarovski Yaroslav, Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 2002
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sakya Chokden
1428 births
1507 deaths
Scholars of Buddhism from Tibet
Madhyamaka
Sakya lamas
Tibetan philosophers