Gorampa Sonam Sengge (གོ་རམ་པ་བསོད་ནམས་སེང་གེ་)
One of the most influential thinkers in delineating what differentiates the Sa-gya from the Ge-luk tradition. Modern Sa-gya scholars recognise him as the foremost among sakya-pandita’s many commentators. Disciple of rong-don.
Life
- Active in the political conflicts between Tsang and central Tibet
- Supported the Ring-pung family
- Died before sixty — a considerable shock to his tradition, attributed by some to his political involvement (dreyfus-recognizing-reality, pp. 27–28)
- His works were suppressed following the ideological proscriptions at the beginning of the 17th century after the rise to power of the Ge-luk school; reassembled with difficulty at the beginning of the 20th century (shantarakshita-madhyamakalankara-intro, p. 12)
Contributions to Pramāṇa
Gorampa provided a detailed, well-argued defence of sakya-pandita’s antirealist system and a systematic critique of the Ge-luk reinterpretation (especially gyel-tsap and kay-drup). His commentary on Sakya Paṇḍita’s Treasure is considered the standard Sa-gya reading.
Modern Sa-gya scholars hold Gorampa’s words to reflect “accurately and precisely” Sakya Paṇḍita’s ideas. On many issues his claim to be Sakya Paṇḍita’s orthodox interpreter is well founded, at least in logic and epistemology (dreyfus-recognizing-reality, p. 27).
Philosophical Positions
- Strong antirealism: universals and individuations are entirely conceptual
- Representationalism regarding perception: external objects are not directly perceived but apprehended through representations (discussed in Chapters 25–26 of dreyfus-recognizing-reality)
- Careful definitions of key terms following Sakya Paṇḍita’s system
- Critical of Ge-luk innovations that depart from Dharmakīrti’s original intent
Technical Contributions
- Developed (with sakya-chok-den) a fourfold typology of objects: appearing objects (སྣང་ཡུལ་), held objects (གཟུང་ཡུལ་), conceived objects (ཞེན་ཡུལ་), and objects of engagement (འཇུག་ཡུལ་) (sonam-introduction-treasury)
- Defined universals as “a commonly appearing entity which is superimposed,” with three divisions: kind universals (རིགས་སྤྱི་), meaning universals (དོན་སྤྱི་), and collection universals (ཚོགས་སྤྱི་). Notes that not only universals but also wholes and durations are non-entities (sonam-introduction-treasury)
- Defined exclusion (apoha) as “a superimposition which appears as this object through the elimination of its direct opposites” (sonam-introduction-treasury)
- Introduced the concept of conventional valid cognition (ཀུན་ཏུ་ཐ་སྙད་པའི་ཚད་མ་) to explain Sapan’s claim that specifically characterised phenomena alone are objects of cognition — this type of valid cognition takes specifically characterised phenomena as its object since this type alone fulfils practical needs (sonam-introduction-treasury)
- Reads Sapan’s epistemology through the distinction between objects of the mode of apprehension and objects of engagement (sonam-introduction-treasury)
- Also accepts four valid cognitions (including analogy and scriptural authority) in his interpretation of Prāsaṅgika Madhyamaka (sonam-introduction-treasury)
Key Works
- Clarification of the Seven Treatises (སྡེ་བདུན་གསལ་བྱེད་) — principal commentary on Dharmakīrti’s system
- Explanation of the Treasury (ཚད་མ་རིགས་གཏེར་གྱི་རྣམ་བཤད་) — commentary on the Treasury
- Rays of Samantabhadra (ཀུན་བཟང་འོད་ཟེར་) and Sun of Samantabhadra (ཀུན་བཟང་ཉི་མ་) — shorter commentaries
- General Exposition of Middle Way Philosophy (དབུ་མའི་སྤྱི་དོན་)
Sources
- dreyfus-recognizing-reality — major figure throughout, especially on perception, universals, and representationalism
- shantarakshita-madhyamakalankara-intro — suppression of works, role as critic of Tsongkhapa (p. 12)
- sonam-introduction-treasury — fourfold typology of objects, definitions of universals and exclusion, conventional valid cognition, key works listed