Reliable Knowledge in a World of Mere Convention
Guy Newland
Can we ever know anything in this world?
If everything is empty––devoid of any essential nature as this or that––then all appearances are just like dreams or illusions. In that case, what reliable sources of information could we ever have? How much can we trust what appears to our eyes and ears? Maybe we could rely on a scripture, or a spiritual teacher, but how will we know which scripture, which spiritual teacher?
Many Tibetan Buddhist scholars have argued—and teach today––that indeed emptiness makes reliable knowledge impossible.
But Tsongkhapa Losang Drakpa, founder of the Gelug tradition, argues that we can and must have reliable knowledge—of virtue and nonvirtue, for example––to progress on the path to perfect awakening. He shows that––contrary to other assertions––this is what great Indian Buddhist scholars of the Middle Way taught.
To become both wiser and more kind, we need both practical reliable knowledge and insight into emptiness. To reconcile reliable knowledge and emptiness, he shows that neither of these is what other Tibetans teachers have claimed.