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1. Re: Query about the three wheels of doctrine

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Re: Query about the three wheels of doctrine

by Matthew Kapstein

Dear John,
To clarify - I nowhere suggested that Mkhas grub assimilates the tantras to the Sandhinirmocana's scheme. The Dge lugs pa drew on several sources for their three wheels' doctrine, not the SNS alone. Where I was indeed mistaken, however, was in stating that Mkhas grub, like the Rnying ma pa, connects the tantras to the third wheel (under whatever interpretation). He does not. He connects them to the second:
See, in his discussion of the second wheel, Wayman & Lessing, p. 92 (text), 93 (trans.):
sngags kyi rgyud sde thams cad kyi lta ba thal 'gyur ro
"The doctrine (darśana) of all [four] sections of the tantras is Prāsaṅgika."
and, less explicitly, p. 94 (text), 95 (trans.), where, still in the section on the second wheel, he says that he will expand on the tantras later in the book, evidently suggesting that the topic does belong to the second wheel.
In the context of the original query of John Powers, my point was just to note that the traditional sources known to me from Tibet do not accept the notion of a fourth wheel, even if they do affirm a "dharma-wheel of mantra."
I hope that this resolves the puzzlement.
best,
Matthew
Matthew Kapstein
EPHE, Paris, and the University of Chicago

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