DOI 10.30792/2949-5768-2025-10-7-19
RELATIVITY IN THE TIBETAN-MONGOLIAN MAHAYANA
Urbanaeva Irina Safronovna – Doctor of Philosophical Sciences, Chief Researcher at the Federal State Budgetary Institution of Science Institute of Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies SB RAS (Ulan-Ude, Russia).
E-mail: greentarabaikal@yandex.ru.
The author of the article proves the incorrectness of the relativistic interpretation of emptiness in the Madhyamaka, relying on the primary sources of the Tibetan-Mongolian Mahayana (Nāgārjuna, Āryadeva, Buddhapālita, Chandrakīrti, Tsongkhapa) and the Madhyamika teaching about reality, based on the unity of two truths – emptiness-rantong and dependent arising as arising and the existence of all objects depending on mental designation and expression in language. Two truths in Madhyamaka constitute unity as two different ontological reverses of any object. When teaching emptiness, masters of the Tibetan-Mongolian tradition rely on relativity, including the conventions, concepts, cultural traditions accepted in each society. The connection of relativity with emptiness explains that there cannot be an absolute model of the world. Different models, known from Abhidharma, Kalachakra Tantra, etc., are only relative in nature and correspond to different types of manifestation of karma and mental impurity. Accordingly, in the religious practice of Buddhists, various types of mandala are known. Relativity also manifests itself in the sensory perception of objects Relativity is also manifested in the sensory perception of objects by different categories of beings.
