Korean Journal of Buddhist Studies ISSN:1598-0642(Print) 불교학연구

The concept of bstan rtsis (the chronology and calculation of the doctrine), which is not clearly defined in Dol po pa Shes rab rgyal mtshan’s work, The Great Calculation of the Teaching, which has the Significance of a Fourth Council (Bka' bsdu bzhi pa'i don bstan rtsis chen po, hereafter The Fourth Council), and his accompanying commentary, is a core concept presenting a framework for transcendent time in order to understand ultimate reality in terms of other emptiness (gzhan stong). This is achieved by uniting cosmological time and historical time through the medium of calendrical time. This framework operates as follows: First, the bstan rtsis calendarizes the cosmological time of the four yugas by specifying the year in which the Buddha taught the Kālacakratantra, even though this event is not supported by actual history. In this way, calendrical time functions as a tool and mediating device that introduces historical time, arranging specific events of Buddhist history within a cosmological schema. Furthermore, cosmological time provides an ontological foundation for this historical realm. In The Fourth Council, the four yugas and the timeless cosmic reality that is ultimate reality are clearly distinguished, with the latter being connected to other-emptiness. This structure in The Fourth Council, which is based on the Kālacakratantra, demonstrates how the construction of calendrical time via the bstan rtsis imparts philosophical and spiritual significance to the practitioner’s deep understanding of both the nature of time and the phenomenal world and, the ultimate reality of Buddha-nature (tathāgatagarbha) which is transcendence, or gzhan stong. In this way, the bstan rtsis, as the intersection point of time, history, cosmology and ultimate truth, is a key concept that clearly reveals Dol po pa’s unique insight into ultimate reality.