Q: What is Zhentong and why is it unique to the Jonang school?
A: Zhentong, “other emptiness,” is a unique view of the Great Madhyamaka found in both Sutra and Tantra. The term, ‘other-emptiness’, refers to Buddha-Nature, the ultimate truth, is not empty of its own nature but is empty of the other, namely, conventional elaborations.
The reason why it becomes a unique view of the Jonang tradition is that, although the Jonang tradition accepts and practices the emptiness taught in the Second Turning of the Wheel, when bringing forth and establishing the ultimate view, by relying primarily on sutras of definitive meaning, such as the Tathagatagarbha Sutra, and their commentaries by Nagarjuna, Asanga, and Maitreya, as well as on the Kalachakra Tantra and its commentaries, it establishes a Middle Way view of Other-Emptiness, the view of the ultimate nature of Buddha-nature “the innately arising primordial wisdom,” a unified view of both Sutra and Tantra.