The Tree of Enlightenment

What we have in the thought of Shantarakshita is a systematic
integration of the major tenets of the Middle Way and the Mind
Only schools, so that emptiness is acknowledged to be consistent
with ultimate truth and the perfected nature, while the creative
nature of consciousness is acknowledged to be consistent with
the conventional truth and the illusory nature.
In addition to the reconciliation and stratification of the
principle tenets of these two schools, Shantarakshita’s philosophy
integrates the elements of logical argument and treats systematically
the role of mind in the origination and cessation of suffering.
In his syncretic philosophy we have what we might term
the apex of the development of Mahayana philosophy in India,
in that Shantarakshita correlated and synthesized, in one coherent
philosophical system, the principal insights of outstanding
Mahayana masters like Nagarjuna, Asanga, and Vasubandhu.
e synthesis of the tenets of emptiness and Mind Only had
a direct and determining impact on the two major traditions
that grew out of Mahayana philosophy: (1) the Vajrayana, which
held sway in Tibet and Mongolia, and (2) the Ch’an Zen tradition,
which was predominant in China and Japan. Although
these two traditions of practice differ markedly in the forms of
their religious expression, both rely very heavily on the tenets of
emptiness and Mind Only for their function and effectiveness.
In the Vajrayana, it is the philosophy of emptiness which
supplies the openness and fluidity that allows for the transformation
of phenomena from an impure condition to a pure condition.
If entities had an independent and unchanging nature
and were therefore not empty, it would be impossible to transform
impure experience saturated by suffering into pure expe-
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