Mipham's Dialectics and the Debates on Emptiness

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Mipham's Dialectics and the Debates on Emptiness: To Be, Not to Be or Neither

Book

Translations of Tibetan Commentaries on BCA (Tib-Eng)

• A Commentary on Shantideva's Engaging in the Conduct of the Bodhisattvas
• A Flash of Lightning in the Dark of Night
• A Great Commentary on Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, Vol. 1
• A Study of the Wisdom Chapter (Prajñāpāramitā Pariccheda) of the Bodhicaryāvatārapañjikā of Prajñākaramati
• Altruism and Reality (1998)
• An Intoxication of Mouse Venom: Reading the Guide, Chapter 9
• Appendix B: Excerpt from A Lamp Completely Illuminating the Profound Reality of Interdependence
• Bodhicaryāvatāra 9:2 as a Focus for Tibetan Interpretations of the Two Truths in the Prāsangika Mādhyamika
• Bodhicaryāvatāra with Commentary (O'Sullivan)
• Bodhicitta: Cultivating the Compassionate Mind of Enlightenment
• Bodhisattva e Prajñāpāramitā nel Bodhicaryāvatāra di Śāntideva
• Can We Kill Illusory People? Some Philosophical Reflections on Bodhi(sattva)caryāvatāra 9:11-13ab
• Comprendre la vacuité
• Courageous Compassion
• Drops of Nectar: Khenpo Kunpal's Commentary on Shantideva's Entering the Conduct of the Bodhisattvas
• Engaging in the Conduct of the Bodhisattvas
• Epitome of the Bodhicaryāvatāra with Its Pañjikā, Chap. IX
• Following in the Buddha's Footsteps
• For the Benefit of All Beings
• In Praise of Great Compassion
• Indian Madhyamaka Buddhist Philosophy after Nagarjuna, Vol. 2
• Introduction to Gzhan gyis brtsad pa'i lan mdor bsdus pa rigs lam rab gsal de nyid snang byed: An Answer to Blo-bzang-rab-gsal's Refutation of the Author's 'Sher le nor bu ke ta ka' and Its Defence, the Brgal lan nyin byed snang ba
• L'opalescent joyau
• Le commentaire de Mi-pham au chapitre IX du Bodhicaryāvatāra de Śāntideva: Échos modernes d'une controverse du XVème siècle
• Mi pham and the Philosophical Controversies of the Nineteenth Century
• Mipham's Dialectics and the Debates on Emptiness
• No Time to Lose
• Perfecting Wisdom
• Polemics in Indo-Tibetan Scholasticism - A Late 19th-Century Debate Between 'Ju Mi pham and Dpa' ris Rab gsal
• Practicing Wisdom
• Readings of Śāntideva's Guide to Bodhisattva Practice
• Seeing from All Sides
• Shantideva's Bodhicaryavatara: An Internal Pilgrimage to Universal Peace and Compassion
• Tant que durera l'espace
• The Bodhisattva Guide
• The Buddhist Roots of Secular Compassion Training: A Comparative Study of Compassion Cultivation in Indian and Tibetan Mahāyāna Sources with the Contemporary Secular Program of Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT)
• The Case of 'Ju Mi pham (1846–1912) and Dpa' ris Rab gsal (1840–1912): A Study in Dgag lan Debate
• The Center of the Sunlit Sky
• The Entrance for the Children of the Conquerors
• The Middle Way of the Bodhisattva
• The Nectar of Manjushri's Speech
• The Profound Reality of Interdependence
• The Profound Reality of Interdependence-Review by Bouthillette
• The Reflexive Nature of Awareness (1998)
• The Way of Awakening
• The Way of the Bodhisattva (2006)
• The Wisdom Chapter
• Transcendent Wisdom (1988)
• Uncommon Happiness
• Vimalakīrtinirdeśa: The Teaching of Vimalakīrti (Gómez, L. and Harrison, P.)
• Wisdom: Two Buddhist Commentaries
• Śāntideva (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
• Śāntideva and the Mādhyamika: The Prajñāpāramitā-Pariccheda of the Bodhicaryāvatāra

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

This is an introduction to the Buddhist philosophy of Emptiness which explores a number of themes in connection with the concept of Emptiness, a highly technical but very central notion in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism. It examines the critique by the leading Nyingma school philosopher Mipham (1846-1912) formulated in his diverse writings. The book focuses on related issues such as what is negated by the doctrine of emptiness, the nature of ultimate reality, and the difference between 'extrinsic' and 'intrinsic' emptiness. Karma Phuntsho's book aptly undertakes a thematic and selective discussion of these debates and Mipham's qualms about the Gelukpa understanding of Emptiness in a mixture of narrative and analytic style. (Source: RoutlegeCurzon)

Citation

Phuntsho, Karma. Mipham's Dialectics and the Debates on Emptiness: To Be, Not to Be or Neither. RoutledgeCurzon Critical Studies in Buddhism. London: Routledge Curzon, 2005.

Publisher Link

https://www.routledge.com/Miphams-Dialectics-and-the-Debates-on-Emptiness-To-Be-Not-to-Be-or-Neither/Phuntsho/p/book/9780415599986

People Mentioned

Nāgārjuna

Tsongkhapa

Table of contents

• Acknowledgementsxii
• List of abbreviationsxiv

• Introduction3

• Emptiness and what there is3
• Emptiness, to be and not to be6
• Emptiness: a religious issue and the nature of the debates10
• Mipham: a polymath and his works on Emptiness13
• Sources and methodological considerations19

• 1 Emptiness: its soteriological, doctrinal, ontological and historical significance in Buddhism23

• Emptiness qua Non-self: the heart of Buddhist soteriology24
• Emptiness qua Prajñāpāramitā: the primary path28
• Emptiness qua Pratītyasamutpāda: the central doctrine31
• Emptiness qua nitārtha: the ultimate topic32
• Emptiness qua the ultimate: the ontological truth33
• Emptiness qua nirvāṇa: the religious goal34
• Emptiness qua Mādhyamika philosophy: a historical milestone37

• 2 The big fuss about Emptiness: an outline of the history of debates on Emptiness40

• Controversies in India before Nāgārjuna40
• Nāgārjuna's critiques and subsequent controversies42
• Controversies during Early Propagation in Tibet44
• Early debates in the Later Propagation44
• Debates after Tsongkhapa47
• Mipham and the later debates51

• 3 What is negated by ultimate analysis? Debates on the delimitation of the Mādhyamika negandum55

• The delimitation of the negandum56
• BA, IX/140 and negandum60
• Some Gelukpa criticisms of the Ngarabpa position66
• What is 'hypostatically existent' and when does one negate?70
• On insertion of the qualifiers75
• Mipham's main criticisms79
• On the tetralemma methodology91
• The Gelukpa interpretation of 'neither existent nor non-existent' 95
• The nuances of inferential arguments98
• The verification of contexts101
• An analysis of the cognitive negandum (lam gyi dgag bya)103
• On BA, IX/26107
• Resemblances and reciprocal comparisons109

• 4 The fully empty: Mipham's theory of the ultimate reality113

• The ultimate and two truth theories114
• The ultimate and the nature of negation120
• On BA, IX/33-5132
• The two ultimates136
• The two ultimates and the two schools142
• The ultimate and the coalescence148
• The ultimate middle way and elimination of extremes153
• On MK, Xlll/8159

• 5 Is Emptiness knowable and effable?162

• On whether Emptiness is knowable (jñeya, shes bya)163
• On BA, IX/2166
• Rebuffing his refuters170
• Verifying subjective thoughts175
• Apprehension, grasping and the ultimate178
• Conceptuality, non-conceptuality and Emptiness185
• Mipham's theory of non-conceptuality189
• On Hwashang and meditation on Emptiness193
• Is Emptiness effable?198

• Some concluding remarks208

• Appendix I213
• Appendix II215
• Appendix III217
• Appendix IV219
• Notes226
• Bibliography283
• Name and place index297
• Subject index300

Interconnections

Works related to this item

2 Scholarship on

Śāntideva (ཞི་བ་ལྷ་). Bodhicaryāvatāra [बोधिचर्यावतार]. byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa [བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྱོད་པ་ལ་འཇུག་པ།]. [The Way of the Bodhisattva]. Tengyur, RKTST 3216 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3216&typ=2.

Classical WorksAbout this item

An "Introduction to Bodhisattva Practice," the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra is a poem about the path of a bodhisattva, in ten chapters, written by the Indian Buddhist Śāntideva (fl. c. 685–763). One of the masterpieces of world literature, it is a core text of Mahāyāna Buddhism and continues to be taught, studied, and commented upon in many languages and by many traditions around the world. The main subject of the text is bodhicitta, the altruistic aspiration for enlightenment, and the path and practices of the bodhisattva, the six perfections (pāramitās). The text forms the basis of many contemporary discussions of Buddhist ethics and philosophy.

Mi pham rgya mtsho (མི་ཕམ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་). shes rab le'u'i tshig don go sla bar rnam par bshad pa nor bu ke ta ka [ཤེས་རབ་ལེའུའི་ཚིག་དོན་གོ་སླ་བར་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པ་ནོར་བུ་ཀེ་ཏ་ཀ།]. [The Ketaka Jewel: An Easy to Understand Explanation of the Words and Meaning of the Wisdom Chapter].

Classical WorksAbout this item

Nyingma master Mipham Gyatso's (1846-1912) famous word and meaning commentary (tshig don gyi 'grel pa) on the ninth chapter of the Bodhicaryāvatāra.

Nyingma - The Nyingma, which is often described as the oldest tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, traces its origin to Padmasambhava, who is said to have visited Tibet in the eighth century. Tib རྙིང་མ་  

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Śūnyatā - The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics. Skt शून्यता  Tib སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་  Ch 空;空門  

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Geluk - The Geluk tradition traces its origin to Tsongkhapa, who propagated a modified version of the Kadampa lojong and lamrim teachings. It is the dominant tradition of Tibet, having established its control of the government under the figure of the Dalai Lama. Tib དགེ་ལུགས་  

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Prajñāpāramitā - A class of Mahāyāna sūtras which represents some of the earliest known literature of this genre of Buddhism. There are around forty texts associated with this category, though the most widespread is the exceedingly brief Prajñāpāramitāhṛdayasūtra, popularly known as the Heart Sūtra. This class of literature is typically associated with the second turning of the dharma wheel and especially with the teachings on emptiness (śūnyatā). As such, these texts were the primary scriptural source for the philosophy of the Madhyamaka school. Skt प्रज्ञापारमिता  Tib ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་;ཤེར་ཕྱིན་  Ch 般若波羅蜜多  

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Pratītyasamutpāda - The notion that all phenomena arise in dependence on causes and conditions. Skt प्रतीत्यसमुत्पाद  Tib རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བ་;རྟེན་འབྲེལ་  Ch 緣起  

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Mahāyāna - Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of the Common Era, focusing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through the realization of the wisdom of emptiness and the cultivation of compassion. Skt महायान  Tib ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ།  Ch 大乘  

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Bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt बोधिचित्त  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།  Ch 菩提心  

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Pāramitā - The six or ten types of practices which lead an individual to Buddhahood. The practice of perfections is particularly important in Mahāyāna Buddhism in which the entire path of the Bodhisattva to reach full enlightenment is included in the six or ten perfections. The six perfections are that of giving, of discipline, patience, zeal, meditation, and wisdom. The perfection of skill-in-means, aspirations, power, and pristine wisdom are added to them to make ten perfections. Skt पारमिता  Tib ཕར་ཕྱིན།;ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ།  Ch 波羅蜜  

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Śāntideva (ཞི་བ་ལྷ་). Bodhicaryāvatāra [बोधिचर्यावतार]. byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa [བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྱོད་པ་ལ་འཇུག་པ།]. [The Way of the Bodhisattva]. Tengyur, RKTST 3216 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3216&typ=2.

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