Explore/Chapter 9 - Wisdom

Chapter 9 - Wisdom

Summary

BCA Chapter Summaries

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The understanding and practice of bodhicitta depends on the knowledge of the stories, key concepts, texts, and people associated with it. Explore these various aspects to gain a better understanding of bodhicitta, the desire to seek the ultimate happiness for all sentient beings.

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Concise Summary of Essential Points

Some people try to get peaceful by sitting quietly and having nothing disturb them at all, but that's like being dead. The practice of samādhi is for developing wisdom and understanding.

—Ajahn Chah, "Still, Flowing Water"^[1]

Techniques to develop concentration are not uniquely Buddhist. They have been valued and cultivated in many spiritual traditions. However, in the Buddhist traditions, although the concentrated mind is considered to be very beneficial, it is not a spiritual goal in itself. Meditative concentration, or samādhi, is a helpful tool that must be directed to the goal of attaining knowledge and wisdom. This is also true in secular life. We see individuals with exceptional focus who do not necessarily direct that concentration toward virtuous ends. Without the lamp of wisdom to light our way, we risk doing more harm than good.

To emphasize the vital role of wisdom on the path to enlightenment, Śāntideva stresses at the start of chapter 9 that the practices explained in the preceding chapters—such as purification, patience, and concentration—were taught specifically to facilitate the arising of wisdom.

All these branches of the Doctrine The Enlightened Sage expounded for the sake of wisdom.106As already stated in the introduction, the ninth chapter of the Bodhicharyāvatāra is an extremely concise exposition of the Madhyamaka view, recapitulating its various stages of development and polemical interaction with other schools, both Buddhist and non-Buddhist. It is worth bearing in mind that on that famous occasion when Shāntideva recited his text from the lofty throne at Nālandā, he did so to a public already deeply versed in both the content and history of Madhyamaka. And his ninth chapter was no doubt intended as a brilliant and perhaps even lighthearted exposition of a highly recondite subject to a specialist audience of philosophers and academics. As it stands, the ninth chapter is scarcely comprehensible to the unassisted reader, and an extensive commentary is indispensable. Those of Kunzang Pelden and Minyak Kunzang Sönam are already available in translation, and the interested student will also derive much assistance from the other commentaries listed in the Bibliography. In an attempt to render the root text at least intelligible, almost all translators have resorted to the expedient of indicating in parentheses the different points of view (Sāṃkhya, Nyāya-Vaisheshika, Ābhidharmika, and so on) referred to as the chapter progresses. But it is doubtful whether, in the absence of an extensive commentary, these additions do any more than complicate the issue and increase the dismay of the bewildered reader. In any case, they tend to obscure the fact that the ninth chapter, like the rest of the book, is composed in seamless verse, and is in fact a fast-moving, scintillating tour de force. With regard to the present translation, the aim has been to facilitate comprehension as much as possible, and a certain latitude of expression seemed justifiable, mainly in the way of explanatory paraphrase where possible and appropriate. The interpretation given in the commentary of Kunzang Pelden, and by implication that of his teachers Patrul Rinpoche and Mipham Rinpoche, has been consistently followed. See also Crosby and Skilton, p. in, for a helpful breakdown of the subject matter of this chapter. Therefore they must cultivate this wisdom Who wish to have an end of suffering.

Verse 9.1

[ src citation ]The Way of the Bodhisattva (2006)
Page(s) 137
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.

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༈ ཡན་ལག་འདི་དག་ཐམས་ཅད་ནི། །

ཐུབ་པས་ཤེས་རབ་དོན་དུ་གསུངས། ། དེ་ཡི་ཕྱིར་ན་སྡུག་བསྔལ་དག །

ཞི་བར་འདོད་པས་ཤེས་རབ་བསྐྱེད། །

This wisdom, known as prajñā, is knowledge of the deeper levels of the reality of phenomena and must be developed in order to escape from an existence characterized by suffering. Prajñā is the sword of understanding that cuts through delusion, breaking the chains of ignorance that tie us to samsaric life. The ninth chapter explains how to develop this exalted wisdom through the technique of insight meditation, vipaśyanā. This form of meditation does not merely aim to remain concentrated on the meditative object but performs an analytical role, examining and distinguishing phenomena and their characteristics. Śāntideva adopts a systematic approach to the cultivation of this insight into the nature of reality and the analytic method used to investigate it.

The opening verses of chapter 9 are devoted to presenting a fundamental key to the Buddha's teachings—the two truths, conventional truth and ultimate truth. He presents the division of the two truths, an explanation of the meaning of each, as well as examples of the different beings who realize each of the truths.

There follow refutations of doubts raised about the two truths as a basic ground of phenomena. For instance, from an ordinary perspective, if it were true that there was no inherent reality, then it would be difficult to see how this could be explained to those whose very lives are embedded in a sense of the "true" reality of existence.

Among Buddhist traditions, the Sautrāntika school objects that if things are only an illusion and have no intrinsic reality, then both positive and negative actions would have no consequences at all. Śāntideva counters these arguments by explaining that a lack of intrinsic existence does not imply a total absence of existence.

The text then presents the objections of the Mind Only (Cittamātra) school to the Madhyamaka perspective as laid out by Śāntideva. Their own position on the nature of reality is presented and then critiqued. Within this discussion, there is a particularly extensive refutation of their presentation of self-awareness (svasaṃvedana). This debate covers the very important topic of how memory functions and how it is possible for our very own minds to have awareness of our mental states.

Here, through analogy, Śāntideva asks the proponents of the Mind Only school how it could be that the mind can be aware of itself. Is it not the same as a sword that is unable to cut itself or a lamp that is unable to illuminate itself?

But if the mirage is the mind itself, What is then perceived by what? The Guardian of the World himself has said That mind cannot be seen by mind.

Verse 9.17

[ src citation ]The Way of the Bodhisattva (2006)
Page(s) 139
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.

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གང་ཚེ་སེམས་ཉིད་སྒྱུ་མ་ན། །

དེ་ཚེ་གང་ཞིག་གང་གིས་མཐོང་། ། འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་ནི་མགོན་པོས་ཀྱང་། །

སེམས་ཀྱིས་སེམས་མི་མཐོང་ཞེས་གསུངས། །

In just the same way, he has said, The sword’s edge cannot cut the sword. "But,” you say, "it’s like the flame That perfectly illuminates itself.”[p.140]The Way of the Bodhisattva (2006)
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.

Verse 9.18

[ src citation ]The Way of the Bodhisattva (2006)
Page(s) 139
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.

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རལ་གྲི་སོ་ནི་རང་ལ་རང་། །

ཇི་ལྟར་མི་གཅོད་དེ་བཞིན་ཡིད། ། ཇི་ལྟར་མར་མེ་རང་གི་དངོས། །

ཡང་དག་གསལ་བར་བྱེད་བཞིན་ན། །

Śāntideva then moves on to present arguments to establish that the teachings of the Mahāyāna tradition are indeed the true teachings of the Buddha.^[2] The remainder of this chapter deals extensively with the presentation of the two main forms of selflessness presented in the Buddhist schools of philosophy—the selflessness of persons and the selflessness of phenomena.

Followers of the Śrāvaka vehicle (Śrāvakayāna) contend that there is no need to understand the selflessness of phenomena in order to attain liberation from samsara, arguing that the understanding of the lack of a personal self will be enough to put an end to the afflictions. Śāntideva, in contrast, stresses that the understanding of the lack of inherent existence of everything, whether it be the self or other phenomena, is crucial, even if one wishes only to attain liberation from suffering, let alone attain the fully enlightened state.

In the section refuting the self of persons, Śāntideva guides us through a critique of not just the non-Buddhist schools but also the logical fallacies that he finds in the lower systems of Buddhist philosophical tenets. He presents a detailed refutation of the tenets of the early Indian non-Buddhist traditions and their presentations of a conscious self, a material self, and the ineffable primordial principle (prakṛti) of the Sāṃkhya tradition.

These protagonists counter with objections that if there is no existing self or real person, then the principle of karma—the law of cause and effect—would be untenable. Again, Śāntideva refutes these objections by explaining that just because the person lacks any true existence, it is still possible for them to have a degree of functionality at the conventional level.

The next section of the text explores the selflessness of phenomena and presents key arguments refuting even the tiniest speck of intrinsic existence. The main focus is on meditation on the four foundations of mindfulness. Also called the four close placements of mindfulness, these four contemplations take respectively as their object (1) the body, (2) feelings, (3) the mind, and (4) phenomena, putting each of them under the analytical microscope to look into their deeper reality. Although this method of meditation is shared across all Buddhist traditions, Śāntideva has a unique take on its meaning. The more mainstream approach to these foundations of mindfulness is to watch the flow of sensations in the body or the stream of our thoughts and to see through their solidity. Here, Śāntideva goes beyond those levels of analysis and encourages us to look into the deeper level of reality of these phenomena—their lack of any intrinsic reality or existence from their own side.

The last verses of the ninth chapter present classical arguments from the Mahāyāna sūtras that establish emptiness as the ultimate nature of phenomena. These include many of the arguments from the five great reasonings (gtan tshigs chen po lnga), such as the diamond-splinters argument, the argument of identity and difference, the reasoning of dependent arising, and the reasoning of existence and nonexistence. The diamond-splinters argument, whose main protagonist is the Sāṃkhya school, is dealt with extensively in this chapter.

The chapter concludes by expounding the benefits of emptiness and explaining how the true power of compassion is built on an understanding of emptiness. To have true compassion for sentient beings, we must realize how our own ignorance of the nature of reality creates suffering for us. Seeing that clearly in our own lives, we can then understand the depths of others' ignorance, and only then does our compassion for them really deepen.

↑ Ajahn Chah, "Still, Flowing Water," in Living Dhamma (Ubon Rachathani: Thailand, The Sangha, Wat Nong Pah Pong, 2007), 80–81. https://www.ajahnchah.org/pdf/living_dhamma.pdf.
↑ There is a debate between non-Mahāyāna and Mahāyāna proponents regarding which teachings of the Buddha are authentic and how they can be validated as true teachings of the Buddha.

Additional resources

Learn About Śāntideva's Texts

Bodhicaryāvatāra
The Way of the Bodhisattva

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.

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Śikṣāsamuccaya
The Compendium of Training

The Compendium of Training is an anthology of excerpts from the Mahāyāna sūtras that discusses the bodhisattva path and principles in much greater length and detail., Śikṣāsamuccaya (T. Bslab pa kun las btus pa; C. Dasheng ji pusa xue lun; J. Daijōjū bosatsugakuron; K. Taesǔng chip posal hak non 大乘集菩薩學論). In Sanskrit, "Compendium of Training," a work by the eighth-century Indian Mahāyāna master Śāntideva. It consists of twenty-seven stanzas on the motivation and practice of the bodhisattva, including bodhicitta, the six perfections (pāramitā), the worship of buddhas and bodhisattvas, the benefits of renunciation, and the peace derived from the knowledge of emptiness (śūnyatā). The topic of each of the stanzas receives elaboration in the form of a prose commentary by the author as well as in illustrative passages, often quite extensive, drawn from a wide variety of Mahāyāna sūtras. Some ninety-seven texts are cited in all, many of which have been lost in their original Sanskrit, making the Śikṣāsamuccaya an especially important source for the textual history of Indian Buddhism. These citations also offer a window into which sūtras were known to a Mahāyāna author in eighth-century India. The digest of passages that Śāntideva provides was repeatedly drawn upon by Tibetan authors in their citations of sūtras. Although Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra and Śikṣāsamuccaya both deal with similar topics, the precise relation between the two texts is unclear. Several of the author's verses appear in both texts and some of the sūtra passages from the Śikṣāsamuccaya also appear in the Bodhicaryāvatāra. One passage in the Bodhicaryāvatāra also refers readers to the Śikṣāsamuccaya, but this line does not occur in the Dunhuang manuscript of the text and may be a later interpolation. (Source: "Śikṣāsamuccaya." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 821. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)

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Recommended Texts Related to Chapter 9

Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra

While on the way to Rājagṛha to collect alms, a group of newly ordained monks are approached by some non-Buddhists, who suggest that their doctrine is identical to that of the Buddha, since everyone agrees that misdeeds of body, speech, and mind are to be given up. The monks do not know how to reply, and when they later return to the brahmin town of Nālati, where the Buddha is residing, Śāradvatīputra therefore encourages them to seek clarification from the Blessed One himself. In response to the monks’ request, the Buddha delivers a comprehensive discourse on the effects of virtuous and unvirtuous actions, explaining these matters from the perspective of an adept practitioner of his teachings, who sees and understands all this through a process of personal discovery. As the teaching progresses, the Buddha presents an epic tour of the realm of desire—from the Hell of Ultimate Torment to the Heaven Free from Strife—all the while introducing the specific human actions and attitudes that cause the experience of such worlds and outlining the ways to remedy and transcend them. In the final section of the sūtra, which is presented as an individual scripture on its own, the focus is on mindfulness of the body and the ripening of karmic actions that is experienced among humans in particular. (Source: 84000)

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Pitāputrasamāgamanasūtra

Pitāputrasamāgamasūtra. (T. Yab dang sras mjal ba'i mdo; C. Pusa jianshi jing/Fuzi heji jing; J. Bosatsu kenjitsukyō/Fushi gōjūkyō; K. Posal kyǒnsil kyǒng/Puja hapchip kyǒng 菩薩見實會/父子合集經. In Sanskrit, "Sūtra on the Meeting of Father and Son," a Mahāyāna scripture found in the Ratnakūṭasūtra, often cited in Madhyamaka texts, especially for its expositions of emptiness (śūnyatā) and the two truths (satyadvaya). It is quoted in such famous works as Nāgārjuna's Sūtrasamuccaya and Śāntideva's Śikṣāsamuccaya. The Pitāputrasamāgamasūtra was translated into Chinese by Rajendrayaśas in 568 as the Pusa jianshi jing and was included in the massive Dabaoji jing (Ratnakūṭasūtra) compilation. It was subsequently retranslated in the eleventh century by Richeng and others as the Fuzi heji jing. (Source: "Pitāputrasamāgamasūtra." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 646–47. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)

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Trisaṃvaranirdeśaparivartasūtra

The Trisaṃvaranirdeśaparivarta of the Ratnakūṭasūtra collection sets forth the three types of vows as the three types of bodhisattva morality found in the śīlaparivarta ("morality chapter") of the Bodhisattvabhūmi. (Source: "trisaṃvara." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 924. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)

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Sāgaramatiparipṛcchāsūtra

Heralded by a miraculous flood, the celestial bodhisattva Sāgaramati arrives in Rājagṛha to engage in a Dharma discussion with Buddha Śākyamuni. He discusses an absorption called "The Pristine and Immaculate Seal" and many other subjects relevant to bodhisattvas who are in the process of developing the mind of awakening and practicing the bodhisattva path. The sūtra strongly advises that bodhisattvas not shy away from the afflictive emotions of beings—no matter how unpleasant they may be—and that insight into these emotions is critical for a bodhisattva's compassionate activity. The sūtra deals with the preeminence of wisdom and non-grasping on the path. In the end, as a teaching on how to deal with māras, the sūtra illuminates the many pitfalls possible on the path of the Great Vehicle. (Source: 84000)

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Ratnameghasūtra

On Gayāśīrṣa Hill, Buddha Śākyamuni is visited by a great gathering of bodhisattvas who have traveled miraculously there from a distant world, to venerate him as one who has vowed to liberate beings in a world much more afflicted than their own. The visiting bodhisattvas are led by Sarvanīvaraṇaviṣkambhin, who asks the Buddha a series of searching questions. In response, the Buddha gives a detailed and systematic account of the practices, qualities, and nature of bodhisattvas, the stages of their path, their realization, and their activities. Many of the topics are structured into sets of ten aspects, expounded with reasoned explanations and illustrated with parables and analogies. This sūtra is said to have been one of the very first scriptures translated into Tibetan. Its doctrinal richness, profundity, and clarity are justly celebrated, and some of its key statements on meditation, the realization of emptiness, and the fundamental nature of the mind have been widely quoted in the Indian treatises and Tibetan commentarial literature. (Source: 84000)

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Prajñānāmamūlamadhyamakakārikā

Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. (T. Dbu ma rtsa bai tshig le'u byas pa; C. Zhong lun; J. Chüron; K. Chung non 中論). In Sanskrit, "Root Verses on the Middle Way"; the magnum opus of the second-century Indian master Nāgārjuna ; also known as the Prajñānāmamūlamadhyamakakārikā and the Madhyamakaśāstra. (The Chinese analogue of this text is the Zhong lun, which renders the title as Madhyamakaśāstra. This Chinese version was edited and translated by Kumārajīva . Kumārajīva's edition, however, includes not only Nāgārjuna's verses but also Piṅgala's commentary to the verses.) The most widely cited and commented upon of Nāgārjuna's works in India, the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, was the subject of detailed commentaries by such figures as Buddhapālita, Bhāvaviveka, and Candrakīrti (with Candrakīrti's critique of Bhāvaviveka's criticism of a passage in Buddhapālita's commentary providing the locus classicus for the later Tibetan division of Madhyamaka into *Svātantrika and *Prāsaṅgika). In East Asia, it was one of the three basic texts of the "Three Treatises" school (C. San lun zong), and was central to Tiantai philosophy. Although lost in the original Sanskrit as an independent work, the entire work is preserved within the Sanskrit text of Candrakīrti's commentary, the Prasannapadā (serving as one reason for the influence of Candrakīrti's commentary in the European reception of the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā). The work is composed of 448 verses in twenty-seven chapters. The topics of the chapters (as provided by Candrakīrti) are the analysis of: (1) conditions (pratyaya), (2) motion, (3) the eye and the other sense faculties (indriya), (4) aggregates (skandha), (5) elements (dhātu), (6) passion and the passionate, (7) the conditioned (in the sense of production, abiding, disintegration), (8) action and agent, (9) prior existence, (10) fire and fuel, (11) the past and future limits of saṃsāra, (12) suffering, (13) the conditioned (saṃskāra), (14) contact (saṃsarga), (15) intrinsic nature (svabhāva), (16) bondage and liberation, (17) action and effect, (18) self, (19) time, (20) assemblage (sāmagrī), (21) arising and dissolving, (22) the tathāgata, (23) error, (24) the four noble truths, (25) nirvāṇa, (26), the twelve links of dependent origination (pratītyasamutpāda), and (27) views. (Source: "Mūlamadhyamakakārikā." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 553. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)

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Recommended Books Related to Chapter 9

The Wisdom Chapter

Shāntideva’s guide to the training of a Bodhisattva is one of the most important and beloved texts in the Tibetan tradition. The ninth chapter, however, dealing with Madhyamaka, the Middle Way, the most profound wisdom view of Mahayana Buddhism, has always posed unique challenges to readers. This commentary by the great scholar Mipham Rinpoche presents in quite straightforward terms Shāntideva’s exposition of emptiness, the essential foundation of all Buddhist doctrine, demonstrating that it is not only compatible with, but in fact crucial to, the correct understanding of other important Buddhist teachings such as karma, rebirth, and the practice of compassion. Mipham interprets Shāntideva according to the view of the Nyingma school, which in some respects was at variance with the religiously and politically dominant interpretation of the text in Tibet at that time. As a result, his commentary stirred up a furious debate. With the addition of a critique of Mipham Rinpoche’s view by a prominent scholar of the time, along with Mipham’s response, that debate is beautifully captured in this volume. (Source: Shambhala Publications)

Book

Studies in the Philosophy of the Bodhicaryāvatāra (2000)

This volume brings together Paul Williams's previously published papers on the Indian and Tibetan interpretations of selected verses from the eighth and ninth chapters of the Bodhicaryāvatāra. In addition there is a much longer version of the paper "Identifying the Object of Negation" and nearly half the book consists of a wholly new essay, "The Absence of Self and the Removal of Pain," subtitled "How Śāntideva Destroyed the Bodhisattva Path." In this paper Williams seeks to engage in a critical way with some central

issues of Buddhist thought relating to the coherence of a reductionist model of the person. He argues for an irreducible subject-involvement of pain statements and suggests that given an approach to the person explicitly avowed in the Bodhicaryāvatāra it becomes impossible to make sense of subject-involvement, and thus of the removal of pain which is central to the path to Buddhahood.
Paul Williams approaches selected verses from the Bodhicaryāvatāra in the light of all the extant Indian commentaries available as well as many indigenous Tibetan commentaries from all Tibetan traditions. He is thus able to indicate varieties and shifting patterns of interpretation and influence, showing how the Bodhicaryāvatāra comes to be used by the different Tibetan traditions according to their differing overall religious and philosophical agendas.
This book will be of interest to those concerned with the history and interpretation of Indian and Tibetan philosophy, particularly Madhyamaka, the detailed study of the text of the Bodhicaryāvatāra, and also those whose interest is primarily

with philosophical issues relating to the person, the philosophy of rebirth, and to the relationship between ethics and Madhyamaka ontology. (Source: inside flap)

Book

Perfecting Wisdom

This extraordinarily clear exposition on the wisdom section of A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life is based on an oral teaching given in Switzerland by H.H. the Dalai Lama before an audience of thousands of Tibetans and Westerners in 1979. Shantideva's A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life is one of the most important texts in the Mahayana tradition of Buddhist practice. Its ninth chapter, the section on transcendent wisdom, is known among Buddhist scholars as a challenging exposition of Madhyamika philosophy and difficult to understand without a commentary. This invaluable volume with its precise elucidation of the core issues of Tibetan Buddhism stands as a key work in Buddhist literature. (Source: Shambhala Publications)

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Recommended Dissertations Related to Chapter 9

The Case of 'Ju Mi pham (1846–1912) and Dpa' ris Rab gsal (1840–1912): A Study in Dgag lan Debate

Abstract The present dissertation is a case study in dgag lan debate, a specific form of debate that developed in Tibet, conducted through the exchange of texts. The dispute that is investigated evolved between the Rnying ma scholar 'Ju Mi pham (1846–1912) and his Dge lugs opponent Dpa' ris Rab gsal (1840–1912) and centres on the correct interpretation of the ninth chapter of the Bodhicaryāvatāra, an Indian work (7th–8th ct. CE) that is of pivotal importance to the understanding of Madhyamaka thought. Polemics were exchanged over a period of about 27 years and involved the composition of six treatises, which makes this particular debate one of the most extended cases of its kind. The first section of the thesis provides the general context of the controversy, by reconstructing its historical development, placing it within the formation of polemical literature in general, and exploring the historical conditions for the emergence of the debate and its socio-political background. The main part deals with the content of the debate as it becomes visible through the texts that were exchanged. It outlines the key issues of the controversy, explains their respective background, and investigates the dynamic development of the debate by following the exchange of arguments beyond the borders of the individual texts. The last section – intended as a complement for the specialist – provides a detailed and comprehensive structural analysis of the relevant texts down to the level of individual arguments and makes their connections to previous and later arguments explicit. (Source Accessed Jan 28, 2021)

Dissertation

Śāntideva and the Mādhyamika: The Prajñāpāramitā-Pariccheda of the Bodhicaryāvatāra

Preface The Ninth or Perfection of Wisdom Chapter (Praiñāpāramitā-Pariccheda- PP) of Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra (BCA) was the last comprehensive statement of the Indian Mādhyamika school which was written from the Prāsangika standpoint of Buddhapālita and Candrakīrti. For that reason, and because of the insight that it gives into the thought of one of the major Indian Buddhist teachers, I believe that it merits the attention of Buddhologists and other scholars concerned with Buddhist philosophy in India and Tibet. In the present study I have sought to remedy the lack of an adequate translation and exposition of this work in English.
The Prāsangika-Mādhyamika school had long been of interest to me, and I had also greatly admired those portions of the BCA that I had read in Sanskrit and Tibetan in the course of my graduate training. Therefore when Prof. Geshe L. Sopa suggested in 1972 that I make a translation and study of the PP the subject of my dissertation I found it a most congenial project. In the years that followed I have become well aware of the difficulties that beset the translator of a complex work of philosophy like the PP. Obviously the few years that I have devoted to this task are insufficient to produce the definitive treatment of a work about which some of Tibet’s finest thinkers have debated for over five hundred years without causing a definite consensus of opinion to be reached. It has been my object merely to render Śāntideva's verses into English with as little distortion of their meaning as possible, and to provide a reasonable exegesis of them according to the major Indian and Tibetan commentaries. There is of course often more than one plausible explanation for a verse, and while I have followed my personal preference on such occasions I have also tried to indicate all possible alternatives. In addition, I have included a brief introduction dealing with the PP in the context of Śāntideva's writings, and with some of the philosophical problems contained in it. (Sweet, preface, ii-iii)

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Key Terms for Chapter 9

Prajñā

One of the key terms for wisdom or knowledge, most often having the sense of insight, transcendent knowledge, or perhaps gnosis. In some contexts it can also refer to cognition or intellectual understanding.

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Madhyamaka

Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā.

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Śūnyatā

The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics.

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Bibliography: Works on Chapter 9 - Wisdom

[1] Ajahn Chah, "Still, Flowing Water," in Living Dhamma (Ubon Rachathani: Thailand, The Sangha, Wat Nong Pah Pong, 2007), 80–81. https://www.ajahnchah.org/pdf/living_dhamma.pdf.

[2] There is a debate between non-Mahāyāna and Mahāyāna proponents regarding which teachings of the Buddha are authentic and how they can be validated as true teachings of the Buddha.

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[2]

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Bibliography: Works on Chapter 9 - Wisdom