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मध्यमकावतारभाष्य
Madhyamakāvatārabhāṣya
དབུ་མ་ལ་འཇུག་པའི་བཤད་པ
dbu ma la 'jug pa'i bshad pa
An Explanation of "Entering into the Middle Way" (84000)
Text
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Description
Candrakīrti's Madhyamakāvatārabhāṣya (Commentary on the Entrance to the Middle Way) is an auto-commentary on his root text, the Madhyamakāvatāra, composed in seventh-century India. As one of the most important texts in Indo-Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, it presents Candrakīrti's systematic exposition of Nāgārjuna's Madhyamaka philosophy. The text is organized around the ten bodhisattva stages, though the sixth chapter—on the perfection of wisdom—is by far the most extensive and philosophically significant, containing detailed analyses of emptiness, the two truths (conventional and ultimate), and extensive polemics against competing Buddhist schools, particularly the Yogācāra and Bhāvaviveka's Madhyamaka interpretation.
Candrakīrti is known for his distinctive prasaṅga approach, using reductio ad absurdum arguments to refute opponents without establishing positive theses, and for rejecting autonomous syllogisms in favor of purely dialectical reasoning. While his interpretation was initially less influential in India than Bhāvaviveka's, it became dominant in Tibet after translation, where the Madhyamakāvatārabhāṣya became a foundational text for the Geluk school and other traditions. It remains central to Tibetan monastic curricula today, serving as the definitive commentary on Madhyamaka emptiness philosophy.
Reference
Candrakīrti. madhyamakāvatārabhāṣya [मध्यमकावतारभाष्य]. dbu ma la 'jug pa'i bshad pa [དབུ་མ་ལ་འཇུག་པའི་བཤད་པ]. [An Explanation of "Entering into the Middle Way" (84000)]. Tengyur, RKTST 3207 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3207&typ=2.
Interconnections
1 Recensions
This book contains a strictly scholarly edition of the first five chapters of a Sanskrit work that presents the stages on the path to enlightenment according to the "Great Vehicle" of Buddhism. The author of this work, Candrakīrti (c. 570–650), is one of the most important proponents of the Madhyamaka, the "Middle Way." A central theme of this school is the emptiness, or insubstantiality, of all things and living beings. Bodhisattvas devote themselves to developing the highest insight that comprehends this emptiness, as well as to perfecting a series of ethical and character virtues, such as generosity, right conduct, and patience, in order to attain perfect buddhahood. Unlike the followers of the "Lesser Vehicle," bodhisattvas, out of their great compassion, vow to postpone entry into nirvana until they have attained buddhahood. Only the attainment of buddhahood endows them with the extensive abilities that enable them to provide comprehensive assistance to living beings. This edition, presented here for the first time, is based on the only surviving manuscript, which has only recently become accessible and has been preserved in Tibet for centuries. Edited in the original language, the text not only provides a better understanding of Candrakīrti's philosophical views and his interpretations of issues relevant to salvation, but also a more accurate assessment of his contribution to an important phase of Indian Buddhism.
Funded by: Austrian Science Fund (FWF) - Independent Publications (Source Accessed Oct 9, 2025)
1 Classical commentary of
Madhyamakāvatāra. (T. Dbu ma la 'jug pa). In Sanskrit, "Entrance to the Middle Way" (translated also as "Supplement to the Middle Way"); the major independent (as opposed to commentarial) work of the seventh-century Indian master Candrakīrti, who states that it is intended as an avatāra (variously rendered as "primer," "entrance," and "supplement") to Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. The work is written in verse, to which the author provides an extensive prose commentary (bhāṣya). The work is organized around ten "productions of the aspiration to enlightenment" (bodhicittotpāda), which correspond to the ten stages (bhūmi) of the bodhisattva path (drawn largely from the Daśabhūmikasūtra) and their respective perfections (pāramitā), describing the salient practices and attainments of each. These are followed by chapters on the qualities of the bodhisattva, on the stage of buddhahood, and a conclusion. The lengthiest (comprising approximately half of the work) and most important chapter of the text is the sixth, dealing with the perfection of wisdom (prajñāpāramitā). This is one of the most extensive and influential expositions in Indian literature of Madhyamaka philosophical positions. In it, Candrakīrti provides a detailed discussion of the two truths—ultimate truth (paramārthasatya) and conventional truth (saṃvṛtisatya)—arguing that all things that have these two natures and that conventional truths (which he glosses as "concealing truths") are not in fact true because they appear falsely to the ignorant consciousness. He also discusses the crucial question of valid knowledge (pramāṇa) among the unenlightened, relating it to worldly consensus (lokaprasiddha). The sixth chapter also contains one of the most detailed refutations of Yogācāra in Madhyamaka literature, treating such topics as the three natures (trisvabhāva), the foundational consciousness (ālayavijñāna), and the statements in the sūtras that the three realms of existence are "mind-only" (cittamātra). This chapter also contains Candrakīrti's most famous contribution to Madhyamaka reasoning, the sevenfold reasoning designed to demonstrate the absence of a personal self (pudgalanairātmya). Adding to and elaborating upon a fivefold reasoning found in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, Candrakīrti argues that the person does not intrinsically exist because of it: (1) not being the aggregates (skandha), (2) not being other than the aggregates, (3) not being the basis of the aggregates, (4) not depending on the aggregates, (5) not possessing the aggregates, (6) not being the shape of the aggregates, and (7) not being the composite of the aggregates. He illustrates this reasoning by applying it to the example of a chariot, which, he argues, is not to be found among its constituent parts. The sixth chapter concludes with a discussion of the sixteen and the twenty forms of emptiness (śūnyatā), which include the emptiness of emptiness (śūnyatāśūnyatā). The work was the most widely studied and commented upon Madhyamaka text in Tibet among all sects, serving, for example, as one of the "five texts" (zhung lnga) that formed the Dge lugs scholastic curriculum. The work is preserved only in Tibetan, although a Sanskrit manuscript of verses has been discovered in Tibet. (Source: "Madhyamakāvatāra." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 489. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)
1 A topic of
This book contains a strictly scholarly edition of the first five chapters of a Sanskrit work that presents the stages on the path to enlightenment according to the "Great Vehicle" of Buddhism. The author of this work, Candrakīrti (c. 570–650), is one of the most important proponents of the Madhyamaka, the "Middle Way." A central theme of this school is the emptiness, or insubstantiality, of all things and living beings. Bodhisattvas devote themselves to developing the highest insight that comprehends this emptiness, as well as to perfecting a series of ethical and character virtues, such as generosity, right conduct, and patience, in order to attain perfect buddhahood. Unlike the followers of the "Lesser Vehicle," bodhisattvas, out of their great compassion, vow to postpone entry into nirvana until they have attained buddhahood. Only the attainment of buddhahood endows them with the extensive abilities that enable them to provide comprehensive assistance to living beings. This edition, presented here for the first time, is based on the only surviving manuscript, which has only recently become accessible and has been preserved in Tibet for centuries. Edited in the original language, the text not only provides a better understanding of Candrakīrti's philosophical views and his interpretations of issues relevant to salvation, but also a more accurate assessment of his contribution to an important phase of Indian Buddhism.
Funded by: Austrian Science Fund (FWF) - Independent Publications (Source Accessed Oct 9, 2025)
