Study/The Ninth Chapter

The Ninth Chapter

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Chapter 9 of Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra explores the Perfection of Wisdom (prajñāpāramitā) and examining emptiness (śūnyatā) through rigorous philosophical analysis. This chapter sparked centuries of debate within Tibetan Buddhism, particularly between Madhyamaka interpretative schools. Mipham Rinpoche's commentary emphasized the compatibility of Prasaṅgika and Yogācāra views, drawing criticism from Drakar Tulku who defended Tsongkhapa's stricter Prasaṅgika position. Pari Rabsel joined the discourse, questioning aspects of both interpretations and proposing nuanced readings of Śāntideva's intended meaning regarding conventional and ultimate truths in Buddhist soteriology.

 

Debates on the Wisdom Chapter between Mipham, Drakar, and Pari Rabsel

This article explores and contextualizes the philosophical debates between Mipham Rinpoche, representing the Nyingma tradition, and Geluk scholars like Drakar Tulku and Pari Lobsang Rabsel in 19th century Tibet.

Resource

 

A Short Introduction to the Wisdom Chapter

This essay provides an overview of the ninth chapter of Śāntideva's Bodhicharyāvatāra, commonly referred to as the Wisdom Chapter. .

Resource

 

Mipham's Norbu Ketaka

This section examines the controversy surrounding Mipham Rinpoche's commentary on the "Wisdom Chapter" of the Bodhicaryāvatāra, known as the Ketaka Jewel..

Resource

 

Historical Context and Textual Sources of the Late Nineteenth-Century Debates

This overview provides detailed information on the historical development of the controversy surrounding Mipham's commentary on the Wisdom Chapter

Resource

 

The Debates in the Context of Tibetan Doctrinal Polemics

In this his essay, the author establishes the wider literary and socio-historical background of the debate between 'Ju Mi pham and Dpa' ris Rab gsal.

Resource

 

The Doctrinal Background of the Debates

In the following section, a detailed account of Madhyamaka in Tibet as well as of the hermeneutical issues related to the debates between Mipham and Geluk scholars is provided.

Resource

 

Mipham's Interpretation of Madhyamaka

This section offers a detailed presentation of Mipham's understanding of Madhyamaka and his responses to criticisms from Gelugpa scholars.

Resource

 

The Debate Between Mipham Rinpoche and Drakar Tulku

This essay focuses on Mipham's Light of the DayStar, his response to Drakar Lobzang Palden Tenzin Nyendrak's criticism of his commentary on the ninth chapter of the Bodhicaryāvatāra.

Resource

 

The Debate Between Mipham Rinpoche and Pari Rabsel

This page discusses the debate between Mipham and his contemporary from the Geluk school, Pari Rabsel

Resource

Notes

The Ninth Chapter

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Chapter 9 of Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra explores the Perfection of Wisdom (prajñāpāramitā) and examining emptiness (śūnyatā) through rigorous philosophical analysis. This chapter sparked centuries of debate within Tibetan Buddhism, particularly between Madhyamaka interpretative schools. Mipham Rinpoche's commentary emphasized the compatibility of Prasaṅgika and Yogācāra views, drawing criticism from Drakar Tulku who defended Tsongkhapa's stricter Prasaṅgika position. Pari Rabsel joined the discourse, questioning aspects of both interpretations and proposing nuanced readings of Śāntideva's intended meaning regarding conventional and ultimate truths in Buddhist soteriology.

This article explores and contextualizes the philosophical debates between Mipham Rinpoche, representing the Nyingma tradition, and Geluk scholars like Drakar Tulku and Pari Lobsang Rabsel in 19th century Tibet. These scholarly exchanges illuminate fundamental questions about the proper interpretation of Madhyamaka philosophy and reveal the rich intellectual traditions that emerged around Śāntideva's profound teachings on wisdom and emptiness.

 

A Short Introduction to the Wisdom Chapter

This essay provides an overview of the ninth chapter of Śāntideva's Bodhicharyāvatāra, commonly referred to as the Wisdom Chapter.

Resource

 

Mipham's Norbu Ketaka

This section examines the controversy surrounding Mipham Rinpoche's commentary on the "Wisdom Chapter" of the Bodhicaryāvatāra, known as the Ketaka Jewel.

Resource

 

Historical Context and Textual Sources of the Late Nineteenth-Century Debates

This overview provides detailed information on the historical development of the controversy surrounding Mipham's commentary on the Wisdom Chapter

Resource

 

The Debates in the Context of Tibetan Doctrinal Polemics

In this his essay, the author establishes the wider literary and socio-historical background of the debate between 'Ju Mi pham and Dpa' ris Rab gsal.

Resource

 

The Doctrinal Background of the Debates

In the following section, a detailed account of Madhyamaka in Tibet as well as of the hermeneutical issues related to the debates between Mipham and Geluk scholars is provided.

Resource

 

Mipham's Interpretation of Madhyamaka

This section offers a detailed presentation of Mipham's understanding of Madhyamaka and his responses to criticisms from Gelugpa scholars.

Resource

 

The Debate Between Mipham Rinpoche and Drakar Tulku

This essay focuses on Mipham's Light of the DayStar, his response to Drakar Lobzang Palden Tenzin Nyendrak's criticism of his commentary on the ninth chapter of the Bodhicaryāvatāra.

Resource

 

The Debate Between Mipham Rinpoche and Pari Rabsel

This page discusses the debate between Mipham and his contemporary from the Geluk school, Pari Rabsel

Resource

Notes

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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. Skt मध्यमक  Tib དབུ་མ་  Ch 中觀見  

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Yogācāra - Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana). Skt योगाचार  Tib རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྤྱོད་པ་  Ch 瑜伽行派  

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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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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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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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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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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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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. Skt प्रज्ञा  Tib ཤེས་རབ་  Ch 般若  

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