Introduction to Madhyamaka Philosophy PDF Download

Author: Jaideva Singh
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Mādhyamika (Buddhism).
Languages : en
Pages : 59

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Author: Jaideva Singh
Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass Publishe
ISBN: 9788120803268
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 76

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Book Description
This brief introduction to Madhyamaka Philosophy gives a history of the rise and growth of Madhyamaka Philosophy, and the origin, structure, development and purpose of the Madhyamaka dialectic. It elucidated the distinction between Hinayana and Mahayana in respect of pratityasamutpada, nirvana, the ideal of religious discipline, the concept of Dharma, and the concept of Buddhology. It discusses the meaning of Sunya-Sunyata and its axiological and soteriological significance. Other important features of the present introduction are the clarification of the concepts of Madhyama Pratipad, Samvrti and Paramartha Satya, Tathata, Dharmadhatu and Bhutakoti.

Author: Jan Westerhoff
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199705119
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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The Indian philosopher Acharya Nagarjuna (c. 150-250 CE) was the founder of the Madhyamaka (Middle Path) school of Mahayana Buddhism and arguably the most influential Buddhist thinker after Buddha himself. Indeed, in the Tibetan and East Asian traditions, Nagarjuna is often referred to as the "second Buddha." His primary contribution to Buddhist thought lies is in the further development of the concept of sunyata or "emptiness." For Nagarjuna, all phenomena are without any svabhaba, literally "own-nature" or "self-nature," and thus without any underlying essence. In this book, Jan Westerhoff offers a systematic account of Nagarjuna's philosophical position. He reads Nagarjuna in his own philosophical context, but he does not hesitate to show that the issues of Indian and Tibetan Buddhist philosophy have at least family resemblances to issues in European philosophy.

Author: Jñānagarbha
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780887063015
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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The Mādhyamaka School of Indian Buddhist thought has had tremendous influence in the Buddhist world, particularly in Tibet, China and Japan: in the West it has become the subject of intense interest in the fields of comparative religion and philosophy. Many aspects of Mādhyamaka thought, however, remain obscure, especially during the period when Buddhist thought was first introduced to Tibet. Jñānagarbha's Commentary on the Distinction between the Two Truths is a concise and lucid introduction to the issues and personalities that dominated Indian Mādhyamaka thought on the eve of its introduction to Tibet. As an example of the influential but little-known Svātantrika branch of the Mādhyamaka School, Jñānagarbha's work shows quite vividly how the commitment to reason in the search for ultimate truth shaped not only the dialogue between Mādhyamaka thinkers and members of other Buddhist schools, but also the evolution of the Mādhyamaka tradition itself. David Eckel has translated Jñānagarbha's text in its entirety and provided an introduction that situates the text clearly in its historical and philosophical context. Extensive notes, a transliterated version of the Tibetan translation, and a reproduction of the original Tibetan blockprints make this volume useful to scholars as well as to the interested general reader.

Author: Tsong khapa
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199881952
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 958

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Tsong kha pa (14th-century) is arguably the most important and influential philosopher in Tibetan history. An Ocean of Reasoning is the most extensive and perhaps the deepest extant commentary on Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarika (Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way), and it can be argued that it is impossible to discuss Nagarjuna's work in an informed way without consulting it. It discusses alternative readings of the text and prior commentaries and provides a detailed exegesis, constituting a systematic presentation of Madhyamaka Buddhist philosophy. Despite its central importance, however, of Tsong kha pa's three most important texts, only An Ocean of Reasoning remains untranslated, perhaps because it is both philosophically and linguistically challenging, demanding a rare combination of abilities on the part of a translator. Jay Garfield and Ngawang Samten bring the requisite skills to this difficult task, combining between them expertise in Western and Indian philosophy, and fluency in Tibetan, Sanskrit, and English. The resulting translation of this important text will not only be a landmark contribution to the scholarship of Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, but will serve as a valuable companion volume to Jay Garfield's highly successful translation of The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way.

Author: Jay L. Garfield
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0190231297
Category : Philosophy
Languages : az
Pages : 295

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Madhyamaka and Yogacara are the two principal schools of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy. While Madhyamaka asserts the ultimate emptiness and conventional reality of all phenomena, Yogacara is usually considered to be idealistic. This collection of essays addresses the degree to which these philosophical approaches are consistent or complementary. Indian and Tibetan doxographies often take these two schools to be philosophical rivals. They are grounded in distinct bodies of sutra literature and adopt what appear to be very different positions regarding the analysis of emptiness and the status of mind. Madhyamaka-Yogacara polemics abound in Indian Buddhist literature, and Tibetan doxographies regard them as distinct systems. Nonetheless, scholars have tried to synthesize the two positions for centuries. This volume offers new essays by prominent experts on both these traditions, who address the question of the degree to which these philosophical approaches should be seen as rivals or as allies. In answering the question of whether Madhyamaka and Yogacara can be considered compatible, contributors engage with a broad range of canonical literature, and relate the texts to contemporary philosophical problems.

Author: Jan Westerhoff
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019104704X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Jan Westerhoff unfolds the story of one of the richest episodes in the history of Indian thought, the development of Buddhist philosophy in the first millennium CE. He starts from the composition of the Abhidharma works before the beginning of the common era and continues up to the time of Dharmakirti in the sixth century. This period was characterized by the development of a variety of philosophical schools and approaches that have shaped Buddhist thought up to the present day: the scholasticism of the Abhidharma, the Madhyamaka's theory of emptiness, Yogacara idealism, and the logical and epistemological works of Dinnaga and Dharmakirti. The book attempts to describe the historical development of these schools in their intellectual and cultural context, with particular emphasis on three factors that shaped the development of Buddhist philosophical thought: the need to spell out the contents of canonical texts, the discourses of the historical Buddha and the Mahayana sutras; the desire to defend their positions by sophisticated arguments against criticisms from fellow Buddhists and from non-Buddhist thinkers of classical Indian philosophy; and the need to account for insights gained through the application of specific meditative techniques. While the main focus is the period up to the sixth century CE, Westerhoff also discusses some important thinkers who influenced Buddhist thought between this time and the decline of Buddhist scholastic philosophy in India at the beginning of the thirteenth century. His aim is that the historical presentation will also allow the reader to get a better systematic grasp of key Buddhist concepts such as non-self, suffering, reincarnation, karma, and nirvana.

Author: Mark Siderits
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 161429061X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Winner of the 2014 Khyenste Foundation Translation Prize. Nagarjuna's renowned twenty-seven-chapter Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way (Mulamadhyamakakarika) is the foundational text of the Madhyamaka school of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy. It is the definitive, touchstone presentation of the doctrine of emptiness. Professors Siderits and Katsura prepared this translation using the four surviving Indian commentaries in an attempt to reconstruct an interpretation of its enigmatic verses that adheres as closely as possible to that of its earliest proponents. Each verse is accompanied by concise, lively exposition by the authors conveying the explanations of the Indian commentators. The result is a translation that balances the demands for fidelity and accessibility.

Author: Peter Della Santina
Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass Publ.
ISBN: 9788120801530
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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This Volume traces the development of one of the most divisive debates in Buddhist philosophy in which leading parts were taken by Nagarjuna, Bhavaviveka and Candrakirti. The interesting debate between the Prasangikas and Svatantrikas has thus far received comparatively little attention. It has been largely assumed that the division between the two schools occurred as a result of the disagreements on the essentials of the Madhyamaka philosophical view. In the present work the author argues that the school split not over philosophy but over forensic methodology or, in other words, over the way in which the philosophy of emptiness was to be communicated to and vindicated for others. He draws substantially on the Tibetan sources to prove his viewpoint. He also makes use of Nagarjuna's Mulamadhya makakarika and Candrakirti's Prasannapadanamadhyamakavrtti. The volume extends not only the current understanding of the Madhyamaka system, but also offers a new and eminently reasonable interpretation of the nature of the divisions between the Prasangikas and Svatantrikas.

Author: Mark Siderits
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191070998
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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This volume brings together nineteen of Mark Siderits's most important essays on Buddhist philosophy. Together they cover a wide range of topics, from metaphysics, logic, philosophy of language, epistemology, and ethics, to the specific discussions of the interaction between Buddhist and classical Indian philosophy. Each of the essays is followed by a postscript that Siderits has written specifically for this volume. The postscripts connect essays of the volume with each other, show thematic interrelations, and locate them relative to the development of Siderits's thought. In addition, they provide the opportunity to bring the discussion of the essays up to date by acquainting the reader with the development of research in the field since the publication of the essays. Siderits's work is based on an investigation of Indian sources in their original language, nevertheless the focus of the essays is primarily systematic, not historical or philological. The idea of 'fusion philosophy' (a term coined by Siderits) embodies precisely the assumption that by bringing a Western and an Eastern tradition together, both can benefit by learning from each other about new ways of tackling old philosophical problems.