Mulamadhyamaka-karika: Difference between revisions

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Mulamadhyamaka-karika (Skt. Prajñā-nāma-mūlamadhyamakakārikā; Tib. དབུ་མ་རྩ་བ་ཤེས་རབ་, Uma Tsawa Sherab, Wyl. dbu ma rtsa ba shes rab; Trad. Chin. 中論), The Root Verses on the Wisdom of the Middle Way — the most famous and important treatise on Madhyamika philosophy, composed by the great master Nagarjuna. It is part of his Collection of Middle Way Reasoning.

It is included among the so-called "thirteen great texts", which form the core of the curriculum in most shedras and on which Khenpo Shenga provided commentaries.

Outline

There are twenty-seven chapters:

Examination of Conditions (Skt. Pratyayaparīkṣā)
Examination of Motion (Skt. Gatāgataparīkṣā)
Examination of the Senses (Skt. Cakṣurādīndriyaparīkṣā)
Examination of the Skandhas (Skt. Skandhaparīkṣā)
Examination of the Dhatus (Skt. Dhātuparīkṣā)
Examination of Desire and the Desirous (Skt. Rāgaraktaparīkṣā)
Examination of the Conditioned (Skt. Saṃskṛtaparīkṣā)
Examination of the Agent and Action (Skt. Karmakārakaparīkṣā)
Examination of the Prior Entity (Skt. Pūrvaparīkṣā)
Examination of Fire and Fuel (Skt. Agnīndhanaparīkṣā)
Examination of the Initial and Final Limits (Skt. Pūrvaparakoṭiparīkṣā)
Examination of Suffering (Skt. Duḥkhaparīkṣā)
Examination of Compounded Phenomena (Skt. Saṃskāraparīkṣā)
Examination of Connection (Skt. Saṃsargaparīkṣā)
Examination of Essence (Skt. Svabhāvaparīkṣā)
Examination of Bondage (Skt. Bandhanamokṣaparīkṣā)
Examination of Actions and their Fruits (Skt. Karmaphalaparīkṣa)
Examination of Self and Entities (Skt. Ātmaparīkṣā)
Examination of Time (Skt. Kālaparīkṣā)
Examination of Combination (Skt. Sāmagrīparīkṣā)
Examination of Becoming and Destruction (Skt. Saṃbhavavibhavaparīkṣā)
Examination of the Tathagata (Skt. Tathāgataparīkṣā)
Examination of Errors (Skt. Viparyāsaparīkṣā)
Examination of the Four Noble Truths (Skt. Āryasatyaparīkṣā)
Examination of Nirvana (Skt. Nirvānaparīkṣā)
Examination of the Twelve Links (Skt. Dvādaśāṅgaparīkṣā)
Examination of Views (Skt. Dṛṣṭiparīkṣā)

Tibetan Text

Commentaries

Indian

It is said there were eight important commentaries on the text in India, but only four of them have been translated into Tibetan and subsequently found their way into the Tengyur.

Akutobhayā (Skt. Akutobhayā; Wyl. dbu ma rtsa ba'i 'grel pa ga las 'jigs med) ^[1]
Buddhapalita, Mula Madhyamaka Vritti (Skt. Mūla-madhyamaka-vṛtti; in Tibetan referred to as the Buddhapalita commentary; Wyl. dbu ma rtsa ba'i 'grel pa buddha pā li ta)
- Buddhapalita, Buddhapalita's Commentary on Nagarjuna's Middle Way, introduction and translation by Ian James Coghlan (Wisdom Publications, 2021)
Bhavaviveka, The Wisdom Lamp: A Commentary on the Root Verses on the Wisdom of the Middle Way (Skt. Prajñā-pradīpa-mūla-madhyamaka-vṛtti; Wyl. dbu ma'i rtsa ba'i 'grel pa shes rab sgron ma)
Chandrakirti, Clear Words (Skt. Mūla-mādhyamaka-vṛtti-prasannapadā)

དབུ་མ་རྩ་བའི་འགྲེལ་པ་ཚིག་གསལ་བ་, dbu ma rtsa ba'i 'grel pa tshig gsal ba

Tibetan

Mabja Changchub Tsöndrü, Ornament of Reason: The Great Commentary to Nagarjuna's Root of the Middle Way (Ithaca: Snow Lion, 2011)
Khenpo Shenga

དབུ་མ་རྩ་བའི་ཚིག་ལེའུར་བྱས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཅེས་བྱ་བའི་མཆན་འགྲེལ་, dbu ma rtsa ba'i tshig le'ur byas pa shes rab ces bya ba'i mchan 'grel

Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso, The Sun of Wisdom: Teachings on the Noble Nagarjuna's Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way, translated and edited by Ari Goldfield (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2003)
Mipham Rinpoche, [A Jewel of the Powerful Nagarjuna's Intention that Perfectly Illuminates the True Nature]

དབུ་མ་རྩ་བའི་མཆན་འགྲེལ་གནས་ལུགས་རབ་གསལ་ཀླུ་དབང་དགོངས་རྒྱན་, dbu ma rtsa ba'i mchan 'grel gnas lugs rab gsal klu dbang dgongs rgyan

Translations

English

Garfield, Jay. The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way (Oxford University Press 1995)
Goldfield, Ari. Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso, The Sun of Wisdom: Teachings on the Noble Nagarjuna's Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way
Inada, Kenneth. Nagarjuna: A Translation of his Mulamadhyamikakarika (Tokyo: The Hokuseido Press, 1970)
Kalupahana, David. Nagarjuna: The Philosophy of the Middle Way (Albany: State University, 1986)
Nagarjuna. The Root Stanzas on the Middle Way (translated by Padmakara Translation Group). (Boulder: Shambhala, 2016)
Siderits, Mark and Katsura, Shoryu. Nagarjuna's Middle Way: Mulamadhyamakakarika (Wisdom Publications, 2013) translated from Sanskrit
Streng, Frederik. Emptiness: A Study in Religious Meaning (Nashville: Abdingdon Press, 1967)

French

Nagarjuna, Les Stances Fondamentales de la Voie Médiane - Mûlamadhyamakakârikâ, Padmakara Translation Group (trans. Patrick Carré). Translation from Tibetan.
Nagarjuna, Stances du milieu par excellence: (Madhyamaka-kārikās), Guy Bugault (Traduction) (Gallimard, 2002). Translation from Sanskrit.

Notes

↑ Some attribute the text to Nagarjuna, but others cite the fact that the text quotes Aryadeva as evidence that it could not have been composed by Nagarjuna, who was Aryadeva's teacher.

Teachings Given to the Rigpa Sangha

Andy Karr, Lerab Ling, 28 April-5 May 2019, Contemplating the View of the Middle Way

Internal Links

Collection of Middle Way Reasoning

External Links

Prof. Georges Dreyfus teaching Nagarjuna’s Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way

[1] Some attribute the text to Nagarjuna, but others cite the fact that the text quotes Aryadeva as evidence that it could not have been composed by Nagarjuna, who was Aryadeva's teacher.

[1]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 [[Image:Nagarjuna17.JPG|frame|'''Nagarjuna''']]
-'''Mulamadhyamika-karika''' (Skt. ''Prajñā-nāma-mūlamadhyamakakārikā''; Tib. [[དབུ་མ་རྩ་བ་ཤེས་རབ་]], ''Uma Tsawa Sherab'', [[Wyl.]] ''dbu ma rtsa ba shes rab''; Trad. Chin. 中論), ''The Root Verses on the Wisdom of the Middle Way'' — the most famous and important treatise on [[Madhyamika]] philosophy, composed by the great master [[Nagarjuna]]. It is included among the so-called "[[thirteen great texts]]", which form the core of the curriculum in most [[shedra]]s and on which [[Khenpo Shenga]] provided commentaries.
+'''Mulamadhyamaka-karika''' (Skt. ''Prajñā-nāma-mūlamadhyamakakārikā''; Tib. [[དབུ་མ་རྩ་བ་ཤེས་རབ་]], ''Uma Tsawa Sherab'', [[Wyl.]] ''dbu ma rtsa ba shes rab''; Trad. Chin. 中論), ''The Root Verses on the Wisdom of the Middle Way'' — the most famous and important treatise on [[Madhyamika]] philosophy, composed by the great master [[Nagarjuna]]. It is part of his ''[[Collection of Middle Way Reasoning]]''.
+It is included among the so-called "[[thirteen great texts]]", which form the core of the curriculum in most [[shedra]]s and on which [[Khenpo Shenga]] provided commentaries.
 ==Outline==
 There are twenty-seven chapters:
+#Examination of Conditions (Skt. ''Pratyayaparīkṣā'')
-#Examination of Conditions (Skt. ''Pratyayaparīkṣā'')<br>
+#Examination of Motion (Skt. ''Gatāgataparīkṣā'')
-#Examination of Motion (Skt. ''Gatāgataparīkṣā'')<br>
+#Examination of the Senses (Skt. ''Cakṣurādīndriyaparīkṣā'')
-#Examination of the Senses (Skt. ''Cakṣurādīndriyaparīkṣā'')<br>
+#Examination of the [[Skandhas]] (Skt. ''Skandhaparīkṣā'')
-#Examination of the [[Skandhas]] (Skt. ''Skandhaparīkṣā'')<br>
+#Examination of the [[Eighteen dhatus|Dhatus]] (Skt. ''Dhātuparīkṣā'')
-#Examination of the [[Eighteen dhatus|Dhatus]] (Skt. ''Dhātuparīkṣā'')<br>
+#Examination of Desire and the Desirous (Skt. ''Rāgaraktaparīkṣā'')
-#Examination of Desire and the Desirous (Skt. ''Rāgaraktaparīkṣā'')<br>
 #Examination of the [[Conditioned]] (Skt. ''Saṃskṛtaparīkṣā'')<br>
-#Examination of the Agent and Action (Skt. ''Karmakārakaparīkṣā'')<br>
+#Examination of the Agent and Action (Skt. ''Karmakārakaparīkṣā'')
-#Examination of the Prior Entity (Skt. ''Pūrvaparīkṣā'')<br>
+#Examination of the Prior Entity (Skt. ''Pūrvaparīkṣā'')
-#Examination of Fire and Fuel (Skt. ''Agnīndhanaparīkṣā'')<br>
+#Examination of Fire and Fuel (Skt. ''Agnīndhanaparīkṣā'')
-#Examination of the Initial and Final Limits (Skt. ''Pūrvaparakoṭiparīkṣā'')<br>
+#Examination of the Initial and Final Limits (Skt. ''Pūrvaparakoṭiparīkṣā'')
-#Examination of Suffering (Skt. ''Duḥkhaparīkṣā'')<br>
+#Examination of [[Suffering]] (Skt. ''Duḥkhaparīkṣā'')
-#Examination of Compounded Phenomena (Skt. ''Saṃskāraparīkṣā'')<br>
+#Examination of [[Compounded]] Phenomena (Skt. ''Saṃskāraparīkṣā'')<br>
 #Examination of Connection (Skt. ''Saṃsargaparīkṣā'')<br>
-#Examination of Essence (Skt. ''Svabhāvaparīkṣā'')<br>
+#Examination of Essence (Skt. ''Svabhāvaparīkṣā'')
-#Examination of Bondage (Skt. ''Bandhanamokṣaparīkṣā'')<br>
+#Examination of Bondage (Skt. ''Bandhanamokṣaparīkṣā'')
-#Examination of Actions and their Fruits (Skt. ''Karmaphalaparīkṣa'')<br>
+#Examination of Actions and their Fruits (Skt. ''Karmaphalaparīkṣa'')
-#Examination of Self and Entities (Skt. ''Ātmaparīkṣā'')<br>
+#Examination of Self and Entities (Skt. ''Ātmaparīkṣā'')
-#Examination of Time (Skt. ''Kālaparīkṣā'')<br>
+#Examination of Time (Skt. ''Kālaparīkṣā'')
-#Examination of Combination (Skt. ''Sāmagrīparīkṣā'')<br>
+#Examination of Combination (Skt. ''Sāmagrīparīkṣā'')
-#Examination of Becoming and Destruction (Skt. ''Saṃbhavavibhavaparīkṣā'')<br>
+#Examination of Becoming and Destruction (Skt. ''Saṃbhavavibhavaparīkṣā'')
-#Examination of the [[Tathagata]] (Skt. ''Tathāgataparīkṣā'')<br>
+#Examination of the [[Tathagata]] (Skt. ''Tathāgataparīkṣā'')
-#Examination of Errors (Skt. ''Viparyāsaparīkṣā'')<br>
+#Examination of Errors (Skt. ''Viparyāsaparīkṣā'')
-#Examination of the [[Four Noble Truths]] (Skt. ''Āryasatyaparīkṣā'')<br>
+#Examination of the [[Four Noble Truths]] (Skt. ''Āryasatyaparīkṣā'')
-#Examination of [[Nirvana]] (Skt. ''Nirvānaparīkṣā'')<br>
+#Examination of [[Nirvana]] (Skt. ''Nirvānaparīkṣā'')
-#Examination of the [[Twelve nidanas|Twelve Links]] (Skt. ''Dvādaśāṅgaparīkṣā'')<br>
+#Examination of the [[Twelve nidanas|Twelve Links]] (Skt. ''Dvādaśāṅgaparīkṣā'')
-#Examination of Views (Skt. ''Dṛṣṭiparīkṣā'')<br>
+#Examination of Views (Skt. ''Dṛṣṭiparīkṣā'')
 ==Tibetan Text==
@@ Line 41: / Line 42: @@
 ===Indian===
 It is said there were eight important commentaries on the text in India, but only four of them have been translated into Tibetan and subsequently found their way into the [[Tengyur]].
+*'''Akutobhayā''' (Skt. ''Akutobhayā''; Wyl. ''dbu ma rtsa ba'i 'grel pa ga las 'jigs med'') <ref>Some attribute the text to [[Nagarjuna]], but others cite the fact that the text quotes [[Aryadeva]] as evidence that it could not have been composed by Nagarjuna, who was Aryadeva's teacher.</ref>
-*'''Akutobhayā''' (Skt. ''Akutobhayā'', Wyl. ''dbu ma rtsa ba'i 'grel pa ga las 'jigs med'') <ref>Some attribute the text to [[Nagarjuna]], but others cite the fact that the text quotes [[Aryadeva]] as evidence that it could not have been composed by Nagarjuna, who was Aryadeva's teacher.</ref>
+*[[Buddhapalita]], '''Mula Madhyamaka Vritti''' (Skt. ''Mūla-madhyamaka-vṛtti''; in Tibetan referred to as the Buddhapalita commentary; Wyl. ''dbu ma rtsa ba'i 'grel pa buddha pā li ta'')
+**Buddhapalita, ''Buddhapalita's Commentary on Nagarjuna's Middle Way'', introduction and translation by Ian James Coghlan (Wisdom Publications, 2021)
-*[[Buddhapalita]], '''Mula Madhyamaka Vritti''' (Skt. ''Mūla-madhyamaka-vṛtti'', in Tibetan referred to as the Buddhapalita commentary; Wyl. ''dbu ma rtsa ba'i 'grel pa buddha pā li ta'')
+*[[Bhavaviveka]], '''The Wisdom Lamp: A Commentary on the Root Verses on the Wisdom of the Middle Way''' (Skt. ''Prajñā-pradīpa-mūla-madhyamaka-vṛtti''; Wyl. ''dbu ma'i rtsa ba'i 'grel pa shes rab sgron ma'')
-*[[Bhavaviveka]], '''The Wisdom Lamp: A Commentary on the Root Verses on the Wisdom of the Middle Way''' (Skt. ''Prajñā-pradīpa-mūla-madhyamaka-vṛtti'', Wyl. ''dbu ma'i rtsa ba'i 'grel pa shes rab sgron ma'')
 *[[Chandrakirti]], '''[[Clear Words]]''' (Skt. ''Mūla-mādhyamaka-vṛtti-prasannapadā'')
 :{{TBRCW|O1GS6011|O1GS60111GS36113$W23703|དབུ་མ་རྩ་བའི་འགྲེལ་པ་ཚིག་གསལ་བ་, ''dbu ma rtsa ba'i 'grel pa tshig gsal ba''}}
 ===Tibetan===
+*[[Mabja Changchub Tsöndrü]], Ornament of Reason: The Great Commentary to Nagarjuna's Root of the Middle Way (Ithaca: Snow Lion, 2011)
 *[[Khenpo Shenga]]
 :{{TBRCW|O01DG10852|O01DG10852902$W23198|དབུ་མ་རྩ་བའི་ཚིག་ལེའུར་བྱས་པ་ཤེས་རབ་ཅེས་བྱ་བའི་མཆན་འགྲེལ་, ''dbu ma rtsa ba'i tshig le'ur byas pa shes rab ces bya ba'i mchan 'grel''}}
-*[[Mipham Rinpoche]]
+*[[Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso]], ''The Sun of Wisdom: Teachings on the Noble Nagarjuna's Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way'', translated and edited by Ari Goldfield (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2003)
+*[[Mipham Rinpoche]], [''A Jewel of the Powerful Nagarjuna's Intention that Perfectly Illuminates the True Nature'']
 :{{TBRCW|O01CT0021|O01CT0021d1e43$W23468|དབུ་མ་རྩ་བའི་མཆན་འགྲེལ་གནས་ལུགས་རབ་གསལ་ཀླུ་དབང་དགོངས་རྒྱན་, ''dbu ma rtsa ba'i mchan 'grel gnas lugs rab gsal klu dbang dgongs rgyan''}}
 ==Translations==
-*Garfield, Jay. ''The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way''. Oxford University Press 1995, ISBN 978-0195093360
+===English===
-*Inada, Kenneth. ''Nagarjuna: A Translation  of his  Mulamadhyamikakarika''. Tokyo: The Hokuseido Press, 1970, ISBN  978-0893460761
+*Garfield, Jay. ''The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way'' (Oxford University Press 1995)
-*Kalupahana, David. ''Nagarjuna: The  Philosophy  of the Middle Way''. Albany: State  University, 1986, ISBN 978-0887061493
+*Goldfield, Ari. Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso, ''The Sun of Wisdom: Teachings on the Noble Nagarjuna's Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way''
-*Nagarjuna. ''The Root Stanzas on the Middle Way'' (translated by Padmakara Translation Group). Padmakara, 2008, ISBN  978-1611803426
+*Inada, Kenneth. ''Nagarjuna: A Translation  of his Mulamadhyamikakarika'' (Tokyo: The Hokuseido Press, 1970)
-*Streng, Frederik. ''Emptiness: A Study in Religious Meaning''. Nashville: Abdingdon Press 1967, ISBN 978-0687117086
+*Kalupahana, David. ''Nagarjuna: The  Philosophy of the Middle Way'' (Albany: State  University, 1986)
+*Nagarjuna. ''The Root Stanzas on the Middle Way'' (translated by Padmakara Translation Group). (Boulder: Shambhala, 2016)
+*Siderits, Mark and Katsura, Shoryu. ''Nagarjuna's Middle Way: Mulamadhyamakakarika'' (Wisdom Publications, 2013) translated from Sanskrit
+*Streng, Frederik. ''Emptiness: A Study in Religious Meaning'' (Nashville: Abdingdon Press, 1967)
+===French===
+*Nagarjuna, ''Les Stances Fondamentales de la Voie Médiane - Mûlamadhyamakakârikâ'', Padmakara Translation Group (trans. Patrick Carré). Translation from Tibetan.
+*Nagarjuna, ''Stances du milieu par excellence: (Madhyamaka-kārikās)'', Guy Bugault (Traduction) (Gallimard, 2002). Translation from Sanskrit.
 ==Notes==
 <small><References/></small>
+==Teachings Given to the [[About Rigpa|Rigpa]] Sangha==
+*[[Andy Karr]], [[Lerab Ling]], 28 April-5 May 2019, ''Contemplating the View of the Middle Way''
 ==Further Reading==
-*Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso, ''The Sun of Wisdom'', translated and edited by Ari Goldfield, Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2003, ISBN 978-1570629990
+*[[Andy Karr]], ''Into the Mirror—A Buddhist Journey through Mind, Matter, and the Nature of reality'' (Shambhala: 2023), pages 99-112.
 ==Internal Links==
@@ Line 74: / Line 83: @@
 ==External Links==
-*Chapters 18, 24 & 26 translated into French and English by the Padmakara Translation Group and published on the occasion of the teachings by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Nantes, 15—20 August 2008. Available at [http://www.oceandesagesse.org/FR/ens_textes.php www.oceandesagesse.org]
+*[https://youtu.be/BJYfWKbahic Prof. Georges Dreyfus teaching Nagarjuna’s Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way]
 [[Category:Madhyamika Texts]]
 [[Category:Nagarjuna]]
 [[Category:Mahayana Shastras]]