Ornament of the Middle Way

Shantarakshita, author of the Madhyamakalankara

The Ornament of the Middle Way (Skt. Madhyamālaṃkāra; Tib. དབུ་མ་རྒྱན་, Uma Gyen; Wyl. dbu ma rgyan) was written by Shantarakshita, the great Indian scholar who assisted Guru Padmasambhava in introducing Buddhism to Tibet and founding the famous monastery of Samyé. There is a famous commentary by Mipham Rinpoche, his most comprehensive work on Madhyamika, which brilliantly sets out the unique Nyingma view bringing together themes from the Middle Way and the Mind Only schools.

Tibetan Text

• དབུ་མ་རྒྱན་, dbu ma rgyan

Commentaries

Indian

• Kamalashila, Commentary on the Difficult Points of the Ornament of the Middle Way (Skt. Madhyamakālaṅkārapañjikā;

དབུ་མ་རྒྱན་གྱི་དཀའ་གྲེལ་, Wyl. dbu ma'i rgyan gyi dka' 'grel

Tibetan

• Mipham Rinpoche, Words to Delight My Teacher Manjughosha

དབུ་མ་རྒྱན་གྱི་རྣམ་བཤད་འཇམ་དབྱངས་བླ་མ་དགྱེས་པའི་ཞལ་ལུང་, dbu ma rgyan gyi rnam bshad 'jam dbyangs bla ma dgyes pa'i zhal lung

• Lobzang Dongak Chökyi Gyatso, The Sword to Cut Through False Views

དབུ་མ་རྒྱན་གྱི་མཆན་འགྲེལ་ཉུང་ངུ་ལྟ་ངན་གཅོད་པའི་རལ་གྲི་, dbu ma rgyan gyi mchan 'grel nyung ngu lta ngan gcod pa'i ral gri

English Translations of Tibetan Commentaries

• Mipham Rinpoche and Shantarakshita, Adornment of the Middle Way, Shambhala Publications, 2005
• Ju Mipham Rinpoche and Thomas H. Doctor, Speech of Delight, Snow Lion Publications, 2004
• Blumenthal, James, The Ornament of the Middle Way: A Study of the Madhyamaka Thought of Shantarakshita, Snow Lion, 2004

Further Reading

• Kennard Lipman, A Study of Śāntarakṣita's Madhyamakālaṃkāra, PhD dissertation, Saskatchewan 1979
• Masamichi Ichigo, Madhyamakālaṃkāra, Kyoto 1985