Ornament of the Middle Way

Shantarakshita, author of the Madhyamakalankara

The Ornament of the Middle Way (Skt. Madhyamakālaṃkāra; 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.

It was translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan by Yeshe De under the guidance of acharya Shilendrabodhi. Kamalashila's Commentary on Difficult Points was also translated by Yeshe De, under the guidance of Surendrabodhi and Prajñāvarman.

Text

• Shantarakshita, The Ornament of the Middle Way (Skt. Madhyamakālaṃkāra; Tib. དབུ་མ་རྒྱན་, dbu ma rgyan)
• * Sakya Library

• • English translation: Madhyamakalankara, in Mipham Rinpoche and Shantarakshita, Adornment of the Middle Way (Shambhala Publications, 2005), pages 49-66.

Commentaries

Indian

• Shantarakshita, Commentary on the Ornament of the Middle Way (Skt. Madhyamakālamkāra-vṛtti; Wyl. dbu ma'i rgyan gyi 'grel pa)
• Kamalashila, Commentary on the Difficult Points of the Ornament of the Middle Way (Skt. Madhyamakālaṅkāra-pañjikā; Tib. དབུ་མ་རྒྱན་གྱི་དཀའ་གྲེལ་, Wyl. dbu ma'i rgyan gyi dka' 'grel)

Tibetan

• Gyaltsab Darma Rinchen, Remembering “The Ornament of the Middle Way” (Wyl. dbu ma rgyan gyi brjed byang)
  • English translation: Remembering “The Ornament of the Middle Way”, in Blumenthal, James, The Ornament of the Middle Way: A Study of the Madhyamaka Thought of Shantarakshita (Snow Lion, 2004)
• Mipham Rinpoche, A Teaching to Delight My Master Manjughosha: A Commentary on the Madhyamakalankara (Tib. 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)
  • English translation: A Teaching to Delight My Master Manjughosha: A Commentary on the Madhyamakalankara, in Mipham Rinpoche and Shantarakshita, Adornment of the Middle Way (Shambhala Publications, 2005), 67-384.
  • English translation: Herein is Contained a Commentary on the Ornament of the Middle Way Entitled: The Oral Transmission that Delights the Master of Gentle Melody, in Ju Mipham Rinpoche and Thomas H. Doctor, Speech of Delight (Snow Lion Publications, 2004), pages 3-694.
• Lobzang Dongak Chökyi Gyatso, The Sword to Cut Through False Views (Tib. 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)
• Chomden Rigpe Raltri, དབུ་མ་རྒྱན་གྱི་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པ་ཚིག་དོན་གསལ་བའི་མེ་ཏོག་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་, dbu ma rgyan gyi rnam par bshad pa tshig don gsal ba'i me tog ces bya ba, * Sakya Library

English

• Tattvasiddhi: The Attainment of Suchness and Madhyamakalankara: The Ornament of the Middle Way by Shantarakshita with commentaries by Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche (Cool Grove Press, 2017)

Teachings Given to the Rigpa Sangha

• Dominique Side, Rigpa Shedra West, Dzogchen Beara, 30 September 2004, Introduction to Madhyamakalankara.
• Ringu Tulku Rinpoche, Rigpa Shedra West, Dzogchen Beara, 2-13 October 2004
• Ringu Tulku Rinpoche, Rigpa Shedra West, Lerab Ling, 13-21 September, 2005
• Khenpo Sönam Tobden, Rigpa Shedra East, 11 December 2007 to 29 March 2008
• Lopön Lodrö Palge, Rigpa Shedra East, 2014
• Lopön Tashi Tseten, Rigpa Shedra East, 2018

Further Reading

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