In the 7th chapter of the Madhyamakaratnapradīpa, a work traditionally attributed to Bhāviveka, while discussing some fundamental concepts of the cittamātra doctrine, the author inserts an interesting quotation which is attributed to (the tantric?) Candrakīrtipāda (zLa-ba-grags-pa’i-źal-sṅa-na). Unfortunately, the original text from which the citation was taken remains still untraced. Nevertheless, what is interesting here, is [...]

Although in many more or less recent works we can find translations of Bhāviveka’s Madhyamakārthasaṃgraha (Christian Lindtner, in “Atisa’s introduction to the two truths”, Journal of Indian Philosophy 7, 1981, note p. 200-201; this translation has been reprinted in Potter’s Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies IX, pp. 442-443; Daniel Ferrer, Tibet Journal 17.2, 1992, pp. 52-55), [...]

During these last days I was reading Malcolm D. Eckel’s recent publication Bhāviveka and His Buddhist Opponents, which is an edition and translation of Chaperts 4 and 5 of the Madhyamakahṛdayakārikā and of Tarkajvālā commentary. In Chapter 5 of Tarkajvālā, ad Madhyamakahṛdayakārikā 5.83ab we find a reference to lokāyatikas which is, to my knowledge, the [...]

The term used by early Buddhists to refer to what we know as “world” is, usually, the Pāli term loko. This word has more or less the same semantic extent of the French monde whose meaning is both «world» and «people» (consider, for instance, the compounds loka-visargaḥ, «distruction of the world» and loka-vikruṣṭaḥ, «offensive for [...]

Let us consider Mūlamadhyamakakārikā VIII, 4ab, where Nāgārjuna seems to accept a sort of “priority” of hetu on both pratyaya and utpanna: hetāv asati kāryaṃ ca kāraṇaṃ ca na vidyate | («when the [primary] cause does not exist, both the effect and the [secondary] cause are not evident»). Jacques May, reflecting on this half a [...]

During these last days I was at work on the second chapter of the Madhyamakaratnapradīpa of Bhavya from Tibetan bsTan-’gyur. I have compared two versions: sDe-dge and dGa’-ldan (available for free on line). In this chapter we find a list of a number of heretical schools and of heretical teachers. Some of these names are [...]