Madhyamakāvatāra


The Madhyamakāvatāra is a text by Candrakīrti on the Mādhyamaka school of Buddhist philosophy. Candrakīrti also wrote an auto-commentary to the work, called the Madhyamakāvatārabhasya.
It is traditionally considered as a commentary on the meaning of Nagarjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā and the Ten Stages Sutra. As such, within the Tibetan Buddhist canon this text is classified as commentarial literature.

The text

The Madhyamakāvatāra relates the Mādhyamaka doctrine of śūnyatā to the "spiritual discipline" of a bodhisattva. The Madhyamakāvatāra contains eleven chapters, where each addresses one of the ten pāramitās or "perfections" fulfilled by bodhisattvas as they traverse the 'ten stages' to buddhahood, which is the final chapter.

Commentarial literature

  • The Madhyamakāvatārabhasya is Candrakīrti's own auto-commentary to the text.
  • The Madhyamakāvatāraṭīkā is an elaborate 11th century commentary by the Indian scholar Jayānanda.
  • Jamgon Ju Mipham Gyatso wrote a commentary on the Madhyamakavatara entitled: dbu ma la 'jug pa'i 'grel pa zla ba'i zhal lung dri me shel phreng; the title has been rendered into English by Duckworth as: Immaculate Crystal Rosary and by Padmakara Translations in it is titled The Word of Chandra: The Necklace of Spotless Crystal
  • Khenpo Shenga, dbu ma la 'jug pa'i 'grel mchan legs par bshad pa zla ba'i 'od zer
  • Khenpo Ngawang Palzang, dbu ma 'jug pa'i 'bru 'grel blo gsal dga' ba'i me long
  • Jeffrey Hopkins. Compassion in Tibetan Buddhism. Ithaca: Snow Lion.
  • Rendawa Shonnu Lodro. Commentary on the Entry into the Middle, Lamp which Elucidates Reality, translated by Stotter-Tillman & Acharya Tashi Tsering, Sarnath, Varanasi.

English translations

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