Candrakirti’s Madhyamakavatarabhasya
Chapters 1 to 5, critically and diplomatically edited on the basis of preparatory work by Helmut Krasser
by Horst Lasic, Xuezhu Li and Anne McDonald
This book contains a critical Sanskrit edition of the first five chapters of a work that presents the steps of the path to full Awakening according to the “Great Vehicle” of Buddhism. The author of the work, the Indian scholar Candrakirti (circa A.D. 570-650), is one of the most important representatives of the Madhyamaka, the “Middle Way” school. A central theme of the tradition is the emptiness or lack of reality of all things and beings. Those aspiring to achieve Awakening, the bodhisattvas, dedicate themselves to cultivating insight into emptiness and realizing the ultimate state of things, as well as to perfecting the practice of a group of ethical and spiritually oriented qualities, such as generosity and patience, for the sake of attaining Buddhahood. Unlike the followers of the so-called “Lesser Vehicle” the bodhisattvas vow, due to their deep compassion, to postpone entering Nirvana until they reach Buddhahood, since it is the attainment of Buddhahood that endows them with the power to comprehensively help sentient beings. Until now, these first five chapters of the Madhyamakavatarabhasya were available to scholars only in their Tibetan translation. The textual edition presented here is based on the sole extant, and only recently available, Sanskrit manuscript of the work, which had been preserved for centuries in Tibet. The new access to the text in its original language not only facilitates a better understanding of Candrakirti’s philosophical views and his stance on topics relevant to liberation but allows for deeper appreciation of his contribution to an important phase of Indian Buddhism.
- By (author) Horst Lasic
- By (author) Xuezhu Li
- By (author) Anne McDonald
Other Titles in this Series
The Dharmadhatustava
A Critical Edition of the Sanksrit with the Tibetan and Chinese Translations, a Diplomatic Transliteration of the Manuscript and Notes
Volume 17
Dharmakirti’s Sambandhapariksa and Devendrabuddhi’s Sambandhapariksavrtti
Critically edited by Ernst Steinkellner
Volume 23
Dharmottara’s Pramanaviniscayatika Chapter 3
Diplomatic Edition. In collaboration with Takashi Iwata and Toshiazu Watanabe
Volume 21
Similar Books
A Collaborative Tapestry in Honour of Shirley Ann Brown / Une fresque brodée en l’honneur de Shirley Ann Brown
The Bayeux Tapestry Seen by her Colleagues and Friends / La Tapisserie de Bayeux vue par ses collègues et amis
Behind the Scenes of Medieval Roofs
An Overview of the Roofing Systems of Italian Churches
Volume 90
Drunk the Potion, No Whit Charmed
The Doctrine of Pure and Perfect Souls from Iamblichus to Damascius
Innovation and Medieval Communities
The Circulation of Ideas and Practices in and out of the Town (1200-1500)
Volume 63
John Dunstaple Reading Boethius
John Dunstaple’s Annotations to Boethius’s “De institutione musica” in the Manuscript Oxford, Corpus Christi College Library, MS 118
Libertinage et philosophie à l’époque classique (XVIe-XVIIIe siècle)
Athéisme, Modernité et Sécularisation / Atheism, Modernity and Secularization
Volume 23
Linguistic and Cultural Dynamics in a Frontier Society
New Perspectives on Northeastern Bavaria and Western Bohemia in the Early Middle Ages
Volume 9
Medieval Debates on Foreknowledge: Future Contingents, Prophecy, and Divination
Acts of the XXVII Annual Colloquium of the SIEPM, Trento 12-15 September 2023
Volume 31
Medieval Yeghegis, Armenia
History, Archaeology, Society. Local Multiplicities and Global Connections of a Rural Centre on the Silk Road(s)
Political Thought and Eleventh-Century Populism
The Meek, the Many, and the Meritorious during the Age of the Gregorian Reform
Volume 38
