The Buddhist Philosophy of the Middle: Essays on Indian and Tibetan Madhyamaka

by David Seyfort Ruegg, Tom J. F. Tillemans (Foreword by)

Overview

Madhyamaka, the "philosophy of the middle," systematized the Buddha's fundamental teaching on no-self with its profound non-essentialist reading of reality. Founded in India by Nagarjuna in about the second century CE, Madhyamaka philosophy went on to become the dominant strain of Buddhist thought in Tibet and exerted a profound influence on all the cultures of East Asia. Within the extensive Western scholarship inspired by this school of thought, David Seyfort Ruegg's work is unparalleled in its incisiveness, diligence, and scope. The Buddhist Philosophy of the Middle brings together Ruegg's greatest essays on Madhyamaka, expert writings which have and will continue to contribute to our progressing understanding of this rich tradition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780861719365
Publisher:	Wisdom Publications MA
Publication date:	04/10/2010
Series:	Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	464
File size:	841 KB

About the Author

David Seyfort Ruegg was born in 1931 in New York. His university education was primarily in Paris, where he studied Indology under Jean Filliozat and Louis Renou and Tibetology under Marcelle Lalou and Rolf Stein. Seyfort Ruegg's work has ranged over most aspects of Indian and Tibetan Studies. However two interests come back repeatedly: the philosophy of the buddha nature (tathagatagarbha) and the philosophy of the middle (madhyamaka). Seyfort Ruegg has held professorial positions in several major universities-Leiden, Seattle, Hamburg, and now the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London. A Sanskritist and a Tibetologist, he has at one time or another held chairs in Indian Philosophy, Buddhist Studies, and Tibetan.

Tom J.F. Tillemans is Professor Emeritus of Buddhist Studies in the Faculty of Oriental Languages and Civilizations at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. With a focus on Buddhist logic and epistemology, Madhyamaka philosophy, and comparative philosophy, he was from 1998-2006 co-editor of the Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies. Born in 1950 in the Netherlands and raised in Canada, he now serves as a senior project editor for the 84000 project tasked with translating the scriptures of the Tibetan Buddhist canon. He divides his time between Switzerland and British Columbia, Canada.

Table of Contents

Foreword Tom Tillemans Tillemans, Tom

Preface

Abbreviations

1 Mathematical and Linguistic Models in Indian Thought: The Case of Zero and Sunyata [1978] 1

2 Towards a Chronology of the Madhyamaka School [1982] 13

3 The Uses of the Four Positions of the Catuskoti and the Problem of the Description of Reality in Mahayana Buddhism [1977] 37

I The Four Positions in Early Buddhist Thought 37

II The Uses of the Catuskoti in the Madhyamaka 40

III Conjunction and Negation of Opposed Terms in Vijnanavada Definitions of Reality 67

IV Negation of Opposed Terms in the Description of the Absolute in the Ratnagotravibhaga 81

V The Vatsiputriya Conception of the Indeterminate 84

Appendix I Commentarial Interpretations of Mulamadhyamakakarika xviii.8 86

Appendix II Some Modern Interpretations of the Catuskoti 89

Appendix III The Logical Error of Negation of the Antecedent and the Mulamadhyamakakarikas 109

Bibliography 111

4 Le Dharmadhatustava de Nagarjuna [1971] 113

5 On the Authorship of Some Works Ascribed to Bha(va)viveka/Bhavya [1990] 145

6 The Svatantrika-Prasangika Distinction in the History of Madhyamaka Thought [2006] 159

7 Purport, Implicature, and Presupposition: Sanskrit abhipraya and Tibetan dgongs pa/dgongs gzhi as Hermeneutical Concepts [1985] 195

8 An Indian Source for the Tibetan Hermeneutical Term dgongs gzhi, "Intentional Ground" [1988] 213

9 Some Reflections on the Place of Philosophy in the Study of Buddhism [1995] 217

10 On the Tibetan Historiography and Doxography of the "Great Debate of Bsam yas" [1992] 253

11 Autour du Lta ba'i khyad par de Ye shes sde [1979] 267

12 The Jo nang pas: A School of Buddhist Ontologists According to the Crystal Mirror of Philosophical Doctrines (Grub mtha' shel gyi me long) [1963] 289

13 A Karma Bka' brgyud Work on the Lineages and Traditions of the Indo-Tibetan dbu ma (Madhyamaka) [1988] 323

14 La Pensee Tibetaine (accompagne d'une traduction du Rten ábrel bstod pa legs bshad snying po de Tsong kha pa) [1989] 357

15 The Indian and the Indic in Tibetan Cultural History, and Tsong kha pa's Achievement as a Scholar and Thinker: An Essay on the Concepts of "Buddhism in Tibet" and "Tibetan Buddhism" [2004] 375

English Glossary of Selected Terms 399

Publications David Seyfort Ruegg Ruegg, David Seyfort 407

Indexes 419

Editorial Reviews

"Since the nineteenth century, Indo-Tibetan Madhyamaka philosophy has held a special fascination for many in the West-for those who work in the fields of Buddhist studies and comparative philosophy as well as for Buddhist practitioners. Madhyamaka analysis probes essential issues in the philosophy of language, the philosophy of mind (how we think about the world), ontology (how we think the world is constituted), and epistemology (how we know the world). D. Seyfort Ruegg's multiple incursions into this subtle mode of thinking have been path-breaking and, I dare say, of unique importance to anyone investigating Madhyamaka ideas."

Leonard van der Kuijp

"Throughout his scholarly life, Professor David Seyfort Ruegg has returned time and again to the Madhyamaka tradition of Buddhism, an apex in the intellectual culture of India and Tibet. The meticulous and lucid analysis in his pioneering studies has contributed substantially to the progress of our understanding of Madhyamaka—its history, philology, literature, philosophy, and cultural influence. Without a doubt, his articles collected here, written between 1963 and 2006, will greatly advance this philosophical tradition finding its rightful place as one of the treasures of human thought and reflection."

Ernst Steinkellner

"In a scholarly career spanning more than fifty years, David Seyfort Ruegg has produced seminal studies on a remarkable range of figures, texts, and issues in Indian and Tibetan thought. His essays on Madhyamaka-many of them classics in the field-are gathered together here for the first time, reminding us of Professor Ruegg's enduring contributions to the field of Buddhist studies."

Donald S. Lopez