Paths to Omniscience: the Geluk Hermeneutics of Nga-wāng-bel-den

ContentsTibetan Consonants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xSeries Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiiAuthor’s Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv1 Introduction 151.1 Paths to Omniscience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151.2 Positive and Negative Phenomena . . . . . . . . . . 272 Presentations of Emptiness 312.1 The Middle Way View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312.2 Two Truths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352.3 The Object To Be Negated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412.4 Mind Only Emptiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442.5 Other Emptiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463 Buddhist Hermeneutics 513.1 Origins of Buddhist Hermeneutics . . . . . . . . . . 513.2 Hermeneutics of the Middle . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543.3 Three Wheels of Doctrine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564 The Great Vehicle and Its Commentaries 734.1 Geluk Scholasticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 734.2 Perfection of Wisdom Sūtras and theTreatise on the Middle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 814.3 Characteristics of Sūtra Pronouncements onEmptiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 834.4 Characteristics of Treatise Discussions ofEmptiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 874.5 The Role of Sūtra Commentaries . . . . . . . . . . . 894.6 Relating Perfection of Wisdom Sūtras and the Treatiseon the Middle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 905 Inherent Existence 995.1 Introducing svabhāva . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 995.2 Nāgārjuna and Ultimate Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . 1025.3 Expressing Fallacies from the Viewpoint of a Pervader1045.4 The Vajra Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1085.5 There Is Production Conventionally . . . . . . . . . 1125.6 Production From Self . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1125.7 Production from Other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1175.8 Production From Both Self and Other . . . . . . . . 1215.9 Production Causelessly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1215.10 Summarizing the Vajra Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . 1236 Tathāgatagarbha in Tibet 1276.1 Introduction to tathāgatagarbha . . . . . . . . . . . 1276.2 Buddha Nature Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1296.3 tathāgatagarbha and the Mind-basis-of-all . . . . . . 1316.4 Sūtra Sources . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1386.5 The Basic Constituent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1436.6 Tathāgatagarbha Treatises in Tibet . . . . . . . . . . 1486.7 Jonangs Following Döl-b̄o S̄hay-rap-gyel-tsen . . . 1506.8 S̄a-ḡya-b̄as Following Bu-don . . . . . . . . . . . 1696.9 Geluks Following D̄zong-ka-b̄a . . . . . . . . . . . 1717 A Geluk Controversy 1797.1 Introduction to a Controversy . . . . . . . . . . . 1797.2 Background to the Controversy . . . . . . . . . . . . 1817.3 D-zong-ka-b̄a’s Interpretation of Chandrakīrti . . . . . 1897.3.1 Interpretability of the Three Natures . . . . . 1917.3.2 Interpretability of the Mind-basis-of-all . . . 1927.3.3 Interpretability of Mind Only . . . . . . . . . 2007.3.4 Interpretability of Three Final Vehicles . . . 2007.4 Kay-drup and Jam-y - ang-shay-b̄a onChandrakīrti . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2037.5 Conclusion to the Controvery Discussion . . . . . . 2098 Mere Conditionality 2138.1 Non-Dependence For Chandrakīrti and D -zong-ka-b . . . 2138.2 Meanings of Dependence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2178.3 No Dependence on Another . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2219 Translations 229Jam-y - ang-shay-b̄a and the Great Exposition of Tenets . 229Nga-wa - ng-b̄el-den and the Annotations . . . . . . . . 230Translation of the Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233Topics of the Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234Bibliography 333

William Magee received a doctorate in Tibetan Studies from the University of Virginia, where he taught Tibetan language for thirteen years at the Summer Language Institute. He now teaches Tibetan language and philosophy at Dharma Drum Buddhist College on Dharma Drum Mountain, Taiwan. Magee is the co-author (with Elizabeth Napper) of Fluent Tibetan: a Proficiency-oriented Language Learning System and the author of The Nature of Things. He has published numerous articles about Tibetan philosophy and is Editor-in-Chief of the Chung-Hwa Buddhist Journal.