The Center of the Sunlit Sky: Madhyamaka in the Kagyu Tradition

by Karl Brunnholzl

Overview

Madhyamaka is a potent and universally accessible means of calming our suffering and awakening to our innate wisdom. The Center of the Sunlit Sky artfully rescues this brilliant teaching from its unwarranted reputation for intellectual opacity and reinstates it as a supremely practical tool kit for everyday living. The aim of this book is to take Madhyamaka out of the purely intellectual corner into which it unjustly gets boxed. It is an attempt to show how Madhayamaka actually addresses and works with all of our experiences in life.

The book follows the original Indian sources as well as the standard commentaries on Madhyamaka in the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism. At the same time, these materials are adapted for a contemporary audience, combining the familiar sharpness of Madhyamaka reasonings (launching a massive assault on our cherished belief systems) with exploring the practical relevance of the Madhyamaka way of mind training.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781559392181
Publisher:	Shambhala
Publication date:	10/15/2004
Pages:	1000
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 2.20(d)

About the Author

Karl Brunnhölzl, MD, was trained as a physician and also studied Tibetology. He received his systematic training in Tibetan language and Buddhist philosophy and practice at the Marpa Institute for Translators, founded by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche. Since 1989 he has been a translator and interpreter from Tibetan and English. He is presently involved with the Nitartha Institute as a teacher and translator.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	11
	Foreword	13
	Preface	17
	Introduction	25
Part 1	The General Presentation of Madhyamaka in the Kagyu Tradition	45
1	The Transmission of Madhyamaka from India to Tibet and Its Relation to Vajrayana and Mahamudra	47
2	The Middle from Beginning to End	69
	Madhyamaka Ground	72
	What Is Reality?	72
	No Ground for the Two Realities	77
	The Detailed Explanation of the Two Realities	80
	The Meaning of the Terms	80
	Painting the Sky: A Description of Their Defining Characteristics	82
	Are the Two Realities One or Different?	88
	Seeming Divisions of the Seeming	94
	Dividing Space: Divisions of the Ultimate	99
	A Critical Analysis of Some Other Tibetan Views on the Two Realities in Centrism	101
	The Definite Number of Two Realities and the Purpose of Understanding Them	105
	The Emptiness of Emptiness	110
	Freedom Is the Nature of Not Having a Nature	110
	Elaborations on Simplicity	114
	The Twenty Emptinesses	117
	The Sixteen Emptinesses	122
	The Two Types of Identitylessness	126
	Lost Identity	126
	Phenomenal Identitylessness	135
	Personal Identitylessness	137
	Are the Two Identitylessnesses One or Different?	141
	The Purpose of Teaching Two Identitylessnesses	141
	From Knowledge to Wisdom	142
	Madhyamaka Path	153
	How Can Madhyamaka Be a Personal Practice?	157
	Reasoning and Debate in Centrism	172
	Three Stages of Analysis by Nagarjuna and Aryadeva	172
	Is Reasoning Reasonable?	174
	Reasons and Negations	177
	What Is the Object of Negation in Centrist Reasonings?	193
	The Status of Valid Cognition in Centrism	199
	Do Centrists Have a Thesis or Position?	218
	Illusory Lions Killing Illusory Elephants: Empty Reasonings for Liberation	231
	Some Essential Points of Centrist Reasoning	231
	Disillusionment with Phenomenal Identity	235
	The Five Great Madhyamaka Reasonings	235
	Other Reasonings	262
	Unmasking Personal Identity	264
	The Result of Centrist Reasoned Analysis	271
	Madhyamaka Meditation	273
	Why Is Analytical Meditation Necessary?	273
	Calm Abiding and Superior Insight	276
	Analytical Meditation and Resting Meditation	279
	Working with the Mind in Meditation and Daily Life	285
	How to Practice a Session of Analytical Meditation	290
	The Progressive Stages of Meditation on Emptiness	295
	Mental Nonengagement in Meditation	310
	Madhyamaka Conduct	321
	Madhyamaka Fruition	323
3	The Distinction between Autonomists and Consequentialists	333
	Classifications of Centrism in India and Tibet	333
	Refutation of Mistaken Assumptions about Autonomists and Consequentialists	341
	The Actual Distinction between Autonomists and Consequentialists	360
	How the Distinction between Autonomists and Consequentialists by Later Tibetans Is a Novelty	373
	The Origin of the Controversy between Autonomists and Consequentialists	392
	Do Hearers and Solitary Realizers Realize Emptiness?	421
	Conclusion	438
4	Is There Such a Thing as Shentong-Madhyamaka?	445
	The Yogacara System in General	457
	The System of the Lineage of Vast Activity	460
	The Treatment of Yogacara and the Rangtong-Shentong Controversy in Tibet	500
	The Single Final Intention of the Two Philosophical Systems of the Great Vehicle	515
5	The Distinction between Expedient and Definitive Meaning	527
6	An Outline of Some Major Differences between Mikyo Dorje's and Tsongkhapa's Interpretations of Centrism	553
Part 2	The Bodhicaryavatara and Pawo Tsugla Trengwa	599
7	Some Remarks on the Bodhicaryavatara and Pawo Rinpoche's Commentary	601
8	The Ninth Chapter of Pawo Rinpoche's Commentary on The Entrance to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life	617
Appendix I	A Short Biography of the Second Pawo Rinpoche Tsugla Trengwa	791
Appendix II	Non-Buddhist Indian Schools	794
Appendix III	Tibetan Text of the Ninth Chapter of the Bodhicaryavatara	800
	Glossary: English-Sanskrit-Tibetan	816
	Glossary: Tibetan-Sanskrit-English	823
	Bibliography	831
	Endnotes	853
	Index	963

Editorial Reviews

"A valuable contribution to scholarship and one worthy of study. [Dr. Karl Brunnholzl's] approach to the text is both intellectual and experiential, showing how a clear understanding of what can appear to be a dauntingly complex text can be used to deepen practice."—The Middle Way

From the Publisher