140128 UE Candrakirti's Madhyamakavatarabhasya (2018W)

The Madhyamakāvatāra, together with its bhāṣya, an auto-commentary, appears to have been Candrakīrti’s (600-650?) first work on Madhyamaka. The work is extremely important for understanding Candrakīrti’s interpretation of the school’s ethical, philosophical and soteriological stances, and informative as regards the Buddhist and non-Buddhist groups Candrakīrti regarded as its opponents. Although the extent of the Madhyamakāvatāra’s renown in India remains unknown, its Tibetan translation, made at the end of the 11th century, achieved great fame in Tibet, and served as a foundational Madhyamaka work that was widely commented on by Tibetan scholars.
The Madhyamakāvatāra and its bhāṣya were accessible for centuries only in Tibetan translation. One Sanskrit manuscript of the Madhyakamāvatārabhāṣya (the Madhyamakāvatāra’s verses are embedded in it) has, however, been discovered. It is being investigated under the “General Agreement” of cooperation between the Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia (IKGA) in Vienna and the China Tibetology Research Center in Beijing.
The Madhyamakāvatāra and its commentary’s chapters are structured to accord with the “grounds” or “levels” (bhūmi) of awakening as presented in the Daśabhūmikasūtra. The class will focus on the first chapter, Pramuditā (“Joyous”), named after the first level, whose main topic is the perfection of generosity, and the more philosophically oriented sixth chapter, Abhimukhī (“Directly Facing”), which argues for the emptiness of all things. Important passages will be translated and discussed.
Participants will become acquainted with philological-historical methods and techniques for editing manuscripts, with terminological and translation challenges, and with general Madhyamaka views, debates, and interpretations, from both the seventh and twenty-first centuries.
The main textual basis will be the Sanskrit of the Madhyakamāvatārabhāṣya, but students more familiar with Tibetan are also invited to participate. Reading materials will be handed out at the first class.