Illuminating the Intent

An Exposition of Candrakirti's Entering the Middle Way

Thupten Jinpa

• Publisher: Wisdom Publications
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780861714582
• eBook ISBN: 9781614297307
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Eastern Philosophy

The Dalai Lama’s translator and author of the definitive biography of Tsongkhapa here presents the first translation of one of that master’s seminal and best-known works.

This work is perhaps the most influential explanation of Candrakirti’s seventh-century classic Entering the Middle Way (Madhyamakavatara). Written as a supplement to Nagarjuna’s Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way, Candrakirti’s text integrates the central insight of Nagarjuna’s thought—the rejection of any metaphysical notion of intrinsic existence—with the well-known Mahayana framework of the ten levels of the bodhisattva, and it became the most studied presentation of Madhyamaka thought in Tibet.

Completed the year before the author’s death, Tsongkhapa’s exposition of Candrakirti’s text is recognized by the Tibetan tradition as the final standpoint of Tsongkhapa on many philosophical questions, particularly the clear distinctions it draws between the standpoints of the Madhyamaka and Cittamatra schools. Written in exemplary Tibetan, Tsongkhapa’s work presents a wonderful marriage of rigorous Madhyamaka philosophical analysis with a detailed and subtle account of the progressively advancing mental states and spiritual maturity realized by sincere Madhyamaka practitioners. The work remains the principal textbook for the study of Indian Madhyamaka philosophy in many Tibetan monastic colleges, and it is a principal source for many Tibetan teachers seeking to convey the intricacies of Madhyamaka philosophy to non-Tibetan audiences.

Though it is often cited and well known, this is the first full translation of this key work in a Western language.

2. General Presentation of the Grounds

The actual body of the treatise

This is twofold: the causal grounds and the resultant ground.

The causal grounds

This has three parts: (1) how to practice the path according to this system in general, (2) practicing on the ordinary person’s stage in particular, and (3) presenting the grounds of ārya bodhisattvas.

How to practice the path according to this system in general

“If, in this treatise, the profound and vast paths of the bodhisattva are established by following Nāgārjuna, the question arises as to what kind of stages of the path leading to buddhahood is upheld within the savior Nāgārjuna’s system?”

The purpose of establishing the system of the second Buddha Nāgārjuna and so on by means of study and critical reflection is to ensure that we find a deep conviction in the method of practicing the perfect path so that we cannot be led astray by deceptive false paths. Those engaged in study and reflection who — however much they engage in the study of the treatises of the systems of the great charioteers — never find ascertainment with respect to their own personal practice are clearly not approaching their study and reflection in an effective manner. As such, even were they to strive hard in the Great Vehicle, they would fail to extract its value. Therefore, we must strive to understand how to traverse the stages of path. [24]

Although Nāgārjuna explains partial aspects of the path in numerous texts, three treatises present the overall body of the path, both the profound and vast aspects. As for how the Precious Garland presents the path, lines such as “the roots of this are an awakening mind” and “all the practices . . . preceded by compassion” were already cited above.¹⁰⁰ In the same work, it says:

Here, to present in brief the qualities

of the bodhisattva, they are:

generosity, morality, forbearance, diligence,

meditative absorption, wisdom, compassion, and so on.

Generosity is the utter giving up of self-interest;

morality refers to working for others’ welfare;

forbearance is to relinquish hostility;

increasing positive deeds is diligence;

meditative absorption is one-pointedness with no afflictions;

wisdom is to establish the meaning of truth;

compassion is an intelligence that cares

for all beings equally as if they’re all same.

Generosity brings resources, morality happiness,

forbearance luster, diligence majesty,

meditative absorption brings tranquility, and wisdom release,

and all aims are realized with a compassionate heart.

Through simultaneous perfection of

all seven of these, without exception,

one attains lordship of world itself,

the sphere of inconceivable gnosis.¹⁰¹

The text here identifies the six perfections and explains their benefits as well. It also outlines how to train in them with the complimentary factor of compassion. In this way, [Nāgārjuna] teaches us how the awakening mind — the basis of the bodhisattva deeds — comes first and how, through these deeds, we traverse the ten grounds of a bodhisattva.

In his Praise to the Ultimate Expanse too, Nāgārjuna speaks of generating the awakening mind on the basis of going for refuge, how the ten perfections enhance the natural sphere (dhātu), and he presents the ten bodhisattva grounds as well.¹⁰² In elaborating on this rough summary of the body of the path, Nāgārjuna speaks in his Compendium of Sutras about how finding a life of leisure and opportunity as well as finding faith in the teaching are difficult, and how, compared to these, generating of the awakening mind is even more difficult to achieve.¹⁰³ He also provides extensive explanations of topics such as how attaining great compassion for sentient beings is difficult, and how, compared to all the things mentioned earlier, it is even more difficult to achieve the elimination of the karmic obscuration borne of injuring a bodhisattva, elimination of the thought disparaging them, elimination of the acts of Māra, and elimination of the deed of abandoning sublime Dharma.¹⁰⁴

Compared to the first two texts by Nāgārjuna, this work [the Compendium of Sutras] is certainly more explicit. Nonetheless, for those stages of the path that remain difficult to comprehend, Śāntideva, the great upholder of master Nāgārjuna’s tradition, presents them in both his Compendium of Training and Guide to the Bodhisattva Way. In particular, Śāntideva presents these elements of the path clearly and most extensively in his Compendium of Training, which is effectively a meaning commentary on Nāgārjuna’s Compendium of Sutras. [25] The text explains, for example, that one first contemplates the benefits of making this human life meaningful on the basis of contemplating how this life of leisure and opportunity is of great value and most difficult to find. Next, by cultivating faith in general and a firm faith based on contemplating the qualities of the Mahayana in particular, one generates the aspirational awakening mind and then upholds the vows of the engaging awakening mind. Next, one gives away, protects, purifies, and enhances one’s body, material resources, and the roots of virtue. It is on the basis of such a presentation that Nāgārjuna’s Compendium of Sutras should be explained.¹⁰⁵

Āryadeva’s Four Hundred Stanzas also presents the overall body of the profound and vast aspects of the path. Furthermore, the presentations on the overall structure of the path in condensed formats found in Bhāviveka’s Essence of the Middle Way, Śāntarakṣita’s Ornament of the Middle Way, and Kamalaśīla’s Stages of the Meditation on the middle way are all similar. Therefore, when it comes to the basic framework of the path, all the great upholders of the noble Nāgārjuna’s tradition converge. As for a method that would easily bring forth ascertainment of these points, an approach that is most accessible for those on the beginner’s stage, I have presented an approach to guiding others on the path that is extremely easy to understand in my Stages of the Path to Enlightenment,¹⁰⁶ representing the instruction of glorious Dīpaṃkara, most learned in the systems of the two great charioteers. Thus one can learn from there.

How to practice on the ordinary person’s stage in particular

[Question:] If this treatise presents systematically both the profound and vast aspects of the bodhisattva path as well as their results — which constitute the object of attainment — then the stages of the path of the ordinary person, which are so important for the bodhisattvas, should have been presented immediately after the salutation. But this is not the case. Instead, the text begins directly with the presentation of the grounds of ārya beings. How could this be right?

[Reply:] The stages of the path of the ordinary person were actually presented already in the context of the salutation verse, so it is not explained at this point here. By presenting the three principal causes [compassion, awakening mind, and nondual awareness] on the basis of practicing which one becomes a bodhisattva, it was shown that those who wish to enter the Great Vehicle must first cultivate these three factors. Not only must these three be practiced at the outset, they must also be practiced even after one has become a bodhisattva. Furthermore, given that gnosis not tending to duality is the principal practice of a bodhisattva, we must understand that its inclusion illustrates the need to train in the other bodhisattva practices as well. The following passage from Nāgārjuna’s Compendium of Sutras relates to this point:

O bodhisattva, do not apply yourself to the profound nature of things divorced from skillful means. [26] For joining method and wisdom into a union is the perfect practice of bodhisattvas.¹⁰⁷

You should thus train in the union of method and wisdom. Don’t be content with a partial method or wisdom, nor place your confidence in a mere single-pointedness of mind that lacks any distinctive features of method and wisdom.

I notice that some people fail to demarcate what is to be negated using reasoning that probes the nature of suchness, and they end up negating everything. They conflate all forms of thought with grasping at true existence; they relegate the entire presentation of conventional reality to what exists only from another’s perspective; they assert that on the resultant stage there is only dharmakāya, by which they mean mere suchness devoid of gnosis; and they say that the buddha’s form body (rūpakāya) exists purely within the subjective experience of spiritual trainees.¹⁰⁸

For those who make such assertions, all these facts — how, on the basis of scriptural authority and reasoning, śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas are born from sovereign sages, buddhas are in turn born from bodhisattvas, and so on — will not constitute standpoints of Entering the Middle Way. Furthermore, the three factors to be cultivated would be posited merely from the standpoint of others and thus would not represent the Madhyamaka’s own perspective. In so doing they would be denigrating all the paths that they themselves need to practice. Moreover, all the statements about how sentient beings, who lack intrinsic existence, revolve in cyclic existence through six factors that parallel features of a waterwheel will become nothing but a series of contradictions. Recognize, therefore, that such proponents are peddling a distorted exposition of the meaning of the treatise, starting right from its salutation verses.

Understanding that even with respect to the training in generosity and so on presented in the context of the grounds of the āryas, there are many deeds that need to be practiced from the start, right from the level of the ordinary person, we should strive to engage in their practice from this very moment.

Presenting the grounds of ārya bodhisattvas

This third outline has three parts: presenting the ten grounds collectively, presenting the individual grounds, and presenting the qualities of the ten grounds.

Presenting the ten grounds collectively

The explanation here of eleven grounds such as the Perfect Joy is based on the following passage in the Precious Garland, where a broad presentation of ten or eleven grounds is given:

Just as eight śrāvaka grounds

are taught in the Śrāvaka Vehicle,

ten bodhisattva grounds

are found in the Great Vehicle.¹⁰⁹ [27]

Candrakīrti also bases his presentation on the Ten Grounds Sutra. Here, the characterization of the ten grounds such as Perfect Joy as the “ten awakening minds” must be understood in terms of the ultimate awakening mind. The Commentary characterizes the nature of the ten grounds as the ultimate awakening mind in the following:

When the uncontaminated gnosis of bodhisattvas, which is sustained by compassion and so on, is divided in terms of its facets, it acquires the name ground, for it constitutes the...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Message from the Dalai Lama
• Special Acknowledgments
• Publisher’s Acknowledgment
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• Technical Note
• Illuminating the Intent: An Exposition of Entering the Middle Way
• Part I. The First Five Grounds
• Part II. The Sixth Ground, The Manifest
• Part III. The Final Grounds
• Appendix 1. A Complete Outline of the Text
• Appendix 2. Table of Tibetan Transliteration
• Notes
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Translator
• The Institute of Tibetan Classics
• The Library of Tibetan Classics
• Become a Benefactor of the Library of Tibetan Classics
• About Wisdom Publications
• Copyright