Introduction to the Middle Way (Madhyamakavatara)

Introduction

The Madhyamakavatara (“Introduction to the Middle Way”) is a verse treatise of about 330 stanzas, accompanied by Chandrakirti’s own prose commentary. It follows the ten stages (bhumi) of the bodhisattva path described in the Dashabhumika Sutra. The sixth stage, the perfection of wisdom, takes up about two-thirds of the work: Chandrakirti refutes the arising of things from themselves, from others, from both or from neither and analyses the self in seven ways through the image of a chariot. For centuries the text was known only in Tibetan translation; a Sanskrit manuscript of the work with its commentary, kept in the Potala Palace in Lhasa, has been published in parts since 2015. In Tibet the work became the standard textbook of Madhyamaka in monastic education.

Connections

Builds on

• Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way (Mulamadhyamakakarika)c. 200 · Nagarjuna

Criticizes

• Twenty Verses (Vimsatika)c. 380 · Vasubandhu

More works by Chandrakirti

• c. 630Clear Words (Prasannapada)