The seventh-century Indian master Candrakirti lived a life of relative obscurity, only to have his thoughts and writings rejuvenated during the Tibetan transmission of Buddhism. Since then, Candrakirti has been celebrated as offering the most thorough and accurate vision of Nagarjuna''s view of emptiness which, in turn, most fully represents the final truth of the Buddha''s teaching. Candrakirti''s emptiness denies the existence of any "nature" or substantial, enduring essence in ourselves or in the phenomenal world while avoiding the extreme view of nihilism. In this view, our false belief in nature is at the root of our ignorance and is the basis for all mental and emotional pain and disturbance. For many Tibetan scholars, only Candrakirti''s Middle Way entirely overcomes our false belief in inherent identity and, consequently, alone overcomes ignorance, delivering freedom from the cycle of uncontrolled death and rebirth known as samsara. Candrakirti''s writings have formed the basis for Madhyamaka study in all major traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. In Resurrecting Candrakirti, Kevin Vose presents the reader with a thorough presentation of Candrakirti''s rise to prominence and the further elaborations the Tibetans have made on his presentation of emptiness. By splitting Madhyamaka into two subschools, namely the Svatantrika and Prasangika, the Tibetans became pioneers in understanding reality and created a new way to define differences in interpretation. Resurrecting Candrakirti provides the historical and philosophical context necessary to understand both Madhyamaka and its importance to Tibetan Buddhist thought.

Discover how Patsab Nyima Drak created the foremost form of Buddhist philosophy, the Prasangika interpretation of the Middle Way, from the works of the famed Indian philosopher Candrakirti.This book traces how Buddhist philosophers Bhaviveka and Candrakirti (ca. sixth–seventh centuries) understood key Buddhist epistemological questions: how to prove the central Middle Way claim that all things are empty of intrinsic nature, the correct use of svatantra inference, and the role of arguments by “consequence” (prasanga). These arguments saw further refinement in the works of eighth-century thinkers Santaraksita and Kamalasila, who were instrumental in transmitting the Middle Way from India to Tibet. Together, these figures inspired the twelfth-century renaissance of the Middle Way in Tibet, where the differences between their viewpoints became the basis for two philosophical schools—Prasangika and Svatantrika—named for their chosen forms of argumentation. Patsab Nyima Drak (ca. 1070–1145), the Tibetan translator of Candrakirti’s major works, and his disciples Shang Thangsakpa, Khuton Dode Bar, and Maja Jangchup Tsondru, together with the Kashmiri Jayananda, forged a systematic interpretation of the Middle Way and the Mahayana Buddhist path to awakening. They saw Candrakirti’s arguments by consequence to be central in overcoming the twin delusions of holding philosophical positions and seeing things as having intrinsic natures. Championing Candrakirti’s austere vision of transformation, these creators of Prasangika argued that proper reasoning and contemplation induce a radical break with consciousness that enables the practitioner to become a buddha. This examination of the first Prasangikas casts this reading of the Middle Way in new light, challenging contemporary interpretations that present it as a form of skepticism. Splitting the Middle argues that Prasangika constitutes a thoroughgoing challenge to the validity of mental states and ways of knowing.

The seventh-century Indian master Candrakirti lived a life of relative obscurity, only to have his thoughts and writings rejuvenated during the Tibetan transmission of Buddhism. Since then, Candrakirti has been celebrated as offering the most thorough and accurate vision of Nagarjuna''s view of emptiness which, in turn, most fully represents the final truth of the Buddha''s teaching. Candrakirti''s emptiness denies the existence of any "nature" or substantial, enduring essence in ourselves or in the phenomenal world while avoiding the extreme view of nihilism. In this view, our false belief in nature is at the root of our ignorance and is the basis for all mental and emotional pain and disturbance. For many Tibetan scholars, only Candrakirti''s Middle Way entirely overcomes our false belief in inherent identity and, consequently, alone overcomes ignorance, delivering freedom from the cycle of uncontrolled death and rebirth known as samsara. Candrakirti''s writings have formed the basis for Madhyamaka study in all major traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. In Resurrecting Candrakirti, Kevin Vose presents the reader with a thorough presentation of Candrakirti''s rise to prominence and the further elaborations the Tibetans have made on his presentation of emptiness. By splitting Madhyamaka into two subschools, namely the Svatantrika and Prasangika, the Tibetans became pioneers in understanding reality and created a new way to define differences in interpretation. Resurrecting Candrakirti provides the historical and philosophical context necessary to understand both Madhyamaka and its importance to Tibetan Buddhist thought.

Discover how Patsab Nyima Drak created the foremost form of Buddhist philosophy, the Prasangika interpretation of the Middle Way, from the works of the famed Indian philosopher Candrakirti.This book traces how Buddhist philosophers Bhaviveka and Candrakirti (ca. sixth–seventh centuries) understood key Buddhist epistemological questions: how to prove the central Middle Way claim that all things are empty of intrinsic nature, the correct use of svatantra inference, and the role of arguments by “consequence” (prasanga). These arguments saw further refinement in the works of eighth-century thinkers Santaraksita and Kamalasila, who were instrumental in transmitting the Middle Way from India to Tibet. Together, these figures inspired the twelfth-century renaissance of the Middle Way in Tibet, where the differences between their viewpoints became the basis for two philosophical schools—Prasangika and Svatantrika—named for their chosen forms of argumentation. Patsab Nyima Drak (ca. 1070–1145), the Tibetan translator of Candrakirti’s major works, and his disciples Shang Thangsakpa, Khuton Dode Bar, and Maja Jangchup Tsondru, together with the Kashmiri Jayananda, forged a systematic interpretation of the Middle Way and the Mahayana Buddhist path to awakening. They saw Candrakirti’s arguments by consequence to be central in overcoming the twin delusions of holding philosophical positions and seeing things as having intrinsic natures. Championing Candrakirti’s austere vision of transformation, these creators of Prasangika argued that proper reasoning and contemplation induce a radical break with consciousness that enables the practitioner to become a buddha. This examination of the first Prasangikas casts this reading of the Middle Way in new light, challenging contemporary interpretations that present it as a form of skepticism. Splitting the Middle argues that Prasangika constitutes a thoroughgoing challenge to the validity of mental states and ways of knowing.