Nagarjuna – författare

BLA new translation from the Tibetan, with a verse-by-verse philosophical commentary in English Mulamadhyamakakarika is the foundational text for all Mahayana Buddhism and is one of the most influential works in the history of Indian philosophy.

BLA new translation from the Tibetan, with a verse-by-verse philosophical commentary in English Mulamadhyamakakarika is the foundational text for all Mahayana Buddhism and is one of the most influential works in the history of Indian philosophy.

The Buddhist saint Nāgārjuna, who lived in South India in approximately the second century CE, is undoubtedly the most important, influential, and widely studied Mahāyāna Buddhist philosopher. His many works include texts addressed to lay audiences, letters of advice to kings, and a set of penetrating metaphysical and epistemological treatises. His greatest philosophical work, the Mūlamadhyamikakārikā--read and studied by philosophers in all major Buddhist schools of Tibet, China, Japan, and Korea--is one of the most influential works in the history of Indian philosophy. Now, in The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way, Jay L. Garfield provides a clear and eminently readable translation of Nāgārjuna''s seminal work, offering those with little or no prior knowledge of Buddhist philosophy a view into the profound logic of the Mūlamadhyamikakārikā. Garfield presents a superb translation of the Tibetan text of Mūlamadhyamikakārikā in its entirety, and a commentary reflecting the Tibetan tradition through which Nāgārjuna''s philosophical influence has largely been transmitted. Illuminating the systematic character of Nāgārjuna''s reasoning, Garfield shows how Nāgārjuna develops his doctrine that all phenomena are empty of inherent existence, that is, than nothing exists substantially or independently. Despite lacking any essence, he argues, phenomena nonetheless exist conventionally, and that indeed conventional existence and ultimate emptiness are in fact the same thing. This represents the radical understanding of the Buddhist doctrine of the two truths, or two levels of reality. He offers a verse-by-verse commentary that explains Nāgārjuna''s positions and arguments in the language of Western metaphysics and epistemology, and connects Nāgārjuna''s concerns to those of Western philosophers such as Sextus, Hume, and Wittgenstein. An accessible translation of the foundational text for all Mahāyāna Buddhism, The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way offers insight to all those interested in the nature of reality.

The Buddhist saint Nāgārjuna, who lived in South India in approximately the second century CE, is undoubtedly the most important, influential, and widely studied Mahāyāna Buddhist philosopher. His many works include texts addressed to lay audiences, letters of advice to kings, and a set of penetrating metaphysical and epistemological treatises. His greatest philosophical work, the Mūlamadhyamikakārikā--read and studied by philosophers in all major Buddhist schools of Tibet, China, Japan, and Korea--is one of the most influential works in the history of Indian philosophy. Now, in The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way, Jay L. Garfield provides a clear and eminently readable translation of Nāgārjuna''s seminal work, offering those with little or no prior knowledge of Buddhist philosophy a view into the profound logic of the Mūlamadhyamikakārikā. Garfield presents a superb translation of the Tibetan text of Mūlamadhyamikakārikā in its entirety, and a commentary reflecting the Tibetan tradition through which Nāgārjuna''s philosophical influence has largely been transmitted. Illuminating the systematic character of Nāgārjuna''s reasoning, Garfield shows how Nāgārjuna develops his doctrine that all phenomena are empty of inherent existence, that is, than nothing exists substantially or independently. Despite lacking any essence, he argues, phenomena nonetheless exist conventionally, and that indeed conventional existence and ultimate emptiness are in fact the same thing. This represents the radical understanding of the Buddhist doctrine of the two truths, or two levels of reality. He offers a verse-by-verse commentary that explains Nāgārjuna''s positions and arguments in the language of Western metaphysics and epistemology, and connects Nāgārjuna''s concerns to those of Western philosophers such as Sextus, Hume, and Wittgenstein. An accessible translation of the foundational text for all Mahāyāna Buddhism, The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way offers insight to all those interested in the nature of reality.

This volume presents a new English translation of the founding text of the Madhyamaka (Middle Way) school of Mahayana Buddhism, Nagarjuna’s Root Stanzas of the Middle Way, and includes the Tibetan version of the text. The Root Stanzas holds an honored place in all branches of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as in the Buddhist traditions found in China, Japan, and Korea, because of the way it develops the seminal view of emptiness (shunyata), which is crucial to understanding Mahayana Buddhism and central to its practice. It is prized for its pithy and pointed arguments that show that things lack intrinsic being and thus are "empty" (shunya). They abide in the Middle Way, free from the extremes of permanence and annihilation.

A rare glimpse of the sophisticated philosophical exchange between Buddhist and non-Buddhist schools at an early stage.The Vaidalyaprakarana provides a rare glimpse of the sophisticated philosophical exchange between Buddhist and non-Buddhist schools at an early stage and will be of interest to scholars of Buddhist thought, classical Indian Philosophy, and the history of Asian thought. Belonging to a set of Nagarjuna’s philosophical works known as the yukti-corpus, the Vaidalyaprakarana is noteworthy for its close engagement with the Hindu philosophers. It refutes the sixteen categories of the Nyaya school, which formed the logical and epistemological framework for many of the debates between Buddhist and Hindu philosophers. The Sanskrit original of the Vaidalyaprakarana long lost, the author translates the text from Tibetan, giving it an extensive analytical commentary. The aim is twofold: to investigate the interaction of the founder of the Madhyamika school with this influential school of Hindu thought; and to make sense of how Nagarjuna’s arguments that refute the Naiyayika categories are essential to the Madhyamika path in general.

Das Mula-madhyamaka-karika (Die Lehre von der Mitte) ist das Hauptwerk des Nagarjuna. Es ist im ursprünglichen Sanskrit, dann auch in tibetischer und chinesischer Fassung überliefert worden. Die Sanskrit- und die tibetische Version ist in einen umfangreichen Kommentar des Candrakirti (ca. 600 - 650 n. Chr.) eingebettet, die chinesische Übersetzung des Kumarajiva (344 - 413 n. Chr.) in einen ebenso umfangreichen Kommentar des Pingala (spätes 3. bis frühes 4. Jh.), die beide für die Aufnahme in Indien und im weiteren Asien maßgeblich wurden. An sie schließt daher auch das Verständnis dieses Grundtextes des Mahayana-Buddhismus in den Übersetzungen in die neueren Sprachen an. Allerdings hat sich außer dem chinesischen Übersetzer Kumarajiva, dessen Text in dieser Ausgabe zugrundegelegt wird, kein anderer Übersetzer gefunden, der das Lehrgedicht auch in Versform dargeboten hätte.Die Grundlage der Schrift besteht im dogmatischen Anschluss an die Lehre des Buddha vom Leiden aller Wesen in der Welt und an den von Buddha gewiesenen »Heilsweg«, der zur Erlösung vom Leiden führen soll. Das Philosophische der Schrift aber besteht in den originellen Analysen des Nagarjuna, was Leiden überhaupt bedeutet und worin das Ziel des Heilsweges überhaupt bestehen kann. Dazu bietet Nagarjuna eine weit ausgedehnte Gelehrsamkeit auf. Er kennt alle Argumente der brahminischen (hinduistischen) Schulen, ebenso diejenigen seiner buddhistischen Vorgänger und setzt sich mit ihnen auseinander. Der Herausgeber dieser Ausgabe vertritt aber darüber hinaus die begründete These, dass Nagarjuna ersichtlich auch Kenntnisse von der griechischen Philosophie hatte, die ihn zu seinen ungewöhnlichen Argumenten inspirierten.

The She-rab Dong-bu (Tree of Wisdom) is a metrical translation in Tibetan of a Sanscrit ethical work entitled Prajnya Danda, written by Nagarjuna who flourished in the fourth century of the Buddhist era (about 100 B.C.), The Tibetan version was probably made about the 11th century of our era but the exact date has not been determined. It is included in the Ten-gyur, beginning at leaf 165.