Madhyāntavibhāga
From Buddha-Nature
मध्यान्तविभाग
Madhyāntavibhāga
དབུས་དང་མཐའ་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པའི་ཚིག་ལེའུར་བྱས་པ།
dbus dang mtha' rnam par 'byed pa'i tshig le'ur byas pa
辯中邊論頌
Bian zhong bian lun song
Distinguishing the Middle from the Extremes
In Sanskrit, “Differentiation of the Middle Way and the Extremes”; one of the Five Dharma Treatises of Maitreya (byams chos sde lnga) said to have been presented to Asaṅga by the bodhisattva Maitreya in the Tuṣita heaven. Written in verse, it is one of the most important Yogācāra delineations of the three natures (trisvabhāva), especially as they figure in the path to enlightenment, where the obstacles created by the imaginary (parikalpita) are overcome ultimately by the antidote of the consummate (pariniṣpanna). The “middle way” exposed here is that of the Yogācāra, and is different from that of Nāgārjuna, although the names of the two extremes to be avoided—the extreme of permanence (śāśvatānta) and the extreme of annihilation (ucchedānta)—are the same. Here the extreme of permanence is the existence of external objects, the imaginary nature (parikalpitasvabhāva). The extreme of annihilation would seem to include Nāgārjuna’s emptiness of intrinsic nature (svabhāva). The middle way entails upholding the existence of consciousness (vijñāna) as the dependent nature (paratantrasvabhāva) and the existence of the consummate nature (pariniṣpannasvabhāva). The work is divided into five chapters, which consider the three natures, the various forms of obstruction to be abandoned on the path, the ultimate truth according to Yogācāra, the means of cultivating the antidotes to the defilements, and the activity of the Mahāyāna path. (Source: The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, p. 489)
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Maitreya's Distinguishing the Middle from the Extremes
Maitreyanātha's Distinguishing the Middle from the Extremes (Madhyāntavibhāga) was transmitted to us by the noble Asaṅga, great saint and champion scholar of fourth century CE Indic Buddhism—along with Vasubandhu’s commentary on the text. It is one of the five seminal texts of what the Tibetans call the “magnificent deeds tradition of universal vehicle Buddhism, according to its spiritual focus and ethical impact. Its emphasis on the nondual, primarily mental nature of reality most powerfully supports the great messianic vow of the bodhisattva, the entry into the universal vehicle lifestyle. In his study introducing the translation, Dr. D'Amato analyzes and elucidates the teachings of this text and its associated school with great learning and insight. (Source: Tibet House)
D'Amato, Mario, trans. Maitreya's Distinguishing the Middle from the Extremes (Madhyāntavibhāga): Along with Vasubandhu's Commentary (Madhyāntavibhāga-bhāṣya); A Study and Annotated Translation. Treasury of the Buddhist Sciences. Tengyur Translation Initiative. New York: American Institute of Buddhist Studies, Columbia University's Center for Buddhist Studies and Tibet House US, 2012.
D'Amato, Mario, trans. Maitreya's Distinguishing the Middle from the Extremes (Madhyāntavibhāga): Along with Vasubandhu's Commentary (Madhyāntavibhāga-bhāṣya);A Study and Annotated Translation. Treasury of the Buddhist Sciences. Tengyur Translation Initiative. New York: American Institute of Buddhist Studies, Columbia University's Center for Buddhist Studies and Tibet House US, 2012.;Maitreya's Distinguishing the Middle from the Extremes;byams chos sde lnga;Maitreya;Yogācāra;ālayavijñāna;trisvabhāva;Maitreya;བྱམས་པ་;byams pa;'phags pa byams pa;byams pa'i mgon po;mgon po byams pa;ma pham pa;འཕགས་པ་བྱམས་པ་;བྱམས་པའི་མགོན་པོ་;མགོན་པོ་བྱམས་པ་;མ་ཕམ་པ་;Ajita; Vasubandhu;དབྱིག་གཉེན་;dbyig gnyen;slob dpon dbyig gnyen;སློབ་དཔོན་དབྱིག་གཉེན་;Mario D'Amato;Maitreya's Distinguishing the Middle from the Extremes (Madhyāntavibhāga): Along with Vasubandhu's Commentary (Madhyāntavibhāga-bhāṣya);A Study and Annotated Translation;Maitreya;Asaṅga;Vasubandhu
Middle Beyond Extremes
Middle Beyond Extremes contains a translation of the Buddhist masterpiece Distinguishing the Middle from Extremes. This famed text, often referred to by its Sanskrit title, Madhyāntavibhāga, is part of a collection known as the Five Maitreya Teachings. Maitreya, the Buddha’s regent, is held to have entrusted these profound and vast instructions to the master Asaṅga in the heavenly realm of Tuṣita.
In pithy verses, Distinguishing the Middle from Extremes employs the principle of the three natures to explain the way things seem to be as well as the way they actually are. Unraveling the subtle processes that condition our thinking and experience, Maitreya’s teaching reveals a powerful path of compassionate vision and spiritual transformation.
Distinguishing the Middle from Extremes is presented here alongside commentaries by two outstanding masters of Tibet’s nonsectarian Rimé movement, Khenpo Shenga and Ju Mipham. (Source: Shambhala Publications)Dharmachakra Translation Committee, trans. Middle Beyond Extremes: Maitreya's Madhyāntavibhāga with Commentaries by Khenpo Shenga (gzhan phan chos kyi snang ba) and Ju Mipham ('ju mi pham rgya mtsho). Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2006.
Dharmachakra Translation Committee, trans. Middle Beyond Extremes: Maitreya's Madhyāntavibhāga with Commentaries by Khenpo Shenga (gzhan phan chos kyi snang ba) and Ju Mipham ('ju mi pham rgya mtsho). Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2006.;Middle Beyond Extremes;byams chos sde lnga;Maitreya;Maitreya;བྱམས་པ་;byams pa;'phags pa byams pa;byams pa'i mgon po;mgon po byams pa;ma pham pa;འཕགས་པ་བྱམས་པ་;བྱམས་པའི་མགོན་པོ་;མགོན་པོ་བྱམས་པ་;མ་ཕམ་པ་;Ajita; Asaṅga;ཐོགས་མེད་;thogs med;slob dpon thogs med;སློབ་དཔོན་ཐོགས་མེད་;Āryāsaṅga;Mipam Gyatso;མི་ཕམ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་;mi pham rgya mtsho;mi pham 'jam dbyangs rnam rgyal rgya mtsho;'jam dpal dgyes pa'i rdo rje;'ju mi pham;མི་ཕམ་འཇམ་དབྱངས་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་;འཇམ་དཔལ་དགྱེས་པའི་རྡོ་རྗེ་;འཇུ་མི་ཕམ་;mipham;Zhenpen Chökyi Nangwa;གཞན་ཕན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྣང་བ་;gzhan phan chos kyi snang ba;mkhan po gzhan dga';rgya kong mkhan chen gzhan phan chos kyi snang ba;gzhan phan byams pa'i go cha;mkhas mchog gzhan phan snang ba;rdzogs chen mkhan rabs 19;rdzong sar mkhan rabs 01;མཁན་པོ་གཞན་དགའ་;རྒྱ་ཀོང་མཁན་ཆེན་གཞན་ཕན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྣང་བ་;གཞན་ཕན་བྱམས་པའི་གོ་ཆ་;མཁས་མཆོག་གཞན་ཕན་སྣང་བ་;རྫོགས་ཆེན་མཁན་རབས་༡༩་;རྫོང་སར་མཁན་རབས་༠༡་;Khenpo Zhenga;Khenpo Shenga;Dharmachakra Translation Committee;Cortland Dahl;Middle Beyond Extremes: Maitreya's Madhyāntavibhāga with Commentaries by Khenpo Shenga and Ju Mipham;Maitreya;Gzhan phan chos kyi snang ba;Mi pham rgya mtsho
Recensions of This Text
Sanskrit | मध्यान्तविभाग (madhyāntavibhāga).
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Tibetan | དབུས་དང་མཐའ་རྣམ་པར་འབྱེད་པའི་ཚིག་ལེའུར་བྱས་པ། (dbus dang mtha' rnam par 'byed pa'i tshig le'ur byas pa). BCRD Link: http://databases.aibs.columbia.edu/index.php?id=878baea5cb17ca80aa4d58c02fcb65f3&enc=sanskrit_romanized_author&coll=tengyur.
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Text Metadata
Other Titles | ~ Madhyāntavibhaṅga ~ Madhyāntavibhaṅgakārikā ~ dbus mtha' rnam 'byed |
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Text exists in | ~ Tibetan ~ Chinese ~ Korean |
Canonical Genre | ~ Tengyur · Sūtra · sems tsam · Cittamātra |
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