Madhyāntavibhāga

Madhyāntavibhāgakārikā

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

D4021   ·  T1601

SOURCE TEXT

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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Philosophical positions of this text

Other Titles	~ Madhyāntavibhaṅga ~ Madhyāntavibhaṅgakārikā ~ dbus mtha' rnam 'byed
Text exists in	~ Tibetan ~ Chinese ~ Korean
Canonical Genre	~ Tengyur · Sūtra · sems tsam · Cittamātra

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt. बोधिसत्त्व Tib. བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ། Ch. 菩薩

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Yogācāra - Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana). Skt. योगाचार Tib. རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྤྱོད་པ་ Ch. 瑜伽行派

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trisvabhāva - According to the Yogācāra school, all phenomena can be divided into three natures or characteristics: the imaginary nature (parikalpitasvabhāva), the dependent nature (paratantrasvabhāva), and the perfect or absolute nature (pariniṣpannasvabhāva). Skt. त्रिस्वभाव Tib. རང་བཞིན་གསུམ་

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trisvabhāva - According to the Yogācāra school, all phenomena can be divided into three natures or characteristics: the imaginary nature (parikalpitasvabhāva), the dependent nature (paratantrasvabhāva), and the perfect or absolute nature (pariniṣpannasvabhāva). Skt. त्रिस्वभाव Tib. རང་བཞིན་གསུམ་

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pratipakṣa - An antidote or remedy that contributes or supports the elimination or pacification of a particular ailment or affliction. Skt. प्रतिपक्ष Tib. གཉེན་པོ་ Ch. 對治

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parikalpitasvabhāva - The first of the three natures, according to the Yogācāra school. It is the imaginary nature which is falsely projected onto an object out of confusion. Skt. परिकल्पितस्वभाव Tib. ཀུན་བཏགས་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན་

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parikalpitasvabhāva - The first of the three natures, according to the Yogācāra school. It is the imaginary nature which is falsely projected onto an object out of confusion. Skt. परिकल्पितस्वभाव Tib. ཀུན་བཏགས་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན་

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śūnyatā - The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics. Skt. शून्यता Tib. སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ Ch. 空,空門

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svabhāva - The nature or essence of a thing, which originates only from itself and is not dependent on any external entities, causes, or conditions. Skt. स्वभाव Tib. རང་བཞིན་ Ch. 自性

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svabhāva - The nature or essence of a thing, which originates only from itself and is not dependent on any external entities, causes, or conditions. Skt. स्वभाव Tib. རང་བཞིན་ Ch. 自性

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paratantrasvabhāva - The second of the three natures, according to the Yogācāra school. It is the dependent nature that is used to describe the relationship between mind and its objects, though there is a clear emphasis on the latter. Hence, this nature is concerned with the nature of seemingly external objects that arise in dependence upon causes and conditions. Skt. परतन्त्रस्वभाव Tib. གཞན་དབང་གི་རང་བཞིན་

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paratantrasvabhāva - The second of the three natures, according to the Yogācāra school. It is the dependent nature that is used to describe the relationship between mind and its objects, though there is a clear emphasis on the latter. Hence, this nature is concerned with the nature of seemingly external objects that arise in dependence upon causes and conditions. Skt. परतन्त्रस्वभाव Tib. གཞན་དབང་གི་རང་བཞིན་

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pariniṣpannasvabhāva - The third of the three natures, according to the Yogācāra school. It is the perfect nature that represents the most authentic understanding of phenomena, which is classically defined as the complete absence of the imaginary nature within the dependent nature. Skt. परिनिष्पन्नस्वभाव Tib. ཡོངས་སུ་གྲུབ་པའི་རང་བཞིན་

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āvaraṇa - Literally, that which obscures or conceals. Often listed as a set of two obscurations (sgrib gnyis): the afflictive emotional obscurations (Skt. kleśāvaraṇa, Tib. nyon mongs pa'i sgrib pa) and the cognitive obscurations (Skt. jñeyāvaraṇa, Tib. shes bya'i sgrib pa). By removing the first, one becomes free of suffering, and by removing the second, one becomes omniscient. Skt. आवरण Tib. སྒྲིབ་པ་

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Mahāyāna - Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of Common Era, focusing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through the realization of the wisdom of emptiness and the cultivation of compassion. Skt. महायान Tib. ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ། Ch. 大乘

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sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt. सूत्र Tib. མདོ། Ch. 佛经

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Cittamātra - Though it is sometimes used synonymously with Yogācāra, it is in fact one of the more prominent philosophical theories associated with this school. It asserts that the objects in the external world with which we interact are actually mentally created representations appearing as those objects. The character of these perceptions is predetermined by our own karmic conditioning that is stored in the ālayavijñāna. Skt. चित्तमात्र Tib. སེམས་ཙམ་

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Cittamātra - Though it is sometimes used synonymously with Yogācāra, it is in fact one of the more prominent philosophical theories associated with this school. It asserts that the objects in the external world with which we interact are actually mentally created representations appearing as those objects. The character of these perceptions is predetermined by our own karmic conditioning that is stored in the ālayavijñāna. Skt. चित्तमात्र Tib. སེམས་ཙམ་

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