The Buddhist Philosophy of the Middle

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Contents

• Foreword by Tom Tillemans ix
• Preface xiii
• Abbreviations xix
  • 1. Mathematical and Linguistic Models in Indian Thought: The Case of Zero
        and Śūnyatā (1978) 1
  • 2. Towards a Chronology of the Madhyamaka School (1982) 13
  • 3. The Uses of the Four Positions of the Catuṣkoṭi and the Problem of the
        Description of Reality in Mahāyāna Buddhism (1977) 37
    • I. The Four Positions in Early Buddhist Thought37
    • II. The Uses of the Catuṣkoṭi in the Madhyamaka40
    • III. Conjunction and Negation of Opposed Terms in Vijñānavāda Definitions of Reality 67
    • IV. Negation of Opposed Terms in the Description of the Absolute in the Ratnagotravibhāga 81
    • V. The Vātsīputrīya Conception of the Indeterminate 84
    • Appendix I. Commentarial Interpretations of Mūlamadhyamakakārikā xviii.8 86
    • Appendix II. Some Modern Interpretations of the Catuṣkoṭi 89
    • Appendix III. The Logical Error of Negation of the Antecedent and the Mūlamadhyamakakārikās 109
    • Bibliography 111
  • 4. Le Dharmadhātustava de Nāgārjuna (1971) 113
  • 5. On the Authorship of Some Works Ascribed to Bhā(va)viveka/Bhavya (1990) 145
  • 6. The Svātantrika-Prāsaṅgika Distinction in the History of Madhyamaka Though (2006) 159
  • 7. Purport, Implicature, and Presupposition: Sanskrit abhiprāya and Tibetan dgongs pa / dgongs gzhi as Hermeneutical Concepts (1985) 195
  • 8. An Indian Source for the Tibetan Hermeneutical Term dgongs gzhi, "Intentional Ground" (1998) 213
  • 9. Some Reflections on the Place of Philosophy in the Study of Buddhism (1995) 217
  • 10. On the Tibetan Historiography and Doxography of the "Great Debate of Bsam yas" (1992) 253
  • 11. Autour du Lta ba'i khyad par de Ye shes sde (1979) 267
  • 12. The Jo nang pas; A School of Buddhist Ontologists According to the Crystal Mirror of Philosophical Doctrines (Grub mtha' shel gyi me long) (1963) 289
  • 13. A Karma Bka' brgyud Work on the Lineages and Traditions of the Indo-Tibetan dbu ma (Madhyamaka) (1988) 323
  • 14. La Pensée Tibétaine (accompagné d'une traduction du Rten 'brel bstod pa legs bshad snying po de Tsong kha pa) (1989) 357
  • 15. The Indian and the Indic in Tibetan Cultural History, and Tsong kha pa's Achievement as a Scholar and Thinker: An Essay on the Concepts of "Buddhism in Tibet" and "Tibetan Buddhism" (2004) 375
• English Glossary of Selected Terms 399
• Publications by David Seyfort Ruegg 407
• Indexes 419

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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Madhyamaka - Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. Skt. मध्यमक Tib. དབུ་མ་ Ch. 中觀見

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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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These are the root verses of the Uttaratantra attributed to Maitreya by the Tibetan tradition.

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gzhi - The foundational basis of both saṃsāra and nirvāṇa. It is often used as a synonym for tathāgatagarbha and dharmadhātu. Tib. གཞི་

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