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Radiant Emptiness

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In Radiant Emptiness, Yaroslav Komarovski offers an annotated translation of three seminal works on the nature and relationship of the Yogacara and Madhyamaka schools of Buddhist thought, by Serdok Penchen Shakya Chokden (1428-1507). There has never been consensus on the meaning of Madhyamaka and Yogacara, and for more than fifteen centuries the question of correct identification and interpretation of these systems has remained unsolved. Chokden proposes to accept Yogacara and Madhyamaka on their own terms as compatible systems, despite their considerable divergences and reciprocal critiques. His major objective is to bring Yogacara back from obscurity, present it in a positive light, and correct its misrepresentation by earlier thinkers. He thus serves as a major resource for scholarly research on the historical and philosophical development of Yogacara and Madhyamaka. Until recently, Shakya Chokden's works have been largely unavailable. Only in 1975 were his collected writings published in twenty-four volumes in Bhutan. Since then, his ingenious works on Buddhist history, philosophy, and logic have attracted increasing scholarly attention. Komarovski's research on Shakya Chokden's innovative writings--most of which are still available only in the original Tibetan--revises early misinterpretations by addressing some of the most complicated aspects of his thought. While focusing on his unique interpretation of Yogacara and Madhyamaka, the book also shows that his thought provides an invaluable base to challenge and expand our understanding of such topics as epistemology, contemplative practice, the relationship between intellectual study and meditative experience, and other key questions that occupy contemporary scholarship on Buddhism and religion in general. (Source: Oxford University Press)

Citation	Komarovski, Yaroslav. Radiant Emptiness: Three Seminal Works by the Golden Paṇḍita Shakya Chokden. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.

Table of Contents About the Book Texts Translated Quotes

• 1. Introduction 1
  • 1.1. Starting Points 1
  • 1.2. Introducing Shakya Chokden 7
  • 1.3. Introducing Shakya Chokden’s Thought 12
  • 1.4. Introducing the Texts 21

• 2. Profound Thunder amidst the Clouds of the Ocean of Definitive Meaning: Differentiation of the Two Systems of the Great Madhyamaka Deriving from the
  Two Great Chariot Ways 51

• 3. Rain of Ambrosia: Extensive Auto-Commentary on the Treatise That, Explaining Differentiation of the Two Ways of Great Chariots, Establishes the Definitive
  Meaning Approved by Them as One 63
  • 3.1. Setting the Framework of the Meaning through Explaining the General Meaning 65
    • 3.1.1. Identification of My Own Opinions 65
    • 3.1.2 Extensive Explanation of Scriptural Statements and Reasoning Establishing Them 67
    • 3.1.3. Conclusion Reached by Demonstrating the Established Meaning 115
  • 3.2. Extensive Explanation of the Meaning of the Words of Individual Textual Passages 134
    • 3.2.1. The Meaning of the Treatise’s Title 134
    • 3.2.2. The Actual Treatise with That Title 142
    • 3.2.3. Providing the Author’s Name in Order to Avoid Confusion with
      Other Texts 265
  • 3.3. Conclusion upon Generating Respect for the Definitive Meaning of the
    Third Dharmacakra 266
    • 3.3.1. Demonstrating the Way That Definitive Meaning Emerged in Valid Treatises 266
    • 3.3.2. Demonstrating That That Same Definitive Meaning Also Emerges
      from the Texts of Quintessential Instructions by Indian and Tibetan
      Scholars 271
    • 3.3.3. Demonstrating the Transmission Sources I Myself Followed 273

• 4. Great Path of the Ambrosia of Emptiness: Explanation of Profound Pacification Free from Proliferations 281
  • 4.1. Identification of the Ambrosia That Flowed from the Excellent Words of
    Our Compassionate Teacher Alone 282
  • 4.2. How Each Group of Proponents of the Buddhist Tenets Partakes in Its
    Share of the Ambrosia 283
  • 4.3. Systems That Having Understood Emptiness Are Posited as the Pinnacle
    of Tenet Systems 286
    • 4.3.1. Determining the Presentation of Emptiness 286
    • 4.3.2. Explanation of Divisions of the Path Purifying Stains of the
      Dharma-Sphere 362
    • 4.3.3. Entity of Buddhahood Attained by That Path 387

• English-Tibetan Glossary 393
• Glossary of Tibetan Names 433
• Chapter Outlines 435
• Bibliography 447
• Index 459

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