Madhyamika and Epistemology: A Study of Kamalasila's Method for Proving the Voidness of All Dharmas: Introduction, Annotated Translations and Tibetan Texts of Selected Sections of the Second Chapter of the Madhyamakaloka.

• Author: Nance, Richard
• Position: Book review

Madhyamika and Epistemology: A Study of Kamalasila's Method for Proving the Voidness of All Dharmas: Introduction, Annotated Translations and Tibetan Texts of Selected Sections of the Second Chapter of the Madhyamakaloka. By RYUSEI KEIRA. Wiener Studien zuri Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde, vol. 59. Vienna: ARBEITSKREIS FUR TIBETISCHE UND BUDDHISTISCHE STUDIEN, UNIVERSITAT WIEN, 2004. Pp. lxvii + 304. [euro]37.10.

Madhyamika and Epistemology comprises a meticulous study (pp. 1-86), translation (pp. 89-220), and critical edition (pp. 223-66) of sections of an unjustly neglected work by the major Indian Buddhist philosopher Kamalasila (c. 740-795): the Madhyamakaloka (MA). Though a Sanskrit reconstruction of the MA has recently been attempted (see Dorjee, P., ed. Madhyamakaloka of Acarya Kamalasila. Sarnath: Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, 2001), Keira here restricts his attention to the canonical Tibetan translation, attributed to Silendrabodhi and dPal brtsegs. This translation is available in a number of editions; Keira has used sDe dge, Co ne, sNar thang, Peking, and the Golden manuscript in the preparation of his critical edition. To date, the study of Kamalasila's work has focused principally on texts extant in Sanskrit (e.g., the first and third Bhavanakramas and the Tattvasamgra-hapanjika). Yet Kamalasila is also held to have authored many other texts that take up pramana, madhyamaka, the cultivation of bodhicitta, and Buddhist sutra literature. These texts, available in Tibetan translation, have received some attention in Japanese scholarship, but have only recently begun to be investigated more widely. Keira's book thus constitutes a substantial, timely, and welcome contribution to the ongoing work of understanding Kamalasila, his influence, and his interlocutors.

Madhyamika and Epistemology does not attempt to survey the MA as a whole. Instead, aiming to chart the ways in which Kamalasila's reasoning makes use of conceptual tools favored by Dharmakirti, Keira focuses his attention on select passages from the second chapter of the larger work. In these passages Kamalasila voices a series of objections to the Madhyamika view that all dharmas are void of intrinsic nature, and responds to these objections using scripture (agama) and reasoning (yukti) to bolster his claims. Four sets of objections and rejoinders are translated and discussed by Keira. They concern whether the view that all dharmas are void of intrinsic...