Ocean of Reasoning This page intentionally left blank Ocean of Reasoning A Great Commentary on Na¯ga¯rjuna’s Mu¯lamadhyamakaka¯rika¯ rJetsongkhapa Translated by geshe ngawang samten and jay l. garfield 1 2006 1 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright ᭧ 2006 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Tson-kha-pa Blo-bzan-grags-pa, 1357–1419. [Rtsa se tik chen rigs pa’i rgya mtsho. English] Ocean of reasoning : a great commentary on Na¯ga¯rjuna’s Mu¯lamadhyamakaka¯rika¯/ rJe Tsong khapa ; translated by Geshe Ngawang Samten and Jay L. Garfield. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-19-514732-2; 978-0-19-514733-9 (pbk.) ISBN-10: 0-19-514732-4; 0-19-514733-2 (pbk.) 1. Na¯ga¯rjuna, 2nd cent. Madhyamakaka¯rika¯. 2. Ma¯dhyamika (Buddhism)—Early works to 1800. 3. Philosophy, Buddhist—Early works to 1800. I. Ngawang Samten. II. Garfield, Jay L., 1955– III. Nagarjuna, 2nd cent. Madhyamakakarika. English. IV. Title. BQ7479.8.N347T7513 2005 2004061711 987654321 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper This translation is dedicated to His Holiness the Dalai Lama XIV, the Ocean of Wisdom, in gratitude for his boundless compassion and tireless efforts on behalf of the welfare of all sentient beings. This page intentionally left blank Contents Translators’ Introduction, ix The Life and Works of Tsong khapa, ix The Text and Its Structure, xii Methodology, xiv The Root Text and Its Translation, xix Acknowledgments, xxii Tsong khapa’s General Outline of the Text, 3 The Text, 7 Preliminary Explanations, 9 Homage Verses, 21 Chapter I: Examination of Conditions, 45 Chapter II: Examination of Motion, 101 Chapter III: Examination of the Senses, 127 Chapter IV: Examination of the Aggregates, 143 Chapter V: Examination of the Elements, 151 Chapter VI: Examination of Desire and the Desirous One, 163 Chapter VII: Examination of Arising, Enduring, and Ceasing, 175 Chapter VIII: Examination of the Agent and Action, 221 viii contents Chapter IX: Examination of the Prior Entity, 235 Chapter X: Examination of Fire and Fuel, 249 Chapter XI: Examination of the Beginning and End, 265 Chapter XII: Examination of Suffering, 279 Chapter XIII: Examination of Compounded Phenomena, 289 Chapter XIV: Examination of Contact, 303 Chapter XV: Examination of Essence, 313 Chapter XVI: Examination of Bondage, 329 Chapter XVII: Examination of Action, 345 Chapter XVIII: Examination of the Self and Phenomena, 369 Chapter XIX: Examination of Time, 393 Chapter XX: Examination of Assemblage, 405 Chapter XXI: Examination of Becoming and Destruction, 421 Chapter XXII: Examination of the Tatha¯gata, 439 Chapter XXIII: Examination of Errors, 453 Chapter XXIV: Examination of the Four Noble Truths, 469 Chapter XXV: Examination of Nirvana, 515 Chapter XXVI: Examination of the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination, 535 Chapter XXVII: Examination of Views, 543 Prostration to the Teacher in Gratitude for His Kindness in Teaching, 563 Afterword, 565 Appendices, 569 Appendix I: Tibetan-English Glossary, 569 Appendix II: English-Tibetan Glossary, 575 Appendix III: English Translations of Works of Tsong khapa, 583 Appendix IV: Selected Bibliography of Works in English on Tsong khapa, 585 Bibliography, 587 Index of Quotations and Citations, 593 General Index, 597 Translators’ Introduction Homage to Man˜jus´rı¯ in gratitude for his inspiration of the great teachers of the Maha¯ya¯na tradition whose insight and care in composing their treatises have made this work possible. The reader of this translation of an early fifteenth-century Tibetan philo- sophical text will have to get used to the heavily outlined prose style used by Tsong khapa and other Tibetan scholars in the composition of such texts. So let us get started here. This introduction has five parts: the life and works of Tsong khapa, a discussion of the text and its structure, our methodology, com- ments on the root text and our translation of it, and our acknowledgments. 1. The Life and Works of Tsong khapa This section has two parts: a brief biography of Tsong khapa and the principal works of Tsong khapa. 1.1 A brief biography of Tsong khapa Tsong khapa (whose ordination name was actually bLo bZang Grags pa, / Lobsang Dakpa/ but who is universally known as “Tsong khapa” [the man from Tsong kha] sometimes prefaced with the Tibetan honorific title “rJe” [Lord] or as “rJe Rin po che” [Precious Lord]) was born in Tsong kha in the Amdo region of Tibet in 1357. He studied widely as a young man and was taught by many of the leading scholars of all of the Tibetan traditions of his day, in particular the Sakya masters Red mda ba /Rendawa/ and Rinchen rDo rJe /Rinchen x translators’ introduction Dorje/; the Kagyu master sPyan snga Rin po che /Chenga Rinpoche/; and the Jo-nangpa masters Bo dong Phyags las rNam rGyal /Bodong Chakleh Nam- gyal/, Khyung po Lhas pa /Khyungpo Hlehpa/ and Chos kyi dPal pa /Cho¨kyi Pelpa/. Tsong khapa was recognized early in life as a scholar and practitioner of enormous promise and deep understanding and even in his youth was widely sought as a teacher. He continued to study throughout his life, and his works demonstrate an enormous mastery of Indian and earlier Tibetan philosophical literature, logic, hermeneutical theory, and tantra, as well as an extraordinarily synoptic mind, a powerful grasp of subtle detail, and the ability to see how small details matter in philosophical exposition. His work always reflects pen- etrating analytical insight. His career output is enormous, comprising six ma- jor treatises and dozens of smaller texts as well as hundreds of brief philo- sophical and religious poems. His entire corpus comprises eighteen volumes. Tsong khapa’s first principal treatise, Legs bshad gser ‘phreng /Lekshe ser- ten/, or The Golden Rosary of Eloquence, was completed when he was thirty years old, after over a decade of work. It is an extensive and complex text, demonstrating philosophical sympathy for the Yoga¯ca¯ra or Cittama¯tra (Bud- dhist idealist) school of philosophy, reflecting Tsong khapa’s early scholarly focus on the Maitreya texts foundational to that school and the treatises and commentaries of the great Indian Cittama¯tra philosophers Asan˙ ga, Vasuban- dhu, and Sthiramati. His account of Madhyamaka in that text focuses primarily on its negative dialectical character. While it is an important and profound text, it does not reflect Tsong khapa’s mature philosophical views.1 During the period following the composition of The Golden Rosary, Tsong khapa’s attention was focused on the Prajn˜a¯pa¯ramita¯ (Perfection of Wisdom) su¯tras foundational to the Madhyamaka school, as well as on Dharmakı¯rti’s Prama¯nfiava¯rttika (Commentary on Dignaga’s Encyclopedia of Logic) and on his continued study of tantra. It is clear that during this time he developed the conviction that motivates much of his work in his later texts: A complete un- derstanding of Buddhist philosophy requires a synthesis of the epistemology and logic of Dharmakı¯rti with the metaphysics of Na¯ga¯rjuna. By fusing these two strands of the Indian Buddhist tradition Tsong khapa works to develop an understanding of the view of reality and of the proper mode of engaging with reality both cognitively and ethically as these are developed in the Prajn˜a¯pa¯r- amita¯ su¯tras and their commentaries. Tsong khapa argues that the develop- ment of a correct view of the ultimate nature of things requires rigorous ana- lytical argument as well as meditative practice; that the deliverances of proper analysis and of proper meditation are completely congruent; and that the prac- 1. For an English translation of part of this text, see Sparham (1993). translators’ introduction xi tices of study, contemplation, and meditation should be inseparable in a prac- titioner’s life. Tsong khapa spent most of the years 1390–1398 in extended retreat, often solitary, but sometimes with teachers or colleagues. He reports in his autobi- ography that at the end of this period of contemplation he was rewarded by a vision of the great Indian Madhyamaka masters, after which he attained com- plete understanding of the Madhyamaka view as expounded by Na¯ga¯rjuna and as interpreted by A¯ ryadeva, Buddhapa¯lita, and Candrakı¯rti. (The cover illustra- tion of this volume represents that vision.) The major philosophical texts com- posed in the remaining twenty years of his life develop with great precision and sophistication the view he developed during this long retreat period and reflect his realization that while Madhyamaka philosophy involves a relentlessly negative dialectic—a sustained critique both of reification and of nihilism and a rejection of all concepts of essence—the other side of that dialectic is an affirmation of conventional reality, of dependent origination, and of the identity of the two truths, suggesting a positive view of the nature of reality as well. This insight is articulated in his philosophical poem composed when he emerged from this long retreat period, Legs bshad snying po /Lekshe nyingpo/ (The [condensed] Essence of Eloquence) (Thurman 1984).