Paths to Omniscience: the Geluk Hermeneutics of Nga-wāng-bel-den

Contents
Tibetan Consonants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x
Series Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xii
Author’s Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv
1 Introduction 15
1.1 Paths to Omniscience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.2 Positive and Negative Phenomena . . . . . . . . . . 27
2 Presentations of Emptiness 31
2.1 The Middle Way View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.2 Two Truths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.3 The Object To Be Negated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.4 Mind Only Emptiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
2.5 Other Emptiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3 Buddhist Hermeneutics 51
3.1 Origins of Buddhist Hermeneutics . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.2 Hermeneutics of the Middle . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3.3 Three Wheels of Doctrine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
4 The Great Vehicle and Its Commentaries 73
4.1 Geluk Scholasticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
4.2 Perfection of Wisdom Sūtras and the
Treatise on the Middle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
4.3 Characteristics of Sūtra Pronouncements on
Emptiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
4.4 Characteristics of Treatise Discussions of
Emptiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
4.5 The Role of Sūtra Commentaries . . . . . . . . . . . 89
4.6 Relating Perfection of Wisdom Sūtras and the Treatise
on the Middle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5 Inherent Existence 99
5.1 Introducing svabhāva . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
5.2 Nāgārjuna and Ultimate Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . 102
5.3 Expressing Fallacies from the Viewpoint of a Pervader104
5.4 The Vajra Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
5.5 There Is Production Conventionally . . . . . . . . . 112
5.6 Production From Self . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
5.7 Production from Other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
5.8 Production From Both Self and Other . . . . . . . . 121
5.9 Production Causelessly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
5.10 Summarizing the Vajra Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
6 Tathāgatagarbha in Tibet 127
6.1 Introduction to tathāgatagarbha . . . . . . . . . . . 127
6.2 Buddha Nature Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
6.3 tathāgatagarbha and the Mind-basis-of-all . . . . . . 131
6.4 Sūtra Sources . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
6.5 The Basic Constituent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
6.6 Tathāgatagarbha Treatises in Tibet . . . . . . . . . . 148
6.7 Jonangs Following Döl-b̄o S̄hay-rap-gyel-tsen . . . 150
6.8 S̄a-ḡya-b̄as Following Bu-don . . . . . . . . . . . 169
6.9 Geluks Following D̄zong-ka-b̄a . . . . . . . . . . . 171
7 A Geluk Controversy 179
7.1 Introduction to a Controversy . . . . . . . . . . . 179
7.2 Background to the Controversy . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
7.3 D
-
zong-ka-b̄a’s Interpretation of Chandrakīrti . . . . . 189
7.3.1 Interpretability of the Three Natures . . . . . 191
7.3.2 Interpretability of the Mind-basis-of-all . . . 192
7.3.3 Interpretability of Mind Only . . . . . . . . . 200
7.3.4 Interpretability of Three Final Vehicles . . . 200
7.4 Kay-drup and Jam-y - ang-shay-b̄a on
Chandrakīrti . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
7.5 Conclusion to the Controvery Discussion . . . . . . 209
8 Mere Conditionality 213
8.1 Non-Dependence For Chandrakīrti and D -zong-ka-b . . . 213
8.2 Meanings of Dependence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
8.3 No Dependence on Another . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
9 Translations 229
Jam-y - ang-shay-b̄a and the Great Exposition of Tenets . 229
Nga-wa - ng-b̄el-den and the Annotations . . . . . . . . 230
Translation of the Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Topics of the Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Bibliography 333

Contents
Tibetan Consonants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x
Series Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xii
Author’s Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv
1 Introduction 15
1.1 Paths to Omniscience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.2 Positive and Negative Phenomena . . . . . . . . . . 27
2 Presentations of Emptiness 31
2.1 The Middle Way View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.2 Two Truths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2...