Reading Notes - Intro Mid Way
Translator's Introduction
Sanya master Gorampa Sonam Senge
Jamgon Ju Mipham (commentary in this text)
Atisha
Guru yoga is the life of Vajrayana.
Lojong (mind training) is the heart of Madhyamika.
Madhyamika is challenging.
Chandrakirti said that liberation from samsara is impossible without a correct understanding of Madhyamika.
To some Madhyamika is considered a species of nihilism.
KEY according to Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche: the correct understanding of the nature of phenomena: the objects and situations that surround us in our daily lives and the thoughts and emotions that occupy and agitate our minds.
Chandrakirti and the Madhyamakavatara.
Madhyamaka means "middle" or "middle way" and is a reference to the Mulamadhyamaka-karikas, or The Root Stanzas on the Middle Way, composed by Nagarjuna.
Avatara mean "to descend" or "to go down into." It is the cognate of the Sanskrit word avatar.
Titles where avatar will be found:
- Lankavatara-sutra (The Sutra of the Journey into Lanka)
- Shantidevi's Bodhicharyavatara (The Entry into the Ways of Enlightenment)
Chadrakirti's text means "an entrance or introduction to (Nagarjuna's stanzas on) the Middle Way." His later work, Prasannapada went into more detail.
Chittamatra school (another great stream of Mahayana tradition that rose to prominence after Nagarjuna's time.
Prasangika, the teaching of Chandrakirti. All four forms of Tibetan Buddhism accepted Prasangika as the summit of Buddhist tenet systems.
Wisdom = compassion, the desire to release beings from suffering.
The twin aspects of ultimate and relative bodhicitta are never separate.
The exposition of the view are set within the framework of the ten paramitas and these are correlated with the ten Bodhisattva grounds of realization or bhumis.