Chandrakirti (; Sanskrit: चंद्रकीर्ति; ; , meaning "glory of the moon" in Sanskrit) or "Chandra" was a Buddhist scholar of the Madhyamaka school who was based out of the monastery of Nalanda. He was a noted commentator on the works of Nagarjuna () and those of his main disciple, Aryadeva. He wrote two influential works on Madhyamaka, the Prasannapadā and the Madhyamakāvatāra.

Chandrakirti does not seem to have been very influential during the 7th to 10th centuries, and his works were never translated into Chinese. However, by the 11th and 12th centuries, his work became influential in the north, especially in Kashmir and in Tibet. Over time, Chandrakirti became a major source for the study of Madhyamaka philosophy in Tibetan Buddhism. Chandrakirti's work was especially promoted by Tibetans like Rendawa Zhönnu Lodrö and his student Tsongkhapa as a way to counter the widespread influence of the Uttaratantra, and the shentong views associated with it.

As noted by Kevin A. Vose, Chandrakirti is seen by many Tibetan Buddhists as offering "the most thorough and accurate vision of Nāgārjuna's emptiness, which, in turn, most fully represents the final truth of the Buddha's teaching." He is considered by Tibetans to be the main exponent of what they term the "Prāsaṅgika" sub-school of madhyamaka. However, this doxographical categorization only arose in Tibet during the 12th century. Tibetan sources like Bu ston and Taranatha state that Chandrakirti was active at Nalanda, where he is said to have become an abbot.

According to Karen Lang:<blockquote>According to Bus ton and Taranatha, Candrakirti was born in south India and entered a monastery, where he mastered all the Buddhist scriptures. Taranatha adds that he was born in Samanta during the reign of King Sila, the son of Sriharsa. He took a special interest in Nagarjuna's treatises and studied them with the disciples of two rival interpreters, Bhavaviveka and Buddhapalita. He preferred Buddhapalita's interpretations of Madhyamaka teachings and defended them in a famous debate with the grammarian Candragomin, who supported the idealist position of the Vijñanavada (Doctrine of Consciousness) school.</blockquote>

Tibetan sources further add that during the latter period of his life, he returned to the South of India, where he stayed in the region of Koṅkuna. During his time here, he is said to have worked to defeat and convert many non-Buddhists.

Debate at Nalanda

Bu ston and Taranatha both reference a debate that took place at Nalanda between Chandrakirti and the poet-lay scholar, Chandragomin.</blockquote>

Two Truths

Like all madhyamikas, Chandrakirti defends a theory of two truths with a strict anti-foundationalist character. According to Chandrakirti, all things (bhāva) have two natures, the conventional and the ultimate.

Regarding the ultimate truth (paramārtha satya), when fire is analyzed to find its ultimate nature, no independent essence is found that makes fire hot, and thus fire (and all things, including the most basic concepts like time and causality) have no ultimate essence or nature. This is the ultimate truth i.e. emptiness (śūnyatā) or the lack of self-existence (niḥsvabhāva).

Prāsaṅga and reasoning

Chandrakirti defended Buddhapālita and his Madhyamaka method against the views of Bhāviveka. According to Chandra, Madhyamikas should not use autonomous or independent inferences (svatantrānumāna) when debating an opponent. This method had been developed by the Buddhist epistemologist Dignāga and had been adopted by madhyamikas like Bhāviveka. Bhāviveka had argued that to be able to accurately and effectively defend the madhyamaka view against its opponents, one needed to positively prove one's thesis by means of independent inferences (svatantrānumāna) in formal syllogisms (prayoga) which proved the madhyamika thesis in a self-contained manner independent of the views of non-madhyamika interlocutors. He therefore faulted Buddhapālita's analysis of madhyamaka as inadequate.

Chandrakirti critiqued Bhāviveka on this point and argued that madhyamaka thinkers should instead only rely on prāsaṅga arguments (literally "consequence"), which mainly refers to reductio arguments that seek to show how an opponent's views lead to absurd or unwanted consequences. In this sense, the madhyamikas merely point out the absurdity of their opponents views without stating a position of their own, and merely indicate the truth indirectly. </blockquote>Chandrakirti argues that the idea that one must use the syllogistic arguments commits one to the acceptance of inherent natures or some other form of foundationalism or essentialism.

Another problem which Chandrakirti sees with the idea that a madhyamika must use independent syllogisms is that a madhyamika interlocutor and any essentialist or realist opponent do not share a basic set of premises required for syllogistic reasoning. This is because they do not have the same idea of what it means for something to "exist" and therefore they cannot even agree on a set of basic premises on which to develop an independent syllogism.

Prāsaṅga arguments meanwhile, are mainly negative, and thus do not require the affirmation of any positive thesis or view, but merely deconstructs the arguments of one's opponent. As such, Chandrakirti thinks prāsaṅga arguments are more suited to the apophatic method of madhyamaka philosophy. However, there is a role for reasoning in Chandrakirti's thought. Reasoning is only useful for negating all views regarding existence and non-existence. Furthermore, reasoning must also negate itself, because it also relies on conceptual proliferation (prapañca), which is based on ignorance. However, reasoning can be used to understand the very limitations of reason and thought in explaining the ultimate and how any attempt at conceptually understanding the ultimate leads to contradictions. Reason can thus indirectly point to the ineffable ultimate truth (which can only be realized by another means, i.e. through wisdom, jñana) by revealing what it is not.

Buddhahood

Chandrakirti's view of Buddhahood is related to his apophatic views. For Chandrakirti, a Buddha's knowing of emptiness is not really knowing anything at all. Instead, a Buddha's knowledge of emptiness is a non-knowing in which there is neither an object nor a mind engaged in the act of knowing the object. Because of this, Chandrakirti holds that for a Buddha, all mind and mental factors (cittacaitta) have ceased. Even though from the point of view of ordinary people, a Buddha seems to teach and engage in activities, from the point of view of a Buddha, no conscious decisions are being made and no cognition occurs.

Critiques of Yogācāra

In his Madhyamakāvatāra, Chandrakirti also offered refutations of a number of Buddhist views such as those of the vijñānavāda ("consciousness doctrine") or yogācāra school. Chandrakirti understood this tradition as positing a kind of subjective idealism. He also critiques the yogācāra denial of an external object (bāhyārtha, bahirartha) of knowledge and the yogācāra theory of ‘self-awareness’ (svasamvedana, svasamvitti). The Madhyamakāvatāra is used as the main sourcebook by most of the Tibetan monastic colleges in their studies of Madhyamaka.

  • Catuúṣataka-ṭika (Commentary on the Four Hundred): a commentary on the Four Hundred Verses of Aryadeva.
  • Yuktiṣaṣṭhika-vṛtii (Commentary on the Sixty Stanzas on Reasoning), a commentary on Nagarjuna's Yuktiṣaṣṭhika.
  • Śūnayatāsaptati-vṛtti (Commentary on the Seventy Stanzas on Emptiness), a commentary on Nagarjuna's Śūnayatāsaptati.
  • Pañcaskandhaprakaraṇa (Discussion on the Five Aggregates).

Later Influence and Commentaries

Only one Indian commentary on Chandrakirti exists, a 12th-century commentary to the Madhyamakāvatāra by the Kashmiri pandit Jayānanda. An earlier Indian author, Prajñakaramati (950–1030) repeadately cites the Madhyamakāvatāra in his commentary on Shantideva's Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra. The work of Atisha (982–1054), particularly his Introduction to the Two Truths (Satyadvayāvatāra), cites Chandrakirti and defends his view which rejects the applicability of valid cognition (pramana) to ultimate truth.

Another late Indian author which seems to have held Chandrakirti's position is Maitrīpadā (<abbr>c.</abbr> 1007–1085) and he is held to be one of the sources of the Kagyu school's Prāsaṅgika lineage. Chandrakirti is also cited in some late Indian Buddhist tantric works, such as the Compendium of Good Sayings, indicating that he may have been influential among Indian tantric authors, especially among the Arya lineage of the Guhyasamaja tantra. The Arya lineage includes the works of tantric authors who go by the names Nagarjuna, Aryadeva and Chandrakirti (the last two can be dated to the 9th or 10th centuries) and who should not be confused with the earlier Madhyamaka philosophers. Later Tibetan authors also began to believe that the tantric figures and the Madhyamaka philosophers were the same persons.

Another critical Indian author who refers to the work of Chandrakirti (and responds to it) is the later Bhāvaviveka or Bhāvaviveka II (author of the Madhyamakārthasaṃgraha and the Madhyamakaratnapradīpa), not to be confused with the first Bhāvaviveka (c. 500 – c. 578) who pre-dates Chandrakirti and authored the Madhyamakahrdaya and the Prajñāpradīpa. According to Ruegg, this might be the same person as the tantric Bhavyakīrti (c. 1000).

The first Tibetan translation of Chandrakirti's Madhyamakāvatāra and its auto-commentary was completed by Naktso Lotsawa, a student of Atisha. Another early Tibetan commentator on Chandrakirti was Patsab Nyima Drag (fl. 12th century), who also translator most of Chandra's major works. The logician Chapa Chökyi Sengé (12th century) is known for discussing the views of Chandrakirti and composing refutations of them in his defense of the epistemological tradition of Dharmakirti. Chandrakirti was categorized by Tibetans as part of the Uma Thelgyur () school, an approach to the interpretation of Madhyamaka philosophy typically back-translated into Sanskrit as Prasaṅgika| or rendered in English as the "Consequentialist" or "Dialecticist" school.

The influence of these early commentators lead to the increased popularity of Chandrakirti in Tibet. Later important Tibetan Buddhist figures like Tsongkhapa, Wangchuk Dorje (the 9th Karmapa) and Jamgon Mipham also wrote commentaries on the Madhyamakāvatāra.

Other Chandrakirtis

The Tibetan translation of Charyapada provided the name of its compiler as Munidatta, that its Sanskrit commentary is Caryāgītikośavṛtti, and that its lotsawa "translator" was Chandrakirti. This is a later Chandrakirti, who assisted in Tibetan translation in the Later Transmission of Buddhism to Tibet.

The author of the Triśaraṇasaptati (Seventy Verses on Taking Refuge) is also called Chandrakirti, but this does not seem to be the same person as the 7th century Chandrakirti. The same is the case with the author of the Madhyamakāvatāra-prajñā.

There is also another figure called Chandrakirti or Chandrakirtipada. This is the author of the Pradīpoddyotana, a commentary on the Guhyasamāja Tantra. As such, he is sometimes called the "tantric Chandrakirti".

See also

  • Buddhapālita
  • Bhāviveka
  • Śāntideva

Notes

References

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  • Dreyfus, Georges B.J.; McClintock, L. Sara (2015). Svatantrika-Prasangika Distinction: What Difference Does a Difference Make? Simon and Schuster.
  • Dunne, John. "Madhyamaka in India and Tibet" in Garfield, Jay; Edelglass, William (2010). The Oxford Handbook of World philosophy. Oxford University Press. .
  • Edelglass, William (2013). "Candrakirti", in A. Sharma (ed.), Encyclopedia of Indian Religions, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-1989-7
  • Gyatso, Kelsang. Ocean of Nectar: The True Nature of All Things, a verse by verse commentary to Chandrakirti's Guide to the Middle Way, Tharpa Publications (1995)
  • Hayes, Richard (2019), "Madhyamaka", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Edward N. Zalta (ed.).
  • Huntington, C. W. (2007), The Emptiness of Emptiness: An Introduction to Early Indian Madhyamaka. Motilal Banarsidass.
  • Jinpa, Thupten (translator); Tsongkhapa (2021) Illuminating the Intent: An Exposition of Candrakirti's Entering the Middle Way. Simon and Schuster.
  • Newland, Guy (2009). Introduction to Emptiness: As Taught in Tsong-kha-pa's Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path. Snow Lion. .
  • Padmakara Translation Group (2005) Introduction to the Middle Way: Chandrakirti's Madhyamakavatara with Commentary by Ju Mipham. Shambhala Publications.
  • Ruegg, David Seyfort (1981). The Literature of the Madhyamaka School of Philosophy in India. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag.
  • Thakchoe, Sonam (2017), "The Theory of Two Truths in India", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Edward N. Zalta (ed.).
  • Vose, Kevin A. (2015) Resurrecting Candrakirti: Disputes in the Tibetan Creation of Prasangika. Simon and Schuster.
  • Geshe Jampa Gyatso - Masters Program Middle Way
  • Joe Wilson. Chandrakirti's Sevenfold Reasoning Meditation on the Selflessness of Persons
  • Candrakiirti's critique of Vijñaanavaada, Robert F. Olson, Philosophy East and West, Volume 24 No. 4, 1977, pp.&nbsp;405–411
  • Candrakiirti's denial of the self, James Duerlinger, Philosophy East and West, Volume 34 No. 3, July 1984, pp.&nbsp;261–272
  • Chandrakiirti's refutation of Buddhist idealism, Peter G. Fenner, Philosophy East and West, Volume 33 No. 3, July 1983, pp.&nbsp;251–261
  • "Philosophical Nonegocentrism in Wittgenstein and Chandrakirti", Robert A. F. Thurman, Philosophy East and West, Volume 30 No. 3, July 1980, pp.&nbsp;321–337