Mipham's Dialectics and the Debates on Emptiness: To Be, Not to Be or NeitherThis is an introduction to the Buddhist philosophy of Emptiness which explores a number of themes in connection with the concept of Emptiness, a highly technical but very central notion in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism. It examines the critique by the leading Nyingma school philosopher Mipham (1846-1912) formulated in his diverse writings. The book focuses on related issues such as what is negated by the doctrine of emptiness, the nature of ultimate reality, and the difference between 'extrinsic' and 'intrinsic' emptiness. Karma Phuntsho's book aptly undertakes a thematic and selective discussion of these debates and Mipham's qualms about the Gelukpa understanding of Emptiness in a mixture of narrative and analytic style. |
Contents
Introduction | 3 |
a religious issue and the nature of the debates | 10 |
Sources and methodological considerations | 19 |
the primary path | 28 |
the religious goal | 34 |
an outline of the history | 40 |
Debates after Tsongkhapa | 47 |
The delimitation of the negandum | 56 |
Miphams theory of the ultimate reality | 113 |
Is Emptiness knowable and effable? | 162 |
Some concluding remarks | 208 |
Appendix I | 213 |
Appendix II | 215 |
Appendix III | 217 |
Appendix IV | 219 |
Notes | 226 |
Some Gelukpa criticisms of the Ngarabpa position | 66 |
On insertion of the qualifiers | 75 |
On the tetralemma methodology | 91 |
The nuances of inferential arguments | 98 |
On BA IX26 | 107 |
283 | |
297 | |
300 | |
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Mipham's Dialectics and the Debates on Emptiness: To Be, Not to Be or Neither Karma Phuntsho No preview available - 2005 |
Common terms and phrases
absence of hypostatic apprehension argues Buddha Buddhist CandrakTrti chen chos Cittamatra cognition commentary conceptual thought conventional truth conventionally dang debates delineation dependent origination dgag dGongs dngos don dam dzin Dzogchen elaborations Emptiness qua entity Gelukpa gnas gnosis gnyis grasping gSung sgros Gyaltshan gyur gzhan stong Hwashang hypostatic existence Ibid inherent nature Ketaka knowable lack of hypostatic Lam rim Longchenpa ma yin Madhyamika Mahayana meditation Mipham mtha mtshan Nagarjuna negandum negation Ngarabpa Nges shes sgron Ngog nirvana non-conceptual non-existent notational ultimate nyid Nyingma Nyingmapas object ontic ontological phenomena philosophical phyir polemical Prajnaparamita Prasangika qua Emptiness rab gsal Rab Ian reality refutation rgya rGyal rGyan grel rigs rnam rtog Sakya samsara scholars Seyfort Ruegg snang soteriological Sravakas sutras Svatantrika tathagatagarbha tetralemma things Tibet Tibetan tradition Trulku tsam Tsongkhapa ultimate analysis ultimate qua ultimate truth understanding of Emptiness vase verse Yogacara zhes