The Madhyamaka Buddhist philosopher Nāgārjuna (2nd c. CE) is best known for his works on emptiness in which he advances a program for the relinquishing of all philosophical views (dṛṣṭi) in light of the impossibility of establishing the true existence of any kind of entity. At the same time, he is famous also for his theory of two truths, according to which conventional or transactional language is both a legitimate and a necessary factor on the path to the ultimate abandonment of views. Although more than 100 works are ascribed to Nāgārjuna in the Tibetan canon, none is specifically dedicated to an exploration of conventional or transactional truth. So it is of great interest to find that two eighth-century Madhyamaka thinkers, Śāntarakṣita and Kamalaśīla, have in their writings preserved and commented on six verses from a treatise they ascribe to Nāgārjuna entitled Establishing the Transactional (Tha snyad grub pa = *Vyavahārasiddhi). The present article provides a translation of the six verses from the Tibetan (the Sanskrit of all these writings is lost) along with a translation for the first time in English of Śāntarakṣita’s commentary and Kamalaśīla’s subcommentary upon the verses. The multi-part translation is framed by a consideration of the nature and role of philosophical views in relation to Nāgārjuna’s other writings, based on a reading of these few tantalizing verses from an apparently lost text, the commentaries of Śāntarakṣita and Kamalaśīla, and the theories of contemporary Madhyamaka scholars.
目次
Abstract 319 Nāgārjuna’s Philosophy of Emptiness 320 Śāntarakṣita and Kamalaśīla’s Developed Madhyamaka 324 Introduction to the Translation 327 Translation, Part One: Śāntarakṣita’s Ornament of the Middle 65–66, with his own Commentary 330 Translation, Part Two: Kamalaśīla’s Extensive Commentary on the Above 331 Camouflagic Reflections on Establishing the Transactional 336 References 340
