Catuḥśataka

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Aryadeva, the author of the Catuḥśataka.

Catuḥśataka (T. bzhi brgya pa; C. Guang Bai lun ben 廣百論本), or Four Hundred Verses, is a treatise by Aryadeva, who was the main disciple of Nagarjuna. This text covers the main teachings of Madhyamaka philosophy in sixteen chapters.

According to Thubten Chodron, this text is both a commentary and supplement to Nagarjuna’s Treatise on the Middle Way (Mūlamadhyamakakārikā).[1] The text devotes much time to illuminate the meaning of Nagarjuna’s assertion that the Middle Way (Madhyamaka) teachings on emptiness present a path that leads to full awakening.[1]

The text also provides in-depth refutations of non-Buddhist tenet systems not addressed in Nagarjuna’s writing, and an in-depth explanation of those parts of the path to awakening associated with conventional truths.[1]

Within the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, this text is counted among the "Thirteen great texts", which form the core of the curriculum in many Nyingma shedras.

In the East Asian Madhyamaka (Salun) school, the text is counted as part of one of the Three Treatises.[2]

Chapters

Chapter titles

The text has 16 chapters.[3][4]

  1. Showing the Method for Rejecting Belief in Permanence (༈ རྟག་པར་འཛིན་པ་སྤང་བའི་ཐབས་)
  2. Showing the Method for Rejecting Belief in Pleasure (བདེ་བར་འཛིན་པ་སྤང་བའི་ཐབས་)
  3. Showing the Method for Rejecting Belief in Purity (གཙང་བར་འཛིན་པ་ཕྱིན་ཅི་ལོག་སྤང་བའི་ཐབས་)
  4. Showing the Method for Rejecting Egotism (བདག་ཏུ་འཛིན་པ་སྤང་བའི་ཐབས་)
  5. Showing the Acts of a Bodhisattva (བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྱོད་པ་)
  6. Showing the Method for Rejecting the Afflictions (ཉོན་མོངས་པ་སྤང་བའི་ཐབས་)
  7. How to Reject Attachment to the Sensual Pleasures People Desire (མེ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་འདོད་པའི་ལོངས་སྤྱོད་ལ་ཞེན་པ་སྤང་བའི་ཐབས་)
  8. The Conduct of the Student (སློབ་མ་ཡོངས་སུ་སྦྱང་བ་)
  9. Showing the Realization of the Refutation of Permanent Things (དངོས་པོ་རྟག་པ་དགག་པ་བསྒོམ་པ་)
  10. Showing the Realization of the Refutation of the Self (བདག་དགག་པ་བསྒོམ་པ་)
  11. Showing the Realization of the Refutation of Permanent Time (དུས་དགག་པ་བསྒོམ་པ་)
  12. Showing the Realization of the Refutation of Speculative Views (ལྟ་བ་དགག་པ་བསྒོམ་པ་)
  13. Showing the Realization of the Refutation of the Sense Faculties and Their Objects (དབང་པོ་དང་དོན་དགག་པ་བསྒོམ་པ་)
  14. Showing the Realization of the Refutation of Belief in Extreme Views (མཐར་འཛིན་པ་དགག་པ་བསྒོམ་པ་)
  15. Showing the Realization of the Refutation of Conditioned Things (འདུས་བྱས་ཀྱི་དོན་དགག་པ་བསྒོམ་པ་)
  16. Showing the Discussion between the Teacher and his Student (སློབ་དཔོན་དང་སློབ་མ་རྣམ་པར་གཏན་ལ་དབབ་པ།)

Chapter descriptions

David Seyfort Ruegg outlines the chapters as follows:

(i—iv) Elimination of the erroneous positing of things as permanent (nitya), pleasant (sukha), pure (asubha or suci), and self (atman) (according to Candrakirti these four chapters which dispel the four viparyasas explain the nature of mundane things so that they may be abandoned and buddhahood may be achieved), (v) The Bodhisattva's practice (which makes it practically possible to achieve Buddhahood). (vi) Elimination of the defilements (klesa) which hinder the preceding, (vii) Elimination of attachment to the enjoyment of seemingly desirable sensory objects (visaya), which causes the defilements to arise and increase. And (viii) the practice of the disciple.

The first eight chapters of the Catuḥśataka are thus concerned with the preparation of those who practise the path.

The last eight chapters then explain the non-substantiality of the dharmas. They deal in turn with the negation (pratisedha) of (ix) permanent entities, (x) self (atman), (xi) time, (xii) dogmatic opinions (drsti), (xiii) sense-faculties and their objects, (xiv) the positing of doctrinal extremes (antagraha, e.g. existence, non-existence, both, and neither) with special reference to identity and difference, and (xv) the positing of conditioned (samskrta) things as real.

Finally chapter xvi, entitled 'An exposition of the cultivation of ascertainment for master and disciple', is devoted to a consideration of logical and epistemological problems in the doctrine of sunyata. In particular, it is pointed out (in conformity with Vigrahavyavartani 29—30) that he who does not maintain a thesis (paksa) based on the positions of existence (sat), non-existence (asat), and both cannot be attacked in logic by an opponent (xvi. 25).[5]

Text

Although the text was originally written in Sanskrit, and later translated into Chinese (the last eight chapters only) and Tibetan, only fragments of the Sanskrit text now remain.[3]

Tibetan text

The Tibetan text can be found in the Tengyur, Toh 3865

Chinese translation

The text was translated into Chinese by Xuanzang in approximately 650 CE.[2]

In the East Asian Madhyamaka (Salun) school, the text is counted as part of one of the Three Treatises.[2] In this context:

[The text] is treated as Āryadeva’s own expansion of his Śataśāstra (C. Bai lun; “One Hundred Treatise”); hence, the Chinese instead translates the title as “Expanded Text on the One Hundred [Verse] Treatise.”[2]

English translations

Commentaries

Indian

Tibetan

Many Tibetan masters wrote commentaries on this text, including: Khenpo Ngawang Palzang, Pöpa Tulku Dongak Tenpé Nyima, Rendawa Zhonnu Lodro, Gyaltsab Darma Rinchen and Khenpo Shenga.[4]

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Aryadeva’s “400 Stanzas on the Middle Way”, thubtenchodron.org
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Buswell & Lopez 2014, s.v. catuḥśataka.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lang 1986
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Four Hundred Verses, Rigpa Shedra Wiki
  5. ↑ Seyfort Ruegg 1981, p. 52.

Sources

External links

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