Madhyāntavibhāga

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Asanga and Maitreya, Tibetan drawing.

Madhyāntavibhāga (T. dbus mtha' rnam 'byed, དབུ་མཐའ་རྣམ་འབྱེད་; C. Bianzhougbian, 辨中邊論頌), known in English as Distinguishing the Middle from Extremes, is a Mahayana treatise that, according to tradition, was presented to Asanga by the bodhisattva Maitreya. In the Tibetan tradition, this text is identified as one of the Five Treatises of Maitreya. It is also counted among the thirteen great texts in the Nyingma tradition.

Mipam Gyatso states:

It is a treatise that correctly "distinguishes" the "extremes" of permanence and annihilation from the "middle"—reality free from extremes.[1]

According to the Princeton Dictionary, this text includes one of the most important Yogacara explanations of the three natures.[2]

Text

Along with Chinese, Tibetan and Mongolian translations, the text survives in a single Sanskrit manuscript discovered in Tibet by the Indian scholar Rahul Sankrityayan. The Sanskrit version also included a commentary by Vasubandhu (Madhyāntavibhāgabhāṣya). An important sub-commentary (tīkā) by Sthiramati also survives in Sanskrit as well as in the Tibetan language.

Sanskrit edition

A Sanskrit edition was prepared by Gadjin M. Nagao in 1964.[3]

Outline of text

The Madhyānta-vibhāga-kārikā consists of 112 verses (kārikā) which delineate the distinctions (vibhāga) and relationship between the middle (madhya) view and the extremes (anta).

The text contains five chapters:

  1. Characteristics (lakṣaṇa),
  2. Obscurations (āvarana),
  3. Reality (tattva),
  4. Cultivation of Antidotes (pratipakṣa-bhāvanā) and the
  5. Supreme Way (yānānuttarya).

Commentaries

Indian commentaries

Tibetan commentaries

There are four Tibetan commentaries of the Madhyāntavibhāga:[4]

Christian Bernert states:

According to our sources, there are only four Tibetan commentaries on the Madhyāntavibhāga. Of those four, only the one by the early Sakya master Pang Lotsāwa Lodrö Tenpa (1276–1342) predates Rongtön’s. Rongtön’s has the advantage of being more concise and clearer than Pang Lotsāwa’s, avoiding long and difficult points of debate. The two later commentaries on the Madhyāntavibhāga are fairly recent. One is by Ju Mipham (1846–1912), one of the most prolific authors of the Nyingma school, who revived the approach uniting the views of Yogācāra and Madhyamaka. He often follows Rongtön in his exposition of this text. The other is a brief “annotation commentary” by Khenpo Shenga (1871–1927), a widely respected master from the Nyingma tradition, famous for having penned commentaries for “the thirteen great Indian treatises” (gzhung chen bcu gsum).49 The scarcity of commentaries is attributed to the fact that of the two main Mahayana schools, Yogācāra received less attention than the Madhyamaka school, for historical reasons.[4]

English translations

English translations of the Madhyāntavibhāga-kārikā include:

  • Stcherbatsky, Th. (1936), Mathyanta-Vibhanga, "Discource on Discrimination between Middle and Extremes" ascribed to Bodhisattva Maitreya and commented by Vasubandhu and Sthiramathi, translated from the Sanskrit by Theodore Stcherbatsky, Bibliotheca Buddhica XXX, Academy of Sciences USSR Press, Moscow/Leningrad.
  • Friedmann, David Lasar (1937). Madhyāntavibhāga-ṭikā: An Analysis of the Middle Path and the Extremes by David Lasar Friedmann. Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden.
  • Kochumuttom, Thomas (1982). A Buddhist Doctrine of Experience: A New Translation and Interpretation of the Works of Vasubandhu the Yogacarin by Thomas Kochumuttom. Motilal Banarsidass.
  • Anacker, Stefan (1984). Seven Works of Vasubandhu Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi:
  • The Principles of Buddhist Psychology by David J. Kalupahana. State University of New York Press. Albany.
  • Stanley, Richard (1988). A Study of the Madhyāntavibhāga-bhāṣya-ṭikā. Doctoral dissertation, Australian National University, April.
  • Wood, Thomas E. (1991). Mind Only: A Philosophical and Doctrinal Analysis of the Vijnanavada. University of Hawaii Press.
  • Thrangu Rinpoche (2000). Distinguishing the Middle from the Extremes. The root text by Maitreya and a Commentary by The Venerable Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche. Namo Buddha Publications.
  • Dharmachakra Translation Committee (2001). Middle Beyond Extremes: Maitreya's Madhyantavibhaga with Commentaries by Khenpo Shenga and Ju Mipham. Snow Lion Publications.
  • D'Amato, Mario ( 2012). Maitreya's Distinguishing the Middle from the Extremes (Madhyāntavibhāga): Along with Vasubandhu's Commentary (Madhyāntavibhāga-Bhāṣya): A Study and Annotated Translation. New York, American Institute of Buddhist Studies.
  • Dunne, John D. (Unpublished). Distinguishing the Middle and the Extremes by Asaṅga, Commentary by Vasubandhu: Draft Translation with brief annotations.

Notes

  1. ↑ Dharmachakra Translation Committee, Middle Beyond Extremes: Maitreya's Madhyantavibhaga with Commentaries by Khenpo Shenga and Ju Mipham (Snow Lion Publications, 2007), 22
  2. ↑ Robert E. Buswell Jr., Donald S. Lopez Jr., The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (Princeton: 2014), s.v. Madhyāntavibhāga
  3. ↑ Gadjin M. Nagao (ed.), Madhyantavibhaga-bhasya, A Buddhist Philosophical Treatise Edited for the First Time from a Sanskrit Manuscript (Tokyo: Suzuki Research Foundation, 1964).
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Adorning Maitreya's Intent: Arriving at the View of Nonduality, translated by Christian Bernert (Snow Lion, 2017).

External links

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