Kamalashila
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Kamalashila (Skt. Kamalaśīla; Tib. པདྨའི་ངང་ཚུལ་, Pemé Ngang Tsul; Wyl. pad+ma'i ngang tshul) (c. 740-795) was a disciple of Shantarakshita and an abbot of the Indian monastic university of Nalanda. He traveled to Tibet with Śāntarakṣita at the invitation of the Tibetan king Trisong Detsen.
According to the Tibetan tradtion, Kamalashila defeated the Chinese master Moheyan in the great debate at Samyé, which took place around 792 AD, thereby ensuring that the Tibetans followed the Indian tradition of Madhyamika which had flourished at the great Nalanda Monastery. He died in Tibet in around 795.[1]
He is considered one of the most important Madhyamaka authors of late Indian Buddhism although little is known about his life aside from details left in Tibetan sources. Tibetan sources refer to him, Santaraksita and Jñānagarbha as rang rgyud shar gsum meaning the “three eastern Svātantrikas” indicating their origins from Eastern India.[2][3]
Lineage
Dargyay, et al. (1977, 1998: p. 7) convey a lineage of transmission from India to Tibet:
- The Indian pandits, represented mainly by Śāntarakṣita, Kamalaśīla, and his disciple Ye-śes-dbang-po, form a known group. These scholars were all defenders of the Madhyamaka school, which is based upon Nāgārjuna's teachings. First of all, however, they taught the ten rules of behaviour of the Buddhist ethics (śīla) and a summary of the teachings according to the canonic Sūtras of the Mahāyāna, as well as the virtuous works of the six pāramitās. These exercises are supposed to lead, in a long seemingly endless way, to the gradual ascent to the acquisition of higher intellectual abilities finally culminating in Buddhahood. This trend was intensified after the debate of bSam-yas had taken place in the years 792 to 794; the exact outcome of this debate is still debatable.[4]
Debate of Samye
in 793 Trisong Detsen resolved that Moheyan did not hold the true dharma. Following intense protests from Moheyan's supporters, Trisong Detsen proposed to settle the matter by sponsoring a debate, the "Council of Lhasa", although it may actually have taken place at Samye, a considerable distance from Lhasa. Kamalaśila was invited to represent Vajrayana while Moheyan represented the East Mountain Teaching of Chan Buddhism. Most Tibetan sources state that the debate was decided in Kamasila's favour (though many Chinese sources claim Moheyan won)[5] and Moheyan was required to leave the country and that all sudden-enlightenment texts were gathered and destroyed by royal decree. This was a pivotal event in the history of Tibetan Buddhism, which would afterward continue to follow the late Indian model with only minor influence from China.[6] Moheyan's teachings were a mixture of the East Mountain Teachings[note 1] associated with Yuquan Shenxiu and with the teachings of Baotang Wuzhu.[7]
Works
Stages of Meditation (bhāvanākrama)
Kamalaśīla is renowned for writing three texts, all called Bhāvanākrama (Stages of Meditation), which summarize and build upon aspects of the Yogacara tradition of Asanga, particularly as pertaining to aspects of meditation practice and mental cultivation (bhavana).[8] The first volume was translated into Classic Chinese.[9]
Commentary on Madhyamālaṃkāra
(Sanskrit: Madhyamālaṃkāra-panjika, Wylie: dbu ma rgyan gyi dka' 'grel)
Commentary on Difficult Points (Sanskrit: Madhyamālaṃkāra-panjika, Wylie: dbu ma rgyan gyi dka' 'grel) by Kamalaśīla
Bibliography
- Kamalaśīla; Kiyotaka Goshima (1983). The Tibetan Text of the Second Bhāvanākrama. Goshima Kiyotaka.
- Kamalaśīla (1997). Bhāvanākramaḥ: Tibetan version, Sanskrit restoration and Hindi translation. Central Inst. of Higher Tibetan studies.
- Kamalaśīla (1997). Bhāvanākrama of Kamalaśila: Transl. Into English by Parmananda Sharma. Aditya Prakashan. ISBN 978-81-86471-15-9.
- Kamalaśīla (1998). The Stages of Meditation: Bhāvanākrama II. Middle volume. Translated by Geshe Lhundup Sopa; Elvin W. Jones; John Newman. Deer Park Books.
- Shūki Yoshimura (1953). Tibetan Buddhistology: Introductory notes: Bhāvanākrama. Research Society for the Eastern Sacred Books, Ryukoku University.
- Kamalaśīla (2007). Kamalashila: The Stages of Meditation, Bhavanakrama II (online text). Dharma Teachings Project.
Notes
- ↑ Chinese: 東山法門 tung-shan fa-men; given the appellation of "Northern School" Chan by Shenhui (670–762)
References
- ↑ Seyfort Ruegg, Literature, p. 94
- ↑ Robert E. Buswell Jr., Donald S. Lopez Jr., The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (Princeton: 2014), s.v. Kamalaśīla
- ↑ Woo, Jeson (2005). "KAMALAŚĪLA ON "YOGIPRATYAKṢA"". Indo-Iranian Journal. 48 (1/2): 111–121. doi:10.1007/s10783-005-8905-6
. JSTOR 24664089.
- ↑ Dargyay, Eva M. (author) & Wayman, Alex (editor) (1977, 1998). The Rise of Esoteric Buddhism in Tibet. Second revised edition, reprint. Delhi, India: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Pvt Ltd. Buddhist Tradition Series Vol. 32. ISBN 81-208-1579-3 (paper), p.7
- ↑ Powers 2004, pp. 38–44
- ↑ Yamaguchi 1997.
- ↑ Hanson-Barber 1985.
- ↑ Adam, Martin T. (2003). Meditation and the concept of insight in Kamalaśīla's Bhāvanākramas, Montreal: McGill Univ., Dissertation (includes translations)
- ↑ 廣釋菩提心論 Archived 8 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
Sources
- Hanson-Barber, A. W. (1985), "'No-Thought' in Pao-T'ang Ch'an and Early Ati-Yoga", Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, 8 (2): 61–73
- Tucci, G. and Heissig, W. (1970). Die Religionen Tibets und der Mongolei. Stuttgart.
- Yamaguchi, Zuihō (1997), The Core Elements of Indian Buddhism Introduced into Tibet'. In: Jamie Hubbard and Paul L. Swanson (ed.), Pruning the Bodhi Tree: The Storm over Critical Buddhism, Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, ISBN 978-0-8248-1949-1
External links
Kamalaśīla, Tsadra Commons
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