Opening the Wisdom Door of the Madhyamaka School

In this third year of our continuing investigation of Buddhist philosophy, we begin our study of Madhyamaka, the Middle Way school. Madhyamaka is a direct teaching on the essential nature, free from all extremes. It can be divided into two categories: true reality Madhyamaka and word Madhyamaka. True reality Madhyamaka is the absolute, inexpressible nature-the Mother of all the Victorious Ones; word Madhyamaka describes this absolute nature. The practice of true reality Madhyamaka is divided into ground, path and fruit, whereas word Madhyamaka is divided into teachings and commentaries. The commentarial tradition is characterized by Prasangika and Svatantrika Madhyamaka, and Svatantrika itself includes the Sautrantika and Yogachara Madhyamaka schools. In this book, the Venerable Khenpo Rinpoches use Shantarakshita's famous Madhyamakalankara (The Ornament of the Middle Way) and commentaries by Longchenpa and Mipham Rinpoche to explore Yogachara Madhyamaka. This tradition is generally associated with the "three great masters of the east": Jnanagarbha, Shantarakshita, and Kamalashila.