The correlation of the concepts of Madhyamaka and Yogācāra in Nāgārjuna’s “Bodhicittavivarana”

Abstract

Nāgārjuna — the founder of Mahayana school Madhyamaka — is also a well-known logician, polemist and the author of several famous treatises, such as “Bodhicittavivarana” (“Commentary on Bodhicitta”). This commentary is one of the most cited in Indian philosophical literature, and, notwithstanding it’s dubious origin, belongs to the authorship of Nāgārjuna. The main feature of this text is the description of the concepts of Madhyamaka and Yogācāra, which elaborate each other and not differs. The basic concept of Madhyamaka — “çūnyatā” (“the emptiness”) is expanded through the other important category “bodhicitta” (“the attainment of Enlightenment”). The differences between the phenomenal truth (“samvrtti”) and the ignorance (“avidyā”), Nāgārjuna’s analysis of Sarvastivāda and Yogācāra as the schools, representing only the phenomenal truth and Yogācāra’s argumentation, substantiating the existence of the “only-consciousness” are analyzed on the base of “Bodhicittavivarana”. Nāgārjuna’s argument is considered, based on the impossibility of implication between permanent and non-permanent objects. It is shown that the “three natures” of Yogācāra, as Nāgārjuna proves, cannot be graded, as they have one nature — the nature of çūnyatā. This text using the methodology of Madhyamaka is an example of the most follow-up un-contradictory unification of the concepts of various Buddhist schools (as well as Yogācāra). The author’s translation of “Bodhicittavivarana” from Sanskrit and Tibetan is given in attachment.

Keywords:

buddhism, sarvastivāda, madhyamaka, yogācāra, bodhicitta, Nāgārjuna, Bodhicittavivarana