Atiśa

Abstract

The famous eleventh-century Bengali Atiśa (982–1054) was a master of Madhyamaka (Middle Way thought and practice) who upheld a lineage based on Nāgārjuna and Candrakīrti that descended down to Atiśa’s direct teachers Bodhibhadra and Avadhūtipa. Atiśa’s lineage of the Middle Way of Nāgārjuna was contemplative in nature and did not utilize epistemological warrants (pramāṇa) to realize ultimate reality. Atiśa’s Middle Way synthesized the teachings of Bhāviveka and Candrakīrti, bringing together compatible elements of their teachings for soteriological efficacy in progression on the path. Atiśa outlined an undifferentiated Madhyamaka tradition that advocated the use of consequences (prasaṅga) that exposed contradictions in others’ assertions and employed other-acknowledged inferences to gain insight. Atiśa offers the modern reader a rare glimpse into an integrated Indian Buddhist Middle Way philosophy composed of a nominalism of “mere appearances” (snang ba tsam) in which both objects and cognitions are dependently designated and are therefore mere imputations (prajñāptimatra). Atiśa advocated a mentalist theory of Madhyamaka in which the mind, as mere appearance, is not established as independently real and is a mere nominal designation free from the extremes of existence and nonexistence. Atiśa referred to his middle way of mere appearance as the “Great Middle Way.” In its overall orientation, Atiśa’s Middle Way outlines a program of meditative cultivation that results in a nondual awakening whereby all conceptual thought has been eliminated and not even nonconceptual wisdom exists in Buddhahood.