Kamalaśīla’s “Middle Way” (madhyamā pratipad) and His Theory of Spiritual Cultivation: A Study with a Special Focus on the Fourteenth Chapter of the Avikalpapraveśadhāraṇīṭīkā

Abstract

Abstract The “middle wayˮ (madhyamā pratipad) is a concept of great significance in Buddhism. For Mahāyāna philosophers, the concept of the middle way free from the two extremes of superimposition (samāropa) and denial (apavāda) has ontological import. In the history of the development of Mahāyāna thought, we also see a tendency to work out a dimension of the middle way related to yogis’ spiritual cultivation and to combine it with the middle way’s ontological aspect. The eighth-century Mādhyamika thinker Kamalaśīla is one whose theory of the middle way has a close connection with his theory of spiritual cultivation. The purpose of this paper is to explore Kamalaśīla’s view on the relationship between (1) the middle way that lies between the two extremes of superimposition and denial, and (2) his theory of spiritual cultivation. I first clarify Kamalaśīla’s definition of the two extremes of superimposition and denial by examining his Madhyamakāloka and Madhyamakālaṃkārapañjikā. Based on the knowledge thus gained, I then delve into the fourteenth chapter of the Avikalpapraveśadhāraṇīṭīkā, a text where Kamalaśīla clearly reveals his take on the relationship between yogi’s meditative examination and the middle way of the two extremes of superimposition and denial. My conclusion is that for Kamalaśīla, meditative examination from the perspective of Madhyamaka ontology is the means to abandon the two extremes of superimposition and denial. Moreover, the middle way itself consists in the attainment of non-conceptual gnosis (nirvikalpajñāna) and the awareness obtained subsequently to that (pṛṣṭhalabdhajñāna), both of which result from such meditative examination.