Abstract
Śāntarakṣita (c. 725–788) is known for his synthesis of Nāgārjuna’s Madhyamaka with elements of the Dignāga-Dharmakīrti tradition of logic and epistemology. His two most important independent treatises, the Compendium of True Principles (Tattvasaṃgraha) and the Ornament of the Middle Way (Madhyamakālaṃkāra), are characterized by an emphasis on the indispensable role of rational analysis on the Buddhist path as well as serious and systematic engagement with competing Buddhist and non-Buddhist schools of thought. Śāntarakṣita employs a pedagogical-rhetorical device of provisionally adopting what he deems successively more rational views to reject less rational ones. Using this approach, in the Ornament of the Middle Way, he recommends a gradual path to arrive at an understanding of the Madhyamaka ultimate truth (paramārthasatya) by incorporating Yogācāra idealist ontology into his presentation of conventional truth (saṃvṛtisatya). In this same text, he presents an influential iteration of the neither-one-nor-many argument (ekānekaviyogahetu) for the Madhyamaka ultimate truth, viz. the universal emptiness of intrinsic nature (svabhāvaśūnyatā), leaving a lasting and significant impact on both Indian and Tibetan Madhyamaka Buddhist philosophy.
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