Retrieving "Madhyamaka" from the archives
Cross-reference notes under review
While the archivists retrieve your requested volume, browse these clippings from nearby entries.
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Abhidharma
Linked via "Mādhyamaka"
Mādhyamaka Critique
The Mādhyamaka school, founded by Nāgārjuna, subjected the entire Abhidharma project—both Sarvāstivāda and Yogācāra systems—to rigorous deconstruction. Mādhyamaka argued that if dharmas are momentary and lack intrinsic reality (svabhāva), then they cannot coherently interact or condition subsequent moments. If they possess svabhāva, then they cannot be impermanent. Therefore, Mādhyamaka concludes that the ultimate reality is emptiness (śūnyatā), which is beyond the dualistic classification inherent in the Abhidharma… -
Buddha Nature
Linked via "Mādhyamaka"
Madhyamaka and Yogācāra Synthesis
In India, the doctrine often served as a bridge between the emptiness (śūnyatā) emphasized by the Mādhyamaka school and the mind-only (cittamatra) assertions of the Yogācāra school. Where Mādhyamaka stressed the ultimate lack of inherent existence, the Tathāgatagarbha texts asserted the presence of the ultimate principle (Buddhahood) as inherent potentiality 3. This provided a foundation for viewing enlightenment not as the ultimate annihilation of being (as misinterpreted by some… -
Chinese Buddhism
Linked via "Madhyamaka"
Doctrinal Synthesis and Indigenous Schools
While early Chinese Buddhism was dominated by the study of imported Indian schools (such as Sarvāstivāda and Madhyamaka via the Sanlun school), the ultimate trajectory involved the creation of schools based on uniquely Chinese textual foundations and interpretive methods.
The Tiantai School -
Kumarajiva
Linked via "Mādhyamaka"
Kumārajīva (c. 344–413 CE), also known by the Pāli rendering Kumārajīva, was a Central Asian Buddhist scholar, missionary, and translator whose work profoundly shaped the development of Mahāyāna Buddhism in China. Born in Kucha (modern Xinjiang), he is renowned for his mastery of the Mādhyamaka school of Madhyamaka philosophy and for producing exceptionally elegant and influential Chinese versions of several key sūtras. His t…