Candrakīrti's Āgama: A Study of the Concept and Uses of Scripture in Classical Indian Buddhism

320 Pages·2012·3.53 MB·English

by  Shenghai Li

Candrakīrti’s Āgama: A Study of the Concept and Uses of
Scripture in Classical Indian Buddhism

by
Shenghai Li

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy
(Languages and Cultures of Asia)

at the
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
2012

Date of final oral examination: 5/14/12

The dissertation is approved by the following members of the Final Oral Committee:
Donald R. Davis Jr., Associate Professor, Languages and Cultures of Asia
Charles Hallisey, Senior Lecturer, Harvard Divinity School, Harvard University
Anne R. Hansen, Associate Professor, Languages and Cultures of Asia
Gudrun Bühnemann, Professor, Languages and Cultures of Asia
Anna M. Gade, Associate Professor, Languages and Cultures of Asia
i

For my mother
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The research of this dissertation took place in India, and it was generously
supported by a Fulbright Fellowship. A University Dissertator Fellowship granted by my
home institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison, funded a critical stage of the writing
process. The financial support provided by these two institutions has contributed
materially to the completion of the work presented here. The genesis of this dissertation
can be traced back to my work as a research assistant for Professors John Dunne and Sara
McClintock, the chief responsibility of which was to search for the sources of citations in
Candrakīrti’s oeuvre, Prasannapadā. The project gradually transformed itself as I worked
in close consultation with my mentor Dr. Charles Hallisey, who guided me throughout all
its stages. His good counsels are ultimately to be credited for the orientation of this study.
I am grateful to his perfect demonstration of kalyāṇamitratva.
While I conducted my research in India, Central Institute of Higher Tibetan
Studies in Sarnath, Uttar Pradesh provided me with institutional support. Professor Ram
Shankar Tripathi read with me the first chapter of the Prasannapadā as well as selected
samples of śāstras and commentaries from the wider scholastic Sanskrit Buddhist
literature. Geshe Phun tshogs Don grub gave me the permission to audit a Tibetan course,
during which he taught five chapters of the Prasannapadā. Geshe Ye shes Thabs mkhas,
my academic adviser at CIHTS, provided both his guidance and instructions during my
stay in Sarnarth. At the Byes College of the Se ra Monastery, two Tibetan scholars
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supported my study of the Madhyamaka literature in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. In
his dbu ma classes, Geshe Ngag dbang Sangs rgyas supplied his commentary on Tsong
kha pa’s and Rje btsun Chos kyi rgyal mtshan’s interpretations of Candrakīrti’s
Madhyamakāvatāra. Khangser Tulku discussed with me a section of the Prasannapadā.
Professor H. V. Nagaraja Rao of the University of Mysore guided my reading of the
śabdapramāṇa section of the Tattvasaṃgraha in Sanskrit along with the pañjikā. I also
wish to thank the following individuals and institutions for their support for my research
and my study of the wider Buddhist and Sanskrit literature: Professor Prabhakara Sastry,
Geshe Blo bzang Chos ‘phel, venerable Blo bzang Thabs mkhas, venerable ‘Jam dpal
Mkhyen brtse, Professor Gangadhara Bhatt, Geshe Dbang ‘dus, Professor Shrikant
Bahulkar, Professor Narayana Mishra, the Bangalore branch of Samskrita Bharati, and
the Maharaja Sanskrit College of Mysore.
Back in Wisconsin, my adviser Dr. Donald Davis guided me in the writing of the
dissertation. His suggestions helped me refine the theoretical approach and develop the
argument, and his critiques and comments contributed to the improvement of the quality
of this dissertation and the envisioning of its relevance to the larger academic community.
Dr. Anna Gade supported my development as an instructor and helped me learn to
become a better scholar by way of teaching. Dr. Anne Hansen, another talented teacher,
offered her encouragements and experience in the dark period of my dissertation writing.
I am indebted to Dr. Gudrun Bühnemann for the Sanskrit education that I acquired, which
has contributed so much to my research, and I thank her for her continued support.
My father Li Decheng supported me in many ways as he endured with me the
uncertainties of the long process of my graduate education. I thank Ziggy for sharing with
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me the difficulties and joys of the research and writing process. The impetus and
encouragement that she provided have been instrumental in bringing this project to its
completion. Before she passed away three years ago, my mother Zhao Manjun nurtured
me with the most wonderful maternal love and affection, and she always tried her best to
learn about my work, no matter how obscure the subject might be. I dedicate this
dissertation to her and share with her all the good things that come out of it.
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Abstract

This dissertation examines scripture as a concept and the various roles that
authoritative Buddhist texts play as such in the intellectual history of Buddhism. While it
considers what Buddhist authors explicitly speak about scripture, the project brings into
focus the recorded uses of authoritative texts, with an interest in discovering intellectual
practices and learning about the management and transmission of knowledge. The main
source materials of this study consist of instances of scriptural references found in the
scholastic and commentarial works of several influential Indian and Tibetan authors, all
of whom are connected with the pivotal figure of Candrakīrti (ca. 570-640), whose major
writings lie at the center of the investigation. The deployment of scripture rests upon a
commentary-scripture dichotomy between scholastic literature and the texts that it
accepts as authoritative. However, a close examination also reveals the complexity of the
relationship, illustrated by the changing scope of scripture, the authority that commentary
enjoys in the matter of interpretation, and the creation of practical canons of scriptures
and passages through the scholastic traditions’ selective usage of the scriptural sources
that they regard as most relevant.
Emphasizing the acts of using scripture, the dissertation argues that hermeneutics
occupies a central place in Buddhist scholastic practices. In so doing, it explores two
specific aspects of engagement with scripture: scriptural citation, a particularly visible
albeit largely neglected feature of Buddhist scholastic texts, and the element of exegesis
that is incorporated into the development of new philosophical systems. In the latter case,
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the embedding of literary patterns of scripture in the design of epistemological categories
and metaphysical arguments demonstrate that the exegetical mode of thinking plays a
significant role in the moments of innovation and ingenuity as well. Buddhist authors
themselves indeed acknowledge both scripture and reason as the basic tools of their
scholastic enterprise. Highlighting a keen awareness of the problem of reifying reason
displayed by certain Buddhist writers from the Madhyamaka School of thought, the
dissertation argues more specifically that the Buddhist scholastic tradition is cognizant of
the hermeneutical condition of understanding and of reason’s contingency upon language,
context, and tradition.
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CONTENTS

DEDICATION...............................................................................................................................................i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.........................................................................................................................ii
ABSTRACT..................................................................................................................................................v
CONTENTS................................................................................................................................................vii
CHAPTER ONE: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF BUDDHIST TEXTS AS
SCRIPTURE.................................................................................................................................................1
1.1 SCRIPTURE AS A THEORETICAL CATEGORY...........................................................................................2
1.2 THE PLURALITY OF CANONS AND THE OPEN-ENDEDNESS OF SCRIPTURES..........................................14
1.3 HERMENEUTICS, PRACTICAL CANON, AND THE STUDY OF TEXTUAL PRACTICES................................27
1.4 A SUMMARY OF THE SURVEY OF THEORETICAL MODELS...................................................................32
1.5 CANDRAKĪRTI AND THE SOURCE MATERIALS OF THIS STUDY.............................................................33
1.6 THE ARGUMENT AND A PLAN FOR THE CHAPTERS..............................................................................39
CHAPTER TWO: NOTIONS OF SCRIPTURE AND THE FUNCTION OF EXEGESIS AS
SCRIPTURE IN INDIAN BUDDHIST SCHOLASTICISM..................................................................42
2.1 SEARCHING FOR BUDDHIST TERMS FOR SCRIPTURE............................................................................46
2.2 THE MANY FACETS OF ĀGAMA AS A TERM AND A CONCEPT: EVIDENCE FROM THE WORK OF
CANDRAKĪRTI...........................................................................................................................................50
2.3 THE SELECTIVE USE AND THE EXPANDING SCOPE OF ĀGAMA............................................................58
2.4 CONCEIVING A CONCEPT OF THE CONCEPTUAL AND CONSTRUCTING A BUDDHIST EPISTEMOLOGY: ON
THE USES OF ABHIDHARMA......................................................................................................................71
2.5 SCRIPTURE AS THE WORD OF THE BUDDHA.........................................................................................91
2.6 REFLECTIONS......................................................................................................................................95
CHAPTER THREE: ŚĀSTRAS AS A TEXTUAL CATEGORY AND ITS HERMENEUTICAL
DIMENSION..............................................................................................................................................98
3.1 THE RISE OF BUDDHIST ŚĀSTRA..........................................................................................................99
3.2 THE CHANGING SCOPE OF ĀGAMA AND THE GROWING AUTHORITY OF ŚĀSTRA FROM THE
PERSPECTIVE OF A LATER AGE...............................................................................................................110
3.3 THE USE OF SŪTRAS AND THE USE OF ŚĀSTRAS: THE CASE OF CANDRAKĪRTI..................................124
3.4 ARTICULATING THE TRANSCENDENCE OF ŚĀSTRA............................................................................138
3.5 WHAT IS ŚĀSTRA: PLACING THE BUDDHIST ŚĀSTRAS IN THE LARGER INDIAN CONTEXT.................151
3.6 CONCLUSION.....................................................................................................................................162
CHAPTER FOUR: ENCOMPASSING AND SUPERCEDING: ON THE USES OF NIKĀYA
BUDDHIST SCRIPTURES IN MADHYAMAKA THOUGHT..........................................................164
4.1 ON THE MĀDHYAMIKA TRANSFORMATION OF SEMINAL NIKĀYA BUDDHIST CONCEPTS: MADHYAMĀ
PRATIPAD, PRATĪTYASAMUTPĀDA, AND THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR KĀTYĀYANA......................................171
viii
4.2 THE POLEMICAL CONTEXT OF MADHYAMAKA ARUGMENTATION AND THE QUESTION OF SCRIPTURAL
HERMENEUTICS.......................................................................................................................................183
4.3 INTERPRETING NIKĀYA BUDDHIST TEXTS IN SUPPORT OF MADHYAMAKA POSITIONS......................192
4.4 INCORPORATING A SCRIPTURAL PASSAGE INTO AN ARGUMENT........................................................198
4.5 A REFLECTION ON THE USES OF NIKĀYA BUDDHIST TEXTS IN A LATER AGE...................................204
4.6 SUMMARY.........................................................................................................................................212
CHAPTER FIVE: THE ROLE OF SCRIPTURE IN THE FORMULATION OF MADHYAMAKA
ARGUMENTS AND THE ARTICULATION OF REASON...............................................................215
5.1 NIKĀYA BUDDHIST SCRIPTURES AS A POSSIBLE SOURCE OF MADHYAMAKA THOUGHT...................219
5.2 THE CATUṢKOṬI AS A DEVICE OF MADHYAMAKA ARGUMENTATION AND THE QUESTION OF THE
SOURCE OF ITS LOGICAL STRUCTURE.....................................................................................................223
5.3 THE ARGUMENT AGAINST THE FOUR ALTERNATIVE MODES OF CAUSATION....................................230
5.4 THE SOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE ARGUMENT THAT NEGATES A PERSONAL SELF..............245
5.4.1 Candrakīrti’s Sevenfold Analysis and Nāgārjuna’s Fivefold Argument....................................245
5.4.2 The Scriptural Source of Nāgārjuna’s Fivefold Argument........................................................248
5.4.3 The Evidence from the Ratnāvalī and Suhṛllekha......................................................................251
5.4.4 A Question Concerning the Form of the Madhyamaka Arguments and Variation in Nikāya
Literary Sources.................................................................................................................................253
5.4.5 The Lesser Known Passages in the Āgamas and Nikāyas.........................................................258
5.4.6 From the Literary Passages of Nikāya Buddhist Texts to Madhyamaka Reasoning.................265
5.5 ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SCRIPTURE AND REASON..............................................................270
5.6 REFLECTIONS....................................................................................................................................275
CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................................279
ABBREVIATIONS...................................................................................................................................286
BIBLIOGRAPHY....................................................................................................................................288
1

Chapter One
An Introduction to the Study of Buddhist Texts as Scripture

na hi kiṃcid apūrvam atra vācyaṃ
There is indeed nothing novel to be spoken here.
Bodhicāryāvatāra I 2a

The eighth-century Buddhist writer Śāntideva wrote this line in the second stanza
of his classical treatise on Mahāyāna Buddhism, expressing an idea that a contemporary
reader would find very alien. Just before this line, Śāntideva sheds more light on the point
by saying that he treats his subject yathāgamaṃ, “according to scripture,” and samāsāt,
“by way of a summary.”1 Prajñākaramati’s commentary on these two phrases reveals a
tension between the binding force of scripture and a writer’s freedom and creativity,
which is framed in the idiom of an Indian commentarial tradition. The phrase, “according
to scripture,” Prajñākaramati explains, addresses the tradition’s reservation about an
author’s expression of the views that are independent from scripture; the second phrase,

1 Bodhicāryāvatāra I 1d. P. L. Vaidya, ed., Bodhicāryāvatāra of Śāntideva with the Commentary Pañjikā of
Prajñākaramati, second edition edited by Dr. Sridhar Tripathi (Darbhanga: Mithila Institute of Post-
graduate Studies and Research in Sanskrit Learning, 1988), 1.