ba 'i khyad par.

Ye shes sde was a famous translator and scholar work

ing towards the end of the first phase of propagation (around 800 AD) .
Later, during the second propagation, these two Madhyamaka positions
were subsumed under Svatantrika within the division into Svatantrika
199
and Pras ailgika.
In eleventh century India we then had something similar to the Svatan
trika/Prasailgika divide, namely Maitripa' s division of Madhyamaka
into Mayopamadvayavada and Aprati�thanavada. This classification of
Madhyamaka is also found in the *Paramiirthabodhicittabhiivaniikrama
as crib ed to a certain Asvagho�a or S ura, Candraharipada ' s Ratnamii
la, 200 and as Almogi (2010: 1 37) observes , in Jfianavajra ' s *Tattvamii
rgadar§ana. Almogi also identified a passage in Ati§a ' s Bka ' gdams bu
chos in which our two tenets are called "Madhyamaka in which [phe
nomena] are mere appearance" (snang ba tsam gyi dbu ma) and "Ma
dhyamaka of Aprati�thana" (in the sense that the dharmatii of phenom
ena has never abided) .
The understanding of Mayopamadvaya and Aprati�thana in India was in
no way homogeneous, but one could say that the former positively de
termines the nature of phenomena as illusion-like, while the latter re
jects such attempts , not taking a position about the ultimate at all. 20 1 A
number of Tibetan master, such as bCom ldan rig pa ' i ral gri ( 1 227-
1305), sTag tshang Lo tsa ba, mKhas grub rje ( 1 385- 1438) and ' Ju Mi
pham rnam rgyal rgya mtsho ( 1 846- 1 9 1 2) thus equated Mayopa
madvaya to Svatantrika, and Aprati�thana to Prasailgika. Klong chen pa
(1 308- 1 3 64), on the other hand, subsumed both under Svatantrika. 202 In
her study on Rong zom Chos kyi bzang po ' s conception of Buddha
hood, Almogi comes to the conclusion, that Rong zom pa endorses
Aprati�thanavada in taking the stage of a Buddha as being the purified
dharmadhiitu only. Conceptions of Buddhahood which include constit
uents other than the purified dharmadhiitu are Mayopamadvayavada as
1 99 Seyfort Ruegg 1 9 8 1 :59.
200 Seyfort Ruegg 2000: 34 (according to Almogi 20 10: 1 37).
20 1 Almogi 20 10: 1 8 3 .
202 Almogi 20 10: 170.80
THE AMANASIKARA CYCLE
2 3
they include elements of Yogacara-Madhyamaka. 0 rNgog Blo ldan
shes rab ( 1 059- 1 1 09) and Tsong kha pa ( 1 357- 1 4 1 9) rejected Mayo
pamadvaya and Aprati�thana as inappropriate descriptions of the two
branches of Madhyamaka. 204
The term "non-abiding" (aprati�thana) is attested early on, however, in
such texts as the Saptasatika Prajnaparamita, where it is equated with
meditation on the perfection of insight:
The illustrious one asked: "When you, MafijusrI, cultivate (i.e.,
meditate on) the perfection of insight, on what do you rely?"
MafijusrI answered: "Illustrious one, when I cultivate the per
fection of insight, I do this without being fixed [on anything] . "
The illustrious one asked: "MafijusrI, what is the cultivation of
the perfection of insight for you who are not fixed [on any
thing] ?" MafijusrI answered: "Illustrious one, this precisely is
the cultivation of the perfection of insight, i.e . , the non-abiding
in anything. "205
Maitrip a ' s disciple Ramapala quotes this passage in his commentary on
the Sekanirde§a (SN 36) in order to illustrate the close relation between
aprati�thana and the mahamudra practice of amanasikara. As we will
see in the Amanasikaradhara, this does also involve self-empowerment
within, or realization of, luminous emptiness. In his commentary on the
Tattvada§aka, Maitripa's disciple *Sahajavajra explains luminosity as
self-awareness.
As a preparation for such a direct insight it is essential not to fabricate
any superimposition or wrong denial, and it is in this context that Mai-
2 03 Almogi 2009 :4 1 .
2 04 Seyfort Ruegg 198 1 :59.
2 05 SNP 197 _ 1 : tad uktaY(l sapta§atikayam - bhagavan aha I yasmin samaye tvaY(l
ma
8 4
iijufrfl:t prajiiaparamitaY(l bhavayasi tada kutra prafi:fthaya prajiiaparamitaY(l
bhavayasi I
maiiju§rfr aha I yasminn ahaY(l bhagavan samaye prajiiaparamitaY(l bhavayami I
aprati
:fthito 'ham tasmin samaye prajiiaparamitaY(l bhavayami I bhagavan aha I
aprati:fthitasya
te maiijufrfl:t ka prajnaparamitabhavana I maiijufrfr aha I saiva bhagavan
prajiiapara
mitabhavana yan na kvacitprati:fthanam I. My English translation is taken from
Mathes
20 1 3 :287.A JEWEL GARLAND OF T RUE REALITY
81
tripa favours the Madhyamaka "tenet of not abiding in any phenomena"
over the inferior Madhyamaka "tenet of non-duality [in the sense of
ev erything being] like an illusion" . Not to abide in any phenomena
means that there is no ground in any phenomenon upon which the latter
can be superimposed in any conceivable way. This is very clear from
the Sekanirde§apaiijikti of Ramapala (one of the four main disciples of
Maitripa) , 206 who glosses aprati�thana as "not to superimpose [any
thing] " and amanasiktira.207 In the corresponding root text, Sekanirde§a,
verse 29ab, Maitripa informs us that mahtimudrti is known as " [the
practice of] not abiding (aprati�thtina) in anything . " In other words , the
yogin simply refrains from projecting wrong notions (such as an inde
pendent existence or characteristic signs) onto anything arisen in de
pendence , whether skandhas, dhtitus or tiyatanas.208 Philosophically,
this amounts to the Prasailgika attitude of not postulating any position
of one ' s own, and in fact, for ' B a ' ra ba rGyal mtshan dpal bzang
( 1 3 1 0- 1 3 9 1 ) , the Madhyamaka of non-abiding is identical with Pra
sailgika. 209
The presentation of the Madhyamaka of non-abiding in the Tattva
ratntivalf starts with an examination (victira) of this tenet in six verses .
This is followed by a warning about the possible danger of the related
samtidhi (described as adopting the view that nothing exists at all, being
in a state of dull nothingness) and a presentation of the fruit, namely the
three ktiyas. In the following we shall take a closer look at the first three
of these six verses . The first one is identical with Mahtiytinavif(lsikti,
verse 4, the second is similar to Sekanirde§a, verse 29, and the third is
identical with Sekanirdesa, verse 32. 21 0
The Tibetan commentary on the Tattvaratntivalf in the 'Bri gung bka '
brgyud chos mdzod (namely the Rin chen phreng ba 'i bshad pa, proba
bly by Ti pi ' bum la ' bar21 1 ) starts its elucidation of these six verses on
206 See Roerich 1 949-53 : 842.
207 See Mathes 2007 :547.
208 See Mathes 2007 :547.
209 Mimaki 1982:34.
210 As already pointed out by Tatz ( 1 994: 1 09, fn. 57).
211 The "Rin chen phreng ba'i bshad pa" is contained in vol. ka of the 'Bri gung
bka '
brgyud chos mdzod.82
THE AMANASIKARA CYCLE
Aprati�thana by first explaining the introductory sentence in the Tattva
ratniivalf:
The goal of comprehension is the [two] inseparable truth[s] . As
for true reality, it is appearances in their entirety-[namely] the
mind-and what is simply beyond all mental fabrication. The
appearance aspect of it is what is called "apparent [truth]" and
the aspect of it that is free from [mental] fabrication is called
"ultimate [truth] ". And these two are connected [with one an
other] to the point of [constituting] an identity, just as what is
created and what is impermanent are. 212
In other words , the main stance of this Madhyamaka tenet is that the
apparent and ultimate must be taken as aspects of the same true reality,
and thus as sharing an identity . This finds support in Maitripa ' s Aprati
$?hiinapraka§a, verse 7 :
The very arising o f phenomena i s inconceivable
[Even] through original awareness .
This very [arising] is called emptiness
Without falling into [the extreme of] nihilism. (APP 7)