Jñānagarbha (

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

: ज्ञानगर्भ, Tibetan: ཡེ་ཤེས་སྙིང་པོ་, Wyl. ye shes snying po) was an 8th-century Buddhist philosopher from Nalanda who wrote on

Madhyamaka Mādhyamaka ("middle way" or "centrism"; ; Tibetan: དབུ་མ་པ ; ''dbu ma pa''), otherwise known as Śūnyavāda ("the emptiness doctrine") and Niḥsvabhāvavāda ("the no ''svabhāva'' doctrine"), refers to a tradition of Buddhi ...

and

Yogacara Yogachara ( sa, योगाचार, IAST: '; literally "yoga practice"; "one whose practice is yoga") is an influential tradition of Buddhist philosophy and psychology emphasizing the study of cognition, perception, and consciousness through ...

and is considered part of

Bhāviveka Bhāviveka, also called Bhāvaviveka (; ), and Bhavya was a sixth-century (c. 500 – c. 570) madhyamaka Buddhist philosopher.Qvarnström 1989 p. 14. Alternative names for this figure also include Bhavyaviveka, Bhāvin, Bhāviviveka, Bhagavadviv ...

's Svatantrika tradition. He was a student of Shrigupta and the teacher and ordaining master of

Śāntarakṣita (Sanskrit; , 725–788),stanford.eduŚāntarakṣita (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)/ref> whose name translates into English as "protected by the One who is at peace" was an important and influential Indian Buddhist philosopher, particul ...

. Tibetan sources refer to him, Santaraksita and

Kamalaśīla Kamalaśīla (Skt. Kamalaśīla; Tib. པདྨའི་ངང་ཚུལ་, Pemé Ngang Tsul; Wyl. pad+ma'i ngang tshul) (c. 740-795) was an Indian Buddhist of Nalanda Mahavihara who accompanied Śāntarakṣita (725–788) to Tibet at th ...

as ''rang rgyud shar gsum'' meaning the “three eastern Svātantrikas” indicating their origins from Eastern India.

Philosophy and works

In his mostly Svatantrika interpretation of

philosophy, Jñānagarbha incorporated aspects of Yogācāra philosophy and

Dharmakirti Dharmakīrti (fl. c. 6th or 7th century; Tibetan: ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་; Wylie: ''chos kyi grags pa''), was an influential Indian Buddhist philosopher who worked at Nālandā.Tom Tillemans (2011)Dharmakirti Stanford ...

's epistemology and therefore can be seen as a harmonizer of the various Buddhist philosophical systems like his student

. He is mostly known for his work "Distinguishing the Two Truths" (Skt. Satyadvayavibhaṅga, Wyl. bden gnyis rnam ‘byed). This work mostly sought to critique the views of

Dharmapala of Nalanda Dharmapāla (traditional Chinese: 護法, pinyin: Hùfǎ) (530–561 CE). A Buddhist scholar, he was one of the main teachers of the Yogacara school in India. He was a contemporary of Bhavaviveka (清辯, c. 490-570 CE.), with whom he debated. ...

and his followers. A meditation text named "The Path for the Practice of Yoga" (Yoga-bhavana-marga or -patha) is also attributed to him by Tibetan sources. He also may have written a commentary to the

Sandhinirmocana Sutra The ''Ārya-saṃdhi-nirmocana-sūtra'' (Sanskrit) or ''Noble sūtra of the Explanation of the Profound Secrets'' is a Mahāyāna Buddhist text and the most important sutra of the Yogācāra school. It contains explanations of key Yogācāra conce ...

, a major sutra of the Yogacara school. However, it is possible that the author of this text was actually a different writer also named Jñānagarbha. Jñānagarbha's Satyadvayavibhaṅga analyzes the Madhyamaka

Two truths doctrine The Buddhist doctrine of the two truths (Sanskrit: ''dvasatya,'' ) differentiates between two levels of ''satya'' (Sanskrit; Pali: ''sacca''; word meaning "truth" or "reality") in the teaching of the Śākyamuni Buddha: the "conventional" or "p ...

of conventional truth and ultimate truth. He defends the role of conceptual thinking and reasoning against those who would eliminate all conceptual thinking and theorizing (i.e.

Candrakīrti Chandrakirti (; ; , meaning "glory of the moon" in Sanskrit) or "Chandra" was a Buddhist scholar of the madhyamaka school and a noted commentator on the works of Nagarjuna () and those of his main disciple, Aryadeva. He wrote two influential w ...

). However, like other Madhyamikas, the goal of his project is a form of awareness which is free from all concepts, though one which, according to Jñānagarbha, is reachable through conceptual thought. Jñānagarbha held that even though language and reasoning is based on a cause and effect ontology which is ultimately empty and unreal, it can still lead towards the ultimate truth, through a logical analysis which realizes the untenable assumptions of reason and causality itself.Hayes 2015

Notes

References

*Eckel, Malcom David; Jñanagarbha on The Two Truths, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1992. *Ruegg, David Seyfort ; History of Indian Literature Volume VII Fasc. 1, Literature of the Madhyamaka School of Philosophy, 1981. *Hayes, Richard, "Madhyamaka", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2015 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = .

External links

{{Authority control Indian scholars of Buddhism 8th-century Indian philosophers Indian Buddhist monks Monks of Nalanda Madhyamaka scholars Mahayana Buddhism writers Buddhist spiritual teachers

Philosophy and works

See also

Notes

References

External links