Kamalaśīla

PersonType	Category:Classical Indian Authors
MainNameTib	པདྨའི་ངང་ཚུལ་
MainNameWylie	pad+ma'i ngang tshul
MainNameSkt	Kamalaśīla
YearBirth	713/740
YearDeath	763/795
ReligiousAffiliation	Nalanda
StudentOf	Śāntarakṣita
BDRC	https://www.tbrc.org/#!rid=P7641
IsInGyatsa	No
BnwShortPersonBio	One of the most important Madhyamaka authors of late Indian Buddhism, a major representative of the Yogācāra-Madhyamaka synthesis, and a participant in the famous Bsam yas Debate. According to Tibetan doxographies, he was a proponent of the Yogācāra-Svātantrika-Madhyamaka. Although little is known about his life, according to Tibetan sources he was a monk and teacher at Nālandā. Tibetan sources also count him as one of three (together with Śāntarakṣita and Jñãnagarbha) “Eastern Svātantrikas” (rang rgyud shar gsum), suggesting that he was from Bengal. He was clearly a direct disciple of Śāntarakṣita, composing important commentaries on his teacher’s two major works, the Madhyamakālaṃkāra and the Tattvasaṃgraha. The latter commentary, which is extant in Sanskrit, is an important source for both Hindu and Buddhist philosophical positions in the eighth century. (Source: "Kamalaśīla." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 411. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)
PosBuNayDefProv	Provisional
PosBuNayDefProvNotes	"In another context, Kamalasila quotes the passage from the Latikâvatârasütra cited by Candraklrti as scriptural authority for Buddha-nature being of provisional meaning. Kamalasila himself, though, does not put it quite that way, stating only that, in accord with the various outlooks of sentient beings, the Buddhas taught what is a single dharmadhâtu (or dharmanairâtmya in the Lankâvatârasütra) by means of many different expressions (including the expression “Buddha-nature”), that is, in conventional terms." Kano. K., Buddha-Nature and Emptiness, p.11.
PosAllBuddha	Qualified Yes
PosAllBuddhaNote	In the sense that all beings have the potential to achieve Buddhahood.
PosAllBuddhaMoreNotes	"The teaching “all sentient beings have Buddha-nature” is interpreted in the sense that all sentient beings are pervaded by the dharmadhätu, which is characterized by selflessness. In other words, the tathägatagarbha is taken to be the dharmadhätugarbha. Though the term dharmadhätugarbha appears in the RGVV, Kamalasila's interpretation seems to have been derived from a phrase in the Lankävatärasütra, “the embryo of the tathägata, which is selflessness” (tathägatanairätmyagarbha),reinforcing the notion that Buddha-nature does not refer to ätman but rather to selflessness (nairātmya)." Kano. K., Buddha-Nature and Emptiness, p. 10.
PosYogaMadhya	Madhyamaka
PosVehicles	1
PosVehiclesNotes	"In his Madhyamakäloka, Kamalasila presents the position of an opponent who takes the three-vehicle theory to be definitive. He refutes that position and makes the case for the single-vehicle theory being definitive by quoting a number of sutra passages." Kano. K., Buddha-Nature and Emptiness, p. 9.
PosEmptyLuminNotes	Karl includes him in the first category (emptiness), but he seems to fall somewhere between that and the second (luminous nature), which he defines as selflessness (nairātmya). "One should add here Kamalaśīla’s (c. 740–795) Madhyamakāloka, which takes the tathāgata heart to be natural luminosity but defines the latter as the dharmadhātu characterized by twofold identitylessness: "This statement “All sentient beings possess the tathāgata heart” teaches that all are suitable to attain the state of unsurpassable completely perfect awakening since it is held that the term tathāgata expresses that the dharmadhātu, which is characterized by personal and phenomenal identitylessness, is natural luminosity." Karl Brunnhölzl, When the Clouds Part, p. 56. Note: there are obvious echoes of Kano in Karl's discussion of Kamalaśīla.
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Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā.

Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana).

The disciples of the Buddha who aspire to attain individual liberation or nirvāṇa. The final goal of the Hearers is to become an arhat, a state in which one has totally eliminated the inner problems of attachment, hatred and ignorance, the main causes for rebirth in this cycle of existence. There are four stages of a śrāvaka path including eight phases.

Refers to something that is taught for a specific reason, rather than because it is entirely true.

The nonexistence of the self as a permanent, unchanging entity.

This is the title of Asaṅga's commentary to the Gyü Lama that is given by Tibetan sources instead of the Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā.

Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā

The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics.

In a general sense, that which clears away darkness, though it often appears in Buddhist literature in reference to the mind or its nature. It is a particularly salient feature of Tantric literature, especially in regard to the advanced meditation techniques of the completion-stage yogas.

The fundamental expanse from which all phenomena emerge.