"In order to meditate on emptiness, or
selflessness, we first need
to understand how to do this in a correct way. This understanding
can be attained by studying such texts as Chandrakirti's
Supplement to the 'Middle Way' (Madhyamakavatara).
Having come to understand what is right and what is wrong,
we can begin to work at eliminating our wrong conceptions
and developing right conceptions, eventually realizing
emptiness directly and attaining the path of seeing."
Geshe Jampa Gyatso
Supplement
to [Nagarjuna’s] 'Treatise on the Middle Way'
(Madhyamakavatara)
By Chandrakirti
Summary of the Text
An explanation of emptiness as presented by the Prasangika Madhyamaka
system of tenets. The main body of the text consists of ten chapters,
each one associated with one of the ten perfections and one of
the ten grounds of a bodhisattva. Study of this text leads to
an understanding of great compassion and how it serves as a cause
for generating the mind of enlightenment (bodhichitta). This text
also sets out the various levels through which one proceeds to
the attainment of the completion of all ten perfections and enlightenment.
This subject is explained on the basis of Chandrakirti's auto-commentary,
Lama Tsongkhapa's Illumination of the Thought, and the
First Dalai Lama's Mirror of the Clarification of the Thought.
Chapter Summaries
Summaries of each of the thirteen chapters of the Supplement
are available:
• Chapter
One: Introduction & The First Ground,
the Very Joyful
• Chapter
Two: The Second Ground, the Stainless
• Chapter
Three: The Third Ground, the Luminous
• Chapter
Four: The Fourth Ground, the Radiant
• Chapter
Five: The Fifth Ground, the Difficult to
Overcome
• Chapter
Six: The Sixth Ground, the Manifest
• Chapter
Seven: The Seventh Ground, the Gone Afar
• Chapter
Eight: The Eighth Ground, the Immovable
• Chapter
Nine: The Ninth Ground, Good Intelligence
• Chapter
Ten: The Tenth Ground, the Cloud of Doctrine
• Chapter
Eleven: The Qualities of the Ten Grounds
• Chapter
Twelve: The Resultant Ground
• Chapter
Thirteen: Conclusion
Samples
Some samples from Geshe Jampa Gyatso's 2000-2001 commentary on
Chandrakirti's Supplement to [Nagarjuna's] 'Treatise on the
Middle Way' are available:
• Sample
#1: Verse 6.8c on non-production from self
• Sample
#2: Lama Tsongkhapa's additional commentary
on the presentation of the afflictions following from verse 6.28
• Sample
#3: Verses 6.118cd and 6.119 on destroying
false views of suchness and on diminishing attachment to one's
own views
• Sample
#4: Verses 12.40, 12.41 and 12.42 on the
compassionate abidance of the buddha
