



ENGLISH INTRODUCTION

About the Text

Overview of the Middle Way (dBu-ma spyi-don) is the principal
textbook used at Sera Mey Tibetan Monastic University for the
study of the tenets of the Prasangika section of the Madhyamika
school, which is the highest of the four classical philosophical
systems of early Indian Buddhism.  The Overview is written in
the traditional genre of the yig-cha, or monastic study manual,
which presents the central concepts of Madhyamika philosophy by
excerpting important references from early Indian works;
subjecting them to logical analysis and substantiating them with
quotations from major commentators; and finally formalizing them
through definitions, divisions, examples, and so on.

The text is a commentary on Clarification of the True Thought
(dGongs-pa rab-gsal), perhaps one of the greatest explanations
of Madhyamika philosophy ever, composed by Je Tsongkapa Lobsang
Drakpa (rJe Tzong-kha-pa bLo-bzang grags-pa, 1357- 1419),
himself the most renowned of the great Tibetan philosophical
writers.  The Overview follows the Clarification closely and
functions to give a student greater insight into selected
difficult and important points; in fact, the modern reader can
only appreciate Je Tsongkapa's work fully with the help of such
an aid.

Clarification of the True Thought was itself intended as a
similar aid, for it is a commentary on yet an earlier work,
Entering the Middle Way (Madhyamakavatara), by the Indian
Buddhist master Chandrakirti (Candrakirti).  Master
Chandrakirti's work precedes the Clarification by nearly a
millenium (it is thought to date to the 7th Century), and is
moreover written in code-like verses to facilitate
memorization; therefore, Je Tsongkapa's work is an indispensable
tool to unlock its meaning correctly.

Entering the Middle Way is by no means the beginning of the
lineage of commentaries; it too is an explanation, this time to
the Root of Wisdom (Mulapraja), authored by Master Nagarjuna
sometime around 200 AD.  This text itself elucidates a teaching
of the Buddha Shakyamuni, some seven centuries even before
Master Nagarjuna, on the concept of the Perfection of Wisdom
(Prajaparamita): the perception of emptiness coupled with
compassion for every living being.

And so the present text is like a key, needed to enter a door to
find yet another key, which itself is needed to enter a door to
still other doors and keys, which finally far inside unlock the
great ideas of the earliest works of the commentarial
succession.  The Overview of the Middle Way is moreover studied
by native students in the traditional method, which involves
memorization of much or all of the Overview itself and of the
works upon which it is based; many hours of study at the feet of
a traditional teacher who is the latest link in a 2,000 year
chain of living commentators; and constant philosophical
disputation with classmates at the university's debate ground, a
special park set aside for daily meetings of students to debate
the day's lessons.  A student who is able to study the Overview
under these conditions quickly gains a profound insight and
personal appreciation for the meaning of the Perfection of
Wisdom, and becomes able to understand it fully even in the
oldest presentations and language.


About the Author

The Overview of the Middle Way was written by Kedrup Gendun
Tenpa Dargye (mKhas-grub dGe-'dun bsTan-pa dar- rgyas,
1493-1568).  As with many of the Tibetan masters of this era, we
have little organized information available about his life.
Recently, though, a good thumbnail biography has come out in
English.  It was compiled from various historical sources by
Ven. Geshe Thupten Rinchen of the Tsangpa College of Sera Mey
University, and can be found in the opening pages of the
University's 1990 edition of the Dialectical Analysis of the
Perfection of Wisdom (Phar-phyin mtha'- dpyod).

Here we read that Kedrup Tenpa Dargye was born in the area of
Lungshu (kLung-shod), northeast of Lhasa, the capital of Tibet.
He studied at both Ba and Ganden Monasteries, and was counted
among the principal students of Jetsun Chukyi Gyaltsen
(rJe-btzun Chos-kyi rgyal-mtsan, 1469-1546), who himself
composed many dialectic textbooks for the curriculum of Sera
Jey, the sister university of Sera Mey.

Kedrup Tenpa Dargye served in a position known as the
"Throne-Holder of Sera," and in 1565 was further appointed the
22nd Ganden Tripa or "Throne-Holder of Ganden."  The Ganden
Tripa is considered the head of the Gelukpa tradition of
Buddhism and is the spiritual successor of Je Tsongkapa himself.
Kedrup Tenpa Dargye also had the honor of officiating over the
ordination ceremony of the third Dalai Lama, Sonam Gyatso
(rGyal-ba bSod-nams rgya-mtso, 1543- 1588), which is another
indication of how deeply his knowledge was respected, even by
his contemporaries.


What is the Middle Way?

The Sanskrit term "Madhyamika" is formed from the word madhya,
meaning "middle," and is in fact the source for the English
word.  Madhyamika or Middle-Way Philosophy threads a path down
the middle between two extremes: the extreme of thinking that
things exist the way they seem to, and the extreme of thinking
that, if they do not exist the way they seem to, then they
cannot exist at all.

Briefly put, we have a tendency to believe that objects exist
from their own side, and that they possess some kind of nature
which is their own.  For example, we perceive that a fellow
worker at our place of employment whom we dislike is really
dislikable from his own side: that he is inherently and actually
unpleasant.

This same co-worker though is perceived by other people, say by
his wife, as being pleasant.  But he cannot have a nature of
being pleasant and at the same time have a nature of being
unpleasant--these two qualities are contradictory and one object
cannot be both at the same time.  Therefore he does not have
both of the qualities.  Neither is he likely to have neither of
the qualities to any degree at all: any person we meet fits
somewhere on the scale from pleasant to unpleasant.

If he were pleasant from his own side, on his own part, then
everyone who ever met him would find him likable.  But this we
can say about no one who has ever lived.  If he were unpleasant
from his own side, if he were really unpleasant, then no one
would like him at all, and this is also not the case.

So the co-worker whom we dislike has none of the four possible
natures: he is not pleasant by his very nature, he is not
unpleasant by nature, he is not both, he is not neither.
Therefore he has no nature of his own.  The way he seems to be
to me, either pleasant or unpleasant, cannot be something which
is emanating from his side.  He is empty; he is blank.  He is
like a blank screen, not unpleasant from his own side, but
seemingly unpleasant to me because something is making me see
him this way.  Something is projecting this nature onto him.

The key is in my own perception.  Since he can have no nature
from his side, and yet I perceive him to have a nature (of being
unpleasant), then the nature he seems to have must be something
supplied from my side.

Am I consciously wishing, willing, that he seem unpleasant?  Of
course not.  No one would consciously choose to meet unpleasant
people.  If his appearing unpleasant to me were just a
projection from myself that I could change at will, then of
course I would choose to perceive him as being pleasant.  But I
cannot.

Although the way he appears is a projection from my side (he
himself is blank), it doesn't appear to be a matter of choice.
Apparently I am forced to make the projection, to have the
perception, of him as unpleasant.  What is forcing me, which
doesn't force his wife, who sees him as pleasant?

The content of my perception is painful.  It is not pleasant to
see someone as unpleasant.  The stuff or material of my
perception is mind: thinking he is unpleasant is a thought, and
its primary cause must be a previous thought.  The object which
I think is causing my displeasure is other than myself: it is
him.

The material and content and object of my present perception of
him as unpleasant give me all the necessary clues: he must be
coming from, he must be forced upon me, by a previous perception
which was painful and directed towards another.  According to
Middle-Way Philosophy, I must have harmed another person; that
is, perceived myself harming another person, and this has
planted a mental seed by which I now must see someone else be
unpleasant to me.

If I do not wish to see someone be unpleasant to me again, ever
again, I must therefore strictly avoid being, seeing myself
being, harmful to any person again.  In other words I must be
strictly moral and adhere to the cardinal virtues.  In the
future then I will only perceive the people and world around me
as pleasant.  This is what happiness would be.  And this is only
possible because all the people and world around me are empty,
blank, with no nature of their own--this makes them changeable,
this makes them eligible for me to perceive as pleasant, if I
have been good.

The first good I can do, in fact, is to recognize that it is I
who am making my unpleasant co-worker unpleasant; understanding
this, I can now react to him not with the normal anger--(which
would only force me to see him as unpleasant again, perpetuating
the pain of meeting him unpleasantly) but rather with an
attitude of patience and compassion, which will plant seeds in
my mind to perceive him as pleasant in the future.

It will be an artificial world then, admittedly, with people and
things only having the nature that I project on them.  But this
is the only reality that they ever had anyway.  If I can learn
to perpetuate the trick, by being mindful, they will never stop
being pleasant.

So things are only what I perceive them to be, only what they
seem to be, and from their side are just blank.  This is their
emptiness.  Emptiness does not mean that they do not exist; a
drill at the dentist's may only be a drill because I see it that
way, but it still hurts, and still fixes my teeth, if only
because I see it that way.  So emptiness does not imply the
extreme of non-existence, although the perceptions and
appearances of things do imply that these things do not exist
the way I thought they did--which is the second extreme.
Middle-Way Philosophy thus threads a path down the middle of the
two extremes.

The structure of the Overview of the Middle Way, and of the
works upon which it is based, reflects these concepts.  It
consists of ten chapters, each describing a stage of personal
development at which one gains total mastery of some virtue of
character.  At the sixth of the ten stages, one gains a special
ability to understand emptiness (or blankness), and thus
understand the vital importance of morality and other good
qualities which will force him to perceive otherwise blank or
empty objects as being pleasant or good--and when every object
in the world, things or people, is perceived as pleasant--well,
this would be paradise, and this is the object of spiritual
life.

  
About the Edition

A number of previous editions were consulted in the preparation
of the present version of the Overview of the Middle Way.  One
was printed in lithograph folios at the Baksa refugee camp in
northeast India by refugee scholars during the 1960's, shortly
after the loss of Tibet.  The other has a colophon by Kyabje
Trijang Rinpoche, the junior tutor of the present Dalai Lama.
It was sponsored by Sera Mey Khen Rinpoche Geshe Lobsang
Tharchin, and printed by the Mongolian lama Ven. Guru Deva in
offset folios at Delhi in 1983.

These versions had received some editing work and were both
presumably based on the wooden blockprint folio edition printed
at the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet.  Here the colophon was
composed by the Demo Nominhan Ngawang Jampel Delek Gyatso (De-mo
No-min-han Ngag-dbang 'jam-dpal bde-legs ryga-mtso) "in the Fire
Dog year," which occurs once every sixty years.  This is
probably the Demo Delek Gyatso mentioned in Great Dictionary
(Tsig-mdzod chen-mo) as having filled high ecclesiastical
positions during the 1750's, and who passed on in 1777.  A Fire
Dog year occurred in 1751, so perhaps this was the date when the
Potala edition was carved.

Since this is the oldest version, we have used it as the basis
for the present publication, and consulted the two later
versions to cull the corrections made in each.  This version
also constitutes the one chosen for release on computer diskette
by the Asian Classics Input Project (ACIP), where the original
reading is also noted for each point at which a correction was
made.  The input of this data was performed at the Computer
Center of Sera Mey Tibetan University.

Each of the available manuscripts contained a significant
quantity of spelling and other errors that made the preparation
of the present work quite difficult.  A number of the leading
scholars at Sera Mey, including several former abbots, either
reviewed the entire text or were consulted about questionable
readings.  We believe that the resulting text is the most
accurate version of the work published to date, although of
course it will hopefully be further refined in coming years.

Copies of this vital textbook at the University had become quite
difficult to obtain, and the Ven. Lobsang Tashi of Shungpa
College volunteered to sponsor a republication of the work, in a
Western-style book printed from the ACIP data, which was
provided without charge.

Ven. Tashi has provided the cost of printing 600 copies, which
will be distributed among needy teachers and students of Sera
Mey Monastic University.  He wishes first of all to dedicate the
virtuous power of this good deed to clearing away any and all
obstacles to the long and productive lives of Khen Rinpoche
Geshe Lobsang Tharchin, the University's abbot; of the great
spiritual teacher Geshe Yeshe Wangchuk, from Pomra College; and
of his teachers Geshe Ogyen Kelsang, Geshe Thupten Rinchen,
Geshe Trinley Topgye, and Geshe Lobsang Pende.

He further dedicates this good deed to his departed loved ones,
including his father Padma Dorje and older brother Ngawang
Chupel, with the prayer that any bad deed they may have done in
their lives may be cleaned away and purified.  He prays finally
that this goodness help bring about the ultimate spiritual hopes
of himself and those loved ones who are still alive, including
the Ven. Thupten Tsultrim, his mother Nyanang Gyakang Tenzin
Chukyi, his older brother Lobsang Tsering, the son Tenzin
Dondrup, his older sister Lobsang Drolkar, his older brother
Tsering Tashi Kyimtsang, his older sister Wangmo Kyimtsang, his
older sister Chudrun Kyimtsang, and his older sister Hrichung
Kyimtsang.