Four Illusions: Candrakirti s Advice for Travelers on the Bodhisattva Path KAREN C. LANG OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
FOUR ILLUSIONS
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FOUR ILLUSIONS Candrakirti s Advice for Travelers on the Bodhisattva Path Translation and Introduction by KAREN C. LANG 1 2003
3 Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi São Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto Copyright 2003 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Candrakirti. [Bodhisattvayogacaracatuh sataktika. English. Selections] Four illusions : Candrakiriti s advice for travelers on the Bodhisattva path ; translations and introduction by Karen C. Lang. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-19-515112-7; ISBN 0-19-515113-5 (pbk.) 1. åryadeva, 3rd cent. Catuòâátaka. 2. Mådhyamika (Buddhism) I. Lang, Karen C. (Karen Christine), 1947- II. Title. BQ3300.B6222 E522 2002 294.3'85 dc21 2002070911 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS T his book has had a long gestation period. Its origins began with my work on Aryadeva s Catuh1ataka. During my stay in Dharamsala, India, in 1978, supported by a Fulbright-Hays doctoral dissertation fellowship, I benefited greatly from the opportunity to hear Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey s illuminating lectures on the Catuh1ataka and rgyal tshab rje s commentary. In addition to commenting on many of the stories Candrakirti included in his text, Geshe Dhargyey supplemented his oral commentary with some well-chosen stories of his own. Support from an American Institute of Indian Studies short-term senior fellowship enabled me to return to India in the fall of 1988 to begin work on a translation of Candrakirti s Catuh1atakatika. During this time, I was affiliated with the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies at Sarnath, and I am grateful for the support rendered by Venerable Samdhong Rimpoche and Professor K. N. Mishra. The first draft of the translations of the first four chapters of this text was completed during the years 1989 90, thanks to the generous support of a National Endowment for the Humanities Translation Grant. This grant enabled me to return to Dharamsala in the fall of 1989, where I was able once again to have the pleasure of discussing Madhyamaka philosophy with Geshe Sonam Rinchen and Ruth Sonam. Over the last ten years, parts of the introduction were presented at various conferences and colloquiums in India, Europe, and the United States. I cannot give credit to all the people who have enriched my own understanding of Madhyamaka thought and Indian philosophy, but I would especially like to thank my mentor David Seyfort Ruegg and two friends from my graduate school days, Edeltraud Harzer Clear and William Ames. Other friends and colleagues who have contributed much to my understanding of Indian and Tibetan Buddhist thought include Georges Dreyfus, Jeffrey Hopkins, Christian Lindtner, Elizabeth Napper, and Tom J. F. Tillemans. Thanks also to Cynthia Read for her support in seeing this book through the press, to Margaret Case for her patient and painstaking editing, and to two anonymous readers, whose perceptive comments have made this a much richer book.
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CONTENTS Abbreviations, ix Notes on the Translation, xiii I. INTRODUCTION, 1 1. Travelers on the Buddha s Path, 3 2. Mortal Bodies, 31 3. The Body in Pain, 50 4. The Danger of Corporeal Passions, 68 5. The King as the Embodiment of Egotism, 88 II. TRANSLATION, 109 6. Rejecting the Illusion of Permanence, 111 7. Rejecting the Illusion of Pleasure, 133 8. Rejecting the Illusion of Purity, 164 9. Rejecting the Illusion of Egotism, 186 Notes, 209 Bibliography, 223 Index, 235
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ABBREVIATIONS A AK and AKB AS AV BC BG BU C2 C2T D Dhp A3guttara Nikaya, edited by R. Morris and E. Hardy. 5 vols. 1885 1900. Reprint, London: Pali Text Society, 1955 61. Abhidharmako1a and Bhasya, edited by Swami Dwarikas Shastri.Varanasi: Buddha Bharati,1970 73. Artha1astra, edited by R. P. Kangle. Bombay: University of Bombay, 1960 1965. Atharvaveda, edited and translated by Satya Prakash Sarasvati. New Delhi: Veda Pratishthana, 1992. Buddhacarita, edited by E. H. Johnson. Lahore: University of Punjab, 1936. Reprint, New Delhi: Oriental Books Reprint Corporation, 1972. Bhagavad-Gita, edited and translated by R. C. Zaehner. London, New York, Oxford University Press, 1969. Brhadaranyaka Upanisad, edited and translated by S. Radhakrishnan. The Principal Upanisads. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1978. Catuh1ataka, edited by Karen Lang. Aryadeva s Catuh1ataka: On the Bodhisattva s Cultivation of Merit and Knowledge. Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag, 1986. Catuh1atakatika, edited by Haraprasad Shastri, Catuh- 1atika of Arya Deva, Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 3 no. 8 (1914): 449 514. Digha Nikaya, edited by T. W. Rhys-Davids and J. Estlin Carpenter. 1890. Reprint, London: Pali Text Society, 1960 67. The Dhammapada, eds. John Ross Carter and Mahinda Palihawadana. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987. ix