Chapter Three: Śāntarakṣita and Kamalaśīla—The Convergence of Yogācāra and Madhyamaka¶

In the eighth century, Madhyamaka's last major form in India was a convergence. Śāntarakṣita set the course and Kamalaśīla followed: Madhyamaka for the ultimate, consciousness-only for the conventional. Śāntarakṣita's Madhyamakālaṃkāra has no old Chinese translation. Of Kamalaśīla's three Bhāvanākrama texts, the first has a Song-dynasty Chinese translation, while the middle and final texts do not. This chapter paraphrases their main structure from edited texts and modern translations, without giving quotations.¹

The structure of the convergence fits into one sentence. At the ultimate level, all dharmas lack own-nature, leaving Madhyamaka's theorem intact; at the conventional level, external objects are not posited, all appearances are manifestations of consciousness alone, and the aspect of self-cognition is accepted within conventional discourse. What changes, then, is the theoretical equipment of the level upheld by direction (a) of the preservation theorem: E2 exchanges commonsense realism for a theory of consciousness.

Is this change legitimate on the theorem's terms? Apply the clauses from Essay Eighteen. The scope clause does not specify which science or philosophy must occupy E2. It requires only that assertions at that level carry no E3 pledge. A theory of consciousness entering as a conventional theory is formally in full compliance, just as common sense and physics are. There is only one boundary. If the aspect of self-cognition is posited solely within conventional discourse, there is no conflict. If anyone posits it as an E3 item that withstands analysis and depends on no other dharma, the proposition enters the scope of application and is dealt with under the rules. Śāntarakṣita explicitly places self-cognition within conventional discourse, stopping just on the safe side of the line. Later disputes often arise from readings that blur it.

The historical significance of this convergence lies at the point of contact. It turns Madhyamaka and consciousness-only from opponents into colleagues working at different levels: one handles ultimate rejection, the other conventional mechanisms. The arrangement's stability depends entirely on whether the consciousness-only side can remain content with conventional status. If mechanisms such as seeds and ālayavijñāna keep working as designations, the division of labor holds. If any one is elevated into an E3 item, Essay Eighteen's machine sounds the alarm. That is precisely the next essay's subject.

This wave did not reach China. Śāntarakṣita traveled east into Tibet, not China, and the convergence's results settled into Tibetan transmission. Chinese assimilation had already begun independently three hundred years earlier and followed another course. The next chapter returns to Chang'an.

References¶