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Prasangika is a sub-school of Madhyamaka Buddhism that holds the method of logical consequence (prasanga) to be the only valid method of demonstrating the nature of the Two Truths to opponents in debate. Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... A replica of an ancient statue found among the ruins of a temple at Sarnath Buddhism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of the Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama, who lived between approximately 566 and 486 BCE. Originating in India, Buddhism gradually spread throughout Asia to Central Asia... The cultural elements of Buddhism vary by region and include: Buddhist cuisine Buddhist art Buddharupa Art and architecture of Japan Greco-Buddhism Tibetan Buddhist sacred art Buddhist music Buddhist chant Shomyo Categories: Buddhism-related stubs ... The history of Buddhism spans from the 6th century BCE to the present, starting with the birth of the Buddha Siddharta Gautama. ... Contents: Top - A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z The following is a List of Buddhist topics: A Abhidharma Ahimsa Ajahn Ajahn Chah Ajanta Aksobhya Alexandra David-Néel Amara Sinha B... Buddhist beliefs and practices vary according to region. ... The percentage of Buddhist population of each country was taken from the US State Departments International Religious Freedom Report 2004 [1]. Other sources used were CIA Factbook [2] and adherents. ... An image of Gautama Buddha with a swastika, traditionally a Buddhist symbol of good luck, on his chest. ... The Buddhist temple Wat Chiang Man, in Chiang Mai, Thailand, which dates from the late 13th century Buddhist temples and monasteries, sorted by location. ... Several Buddhist terms and concepts lack direct translations into English that cover the breadth of the original term. ... There is great variety in Buddhist texts. ... // Before Common Era Trad. ... Madhyamaka is a Buddhist philosophical tradition that asserts that all phenomena are empty of self-nature or essence (Sanskrit: Svabhāva), that they have no intrinsic, independent reality apart from the causes and conditions from which they arise. ... A replica of an ancient statue found among the ruins of a temple at Sarnath Buddhism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of the Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama, who lived between approximately 566 and 486 BCE. Originating in India, Buddhism gradually spread throughout Asia to Central Asia... The two truths doctrine in Buddhism differentiates between two levels of truth in Buddhist discourse, a low, or commonsense truth, and a high, or ultimate truth or between a relative and an absolute truth. ...

Prasangika reasoning is also a way of preparing the mind for meditation on emptiness (shunyata). All conceptual constructs are analysed and seen to be dependent on causes and conditions, and so empty of self-nature. In this way, the practitioner aims to rid his mind of all conceptual thought. Śūnyatā, शून्यता (Sanskrit, Pali: suññatā), or Emptiness, is a term for an aspect of the Buddhist metaphysical critique as well as Buddhist epistemology and phenomenology. ...

History

The Prasangika school has dominated Buddhism in Tibet since the Second Dissemination, and most surviving works of the principal exponents exist only in Tibetian translation. Tibetan Buddhism - formerly (and incorrectly) also called Lamaism, after their religious gurus known as lamas - is the body of religious Buddhist doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and the Himalayan region. ...

Buddhapalita, a student of Samgharaksita, was one of the first Madhyamaka masters to fully adopt syllogistic methods in his teachings, although of a particularly limited form. While Candrakirti is generally credited with the founding of the Prasangika school, it was in fact Buddhapalita who first introduced the method of using logical consequence to refute the arguments of an opponent. It is this use of prasanga, also described as a proof reductio ad absurdum, that characterizes the Prasangika school of Madhyamaka Buddhism. In traditional logic, a syllogism is an inference in which one proposition (the conclusion) follows of necessity from two others (known as premises). ... Candrakīrti (born approx. ... Look up Proof on Wiktionary, the free dictionary The word proof can mean: originally, a test assessing the validity or quality of something. ... Reductio ad absurdum (Latin for reduction to the absurd, traceable back to the Greek ἡ εις άτοπον απαγωγη, reduction to the impossible, often used by Aristotle) is a type of logical argument where we assume a claim for the sake of argument, arrive at an absurd result, and then conclude the original assumption must...

Svatantrika Debate

The Prasangika point of view originally developed in opposition to the Svatantrika school, founded by Bhavaviveka with his commentary and criticism of Buddhapalita's earlier work. It was Candrakirti's response to this criticism that became the foundation for Prasangika doctrine.

The Prasangika-Svatantrika debate included both a technical component and a set of metaphysical implications. On one level, the disagreement centered around the role of prasanga in formal debate. While the Prasangika held it to be the only valid method of demonstrating the Two Truths to the unenlightened, the Svatantrika felt that the Buddhist logician must not only use prasanga to show how an opponent's position leads to false conclusions, but that the Buddhist must also put forward a concrete thesis of his own. Metaphysics (Greek words meta = after/beyond and physics = nature) is a branch of philosophy concerned with the study of first principles and being (ontology). ... Bodhi (Pali and Sanskrit. ...

The Prasangika rejection of the Svatantrika position was based on the belief that any Buddhist making positive assertions about the conventional world was committed to the existence of an illusion. The Svatantrika countered by arguing that there were different levels of existence, and that a conventional thing could self-exist, exist from its own side, and have inherent existence, but that it still would not exist absolutely, ultimately, or really. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... An illusion is a distortion of a sensory perception. ...

References

• Lopez, Donald. A Study of Svatantrika. Snow Lion Publications. Ithaca, New York. (1987)
• della Santina, Peter. Madhyamaka Schools in India. Motilal Banarsidass. Delhi. (1986)