A Study of Svatantrika

A Study of Svtantrika represents an important contribution to our understanding of Mdhyamika philosophy in India and Tibet. The Mdhyamika is considered to have two subschools, Svtantrika and Prsagika. The Prsagika school of Candrakrti is better known than Svtantrika, in part because the major Svtantrika texts are preserved only in Tibetan translation. The Svtantrikas, however, made important contributions to Buddhist philosophy in their expositions of the nature of reality, the role of reasoning in the process of enlightenment, and in their delineations of the paths to nirvana. The synthesis of Yogcra and Mdhyamika philosophy by the Svtantrika master ntarakita represents the final development of Buddhist thought in India. In Tibet, Svtantrika was the first Indian Buddhist school to gain currency, prior to the translation of the works of Candrakrti into Tibetan.

In preparing this Study of Svtantrika, Donald S. Lopez, Jr. consulted the major Indian works of the Svtantrikas, figures central to the development of Buddhist thought in India such as Bhvaviveka, Jñnagarbha, ntarakita, and Kamalasla, and analyzed a number of Tibetan expositions of Svtantrika. The result is the most extensive examination of this influential school available in the West.

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