The Madhyāntavibhāgakārikā ( zh, t=辯中邊論頌, p=Biàn zhōng biān lùn sòng), or Verses Distinguishing the Middle and the Extremes is a key work in Buddhist philosophy of the Yogacara school attributed in the Tibetan tradition to Maitreya-nātha and in other traditions to

Asanga Asaṅga (, ; Romaji: ''Mujaku'') ( fl. 4th century C.E.) was "one of the most important spiritual figures" of Mahayana Buddhism and the "founder of the Yogachara school".Engle, Artemus (translator), Asanga, ''The Bodhisattva Path to Unsurpassed ...

Text

The ''Madhyānta-vibhāga-kārikā'' consists of 112 verses (''kārikā'') which delineate the distinctions (''vibhāga'') and relationship between the middle (''madhya'') view and the extremes (''anta''); it contains five chapters: Attributes (''laksana''), Obscurations (''āvarana''), Reality (''tattva''), Cultivation of Antidotes (''pratipakṣa-bhāvanā'') and the Supreme Way (''yānānuttarya''). Along with

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

Tibetan Tibetan may mean: * of, from, or related to Tibet * Tibetan people, an ethnic group * Tibetan language: ** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard ** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dial ...

and Mongolian translations, the text survives in a single

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

manuscript discovered in

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

by the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n Buddhologist and explorer,

Rahul Sankrityayan Rahul Sankrityayan (born Kedarnath Pandey; 9 April 1893 – 14 April 1963) was an Indian writer and a polyglot who wrote in Hindi. He played a pivotal role in giving travelogue a 'literary form'. He was one of the most widely travelled scholars ...

. The Sanskrit version also included a commentary (''bhāsya'') by

Vasubandhu Vasubandhu (; Tibetan: དབྱིག་གཉེན་ ; floruit, fl. 4th to 5th century CE) was an influential bhikkhu, Buddhist monk and scholar from ''Puruṣapura'' in ancient India, modern day Peshawar, Pakistan. He was a philosopher who ...

. An important sub-commentary (''tīkā'') by

Sthiramati Sthiramati (Sanskrit; Chinese:安慧; Tibetan: ''blo gros brtan pa'') or Sāramati was a 6th-century Indian Buddhist scholar-monk. Sthiramati was a contemporary of Dharmapala based primarily in Valābhi university (present-day Gujarat), althoug ...

also survives in Sanskrit as well as a Tibetan version.

Editions and translations

A Sanskrit edition was prepared by Gadjin M. Nagao in 1964.Gadjin M. Nagao (ed.), ''Madhyantavibhaga-bhasya, A Buddhist Philosophical Treatise Edited for the First Time from a Sanskrit Manuscript'' (Tokyo: Suzuki Research Foundation, 1964). The ''Madhyāntavibhāga-kārikā'' has been translated into English at least nine times, often with the Indian commentaries, in the following volumes:
Mathyanta-Vibhanga, "Discource on Discrimination between Middle and Extremes"
ascribed to Bodhisattva Maitreya and commented by Vasubhandu and Sthiramathi, translated from the sanscrit by Theodore Stcherbatsky, Bibliotheca Buddhica XXX, Academy of Sciences USSR Press, Moscow/Leningrad 1936. * ''Madhyāntavibhāga-ṭikā: An Analysis of the Middle Path and the Extremes'' by David Lasar Friedmann. Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden. 1937 * ''A Buddhist Doctrine of Experience: A New Translation and Interpretation of the Works of Vasubandhu the Yogacarin'' by Thomas Kochumuttom. Motilal Banarsidass. Delhi: 1982. * ''Seven Works of Vasubandhu'' by Stefan Anacker. Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi: 1984 * ''The Principles of Buddhist Psychology'' by David J. Kalupahana. State University of New York Press. Albany: 1987 * ''A Study of the Madhyāntavibhāga-bhāṣya-ṭikā'' by Richard Stanley. Doctoral dissertation, Australian National University, April, 1988 * ''Mind Only: A Philosophical and Doctrinal Analysis of the Vijnanavada'' by Thomas E. Wood. University of Hawaii Press. 1991 * ''Middle Beyond Extremes: Maitreya's Madhyantavibhaga with Commentaries by Khenpo Shenga and Ju Mipham'' by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee. Snow Lion Publications. Ithaca: 2007. * ''Distinguishing the Middle and the Extremes by Asaṅga, Commentary by Vasubandhu: Draft Translation with brief annotations.'' by

John D. Dunne John D. Dunne (born 1961) is the Distinguished Chair in Contemplative Humanities through the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also holds a co-appointment in the Department of East Asian Languages an ...

. Unpublished. * Maitreya's Distinguishing the Middle from the Extremes (Madhyāntavibhāga): Along with Vasubandhu's Commentary (Madhyāntavibhāga-Bhāṣya): A Study and Annotated Translation by D'Amato, Mario. New York, American Institute of Buddhist Studies 2012.

Notes

{{reflist Mahayana texts Yogacara Yogacara shastras