"Chapter 22, Verse 1 of Nagarjuna's Middle Way"
with Dr. Jay Garfield
Tuesday, December 8th
6:00pm - 8:00pm (US PST)
This program is presented online via Zoom. Registration is required, details below.
In the recent series of online teachings during the pandemic, His Holiness the Dalai Lama has presented a wide variety of topics from traditional commentaries to discussions with medical professionals, Indian students and educators. In the majority of these online discourses, His Holiness has cited the first verse of Chapter 22 of Nagarjuna's 'Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way.’
This verse reads:
"Neither the aggregates, nor different from the aggregates,
The aggregates are not in him, nor is he in the aggregates.
The Tathagata does not possess the aggregates.
What else is the Tathagata?"
His Holiness has mentioned that he often takes this to refer to himself and reflects on it accordingly:
"I am neither one with the aggregates, nor different from the aggregates,
The aggregates are not in me, nor am I in the aggregates.
I don't possess the aggregates.
What else am I?"
Join Jay L. Garfield as he explores the meaning of this verse, to which His Holiness the Dalai Lama has drawn our attention so frequently in recent years. Prof. Garfield will draw upon Je Tsongkhapa’s commentary on this verse in "Ocean of Reasoning," on the "Questions of King Milinda," and Candrakīrti’s "Introduction to the Middle Way," each of which can be seen as commentaries on this verse.
We encourage you to explore book Ocean of Reasoning: A Great Commentary on Nāgārjuna's Mulamadhyamakakārikā composed by Tsong khapa and translated by Geshe Ngawang Samten and Jay L. Garfield. You can purchase the book here:
https://www.amazon.com/Ocean-Reasoning-Commentary-Nagarjunas-Mulamadhyamakakarika/dp/0195147332
About Jay Garfield
Dr. Jay L. Garfield chairs the Philosophy department and directs Smith’s logic and Buddhist studies programs and the Five College Tibetan Studies in India program. He is also visiting professor of Buddhist philosophy at Harvard Divinity School, professor of philosophy at Melbourne University and adjunct professor of philosophy at the Central University of Tibetan Studies.
Dr. Garfield’s research addresses topics in the foundations of cognitive science and the philosophy of mind; the history of Indian philosophy during the colonial period; topics in ethics, epistemology and the philosophy of logic; methodology in cross-cultural interpretation; and topics in Buddhist philosophy, particularly Indo-Tibetan Madhyamaka and Yogācāra.
Garfield’s most recent books are Minds Without Fear: Philosophy in the Indian Renaissance (with Nalini Bhushan, 2017), Dignāga’s Investigation of the Percept: A Philosophical Legacy in India and Tibet (with Douglas Duckworth, David Eckel, John Powers, Yeshes Thabkhas and Sonam Thakchöe, 2016) Engaging Buddhism: Why it Matters to Philosophy (2015), Moonpaths: Ethics and Emptiness (with the Cowherds, 2015) and (edited, with Jan Westerhoff), Madhyamaka and Yogācāra: Allies or Rivals? (2015).
He is currently working on a book with Yasuo Deguchi, Graham Priest and Robert Sharf, What Can’t Be Said: Paradox and Contradiction in East Asian Philosophy; a book on Hume’s Treatise, The Concealed Operations of Custom: Hume’s Treatise from the Inside Out; a large collaborative project on Geluk-Sakya epistemological debates in 15th- to 18th-century Tibet following on Taktshang Lotsawa’s 18 Great Contradictions in the Thought of Tsongkhapa and empirical research with another team on the impact of religious ideology on attitudes toward death.
For more information on the work of Dr. Jay L. Garfield, please visit: jaygarfield.org
In the recent series of online teachings during the pandemic, His Holiness the Dalai Lama has presented a wide variety of topics from traditional commentaries to discussions with medical professionals, Indian students and educators. In the majority of these online discourses, His Holiness has cited the first verse of Chapter 22 of Nagarjuna's 'Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way.’
This verse reads:
"Neither the aggregates, nor different from the aggregates,
The aggregates are not in him, nor is he in the aggregates.
The Tathagata does not possess the aggregates.
What else is the Tathagata?"
His Holiness has mentioned that he often takes this to refer to himself and reflects on it accordingly:
"I am neither one with the aggregates, nor different from the aggregates,
The aggregates are not in me, nor am I in the aggregates.
I don't possess the aggregates.
What else am I?"
Join Jay L. Garfield as he explores the meaning of this verse, to which His Holiness the Dalai Lama has drawn our attention so frequently in recent years. Prof. Garfield will draw upon Je Tsongkhapa’s commentary on this verse in "Ocean of Reasoning," on the "Questions of King Milinda," and Candrakīrti’s "Introduction to the Middle Way," each of which can be seen as commentaries on this verse.
We encourage you to explore book Ocean of Reasoning: A Great Commentary on Nāgārjuna's Mulamadhyamakakārikā composed by Tsong khapa and translated by Geshe Ngawang Samten and Jay L. Garfield. You can purchase the book here:
https://www.amazon.com/Ocean-Reasoning-Commentary-Nagarjunas-Mulamadhyamakakarika/dp/0195147332
About Jay Garfield
Dr. Jay L. Garfield chairs the Philosophy department and directs Smith’s logic and Buddhist studies programs and the Five College Tibetan Studies in India program. He is also visiting professor of Buddhist philosophy at Harvard Divinity School, professor of philosophy at Melbourne University and adjunct professor of philosophy at the Central University of Tibetan Studies.
Dr. Garfield’s research addresses topics in the foundations of cognitive science and the philosophy of mind; the history of Indian philosophy during the colonial period; topics in ethics, epistemology and the philosophy of logic; methodology in cross-cultural interpretation; and topics in Buddhist philosophy, particularly Indo-Tibetan Madhyamaka and Yogācāra.
Garfield’s most recent books are Minds Without Fear: Philosophy in the Indian Renaissance (with Nalini Bhushan, 2017), Dignāga’s Investigation of the Percept: A Philosophical Legacy in India and Tibet (with Douglas Duckworth, David Eckel, John Powers, Yeshes Thabkhas and Sonam Thakchöe, 2016) Engaging Buddhism: Why it Matters to Philosophy (2015), Moonpaths: Ethics and Emptiness (with the Cowherds, 2015) and (edited, with Jan Westerhoff), Madhyamaka and Yogācāra: Allies or Rivals? (2015).
He is currently working on a book with Yasuo Deguchi, Graham Priest and Robert Sharf, What Can’t Be Said: Paradox and Contradiction in East Asian Philosophy; a book on Hume’s Treatise, The Concealed Operations of Custom: Hume’s Treatise from the Inside Out; a large collaborative project on Geluk-Sakya epistemological debates in 15th- to 18th-century Tibet following on Taktshang Lotsawa’s 18 Great Contradictions in the Thought of Tsongkhapa and empirical research with another team on the impact of religious ideology on attitudes toward death.
For more information on the work of Dr. Jay L. Garfield, please visit: jaygarfield.org