Dr John Powers: A Radical Vision of the Middle Way: Wanchuk Dorje’s Madhyamaka

Dr John Powers will be teaching on ‘A Radical Vision of the Middle Way: Wanchuk Dorje’s Madhyamaka’ at the 40th Annual Buddhist Summer School 2023.

In his “Concise Compendium of the Middle Way”, Wanchuk Dorje, the ninth Karmapa, presents a radical interpretation of Madhyamaka. According to the Karmapa, Mādhyamikas who correctly understand their tradition do not make any assertions in any contexts. They do not even accept that they assert nothing. When engaged in Madhyamaka work, they only refute the wrong views of others but present none of their own. In this, he follows Nāgārjuna’s assertion in Refutation of Objections: “I have no thesis”. Other Mādhyamikas refuse to take Nāgārjuna at his word and interpret him as implying that he has “no inherently existent thesis” or “no thesis that can be put into words” or other formulations. But Wangchuk Dorje develops the ramifications of a positionless approach to philosophy, and he believes that this is what Nāgārjuna intended. Furthermore, the Karmapa presents this as the ultimate stance of Mahāmudrā. Only those who completely abandon attempts to present theories can comprehend ultimate reality. This talk will explore the context in which Wangchuk Dorje wrote and how he develops his uncompromising vision of Madhyamaka.

Dr John Powers is an expert in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities. He is the author of 18 books and more than 100 articles, spanning a wide range of topics including Buddhist philosophy and soteriology, Chinese government propaganda on Tibetan Buddhism, gender, and human rights. He currently holds a joint appointment in the University of Melbourne’s Contemplative Studies Centre and the School of Historical and Philosophical Research.

The 40th Annual Buddhist Summer School
14 - 17 January 2023
Online and at Maitripa Centre

Learn more and register to attend at: https://evaminstitute.org/event/save-...