Bhāviveka, also called Bhavya or Bhāvaviveka was a sixth-century Madhyamaka Buddhist. In Tibetan Buddhism Bhāviveka is regarded as the founder of the Svātantrika tradition of the Mādhyamaka school of Buddhism, which is seen as antagonistic to Prāsaṅgika Madhyamaka.
Biography
The life details of Bhaviveka are unclear. He likely lived in early 6th centurynorth India. This, states Malcolm Eckel, was a period of "unusual creativity and ferment in the history of Indian Buddhist philosophy", when the Mahayana Buddhism movement was emerging as a "vigorous and self-conscious intellectual force" while early Buddhist traditions from the eighteen schools opposed this Mahayana movement. Bhaviveka is notable in the Indian tradition for his inclusivist comments. He equated the Buddha's Dharma body with the Upanishadic concept of ultimate reality called Brahman, but this view does not imply that he was a Vedantist or that he viewed Buddhism and Vedanta to be the same. In his writings he comments on early Vedanta, and also addresses Hinayana accusations that Mahayana Buddhists are "crypto-Vedantins".
Svātantrika school
Bhāviveka is retrospectively considered by the Tibetan tradition to be the founder of the Svatantrika tradition within Buddhism. Tibetan doxographers divided the Madhyamaka philosophy of Nāgārjuna into Svātantrika and Prāsaṅgika. This manner of division has been retroactively applied in Tibetan monasteries, and commonly found in modern secondary literature on Madhyamaka. However, according to Dreyfus and McClintock, such a classification is problematic and was not used in India, where instead the "Svatantrika and Prasangika" schools were camped together then contrasted with "Santaraksita and Kamalasila" schools of Madhyamaka Buddhism. The former accepted "external objects exist", while the latter camp accepted "external objects do not exist". The Svatantrika versus Prasangika sub-schools may have been an 11th–12th century innovation of the Tibetan translator "Patsab Nyima Drakpa" while he was translating a Sanskrit text by Candrakirti into Tibetan. According to Emmanuel this distinction has been discussed with the Prasangika school of Buddhapalita and Candrakirti, and by 11th–century Buddhist scholars.
Role of reasoning
In the Svātantrika tradition, reasoning is used to further explain that phenomena have no self-nature, and further arguments to establish that the true nature of all phenomena is emptiness. This school differs from the predominant Prasaṅgika tradition in that the latter refrains from making any assertions whatsoever about the true nature of phenomena. The Padmakara Translation Group convey a respected philosophical legacy, a dialectical :wikt:chicane|chicane inaugurated by Bhāviveka: In the above quotation, "tetralemma" should be understood to refer to the catuṣkoṭi. "Nonimplicative negation" may also be rendered as "existential negation". "Implicative negative" may also be rendered "predicative negation".
''Madhyamakahṛdaya-karika'' and its autocommentary, the ''Tarkajvala''
Bhavya wrote an independent work on the Madhyamaka entitled the Madhyamakahrdaya-karika which Bhavya in turn wrote an autocommentary upon entitled the Tarkajvala. His text Madhyamakahrdayakārikā and his commentary Tarkajvālā therein, states Malcolm Eckel, provide a "unique and authoritative account of the intellectual differences that stirred the Buddhist community in this creative period".
''Prajñāpradīpa'' (or ''Janāndeepa'')
The Prajñāpradīpa is Bhāviveka's commentary upon Nagarjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. The Sanskrit is no longer extant but according to Ames is available in both an excellent Tibetan translation, rendered by Jñānagarbha and Cog ro Klu'i rgyal mtshan in the early 9th century. Ames also conveyed that the Chinese translation is poor, where the inference of inferiority was drawn from the work of Kajiyama. The Sanskrit name has been reconstructed as either Prajñāpradīpa or Janāndeepa. According to Ames, Bhāviveka was one of the first Buddhist logicians to employ the "formal syllogism" of Indian logic in expounding the Mādhyamaka which he employed to considerable effect in his commentary to Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, entitled the Prajñāpradīpa.
''Wisdom Lamp'' (''Prajñāpradīpa'')
After the death of Buddhapālita, Bhāviveka refuted his views by writing a commentary on the Root Wisdom called Wisdom Lamp relying on Nāgārjuna's teachings. This text laid the foundations for the Svātantrika school.
