Nature (Tib. rang bzhin, Skt. svabhava or prakrti) is a topic in many Indian and Tibetan philosophical texts, although its meaning varies considerably in both Hindu and Buddhist scriptures.
The discussion of nature pursued in this book begins with Nagarjuna (first century), founder of the Middle Way School, who refuted a fabricated nature in his Treatise on the Middle. In that seminal text he puts forth the three basic criteria for nature: it must be something that is non-fabricated, independent, and immutable. Nagarjuna does not explain whether he is speaking of an existent nature, but Candrakirti (sixth century), considered by many to be the founder of the Consequence School, explicitly identifies the triply-qualified nature as emptiness, the reality nature.
Dzong-ka-ba (1359-1417) and later Geluk Consequentialists translated in Part Two of this book agree with Candrakirti's identification of the triply-qualified nature of emptiness. This book presents Dzong-ka-ba's discussion of the overly narrow object to be negated in his Great Exposition and relates that discussion to Nagrjuna's verses in Treatise on the Middle. When combined with an understanding of an overly broad object to be negated, this topic brings the Middle Way practitioner to a precise identification of the object to be negated: a thing's establishment by way of its own entity.
This book also presents Dzong-ka-ba's more mainstream commentary on the subject in the Ocean of Reasoning, sections of which are translated in Part Two, and describes Dzong-ka-ba's strong reaction to the positive and independent nature asserted by Tibet's greatest synthesist, Dol-bo Shay-rap-gyel-tsen (fourteenth century).
Nature of Things: Emptiness and Essence in the Geluk World, William Magee, Snow Lion Publications, Paperback, 257 pages, $22.95
has a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from the University of Virginia. He is co-author of Fluent Tibetan: A Proficiency-Oriented Learning. He is the author of the Tibetan Oral Proficiency Exam and its language proficiency guidelines. For the past 12 years William Magee has taught the University of Virginia's internationally famed summer Tibetan language program. Magee currently a teaches at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
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