精神修養としての中観哲学

In recent years, there have been active attempts, especially among Western scholars, to view Buddhist philosophy as a form of spiritual exercises (exercices spirituels), following the footsteps of Pierre Hadot in his study of ancient Greek philosophy. This study is aimed at identifying elements of spiritual exercises in the Indo-Tibetan Madhyamaka philosophy. Its special focuses are on Atiśa’s Madhyamakopadeśa, the Bka’ brgyud pa’s treatises on “inquiry of the mind” (sems ’tshol), and the Dge lugs pa’s lta khrid literature.
Most notable in Atiśa’s Madhyamakopadeśa is its emphasis on the investigation of the mind, which is reminiscent of the teachings of the Mahāvairocanābhisaṁbodhi and the Bodhicittavivaran. a, and which later developed into the Tibetan theory of practice known as dbu ma’i lta khrid (“a guidance on the Madhyamaka view”). Atiśa describes the method of observing the true nature of the mind, which is not reducible to material elements, thereby ceasing conceptual thought and attaining non-conceptual wisdom. His method has affinities with the teachings of Mahāmudrā, which originated with Saraha and was passed down to the Bka’ brgyud pa practitioners. It was Tsong kha pa who opposed the Bka’ brgyud pa’s quietist theory, which was popular in Tibet during his period. He developed a new theory of spiritual exercise centering on analytical thinking. According to the theory advocated by Tsong kha pa and his successors of the Dge lugs pa, a practitioner must first identify the notion of ego, then negate the substantiality of ego by reasoning, and sustain the ascertaining consciousness while concentrating on emptiness, which is characterized as the mere absence (med dgag) of substantiality. Tsong kha pa and his successors reveal how a practitioner gradually overcomes his fear of emptiness in the process of entering into and arising out of meditative equipoise, and how he captures the compatibility of manifestation and emptiness.
Even if the acceptance or rejection of quietism is a major point of contention in Tibetan Madhyamaka philosophy, there is no doubt that the essential qualities of spiritual exercises, which Pierre Hadot defines as “a voluntary, personal practice, intended to bring about a transformation of the individual, a transformation of the self,” are universally observed there. The concept of spiritual exercise is indispensable in order to properly grasp the essence of the Madhyamaka philosophy.