Mipham’s Dialectics and the Debates on Emptiness: To Be, Not to Be or Neither

The book begins with an Introduction that frames emptiness as one of the most important and debated philosophical ideas in Buddhism, explaining its relevance to ontology, soteriology, meditative practice, and Indo-Tibetan scholastic controversy. Chapter 1, “Emptiness: its soteriological, doctrinal, ontological and historical significance in Buddhism,” presents emptiness through key dimensions such as non-self, Prajñāpāramitā, dependent origination, definitive meaning, ultimate truth, nirvāṇa, and Madhyamaka philosophy. Chapter 2, “The big fuss about Emptiness,” outlines the historical development of debates on emptiness from India to Tibet, including controversies before Nāgārjuna, later Tibetan debates, post-Tsongkhapa discussions, and Mipham’s role in later controversies. Chapter 3, “What is negated by ultimate analysis?” studies the delimitation of the Madhyamaka negandum, addressing what exactly is rejected in ultimate analysis and how Mipham challenges Gelukpa formulations. Chapter 4, “The fully empty,” presents Mipham’s theory of ultimate reality, including two-truth theories, the nature of negation, the two ultimates, coalescence, the Middle Way, and the elimination of extremes. Chapter 5, “Is Emptiness knowable and effable?” investigates whether emptiness can be known, conceptualized, spoken of, or meditated upon, including discussions of non-conceptuality, grasping, and the limits of language. The work concludes with remarks, appendices, extensive notes, bibliography, and indices, making it a rigorous scholarly resource for advanced study of Tibetan Madhyamaka.