Shantarakshita's Madhyamakalamkara is a condensed presentation of later India "Middle Way" philosophy and is structured around one recurring theme, namely, the impossibility of entities being consistently analyzable as either single individuals (i.e., wholes) or plural comsposites (parts). In contrast to Shantarakshita's encyclopedic and multifaceted treatment of Indian philosophy in his well-known Tattvasamgraha, the tour de force of his Madhyamakalamkara is to see all the seemingly diverse Buddhist and non-Buddhist ontoligies as hinging on failed attempts to solve part-whole problems.

The philosophy of this Indian master, and that of his disciple, Kamalasila, has inspired thinkers from all the major indigenous schools in Tibet, one of the most important issues for Tibetans being how and where this so-called "Yogacara-Svatantrika" philosophy is to be situated in the hierarchy of Indian Buddhist schools. Some of the best philosophy in Tibet has been done on precisely this question.
Includes the Tibetan text.

Speech of Delight , Shantarakshita, Ju Mipham Rinpoche, Thomas Doctor (Tr.), Snow Lion, Hardcover, 778 pp., $39.95

Shantarakshita is one of several Indian Buddhist adepts whose philosophical treatises were brought to Tibet before 1200 C.E. and whose realised teachings about the nature of the mind are the foundations of Tibetan Buddhist thought.

Ju Mipham Rinpoche (1864-1912) was a great master of the Nyingma lineage of Tibetan buddhism and one of the leading figures in the Ri-me (non-sectarian) movement in Tibet.