Candrakīrti on the Use and Misuse of the Chariot Argument
Journal of Indian Philosophy June 15, 2023 Dhivan Thomas Jones
Candrakīrti's Madhyamakāvatāra (MA) chapter 6, published in 2015 from a rediscovered Sanskrit text, offers a critique of the Indian Abhidharmic 'chariot argument' for the merely conventional existence of the self. In verses 140–141, Candrakīrti alludes to the Milindapañha's use of the chariot argument as negating only a permanent self (compared to an elephant), not ego-identification (compared to a snake in its hole). In verses 150–165, he uses the chariot argument as an allegory for a sevenfold meditation that refutes the basis of ego-identification. This use does not establish a theory of self or not-self but guides meditation as part of philosophy as a spiritual practice aimed at liberation.