Vāda

vāda [alt. vivāda] (T. rtsod pa). Debate, argument, dispute, conflict, fighting, strife, quarrel.

In Buddhist scholasticism, vāda refers to a formal philosophical debate. Formal debates were emphasized in later stage Indian Buddhism and in Tibetan Buddhism. The history of Indian Buddhism includes many accounts of debates between Buddhist and non-Buddhist scholars. In Tibetan Buddhism, the skill of formal debating is emphasized in the monastic university curriculum.

Vāda is identified as:

• one of the three activities of a learned one
• one of the sixteen categories of the Nyaya school

Jan Westerhoff states:

During the course of a debate, which is caused by a disagreement or doubt regarding a specific subject matter, the two contestants will present their reasons for the establishment of the thesis and the antithesis, respectively. The debate is concluded when the defense of one position is judged to be victorious, which then leads to the determination or resolution of the question that the initial doubt was concerned with.

Sources

• Nagarjuna; Westerhoff, Jan (2018), Crushing the Categories (Vaidalyaprakarana), Wisdom Publications 

Further Reading

• Georges Dreyfus, The Sound of Two Hands Clapping: The Education of a Tibetan Buddhist Monk, University of California Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0520232594
• Dan Perdue, Debate in Tibetan Buddhism, Ithaca: Snow Lion, 1992, ISBN 978-0937938768
• Katherine Manchester Rogers, Tibetan Logic, Ithaca: Snow Lion, 2009, ISBN 978-1559393157
• Daniel Perdue, The Course in Buddhist Reasoning and Debate: An Asian Approach to Analytical Thinking Drawn from Indian and Tibetan Sources, Snow Lion, 2014, ISBN 978-1-55939-421-5

External links

• Debate, Rigpa Shedra Wiki