pad+ma'i ngang tshul)[1] (c. 740-795) was an Indian Buddhist monk of Nalanda Mahavihara who accompanied Śāntarakṣita (725–788)[2] to Tibet at the request of Trisong Detsen.

Kamalaśīla was a pivotal figure in the development of Indian Mahayana thought and made a number of original contributions in this field that demonstrated his knowledge of both Buddhist and non-Buddhist philosophies.

[12] It needs to be emphasised that this neat dichotomy in characterisation of these two approaches is only valid for the historical context of the great debate between Kamalaśīla and Moheyan and even then it is still open to dialectic.

The historicity of this debate has been drawn into question by Tucci & Heissig (1970),[13] Gomez (1983)[14] and Ruegg (1992)[15] though this does not lessen its importance in defining the religious and cultural traditions of Tibet.

One hagiography asserts that directly after this debate with Moheyan, as Kamalaśīla was making his way down from the Himalayas to the Indian lowlands, he was incited to enact phowa through compassionate duress, transferring his mindstream to animate a corpse polluted with a dangerous infection and thereby safely moving the hazard it presented to a nearby community.

First of all, however, they taught the ten rules of behaviour of the Buddhist ethics (śīla) and a summary of the teachings according to the canonic Sūtras of the Mahāyāna, as well as the virtuous works of the six pāramitās.

These exercises are supposed to lead, in a long seemingly endless way, to the gradual ascent to the acquisition of higher intellectual abilities finally culminating in Buddhahood.

[21] Though they had different purposes, Kamalaśīla’s three Bhāvanākramas can be regarded as counterparts of Wang Xi’s Dunwu Dasheng zhengli jue reflecting one of the protagonists’ arguments and strategy during the controversy.

All three of the texts overlap with each other and all of them rely on a combination of rational analysis and scriptural citation to establish his understanding of the path of spiritual advancement.

Tibetan sources including the Testimony of Ba hold that Kamalaśīla composed the Madhyamakāloka and the first two Bhāvanākramas in Tibet at the request of Emperor Trisong Detsen and that he personally presented the completed works to him which greatly pleased him.