DESCRIPTION

One of the oldest philosophical questions concerns the relationship between the mental world of ideas and the physical world experienced by the senses. The question is: Are mind and consciousness simply emergent results of the physical world, or is ‘the physical world’ merely an idea entertained by a conscious mind?

LUSB 206 is a series of courses on the ‘consciousness-only’ (vijñaptimātra) teachings of Yogacara Buddhism, an idealistic school of Buddhism that arose in India around the 4th-century AD. The philosophy of this school has come to represent the so-called ‘Third Turning’ (or phase) of the teachings of the Buddha, in which the concept of Emptiness (indicative of the ‘Second Turning’), is taken to the further logical conclusion that the ‘physical world’ is merely a construction of consciousness, similar to, but not the same as, a dream.

Each course in this series is based on a particular commentarial text by Yogacara thinkers such as Asaṅga, Vasubandhu, and Xuanzang.

Primary Reading

The Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra (’The sutra that reveals the hidden meaning’)

Vasubandhu’s Triṃśikā-vijñaptimātratā (‘Thirty Verses on Consciousness Only’)

Vasubandhu’s Trisvabhāva-nirdeśa (’Treatise on the Three Natures’)

Xuanzang’s 成唯識論 (’Demonstration of Consciousness Only’)

Suggested Reading

📖 Lusthaus, Dan.  Buddhist Phenomenology: A Philosophical Investigation of Yogācāra Buddhism and the Ch'eng Wei-shih Lun. (London:  Routledge Curzon,  2002).

📖 Anderson, Reb. The Third Turning of the Wheel: Wisdom of the Samdhinirmocana Sutra. (Rodmell Press, 2012).

PART ONE: Thirty Verses on Consciousness-Only

The first part of this course looks at Vasubandhu’s Triṃśikā-vijñaptimātratā (‘Thirty Verses on Consciousness Only’ by Vasubandhu, considered the foundational commentary on Yogacara philosophy.

SYLLABUS

PART TWO: The Treatise on the Three Natures

The second part of this course looks at Vasubandhu’s Trisvabhāva-nirdeśa (‘Treatise on the Three Natures’) a small treatise in thirty-eight stanzas concentrated entirely upon the teaching of the Three Natures.

SYLLABUS

Translations of the Trisvabhāva-nirdeśa

📖 Thomas E. Wood in Mind Only: A Philosophical and Doctrinal Analysis of Vijnavada (Motilal Banarsidass, 2009)

📖 Stefan Anacker in Seven Works of Vasubandhu: The Buddhist Psychological Doctor (Motilal Banbarsidass, 1984)

📖 F. Tola y C. Dragonetti in Journal of Indian Philosophy 11 (1983) p. 225-266. D. Reidel Publishing Company.

📖 Kochumottom, Thomas A.  A Buddhist Doctrine of Experience: A New Translation and Interpretation of the Works of Vasubandhu the Yogācārin. Delhi:  Motilal Banarsidass, 1982.

Suggested Reading

📖 Ake Boquist, Trisvabhava: A Study of the Development of the Three-nature-theory in Yogacara Buddhism (Lund Studies in African and Asian Religions Vol. 8 Edited by Tord Olsson; 1993)

Additional Reading on Yogacara Buddhism

📖 Anacker, Stefan.  "Vasubandhu: Three Aspects." Ph.D dissertation,  University of Wisconsin,  1969.

📖 Anacker, Stefan.  Seven Works of Vasubandhu. Delhi:  Motilal Banarsidass,  1984.

📖 Cook, Frances H.  Three Texts on Consciousness-only. Berkeley:  Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research,  1999.

📖 Gyatso, Janet. In the Mirror of Memory: Reflections on Mindfulness and Remembrance in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. State University of New York, 1992.

📖 Hirakawa, Akira.  Daijōkishinron. Tokyo:  Daizō shuppan,  1973.

📖 Hopkins, Jeffrey.  Reflections on Reality: The Three Natures and Non-natures in the Mind-Only School. Volume 2, Dynamic Responses to Dzong-ka-ba's The Essence of Eloquence. Berkeley:  University of California Press,  2002.

📖 Hopkins, Jeffrey.  Emptiness in the Mind-Only School of Buddhism, Dynamic Responses to Dzong-ka-ba's The Essence of Eloquence vol. 1, Berkeley:  University of California Press,  1999. Delhi:  Munshiram Manoharlal,  2000.

📖 Hopkins, Jeffrey.  "A Tibetan Contribution on the Question of Mind-Only in the Early Yogic Practice School." Journal of Indian Philosophy. vol. 20, 1992.

📖 Hopkins, Jeffrey.  Maps of the Profound: Jam-yang-shay-ba's Great Exposition of Buddhist and Non-Buddhist Views on the Nature of Reality Ithaca, NY::  Snow Lion Publications,  2003. (Interwoven commentaries on a late seventeenth-century Tibetan presentation of twelve non-Buddhist and four Buddhist schools of philosophy in India.)

📖 Keenan, John P.  "Original Purity and the Focus of early Yogācāra." Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies. vol. 5, 1982. pages 7-18.

📖 Kawamura, Leslie, ed.  The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhism. Canada:  Wilfred Laurier University Press,  1978.

📖 Nguyen, Cuong Tu.  "Wŏnch'uk and the Yogācāra's View on Language." Conference presentation,  Papers of the Annual Meeting of the AAR, November 22-26, 1996 November 1996.

📖 Park, Sung Bae.  "Wŏnhyo's Commentaries on the Awakening of Faith in Mahāyāna." Ph.D. dissertation,  Berkeley:  University of California,  1979.

📖 Park, Sung Bae.  "A Comparative Study of Wŏnhyo and Fa-tsang on the Ta-Ch'eng Ch'i-hsin lun." Che-il hoe Han'gukhak Kukche haksurhoe ŭi nonmunjip. pages 579-97. Sŏngnam:  Academy of Korean Studies,  1979. Paper of the First International Conference of Korean Studies

📖 Park, Sung Bae.  "On Wŏnhyo's Enlightenment." Indogaku bukkyōgaku kenkyū. vol. 29, 1, pages 470-77. Tokyo:  1980.

📖 Paul, Diana Y.  Philosophy of Mind in Sixth-Century China: Paramartha's "Evolution of Consciousness" . Stanford:  Stanford University Press,  1984.

📖 Pruden, Leo.  Abhidharmakośa-bhāṣyam. Berkeley:  Asian Humanities Press,  1988. 5 vols. (This is a translation from the French version done by Vallée Poussin (1931))

📖 Schmithausen, Lambert.  Ālayavijñāna: On the Origin and the Early Development of a Central Concept of Yogācāra Philosophy. Tokyo:  International Institute for Buddhist Studies,  1977. 2 vols. Studia Philologica Buddhica Monograph Series.

📖 Schmithausen, Lambert.  "Some Aspects of the Conception of Ego in Buddhism: Satkāyadṛṣṭi, Asmimāna and Kliṣṭamanas ." Bukkyō-gaku. vol. 7, 1979. pages 1-18.

📖 Schmithausen, Lambert.  "The Definition of pratyakṣam in the Abhidharmasamuccaya." Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens. vol. 16, 1972. pages 153-163.

📖 Schmithausen, Lambert.  "On the Vijñaptimātra Passage in Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra VIII.7.." Studies of Mysticism in Honour of the 1150th Anniversary of Kobo-Daishi's Nirvāṇam, Acta Indologica. vol. 6, 1984. pages 433-455.

📖 Sponberg, Alan.  "Dynamic Liberation in Yogācāra Buddhism." Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies. vol. 2(1), pages 44-64. 1979.

📖 Sponberg, Alan.  Affliction and awakening: Yogacara Buddhism in T'ang China. Fremont, CA:  Jain Publishing Company,  1992.

📖 Tola, Fernando & Carmen Dragonetti, 1983. “The Trisvabhāvakārikā of Vasubandhu,” Journal of Indian Philosophy, 11: 225–266.

📖 Vallée Poussin, Louis de La.  L'Abhidharmakośa de Vasubandhu. Paris:  Geunther,  1923-1931.

📖 Vallée Poussin, Louis de La.  "Le Petit Traite Vasubandhu-Nāgārjuna sur les trois natures (Trisvabhāvanirdeśa)." Mélanges Chinoises et Bouddhiques. vol. 2, 1933. pages 147-161.

📖 Waldron, William S.  The Buddhist Unconscious: The ālaya-vijñāna in the Context of Indian Buddhist Thought. London:  RoutledgeCurzon,  2003.

📖 Willis, Janice Dean. On Knowking Reality: The Tattvartha Chapter of Asangas Bodhisattvabhumi. Columbia University Press, 1979

📖 Wayman, Alex.  The Sarvarahasyatantra. Naritasan Shinshouji 成田山新勝寺,  1984. Acta Indologica.

📖 Wei, Tat, trans.  Ch'eng Wei-Shih Lun: The Doctrine of Mere-Consciousness. Hong Kong:  Ch'eng Wei-shih Lun Publication Committee,  1973.

📖 Weinstein, Stanley.  "The Ālaya-vijñāna in Early Yogācāra Buddhism—a Comparison of the Meaning in the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra and Vijñapti-mātratā-siddhi of Dharmapāla." Transactions of the International Conference of Orientalists in Japan. pages 46-58. Tokyo:  Toho Gakkai,  1958.

📖 Yamabe, Nobuyoshi.  "Bīja Theory in the Viniścayasaṃgrahaṇī." Indogaku bukkyōgaku kenkyū. vol. 38-2, pages 929-31. 1990.

📖 Yamabe, Nobuyoshi.  "The Idea of Dhātu-vāda in Yogācāra and Tathāgatagarbha Texts." Pruning the Bodhi Tree: The Storm over Critical Buddhism. pages 193-204. Honolulu:  University of Hawaii Press,  1997.