Absorption in No External World 170 Issues in Mind-Only Buddhism

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ISBN: 9781559392419 | 155939241X
Cover: Hardcover
Copyright: 1/3/2006

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This book offers a fascinating exploration of how provocative issues about reality are refined and debated by Tibetan scholar-practitioners.

Preface

Technical Notes

xxiii

PART ONE: Background

(22)

1. Monastic Inquiry

(7)

Techniques of Analysis

(3)

The Characters of the Drama

(3)

2. The Essence Is Emptiness

(9)

The Title: The Essence of Eloquence

(5)

Issue #1: What is "eloquence"? What is "the essence"?

(1)

Issue #2: Is emptiness the essence of both Sara and Mantra?

(2)

Issue #3: What else could the title mean?

(2)

Promise of Composition and Exhortation to Listen

(4)

Issue #4: Who are those the author indicates he surpassed?

(2)

Issue #5: Why exhort the audience to listen?

(2)

3. God of Wisdom and God of Gods

(4)

The Homages: Points of Clarification

(6)

Issue #6: Is Brahma egg-born?

(1)

Issue #7: How could Brahma appear first when this world system formed?

(3)

PART TWO: The Question

(124)

4. Identifying First-Wheel Teachings

(25)

The Sutra Unraveling the Thought

(4)

Issue #8: Why does Wonch'uk's version of the sutra have eight chapters and the Tibetan version have ten?

(1)

Issue #9: Why leave out the fourth chapter?

(2)

The Question

(1)

The First Wheel

(21)

Issue #10: Just what are first-wheel sutras?

(2)

Issue #11: Do passages teaching the entity also teach the attributes?

(1)

Issue #12: Does any passage merely teach the production of form?

(2)

Issue #13: How to take Wonch'uk's two explanations of abandonment and thorough knowledge?

(2)

Issue #14: Just what are the four foods?

(2)

Issue #15: Are these sutras deceptive?

(1)

Issue #16: What are the various and manifold constituents?

(3)

Issue #17: Why are the eighteen and the six constituents singled out when there are many sets of constituents?

(4)

Issue #18: How can redundancy be avoided in the last two attributes?

(1)

Issue #19: Do all first-wheel sutras teach the four noble truths?

(2)

Issue #20: Do not any and all instances of Buddha's word teach the four noble truths?

(2)

5. Probing the Implications

(24)

Issue #21: What does "aggregates and so forth" mean?

(5)

Issue #22: Is Paramarthasamudgata concerned with the teaching of just compounded phenomena in the first wheel?

(1)

Issue #23: When the eighteen constituents are taught, are the one hundred eight phenomena taught?

(1)

Issue #24: Can this topic be trivialized?

(2)

Issue #25: Does the first wheel teach the actual four noble truths?

(1)

Issue #26: Does the second wheel explicitly teach the actual twenty emptinesses on the literal level?

(1)

Own-Character

(15)

Issue #27: Does "own-character" mean established by way of its own character?

(4)

Issue #28: Does non-deceptiveness require being literally acceptable?

(8)

Issue #29: Can Gung-ru Chö-jung and Jam-yang-shay-ba's faux pas of citing a passage that proves the opposite point be explained away?

(1)

Issue #30: Does the middle wheel teach that phenomena are not established by way of their own character?

(2)

6. Other Views on Own-Character

(33)

Jay-dzün Chö-gyi-gyel-tsen's Position

(10)

Issue #31: Can the teaching of establishment by way of its own character also teach something else?

(1)

Issue #32: Do the schools following the first wheel assert that uncompounded phenomena are established by way of their own character?

(4)

Issue #33: How about fiddling with the subject rather than the predicate?

(1)

Issue #34: Can the words and the meaning be split?

(2)

Pan-chen Sö-nam-drak-ba's Position

(6)

Issue #35: Can the teaching of establishment by way of its own character also teach externality?

(1)

Issue #36: Could the first wheel teach that true cessations are truly established?

(3)

Issue #37: What to do with the middle wheel?

(1)

Issue #38: Are the literal level and the explicit teaching to be distinguished?

(1)

Review

(1)

Overview of "Own-Character"

(8)

Issue #39: Could "own-character" mean the unique defining character of an object?

(3)

Issue #40: Could "own-character" mean the capacity to perform a function?

(1)

Issue #41: Could "own-character" mean objective establishment?

(1)

Issue #42: Could "own-character" mean establishment without depending on imputation by terms and conceptual consciousnesses?

(1)

Issue #43: Could "own-character" mean establishment by way of its own character as the referent of a conceptual consciousness?

(1)

Forging Consistency

(3)

Issue #44: How to make Dzong-ka-ba say something else?

(3)

Implications

102

(3)

Issue #45: What does the first wheel say and teach?

102

(2)

Issue #46: Is Buddha's speech correct when teaching a non-existent?

104

(1)

Issue #47: How to make a mess out of what were, up until now, evocative distinctions?

104

(1)

Comment

105

(2)

7. Wonch'uk: Refutation and Revival

107

(11)

Wonch'uk's Identification

107

(8)

Issue #48: Could "own-character" mean an object's unique character?

107

(8)

Apologetic

115

(3)

8. Creating Consistency

118

(15)

Issue #49: How to make Dzong-ka-ba say what you want him to say?

118

(7)

Issue #50: Why single out imputational natures?

125

(3)

Issue #51: Does anyone assert such own-character?

128

(2)

Conclusion on "Own-Character"

130

(3)

9. Finishing the Question

133

(14)

Issue #52: Does the Sutra explicitly teach both types of emptiness?

133

(6)

Issue #53: How to pretend that the two textbook authors of Go-mang are saying the same thing?

139

(3)

The Middle Wheel

142

(7)

Issue #54: What does the denial of establishment by way of its own character mean in the middle wheel?

142

(1)

Issue #55: How can Dzong-ka-ba be made to say this?

142

(1)

Issue #56: Why does Paramarthasamudgata explicitly ask only about the middle wheel?

143

(4)

PART THREE: Buddha's Answer

147

(284)

10. Interpretation

149

(21)

The Answer

149

(21)

Issue #57: Does the brief indication explicitly team the three natures with the three non-natures?

150

(1)

Issue #58: What was the basis in Buddha's thought for the first-wheel teaching of own-character?

151

(1)

Issue #59: What is the structure of the extensive explanation?

152

(3)

Issue #60: What does Dzong-ka-ba mean by "clear delineation"?

155

(1)

Issue #61: How to handle an untimely citation?

156

(2)

Issue #62: But why does Dzong-ka-ba associate the three natures and the three non-natures here?

158

(1)

Issue #63: What is the Jo-nang-ba view that Dzong-ka-ba is opposing?

158

(6)

Issue #64: Do the Jo-nang-bas hold that the middle wheel teaches the actual ultimate?

164

(2)

Issue #65: Do the Jo-nang-bas actually hold that the primordial wisdom consciousness is both permanent and an effective thing?

166

(4)

11. Other-Powered Natures

170

(21)

Overview of Other-Powered Natures

170

(1)

Production-Non-Nature

170

(21)

Issue #66: What is the nature of production that other-powered natures lack?

170

(1)

Issue #67: Why would anyone think that the nature in terms of production that other-powered natures lack is "production from other-powered natures"?

171

(1)

Issue #68: Could the nature of production that other-powered natures lack be production from self?

172

(3)

Issue #69: Is the nature of production that other-powered natures lack production that is inherently existent?

175

(1)

Issue #70: Is the nature of production that other-powered natures lack production that is established by way of its own character?

175

(1)

Issue #71: What does "phenomena" mean?

176

(1)

Issue #72: Could the other-powered nature of a permanent phenomenon be the valid consciousness apprehending it?

176

(5)

Issue #73: Are all phenomena included in the three natures?

181

(2)

Issue #74: How do other tenet systems identify the production-nonnature?

183

(4)

Issue #75: How to take Dzong-ka-ba's own loose usage of terminology in the midst of his strict distinctions?

187

(2)

Issue #76: Does "production-non-nature" mean non-nature of production?

189

(1)

Issue #77: Can this grammatical distinction be extended to the other two non-natures?

190

(1)

12. Imputational Natures

191

(29)

Overview of Imputational Natures

191

(1)

Character-Non-Nature: The Subject

191

(1)

Issue #78: Do proponents of the Sutra School realize that being the

Referent of a conceptual consciousness is not established by way of its own character?

191

(26)

Issue #79: How to claim that, when Dzong-ka-ba says "being the referent," he means "superimposed factor"?

194

(2)

Issue #80: Is being the referent itself an imputational nature?

196

(1)

Issue #81: How to avoid the fault that Proponents of Sutra could realize that the relevant imputational nature is not established by way of its own character?

196

(2)

Issue #82: How to read Jam-yang-shay-ba's reducing Gung-ru Chö-jung's dual subject to a single one?

198

(1)

Issue #83: How many relevant imputational natures are there?

198

(3)

Issue #84: How can the path of purification be one if practitioners of the Low and Great Vehicles meditate on different thoroughly established natures?

201

(3)

Issue #85: How to get around Dzong-ka-ba's speaking of imputational phenomena as if they were the imputational natures relevant here?

204

(2)

Issue #86: 'What do the lower schools realize about the three natures?

206

(2)

Issue #87: How to quibble against identifying the explicitly indicated imputational nature as "factor imputed in the manner of entity and attribute"?

208

(1)

Issue #88: Do the imputational natures indicated here only exist or only not exist?

209

(2)

Issue #89: How is an appearance relevant to positing emptiness?

211

(1)

Issue #90: How to twist Dzong-ka-ba's clear suggestion that the relevant imputational nature is non-existent into allowing for an existent appearance?

212

(2)

Issue #91: Does the relevant have to exist?

214

(1)

Issue #92: Is it being refuted that a conceptual appearance is established by way of its own character?

215

(1)

Issue #93: Does thinking "This is a pot" involve error?

216

(1)

Flexibility

217

(3)

13. Entering the Maze

220

(26)

Issue #94: Do the "own-character" of the question and the "character-nature" of the answer have the same meaning?

220

(2)

Issue #95: Is a character-non-nature an emptiness?

222

(4)

Issue #96: What extra understanding is gained by taking a superimposed factor or appearance as the subject?

226

(3)

Issue #97: Is there a source in the Sutra Unraveling the Thought for this?

229

(2)

Issue #98: If a pot's establishment by way of its own character is not to be refuted, why should a superimposed factor's establishment by way of its own character be refuted? Or, is it amazing if a bird can fly?

231

(1)

Issue #99: How to explain away Jam-yang-shay-ba's inconsistencies?

232

(3)

Issue #100: Could the imputational factor be both the nature of character and the character-non-nature?

235

(4)

Issue #101: Are the three natures and the three non-natures equivalent?

239

(2)

Issue #102: Does the extensive explanation of imputational natures' character-non-nature delineate the thoroughly established nature?

241

(1)

Issue #103: Could the character-non-nature explicitly taught in the brief indication be emptiness but the character-non-nature explicitly taught in the extensive explanation be an imputational nature?

242

(2)

Looking Back

244

(2)

14. Review: Two Riddles

246

(27)

The First Riddle

246

(11)

"Answer" of the Go-mang Tradition

249

(3)

A Few Comments

252

(2)

Another "Answer"

254

(3)

The Second Riddle

257

(14)

The "Answer" of the Go-mang Tradition

261

(6)

Another "Answer"

267

(4)

The Import

271

(2)

15. Posited by Names and Terminology

273

(16)

Issue #104: In "posited by names and terminology" is "terminology" not redundant?

273

(1)

Issue #105: What does Dzong-ka-ba mean when he says that some imputational natures are only imputed by conceptuality but are not posited by names and terminology?

273

(3)

Gung-tang's Refutation of Others' Explanations

276

(13)

Issue #106: Are non-existent imputational natures only imputed by conceptuality?

277

(2)

Issue #107: Does something's being posited by names and terminology entail that its appearance to the mind depends upon language? Or, does a bullock see space?

279

(4)

Issue #108: Is any existent posited by (only) names and terminology?

283

(2)

Issue #109: Is what is posited by only names and terminology an object of comprehension of an inference of renown?

285

(4)

16. Probing Establishment by Way of Its Own Character

289

(18)

One Mode of Conception Containing but Not Being Another

289

(5)

Issue #110: Can a wrong consciousness also be right?

289

(5)

Summation

294

(3)

Issue #111: Could Dzong-ka-ba's statement be taken another way?

296

(1)

Issue #112: When does a person have both of these conceptions?

297

(1)

Established by Way of Its Own Character

297

(10)

Issue #113: According to the Sara School are all phenomena established by way of their own character?

297

(1)

Issue #114: What does "established by way of its own character" mean in the Mind-Only School?

298

(1)

Issue #115: Could "established by way of its own character" mean established through the force of its own measure of subsistence?

299

(1)

Issue #116: Could any meaning of "established by way of its own character" meet the criteria it must satisfy?

300

(7)

17. Enforcing Consistency

307

(20)

Issue #117: Does Dzong-ka-ba slip up when he identifies the "nature of character" as inherent existence?

307

(3)

Issue #118: Does Jam-yang-shay-ba slip up when he identifies the "nature of character" as inherent existence?

310

(1)

Issue #119: What does Dzong-ka-ba mean when he says that according to the Mind-Only School all phenomena are established by way of their own character?

311

(2)

Issue #120: What does Dharmakirti mean when he says that all objects are specifically characterized phenomena?

313

(1)

Issue #121: When Dzong-ka-ba suggests that in the Sara School existent imputational natures are established by way of their own character as the referents of their respective conceptual consciousnesses, what does "established by way of their own character" mean?

314

(2)

Issue #122: In the Mind-Only School are imputational natures established from their own side as the referents of conceptual consciousnesses? Tell me it isn't true!

316

(1)

Issue #123: Do Proponents of Sara realize that imputational natures are not established by way of their own character?

317

(2)

Issue #124: Don't Proponents of Sara realize that imputational natures are imputational natures?

319

(1)

Issue #125: What is "the self-isolate of the conceived object of a conceptual consciousness"? How to handle a cryptic passage?

320

(4)

Issue #126: How to keep Dzong-ka-ba from contradicting one's own exposition of his system?

324

(1)

Concluding Remark

325

(2)

18. The First Ultimate-Non-Nature

327

(23)

Other-Powered Natures as Ultimate-Non-Natures

327

(4)

Issue #127: Is another-powered nature's ultimate-non-nature an actual ultimate-non-nature?

330

(1)

Issue #128: If there are two modes of positing the ultimate-nonnature, are there two modes of ultimate-non-nature?

331

(1)

The Qualm

331

(19)

Issue #129: Since existent imputational natures, such as uncompounded space, are also not final objects of observation of a path of purification, why are they too not called ultimate-nonnatures? Why does Buddha single out other-powered natures?

331

(2)

Issue #130: Does the qualm stem from the fact that other-powered natures are observed in the process of realizing their emptiness and thus might seem to be final objects of observation of a path of purification?

333

(2)

Issue #131: Or, is this a qualm that Autonomists and Consequentialists would have?

335

(2)

Issue #132: Does the qualm stem from the fact that other-powered natures are established by way of their own character?

337

(1)

Issue #133: Does the qualm stem from the fact that the Sutra teaches that other-powered natures are bases of emptiness?

338

(1)

Issue #134: Does the qualm arise in practitioners of the Mind-Only view?

339

(2)

Issue #135: Is there no qualm that the non-existent imputational nature negated in selflessness might be the final object of observation by a path of purification?

341

(1)

Issue #136: Is it that other-powered natures are the main basis of the debate about true existence between the Proponents of Mind-Only and the Proponents of the Middle?

342

(1)

Issue #137: Is there less qualm or no qualm that imputational natures are ultimate-non-natures?

343

(4)

Issue #138: Is a qualm a doubt?

347

(3)

19. Ramifications

350

(33)

Existent Imputational Natures as Bases of Emptiness

350

(12)

Issue #139: If the three natures include all phenomena, uncompounded space?

350

(4)

Issue #140: Is there an actual other-powered nature of uncompounded space?

354

(5)

Issue #141: Is the real nature of an imputational nature not an emptiness?

359

(1)

Issue #142: Does the real nature of uncompounded space fulfill the meaning of a real nature?

360

(1)

Issue #143: Since uncompounded space is not truly established but its emptiness is, why does Dzong-ka-ba say that if the real nature of an object is truly established, the object also must be truly established?

360

(2)

Jam-yang-shay-ba's Refutation of Gung-ru Chö-jung

362

(11)

Issue #144: Do Solitary Realizers comprehend that objects are not established by way of their own character as the referents of their respective conceptual consciousnesses?

362

(5)

Issue #145: Do beings innately misconceive true cessations to be external objects?

367

(5)

Issue #146: Do Proponents of Sara assert that external objects are truly established?

372

(1)

Meditating on the Emptiness of Emptiness

373

(10)

Issue #147: Are thoroughly established natures empty of the imputational nature that is the self of phenomena? If so, is the thoroughly established nature the mode of being of the thoroughly established nature? Is emptiness the mode of being of emptiness?

373

(1)

Issue #148: Is emptiness the object found by a wisdom consciousness realizing the emptiness of emptiness?

374

(1)

Issue #149: What is the object found by a totally non-dualistic consciousness directly realizing the emptiness of emptiness?

375

(2)

Issue #150: Is emptiness ever a conventional truth?

377

(2)

Issue #151: If a thoroughly established nature is not its own ultimate, should a thoroughly established nature be posited as an ultimatenon-nature?

379

(2)

Issue #152: Oddity of oddities, could an other-powered nature's ultimate-non-nature be an emptiness?

381

(2)

20. Two Ultimate-Non-Natures

383

(41)

Overview of Thoroughly Established Natures

383

(1)

The Selflessness of Persons

384

(49)

Issue #153: Is the selflessness of persons an actual ultimate-nonnature?

384

(8)

Issue #154: Is the selflessness of persons an emptiness?

392

(3)

Issue #155: If the selflessness of persons is not an actual thoroughly established nature, is it an imputational nature?

395

(2)

Issue #156: How to deal with Ke-drup's statement that the selflessness of persons is not an ultimate truth?

397

(2)

Issue #157: Does any Buddhist school assert that the conception of a permanent, unitary, independent person is innate?

399

(1)

Issue #158: What is the "generality-isolate of the selflessness of persons"?

400

(1)

Issue #159: Has someone who has realized the coarse selflessness of persons realized the selflessness of persons?

401

(1)

Issue #160: Why do Chandrakirti, Ke-drup, and Dzong-ka-ba speak of other Buddhist schools as asserting what is only a coarse selflessness of persons?

402

(6)

Issue #161: Is the basis of a division into a coarse and subtle selflessness of persons a selflessness of persons undifferentiated into coarse and subtle?

408

(1)

Issue #162: Is a selflessness of persons a thoroughly established nature but not an ultimate truth?

409

(2)

Issue #163: Why does Ke-drup say that a selflessness of persons is an other-powered nature?

411

(4)

Issue #164: Is a reasoning consciousness realizing the selflessness of persons a reasoning consciousness that has found the ultimate?

415

(3)

Issue #165: Is the selflessness of persons the mode of subsistence of persons?

418

(2)

Issue #166: Is the selflessness of persons an element of attributes?

420

(2)

Issue #167: How to deal with Ke-drup's contradictions?

422

(2)

21. Comparing Schools on the Three Non-Natures

424

(7)

Issue #168: How do the Mind-Only, Autonomy, and Consequence schools take the three non-natures?

424

(3)

Issue #169: What do "ultimate" and "nature" mean in the two ultimate-non-natures?

427

(2)

Issue #170: Since external objects are thoroughly negated, how do Buddhas—who have removed all predispositions giving rise to appearances—perceive their own extraordinary bodies and perceive suffering sentient beings?

429

(2)

PART FOUR: Differentiating Scriptures

431

(32)

22. Strategies for Interpretation

433

(30)

Interpretation in the Great Vehicle Schools

434

(1)

Four Reliances

435

(1)

Four Reasonings

435

(1)

Four Thoughts

435

(1)

Four Indirect Intentions

436

(3)

Principal Fourfold Mode of Interpretation in The Essence of Eloquence

439

(18)

The Basis in Buddha's Thought in the First Wheel of Doctrine

441

(3)

The Purpose of the First Wheel of Doctrine

444

(1)

Damage to the Explicit Teaching of the First Wheel of Doctrine

445

(2)

The Thought of the First Wheel of Doctrine

447

(1)

Basis in Buddha's Thought in the Middle Wheel of Doctrine

448

(3)

The Purpose of the Middle Wheel of Doctrine

451

(1)

Damage to the Literal Teaching of the Middle Wheel of Doctrine

452

(3)

The Though: of the Middle Wheel of Doctrine

455

(1)

How to Explain the Teaching of One Final Vehicle?

456

(1)

Definitions of the Interpretable and the Definitive

457

(6)

Appendix: Wonch'uk's Influence in Tibet

463

(30)

1. References to Wonch'uk in Dzong-ka-ba's The Essence of Eloquence

465

(18)

2. References to Wonch'uk by Ge-luk-ba Scholars Other Than Dzong-ka-ba

483

(10)

Backnotes

493

(16)

Glossary

509

(28)

List of Abbreviations

537

(2)

Bibliography

539

(20)

1. Sutras and Tantras

539

(1)

2. Other Sanskrit and Tibetan Works

540

(16)

3. Other Works

556

(3)

Index

559

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Absorption in No External World 170 Issues in Mind-Only Buddhism

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials