Madhyamaka and Yogacara: Allies or Rivals?

by Jay L. Garfield (Editor), Jan Westerhoff (Editor)

Overview

Madhyamaka and Yogacara are the two principal schools of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy. While Madhyamaka asserts the ultimate emptiness and conventional reality of all phenomena, Yogacara is usually considered to be idealistic. This collection of essays addresses the degree to which these philosophical approaches are consistent or complementary.

Indian and Tibetan doxographies often take these two schools to be philosophical rivals. They are grounded in distinct bodies of sutra literature and adopt what appear to be very different positions regarding the analysis of emptiness and the status of mind. Madhyamaka-Yogacara polemics abound in Indian Buddhist literature, and Tibetan doxographies regard them as distinct systems. Nonetheless, scholars have tried to synthesize the two positions for centuries. This volume offers new essays by prominent experts on both these traditions, who address the question of the degree to which these philosophical approaches should be seen as rivals or as allies. In answering the question of whether Madhyamaka and Yogacara can be considered compatible, contributors engage with a broad range of canonical literature, and relate the texts to contemporary philosophical problems.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190231293
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	04/13/2015
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Jay L. Garfield is Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Professor of Humanities and Head of Studies in Philosophy at Yale-NUS College, Professor of Philosophy at the National University of Singapore, Recurrent Visiting Professor of Philosophy at Yale University, Doris Silbert Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at Smith College, Professor of Philosophy at Melbourne University, and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the Central University of Tibetan Studies. He teaches and pursues research in the philosophy of mind, foundations of cognitive science, logic, philosophy of language, Buddhist philosophy, cross-cultural hermeneutics, theoretical and applied ethics, and epistemology.

Jan Westerhoff is University Lecturer in Religious Ethics at the University of Oxford, a Fellow and Tutor in Theology and Religion at Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford, and a Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. His research concentrates on systematic aspects of ancient Indian philosophy, especially on Madhyamaka.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Contributors

Introduction: Madhyamaka and Yogacara: Allies or Rivals? - Jay L. Garfield, Jan Westerhoff

1) Pratityasamutpada and Dharmadhatu in Early Mahayana Buddhism - Chaisit Suwanvarangkul
2) Language and existence in Madhyamaka and Yogacara: Preliminary reflections - Mattia Salvini
3) Reification and Nihilism: The Three Nature Theory and Its Implications - Sonam Thakchöe
4) The Case for Discontinuity - Mark Siderits
5) "Undigested Pride": Bhaviveka on the Dispute Between Madhyamaka and Yogacara - David Eckel
6) Xuanzang and Kuiji on Madhyamaka - Dan Lusthaus
7) Nagarjuna's Yogaaa - Jan Westerhoff
8) Nagarjuna the Yogacarin? Vasubandhu the Madhyamika? On the Middle-way between Realism and Anti-Realism - Eviatar Shulman
9) Without Karma and Nirvana, Buddhism is Nihilism: The Yogacara Contribution to the Doctrine of Emptiness - Jonathan C. Gold
10) Two Topics Concerning Consciousness in Santaraksita's Yogacara-Madhyamaka Syncretism - James Blumenthal
11) I am a Brain in a Vat (Or Perhaps a Pile of Sticks By the Side of the Road) - Jay L. Garfield

Index

Editorial Reviews

"[The] authors collectively demonstrate that both Madhyamaka and Yogacara can be construed under myriad permutations of the two truths and the three natures, dissolving any possible monolithic characterization of either school, along with any coherent answer to whether they are allies or rivals."--Jed Forman, Reading Religion

"A welcome addition to the current literature on Mahayana Buddhist philosophy." - Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies

"This is an important work on an issue that is surely amongst the most complex in Buddhist Studies. Garfield and Westerhoff have brought together eleven contributions whose mix of philology, history, and philosophical analysis advances our understanding significantly." --Tom Tillemans, Professor Emeritus, University of Lausanne

From the Publisher