We will be exploring the Abhidharmasamuccaya, a text that belongs to the later development of Buddhism. Early Buddhism is known as Theravadin or Hinayana Buddhism. Later Buddhism is known as Mahayana Buddhism. It has two schools: Madhyamika, the school of the middle way, and Yogacara, the practitioners of yoga. Yoga, in this case, has very little to do with physical dexterity, with how you can twist your arms or fiddle your toes. It is very much related with learning how to meditate properly and relate to one's own mind, with trying to understand the sort of mental states we go through in meditation and so on. The Abhidharmasamuccaya presents that kind of overall structure, in the fullest sense.
BUDDHIST DOCTRINE OF EXPERIENCE by Thomas Kochumuttom
Giving a new translation an interpretation of the basic works of Vasubandhu the Yogacarin, the author shows that Yogacara metaphysics is basically the same as that of the early Buddhism. He contends that the Yogacara writings are open to interpretation in terms of realistic pluralism, and thus challenges their traditional interpretation in terms of idealistic monism.
BUDDHIST YOGA: A Comprehensive Course by Thomas Cleary
The word yoga has many meanings, including "meditation," "method," and "union." While the physical exercises of Hindu yoga are familiar to Westerners, the subtle metaphysics and refined methods of spiritual development that characterize Buddhist yoga are not yet well known.
This volume presents a landmark translation of a classical sourcebook of Buddhist yoga, the Sandhinirmochana-sutra, or "Scripture Unlocking the Mysteries," a revered text of the school of Buddhism known as Vijnanavada or Yogachara. The study of this scripture is essential preparation for anyone undertaking meditation exercise. Linking theory and praxis, the scripture offers a remarkably detailed and thorough course of study in both the philosophical and pragmatic foundation of Buddhist yoga, and their perfect, harmonious union in the realization of Buddhist enlightenment.
A richly complex study of the Yogacara tradition of Buddhism in India and China, divided into five parts. Part 1 is on Buddhism and phenomenology, with close attention to elements in Husserl and Merleau-Ponty that are helpful for understanding Yogacara. Part 2 details the four basic models of Indian Buddhist thought - the five skandhas, conditioned co-arising, the triple world, and the interplay of behaviour/meditation/understanding. A chapter on the attainment of cessation nirodha- sam patti illustrates some of the intricate ways in which these models were deployed. Part 3 discusses karma, meditation, and epistemology, from Pali Abhidhamma and Nagarjuna to Yogacara. Part 4 presents texts, translations, and comparative analysis of Vasubandhu's Trimsika with the Chinese versions by Paramartha and Hsuan-tsang. Part 5 deals with the Ch'eng wei-shih lun and Yogacara in China.
The Alaya-Vijnana in the Context of Indian Buddhist Thought
This is the story of fifth century CE India, when the Yogacarin Buddhists tested the awareness of unawareness, and became aware of human unawareness to an extraordinary degree. This important study reveals how the Buddhist unconscious illuminates and draws out aspects of current western thinking on the unconscious mind. One of the most intriguing connections is the idea that there is in fact no substantial 'self' underlying all mental activity; 'the thoughts themselves are the thinker'. William S. Waldron considers the implications of this radical notion, which, despite only recently gaining plausibility, was in fact first posited 2,500 years ago.
CONTINUITY OF MADHYAMAKA AND YOGACARA IN INDIAN MAHAYANA BUDDHISM by Ian Charles Harris
In the past European scholars have tended to treat both Madhyamaka and Yogacara as separate and fundamentally opposed trends in Mahayana Buddhist thought.
Drawing heavily on early textual evidence this work questions the validity of such a "Mahayana schools" hypothesis.
by down-playing the late commentorial traditions, the author attempts a general reappraisal of the epistemological and ontological writings of Nagarjuna, Asanga and Vasubandhu. He concludes that the overlap in all areas of doctrine is significant, but particularly with respect to the teachings on the levels of truth, the enlightened and unenlightened states, the status of language and the nature of reality. It is hoped that such investigations may provide the basis for a new theory on the proliferation of Indian Mahayana Buddhism as an organic process of assimilation to new audiences, and specific contemporary problems, rather than in the more schismatic manner favoured by past researchers.
EMPTINESS IN THE MIND-ONLY SCHOOL OF BUDDHISM: Dynamic Responses to Dzong-ka-ba's The Essence of Eloquence: I by Jeffrey Hopkins
Dzong-ka-ba's "The Essence of Eloquence" is the one book on wisdom that the Dalai Lama carries with him wherever he goes. Composed by Tibet's great yogi-scholar and founder of the Ge-luk-ba school, it stands as a landmark in Buddhist philosophy. In this first of three volumes, Jeffrey Hopkins focuses on how the conflict between appearance and reality is presented in the Mind Only or Yogic Practice School. 'The Essence of Eloquence" is so rich that over the past six centuries numerous Tibetan and Mongolian scholars have been drawn into a dynamic process of both finding and creating consistency in Dzong-ka-ba's often terse and cryptic tract. Hopkins has made extensive use of these commentaries to annotate the translation in such a way that the issues come alive. Included are historical and doctrinal introductions, a critical edition of the text, and a lengthy synopsis to aid the general reader. Specialists and nonspecialists alike will find this important book indispensable.
In this volume, Garfield supplements and extends his work on the Mulamadhyamakakarika. He then explores topics in Yogacara philosophy through the works of Vasubandhu and Sthiramati. These discussions focus on Buddhist accounts of the limits of thought and language, of causality, and of the structure of subjectivity.
EXISTENCE AND ENLIGHTENMENT IN THE LANKAVATARA-SUTRA by Giripescu Florin Sutton
A Study in the Ontology and Epistemology of the Yogacara School of Mahayana Buddhism
This book offers a systematic analysis of one of the most important concepts characterizing the Yogacara School of Buddhism (the last creative stage of Indian Buddhism) as outlined and explained in one of its most authoritative and influential texts
INFLUENCE OF YOGACARA ON TANTRA by Traleg Rinpoche
We are going to be talking about Yogacara philosophy's relationship to Buddhist tantra. People have generally ignored how Yogacara philosophy influenced Buddhist tantra and its development. It is not discussed explicitly, even though it's quite patent in the writings of Buddhist tantra. You could trace different notions discussed in the tantric literatures back to Yogacara philosophy.
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