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The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosophy OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 31/3/2018, SPi THE OXFORD HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY French Philosophy, 1572–1675 Desmond M. Clarke The Lost Age of Reason: Philosophy in Early Modern India 1450–1700 Jonardon Ganeri American Philosophy before Pragmatism Russell B. Goodman Thinking the Impossible: French Philosophy since 1960 Gary Gutting British Ethical Theorists from Sidgwick to Ewing Thomas Hurka British Philosophy in the Seventeenth Century Sarah Hutton The American Pragmatists Cheryl Misak OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 31/3/2018, SPi The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosophy Jan Westerhoff 1 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 31/3/2018, SPi 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries © Jan Westerhoff 2018 The moral rights of the author have been asserted First Edition published in 2018 Impression: 1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Control Number: 2017958149 ISBN 978–0–19–873266–2 Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials contained in any third party website referenced in this work. OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 31/3/2018, SPi Contents Analytical Table of Contents xiii Diagrams of Schools and Thinkers xxiii Introduction 1 1. Buddhist Philosophy in India: A Wheel Ever Turning 1 2. Philosophy as a Game 2 3. Factors Determining the Game 4 a. Arguments 6 b. Sacred texts 7 c. Meditative practice 8 4. Narrating the Game: How to Structure the Material 9 5. The Sources of the Game 11 a. The bases of Buddhist philosophy 11 b. Debates 13 c. Commentaries 15 d. Doxographies 21 6. The Game’s View of the Game 24 1. Abhidharma 35 1. Introducing the Abhidharma 35 a. Matrices 37 b. Question-and-answer format 38 c. Providing a comprehensive theory 39 2. The Question of Authenticity 41 3. The Abhidharma Schools 43 a. Mahāsamghika: 45 b. Sthaviranikāya: Theravāda 49 c. Sthaviranikāya: Pudgalavāda 53 d. Sthaviranikāya: Sarvāstivāda 60 e. Sthaviranikāya: Sautrāntika 73 2. Madhyamaka 84 1. The Rise of the Mahāyāna and Its Relation to Buddhist Philosophy 84 2. The Madhyamaka School 89 3. The Teachings of the Perfection of Wisdom 99 a. Criticism of the Abhidharma project 99 b. The doctrine of illusionism 101 c. An explicit acceptance of contradictions 104 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 31/3/2018, SPi x CONTENTS 4. Key Themes of Nāgārjuna’s Thought 107 a. Nāgārjuna and the criticism of the Abhidharma project 107 b. Illusionism in Nāgārjuna’s thought 115 c. Contradictions and Nāgārjuna’s thought 117 5. The Commentators 120 a. Buddhapālita 121 b. Bhāviveka 123 c. Candrakīrti 131 6. The Great Synthesizers: Śāntaraksita: and Kamalaśīla 139 7. Madhyamaka and Nyāya 142 3. Yogācāra 147 1. Five Stages of Yogācāra’s Development 147 a. Stage 1: The early Yogācāra sūtras 148 : b. Stages 2 and 3: Maitreya and Asanga 150 c. Stage 4: Vasubandhu 154 d. Stage 5: Later Yogācāra 160 2. Proofs of Buddhist Doctrines 161 a. Rebirth 161 b. Other minds 164 c. Momentariness 166 3. Key Yogācāra Concepts 168 a. cittamātra 168 b. ālayavijñāna and the eight types of consciousness 179 c. trisvabhāva 182 d. svasamvedana: 184 e. Three turnings 186 f. tathāgatagarbha and Yogācāra 186 4. Factors That Shaped Yogācāra Philosophy 193 a. Argumentative factors 193 b. Textual factors 193 c. Meditative factors 194 5. Yogācāra and Other Schools of Buddhist Philosophy 200 6. Yogācāra and Vedānta 212 : 4. The School of Dinnāga and Dharmakīrti 217 : 1. The lives of Dinnāga and Dharmakīrti 217 2. Epistemology 220 3. Inference 225 4. Metaphysics 231 5. Language 235 6. Scriptural Authority and Yogic Perception 238 a. Scriptural authority 238 b. Yogic perception 247 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 19/4/2018, SPi CONTENTS xi : 7. How to Classify Dinnāga’s and Dharmakīrti’s Philosophy 250 : 8. The School of Dinnāga and Dharmakīrti and Its Relation to Mīmāms: ā 259 a. Mīmāms: ā epistemology 261 b. Mīmās:ā philosophy of language 263 c. Mīmāms: ā, historiography, and history 267 9. The End of Buddhist Philosophy in India 270 a. Śāntideva 271 b. AtiśaDīpamkara: śrījñāna 276 Concluding Remarks 282 Bibliography 287 Index 308 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 31/3/2018, SPi OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 31/3/2018, SPi Analytical Table of Contents Introduction 1 1. Buddhist Philosophy in India: A Wheel Ever Turning 1 The wheel: metaphor for the Buddhist doctrine · Buddhist thought in India: permanence and change 2. Philosophy as a Game 2 The game as a heuristic device for understanding philosophy · Four factors shaping a game · Narrating the game · Sources the narration is based on · Foundational texts and commentaries · Philosophical debates in ancient India · Doxographical works · The game’s view of the game 3. Factors Determining the Game 4 Histories of Buddhist philosophy as partial pictures · Period covered: Abhidharma up to Dharmakīrti · Social, economic, political factors a. Arguments 6 Arguments as driving the history of philosophy · Development of Buddhist philosophy: three stages · Debates with non-Buddhist schools b. Sacred texts 7 Interpretable/definite distinction as source of variation in Buddhist philosophy c. Meditative practice 8 The need to classify meditative experiences · Three factors as gravitational forces · Exaptation of philosophical concepts 4. Narrating the Game: How to Structure the Material 9 Challenges in structuring a history of Indian philosophy · A hybrid structure · Four schools · Buddhist–non-Buddhist debates · Key thinkers · Key texts · Key concepts 5. The Sources of the Game 11 a. The bases of Buddhist philosophy 11 Early discourses and Mahāyāna sūtras · The ‘original teachings’ of the Buddha · Different ways of construing ‘original teachings’ · Frameworks of philosophical activity: debates, commentaries, doxographies b. Debates 13 Public debates · Debate manuals · Nyāya: three kinds of debate · Influence on philosophical works · Debate and Vasubandhu’s Vim: śikā · Texts as responses to philosophical rivals c. Commentaries 15 Characteristics of a sūtra · Different types of commentaries · vivarana: · bhāsya: · vārttika · kārikā · Buddhist commentaries · Buddhist kārikās and their auto-commentaries · Commentarial practice and authorial intent · Conflicting commentarial interpretations · Sterility and arbitrariness? · The text’strueintent?Exampleofthe Abhidharmakośa · Commentary as connecting past and present · Commentarial activity as a creative enterprise · Buddhist philosophy as a commentary on the sūtras OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 31/3/2018, SPi xiv ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS d. Doxographies 21 List of objections vs. doxographies · Buddhist interest in doxography · Establishing uniqueness · Anti-substantialism · Types of doxographies · a. Defender and interlocutors · b. Exposition and refutation · c. Non-hierarchical presentation · Example of b: Bhāviveka · Doxographic hierarchy · Example of c: Haribhadra · Doxography and soteriology 6. The Game’s View of the Game 24 Conflicting assumptions about the existence of the past · Maxim of charity · Nāgārjuna’s lifespan · The Nālandā tradition · ‘the way it really was’ · Canon formation · 4 criteria for authenticity · Historical and hermeneutic understanding of buddhavacana · Buddhist philosophy and the existence of the past · 1. Presentism · The past as a conceptual superimposition · 2. Absence of a common perception of the world · Perception depends on karmic conditioning · 3. Trans-historical activities · Mystical manifestations of teachers · 4. History as teaching · Examples from Tibetan authors · Accounting for different versions of the same events · Avoidance of relativism · Tension between charity and naturalism · Bracketing naturalist assumptions · Soteriological purpose of histories of Buddhism · Existence of the past as a theoretical posit 1. Abhidharma 35 1. Introducing the Abhidharma 35 Abhidharma: the 3rd basket · Systematizing the sūtras · The term ‘abhidharma’ · Motives for composing the Abhidharma a. Matrices 37 Matrices as mnemonic devices · Matrices as maps of meditative states · Matrices and oral culture b. Question-and-answer format 38 Q&A and debate · Q&A as an aid to understanding c. Providing a comprehensive theory 39 Analysis as an end in itself? · The Buddha’s omniscience · Abhidharma as representing the Buddha’s omniscient mind · View of the supernatural status of the Buddha & its consequences · Motives for composing the Abhidharma & three factors 2. The Question of Authenticity 41 Why is the Abhidharma
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