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 Self, Reality and Reason in Tibetan Philosophy: Tsongkhapa's Quest for the Middle View by Jinpa, Thupten |
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Brief Description This book reconstructs and appropriates in contemporary language the Middle Way philosophy of Tsongkhapa (1357-1419), arguably Tibet's greatest philosopher. |
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Author Profile Gyurme Dorje is a leading scholar of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism from which the Tibetan Book of the Dead literature derives. Thupten Jinpa is the senior translator to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and President of the Institute of Tibetan Classics. Graham Coleman is President of the Orient Foundation (UK), a major Tibetan cultural conservancy organisation, and writer/director of the acclaimed feature documentary Tibet: A Buddhist Trilogy. |
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Synopsis This book reconstructs and appropriates in contemporary language the Middle Way (Madhyamaka) philosophy of Tsongkhapa (1357-1419), arguably Tibet's greatest philosopher. It reconstructs Tsongkhapa's theories on a number of cross-cultural philosophical topics such as issues relating to self, persons and reality, which are of primary concern to all major philosophical traditions. The interpretations of Tsongkhapa's thought are grounded in the original works, thus enabling Tsongkhapa to speak, as far as possible, in his own voice. Every attempt is made, however, to articulate Tsongkhapa's philosophical thought in language familiar to contemporary western philosophy. The work explores the historical and intellectual context of Tsongkhapa's philosophy and addresses the critical issues related to questions of development and originality in Tsongkhapa's thought. It also deals extensively with one of Tsongkhapa's primary concerns, namely his attempts to demonstrate that the Middle Way philosophy's deconstructive analysis does not negate the reality of the everyday world. The study's central focus, however, is the question of the existence and the nature of self. This is explored both in terms of Tsongkhapa's deconstruction of the self and his reconstruction of person. Finally, the work explores the concept of reality that emerges in Tsongkhapa's philosophy, and deals with his understanding of the relationship between critical reasoning, no-self, and religious experience. This work is a comprehensive text that will serve as an in-depth introduction to Tibetan philosophy and Buddhist studies. For students of general philosophy, it will help bring Tsongkhapa's thought into creative debate and engagement with contemporary philosophy. For the expert, this is one of the most philosophically sensitive studies of a historically significant Tibetan thinker. |
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Table of Contents Methodological issues: problems of interpretation in Tsongkhapa studies; questions of "development" and "originality" in Tsongkhapa's thought; textual sources. Contexts of Tsongkhapa's thought: historical contexts of Tsongkhapa's "middle view"; qualms about early Tibetan interpretations of the "middle view"; Tsongkhapa's key religious and philosophical concerns; central elements of Tsongkhapa's philosophical method. Delineating reason's scope for negation: Tsongkhapa's reading of Madhyamaka's tetralemma logic; discerning the domains of "conventional" and "ultimate" discourses; identifying the object of negation in Madhyamaka dialectics; logical analysis of the forms of negation; the primacy of the "reductio" and "absurdam" method. Tsongkhapa's deconstruction of the "self": levels of self-hood according to Tsongkhapa; inadequacies of the Buddhist reductionist theory of "no-self"; the concept of intrinsic being; negation of intrinsic being as "no-self". Personal identity, continuity and "I"-consciousness: personal identity and dependent origination; the nature of "I"-consciousness; individuality and continuity; the chariot analogy. "No-self", truth and the "middle way": "to exist is to exist on the conventional level"; everyday reality as fiction-like; beyond absolutism, nihilism and relativism; "no-self", reason and soeriology. |
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Related Links - Countrybookshop Bestselling Authors in Tibetan Buddhism Bstan-'dzin-rgya-mtsho, Dalai Lama XIV Norbu, Thinley Bloomfield, Andrew Rinpoche, Sogyal |
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