The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosophy in the First Millenium CE

Jan Westerhoff unfolds the story of one of the richest episodes in the history of Indian thought, the development of Buddhist philosophy in the first millennium CE. He starts from the composition of the Abhidharma works before the beginning of the common era and continues up to the time of Dharmakirti in the sixth century. This period was characterized by the development of a v...

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Jan Westerhoff unfolds the story of one of the richest episodes in the history of Indian thought, the development of Buddhist philosophy in the first millennium CE. He starts from the composition of the Abhidharma works before the beginning of the common era and continues up to the time of Dharmakirti in the sixth century. This period was characterized by the development of a variety of philosophical schools and approaches that have shaped Buddhist thought up to the present day: the scholasticism of the Abhidharma, the Madhyamaka's theory of emptiness, Yogacara idealism, and the logical and epistemological works of Dinnaga and Dharmakirti. The book attempts to describe the historical development of these schools in their intellectual and cultural context, with particular emphasis on three factors that shaped the development of Buddhist philosophical thought: the need to spell out the contents of canonical texts, the discourses of the historical Buddha and the Mahayana sutras; the desire to defend their positions by sophisticated arguments against criticisms from fellow Buddhists and from non-Buddhist thinkers of classical Indian philosophy; and the need to account for insights gained through the application of specific meditative techniques. While the main focus is the period up to the sixth century CE, Westerhoff also discusses some important thinkers who influenced Buddhist thought between this time and the decline of Buddhist scholastic philosophy in India at the beginning of the thirteenth century. His aim is that the historical presentation will also allow the reader to get a better systematic grasp of key Buddhist concepts such as non-self, suffering, reincarnation, karma, and nirvana.

Jan Westerhoff was educated at Cambridge and the School of Oriental and African Studies. He has taught Philosophy at the Universities of Oxford and Durham and is presently Professor of Buddhist Philosophy at the University of Oxford, Fellow and Tutor in Theology and Religion at Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford, and a Research Associate at the School of Oriental and Afri...

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Jan Westerhoff was educated at Cambridge and the School of Oriental and African Studies. He has taught Philosophy at the Universities of Oxford and Durham and is presently Professor of Buddhist Philosophy at the University of Oxford, 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 books include Ontological Categories (2005), Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka (2009), Twelve Examples of Illusion (2010), The Dispeller of Disputes: Nagarjuna's Vigrahavyavartani (2010), and A Very Short Introduction to Reality (2011), all published by Oxford University Press.

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
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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.Mahāsam:ghika 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
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: Śāntaraks:ita 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.Stages2and3:MaitreyaandAsan:ga 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.svasam:vedana 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.TheSchoolofDin:nāgaandDharmakīrti 217
1.The lives of Din:nāga 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
7.HowtoClassifyDin:nāga’sandDharmakīrti’sPhilosophy 250
8.The School of Din:nāgaand Dharmakīrti and Its Relation to Mīmām:sā 259
a.Mīmām:sāepistemology 261
b. Mīmās:ā philosophy of language 263
c.Mīmām:sā,historiography,andhistory 267
9. The End of Buddhist Philosophy in India 270
a. Śāntideva 271
b.AtiśaDīpam:karaśrījñāna276
Concluding Remarks 282
Bibliography 287
Index 308
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