Making Sense of Mind Only (Why Yogacara Buddhism Matters)

ISBN: 9781614297260
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Overview

Through engaging, contemporary examples, Making Sense of Mind Only reveals the Yogacara school of Indian Buddhism as a coherent system of ideas and practices for the path to liberation, contextualizing its key texts and rendering them accessible and relevant.

The Yogacara, or Yoga Practice, school is one of the two schools of Mahayana Buddhism that developed in the early centuries of the common era. Though it arose in India, Mahayana Buddhism now flourishes in China, Tibet, Korea, Vietnam, and Japan. While the other major Mahayana tradition, the Madhyamaka (Middle Way), focuses on the concept of emptinessā€”that all phenomena lack an intrinsic essenceā€”the Yogacara school focuses on the cognitive processes whereby we impute such essences. Through everyday examples and analogues in cognitive science, author William Waldron makes Yogacaraā€™s core teachingsā€”on the three turnings of the Dharma wheel, the three natures, the storehouse consciousness, and mere perceptionā€”accessible to a broad audience. In contrast to the common characterization of Yogacara as philosophical idealism, Waldron presents Yogacara Buddhism on its own terms, as a coherent system of ideas and practices, with dependent arising its guiding principle.

The first half of Making Sense of Mind Only explores the historical context for Yogacaraā€™s development. Waldron examines early Buddhist texts that show how our affective and cognitive processes shape the way objects and worlds appear to us, and how we erroneously grasp onto them as essentially realā€”perpetuating the habits that bind us to samsara. He then analyzes the early Madhyamaka critique of essences.

This context sets the stage for the bookā€™s second half, an examination of how Yogacara texts such as the Samdhinirmocana Sutra and Asangaā€™s Stages of Yogic Practice (Yogacarabhumi) build upon these earlier ideas by arguing that our constructive processes also occur unconsciously. Not only do we collectively, yet mostly unknowingly, construct shared realities or cultures, our shared worlds are also mediated through the storehouse consciousness (alayavijƱana) functioning as a cultural unconscious. Vasubandhuā€™s Twenty Verses argues that we can learn to recognize such objects and worlds as ā€œmere perceptionsā€ (vijƱaptimatra) and thereby abandon our enchantment with the products of our own cognitive processes. Finally, Maitreyaā€™s Distinguishing Phenomena from Their Ultimate Nature (Dharmadharmatavibhaga) elegantly lays out the Mahayana path to this transformation.

In Waldronā€™s hands, Yogacara is no mere view but a practical system of transformation. His presentation of its key texts and ideas illuminates how religion can remain urgent and vital in our scientific and pluralistic age.

This book title, Making Sense of Mind Only (Why Yogacara Buddhism Matters), ISBN: 9781614297260, by William S. Waldron, published by Wisdom Publications (November 7, 2023) is available in paperback. Our minimum order quantity is 25 copies. All standard bulk book orders ship FREE in the continental USA and delivered in 4-10 business days.

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Product Details

Author:
William S. Waldron
Format:
Paperback
Pages:
384
Publisher:
Wisdom Publications (October 17, 2023)
Language:
English
ISBN-13:
9781614297260
ISBN-10:
1614297266
Weight:
17.52oz
Dimensions:
6" x 9" x 1.2"
File:
Eloquence-SimonSchuster_05012024_P7255480_onix30_Complete-20240501.xml
Folder:
Eloquence
List Price:
$29.95
Case Pack:
28
As low as:
$15.27
Publisher Identifier:
P-SS
Discount Code:
A
Audience:
General/trade
Pub Discount:
65

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