Existence and Enlightenment in the Laṅkāvatāra-Sūtra

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• Forewordxiii

• Prefacexv
  
  

Introduction

• 0.1. The Purpose of the Study, and the Significance of the
         Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra within Buddhist Doctrinal History1

• 0.2. Dating the Text: Problems of Form and Interpretation13

• 0.3. Methodology and Outline of the Study23
  
  

Part One: Concepts of Being

• 1.0. The Nature of Buddhist Ontology39
•        General considerations * The practical aim of the Yogācāra Philosophy

• 1.1. The Threefold Meaning of Tathāgata-garbha and its
         Relation to Ālaya-vijñāna: the Essence of Being51
•        Preliminary considerations * Tathagāta-garbha as essential, supramundane,
         pure dharma, and its contrast with the Hindu Ātman * Tathagata-garbha
         as embryo, and the dynamics of Buddhahood * Tathāgata-garbha
         as womb or matrix of Buddhahood * Conclusion

• 1.2. The Five Skandhas: the Temporal Manifestation of Being79
         Introduction * Brief overview of the Ātman controversy prior to the
         Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra * Rūpa, or the formative elements of the five Skandhas
         * Nāma, or the formless elements of the five Skandhas * The Skandhas and
         the empirical self, or personality * The Skandhas and the trans-empirical
         Self, the Tathāgata * The five Skandhas and the denial of metaphysical
         dualities * Concluding remarks on the notion of Self and its varieties
  

• 1.3. Dharmadhātu: the Spatial or Cosmic Dimension of Being117
         Introductory remarks * Dharmādhatu as cosmic Law: the fundamental
         structure of the universe * Dharmādhatu as universal Void: the ground
         of Being * Concluding observations
  
  

Part Two: Concepts of Knowing

• 2.0. Buddhist Epistemology, Buddhist Dialectics135
         Truth, untruth, half-truth, "the truth" * The tetralemma logic: a thousand
         years of Buddhist dialectics * The early use of the tetralemma in the
         Pāli canon * Rationality and irrationality in Nāgārjuna's relativistic logic
         * Epistemology in the Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra: a radical critique of language,
         logic, and knowledge * Conclusions and preview of part two
  

• 2.1. The Epistemological Reduction of the Citta-mātra (Mind-only) Doctrine169
•        Preliminary considerations * Citta as the empirical mind
         * Citta as the transcendental Mind * Citta-mātra as explanation for the
         triple world (Tribhava) * Concluding words and the connection between
         Laṅkāvatāra and Zen

• 2.2. From Mind to No-mind: the Transcendental Leap beyond Empirical
         Cognition209
         * Introduction * The five Dharmas or epistemic categories * The three
         Svabhāvas or modes of cognition * The attainment of Āryajñāna:
         transcendental Wisdom or Gnosis * Concluding remarks
  

• 2.3. The Conjunctive System of the Eight Vijñānas: the Integration of Both Mind
         and No-mind States of Consciousness237
         * Introductory remarks * Jñāna and Vijñāna: abstract intuition versus
         concrete knowledge * Khyāti- and Vastuprativikalpa-vijñāna:
         the perceptual and the object discriminating knowledge * The inner
         revolution (Parāvṛtti): the return to the tranquil state of
         pure consciousness (Ālaya-vijñāna) * Conclusion
  

• 2.4. The Disjunctive Theory of Causation: Things are Neither this, Nor that,
         for They Are All Subject to Causes and Conditions (Hetu-pratyaya)261
         * Introduction * The expansion of the relevance of causation: from the
         psychological to the cosmic-philosophical principle * Causation as a
         possible theoretical basis for a monistic view of the world * Causation as a
         teaching device * Excursus: highlighting Nāgārjuna's thought in respect to
         causation * The soteriological value of the theory of causation
         * Concluding observations
  
  

• 3.0. Final Overview287
•        Appendix295
•        Notes323
•        Bibliography357
•        Index365

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sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt. सूत्र Tib. མདོ། Ch. 佛经

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Yogācāra - Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana). Skt. योगाचार Tib. རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྤྱོད་པ་ Ch. 瑜伽行派

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ātman - Though it can simply be used as the expression "I" or "me", in Indian thought the notion of self refers to a permanent, unchanging entity, such as that which passes from life to life in the case of people, or the innate essence (svabhāva) of phenomena. Skt. आत्मन् Tib. བདག་ Ch. 我,灵魂

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dharmadhātu - The fundamental expanse from which all phenomena emerge. Skt. धर्मधातु Tib. ཆོས་དབྱིངས་ Ch. 法界

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Madhyamaka - Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. Skt. मध्यमक Tib. དབུ་མ་ Ch. 中觀見

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gzhan stong - The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature. Tib. གཞན་སྟོང་

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rang stong - The state of being empty of self, which references the lack of inherent existence in relative phenomena. Tib. རང་སྟོང་

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tathāgatagarbha - Buddha-nature, literally the "womb/essence of those who have gone (to suchness)." Skt. तथागतगर्भ Tib. དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ Ch. 如来藏

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prabhāsvaratā - In a general sense, that which clears away darkness, though it often appears in Buddhist literature in reference to the mind or its nature. It is a particularly salient feature of Tantric literature, especially in regard to the advanced meditation techniques of the completion-stage yogas. Skt. प्रभास्वर Tib. འོད་གསལ་ Ch. 光明

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gotra - Disposition, lineage, or class; an individual's gotra determines the type of enlightenment one is destined to attain. Skt. गोत्र Tib. རིགས་ Ch. 鍾姓,種性

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