The Selfless Mind

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• INTRODUCTION1
• Key non-Buddhist concepts1
• Key Buddhist concepts2
• 'Not-Self' and scholars7
• Sources9
• Methodology11

• Part I Exploring the Notion of Selflessness

• 1. THE QUESTION OF SELF17
•    Scholars who see a metaphysical Self in the 'early Suttas'17
•    Uses of the word 'self' (atta) in the 'early Suttas'19
•    Passages which might indicate the acceptance of a Self21
•    Nibbāna as not-Self and not related to a Self23
•    Self as 'not being apprehended'24
•    A Self beyond 'existence' and 'non-existence'?28
•    Proof of the impossibility of a Self31
•    Buddhism and the Upaniṣads on Self33
•    The status of the 'person'34
•    Why is Self not denied?: the Buddha and the
       Annihilationists38
•    The 'I am' attitude: its cause, effect and its ending40

• 2 THE MEANING OF 'NOT-SELF'43
•    The role of viewing phenomena as not-Self 43
•    The criteria for Self-hood46
•    Nibbāna and the Self-ideal51

• 3 DEVELOPING A SELF WITHOUT BOUNDARIES54
•    Living with citta as an 'island'54
•    Developing a 'great self'55
•     'One of developed self' 57
•    The Arahat as self-contained and 'dwelling alone'58
•    The Arahat's boundaryless citta60
•    The Arahat's boundaryless, self-contained self62

• 4 PERSONAL CONTINUITY AND RESPONSIBILITY64
•    The person as a continuity65
•    Responsibility for actions66
•    The stability of character traits over lives68
•    What conserves character traits and the unity of the 'continuity'?72
•    To what extent are 'continuities' isolated from each other and the world?74

• 5 MY WORLD AND ITS END78
•    The Self-world link and the meaning of 'world' (loka)78
•    The Buddhist perspective on the world79
•    The undetermined questions83
•    The undetermined questions on the world 84

• 6 THE LIFE-PRINCIPLE AND THE BETWEEN-LIVES STATE89
•    The undetermined questions on the life-principle89
•    The 'life-principle' accepted by early Buddhism91
•    Discernment and rebirth95
•    The question of the intermediary existence (antarā-bhava)98
•    The nature of the intermediary existence102
•    The gandhabba: spirit-being of the intermediary existence105

•                         Part II: Saṃsāric and Nibbānic Discernment109

• 7 THE CENTRALITY OF DISCERNMENT111
•    The nature and centrality of citta111
•    A person as discernment and the sentient body116
•    The vortical interplay of discernment and the sentient body119

• 8 DISCERNMENT AND CONDITIONED ARISING122
•    The nature of the constructing activities122
•    The conditioning of discernment by the constructing activities124
•    The conditioning of discernment by nāma-rūpa127
•    Discernment as conditioned by attention129
•    The conditioning of the sentient body by discernment130
•    Conditioned Arising as an analysis of the perceptual process134

• 9 DISCERNMENT AND THE PERCEPTUAL PROCESS138
•    The perceptual process in the 'early Suttas'138
•    The nature and functions of cognition (saññā)141
•    The activity of discernment (viññāṇa)143
•    The functions of discernment in the Abhidhamma 'process of cittas'145
•    The nature of viññāṇa148
•    The effect of karma on discernment in the perceptual process151

• 10 BHAVAṄGA AND. THE BRlGHTLY SHINING MIND155
•    Is the bhavaṅga concept ruled out by the 'early Sutta' world-view?155
•    'Early Sutta' evidence for a bhavaṅga-type state151
•    The meaning of 'bhavaṅga'160
•    The roles of bhavaṅga162
•    The brightly shining citta166
•    Freedom from defilements169
•    The shining citta and bhavaṅga170
•    The Arahat's ever-shining citta173
•    The shining citta and the Buddha-nature 114
•    The shining citta and the realms of rebirth 111

• 11 NIBBĀNA AS THE TIMELESS 'STOPPING' OF THE ENTIRE
      PERSONALITY180
•    The nibbāna-element without remainder of upādi181
•    Nibbāna during life as not ever-present in the Arahat182
•    The 'stopping' of the personality-factors during life185
•    Nibbānic 'stopping' and nirodha-samāpatti 187
•    Re-entry to the state of 'stopping'188
•    Nibbāna during life as 'unborn', 'unconstructed' and 'deathless'189
•    Nibbāna as a timeless object of insight193

• 12 NIBBĀNA AS A TRANSFORMED STATE OF DISCERNMENT198
•    Nibbāna as a form of discernment199
•    Nibbānic discernment as 'stopped', 'objectless' and 'unsupported'201
•    Udāna.80 as a description of nibbānic discernment203
•    The nature of nibbānic discernment205
•    Unsupported discernment and nibbāna beyond death208
•    The relation of nibbānic discernment to the Arahat's normal state210
•    Theravādin perspectives214
•    Mahāyāna perspectives217

• 13 SEEKING THE TATHĀGATA227
•    The 'untraceability' of the tathāgata228
•    The 'hard to fathom' tathāgata and Dhamma231
•    The tathāgata as 'not being apprehended'235
•    Nibbānic discernment and the views on the tathāgata after death239

• 14 CONCLUSION246

•    Appendix: The Theory of the Process of Cittas252

•    Notes259
•    Abbreviations274
•    Bibliography277
•    Index and glossary282

• Charts
• 1. The 'process of cittas' in waking consciousness, according to Abhidhamma theory146
• 2. The citta-sequence in sleep163
• 3. The citta-sequence in meditative jhānas163

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āvaraṇa - Literally, that which obscures or conceals. Often listed as a set of two obscurations (sgrib gnyis): the afflictive emotional obscurations (Skt. kleśāvaraṇa, Tib. nyon mongs pa'i sgrib pa) and the cognitive obscurations (Skt. jñeyāvaraṇa, Tib. shes bya'i sgrib pa). By removing the first, one becomes free of suffering, and by removing the second, one becomes omniscient. Skt. आवरण Tib. སྒྲིབ་པ་

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Mahāyāna - Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of Common Era, focusing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through the realization of the wisdom of emptiness and the cultivation of compassion. Skt. महायान Tib. ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ། Ch. 大乘

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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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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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