DVPR 51700:

Yogacara

Winter Term 2009
Swift Hall 403
Fridays, 1:30-3:50

Instructor: Dan Arnold
Office phone: 702-8276
E-mail: d-arnold@uchicago.edu

Office hours: Swift 401A, Tuesdays, 9:15-11:30 (or by arrangement with instructor);
contact my secretary (Susie McGee, 702-7049) in the Martin Marty Center for an appointment
Required readings:

All readings are on reserve at Regenstein Library, mostly on e-reserve; readings thus available must be accessed through Chalk.

In addition, students may wish to be aware of the invaluable bibliographic resource that is the Bibliography volume of Karl Potter, ed., Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, which is continuously updated. Charles Muller has also compiled a useful Bibliography of Yogacara Studies.

Course requirements:

In addition to exemplifying regular attendance and spirited participation in discussion, students will be required to submit, at the end of the term, either a philosophical paper of moderate length (15-25 pages), or an annotated bibliography of works related to some aspect of the philosophical study of Yogacara. (For helpful guidance on the kind of exercise I have in mind in the case of the former option, consider philosopher James Pryor's "Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper.") Papers will be due on Friday, March 20, and will not be accepted late without prior arrangement.

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Tentative Schedule of Topics and Readings

WEEK 1 (Friday, January 9):

Introduction to the course; a quick look at Vasubandhu's Pancaskandhaka. Edition: Li Xuezhu and Ernst Steinkellner, eds., Vasubandhu's Pancaskandhaka (volume No. 4 in the series "Sanskrit Texts from the Tibetan Autonomous Region," jointly published by the China Tibetology Research Center [Beijing] and the Austrian Academy of Sciences [Vienna]). Translation: Stephen Anacker, "A Discussion of the Five Aggregates (Pancaskandhaka-Prakarana)" (from the Tibetan [Tohoku 4059; Peking, 5560]), in Anacker, Seven Works of Vasubandhu: The Buddhist Psychological Doctor, pp.49-82. (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1984).

Additionally recommended introductory reading:

Masaaki Hattori, "Yogacara," in Mircea Eliade, ed., The Encyclopedia of Religion (e-reserve)

Dan Lusthaus, "Buddhism, Yogacara School of," in E. Craig (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Paul Williams, Mahayna Buddhism, Chapter 4, "Cittamatra (Mind Only)," pp.77-95 (Routledge, 1989) (e-reserve)
WEEK 2 (Friday, January 16):
More on the Abhidharma background to Yogacara: Selections from Asanga's Abhidharmasamuccaya. Editions: V. V. Gokhale, ed., "Fragments from the Abhidharmasamuccaya of Asamga," Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, New Series, vol. 23 (1947), pp.13-38 (e-reserve); Prahlad Pradhan, ed., Abhidharmasamuccaya (Santiniketan: Visva-Bharati, 1950; note that much of this is not an "edition," but a back-translation from Tibetan). Translation: Abhidharmasamuccaya: The Compendium of the Higher Teaching (Philosophy) by Asanga. Originally translated into French and annotated by Walpola Rahula; English version from the French by Sara Boin-Webb (Fremont, CA: Asian Humanities Press, 2001).

Reading: Abhidharmasamuccaya (Boin-Webb translation, in consultation with Gokhale's edition if possible), pp.1-28, 178-195, 242-256 (e-reserve)

Additional reading (in descending order of usefulness):

Paul Griffiths, On Being Mindless: Buddhist Meditation and the Mind-Body Problem, pp.76-106 (LaSalle, IL: Open Court, 1986) (e-reserve)

Richard King, "Vijnaptimatrata and the Abhidharma Context of Early Yogacara," Asian Philosophy 8/1 (1998): 5-17

Hakamaya Noriaki, "Nirodhasamapatti: Its Historical Meaning in the Vijnaptimatrata System," Indogaku Bukkyogaku Kenkyu 23 (1975): 1084-1074 (in English) (e-reserve)

Padmanabh Jaini, "The Sautrantika Theory of Bija," Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 22 (1959): 236-249 (e-reserve)
WEEK 3: (Friday, January 23):
A Yogacara catechism: Vasubandhu's Trisvabhavanirdesa. Edition (with French translation): Louis de La Poussin, "Le petit traite de Vasubandhu-Nagarjuna sur les trois natures," Melanges chinois et bouddhiques 2 (1932-33): 147-161 (e-reserve). Translations: Jay Garfield, "Vasubandhu's Treatise on the Three Natures: A Translation and Commentary" (from the Tibetan [Tohoku 4058; Peking 5559]), in Empty Words, pp.128-151 (e-reserve); compare Fernando Tola and Carmen Dragonetti, "The Trisvabhava-karika of Vasubandhu," Journal of Indian Philosophy 11 (1983): 225-266 (e-reserve); Thomas E. Wood, Mind Only: A Philosophical and Doctrinal Analysis of the Vijnanavada, pp. 31-39 (University of Hawaii Press, 1991) (e-reserve).

Additional reading (in descending order of usefulness):

Alan Sponberg, "The Trisvabhava Doctrine in India and China: A Study of Three Exegetical Models," Ryukoku Daigaku Bukkyo Bunka Kenkyo ujo 21 (1983): 97-119 (e-reserve)

Mario D'Amato, "Three Natures, Three Stages: An Interpretation of the Yogacara Trisvabhava-Theory," Journal of Indian Philosophy 33 (2005): 185-207

Aramaki Noritoshi, "Paratantrasvabhava (I): A Diagrammatic Account," Indogaku Bukkyogaku Kenkyu 15/2 [30] (1967): 40-54 (=955-941) (e-reserve)

Ake Boquist, Trisvabhava: A Study of the Development of the Three-nature-theory in Yogacara Buddhism (University of Lund, 1992), Chapter 7 (pp.116-132; on e-reserve)
WEEK 4: (Friday, January 30):
If we're done with the Trisvabhavanirdesa, we'll turn this week to Vasubandhu's Vimsatika, with the auto-commentary. Edition: Sylvain Levi, ed., Vijnaptimatratasiddhi: Deux Traites de Vasubandhu: Vimsatika (La Vingtaine), Accompagnee d'une explication en prose, et Trimsika (La Trentaine), avec le Commentaire de Sthiramati, pp.1-11 (Paris: Librairie Ancienne Honore Champion, 1925; e-reserve). Translation: Mine.

Additional reading: Alex Wayman, "A Defense of Yogacara," Philosophy East & West 46/4 (1996), pp.447-476 (e-reserve)

Also: Compare at least one other translation:

Stefan Anacker, Seven Works of Vasubandhu, the Buddhist Psychological Doctor, pp.161-175 (e-reserve)

Thomas Kochumuttom, A Buddhist Doctrine of Experience: A New Translation and Interpretation of the Works of Vasubandhu, the Yogacarin (Motilal Banarsidass, 1982), pp.164-196 (e-reserve)

Louis de La Vallee Poussin, "Vimsakakarikaprakarana, Traite des Vingt Slokas, avec le commentaire de l'auteur," Le Museon 13 (1912): 53-90 (e-reserve)

Sylvain Levi, "La Vingtaine," in his Materiaux pour l'Etude du Systeme Vijnaptimatra (Paris: Honore Champion, 1932), pp. 43-59 (e-reserve)

Or, from Chinese translations: Francis H. Cook, Three Texts on Consciousness Only: Demonstration of Consciousness Only by Hsuan-tsang; The Thirty Verses on Consciousness Only by Vasubandhu; The Treatise in Twenty Verses on Consciousness Only by Vasubandhu: Translated from the Chinese of Hsuan-tsang (Berkeley: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 1999), pp.387-408 (e-reserve).

Clarence Hamilton, Wei Shih Er Lun, or, The Treatise in Twenty Stanzas on Representation-Only (New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1938) (on reserve).
WEEK 5: (Friday, February 6):
Vimsatika, continued. Additional reading (in descending order of importance):

Matthew Kapstein, "Mereological Considerations in Vasubandhu's 'Proof of Idealism,'" in Reason's Traces (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2001), pp.181-204 (e-reserve)

Lambert Schmithausen, On the Problem of the External World in the Ch'eng wei shih lun (Studia Philological Buddhica Occasional Paper Series, XIII; Tokyo: The International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 2005) (on reserve)

Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad, Advaita Epistemology and Metaphysics (RoutledgeCurzon, 2002), pp.38-79 ("Sankara, Vasubandhu, and the idealist use of dreaming"; e-reserve)

B. K. Matilal, Perception: An Essay on Classical Indian Theories of Knowledge (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), Chapter 7, "What Do We See?" (e-reserve)

Claus Oetke, "Doctrine and Argument in Vijnanavada-Buddhism," Wiener Zeitschrift fur Kunde Sudasiens 36 (1992): 217-225 (e-reserve)

Bruce Cameron Hall, "The Meaning of Vijnapti in Vasubandhu's Concept of Mind," Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 9/1 (1986): 7-23 (e-reserve)
WEEK 6 (Friday, February 13):
If we're done with the Vimsatika, we'll turn this week to Vasubandhu's Trimsika, with the commentary of Sthiramati. Editions: Sylvain Levi, ed., Vijnaptimatratasiddhi: Deux Traites de Vasubandhu, pp.13-45 (e-reserve); Hartmut Buescher, Sthiramati's Trimsikavijnaptibhasya (Wien: Verlag der Osterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2007; on reserve). Translations: Mine (with the help of a draft translation from Paul Griffiths). Compare Sylvain Levi, "La Trentaine," in his Materiaux pour l'Etude du Systeme Vijnaptimatra, pp.61-123 (e-reserve); Thomas Kochumuttom, A Buddhist Doctrine of Experience, pp.127-163 (translation of karikas only, with Kochumuttom's own commentary; on e-reserve).

Additional reading:

Try browsing in Louis de La Vallee Poussin, trans., Vijnaptimatratasiddhi: La Siddhi de Hiuan-tsang (Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1925-28; 2 vols, published as continuously paginated fascicles of Buddhica: Documents et Travaux Pour L'Etude du Bouddhisme, Publies sous la Direction de Jean Przyluski, vols.1-2; on reserve)

Ake Boquist, Trisvabhava: A Study of the Development of the Three-nature-theory in Yogacara Buddhism, Chapter 8 (pp.133-145; on e-reserve)
WEEK 7 (Friday, February 20):
Trimsika, continued. Additional reading:

Jonathan Gold, "Yogacara Strategies against Realism: Appearances (akrti) and Metaphors (upacara)," Religion Compass 1/1 (2007): 131-147

Jonathan Gold, "No Outside, No Inside: Duality, Reality and Vasubandhu's Illusory Elephant," Asian Philosophy 16/1 (March 2006), pp.1-38 (e-reserve)
WEEK 8: (Friday, February 27):
Dignaga's Alambanapariksa. Edition and translation: Fernando Tola and Carmen Dragonetti, "Dignaga's Alambanapariksavrtti," Journal of Indian Philosophy 10 (1982), pp.105-134 (e-reserve).

Additional reading:

Masaaki Hattori, "Realism and the Philosophy of Consciousness-Only" (trans. William Powell), Eastern Buddhist 21 (1988): 23-60 (e-reserve)

Erich Frauwallner, "Landmarks in the History of Indian Logic," Wiener Zeitschrift fur die Kunde Sud- und Ostasiens und Archiv fur Indische Philosophie 5 (1961): 125-148 (e-reserve)
WEEK 9: (Friday, March 6):
A Madhyamika critique of Yogacara: Bhaviveka's Madhyamakahrdayakarika (with the autocommentary, Tarkajvala), Chapter 5. Edition and translation: M. David Eckel, Bhaviveka and His Buddhist Opponents (Harvard Oriental Series, 2008).

Reading: Eckel, Bhaviveka and His Buddhist Opponents, pp.219-298 (e-reserve)
WEEK 10: (Friday, March 13):
(Today's session falls in the University's reading period, and we can discuss the desirability of continuing the conversation this week.)
Final papers due by Friday, March 20!