The Yogacana-Vijnanavada Idealism was the last great creative synthesis of Buddhism and its position in that tradition is comparable to that of the Advaita Vedanta. In this present book the author deals with the Yogacara-Vijnanavada in all its aspects and bearings, historically, analytically and comparatively. The first two chapters show, with great clarity and sufficient detail, the origin and development of the Yogacara idealism as an outcome of those fruitful and dynamic ideas associated with the previous schools of Buddhism, especially with the Sautrantika and the Madhyamika. The originality of the Yogacara synthesis of Buddhist teachings has been clearly brought out, and the individual contributions made by the philosophers of this school, such as Asanga, Vasubandhu, Sthiramati, Dignaga, Dharmakirti and Santaraksita, have received adequate attention. The subsequent chapters, which form the core of the work, represent a constructive and critical exposition of the Yogacara metaphysics, its idealism and absolutism as well as its spiritual discipline. This reprint after a lapse of ten years fills the need of the researchers.

This volume comprises three important texts of the Yogacara school. Demonstration of Consciousness Only is a translation of Vasubandhu's "Thirty Verses" plus the interpretation of Dharmapala as the ultimately correct view of the text, with the supplementation of two or three divergent interpretations. It is an attempt to answer the question of the mechanism and nature of ignorance by demonstrating that seemingly real external objects of perception and the equally seemingly real self who perceives these things are mental fabrications that do not exist apart from consciousness itself. Thirty Verses on Consciousness Only is the short verse work by Bodhisattva Vasubandhu that propounds the idea that nothing exists except consciousness or mind, and that all things believed ty the ordinary person to be objective realities outside mind are in reality mere mental constructs. The Treatise in Twenty Verses on Consciousness Onlyis a companion piece to the Thirty Verses. It is a series of hypothetical objections by possible opponents with replies by Vasubandhu. The objections of opponent takes the realistic, no-nonsense position that the things seen, heard, smelled, etc., are real things that exist in the world outside the mind. The opponent typically offers an argument as to why it cannot be possible for perceived objects to be merely mental constructs. Vasubandhu counters each argument, explaining why the realistic argument is faulty, and why objects of perception cannot rationally be considered to exist apart from consciousness.

Often designated as Yoga-ca-ra, Vijña-nava-da, or Yoga-ca-ra-Vijña-nava-da, the second comprehensive branch of philosophical development within Indian Maha-ya-na Buddhism generated a large textual corpus of considerable conceptual heterogeneity.

Nagao invariably focuses on the core of Mahāyāna Buddhism--the path of the Bodhisattva, the doctrine of śūnyatā, and the system of Trisvabhāva are explained. Important technical terms used in the Mahayana textual tradition, whose exact understanding is imperative for the study of Mahāyāna Buddhism, are skillfully presented, making the book indispensable to scholars of Buddhist studies.

This book is an attempt at a reconstruction of the YOgacara subjective idealism and an exhaustive criticism of it by different schools of Indian realism. The exposition of the doctrine is based on the works of Santaraksita and Kamalasila and the critics of Vijnanavada. Generally the exposition and criticism of the doctrine by every eminent thinker have been given separately. Most of the critics give a fair and impartial account of Vijnanavada and contribute to the clarification of the idealist position. The author has dealt with the controversy between subjective idealism and realism in Indian thought and tried to give a fairly full account of the arguments by which Indian realists seek to establish the reality of the external world. Incidentally the Yogacara subjective idealism has been compared with the idealism of Berkeley and the sensationalism of Hume and the resemblances and differences between them have been briefly noted. A striking feature of the book is that the parallel arguments of many contemporary realists have been quoted simply to indicate that the philosophical genius of a particular type is apt to move in the same groove, irrespective of the soil it thrives in.

Description: This is an interesting and exciting book in showing how modern scholarship misunderstood three great Sautrantika critical philosophers. If the evidence adduced in this book is correct, then the history of Buddhist philosophy, fifth century onward, has to be rewritten. Also new studies and translations are implied of all the works of Dinnaga and Dharmakirti. The author sheds a new light, taking into consideration the views of ancient and modern scholars, on many complex and polemic issues of the Buddhist philosophy. The research is based on the discovery of the lost manuscripts of Dharmakirti by Rahula Sankrtyayana and it can be considered to be a corrective to Stcherbatsky's Buddhist Logic which is the heart of Buddhist philosophy. Stcherbatsky recognised this treasure of critical philosophy as the most excellent achievement of Indian mind which has further been evaluated in this book.