Mind Only: A Philosophical and Doctrinal Analysis of the Vijnanavada.

• Author: Wayman, Alex

In his introduction the author summarizes the contents of his book: "The texts of the Vijnanavada which I discuss in some detail are the first chapter of the Madhyanta-vibhaga |MV~, the Trimsika |Trims.~, the Tri-svabhava-nirdesa |TSN~, the Vimsatika |Vims.~, the Cheng wei shilun |CWSL~, the Samtanantara-siddhi |SS~, the Samtanantara-dusana |SD~ and the Tattva-samgraha-(panjika) |TS(P)~. My own translations of the MV, TSN, Trimsika and Vimsatika appear in chapters 1, 2, 3 and 5, respectively. Comprehensive synopses of the Samtanantara-siddhi and of the Samtanantara-dusana are given in the Appendixes."

The author has formal training in philosophy and has also studied Sanskrit, which seems to be an ideal combination for treating Indian philosophy. As the reviewer understands the author's approach, when Sanskrit is available he puts it side-to-side with available English translations and then makes up his own version of translation. In the case where the text was only available in Tibetan (the SS, above), as the author himself admits, "In giving the gist of sutras 17-20, I have followed Stcherbatsky's translation a little more closely than Kitagawa's." Somehow the author has put together an excellent bibliography and he seems to know the relevant literature of Sanskrit texts and English-language sources. He seems to have admirable industry and sober judgment. And yet he appears brave to come to many conclusions about a literature which is extensive in Asian languages, difficult to translate properly, and has numerous apparent contradictions.

On pp. 28-29 he throws down a severe challenge to the Mahayanists. He rightly points out that the Buddha announced his doctrine of dependent origination (pratitya-samutpada) as a mean between two extremes of 'everything exists' and 'nothing exists'. And that the Mahayanists (n.b., as the author Wood understands them) in one way or another deny this mean by stressing one of the extremes. Since his book is mainly on the Vijnanavada he attempts to show this by this wing of the Mahayana. Thus, on p. 16, about the MV, he says: "It holds that everything is mind only, and that the appearance of external objects is just an illusory appearance of the mind." And the author claims that the MV by so teaching in fact departs from the teaching of Gautama Buddha. Nevertheless, his bibliography lists two works, namely, those by S. Anacker and by Thomas Kochumuttom, both independently translating works by the celebrated...