Customer Reviews

A Buddhist Doctrine of Experience: A New Translation and Interpretation of the Works of Vasubandhu the Yogacarin, Reprint

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This is the most interesting book about Buddhism that I've read in years. The author, Dr. Kochumuttom, has painstakingly and meticulously analyzed the original Sanskrit versions of Master Vasubandhu's shastras, and explained clearly and convincingly why he has arrived at his very logical conclusions. Furthermore, Dr. Kochumuttom is sufficiently well versed in both Eastern and Western philosophy to make his case in a fully comprehensible manner.
Reading this book will very likely be a "liberating" experience for anyone who is confused or puzzled by current "mainstream" interpretations of the "consciousness-only school." However, this book is NOT "Buddhism for Dummies." A deeper knowledge of Buddhist shastras -- and of Sanskrit -- is preferable for a full understanding of this study.

Kochumuttom's aim is to provide a challenge to the usual interpretation of the Yogacara philosopher Vasubandhu as a metaphysical idealist, and his is one of the most thorough attempts to do so. He provides translations and commentaries on several of Vasubandhu's core Yogacara texts, so this book is an excellent source if you want to ask, "what would a non-idealist reading of this passage look like?" He seems a little overly preoccupied with rejecting the bizarre interpretation that Yogacara is a form of monistic idealism akin to Advaita Vedanta. He's right to criticize that view (which is obviously wrong for precisely the reasons he gives), but it would've been interesting to see what he says about the far more plausible idea that Vasubandhu and Yogacara represent a sort of pluralistic idealism. Kochumuttom has considerable overlap with "phenomenalist" and "phenomenological" interpretations of Yogacara, although his insistence on "realistic pluralism" makes his stance on the debate of whether Yogacara is primarily metaphysical or epistemological harder to discern (although such interpretations were just starting to come out as he wrote this book). Overall, this is a trail-blazing attempt to develop a unique interpretation of one of the most influential figures in Indian Buddhist philosophy.