Emptiness in the Mind-Only School of Buddhism: Dynamic Responses to Dzong-ka-ba's The Essence of Eloquence: Volume 1 (Philip E. Lilienthal Books) (v. 1) [Hardcover]

Jeffrey Hopkins (Author)

Book Description

Series: Philip E. Lilienthal Books | Publication Date: April 30, 1999

Dzong-ka-ba's (1357-1419) The Essence of Eloquence is the one book on wisdom that the Dalai Lama carries with him wherever he goes. Composed by Tibet's great yogi-scholar and founder of the Ge-luk-ba school, it stands as a landmark in Buddhist philosophy. In this first of a three-volume series, Jeffrey Hopkins focuses on how the conflict between appearance and reality is presented in the Mind-Only, or Yogic Practice, School.
The Essence of Eloquence is so rich that for the last six centuries numerous Tibetan and Mongolian scholars have been drawn into a dynamic process of both finding and creating consistency in Dzong-ka-ba's often terse and cryptic tract. Hopkins makes extensive use of these commentaries to annotate the translation. Included are historical and doctrinal introductions and a critical edition of the text, as well as a lengthy synopsis to aid the general reader. Specialists and nonspecialists alike will find this important book indispensable.
This book is the first of a three-volume series of related but stand-alone works on the first two sections of Dzong-ka-ba's The Essence of Eloquence. The focus of all three volumes is the exposition of emptiness in the Mind-Only School according to numerous Tibetan and Mongolian scholars over the last six centuries who have tried both to find and to create consistency in his often terse and cryptic tract.
This first volume is in four parts:
--A historical and doctrinal introduction
--A translation of the General Explanation and the Section on the Mind-Only School in The Essence of Eloquence with frequent annotations in brackets, footnotes, and backnotes
--A detailed synopsis of the translation
--A critical edition in Tibetan script of these sections in The Essence of Eloquence

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is a scholarly tour de force, the likes of which are rarely seen in the academy." --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Tibetan

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 542 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (April 30, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520211197
• ISBN-13: 978-0520211193
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,507,410 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jeffrey Hopkins is Professor Emeritus of Tibetan Buddhist Studies at the University of Virginia where he taught Tibetan Buddhist Studies and Tibetan language for thirty-two years from 1973. He received a B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1963, trained for five years at the Lamaist Buddhist Monastery of America in Freewood Acres, New Jersey, USA (now the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center in Washington, New Jersey), and received a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from the University of Wisconsin in 1973. He served as His Holiness the Dalai Lama's chief interpreter into English on lecture tours for ten years, 1979-1989. At the University of Virginia he founded programs in Buddhist Studies and Tibetan Studies and served as Director of the Center for South Asian Studies for twelve years. He has published thirty-nine books in a total of twenty-two languages, as well as twenty-three articles.

His most prominent academic books are the trilogy Emptiness in the Mind-Only School of Buddhism (2000); Reflections on Reality: The Three Natures and Non-Natures in the Mind-Only School (2002); and Absorption in No External World: 170 Issues in Mind-Only Buddhism (2006). In 1999 he published The Art of Peace: Nobel Peace Laureates Discuss Human Rights, Conflict and Reconciliation, edited from a conference of Nobel peace laureates that he organized in 1998 for the University of Virginia and the Institute for Asian Democracy.

Recently he published the first translation into any language of the foundational text of the Jo-nang sect of Tibetan Buddhism in Mountain Doctrine: Tibet's Fundamental Treatise on Other-Emptiness and the Buddha-Matrix. He has translated and edited thirteen books by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the latest being How to See Yourself as You Really Are. He is also the author of A Truthful Heart (Snow Lion, 2008), which includes anecdotes from his years as a practitioner of Buddhism.

Other books include Emptiness in the Mind-Only School (1999), Cultivating Compassion (2001), and translation and editing of His Holiness the Dalai Lama's How to Practice (2002). From 1979 to 1989 he served as His Holiness's chief interpreter into English.

Hopkins was born in Barrington, Rhode Island, USA, has traveled to India nineteen times and Tibet five times to do research. He has received three Fulbright Fellowships.

Customer Reviews

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37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jeffrey Hopkins is still unmatched in Ge-lug-ba scholarship, March 28, 2000

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Barnaby A Thieme - See all my reviews

This review is from: Emptiness in the Mind-Only School of Buddhism: Dynamic Responses to Dzong-ka-ba's The Essence of Eloquence: Volume 1 (Philip E. Lilienthal Books) (v. 1) (Hardcover)

This critical analysis and translation of the Cittamatra portion of Dzong-ka-ba's Essence of Elloquence is an astonishing work both for its depth and the skill with which Professor Hopkins negotiates this extremely difficult material. The material, while difficult, repays the effort of engagement richly. The root text is reknown in the Ge-lug school of Tibetan Buddhism as the most important text for understanding the key doctrine of emptiness as well as being crucial to understanding the interpretation of sutra and Ge-lug presentations of tenets. Yet few can master it for its cryptic brevity and the multitude of interpretive dilemas it poses. This work includes a translation of the Cittamatra section of the Essence of Eloquence along with a commentary by Professor Hopkins, reflecting the opinions of western scholars and nearly two dozen Tibetan commentaries. Also included is an emmended edition of the translated portion of the text. The portion translated presents Dzong-ka-ba's view of the Mind-Only school, based on a careful reading of the seventh chapter of the Samdhinirmocana Sutra. Dzong-ka-ba also considers other interpretations of the same sutra, especially those of the Indian proponent of Cittamatra, Asanga, and the Tibetan founder of the Jo-nang sect, Shey-rap-gyel-tsen. Dzong-ka-ba's text thus becomes the doorway to a lively, complex, and compelling debate with voices speaking from Sutra, the Indian and Tibetan commentarial traditions, the current Tibetan scholarship, and western scholarship. Professor Hopkins begins to make sense of the complex material, which will be examined in further detail in the forthcoming two volumes of this series. For those who wish to find a technical discussion of the philosophical issues raised by this text, this translation will be of greater service than that published already by Robert Thurman in The Central Philosophy of Tibet. Due to the difficulty involved in reading this material, this is something that I certainly welcome.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars content of the different volumes, quoted from the preface, April 17, 2008

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A reader (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Emptiness in the Mind-Only School of Buddhism (Paperback)

The first volume is in four parts:

A historical and doctrinal introduction
A translation of the General Explanation and the Section on the Mind-Only School in The Essence of Eloquence with frequent annotations in the brackets, footnotes, and backnotes
A detailed synopsis of the translation
A critical edition in Tibetan script of these sections in The Essence of Eloquence

The second volume, Reflections on Reality, will:

Place reactions to Tsongkhapa's text in historical and social context by examining the tension between allegiance and rational inquirer in monastic colleges
Expand on the religious significance of the three natures of phenomena
Present Jonangpa views on the thoroughly established nature and Gelukpa criticisms
Explain the reasonings establishing mind-only as means to overcome basic dread of reality, and
Consider how Tsongkhapa and his commentators present the provocative issue of the relationship between the two types of emptiness in the Mind-Only School and compare how the topic of two emptinesses is debated today in America, Europe, and Japan, thereby demonstrating how the two forms of scholarship refine and enhance each other.

The third volume, Absorption in No External World, will examine a plethora of fascinating points on the three natures raised in six centuries of commentary through:

Identifying the teachings in the first wheel of doctrine,
Probing the meaning of "own-character" and "established by way of its own character,"
Untangling the implications of Tsongkhapa's criticisms of Wongchuk, and treating many engaging points on the three natures and the three non-natures, including 1) how to apply these two grids to uncompounded space; 2) whether the selflessness of persons is a thoroughly established nature; 3) how to consider the emptiness of emptiness; and 4) the ways the Great Vehicle schools delineate the three natures and the three non-natures.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Emptiness in the Mind Only School, November 24, 2009

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javafusion - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Emptiness in the Mind-Only School of Buddhism: Dynamic Responses to Dzong-ka-ba's The Essence of Eloquence: Volume 1 (Philip E. Lilienthal Books) (v. 1) (Hardcover)

Hopkins guides us through difficult terrain with an expertise that confers a clear sense of direction and a deeper understanding of The Essence of Eloquence.

See the companion volumes: Reflections on Reality: The Three Natures and Non-Natures in the Mind-Only School: Dynamic Responses to Dzong-ka-ba's The Essence of Eloquence, Volume 2 and Absorption in No External World: 170 Issues in Mind Only Buddhism (Dynamic Responses to Dzong-Ka-Ba's the Essence of Eloquence)