Tsong Khapa's Speech of Gold in the Essence of True Eloquence: Reason and Enlightenment in the Central Philosophy of Tibet [Hardcover]

Tsong Khapa (Author), Robert Thurman (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1984

This is the paperback edition of the first full study, translation, and critical annotation of the Essence of True Eloquence by Jey Tsong Khapa (1357-1419), universally acknowledged as the greatest Tibetan philosopher. Robert Thurman's translation and introduction present a strain of Indian Buddhist thought emphasizing the need for both critical reason and contemplative realization in the attainment of enlightenment. This book was originally published under the title Tsong Khapa's Speech of Gold in the "Essence of True Eloquence."

"I am very happy that Tsong Khapa's masterpiece of Tibetan Buddhist philosophy has been translated into English, and can now be studied by Western philosophers and practitioners of Buddhism. It has long been one of my favorite works, and I hope that others will appreciate its deep thought and lucid insights as we have for centuries in Tibet."--From the foreword by the Dalai Lama

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The first part [of the book], an extensive introduction, can stand on its own as an insightful and incisive study of Tibetan philosophy, its roots in India, and its relevance to a twentieth-century Western audience. The second part translates Tsong Khapa's text.... The quality of both the translation and the introductory essay makes this book a valuable contribution to the study of the central way. -- Karen Lang, Journal of Asian Studies
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Language Notes

Text: English, Tibetan (translation)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 442 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press; First Edition edition (1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 069107285X
• ISBN-13: 978-0691072852
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,216,846 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A demanding Masterpiece, March 9, 2001

By 

P. Nagy "revreader" (Chapel Hill, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Central Philosophy of Tibet (Paperback)

The Cental Philosophy of Tibet by Robert A. F. Thurman (Princeton) is by far the most innovative and key texts to Tsong-kha-pa's teachings and life experience as it purports to reveal Tsong-kha-pa's own account of his experience of Enlightenment and his answer to many of the intellectual muddles, hyperintllectualisms, antirationalisms that befuddled and continues to perplex many contemporary monks and Buddhist practitioners. It is a demanding read but well worth the effort.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Relieves Suffering, August 9, 2004

By 

Reader "Reader" (Bay Area) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Central Philosophy of Tibet (Paperback)

The context of the book is the thesis that belief in inherent existence (meaning, roughly, "externally self-standing, permanent, absolute, not-depending-on-anything-else" existence as opposed to "relative" or "dependent on other things" existence) is the source of suffering, because it creates bases for clinging to negative emotions. People hold this belief in many forms, applied to many things, at many levels. Detailed analysis of each instance and/or category of this belief can undermine and weaken that particular belief, and finally shatter it. This relieves the suffering associated with that instance or category of the belief, because negative emotions can no longer "stick" to the objects of the (dissolved) belief. Tsong-Ka-Pah's "Essence of Eloquence" is aimed at analyzing and shattering a form of the belief in inherent existence that operates at a deep psychological level, and yet which can still be accessed through conscious examination and logic. Tsong-Ka-Pah's claim is that this is the deepest such level of belief and corresponding analysis. Thurman's introduction compares Tsong-Ka-Pa's treatise, from the 1300's, with a similar finding by Wittgenstein in the 1900's. Seeing the thesis from these two different perspectives is helpful in "triangulating" the intended object of understanding. The material is challenging to follow as it requires developing and maintaining an experiential knowledge of subtle (yet perceivable) mental phenomena (such as "knowing") and complex relationships among these phenomena. By way of further triangulation, the material appears to address the difference between the "autonomist" schools and the "consequentialist" schools of Tibetan Buddhism that are outined in Guy Newland's "Appearance and Reality". The key area of belief that Tsong-Ka-Pa, Wittgenstein and Thurman address has to with "private languages" and the syllogisms that are based on them. The key message is that these conceptual tools inevitably reinforce the belief in inherent, as opposed to relative, existence. Because of this, private languages and the syllogisms that are based on them provide bases for attachments for negative emotions and thus sources of suffering. Accordingly, these conceptual tools eventually have to be abandoned, in terms of believing that they represent or are based on things that inherently exist, if a person is to achieve liberation from suffering, enlightenment, etc. "The Essence of Eloquence" appears to be aimed as showing exactly why private languages and the syllogisms have this flaw of reinforcing the general belief that things have inherent existence, as opposed to relative existence.

21 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Feast -- But Bring Your Alka-Seltzer®, May 29, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Central Philosophy of Tibet (Paperback)

This book is a classic in the field of Indo-Tibetan philosophy. The subject, the Essence of Eloquence, is surely one of the most difficult of all indigenous Tibetan philosophical treatises -- to understand, let alone translate. So for for translating this text we applaud Thurman, and also for his inspired introduction. But we tap our feet apprehensively at some of his polemical connivings, and we wish very much he would re-edit the translation for readability, by working more flexibly and thoroughly with good English sentences. As it stands, there is a distinct redolence about it of "I've been typing all night, the kids are up already, and the tip of my tie is in my coffee cup."

The translation must be judged a great but unfinished work.

QUOD EST DETERMINATUS, VIRTUTE ET NON VI!