Contemplative Science, page 25
21 Peter Harvey, The Selfless Mind: Personality, Consciousness and Nirvana in Early Buddhism (Surrey, England: Curzon Press, 1995), 79.
22 Ibid., 82.
23 B. Ñāṇamoli, The Life of the Buddha According to the Pali Canon (Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1992), 10–29.
24 Ibid., 24.
25 Ibid.
26 Ibid., 25.
27 B. Alan Wallace, “The Buddhist Tradition of Śamatha: Methods for Refining and Examining Consciousness,” Journal of Consciousness Studies 6, no. 2–3 (1999): 175–87.
28 Nyanaponika Thera, The Heart of Buddhist Meditation (New York: Samuel Weiser, 1973).
29 Ibid., 59.
30 Stephen Batchelor, Buddhism Without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening (New York: Riverhead, 1997), 5.
31 R. H. Sharf, “Experience,” in Critical Terms for Religious Studies, ed. Mark C. Taylor (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), 102.
32 Ibid., 99.
33 Ibid.
34 G. C. C. Chang, trans. and ed., The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa (Boulder, CO: Shambhala Publications, 1962).
35 R. H. Sharf, “Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experiences,” Numen 42 (1995): 228–83.
36 Ibid., 108–9.
37 Ibid., 110.
38 L. Gómez, “Measuring the Immeasurable: Reflections on Unreasonable Reasoning,” in Buddhist Theology: Critical Reflections by Contemporary Buddhist Scholars, ed. Roger R. Jackson and John Makransky (Surrey, England: Curzon, 1999), 371.
39 Sharf, “Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experiences,” 99.
40 Ibid., 114.
41 Wallace, The Taboo of Subjectivity, 75–120.
42 Wallace, Balancing the Mind.
43 Ruth Sonam, Atisha’s Lamp for the Path, commentary by Geshe Sonam Rinchen (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1997), 89–105.
44 William James, The Principles of Psychology (1890; reprint, New York: Dover, 1950), I:185.
45 B. G. Dreyfus, Recognizing Reality: Dharmakīrti’s Philosophy and Its Tibetan Interpretations (Delhi: Sri Satguru, 1997), 349–50; Gendün-drup (dge ‘dun grub), Ornament of Reasoning, a Great Treatise on Valid Cognition (tshad ma’i bstan bcos chen po rigs pa’i rgyan) (Mundgod, India: Loling Press, 1985), 38.3-.10.
46 Tsongkhapa, The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, vol. 3 (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 2002), 178.
47 Dreyfus, Recognizing Reality, 285–315.
48 B. Van Fraassen, The Empirical Stance (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002).
49 J. Bronkhorst, Why Is There Philosophy in India (Amsterdam: Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1999), 6.
50 Wallace, The Taboo of Subjectivity, 145–75.
51 Walpola Rahula, What the Buddha Taught (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1974), 2–3.
52 D. Shastri, Tattvasaṃgraha (Varanasi: Bauddhabharati, 1968), 3587.
53 R. Gnoli, ed., The Pramāṇavārttikam of Dharmakīrti (Rome: Serie Orientale Roma 23, 1960), 22.
54 William James, “A World of Pure Experience,” in The Writings of William James, ed. John J. McDermott (1912; reprint, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977), 194–214.
55 Wilson, Consilience, 59.
56 Wallace, Choosing Reality, 52, 85–86; Wallace, The Taboo of Subjectivity, 68–69; Davies, “An Overview of the Contributions of John Archibald Wheeler,” 17.
57 Dreyfus, Recognizing Reality, 416–27.
58 Roger R. Jackson, Is Enlightenment Possible?: Dharmakīrti and rGyal tshab rje on Knowledge, Rebirth, No-self and Liberation (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1993).
59 Roger R. Jackson, “In Search of a Postmodern Middle,” in Buddhist Theology: Critical Reflections by Contemporary Buddhist Scholars, ed. Roger R. Jackson and John Makransky (Surrey, England: Curzon, 1999), 236.
60 T. Tillemans, Scripture, Logic, Language: Essays on Dharmakīrti and His Tibetan Successors (Boston: Wisdom, 1999), 29–30.
61 H. H. the Dalai Lama, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality (New York: Morgan Road, 2005), 28–29.
62 Tillemans, Scripture, Logic, Language, 30.
63 Ibid., 41.
5. BUDDHIST NONTHEISM, POLYTHEISM, AND MONOTHEISM
1 Paul Williams, “Out of My Head,” The Tablet (Aug. 5, 2000):1046.
2 Stephen Batchelor, Buddhism Without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening (New York: Riverhead, 1997), 15–18, 36, 114–15.
3 Pāṭika Sutta 2.14–20.
4 H. H. the Dalai Lama, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality (New York: Morgan Road, 2005), 90–92.
5 Peter Harvey, The Selfless Mind: Personality, Consciousness, and Nirvana in Early Buddhism (Surrey, England: Curzon, 1995), 160.
6 Aṅguttara Nikāya A.I.9–10.
7 Aṅguttara Nikāya A.I.10–11.
8 Paravahera Vajirañāṇa, Buddhist Meditation in Theory and Practice (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Buddhist Missionary Society, 1975), 151; cf. Buddhaghosa, Visuddhimagga IV.33.
9 Harvey, The Selfless Mind, 159.
10 Milindapañha, 299–300.
11 Kathāvatthu 615.
12 For an excellent overview of Theravāda, Mahāyāna, and Vajrayāna Buddhism, see B. Peter Harvey, An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History, and Practices (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
13 Cūla-Māluṅkyaputta-sutta 63.
14 Milindapañha 73.
15 R. H. Robinson, The Buddhist Religion (Belmont, CA: Dickenson, 1970), 38–39.
16 Harvey, The Selfless Mind, 98–101.
17 Śāntideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life, trans. Vesna A. Wallace and B. Alan Wallace (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1997), IX:118–25.
18 Cited in Harvey, The Selfless Mind, 175.
19 Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, 77.
20 Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, 220.
21 Cited in Paul Williams, Mahāyāna Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations (London: Routledge, 1989), 98.
22 Cited in ibid., 99.
23 Ratnagotra-vibhāga, vv. 51, 84.
24 Ratnagotra-vibhāga, v. 149.
25 Harvey, The Selfless Mind, 176.
26 Alex and Hideko Wayman, trans., The Lion’s Road of Queen Śrīmālā (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1990), 98.
27 K. H. Holmes and K. Holmes, The Changeless Continuity, 2nd ed. (Eskdalemuir, Scotland: Karma Drubgyud Darjay Ling, 1985), 72–73.
28 Thich Nhat Hanh, Living Buddha, Living Christ (New York: Riverhead, 1997).
29 Vimalaprabhā II:168–70.
30 Vimalaprabhā II:169.
31 Kālacakratantra, V 65.
32 Düdjom Lingpa, The Vajra Essence: From the Matrix of Pure Appearances and Primordial Consciousness, a Tantra on the Self-Originating Nature of Existence, trans. B. Alan Wallace (Alameda, CA: Mirror of Wisdom, 2004).
33 Ibid., 90.
34 Ibid., 80.
35 Padmasambhava, Natural Liberation: Padmasambhava’s Teachings on the Six Bardos, commentary by Gyatrul Rinpoche; trans. B. Alan Wallace (Boston: Wisdom, 1998), 122.
36 Donald F. Duclow, “Divine Nothingness and Self-Creation in John Scotus Eriugena,” The Journal of Religion 57, no. 2 (April 1977): 110.
37 John Scotus Eriugena, Periphyseon (De divisione naturae), ed. H. J. Floss, Migne Patrologia latina 122, 680D–81A, trans. Donald F. Duclow (Ridgewood, NJ: Gregg Press, 1965), 110. Cf. Bodhicāryāvatāra IX:2. “This truth is recognized as being of two kinds: conventional and ultimate. Ultimate reality is beyond the scope of the intellect. The intellect is called conventional reality.”
38 Cited in Śāntideva, Śikṣā-samuccaya, trans. Cecil Bendall and W. H. D. Rouse (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1981), 220–21. See also Thomas Tomasic, “Negative Theology and Subjectivity: An Approach to the Tradition of the Pseudo-Dionysius,” International Philosophical Quarterly 9 (1969).
39 H. Lawrence Bond, On Nicholas of Cusa: Selected Spiritual Writings (New York: Paulist Press, 1997), 225.
40 Ibid., 223.
41 Ibid. 230–31.
42 Cited in Karma Chagmé, A Spacious Path to Freedom, trans. B. Alan Wallace (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1998), 107; cf. W.Y. Evans-Wentz, ed., The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation (London: Oxford University Press, 1968), 208–9.
43 Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy (London: Chatto & Windus, 1946).
44 William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature (New York: Longmans, Green, 1902), 428.
6. WORLDS OF INTERSUBJECTIVITY
This essay was first published under the title “Intersubjectivity in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism” in Journal of Consciousness Studies 8, no. 5–7 (2001): 209–30.
1 A detailed discussion of all five of these systems of meditation is presented in B. Alan Wallace, Genuine Happiness: Meditation as the Path to Fulfillment (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2005).
2 For a more elaborate discussion of meditative quiescence and its relation to contemplative insight, see Tsongkhapa, The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 2002), 3:13–26; B. Alan Wallace, Balancing the Mind: A Tibetan Buddhist Approach to Refining Attention (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 2005) and The Attention Revolution: Unlocking the Power of the Focused Mind (Boston: Wisdom, 2006).
3 Aṅguttara Nikāya V, 201ff.
4 Paravahera Vajirañāṇa, Buddhist Meditation in Theory and Practice, 249.
5 Peter Harvey, The Selfless Mind, 160.
6 See Paravahera Vajirañāṇa, Buddhist Meditation in Theory and Practice (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Buddhist Missionary Society, 1975), 151, 327–28, David J. Kalupahana, The Principles of Buddhist Psychology (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987), 112–15, and Aṅguttara Nikāya A.I.9–10, A.I.61.
7 Aṅguttara Nikāya A.I.10–11.
8 See the section “Quiescence According to Mahāmudrā and Atiyoga” in Wallace, Balancing the Mind; James Haughton Woods, The Yoga System of Patañjali (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1983); and Robert K.C. Forman, ed., The Problem of Pure Consciousness: Mysticism and Philosophy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990).
9 Soma Thera, The Way of Mindfulness: The Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta and Commentary (Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1975); R. M. L. Gethin, The Buddhist Path to Awakening (Oxford: Oneworld, 2001), 29–68.
10 Udāna 8.
11 Thera, Satipaṭṭhānasutta, 5.
12 For a discussion of observing the four subjects of mindfulness inwardly, outwardly, and both inwardly and outwardly, see Nyanaponika Thera, The Heart of Buddhist Meditation (New York: Samuel Weiser, 1973), 58–60.
13 William James, The Principles of Psychology (1890; reprint, New York: Dover, 1950), 322.
14 Ibid., 290–91.
15 William James, “A World of Pure Experience,” in The Writings of William James: A Comprehensive Edition, ed. John J. McDermott (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977), 195.
16 Milindapañha 37–38.
17 Buddhaghosa, Visuddhimagga, I:IX; Harvey B. Aronson, Love and Sympathy in Theravāda Buddhism (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1980); B. Alan Wallace, The Four Immeasurables: Cultivating a Boundless Heart, rev. ed. (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 2004).
18 Martin Buber, I and Thou, trans. Walter Kaufmann (1937; reprint, New York: Touchstone, 1996).
19 Udāna 47.
20 For a fascinating account of a cross-cultural dialogue with the Dalai Lama on this theme, see Daniel Goleman, ed., Healing Emotions: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on Mindfulness, Emotions, and Health (Boston: Shambhala, 1997), 189–207.
21 B. Alan Wallace, Buddhism with an Attitude: The Tibetan Seven-Point Mind-Training (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 2001), 154–63.
22 Śāntideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life, trans. Vesna A. Wallace and B. Alan Wallace (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1997), VIII:94.
23 Jay L. Garfield, trans., The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way: Nāgārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995).
24 Glenn H. Mullin, trans., Tsongkhapa’s Six Yogas of Naropa (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1996), 174.
25 Cf. Paul C. W. Davies, “An Overview of the Contributions of John Archibald Wheeler,” in Science and Ultimate Reality: Quantum Theory, Cosmology and Complexity, Honoring John Wheeler’s 90th Birthday, ed. John D. Barrow, Paul C. W. Davies, and Charles L. Harper Jr. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 8–10.
26 This definition is taken from Hilary Putnam, Realism with a Human Face, ed. James Conant (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990), 30.
27 Ibid., 28.
28 Hilary Putnam, “Replies and Comments,” Erkenntnis 34, no. 3 (1991): 407. I have discussed this point at greater length in the chapter “The World of Human Experience” in B. Alan Wallace, The Taboo of Subjectivity: Toward a New Science of Consciousness (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).
29 Traditional Tibetan Buddhist accounts of the practice of dream yoga can be found in Padmasambhava, Natural Liberation: Padmasambhava’s Teachings on the Six Bardos, commentary by Gyatrul Rinpoche; trans. B. Alan Wallace (Boston: Wisdom, 1998), part 2, ch. 4, and Mullin, Tsongkhapa’s Six Yogas of Naropa, 172–84.
30 For a clear, modern account of the theory and practice of lucid dreaming, see Stephen LaBerge and Howard Rheingold, Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming (New York: Ballantine, 1990).
31 This same point is made regarding one’s realization of emptiness during the waking state in Śāntideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life, IX:30–32.
32 Padmasambhava, Natural Liberation, 164.
33 Ibid., 168.
34 Detailed, traditional presentations of this mode of investigation are found in the “Insight” chapter in Padmasambhava, Natural Liberation, and the “Insight” chapter of the seventeenth-century classic by Karma Chagmé, A Spacious Path to Freedom: Practical Instructions on the Union of Mahāmudrā and Atiyoga, commentary by Gyatrul Rinpoche; trans. B. Alan Wallace (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1998).
35 Padmasambhava, Natural Liberation, 116.
36 Ibid., 108.
7.ŚAMATHA: THE CONTEMPLATIVE REFINEMENT OF ATTENTION
This essay was first published under the title “The Buddhist Tradition of Śamatha: Methods for Refining and Examining Consciousness” in Journal of Consciousness Studies 6, no. 2–3 (1999): 175–87. For more extensive information, please see B. Alan Wallace, The Attention Revolution: Unlocking the Power of the Focused Mind (Boston: Wisdom, 2006).
1 Ratnameghasūtra, cited in Śāntideva’s Śikṣāsamuccaya, ed. P. D. Vaidya (Darbhanga: Mithila Institute, 1961), 68. This passage is found in the English translation of Śāntideva’s work by Cecil Bendall and W. H. D. Rouse (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1981), 121. A similar point is made by the Buddha in the opening verse of The Dhammapada: “All phenomena are preceded by the mind, issue forth from the mind, and consist of the mind” (The Dhammapada, ed. Nikunja Vihari Banerjee [New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1989], ch. 1, v. 1).
2 B. Alan Wallace, Balancing the Mind: A Tibetan Buddhist Approach to Refining Attention (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 2005), 168. A mental process is said to be intentional not because one intends for it to occur, but because it has its own cognized object or objects.
3 Compulsive desire is a mental affliction that by its very nature superimposes a quality of attractiveness upon its object and yearns for it. It distorts the cognition of that object, for attachment exaggerates admirable qualities and screens out disagreeable qualities. Cf. Herbert V. Guenther and Leslie S. Kawamura, Mind in Buddhist Psychology (Emeryville: Dharma Publishing, 1975), 96; Geshe Rabten, The Mind and Its Functions, trans. Stephen Batchelor (Mt. Pèlerin, Switz.: Tharpa Choeling, 1979), 74–75.
4 Vasubandhu, Abhidharmakośabhāṣyam, French trans. Louis de La Vallée Poussin; English trans. Leo M. Pruden (Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press, 1991), 2:474. Cf. Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé, Myriad Worlds: Buddhist Cosmology in Abhidharma, Kālacakra, and Dzog-chen, trans. and ed. International Translation Committee (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1995), 168–69.
5 For a detailed account of nonascertaining cognition, see Lati Rinbochay, Mind in Tibetan Buddhism, trans. and ed. Elizabeth Napper (Valois: Gabriel/Snow Lion, 1981), 92–110.
6 The technique of focusing on a pebble or stick is found in the section entitled “Instructions on Quiescence with Signs” in Natural Liberation: Padmasambhava’s Teachings on the Six Bardos, commentary by Gyaltrul Rinpoche; trans. B. Alan Wallace (Boston: Wisdom, 1998), 95–96. Tsongkhapa opts for focusing on an image of the Buddha in The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 2002), 3:42–46. For a clear discussion of the technique of focusing on a Buddha image by a contemporary Tibetan contemplative, see Gen Lamrimpa, Calming the Mind: Tibetan Buddhist Teachings on the Cultivation of Meditative Quiescence, trans. B. Alan Wallace (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1995).
7 Cf. Jeffrey Hopkins, Meditation on Emptiness (London: Wisdom, 1983), 232–34.
8 Śāntideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life, trans. Vesna A. Wallace and B. Alan Wallace (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1997), V:108.
9 Intelligence is defined as a mental process having the unique function of differentiating specific attributes or faults and merits of objects that are maintained with mindfulness. Cf. Geshe Rabten, The Mind and Its Functions, 63.
10 Vasubandhu, Abhidharmakośabhāṣyam, 1:206, 272.
11 Ratnacū ḍasūtra, cited in Śāntideva, Śikṣa-samuccaya: A Compendium of Buddhist Doctrine, ed. P. D. Vaidya (Darbhanga, India: Mithila Institute, 1961), 220–21.
12 Śāntideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life, IX:23. Cf. H. H. the Dalai Lama, Transcendent Wisdom: A Teaching on the Wisdom Section of Shantideva’s Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life, trans., ed., and annot. B. Alan Wallace (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1994), 26–31.
13 Cf. M. I. Posner, Chronometric Exploration of Mind (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1978).
14 William James, The Principles of Psychology (1890; reprint, New York: Dover, 1950), I:420.
15 This topic is discussed in the section entitled “Identifying the Will and the Means of Stopping Laxity and Excitation” in Wallace, Balancing the Mind.
