The Buddhist Unconscious: The Alaya-vijñana in the context of Indian Buddhist Thought (Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism) - Hardcover

Waldron, William S

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0415298091 ISBN 13: 9780415298094

Publisher: Routledge, 2003

Synopsis

This is the story of fifth century CE India, when the Yogacarin Buddhists tested the awareness of unawareness, and became aware of human unawareness to an extraordinary degree. They not only explicitly differentiated this dimension of mental processes from conscious cognitive processes, but also offered reasoned arguments on behalf of this dimension of mind. This is the concept of the 'Buddhist unconscious', which arose just as philosophical discourse in other circles was fiercely debating the limits of conscious awareness, and these ideas in turn had developed as a systematisation of teachings from the Buddha himself. For us in the twenty-first century, these teachings connect in fascinating ways to the Western conceptions of the 'cognitive unconscious' which have been elaborated in the work of Jung and Freud.
This important study reveals how the Buddhist unconscious illuminates and draws out aspects of current western thinking on the unconscious mind. One of the most intriguing connections is the idea that there is in fact no substantial 'self' underlying all mental activity; 'the thoughts themselves are the thinker'. William S. Waldron considers the implications of this radical notion, which, despite only recently gaining plausibility, was in fact first posited 2,500 years ago.

About this title

About the Author:

William S. Waldron received his PhD in Buddhist Studies from the University of Wisconsin after studying extensively in India, Nepal and Japan. He currently teaches South Asian religions and Buddhist philosophy at Middlebury College, Vermont. His research areas include the Yogacara school of Indian Buddhism, and comparative psychologies and philosophies of mind.

Review:

'This work weaves together into one fabric yards spanning some one thousand years of Indian Buddhist thought, and will prove to be an invaluable source of information for scholars of Buddhist literature.' - East and West Series

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0415298091
• ISBN 13: 9780415298094
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288