Emptiness in the Mind-Only School of Buddhism: Dynamic
Responses to Dzong-ka-ba's The Essence of Eloquence: I. By Jeffrey Hopkins. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1999, xiv + 528 pages, ISBN: 0-520-21119-7 (cloth), US
$45.00.
Reviewed by
Paul G. Hackett
University of Maryland at College Park
phackett@cstone.net
Hopkins' latest book is the first of a planned three-volume set of contributions to
research in the Cittamaatra ("Mind-Only") School of Tibetan Buddhism
complementing his previous work on the Maadhyamika ("Middle Way") School.
Although drawing on numerous sources both within and outside of the dGe lugs
("Ge-luk") tradition both written and oral, Hopkins restricts the content of
this first volume to an annotated and detailed translation of the prologue and first
chapter of Tsong kha pa's ("Dzong-ka-ba") Legs bshad snying po
("The Essence of Eloquence"), an exegesis of the hermeneutics of the Cittamaatra
School; intra- and inter-sectarian differences and specific philosophical disputes Hopkins
reserves for discussion in future volumes.
The focus of the Cittamaatra chapter of Tsong kha pa's text and Hopkins'
book is on the meaning of the trisvabhaava ("three natures") as presented
in the fundamental Cittamaatra suutra, the Sa.mdhinirmocana-suutra
("The Suutra Unraveling the Thought"), in both its ontological and
hermeneutical dimensions, and on the seventh chapter of the suutra in particular,
the paramaarthasamudgata-parivarta ("The Questions of
Paramaarthasamudgata"), where a clarification is requested on the meaning of svalak.sa.na
("own character") in the context of the praj~naapaaramitaa
("Perfection of Wisdom") suutras. The answer given by the Buddha on the trisvabhaava,
the correlated trini.hsvabhaavataa ("three non-natures"), and the
compatibility of the praj~naapaaramitaa suutras with the Cittamaatra
worldview serves as the springboard for Tsong kha pa's and Hopkins' exegesis.
Hopkins' treatment of Tsong kha pa's presentation of Cittamaatra takes
three forms which are reflected in the three major parts of the book: annotated
translation, a section-by-section critical analysis of the text and its issues, and a
critical edition of the text in Tibetan script. Given the difficulty of translating such a
dense philosophical text, Hopkins has succeeded in avoiding copious footnotes by opting
for a novel approach to textual presentation. Although he provides footnotes in each
section, Hopkins has embedded page cross-references in and between all three sections of
the book, allowing the reader to easily reference the original text from the translation
or analysis, and vise versa. By means of this structure, the reader gains insight into the
methodological rigor behind Hopkins' translation at an almost pedagogical level. A notable
example is Hopkins' unpacking of a two-verse quote from Maitreya's Madhyaantavibha.nga
("Differentiation of the Middle and the Extremes") used by Tsong kha pa.
Although given with heavy bracketing in the translation section (p. 182), the
corresponding section of Hopkins' analysis (pp. 305-307) leads the reader through a
word-by-word analysis of the stanzas from the subtleties of Sanskrit grammar to the
integration of the sub-commentaries of Vasubandhu and Sthiramati culminating in Tsong
kha pa's final reading.
Hopkins' Mind-Only begins with a historical contextualization of both Tsong
kha pa and his text. This leads into a review of seventeen of the twenty-six
sub-commentaries to Tsong kha pa's text which Hopkins obtained and references
during the course of his presentation, from the fourteenth century student of Tsong kha
pa, mKhas grub ("Ke-drup") up through the twentieth century "scholar of
scholars" 'Jigs med dam chos rgya mtsho
("Jik-may-dam-chö-gya-tso"). A short discussion of the basic ideas of the Cittamaatra
School follows which serves the two-fold purpose of both framing Tsong kha pa's
text in the Cittamaatra worldview and contextually introducing Hopkins' translation
equivalents in an etymological manner. Because of this, many of Hopkins' terms which seem
awkward or contrived at first -- "unreal ideation" for abhuutaparikalpa
(Tib. yang dag pa ma yin pa'i kun tu rtogs pa), "other-powered natures"
for paratantrasvabhaava (Tib. gzhan dbang gi rang bzhin), and so on --
attain meanings clearly associated with Hopkins' chosen rendering. To Hopkins' credit,
once he defines these terms they are used consistently throughout the book, yielding
coherence and continuity to the work.
As Hopkins describes it, the original text contains "abrupt, unannounced shifts of
topic, unspecified references, omissions and seeming contradictions" such that it is
"virtually impossible to plunge right into it without becoming lost" (p. 26);
hence its reputation as a "steel bow and arrow." As Hopkins describes it (p.
16),
[Just] as it is hard to pull a steel bow to its full extent but if one can, the arrow
will course over a great area, so even the words -- not to consider the meaning -- of this
text are difficult to understand but, when understood, yield great insight. The metaphor
states a martial challenge to the reader, calling for heroic strength of intellectual
will; the work is viewed as one of genius, difficult to control because of its often
cryptic brevity but yielding profound insight if pursued with analytical fortitude. (The
metaphor also may be a polite way of communicating that the book is so abstruse and
sometimes apparently self-contradictory that it takes tremendous effort to attempt to
construct a consistent account of Dzong-ka-ba's thought.)
Hopkins' book is undoubtedly intended as a response to this martial challenge.
Following his exhaustive treatment of the "Prologue" to the text, Hopkins
partitions Tsong kha pa's text into two sections which are then subdivided into
chapters (with their titles as given by Tsong kha pa) and supplemented by
subsection headings drawn from the commentaries. The first section comprises four chapters
which deal explicitly with the question posed in the Sa.mdhinirmocana-suutra, the
answer given by the Buddha, the meaning of the trisvabhaava, and
Paramaarthasamudgata's restatement of the overall meaning. The second section deals with
the eight chapters of Tsong kha pa's text which address explicitly the
hermeneutical dimension of the Sa.mdhinirmocana-suutra, the compatibility of the suutra
with the various writings of Maitreya, Asa.nga, Vasubandhu, and Dharmakiirti, the manner
in which the Cittamaatra system presents a "middle way" avoiding the
extremes of permanence and nihilism, and finally, the differentiation of the teachings of
the Buddha into the definitive and interpretable as the three Wheels of Doctrine. All of
these issues and sections are mirrored in the other parts of the book. Issues within the
text that are clear points of controversy are either dealt with or marked in the footnotes
as references to the other two volumes in the series. Although the work stands on its own
merits, these references to the unpublished volumes leave the reader in a state of
anticipation of Hopkins' treatment of the more subtle disputes which the footnotes merely
allude to.
In looking at the issues and apparent contradictions in Tsong kha pa's text that
animate the Tibetan commentarial literature, Hopkins engages in the sort of textual
analysis which is unfortunately not in favor in academia today. In this book, the value of
such an enterprise is clearly demonstrated: Hopkins' treatment of the dGe lugs
presentation of Cittamaatra is truly masterful. This book presents a wealth of
knowledge and stimulating engagement with the material, revealing the intellectual mastery
of Tsong kha pa over Buddhist philosophy and hermeneutics. At the conclusion of the
book, the reader's imagination is left sparked with questions. One feels that Cittamaatra
is fertile ground for further investigation, and wonders particularly how other
interpretation lineages such as the Sa skya or rNying ma have dealt with
these issues as well as the source of "mistaken" views persistently refuted by Tsong
kha pa, the Jo nang pas. Although Hopkins briefly mentions the comparable
philosophies of idealism espoused in Europe over the centuries (pp. 37-38), he does not
pursue that avenue of research. Such a comparative study remains needed and would
complement Hopkins' exceptional work of integrating what he calls "part of our
world culture" (p. 4) into the broader world of ideas.