Home > Books & Publications > Books by Title A-Z >

Buddhist Self: On Tathagatagarbha and Atman
By: C. V. Jones

The Buddhist Self: On Tathagatagarbha and Atman, C. V. Jones
 
Our Price: $72.00
Author: C. V. Jones
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9780824883423
Publication Date: 2020


Availability: Usually Ships in 24 Hours
Product Code: 9780824883423
Qty:

Description About the author Contents
 
The assertion that there is nothing in the constitution of any person that deserves to be considered the self (atman)--a permanent, unchanging kernel of personal identity in this life and those to come--has been a cornerstone of Buddhist teaching from its inception. Whereas other Indian religious systems celebrated the search for and potential discovery of one's "true self," Buddhism taught about the futility of searching for anything in our experience that is not transient and ephemeral. But a small yet influential set of Mahayana Buddhist texts, composed in India in the early centuries CE, taught that all sentient beings possess at all times, and across their successive lives, the enduring and superlatively precious nature of a Buddha. This was taught with reference to the enigmatic expression tathagatagarbha--the "womb" or "chamber" for a Buddha--which some texts refer to as a person's true self.

The Buddhist Self is a methodical examination of Indian teaching about the tathagatagarbha (otherwise the presence of one's "Buddha-nature") and the extent to which different Buddhist texts and authors articulated this in terms of the self. C. V. Jones attends to each of the Indian Buddhist works responsible for explaining what is meant by the expression tathagatagarbha, and how far this should be understood or promoted using the language of selfhood. With close attention to these sources, Jones argues that the trajectory of Buddha-nature thought in India is also the history and legacy of a Buddhist account of what deserves to be called the self: an innovative attempt to equip Mahayana Buddhism with an affirmative response to wider Indian interest in the discovery of something precious or even divine in one's own constitution. This argument is supplemented by critical consideration of other themes that run through this distinctive body of Mahayanist literature: the relationship between Buddhist and non-Buddhist teachings about the self, the overlap between the tathagatagarbha and the nature of the mind, and the originally radical position that the only means of becoming liberated from rebirth is to achieve the same exalted status as the Buddha.

The Buddhist Self: On Tathagatagarbha and Atman, C. V. Jones, University of Hawaii Press, Hardcover, 316 pp, $72.00

Share your knowledge of this product with other customers... Be the first to write a review

Browse for more products in the same category as this item:

Books & Publications > Books by Title A-Z
Books & Publications > Books by Subject > Books on Buddha Nature
Books & Publications > Books by Publisher > University of Hawai'i Press
Books & Publications > Books by Subject
Books & Publications > Books by Publisher
Books & Publications