David Ross Komito 1987 Nagarjuna's "Seventy Stanzas",A Buddhist Psychology of Emptiness. Ithaca, New York: Snow Lion Publications.
I have chosen this book because I think it is highly relevant to the
course, and although having read it at least a year and a half ago, I
see no opportunity for me to read new books at the moment, with my
current schedule. I am therefore trying to reacquaint myself with the
material.
The initial interest for me was the description of the phenomenon of
the mistaken projection/ascribing of attributes, for which David Ross
Komito uses the word imputation. Projection in the sense that when we
are considering a phenomenon, something that appears to our
consciousness in some kind of way, through the doors of the senses, we
add to that phenomena qualities that are not really there, qualities
that are related to our mistaken sense of self. That this process of
assigning aspects to phenomena which is not really there is what
constitutes our ignorance, our unknowing of the real nature of
phenomena and their existential status, the process which separates us
from what is really there. I feel this book underpins very much the
texts we have studied on Rupa and Namo Rupa, and the relationship
between objects and self.
The author, David Ross Komito, is an American scholar, and he has for
this book sought the assistance of Tibetan Lama and scholar Geshe Sonam
Rinchen to deepen and clarify his understanding with the help of
someone trained in a long-standing tradition of interpreting the text.
In the foreword, a short legend of Nagarjuna is told. According to
this, Nagarjuna was the abbot of the famous Indian Buddhist monastery
of Nalanda. There he meets two exceptional students that turn out to be
the sons of the Naga (serpent) King. He follows them home to their deep
underwater world (the subconscious?) to receive the 100,000 Stanza
Perfection of Wisdom Sutra of which the Seventy Stanzas are a part with
him. This exposition of wisdom has according to the legend been
preserved in written form by the Nagas since the Buddha's lifetime,
when they attended the Buddha's teachings. The nagas had ostensibly
preserved the teaching awaiting the appearance of a human who could
understand them. Nagarjuna is said to have received his name from this
encounter.
Before the actual text, the book goes on to give a background in
Buddhist Psychology, including particularly the concept of conditioned
co-production (Sanskrit: pratitya samutpada), and the twelve limbs of
dependent origination (from the Tibetan Wheel of Life). David Ross
Komito puts emphasis on the psychological nature of the Buddha's
teaching:
"The Buddha, after all, is teaching about his experience, he is
teaching a phemenology (BK italics). Thus he posits the observed
connections between phenomena; he is not speaking about forces that
effect things in some mechanistic physics. Dependent origination,
however, does not necessarily thereby exclude this sort of strict
causality..........Thus, causality, as understood by modern western
science, could be considered a special case of the larger category of
relations designated by the term "dependent origination" (p. 28).
This introduction to Buddhist Psychology also puts forward a Buddhist
view of the senses, the mental factors and the path of progress through
meditation. The author concludes the introduction to Buddhist
Psychology with a chapter on objects and the way in which we mistakenly
relate to them. Through this section on Buddhist Psychology the
concepts of ignorant seeing (avidya) and the lack of inherent existence
of phenomena, which the seventy stanzas are seeking to prove, is thread.
The stanzas themselves are in the form of a debate, often posing
(imaginary?) questions of the proposed truth by opponents such as
Hineyanists and others. I imagine the way of putting the arguments of
the lack of inherent existence of phenomena forward, and of the
objections stated, took the form of the debates that formed Nalanda's
Dharma discussions, student examinations and ways to shine as a
proponent of the Dharma. I quote a short example of a stanza below:
"(56) Consciousness arise in dependence on internal and external
entrances, because consciousness arise in the dependence on entrances,
so it s like a mirage and an illusion which are devoid of inherent
existence."
The author with the understanding gained from Geshe Sonyam Rimpoche
then provides a comprehensive commentary for each stanza, quoting also
the Tibetan text. The author's efforts in seeking authenticity seem
extensive, as he translated the text into English, which was then
retranslated into Tibetan for Geshe Sonam Rimposhe's final corrections.
The last part of the book is a mapping of the text's transmission.
Perhaps Nagarjuna's is the core ancient work on seeing and naming. If I
read it another five times, I think I would by no means even understand
the text moderately well. It seems to me no beach read, and perhaps
many of the stanzas would lend themselves to be meditated on for years
on end. Nevertheless I found it intriguing and fascinating as well as
difficult. Knowing that I have hardly scratched the surface of this
work, I apologize for any way in which you may later find me to have
misrepresented the text.