A Yogācāra Buddhist Theory of Metaphor (Oxford University Press, 2018) (original) (raw)
Related papers
Oxford Scholarship Online, 2018
This chapter explores the broader epistemic ramifications of the Yogācāra theory of meaning and metaphor. It points out features that this theory shares with contemporary analytical causal theories of reference—especially the solution that they offer to the problem of incommensurability. The text presents the Yogācāra understanding of this problem, notably in Sthiramati’s Triṃśikābhāṣya (TriṃśBh) and Asaṅga’s Mahāyānasaṃgraha (MS), and examines how Sthiramati’s figurative theory of meaning addresses it. The conclusion points out deep structural affinities between the Yogācāra understanding of linguistic meaning and its understanding of experience, particularly of intersubjective experiences of the external word. This allows an identification and articulation of several fundamental themes that run through Yogācāra thought in general, and through the school’s conception of meaning in particular, implying a broadly conceived theory of meaning that is not merely linguistic, but also per...
METAPHOR AND LITERALISM IN BUDDHISM
The notion of nirvana originally used the image of extinguishing a fire. Although the attainment of nirvana, ultimate liberation, is the focus of the Buddha's teaching, its interpretation has been a constant problem to Buddhist exegetes, and has changed in different historical and doctrinal contexts. The concept is so central that changes in its understanding have necessarily involved much larger shifts in doctrine. This book studies the doctrinal development of the Pali nirvana and subsequent tradition and compares it with the Chinese Agama and its traditional interpretation. It clarifies early doctrinal developments of nirvana and traces the word and related terms back to their original metaphorical contexts. Thereby, it elucidates diverse interpretations and doctrinal and philosophical developments in the abhidharma exegeses and treatises of Southern and Northern Buddhist schools. Finally, the book examines which school, if any, kept the original meaning and reference of nirvana.
2016
For as long as human civilization, one of the most fascinated topics of discussion is perhaps those concerning the human mind. The quest to understand the dynamics of human mind is of interest for both practical purpose in our daily lives as well as to unfold the fundamentals of human existence. Since the ancient tine, philosophers of the East and West have proposed many theories regarding the mind. In the modern period, such explorations have shifted to scientific models as the main stream. Buddhism as a form of Eastern thought offers comprehensive accounts on the workings of the mind and mental phenomena. From the Buddhist perspective, the fundamental existence of all sentient beings and the soteriological purpose of breaking free from the cyclic existence of saṃsāra are all mind-oriented. While maintaining the position of neither eternalism nor nihilism, the Buddhist notion of mind presents systematic models yet at the same time rejects the mind as being a permanent substantial entity. Under such dichotomy, one of the most extensive and systemic analysis of the mind developed in Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism is the Yogācāra tradition One of the tradition’s core theoretical concept is the subliminal mind, ālayavijñāna. It accounts for continuity in the mental stream and the efficacy of accumulated karmic potential, topical areas which were much debated during the Abhidharma period. The Yogācāra literature explains the mental process as a maturation of the flow of discrete elements of consciousness. This flow of consciousness, which the Sautrāntikas called mind-continuum (citta-santāna), ultimately supports all types of perceptual activity. In its indeterminate state, this flow of consciousness is the depository of all non-conceptual awareness (nirvikalpa-jñāna). The ālayavijñāna is said to arise together with all the seeds (bīja), thus suggesting the imagery of a depository of all the elements of consciousness and cognition. Afflictions (kleśa), action (karma), and their results (vipāka, phala) are in dynamic interaction between distinct processes within a singular, multi-tiered model of mind. Notably, the notion of mind is one of the most fundamental concept which embodies an extensive scope of metaphors. Employment of metaphors to illustrate the working of the mind extend across multi-disciplinary including: psychology, philosophy, cognitive science, linguistic and others. It is interesting that belonging to the scientific field which bases on concrete scientific facts, in Western psychology, metaphors play an important role in making connections with the unobservable of human cognition. In fact, it has been stated that “a history of metaphors of mind might look very much like a history of psychology.” And metaphors of mind have always reflected dominant scientific ideas, and psychologists and cognitive scientists have always used metaphors in building their theories. Looking at the development of models of mind, one will see the workings of mind is often explained metaphorically with the latest technological devices or models familiar to people at the time. For instance, subsequent to the “desktop computer model” of mind in the last few decades, the latest technology is the “quantum supercomputer model” which drives the hot topic of the “quantum mind” or “quantum consciousness” in present time. In Buddhist literary works, the application of metaphors and other affiliated forms of comparison are also significant. As Gombrich points out, the Buddha ‘resorts to metaphor’ in order to ‘convey experience which eludes denotative language’ and the constant utilization of ‘obvious metaphors’ to express ‘all the supreme good which the Buddha has found and make available to others’. In many ways, such reliance on the application of metaphors have left certain features and marks in Buddhist literature. Gombrich even goes as far to hypothesize that one of the criteria for determine the authenticity of a particular message which traces back to the Buddha may be infer by whether or not it is convey in analogy. It is not surprising that proponents of the Yogācāra tradition rely on various metaphorical systems in explicating the phenomena of mind. One of the metaphoric model adopted by the Yogācāra tradition is the agriculture. This includes the notions of seeds (bīja), maturation (vipāka) and fruits (phala). Other agricultural metaphors include: granary and ground for the ālayavijñāna. These will be further illustrated and discussed in the full paper. Hermeneutically, the meaning of a metaphor is as much the creation of the interpreters as its author. It is the interpreter's prior experiences and beliefs that provide a meaning for the metaphor. According to Richards, metaphors create meaning by bringing two concepts, a tenor and vehicle, into contact with each other, causing their distinct meanings to “interact” in the reader or listener’s mind to create a new meaning. The interpreter of the metaphor would then work out the ambiguities and connectives inherent in all words, or thoughts, to create a non-literal meaning. Johnson Sheehan suggests that when a metaphor is used, an interpreter of the metaphor follows a hermeneutic process. Firstly, to identify whether an utterance is to be taken metaphorically. Second, once the interpreter identifies a potential metaphor, she then invents a meaning for the phrase that brings the sentence into better coherence with her projective expectations and the contextual narrative. Finally, the interpreter uses the identified metaphor to invent a narrative that fleshes out and perpetuates a particular perspective. In this system, it has been noted that the author of the metaphor is also engaged in the same hermeneutic process as the interpreter. When using a metaphor, the author identifies an appropriate metaphor that will express his intended meaning in the given context. Then, he uses the metaphor to invent a further narrative that adds substance to his perspective. In this way, the author is also an interpreter, using the metaphor as a locus from which to invent and express a particular point of view. By employing methods of cognitive metaphor theory and the three stages hermeneutical process, the present study aims to examine in details the agricultural model and its hermeneutical functions in the Yogācāra literature, specifically examining the concept of the Ālayavijñāna as discussed in one of the core texts in the literature, the Mahāyānasaṃgraha. The cognitive aspect of metaphors found in the text sustains networks of meanings and characteristics of ālayavijñāna, as well as confines and fixates the frameworks of which one understood its function. The purposeful employment of agricultural metaphors for the ālayavijñāna reveals implications unique to this system of thought. Through cognitive metaphor and hermeneutical analysis, the current paper proposes to gain understanding into how ancient Buddhist practitioners and intellectuals understood, constructed and conveyed the dynamics of consciousness with the use of metaphors, as well as what cognitive implications and effects of these metaphors have on the understanding of the present-day reader.
Investigating the universality of primary metaphors: a perspective from buddhism
Linguagem em (Dis) curso, 2007
In this paper, I conduct a conceptual metaphor analysis of the "Wheel of Life", a pictorial representation of Buddhist philosophical concepts. Abstract concepts that define our everyday realities (e.g. states, causation) are claimed by some to be metaphorically structured, and reducible to a universal set of primary metaphors (LAKOFF; JOHNSON, 1999), while argued by others to be structured by non-metaphorical cultural understandings instead . Recognizing the need for empirical testing of the universalist claim, I analyze Buddhist conceptualizations of states-of-being, rebirth and event structure for their reducibility to primary metaphors. I show that while some concepts are reducible to universal primary metaphors, others might be constituted by culture-specific understandings instead. I also question the concept of primary metaphor itself, suggesting that supposedly universal primary metaphors already carry culturally-biased preconceptions, and urge the Lakoffian school to justify the assumed universality of subjective experiences which give rise to primary metaphors.
Yogācāra Strategies against Realism: Appearances (ākṛti) and Metaphors (upacāra)
This paper describes and elucidates two philosophical parallels: the first between two early Yogācāra Buddhist positions, and the second between these positions and a contemporary discussion in analytic philosophy. The two Yogācāra positions are (1) that reality is a mere appearance (ākṛti); and (2) that all language is metaphorical (upacāra). First, the distinctive Yogācāra belief in the reality of mere appearances is clarified by carefully distinguishing the terminological uses in Vasubandhu's Three Natures Exposition (Trisvabhāvanirdeśa) from the terms used to make parallel conceptual moves in a very similar passage from the Ornament to the Mahāyāna Sutras (Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra). Second, the theory of language advocated by Sthiramati in his commentary to Vasubandhu's Thirty Verses (Triṃśikākārikā) is explained as a counter to arguments that Yogācāra non-realism is self-defeating. This latter view shows how Yogācāra may be fruitfully brought into dialogue with Hilary Putnam's famous antiskeptical Brain-in-a-Vat argument. The paper finds basic accord within Vasubandhu's ontology and theory of reference, and shows how they represent a new, coherent Yogācāra response to Putnam's realist challenge.
Do You Speak Mahāmudrā? How the Inexpressible is Said Through Metaphors
Metaphor Papers, 2023
Mahāmudrā is a Buddhist practice system that originated in India and was transmitted in various forms and through various channels to Tibet. The transmission discussed in this paper teaches the direct observation of the mind, which is a paradox: Apart from being “like space,” the mind has no characteristics; thus, nothing can really be looked at. Ultimately, the mind is considered to be “seen” when all “seeing” is completely exhausted by a practice that looks at the mind in the manner of looking into boundless und unveiled space. Tilopa’s basic text of the Gangama teaches the stopping of all thought-like mental activities as the principal method. The Third Karmapa’s commentary introduces a second method, where the thought-like activities are not stopped but watched while investigating where thoughts come from, where they stay, and where they disappear to. As a result, the practitioner understands that thoughts are not different from the space-like mind like waves are not different from the ocean, and with this realization, all thoughts disappear. Because of their high density of metaphors, the texts of Tilopa and the Karmapa lend themselves to investigating how language in religious use emerges from metaphors. The primary metaphors can be summarized as space and movement, including being fettered, loosening, and becoming free. Another essential metaphor is clarity as a sub-category of space, in the sense of unobstructed or unveiled, as well as clear, empty, and naked. An important observation is that the metaphors are often initially apophatic—often negations—whereas the derived ones tend to be neutral or positive. The meaning that emerges then often takes on an abstract cataphatic form (space, free, nature). We can also observe that the two different approaches, stopping thoughts or using thoughts for the practice, seem to prefer different metaphors, e.g., with the connotation of a static “openness” and “expansiveness” (space, sky) or with a dynamic “inclusiveness” (waves and water). Analyzing metaphors enables us to decipher the complex meaning of a whole doctrinal system. We can develop a perspective on a religious system of meaning by analyzing the types of metaphors that are used—dynamic/static, negative/positive, apophatic/cataphatic, etc.—and the developments and derivations that can be observed in them—e.g., from dynamic to static or from negative to positive.
Metaphor and literalism in Buddhism: the doctrinal history of nirvana
2006
The notion of nirvana originally used the image of extinguishing a fire. Although the attainment of nirvana, ultimate liberation, is the focus of the Buddha's teaching, its interpretation has been a constant problem to Buddhist exegetes, and has changed in different historical and doctrinal contexts. The concept is so central that changes in its understanding have necessarily involved much larger shifts in doctrine. This book studies the doctrinal development of the Pali nirvana and subsequent tradition and compares it with the Chinese Agama and its traditional interpretation. It clarifies early doctrinal developments of nirvana and traces the word and related terms back to their original metaphorical contexts. Thereby, it elucidates diverse interpretations and doctrinal and philosophical developments in the abhidharma exegeses and treatises of Southern and Northern Buddhist schools. Finally, the book examines which school, if any, kept the original meaning and reference of nirvana.