Jnanagarbha's Commentary on Just the Maitreya Chapter from the Samdhinirmocana-Sutra Study

The Commentary on Just the Maitreya Chapter from the Samdhinirmocana-sutra, attributed to the Indian Buddhist master Jnanagarbha, is an important work of early Indian Buddhist philosophy. As the title indicates, it focuses on the eighth chapter of the sutra, "The Question of Maitreya," one of the seminal scriptural sources for Indian Buddhist meditation theory. It provides learned commentaries on the doctrines of "calming" (Samatha) and "higher insight" (vipasyana), as well as a comprehensive overview of the path to awakening as understood by the Yogacara tradition. In addition, it comments on the sutra's statement that all of the phenomena of experience are "cognition only" (vijnapti-matra), interpreting this as a statement of universal idealism. This commentary contains one of the most detailed philosophical analyses of this important chapter, and it has some of the most thought-provoking exegesis of a text that is one of the most influential of Indian Buddhist scriptures.

About the Author:

John Powers received his Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from the University of Virginia and is currently a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Asian Studies, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia. A specialist in Indian and Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, Powers has published numerous books and articles on topics related to Buddhist thought, including a translation of the Samdhinirmocana-sutra (Berkeley: Dharma Publishing, 1995), Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism (Ithaca: Snow Lion, 1995), and Hermeneutics and Tradition in the Samdhinirmocana-sutra (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1993).