This is the story of fifth century CE India; when the Yogacarin Buddhists tested the awareness of unawareness; and became aware of human unawareness to an extraordinary degree. They not only explicitly differentiated this dimension of mental processes from conscious cognitive processes; but also offered reasoned arguments on behalf of this dimension of mind. This is the concept of the 'Buddhist unconscious'; which arose just as philosophical discourse in other circles was fiercely debating the limits of conscious awareness; and these ideas in turn had developed as a systematisation of teachings from the Buddha himself. For us in the twenty-first century; these teachings connect in fascinating ways to the Western conceptions of the 'cognitive unconscious' which have been elaborated in the work of Jung and Freud. This important study reveals how the Buddhist unconscious illuminates and draws out aspects of current western thinking on the unconscious mind. One of the most intriguing connections is the idea that there is in fact no substantial 'self' underlying all mental activity; 'the thoughts themselves are the thinker'. William S. Waldron considers the implications of this radical notion; which; despite only recently gaining plausibility; was in fact first posited 2;500 years ago.
#1547952 in Books 2012-01-15Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.50 x .75 x 5.50l; .90 #File Name: 0415300681336 pages
Review
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. An amazing compilation of facts and commentaryBy PersonaAn extremely informative and useful book. Filled with a multitude of information culled from a wide span of source. All collated with care; scholarly expertise and clearly organized. Highly readable. I found it helpful for my professional work; a complete bibliography and excellent choice of citations. Absolutely essential for anyone working on ancient history; art and philosophy. And also literature.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. ExcellentBy D. J. MccannThe author is a good writer (I even enjoyed her PhD thesis) and the material is well organised. The myths are set out clearly and the full range of literary evidence is combined with that from art. The chapter on his cult cannot be comprehensive; but concentrates on particularly interesting evidence. Finally; there is a comprehensive view of how Heracles functions (and still does) outside the cult: tragic hero; moral exemplar; comic character; cinematic hero; and football-club mascot!The reason it doesn't get 5 stars is the format of the series. Firstly a certain amount of space is wasted: every volume has the same series introduction; an introduction telling us what each chapter is going to be about; and a summary at the end of each chapter in case we've forgotten it already. Secondly; the quotations are in very small; faint type; and the illustrations are not much clearer. Thirdly; it attempts to cover too many fields; "from Greek and Roman religion ... to cultural studies". At least this is the best volume to date.
