Mipham’s Dialectics and the Debates on Emptiness

MIPHAM’S DIALECTICS AND THE DEBATES ON EMPTINESS: TO BE, NOT TO BE OR NEITHER . By Karma Phuntsho . RoutledgeCurzon Critical Studies in Buddhism . New York : RoutledgeCurzon , 2005 . Pp . xv + 304 ; plates. Paper over boards, $150.00, ISBN 0-415-35252-5 . This book offers an excellent overview of the interpretation of emptiness offered by Ju Mipham Namgyal Gyatsho (1846-12), the Tibetan polymath and Nyingma philosopher, who was an advocate of the ecumenical ris med movement of Tibetan Buddhism. The first two chapters explain the significance and history of debates on emptiness, emphasizing the importance of such debates for Indian texts and Tibetan exegetes. Emptiness is considered to be the single antidote to all mental defilements, hence elucidating just what emptiness means is central to the project of Mahāyāna Buddhism according to these traditions. The third and fourth chapters are philosophically rich and sophisticated, presenting the complexities of Mipham’s account of emptiness especially vis-à-vis the Gelukpa account. The final chapter discusses whether emptiness is knowable and effable according to Mipham, that is, whether this fundamental doctrine of Mahāyāna Buddhism is able to be cognized and expressed in language, or whether such cognitions and designations are only propaedeutics to be left behind in the attainment of buddhahood (Mipham opts for the latter account). Certain to be of interest to advanced students of Buddhism, this book is a valuable contribution to the growing scholarship on Tibetan thought focusing on perspectives alternative to the dominant Gelukpa views

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