New Books in Buddhist Studies William S. Waldron, "Making Sense of Mind Only: Why Yogacara Buddhism Matters" (Wisdom Publications, 2023)
Apr 4, 2024
William S. Waldron, scholar of Yogacara Buddhism and author, explains why Mind-Only thought still matters. He traces Yogacara’s texts and methods, reframes dependent arising as an analytic tool, and uses everyday examples like coffee habits to show how cognition constructs experience. He also connects Yogacara to modern issues of responsibility, social construction, and meditative paths to non-conceptual wisdom.
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Coffee Habit As Dependent Arising Example
- Waldron uses his coffee habit to illustrate dependent arising: habits form through repeated interactions, not a single essence.
- Drinking caffeine changed his neurochemistry over time, producing withdrawal headaches when he quit cold turkey as a concrete example.
Abhidharma's Momentariness Creates The Binding Problem
- Abhidharma's momentariness creates a binding problem: how do fleeting dharmas yield coherent experience now and over time?
- Yogacara responds by positing deeper structured currents (alayavijñāna) that support synchronic and diachronic continuity.
Essences Undermine Causal And Moral Reasoning
- Positing unchanging essences undermines causal explanation and invites moral nihilism because essences lie outside causal interaction.
- Nagarjuna's critique frames emptiness as necessary to preserve meaningful, conventional causal and moral reasoning.
