This book represents an important conribution to our understanding of Madhyamika philosophy in India and Tibet. The Madhyamika is considered to have had two subschools, Svatantrika and Prasangika. The Prasangika school of Candrakirti is better known than Svatantrika, in part because the major Svatantrika texts are preserved only in Tibetan translation. The Svatantrikas, however, made important contributions to Buddhist philosophy in their expositions of the nature of reality, the role of reasoning in the process of enlightenment, and in their delineations of the paths to nirvana. The synthesis of Yogacara and Madhyamika philosophy by the Svatantrika master Santaraksita represents the final development of Buddhist thought in India. In Tibet, Svatantrika was the first Indian Buddhist school to gain currency, prior to the translation of the works of Candrakirti into Tibetan.
Study of Svatantrika, Donald S. Lopez, Jr., Snow Lion, Paperback, 482 pages, $39.95
Donald Sewell Lopez Jr. is an American scholar of Buddhism and the Arthur E. Link Distinguished university professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan, in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures.
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