The assertion that there is nothing in the constitution of any person that deserves to be considered the self (atman)--a permanent, unchanging kernel of personal identity in this life and those to come--has been a cornerstone of Buddhist teaching from its inception. Whereas other Indian religious systems celebrated the search for and potential discovery of one's "true self," Buddhism taught about the futility of searching for anything in our experience that is not transient and ephemeral. But a small yet influential set of Mahayana Buddhist texts, composed in India in the early centuries CE, taught that all sentient beings possess at all times, and across their successive lives, the enduring and superlatively precious nature of a Buddha. This was taught with reference to the enigmatic expression tathagatagarbha--the "womb" or "chamber" for a Buddha--which some texts refer to as a person's true self.

The Buddhist Self is a methodical examination of Indian teaching about the tathagatagarbha (otherwise the presence of one's "Buddha-nature") and the extent to which different Buddhist texts and authors articulated this in terms of the self. C. V. Jones attends to each of the Indian Buddhist works responsible for explaining what is meant by the expression tathagatagarbha, and how far this should be understood or promoted using the language of selfhood. With close attention to these sources, Jones argues that the trajectory of Buddha-nature thought in India is also the history and legacy of a Buddhist account of what deserves to be called the self: an innovative attempt to equip Mahayana Buddhism with an affirmative response to wider Indian interest in the discovery of something precious or even divine in one's own constitution. This argument is supplemented by critical consideration of other themes that run through this distinctive body of Mahayanist literature: the relationship between Buddhist and non-Buddhist teachings about the self, the overlap between the tathagatagarbha and the nature of the mind, and the originally radical position that the only means of becoming liberated from rebirth is to achieve the same exalted status as the Buddha.

The Buddhist Self: On Tathagatagarbha and Atman, C. V. Jones, University of Hawaii Press, Hardcover, 316 pp, $72.00

C. V. Jones is an affiliated lecturer of the Divinity Faculty and Bye-Fellow of Selwyn College, University of Cambridge.

CONTENTS: The Buddhist Self: On Tathagatagarbha and Atman
	ACKNOWLEDGMENTS		XI
	ABBREVIATIONS		XIII
	CONVENTIONS		XVII
1	Introduction		1
	1.1	Self and Not-Self in Early Buddhism	1
	1.2	Tathagatagarbha Literature in Overview	11
	1.3	Essences, Natures, Wombs, and Chambers	14
	1.4	Buddhist Atmavada: Preliminary Thoughts	21
Part I Buddha-Nature, the Self
2	The Mahaparinirvanamahasutra and the Buddhist Self		29
	2.1	The Text	29
	2.2	The Buddha as Self	33
	2.3	Buddha-nature and the Self	40
	2.4	Contentions and Clarifications	47
	2.5	The True Self and False Notions of It	55
	2.6	Self and Absence of Self	59
	2.7	Buddha-nature in Dharmaksema's MPNMSD+	62
	2.8	Conclusions	67
3	The Angulimaliysutra and the Essential Self		70
	3.1	The Text	70
	3.2	An "Essence" of One's Own	74
	3.3	What Buddha-nature Is Not: More False Notions of the Self	77
	3.4	Perceiving Buddha-nature	79
	3.5	Essence, Action, and the Self	83
	3.6	A "Single Essence"	87
	3.7	Buddhism contra Other Systems	91
	3.8	Conclusions	95
4	The Mahabheriharakasutra and Liberation of the Self		97
	4.1	The Text	97
	4.2	Continuity of the Self	100
	4.3	The Sovereign Self	104
	4.4	Buddha-nature and Buddhist Practice	107
	4.5	Self, Not-Self, and Emptiness	109
	4.6	Conclusions	114
Part II Buddha-nature, Not Self
5	The Srimaladevisimhadadasutra and the Perfection of Self		119
	5.1	The Text	119
	5.2	Reimagining Tathagatagarbha	122
	5.3	The Dharmakaya and Its Qualities	129
	5.4	On "Singularity"	132
	5.5	Conclusions	136
6	Other Tathagatagarbha Sources		139
	6.1	The Anunatvapurnatvanirdeparivarta	139
	6.2	The Tathagatagarbhasutra	143
	6.3	The Mahayanasutralamkara	148
7	The Ratnagotravibhaga and the Self That Is No Self		154
	7.1	The Text	154
	7.2	Buddha-nature and the "Basic" RGV	158
	7.3	"Perfection of Self" in the RGVV	167
	7.4	Tathagatagarbha as, Once Again, the Self	175
	7.5	Conclusions	178
8	The Lankavatrasutra and Rejecting the Buddhist Self		181
	8.1	The Text	181
	8.2	Tathagatagarbha and Absence of Self	183
	8.3	The "Alayavijnana-Tatagatagarbha"	188
	8.4	Selfhood in the Sagathaka	191
	8.5	Conclusions	194
	8.6	Postscript: After the LAS	195
Part III Buddha-nature Reconsidered
9	Recurring Themes and Motifs		203
	9.1	The Single Vehicle	203
	9.2	"Cryptic" Utteramces	210
	9.3	The Intrinsically Pure Mind	214
	9.4	"Sarvalokapriyadarsana"	217
	9.5	Emptiness and Nonemptiness	218
	9.6	Non-Buddhists and Their Teachings	223
10	Evolution of the Buddhist Self		229
	10.1	The Course of Buddha-nature Teaching	229
	10.2	Origins of the Buddha-nature Idea	237
	10.3	Liberation and the Self	245
	10.4	Buddhist Selfhood and the Mahayana	253
	10.5	Closing Thoughts	261
	REFERENCES		265
	INDEX		287