The great Buddhist writer Santaraksita (725-88) was central to the Buddhist traditions spread into Tibet. He and his disciple Kamalasila were among the most influential thinkers in classical India. They debated ideas not only within the Buddhist tradition but also with exegetes of other Indian religions, and they both traveled and nurtured Buddhism in Tibet during its infancy there. Their views, however, have been notoriously hard to classify. The present volume examines Santaraksita's encyclopedic Tattvasamgraha and Kamalasila's detailed commentary on that text in his Panjika, two works that have historically been presented together. The works cover all conceivable problems in Buddhist thought and portray Buddhism as a supremely rational faith. One hotly debated topic of their time was omniscience -- infinite, all-compassing knowledge -- whether it was possible and whether one could defensibly claim it as a quality of the Buddha.

Omniscience and the Rhetoric of Reason: Rationality, Argumentation, and Religious Authority in Santaraksita's Tattvasamgraha and Kamalasila's Panjika, Sara McClintock, Wisdom Publications, Paperback, 420 Pages, $36.95

Sara L. McClintock is an assistant professor of religion at Emory University, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. She obtained her bachelor's degree in fine arts from Bryn Mawr College, her master's in world religions from Harvard Divinity School, and her doctorate in religion from Harvard University. Her interests include both narrative and philosophical traditions in South Asian Buddhism, with particular focus on issues of metaphysics, hermeneutics and rhetoric. Her work includes articles on these themes, as well as a translation, with JOhn Dunne, of Nagarjuna's Ratnavali

	Contents: Omniscience and the Rhetoric of Reason: Santaraksita and Kamalasila on Rationality, Argumentation, & Religious Authority
	PREFACE	xiii
1.	INTRODUCTION	1
	The Rhetoric of Reason	4
	Reason, Rhetoric, and Omniscience	11
	Buddhist Philosophia	14
	The Countours of Omniscience in India	23
	Omniscience in the Pali Texts and the Theravada Tradition	28
	Mahasamghika and Sarvastivada Perspectives on Omniscience	32
	Mahayana Developments in Theories of the Buddha's Omniscience	34
	Models of Omniscience in the Tattvasamgraha and the Panjika	35
	Omniscience and Religious Authority	38
	The Path Ahead	42
2.	THE RHETORICAL COMPLEXITY OF THE TEXTS	47
	Audience	49
	The Actual Intended Audience	52
	The Ideal Audience	58
	Styles of Reasoning and Argumentation	63
	Arguments ad personam and Arguments ad hominem	63
	Nyaya Reasoning	67
	Pramana Theory	73
	The Sliding Scale of Analysis	85
	Scholastic Reasoning: Negotiating Tradition and Innovation	91
	Structure of the Tattvasamgraha and the Panjika	95
	Analysis of Dependent Arising	98
	Analysis of Religious Authority	102
	Purposes of the Tattvasamgraha and the Panjika	105
	Kamalasila's Presentation of the Purpose	105
	Kamalasila's Analysis of the Purpose	109
3.	DOGMAS, CONNOTATIONS, AND CONTEXTS	113
	Dogmas of Omniscience and Buddhahood	113
	The Requirement of Great Compassion	116
	The Perfection of the Aims of Self and Other	119
	The Two Obscurations	123
	Summary	131
	Connotations	132
	Assessing Dharmakirti's Position on Total Omniscience	135
	The Tattvasamgraha and the Panjika on Dharmic and Total Omniscience	138
	The Shifting Nature of the Objects of Knowledge	141
	Rhetorical Contexts	144
	A Strictly Rhetorical Context	145
	Two Rhetorical Contexts with Specific Addressees	147
	The Final Chapter of the Tattvasamgraha and the Panjika	148
	Audience and Styles of Reasoning in the Final Chapter	151
	Structure of the Final Chapter (1): Purvapaksa	152
	Structure of the Final Chapter (2): Uttarapaksa	156
	Details of the Structure of the Uttarapaksa	157
	Relations Among the Four Arguments	159
	The "Investigation of External Objects"	162
4.	OMNISCIENCE IS POSSIBLE: THE GENERAL DEMONSTRATION	165
	Rebutting Kumarila's Refutation of Omniscience	165
	Refuting that Dharma Is Radically Inaccessible	166
	Refuting that Any Pramana Can Disprove Omniscience	170
	Perception Cannot Refute Omniscience	173
	Inference Cannot Refute Omniscience	179
	The Other Pramanas Cannot Refute Omniscience	184
	The Nonperception of an Omniscient Being Is Not Certain	185
	Conclusion: It Is Best to Let There Be Doubt	186
	Demonstrating that Omniscience Is Possible	187
	Inference of Capacity: Karyanumana and Sambhavatpramana	188
	Ignorance as the Vision of a Self	191
	The Antidote to Ignorance: The Vision of Selflessness	195
	The Vision of Selflessness as Yogic Perception	199
	Response to Objections Concerning the Antidote	200
	The Perfectibility of the Vision of Selflessness	208
	The Nature of the Mind: Luminous and Seeing Reality	212
	Conclusion: The Perfection of Wisdom Is Possible	219
	Demonstrating Total Omniscience	221
	The Logic of Perfectibility	221
	Omniscience as Knowing the Selflessness that Pervades All Things	223
	The Apoha Theory and Yogic Perception	226
	An Equivocation in the Term All Dharmas?	229
	Conclusion: Omniscience as Reflexive Awareness	234
5.	OMNISCIENCE IS ACTUAL: THE SPECIFIC DEMONSTRATION	237
	The Subject of the Debate: Supersensible Seeing	238
	The Buddha as a Knower of the Hidden Capacities of Mantras	241
	The Sadhya Is Supersensible Seeing on Mimamsaka Terms	246
	Overveiw of the Specific Demonstration	246
	The Status of Verbal Testimony	253
	A Tension in the Specific Demonstration	256
	Dharmakirti on Inferring Mental Qualities	258
	Santaraksita and Kamalasila on Inferring Mental Qualities	262
	The Term Srngagrahikaya in the Panjika	264
	Acknowledging that the Buddha May Not Have Been First	268
	The Specific Demonstration as a Corollary of the General	271
	Who Can Infer the Buddha's Omniscience?	272
	Reconciling the Two Interpretations	276
	Supplemental Arguments in the Demonstration	277
	The Buddha's Omniscience Is Attested in the Veda	277
	The Buddha's Omniscience as a Mark of His Superiority	280
6.	MOTIVES FOR THE TWO DEMONSTRATIONS	285
	Motives for the General Demonstration	286
	Trustworthy Awareness as a Justification of Action	286
	Doubt as a Justification for Action	291
	Faith and Judicious Persons	299
	Summation: Motives for the General Demonstration	303
	Motives for the Specific Demonstration	303
	First Hypothesis: Causing Judicious Persons to Go for Refuge	305
	Second Hypothesis: Grounding Buddhist Scriptures	307
	The Circular Approach	311
	The Linear Approach	314
	The Problem with the Linear Approach	315
	The Presentation of Scripturally Based Inference	317
	The Provisional Natureof Scripturally Based Inference	324
	Some Explicit Statements on the Motive Behind the Proof	327
	Faith in Radically Inaccessible Entities	332
	Scripturally Based Inference as a Rhetorical Tool	337
	Summation of Findings Concerning the Second Hypothesis	339
	Third Hypothesis: Writing for Non-Buddhists	339
	Resume of the Three Hypotheses	342
	Motives for the Demonstration of Total Omniscience	343
7.	SPONTANEOUS OMNISCIENCE AND THE PERFECTION OF REASON	347
	Spontaneous Omniscience	349
	The Perfection of Reason?	359
	BIBLIOGRAPHY	361
	Abbreviations	361
	Primary Sources	363
	Secondary Sources	375
	INDEX OF TRANSLATED PASSAGES	401
	GENERAL INDEX	407
	ABOUT THE AUTHOR	419