Book Reviews

Author(s): J W De Jong
Publisher: J W De Jong

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262
REVIEWS
(cf. IIJ 20, p. 138). Tson-kha-pa quotes many texts and Hopkins has taken great trouble in tracing these quotations and indicating their sources in the notes. His insufficient knowledge of Indian Buddhism shows itself in the fact that he has not tried to trace a quotation from the Saddharmapundarika in which one finds the following line: sans-rgyas theg-pa dman-pas 'khrid mi-mdzad //. Hopkins translates: "It is the vehicle of Buddhahood. I do not lead with a low vehicle" (p. 101). The Sanskrit text has: na hinayanena nayanti buddhah (cf. Kern-Nanjio's ed., p. 46.14) "Buddhas do not lead with a low vehicle."
Apart from a few mistakes Hopkins's translation is, on the whole, excellent. He is consistent in his renderings of technical terms, which are listed in English, Sanskrit and Tibetan in a glossary (pp. 220-224). His English equivalents are not always very well chosen and, for instance, one wonders whether any non-specialist would have any idea of the meaning of 'ground' which renders sa (Skt. bhumi). In one passage Hopkins renders sa with 'level' (p. 95). However, even the choice of such equivalents would not have prevented a careful reader from understanding the meaning of Tson-kha-pa's text if Hopkins had been more helpful in providing explanations. Tson-kha-pa's work is written in the traditional style of Tibetan Buddhist works and is full of technical terms, the meanings of which were well known to his Tibetan readers. Moreover, he quotes many texts and refers to wrong interpretations which are subsequently refuted. The first chapter of his Snags-rim chen-mo is an introduction in which he discusses the differences between the different vehicles and the division of the tantras in four classes. Tsonkha-pa treats briefly difficult philosophical problems which he has discussed at great length in other works, as, for instance, the opinions of the Buddhist schools on the non-existence of a person (cf. p. 93). Such difficult problems cannot be understood without a detailed commentary. The Dalai Lama discusses the 'selflessness of persons' in his introduction (pp. 39-42) but he fails to explain fully Tson-kha-pa's arguments and apparently finds it difficult to understand Tson-kha-pa (cf. p. 40: "He seems to be saying..."; p. 41: "Tsong-ka-pa here and in other places seems to say..."). In his supplement Hopkins studies the same problem in a chapter entitled 'Emptiness'. His exposition is based upon two Grub-mtha's written by "Jamdbyans bzad-pa Nag-dbań brtson-'grus (1648-1722) and dKon-mchog 'jigs-med dban-po (1728-1791). These works give a systematic survey of the Buddhist schools but are not very useful for explaining Tson-kha-pa's views.
Let us hope that Hopkins will also translate the remaining chapters of the Snags-rim chen-mo and so make this important work accessible to the Western public. However, without more detailed explanatory notes, a translation of such a difficult technical work will remain largely incomprehensible for the Western reader and will only be useful for scholars in the field. One would also wish Hopkins to consult the work done by non-Tibetan scholars, to which he makes no reference at all. It is no doubt of great importance to make use of works written by Tibetan scholars and of oral explanations by Tibetan masters but it is also important to take into account the fact that Tibetan scholars have very little understanding of a historical perspective in studying Buddhism and know the Indian Buddhist sources of Tibetan Buddhism only in Tibetan translations. It is in these fields that much work has been done by non-Tibetan scholars since the beginning of the nineteenth century.
Australian National University
J. W. DE JONG
NOTE.
1 Cf. Katsumi MIMAKI, 'Le Grub mtha' rnam bźag rin chen phren ba de dKon mchog 'jigs med dbań po (1728-1792)', Memoirs of the Research Institute for Humanistic Studies, Kyoto University, Zinbun 14 (Kyoto, 1977), pp. 55-112; Herbert V. Guenther, Buddhist Philosophy in Theory and Practice (Harmondsworth, 1971), pp. 53-61, 78-83, 104-112, 130-136,
143-149.