Visions of Unity: The Golden Pandita Shakya Chokden’s New Interpretation of Yogacara and Madhyamaka

This landmark book discusses the thought of Tibetan Buddhist thinker Shakya Chokden (1428–1507) on the two major systems of Mahayana Buddhism. Influential and controversial in his own day, Shakya Chokden’s thought fell out of favor over time and his writings were eventually repressed, becoming available again only in the 1970s. Yet, his startling interpretations of the core areas of Buddhist thought remain valuable and well worth consideration today. Yaroslav Komarovski has used the twenty-four volumes of Shakya Chokden’s collected work to provide a systematic presentation of a central aspect of his thought: a reconciliation of Yogacara and Madhyamaka. Providing a detailed analysis of the two systems’ mutual refutations of each other, Shakya Chokden argues for their fundamental compatibility and shared vision.

In analyzing Shakya Chokden’s ideas, Komarovski explores some of the most important issues of both traditional and modern Buddhist scholarship, including contested approaches to the nature of reality, the relationship between philosophy and contemplative practice, inter- and intrasectarian Buddhist polemics, and the nature of consciousness and mental processes.