THE ASIAN CLASSICS INPUT PROJECT Release 2 including: "The Philosophical Dictionary" consisting of Twelve Major Native Tibetan Philosophical Works The Complete Cataloged Listings of Sanskrit Works in the United States Library of Congress The Updated Cataloged Listings of Tibetan Works in the United States Library of Congress Specialized Computer Programs for the Study and Analysis of the Asian Classics Digital form and documentation of The Asian Classics Input Project: Release 2 copyright þ The Asian Classics Input Project, 1990 With the written permission of the Asian Classics Input Project, this data may be freely copied, used, and distributed for non-profit private and institutional research or education. It may not be copied and re-sold for any purpose. Any modification of the data prior to its re-distribution requires written permission of the Project and a prominent notice of such modification. Digital form of the Complete Cataloged Listings of Sanskrit Works of the United States Library of Congress and 1990 Cataloged Listings of Tibetan Works of the United States Library of Congress copyright þ The Library of Congress, except in the USA, 1991. This data has been licensed from, and a fee paid to, the United States Library of Congress. Requests for permission to copy or distribute the records in any form should be referred to the Cataloging Distribution Service of the Library of Congress, Washington DC, USA 20541. List file viewing and browsing utility copyright þ Vernon D. Buerg, 1983-1990. All rights reserved. See copyright/license/warranty section on the accompanying documentation file. SeekEasy search program copyright þ Correlation Systems, 1984-87. All rights reserved. See registration information on the accompanying documentation file. MultiLingua international spelling checker þ Concepts Info, 1990. All rights reserved. See registration information on the accompanying documentation file. Registered trademarks: Gþfer is a trademark of Microlytics, Inc. XTree and XTree Gold are trademarks of the XTree Company of Executive Systems, Inc. Paradox is a trademark of Borland International Inc. Limits of liability and disclaimer of warranty: The staff of the Asian Classics Input Project have to the best of their ability assured that the data, printed information, and programs contained or reviewed in this complementary release are accurate and effective. ACIP though makes no warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, with regard to these materials, and shall not be liable in any event for incidental or consequential damage in connection with, or arising out of, the furnishing, performance, or use of the release. ACIP Release 2 is available on twelve regular 5.25" disks or with other disk sizes and densities as requested. To order, please fill out the enclosed form, or contact the addresses below. Additional distribution centers are also listed in this brochure and may also be contacted. ACIP offices currently request a $15 donation, by personal check or money order in the US and by international money orders in US dollars only from outside the US, for the costs of disks and handling for each order of Release 2. ACIP will continue to supply all releases free of charge to any individual or organization who submits a written statement that the $15 donation would represent a hardship for them. To order disks, brochures, ACIP programs, print-outs in native script; to make a tax-exempt contribution of used computer equipment; or for general project updates, contact: The Asian Classics Input Project Washington Area Office 11911 Marmary Road Gaithersburg, Maryland USA 20878-1839 telephone: (301) 948-5569 contact: Dr. Robert Taylor, assistant project director For questions on editorial content, text input schedules, project participation, submission of errors found, or support of proposals for related efforts, contact: The Asian Classics Input Project New York Area Office c/o The Princeton Club of New York Box 57 15 West 43rd Street New York, New York USA 10036 telephone: (201) 364-1824 attention: Michael Roach, project director John Malpas, chief programmer To learn more about the ACIP overseas data entry center, or for advice on setting up a similar operation overseas, contact: Sera Mey Dratsang Mahayana Philosophy University Bylakuppe 571-104, Mysore District Karnataka State, India attention: Khen Rinpoche Geshe Lobsang Tharchin, Abbot Ven. Thupten Pelgye, manager, Sera Mey Computer Center Table of Contents þ Welcome to Release 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 þ Statement of Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 þ Contents of Release 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 The Philosophical Dictionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Library of Congress Tibetan and Sanskrit Listings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Tibetan Search, View, Printing, and Spell-Check Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 þ New Texts Completed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 þ Participating Correction Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 þ Review of the First Release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 þ Using the Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 þ Viewing and Printing ACIP Data in Native Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 TTPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Tibetan! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 LTibetan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 Atisha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 KOA-TechnoMate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 Druk Mac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 Atari Tibetan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 Comprehensive chart of Sanskrit stacks, available upon request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 Sanskrit programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 þ Asian-Language Spelling Checker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 þ Search Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 þ How ACIP Data Will Revolutionize the Study of the Asian Classics: A hypertext essay on the "view of the perishable assemblage" Literal explanation of "perishable view" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 Definition, or basic nature, of perishable view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 General function of perishable view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31 Types and memberships of perishable view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 Objects of perishable view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35 Moral content of perishable view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37 How the perishable view causes all suffering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38 How the perishable view is stopped . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 A summary of the path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45 þ On-Line Dictionaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46 þ Catalogs of Contents of the Collected Works of Major Tibetan Writers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47 þ Listing of Tibetan Works Available in Free Asia, as of November 1989 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48 þ Distribution Agreements with the Oxford Text Archive and the Linguistic Information Research Institute of Tokyo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49 þ Congratulations to Geshe Lobsang Tharchin and Sera Mey Tibetan Monastic University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 þ Future Plans, and How You Can Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 þ The International Scholars' Address Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53 þ Call for Used Computer Equipment and Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53 þ Catalog of ACIP Texts Input to Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53 Sample Page from Release 2 Printed on the Tibetan! Word-Processing Program Welcome to Release 2 The Asian Classics Input Project is pleased to announce its second release of important Asian literature in searchable computer format. The data has been prepared in standard ASCII characters and can be read with any word processor on virtually any personal computer. As of the date of this release, more than 50 separate titles containing 25 million bytes of data (or about 4.5 million words) have been input through the project. Statement of Purpose The purpose of the project was put forth as follows in the brochure accompanying the first release of data in March 1990: The Asian Classics Input Project has been organized for the purpose of preserving and furthering the study of important examples of Asian literature, through the creation and distribution of inexpensive computer disks containing these works in a simple and accurate digital form. The initial goal of the project is to input the Kangyur and Tengyur collections of classical Sanskrit literature in Tibetan translation. The 4,500 works of these collections represent the cream of Asian philosophical thought from the period of 500 BC to 900 AD. With few exceptions the Sanskrit originals have been lost, and survive only in faithful Tibetan renderings protected over centuries by the natural barrier of the Himalaya mountains. The project aims to make these texts, along with research tools such as dictionaries and bibliographies, easily accessible on the personal computers of researchers around the world. This will stimulate the translation of the collections, and gradually open this treasure of knowledge to the general public. This influx of the great ideas of the other half of mankind will deeply enrich our Western culture, and inevitably lead to greater understanding between the peoples of the world. The choice of Tibetan-language texts is also dictated by a concern that recent political events may quickly erase the Tibetan people themselves and the rich store of Asian classics they have carefully collected and preserved over a complete millennium. The entire input work has therefore been accomplished at a traditional Tibetan monastic university by native refugee scholars trained, equipped, and salaried by the project. Contents of Release 2 A. The Philosophical Dictionary The second release of ACIP data contains first of all some 12 valuable philosophical reference works on classical Sanskrit literature by native Tibetan scholars of the 15th to the 19th Centuries. These authors include: Je Tsongkapa, Lobsang Drakpa (rJe Tzong-kha-pa, Blo-bzang grags-pa, 1357-1419) The First Panchen Lama, Lobsang Chukyi Gyaltsen (Paþ-chen Blo-bzang chos-kyi rgyal-mtsan, 1567?-1662) Sermey Kedrup Tenpa Dargye (Ser-smad mkhas-grub bsTan-pa dar-rgyas, 1493-1568) Gyalwang Trinley Namgyal (Rgyal-dbang 'Phrin-las rnam-rgyal, aka Blo-bzang 'phrin-las rnam-rgyal or Blo-bzang 'phrin-las ye-shes, fl. 1850) Panglung Lobsang Tukje (sPang-lung Blo-bzang thugs-rje, aka Dad-pa mkhan-po, c. 1750) The works of these writers have been chosen for three reasons. First, they are written in the dialectic genre (yig-cha) of the traditional medieval Tibetan monastic university and therefore contain concise definitions and divisions of the major philosophical concepts presented in the Kangyur and Tengyur collections of classical Sanskrit literature targeted for input by ACIP. The texts included here act as a sort of philosophical dictionary to the two collections; searches for the words rten-'brel (Skt: pratþtya-samutpþda) and nges-don (Skt: nþtþrtha) near the word "definition" (mtsan-nyid) will for example yield short comprehensive treatments of the concepts of causality and of literal (as opposed to figurative) philosophical meaning. Release 2 represents only the beginning of the "philosophical dictionary" concept; the full version will require nearly five times more data entry, much of which has already been completed, though not yet proofed for final release. Secondly, work on the Kangyur and Tengyur collections themselves has been suspended while negotiations for obtaining a more accurate edition are completed. One important result of ACIP's first year of work was to ascertain that sections of the most commonly available version (the Delhi reprint of the Derge edition) of the Tengyur in particular were corrupt and not appropriate for input. Attempts to secure a "clean" edition are described below. Finally, the choice of works for input was decided on the basis of a rare-text preservation project initiated by one of the major Tibetan philosophical universities, Sera Mey Dratsang, which is the site of the ACIP data entry center. This effort to utilize computer technology for reprinting an entire series of endangered classical philosophical texts is also detailed further on in this brochure. B. Library of Congress Tibetan and Sanskrit Listings The first release of ACIP data featured the entire available listings of the United States Library of Congress holdings of Tibetan-language philosophical literature, including both native Tibetan works and translations of the original Sanskrit collections. Release 2 updates this information with all additional works cataloged at the Library during the last year. These listings nearly complete the body of nearly 20 years of Tibetan acquisitions by the Library during its admirable Public Law 480 program. This project by itself resulted in the rescue of thousands of rare and important Asian classics after the invasion of Tibet and subsequent "Cultural" Revolution; the international scholarly community owes a great debt to the Library and to E. Gene Smith, who directed the effort. We are happy to report that the Library of Congress has also allowed ACIP to license the complete listings of its Sanskrit literature holdings. Researchers will now be able to locate any extant Sanskrit original for translations and commentarial literature which they are studying in Tibetan or other common languages of Asian philosophical scholarship. C. Tibetan Search, View, Printing, and Spell-Check Programs Release 2 lastly contains very useful programs for making full use of ACIP data. Again we have included the excellent List program of Mr. Vernon Buerg, which allows viewing and searching of the data. The program here in Release 2 has been updated to version 7.5, issued in September 1990, and users of the first release might want to replace the older version on their computers. A second search program, SeekEasy, also appears again; users should refer to the brochure from the first release for details on operating these programs. An exciting new member of the program suite in Release 2 is Concept Info's MultiLingua, a spelling checker for foreign languages that can be customized by individual users to fit their particular needs. A separate article below describes how this program can provide a powerful tool for the study of classical Asian literature. A standard spell-checker file for Tibetan has been provided by ACIP together with the program's basic English checker. A great number of ACIP data users have requested help in viewing or printing files in native scripts. ACIP staff members have written a pair of macros that convert ACIP data to the format required for displaying it in Tibetan on screen, and printing it out in an attractive standardized book form, with a high-quality Tibetan word-processing program that has recently become available. The conversion macros are included in Release 2, and details on their use are provided in a separate article below. New Texts Completed Over 25 new volumes of text, including important reference works, early Sanskrit classics along with their commentaries in Tibetan translation (sþtra and þþstra material), and further additions to the philosophical dictionary have been successfully input by operators from the ACIP computer center at Sera Mey Tibetan Monastic University. A full catalog of these texts appears at the back of this brochure; they will be released to the public as soon as the final screening for errors is finished. Participating Correction Plan Users of ACIP data who are in particular need of one of the unreleased texts for their research work may obtain an advance, uncorrected copy by joining the Participating Correction Plan. This can be done by reviewing one or more of the texts released to date and submitting any 10 suspected errors; for every list of 10 submitted, the user is entitled to receive an advance copy of any one text requested. We are pleased to report that a number of scholars from several different countries submitted lists of suspected errors in the first release, and that only a handful of actual input errors were confirmed in the substantial amount of data made available. Review of the First Release International response to the first release of ACIP data in the spring of 1990 was unexpected and overwhelming. By the time all requests were filled, over 5,000 disks in boxes of 12 disks each were sent out free of charge to researchers in virtually every country of the world where computers are used. The volume of mail received was much more than ACIP staff members could respond to, and we would like to apologize here to users who wrote in with questions or comments that have not yet been answered. We value this correspondence and hope that users will continue to write; every idea for improving the project is carefully considered and implemented where possible. The cost of duplicating and distributing the 5,000 disks was obviously much more than the project had anticipated. The expense of maintaining the data entry center at Sera Mey Monastic University in southern India is also substantial, and ACIP continues to make a contribution to the University of four dollars for every dollar earned by the young monks trained and equipped by the project as data entry operators. The donated funds are applied to the Sera Mey Scholarship Fund, from which every teacher and student at the University receives a stipend for food. The monks are refugees and extremely poor; the food stipend has helped check the spread of tuberculosis and other diseases related to malnutrition at the University. Expenditures by the project to date have totalled some $97,000. Major sponsors have been the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Packard Humanities Institute, Andin International Diamond, the Mahayana Sutra and Tantra Center, Rashi Gempil Ling Kalmyk Mongolian-American Society, and Sera Mey Tibetan Monastic University. Aside from the refugee monks who are acting as input operators, all ACIP staff work on a volunteer basis. In order to relieve domestic editors and management staff of the time-consuming tasks of disk duplication, packing, and shipping, these duties have been assumed by Ven. Tenzin Sangpo, a young Tibetan monk-scholar serving the Mongolian-American community of New Jersey, USA. To allow Ven. Sangpo to continue this work and assure that the distribution of data can continue into the future, ACIP has instituted a policy of requesting a donation for disks supplied. We will continue to send disks free of charge to any user who indicates on the order form that this donation would be a hardship for him. Using the disks Recipients of the first ACIP release reported few difficulties in using the disks. The List viewing program is supplied with each batch of data and allows quick reading and searching of the data. Please note that most ACIP data is provided in the native languages--Tibetan translations of Sanskrit classics, original Tibetan works, and Sanskrit-only catalogs. The disks do not contain English translations, although there are some English-language notes in the Library of Congress listings. It is in fact the hope of the project that it will inspire the translation of these valuable works into the languages of the modern world in generations to come. ACIP data is supplied in transcription, in Roman characters using the system of the government of Tibet, developed by Prof. Ngawang Thondup Narkyid and others at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives. A few additions to this system have been incorporated to allow for characters not easily displayed on a standard computer monitor; these are included in the standard transcription chart attached. Researchers who use the files of Sanskrit listings from the Library of Congress should note that they have for the most part been converted to the equivalent Tibetan transcription. This was necessary since the commonly used diacritical marks for the Roman transcription of Sanskrit are not reproduced properly on all IBM-type computers currently in use, and also because it will now be possible to search the data--both Tibetan and Sanskrit together--using the ordinary set of letters on the keyboard. The best approach to using these listings effectively is to view the files first and familiarize oneself with the transcription, particularly the use of 'a for þ and so forth with the long vowels. Instructions for a "quick start," learning to use ACIP data disks a few minutes out of the box, are included with each batch of disks sent out. ACIP data comes in standard ASCII format with no additional command or other codes. This means that it can be read on any IBM-compatible computer, using almost any word processor (check your word processor's instructions about importing and reading a standard ASCII file). The data has also been successfully converted into Apple format for use on Macintosh computers; follow the instructions in your Apple word-processing program for converting a DOS file, or seek help from your local Apple computer dealer. Newer Apple machines can even accept a DOS disk directly. Researchers connected with the fine Tibetan literature and philosophy program headed by Dr. Jeffrey Hopkins at the University of Virginia, USA, have developed a number of ways to utilize ACIP data on Macintosh machines, and have offered to assist ACIP users who own Apples with any questions or problems they might have. Please contact one of the following: Dr. Richard Martin Dr. William Magee South Asian Bibliographer Instructor, Dept of Religious Studies Alderman Library Cocke Hall University of Virginia University of Virginia Charlottesville, Virginia Charlottesville, Virginia USA 22903 USA 22903 telephone: (804) 924-4981 telephone: office, (804) 924-0829 electronic mail: rbm@virginia.edu home, (804) 293-8923 email: wam7c@faraday.virginia.bitnet Viewing and Printing ACIP Data in Native Scripts ACIP data is supplied in Roman letters because these can be easily input without any special computer programs or keyboard training; quickly searched with all common find utilities; easily converted to alternate transcription systems or native-script systems within a matter of minutes; displayed on any type of monitor; and read by any researcher who uses a computer on a regular basis. It was also hoped that the young refugee entry operators would benefit by learning to touch-type on a normal English keyboard, and as described below this has certainly proved the case with their contract work for the Library of Congress. On many occasions though it will be desirable to view or print ACIP data in native script, and the following tips on various programs are supplied to facilitate this. An accompanying chart gives a quick clear view of the comparative benefits and costs of the programs. Please note that these and other reviews of commercial computer programs in this document are provided only as a public service. ACIP is a non-profit effort and makes no commercial endorsement of any program listed. In some cases we do not have enough staff time to use a product long enough to encounter every "bug" it may have. Users are encouraged to try out any commercial program before purchasing it, and then to register for the program properly. A good review of nearly all the programs mentioned below has incidentally been written by Mr. Reid Fossey in collaboration with Mr. Peter Lofting, and appeared in the 1990 NIAS Report published by the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, 84 Njalsgade, DK-2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark, telephone (+45) 31-54-88-44. Samples of the print-out from many of the programs are included, and ordering information attached; some of this information has been incorporated here, with the permission of the author. 1. TTPS With a few exceptions, ACIP data comes ready to print out on the Tibetan Text Processing System (TTPS) developed by Mr. Steven Bruzgulis and Geshe Lobsang Tharchin of the Mahayana Sutra and Tantra Center of New Jersey, USA. These exceptions are mostly stacks of Sanskrit letters in Tibetan transcription which present special problems in viewing and printing with computers. It is necessary for users of this program to isolate these non-printable letter stacks using the program's error-detection utility, and mark these in braces before printing (these characters will then appear in Roman transcription). The director of the ACIP office in the Washington DC area, Dr. Robert Taylor, has developed a program named Retsek for converting ACIP data automatically to TTPS printable files; the program is included in Release 2, and the printable files for all material released are also available through the Washington office. The TTPS program supports only Toshiba 24-pin printers. Print-out quality is fairly good; the font has been developed based on the Lhasa Shol printing of the Kangyur, considered one of the finest examples of Tibetan woodcarving. A Roman font is included (with Sanskrit diacritics), and English can be interspersed with Tibetan, although the letters can only be printed out in one point size. Tibetan script can be viewed on screen with the TTPS program but only in a very elementary way from beginning to end of text, without scrolling backwards or skipping ahead. The program includes basic word-processing features and has a very low price of $40 complete. It also has the most modest hardware requirements of any similar program reviewed here; computer and printer together will cost from US $800 to $1200, and no further programs are needed. The program is fairly easy to use, and is perhaps the best choice for moderate needs of small organizations who do not need an extensive ability to print Sanskrit in Tibetan transcription. For information, contact the address listed in the accompanying chart. 2. Tibetan! ACIP data will also, with a few simple adjustments, work well on the newly-released Tibetan! program from Colorado, USA. As reported below, ACIP staff have successfully used the program in recent months for parts of a major Asian classics printing project. The output from the program is excellent, and preferred by most native Tibetan scholars to the other fonts reviewed here. A sample page produced with actual data from Release 2 is included here. The Tibetan font is scalable so includes a nearly infinite range of different sizes, and an attractive Roman font with Sanskrit diacritics capacity is available; these can be interspersed with the Tibetan. (In fact, this brochure has been entirely produced and printed out with one of these fonts.) The Colorado program is not easy to use and requires constant reference to the manual and assistance from a person who is very familiar with personal computers. Hopefully a menu-type interface with a comprehensive help and reference function can be added in the future by its developers. The program includes many but not all of the Sanskrit stacks; nearly all of the remaining characters have been prepared already in one point size and will be refined for the others. Tibetan! runs under the WordPerfect program for IBM-compatible computers, which means that users can take advantage of all the powerful tools of the most highly-developed word processor on the market. This same power means though that you will have to invest considerable time to master all the relevant features of the mother program. One of the most useful features of the WordPerfect program is its well-developed search and search-and-replace function, which can be very helpful with Tibetan text. Users though should be aware that converting the Roman text to Tibetan letters greatly increases its file size, which results in extremely slow searches and considerable processor and memory requirements. At present, the vowels which should appear above or below a Tibetan consonant on the screen are displayed in the next space; hopefully this problem, which is related to the IBM ASCII standard, can be overcome in future versions. Due to their great investment of time and funds, and the relatively small market, the authors of Tibetan! are charging $200 for the basic program. The companion program for printing Roman characters with Sanskrit diacritical marks is another $275, with an extra charge of $75 for a Tibetan alphabetization program to compile dictionaries and glossaries--as well as a good search program. The WordPerfect program costs an additional $275. The program works best with a 386 processor, extra RAM, at least 40 MB of hard disk space for programs together with any printable files, and an HP LaserJet III printer with extra memory. The computer investment will therefore be about $2000, and the printer an additional $2200. Organizations who consider purchasing a Tibetan word processing program might decide to go with the Tibetan! program for several reasons. Its printed output is unmatched, and the companion word processor very powerful. The LaserJet III incorporates a new technology that makes the resolution of both Tibetan and English characters so crisp that it is difficult to tell from the photo typesetting used for most books. This means that organizations which publish books or newsletters frequently and who demand high print quality can stop sending material out for typesetting; the savings on one average-sized book will be more than the total software and hardware costs. The developers of Tibetan! incidentally offer an additional program, LaserTwin, which allows the output to the printer to be directed to almost any other laser or dot-matrix printer, although this has not yet been tested by ACIP. As mentioned above, ACIP staff have written several macros, or recorded keystroke sequences triggered by only one or two keys, that can be invoked from WordPerfect and which will do almost all the work of converting an ACIP file to the format required for printing or viewing native script with the Tibetan! program. To convert an ACIP file, first copy the two macro files ALTT.WPM and ALTS.WPM from the ACIP disks to the main directory of your WordPerfect program. Next copy the desired ACIP text file to the Tibetan! program directly under a new name. If you move rather than copy the original text file, you will lose the option of using it for searches and viewing in ACIP format in the future. Next enter the WordPerfect program; remember to use the command to start the program--see the Tibetan! documentation for details. Now use [ctrl]-F5 to import the copied file to a WordPerfect screen and place the cursor at the very beginning of the file. Hit [alt]-T to start the conversion process. You will see each step of the conversion on the screen as it takes place. Some manual "tuning" of the particular file will probably still be necessary after conversion. After the file is converted, follow the instructions in the Tibetan! program manual for changing a text in Roman transcription over to Tibetan script. ACIP has developed a second macro which you can then use to print out the Tibetan text in an attractive format appropriate for a standard-sized book or pamphlet. To invoke the macro, again make sure the cursor is at the top of the file by scrolling all the way up, then using the left arrow key. Hit [alt]-S to start the macro. When the macro is finished, you will have the option of changing the headers that will appear at the top of each page, and the kind of page numbering you want. Study your WordPerfect manual to learn how to do this. ACIP has incidentally already converted the entire second release of data for viewing and printing with the Tibetan! word processor. These printable files are available on request from an ACIP office. Since not all Sanskrit stacks are supported, some will have to be drawn in manually. A helpful hint for those who use the Tibetan! program: when you are working on a text in Tibetan script and try to execute a command, remember to toggle back to the Roman keyboard. Otherwise the program appears to freeze up, leaving the user considerably frustrated. Again, the Tibetan! program is cranky, but the results are of such high quality that it is worth learning and using. Again, please see the accompanying chart for ordering information. 3. LTibetan The LTibetan program of Mr. Pierre Robillard of Toronto, Canada, is perhaps the most well-developed Tibetan word processing program available. ACIP data has been successfully converted for use on this program in several countries, with the first work being done at the University of Virginia, USA (see above for persons to contact for assistance). The Robillard program produces an excellent printed output and screen display of the native script. The package includes a number of useful utilities including a Wylie transcription parser by Mr. Chet Wood of California, USA, and a Tibetan alphabetization program. The characters are scalable so can be printed in any desired point size. The program is designed to work with a Postscript type of laser printer; this and the high cost of the recommended Apple computer have required in the past a considerable investment in hardware. Apple Corporation has though in the last few months decided to lower its entire pricing structure, and the first successful low-price Apple clones may soon be reaching the market. Moreover, various products are now available which allow many printers to be upgraded by the user to a Postscript type. A version of the program that runs on the much less expensive dot-matrix printers is also available. IBM-type computers dominate the world market and the majority of software is written for them, but the Apple is very well suited to work in foreign scripts, and many people find it easier to operate. Users of ACIP data might therefore want to explore this option. The LTibetan program sells for a very reasonable $50, with an additional $99 for the required keyboard reassignment program, MacKeymeleon II, as well as a suggested $20 for the Wood parser. Please see the attached chart for details on ordering the program. 4. Atisha The Atisha program, aptly named for the 11th-Century sage who bridged the Sanskrit and Tibetan literary traditions, is a basic system for IBM compatibles written by Dr. Peter Ebbatson of Oxford, England. It utilizes a multifont word processor called ChiWriter to give both screen and print representation of Tibetan. The advantages of the Atisha are its modest price and hardware requirements. It can run on the most basic of IBM computers, which are found in the market at present for only a few hundred dollars, and on a good variety of inexpensive dot-matrix printers. The printed font is simple and appropriate for basic study of texts and so on, although not for books or similar materials. The keyboard input system is rather complicated, a problem which is somewhat ameliorated by adhesive labels with the native letters, supplied together with the program and meant to be attached to each input key. Atisha sells for $55 and requires the additional purchase of the ChiWriter program for $142. An optional add-on for laser printer support costs another $74; a converter for WordPerfect documents runs $59, and an index generator for the regular (but not the Tibetan) fonts of the ChiWriter can be ordered for $59 more. For information on ordering, see the summary chart attached. 5. KOA-TechnoMate Researchers from the Linguistic Information Research Institute (LIRI) Company Ltd of Tokyo, Japan, have recently completed the development of a Tibetan program utilizing the KOA-TechnoMate OS/2 multilingual word processor. They have succeeded in printing out ACIP data precisely, including all Sanskrit stacks to date, and are contributing to the effort of supplying ACIP disks to interested parties in Japan (see below for details on this effort). One important advantage of the KOA product is that it runs under the OS/2 operating system, a more quick and efficient method of processing data within the computer that will probably in some form or another become a worldwide standard in the years to come. The KOA-TechnoMate is said to handle some 20 different languages, with the ability to add other languages (such as the Tibetan). A very attractive Devanagari font, for example, is included and can be interspersed with Tibetan and Roman characters, as well as of course Japanese. Input can be done in Tibetan or Roman transliteration, and the latter then converted with a special utility. Both will appear then on the screen as Tibetan script. At present, right justification of Tibetan is not possible, and only one size of letters (18 point) is available, although this can be enlarged vertically and horizontally. The KOA-TechnoMate includes a text file editor and search-and-replace commands; it is produced by the Koudensha Corporation and is used throughout Japan in a simplified form named Ashisuto Letter, which has been developed by the Ashisuto Company of Tokyo. Linguistic Information recommends using the program on an NEC PC-9801RA with a minimum of 4MB of RAM. This configuration especially in Japan is not cheap, running around $4800. The only printer supported at present is a Kyocera L-880S laser, which costs another $3500. The Tibetan script fonts, including three different u-chen scripts, cost $1080; the KOA-TechnoMate OS/2 word processor runs an additional $1450; and the recommended OS/2 systems disk costs $427. It should be noted that these prices are those paid in Japan itself; costs for the same hardware and software in other countries can be expected to run much less. The Tibetan print-out is good, somewhere between the TTPS and Tibetan! programs in its appeal to a native eye. See the attached chart for ordering address and phone. 6. Druk Mac Information has just been received as of this writing for the Druk Mac Tibetan operating system developed by Mr. Peter Lofting of Berkshire, England. "Druk" in Tibetan means "dragon," and can refer as well to Bhutan, where Mr. Lofting and others have made good use of Macintosh systems for supplying the printing needs of the government and various other institutions. Druk Mac is not just a word processor but actually provides the function of an operating system for the computer. This means that the entire interface, or how the computer interacts with its user, can be presented in Tibetan script, which will be especially helpful to native Tibetans who cannot read Roman letters. Keying in with the system is said to be easier than with many existing programs, and stacks of Sanskrit in Tibetan transcription can be edited interactively (that is, rather than having to erase an entire stack and start anew when a typing error is made). Mr. Lofting has expended much effort to develop an expanded version of a Tibetan encoding standard and points out a number of performance improvements made possible by a streamlined data representation of the sometimes complex Tibetan script screen images. Many though not all of the Sanskrit stacks have been completed and included in the program. Druk Mac allows free interchange of Roman and Tibetan fonts; both are very attractive and have been sculpted to match one another. The program utilizes the Macintosh script manager found in the 6.0 version of the Mac operating system, and performs correct double-click selection and line wrap in both scripts; the user is also provided with a selection of keyboard layouts so that, if he has already learned to type Tibetan on one of the more common mechanical or computer systems, a new one need not be learned. A good variety of Mac programs can be run under the Druk Mac system, and a basic shareware text editor called MiniWriter is provided together with the package. The system will work on any Macintosh that can run the Apple 6.0 operating system, which means that the computer investment can be as low as $900. Again a Postscript laser printer is recommended, and will normally cost about $2500. The program is supplied on a single standard Apple floppy disk (3.5", 800K), and comes completely ready to boot up on its own. Orders from the United Kingdom are supplied for 37 pounds sterling, and overseas orders paid by telex transfer or international money order cost U.S. $84. Because of the considerable extra fees involved, users are discouraged from sending personal checks, and a $26 extra fee will be required before shipping if payment is made in this way. Telex transfers should be made in favor of: "LaserQuill," Lloyds Bank plc, London, 30-94-87 (Langham Place Branch). According to its developer, the program will be released in April or May of 1991. For information or ordering, contact the address listed in the summary chart. Please note that a 17.5% VAT or purchase tax is applicable to any order from LaserQuill and should be added to the total purchase price listed in the chart. 7. Atari Tibetan As of this writing, ACIP has received preliminary information about a program being developed for the Atari series of computers. Mr. Dietrich Gewissler of New Jersey, USA, has created a new font consisting of carefully sculpted letters by a renowned Tibetan calligrapher at Ganden Tibetan Monastic University in south India. One advantage of this font is that every possible Sanskrit combination has been drawn for it. The Atari seems particularly well-suited to handling native scripts and has a wide following particularly in Europe, so the completion of this program will be very helpful. Hardware and software costs are also modest: the recommended machine is an Atari ST, for about $600; there is the option of a 9-pin printer ($100), 24-pin printer ($275), or selection of laser printers (about $2000); and the Calamus desktop-publishing program for the Atari ($180). The cost of the program will be established upon its completion. For information contact: Mr. Dietrich Gewissler 92 Smith Street Howell, New Jersey USA 07731 telephone: (908) 364-8719 8. Comprehensive chart of Sanskrit stacks available upon request To aid in the international effort to complete the full collection of Sanskrit stacks for the various Tibetan word processors, ACIP staff have compiled a complete listing of every possible combination. This list was compiled largely from a computer analysis of a huge quantity of Vedic Sanskrit material on tape, and supplemented with research from various Sanskrit grammars and indices. Each of the possibilities has been drawn in Tibetan letters by the calligrapher just mentioned, and ACIP staff would be happy to supply this document to any interested party. Please contact one of the offices mentioned on the page following the title page of this brochure. SUMMARY CHART OF AVAILABLE TIBETAN WORD-PROCESSING PROGRAMS Program: Atisha Operating system: DOS Recommended computer/cost: XT or up; $500 minimum Recommended printer: Many 9-pin dot matrix printers, and up, $150 minimum; laser about $1500 Print fonts: Ebbatson font, Roman --Laser/dot matrix: Dot matrix --Sizes: Only one? --Sanskrit stacks: Many common ones --Roman diacritics for Sanskrit: Included --Landscape option: Up to 250 columns Screen fonts: Yes Word processing: Good with ChiWriter program Utilities: Numerous with ChiWriter Ease of use: Poor Program cost: $55 Additional software @required@ or available from designer/cost: Needs @ChiWriter $142@; laser support $74; Word-Perfect converter $59; Roman index generator $59 Comments: For inexpensive draft quality Address and phone: Atisha Translations, 29 Randolph St, Oxford OX4-1XZ, UK, (865) 726-184 Program: Druk Mac Operating system: Druk itself, for Mac Recommended computer/cost: Any current MacPlus or up, $900 minimum Recommended printer: Postscript laser, $2000-$3000 Print fonts: Druk Tib font, Roman --Laser/dot matrix: Laser; dot also, for proofin --Sizes: Postcript laser, any; dot, 24, 30 36pt --Sanskrit stacks: Most common ones --Roman diacritics for Sanskrit: Available from Mac font suppliers --Landscape option: Yes Screen fonts: Excellent, throughout operating system Word processing: Any Mac word processor; also basic one is included Utilities: Any Mac utility Ease of use: Untested Program cost: L37; $84 international money order; $110 personal check Additional software @required@ or available from designer/cost: None Comments: Scheduled release April-May 1991; add 17.5% VAT tax to orders Address and phone: LaserQuill, Thames Link House, 38 Thames St, Windsor, Berkshire, England SL4-1PR, (+44) 753-830-270 Program: L.I.R.I. Operating system: OS/2 Recommended computer/cost: NEC PC-9801RA w/4M RAM, $4800 Recommended printer: Kyocera L880S laser, $870 Print fonts: 3 U-chen fonts and 20 other languages --Laser/dot matrix: Laser only --Sizes: Only 18 pt, can be stretched. 20 other languages too. --Sanskrit stacks: All in ACIP releases to date --Roman diacritics for Sanskrit: Yes --Landscape option: Yes Screen fonts: Yes Word processing: Excellent with 20 languages on companion KOA TechnoMate Utilities: TechnoMate utilities Ease of use: Untested Program cost: $1080 Additional software @required@ or available from designer/cost: Needs @KOA TechnoMate OS/2, $1450@ Comments: Prices inside Japan; may be less outside Address and phone: Linguistic Information Research Institute Co Ltd, 4-9-15, Koyama, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 142, (03) 3783-9428; fax (03) 3788-6180 Program: LTibetan Operating system: Macintosh Recommended computer/cost: Any Mac; $1500 minimum Recommended printer: Appletalk compatible; about $3000 Print fonts: Robillard Tibetan font, Roman --Laser/dot matrix: Either --Sizes: Postscript laser, any; dot, 24, 30pt --Sanskrit stacks: Essentially all --Roman diacritics for Sanskrit: Yes --Landscape option: Yes Screen fonts: Excellent Word processing: Any Mac word processor Utilities: Most Mac utilities Ease of use: Good Program cost: $50 complete Additional software @required@ or available from designer/cost: Needs @MacKeymeleon II, $99@ Comments: Most polished program available now Address and phone: USA: Snow Lion, PO Box 6483, Ithaca, NY, USA 14851; (607) 273-8506. Outside USA: P. Robillard, 200 Balsam Ave, Toronto, Ont, Canada M4E-3C3; (416) 699-5718 Program: Tibetan! Operating system: DOS Recommended computer/cost: XT or up but AT best, with 20M hard drive, $1200 Recommended printer: HP LaserJet II or more recent, about $2000; also most dot matrix, minimum $150 Print fonts: Tibetan Machine Typeface --Laser/dot matrix: Either --Sizes: 18, 24pt; 27 and 30 available in 1991 --Sanskrit stacks: Most common ones, composed ability, 400 more in 1991 --Roman diacritics for Sanskrit: Available as add-on --Landscape option: Yes Screen fonts: Yes, but vowels in next space only Word processing: Excellent with WordPerfect Utilities: Excellent with WordPerfect Ease of use: Difficult Program cost: $200 Additional software @required@ or available from designer/cost: Needs @WordPerfect 5.x, $275@; Roman diacritics $275; Tibetan alphabetizing, search, dictionary creator $75 Comments: Excellent output for books, best IBM program Address and phone: Tibetan Computer Co, 616 Alpine Ave, Boulder, CO, USA 80304; (303 449-2925; (303) 442-3676 Program: TTPS Operating system: DOS Recommended computer/cost: XT or up; $500 minimum Recommended printer: Toshiba 24-pin P321SL or 351, minimum $400 Print fonts: Shol Tibetan font, Roman --Laser/dot matrix: Dot matrix only --Sizes: 30 point only --Sanskrit stacks: Only most common ones --Roman diacritics for Sanskrit: Included in program --Landscape option: No Screen fonts: Fair, no scrolling backwards Word processing: Only some basic w/p functions, included Utilities: Most DOS utilities on Roman transcription Ease of use: Good Program cost: $40 complete Additional software @required@ or available from designer/cost: None Comments: Good for small organizations Address and phone: Mahayana Sutra and Tantra Press, 112 West 2nd Street Howell, NJ, USA 07731; (908) 367-5898 9. Sanskrit Programs ACIP has not had the opportunity to test any Sanskrit programs to date, but what follows is a listing (derived largely from the NIAS article mentioned above) of the names and contact addresses for various available programs, so that users can make inquiries to fill their particular Sanskrit computing and printing needs. MacHindi Sanskrit and other Indian-language programs: Linguist's Software, P.O. Box 580, Edmonds, Washington, USA 98020 Nagari Sanskrit and Rishi Optical Character Recognition programs: Maharishi Vedic University, P.O. Box 370, Livingstone Manor, New York, USA 12758, attention Mr. Jeffrey Turnbull Kashi Sanskrit and other typestyles, with various other computer and education materials: Department of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6T 1W5 DevanagariEXT and a wide variety of other typestyles for various relevant languages: Ecological Linguistics, P.O. Box 15156, Washington, DC, USA 20003 Devanagari Metafont for TEX: Mr. Frans J. Veltius, Nyensteinheerd 267, 9736 TV Groningen, The Netherlands Various Indic Language hardware and software: Applied Electro-Magnetics, Y-45 Okhla Industrial Area, Phase II, New Delhi 110 020, India Multi-Lingual Scholar, with Devanagari and a standard set of other languages: Gamma Productions Inc, 710 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 609, Santa Monica, California, USA 90401, telephone (213) 394- 8622, fax (213) 395-4214 KOA-TechnoMate OS/2: see above under the Tibetan system for the same program. Asian-Language Spelling Checker ACIP has put a high priority on providing data which is as accurate as possible; we feel a great responsibility since the input is distributed to hundreds of researchers around the world, and computer disks can easily be copied and spread further (ACIP incidentally encourages this sharing). Furthermore, bad data cannot be searched properly and will give misleading results. To ensure accuracy, each text is entered twice and goes through a computer comparison by three different editors. This process though does not eliminate all entry errors, and cannot prevent mistakes caused by scribal faults in the original texts or by the fairly frequent smudged and unclear areas of Asian woodblock prints. Each text input must therefore be given a thorough manual review by a qualified editor. Isolating both wrong and unusual spellings with an automated spell checker would save much precious time of the few qualified proofreaders, and allow texts to reach the public faster. Ideally, the right spell-checker should also be in the public domain, or cost as little as possible, so users of ACIP data throughout the world can obtain and apply it to their own work. ACIP has reviewed a large number of spelling checkers, including those incorporated into such common word-processing programs as WordPerfect and Microsoft Word. Due to various limitations, none of the commercially available spell-checkers tried could easily be adapted for ACIP data. Those contained in a larger word-processing program would further require researchers to make a considerable additional investment, and give up perhaps their own favorite word processor. The most well-suited spelling checker found to date has been the MultiLingua (not to be confused with Multilingual Scholar, a completely different program) system of Concepts Info, a Canadian firm, headed by Mr. Sined Nossam. Concepts Info has allowed ACIP to include the demonstration version of their program here in Release 2, and ACIP staff have customized it to provide a good basic Tibetan spell-checker. (Useful English and French spell-checking capacity is also part of the demonstration version.) Serious researchers will want to order the expanded program directly from the company at the following address; the cost is $95, along with $5 for handling and postage, with an additional $3 mailing charge outside of Canada or the U.S. Payment can be made by credit card as well as by check or money order. Contact: Concepts Info b.p. 1270 Chicoutimi, Quebec Canada G7H 5H1 fax: (418) 543-6713 Users should be aware of the purposeful limitations of the demonstration spell-checker included in Release 2. It is based on a small number of texts from the first ACIP release and may not include some common words not found there; for a basic checker, it is advisable to limit the number of allowed words since oftentimes (especially in a monosyllabic language) a word which is actually a misspelled common word can be spelled identically to an actual but rarely used word. If all the rare words are included in the glossary of the spell checker, it will therefore be less effective. Furthermore, the glossary here cannot be expanded beyond its present capacity; for this, the complete program must be ordered from Concepts Info. If you do chose to add or delete a word in the glossary directly with an ASCII text editor, be sure to review carefully the documentation concerning the required word order, since a mistake can cause a malfunction in the checker. This can sometimes "freeze up" the program and then the only step to take is to reboot, or turn off and start up the computer again. We will not include here a detailed description of how the program operates, since this can be found in the program's own on-line documentation. Users should though note that the checking process views ACIP data in lower-case letters, so that errors involving those infrequent Sanskrit symbols which in ACIP transcription use the lower case may not be located. ACIP is working with the program's developer to eliminate this limitation. Please note too that the command for starting up the demonstration version here on the disk is , rather than the used for the full version. ACIP staff are also conducting important research on expanding the spell-checker concept to include automated Tibetan grammatical and semantic analyses. Some good progress has been made, and will be described in upcoming releases. Search Programs A primary use of ACIP data is to search for sources of the ubiquitous and often unattributed quotations found in Asian philosophical works. Like the initial ACIP offering, this second release includes several search programs: these consist of the search function of the List file viewing program, and the SeekEasy utility. These programs are both user-supported, which means that if recipients of the data find them useful in their work they are encouraged to send in a modest suggested fee to register with the authors. In most cases this entitles the user as well to a copy of the full documentation, updates, and expanded versions. Please note the following addresses and suggested registration costs: List viewing program Mr. Vernon Buerg 139 White Oak Circle Petaluma, California USA 94952 24-hour bulletin boards: (707) 778-8944, (707) 778-8841, or (415) 994-2944 fax: (707) 778-8728 suggested donation: $20 Seekeasy search program Correlation Systems 81 Rockinghorse Road Rancho Palos Verdes, California USA 90274 registration fee: $30 In the brochure to the first release, ACIP reviewed a number of search utilities available on the commercial software market. This brochure is still available and can be ordered without charge from ACIP (a copy is also available on the Release 2 disks under the file name release1.doc). We will here make some comments on one of these programs, Gþfer, which ACIP staff have found to be by far the most effective and, incidentally, economical program available. Gþfer can run as a resident program, which means that it is always available in the background as you work with an ACIP text. It takes up very little of your computer's hard disk space (178K) and as a resident program occupies only about 80K of the RAM or precious short-term memory of the machine. A pair of keystrokes brings Gþfer up onto the screen, you specify the files to be searched, and then what to search for. One of the great advantages of Gþfer is that you can look for up to eight different words or phrases at the same time; this is important for ACIP data, since the materials input are often many centuries old, and several possible variations can be searched for at the same time. Gþfer allows a range of conditional statements, such as and, or, not, and nearby. The nearby function is especially useful; the title of a work for example can be searched with only two important words from it, within a line of each other. As Gþfer locates occurrences of the desired phrases, the context around them can easily be perused by scrolling up and down. Occurrences and their context can also be marked for export to a second file or printed out in hard copy, to be reviewed later at one's leisure. Gþfer moreover knows how to ignore line-ending codes and other information in the file that might prevent a proper search. A count of successful hits is kept, and the text to search for can be constantly changed during a session. When the search is finished, Gþfer is tucked back out of sight for use on call, or else can be removed from short-term memory altogether. Besides providing the best combination of useful functions in a very user-friendly way, Gþfer has the lowest price tag of any comparable program: it costs only about $40, and is available for both IBM compatibles and the Apple line of computers. The program can be ordered from your local computer dealer or directly from the company: Microlytics, Inc. One Tobey Village Office Park Pittsford, New York USA 14534 telephone: (716) 248-9150 As a final note, ACIP would like to recommend a truly excellent program called XTree (the full name of the version recommended is XTreePro Gold). This is a user-friendly toolbox for viewing all the names of the directories and files of all the disk drives in your computer, copying, renaming, moving, indexing, and much more--including, very importantly for ACIP data, the ability to look into the contents of any file immediately and search it quickly for a word or phrase (although, unlike Gþfer, the program cannot "see" around word-wraps and may miss longer phrases). The program runs about $100 and can be ordered from a local dealer or the maker: XTree Company Executive Systems Inc. 4330 Santa Fe Road San Luis Obispo, California USA 93401 telephone: (805) 541-0604 How ACIP Data Will Revolutionize the Study of the Asian Classics The obvious immediate effect of the first release of ACIP data was that scholars could now, in a few minutes, search a listing of nearly every book available in the Tibetan language. Many users reported that for the first time they were able to draw up bibliographies of books that they needed for a particular subject of research almost immediately. With a wide variety of commentaries available for even briefer philosophical works, the depth of these researchers' work has already increased significantly. The additional listings of Sanskrit originals and further Tibetan-language titles included in Release 2 will expand this capacity even further; and the availability of disk catalogs of the collected works of native Tibetan authors as described below makes the research capacity near total. Scholars will be able to find every explanation of nearly any classical text or subject desired in the works of all major Sanskrit or Tibetan writers, within minutes, on their home computer. This revolution in being able to locate any text needed will lead to a second revolution in the way that the texts are used. Programs like Gþfer can immediately bring a researcher to the exact point in the text relevant to his study, and he can steadily forge his own path--following a particular string of inquiry through a broad textual, historical, and philosophical spectrum. Scholars will find it useful to refine and then record these paths that they have created through the literature, to help others gain the insights they themselves have found--and in fact this is the method of the great Tibetan monk-scholars, epitomized by Je Tsongkapa of the 14th Century. Special programs known as "hypertext" utilities have been designed to allow researchers to record their paths digitally, and we predict that the creation of hypertext computer paths through the body of literature on disk will within this generation become one of the most important and useful methods of recording and transmitting knowledge. A word of warning: this tremendous new capacity will greatly enhance and complement, but not replace, the traditional methods of gaining knowledge: instruction handed on from a living teacher; a broad study of available books, as intended, from their beginning to their end; and philosophical inquiry in the form of discussion, argument, and contemplation. In short, those who seek knowledge will still have to take the entire book, read it, talk it over with others, and think about it--the computer will only help them do it more thoroughly and efficiently. ACIP staff have constructed a brief sample path (translated into English) through the entire data available to the project (some of the texts used have been input but not proofread by ACIP so are not yet available to the public; others have been obtained from outside sources). We decided to do a study of the philosophical concept known as the "view of the perishable assemblage," known in Tibetan as 'jig-tsog la lta-ba, or 'jig-lta ("perishable view") for short. This "perishable view" seemed like a good candidate for study both because of its intriguing name and since, according to the highly developed philosophical system of the Buddhist schools of India over the last 25 centuries, it is the single principal cause of all mental and physical pain in the world. A Hypertext Essay on the "View of the Perishable Assemblage" 1. Literal explanation of "perishable view" A natural goal for our first search of the ACIP text database is a tsig-bshad, or explanation of the literal meaning of the words that make up the unusual name of this concept. Writers in the classical commentarial style of Tibetan philosophy will in fact often start their analysis of an idea at this same point. The first steps of our path lead us to a captivating selection from the Cosmic Play (Tib, rGya-cher rol-pa; Skt, Lalitavistara), which is a sþtra or word of a Buddha himself; in this case, that of Shakyamuni Buddha, who lived in India 500 BC. This gives us a very early reference to the idea of a "perishable assemblage": It grows from the field of the body, watered by attachment, and named the "perishable assemblage"; Wet with teardrops and saliva, soaked in urine, filled to brim with blood; Stuffed with fat and pus and bile, spread with brain grey matter, a home of various harms; Soiled all the time inside with vomit, always giving off so many offal odors; Decorated with flesh and tooth, tufts and strings of hair, packaged up in skin; A pitiful assembling of guts, liver, spleen, lymph, slobber from the mouth; Some contraption glued with marrow, tied together with some tendons, fancied up with meat; Overflowing with diseases, every inch with misery, never far from hunger and thirst; Perforated my friends with pores, home of death, home of getting old; What wise man sees it so and fails to perceive his body his enemy? [KD0095, ff. 169A-B] We move from this general description of the assemblage itself to a more precise literal gloss in the autocommentary to his classic Treasure House of Knowledge (Tib, mDzod rang- 'grel; Skt, Abhidharmakoþabhþþya) by the 4th-Century Buddhist master Vasubandhu: The word "perishable" is meant to indicate something that can be destroyed. The word "assemblage" refers to something collected together; the connotation is one of multiplicity and aggregation. The five heaps that make up a person, and which we have taken on, are both perishable and an assemblage in these senses; and so we refer to them as a "perishable assemblage." We apply the name in order to help people give up their conception of these five heaps as being something permanent, as being some indivisible whole; for it is this conception which leads one to hold that the five heaps make up some independent "self." And thus we give the name "view of the perishable assemblage" to the state of mind which views the perishable assemblage [in this manner]. [TD4090, f. 229B] The next stop on our digital way is a millennium down the road, in the Illumination of the Path (mDzod-þik thar-lam gsal-byed) composed by Gyalwa Gendun Drup (rGyal-ba dGe- 'dun grub, 1391-1474)--one of the greatest of all Tibetan philosophical writers, and destined to be declared the first Dalai Lama: One may ask why we call it the "view of the perishable assemblage." The heaps [or impure parts] that make us up, which we have taken on, are a perishable assemblage. We view these heaps as being "me" or "mine." This is then the meaning of the name. "In what sense," one may continue, "are these heaps a perishable assemblage?" They are a perishable assemblage because they perish instant by instant, and because they perish in the face of their spiritual antidote, and because they are made up of many instants assembled together. [S5525, ff. 149B-150A] This explanation is further expanded upon in The Great Dictionary (Tsig-mdzod chen-mo), a monumental work likely to become the standard dictionary for the Tibetan language, and only recently completed by a team of native scholars still detained in Tibet. The entry also supplies us with the original Sanskrit for our unusual term: perishable view (Skt, satkþya dþþþya): Short for the "view of the perishable assemblage"--the heaps that make up a person perish instant by instant, and represent a collection of many elements assembled together; this is a type of intellect, but one which is disturbed by the afflictions of the mind, and which views these heaps as having some nature of being "me" or "mine," though in fact they have no such nature. [R0002, p. 897] Incidentally, the "me or mine" mentioned is a very specific "me or mine"; but this will come below. 2. Definition, or basic nature, of perishable view Given that the name "view of the perishable assemblage" has some literal significance, what then is the definition, or basic nature of this idea? In general, how does it work? We return first to Master Vasubandhu's explanation of his own Treasure House: Admittedly, all states of mind which focus on impure things are in a sense the "view of a perishable assemblage" as well. Yet regardless of their looking at a perishable assemblage, these viewpoints may not be directed at a "me" or "mine." It is to help one realize this fact that the "view of the perishable assemblage" is explained as properly referring only to the view which looks upon something as "me" or "mine." To this very point the Buddha himself has stated, "Suppose, oh monks, that a practitioner of the path of virtue, or else some Brahmin, conceives in his mind of some kind of 'self.' Each and every conception of this kind is viewing the five heaps that make up a person, and which he has taken on; the conceptions look only upon them, and upon nothing else at all." [TD4090, f. 229B] The First Dalai Lama again echoes Master Vasubandhu, giving a thumbnail definition of our view: What is its basic nature? The "view of the perishable assemblage" is a viewpoint wherein one considers the heaps that make us up, the heaps that we have taken on, as being some "me" or "mine." [S5525, f. 149B] The Dalai Lama clarifies himself further in the very next folio: What is the point, what purpose is served by our giving the name "view of the perishable assemblage" only to our perception of the heaps we've taken on as being some "me" or "mine"? There is quite certainly a point: once one understands that he is viewing a perishable assemblage, he will then be able to realize that no [inherent] "me" or "mine" exists. The "inherent" just added is significant; as the incomparable Tsongkapa emphasizes in his Illumination of the True Thought (dGongs-pa rab-gsal, Varanasi edition, p. 142), the point is not that no "me" or "mine" exists at all, for we and ours obviously do. Rather, the idea is that no self exists which is inherently one way or the other; which does not exist by nature of merely assigning its name to a mental picture of its parts. Apropos here is another definition from the Great Dictionary, this time for a particularly malevolent form of the perishable view: one which helps cause all pain, and which we will encounter below in the discussion of the types of the view. Again, the emphasis is on a self-existent self-- innate perishable view that grasps to a "mine": to focus upon what is mine, with an attitude wherein one grasps it as existing by definition [R0002, p. 639] As we continue to direct our search program through the available texts for the concept of "perishable view," we make constant hits in the Treasure House of Chim (mChims-mdzod), almost surely the greatest Tibetan treatment of Master Vasubandhu's Treasure House of Knowledge, and composed by the Sakya scholar Jampey Yang of Chim (mChims 'Jam-pa'i dbyangs, c. 1280). In the following words he makes still more clear the essential nature of our view: The various views [discussed here] are all similar in being eliminated from one's mind at the level where he sees the general lack of inherent existence directly, and are the same as well in displaying the nature of discursive thought. Nevertheless, they are discrete from one another. Earlier we have presented the distinction between them only by means of separate names, but have yet to put forth their various essential natures. Here then are the attitudes they take and the natures they possess, [beginning with the perishable view.] Admittedly, any kind of viewpoint focused on an impure thing is a "view of a perishable assemblage." This though is one of those cases where we apply the name of a general class to one of its particular members. We restrict ourselves to the view that involves thoughts of the self and self's. The object upon which this view focuses is a variety of impermanent things; as it focuses on these, it views them as being or belonging to oneself. The view of the perishable assemblage is only this view which focuses upon a group of impermanent things and looks upon them as a self or something of it; it is not something which, as some non-Buddhist schools would say, focuses upon something that is permanent and a singular whole. This is the point the sutra is making when it says. . .[and the same quotation as that from Treasure House is cited]. We can therefore say that this is a view which first of all focuses on a variety of "impermanent things," referring to the five heaps that we have taken on--assemblages of atoms and pieces, perishing by the instant. The view then views consciousness [the fifth heap] as being the self, or director. It views the other four heaps [those of one's physical form, capacity of feeling, discrimination, and other mental or conceptual parts] as being what belongs to the self: what the director [supposedly] has the power to direct. One can alternately say that the perishable view sees the four "nominal" heaps [meaning the last four] as the "self," and one's physical form as what belongs to it. [S6954, ff. 270B-271A] The basic nature of the perishable view becomes even clearer when we compare and contrast it to similar but not equivalent concepts. For this we return to the First Dalai Lama's commentary, which discusses the relationship between this view and the important Buddhist concept of metaphysical ignorance, according to the early Indian school of the Detailist, or Vaibhashika. (The reader should note that our computer journey has been not only through centuries, but through different philosophical schools as well; side-paths could well be cut to explore their differences, but space prevents us here. Suffice to say that the various schools make differing presentations to communicate the same truths to students of varying capacities.) What is the basic nature of ignorance? It is not a simple absence of knowing, nor simply something other than knowing; it is a separate entity which is the diametric opposite of knowing, or wisdom. A person who is unfriendly to you, for example, is not simply someone who has not been friendly, nor only a person who has been something other than friendly; he is rather someone whom we understand to be the opposite of friendly. A lie would be another example, for we understand it as being the opposite of the truth, and not the other things. "How do we know," one may ask, "that a simple absence of knowing, and something other than knowing, are not what ignorance is?" This we can know, because ignorance has been referred to by the Buddha with expressions like "the bond" [that ties one to suffering life]. Now one might assert that "defective intellect"--[root-text words which refer to] the view of the perishable assemblage--is ignorance. But isn't it true that the perishable view could never be ignorance? For isn't it true that it is a type of view, whereas ignorance is something that comes mentally linked with view? And isn't it true that ignorance has been presented as something that makes the intellect disturbed? [S5525, f. 267A] We will though see later, for example in a section below where we cover the object of the perishable view, how it can be explained as providing the link called "ignorance" in the chain of causes for our suffering. Earlier in his commentary, the First Dalai Lama explains how this same view relates to the Buddhist idea of the "four backwards thoughts," where one perceives things in a way which is completely backwards from what is true: There are four kinds of backwards thoughts: to think that things which are actually impermanent are permanent; to think that things which are impure are pure; to think that things which are pain are pleasure; and to think that there is a self where there is no self. "Which of the four," one may ask, "relate to which of the various types of views?" The group of four backwards thoughts relates to three of the types of views. The backwards thought that impermanent things are permanent relates to that form of extreme view known as the "view of permanence." The backwards thoughts that impure things are pure, and that things which are pain are pleasure, relate to the view where one holds his wrong views to be the best. The backwards thought that there is a self where there is no self relates to the perishable view. Why are the other views not described as backwards thoughts? For something to be a backward thought, three elements must all be present: it must think of its object in a way which is completely backwards; it must involve discursive thought, a declaration about its object; and it must be an overestimation: seeing something where there is nothing. [S5525, ff. 150A-B] Chim Jampey Yang, in his own commentary to the same work, draws a contrast between the perishable view and pride, pointing up the discursive nature of the former: The two cases are not the same: the various views display attitudes and functions which are discrete from one another; pride, on the other hand, has but one attitude--that of conceit--and but one function. "But isn't it true," one may object, "that the views involve but one attitude: that of a mental declaration?" This though is not an attitude; there are various divisions to the attitudes displayed by the views, and these are indicated in the lines that start with "Self, self's, ever and never..." But there are no such divisions to the attitude that pride displays. [S6954, ff. 267A-B] A few pages later, the same author points up the characteristic tendency of the perishable view to overestimate its object: According to the Compendium, the first view [that of the perishable assemblage] is an overestimation involving the very essence of things: it looks upon the set of knowable objects and sees them as having self or self's, when in truth they have none. [S6954, f. 271B] What is the basic stuff of our view? Mental entities in Buddhist philosophy must be either main mind--simple awareness or consciousness, or else a specialized part of the mind: one of its particular functions. Panglung Lobsang Tukje (sPang-lung Blo-bzang thugs-rje) was an eminent monk-scholar of 18th-Century Tibet, and our electronic search for the substance of the perishable view takes us to his Dialectic Analysis of Basis Consciousness (Kun-gzhi mtha'-dpyod), a work on the unique concepts of the "Mind-Only" school of Buddhism. Here we learn that the perishable view is a mental function, not a kind of raw awareness itself: And someone else may come forward, to say "Consider this thought of mental affliction. Isn't it something that grasps to some 'self' of a person? For doesn't basis consciousness involve an attitude wherein you grasp that the person is a self?" Your reason is a true fact, but doesn't necessitate your conclusion. One could never agree to the conclusion, for the thought you've mentioned is main mind. And this conclusion is necessitated, for both types of grasping to a self are mental functions. They must be, for the perishable view is a mental function. And it must be, for both the five views and the five non-views (that is, all ten of the root mental afflictions) and all twenty of the secondary mental afflictions as well are mental functions. And they must be, for all 51 of the mental functions are--mental functions. Thus we can say that, although one does see cases where people accept that perishable view and the other mental afflictions involve both main mind and the mental functions, the position we have taken here is the single most tenable. [S0019, ff. 56A-B] The last few steps in our search path have, in a sense, fixed the perishable view for us spatially: have posited it relative to other philosophical concepts. Where then does the view stand temporally; what events lead it to have this basic nature, and what does this nature itself effect? We go back in time over two millennia, to the Sutra of Vimalakirti (Dri-med bstan-pa'i mdo, Vimalakþrtinirdeþa sþtra) taught by Gautama Buddha himself: You say, What is the root of virtue, and the root of non-virtue? I say to you, The root is the perishable assemblage. You say, What is the root of the perishable assemblage? I say to you, The root of the perishable assemblage is desire, and attachment. You say, What is the root of desire, and of attachment? I say to you, The root of desire and attachment is conceptualizing of the wrong kind. You say, What is the root of conceptualizing of the wrong kind? I say to you, The root of conceptualizing of the wrong kind is to think of things backwards. You say, What is the root of thinking of things backwards? I say to you, The root of thinking of things backwards is baseless. You say, What is the root of the baseless? I say to you, Manjushri--how could it ever exist? How could anything be the root of something baseless? And so everything that exists rests here--here in the root of the baseless, in non- existence. There was a goddess living in the house. She heard these great bodhisattvas, these great beings who had dedicated themselves to others, speaking these teachings. She was greatly pleased, she rejoiced in their good, and so she made herself visible to them. She took the fragrant blossoms of the gods, and showered them down, poured them over the great bodhisattvas, and their disciples. [KD0176, ff. 327B-328A] The perishable view's position in the chain of causation is clarified further by Chim Jampey Yang in the opening lines of his Treasure House commentary. Here he discusses the possible combinations between something's being a cause and result of the view, first disqualifying certain types of causes and results, which in itself instructs us further: Here we will not consider the "maturation" and "separation" types of results. It would be incorrect to say that the view of the perishable assemblage included either causes or results involved with a maturation of the power of a deed [i.e., karma] over a number of lifetimes. And it would be improper to say that the view was either a separation [of a person from spiritually undesirable qualities] or the cause of such a separation. [S6954, f. 4A] Chim Jampey Yang continues on to discuss the actual combinations: The first combination would be that of something which is neither the cause nor the result of the view of the perishable assemblage. Cases would be the true end of all suffering, and the true path to it; empty space and the cessation of undesirable qualities that does not involve analysis; and parts of true suffering which are eliminated by the spiritual level known as "habituation" but which do not involve mental affliction. . . The second combination would be that of something which is a cause of, but which does not result from, the view of the perishable assemblage. This combination is an impossibility . . . [The third combination would be of] something which is a result of, but not a cause for, the view of the perishable assemblage. Cases of this would come from the group of so-called "widespread" mental afflictions that are eliminated when one perceives the nature of true suffering. From this group, we would be talking about the view itself and--from among the other nine--the eight left after excluding ignorance: all the above being considered as future entities, and along with the mental elements linked up with them . . . [The fourth combination of] something which is both a cause and result of the perishable view would be all ten of the widespread mental afflictions to be abandoned by a direct perception of the nature of true suffering, considered as past or present entities, along with the mental elements linked together with them. [S6954, ff. 4A-B] A final note to the causal position of our view comes from a match by the search program much further on in the same text: Here is the progression. First there is a sort of blindness about the four universal truths [of suffering, its cause, its end, and the way to the end]. This leads to doubt over whether things are or aren't these truths. The doubt leads one to erring methods of study and contemplation, which cause in him the view that underestimates the four by concluding that they are not true. Once this mistaken view has started, it leads to the view of the perishable assemblage, wherein one fails to recognize that the heaps that make him up are just a collection of impermanent things, and thereby gains the illusion that there exists an [independent] self. This then leads to extreme views, holding that the self is either permanent or that it does not exist at all. Once these extreme views have started, one gains a conviction that he can purify the kind of self that he is having the extreme view over; and so there begins in him the view that mistaken types of morality and asceticisms are supreme. Next he views his own conviction about these supposed methods of purification as being itself supreme, and so grows the view we call "holding one's views supreme." Then he gains attachment and pride over his own views, as well as distaste for others' views. And thus do the mental afflictions take their birth, one progressing to the next. [S6954, f. 295B] 3. General function of perishable view We have seen various references in the description of the basic nature of perishable view which give us some idea of its function, and we will devote an entire section below to how it acts in causing the affliction of the mind, and consequent suffering. Here though is a simple metaphor to describe the view's general function, a sort of rest stop on the path through the data. It comes again from the First Dalai Lama's Illumination: The Sutrists present it this way. There are three main things that can keep you from travelling to a certain destination: not wanting to go in the first place, taking a wrong turn somewhere on the way, and at the end to have doubts that you are on the right road at all. Here on our trip to the city of liberation it's the same. The perishable view keeps us from wanting to go in the first place. We take a wrong turn on the way when we hold that our mistaken views about morality and asceticism are the best. And at the end, indecision about the spiritual path brings us doubts about the road itself. Since these, say the Sutrists, are the number of things that can prevent one from making the trip, then the mental afflictions that act as bonds are, from the point of view of what we will have to give up, precisely three as well. [S5525, f. 159B] 4. Types and memberships of perishable view Analyzing anything into parts gives a deeper understanding of it, and we can learn much about the perishable view by studying the types in which it is found. As a corollary, we can also look into the groups of which it is a member. Here our initial find in a search of the database comes from the Journey to Langka (Lang-kar gshegs-pa, Laþkþvatþra), a famous Mahayana sutra taught by Shakyamuni Buddha himself: Now Mahamati, you ask of me: What are these bonds? They are as follows: the view of the perishable assemblage, doubt, and delusion of grandeur over one's morality and asceticisms. These are the three bonds, for it is these three enemies that one must destroy, one by one, along the path, to reach up to the goal of "enemy destroyer." Now Mahamati, this view of the perishable assemblage comes in two different types. One is the innate, which you are born with. The other is the learned one, the one you conceive of later. Its nature is that you must learn to conceive of things this way through being influenced by someone else. This, Mahamati, is how it works: influenced by others, you develop various beliefs that something's nature is what you conceive of, instead of what it actually is. And since the characteristics you see then are only your own conception, we can admittedly say that the thing neither exists, nor doesn't exist, nor both exists and doesn't exist. But the children of the world have their conceptions, and grasp to their imagination that the thing has some natural characteristics. They are like wild mountain deer, transfixed by the sight of a mirage. [K0107, ff. 162B-163A] Chim Jampey Yang says a bit more, concisely, about these types of our view (note that the deer is a different one): The view of the perishable assemblage is of two types: innate and learned. The first is a type possessed by each and every "child" or common being, on down even to birds or wild deer. [Here "child" and "common being" refer to any living creature who has yet to perceive directly that no inherent self exists.] The second is a type possessed for example by members of non-Buddhist philosophical schools. [S6954, f. 280A] Our computer path next takes four quick consecutive stops in the Great Dictionary, giving nearly every possible division of the perishable view in one fell swoop: perishable view, the learned: An ascription of "self" made only on the basis of the beliefs of some philosophical school: a view in which one grasps to some permanent, unitary, and self-governing self--or to some person who can stand independent on his own, who is substantial. perishable views, the twenty: The first four are to view one's physical form as being a self; to view the self as possessing one's physical form by definition; to view one's physical form as having a self by definition; and to view one's physical form as existing with one's self by definition. A total of twenty is arrived at by viewing one's feelings, and his other three heaps, in the same four ways each. perishable views, the two: The two types of perishable view in which one grasps to his "self," or to his "self's." perishable view, the innate: The intrinsic, inborn ignorance or grasping to a "self" through which every being [the Tibetan word excludes Buddhas or enlightened beings] tends to grasp to some "me" or "mine." [R0002, p. 897] As for some of the other groups in which our view holds membership, we turn first to the Treasure House of Chim: The view of the perishable assemblage, along with the other four [views] that involve mental affliction--as well the pure view of the world, which makes a total of six--are all what we call "conventional" states of mind; they are, moreover, all viewpoints, in that they consist of declarations about things. [S6954, ff. 364A-B] Chim Jampey Yang also mentions "four root mental afflictions: the view of the perishable assemblage, ignorance, pride, and desire" [S6954, f. 74B]. In yet another section he lists the perishable view in one breath with both the five views and within the "widespread" mental afflictions: We also see mention that "these six widespread mental afflictions are, according to the Knowledge system, also explained as being ten." One may ask how we arrive at the additional number. We divide the one of "views" into the five different views, and add them on. The five views here are the view of the perishable assemblage; mistaken view; extreme views; the view wherein one holds his views the best; and the view that mistaken morality and asceticisms are the best. [S6954, f. 267A] Still again in the same text we see our view grouped into the "category of phenomena"; a technical word referring collectively to the objects of the consciousness of one's own mind: What do we mean when we say "one part of the category of phenomena"? There are eight different parts here: the group of five [views] starting with the view of the perishable assemblage; the pure view of the world; the view of one who is still learning; and the view of one who has finished learning. [S6954, f. 51A] Two more groups include our view or its object; as the Great Dictionary relates-- the five attachments: They are attachment to outer things, attachment to inner things, attachment to suffering, attachment to forms, and attachment to the perishable assemblage. [R0002, p. 1415] the five thoughts conducive to the lower [of the three realms]: These constitute the five of desire, anger, the view of the perishable assemblage, holding one's mistaken morality and asceticisms as supreme, and doubt; all in the realm of desire. [R0002, p. 2529] A list similar to the latter appears in the First Dalai Lama's commentary to The Treasure House, and helps us understand the dictionary entry: There are five of the bonds that we say are "conducive to the last." These are the view of the perishable assemblage, holding one's mistaken morality and asceticisms as supreme, attraction to the objects of the senses, doubt, and malice. Why do we call them "conducive to the last"? The "last" of the three realms is the realm of desire, and these are all conducive to it. In what sense are they so conducive? Two of them--attraction to the objects of the senses, and malice--prevent you from ever getting beyond the desire realm. And assuming you ever could take a single birth in one of the higher two realms, then the other three--meaning perishable view and the remaining two--bring you right back afterwards, to the realm of desire. [S5525, f. 159A] The role of membership is reversed in the Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Verses (brGyad stong pa, Aþþasþhasrþka Praj¤þpþramitþ), a renowned sutra on the meaning of the Buddhist idea of emptiness. Here the Buddha says: Subhuti, it's the same as the case with the view of the perishable assemblage, into which every one of the 62 types of wrong views can be included. [K0012, f. 233A] The search program takes us lastly to a text which explains the unique views of the Mind-Only school of Buddhism; stopping at Panglung Lobsang Tukje's Overview of Basis Consciousness, we see our view in one final group: There are three further divisions you can make with mental seeds: seeds of expression, seeds of the view of a self, and seeds of the parts to cyclic existence. . .The second type are fixed [in the mind] by the thought of affliction and by its various attendants; these are the seeds that act as special types of causes for the two middle kinds of recognition: the one in which a person seems to be "self" to himself, and the one in which persons separate from oneself seem to be "other." These types of mental seeds are known as well as "seeds of the view of the perishable assemblage," for they are mental seeds that act as causes for the perishable view. This description though is not invariably the case: mental seeds for the innate form of viewing some "self" are fixed by both types of the thought; mental seeds for the learned form of viewing some "self" can only be fixed by consciousness of the thought. [S0018, f. 20A-B] 5. Objects of perishable view How does the perishable view relate to its object, and what is the nature of the object? We have already seen, from a hit in the Treasure House of Chim [S6954, f. 271B], that it should be a kind of overestimation of its object, rather than an underestimation, as some other types of viewpoints are. It should see something, in this case a "self," where there is none. An important stop on our electronic journey is a classic selection from one of the monastic textbooks of Sera Mey; the following is from the Overview of Dependent Origination (rTen-'brel spyi-don), composed by the great Kedrup Tenpa Dargye (mKhas-grub bsTan-pa dar-rgyas, 1493-1568): According to our own system, the definition of ignorance is "That blinded mental function which, first of all, holds its object in a way which is in direct contradiction with the way that the wisdom which realizes there is no self-nature of a person holds its object, or with the way that the wisdom which realizes the grosser relationship between deeds and their consequences holds its object. And secondly it must be, of its own accord, blind to the nature of the object towards which it is focused." One may divide this ignorance into two types: ignorance which is blind to the "suchness" of things, or their lack of an independent self, and ignorance which is blind to the grosser relationship between deeds and their consequences. The first type of ignorance comes itself in two types: the perishable view, and various other kinds of grasping to some self-nature of a person. The former is defined as "The idea wherein the person who has it focuses upon the 'me' and 'mine' of his own and holds them to constitute some self-supporting and substantial person." The latter is defined as "The idea wherein one focuses upon someone else's 'me' and holds it to constitute some self-supporting and substantial person." We can say that a type of ignorance which constitutes blindness towards the grosser relationship between deeds and their consequences is "ignorance" [in the sense of the first link of dependent origination] here because the ignorance that provides the motivation while one is performing the causative deeds of the second link of dependent origination is precisely ignorance in this sense. As the Compendium says, "Blindness is of two types: blindness about the way that consequences ripen, and blindness about the meaning of suchness. Blindness about the way consequences ripen leads one into the causative deeds that are non-virtue. Blindness about the meaning of suchness leads one into the causative deeds that are merit [good deeds for a birth in the desire realm] or karma of the type that cannot be redirected [i.e., good deeds for a birth in the higher realms]." Here in the present system [that of the Svatantrika Madhyamika], "heaps" in the sense they have when you speak of heaps as opposed to self can act as the principal object towards which the innate form of perishable view focuses. In the Pransangika Madhyamika school though this would be incorrect, for we have the distinction between these two schools where they either agree or deny that the mere "me" attributed to the heaps is an instance of the person. Moreover, we have the explanation that "it is a view of the perishable assemblage in that it focuses upon heaps which perish and which are assembled." It is not a case of the perishable view when you focus upon the "me" of another being and hold it as being self-supporting and substantial; this is because the mind-state in which you automatically think "me" doesn't come up when you are focusing on someone else. [S0014, ff. 3B-4A] The journey here can branch deeper off into the "me and mine-ness" of our object: the search program hits the following lines of Vasubandhu's autocommentary-- The view looks at what is actually a perishable assemblage and sees it as being some "me". . .It is explained that just by seeing some "me" which is a director or master, it also sees some "mine," and so this single view of a "me" is said to be two-pronged. But if in addition to the view of "me" we were to posit a wholly separate view for the thought of "mine," we would have to do so too for thoughts of "by me" and "for me." [TD4090, f. 231A] The Treasure House of Chim concurs and expands: One may ask the following: "You have said that the first two types of view [here, the perishable view and extreme view as found in the desire realm] cannot focus on the higher realms. But what if a person in the desire realm views the Pure One [a worldly god] as being a sentient being; and what if he views him as being permanent?" Viewing this god as a sentient being is not the same as holding him to be "me" or "mine," and so it is not the view of the perishable assemblage. And even if the person were to hold the god as being permanent, this would not be a view that grasped to an extreme, since it must be motivated by the view of the perishable assemblage, and there is no view of the perishable assemblage present. This is the position. [S6954, f. 277B] The special connotation of "me and mine" here is brought out in the following selection from the Ornament of Realizations (mNgon-rtogs rgyan, Abhisamayþlaþkþra), spoken by Maitreya to Asanga, the brother of master Vasubandhu, in the 4th Century: He was free of the view of perishable assembly but The Buddha still spoke of a "me" and "mine"; Just so though it's true that things possess no nature, He said they did, but spoke only figuratively. [TD3861, f. 206A] Our electronic exploration of the object of the perishable view should at about this point raise a question in our minds: if the view is seeing an independent "me" or "mine," and if these don't even exist, how can we say that the view has an "object"? Here Master Vasubandhu anticipates the classic distinction between the object one focuses upon and the object one thinks he sees: "How is it," one may ask, "that you can say that a person never reverts once he has reached the first result [of spiritual practice: the direct perception of selflessness, known as 'entering the stream,' at the spiritual level called 'seeing']?" This is because the undesirable qualities that were eliminated by the act of "seeing" have no basis; since they have at their root the view of the perishable assemblage, they have as well the tendency to be "based in" some [non-existent] self. "Well then," one may object, "aren't you then saying that they focus on a non-entity?" Yet they do not, for they focus on the various truths. They do however focus on them in a way which is backwards. "What then about the other afflicted states of mind that do not act this way?" one may ask. There is a distinction here; the view that there is some "self" is overestimating: where there is in truth no self, it sees some faulty kind of self, one which acts towards physical things and other objects, one which experiences them, one which controls them. Extreme views and the rest are based in this view, and so too we call them the "baseless." [TD4091, ff. 32B-33A] The self-existing "me" and "mine" may be non-existent, but grasping to them is anything but; we read again, from the same work, about its malignant function: Sutra says that "if the self were to exist, so would the self's," and so when these thoughts occur in force to grasp the heaps as something of oneself's, they are a view of the perishable assemblage. Once one views things as oneself's, he begins to have attachment for them. And this is how one comes to be shackled, in chains of attachment, for the self and self's. Freedom becomes, for such as these, ever more far away. [TD4091, f. 90B] 6. Moral content of perishable view It is important in Buddhist philosophy not only to examine the essence and classifications of a concept, but further to determine its moral content: is the thing virtuous, non-virtuous, or ethically neutral? A hypertext path through our database for a Buddhist concept should then branch off now to some discussions of this question. We turn first to Master Vasubandhu's Autocommentary: It's explained that--in the desire realm--the view of the perishable assemblage, extreme views, and ignorance which is linked up with them mentally are all ethically neutral. Why? Because it's no contradiction to entertain these thoughts and still practice charity and other good deeds. One can perform an act of giving, or keep his morality, and still think, "May I myself thus find some happiness in the other world." The [extreme view] that the self stops is as well in some sense consistent with freedom; to this very point the victorious Buddha has stated that "Of all the various [mistaken] views of the non-Buddhists, the best is the viewpoint where one thinks to himself, 'May the self cease to exist; May the self's cease to exist; May the self never occur; May the self's never occur.'" These two views are, moreover, ethically neutral for the reason that they are absolutely blind to things, and because they do not involve assuming a stance wherein one seeks to harm other people. This is the explanation; it would have to be said as well then that craving for the higher births, or the type of pride where one concentrates on the "me", are similar. They claim as well that masters of the past have said that the innate form of the view of the perishable assemblage, the one that even wild deer and birds possess, is ethically neutral; and that the learned form of the view is a non-virtue. [TD4090, f. 236A] Chim Jampey Yang, in his discussion of the three roots of non-virtue (desire, anger, and dark ignorance), supports the above position when he excludes from this group any ignorance which is linked in the mind with the view of the perishable assemblage [S6954, f. 281B]. He then clarifies further the ideas just expressed: The innate form of the view of the perishable assemblage is, they say, something which is in the desire realm ethically neutral, for it occurs "all the time," meaning over and over, and because (they say) it involves no great harm to oneself or others. They moreover cite the statement that "the learned type of this belief though is a non-virtue." If this were true, though, then the innate forms of desire and pride in the desire realm would be ethically neutral, while their learned forms would be non-virtues. You would also have to say then that non-virtue existed in the [two] higher realms, for the learned forms of the perishable view and so forth do exist there. And if you claimed that they did not, you would be forced to answer the objection that undesirable qualities eliminated by the spiritual level called "seeing" would then not exist in these realms either. [S6954, f. 281B] 7. How the perishable view causes all suffering Our computer path through the concept of the perishable view in Asian literature now reaches an important landmark. Supposing that we have covered the concept in just about every way imaginable, what is the point? Why have we come so far, and how far before we reach some goal? To answer we will explore a bit further to see how the perishable view causes all physical and mental pain; then we will reach the final section, our destination, where stopping it is described. Perhaps the most famous reference of all to the perishable view comes from Entering the Middle Way (dBu-ma la 'jug-pa, Madhyamakþvatþra) composed by the Buddhist master Chandrakirti (Zla-ba grags-pa, Candrakþrti, c. 650 AD) in explanation of the Root Text on Wisdom (rTza-ba shes-rab, Mþlapraj¤þ) a work from the great Nagarjuna (Klu-sgrub, Nþgþrjuna, c. 200 AD), founder of the Madhyamika school of Buddhist philosophy. The single verse reads as follows: He sees in his realization then that each and every wrong Of the mental afflictions comes from the view of perishable assemblage. Once he's realized that the object for this view is the self, The wise practitioner comes to deny the existence of a "self." [TD3861, f. 2210A] Chim Jampey Yang makes the point in a few elegant words: Teaching the disciple about the heaps or parts of a person stops his view of the perishable assemblage, since the prerequisite for this view is to hold oneself to be some whole thing. And stopping this view stops the afflictions of the mind, since the prerequisite for these afflictions is the view itself. [S6954, f. 33A] Just how serious the view is, how opposed it is to ultimate knowledge, is eloquently expressed in a list of apparent absurdities from the Sutra of Vimalakirti, a teaching of the Buddha himself: Then the Lichavi Vimalakirti spoke to the young Manjushri as follows: "You ask, Manjushri, what the seed-kernel of the Ones Thus Gone [the Buddhas] may be. I tell you, oh noble son, the perishable assemblage is the seed-kernel of the Ones Thus Gone. Ignorance, and the craving for suffering life, are their seed. Desire, and anger, and nescience are their seed. The four backwards thoughts are their seed. The five obscurations are their seed. The six stained gateways are their seed. The seven impure states of consciousness are their seed. The eight wrongs are their seed. The nine thoughts of an evil mind are their seed. The ten paths of non-virtuous karma are their seed. These, oh noble son, are the seed-kernels of the Ones Thus Gone; in short, all 62 of the views are the seed-kernels of the Ones Thus Gone. You ask, Manjushri, why I call them so. I tell you, oh noble son, that those who live in certainty, who have seen the Unchanging, are incapable of generating the thought that they want to attain matchless, pure, and total enlightenment. Those who live in the changing, which is the source of all afflictions of the mind; those who have never seen the Truth, they are capable of generating the thought that they want to attain matchless, pure, and total enlightenment. Oh noble son, this is the way it is: the blue lotus, the crimson lotus, the night lotus, the ivory lotus, the height of fragrance--none of these blossoms can grow on baked dry land. But if you plant them in the mire, in a marsh, then the blue lotus, and the crimson lotus, the night and the ivory lotus, and the blossom known as the "height of fragrance" will grow. Thus it is, oh noble son, with those beings who have achieved the certainty of the Unchanging: the qualities of the Buddhas can never grow in them. It is within those beings who are the swamp of mental affliction, it is inside those who are the mire, that the qualities of the Buddhas can grow. This is the way it is: a seed cannot grow in empty space; it must be placed in the earth, and then it will grow. Just so, the qualities of the Buddhas can never grow in those beings who have attained the certainty of the Unchanging. On the contrary, a person must first generate a view of the perishable assemblage, one equal in size to the great mountain at the center of the world. Only then can he generate the thought to attain Buddhahood, and only then can the qualities of the Buddhas grow within him. [K0176, ff. 335A-336A] The famous Lotus Sutra concurs, by placing our view in a very unsavory group of fellows: Those who abandon this my Buddha's way, Will never lay eyes on the king of lords of men, Teacher of the world, protector of the world. They will lose those precious opportunities, These children too will never hear the teachings, Will turn to dumb, will turn to deaf. Those who abandon this enlightenment Will never reach onto the state of peace; And for eons in number equal to the grains Of sand in the Ganges, millions billions trillions, Their bodies will be weak, their limbs incomplete. The evil of those who abandon this the word Will bring them hell to be their pleasure park, And the births of misery to be their dwelling home. Always will they live among the pigs, Among the asses, foxes, with the snake; And even should they find a human form, Then blind they'll be, deaf, and also dumb, Always poor, running at others' whim. Those will be the jewelry they wear, And for their garments they'll dress up in disease: A trillion million sores will cover their bodies, Scabs as well, and boils, poxes too; The skin will peel and stink with leprosies. Their view of perishable assemblage will thicken strong, Their anger's might will rise up massive great, The desire in their hearts will spread throughout. [KD0113, f. 59B] Chim Jampey Yang repeats the refrain, quoting the Commentary on Valid Perception (Tsad- ma rnam-'grel, Pramþþavþrttika), written by the great 7th-Century Buddhist logician, Dharmakirti (Chos-kyi grags-pa, Dharmakþrti): The master Dharmakirti has stated: Every type of fault comes from The view of the perishable assemblage. This is ignorance. . . [TD4210, f. 103A] This verse makes it quite clear that he also accepts the fact that the perishable view is ignorance [in the sense of the first link in the chain of suffering]. [S6954, f. 147A] And what are some of the faults that come from our view? The list is long; Chim Jampey Yang notes again that "every different type of pride depends on the view of the perishable assemblage [S6954, f. 274B]." Further on he details the interaction between the view, pride, and ignorance: . . .They block one from seeing suchness: when one is going to realize it, the pride that concentrates on some "me" arises, and so the bond of pride blinds one, making him incapable of recognizing the view of the perishable assemblage. And because one fails to understand that the heaps [or parts of himself] that he has taken on are impermanent, and fragmented, and out of his control, then the bond of ignorance blinds one, making him incapable of recognizing the root of the view of the perishable assemblage. And because the first two views [which includes the perishable view] cause him to fear it, and wrong view causes him to discount it, then the bond of views blinds one, making him incapable of recognizing the truth of the end of suffering. [S6954, f. 293A] The ultimate problem springing from our view is this entire life of suffering; the great Sermey Kedrup Tenpa Dargye indicts it in the very definition of ignorance, the ignorance that triggers the twelve stages of pain in the world: The definition of the ignorance that acts as the first of the twelve links of dependent origination is as follows: "It is that perishable view which serves to motivate one to commit anew the causal deeds which constitute the second link of dependent origination, and which are brought upon by it." [S0014, f. 4A] 8. How the perishable view is stopped A hypertext path through a database, a pre-arranged journey through electronic match-ups by a search program, can be viewed like the tree of an outline on paper, or the branching of nerves through the body. The image is one of top to bottom: headings breaking down into subsets, messages splitting down to the feet from the brain. Now turn the image towards you on its side; that is, look down at the body from the head, from a bird's eye view. This lends the dimension of depth: we have gone deep down along the nerves, and now we have reached the inner end. We have scoured the length of Asian literature, in this case Buddhist texts, and examined what a particular philosophical concept is, from every angle. In the tradition of Buddhist literature, one step still remains. Life is precious short, and no philosophical concept merits the time it takes us to examine it unless it holds some potential to affect us in a profoundly beneficial way. Supposing that seeing ourselves as some independent "me" or "mine" does in truth cause us every pain we've ever felt, we have a vested interest in learning to stop it. Here first we find a short selection, from Chim Jampey Yang, on the benefits of eliminating the view from our minds: Eliminating the view of the perishable assemblage is the one doorway to eliminating every other undesirable thing, for it is eliminated by seeing [the nature of] the truth of suffering. [S6954, f. 295A] "Seeing" here refers to a deep state of concentration in which one perceives directly the general fact that nothing can exist inherently, independent of names and concepts we ourselves formulate. Along with this realization comes a true recognition that every normal experience we undergo is nothing more than pure suffering. At this moment we have overcome much of the perishable view, and by recognizing the truth about the suffering of our lives we have in a sense begun to escape it; we are on the way out. This stage in Buddhism is known as "entering the stream," and a classic description of it appears in the Sutra Requested by Mahanama, as quoted by Chim Jampey Yang: "Reverend One, what is the point at which one has entered the stream?" And the reply came: "Mahanama, one has entered the stream when he has fully given up, when he has fully recognized, all three of the bonds: the view of the perishable assemblage, holding that one's mistaken morality and asceticisms are the best, and doubt." [S6954, f. 294A] Another sutra, Vimalakirti's, relates a string of sheer impossibles t