ABSTRACT
The term citta-mātra, often translated as “mind only,” plays an important role in Indian and extra-Indian Buddhist history. In the thought of the Indian Madhyamaka,2 for example, citta-mātra is typically understood to represent the view that while external objects have no self-nature (svabhāva) and thus do not truly exist, the mind (understood as consciousness, vijñāna)3 does have a self-nature and does truly exist.4 According to this “idealistic” understanding, then, this substantial mind is the source of the entire external world.5 This position represents, so it is argued, an intermediate stage between the “Hīnayāna” Abhidharma, wherein both external phenomena and the mind truly exist, and the highest position of the Madhyamaka where both external phenomena and the mind are seen to be empty (śūnya) of self-nature (svabhāva). Tibetan tradition tends to accept this “idealistic” interpretation of citta-mātra (Tibetan: sems tsam), such that the term designates, according to the Tibetan view, one of the four main doctrinal schools of Indian Buddhism which include the Sautrāntika, Citta-mātra, and Madhyamaka. In this scheme, the Citta-mātra is, again, defined as postulating a svabhāva to the citta or “mind” and seeing the entire world as a projection of citta, a position that is understood to be transcended by the Madhyamaka.6
