Stairway to nirvāṇa : a study of the twenty saṃghas based on the works of Tsong kha pa / James B. Apple.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Apple, James B.

Contributor:

Anne and Joseph Trachtman Memorial Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Tsong-kha-pa Blo-bzang-grags-pa, 1357-1419.

Tsong-kha-pa Blo-bzang-grags-pa.

Abhisamayālaṅkāra.

Dge-lugs-pa (Sect)--Doctrines.

Dge-lugs-pa (Sect).

Abhisamayālaṅkāra--Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Spiritual life--Mahayana Buddhism.

Spiritual life.

Mahayana Buddhism.

Physical Description:

xii, 275 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, [2008]

Summary:

James B. Apple examines one of the formative subjects in traditional Buddhist studies, the Twenty Varieties of the Samgha. The Samgha (community) is one of the Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma, Samgha) universally revered by all Buddhists. While the Samgha is generally understood as the community of Buddhist ordained monks and nuns, along with lay adherents, the Twenty Varieties of the Samgha concerns an exemplary community of the twenty types of Noble Beings (arya-pudgala) who embody the Buddha's teachings. Focusing on the interpretation of the Samgha given by the fourteenth-century Tibetan scholar Tsong kha pa, Apple provides a comprehensive typology and analysis of the stages through which Noble Beings pass in their progress toward enlightenment through multiple lifetimes in various cosmological realms. He explains the cosmographic formations and complex structures of Buddhist spiritual cultivation, illustrating how Tibetan and Indian Buddhists conceptualize all possible states on the path to enlightenment.

Contents:

1 The Topic of the Twenty Samghas 1

Methodological Considerations 4

Tsong kha pa's Hermeneutical Strategy 10

Hermeneutical Strategies in Approaching the Twenty Samghas 12

2 Tsong kha pa and the Abhisamayalamkara Commentarial Tradition 21

Indian Predecessors in the Abhisamayalamkara Tradition 23

Tsong kha pa's Tibetan Predecessors in the Abhisamayalamkara Tradition 31

The Abhisamayalamkara and Twenty Samghas in Tsong kha pa's Life and Works 36

3 Contextual and Doctrinal Presumptions 47

Locating the Twenty Samghas in the Abhisamayalamkara 47

Samgha in Early Buddhism and in the Abhisamayalamkara 62

Avaivartika-Samgha as Refuge in the Abhisamayalamkara 65

Path and Yogic Systems of the Abhisamayalamkara 66

Cosmological Factors 88

4 Analysis of the Twenty Samghas 93

An Introduction to the Topic from the Root Texts 93

The Allegorical Samgha of Sravakas 98

5 An Assembly of Irreversible Bodhisattvas 149

The Actual Samgha of Bodhisattvas 149

Enumerating Bodhisattvas in the Prajnaparamita 151

Relationship between the Actual Samgha and the Allegorical Samgha 171.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 237-254) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Anne and Joseph Trachtman Memorial Book Fund.

ISBN:

9780791473757

0791473759

OCLC:

123818288