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Discusses an essential Tibetan Buddhist work that shows how Noble Beings progress toward enlightenment.
James B. Apple examines one of the formative subjects in traditional Buddhist studies, the Twenty Varieties of the Saṃgha. The Saṃgha (community) is one of the Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma, Saṃgha) universally revered by all Buddhists. While the Saṃgha is generally understood as the community of Buddhist ordained monks and nuns, along with lay adherents, the Twenty Varieties of the Saṃgha concerns an exemplary community of the twenty types of Noble Beings (ārya-pudgala) who embody the Buddha's teachings. Focusing on the interpretation of the Saṃgha 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.
"Dealing with an interesting and understudied topic, Apple displays a thorough mastery of the Saṃgha in the Abhisamayālamkāra and its surrounding literature." — Roger R. Jackson, translator of Tantric Treasures: Three Collections of Mystical Verse from Buddhist India
List of Figures and Tables
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
1. The Topic of the Twenty Saṃgha
Methodological Considerations
Tsong kha pa’s Hermeneutical Strategy
Hermeneutical Strategies in Approaching the Twenty Saṃgha
2. Tsong kha pa and the Abhisamayālamkāra Commentarial Tradition
Indian Predecessors in the Abhisamayālamkāra Tradition
Tsong kha pa’s Tibetan Predecessors in the Abhisamayālamkāra Tradition
The Abhisamayālamkāra and Twenty Saṃgha in Tsong kha pa’s Life and Works
Summary
3. Contextual and Doctrinal Presumptions
Locating the Twenty Saṃgha in the Abhisamayālamkāra
Saṃgha in Early Buddhism and in the Abhisamayālamkāra
Avaivartika-Saṃgha as Refuge in the Abhisamayālamkāra
Path and Yogic Systems of the Abhisamayālamkāra
Cosmological Factors
Summary
4. Analysis of the Twenty Saṃgha
An Introduction to the Topic from the Root Texts
The Allegorical Saṃgha of Śrāvakas
5. An Assembly of Irreversible Bodhisattvas
The Actual Saṃgha of Bodhisattvas
Enumerating Bodhisattvas in the Prajñāpāramitā
Relationship between the Actual Saṃgha and the Allegorical Saṃgha
Conclusion
Notes
Glossary
References
Index