Representing the culmination of Dr. Kalupahana's thirty years of scholarly research and reflection, "A History of Buddhism" provides a complete, detailed analysis of both early and later Buddhism.
Part 1 is devoted to early Buddhism, opening with a thorough examination of pre-Buddhist thought and its absolutist character, followed by a biographical sketch of Siddartha, the historical Buddha. Each of the following nine chapters examines a major theme in Buddhist discourse: knowledge and understanding, experience and theory, language and communication, freedom and happiness, human personality, human suffering, the object, the moral life, and popular religious thought.
Part 2 examines later Buddhism by mapping its continuities with and divergences from early Buddhist doctrine. Dr. Kalupahana illustrates the movement of some schools toward substantialism and absolutism while other schools made a persistent attempt to retain the original teachings of the Buddha.
History of Buddhist Philosophy, David Kalupahana, Hawaii Press, Paperback, 304 pages, $19.00
David J. Kalupahana, Ph.D., is one of the most famous writers of Buddhism in the English language. Dr. Kalupahana has written nine books, more than thirty articles and contributed thirty-five minor articles and entries in the Encyclopedia of Buddhism.
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Contents: A History of Buddhist Philosophy: Continuities
and Discontinuities |
|
|
Introduction |
ix |
|
Abbreviations |
xv |
|
Part One: Early Buddhism |
|
I |
Indian Philosophy and the Search for the Ultimate Objectivity |
3 |
II |
Life of the Buddha |
22 |
III |
Knowledge and Understanding |
30 |
IV |
Experience and Theory (Paticcasamutpapana and Paticcasamuppada) |
53 |
|
Language and Communication |
60 |
VI
|
The Human Personality |
68 |
VII |
The Object |
78 |
VIII |
The Problem of Suffering |
85 |
IX |
freedom and Happiness |
90 |
X |
The Moral Life |
101 |
XI |
Popular Religiouds Thought |
110 |
|
Part Two: Continuities and Discontinuities |
|
XII |
The Emrgence of Absolutism |
121 |
XIII |
Moggaliputa-tissa and the Kathavatthu |
132 |
XIV |
Abhidhamma |
144 |
|
XV
|
The Perfection of Wisdom in the Vajracchedika |
153 |
XVI |
Nagarjuna and the Mulamadhymakakarika |
160 |
XVII |
The Saddharmapundarika-sutra and Conceptual Absolutism |
170 |
XVIII |
The Lankavatara-sutra and the
Great Emptinss (Maha-sunyata) |
176 |
XIX |
Vasubandhu and the Vijnaptimatratasiddhi |
184 |
XX |
Dignaga's Epistemology and Logic |
194 |
XXI |
Buddhaghosa, the Harmonizer |
206 |
XXII |
Tantras and Parittas: The Voiceful Tradition |
217 |
XXIII |
Silent Meditation and Ch'an (Zen): The Voiceless Tradition |
228 |
|
Epilogue: Philosophy and History |
237 |
|
Appendix: History of the Lankavatara |
241 |
|
Notes |
247 |
|
Select Bibliography |
269 |
|
Index |
283 |
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