Buddhist Thought guides the reader toward an understanding and appreciation of the central concepts of classical Indian Buddhist thought, tracing their development from the time of Buddha to the latest scholarly perspectives and controversies. Of particular interest here is the accessible and up-to-date survey of Buddhist Tantra in India.
A detailed bibliography completes a comprehensive, authoritative and engaging introduction to one of the world's great philosophies.


Buddhist Thought, Paul Williams, RoutledgeCurzon, Paperback, 320 pages, $19.95

D. Phil (Buddhist Philosophy), Oriental Institute and Wadham College, University of Oxford (1978)
Most of his work has been on Madhyamaka Buddhist philosophy, a school of Buddhism which developed in India probably initially during the first century C.E. and had a wide influence on Buddhist thought throughout India, Tibet and East Asia. In particular this tradition was often taken in Tibet as the final philosophical position of Buddhism, and it has been studied as such by Tibetans to the present day. He has also worked on the Tibetan assimilation and scholastic extension of Madhyamaka ideas, notably the complex understanding developed by a sub-school known as Prasangika Madhyamaka. More recently he has become particularly interested in ethics, -and is planning a book on Virtue Ethics and the principles of bodhisattva conduct - and also medieval Western philosophical and mystical theology.

	Contents: Buddhist Thought: A Complete Introduction to the Indian Tradition
	Preface	ix
	Acknowledgements	xii
1	The doctrinal position of the Buddha in context	1
	Preliminaries	1
	The Brahmanical doctrinal background	6
	How to read the life-story (hagiography) of the Buddha	21
	Do we really know anything of what the Buddha taught?	30
	The Buddha's attitude to his teaching: the arrow and the raft	34
2	Mainstream Buddhism: the basic thought of the Buddha	41
	The four Noble Truths	41
	Not-Self (anatman, Pali anatta)	56
	Dependent origination	62
	A further note on karman	72
	The universe of the Buddha	74
	Buddhist meditation - the theoretical framework	81
	Abhidharma (Pali: Abhidamma)	87
3	The nature and origins of Mahayana Buddhism	96
4	Some schools of Mainstream Buddhist thought	112
	Sarvastivada / Vaibhasika	112
	Sautrantika	118
	Theravada	122
	Pudgalavada	124
	Mahasamghikas	128
5	Mahayana philosophy	131
	The Perfection of Wisdom (Prajnaparamita)	131
	Madhyamaka	140
	Yogacara	152
	The Buddha-nature (tathagatagarbha) in India	160
6	The Buddha in Mahayana Buddhism	167
	Some further sutras	167
	The Buddha's multiple 'bodies' (kaya)	172
	How to become a Buddha	176
	Buddha and Bodhisattva cults in Inian Mahayana	181
7	Mantrayana / Vajrayana- tantric Buddhism in India	192
	Introduction	192
	Tantric texts: classification and characteristics	202
	Vajrayana - how distinct a way	217
	Elements of practice	223
	Access to tantric practice; initiation and empowerment	231
	Impure substances and antinomian acts: the transgressive dimension of tantric Buddhsim	235
	Tantric practitioners	238
	Origins and influences	242
	Notes	245
	Bibliography of works cited	277
	Primary sources	277
	Secondary sources	300
	Index	315