| Summary: | This dissertation offers a philosophical consideration of the concept of the path in the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist commentarial tradition of the Ornament of Realizations (Abhisamayālaṅkāra). The Ornament of Realizations is par excellence the treatise of the path for late Indian Buddhism, investigating it in a totalizing way, by dealing both with the final end of the path (Buddhahood), as well as with the way to attain that final state. This study is intended to uncover the conditions of possibility of such a path, i.e., the process of the personal transformation that leads a practitioner from the ordinary condition of a human being to the perfect condition of Buddhahood. The dissertation demonstrates that the various elements, dispositions, metaphysical, ontological, and soteriological factors that render the path possible are the objects of a rational discourse, as evinced in the philosophical debates of Indian and Tibetan scholars presented here. These factors appear as an opportunity for the commentators to elaborate a philosophical anthropology that sets forth different dimensions of the human being. It is a dynamic anthropology, since the status and nature of the practitioner evolves along the path, and it is mainly informed by a specific gnoseology, namely the theory of knowledge or gnosis, that distinguishes the positions of practitioners on the path. In other words, the path is the process of production of noble persons (arya-pudgala), in which cognitive development plays a central role.
This explains why the Ornament appears less as a manual of practice than as a sort of a scholastic summa synthesizing the totality of Buddhist doctrine under the category of path. The second chapter of the dissertation takes seriously into account this scholastic dimension by providing an analysis of the structure of the Ornament, which has represented a real problem for Buddhist Studies, both for traditional scholars and for modern scholarship.
Chapters 3 to 6 examine two specific moments of the path, traditionally known as the Path of Preparation (prayoga-marga) and the Path of Vision (darsana-marga), in order to investigate how the Ornament's commentators discuss the transformation of the practitioner on the path. Following the treatment of these moments of the path in different chapters of the Ornament allows us to see how the scholastic discourse on the path engages several different philosophical domains (epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics). Each of these moments of the path is first presented through the lens of the Indian commentator Haribhadra (c. 735-810), sometimes supplemented by the commentaries of his Indian successors (Dharmamitra and Dharmakirtisri). We then examine how one set of issues, left unresolved by Indian commentators, is debated among Tibetan commentators: first the types of cognition that arise on the Path of Preparation, and then the number of moments that make up the Path of Vision. The dissertation thus provides a partial intellectual history of the issues discussed within the corpus of the Ornament. The Tibetan commentators whose contributions are presented are Ar byang chub ye shes (fl. c. 11th-12th), G.nyal zhig pa 'jam pa'i rdo rje (fl. c. 12th), Dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan (1292-1361), Nya dbon kun dga' dpal (1285-1379), Red mda' ba gzhon nu blo gros (1349-1412), G.yag ston sangs rgyas dpal (1349-1414), and Tsong kha pa blo bzang grags pa (1357-1419).
Chapter 7 opens up the discussion to non-Buddhist conceptions of the path. First, Indian non-Buddhist conceptions are examined with Kumarila (fl. c. 600-650), who stands for the representative of the Mimam&dotbelow;sa conception of a path, and Sankara together with his disciple Suresvara (both fl. c. 8th), who represent the Advaita Vedanta conception. The argument moves on to the Christian conception of the path as it appears in the writings of Augustine of Hippo (354-430). This comparative approach allows us to conclude on a more general philosophical note, arguing for the significance of the concept of the path for both religious studies and philosophy.
|
|---|
