Stairway to Nirvāna

James B. Apple is University Lecturer in the Interdisciplinary Religious Studies Program at the University of Alberta.

• List of Figures and TablesAcknowledgmentsAbbreviations1. The Topic of the Twenty SaṃghaMethodological ConsiderationsTsong kha pa’s Hermeneutical StrategyHermeneutical Strategies in Approaching the Twenty Saṃgha2. Tsong kha pa and the Abhisamayālamkāra Commentarial Tradition Indian Predecessors in the Abhisamayālamkāra TraditionTsong kha pa’s Tibetan Predecessors in the Abhisamayālamkāra TraditionThe Abhisamayālamkāra and Twenty Saṃgha in Tsong kha pa’s Life and WorksSummary3. Contextual and Doctrinal PresumptionsLocating the Twenty Saṃgha in the AbhisamayālamkāraSaṃgha in Early Buddhism and in the AbhisamayālamkāraAvaivartika-Saṃgha as Refuge in the AbhisamayālamkāraPath and Yogic Systems of the AbhisamayālamkāraCosmological FactorsSummary4. Analysis of the Twenty SaṃghaAn Introduction to the Topic from the Root TextsThe Allegorical Saṃgha of Śrāvakas5. An Assembly of Irreversible BodhisattvasThe Actual Saṃgha of BodhisattvasEnumerating Bodhisattvas in the PrajñāpāramitāRelationship between the Actual Saṃgha and the Allegorical SaṃghaConclusionNotesGlossaryReferencesIndex

"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