Paving the Great Way: Vasubandhu's Unifying Buddhist Philosophy

by Jonathan C. Gold

The Indian Buddhist philosopher Vasubandhu (fourth-fifth century C.E.) is known for his critical contribution to Buddhist Abhidharma thought, his turn to the Mahayana tradition, and his concise, influential Yogacara-Vij�anavada texts. Paving the Great Way reveals another dimension of his legacy: his integration of several seemingly incompatible intellectual and scriptural traditions, with far-ranging consequences for the development of Buddhist epistemology and the theorization of tantra.

Most scholars read Vasubandhu's texts in isolation and separate his intellectual development into distinct phases. Featuring close studies of Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakosabhasya, Vyakhyayukti, Vimsatika, and Trisvabhavanirdesa, among other works, this book identifies recurrent treatments of causality and scriptural interpretation that unify distinct strands of thought under a single, coherent Buddhist philosophy. In Vasubandhu's hands, the Buddha's rejection of the self as a false construction provides a framework through which to clarify problematic philosophical issues, such as the nature of moral agency and subjectivity under a broadly causal worldview. Recognizing this continuity of purpose across Vasubandhu's diverse corpus recasts the interests of the philosopher and his truly innovative vision, which influenced Buddhist thought for a millennium and continues to resonate with today's philosophical issues. An appendix includes extensive English-language translations of the major texts discussed.

Genres: Buddhism, Philosophy

336 pages, Hardcover

First published November 11, 2014

Reviews

[Jessica Zu · Rating 5 out of 5]

a delightful book for slow-reading ONLY. If you skim, you will miss all. However, I know today reading really means skimming. So here's a list of key words to help skimmers: momentariness, unitary causal line, manipulationist view of causality (well, I have some issues with this point), volition (cetana, samkara), the duality of the grasper and the grasped, and of course nonduality and emptiness.
This book is so far the most insightful book I have ever read (and I read a lot).
Highly recommend it to anyone, not just those interested in Buddhism but all who are interested in questions about agency, science, possibilities of social change ... or well, it also explains why I get into humanities and aspire to be teaching these stuff.
I love Butler's performativity, but I think if she reads this book she'll also learn a thing or two about performativity.

[Spencer Knafelc · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-written and insightful, but I was hoping for more of an introductory text to Abhidharma and Mahayana thought and Vasubandhu's role in their development and less of a text that defends a thesis about the coherence of Vasubandhu as a thinker. The book often reads as if it's aimed at a particular academic audience, and I find it reasonable to hope that a text such as this would be welcoming to many who are simply interested in deepening their knowledge of Buddhism. As someone who is largely ignorant about Buddhism, this was not the text for me.