Sudden/Gradual Approaches to Enlightenment in Indian Mahayana Buddhism with Reference to Abhisamayalamkaraloka of Haribhadra

Chapter I Methodological considerations 1. A Critical evaluation of Buddhist Studies in the West 2. Buddhist hermeneutics: language, vocabulary and models of interpretation 3. The Problem of Mahayana Schools and the quest for the ultimate truth 4. Proposal for an alternative methodology Chapter II Background of the gradual meditative path Chapter III Yogacara marga: a brief analysis of the concept of bhumi Chapter IV Synthesis of the Prajnaparamita philosophy in the Abhisamayalamkaraloka of Haribhadra Bibliography Primary sources Secondary sources Abstract The problem of sudden versus gradual realization accompanies Buddhist speculation on the process and nature of enlightenment from its inception. One of the earliest Pali texts to deal with meditation techniques in a systematic way, Patisambhidamagga, mirrors already this debate within the sangha. Later, in the scholastic developments of Abhidharma, there is a move in the direction of seeing both the sudden and the gradual attainments as stages on the same path rather than as divergent and conflicting ways. This integrative tendency becomes more evident with the emergence of the Mahayana form of Buddhism, whose soteriology is almost entirely centered on the notion of realization (abhisamaya). The first text to give an individual treatment of the different stages of realization is Abhisamayalamkara, attributed traditionally to Maitreyanatha (of uncertain date). Abhisamayalamkara marks the beginning of a new genre of literature in Indian Mahayana Buddhism that will be concerned solely with the dynamics of enlightenment. This relatively vast and highly technical literature has received little or no attention from modem Buddhist scholars, largely due to its mystical character. The tendency has been to either dismiss it as fantastic and illogical or to ignore it as irrelevant to modern philosophical issues. The Abhisamaya literature is however of great importance for at least two reasons: first, it enable us to see 1