Survey of Buddhist Thought

Contents Preface. Introduction. I. Buddhism in India 1. The Buddha and his teaching. 2. Early history. 3. Abhidharma. 4. Sautrantikas. 5. Mahayana. 6. Madhyamaka. 7. Idealism. II. Buddhism in China 8. The assimilation of Taoism. 9. Later Buddhist developments. 10. Three schools. III. Buddhism in Japan 11. The character of Japanese Buddhism. 12. Buddhist sects. 13. Zen Buddhism. Notes. Bibliography. Index. General in its approach yet penetrating this book acquaints the reader with the highlights of Buddhist philosophy. It not only treats the ideas of the founder of the religion but follows the development of his thought through the ages. It points out how these ideas were used by the psychologists of the Abhidharma how they issued in the mystical conceptions of Mahayana. But before all it treats the more intellectual conceptions of the Madhyamaka and the logic of Buddhist idealism. Then the reader leaves India and goes to China to become familiar with the epochal figures of Sengzhao and Xuanzang learns something about the Garland and Tiantai schools and finally he is led through the Japanese Zen Buddhism of Dogen and Hakuin. Is there any other book that offers a like broad view in so little space. 312 pp.