Being as Becoming: Studies in Early Buddhism

This work presents early Buddhism as a systematic inquiry into the nature of human existence, suffering, causality, and liberation. The author begins from the existential problem that human beings live within a world of impermanence, anxiety, frustration, and death, yet continuously seek permanence, meaning, and freedom. In this context, the Buddha’s teaching is interpreted as a radical shift away from speculative metaphysics and ritual religiosity toward direct insight into the conditioned structure of life. The title Being as Becoming expresses the core philosophical orientation of the book: what appears to be stable being is actually a process of conditioned becoming, shaped by ignorance, craving, karma, and the five aggregates. The early chapters frame the Buddha’s life as a religious and philosophical turning point. His renunciation, awakening, teaching career, and final passing are presented not only as events in a sacred biography but also as the foundation for a new understanding of existence. The book then moves into the central doctrines of early Buddhism, showing how dukkha, impermanence, non-self, dependent origination, and nirvāṇa form an integrated doctrinal architecture. The Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path are treated as the diagnostic and therapeutic framework of Buddhism: suffering is identified, its cause is traced to craving and ignorance, its cessation is affirmed, and the path of ethical conduct, meditation, and wisdom is prescribed. A substantial part of the study is devoted to the analysis of karma, saṃsāra, and the constituents of being. The author examines how Buddhism explains continuity without positing an eternal soul, and how rebirth, moral responsibility, and liberation can be understood through causal continuity rather than metaphysical substance. The discussion of nirvāṇa presents it as the unconditioned, the cessation of craving and becoming, and the final release from the cycle of conditioned existence. The later chapters broaden the study by engaging Abhidhamma analysis, the theory of puggala, Buddhist canonical literature, and the formation of early Buddhist schools and sects. The appendices on dependent origination and the early Buddhist councils further reinforce the historical and doctrinal scope of the work. Overall, the book is a substantial academic contribution to early Buddhist studies, combining textual interpretation, philosophical analysis, and doctrinal systematization.