Disputed Dharmas: Early Buddhist Theories on Existence

The book is divided into three main parts: Part I, Historical Introduction, introduces Abhidharma as a major scholastic genre that organized, analyzed, and philosophically developed Buddhist doctrine. It discusses the character and function of Abhidharma, the formation of sectarian Buddhism, the Sarvāstivādins, the Dārṣṭāntikas and Sautrāntikas, and the relationship between Vasubandhu and Saṅghabhadra. Part II, Introductory Commentaries, provides doctrinal studies of the “conditioned forces dissociated from thought,” including possession and non-possession, homogeneous character, the two states of equipoise, vitality, the four characteristics of conditioned factors, and the theory of name, phrase, and syllable. Part III, Translation, presents an annotated translation of the relevant section of Saṅghabhadra’s Nyāyānusāra, with critical apparatus and detailed notes, followed by Chinese characters, bibliography, and index.