Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Stairway to Nirvāna: A Study of the Twenty Saṃghas Based on the Works of Tsong kha pa

Stairway to Nirvāna: A Study of the Twenty Saṃghas Based on the Works of Tsong kha pa

Apple, James B.

Paperback

BuddhismGeneral Eastern Religions

ISBN10: 0791473767
ISBN13: 9780791473764
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: Jan 8 2009
Pages: 287
Weight: 0.88
Height: 0.70 Width: 5.90 Depth: 8.70
Language: English

Discusses an essential Tibetan Buddhist work that shows how Noble Beings progress toward enlightenment.

James B. Apple examines one of the formative subjects in traditional Buddhist studies, the Twenty Varieties of the Saṃgha. The Saṃgha (community) is one of the Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma, Saṃgha) universally revered by all Buddhists. While the Saṃgha is generally understood as the community of Buddhist ordained monks and nuns, along with lay adherents, the Twenty Varieties of the Saṃgha concerns an exemplary community of the twenty types of Noble Beings (ārya-pudgala) who embody the Buddha's teachings. Focusing on the interpretation of the Saṃgha given by the fourteenth-century Tibetan scholar Tsong kha pa, Apple provides a comprehensive typology and analysis of the stages through which Noble Beings pass in their progress toward enlightenment through multiple lifetimes in various cosmological realms. He explains the cosmographic formations and complex structures of Buddhist spiritual cultivation, illustrating how Tibetan and Indian Buddhists conceptualize all possible states on the path to enlightenment.

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