Buddha-nature, Mind, and the Problem of Gradualism in a Comparative Perspective

BUDDHA-NATURE, MIND AND THE PROBLEM OF GRADUALISM IN A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE ABOUT THE AUTHOR Extensive typological and structural studies in Indian religions and philosophies, or in the traditions of Buddhism, have been few. Little attention has been given to the problems in intercultural transmission raised by the spread of Indian thought and civilization northwards and eastwards, and even less to discovering comparable elements in the different Indian religious and philosophical traditions. In this book the author investigates a pair of themes in Buddhist thought by considering, in historical and comparative outline, their treatment in some traditions of Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. He refers also to parallels in non-Buddhist Indian thought and in Chinese Buddhism. The two themes are 'nature' and 'nurture' in the twin realms of soteriology and gnoseology. ABOUT THE AUTHOR David Seyfort Ruegg is Professor of Tibetan and Tibetan Studies at the University of Hamburg.