Rupert Gethin

Buddhist systematic thought as formulated in the Abhidharma literature of different Buddhist schools schools constitutes one of the most sustained attempts in the history of human thought to analyse the workings of the mind, yet it remains relatively unexplored in the modern scholarly literature. While there are specialist studies of various aspects, there is no published study that considers the development of Abhidharma more generally. Using sources in Sanskrit, Pali and Chinese (many of which have never been translated into a European language), my study will for the first time consider the development of the Abhidharma of the Theravada, Sarvastivada, and Yogacara schools from a comparative perspective.