The Essentials Of Buddhist Philosophy

This book deals with the various schools of Buddhist philosophy and is based on the first hand and deep study and understanding of the learned writer scholar. The author has chosen to describe and discuss the various schools of Buddhist thought in Japan since it is only there that these are alive and fully preserved. This volume, grew our of a series of lectures delivered by Professor Takakusu at the University of Hawaii, covers the entire gamut of Buddhist thought included in the doctrines of both Hinayana and Mahayana schools. In the fifteen chapters, Professor Takakusu has discussed in detail the development of Buddhist thought besides an introduction, Indian background and the fundamental principles of Buddhist philosophy. He has mainly elaborated the subject matter in an ideological rather than the historical sequence and give a brilliant resume of different schools of Buddhism. In the concluding chapter, the metaphysical and dialectical questions of Buddhism have been discussed besides the general problems of philosophy and special doctrines. This outstanding work fulfils the task as an important technical secondary literature on the subject and would be extremely useful both for the scholar and interested lay reader.