James B. Apple examines one of the formative subjects in traditional Buddhist studies, the Twenty Varieties of the Samgha. The Samgha (community) is one of the Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma, Samgha) universally revered by all Buddhists. While the Samgha is generally understood as the community of Buddhist ordained monks and nuns, along with lay adherents, the Twenty Varieties of the Samgha concerns an exemplary community of the twenty types of Noble Beings (arya-pudgala) who embody the Buddha�s teachings. Focusing on the interpretation of the Samgha 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.

Stairway to Nirvana: A Study of the Twenty Samghas Based on the Works of Tsong kha pa, James B. Apple, Hardcover, Suny Press, 2008, 275 Pages, $75.00

James B. Apple is University Lecturer in the Interdisciplinary Religious Studies Program at the University of Alberta.

List of Figures and Tables
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations

1. The Topic of the Twenty Samghas

Methodological Considerations
Tsong kha pa�s Hermeneutical Strategy
Hermeneutical Strategies in Approaching the Twenty Samghas

2. Tsong kha pa and the Abhisamayalamkara Commentarial Tradition

Indian Predecessors in the Abhisamayalamkara Tradition
Tsong kha pa�s Tibetan Predecessors in the Abhisamayalamkara Tradition
The Abhisamayalamkara and Twenty Samghas in Tsong kha pa�s Life and Works
Summary

3. Contextual and Doctrinal Presumptions

Locating the Twenty Samghas in the Abhisamayalamkara
Samgha in Early Buddhism and in the Abhisamayalamkara
Avaivartika-Samgha as Refuge in the Abhisamayalamkara
Path and Yogic Systems of the Abhisamayalamkara
Cosmological Factors
Summary

4. Analysis of the Twenty Samghas

An Introduction to the Topic from the Root Texts
The Allegorical Samgha of Sravakas

5. An Assembly of Irreversible Bodhisattvas

The Actual Samgha of Bodhisattvas
Enumerating Bodhisattvas in the Praj�aparamita
Relationship between the Actual Samgha and the Allegorical Samgha

Conclusion
Notes
Glossary
References
Index