This volume brings together Paul Williamss previously published papers on the Indian and Tibetan interpretations of selected verses from the eigth and ninth chapters of the Bodhicaryavatara. In addition, there is a much longer version of the paper Identifying the object of negation, and a wholly new essay, The Absence of Self and removal of pain., subtitled How Santideva destroyed the Bodhisattva path. In this paper Williams seeks to engage in a critical way with some central issues of Buddhist thought relating to the coherence of a reductionist model of the person. He argues for an irreducible subject-involvment of pain statements and suggests that given an approach to the person explicitly avowed in the Bodhicaryavatara it becomes impossible to make sense of subject-involvment, and thus of the removal of pain which is central to the path of buddhahood. Paul Williams approaches selected verses from the Bodhicaryavatara in light of all extant Indian commentaries available as well as many indigenous Tibetan traditions. He is thus able to indicate varieties and shifting patterns of interpretation and influence, showing how the bodhicaryavatara comes to be used by the different tibetan traditions according to their overall religious and philosophical agendas. This book will be of interest to those concerned with the history and interpretation of Indian and Tibetan philosophy, particularly Madhyamaka, the detailed study of the text of the Bodhiscaryavatara, and also those whose interest is primarily with the philosophical issues relating to the person, the philosophy of rebirth, and to the relationship between ethics and Madhyamaka ontology.

Studies in the Philosophy of the Bodhicaryavatara, Williams Paul, Oxford University Press, 272 pages, Hardcover, $15.00

Paul Williams (b. 1950) is Emeritus Professor of Indian and Tibetan Philosophy at the University of Bristol, England. Until his retirement in 2011 he was also director for the University's Center for Buddhist Studies, and is a former President of the UK Association for Buddhist Studies.

Preface	ix
Acknowledgments	xii
1. On Prakrtinirvana in the Bodhicaryavatara	1
2. On Altruism and Rebirth	29
3. An Argument for Cittamatra	52
4. Identifying The Object of Negation	64
5. The Absence of Self and the removal of Pain	104
Notes	177
Bibliography	211
Index	258