The Problem of Systematization of Buddhist Teachings and Practices and Gradual Approach

Abstract

The article formulates the thesis about the insufficiency of approaches from the standpoint of the history of philosophy for understanding the systemic whole of Buddhist teachings and practices, in particular, due to their tendency to isolate Buddhist philosophy in its “pure form” from the polymorphic whole of the Buddha’s Teachings in the likeness of Western philosophy, and also because of Eurocentric stereotypes. The illegitimacy of the philosophical opposition between the «gradual» Path of the Sūtras and the «swift» Path of the Tantras is affirmed. An approach to the gradual systematization of the Buddha's Dharma is proposed in the relationship of its theoretical and practical aspects, based on Indo-Tibetan texts and the oral commentary tradition, with the recognition of the fundamental importance of the classical Indian schemes for the gradual systematization of Dharma, contained in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, Madhyamaka texts (Nāgārjuna, Āryadeva, Chandrakirti), Maitreya/Asanga's «Abhisamayalamkara», Asanga's writings on the bhūmī, Śantideva's «Bodhicharyāvatāra», Atisha's «Lamp», as well as in the texts of Lamrim by Je Tsongkapa and other authors. It is concluded that the gradual systematization of the Buddha Dharma, revealed within the Indo-Tibetan Mahāyāna, has a universal character.