Stairway to Nirvana : A Study of the Twenty Samghas Based on the Works of Tsong kha pa

Discusses an essential Tibetan Buddhist work that shows how Noble Beings progress toward enlightenment.

James B. Apple examines one of the formative subjects in traditional Buddhist studies, the Twenty Varieties of the Sa?gha. The Sa?gha (community) is one of the Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma, Sa?gha) universally revered by all Buddhists. While the Sa?gha is generally understood as the community of Buddhist ordained monks and nuns, along with lay adherents, the Twenty Varieties of the Sa?gha 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 Sa?gha 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.