Afterword¶

The book began as one book and ended as the first of three. While I was writing a history of philosophy, two kinds of question kept exceeding the limits of the genre. One asked whether the teachings had delivered what they promised, and the other asked how they had come to be what they were. The first required an assessment of efficacy, and the second required an inquiry into origins. Neither would fit into a history of philosophy that sought to be fair. Forcing them in would destroy the balance of the account. The work was therefore divided into three volumes. Volume 1 asks what Buddhism said. Volume 2, A Critique of Buddhist Soteriology, asks what it delivered. Volume 3, A History of Buddhist Transformations, asks what it became. The three questions were always three aspects of one question.

Dividing the volumes divides the work. Volume 1 is a map that tries to chart each school's terrain accurately in its own terms while withholding judgment. Volume 2 inspects what was delivered, testing each school against the criterion of the cessation of suffering. Volume 3 is an archive of transformations, tracing how the ideas were manufactured, declared at customs, modified, and transported over twenty-five centuries. Readers who find passages in Volume 1 that state a position without evaluating it should take those passages as markers. Their evaluation belongs to Volume 2, and their origins belong to Volume 3. Each volume forms a book of its own, while leaving openings to the others.

There is more than one way to read the work. Reading in order takes the reader from the map to the inspection and then to the archive. Beginning with the stories in Volume 3 and returning to consult the map in Volume 1 is also possible. Cross-references give volume, essay, and chapter numbers.

The Preface cited Weber to explain that the book has a position and cannot avoid having one. With all three volumes written, the position can now be stated more fully. The book expresses its respect for Buddhism by treating it as something substantial enough to withstand honest examination. Before making the strongest criticism, it presents the strongest version of the opposing position. Every conjecture that goes beyond the evidence is marked as conjecture. The conclusion to Volume 3 asks readers to discount the volume by half. The same request applies to all three volumes.

The three volumes were written in succession. During the work, AI tools performed much of the labor of searching, drafting, and applying conventions. Responsibility for selecting material, directing the arguments, and making every judgment rests with the author.

I will end by stating the original motive. There was only one thing I wanted to understand. What did a tradition devoted to the cessation of suffering say, what did it deliver, and what did it become? All three answers have been handed in, and readers will judge them.

The end of the Afterword is reserved for three expressions of thanks. I thank Bhikkhu Bodhi, whose translations account for most of the English Nikāya passages cited in the book. I have learned from him only through books and the internet, but the benefit has been considerable. I am grateful for the lectures from Fayu Daochang, which also reached me online and from which I likewise benefited. My greatest debt follows those two expressions of thanks. I offer my most heartfelt thanks to the teacher who lived twenty-five centuries ago. He said that the Tathāgata has no teacher's closed fist in regard to the Dhamma, holding nothing back as a secret teaching. From beginning to end, the book has benefited from the teacher's statement.