Chapter 5 - Derivative Accounts of the Path

Summary

This chapter examines various alternative accounts of the path of practice that derive from either the long, eighteen-stage or the shorter, thirteen-stage version. Some of these derivative accounts have parallels from other schools preserved in Chinese, while others do not. Where parallel versions exist, discrepancies between them are analysed, with the focus on comparison of lists, and explanations provided. The chapter goes on to compare and discuss several ways in which stages of the path have been combined into groups of three, four, or five members named for what each achieves. The chapter concludes by showing how differences identified between parallel versions in Pali and Chinese texts from different schools or comparison of accounts from the same school fall into four easily explicable categories: deliberate omission; degree of differentiation; irregularity of sequence; and erroneous transmission. Explaining how differences arose in one of these four ways reveals deep structural agreement among the various versions.