8 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
Vasubandhu's systematic compendium of Abhidharma philosophy — a comprehensive analysis of Buddhist metaphysics, psychology, and ethics in verse with auto-commentary.
The Great Calming and Contemplation by Zhiyi — the foundational text of the Chinese Tiantai school, describing the theory and practice of meditative insight (śamatha-vipaśyanā) and the nature of the mind.
Indian Buddhist philosopher who founded the Madhyamaka school — arguing through rigorous dialectical analysis that all phenomena are empty (shunyata) of inherent existence, that even emptiness is empty, and that the two truths (conventional and ultimate) must be carefully distinguished.
One of the two chief disciples of the Buddha (foremost in wisdom, alongside Moggallana who was foremost in psychic powers), credited with contributing to the Abhidharma systematization of Buddhist doctrine.
A Buddhist monk mentioned in the Majjhima Nikaya who held the view that it is the same consciousness (viññāṇa) that transmigrates from life to life — a view the Buddha explicitly rejected as a misunderstanding of dependent origination.
Zhiyi's Mohe Zhiguan (The Great Calming and Contemplation) — the most systematic Chinese Buddhist meditation manual, integrating philosophical analysis with detailed meditation instructions.
Indian Buddhist philosopher who wrote the Abhidharmakosa (treasury of higher doctrine) and co-founded the Yogacara (mind-only) school — arguing that what we experience as external reality is in fact constructed by consciousness — making him the Buddhist parallel to Kant's transcendental idealism.
Chinese Buddhist monk who founded the Tiantai school — a systematic synthesis of the entire Buddhist canon organized around the Lotus Sutra — developing the doctrine of the Three Truths and the calming-and-insight (zhiguan) meditation system.