The Indian monk Vasubandhu (fourth-fifth century C.E.) is one of Buddhism's most celebrated philosophers. Paving the Great Way draws together the key ideas from across his diverse writings. Vasubandhu unified seemingly incompatible intellectual and scriptural traditions and provided a crucial foundation for the development of Buddhist epistemology and the theorization of tantra. In Vasubandhu, the book reveals a surprisingly relevant philosophical position: a distinctive, Buddhist approach to knowledge, moral agency, and subjectivity, under a causal worldview in which the "self" is understood to be an illusion.

The Indian Buddhist philosopher Vasubandhu (fourth-fifth century C.E.) is known for his critical contribution to Buddhist Abhidharma thought, his turn to the Mahayana tradition, and his concise, influential Yogacara-Vijnanavada texts. Paving the Great Way reveals another dimension of his legacy: his integration of several seemingly incompatible intellectual and scriptural traditions, with far-ranging consequences for the development of Buddhist epistemology and the theorization of tantra. Most scholars read Vasubandhu's texts in isolation and separate his intellectual development into distinct phases. Featuring close studies of Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakosabhasya, Vyakhyayukti, Vimsatika, and Trisvabhavanirdesa, among other works, this book identifies recurrent treatments of causality and scriptural interpretation that unify distinct strands of thought under a single, coherent Buddhist philosophy. In Vasubandhu's hands, the Buddha's rejection of the self as a false construction provides a framework through which to clarify problematic philosophical issues, such as the nature of moral agency and subjectivity under a broadly causal worldview. Recognizing this continuity of purpose across Vasubandhu's diverse corpus recasts the interests of the philosopher and his truly innovative vision, which influenced Buddhist thought for a millennium and continues to resonate with today's philosophical issues. An appendix includes extensive English-language translations of the major texts discussed.