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Introduction
Over the last several years, my research has been concerned primarily with Buddhist constructions of various soteriologies or ways of religious salvation. The question lying at the core of my studies has been a very basic one, addressing how exactly individuals go about becoming spiritually liberated persons according to Theravāda Buddhist thought and practice. In the investigation of the authoritative scriptures of the Theravāda tradition in the Pāli language of the Sutta-Piṭaka and Vinaya-Piṭaka, my findings have led me to the central conviction of this study, which is that the Pāli Nikāyas and Vinaya contain much more diversity in soteriological approach than has been acknowledged by previous scholarship. Furthermore, I have discovered that historically, from the earliest extant texts to the last century, there has been significant controversy, about the most efficacious path to nibbāna (nirvāṇa), as well as the most proper way to live the life of a bhikkhu or monk.
Toward these ends, this book is a detailed historical and textual investigation of the progressive stages of the Buddhist path to liberation, described in terms of levels of development of adepts, known in the Theravāda tradition (as well as other Buddhist traditions of Indian origin) as types of “noble persons” (ariya-puggala). This system of categorization,