Abstract

Vasubandhu is perhaps the most influential figure in the history of Buddhist philosophy, yet the very breadth of his contribution across many schools and traditions has led to a fragmentation of his works, as interpreters have tended to read them through the lens of narrow scholastic perspectives, finding little continuity or coherence. Some modern scholars, doubtful that anyone could have held such varied views, have gone so far as to divide Vasubandhu himself into two distinct philosophers, with two different and irreconcilable views. In his recent book, Paving the Great Way: Vasubandhu’s Unifying Buddhist Philosophy, Jonathan Gold offers for the first time a unified picture of Vasubandhu, extracting the driving...