The seven-set variations – the diversity and unification of the Buddha’s doctrinal lists in South Asian Buddhism

Abstract

This study seeks to elucidate the historical development and transmission of the traditions associated with the ‘Seven Sets’ through a cross-textual analysis of Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese, Tibetan, and Gāndhārī sources. The Seven Sets comprise the four establishings of mindfulness, the four right endeavors/abandonings, the four bases of success, the five faculties, the five powers, the seven factors of awakening, and the noble eightfold path. The Eight-Set tradition emerged alongside the Seven-Set tradition by the second century, followed by the forty-one and forty-three dharma s contributing to awakening ( bodhipakkhiya / bodhipakṣya ) by the fifth century. However, the Seven Sets became the most dominant. Both the Vaibhāṣika and Mahāvihāra schools upheld the Seven Sets as the definitive framework for the dharma s contributing to awakening, rejecting any additional items. The Vaibhāṣika dismissed the forty-one dharma s as heretical, whereas the Mahāvihāra excluded the four meditations incorporated into the Eight Sets. After the sixth century, the Eight-Set tradition was subsumed by the Seven-Set tradition. No evidence supports the long-term survival of the other two traditions. The dominance of the Seven Sets reflects the transition in South Asian Buddhism from pluralism to doctrinal unity.