Jade Yoga and Heavenly Dharma

This chapter considers the relationship of Early Buddhism to Chinese thought during the Warring States period (ca. 450 BC–221 BC). Chinese thought was in a nearly constant state of flux, if not turmoil, during the Warring States period, which began shortly after the death of Confucius. Ideas related to the Early Buddhism attested in the fragments of Pyrrho and Megasthenes are clearly present in Warring States writings, especially Early Taoist texts, including the Laotzu, the Chuangtzu, as well as the anonymous Jade Yoga Inscription. Some of the Early Taoist material is approximately contemporaneous with Pyrrho and Megasthenes. It seems that this material's appearance in China is connected to the fact that Central Asia, including Bactria and Gandhāra, was part of the Achaemenid Persian Empire down to Alexander's invasion and conquest of the region in 330–325 BC.

Pyrrho’s Teacher

This chapter first summarizes what the attested and explicit Early Buddhism looks like, based on the analysis and presentation of data in the rest of the book. It suggests that the Buddha started out teaching not only what he himself came to understand through his practice, but also how to come to the same understanding by doing what he had done. In fact, the key elements of the story telling how Gautama became the Buddha do correspond closely to reconstructable Early Buddhist practices actually attested both in the Greek sources and in the five tapas (ascetic practices) of the Early Buddhist practitioners. The remainder of the chapter discusses Early Normative Buddhism and the Buddha's reaction to Zoroastrianism.

Greek Enlightenment

The argument known in Antiquity as the Problem of the Criterion was introduced to Western thought by Pyrrho of Elis, who learned it in Central Asia and India from Early Buddhism. The problem revolutionized ancient European thought, such that from Pyrrho's time onward ancient Graeco-Roman philosophy was focused on the epistemological question, “Can we really know anything?” With the ascendancy of Christianity and its Aristotelian and Neoplatonic apologetics, the problem was sidelined and practically forgotten during the Middle Ages. When Pyrrhonism was reintroduced to Western Europe in the late Renaissance, the problem once again revolutionized Western thought and shifted the central focus of philosophy to epistemology. Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711–1776) is responsible for what may be called the problem's modern incarnation, known today as the “Problem of Induction.” This chapter analyzes the issues fundamental to understanding not only Hume but also Pyrrho, and in turn the Buddha.

Scythian Philosophy

This chapter sets out the book's purpose, which is to show not only that Pyrrho's complete package is similar to Early Buddhism, but also that the same significant parts and interconnections occur in the same way in both systems. The earliest sources on Early Pyrrhonism and Early Buddhism are examined closely, including in some cases determining what “Early” means. They show that the close parallel between Early Pyrrhonism and Early (Pre-Normative) Buddhism is systemic and motivated by the same internal logic. Pyrrho's journey to Central Asia and India with Alexander thus had an outcome for the future of philosophy that has lasted down to the present.

Pyrrho’s Thought

A brief passage that derives ultimately from the lost dialogue Pythō “Python” by Timon of Phlius is considered the single most important testimony for the thought of his teacher, Pyrrho. Because it is preserved in a chapter of a history of philosophy by Aristocles of Messene, it is generally known as “the Aristocles passage.” The subject of Pyrrho's entire declaration is pragmata, which is translated as “ethical things, matters (etc.).” For Pyrrho, pragmata are always and only ethical “topics, questions, matters, affairs” which people dispute or try to interpret with antilogies—opposed choices such as Good: Bad, or True: False. This chapter examines Pyrrh's declaration section by section.

No Differentiations

This chapter discusses the earliest attested forms of Buddhism. The earliest attested philosophical-religious system, which is both historically datable and clearly recognizable as a form of Buddhism is Early Pyrrhonism. Its central features correspond exactly to some of the central features of the traditional putatively “early” form of Buddhism presented in Pali canonical texts. However, the latter tradition of Buddhism also contains many elements which developed at the earliest in the Saka-Kushan period, three centuries after Pyrrho. They spread throughout the ancestors of the attested forms of Buddhism, creating Normative Buddhism. “Genuinely Early” Buddhism (or Pre-Normative Buddhism) is also attested in the travel account of the Greek ambassador Megasthenes, a Seleucid envoy sent from Alexandria in Arachosia to the court of Candragupta Maurya to negotiate a treaty that was agreed on in 305–304 BC, twenty years after Pyrrho's departure from India.