Neither one nor many "neither one nor many" more intensively (throughout sixty-two of its ninety-seven stanzas) than any other text in Buddhist literature. This argument is one of a series of proofs used to demonstrate that phenomena are without real existence. Neither one nor many The 'neither one nor many' argument (Wylie: gcig du 'bral ba'i gtan tshigs) is an argument employed by different philosophers and spiritual traditions for various reasons. The argument and its permutations and antecedents, particularly the "problem of the One and the Many" as charted by McEvilley (2002: pp. 23–66) in his "magnum opus", has an ancient pedigree in the
Neither one nor many the perennial bugbear of historical inquiry. The argument is a factor in the algorithmic function of the "Catuskoti". In its Buddhist employ, the argument is one of a suite of arguments within the purview of Pramana and Indian logic to demonstrate and test various doctrines. Different authorities and sources provide different enumerations of these said arguments; Khenpo Yonten Gyamtso lists them thus: The Padmakara Translation Group (2005: p. 39) convey the uniqueness of the "Madhyamākalaṃkāra" of Śāntarakṣita in Buddhist literature in its focused, dedicated and protracted employ of the "neither one nor many" argument: The "Madhyamakalankara" invokes the argument of