On Knowing Reality

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On Knowing Reality
Book


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Asaṅga
source author
Jan Willis
author
translator
Motilal Banarsidass
publisher
Topics
Texts:
On Knowing Reality 2002-front.jpg

Description

On Knowing Reality is the first English translation with commentary of a crucial chapter of the Bodhisattvabhumi, composed in Sanskrit in the late fourth century by the philosopher-sage Asanga, founder of the Yogacara school of Mahayana Buddhism. The chapter is the core of Asanga's theoretical teachings: it deals with the central epistemological question of how to judge and validate knowledge, and how confusions about "reality" arise.

The Yogacara school has long been considered by scholars, East and West, as advocating a fully idealistic view of reality. But Janice D. Willis argues that Asanga himself had no such intention, and that in fact he rejected idealism as forcefully as he rejected the notion that ordinary beings know things as they really are. Instead, the chapter "On Knowing Reality" shows that Asanga expounded voidness (sunyata), rather than mind (citta), as the only absolute mode of being. He attempted to redefine sunyata in a more positive way than had Nagarjuna and other philosophers of so-called "critical" school, setting up a philosophical scheme to meditate between inexpressible reality and the distortions of ideation and language.

In addition to her translation and extensive commentary, Willis has written an introduction which describes the history of the text and of its author, discusses the place of the Yogacara school in Buddhist philosophical history, and interprets key terms in Asanga's system. The result is a work of fundamental importance to the study of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition. (Source: Namse Bangdzo Bookstore)

Citation
Willis, Janice D., trans. On Knowing Reality: The Tattvārtha Chapter of Asaṅga's Bodhisattvabhūmi. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1982.
Texts Translated
The Tattvārtha Chapter of Asaṅga's Bodhisattvabhūmi. Tattvārtha-paṭala. Sanskrit editions: (a) N. Dutt, ed. Bodhisattvabhūmi, Tibetan Sanskrit Works Series, vol. 7. Patna: K. P. Jayaswal Research Institute, 1966. Devanāgari text, pp. 25-39. (b) U. Wogihara, ed. Bodhisattvabhūmi, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1930. Romanized text, pp. 37-57. Tibetan edition: (c) Tibetan Tripiṭaka, Peking edition (the PTT); D. T. Suzuki, ed., rpt. ed., Kyoto: Otani University, 1.957. Vol. 110 (bstan 'gyur, sems-tsam, shi, folio sides 24b-37b), pp. 142-47. (d) Guṇaprabha's commentary on the chapter, entitled the Bodhisattvabhūmivṛtti, in PIT, yol. 112 (bstan 'gyur, sems tsam Yi, folio sides 196b-203b), pp. 9-12. (e) Sāgaramegha's commentary, the Yogācāryabhūmau bodhisattvabhūmi vyākhyā, PTT, vol. 112 (bstan 'gyur, sems tsam Ri, folio sides 63b-91b), pp. 69-80. Columbia AIBS


Commentary of

 
Yogācārabhūmaubodhisattvabhūmiḥ
The Bodhisattvabhūmi (literally "The Stage of a Bodhisattva") stands as one of the most comprehensive and systematic expositions of the Mahāyāna Buddhist path from classical India. Formally the fifteenth section of the massive Yogācārabhūmi corpus, this foundational treatise provides an encyclopedic manual detailing the entire spiritual trajectory of a bodhisattva—from the initial arising of the "mind of awakening" (bodhicitta) to the ultimate attainment of perfect buddhahood.

Traditionally attributed to Ārya Asaṅga (c. fourth–fifth century CE) through revelation from the future buddha Maitreya, the text likely represents a compilation of earlier materials (c. 230–300 CE) that predates the fully developed Yogācāra philosophical system. Its existence in multiple Chinese translations from the early fifth century onward confirms its early date and widespread influence across Asian Buddhism.

The work's meticulously structured curriculum unfolds across three main books: The Support (ādhāra), the foundational prerequisites for the path; The Qualities That Accord with the Support (ādhārānudharma), the progressive stages of development; and The Perfection of the Support (ādhāraniṣṭhā), the ultimate fruition of buddhahood. At its philosophical heart lies the Tattvārthapaṭala (Chapter on Reality), which articulates a nuanced doctrine of "rightly grasped emptiness" that avoids both nihilism and eternalism. The text's longest and most influential section, the Śīlapaṭala (Chapter on Morality), codifies the complete ethical discipline of bodhisattvas through the famous system of bodhisattva precepts that became standard in Tibetan Buddhism.
Text

Partial translation of

 
Yogācārabhūmaubodhisattvabhūmiḥ
The Bodhisattvabhūmi (literally "The Stage of a Bodhisattva") stands as one of the most comprehensive and systematic expositions of the Mahāyāna Buddhist path from classical India. Formally the fifteenth section of the massive Yogācārabhūmi corpus, this foundational treatise provides an encyclopedic manual detailing the entire spiritual trajectory of a bodhisattva—from the initial arising of the "mind of awakening" (bodhicitta) to the ultimate attainment of perfect buddhahood.

Traditionally attributed to Ārya Asaṅga (c. fourth–fifth century CE) through revelation from the future buddha Maitreya, the text likely represents a compilation of earlier materials (c. 230–300 CE) that predates the fully developed Yogācāra philosophical system. Its existence in multiple Chinese translations from the early fifth century onward confirms its early date and widespread influence across Asian Buddhism.

The work's meticulously structured curriculum unfolds across three main books: The Support (ādhāra), the foundational prerequisites for the path; The Qualities That Accord with the Support (ādhārānudharma), the progressive stages of development; and The Perfection of the Support (ādhāraniṣṭhā), the ultimate fruition of buddhahood. At its philosophical heart lies the Tattvārthapaṭala (Chapter on Reality), which articulates a nuanced doctrine of "rightly grasped emptiness" that avoids both nihilism and eternalism. The text's longest and most influential section, the Śīlapaṭala (Chapter on Morality), codifies the complete ethical discipline of bodhisattvas through the famous system of bodhisattva precepts that became standard in Tibetan Buddhism.
Text

  • Prefaceix
  • Introduction1
    • History of the Text and the Life of Its Author3
    • The Yogācāra School of the Mahāyāna13
    • Two Threads of the Yogācāra and Some Later Confusions20
    • Contents of the Chapter37
    • Notes to the Introduction47
  • The Chapter on Knowing Reality67
  • The Chapter on Knowing Reality: Running Translation147
  • Glossary177
  • Selected Bibliography193


Śūnyatā - The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics. Skt शून्यता  Tib སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་  Ch 空 and 空門  

Go to the page with the definition of 'sunyata'

Śūnyatā - The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics. Skt शून्यता  Tib སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་  Ch 空 and 空門  

Go to the page with the definition of 'sunyata'

Asaṅga (ཐོགས་མེད་). Yogācārabhūmaubodhisattvabhūmiḥ [बोधिसत्त्वभूमिः]. rnal 'byor spyod pa'i sa las byang chub sems dpa'i sa [རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྤྱོད་པའི་ས་ལས་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་ས།]. [From The Levels of Spiritual Practice: The Level of a Bodhisattva (84000)]. Translated by Prajñāvarman, Ye shes sde. Tengyur, RKTST 3376 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3376&typ=2.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Yogācārabhūmaubodhisattvabhūmiḥ'

Asaṅga (ཐོགས་མེད་). Yogācārabhūmaubodhisattvabhūmiḥ [बोधिसत्त्वभूमिः]. rnal 'byor spyod pa'i sa las byang chub sems dpa'i sa [རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྤྱོད་པའི་ས་ལས་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་ས།]. [From The Levels of Spiritual Practice: The Level of a Bodhisattva (84000)]. Translated by Prajñāvarman, Ye shes sde. Tengyur, RKTST 3376 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3376&typ=2.

Go to the page with the definition of 'རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྤྱོད་པའི་ས་ལས་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་ས།'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhisattva'

Mahāyāna - Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of Common Era, focusing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through the realization of the wisdom of emptiness and the cultivation of compassion. Skt महायान  Tib ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ།  Ch 大乘  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Mahāyāna'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattva'

Bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt बोधिचित्त  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།  Ch 菩提心  

Go to the page with the definition of 'mind of awakening'

Bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt बोधिचित्त  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།  Ch 菩提心  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhicitta'

Yogācāra - Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana). Skt योगाचार  Tib རྣལ་འབྱོར་སྤྱོད་པ་  Ch 瑜伽行派  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Yogācāra'

Śūnyatā - The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics. Skt शून्यता  Tib སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་  Ch 空 and 空門  

Go to the page with the definition of 'emptiness'

Śūnyatā - The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics. Skt शून्यता  Tib སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་  Ch 空 and 空門  

Go to the page with the definition of 'emptiness'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattvas'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattvas'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattvas'
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