Vasubandhu and the Yogācārabhūmi

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Vasubandhu and the Yogācārabhūmi: Yogācāra Elements in the Abhidharmakośabhāṣya
Book


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Robert Kritzer
author
International Institute for Buddhist Studies
publisher
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Description

This book is a study of one of Vasubandhu's works, the Abhidharmakośabhāṣya, which he is said to have written after he had become disillusioned with Sarvāstivāda and while he favored Sautrāntika, but before he converted to Mahāyāna and became a Yogācāra. Beginning with Hakamaya's seminal article (1986), Japanese scholars have been finding evidence that Vasubandhu sometimes relies on the Yogācārabhūmi, supposedly a Mahāyāna text, in his criticisms of Sarvāstivāda. These discoveries raise doubts about the actual course of Vasubandhu's career.

My systematic comparison of these two texts shows for the first time the extent of Vasubandhu's dependence on the Yogācārabhūmi. In order to complete this project, I have extensively referred to the *Nyāyānusāra, Saṃghabhadra's commentary on the Abhidharmakośabhāṣya. Below, I introduce the relevant texts and explain the significance of my results. (Source: Kritzer, Vasubandhu and the Yogācārabhūmi, xii)

Citation
Kritzer, Robert. Vasubandhu and the Yogācārabhūmi: Yogācāra Elements in the Abhidharmakośabhāṣya. Studia Philologica Buddhica, Monograph Series, 18. Tokyo: International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 2005.
Table of contents
  • Acknowledgementsix
  • Introductionxi
    • The Yogācārabhūmixii
    • The Abhidharmakośabhāṣyaxx
  • Methodologyxxxi
    • Distribution and General Characterization of Resultsxxxiiii
  • Passages from the Abhidharmakośabhāṣya and Related Passages from the Yogācārabhūmi1
    • Chapter 1 Dhātunirdeśa2
    • Chapter 2 Indriyanirdeśa36
    • Chapter 3 Lokanirdeśa132
    • Chapter 4 Karmanirdeśa172
    • Chapter 5 anuśayanirdeśa268
    • Chapter 6 Mārgapudgalanirdeśa346
    • Chapter 7 Jñānanirdeśa372
    • Chapter 8 Samāpattinirdeśa384
    • Concordance of Passages from the Yogācārabhūmi391
  • Bibliography397
  • Index407
Interconnections
Works related to this item
1 Scholarship on
Asaṅga (ཐོགས་མེད་). Yogācārabhūmau Bodhisattvabhūmiḥ [योगाचारभूमौ 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.
Classical WorksAbout this item
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.



Mahāyāna - Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of the 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'

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'

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'

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;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'

Nāgārjuna (byang chub sems kyi 'grel pa slob dpon klu sgrub). bodhicittavivaraṇa [बोधिचित्तविवरण]. byang chub sems kyi 'grel pa [བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ཀྱི་འགྲེལ་པ]. [A Commentary on Bodhicitta (84000)]. Tengyur, RKTST 665 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=665&typ=2.

Go to the page with the definition of 'བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ཀྱི་འགྲེལ་པ'

Ātman - Though it can simply be used as the expression "I" or "me", in Indian thought the notion of self refers to a permanent, unchanging entity, such as that which passes from life to life in the case of people, or the innate essence (svabhāva) of phenomena. Skt आत्मन्  Tib བདག་  Ch 我;灵魂  

Go to the page with the definition of 'བདག་'
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