Āryacaturdharmakavyākhyāna/Full text
The Āryacaturdharmakavyākhyāna (Tib. 'Phags pa chos bzhi pa'i rnam par bshad pa; Toh 3990; RKTST 3330), by Vasubandhu, is a short commentary on the Āryacaturdharmakanāmamahāyānasūtra (Toh 251), a brief Mahāyāna sūtra teaching four factors that a bodhisattva must never abandon for as long as they live, even at the cost of their life. Vasubandhu explains why the sūtra was taught, why it gives its teaching as a numbered set of four, and why it calls its audience both bodhisattvas and great beings. He then reads the four factors as the remedies for the obstacles to gathering the accumulations for awakening and as the foundation for the qualities that support it. The commentary closes by explaining why those who strive for the awakening of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas are not called bodhisattvas. The colophon names no translators. A subcommentary on this work, attributed to Jñānadatta, is also preserved in the Tengyur (Toh 3990a).
| Reference | Vasubandhu (slob dpon dbyig gnyen). āryacaturdharmakavyākhyāna [आर्यचतुर्धर्मकव्याख्यान]. 'phags pa chos bzhi pa'i rnam par bshad pa [འཕགས་པ་ཆོས་བཞི་པའི་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པ།]. [An Explanation of the Noble Sūtra The Four Dharmas (84000)]. Tengyur, RKTST 3330 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3330&typ=2. |
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| People | Vasubandhu |
