Vasubandhu (; Tibetan: དབྱིག་གཉེན་ ; fl. 4th to 5th century CE) was an influential Indian Buddhist monk and scholar. He was a philosopher who wrote commentary on the Abhidharma, from the perspectives of the Sarvastivada and Sautrāntika schools. After his conversion to Mahayana Buddhism, along with his brother, Asanga, he was also one of the main founders of the Yogacara school.

Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakośakārikā ("Commentary on the Treasury of the Abhidharma") is widely used in Tibetan and East Asian Buddhism, as the major source for non-Mahayana Abhidharma philosophy. His philosophical verse works set forth the standard for the Indian Yogacara metaphysics of "appearance only" (vijñapti-mātra), which has been described as a form of "epistemological idealism", phenomenology and close to Immanuel Kant's transcendental idealism. Apart from this, he wrote several commentaries, works on logic, argumentation and devotional poetry.

Vasubandhu is one of the most influential thinkers in the Indian Buddhist philosophical tradition. Because of their association with Nalanda university, Vasubandhu and Asanga are amongst the so-called Seventeen Nalanda Masters. In Jōdo Shinshū, he is considered the Second Patriarch; in Chan Buddhism, he is the 21st Patriarch.

Life and works

Different sources provide different places for Vasubandhu's birthplace. Xuanzang states that Vasubandhu was born in Gandhara however Buton Rinchen Drup places Vasubandhu in Central India. Tibetan Buddhism sees the two brothers as part of the six great Indian commentators called the "Six Ornaments". He was contemporaneous with Chandragupta I, father of Samudragupta. This information temporally places this Vasubandhu in the 4th century CE. The earliest biography of Vasubandhu was translated into Chinese by Paramärtha (499-569).

Vasubandhu initially studied with the Buddhist Sarvāstivāda (also called Vaibhāṣika, who upheld the Mahavibhasa commentary) school which was dominant in Gandhara, and later moved to Kashmir to study with the heads of the orthodox Sarvastivada branch there. After returning home, he lectured on Abhidharma and composed the Abhidharmakośakārikā (Verses on the Treasury of the Abhidharma), a verse distillation of Sarvastivada Abhidharma teachings, which was an analysis of all factors of experience into its constituent dharmas (phenomenal events). However Vasubandhu had also begun to question Sarvāstivāda-Vaibhāṣika view for some time, and had studied with the Sautrāntika teacher, Manoratha. Thus, his auto-commentary to his Abhidharma verses sometimes criticize the Vaibhāṣika system from a Sautrāntika viewpoint. The Abhidharmakośa remains the main source for Abhidharma studies in both Tibetan Buddhism and East Asian Buddhism.

Vasubandhu is later said to have converted to Mahayana beliefs under the influence of his brother Asanga, whereupon he composed a number of Yogacara treatises and Mahayana sutra commentaries. Some of his most influential Mahayana works have been the Twenty Verses on Consciousness Only (Vimśatikāvijñaptimātratāsiddhi), with its commentary (Viṃśatikāvṛtti), the Thirty Verses on Consciousness-only (Triṃśikā-vijñaptimātratā) and his Discourse on the Pure Land (Jìngtǔ lùn 浄土論). The Thirty Verses is the basis for Xuanzang's Cheng Wei Shi Lun, one of the most important sources in East Asian Yogacara Buddhism. His Pure Land treatise was also very influential on East Asian Pure Land Buddhism.

In India, Vasubandhu became known as a major Mahayana master, scholar and debater. He is reported to have defeated Samkhya philosophers in debate in front of the Gupta king "Vikramaditya" (variously identified as Chandragupta II or Skandagupta) at Ayodhya, who is said to have rewarded him with 300,000 pieces of gold. Vasubandhu used the money he made from royal patronage and debating victories to build Buddhist monasteries and hospitals.

As per traditional accounts, Vasubandhu died while visiting Ayodhya at the age of 100.

Attributed works

Vasubandhu was prolific author of Buddhist treatises and commentaries. A list of his key works includes:

Treatises

  • Viṃśatikā-vijñaptimātratāsiddhi (Twenty Verses Demonstrating Consciousness Only)
  • Triṃśikā-vijñaptimātratā (Thirty Verses on Consciousness Only
  • Pañcaskandhaprakaraṇa (Explanation of the Five Aggregates)
  • Karmasiddhiprakarana (A Treatise on Establishing Karma)
  • Vyākhyāyukti (Proper Mode of Exposition), a text on Buddhist Hermeneutics,
  • Vādavidhi (Rules for Debate), a text of formal epistemology (pramana) theory and debate
  • *Mahāyāna śatadharmā-prakāśamukha śāstra (Baifa mingmen lun 百法明門論, Lucid Introduction to the One Hundred Dharmas, T 1614)
  • Trisvabhāva-nirdeśa (Exposition on the Three Natures) - some scholars question the attribution of this text to Vasubandhu (or at least argue that this is a late work of his which differs in various respects from other works).
  • Paramārthasaptati, a critique of Samkhya philosophy

Commentaries

  • Catuhśataka-śāstra (A commentary on Aryadeva's Four Hundred Verses)
  • Mahāyānasaṃgraha-bhāṣya (Commentary to the Summary of the Great Vehicle of Asanga)
  • Dharmadharmatāvibhāga-vṛtti (Commentary on Distinguishing Elements from Reality)
  • Madhyāntavibhāga-bhāṣya (Commentary on Distinguishing the Middle from the Extremes)
  • Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra-bhāṣya (Commentary on the Ornament to the Great Vehicle Discourses), this attribution has been questioned by some scholars.
  • Amitayus sutropadeśa (Instruction on the Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra), also called "Discourse on the Pure Land" (Jìngtǔ lùn 浄土論).
  • Dasabhūmika-bhāsya (Commentary on the Ten Stages Sutra)
  • Commentary on the Aksayamatinirdesa-sutra
  • Commentary on the Diamond Sutra
  • Commentary on the Lotus Sutra
  • Treatise on the Nirvana Sutra (Nirvāṇaśāstra, Ch: Niepan Lun 涅槃論 T1527), translated by Dharmabodhi

Two Vasubandhus theory

Erich Frauwallner, a mid-20th-century Buddhologist, sought to distinguish two Vasubandhus, one the Yogācārin and the other a Sautrāntika, but this view has largely fallen from favour in part on the basis of the anonymous Abhidharma-dīpa, a critique of the Abhidharmakośakārikā which clearly identifies Vasubandhu as the sole author of both groups of writings. According to Dan Lusthaus, "Since the progression and development of his thought ... is so strikingly evident in these works, and the similarity of vocabulary and style of argument so apparent across the texts, the theory of Two Vasubandhus has little merit." Scholarly consensus on this question has generally moved away from Frauwallner's "two-authors" position.

Philosophy

thumbnail|Vasubandhu: Wood, 186 cm height, about 1208, [[Kōfuku-ji|Kofukuji Temple, Nara, Japan]]

Abhidharma

Vasubandhu's Verses on the Treasury of the Abhidharma contains a description of all 75 dharmas (phenomenal events), and then outlines the entire Sarvastivada doctrine including "meditation practices, cosmology, theories of perception, causal theories, the causes and elimination of moral problems, the theory of rebirth, and the qualities of a Buddha." The Treasury and its commentary also expound all kinds of arguments relating to the Sarvastivada Abhidharma and critique those arguments from a Sautantrika perspective in the commentary. Major arguments include an extensive critique of the Self (Atman and Pudgala) and a critique of the Sarvastivada theory of "the existence of the dharmas of the three time periods [past, present and future]". In the Treasury, Vasubadhu also argued against a Creator God (Ishvara) and against the Sarvastivada theory of avijñaptirūpa ("unperceived physicality" or "invisible physicality").

Critique of the self

Vasubandhu's critique of the self is a defence of Buddhist Anatman doctrine, and also a critique of the Buddhist Personalist School and Hindu view of the soul. It is intended to show the unreality of the self or person as over and above the five skandhas (heaps, aggregates which make up an individual). Vasubandhu begins by outlining the soteriological motive for his argument, writing that any view which sees the self as having independent reality (e.g. the Hindu view) is not conducive to Nirvana.

Vasubandhu then evaluates the idea of the Self from epistemic grounds (Pramana). Vasubandhu states that what is real can only be known from perception (Pratyakṣa) or inference (Anumāṇa). Perception allows one to observe directly the objects of the six sense spheres. Inference allows one to infer the existence of sense organs. However, there is no such inference for a solid real Self apart from the stream of constantly changing sense perceptions and mental activity of the sense spheres.

The Twenty verses begins by stating:

<blockquote>In Mahayana philosophy...[reality is] viewed as being consciousness-only...Mind (citta), thought (manas), consciousness (chit), and perception (pratyaksa) are synonyms. The word "mind" (citta) includes mental states and mental activities in its meaning. The word "only" is intended to deny the existence of any external objects of consciousness. We recognize, of course, that "mental representations seem to be correlated with external (non-mental) objects; but this may be no different from situations in which people with vision disorders 'see' hairs, moons, and other things that are 'not there.'"

This text also paved the way for the later developments of Dignaga and Dharmakirti in the field of logic.

Works

  • Abhidharma Kosha Bhashyam 4 vols, Vasubandhu, translated into English by Leo Pruden (based on Louis de La Vallée-Poussin’s French translation), Asian Humanities Press, Berkeley, 1988-90.
  • L’Abhidharmakosa de Vasubandhu, traduit et annoté par Louis de La Vallée-Poussin, Paul Geuthner, Paris, 1923-1931 vol.1 vol.2 vol.3 vol.4 vol.5 vol.6 Internet Archive (PDF)
  • Stefan Anacker, Seven Works of Vasubandhu Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1984, 1998
  • Ernst Steinkellner and Xuezhu Li (eds), Vasubandhu's Pañcaskandhaka (Wien, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2008) (Sanskrit Texts from the Tibetan Autonomous Region, 4).
  • Dharmamitra, trans.; Vasubandhu's Treatise on the Bodhisattva Vow, Kalavinka Press 2009,

Notes

References

  • David J. Kalupahana, The Principles of Buddhist Psychology, State University of New York Press, Albany, 1987, pp 173–192.
  • Francis H. Cook, Three Texts on Consciousness Only, Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, Berkeley, 1999, pp 371–383 ("Thirty Verses on Consciousness Only") and pp 385–408 ("Twenty Verses on Consciousness Only")
  • Erich Frauwallner, The Philosophy of Buddhism, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 2010 [1956].
  • Li Rongxi, Albert A. Dalia (2002). The Lives of Great Monks and Nuns, Berkeley CA: Numata Center for Translation and Research
  • Thich Nhat Hanh Transformation at the Base (subtitle) Fifty Verses on the Nature of Consciousness, Parallax Press, Berkeley, 2001; inspired in part by Vasubandhu and his Twenty Verses and Thirty Verses texts
  • Kochumuttom, Thomas (1982). A Buddhist Doctrine of Experience: A New Translation and Interpretation of the Works of Vasubandhu the Yogacarin. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass
  • Vasubandhu: Entry at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • Multilingual edition of Triṃśikāvijñapti in the Bibliotheca Polyglotta
  • Vasubandhu’s Treatise on the Three Natures (Trisvabhāvanirdeśa) – A Translation and Commentary by Jay Garfield