Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

དན་རྣམ་པར་ངས་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བའ་ཆས་ཀྱ་རྣམ་གྲངས intro.17

Distinctly Ascertaining the Meanings intro.17

Language
English

intro.17

The sūtra is also mentioned by Yaśomitra, the author of an extensive explanation (vyākhyā) on Vasubandhu’s Treasury of Abhidharma. Yaśomitra writes that according to “those who emphasize the sūtras” (Sautrāntika), while it is correct to say that the Buddha taught abhidharma, he did not teach separate abhidharmic treatises (as the Vaibhāṣika think); he taught the abhidharma in specific sūtras, such as Distinctly Ascertaining the Meanings. As the Buddha’s own paradigmatic statement on the actual nature of reality (dharmalakṣaṇa), the sūtra can be considered an authoritative overview of insight meditation (vipaśyanā). It shares some features with another sūtra transmitted in the Sarvāstivāda tradition, The Discourse on the Twenty-Two Faculties.³