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The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies v8.c71: Vasubandhu

The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies v8.c71

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English

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Vasubandhu

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Perhaps no other figure in the history of Indian philosophy, with the possible exception of Śaṃkarācārya, has provided so much historical discussion as Vasubandhu. The author of what is recognized as the outstanding available summary of Abhidharma teachings, the 173. Abhidharmakośa, as well as of the exposition of the basic teachings of one of the major Mahāyāna schools, Yogācāra, in his 202. Triṃśikā and 203. Viṃśatikā, Vasubandhu is said to have been the younger brother of Asaṅga and subjected to severe criticism by Saṃghabhadra, both of whom, if these accounts are to be believed, lived during the fourth century. Despite this, estimates of Vasubandhu's date have ranged from the second to the sixth centuries, and there has been heated debate over whether the Abhidharma author was or was not identical to the Yogācārin.

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Fortunately, however, we now have a plausible account of Vasubandhu's life and date provided by Stefan Anacker. We do not suppose, of course, that given the amount of discussion generated that anyone's solution to the problems of Vasubandhu's date and authorship will be entirely convincing to all parties. However, rather than attempt to review all the arguments in the debate,⁵¹⁵ we have chosen here merely to provide in this introductory account excerpts from Anacker's attractive and well-documented description of Vasubandhu's life.⁵¹⁶

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⁵¹⁵ text of the note

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⁵¹⁶ text of the note

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"Vasubandhu was born in Puruṣapura, present-day Peshawar, in what was then the kingdom of Gāndhāra, around the year 316 A.D...His father was a Brāhmaṇa of the Kauśika gotra, and his mother was named Viriñcī. The couple already had a previous son, later called Asaṅga, and a third, nicknamed Viriñcivatsa, was to follow. Vasubandhu's father was a court priest."⁵¹⁷

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⁵¹⁷ text of the note

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"...Vasubandhu was born one year after his older brother Asaṅga became a Buddhist monk...Vasubandhu...entered the Sarvāstivādin order, and was studying primarily the scholastic system of the Vaibhāṣikas...His main teacher seems to have been a certain Buddhamitra."

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"In time, however, grave doubts about the validity and relevance of Vaibhāṣika metaphysics began to arise in Vasubandhu. At this time, perhaps through the brilliant teacher Manoratha, he came into contact with the theories of the Sautrāntikas...Vasubandhu finally decided to go to Kashmir to investigate the Vaibhāṣika teachings more exactly."

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"Bu-ston says that Vasubandhu in Kashmir entered the school of Saṅghabhadra. But it is unlikely that this intellectually acute and cantankerous individual assumed the professorship at that time, for, from what both Paramārtha and Hsüan-tsang tell us, Vasubandhu and Saṅghabhadra seem to have been about the same age. It is, however, more than likely that it was the school Saṅghabhadra was himself attending as a student, and this is in fact attested by P'u-k'uang. He says that the main master there was the teacher of Saṅghabhadra..."

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"Vasubandhu studied in Kashmir for four years, probably from about 342 to 346. He was however no docile student, but rather in his increasing frustration with the over-intellectual and category-ridden dogmatics of the Kashmirian masters, frequently voiced his own refutations of many of their points. The master...disturbed by the obstreperous student...told Vasubandhu privately that he should return to Gāndhāra before his 'uncultured students', among whom one can well imagine the sharp-tongued Saṅghabhadra, found out and attempted to harm him..."

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"Vasubandhu returned to Purusapura...Vasubandhu supported himself by lecturing on Buddhism before the general public...At the close of each day's lecture on the Vaibhāṣika system, Vasubandhu composed a verse which summed up his exposition for the day...So in time he composed over six hundred verses, which gave an extensive outline of the entire Vaibhāṣika system. These constitute the Abhidharmakośa...Vasubandhu sent it...to his old teachers in Kashmir, (who) exulted that Vasubandhu had come over to their side...They were disturbed only because Vasubandhu in his treatise so often used terms such as 'kila' ('it is claimed') and 'ity āhuḥ' ('so they say')."

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"As a matter of fact, during this entire time, Vasubandhu was working on his real project, his autocommentary on the Kośa, which contains a thoroughgoing critique of Vaibhāṣika dogmatics from a Sautrāntika viewpoint...For the subsequent furious indignation of the orthodox Vaibhāṣikas, we need not rely on traditional accounts only; it is amply attested by the relentless invective employed by contemporary Vaibhāṣika writers such as Saṅghabhadra...Vasubandhu had thus at a fairly early age achieved a certain notoriety..."

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"In the years directly following the composition of the Kośa, Vasubandhu seems to have spent much time in travelling from place to place. It is certain that he stayed for a time at Śākala, the modern Sialkot..."

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"Around 350, Samudragupta completed his lightning-quick conquest of north India...It was, in all probability, subsequent to that event that Vasubandhu, as well as his teachers Buddhamitra and Manoratha, decided to move to Ayodhyā...Hsüan-tsang later saw the hall in Ayodhyā where Vasubandhu preached to 'kings and many eminent men'."

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"Vasubandhu had, up to this time, but little regard for the Yogācāra treatises of his elder brother...Asaṅga heard about this attitude of his brother, and decided to attempt to open him up to the Mahāyāna. He sent two of his students with Mahāyāna texts to Vasubandhu..."

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"Vasubandhu seems to have been quite overwhelmed by Mahāyāna literature...In view of the fact that they were the texts that converted him to Mahāyāna, Vasubandhu's commentaries on the Akṣayamatinirdeśasūtra and the Daśabhūmika may be his earliest Mahāyāna works. These were followed by a series of commentaries on other Mahāyāna sūtras and treatises..."

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"Since the output of Vasubandhu's Mahāyāna works is prodigious...he could have been a very famous Mahāyāna master by the year 360, the approximate date in which Kumārajīva took instruction from Bandhudatta in Kucha. By this time, Vasubandhu could easily have written those works which Bandhudatta transmitted to his brilliant pupil..."

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"The year 376 brings Candragupta II, Vikramāditya, to the throne of the Gupta Empire...Around the year 383, at his eighth birthday, the crown prince Govindagupta Bālāditya was placed by the Emperor under the tutelage of Vasubandhu. The Empress Dhruvadevī also went to Vasubandhu to receive instruction..."

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"In his old age, Vasubandhu seems to have taken up the wandering life again. Some of his last works are known to have been written in Śākala and in Kauśāmbī. Kauśāmbī, for instance, is the place where he wrote his Twenty and Thirty Verses, and Hsüang-tsang saw the old brick tower there, near the ancient Saṅghārāma of Ghoṣira, where these famous expositions of Yogācāra were written."

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"Around the year 391, the consecration of Govindagupta as 'Young King' took place. He and his mother begged Vasubandhu to settle down in Ayodhyā and accept life-long royal support. Vasubandhu accepted the offer...The master was creative even at his advanced age, and more than a match for Vasurāta, the Young King's grammarian brother-in-law, in his favorite sport of debate...But...debate was to him mainly upāya: if it could lead to no one's interest in Mahāyāna, he would not engage in it. Thus, when Saṅghabhadra, who had written his two great treatises, one of which is a furious denunciation of the Kośa Bhāṣya, challenged Vasubandhu to defend the Kośa's statements, and was invited to come to court and debate by the jealous Vasurāta, Vasubandhu told his pupils that he could see no good reason for such a debate, but diplomatically sent the official answer the Saṅghabhadra would indeed be hard to defeat....The debate never took place...Saṅghabhadra in fact died shortly after."

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"Vasubandhu did not long survive Saṅghabhadra. In the eightieth year of his life, c. 396, he died..."

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Over thirty works are attributed to Vasubandhu by tradition for which we have no special reason to doubt his authorship. A good many of these are commentaries on Mahāyāna sūtras and śāstras, most of them available now only in Chinese or Tibetan translations if at all. In keeping with the putative chronology provided by Anacker's account just provided, we shall place the Abhidharma works previous to those Mahāyāna sūtras, and the remaining, Yogācāra works at the end, with the Trisvabhāvanirdeśa last in keeping with Anacker's estimate.

173. Vasubandhu, Abhidharmakośa

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The Kośa was first known to modern readers in two Chinese translations, one by Paramārtha in the sixth century, the other by Hsüan-tsang in the seventh. There are also two Tibetan translations, one by Jinamitra and the other by Śrīkūṭarakṣita, dating from the ninth century. Rahula Sankrtyayana discovered the Sanskrit text at Ngor in Tibet in 1935 and made photocopies; these are the basis for more recent editions. Louis de la Vallee Poussin translated Hsüan-tsang's Chinese into French⁵¹⁸ and there are various partial translations.⁵¹⁹ In this summary "E" references are to the edition by Swami Dwarikadas Shastri,⁵²⁰ whereas "T" references are to Leo M. Pruden's four-volume English translation of Poussin's French, op. cit., numbered consecutively.

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Summary by Stefan Anacker

Chapter ONE: Realms

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1. (E4; T56) Homage to the Buddha, who destroys all blindness.

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2. (E11-13; T56) Abhidharma is defined as pure wisdom with accompaniments. It may also be used for impure wisdom or even for treatises which result in pure wisdom.

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3. (E14; T57) The only way to lay to rest the defilements that cause worldly wandering is to investigate the factors, and it is for this investigation the Buddha taught Abhidharma.

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4. (E16; T58) All conditioned factors except those of the path are contaminating because defilements adhere to them.

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5. (E18-19; T59) The three unconditioned factors--space, calculated and uncalculated cessation--are noncontaminating.

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6. (E20-22; T59-60) Calculated cessations are separate disjunctions. Uncalculated cessation is the complete end to arising.

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7. (E25-26; T61) Conditioned factors can all be subsumed under the five aggregates. They are temporal, the objects of discourse, exist, and involve actual objects.

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8. (E28-29; T62-63) Contaminating factors are grasping aggregates. They are harmful, being frustrating, originating, worldly, the topic of opinions, existent.

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9. (E30; T63) Material form comprises the five sense-organs, five objects, and unmanifest form. The loci of the awarenesses of these are subtle matter, visual, etc.

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10. (E32-35; T64-66) There are two (or twenty) material bases. Sounds are eightfold, tastes sixfold, smell fourfold, and tangibles are of eleven sorts.

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11. (E38; T67) Unmanifest material form occurs in a series dependent on the great elements which is distracted or unaware.¹ 12. ((E43; T68-69) The great material elements are earth, water, fire and wind. They function respectively as supporting, humidifying, heating and motion.

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¹ 1.Unmanifest form is used to explain the karmic retribution of one who has instigated an action. Someone who prompts someone else to murder engenders an unmanifest form of karma as soon as he prompts; the unmanifest form "comes to maturity" when the other person actually commits the murder.

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13. (E43; T69) As commonly used "earth", "water", "fire", and "wind" refer to colors and shapes.

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14. (E47-48; T72) Feelings are experiencings. Conceptual identifications are the grasping of signs.

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15. (E48-50; T73) The aggregates of feelings, identifications, and conditioning factors, together with unmanifest form and the unconditioned factors, belong to the sense-basis of factors (dharmāyatana), the realm of factors.

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16. (E50; T74) Consciousness is the awareness of something manifesting (prativijñapti). It is the mental organ; it is seven elements, six consciousnesses plus mind.

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17. (E51; T75) The term "mind" (manas) is used for any occurrence of the six types of consciousnesses which immediately afterwards gives rise to a mental-consciousness-moment. Eighteen sensory domains are enumerated to support there being just six types of consciousness.

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18. (E54; T76) All conditioned factors are included in an aggregate, a sense-basis, or an element.

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19. (E55; T75) Vaibhāṣika: Though the organs of sight, hearing, and smelling are double, they each count as only one sensory domain.

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20. (E56-62; T77-80) On the etymology of "skandha", "āyatana" and "dhātu".

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21. (E64; T81) Feelings and identifications are designated as separate aggregates because they are the causes of dispute, of saṃsāra, and because of order.

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22. (E65-66; T81-83) The unconditioned can't be classified under "aggregates", since they aren't that sort of thing. The order in which the aggregates are listed reflects their relative grossness or subtlety, their defiling capacities, and their relative range in the four realms.

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23. (E67-68; T84) The five sensory consciousnesses have objects which are simultaneously present. The arrangement of the sense-fields has to do with the range and rapidity of their functioning, the eye having a longer range and greater rapidity than the ear, the ear than the nose, etc.

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24. (E69; T85) Only one sense-field is called a material basis because of its excellence and predominance. Only one sense-field is called a "basis of factors" because of what it includes.

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25-26. (E70-72; T86-87) The rest of the large number of factors that the Buddha refers to fall among either the material or conditioning aggregate.

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27. (E72-765; T87-88) Examples of how other factors can be classified as aggregates, senses and elements.

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28. (E77-78; T88-89) The element of space is, according to some, light or dark. The consciousness element is contaminating, being the locus of birth.

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29a-b. (E79-81; T89-92) Only one material element is visible. Ten material elements are resistant. Eight elements are neutral (those excluding matter and sound).

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29cd-30. (E81-87; T92-93) The rest of the elements can be of three sorts, good, bad or neutral. All of the elements exist in the realm of desire; fourteen exist in the material realm (excluding smell, taste, the smell- and taste-awarenesses).

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31. (E87; T95-96) In the material realm all the material sensory domains are absent. In that realm occur three elements--the mind element, the mental consciousness element, and the factor element. They can be contaminating or not.

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32. (E88; T96-97) Five awareness elements involve initial and sustained thought. The mind, mental consciousness, and the factor elements involve three different combinations of initial and sustained thought. The rest of the elements involve no thought.

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33. (E89-90; T97) The five awareness are constructionfree, not involving defining and memory. Those two kinds of construction affect any distracted mentality, be it wise or mnemonic.

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34. (E90-91; T98) Seven elements of awareness plus one part of the factor-element have supporting objects. The seven plus the factor-element and sounds are never appropriated by a body. The remaining nine sensory domains are sometimes appropriated, sometimes not.

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35. (E92-95; T99-101) Among the ten material elements, the tangible element consists, in part, of the great elements and in part of material form derived from these great elements. The remaining nine material elements are only derivative.

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36. (E95-96; T102) Four elements can cut or be cut, burn or be burned, weigh or be weighed. There is disagreement about details.

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37. (E97-99; T103-104) The five internal sense-bases are the result of karmic maturation and grow through nourishment. Sound is never the result of karmic maturation.

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38. (E100-103; T105-106) Only one sensory domain grasps reality: the unconditioned (which is part of the sensory domain of mental cognizables), because only it is permanent.

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39. (E104-107; T107-109) Twelve of the sensory elements are personal--the twelve excluding those six that are objects of consciousness.

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The sensory element called "factor(-element)" is homogeneous. The remaining ones are partially homogeneous.

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40. (E109-110; T112-114) Fifteen elements are abandoned in meditational concentration; the last thirteen are of three kinds. Undefiled and material factors are not abandoned by the path of vision.

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41. (E112-114; T113-114) The term "view" (dṛṣṭi) is used for the visual organ as well as for eight views which form parts of the factor element. The five sensory consciousnesses are not views, as there is no judgment in them made after deliberation.

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42. (E113-114; T114-115) Vaibhāṣika: It is the eye which sees visibles, not the visual consciousness. For when the visible is obstructed, or the eye, there is nothing seen.

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43. (119-120; T119) Vaibhāṣika: The eye, ear, and mind perceive their objects without coming directly in touch with them. This is not the case with the other three organs of sense.

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44. (E123-125; T122-125) The three organs starting with the olfactory grasp an object of equal size. The objects of the five sensory consciousnesses occur simultaneously with their consciousness, but the mental consciousness may have a past, present, or future object of consciousness.

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45. (E126-127; T125) Since a consciousness depends both on the object and the organ, why is only the organ designated as its support? Because the consciousness changes according to the organ.

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46. (E128-129; T127-128) There is no inferiority or superiority as regards different kinds of organs or consciousnesses in the same experiential sphere.

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47. (E130-131; T128-129) Sometimes the mental consciousness of a psychophysical complex may be in a superior experiential sphere to the other consciousnesses--for instance, when it is meditationally concentrated.

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48. (E131-132; T129-130) Everything perceived by the other consciousnesses is discerned by the mental consciousness. The

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unconditioned factors (I, 4-5) are eternal. There are twenty-two faculties, factors which have a predominance for the psychophysical complex. They are the faculties of the eye, ear, nose, tongue, tactile body, mind (meaning all six consciousnesses), femininity, masculinity, vitality, satisfaction, frustration, contentedness, irritation, equanimity, faith, energy, mindfulness, meditation, insight, coming to know what wasn't known, understanding, and perfect knowledge. (For the definitions of these see Chapter Two.)

Chapter TWO: The Faculties

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1. (E135-138; T153-155) Vaibhāṣika: Five faculties predominate in respect of four things, and four in respect to two; five and eight with regard to affliction and purification.

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2. (E140; T155-156) The faculties which are sense-organs are really predominant in relation to the five sensory consciousnesses, and the faculty of mind (cf. I, 17) is predominant in regard to mental consciousness.

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3. (E141; T156-157) Vitality, feelings and the five faculties beginning with faith are predominant in maintaining life, in afflictions and purifications.

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4. (E141; T157) Coming to know what wasn't known, understanding and perfect knowledge predominate in respect to liberation.

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5. (E142; T158) The faculties are the loci of awareness and what conceptualizes, maintains, afflicts, prepares and purifies them.

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6. (E143; T159) Alternatively, there are fourteen (positive) faculties, comprising the loci of activity and the arising, maintenance and experiencing of those loci; the rest (negative) function similarly in regard to nirvāṇa.

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⁷ (E145-146; T150-161) All the information regarding the faculties which is provided by II, 7-19, 30, 60-61 and IV, 8-127 may be diagrammed as follows:

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Table I

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(The following abbreviations are used: A = internal B = noncontaminating (potentially linked to proclivities) C = noncontaminating (never linked to proclivities) D = can be either good or potentially linked to proclivities or not liable to be linked to proclivities (e.g., when meditationally concentrated) E = both in good and bad states, can be retribution for acts F = retribution for a good act in a good state, for a bad act in a bad state G = always retribution for a bad act when retribution at all H = never retribution I = always ethically neutral J = always good K = can be good, bad, or neutral, i.e., can belong to any ethical category L = not retribution when good, bad, or unobstructed/neutral other than retribution M = always retribution N = always retribution for a good act when retribution at all. Contaminated states are "bad", being frustrating, but are not necessarily "bad" in the sense of giving rise to further frustrations. Anything which comes about as a result of retribution is necessarily ethically neutral. Whatever arises from a conceptual construction is never ethically neutral, and whatever arises from interest is never retribution.)

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(1) Faculty of the Eye ABFI
(2) Faculty of the Ear ABFI
(3) Faculty of the Nose ABFI
(4) Faculty of the Tongue ABFI
(5) Faculty of the Tactile Body ABFI
(6) Faculty of Mind ADFI
(7) Faculty of Masculinity ABFI
(8) Faculty of Femininity ABFI

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(9) Faculty of Vitality BFMI
(10) Faculty of Satisfaction KLN
(11) Faculty of Frustration BGKL
(12) Faculty of Contentedness KLN
(13) Faculty of Irritation B (or H)
(14) Faculty of Equanimity DKN
(15) Faculty of Faith DHJ
(16) Faculty of Energy DHJ
(17) Faculty of Mindfulness DHJ
(18) Faculty of Meditation DHJ
(19) Faculty of Insight DHJ
(20) Coming to Know What is Not Yet Known CHJ
(21) Faculty of Understanding IHJ
(22) Faculty of Perfect Knowledge IHJ

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The faculty of frustration is any disagreeable bodily feeling, and the faculty of satisfaction any agreeable one.

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8.(E146-147; T161-162) The faculty of irritation is any disagreeable mental feeling, and contentedness is its opposite. Equanimity is neither agreeable nor disagreeable, and may be either bodily or mental.

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For 9-19, cf. Table I

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22.(E180-181; T185) In the material realm an "atom" (provided it is without sound or faculties) comprises eight substances, nine if the tactual organ is involved, ten if another organ is.

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23.(E180-181; T185) Awarenesses and accompanying mental factors, meaning motivating dispositions, feelings, and cognitions, necessarily arise together. All conditioned factors arise with the characteristics of being general.

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24.(E186-188; T189) The generally conditioning factors are feeling, volition, identification, interest, contact, intellection, memory, attention, resolve, and concentration.

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25.(E177-191; T191) The good permeating factors are faith, heedfulness, tranquillity, equanimity, shame, modesty, absence of greed, understanding, noninjury, and energy.

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26.(E191-194; T193-195) The defiled permeating factors are delusion, heedlessness, idleness, lack of confidence, lethargy, and agitation. Shamelessness and disregard are the bad permeating factors.

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27.(E194; T196) The afflicting permeating factors are anger, vengefulness, craftiness, envy, spite, hypocrisy, selfishness, deceit, arrogance, and violence.

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28.(E195; T197-198) Vaibhāṣika: Since initial and sustained thought coexist with every awareness in the realm of desire (see I, 30), every good nonmeditative awareness is accompanied by at least twenty-two accompanying mental factors.

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29-30.(E197-198; T198-199) It is explained which accompanying mental factors go with bad awarenesses and which with neutral awarenesses.

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31.(E199; T199) In the first meditational state the bad accompanying mental factors no longer exist, nor do regret nor sleepiness. In the state between the first and second meditational states, initial thought drops out. From the second meditational state on, sustained thought is dropped.

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32.(E201-204; T200-202) Shame is to do with an emotion felt internally in regard to something done which is bad; modesty is an emotion felt in reference to the outer world.

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33.(E204-207; T202-204) Vaibhāṣika: Initial and sustained thought are the grossness and subtlety of awareness.

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What is the difference between pride (māna) and arrogance (mada)? Pride is an inflation of awareness. Arrogance is an exaltation and abolition of awareness in regard to "one's own" factors.

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34.(E208-209; T205) "Citta", "manas", and "vijñāna" are synonyms (all meaning awareness).

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35-36.(E209-211; T206-207) Vaibhāṣika: Among the motivating dispositions dissociated from awareness are possession, which makes for acquisition (see II, 23), and nonpossession, which makes for dissociation, loss of possession.

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37-39.(E219-224; T212-215) More details about possession.

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40.(E224-226; T215-217) Vaibhāṣika: The state of one who is separate from dharma is equivalent to nonpossession of the path.

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41a.(E229; T221) Vaibhāṣika: Homogeneity within a lifetime is another kind of dissociated factor.

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41b-42.(E233-236; T221-224) In nonideation trance the awareness and mental states cease; one practising it experiences only karmic maturation in the Bṛhatphala heaven. It presupposes entrance into the fourth meditative trance state by one desiring liberation. It is clear, and its karma is completely worked off in the next life. It is not attained by noble persons. It is experienced at one time.

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43.(E236-238; T225-226) Cessation-trance is like the nonideation

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trance in several respects. However, cessation-trance constitutes the summit of existence, and the maturation of its karma is of two sorts or neutral. Nobles, not ordinary folk, can gain it by effort.

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44.(E238-248; T226-233) Cessation-trance is obtained at enlightenment, not before. The two trances (nonideation and cessation) occur in the realm of desire and the material realm, but one's first cessation-trance must occur as a human.

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45a.(E248-253; T233-238) Vitality is the life-force, the locus of heat and consciousness.

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45b-46a.(E253-256; T240-247) Conditioned factors are characterized by birth, aging, duration and termination. Also by birth of birth, aging of aging, etc.

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47-48.(E270-277; T250-254) Vaibhāṣika: The collection of words, collection of phrases, and collection of syllables are dissociated factors. They occur in living beings in the realm of desire and the material realm as outflows and neutral, as does also homogeneity.

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48.(E277-279; T278-279) There are six kinds of causes: efficient cause, simultaneous cause, homogeneous cause, connected cause, pervasive cause, and retributory cause.

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50.(E277-278; T255) All factors are efficient causes of everything except themselves. Simultaneous causes include the elements, awareness and its companions, marks and things marked--they are each others' effects.

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51.(E283-284; T257-258) Companions of awareness include mental factors, the two restraints and their marks.

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52.(E291-300; T262-268) Homogeneous causes are when cause and effect belong to similar group and state: thus good factors give rise to good factors, etc.

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53.(E303-307; T269-272) Associated causes are only awarenesses and mental factors which have the same support.

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54.(E308-310; T273-274) Pervasive causes are defiled factors, which arise in every instance of defiled states. Only good and bad factors susceptible to being linked with defilements are retributory causes.

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55.(E316-317; T277-278) The unconditioned has neither a cause nor an effect.

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56-60.(E327-340; T286-296) Discussion of which kinds of results accrue from the six kinds of causes, and when.

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61.(E341-342; T296-297) There are four kinds of conditions.

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62.(E342-349; T297-303) Except for the very last one, awarenesses and mental concomitants are the directly antecedent conditions.

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63-64.(E350-351; T304-306) There is always a plurality of causes and conditions making for the existence of any factor. Thus there is no unique cause like God. If there were a unique cause for all events, all events would occur at the same time.

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65.(E355-356; T308-309) Causal relations among the great elements and derived factors.

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66-72.(E357-372; T310-315) Classification of awarenesses and mental factors in the various realms, and which came before and after which.

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73.(E372-376; T323-324) At conception in the womb, in meditation, in detachment, at the end of detachment, and upon developing the good roots, awarenesses arise which never arose before in the series.

Chapter THREE: The World

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1-3.(E379-383; T365-367) The realm of desire includes those in hells, ghosts, animals, humans and six kinds of gods--twenty states in all. The material realm is divided into four meditational states. The immaterial realm is not a state, but has four varieties as well. There the stream of awarenesses depends on homogeneity and vitality.

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4.(E387-392; T371-374) In these three realms there are five courses: they are undefiled-neutral, comprise living beings, and exclude the intermediate state.

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5.(E393; T374-377) Beings of the five sorts occupy seven states of consciousness: (1) where bodies and ideas are different; (2) where bodies but ideas are similar; (3) where ideas are different but they have similar bodies; (4) where both body and ideas are similar; (5) - (7) constituting the three immaterial kinds of beings.

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6.(E396; T377) The remaining sorts of beings reduce consciousness.

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7b-8.(E398-401; T378-380) Another classification of states of consciousness counts the four contaminating aggregates of the relevant spheres; (the fifth,) consciousness itself is not a state of consciousness.

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9.(E402-403; T381) Human beings and animals are either born from an egg, born of moisture, born from the womb or are magical beings. Beings in hell or in the intermediate state, as well as gods, are

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magical beings. Ghosts are either magical or womb-born.

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10-12.(405-411; T384-387) The intermediate state is required, since a being cannot generate itself again if it were to cease. It can't be generated as a reflection (a mirror-image), since two things can't occupy the same place. Anyway, a reflection is not (part of) the stream, (that being) caused by something else (viz., the mirror).

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Sūtras authoritative about the intermediate state are cited.

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13-14.(E4129-424; T391-394) In the intermediate state one has the form he will have in his next birth. This form is seen by those occupying the same class and by those with the divine eye. One in the intermediate state has extraordinary strength and eats odors.

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15.(E426-429; T394-397) The intermediate being, its mind perverted, goes to its place of rebirth because of sexual desire. Others go motivated by a place's smell or a desire for a place of residence, whereas hell-beings hang from their feet.

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16-17.(E430; T397) Not all those in the womb are of perverted mind, but all those born from eggs are. Cakravartins enter the womb fully conscious, but do not remain or leave so. Self-enlightened buddhas remain fully conscious in the womb but do not leave it thus. A Buddha is always conscious.

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18.(E432-433; T399) There is no self, only the aggregates. It is the aggregates which reincarnate in another existence, through the medium of an intermediary existence.

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20-24.(E435-439; T401-404) Concerning the dependent origination formula: ignorance > conditioning factors > consciousness > psychophysical complex > six sense-fields > contact > feelings and identifications > craving > grasping > being > birth > aging and death. It can be interpreted in several ways: one can take ignorance and conditioning factors as referring to the anterior life, the next eight to the present life, and the rest to the life to come. On this interpretation "consciousness" is the consciousness at conception in the womb, and may stand for all the aggregates at conception. Contact first arises when the child is able to distinguish causes of frustration and satisfaction; "feelings" here refers to the feelings after sexual maturity, which are followed by cravings and graspings. "Being" refers to the conditions for the new rebirth.

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25.(E440-441; T405) The reason for the teaching of dependent origination as relating to three lives is to remove misunderstandings.

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27.(E443; T407) From a defilement another defilement may arise.

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28b-29.(E463-464; T419-420) Ignorance is itself a distinct factor, the contrary of knowledge, as amitra (a "nonfriend") is an enemy (not just anyone other than one's friend). It is a separate fetter. Ignorance is not evil wisdom, for evil wisdom are associated with ignorance, and ignorance is an affliction of wisdom (not of ignorance itself).

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30-31.(E467-473; T422-426) Types of contact, which are produced by contiguity, are six in number. Five involve impingement. The sixth contact is of three sorts, (a) pure, involving knowledge, (b) defiled, involving ignorance, and (c) neither.

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32ab.(E473; T426) Six feelings are caused by contact, five bodily and one mental.

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32cd-35.(E479-485; T431-435) There are eighteen kinds of feelings, corresponding to the eighteen mental ponderings. All eighteen operate in the realm of desire, twelve in the material realm, and three in the immaterial realm.

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37d-38c.(E491; T438-439) Among the four states of existence rearising is always defiled by the defilements of its stage of being. The other three can be good, bad or neutral.

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38d-41.(E492-496; T439-444) On what is and what is not "food" in the three realms.

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42-44.(E501-506; T447-451) Death and birth happen to mental awareness and involve equanimity. They don't occur during meditation, nor do they occur to one without awareness. The mind dies in that part of the body towards which it will proceed (the feet for hell, etc.).

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45-93.(E506-544; T451-479) Cosmology. Description of our world, of hells, of the sun and moon, of heavens. The sizes and length of life of the inhabitants of these regions.

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94-99.(E544-557; T481-489) Buddhas appear on earth when the age of men approximates 100 years a lifetime. Self-enlightened Buddhas appear at two different times. Cakravartin kings have a lifetime of 80,000 years or more. An eon terminates through war, sickness and hunger.

Chapter FOUR: Karma

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1.(E567-568; T551-552) Vasubandhu reduces all karma to volition and the bodily and vocal actions produced by volition.

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2.(E568-569; T552) Bodily and vocal karma can be manifest or unmanifest. Manifest bodily karma determines configuration. There is no (acting in the sense of) movement, since all conditioned things are momentary, disappearing.

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3.(E570-578; T552-560) Still, nothing disappears without a cause, so the cause of anything is also a destroyer.

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Configuration is perceived by two. An atom has no configuration. Vocal bodily action (on the other hand) is speech.

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4ab.(E579; T560) Sūtras say that there are three kinds of material form, one of which is pure; that there is increase (of dharma); that one acts by giving order to others to act, etc.

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4cd.(E590; T568) Unmanifest karma in the realm of desire is derived from past elements.

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5-9.(E590-600; T569-575) Impure bodily and vocal actions in each realm arise with the great elements constituting their realm. Pure actions arise in the great elements of the "person" who produced them. Unmanifest actions are not appropriated; they bear fruit naturally in living beings alone. That fruit is never neutral, and occurs in the realms of desire and matter.

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Manifest actions only occur in the first two realms (of desire and matter), but in the material realm the only such actions are movements of the great elements--the blowing of the wind, etc. Others say there are manifest actions in all four realms.

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10-12.(E600-604; T576-579) Vaibhāṣika: That which originates something (samutthāna) is of two kinds; the inciting causal factor (pravartaka) called hetusamutthāna and the accompanying causal factor which originates in the same moment, called tatkṣaṇasamutthāna.

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The kind of consciousness which is given up by seeing the four truths is an inciter only. The mental consciousness given up by meditation is both an inciter and an accompanying causal factor. The five sensory consciousnesses are inciting causal factors only.

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That which arises from retribution arises spontaneously without any conditioning factors being necessary. Thus retribution is neither a primary nor an accompanying causal factor.

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13-15.(E605-608; T580-583) There are three kinds of unmanifest karma: that involved in discipline, that not involved in discipline, and that which is neither. Disciplined action may be according to monastic discipline (prātimokṣa), that involving meditation, and that which is noncontaminating. Those practising monastic discipline may be of eight or (alternatively) four types, depending on whether men are classified with or separately from women. The four are: laymen, abstainers, monks and bhikṣus.

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16.(E609-610; T309-310) Monastic discipline consists of following moral precepts, active good conduct, action, and restraint. According to the Sautrāntikas, but not according to the Vaibhāṣikas, it does not constitute a separate kind of entity.

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17-31.(E610-627; T584-600) Which are those aspirants who possess which sort of manifest and unmanifest karma and for how long is explained.

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32.(E628-630; T601) Someone who takes refuge in the Buddha, the dharma and the order is actually taking refuge in the special events which make for a Buddha, the events making up the action of the order, and nirvāṇa.

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33.(E631; T603-604) Whereas the monk or nun takes on chastity, it is enough for laymen and laywomen if they renounce illicit love (see IV, 67).

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34.(E632-635; T605) Among the bad vocal actions (see IV, 67) it is false speech which is the worst. Avoiding proclivities is enjoined upon the layman so that the other rules can be kept.

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35-39.(E638-647; T607-614) More on moral matters.

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40-44.(E646-651; T616-620) How one leaves a realm by either progressing or backsliding.

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45-48.(E652-655; T621-624) Differentiation of good, bad and neutral actions and their three corresponding kinds of retributions.

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In the realm of desire clean karma is merit. In the higher realms unchangeable action is good because its retribution can only take place in the realm in which the deed was done.

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Clean karma breeds satisfaction in the first three meditative trances. In the fourth it breeds results that are neither satisfying nor frustrating. Bad karma breeds foul, frustrating feelings in the realm of desire.

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Some say that neutral karma (that is neither satisfying nor frustrating) occurs below the fourth meditative state, because there is no maturation in the intermediate state (between the first two stages) and because karmic maturation of all three sorts (good, bad, neutral) can occur at the same time.

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49-50.(E656-657; T624-625) There are five things that are called "feelings": feelings themselves, connections with things, supporting

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objects, maturations and experiencings of feelings. These feelings are determined or not determined. Determined feeling is that experienced in this very life.

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51-52.(E658-660; T626-628) Some others say there are four (kinds of karma).

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A noble person does not produce any karma experienceable in a later existence.

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53.(E660-661; T628-629) One in the intermediate state in the realm of desire performs twenty-two kinds of actions that mature in the same existence.

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54-55.(E661-662; T629-630) Determined feeling results from action involving intense defilements or intense serenity that has to do with certain fields, or from the murder of a father or mother.

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56.(E663; T631) The effects of acts are immediately experienced by five sorts: one who has just left cessation-trance, one who has just left the nonpassionate trance, one who has just left the trance of loving kindness, one who has just left the path of vision, one who has become a noble person.

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57-58.(E664-667; T632-634) Feelings that result from good actions free of initial thought are only mental. Feelings resulting from bad actions are only physical. Mental disorders--fear, hallucinations, irritation--are karmic results afflicting those in the realm of desire.

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59-60.(E668-669; T635) About bad (black), good (white) and mixed (black-white) karma.

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61-63.(E670-672; T636-637) The kinds of acts that destroy bad karma are twelve--four patiences and the first eight paths of nonattachment in the realm of desire. The thoughts of the ninth path are those that destroy mixed (black-white) karma. The thoughts that occur while practising meditative nonattachment destroy the good karma.

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Others say that retributions of both bad and neutral karma occur in hell as well as in the realm of desire. Still others say that bad karma is that which can be abandoned by vision, whereas neutral karma can be abandoned by meditation.

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64-65.(E672-674; T638-639) The adept's bodily, vocal and mental acts are the three sagely (mauna) things.

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There are three bad practices that are not actions, and good practice is the opposite of these.

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67.(E676; T641) Six courses of bad action can be unmanifest acts.

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One bad act is always of two kinds, and the rest are of two kinds when one does them himself. Seven kinds of good actions are of two kinds; they are unmanifest only when occurring during meditation.

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69.(E682; T646-647) Good actions, enumerated as the abandonments of the bad ones, arise from nondesire, nonhatred and lack of false views.

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72.(E684; T648-649) Even someone who has been forced into the army should never kill.

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73.(E685-687; T649-651) The "taking of life" enumerated refers to wilful killing, not accidental killing.

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74.(E687-688; T651-652) Offenses of lust comprise intercourse with four kinds of women one should not consort with. False speech--lying--is addressing one who understands a meaning of the words used but where the speaker uses the words with a different intent.

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75-78.(E689-695; T653-658) The rest of the six principal bad actions are discussed.

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79-80.(E697-702; T659-663) The good roots are severed, among humans completely or gradually, by the view that they don't exist, the denial of causal relations. Both men and women may sever good roots or bad roots.

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82-84.(E708-710; T666-668) Which courses of action are available in the different realms.

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85.(E711-712; T669-670) Each course of action has retributional, outflowing, and dominant result. The retribution of murder is suffering, of outflows a short life; the dominant result is loss of energy.

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86-94.(E713-720; T671-677) Details concerning the kinds and numbers of factors resulting from good, bad and neutral acts.

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95.(E721-722; T677-678) But the retributional effect of an act can occur only in the same life, or in the next life: it cannot extend for two lives after the act. Even though they have a retribution, the highest meditational attainments don't project an action, because they don't coexist with conscious action. There are three kinds of obstructions: obstructions due to past actions, obstructions which are defilements, obstructions which are retributional.

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96.(E722-724; T679-680) The obstructions due to actions are those coming primarily from the five grave offences: killing one's mother, killing one's father, killing a noble person, causing division in the order, and harming a Buddha. It is a graver offence to kill one's mother than it is to kill one's father.

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98-102.(E725-729; T681-685) Causing divisions in the order is lying. One who causes such division falls to the avīci hell for an entire eon. More about such schisms.

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