Abhidharmakosabhasyam of Vasubandhu

by Vasubandhu, Louis de La Vallée-Poussin, Leo M. Pruden

This is the most important compendium of Indian Buddhist philosophy and psychology. The four volume masterwork begins with a history of Abhidharma literature and covers a vast array of subjects from a Buddhist viewpoint. Some of these subjects are Buddhist cosmology and the process of rebirth, karma and the Buddhist ethical theory, mental defilements, causes of suffering and the path to enlightenment, the supernatural powers of a Buddha, a taxonomy of meditative states and a refutation of the existence of soul.

This is volume 1 of 4.

363 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2014

About the author

Vasubandhu (Sanskrit: वसुबन्धु; traditional Chinese: 世親; pinyin: Shìqīn; Tibetan: དབྱིག་གཉེན་, Wylie: dbyig gnyen) (fl. 4th century) was an Indian Buddhist monk and, along with his putative half-brother Asanga, one of the main founders of the Indian Yogācāra school.

Vasubandhu is one of the most influential figures in the entire history of Buddhism, and is held to have introduced formal logic to the Buddhist epistemological tradition. In the Jodo Shinshu branch of Buddhism, he is considered the Second Patriarch; in Zen, the 21st Patriarch.

Reviews

[Aaron Schuschu · Rating 3 out of 5]

An outline of Buddhist beliefs about the mind in which various schools within schools argued finer points of doctrine.