Vasubandhu
What we take to be an outer world is experience appearing within the mind, shaped by the traces of past actions.
Placement
Co-founder of Yogacara: consciousness-only – the world appears within the mind.
Key ideas
- Vijnapti-matra (consciousness-only)
- Storehouse consciousness
Teachers: Asanga
Influence
Influenced by 3
Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha)
influenced by
Vasubandhu’s Treasury of Abhidharma systematised the Buddha’s teaching on the elements of existence, karma and no-self, defending no-self against the Pudgalavadins. Vasubandhu, Abhidharmakosabhasya, tr. L. de La Vallée Poussin (1923–31); SEP “Vasubandhu”
Evidence: AI draft
Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) › c. 480–400 BCE · conventionally dated 563–483 BCE
Nagarjuna
influenced by
Vasubandhu’s Yogacara reinterprets the Mahayana emptiness taught by Nagarjuna through the doctrine of three natures; whether Vasubandhu drew on Nagarjuna’s own works is uncertain. Vasubandhu, Trisvabhavanirdesa; SEP “Vasubandhu”
Evidence: AI draft
Nagarjuna › c. 150–250
Asanga studied with
studied with later tradition
Known only from later hagiography – Paramartha’s Life of Vasubandhu (6th c.) and Xuanzang (7th c.) make Asanga his elder brother who won him over to the Mahayana; dates and identity are debated (Frauwallner’s ‘two Vasubandhus’, 1951). Paramārtha, Life of Vasubandhu (T 2049); Xuanzang, Da Tang Xiyu ji V; E. Frauwallner, On the Date of the Buddhist Master of the Law Vasubandhu, 1951; SEP “Vasubandhu”
Evidence: AI draft
Asanga › c. 310–390
Influenced 4
Dignaga
influenced ✓
Tradition makes Dignaga a pupil of Vasubandhu; his Investigation of the Object continues Vasubandhu’s argument in the Twenty Verses against external objects. D. Duckworth et al., Dignaga’s Investigation of the Percept (2016); SEP “Vasubandhu”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Dignaga › c. 480–540
Wonhyo
influenced
Wonhyo used the Yogacara of Vasubandhu’s line, above all its storehouse consciousness, to explain how the one mind of the Awakening of Faith both awakens and errs. Wonhyo, Daeseung gisillon so; S. Lee, “On the Ālayavijñāna in the Awakening of Faith: Comparing and Contrasting Wŏnhyo and Fazang’s Views”, Religions 10 (2019)
Evidence: AI draft
Wonhyo › 617–686
Shinran
influenced
Shinran honoured Vasubandhu as second of the seven Pure Land masters and read the Treatise on the Pure Land ascribed to him as teaching single-hearted entrusting to Amida. Shinran, Kyōgyōshinshō, Shōshinge; Vasubandhu (attr.), Jingtu lun, with Tanluan’s commentary; D. Hirota et al. (tr.), The Collected Works of Shinran (1997)
Evidence: AI draft
Shinran › 1173–1263
Liang Shuming
influenced
Liang Shuming took the consciousness-only epistemology of Vasubandhu’s Yogacara (Weishi shuyi, 1920) as the basis for comparing cultures in Eastern and Western Cultures and Their Philosophies (1921). Liang Shuming, Weishi shuyi (1920); Dong Xi wenhua ji qi zhexue (1921); G. Alitto, The Last Confucian (1979)
Evidence: AI draft
Liang Shuming › 1893–1988
Criticism
Criticized by 4
Chandrakirti
criticised by
Chandrakirti rejected the Yogacara of Vasubandhu’s school: consciousness without external objects, and reflexive self-awareness, are as empty as the objects (Madhyamakavatara VI.45–97). Candrakīrti, Madhyamakāvatāra VI.45–97; C. W. Huntington, The Emptiness of Emptiness, 1989
Evidence: AI draft
Chandrakirti › c. 600–650
Fazang
criticised by
In his Treatise on the Five Teachings Fazang ranked Yogacara – Vasubandhu’s school as newly taught by Xuanzang’s Faxiang school – as only the “initial teaching” of the Mahayana, below Huayan, and reinterpreted its doctrine of the three natures. Fazang, Huayan wujiao zhang (T 1866); F. H. Cook, Hua-yen Buddhism (1977); I. Hamar (ed.), Reflecting Mirrors: Perspectives on Huayan Buddhism (2007)
Evidence: AI draft
Fazang › 643–712
Adi Shankara
criticised by
Shankara rejected the idealism of Vasubandhu’s Yogacara school: external objects exist, since we perceive them as distinct from our awareness (Brahmasutrabhashya II.2.28–32). Śaṅkara, Brahmasūtrabhāṣya II.2.28–32
Evidence: AI draft
Adi Shankara › c. 700–750 · conventionally dated 788–820
Xiong Shili
criticised by
Xiong Shili broke with the Yogacara of Vasubandhu and Xuanzang, rejecting its ‘seeds’ and storehouse consciousness as splitting substance from function (Xin weishi lun, 1932). Xiong Shili, Xin weishi lun (1932), tr. J. Makeham, New Treatise on the Uniqueness of Consciousness, 2015
Evidence: AI draft
Xiong Shili › 1885–1968
Works
Arguments that the world is nothing but representation.
Position
Vasubandhu is known for the Yogacara doctrine of “consciousness only” (vijnaptimatra). In his Twenty Verses he argues that external objects cannot be established: as in dreams, experiences can arise without corresponding outer things, and atoms cannot be coherently conceived. What we take for a world of independent objects is a structured flow of consciousness, shaped by karmic seeds stored in a “storehouse consciousness” (alayavijnana). The aim is to see through the split between subject and object. His Treasury of Abhidharma remained a standard textbook of Buddhist scholasticism in Tibet, China and Japan.
Life & context
Vasubandhu was born in Purushapura (Peshawar) in Gandhara, probably in the fourth century CE. Trained in the Sarvastivada and Sautrantika schools, he wrote a monumental summary of Abhidharma, then – reportedly under the influence of his (half-)brother Asanga – turned to the Mahayana and became a principal figure of the Yogacara school.
Further main works
- Treasury of Abhidharma (Abhidharmakośa, c. 4th century CE)
- Thirty Verses (Triṃśikā, c. 4th century CE)
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