Work · South Asian & Tibetan Philosophy
Twenty Verses (Vimsatika)
Arguments that the world is nothing but representation.
Introduction
Despite its title, the Sanskrit text has twenty-two verses, accompanied by Vasubandhu’s own prose commentary. It is built as a series of objections and replies. If there are no external objects, why do experiences occur only at certain places and times, why do many people perceive the same thing, and why do things have effects? Vasubandhu answers with examples such as dreams and the shared visions of beings in hell, and argues that atoms cannot be coherently conceived, since anything with sides has parts. Whether the position should be called “idealism” is debated. The Sanskrit original was recovered from manuscripts in Nepal by Sylvain Lévi and published in 1925.
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Connections
Taken up in
- Pramanasamuccayac. 520 · Dignaga
Criticized in
- Introduction to the Middle Way (Madhyamakavatara)c. 620 · Chandrakirti
- Commentary on the Brahma Sutrasc. 730 · Adi Shankara
- New Treatise on Consciousness-Only (Xin weishi lun)1932 · Xiong Shili
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