sastra

Yogacarabhumi-sastra

Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra, also known as "Discourse on the Stages of Yogic Practice" is the encyclopaedic and definitive text of the Yogācāra school of Buddhism. It is thought to have been composed in India between 300 and 350 CE.

The complete work comprises five major sections: the seventeen levels (bāhu-bhūmi) which covers the entire range of mental and spiritual levels in Buddhism according to Mahāyāna; the Compendium of Definitions (viniścaya-samgraha) which discusses and explicates aspects of the bāhu-bhūmi portion; the Compendium of Exegesis (vivarana-samgraha), a manual of hermeneutical and exegetical techniques; the Compendium of Synonyms (paryāya-samgraha) defining many of the various strings of quasi-synonymical expressions found in the Agamas; the Compendium of Topics (vastu-samgraha) summarizing and explainin the key topics of each sūtra contained in the Samyukta-āgama; and the Compendium of the Vinaya (vinaya-samgraha). The Chinese version also contains a Compendium of Abhidharma, missing from the Tibetan translation.

Most of the bāhu-bhūmi section which includes such seminal works as the Bodhisattva-bhūmi and the Śrāvaka-bhūmi suvives in Sanskrit, but little survives from the other parts.

Chinese translation

By the closure of the Sui Dynasty (589-618), Buddhism within China had developed many distinct schools and traditions. Xuanzang, in the words of Dan Lusthaus:

...came to the conclusion that the many disputes and interpretational conflicts permeating Chinese Buddhism were the result of the unavailability of crucial texts in Chinese translation. In particular, he [Xuanzang] thought that a complete version of the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra, an encyclopedic description of the stages of the Yogācāra path to Buddhahood written by Asaṅga, would resolve all the conflicts. In the sixth century an Indian missionary named Paramārtha (another major translator) had made a partial translation of it. Xuanzang resolved to procure the full text in India and introduce it to China.

The Chinese version consists of one hundred fascicles (juan), and was translated into Chinese by Xuanzang between 646-648 CE at Hongfu and Dacien Monasteries.

Tibetan translation

The Tibetan version was done by team of Indian scholars including Jinamitra, Prajñāvarma, Surendrabodhi, together with the renowned Tibetan translator, Ye-shes sDe. In East Asia, authorship is attributed to Maitreya-nātha, while the Tibetan tradition considers it to have been composed by Asanga, but in all probability it is the work of several writers who compiled it during the 4th century CE.

Master Nan Huai-Chin touches on the Yogacarabhumi-sastra in his book "To Realize Enlightenment."