Prof. Lin Chong'an: Variations in the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra and Its Compilation

Buddhist Studies Selected Papers

Variations in the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra and Its Compilation

Lin Chong'an (2002)

1. The Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra as Transmitted in Chinese and Tibetan

The Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra in its Chinese transmission is ascribed to "Maitreya Bodhisattva." It runs to 100 fascicles, divided into five parts: the Basic Section (Bhūmi), the Section on Detailed Exposition (Viniścaya), the Section on Explanation of Sūtras (Vyākhyā), the Section on Various Technical Terms (Saṃgrahapariccheda), and the Section on Topics (Karmavibhaṅga). The Tibetan version is attributed to "Asaṅga Bodhisattva" and is likewise divided into five parts.

2. Variations Among the Five Sections

One way to settle whether the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra was authored by Maitreya, by Asaṅga, or merely compiled by Asaṅga from earlier sources is to ask whether the doctrinal content of its five sections hangs together as a single teaching. A few examples will show what is at stake:

(1) Basic Section and Section on Various Technical Terms

The "Bodhisattvabhūmi" within the Basic Section glosses the Sugata and the Unsurpassed Tamer of Men as follows:

Ascending to the highest, never retreating — therefore he is called the Sugata.

The sole man among all the world, who perfectly knows the supreme method of taming minds — therefore he is called the Unsurpassed Tamer of Men.

The Section on Various Technical Terms offers a different gloss:

The Sugata is one who, through the long night, has cultivated every kind of merit benefiting both self and others.

The Unsurpassed Tamer of Men is so called because his wisdom has no equal and nothing surpasses him.

The two sections clearly diverge in how they describe the merit and wisdom of the Tathāgata's ten epithets — but the divergence is one of exposition, not of philosophical substance.

(2) Basic Section and Section on Topics

The "Śrāvakabhūmi" of the Basic Section says:

Contemplating the corpse as discolored, or as putrid, or as decomposed, or as bloated, or as being devoured purifies the mind of attachment to visible form.

Contemplating the corpse as reddened purifies the mind of attachment to bodily form.

Contemplating the bones, or the skeleton, or the complete skeleton purifies the mind of attachment to pleasing touch.

Contemplating the dispersion (of the remains) purifies the mind of attachment to attendance and service.

The Section on Topics counters attachment differently:

Here, beginning with the perception of discoloration and ending with the perception of bloating, these counter attachment to beautiful color.

The perceptions of being devoured, of being discolored, and of being scattered counter attachment to physical appearance.

The perceptions of the skeleton and the complete skeleton counter attachment to subtle tactile sensation.

Contemplating the lifeless corpse as empty counteracts attachment to attendance and service.

The pairing of perception with the attachment it counters differs between the two passages, suggesting that the two draw on different bodies of material.

(3) Section on Detailed Exposition and Section on Topics

The "Śrāvakabhūmi" of the Section on Detailed Exposition says:

What is it to abide by contemplating the arising of dharmas with respect to the body? It is to contemplate that this body arises from past lives and from present food and drink.

What is it to abide by contemplating the cessation of dharmas with respect to the body? It is to contemplate that this body is subject to death and cessation in future lives.

What is it to abide by contemplating both arising and cessation with respect to the body? It is to contemplate that this body, in the present, is sustained and persists through the condition of food and drink, yet must inevitably fall apart.

The Section on Topics says instead:

With respect to the future, one should understand that one abides in the contemplation of arising.

With respect to the past, one should understand that one abides in the contemplation of cessation.

With respect to the present, since it arises and immediately thereafter undergoes complete cessation, one should understand that one abides in the contemplation of both arising and cessation.

In these two sections, the pairing of arising, cessation, and their union with the three time periods is not the same.

(4) Section on Detailed Exposition and Section on Various Technical Terms

The "Śrāvakabhūmi" of the Section on Detailed Exposition says:

There are two reasons for the existence of a stūpa: first, the realized truth abides firmly; second, there is something to rely upon.

There are two reasons it is called "something to rely upon": first, one relies on wisdom, not on consciousness; second, the Great Master is the Tathāgata, Arhat, Samyaksaṃbuddha.

There are two reasons the Great Master is the Tathāgata, Arhat, Samyaksaṃbuddha: first, he has cut off all doubt; second, wrong conduct is impossible for him.

The Section on Various Technical Terms explains differently:

The existence of a stūpa means that no heterodox teacher, no Māra, no worldly being can overturn it.

"Something to rely upon" means the Four Reliances are fully present and free from defect.

The Great Master is the Tathāgata, Arhat, Samyaksaṃbuddha because the teachings he has set forth are perfectly pure.

The two sections seem related, yet it is still clear they draw on different material.

(5) Variations Within the "Śrāvakabhūmi" of the Basic Section

Even within a single section, the "Śrāvakabhūmi" itself shows variation. Its first and third yoga-portions give several accounts of how the four foundations of mindfulness are practiced across the three groupings of internal, external, and both — and the three groupings never receive the same explanation. Even within one section, the sources are not uniform.

These examples suggest that the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra was assembled from many different bodies of material, and that the variations among them are not "doctrinal" differences in any philosophical sense but differences of exposition. With this small key in hand, we can try to infer how the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra and the related Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra-śāstra were put together.

3. The Compilation of the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra and the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra-śāstra

During the long stretch from the Buddha's nirvāṇa (around 486 BCE) to the appearance of Asaṅga Bodhisattva (c. 310–390 CE), the Dharma continued to be passed from generation to generation in India. Alongside the original Āgama sūtras and treatises, Mahāyāna sūtras and treatises were also in circulation. In the fourth century CE, Asaṅga Bodhisattva became the great synthesizer of that era's teachings. One of his most important contributions was to bring the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra into wider circulation in India, giving the Buddhists of his time a doctrinal and practical foundation and helping spark a Buddhist revival. Based on the doctrinal divergences among the five sections, the compilation of the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra may be reconstructed as follows:

1. As the Dharma passed down through the generations, yoga practitioners who emphasized practice compiled its essentials. Each stressed different aspects, so several important bodies of material arose. Asaṅga Bodhisattva gathered and supplemented these into the Basic Section (fifty fascicles), divided into seventeen bhūmis. The Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra opens (fascicle 1):

(1) The Ground of the Five Sense Faculties. (2) The Ground of Mental Faculty. (3) The Ground of Existence with Both Thought and Examination. (4) The Ground of Existence with Examination but without Thought. (5) The Ground of Existence without Thought or Examination. (6) The Ground of Meditative Absorption (samāhita). (7) The Ground of Non-Absorption. (8) The Ground of Existence with Mind. (9) The Ground of Existence without Mind. (10) The Ground of What Is Attained through Hearing. (11) The Ground of What Is Attained through Thinking. (12) The Ground of What Is Attained through Meditation. (13) The Ground of the Śrāvaka. (14) The Ground of the Pratyekabuddha. (15) The Ground of the Bodhisattva. (16) The Ground with Remainder. (17) The Ground without Remainder. These seventeen, briefly explained, are called the Grounds of the Yoga Practitioner. (T30, p279a)

This passage indicates that the earliest core of the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra was the seventeen bhūmis. Asaṅga compiled and supplemented them into the Basic Section. The small internal discrepancies reveal the traces of his editorial work: since each body of material had its own merit, he preserved all or most of it intact. Two cores stand out — the "Śrāvakabhūmi," compiled from material connected with Āgama doctrine, and the "Bodhisattvabhūmi," supplemented with material connected with Mahāyāna doctrine.

In compiling the "Śrāvakabhūmi," Asaṅga divided the material into four yoga-portions, each containing several topics. With so much material, some inconsistency between earlier and later portions was inevitable — but many early instructions and admonitions from the yoga practitioners were preserved. The "Bodhisattvabhūmi" is similarly divided into four yoga-portions and gathers the essential meanings of Mahāyāna sūtras, particularly elaborating the bodhisattva precepts.

After the "Bodhisattvabhūmi" come the "Ground with Remainder" and "Ground without Remainder," which only briefly describe the fruition of an arhat bhikṣu. This is the fruit-realization that follows on the "Śrāvakabhūmi," and so the "Bodhisattvabhūmi" can be seen as a later expansion. The two bhūmis preceding the "Śrāvakabhūmi" — the "Ground of the Five Sense Faculties" and the "Ground of Mental Faculty" — discuss the inner six sense bases and form an independent unit, reflecting the yoga practitioners' understanding of "objects." The "Ground of Existence with Both Thought and Examination" and the two following bhūmis broadly discuss defilements and related doctrines, also forming an independent unit; this section elaborates sixteen kinds of heterodox views, material that Asaṅga also incorporated into the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra-śāstra (fascicles 9–10). The four bhūmis of meditative absorption, non-absorption, existence with mind, and existence without mind discuss topics related to meditative concentration and likewise form an independent unit.

Next, the three "Grounds of What Is Attained through Hearing, Thinking, and Meditation" form another unit. Within them, the five branches of learning are placed in the "Ground of What Is Attained through Hearing." Among these, logic and epistemology (hetuvidyā) broadly discusses the nature of debate, the place of debate, the basis of debate, the adornment of debate, the faults of debate, and emergence from debate. This topic Asaṅga also included in his own Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra-śāstra (fascicle 11). Within the "Ground of What Is Attained through Hearing," under the inner branch of learning (ābhidharmika), the Buddhist teachings from "one dharma" through "ten dharmas" are briefly explained. The "Ground of What Is Attained through Thinking" cites verses (gāthā) and explains their intended meaning. The "Ground of What Is Attained through Meditation" explores the cultivation of antidotes, every kind of mundane purification, and every kind of supramundane purification — all of which constitute the wisdom of hearing, thinking, and meditation that a yoga practitioner should possess. Because of their value, Asaṅga gathered them into one unit. Apart from the "Bodhisattvabhūmi" and a portion concerning the theory of the ālaya-vijñāna (storehouse consciousness), most of the seventeen bhūmis of the Basic Section are doctrinally grounded in the Āgama sūtras. Much of the material in these seventeen bhūmis was edited together by Asaṅga, and some topics may be his own composition — but drawing a strict line between the two is admittedly difficult.

2. Asaṅga then provided detailed exposition and supplementation for each of the seventeen bhūmis of the Basic Section, producing the thirty-fascicle Section on Detailed Exposition. Many of his own positions appear here. For example, in the "Ground of the Five Sense Faculties" and the "Ground of Mental Faculty" he establishes the existence of the ālaya-vijñāna through eight lines of reasoning; this topic was also included in his Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra-śāstra. In elaborating the "Bodhisattvabhūmi," Asaṅga draws extensively on the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra to supplement the bodhisattva path and explains the sixteen dharma-gates of the Ratnakūṭa-sūtra.

3. How should the Āgama sūtras be explained, and what are the rules for explaining sūtras? Following the tradition of Indian Buddhism, Asaṅga compiled the Section on Explanation of Sūtras (two fascicles), which interprets all Buddha-sūtras through five modes of conformity, taking the Sūtra on the Merits of Dwelling in Learning as an example. This treatise was also incorporated by Asaṅga into his own Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra-śāstra, fascicles 12–13.

4. On another track, after the Buddha's nirvāṇa, his disciples needed to gloss the strings of technical terms in the Āgama sūtras, and so "various technical terms" (saṃgrahapariccheda) were compiled to classify and explain them. Such concise treatises were passed from teacher to disciple and eventually came into Asaṅga's hands. He included them in the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra as the Section on Various Technical Terms (two fascicles).

5. Similarly, to master the doctrinal content of the Saṃyuktāgama, Buddhist disciples — following the contents of the Skandha, Āyatana, Pratyaya, and Mārga chapters — sequentially distilled its essential meanings, producing the "Sūtra-mātṛkā" (the "matrix of sūtras"). This treatise eventually reached Asaṅga and was incorporated into the sūtra section of the Section on Topics. There was also the "Vinaya-mātṛkā" (the "matrix of discipline"), distilling the essentials of the Prātimokṣa-sūtra; it was incorporated into the discipline section of the Section on Topics. Finally, Asaṅga added a short text, the "Dharma-lakṣaṇa-mātṛkā," which briefly summarizes the dharmas of cyclic existence, liberation, defilement, and purification. In this way, the Section on Topics of the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra (sixteen fascicles in total) was completed. As for who first distilled these essentials of the sūtras and vinaya, according to a tradition recorded in the Śāyanāsanavastu, it was the Venerable Mahākāśyapa who did so, giving rise to the transmission of the "mātṛkā" (matrix).

6. In the Chinese and Tibetan translations of the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra, the order of the Section on Explanation of Sūtras and the Section on Topics is interchanged. This no doubt indicates that, in early India, the two circulated independently.

In short, Asaṅga first compiled the Basic Section, focused on the practice of the yoga practitioner; then he provided detailed exposition for each topic in the Section on Detailed Exposition; and finally he incorporated the Section on Explanation of Sūtras, the Section on Various Technical Terms, and the Section on Topics, completing the vast Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra, whose content gives equal place to the Śrāvaka Path and the Bodhisattva Path.

The compilation of the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra-śāstra, on the other hand, centers on the Bodhisattva Path. It draws the essential meanings from the Basic Section of the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra, compiling them into the "Section Gathering Topics" (Saṃgraha-vastu) in fascicles 1 through 4 and the "Section Gathering Pure Meanings" (Śuddhi-vastu) in fascicles 5 through 8. For example, the "Ethical Discipline" from the first yoga-portion of the Śrāvakabhūmi is incorporated into the "Distinctions Concerning the Higher Training in Morality" of fascicle 7; the "Worldly Path" from the fourth yoga-portion of the Śrāvakabhūmi is likewise placed in fascicle 7; and the chapter on the bodhisattva's merits from the Bodhisattvabhūmi is placed in fascicle 8. Asaṅga further compiled the sixteen heterodox views from the Basic Section into fascicles 9–10 of the "Section Gathering Pure Meanings," the logic and epistemology from the Basic Section into fascicle 11, and the Section on Explanation of Sūtras into fascicles 12–13. Asaṅga then composed short texts — the "Chapter on Becoming Skilled," the "Chapter on Becoming Impermanence," the "Chapter on Becoming Suffering," the "Chapter on Becoming Emptiness," the "Chapter on Becoming Without Self-Nature," the "Chapter on Becoming Direct Insight," the "Chapter on Becoming Yoga," and the "Chapter on Becoming Inconceivable" — assigning them in sequence to fascicle 14 through the first part of fascicle 17. Finally, the essentials of the Section on Detailed Exposition were compiled into the "Chapter on Gathering Supreme Determinations," from the latter part of fascicle 17 through fascicle 20. In this way, the aim of "making the sacred teachings manifest" was at last achieved.

4. Conclusion

The foregoing preliminary investigation suggests that, in compiling the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra, Asaṅga Bodhisattva on one hand edited and preserved the important pre-existing material centered on Āgama doctrine and practice, and on the other hand provided exposition and supplementation — especially the lengthy treatment of the "Bodhisattvabhūmi" — thereby transforming the Basic Section, originally focused on the Śrāvaka Path, into a work giving equal weight to the Bodhisattva Path. When Asaṅga later compiled the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra-śāstra, the Bodhisattva Path became the sole central axis. As for where Asaṅga's material came from, it most likely came from a great yoga practitioner of his time known as Maitreya Bodhisattva; hence, the Chinese translation states that the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra was "spoken by Maitreya Bodhisattva." Maitreya Bodhisattva also guided Asaṅga toward the Bodhisattva Path, leading to the wide circulation of Mahāyāna treatises in later generations. The period of compilation was, for Asaṅga himself, a time of turning toward the Mahāyāna. In terms of content, the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra preserves many invaluable Āgama doctrines and practical essentials handed down through the lineage, while the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra-śāstra displays the core doctrinal and practical content that a bodhisattva practitioner should cultivate in relation to the sacred teachings. These two works are rightly regarded as landmark treatises of their era in India.

(Originally published in Faguang Magazine 158, 2002; lightly supplemented here)