Knowra Vasubandhu Vasubandhu Vasubandhu was an influential Indian Buddhist philosopher and monk whose works shaped Abhidharma and Yogācāra thought. His writings address mind, perception, karma, and the path to liberation.
Abhidharma : A systematic analysis of Buddhist teachings, experience, and mental and physical phenomena. Vasubandhu first became known for organizing Abhidharma doctrines in a major compendium.
Abhidharmakośa : Vasubandhu’s compendium of Abhidharma doctrine, accompanied by his own commentary. This influential work sets out and evaluates the Abhidharma positions associated with his earlier period.
Asaṅga : An Indian Buddhist philosopher traditionally regarded as Vasubandhu’s elder brother and a major Yogācāra thinker. Traditional accounts connect the brothers’ careers with Vasubandhu’s turn toward Yogācāra.
Sarvāstivāda realism : The Sarvāstivāda position that dharmas exist across past, present, and future, though their activity changes. Vasubandhu examines this account of temporal existence in his Abhidharma critique.
Sarvāstivāda : An early Buddhist school whose Abhidharma system held that dharmas exist in past, present, and future. Its doctrines supply the positions Vasubandhu presents and criticizes in his Abhidharma writing.
Abhidharmakośabhāṣya : Vasubandhu’s commentary on the Abhidharmakośa, presenting doctrines and arguments from competing Buddhist schools. Its verses and commentary make his comparative treatment of Abhidharma especially accessible.
Sthiramati : A sixth-century Indian Buddhist scholar known for commentaries on Yogācāra works. His interpretations helped preserve and explain Vasubandhu’s Yogācāra writings.
External-world realism : The view that mind-independent physical objects exist and are perceived by embodied subjects. The Viṃśatikā challenges whether external objects are needed to explain experience.
Sautrāntika : An early Buddhist school that emphasized the authority of the sutras and disputed several Sarvāstivāda doctrines. Vasubandhu often uses Sautrāntika arguments to challenge Sarvāstivāda realism.
Viṃśatikā : Vasubandhu’s Twenty Verses, a concise defense of the Yogācāra account of cognition and its objects. It develops his argument that apparent external objects can be explained through cognition.
Show all 23