Treasury of Abhidharma
The Treasury of Abhidharma (Skt. Abhidharmakośa; Tib. ཆོས་མངོན་པའི་མཛོད་, Ngön Pa Dzö; Wyl. chos mngon pa'i mdzod) and Auto-Commentary on the Treasury of Abhidharma (Skt. Abhidharmakośa-Bhāṣya). These works were composed by Vasubandhu, one of the 'Six Ornaments', the greatest Buddhist authorities of Ancient India. Abhidharmakosha is a complete and systematic account of the Abhidharma, and is the peak of scholarship in the Fundamental Vehicle. It is included among the so-called "Thirteen great texts", which Form the core of the curriculum in most shedras and on which Khenpo Shenga provided commentaries.
Abhidharmakosha, also called Abhidharmakosha-shastra (Sanskrit: “Treasury of Higher Law”), Chinese A-p’i-ta-mo Chü-she Lun, Japanese Abidatsuma-kusha-ron, encyclopaedic compendium of Abhidharma (scholasticism).
Its author, Vasubandhu, who lived in the 4th or 5th century in the northwestern part of India, wrote the work while he was still a monk of the Sarvastivada (Doctrine That All Is Real) order, before he embraced Mahayana, on whose texts he was later to write a number of commentaries. As a Sarvastivada work the Abhidharmakosha is one of few surviving treatments of scholasticism not written in Pali and not produced by Theravadins
Outline
The text is divided into eight topics:
The elements (Skt. Dhātu)
The faculties (Skt. Indriya)
The World (Skt. Loka)
Actions (Skt. Karma)
'Subtle developers' (Skt. anuśaya) (i.e. negative emotions)
The Path and the individual (Skt. mārgaprahāṇa)
Wisdom (Skt. jñāna)
Meditative equipoise (Skt. Samāpatti)
Commentaries
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Indian
Yashomitra, Abhidharmakośaṭīkā (ཆོས་མངོན་པའི་མཛོད་ཀྱི་འགྲེལ་བཤད་, chos mngon pa'i mdzod kyi 'grel bshad)
Tibetan
The following are among the best known Tibetan commentaries on the Abhidharmakosha:
Chim Jampé Yang, Ornament of Abhidharma (མངོན་པའི་རྒྱན་, mngon pa'i rgyan)
Gendün Drup (1391–1474) Illuminating the Path to Liberation (ཐར་ལམ་གསལ་བྱེད་, thar lam gsal byed)
Rongtön Sheja Kunrig, Thoroughly Illuminating What Can be Known (ཤེས་བྱ་རབ་གསལ་, shes bya rab gsal)
Mipham Rinpoche, རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་དོ་ཤལ་བློ་གསལ་དགྱེས་པའི་མགུལ་རྒྱན་, rin po che'i do shal blo gsal dgyes pa'i mgul rgyan
Jamyang Loter Wangpo, A Lamp Illuminating Vasubandhu's Intention (དབྱིག་གཉེན་དགོངས་པ་གསལ་བའི་སྒྲོན་མེ་, dbyig gnyen dgongs pa gsal ba'i sgron me)
Khenpo Shenga, A Mirror for What Can be Known (ཤེས་བྱའི་མེ་ལོང་, shes bya'i me long)
Translations
Tibetan
The Abhidharmakosha and its commentary were translated in the 8th century by Kawa Paltsek and the Indian Pandita Jinamitra.
English
Abhidharmakosabhasyam of Vasubandhu, translated by Leo M. Pruden, Asian Humanities Press, Berkeley 1990 (Translated into English from the French translation of Louis de La Vallé Poussin, l'Abhidharmakośa de Vasubandhu, Institut belge des hautes études chinoises, Bruxelles, 1971)
See also:Dharma Analysis Treasury
