Abhidharma-kośa (the compendium of
Abhidharma, Tib.
chos mngon pa mdzod) is a key text in verse written in
Sanskrit by
Vasubandhu. It summarizes
Sarvāstivādin tenets in eight chapters with a total of around 600 verses. The text was widely respected, and used by schools of
Mahayana Buddhism in India, Tibet and the Far East.
Vasubandhu wrote a commentary to his own work, called the
Abhidharma-kośa-bhāsya. In it, he critiques the interpretations of the Sarvāstivādins and others of the tenets he presented in that work. This commentary includes an additional chapter in prose refuting the idea of the "person" (
pudgala) favoured by some Buddhists. However, later
Sarvāstivādin master Samghabhadra considered that he misrepresented their school in the process, and at this point designated Vasubandhu as a
Sautrantika (upholder of the
sutras) rather than as an upholder of the
Abhidharma.
The
Abhidharma-kośa and its commentary is composed of the following chapters:
- :1: The Dhātus<br />
- :2: The Indriyas<br />
- :3: The World<br />
- :4: Karma<br />
- :5: The Latent Defilements<br />
- :6: The Path and the Saints<br />
- :7: The Knowledges<br />
- :8: The Absorptions<br />
- :9: Refutation of the Pudgala
Ancient translations of the Abhidharma-kośa were made into Chinese by Paramārtha (
564-
567 CE) and by
Xuán Zàng (
651-
654 CE). Other translations and commentaries exist in Tibetan, Chinese and Mongolian, and...
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