The Yogācārabhūmi-Śāstra (YBh, Sanskrit; Treatise on the Stage of Yoga Practice) is a large and influential doctrinal compendium, associated with Sanskritic Mahāyāna Buddhism (particularly Yogācāra).Kragh 2013, pp. 16, 25. According to Ulrich Timme Kragh, it is "a massive treatise that brings together a wealth of material stemming from Mainstream as well as Mahāyāna Buddhism."Kragh 2013, p. 231.
History The Yogācārabhūmi is generally associated with the Indian Yogācāra school because it contains certain unique Yogācāra doctrines, like the eight consciousnesses and the ālaya-vijñāna (storehouse or foundational consciousness). According to Ulrich Timme Kragh, "its overall objective seems to be to present a coherent structure of Buddhist yoga practice with the Mahāyāna path of the bodhisattva placed at the pinnacle of the system", but substantial parts also deal with non-Mahāyāna "mainstream" practices. The text also shows strong affinity to the Abhidharma works of the Mainstream Buddhist Sarvāstivāda school, adopting many of its technical terminology and classifications of phenomena (dharmas).Ulrich Timme Kragh (editor), The Foundation for Yoga Practitioners: The Buddhist Yogācārabhūmi Treatise and Its Adaptation in India, East Asia, and Tibet, Volume 1 Harvard University, Department of South Asian studies, 2013, p. 45.
While it likely contains earlier materials, the YBh is thought to have reached its final redaction in the fourth century CE.Ulrich Timme Kragh (editor), The Foundation for Yoga Practitioners: The Buddhist Yogācārabhūmi Treatise and Its Adaptation in India, East Asia, and Tibet, Volume 1 Harvard University, Department of South Asian studies, 2013, p. 26. Traditional sources name either the Indian thinker Asaṅga (ca. 300–350) or the bodhisattva Maitreya as author, but most modern scholars hold that it is a composite text with different chronological textual layers and various authors, though this does not rule out the possibility that Asaṅga was among them.Delhey, Martin, Yogācārabhūmi, oxfordbibliographies.com, LAST MODIFIED: 26 JULY 2017, DOI: 10.1093/OBO/9780195393521-0248.Ulrich Timme Kragh (editor), The Foundation for Yoga Practitioners: The Buddhist Yogācārabhūmi Treatise and Its Adaptation in India, East Asia, and Tibet, Volume 1 Harvard University, Department of South Asian studies, 2013, pp. 40, 53.
According to scholars such as Changhwan Park and Robert Kritzer the YBh may have subtly influenced other North Indian Buddhist works such as the Abhidharmakośa and the works of the Sautrāntika school. The YBh also exherted a strong influence on the later works of the Yogācāra-Vijñānavāda school, such as the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra, the Abhidharma-samuccaya and the Mahāyānasaṃgraha. Finally, the YBh also exherted a clear influence on the tantric tradition of Indian Buddhism of the sixth to fourteenth centuries (and the works of exegetes like Ratnākaraśānti), and the YBh is itself aware of the use of mantras and subjugation rituals that would become common to the tantric tradition.Kragh 2013, pp. 235-236.
The YBh was studied and transmitted in East Asian Buddhist and Tibetan Buddhist translations. In China, it was the work of Xuánzàng (玄奘, 602?-664) that introduced the YBh in full.Kragh 2013, p. 239. It caused many debates, particularly around the notion that certain beings did not have the gotra, or spiritual disposition, to attain awakening.Kragh 2013, p. 242. By the end of the Sui dynasty (589–618), Buddhism within China had developed many distinct schools and traditions. In the words of Dan Lusthaus:
The YBh was translated into Tibetan in the ninth century at Samye by Ye shes sde and Cog ro Klu'i rgyal mtshan working with the Indian paṇḍitas Prajñāvarman, Surendrabodhi, and Jinamitra.Kragh 2013, p. 245. The YBh remained influential in these traditions (for example, it is a major source of meditation instruction for Tsongkhapa's Lamrimchenmo), however, perhaps because of size and complexity, it was eventually abandoned in monastic seminaries.Kragh 2013, pp. 16, 46, 239.
Besides the Chinese and Tibetan translations which survive in full, at least 50% of the text survives in nine extant Sanskrit fragments.Kragh 2013, p. 47. A translation project is currently underway to translate the entirety of Xuánzàng's version into English. It is being carried out by the Bukkyō Dendō Kyōkai society and the Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research.Kragh 2013, p. 251. The Bodhisattva-bhūmi, a subsection of the work which is also treated as a stand-alone text,Robert Buswell Jr. and Donald Lopez Jr., The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, page 1034, Princeton University Press, 2014 has been translated into English by Artemus Engle and is part of the Tsadra series published by Shambhala Publications.Ārya Asaṅga, The Bodhisattva Path to Unsurpassed Enlightenment, translated by Artemus Engle, Snow Lion (an imprint of Shambhala Publications), 2016
Overview of the Main Section The complete YBh is often divided into the Basic Section and the Supplementary Section. The first section, which is the largest (49.9% of the work), is the "main stages division" or "the basic section" (Skt. *Maulyo Bhūmayaḥ, Ch. 本地分 Běn dì fēn, Tib. Sa'i dngos gzhi) and contains fourteen books that describe the successive seventeen levels (bhūmi), which cover the entire range of mental and spiritual stages of practice for the Mahāyāna bodhisattva.Kragh 2013, p. 49.
However, according to Ulrich Timme Kragh, "in the present context, the word bhūmi appears in many cases to imply a 'foundation' in the sense of a field of knowledge that the Yogācāra acolyte ought to master in order to be successful in his or her yoga practice."Kragh 2013, p. 50. Most of the Basic Section which includes such seminal works as the Bodhisattva-bhūmi and the Śrāvaka-bhūmi survives in Sanskrit, but little survives from the other parts. The following list is based on the Chinese arrangement, which seems to be closer to the original order.
The fourteen books of this section are:Kragh 2013, p. 51.
1 - Pañcavijñānakāyasamprayuktā Bhūmiḥ "The Foundation on the Fivefold Group of Empirical Consciousness" provides a phenomenological analysis of the five sensory consciousnesses (the visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, and tactile forms of consciousness), in terms of five points, their bases (āśraya), nature (svabhava), foci (alambana), accompanying mental states (sahaya) and functioning (karman).Kragh 2013, p. 60. Sense perception is said to have both material basis (the physical sense faculty) and a mental basis (the ālayavijñāna). The mental basis is the latent consciousness which is "the holder of all the seeds [for the mind and mental states]" (sarva-bījaka), "the appropriator of the [corporeal] basis (i.e., the body)" (āśrayopādātṛ), and "belonging to the [category of] karmic maturation" (vipāka-saṃgṛhīta), which refers to the fact that it is morally neutral.
2 - Manobhūmi "The Foundation on Cognition" discusses "thought-consciousness or reflexive consciousness [manas] that arises subsequent to the five sensory perceptions", in terms of the same five points outlined above. It also explains citta, manas, vijñāna, the ālayavijñāna and the afflictive cognition (kliṣṭaṃ manaḥ), using the schema of the eight consciousness. This book also explains the 51 mental factors (caittasikā dharmāḥ), "agreeing with the arrangement that is also seen in the first chapter of Asaṅga's Abhidharmasamuccaya."Kragh 2013, pp. 61-62.
An explanation of the functioning or operation (karman) of cognition is also given which includes an extensive overview of death and rebirth, as well as an exposition of Buddhist cosmology and 24 typologies which discuss many modes of existence.Kragh 2013, p. 63. The rest of the book discusses various classifications of dharmas (phenomena), the first of which divides phenomena into physical (rūpasamudāya), mental (cittacaitasikakalāpa) and unconditioned (asaṃskṛta).Kragh 2013, p. 64. This exposition rejects the Abhidharma theory of atoms (paramāṇu) and instead posits that the seeds (bīja, causal potential) for physical matter are in the mind stream, which suggests that matter emerges from the mental.
The second group of classifications relates to causality and explains time (adhvan), arising (jāti), elapsing (jarā), enduring (sthiti), impermanence (anityatā) and four types of causal conditions (pratyaya). The third group is an ethical classification of phenomena as being either beneficial (kuśala) or not (akuśala) or indeterminate (avyākṛta). The fourth classification includes the twelve constituents of perception (dhātu).Kragh 2013, p. 65.
3 - Savitarkasavicārādibhūmi This book discusses three different foundations having to do with vitarka (discernment) and vicara (discursiveness): (1) the foundation which includes both, (2) the foundation with only discursiveness and (3) the foundation that has neither of these.Kragh 2013, pp. 71-72.
According to Ulrich Timme Kragh "discernment is said to be the cognitive operation that is responsible for ascertaining what is perceived by the senses by initially labeling it with a name, while discursiveness is explained as being the subsequent conceptual operation of deciding whether the perceived sense-object is desirable and what course of action one might want to take in relation to it."Kragh 2013, p. 72. Because these two cognitive factors play a crucial role in samsaric bondage and in meditative concentration (samādhi, which is the pacification of these two factors), they are the focus of an extensive analysis in this book. This analysis is divided into five sections:Kragh 2013, p. 73.
A description of the three realms in saṃsāra: the desire realm (kāmadhātu), the form realm (rūpadhātu) and the realm of incorporeality (ārūpyadhātu). A description of the various defining characteristics (lakṣaṇa) of discernment and discursiveness. A description of the associated correct observation (yoniśomanaskāra), which is "a mental outlook inclined to practice generosity and uphold a good moral."Kragh 2013, p. 74. A description of the associated incorrect observation (ayoniśomanaskāra), which consist of "sixteen types of mistaken views and beliefs," such as eternalism, materialism, belief in a Creator God, belief in the caste superiority of brahmins, and belief in animal sacrifice.Kragh 2013, p. 75. A description of the defilements (saṃkleśa), which are "the emotive and rational states through which sentient beings misperceive reality, e.g., desire, hatred, and ignorance." These are presented as subdivided into different categories, a total of 128 types of defilement are outlined. This section also explains defilement in terms of karma and in terms of the defilement of rebirth and dependent origination (pratītyasamutpāda).Kragh 2013, pp. 76-78.
4 - Samāhitā Bhūmiḥ This book is titled "The Foundation on Meditative Immersion" and attempts to provide a coherent and exhaustive presentation of meditation. Large parts of this book make use of the canonical sutras of "conservative Buddhism" (i.e. non-Mahayana).Delhey, Martin (2009) Samahita Bhumi: Das Kapitel über die meditative Versenkung im Grundteil der Yogacarabhumi, pp. 19-22. The first section of this book gives a general overview of meditation using four terms: meditation (dhyāna), liberation (vimokṣa), meditative attainment (samāpatti), and samādhi.Kragh 2013, p. 80.
The second section of this book provides an extensive presentation of meditation (dhyāna). First, five positive states to be cultivated and five negative states to be abandoned are explained. Then the five hindrances (nivaraṇa) are explained in detail. This is followed by a thorough explanation of each aspect (aṅga) of the four absorptions (catvāri dhyānāni). Also, various related terms from the scriptures are discussed.Kragh 2013, pp. 80-81.