Vasubandhu. [“The Great Compassion and the Perfections of All Buddhas”]. A Fragment of the Seventh Part of Abhidharmakośabhāṣya

Abstract

The paper presents a commented translation of the fragment Jāna-nirdeśa (The doctrine of knowledge) from the seventh part of the exegetic compendium Abhidharmakośabhāya ascribed to the eminent medieval Buddhist thinker Vasubandhu (4th5th centuries AD). The fragment can be used as a historical source for the study of evolution of the image of the Buddha in post-Canonical treatises where the real Śakyamuni was invested with the attributes of a transcendental object of religious cult. The text explicates the conceptual differences between the great compassion (mahākāruā), treated as the Buddhas attribute, and compassion (kāruā) as a characteristic trait of enlightened ascetics (śravakas and pratyekabuddhas) and explains the postulate of identity of all buddhas perfections (the perfection of religious merits and knowledge, the perfection of the Dharmic body, the perfection of serving all sentient beings). This is the first translation based on the Sanskrit edition by P. Pradhan (Pradhan 1967: 414416).