Vasubandhu - Biography

Biography

Born a brahmin Vasubandhu was said to have been the half brother of Asanga, another key personage in the founding of the Yogacara School. He was also, as well as his elder half brother Asanga, one of the ‘Six Ornaments’(i.e. six great commentators on the Buddha’s teachings). He resided at Kausambhi (near modern Allahabad) where he was trained in the orthodox Sarvastivada Order of Buddhism, which had its seat at Kausambhi. He was contemporaneous with King Chandragupta I, the father of Samudragupta. This information temporally places this Vasubandhu in the fourth century CE.

Vasubandhu is said to have trained in the Vaibhāṣika-Sarvāstivādin when he initially studied Vaibhashika-Sarvāstivādin Abhidharma, as presented in the Mahā-vibhāsa. Dissatisfied with those teachings, he wrote a summary of the Vaibhashika perspective in the Abhidharmakośa in verse and an auto-commentary, the Abhidharmakośa-bhāsya, which summarised and critiqued the Mahāvibhāsa from the Sautrāntrika viewpoint.

He is later said to have converted to the Mahāyāna tradition under the influence of his brother, whereupon he composed a number of voluminous treatises, especially on Yogācāra doctrines. Most influential in the East Asian Buddhist tradition have been Vimśatikāvijñaptimātratāsiddhi, the "Twenty Verses on Representation Only" and the Triṃśikā-vijñaptimātratā, the "Thirty Verses on Representation-only". These two texts are companions. Vasubandhu also wrote a large number of other works, including:

• Commentary to the Mahāyāna-samgraha
• Daśabhūmika-bhāṣya (Ten Stages Sutra)
• Catuhśataka-śāstra
• Mahāyāna śatadharmā-prakāśamukha śāstra
• Amitayus sutropadeśa
• Discourse on the Pure Land
• Vijnaptimatrata Sastra
• Karmasiddhiprakarana (A Treatise on Action)