攝大乘論 第一分　總摽綱要分

Is there a single book that lays out the whole of Mahāyāna Buddhism as one complete system?

The Mahāyānasaṃgraha — the "Summary of the Great Vehicle" — is that book. Its author, the master Asaṅga (around the fourth or fifth century), is a founder of the Yogācāra tradition. If his younger brother Vasubandhu is the "engineer" who refines, argues, and finishes the house, Asaṅga is the "architect" who drew the whole blueprint from scratch. This treatise is that blueprint.

The title means "drawing together the essentials of the Great Vehicle." Asaṅga's method is elegant: he reduces the entire Great Vehicle to ten topics — beginning with "what does everything we experience actually rest on?" and running all the way to "what is it like, once the path is complete and one becomes a buddha?" Read straight through, the ten topics are a complete map, from the deepest layer of the mind to full awakening.

The treatise also answers a question many people ask: is Mahāyāna Buddhism really the word of the Buddha? Asaṅga's answer is built into these very ten topics.

If the map intrigues you, you can follow the ten topics one by one. But you don't have to dive in at once — for now, just take a look at the map.

To set out his theme from the very start, Asaṅga, at the very opening of the whole treatise, first lays out the "table of contents" of the entire Great Vehicle (Mahāyāna). What follows is in five parts, going along with his words.

1. Setting Out the Theme: The Great Vehicle Is Vast in Scope, with Ten Supremely Excellent Teachings

Asaṅga says: this treatise comes from a scripture called the Abhidharma-mahāyāna-sūtra. In a former time, in the presence of the Buddha (the Bhagavān, that is, the World-Honored One), there was a bodhisattva who had already entered deeply into the Great Vehicle, and who — in order to make plain how vast the Great Vehicle is in scope — spoke these words. (This same point is stated once more at the very end of the treatise: "The 'Mahāyānasaṃgraha' chapter of the Abhidharma-mahāyāna-sūtra — I, Asaṅga, have now finished giving it a brief commentary." So you can see that this treatise is the outline that Asaṅga composed for the "Mahāyānasaṃgraha" chapter of that scripture.)

Going straight to the heart of the matter, he sets out a string of headings: it is solely in dependence on the Great Vehicle that the Buddhas have the "ten supremely excellent teachings" (the original calls this "the tenfold supremely excellent discourse" — "supremely excellent" means specially surpassing, found nowhere else; the doubling of the word is to say that these ten are surpassing to the utmost). These ten, in order, are:

1. The basis of the knowable — the root on which everything there is to know depends (what the foundation of all things is).
2. The characteristics of the knowable — how these things there are to know present themselves.
3. Entering the characteristics of the knowable — how one truly "enters" and personally realizes this way of appearing.
4. The cause and fruit of that entering — what cause this "entering" rests upon, and what fruit it bears.
5. The distinctions in that cultivation that cause and fruit — the stages into which the practice of this cause and fruit is divided.
6. The higher training in discipline — the "discipline" of a further, higher level within this practice.
7. The higher training in mind — the "concentration" of a further, higher level.
8. The higher training in wisdom — the "wisdom" of a further, higher level.
9. The fruit of severance — that quality of "cutting off" attained at the level of the fruit (that is, nirvāṇa).
10. The fruit of cognition — the "wisdom" accomplished at the level of the fruit (that is, the state of Buddhahood).

Asaṅga says: the lines of the Buddhas' scriptural teaching that are gathered up under these ten are enough, by themselves, to prove that the Great Vehicle is truly the word the Buddha spoke. (This sentence has quietly laid the groundwork for the question that comes later — "is the Great Vehicle really what the Buddha spoke?" — and in the next two parts he sets out the reasoning head-on.)

2. These Ten Are Taught Only in the Great Vehicle — What Each One Points To

Next Asaṅga asks himself: on what grounds can these ten prove that the Great Vehicle is what the Buddha spoke? His first reason is this — these ten were never once found in the earlier teaching given to the Śrāvaka (Hearer) disciples; only in the Great Vehicle are they taught everywhere. So he "points out the actual thing" for each one, making clear what is really being spoken of under each heading:

• The basis of the knowable speaks of the storehouse consciousness (ālaya-vijñāna): the root consciousness at the very bottom of the mind, holding within it all the "seeds," the foundation of all experience.
• The characteristics of the knowable speaks of the three natures (three ways the nature of things may be regarded): the other-dependent (paratantra), the wholly-imagined (parikalpita), and the perfectly-accomplished (pariniṣpanna).
• Entering the characteristics of the knowable speaks of the nature of consciousness-only (vijñapti-mātratā): personally realizing that all things are only what the conscious mind makes appear.
• The cause and fruit of that entering speaks of the six perfections (pāramitās): giving, discipline, patience, energy, meditation, and wisdom.
• The distinctions in that cultivation that cause and fruit speaks of the ten bodhisattva grounds: the ten ranks of the practice.
• The higher training in discipline speaks of the bodhisattva discipline (the precepts a bodhisattva undertakes and upholds).
• The higher training in mind speaks of the various profound states of concentration (samādhi) such as the Heroic-March (Śūraṅgama) and the Space-Treasury (Ākāśagarbha).
• The higher training in wisdom speaks of non-conceptual wisdom (nirvikalpa-jñāna): the wisdom that goes beyond the split of subject and object and reaches directly into the truth.
• The fruit of severance speaks of non-abiding nirvāṇa: that liberation which is neither tied down by birth-and-death nor falls back into a dead stillness.
• The fruit of cognition speaks of the Buddha's three bodies: the self-nature body, the enjoyment body, and the transformation body.

Since these ten are taught only in the Great Vehicle, and are not found in the Śrāvaka vehicle, they mark out the fundamental difference between the Great Vehicle and the Śrāvaka vehicle; and, just because the World-Honored One spoke them specifically for the bodhisattvas, this shows all the more how supremely excellent they are. So we can know: it is solely in dependence on the Great Vehicle that the Buddhas have these ten supremely excellent teachings.

3. Why These Ten Can Prove the Great Vehicle Is What the Buddha Spoke

Asaṅga presses one step further and asks: these ten "teachings of the Tathāgata" — on what grounds can they both prove that the Great Vehicle is truly what the Buddha spoke, and also "block off" — fend off the lumping-together that says "the Śrāvaka vehicle just amounts to the Great Vehicle"?

His grounds, besides the "found only in the Great Vehicle, not in the Śrāvaka vehicle" already mentioned, lie also in the fact that these ten themselves possess four marks:

1. They are the most able to give rise to unsurpassed awakening; they are the most powerful cause of Buddhahood.
2. They are established soundly and completely in their reasoning, standing firm — not idle talk.
3. They follow correct principle and hold together from first to last, with no contradiction among them.
4. They are precisely the path that leads to the Buddha's "wisdom that knows everything."

A body of teaching that possesses all four of these at once is the Buddha's teaching, not something an ordinary person could make up. Conversely, since the Śrāvaka vehicle has none of these ten, it likewise cannot falsely claim to be the Great Vehicle itself.

4. Two Verses That Gather the Ten Together

Having finished the reasoning, Asaṅga uses two verses to gather the above together once more.

The first verse names these ten over again in order — the basis of the knowable, the characteristics of the knowable, the cause and fruit of entry, the gradations of the practice, the threefold training in discipline, mind, and wisdom, and the cessation and wisdom of the fruit-level — and says that these ten are gathered up in the "supreme vehicle," and are supremely excellent for that very reason. The second verse declares: these ten are had only by the Great Vehicle and are seen nowhere else; precisely because they are the most excellent cause of Buddhahood, the Great Vehicle is acknowledged to be truly the word of the Buddha — it is just because it sets forth these ten that the Great Vehicle is excellent in this way.

(The ancient treatises often used this device of "finishing the reasoning, then appending verses" to help the reader fix the framework firmly in mind.)

5. The Order in Which These Ten Are Arranged Is the Very Sequence of the Practice

Finally, Asaṅga explains: why are these ten arranged in this order? Because this order is precisely the course by which a bodhisattva personally realizes the practice step by step, each link giving rise to the next —

First one must come to recognize the "cause" of all things (that is, the basis of the knowable = the storehouse consciousness holding the seeds within it); only then can there be any talk of penetrating dependent arising. Having penetrated dependent arising, one can then see clearly the characteristics of phenomena and keep away from two errors — one is "over-affirming" (forcibly adding to a thing a reality it simply does not have), the other is "under-denying" (sweeping it away as if there were nothing at all); this is the characteristics of the knowable = the three natures. Having seen the characteristics clearly, one can then truly penetrate them and let the mind win liberation from every kind of obstruction (entering the characteristics of the knowable = consciousness-only); after penetrating, the six perfections of the preparatory stage grow more complete through being actually realized, because that deep aspiration turned toward the path (the higher resolve) has become pure (the cause and fruit of that entering); then, with the six perfections held by this pure aspiration, one practices through the ten grounds portion by portion, having to pass through the long span of three great incalculable eons (the distinctions in that cultivation = the ten grounds); once the threefold training is complete, one at last directly realizes the two fruits — nirvāṇa (the fruit of severance) and unsurpassed perfect awakening (the fruit of cognition).

So these ten are not items strung together at random, but a complete path running from "recognizing the foundation of the world and the mind" all the way to "perfect Buddhahood." Asaṅga adds one more line at the close: once these ten have been fully set forth, the whole doctrine of the Great Vehicle is then gathered up within them, with nothing left out.

Scriptural and Commentarial Ground

The root treatise opens from the ten supreme points taught in the Abhidharma Mahayana Sutra and uses four marks to show that the Great Vehicle is truly the Buddha’s word. The two ancient commentaries unfold both the meanings of the ten headings and the force of the four marks; this exposition begins from that scriptural and commentarial relation.

Turn to the first page of the Mahayanasamgraha, and Asanga does not open by preaching some grand principle at you. He does something that looks, at first, rather odd: right away he throws down a list — ten stiff technical terms, set out in a row, one, two, three, four. You came to study the Dharma, and the opening reads like someone reciting a table of contents? And worse: no sooner has the list ended than Asanga lays down a weighty claim — that it is precisely on the strength of these ten that the Great Vehicle truly is the word of the Buddha.

This touches the real, scalding question that runs underneath this whole chapter: the Great Vehicle (Mahayana) — is it actually what the Buddha himself spoke?

In Asanga's day this was no polite formality. The Sravaka scholars of the schools openly challenged it: these Mahayana scriptures were never heard during the Buddha's lifetime, they are for the most part later fabrications passed off in his name, they do not count as the Buddha's word. Asanga composed the Mahayanasamgraha, and in the very first chapter he means to meet that blade head-on. And the way he meets it is exactly that "list" — so this chapter, which looks like a table of contents, is in truth an opening statement for the defense: he wants you to see that only the Great Vehicle can speak of these ten, and that the sheer weight of the ten themselves turns back and proves that the Great Vehicle issues from the Buddha's mouth. What follows unfolds in five passages, taught straight through, following Asanga's own words.

1. The list is really a body of evidence

Asanga opens by giving the provenance: this treatise comes from a scripture called the Abhidharma-mahayana-sutra. In it, in the presence of the Buddha (the Bhagavan, the World-Honored One), a bodhisattva who had already entered deeply into the Great Vehicle spoke it "to display the greatness of the body of the Great Vehicle" — to show how vast the very substance of the Great Vehicle is. In other words, with his first stroke Asanga ties his words back to scripture: what I teach is not my own invention; I am drawing up a summary on the scripture's behalf.

Then he sets out the headings: it is in dependence on the Great Vehicle alone that the buddhas have the tenfold supremely excellent discourse. That phrase has to be unpacked: "supremely excellent" means specially surpassing, found nowhere else; "discourse" is the teaching itself, supreme to the highest degree; the two together say that these ten are excellent to the utmost — the supreme teaching that the Great Vehicle alone possesses and the other vehicles do not. Vasubandhu's commentary gives a detailed gloss of this naming here. The ten, in order, are:

1. The basis of the knowable — the root on which all "things to be known" depend: what the underlying ground of all dharmas is.
2. The characteristics of the knowable — the manner in which those things-to-be-known appear.
3. Entering the characteristics of the knowable — how one moves from "understanding" to "direct realization," truly awakening into that characteristic.
4. The cause and fruit of that entering — by what cause this awakening comes, and what fruit it bears.
5. The distinctions in that cultivation of that cause and fruit — into what gradations the cultivation of this cause-and-fruit is divided.
6. The higher training in discipline — the further, elevated "discipline" within this cultivation.
7. The higher training in mind — the further, elevated "concentration."
8. The higher training in wisdom — the further, elevated "wisdom."
9. The fruit of severance — the merit of "cessation" attained at the ground of fruition, which is to say nirvana.
10. The fruit of cognition — the "wisdom" accomplished at the ground of fruition, which is to say the Buddha's own domain.

Having finished the list, Asanga delivers his verdict: the scriptural phrases of the buddhas comprehended under these ten suffice to show that the Great Vehicle truly is the word of the Buddha. Notice the weight of this move — he does not first prove that the Great Vehicle is the Buddha's word and then go on to teach the ten; he does the reverse, taking the ten themselves as the evidence that the Great Vehicle is the Buddha's word. So this "table of contents" was never a table of contents from the start; it is evidence entered into the record. By what proof? In the next two passages, Asanga lays it out step by step.

2. Not one of these ten is found in the Sravaka vehicle — and what each one points to

Asanga first puts a question to himself: "How can this be shown?" — how exactly do these ten manage to show that the Great Vehicle is the Buddha's word?

His first reason is clean and forceful: these ten were never spoken in the earlier teachings given to the Sravaka disciples; only in the Great Vehicle are they taught, everywhere. This single line is the pivot of the whole defense: if these ten were also present in the Sravaka vehicle, then the Great Vehicle would have nothing distinctive; it is precisely because not one of them is to be found in the Sravaka vehicle that the Great Vehicle is "other than" — and "superior to" — the Sravaka vehicle.

But to say merely "the Sravaka vehicle does not have them" is still too empty, so Asanga makes each of the ten concrete — he lifts the lid on every heading and tells you what specifically sits underneath. Reading this, you discover that these ten terms are not ten isolated words, but the very themes that each of the following ten chapters will unfold in turn:

• The basis of the knowable speaks of the alaya-vijnana (storehouse consciousness): the deepest, root consciousness of the mind, which stores all the "seeds," the ground of all experience. Since all dharmas are established in dependence on it, it is called the "basis of the knowable."
• The characteristics of the knowable speaks of the three natures — the other-dependent (paratantra), the wholly-imagined (parikalpita), and the perfectly-accomplished (parinispanna): the three identities under which the world appears (Chapter 3 will treat them in detail with the simile of gold, earth, and treasury; here just hold in mind that there are these three layers).
• Entering the characteristics of the knowable speaks of consciousness-only (vijnapti-matrata): personally realizing that "all dharmas are nothing but the manifestation of mind-consciousness" — this is the threshold from knowing to realizing.
• The cause and fruit of that entering speaks of the six perfections (the six paramitas: giving, discipline, patience, energy, meditation, wisdom) — the cause of awakening into consciousness-only, and likewise its fruit.
• The distinctions in that cultivation of that cause and fruit speaks of the ten bodhisattva grounds: the stages this path must pass through, one rung at a time.
• The higher training in discipline speaks of the bodhisattva moral code: the precepts the bodhisattva upholds, wider in scope than the Sravaka's.
• The higher training in mind speaks of the various profound concentrations (samadhis) such as the Surangama and the Akasagarbha.
• The higher training in wisdom speaks of non-discriminating wisdom (nirvikalpa-jnana): the root wisdom that leaves behind the split of subject and object and directly meets reality as it is.
• The fruit of severance speaks of non-abiding nirvana (apratisthita-nirvana): that great liberation which is neither bound by birth-and-death nor withdrawn into a dead stillness.
• The fruit of cognition speaks of the Buddha's three bodies: the self-nature body (svabhavika-kaya), the enjoyment body (sambhogika-kaya), and the transformation body (nairmanika-kaya).

Once the ten are made concrete, Asanga's conclusion stands firm: since these ten are taught by the Great Vehicle alone and the Sravaka vehicle does not have them, they "show that the Great Vehicle is other than the Sravaka vehicle" — marking out the root difference between the two; and because the World-Honored One taught them for bodhisattvas alone, they further "show it to be most supreme." In a word: it is in dependence on the Great Vehicle alone that the buddhas have these ten most excellent teachings.

3. On what grounds does this count as the Buddha's word — Asanga gives four tests

At this point a sharp opponent will press once more: even granting that these ten belong to the Great Vehicle alone, that can only say "the Great Vehicle and the Sravaka vehicle differ" — on what grounds do you leap in one step to "therefore the Great Vehicle is the Buddha's word"? And could it not run the other way — might someone take the Sravaka vehicle and pass it off as the Great Vehicle?

Asanga meets this head-on, and this is the third step of the chapter's argument — he means to do two things at once: on one side to show that "the Great Vehicle truly is the word of the Buddha," and on the other to deny that the Sravaka vehicle is of the nature of the Great Vehicle, blocking off any claim that confuses the Sravaka vehicle for the Great Vehicle. His grounds, beyond the earlier "only the Great Vehicle has them," lie further in the fact that these ten themselves stand up to four tests (these four points Asvabhava develops in fuller detail in his commentary):

1. They are most able to lead to great enlightenment — these ten are most able to give rise to unsurpassed awakening; they are the most powerful cause of buddhahood. A body of teaching that can lead a person to the fruit of buddhahood is not something an ordinary person could fabricate.
2. They are well established — in their doctrine they are set up soundly and hold their ground; they are no offhand talk, no private opinion that crumbles under scrutiny.
3. They are consistent and without contradiction — they follow right principle and hang together from first to last, with no conflict among themselves. A fabricated teaching always shows its seam somewhere; these ten are, through and through, without contradiction.
4. They serve to attain the wisdom of all-wisdom — they are precisely the actual path to that "wisdom that knows all things" of the Buddha; not merely pleasant words, but a road that truly arrives at the ground of fruition.

A body of teaching that passes all four of these gates at once is the teaching of the Buddha, not something an ordinary person could fabricate. Conversely, since the Sravaka vehicle does not even have these ten, it has no standing to claim falsely that it is itself the Great Vehicle. With this passage Asanga brings "the Great Vehicle is the Buddha's word" down from a conviction into a tested, well-ordered argument.

4. Two verses: gathering the whole body of evidence into a single line

Having taught the reasoning out, Asanga uses two verses to draw the foregoing together once more. The ancient treatises often did this — the prose runs the principle through to the end, and then verses are appended at the close so the reader can fix the skeleton in memory; nearly every chapter of the Samgraha that follows uses this same form.

The first verse names the ten in order: the basis of the knowable, the characteristics of the knowable, the cause and fruit of entry, the gradations of cultivation, the three trainings of discipline-concentration-wisdom, the cessation and the wisdom of the fruit — and its closing line, "comprehended in the supreme vehicle, this is the excellence," says that these ten are gathered under the unsurpassed Great Vehicle, and it is precisely on this account that they are excellent. The second verse gathers the conclusion of the defense into a single statement: these ten belong to the Great Vehicle alone and are seen nowhere else ("this teaches them, the rest does not — seen and not seen"); and precisely because they are the most excellent cause of enlightenment ("by this, the most supreme cause of awakening"), it is granted that the Great Vehicle truly is the word of the Buddha ("therefore the Great Vehicle is allowed to be the true word of the Buddha") — when all is traced back, "by the teaching of the ten points, it is excellent." The argument that circled around through the three previous passages is here pressed into two verses, into a single line.

5. The order of the list conceals a path to buddhahood

In the last passage Asanga turns back to explain a question you may have wanted to ask all along: why are these ten arranged in just this order — "basis of the knowable → characteristics of the knowable → entry → cause and fruit → cultivation → three trainings → cessation → wisdom"? Would another order not do?

Asanga's answer is the most moving thing in this chapter: this order is not arranged by a casual hand; it is itself the course of a bodhisattva's cultivation-and-realization, link locked into link, where if the earlier step is not planted firm there is no speaking of the later one —

First one must recognize the "cause" of all dharmas (the basis of the knowable = the alaya-vijnana storing the seeds) before there can be any penetrating of dependent arising; once dependent arising is penetrated, one can see clearly the characteristics of phenomena, and leave behind two errors — one is superadding (samaropa), forcibly attaching to a thing a reality it simply does not have; the other is subtracting (apavada), erasing it altogether into a sheer nothing (this is the characteristics of the knowable = the three natures, and Chapter 3 is precisely where you are taught to walk this middle way). Having seen the characteristics clearly, one can then truly penetrate and let the mind win liberation from its various obstructions (entering the characteristics of the knowable = consciousness-only). After this penetration, the six perfections of the preparatory stage grow more complete through being actually realized, because that deep aspiration toward the path (the heightened resolve) has been purified (the cause and fruit of that entering). Then, with the six perfections held by this purified resolve, one cultivates portion by portion across the ten grounds, passing through the long span of three immeasurable great eons (the distinctions in that cultivation). When the three trainings have been cultivated to fullness all the way through, one at last directly realizes the two fruits — nirvana (the fruit of severance) and unsurpassed perfect enlightenment (the fruit of cognition).

So these ten were never ten items set side by side, but a complete path running from "seeing clearly the underlying ground of the world and the mind" all the way through to "the full accomplishment of buddhahood." Asanga adds one more line at the close: once these ten are taught to the end, "herein all of the Great Vehicle reaches its completion" — the entire doctrine of the Great Vehicle is gathered here, nothing left out.

Looking back over this chapter, you see how artful Asanga's opening is: with a single list he has accomplished three things at once — a table of contents for the whole book, a body of evidence that the Great Vehicle is the Buddha's word, and a map from ordinary person to buddhahood. The ten themes mark out what each of the following ten chapters will teach; they prove that what this treatise teaches is indeed the Buddha's Dharma; and they spread out before your eyes, all at once, the entire order of the path of cultivation-and-realization. From the second chapter on, Asanga will unfold these ten one by one in detail — and the first stop is that consciousness lying hidden at the very bottom: the alaya-vijnana, the storehouse consciousness.

Later Reception

The next two divisions unfold the storehouse consciousness and the three natures named here. The Thirty Verses inherits both, the Twenty Verses establishes consciousness-only from the side of defense, and the Cheng weishi lun gathers and expands the line. This later reception marks subsequent development without rewriting the present division.