Editing Asanga (section)

==Works==

Asaṅga went on to write some key treatises (shastras) of the [[Yogācāra]] school. Over time, many different works were attributed to him (or to Maitreya, with Asaṅga as transmitter), although there are discrepancies between the Chinese and Tibetan traditions concerning which works are attributed to him.<ref>[[Giuseppe Tucci]] (1930). ''On Some Aspects of the Doctrines of Maitreya (natha) and the Asanga'', Calcutta.</ref> Modern scholars have also problematized and questioned these attributions after critical textual study of the sources. The many works attributed to this figure can be divided into the three following groups.

The first are three works which are widely agreed by ancient and modern scholars to be by Asaṅga:<ref name=":12"/><ref name=":02"/>

* ''[[Mahāyānasaṃgraha]]'' (Summary of the [[Great Vehicle]]), a systematic exposition of the major tenets of the Yogacara school in ten chapters.<ref>Keenan, John P. (2003). [https://web.archive.org/web/20140821120318/http://www.bdk.or.jp/pdf/bdk/digitaldl/dBET_T1593_GreatVehicleSummary_2003.pdf "The summary of the Great Vehicle by Bodhisattva Asaṅga"], transl. from the Chinese of Paramārtha (Taishō vol. 31, number 1593). Berkeley, Calif: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research. {{ISBN|1-886439-21-4}}</ref> Considered his [[magnum opus]], survives in one Tibetan and four Chinese translations.
* ''[[Abhidharma-samuccaya]],'' a short summary of the main Mahayana [[Abhidharma]] doctrines, in a traditional Buddhist Abhidharma style similar to non-Mahayana expositions.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/abhidharmasamuccayaofasangarahulawalpolasaraboinweb2001_668_B/page/n20/mode/1up  The Compendium of the Higher Teaching, by Asanga, 2001, p.xx.] {{access-date|8 December 2024}}</ref> According to [[Walpola Rahula]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Walpola|first=Rahula |author-link=Walpola Rahula Thero |title= Abhidharma Samuccaya : The Compendium of the Higher Teaching, by Asanga|date=2001|publisher=Asian Humanities Press|url= https://archive.org/details/abhidharmasamuccayaofasangarahulawalpolasaraboinweb2001_668_B/mode/1up |pages=359}}, English version from the French published in 1971 (trad. Sara Boin-Webb).{{access-date|8 December 2024}}</ref> the thought of this work is closer to that of the Pali ''{{IAST|[[Nikayas|Nikāyas]]}}'' than is that of the Theravadin [[Abhidhamma]].<ref>Dan Lusthaus (2002). ''Buddhist Phenomenology.'' Routledge, p. 44, note 5. Lusthaus draws attention to Rahula's ''Zen and the Taming of the Bull.''</ref>
* ''Xianyang shengjiao lun,'' variously retranslated into Sanskrit as ''Āryadeśanāvikhyāpana, Āryapravacanabhāṣya, Prakaraṇāryaśāsanaśāstra'', ''Śāsanodbhāvana'', and ''Śāsanasphūrti.'' A work strongly based on the [[Yogacarabhumi-sastra|''Yogācārabhūmi'']]. Only available in Xuanzang's Chinese translation, but parallel Sanskrit passages can be found in the ''Yogācārabhūmi.''

=== The Maitreya Corpus ===
The next group of texts are those that Tibetan [[Hagiography|hagiographies]] state were taught to Asaṅga by Maitreya and are thus known as the "Five [[Dharmas]] of Maitreya" in [[Tibetan Buddhism|Tibetan Buddhist]] scholasticism. According to D.S. Ruegg, the "five works of Maitreya" are mentioned in Sanskrit sources from only the 11th century onwards.<ref>Ruegg, D.S. ''La Theorie du Tathagatagarbha et du Gotra''. Paris: Ecole d'Extreme Orient, 1969, p. 35.</ref> As noted by [[Shenpen Hookham|S.K. Hookham]], their attribution to a single author has been questioned by modern scholars.<ref>Hookham, S. K. (1991). The Buddha within: Tathagatagarbha doctrine according to the Shentong interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhaga. SUNY Press. {{ISBN|0-7914-0357-2}}. Source; [3] (accessed: Tuesday May 5, 2009), p.325.</ref> 

According to the Tibetan tradition, the so called Asanga-Maitreya is:

* ''[[Mahayana-sutra-alamkara-karika|Mahāyānasūtrālamkāra-kārikā]]'', ("The Adornment of [[Mahayana sutras]]", Tib. ''theg-pa chen-po'i mdo-sde'i rgyan''), which presents the Mahāyāna path from the Yogācāra perspective and shows structural similarities with the ''Bodhisattvabhumi.'' There is a closely related commentary on this text, the ''Mahāyānasūtrālamkāra-bhāṣya.'' Some scholars, like Mario D'amato, have questioned the attribution of this text to Asanga-Maitreya. Instead, D'amato places this text (together with the commentary, which he considers the work of one author) after the ''Bodhisattvabhumi'', but before the composition of Asanga's ''Mahāyānasaṃgraha'' (which quotes the ''Mahāyānasūtrālamkāra'' as an authoritative text).<ref name=":0">D’AMATO, M. “THREE NATURES, THREE STAGES: AN INTERPRETATION OF THE YOGĀCĀRA ‘TRISVABHĀVA’-THEORY.” ''Journal of Indian Philosophy'', vol. 33, no. 2, 2005, pp. 185–207. ''JSTOR'', <nowiki>http://www.jstor.org/stable/23497001</nowiki>. Accessed 16 Feb. 2024.</ref> 
* ''[[Madhyanta-vibhaga-karika|Madhyāntavibhāga-kārikā]]'' ("Distinguishing the Middle and the Extremes", Tib. ''dbus-dang mtha' rnam-par 'byed-pa''), 112 verses that are a key work in Yogācāra philosophy. D'amato also places this text in the second phase of Yogacara scholarship, i.e. after the ''Bodhisattvabhumi,'' but before the classic works of Asanga and Vasubandhu.<ref name=":0" /> 
* ''[[Dharma-dharmata-vibhaga|Dharmadharmatāvibhāga]]'' ("Distinguishing Phenomena and Pure Being", Tib. ''chos-dang chos-nyid rnam-par 'byed-pa''), a short Yogācāra work discussing the distinction and correlation (''vibhāga'') between phenomena (''dharma'') and reality (''dharmatā'').
* ''[[Abhisamayalankara]]'' ( "Ornament for clear realization", ''Tib. mngon-par rtogs-pa'i rgyan''), a verse text which attempts a synthesis of [[Prajnaparamita|''Prajñaparamita'']] doctrine and Yogacara thought. There are differing scholarly opinions on authorship, John Makransky writes that it is possible the author was actually Arya Vimuktisena, the 6th century author of the first surviving commentary on this work.<ref>Makransky, John J.  ''Buddhahood Embodied: Sources of Controversy in India and Tibet'' SUNY Press, 1997, p. 187.</ref> Makransky also notes that it is only the later 8th century commentator [[Haribhadra (Buddhist philosopher)|Haribhadra]] who attributes this text to Maitreya, but that this may have been a means to ascribe greater authority to the text.<ref>Makransky, John J.  ''Buddhahood Embodied: Sources of Controversy in India and Tibet'' SUNY Press, 1997, p. 17.</ref> As Brunnholzl notes, this text is also completely unknown in the Chinese Buddhist tradition''.''<ref name=":2">Brunnholzl, Karl'', When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and Its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sutra and Tantra,'' Shambhala Publications, 2015, p. 81.</ref>
* ''[[Ratnagotravibhaga]]'' (Exposition of the Jeweled lineage, Tib. ''theg-pa chen-po rgyud bla-ma'i bstan,'' a.k.a. ''Uttāratantra śāstra)'', a compendium on [[Buddha-nature]] attributed to Maitreya via Asaṅga by the Tibetan tradition. The Chinese tradition attributes it to a certain Sāramati (3rd-4th century CE), according to the [[Huayan]] patriarch [[Fazang]].<ref>Williams, Paul, Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations, Routledge, 1989, p. 103.</ref> According to [[Shenpen Hookham|S.K. Hookham]], modern scholarship favors Sāramati as the author of the RGV. She also notes there is no evidence for the attribution to Maitreya before the time of [[Maitripada|Maitripa]] (11th century).<ref>Hookham, S. K. (1991). The Buddha within: Tathagatagarbha doctrine according to the Shentong interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhaga. SUNY Press. {{ISBN|0-7914-0357-2}}. Source; [3] (accessed: Tuesday May 5, 2009), pp.165-166.</ref> [[Peter Harvey (Buddhism)|Peter Harvey]] concurs, finding the Tibetan attribution less plausible.<ref>Peter Harvey (1993). "An Introduction to Buddhism." Cambridge University Press, page 114.</ref>

According to Karl Brunnholzl, the Chinese tradition also speaks of five Maitreya-Asanga texts (first mentioned in Dunlun's ''Yujia lunji''), "but considers them as consisting of the ''[[Yogacarabhumi-sastra|Yogācārabhūmi]], *Yogavibhāga'' [now lost]'', [[Mahayana-sutra-alamkara-karika|Mahāyānasūtrālamkārakā]], [[Madhyanta-vibhaga-karika|Madhyāntavibhāga]]'' and the ''Vajracchedikākāvyākhyā."''<ref name=":2" />

While the ''[[Yogacarabhumi-sastra|Yogācārabhūmi śāstra]]'' (“Treatise on the Levels of Spiritual Practitioners”), a massive and encyclopaedic work on yogic praxis, has traditionally been attributed to Asaṅga or Maitreya ''[[in toto]]'', but most modern scholars now consider the text to be a compilation of various works by numerous authors, and different textual strata can be discerned within its contents.<ref>Delhey, Martin, [http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195393521/obo-9780195393521-0248.xml ''Yogācārabhūmi'', oxfordbibliographies.com], LAST MODIFIED: 26 JULY 2017, DOI: 10.1093/OBO/9780195393521-0248.</ref> However, Asaṅga may still have participated in the compilation of this work.<ref name=":12" />

The third group of texts associated with Asaṅga comprises two commentaries: the ''Kārikāsaptati'', a work on the ''[[Diamond Sutra|Vajracchedikā]]'', and the ''Āryasaṃdhinirmocana-bhāṣya'' (Commentary on the [[Sandhinirmocana Sutra|''Saṃdhinirmocana'']])''.'' The attribution of both of these to Asaṅga is not widely accepted by modern scholars.<ref name=":12" />