The Abhidharmakośakārikā or Verses on the Treasury of Abhidharma is a key text on the Abhidharma written in Sanskrit verse by Vasubandhu in the 4th or 5th century. It summarizes the Sarvāstivādin tenets in eight chapters with a total of around 600 verses. The text was widely respected and used by schools of Buddhism in India, Tibet and East Asia. Vasubandhu wrote a commentary to this work called the Abhidharmakośabhāsya. In it, he critiques the interpretations of the Sarvāstivādins, Vaibhāṣikas and others of the tenets he presented in his previous work from a Sautrāntika perspective. This commentary includes an additional chapter in prose refuting the idea of the "person" favoured by some Buddhists of the Pudgalavada school. However, later Sarvāstivādin master Samghabhadra considered that he misrepresented their school in the process, and at this point designated Vasubandhu as a Sautrāntika rather than as an upholder of the Abhidharma.
Chapters
An English translation of the chapter titles, including the title of the 9th chapter of Vasubandhu's commentary, is:
Karma
Chapter four of the Kośa is devoted to a study of karma, and chapters two and five contain formulation as to the mechanism of fruition and retribution. This became the main source of understanding of the perspective of early Buddhism for later Mahāyāna philosophers. Vasubandhu elaborates on the causes and conditions involved in the production of results, karma being one source of causes and results, the "ripening cause" and "ripened result." Generally speaking, the conditions can be thought of as auxiliary causes. Vasubhandhu draws from the earlier Sarvāstivādin Abhidharma treatises to establish an elaborate Buddhist etiology with the following primary components: Six Causes:
Acting causes – all phenomena, other than the result itself, which do not impede the production of the result. This includes potent acting causes, such as a seed for a sprout, and impotent acting causes, such as the space that allows a sprout to grow and the mother or the clothes of the farmer who planted the seed.
Simultaneously arising causes – causes that arise simultaneously with their results. This would include, for instance, characteristics together with whatever it is that possesses the characteristics.
Congruent causes – a subcategory of simultaneously arising causes, it includes causes share the same focal object, mental aspect, cognitive sensor, time, and slant with their causes—primarily referring to the primary consciousness and its congruent mental factors.
Equal status cause – causes for which the results are later moments in the same category of phenomena. For example, one moment of patience can be considered the cause of the next moment of patience.
Driving causes – disturbing emotions and attitudes that generate other subsequent disturbing emotions and attitudes in the same plane of existence, though the two need not be of the same ethical status.
'Ripening cause - the karmic cause or efficacy.
Four Conditions
Causal conditions - corresponds to five of the six causes, excepting the kāraṇahetu, which corresponds to the three conditions below
Immediately preceding conditions - a consciousness which precedes a sense or mental consciousness without any intervening consciousness and which produces the subsequent consciousness into an experience-ready entity
Focal condition - or "object condition" - an object which directly generates the consciousness apprehending it into having its aspect, e.g. the object blue causes an eye consciousness to be generated into having the aspect of blue
Dominating condition
Five Types of Results:
Ripened results - karmic results.
Results that correspond to their cause - causally concordant effects
Dominating results - the result of predominance. All conditioned dharmas are the adhipatiphala of other conditioned dharmas.
Man-made results - a result due to the activity of another dharma
Results that are states of being parted - not actually a result at all, but refers to the cessation that arises from insight.
Translations
An ancient translation of the Abhidharmakośa-kārikā was made into Chinese by Xuanzang. Ancient translations of the Abhidharmakośa-bhāsya were made into Chinese by Paramārtha and by Xuanzang. Other translations and commentaries exist in Tibetan, Chinese, Classical Mongolian and Old Uyghur. Modern translations have been made into English, French and Russian. English translations include:
Commentaries
There are many commentaries written on this text, including an autocommentary by Master Vasubandhu entitled Abhidharmakoshabhasya. Vasubandhu's student Sthiramati wrote the Tattvartha-tika. The Nalanda scholar Yasomitra, also wrote a sub-commentary on the Abhidharmakoshabhasya, the Sputarth-abhidharmakosa-vyakhya. Other scholars wrote commentaries on the Kosa to defend the Sarvastivadin tenets that Vasubandhu refutes in the text, these include the Nyayanusara and the Abhidharma-dipa. Dignaga's commentary, the Abhidharmakosa Vrtti Marmadipa also includes many sutra quotations. Śamathadeva’s Abhidharmakośopāyikā-ṭīkā,, is a handbook of the Abhidarmakosa that quotes passages from the MūlasarvāstivādaTripitaka. The First Dalai Lama, Gyalwa Gendun Drup composed a commentary titled Illumination of the Path to Freedom. Mikyö Dorje, 8th Karmapa Lama also wrote a two volume commentary on this text.
Printed sources
Vallée Poussin, Louis de la, trad.. L’Abhidharmakosa de Vasubandhu, Paris: Paul Geuthner, , , , , , .
