A Compendium of the Mahayana

The first complete English translation of Asanga's Mahayanasamgraha, the most important and comprehensive Indian Yogacara text, and all its available Indian commentaries.

The Mahayanasaṃgraha, published here with its Indian and Tibetan commentaries in three volumes, presents virtually everything anybody might want to know about the Yogacara School of mahayana Buddhism. It discusses in detail the nature and operation of the eight kinds of consciousness, the often-misunderstood notion of "mind only" (cittamatra), dependent origination, the cultivation of the path and its fruition in terms of the four wisdoms, and the three bodies (kayas) of a buddha.

Volume 1 presents the translation of the Mahayanasaṃgraha along with a commentary by Vasubandhu. The introduction gives an overview of the text and its Indian and Tibetan commentaries, and explains in detail two crucial elements of the Yogacara view: the alaya-consciousness and the afflicted mind (klistamanas).

Volume 2 presents translations of the commentary by Asvabhava and an anonymous Indian commentary on the first chapter of the text. These translations are supplemented in the endnotes by excerpts from Tibetan commentaries and related passages in other Indian and Chinese Yogacara works.

Volume 3 includes appendices with excerpts from other Indian and Chinese Yogacara texts and supplementary materials on major Yogacara topics in the Mahayanasaṃgraha.