This fourth-century commentary on the Buddhabhumi-sutra is one of the earliest texts of the Yogacara tradition. It includes an introductory description of the setting in which it was preached by the Buddha; the main body of the text, which treats the five factors that constitute a Buddha land, i.e., the Pure Dharma Realm and the four wisdoms: mirror wisdom, equality wisdom, discernment wisdom, and duty-fulfillment wisdom; and a concluding section of two illustrative similes and four summary verses.

The overall theme of these texts is that the Pure Land is not a physical location, but...

In the Chinese Tripitaka there are two texts giving legendary accounts of the life of King Ashoka, the third Maurya ruler of Magadha. The first is the Biography of King Ashoka. The second text is Samghapala's Chinese translation of the Sutra of King Ashoka in ten fascicles, upon which the present English translation is based.

This biographical work gives accounts of the major events in the life of King Ashoka that are historically verifiable through comparative studies of reliable written records and archeological findings. Although the exact date of the original text is...

This volume includes two titles.

The Essentials of the Eight Schools gives a concise account of the history and doctrines of the eight principal Buddhist schools in existence in Japan at the time of the author, i.e. the six schools which were introduced to Japan during the Nara Period and the two schools introduced by Saicho and Kukai during the Heian Period. This work may thus be described as an introduction to Japanese Buddhism. Fascicle 1 contains a preface and accounts of the Kusha, Jojitsu and Discipline Schools, and Fascicle 2 deals with the Hosso, Sanron, Tendai, Kegon and...

The Tripitaka Master Xuanzang (A.D. 600-64), whose deeds and career as a Buddhist monk are described in this biography, was a prominent figure not only in the history of Buddhist learning but also in other fields of culture. He played a role in the establishment of friendly contacts between China and the countries through which he traveled in search of more knowledge of Buddhism and incidentally but not insignificantly provided posterity with data of historical value in his detailed records about regions in central Asia and particularly in ancient India. He is thus respected not only by...

This volume comprises three important texts of the Yogacara school.

Demonstration of Consciousness Only is a translation of Vasubandhu's Thirty Verses plus the interpretation of Dharmapala as the ultimately correct view of the text, with the supplementation of two or three divergent interpretations. It is an attempt to answer the question of the mechanism and nature of ignorance by demonstrating that seemingly real external objects of perception and the equally seemingly real self who perceives these things are mental fabrications that do not exist apart from consciousness...

Collection of Passages on the Nembutsu is the principle work by Honen. It ranks along with Dogen Zenji's The Treasured Eye of the True Dharma and with Honen's disciple Shinran's major writings as one of the three most influential bodies of Buddhist teachings of the Kamakura period. Together, the doctrinally revolutionary ideas contained in these works radically and permanently changed the face of Japanese Buddhism. And among them Honen's Senchakushu was, in terms of its originative and transformative effects on Japanese Buddhism, the most powerful of them all.

This work brought...