Abhidharmakosabhasyam, Volume IV

(called in other traditions the Four Brahmavihuras); and details
how a beginner should cultivate the visualization of goodwill. This
Chapter concludes with a short discussion on how long the
Saddharma will last, and the definition of the Saddharma as
consisting of agama (the teaching) and adhigama (its cultivation
and realization). Three Karikas then conclude the basic text of the
A bhidharmakoiabhdsyam.
Chapter IX has long been regarded as an appendix to the
Abhidharmakosabhdsyam 9 since the text of the Ninth Chapter
contains no Karikas, and its presentation is devoted to a single
theme, that of refuting the idea of a pudgala or soul. Since this
Chapter is quoted or referred to twice (pages 650, 818) in th£ text
of the KoSabhdsyam, this work was evidently known to the author
of the Kos'abhdsyam, and so was perhaps composed prior to
Vasubandhu's composition of the Kosabhdsyam (as was perhaps
his Karmasiddhi-prakarana) to answer objections to the non-soul
teaching of the Buddhists.
This Chapter is concerned with refuting the soul (here
pudgala) theories of one sect of Hinayana Buddhism, the
Vatsiputriyas (also identified with Sammatiyas); later in the
Chapter the author refutes the theories of the Vai£esikas, one of
the orthodox schools of Hindu Philosophy. In this Chapter,
Vasubandhu concerns himself with explaining memory and
recognition: how does one account for memory and recognition in
the absence of an unchanging substratum to human experience?
The existence of such a substratum becomes the concern of the
Yogacara school of Mahayana Buddhism.
I should like to thank Mr. Ken Johnson for his unstinting work
on the Index of the Abhidharmako/abhdsyam; he has done a fine
job of serving on numerous occasions as my editor and advisor.
Much remains to be done in Kosabhdsyam studies. At present
the Bangladeshi Bhikkhu, Ven. Lokananda, and I are working on
publishing a Romanized edition of the text of the Kosabhdsyam,
and in the compilation of a dictionary to the Sanskrit text of the
work. It would be a great source of joy to see an eventual
translation of YaSomitra's commentary on the Kosabhdsyam, his
Sphutdrtha-abhidharmakofa-vydkhyd, a work quoted liberally in de