Abhisamayalankara

The IAST|Abhisamaya-alaṅkāra ("Ornament of/for Clear Realization [s] "), abbreviated AA, is one of five Sanskrit-language Mahāyāna Buddhist scriptures which Maitreya--a Buddha or bodhisattva (the point is somewhat controversial)--is said to have revealed to AsaIAST|ṅga (northwest India, 4th century AD). Some scholars (Erich Frauwallner, Giuseppe Tucci, Hakiju Ui) refer to the text's author as Maitreyanātha ("Lord Maitreya") in order to avoid either affirming the claim of supernatural revelation, or identifying the author as AsaIAST|ṅga himself. (Perhaps "Maitreya" was the name of AsaIAST|ṅga's human teacher.)

It is worth noting that the AA is never even mentioned by the translator Xuanzang, who spent several years at Nalanda in India during the early 7th century, and became a savant in the Maitreya-AsaIAST|ṅga tradition. One possible explanation is that the text is in fact later, and was attributed to Maitreya-AsaIAST|ṅga for purposes of legitimacy.

The AA contains nine chapters and 273 verses. Its pithy contents summarize--in the form of eight categories and seventy topics--the "Prajñāpāramitā" ("Perfection of Wisdom," abbreviated PP) Sūtras which the Mādhyamika school of Buddhism regards as presenting the ultimate truth. Gareth Sparham believes the text to be commenting on the version in 25,000 lines, although it does not explicitly say so. Haribhadra, whose commentary is based on the 8,000-line PP Sūtra, held that the AA is commenting on all PP versions at once. [ Sparham, AA vol. 1, p. xiv.] Other, related sources include the "IAST|Astasāhasrikā"and the "IAST|Pañcavimśati-sāhasrikā."

Several scholars liken the AA to a "table of contents" for the PP. [Among them are Edward Conze ("The PP Literature," p. 104) and James Apple ("Stairway to Nirvana," p. 49.)] Edward Conze admits that the correspondence between these numbered topics, and the contents of the PP is "not always easy to see..."; [ From his Preface to the "Large Sutra"p. x ] and that the fit is accomplished "not without some violence" to the text. [ From his AA translation, p. 10. ] The AA is widely held to reflect the hidden meaning (sbed don) of the PP, with the implication being that its details are not found there explicitly. (Sparham traces this tradition to Haribhadra's student Dharmamitra.) [ Sparham, AA vol. 1, p. xx.] One noteworthy effect is to recast PP texts as path literature. Philosophical differences may also be identified. Conze sees the AA as an attempt to reinterpret the PP, associated with Mādhyamika tenets, in the direction of Yogācāra. [Conze, "The PP Literature," p. 104.]

The AA is studied by all lineages of Tibetan Buddhism, and is one of five principal works studied in the Geshe curriculum of the major Gelugpa monasteries. It is probably the most extensive and influential source of certain doctrines, such as the Ten Grounds ("bhumi"), the Five Paths ("marga"), and the Four Buddha-Bodies ("kaya"). Alexander Berzin has suggested that its prominence in the Tibetan tradition, but not elsewhere, may be due to the existence of the aforementioned commentary by Haribhadra, who was the disciple of Shantarakshita (an influential early Indian Buddhist missionary to Tibet). [ In his "Overview..." (cited below), second sentence. ]

Tsongkhapa's writings name the AA as the root text of the lamrim tradition founded by Atisha. Tsongkhapa's teacher Don grub Rin chen encouraged him to study the five texts of Maitreya, especially the AA. [ Apple, "Stairway to Nirvana," p. 39. ] Geshe Georges Dreyfus reports that

:"Ge-luk monastic universities...take the "Ornament" as the central text for the study of the path; they treat it as a kind of Buddhist encyclopedia, read in the light of commentaries by Dzong-ka-ba, Gyel-tsap, and the authors of manuals [monastic textbooks] . Sometimes these commentaries spin out elaborate digressions from a single word of the "Ornament." [ "...Two Hands Clapping, pp. 175-176. ]

Dreyfus adds that non-Gelug schools give less emphasis to the AA, but study a somewhat larger number of works (including the other texts of the Maitreya-Asanga corpus) in correspondingly less detail.

:Note on spelling variations: The compound title "IAST|Abhisamayālaṅkāra" may be separated as "IAST|Abhisamaya-alaṅkāra." Stripped of diacriticals, the second element may either be spelled -"alankara" or -"alamkara," with the "n" or "m" representing the transliterated letter "IAST|ṅ" (an "n" with a superscribed dot) and sound "ng."

Title of the work

The text's full title is:

:*Sanskrit: "IAST|Abhisamayālaṅkāranāmaprajñāpāramitopadeśaśāstra":*Tibetan: Shes rap kyi pha rol tu phyin pa'i man ngag gi bstan bcos mngon par rtogs pa'i rgyan ces bya ba:*Chinese: 現観荘嚴論 (NB: No Chinese version appears to have existed before the modern period.)

Which means:

:*"abhisamaya" (mngon par rtogs pa) - "Clear Realization(s)" :*"IAST|alaṅkāra" (rgyan) -- "Ornament" (Berzin prefers "Filigree"):*"nāma" (zhes bya ba) -- "called":*"prajñāpāramitā" (shes rap kyi pha rol tu phyin ba) - "Perfection of Wisdom":*"upadeśa" (man ngag) -- "Instructions" (literally, "an up-close look"):*"śāstra" (bstan bcos)-- "Treatise"

Thus, a "Treatise [of] Instructions [on the] Perfection of Wisdom, called [the] Ornament [of / for] Clear Realization [s] ."

Sparham explains:

:"The word "abhisamaya" is made up of the prefix "abhi" ("toward, over"), the prefix "sam" ("together with"), and the root "i", a verb of motion with the secondary meaning "to understand." Generally speaking, "abhisamaya" means a coming together, a "re-union," particularly of a knower with something to be known, hence a "clear realization." In a title "abhisamaya" may just mean "chapter," hence the title "IAST|Abhisamayālaṅkāra" means "Ornament for the Clear Realizations" or "Ornament for the Chapters." [ Sparham, AA vol 1, pp. xiii-xiv ]

Conze adds some details about the term's origins:

:In the Pali scriptures the term is used to designate the stage when we comprehend the four holy truths. In the "Abhidharmakośa" (VI 122) it is interpreted as the correct ("sam" = "samyak") knowledge ("aya") which is turned toward ("abhi") NirvIAST|āṅa. In the "Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra" itself it is invariably coupled with "prāpti", "attainment," and in one place...it is a synonymn for "sāksātkriya" (realization). [ Conze, "The PP Literature", pp. 104-105.]

As to whether we are speaking of one realization, or of eight, Sparham offers the following explanation by Darma Rinchen, a 14th-15th century Tibetan commentator:

:An admirer views a naturally beautiful woman adorned with golden ornaments reflected in a mirror. The "Perfection of Wisdom Sūtras" are the naturally beautiful woman. The systematization of the contents of the "Sūtras" into eight subjects and seventy topics are the golden ornaments, and the "Ornament" the mirror through which they view her. [ Sparham, AA vol 1. p. xiii. ]

Elaborating on the metaphor, Geshe Jampa Gyatso distinguishes between a "natural ornament" (the beautiful woman, the Perfection of Wisdom), "beautifying ornament" (her jewelry, the eight categories and seventy topics), and "clarifying ornament" (the mirror, the AA). [ From p. 3 of an oral commentary given in Pomaia, Italy, 1998. Transcript reprinted by the Istituto Lama Tsong Khapa, Pomaia, 2008. ]

Philosophical Perspective

The PP Sūtras form the basis for the Mādhyamika ("Middle Way") school of Indian Buddhist philosophy, which Tibetan consensus acknowledges as the "highest" (truest, best) tenet system. The Maitreya-AsaIAST|ṅga literature, however, forms the basis for the rival Yogācāra ("Yoga Adepts") or Cittamātra ("Mind Only" or "Consciousness Only") school (if these were not two distinct tenet systems, as a few writers maintain). It is therefore perhaps understandable that the AA, as Sparham writes, "straddles the ground between Indian Middle Way and Mind Only..." [Sparham, AA vol. 1, p. xiv.] Conze concurs, ascribing to the AA "an intermediate position between Mādhyamikas and Yogācārins..." [ Conze, "The PP Literature," p. 101. ]

Conze discovers in the AA "some affinities with other Yogācārin works" and suggests a number of precise correspondences. At the same time, he notes, "Two of the specific "doctrines" of the Yogācārins, i.e. the 'storeconsciousness' and the three kinds of own-being ("svabhāva") are quite ignored." [Conze, "The PP Literature," pp. 102-103. ] Eugène Obermiller on the other hand writes that "The main philosophical view expressed in the IAST|Abhisamayalaṅkāra is that of strictest Monism and of the Non-substantiality and Relativity ("śūnyatā") of all separate elements of existence, i.e. the standpoint of the Mādhyamikas." Obermiller sees the AA as the product of interaction between Mahāyāna Buddhism and the Hindu Vedānta philosophy. [ p.Obermiller, "Analysis of the AA," ii-iii. (This is also a main point of his article "The Doctrine of PP...")]

Gelugpa writers, following Bu ston, specify that Maitreya's text teaches something called "Yogācāra Svātantrika Madhyamaka." [ See Alexander Berzin's "The Five Pathway Minds (The Five Paths): Advanced Presentation," par. 3. ] The category is often criticized as artificial, even by the standards of Tibetan doxography. Nyingma and Sakya writers agree that the AA contains Madhyamaka teachings, without necessarily endorsing the subdivisions proposed by Gelugpas.

In an aside, Ian Charles Harris finds it "curious" that

:"...Maitreya is generally considered to be the mythical instructor of AsaIAST|ṅga, and therefore for those who see "Māhāyana" Buddhism in terms of schools [as Harris does not] , to be the founder of the "Yogācāra-Vijñānanavāda." One wonders why someone seeking to establish a rival school to Nāgārjuna should wish to write a treatise on the "Prajñāpāramitā" if, as many authors believe, it is amenable only to an interpretation from the standpoint of the "PrāsaIAST|ṅgika-Madhyamaka"." ["The Continuity of Madhyamaka and Yogācāra in Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism" (Leiden: Brill, 1991), p. 72. ]

Harris goes on to note the "strange fact" that Tsongkhapa would be a self-avowed Prasangika, despite his system's assignment of "all the great "Madhyamaka" authorities on the "Prajñāpāramitā" to Yogācāra Svātantrika Madhyamaka. [ Op. cit., p. 73 ]

The Eight Categories and Seventy Topics

The AA is divided into eight categories, which correspond to the first eight chapters of the work (the ninth being a summary), and (with one technical exception in chapter eight) [ According to Geshe Jampa Gyatso, the eighth "category" is the "resultant truth body" whereas the eighth "clear realization" is the "resultant exalted wisdom truth body." This reflects a Gelug understanding. From p. 1 of a 1998 oral commentary printed in 2008 and privately circulated by the Istituto Lama Tsong Khapa in Pomaia, Italy.] to the eight "realizations" said to be necessary for full enlightenment. (Conze remarks that these eight are "not attested elsewhere.") [ "The Prajnaparamita Literature," p. 105. ]

This division into eight appears thus at the beginning of the AA itself:

: [The Buddhas] proclaim the "Perfection of Wisdom" ["Sūtra"] by way of eight subjects. These eight are the knowledge of all aspects, knowledge of paths, and all knowledge. Then there is the awakening to all aspects, when culmination is attained, serial, awakening in an instant, and the Truth Body. [AA verses 1.4 and 1.5, Sparham translation] [Sparham, AA. vol. 1, p. xviii. ]

These eight categories naturally fall into three groups, as shown below. The seventy topics (also shown) are their subdivisions. Obermiller traces this list to a manual attributed to 'Jam dbyangs Bzhad pa, who also created the AA's definitions and category-boundaries familiar from Tibetan debate. [ Obermiller, "Analysis of the AA," p. v.<] >. The text may be subdivided further still, into 1,200 items.

Unless otherwise indicated, the English terms below follow Sparham's translation (which revises Conze's).

The Three Knowledges

The first three categories represent the objects or goals of practice, whose attainment leads to peace for the four classes of Buddhist practitioner. Obermiller calls them "the 3 Kinds of Omniscience," while Toh prefers "the Three Exalted Knowers."

:1. Knowledge of all aspects::("Sarvākārajñatā", rnam pa tham cad mkhen pa).............................10 topics::(Wisdom attained by Buddhas; inclusive of categories two and three below)

:2. Knowledge of paths::("Mārgākārajñatā", lam shes pa)....................................................11 topics::(Wisdom attained by bodhisattvas; inclusive of category three below)

:3. All-knowledge ::("Sarvajñatā", gzhi shes pa)...........................................................9 topics::(Wisdom attained by "sravakas" and "pratyekabuddhas," i.e., Hinayana practitioners)

Berzin explains these categories as

:"...groupings of realizations gained by the three sets of "aryas" ("'phags-pa", highly realized beings), those who have gained nonconceptual cognition of the sixteen aspects of the four noble truths. The three are organized into basis, pathway, and resultant stages and thus, in a complex manner, are cumulative. They are studied, however, in reverse order to their attainment, in order to inspire interest in developing them." [ Berzin, "Overview...," subheading entitled "The Three Sets of Realized Awareness."]

The Four Practices

Categories four through seven (in this order) represent progressive stages of spiritual practice en route to enlightenment:

:4. Full awakening to all aspects::("Sarvākārābhisambodha", rnam pa).............................................11 topics

:5. Culmination clear realization::("Murdhābhisamaya", rtse mor phyin pa'i sbyor ba)..........................8 topics

:6. Serial clear realization ::("Anupurvābhisamaya", mthar gyis pa'i sbyor ba)............................13 topics

:7. Clear realization in a single instant::("Ekaksanābhisamaya", skad cig mati sbyor ba)..............................4 topics

Referring to the above, Dreyfus explains that

:"...the "Ornament" presents the four practices or realizations [chapters 4-7] , emphasizing particularly 'the practice of all the aspects' ("rnam rzdogs sbyar ba"), which is treated in the fourth chapter. In fact, that practice is the central topic of the text and may have been an actual practice in which all the aspects of the three wisdoms [chapters 1-3] are brought together... But--and this point is crucial--no teacher I have ever met seems to have practiced this meditation, or even to have been clear on how to do so... Clearly the work's central themes are not practiced in the Tibetan scholastic traditions." ["...Two Hands Clapping", p. 176.]

The Resultant Truth Body

The last Category concerns the result of spiritual practice:

:8. The Resultant Truth Body::("Dharmakāyābhisambodha", chos sku)........................................4 topics:::::::::::::::: --------------::::::::::::::::70 topics

By this is meant the Dharmakāya, one of several glorified spiritual bodies which a Buddha is said to possess. Haribhadra's commentary is noteworthy for teaching the existence of four such bodies, rather than the more traditional three (cf. "trikaya"), with the fourth "kāya" being the "Svabhāvikakāya" (Tib. ngo bo nyid kyi sku) or "Nature / Essence Body". Other writers interpret this last term as a synonym for Dharmakaya, or else as symbolizing the unity of the three.

Ancilliary Topics

Tibetan tradition identifies 173 topics which are associated with the AA and the wider PP literature. Apple explains that

:"Within these 173 are four that are regarded as distinctive and difficult to comprehend (rtogs dka' ba): the teaching concerning dependent origination (rten 'brel), the teaching related to the hermeneutics of distinguishing between definitive and interpretable scriptures (drang nges) along with differences between the "Mādhyamaka" and "Yogācāra" interpretations of the "Prajñāpāramitā sūtras," the teachings concerning form and formless realm meditative absorption (bsam gzugs), and finally...the teaching of the Twenty Varieties of the Samgha (dge 'dun nyi shu)." [ "Stairway to Nirvana," p. 4.]

At the same time, Apple refers to a list of ten topics of special instruction ("avavāda", gdams ngag), which apparently includes these four. ["Stairway to Nirvana," p. 2. ]

Obermiller, describing the curriculum of Drepung's (’Bras spungs) Go mang college, reports that the monks studied the AA in a four-year sequence (after certain preliminary subjects); and that each class also studied a prescribed "secondary subject" ("zur-bkol") for that year:

:First class: Introduction to the AA as well as the special topic, the "Twenty Sangha."

:Second class: Finished through the seventh topic of the first AA chapter; the supplementary topic was dependent origination ("pratītyasamutpāda")

:Third class: Finished the first AA chapter and continued; also studied the Yogacara theory of the storehouse consciousness ("ālāyavijñāna"), and the difference between definitive and interpretable scripture as taught by Mādhyamaka and Yogācāra.

:Fourth class: Focused on the fourth chapter of the AA ("which is regarded as the most difficult"), supplemented with "the teaching about the four degrees of trance in the sphere of Etherial Bodies...and the four degrees of mystic absorption in the Immaterial Sphere." The fourth-year students would conclude with a celebratory feast.

Obermiller adds that "All these studies are conducted in the form of lectures which are accompanied by controversies between the different groups of students according to the method of "sequence and reason" ("thal-phyir")." [ Obermiller, "Analysis of the AA," p. v-vii. ]

Twenty Sangha

The subject of "Twenty Sangha" ("vimsatiprabhedasamgha," dge 'dun nyi shu) aims at schematizing the various spiritual levels through which one might pass on the way to enlightenment. Here "Sangha" refers not so much to actual monks and nuns (the term's most common meaning), but to an idealized, gradated schema of all the types of accomplished Buddhist. The AA explains that it is the latter sense of "Sangha" which constitutes the object of Buddhist Refuge, and in an especially cryptic verse, offers the following subdivision into twenty types:

:There are Twenty [categories] : those with dull and sharp faculties, those who have attained faith and vision, those who are born from family to family, those born with one interval, those who are born in the intermediate state, those who are born, with effort and effortlessly, those who go to Akanistha, three who leap, those who go to the upper limit of the world, those who destroy attachment to the form [realm] , those who pacify visual phenomena, the bodily witness, and the rhinoceros. [AA verses 1.23-24, James Apple translation] [ Apple, "Twenty Varieties of the Sangha" pt. 1, p. 514.]

What does this mean? The project seems to have been inspired by an earlier typology of four (Stream-Enterer, Once-Returner, Non-Returner, "Arhat"), which may be expanded to eight by distinguishing between approachers to, or abiders at, each level. Unfortunately the list of twenty does not correspond very well with this earlier one (not to speak of the problem of the remaining twelve types). Furthermore, Tibetan exegetical tradition estimates the actual number of types of Sangha (including combinations and subdivisions) to approach the tens of thousands. [ Apple, "Stairway to Nirvana," p. 9. ] Such difficulties seem to account for much of the subject's popularity in debate.(See Apple's monograph on the subject.)

Commentarial Literature

In India

21 ancient Indian AA commentaries are extant. The oldest is that of Ārya Vimuktisena, called "Illuminating the Twenty Thousand: A Commentary on the Ornament" ("Pañcavimsatisāhasrikā-prajñāparamitopadesasāstra-abhisamāyalaIAST|ṅkāra-vrtti," nyi khri nsang ba). Written in a different style from its successors, it makes frequent reference to Vasubandhu's "Abhidharmakośaśāstra."

Even more influential has been the commentary of Haribadra (Seng ge Bzang Po), "Light for the" Ornament": An Explanation of the" Perfection of Wisdom. ("AbhisamāyalaIAST|ṅkāralokāprajñāpāramitāvyākhyā", rgyan snang) Based on the 8000-line PP Sutra, it was composed circa AD 800. Haribhadra also composed an abridged version called "Easily Understandable Commentary on the Difficult Points of the Compendium" (sdud pa'i dka' 'grel rtogs sla) and "Commentary on the Clear Meaning" ('grel pa don gsal).

Haribhadra in his prefatory homage salutes, in addition to Ārya Vimuktisena, fellow AA commentators Asanga, Vasubandhu, and Bhadanta Vimuktisena ("the Intelligent" Vimuktisena--not to be confused with Ārya, "the Noble" Vimuktisena). The reference to Asanga is ambiguous, and is sometimes interpreted to mean that Asanga wrote an AA commentary of his own. If this work ever existed, it is no longer extant. Vasubandhu's AA commentary is entitled "Padhati" ("The Well-Trodden Path"), while Bhadanta Vimuktisena wrote the "Excellent Explanation of the Twenty Thousand" (IAST|Abhisamayālaṅkāra-vārttika, tshig le'ur byas pa'i rnam par 'drel pa).

Rounding out the 21 are:

:* Shantipa, "Pure Possessor of the Twenty Thousand" (nyi khri dag ldan) and "Sublime Essence" (snying po mchog).:*Abhayakara, "Moonlight of Important Points" (gnad kyi zla 'od):*Buddhajnana, ""Commentary on the Difficult Points of the Compedium" (sdud pa'i dka' 'grel).:*Dharmashri, "A Key to the Perfection of Wisdom Treasury" (sher phyin mdzod kyi lde mig) and "Explanation of the One Hundred Thousand" (stong phrag brgya pa'i shad pa):*Smrtijnana, "Exposition of the Three Mothers According to the Eight Categories" (yum gsum don brgyad kyis mthun par bstan pa).:*Dharmakalyana, "Clear Explanation of the Words Commentary" ('grel bshad tshig gsal).:*Suvarnadvipa, Illumination of Reasoning (rtog ge'i snang ba).:*Prañjasamati, "Compendium of Meanings" (bsdus don).:*Atisha, "Compendium of Meanings.":*Shrikumara, "Compedium of Meanings.":*Ratnakirti, "Renowned Parts" (grags cha).:*Buddhashri, "A Rosary of the Lamp of Wisdom" (shes rab sgron me'i phreng ba).:*Abhayakara, "Ornament for the Muni's Thoughts (thub pa dgongs rgyan).

In any case, the commentaries by Ārya Vimuktisena and Haribhadra are the most fundamental to the subsequent commentarial tradition.

In Tibet

The AA was extremely influential in Tibet, resulting in the production of numerous commentaries. The first were those of "Ngok Lotsawa" or "Ngok the Translator" (Rngog Lo tsa ba Bal ldan Shes rab, 1059-1109): "Mngon rtogs rgyan gyi don bsdus pa" (a summary), "Shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa'i man ngag mngon par rtogs pa'i rgyan gi tik chung" (a "small" commentary), and an 8000-line Prajnaparamita summary called "Yum brgyad stong pa'i 'grel pa'i don bsdus" (possibly a sub-commentary to Haribhadra's "Sphutārthā").

Other notable AA commentaries have been written by

:* Rong ston shes bya kun rig wrote 7 commentaries on and treatises related to the AA [ See David Jackson, Kyoto: 1988 ]

:* Sakya writer 'Go rams pa bsod nams seng ge wrote four commentaries.

:*Tsongkhapa's "Golden Garland" (gSer-phreng)

:*His disciple Gyaltsab's "Ornament of the Essence"

:*Sa skya writer G.Yag ston, Sangs gyas dpal (g.yag phrug pa), 1350-1414. Wrote Mngon rtogs rgyan 'grel pa rin chen bsam 'phel dbang rgyal ("King of Wish-Fulfilling Jewels"), in eight volumes.

:*Shakya Chogden

:*Panchen Ngagwang Dragpa

In the West

The AA seems not to have attracted the attention of Western scholars until the 1930's, when Eugène Obermiller and Theodor Stcherbatsky produced an edition of the Sanskrit / Tibetan text. Obermiller, a specialist in Yogacara and Tathatagatagarbha literature, had already written a lengthy article on the AA ("The Doctrine of PP...") and was in the process of composing "Analysis of the AA" when he died. While Obermiller approached the AA from the perspective of "Monism," which he associated with Vedanta, his studies in the Buryat Mongolian monastery of Gandan exposed him to a more traditional hermeneutic framework. Along with a translation of the AA (or the three-fifths of it which he finished), he also provided a summary of Haribhadra's commentary for each section.

Edward Conze, who was active from the 1950's to the 1970's, devoted his career to PP translations and commentaries, his AA translation being an early example. An especially significant work was his translation of the PP Sutra in 25,000-lines, which he organized according to the AA topics. This required a certain amount of creative editing on his part--for example, his translation does not strictly follow the 25,000-line AA, but incorporates text from other PP Sutras. Like Obermiller, Conze's writings betray a certain German idealistic influence, hence his references to "Union with the Absolute."

During the 2000's, several Western scholars with experience as Buddhist monks living among the Tibetan exile community in Dharamsala, who had participated in traditional geshe studies, published articles and books related to the AA. Their ranks included James B. Apple (the author of a monograph on an AA topic, the Twenty Sangha), Gareth Sparham (who translated the AA anew, along with the commentaries of Arya Vimuktisena, Haribhadra, and Tsongkhapa), and Geshe Georges Dreyfus (whose writings describe the contemporary social context of AA study). The AA has also received attention from several Western dharma centers (notably the Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa in Pomaia, Italy), with the result that the AA has now been transmitted to the West not only as a text, but as a family of living spiritual traditions.

Bibliography

Apple, James B. "Stairway to Nirvana: A Study of the Twenty-Samghas base on the works of Tsong Kha Pa." SUNY Press, 2008. The enumeration of "Twenty Sangha," with countless expansions and subdivisions, is a traditional topic associated with Tibetan commentaries on the AA.

Apple, James B. "Twenty Varieties of the Samgha: A Typology of Noble Beings (Arya) in Indo-Tibetan Scholasticism" (in two parts, [http://www.ualberta.ca/~japple/Apple:TwentySamghas.pdf Parts I] and [http://www.ualberta.ca/~japple/Apple:TwentySamghas2.pdf Part II] ). "Journal of Indian Philosophy" 31 (2003), 503-592; and 32 (2004), 211-279. These are chapters of Apple's doctoral dissertation for the University of Wisconsin (Madison), which later evolved into the monograph "Stairway to Nirvana" (see above).

Conze, Edward. "The Prajñāpāramitā Literature." Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 2000 (1978). See pp. 101-120.

Conze, Edward (translator and editor). "The Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom: With the Divisions of the Abhisamayālankāra." Univ. of California Press: 1985.

Conze, Edward (translator). " [http://zen.extra.hu/1119428003_Conze-Abhisamayalankara.pdf Abhisamayālankāra:] Introduction and Translation from Original Text, With Sanskrit-Tibetan Index." Serie Orienta: Rome, [n.d.; actually 1954] .

Dreyfus, Georges. "The Sound of Two Hands Clapping: The Education of a Tibetan Buddhist Monk." University of California Press: 2003. Ch. 8 (pp. 174-182 of this edition) discusses the role of the Abhisamayalankara in the Tibetan monastic curriculum.

Dreyfus, Georges. "Tibetan scholastic education and the role of soteriology." In Paul Williams (ed.), "Buddhism: Critical Concepts in Religious Studies," vol. VI, pp. 32-57. Originally published in the "Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies" vol. 20, no. 1 (1997), pp. 31-62. This is an early (and extended) version of material later incorporated into "The Sound of Two Hands Clapping." Dreyfus's discussion of the Abisamayalankara begins on pp. 46, and continues to the end of the article.

Obermiller, E [ugène] . "Analysis of the Abhisamayalamkara." Asian Humanities Press: 2003. Original publication London: Luzac & Co., 1936.

Obermiller, E. "The Doctrine of Prajñā-Pāramitā as Exposed in the Abhisamayalamkara of Maitreya." Canon Publications: 1984. Originally published in "Acta Orientalia" 11 (1932-33), pp. 1-133, 334-354.

Obermiller, E. & T [heodor] I. Shcherbatskoi. "Abhisamahalankara-Prajnaparamita-Upadesa-Sastra: The Work of Bodhisattva Maitreya." Sri Satguru Publications, 1992.

Sparham, Gareth (translator). "Abhisamayalamkara with Vrtti and Aloka" (in four volumes). Jain Publishing Company, 2006 (vol. 1) and 2008 (vol. 2).

Sparham, Gareth (editor). "Golden Garland of Eloquence," vols. 1 and 2. Jain Publishing Company. 2008. A translation of an AA commentary by Tsongkhapa.

Thrangu Rinpoche. "The Ornament of Clear Realization: A Commentary on the Prajnaparamita of the Maitreya Buddha." Sri Satguru Publications: Delhi, 2001. Oral translation by Ken and Katia Holmes; final translation by Cornelia Weishaar-Gunter. A short oral commentary by a Sakya lama.

Toh Tze Gee (translator). "The Explanation" Ornament of the Essence "along with (i) the Root Text of the "Treatise of Quintessential Instructions of the Perfection of Wisdom: Ornament for Clear Realization" and (ii) the Commentary" Clear Meaning. FPMT Masters Program: Pomaia, Italy, 2008. Privately circulated, will eventually be made available for sale as a text file.

References

External links

Berzin, Alexander. [http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/en/archives/sutra/level4_deepening_understanding_path/path/five_pathway_minds_five_paths/5_pathway_minds.html "The Five Pathway Minds (The Five Paths): Basic Presentation"] Feb. 2002, revised April 2006.

Berzin, Alexander. [http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/en/archives/sutra/level4_deepening_understanding_path/path/five_pathway_minds_five_paths/five_pathway_minds_five_paths_advan.html "The Five Pathway Minds (The Five Paths): Advanced Presentation."] March 2004, revised April 2006.

Berzin, Alexander. [http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/en/archives/sutra/level6_study_major_texts/abhisamayalamkara_maitreya/overview_8_realizations_abhisamayalamkara.html "Overview of the Eight Sets of Realizations in Abhisamayamankara"] . Feb. 2002, revised July 2006.

Rigpa Shedra (wiki). " [http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Abhisamayalankara Abhisamayalankara] ."

Shenga, Khenchen. " [http://www.lotsawahouse.org/prologue.html Prologue to the Abhisamayalankara] ."

Tsöndrü, Khenpo. " [http://www.lotsawahouse.org/70points.html The Seventy Points:] The Words of Jikmé Chökyi Wangpo: A Commentary Presenting the Subject Matter of the Great Treatise, the "Abhisamayalankara."

Tsulga, Geshe. Oral Commentaries on the "Ornament of Clear Realizations" and its Seventy Topics, given to the [http://recordings.kurukulla.org/index.sphp Kurukulla Center] . (Scroll about halfway down the page for audio files.)