Asanga

Indian philosopher and Buddhist monk

• Born: c. 365
• Birthplace: Purusapura, Gandhara, India (now Peshawar, Pakistan)
• Died: c. 440
• Place of death: Rajagriha, Magadha (now Rajgir, Bihar, India)

Asanga is revered by Buddhists as the enlightened sage who revived Māhayāna Buddhism. He was a founder of the Yogācāra School.

Early Life

Arya Asanga (AHR-yuh uh-SUHNG-guh) was an Indian Buddhist monk and philosopher who lived during the fourth and fifth centuries c.e.Arya means “Noble One” and is a title of respect; Asanga means “untouched” or “unfettered.” He is sometimes referred to as one of the doctors of early Buddhism because of his profound erudition. He was a founder of the Yogācāra School of Buddhism, along with his guru, Maitreyanātha, and his half brother Vasubandhu. Yogācāra is a form of Mahāyāna Buddhism.

Most of what is known about Asanga’s life rests on legendary accounts—primarily Bu-ston’s Chos-byung (History of Buddhism by Buston, 1931) and Tāranātha’s Rgya gar chos ’byun (1608; History of Buddhism in India, 1970). Some information comes from the Indian sage Paramārtha, who wrote during the sixth century an authoritative historical account of Vasubandhu’s life. He also translated important Yogācāra works into Chinese.

According to legend, Asanga’s mother was a Brahman of the Kausika clan. In an earlier life, she had been a monk who verbally wounded another during debate. For this unkindness, the monk was punished by many incarnations as a woman. During the time of incarnation as Asanga’s mother, many people had turned from the dharma, or teaching of Buddha. She offered help in her prayers to Lord Avalokita, a bodhisattva, or one who seeks enlightenment and is the embodiment of compassion. Subsequently, she had three sons: Asanga, Vasubandhu, and Virincivatsa, all of whom joined the Hīnayāna or “Lesser Vehicle” School of Buddhism. They lived in Purusapura, Gandhara, India (now Peshawar, Pakistan).

Traditional accounts relate that Asanga was a precocious child who became a monk at an early age. He belonged to the Mahīshāsakas, a sect that valued meditation and believed that only the present has reality. He studied with Pindola, an arhat, or worthy one, who had conquered hatred, desire, and delusion, the three unwholesome roots of future suffering. An arhat embodies the sought-after ideal in the Hīnayāna, the most ancient school of Buddhism, of one who has attained the highest level of enlightenment before nirvana, or escape from the cycle of rebirth. The ideal for Mahāyāna Buddhism, a school that developed after the Hīnayāna, is the bodhisattva. For the Hīnayānist, the focus of spiritual development is on liberation of the individual from suffering, whereas for the Mahāyānist, the focus is on liberation of all beings. This is accomplished by repeatedly forgoing nirvana for oneself; the bodhisattva tends, with selfless compassion over many lifetimes, to others. Compassion for suffering beings became a theme in Asanga’s eventual philosophy.

Under Pindola’s guidance, Asanga learned all the sutras of the Buddha’s discourse, reading the scriptures of Hīnayāna as well as some of Mahāyāna, or “Greater Vehicle” Buddhism. (The term “Hīnayāna” was originally a derogatory term used by Mahāyānists; the term “Theravāda,” or “Doctrine of the Elders,” is preferred today for the sole surviving Hīnayāna School.) While Pindola was Asanga’s teacher on earth, his “tutelary deity” was Lord Maitreya Buddha. Maitreya is the aspect of Buddha that is love.

Eventually, Asanga left Pindola to meditate in a mountain cave for twelve years to propitiate Maitreya. He emerged at three-year intervals, totally disheartened. When he observed stones slowly worn down by birds’ wings or by single drops of water, or iron needles made by a patient old man, he was encouraged to try again. At the end of twelve years he emerged from his cave, still unenlightened and brokenhearted. When he came on a dog whose hindquarters were infested with worms, he was filled with compassion. Rather than kill the worms, however, he intended to lure them to a piece of flesh sliced from his thigh. Just then, the Lord Maitreya appeared in place of the dog. Asanga cried out in wonder: Why did Maitreya appear now and not before? Maitreya answered that he always had been with him, but Asanga could see him only when his fervor was balanced with compassion.

At Maitreya’s behest, Asanga asked to help educate the people about Mahāyāna doctrine. In response, he was transported to Tuśita heaven, where all the bodhisattvas reside until their final incarnations as buddhas. Asanga studied all of Mahāyāna scripture with Lord Maitreya in Tuśita heaven—some legends say for six months, others for fifty-three years. Asanga had attained the third stage of a bodhisattva—there are ten stages according to the Mahāyāna—therefore, he was called Prabhākarī, or “Light-giving.”

Life’s Work

According to legend, after Asanga returned to earth, he devoted himself to all living beings with complete compassion. He opened shelters for monks to stay in during the rainy season and wrote down what he had learned from Maitreya in the “Five Books.” After this, he wrote his own texts and then converted his half brother, Vasubandhu, from Hīnayāna to Mahāyāna Buddhism. He also taught Hīnayāna monks about Mahāyāna doctrine. When his fame for profound erudition spread, King Gambhīrapaksa helped Asanga establish monasteries, which revived Mahāyāna Buddhism.

Early Mahāyāna Buddhism (c. 100 b.c.e.-100 c.e.) broadened the number of avenues to enlightenment, offering escape from samsāra (eternal wandering) and the cycle of rebirth. Its doctrine blended ideas about devotion, contemplation, and compassion. For example, one who desires to be a bodhisattva must first worship the various forms of the Buddha. Moreover, he or she must live a contemplative life by practicing the pāramitās, or the six perfections: generosity, morality, patience, courage, meditation, and wisdom. This path, unlike that of the Hīnayāna or Theravāda, is open to everyone, not just the saṅgha (order of monks and nuns). The coupling of self-discipline with compassion for others derives from a core ethical concern in Mahāyāna philosophy.

An early sage of the Mahāyāna was Nāgārjuna (c. second or third century c.e.). Nāgārjuna and Āryadeva founded the Mādhyamaka, or “Middle School,” based on the Doctrine of Emptiness, a principal tenet that all phenomena are empty of being. If so, the only logical difference between nirvana and samsāra is one’s perception of the two states. Hence, nirvana is here and now. Spiritual development depends on seeing the emptiness in all things, thereby eliminating the craving or desire that is the source of suffering. Asanga modified Nāgārjuna’s views in favor of a philosophy of idealism that informs the Yogācāra School. Asanga’s central tenet is that consciousness is real, but material objects have no existence beyond the conscious realm.

In the Mahāyānasaṁgraha (fourth century c.e.; The Summary of the Great Vehicle, 1992), Asanga explicated basic concepts of Yogācāra, such as the storehouse consciousness, essence of existence, and reality as pure ideation; mind-only doctrine; pāramitās; bhūmis; ethical guidelines, or shīla; meditation; wisdom; and the three Buddha bodies, or trikāya. Cittamātra (mind-only) is fundamental to Yogācāra philosophy. Citta means “storehouse consciouness” or “pure thought” and is the origin of all thought and sensation. The concept of the storehouse consciousness is a key to understanding karma, the universal law of cause and effect; it is where all impressions have been stored and where the seeds of moral or immoral deeds ripen and reach fruition, usually beyond one’s lifetime. Hence, a cycle of rebirth occurs.

The Yogācāra, or “Application of Yoga,” School is also called the Vijñānavāda, or “School That Teaches Knowing.” Followers practice yoga as meditation in an effort to improve themselves on the path to Buddhahood, or perfect enlightenment. Early opponents of Yogācāra were from the Mādhyamaka School, although both are variants of Mahāyāna Buddhism.

Works attributed to Asanga and Maitreya or to Maitreyanātha include the Abhidharmasamuccaya, or “Collection of the Abhidharma” (Abhidharma Samuccaya of Asanga, 1950); the Mahāyānasūtralankāra, or “Ornament of the Sutras of the Mahāyāna” (fourth century c.e.; Mahayanasutralankara of Asanga, 1989); the Madhyāntavibhāga, or “Differentiation of the Middle and the Extremes” (Discourse on Discrimination Between Middle and Extremes, 1936); the Yogācāra-bhūmi-shāstra, or “Treatise on the Stages of the Yogācāra” (fourth century c.e.); and the Mahāyānasaṁgraha.

According to legendary accounts, the Lord Maitreya inspired Asanga to write many key texts in the Yogācāra canon. However, scholars debate whether Maitreya was a mythical or historical figure. If mythical, Maitreya is the “Future Buddha” in Buddhist cosmology, and if historic, he is the author or coauthor of important texts, such as the “Five Books.” The historic person is called Maitreyanātha (c. fourth and fifth centuries c.e.) and is believed to have been Asanga’s master.

Traditionally, the encyclopedic Yogācāra-bhūmi-shāstra, a fundamental work of the Yogācāra School of Buddhism, is believed to have been revealed by Maitreya to Asanga. It is a multivolume work divided into five parts and written in prose with some short verses; it presents all of Yogācāra doctrine. The main part describes the bhūmis, or stages of spiritual development. The second part interprets the stages. The third is about the sutras that are the basis for Yogācāra doctrine. The fourth is about the classes within the sutras. The fifth includes topics from the canon. Asanga also wrote a shorter version titled Aryashāsana-prakarana, or “Proof of the Sacred Doctrine.” Although the original Sanskrit text of the Yogācārabhūmi survives as a fragment, complete translations exist in Chinese and Tibetan.

The Bodhisattvabhūmi, or “Stages of the Bodhisattva” is the fifteenth volume of the first part of the Yogācāra-bhūmi-shāstra and is particularly revered. The text was immediately successful. Tibetan and Chinese editions were produced in the early fifth century c.e., whereas other volumes of the Yogācāra-bhūmi-shāstra were translated more than one hundred years later. The Bodhisattvabhūmi is a standard text in Mahāyāna monasteries. It instructs bodhisattvas how to interpret and move through the stages of spiritual development and includes information on proper behavior, meditation, and the teachings of the Buddha.

Arya Asanga died in Rajagriha, India (near modern-day Patna on the Ganges River). Rajagriha was the capital of Magadha, an ancient kingdom in India (now in the modern state Bihar, India).

Significance

To understand the philosophical roots and the religious practices of the Mahāyānists, it is necessary to study the Yogācāra School of Maitreyanātha, Asanga, and Vasubandhu. This was an important branch of Buddhism that reached its zenith during the sixth century c.e. During that period, Nālānda, the monastic university in northern India near modern-day Patna, was the center of Yogācāra Buddhism. Later Yogācārins attempted to reconcile the idealism of Asanga, the supposed nihilism of Nāgārjuna, and the relative realism of the Hīnayānists.

After the thirteenth century c.e., Buddhism in India nearly died out. However, it is still one of the world’s great religions. Beginning in the third century, Buddhism spread to other countries. The Hīnayāna form spread from southern India to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Siam (now Thailand), Burma (now Myanmar), Laos, and Cambodia; the Mahāyāna form spread from northern India to China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Today there are thousands of practicing Mahāyānists whose beliefs rest, in part, on the philosophy and call to compassion of Asanga.

Bibliography

Griffiths, Paul J., Noriaki Hakamaya, John P. Keenan, and Paul L. Swanson. The Realm of Awakening: A Translation and Study of the Tenth Chapter of Asanga’s “Mahāyānasaṁgraha.” New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. Introduction describes Yogācāra philosophy of consciousness in the context of religious experience. Includes English translation and discussion of Asanga’s chapter on wisdom as well as romanized versions of Sanskrit and Tibetan texts. Bibliography and index.

Harvey, Peter. An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History, and Practices. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Good historical review; chapters on early schools of Buddhism, including the Mahāyāna and Yogācāra. Includes photos and appendix listing Pāli, Chinese, and Tibetan scriptural texts. Contains bibliography for various subjects, including Yogācāra, concept and name indexes.

Keown, Damien. Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Accessible review of Buddhist ideas and history. Includes chapter on the Mahāyāna School, with mention of Yogācāra. Maps, illustrations, time line, index, and good list of resources for further study.

Smart, Ninian. The Religious Experience. 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1996. Chapter titled “The Early Indian Experience” includes a nontechnical comparison of Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna (including Yogācāra) Schools of Buddhism in terms of six-dimensional model of religion. Includes photos, maps, and index.

Willis, Janice Dean. On Knowing Reality: The Tattvārtha Chapter of Asanga’s Bodhisattvabhūmi. New York: Columbia University Press, 1979. Introduction relates legendary and historical accounts of Asanga’s life and work. Tattvārtha chapter discussed as a key to understanding Asanga’s view of the nature of reality. Includes glossary and bibliography.