A STUDY OF THE 'BUDDHABHUMYUPADESA': THE DOCTRINAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE NOTION OF WISDOM IN YOGACARA THOUGHT

In order to understand the specific contributions of the Buddhabhumyupadesa in the development of Yogacara thinking, the.;of development are considered; from the early Buddhism of the Pali.;Nikayas and the Chinese Agamas to the creation of the Abhidharma(' ).;syntheses, to the reversal of these syntheses by the Prajnaparamita.;entire history of Indian Buddhist thought is outlined. Shifting lines.;literature and Nagarjuna's Madhyamika dialectic, to the composition of.;the Tathagatagarbha texts, and then on to the formulation of Yogacara Buddhism. After having considered the meaning of the Yogacara school.;in Buddhist Mahayana thought, specific lineages and trends within.;Yogacara are then discussed. The early Yogacara texts of the.;Samdhinirmocanasutra and the Mahayanabhidharmasutra are examined. The place of the Mahayanasutralamkara as combining Yogacara with.;Tathagatagarbha themes is treated. Then the classical formulation of.;Yogacara by Asanga and Vasubandhu is investigated. In contrast to this(' ).;classical formulation alternate Yogacara works are briefly treated. Then.;the work of the Yogacara epistomologist-logician Dignaga is explained in order to lead into a consideration of the Dharmapala lineage of Yogacara thinking. Within this Dharmapala lineage then, the place of the Buddhabhumyupadesa is then determined.;After having described this process of doctorinal development and placed the above text within the process, a complete, annotated translation of this extensive work is offered.