Resources on Sarvastivada

[Sacha G]

Hi,
Does everyone know where we can find resources concerning the sarvastivada, especially the abhidharma?
Thanks
Sacha

[cooran]

Hello Sacha,

This might be a start:

The great Abhidhamma Pitaka authenticity debate
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=2169&start=180#p34361

Abhidharma
Excerpt:
The Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma consists of seven texts. The texts of the Sarvāstivādin Abhidharma are:
• Sangitiparyaya ('Discourses on Gathering Together')
• Dharmaskandha ('Aggregation of Dharmas')
• Prajnaptisastra ('Treatise on Designations')
• Dhatukaya ('Body of Elements')
• Vijnanakaya ('Body of Consciousness')
• Prakaranapada ('Exposition')
• Jnanaprasthana ('Foundation of Knowledge')
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarvastivada#Abhidharma

with metta
Chris

[retrofuturist]

Greetings,

Buddhist Sects in India by Nalinaksha Dutt may be worth a look, though it may be a little too general for your requirements.

Metta,
Retro.

[cooran]

Another suggestion might be this book – but you’d have to be keen at 710 pages!

Title: Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma3rd Edition, 710 pages + by Venerable Professor KL Dhammajoti
Published in Hong Kong by Centre of Buddhist Studies, The University of Hong Kong 2007
ISBN: 978-988-99295-1-9
http://ibc.ac.th/en/dhammajoti/sarvastivada

with metta
Chris

[retrofuturist]

Greetings Cooran,

Whoa... you would have to be keen indeed!



Sacha G - a quick question... is your focus here on the content of Sarvastivada teaching itself, or how it came to be (in terms of evolution and deviation from other early schools)? Knowing this might help people suggest recommendations that best meet your requirements.

Metta,
Retro.

[Paññāsikhara]

Another suggestion might be this book – but you’d have to be keen at 710 pages!

Title: Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma3rd Edition, 710 pages + by Venerable Professor KL Dhammajoti
Published in Hong Kong by Centre of Buddhist Studies, The University of Hong Kong 2007
ISBN: 978-988-99295-1-9
http://ibc.ac.th/en/dhammajoti/sarvastivada

with metta
Chris

This is probably the best single resource available at present, but you should get the 2009 edition, rather than the 2007 edition.
Available through University of Hong Kong, Centre of Buddhist Studies, here.
Note other relevant publications from Bhante Dhammajoti on this page, including the Entrance into the Supreme Doctrine, and Abhidharma Doctrines and Controversies on Perception.
(Theravada Abhidhamma types may note Prof Y Karunadasa's new book, The Theravada Abhidhamma, here too.)

In English, Pruden's translation of de la Vallee Poussin's translation of the Abhidharma-kosa-bhasyam is also extremely helpful.

[Paññāsikhara]

Greetings,

Buddhist Sects in India by Nalinaksha Dutt may be worth a look, though it may be a little too general for your requirements.

Metta,
Retro.

Not worth it, in my opinion. This book is now really outdated.

[Sacha G]

Hi thank you for your answers so far.
Do you know more precisely if the agamas (I knwo they are not all sarvastivada) have been translated into English.
Apart from that, I alreay got the abhidharmakosabhasyam, which is a real treasure.

[Paññāsikhara]

Hi thank you for your answers so far.
Do you know more precisely if the agamas (I knwo they are not all sarvastivada) have been translated into English.
Apart from that, I alreay got the abhidharmakosabhasyam, which is a real treasure.

Those considered Sarvastivadin are the two versions of the Samyuktagama, and the Madhyamagama. Neither has been fully, or even really partially, translated in English, with the exception of a number of sutras here and there. Check out, for instance, this project here.

As for the Kosa, although many Tibetan Buddhists consider this their basic text for the Sarvastivada, because they have no other earlier Sarvastivada literature, it is not really so. It is kind of half way between the Sarvastivada and the Sautrantika. The English translation should make the various points clearly attributed to the school in question. It is not the Mahavibhasa.

[Akuma]

@OP:

There is Abhidharmamrtasastra translated by Migme Chodron freely available on the web.
Abhidharmadipa and Abhidharmahrdaya have been translated altho they are sadly not downloadable. The Karma Chapter from Abhidharmahrdaya has been translated in a study by Wataru which is available for download. The Abhidharmakosha is puzzling me as many ppl on dharmawheel and dhammawheel seem to call Kosha Bashya and Bashya Kosha - from my understanding so far Poussin translated both the Kosha and the Bashya and the available french text @archive.org (sadly missing Le karman) is the Kosha (Sarvastivada) while the English translated is the Bashya (Sautantrika refutation).
There is also a book called Sarvastivada Buddhist Scholasticism published through Brill - have not read it, altho other stuff from Brill seemed good to me.

@cooran / pannasikaro

That Sarvastivada Abhidharma - is that available only @Hk University? Their standard payment methods are not working for me.

@everyone

There is no translation of Mahavibasha or is the text itself extinct?

[Paññāsikhara]

@OP:

There is Abhidharmamrtasastra translated by Migme Chodron freely available on the web.
Abhidharmadipa and Abhidharmahrdaya have been translated altho they are sadly not downloadable. The Karma Chapter from Abhidharmahrdaya has been translated in a study by Wataru which is available for download. The Abhidharmakosha is puzzling me as many ppl on dharmawheel and dhammawheel seem to call Kosha Bashya and Bashya Kosha - from my understanding so far Poussin translated both the Kosha and the Bashya and the available french text @archive.org (sadly missing Le karman) is the Kosha (Sarvastivada) while the English translated is the Bashya (Sautantrika refutation).
There is also a book called Sarvastivada Buddhist Scholasticism published through Brill - have not read it, altho other stuff from Brill seemed good to me.

Give Ani-la an email, and she'll probably send you a copy.

@cooran / pannasikaro

That Sarvastivada Abhidharma - is that available only @Hk University? Their standard payment methods are not working for me.

Yes. Try sending them an email.

@everyone

There is no translation of Mahavibasha or is the text itself extinct?

There are two Chinese translations, and a third partial version. Quite alive. Very little has appeared in English. A few years ago, a Tibetan lama was assigned to translate it, but I don't know how far they have gotten with it.

[Akuma]

Oh Hui Feng how nice to see you here
Thanks for the info I'll try mailing them.

cu

Akuma / joda

[Paññāsikhara]

Oh Hui Feng how nice to see you here
Thanks for the info I'll try mailing them.

cu

Akuma / joda

Hi,

If that doesn't work, give me an email, and I'll arrange it for you.

[Ñāṇa]

The Abhidharmakosha is puzzling me as many ppl on dharmawheel and dhammawheel seem to call Kosha Bashya and Bashya Kosha - from my understanding so far Poussin translated both the Kosha and the Bashya and the available french text @archive.org (sadly missing Le karman) is the Kosha (Sarvastivada) while the English translated is the Bashya (Sautantrika refutation).

The Abhidharmakośa is the root verses. The Abhidharmakośabhāsya is the commentary paragraphs interspersed between the root verses. The Tibetans consider the Abhidharmakośa root verses to be Sarvāstivāda and the Abhidharmakośabhāsya to be Sautrāntika.

All the best,

Geoff

[Akuma]

Hi,

The Abhidharmakośa is the root verses. The Abhidharmakośabhāsya is the commentary paragraphs interspersed between the root verses. The Tibetans consider the Abhidharmakośa root verses to be Sarvāstivāda and the Abhidharmakośabhāsya to be Sautrāntika.

All the best,

Geoff

Oh I never looked at it that way - that explains the rather ambivalent naming.
In any case I also compared now and French and English are the same after all - always thought the bashya to contain an incomplete rendering of the Kosha due to the sometimes rather fragmentary nature of the contained stanzas. Thx.

[Paññāsikhara]

Hi,

The Abhidharmakośa is the root verses. The Abhidharmakośabhāsya is the commentary paragraphs interspersed between the root verses. The Tibetans consider the Abhidharmakośa root verses to be Sarvāstivāda and the Abhidharmakośabhāsya to be Sautrāntika.

All the best,

Geoff

Oh I never looked at it that way - that explains the rather ambivalent naming.
In any case I also compared now and French and English are the same after all - always thought the bashya to contain an incomplete rendering of the Kosha due to the sometimes rather fragmentary nature of the contained stanzas. Thx.

The way the Chinese explain it, is that Vasubandhu wrote the Kosa verses and presented them to Samghabhadra. They were written in a manner that first appeared to support the Vaibhasika position. Then, impressed, Samghabhadra asked for the bhasya commentary on the kosa verses. Vasubandhu obliged, but his commentary was critical of the Vaibhasika position. This really irked old Samghabhadra, who used the same kosa verses to first write an orthodox Vaibhasika commentary called the Nyayanusara, and then the Xianzong Lun (Skt name eludes me for the moment), both of which are quite a bit larger than the kosa-bhasya of Vasubandhu. (Both are also preserved in Chinese alone, from Xuanzang's translations.)

To the Chinese, the Kosa verses are thus kind of general Abhidharma type, hard to say that they are either Vaibhasika or Sautrantika, or otherwise. Vasubandhu's bhasya commentary is not considered strictly Sautrantika, because it has some positions that are more like the Vaibhasikas still. eg. acceptance of both the ayatanas and dhatus as real existents, the Sauntrantikas only accept the dhatus, and the Sarvastivadins accept ayatana, dhatu as well as skandha. This is just one example. But the Nyananusara and Xianzong are strict orthodox Vaibhasika of the time. There is some debate about how much Samghabhadra extends the Vibhasa to make his own neo-Vaibhasika, but my understanding is that he is pretty true to the orthodox position (pingyue) of the Vibhasa. I don't think that even Samghabhadra calls Vasubandhu a Sautrantika, but the "sastra author". However, in Samghabhadra's works, and obviously also the Vibhasa itself, we see further evidence on the position of the early Sautrantikas and Darstantikas, such as Srilata, Kumaralata, etc. There are no other sources for these outside the Chinese.

Although I don't know much about the Tibetan position on all of this, from what little I do know, I often feel that the Tibetans are quite hindered by not having the Vibhasa itself, or the rest of the seven standard Sarvastivada Abhidharma Sastras, or some of the other sastras. So, it seems to me that they have to rely heavily on the Kosa as one of their main sources for the Sarvastivada position. From the Chinese point of view, this is completely unnecessary, as they still have all the main earlier sastras intact, including multiple versions in some cases (eg. the Vibhasa itself, the Pancavastuka, etc.)

My little understanding of this is all from Bhante Prof Dhammajoti's classes. So, if you want the real juice, his books are definitely the ticket!

[pueraeternus]

and then the Xianzong Lun (Skt name eludes me for the moment)

Ven,

I believe this would be the Abhidharmasamayapradipika?

[Bankei]

See also:
Alexis Sanderson
“The Sarvāstivāda and its Critics: Anātmavāda and the Theory of Karma.” In: Buddhism into the Year 2000. International Conference Proceedings, Bangkok and Los Angeles: Dhammakāya Foundation (1995), pp. 33-48.

available at
http://alexissanderson.com/aboutus.aspx

or direct at http://alexissanderson.com/Documents/Sa ... tivada.pdf

Bankei

[mañjughosamaṇi]

Hi,

See also:
Alexis Sanderson
“The Sarvāstivāda and its Critics: Anātmavāda and the Theory of Karma.” In: Buddhism into the Year 2000. International Conference Proceedings, Bangkok and Los Angeles: Dhammakāya Foundation (1995), pp. 33-48.

Thanks for the share! Nice succinct presentation.

Wishing you all the best.

[Bankei]

Here is another one, not mentioned from what I can see:

Liew Jew Chong (Dhammapala)
"The Sarvāstivāda Doctrine of the Path of Spiritual Progress: A Study based primarily on the Abhidharma-Mahāvibhāsā-śāstra,
the Abhidharmakośa-bhāsya and their Chinese and Sanskrit Commentaries"

Ph.D. Thesis University of Hong Kong, 2010
320 pages
Download at http://hub.hku.hk/handle/10722/128621