Cheng Weishi Lun

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Cheng Weishi Lun (Chinese: 成唯識論; pinyin: Chéng Wéishì Lùn) or Discourse on the Perfection of Consciousness-only, is a comprehensive discourse on the central teachings of Yogacara framed around Vasubandhu's seminal Yogacara work, Triṃśikā-vijñaptimātratā (Thirty Verses on Consciousness-only). It was written by the early Tang dynasty monk Xuanzang. It is sometimes referred to as Vijñaptimātratāsiddhi, its equivalent name in Sanskrit.

Origins and importance[]

When Xuanzang was studying Buddhism in India at Nālandā University, he discovered ten commentaries on Vasubandhu's Triṃśikā-vijñaptimātratā. He drew upon these commentaries, especially the commentary of Dharmapāla, when writing his own detailed explanation of the Triṃśikā-vijñaptimātratā, which became the Cheng Weishi Lun.^[1]

The Cheng Weishi Lun became one of the key texts of East Asian Yogācāra, both by Chinese ("Faxiang") and Japanese ("Hossō") thinkers.

English translations[]

Wei Tat translated the Cheng Weishi Lun into English for the first time in Hong Kong in 1973.^[2] This translation is based upon Louis de La Vallée-Poussin's early translation into French (Vijñaptimātratāsiddhi: La Siddhi de Hiuan-Tsang). Wei's translation is now out of print and difficult to find. More recently, Francis Cook made a new English translation of the text for the Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research's Taishō Tripiṭaka translation effort.^[3] Most recently, Peter Lunde Johnson published a groundbreaking translation that is entitled "On Realizing There is Only The Virtual Nature of Consciousness", An Lac Publications, ISBN 978-0578530-680 (see external links below)

See also[]

• East Asian Yogācāra
• Kuiji

References[]

Bibliography[]

• Lusthaus, Dan (2003). Buddhist Phenomenology: A Philosophical Investigation of Yogacara Buddhism and the Ch'eng Wei-shih Lun, Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism, ISBN 0415406102
• Schmithausen, Lambert (2015). On the Problem of the External World in the Ch’eng wei shih lun, International Institute for Buddhist Studies
• Sharf, Robert (2016). Is Yogacara Phenomenology? Some Evidence from the Cheng Weishi Lun. Journal of Indian Philosophy 44 (4), 777–807
• Jiang, Tao (2005). "Alayavijnana" and the problematic of continuity in the "Cheng Wei-shih Lun", Journal of Indian Philosophy 33 (3), 243-284  – via JSTOR (subscription required)

External links[]

• Epstein, Ronald. 1985. The Transformation of Consciousness into Wisdom in the Chinese Consciousness-Only School According to the Cheng Wei-Shi Lun.
• 羅時憲 : 唯識方隅
• excerpt--The Treatise on the Establishment of the Doctrine of Consciousness-Only
• Johnson, Peter Lunde, trans. (2018), [1] The Discourse On Realizing There is Only The Virtual Nature of Consciousness (Vijñapti Matratā Siddhi, 成唯識論) ISBN 978-0578530-680