Seite 175 [175]
OCR
A CoMPENDIUM OF BUDDHISM WRITTEN FOR KuBILAI’S SON sciousness” and eighteen elements*', thereby providing tools for generating a precise understanding of all experiences. It gives the most widespread and most often depicted cosmological system. It is considered to be a Theravada work written in Sanskrit in the 4" century AD. The author is a Vaibhasika monk, Vasubandhu who summarised the knowledge about phenomena in poems. Later in his comments he criticised the theory of the Vaibhasika school from the point of view of the Sauträntika tradition. The various Mahayana schools of the following centuries taught the basic doctrines of Buddhism relying on this summary book. The Tibetan translation was made during the second spread of Buddhism in Tibet. When the Tibetan Canon was arranged, it was put into the section Mngon pa of the Bstan ‘gyur. The work contains 600 poems and 8000 literal comments in 700 pages.” ‘Phags pa’s work is a short summary of the Abhidharma, based primarily on the Treasury of Abhidharma, devoting particular attention to cosmology and history from the beginning of the cosmic aeon up to the Yuan dynasty. ‘Phags pa replies consistently with the Vaibhasika standpoint of his text, like Vasubandhu. The Explanation of the Knowable became very popular in Tibet, too, because it is an easily understandable and relatively brief work consisting of 52 average size folios. The treatise served as source for several later writers. Among others Bsod nams rgyal mtshan incorporated certain passages into The Clear Mirror: A Royal Genealogy (Tib. Rgyal rabs gsal ba'i me long) (1328), and Tshal pa Kun dga’ rdo rje into the Red Annals (Tib. deb ther dmar po) (1346).™ There is a special work that is in relationship with ‘Phags pa’s text. In 1823, Kun dga’ chos legs, the abbot of the Rdzong khul monastery** wrote a compendium for the famous Hungarian scholar, Alexander Csoma de K6rés (1784-1842). Its title is Answers to the Questions of Sken dha from Europe (Tib. Rgya gar rum yul pa sken Twelve sources of consciousness (Skr. dvadasa dyatana, Tib. skye mched bcu gnyis) — the six sense objects (or six outer sources): sights, sounds, smells, tastes, textures, mental objects and the six sense faculties (or six inner sources): eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, mind. Buswell, Robert E. Jr. (ed.): Encyclopedia of Buddhism, pp. 220-221. Eighteen elements (Skr. astadasa dhatu, Tib. khams bco brgyad): a classification of all knowable things into eighteen elements. The six sense objects (Skr. visayadhdatu, Tib. dmigs yul gyi khams): visible forms, sounds, smells, tastes, textures, mental objects. The six sense faculties (Skr. indriyadhdhatu, Tib. dbang po’i khams): eye faculty, ear faculty, nose faculty, tongue faculty, body faculty, mental faculty. The six sense consciousnesses (Skr. vijnanadhätu, Tib. rnam shes kyi khams): eye-consciousness, earconsciousness, nose-consciousness, tongue-consciousness, body-consciousness, mind-consciousness. Buswell, Robert E. Jr. (ed.): Encyclopedia of Buddhism, p. 221. ” Buswell, Robert E. Jr. (ed.): Encyclopedia of Buddhism, pp. 1-7. Bsod nams rgyal mtshan: Rgyal rabs gsal ba’i me long. Mi rigs Dpe skrun khang, Beijing 1981, p. 9, 22, 52. Tshal pa kun dga rdo rje: Deb ther dmar po. Ed.: Guiseppe Tucci. Roma 1971, p. 145. This ‘Brug pa bka’ brgyud pa monastery was an important educational and cultural centre in the 18-19" centuries. 173
