Books in the Tsadra series

The first complete English translation of Asanga's Mahayanasamgraha, the most important and comprehensive Indian Yogacara text, and all its available Indian commentaries.Winner of the Khyentse Foundation Prize for Outstanding Translation.The Mahayanasaṃgraha, published here with its Indian and Tibetan commentaries in three volumes, presents virtually everything anybody might want to know about the Yogacara School of mahayana Buddhism. It discusses in detail the nature and operation of the eight kinds of consciousness, the often-misunderstood notion of "mind only" (cittamatra), dependent origination, the cultivation of the path and its fruition in terms of the four wisdoms, and the three bodies (kayas) of a buddha.Volume 1 presents the translation of the Mahayanasaṃgraha along with a commentary by Vasubandhu. The introduction gives an overview of the text and its Indian and Tibetan commentaries, and explains in detail two crucial elements of the Yogacara view: the alaya-consciousness and the afflicted mind (klistamanas).Volume 2 presents translations of the commentary by Asvabhava and an anonymous Indian commentary on the first chapter of the text. These translations are supplemented in the endnotes by excerpts from Tibetan commentaries and related passages in other Indian and Chinese Yogacara works.Volume 3 includes appendices with excerpts from other Indian and Chinese Yogacara texts and supplementary materials on major Yogacara topics in the Mahayanasaṃgraha.

A complete translation of Asanga''s classic work on the distinguishing qualities of bodhisattvas that describes how to awaken, develop, and perfect the mind of enlightenment in the Great Vehicle, or Mahayana, Buddhist tradition. Arya Asanga, famous for having been the conduit through which the teachings contained in the Five Texts of Maitreya were received and recorded, is also considered to be the author in his own right of several other foundational works of Yogācāra philosophy. One of these, considered the definitive text of the Yogācāra school of Buddhism, is the encyclopedic synthesis of Mahayana Buddhist doctrines and practices known as the Yogācārabhūmi, or "Stages of Spiritual Practice." The Bodhisattvabhūmi, or "Stages of the Bodhisattva Path," is one portion of that massive work, though it is considered a stand-alone text in the Tibetan traditions--for example, it is counted among the six core texts of the Kadampas. However, despite the text''s centrality to the Yogācāra school and its seminal importance in the Tibetan traditions, it has remained unavailable in English except in piecemeal translations; Engle''s translation will therefore be especially welcomed by scholars and students alike.