Karmasiddhi-prakaraṇa

Vasubandhu

Karmasiddhi-prakaraṇa (T. las grub pa'i rab tu byed pa, ལས་གྲུབ་པའི་རབ་ཏུ་རབ་ཏུ་བྱེད་པ་; C. dasheng chengye lun), or Treatise on Karma, is one of the major treatises of Vasubandhu, in which he refutes several theories of the Vaibhashika and introduces the notion of the the ālaya-vijñāna (storehouse-consciousness).

Jonathan C. Gold writes:

The Explanation of the Establishment of Action (Karmasiddhiprakaraṇa) draws together, synthesizes and advances somewhat the many discussions of karma from the Treasury of the Abhidharma.

Dan Lusthaus writes:

Vasubandhu's Karma-siddhi-prakaraṇa (Exposition Establishing Karma) challenged the views of the Vaibhāṣikas and any others who held that dharmas might be anything other than momentary. Momentariness (kṣanika-vāda) basically explained the series of consciousness moments as a casual sequence in which each moment caused its immediate successor. Recognizing that the theory of momentariness had difficulty explaining certain types of continuity--from one life to the next, the re-emergence of a consciousness stream after it has been interrupted in deep sleep or meditation, etc.--near the end of the treatise he introduces the Yogācāra notion of the ālaya-vijñāna (storehouse-consciousness) in which the 'seeds' of previous experiences are stored subliminally and released into new experiences.

Translations

In English

• Stefan Anacker, Seven Works of Vasubandhu: The Buddhist Psychological Doctor, Motilal Banarsidass, 2nd Edition, 2002, ISBN 978-8120802032
• Vasubandhu, Karmasiddhi Prakarana: The Treatise On Action By Vasubandhu, translated by Etienne Lamotte, English translation by Leo M. Pruden, Asian Humanities Press, ISBN 978-0895819079

In French

• Philippe Cornu, Vasubandhu, Cinq traités sur l'esprit seulement (Paris: Fayard, 2008).

Further reading

• Jonathan C. Gold, Vasubandhu
• Dan Lusthaus, Vasubandhu, acmuller.net
• Gold, Jonathan C., Paving the Great Way: Vasubandhu's Unifying Buddhist Philosophy, Columbia University Press: 2015, Chapter 5