Abhidharma Commentaries – Vasubandhu in Sanskrit on the now partially lost Sanskrit Canon

There has been a tradition of commentaries on the two earliest canons and especially their abhidharmas culminating in one great commentary each. The great commentary on the more important Sanskrit one for Indian Buddhism was written by a Peshawar scholar called Vasubandhu and is called Abhidharmakosa. Early translations were also made into Chinese and Tibetan. The great commentary on the Pali Canon was written in Pali in Sri Lanka by Buddhaghosa and is called Visuddhmagga.

Vasubandhu was a noted commenter on the abhidharma and the religious life. The stages of jhana mediation/mindfulness all have detailed levels of reality within them for him. Nirvana (or at least the ninth level of jhana) apparently could not be returned from without exercise of will before entering it that one should later exit it. Buddha apparently achieved parinirvana directly from the fourth jhana. Adepts could obtain noticeable supernatural powers. Vasubandhu apparently generally preferred the vipassana form of meditation practice. The so-called “contemplation of the horrible” is another form used that may include the use of objects such as a corpse or a piece of clay.