Cheng Weishi Lun


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

English translations

Wei Tat translated the Cheng Weishi Lun into English for the first time in Hong Kong in 1973. This translation is based upon Louis de La Vallée-Poussin's early translation into French. 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.