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259
THE DARSANAMĀRGA SECTION OF THE ABHIDHARMASAMUCCAYA
AND ITS INTERPRETATION BY TIBETAN COMMENTATORS (WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO BU STON RIN CHEN GRUB)
by
L.SCHMITHAUSEN (Hamburg)
The Path of Vision (or Insight) (darśanamārga, mthon lam)? is the first immediate and truly adequate full comprehension of Truth by a given person, or arising in a given stream of personality. It is the phase which for the first time eradicates Defilements (klesa, non mons), 2 or Obstacles (āvarana, sgrib pa), though, it is true, not yet all of them. But even the further stages of (at least the Supramundane) Path largely consist in a kind of repetition of the darśanamārga." The latter may thus well be called the decisive stage of the Buddhist Path to Salvation.
While investigating a certain line of thought in the Yogācāra treatment of the darśanamārga,4a I had to deal with the exposition of this subject in the Abhidharmasamuccaya (mion pa kun btus = ASS ascribed to Asanga. In addition to the Indian commentary, viz. the Abhidharmasamuccaya
Cp., e.g., E. Frauwallner, Die Philosophie des Buddhismus. 3. Aufl. Berlin 1969, 127 and 331; Abhidharma-Studien III. WZKS 15, 1971, 83. and 86ff.: H.V. Guenther, Philosophy and Psychology of the Abhidharma. 2nd rev. ed. Delhi 1974, 195ff., 221ff., L. Schmithausen, Zur Struktur der erlösenden Erfahrung im indischen Buddhismus. Transzendenzerfahrung, Vollzugshorizont des Heils. Hrsg. v. G.Oberhammer, Wien 1978,
104ff. and 110ff. 2 E.g. AS 66,15f. 3 E.g. Vijħaptimātratāsiddhi. Trad. L. de La Vallée Poussin, vol.2, Paris 1929, 590. + See references in n.1. 4a A detailed exposition of the result of this investigation will be presented in a
later publication which is still in progress. AS 66, 3-68.2; AS 110b1 - 111b5. The Sanskrit text of the passage is not preserved in manuscript form; what we find in Pradhan's edition is only the editor's reconstruction, mainly from the Chinese, with the help of the pratikas includet in the ASBh. Additional help for - at least approximately - restoring the original wording is offered by a quasi-quotation in AAA 347,1-5, 7-14, and 20f. - AS 67,5-13 does not form part of the text of the AS but belongs to the ASBH (see n.52).