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13. IMPORTANCE AND REVIEW OF THE MSAB, THE YBS AND OTHER WORKS OF ASANGA.
Maitreyanath and Asanga are regarded to head the lineage of the Mahayana (Yogacara) teachers who codified and systematised the Yogacara Vijñānavāda in the Buddhist tradition. Though Nagarjuna's Dasabhumivibhāṣa-sastra, the Mahaprajñāpäramitāśāstra and the Vaidalya-prakarana may be regarded as the earliest philosophical expositions of the Mahāyāna philosophy, the Yogacara standpoint remains unexpressed in these treatises. The AA and the MSA are the first attempts in the field in which Arya Maitreyanathapāda tried to give a succinct account of the Mahāyāna from the Vijñānavāda standpoint. In Nagarjuna's works, the emphasis is on the Sunyata-doctrine where in the Madhyamika standpoint has been vividly explained. Maitreyanatha, accepting the Madhyamika concept of Sunyata1, gave a brilliant exposition to the Vijñānavada doctrines in the light of the Mahāyānic carya in his Māhāyānottartantraśāstraṁ. In this work the twofold buddha-kaya (dharmakaya and rūpa°2=sambhoga° Mahāyānottaratantra, I. 92, 155-56.
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2.
MV 1.2-23; cf. MSA, XI. 1; IX 23, XI. 41, XVIII. 99-101, 156. Uttaratantra, I. 43, 779-87; 150-52, ii. 21, 22, 28, 30, 44, 53, 61, 68 III. 3, 37-3, XXIV. 61. On this point Jhonston remarks: "The standard doctrine of the Madhyamikas knows two such bodies corresponding to the samvṛtisatya and parama thasatya, and that of the Vijñānavādins postulates three corresponding with the three S abhāvas. The Ratnagotravibhāga's position is not so clear cut. At iii. 3, it propounds the Madhyamika view, but at i. 150-152, II. 21-22 and IV 61 and other passages it has three regular bodies, but under two heads, dharmakaya and rupakaya, the latter covering the sambhogika and nairmāṇika bodies. Thus the connection with the older view is maintained, and it seems that in this matter also the present text stands mid. way between the two chief Mahayana schools." (Foreword to Uttaratantra, P. XIII-XIV).
