Descriptions of “Feeling” (vedanā) , “Ideation” (samjñā), and “the Unconditioned” (asamskrta) in Vasubandhu’s Pañcaskandhaka and Sthiramati’s Pañcaskandhakavibhāsā

Abstract

This article focuses on three passages of Vasubandhu’s “[Treatise] on the Five Constituents of the Person” (Pañcaskandhaka) and its commentary by the 6th-century Indian scholar Sthiramati, the Pañcaskandhakavibhāsā. The three parts dealt with here comprise the sections on “feeling”, “ideation”, and “the unconditioned” and are compared with parallel descriptions of these concepts in other Abhidharma texts, including the Abhidharmakośabhāsya and the Abhidharmasamuccaya. The treatment of the unconditioned factors is particularly notable since the lists of these factors vary strongly in the works under discussion, ranging from three to nine entities. Among the unconditioned factors the two entities “cessation [obtained through] consideration” (pratisamkhyānirodha) and “cessation not [obtained through] consideration” (apratisamkhyānirodha) are of particular interest and are analysed in detail in the present study.