The Treasury of Higher Knowledge

[ With the Author's Commentary ]

First Chapter

( Instruction on the Elements )

Desiring to compose this treatise, and in order to make known the greatness of his Teacher by recounting His virtues, the author begins with a salutation—

---

The Clarified Meaning: A Commentary

original: "Sphutartha Vyakhya" — this refers to the famous sub-commentary by the scholar Yashomitra.

I bow my head to that Great Leader among teachers; He who possesses the great strength of knowledge and the discipline of meditative absorption, who has shattered the cage of worldly birth and entered the peaceful forest of Extinction Nirvana: The state of final liberation from the cycle of suffering and rebirth.

He who performed the work of a Teacher in this world through his labor on this Treatise of Ultimate Truth; he whom the wise call the foremost among the intelligent, a "Second Buddha."

By that master named Vasubandhu—who shall be a friend to the world in its ultimate sense—this means of understanding the Higher Knowledge Abhidharma: The systematic arrangement of the Buddha's teachings into philosophy and psychology was created, known as the Treasury of Higher Knowledge.

From the ocean of that master's own commentary Bhashya on this Treasury, I have drawn forth this "Jewel of a Treatise"; this explanation I have made is named the "Clarified Meaning," for its name accurately describes its purpose.

Whatever explanations of the meaning of the words were well-constructed by previous commentators such as Gunamati and Vasumitra, those I have accepted and recorded here as the proper meaning.

However, where those commentators provided an interpretation that failed to touch upon the established truths of our system, I have highlighted those instances and provided a correct interpretation in their place.

Let those who have labored in the Great Commentary Abhidharma-mahavibhasha: An encyclopedic compendium of Buddhist doctrine used as a primary source for this text and in the Treasury itself examine whether this commentary of mine is fitting or not.

¹ Salutation to the Triple Gem The Buddha, the Dharma (Teaching), and the Sangha (Community) — alternative reading.