Asanga c. 310 AD – c. 390 AD

Asanga was an Indian Buddhist philosopher and the co-founder, with his half-brother Vasubandhu, of the Yogacara or Consciousness-Only school of Mahayana philosophy. According to Buddhist tradition he received his teaching directly from the future Buddha Maitreya in the Tushita heaven and brought back to earth a series of treatises, including the Mahayana-sutralankara and the Abhisamayalankara, that became foundational texts of Mahayana scholasticism. His work argues that the world we experience is a transformation of consciousness rather than an external reality, and that the bodhisattva path leads through six perfections to full awakening.