Vasubandhu c. 316 AD – c. 396 AD

Vasubandhu was an Indian Buddhist philosopher, one of the most important systematic thinkers in the Mahayana tradition. He first composed the Abhidharmakosha, an encyclopedic treatment of Buddhist scholastic metaphysics from a Sarvastivada perspective, before, according to tradition, being converted by his half-brother Asanga to the Yogacara, or Consciousness-Only school. His later works, including the Twenty Verses and the Thirty Verses, argue that the world we experience is a transformation of consciousness rather than an external reality. He profoundly shaped East Asian Buddhist thought.

Key facts

Nationality: Indian
Era: Ancient
Movements: Buddhism, Indian Philosophy

Selected quotes

Attributed to Vasubandhu:

“All this is consciousness only, since there is the appearance of non-existent objects.”
Attributed to Vasubandhu:

“What is called the world is nothing other than the transformations of consciousness.”
Attributed to Vasubandhu:

“When all imagined natures are abandoned, the perfected nature reveals itself.”
Attributed to Vasubandhu:

“Defilement and purification are simply different states of the same consciousness.”
Attributed to Vasubandhu:

“Knowing arises in dependence upon the known; without the known, no knowing.”