Karmasiddhi-prakaraṇa

Vasubandhu

Karmasiddhi-prakaraṇa (T. las grub pa'i rab tu byed pa, ལས་གྲུབ་པའི་རབ་ཏུ་རབ་ཏུ་བྱེད་པ་; C. dasheng chengye lun 大乘成業論), or Treatise on Karma, is one of the major treatises of Vasubandhu, in which he refutes several theories of the Vaibhashika and introduces the notion of the the ālaya-vijñāna (storehouse-consciousness).

Jonathan C. Gold writes:

The Explanation of the Establishment of Action (Karmasiddhiprakaraṇa) draws together, synthesizes and advances somewhat the many discussions of karma from the Treasury of the Abhidharma.

Overview

The Digital Dictionary of Buddhism states:

The focus of this treatise is on articulation of the action of karma. It is explained that the karma created by physical action, speech, and thought is superficial compared to the situation when the ālayavijñāna stores seeds of affliction. This is an intermediate work of Vasubandhu that shows how his ideas were developing since writing the Abhidharma-kosha but not yet thinking like a Yogācāra.

Dan Lusthaus writes:

Vasubandhu's Karma-siddhi-prakaraṇa (Exposition Establishing Karma) challenged the views of the Vaibhāṣikas and any others who held that dharmas might be anything other than momentary. Momentariness (kṣanika-vāda) basically explained the series of consciousness moments as a casual sequence in which each moment caused its immediate successor. Recognizing that the theory of momentariness had difficulty explaining certain types of continuity--from one life to the next, the re-emergence of a consciousness stream after it has been interrupted in deep sleep or meditation, etc.--near the end of the treatise he introduces the Yogācāra notion of the ālaya-vijñāna (storehouse-consciousness) in which the 'seeds' of previous experiences are stored subliminally and released into new experiences.

Stefan Anacker states:

It is a highly scholastic work, in the style of the Kosa, and uses the technique of expressing the author's views as objections to opponents' theses. It is in fact a frontal assault on Vaibhāṣika theories, and answers many of the objections that Vaibhāṣika masters had raised towards earlier formulations by Vasubandhu.

It is not a "Hinayāna" treatise. It uses the store-consciousness to account for psychic continuity, quotes the Mahāyāna Sandhinirmocanasütra as authoritative scripture, and ends very Mahāyānistically with the transference of all merit gained to all sentient beings. But it is directed at "Hinayānists", and, by filling up holes in earlier theories, is attempting to lure Vaibhāsikas to become involved with the further implications of Yogacara theory, which are not alluded to here deliberately "to ease the shock".

"Action" is "karma", that kind of activity which has an ethical charge, and which must give rise to a retributionary "reverberation" at a later time. If suffering is inflicted, the inflicting aggregate-complex "series" will feel future suffering as a retribution for it. But the "time interval" between the two events is a problem for a theory maintaining momentariness. This treatise thus becomes absorbed in the problem of psychophysical continuity.

Translations

Chinese translation

• Translated by Xuanzang in 651

Tibetan translation

• Translated by Viśuddhisiṃha, Devendraraksita, and Kawa Peltsek (Peking/Tokyo ed. Tibetan Canon, Vol. 113, pp. 295 ff)

English translation

• Anacker, Stefan (2005). Seven Works of Vasubandhu: The Buddhist Psychological Doctor. Delhi, India: Motilal Banarsidass.  Archive
• Vasubandhu, Karmasiddhi Prakarana: The Treatise On Action By Vasubandhu, translated by Etienne Lamotte, English translation by Leo M. Pruden, Asian Humanities Press

French translation

• Philippe Cornu, Vasubandhu, Cinq traités sur l'esprit seulement (Paris: Fayard, 2008).

Further reading

• Gold, Jonathan C., Paving the Great Way: Vasubandhu's Unifying Buddhist Philosophy, Columbia University Press: 2015, Chapter 5
• Treatise on Karma, Rigpa Shedra Wiki