Abstract

This thesis is a study and translation of the commentary on the Abhidharmakosa written by the first Dalai Lama, dGe 'Dun Grub entitled Elucidating the Path to Liberation . Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakosa represents an intellectual high point in the systematization of Indian Abhidharma Buddhism. Encyclopedic in scope, it provides a rare picture of the total Buddhist world-view; its vast size, however, has hampered its study and teaching. The text translated herein is a Tibetan master's still quite lengthy condensation and summarization of the Abhidharmakosa. It is a one of three major commentarial works by dGe 'Dun Grub, who was a direct disciple of Tsong Kha Pa, the founder of the dGe Lugs Pa sect of Tibetan Buddhism. ;The thesis comprises a lengthy introduction and an annotated translation of the first five chapters of Elucidating the Path to Liberation, which correspond to the first five of the Abhidharmakosa's eight chapters. It presents all of the topics related to contaminated phenomena, "the elements of affliction." ;The introduction first discusses the nature of the Abhidharma enterprise and its textual sources in terms of its gradual religious systematization. dGe 'Dun Grub's commentary is contextualized within the history of Sarvastivada Abhidharma literature in India and the uncertain history of Abhidharma transmission in Tibet. ;It then summarizes the contents of the commentary, i.e. the first five chapters of the Abhidharmakosa. The sequence of chapters is reversed in order to clarify the Abhidharmakosa's conception of the world and of persons within it. Chapter Five on the polluting tendencies and Chapter Four on karma are explored in greatest detail, for they are the generative engine and the fuel that create samsara and impel sentient beings through suffering cyclic existence. Chapter Three focuses on the twelve links of dependent origination, the causal process that perpetuates such experience, while Chapters One and Two are combined into a presentation of the elements constituting sentient existence. ;Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakosabhasyam, the Sphutatha-Abhidharmakosavyakhya by Yasomitra, Abhidharmakosatika-laksananusarini by Purnavardhana, and the Tibetan commentary of mChims 'Jam Pa'i dByangs were also extensively consulted