[Footnote 110: Translated from the Chinese by Teitaro Suzuki, 1900. The translation must be used with care, as its frequent use of the word _soul_ may lead to misunderstanding.] [Footnote 111: Asaṅga's work _Mahâyâna-sûtrâlankâra_ (edited and translated by S. Lévi) which covers much of the same ground is extant in Sanskrit as well as in Chinese and Tibetan translations. It is a lucid and authoritative treatise but does not appear to have ever been popular, or to be read now in the Far East. For Yogâcâra see also _Muséon_, 1904, p. 370.] [Footnote 112: The discussion of _tathatâ_ in Kathâvatthu, XIX. 5 seems to record an early phase of these speculations.] [Footnote 113: _Awakening of Faith_, Teitaro Suzuki, pp. 62 and 70.] [Footnote 114: The process is generally called Vâsana or perfuming.] [Footnote 115: Vijñânamâtra Śâstra. Chinese version quoted by Teitaro Suzuki, _Outlines of Mahâyâna Buddhism_, p. 343. Apparently both upâdhi and upadhi are used in Buddhist Sanskrit. Upâdi is the Pali form.] [Footnote 116: So the Mâdhyamika Śâstra (XXV. 19) states that there is no difference between Samsâra and Nirvâna. Cf. Rabindranath Tagore, _Sadhana_, pp. 160-164.] [Footnote 117: _E.g._ Bodhicaryâvatâra, chap. I, called praise of the Bodhicitta.] [Footnote 118: _E.g._ the Ṕu-t́i-hsin-li-hsiang-lun (Nanjio, 1304), translated from Nâgârjuna, and the Ta-Ch'êng-fa-chieh-wu-ch́a-pieh-lun, translated from Sthiramati (Nanjio, 1258).] CHAPTER XX MAHAYANIST SCRIPTURES In a previous chapter I have discussed the Pali Canon and I shall subsequently have something to say about the Chinese and Tibetan Canons, which are libraries of religious and edifying works rather than sacred books similar to the Vedas or the Bible. My present object is to speak of the Sanskrit literature, chiefly sutras, which appeared contemporaneously with the rise of Mahayanism in India. The Mahayanist scriptures are the largest body of sacred writings extant in the world, but it is not easy either to define the limits of the Canon or to say when it was put together. According to a common tradition Kanishka played for the Church of the Great Vehicle much the same part as Asoka for the Theravâdins and summoned a Council which wrote commentaries on the Tripitaka. This may be reasonably held to include a recension of the text commented on but we do not know what that text was, and the brief and perplexing accounts of the Council which we possess indicate not that it gave its imprimatur to Mahayanist sutras but that it was specially concerned with the Abhidharma works of the Sarvâstivâdin school.