The Ten Bhūmis

There are other sūtras that specifically list these ten bhūmis, indicating the direct influence of The Ten Bhūmis, such as the Samādhi­rāja­sūtra,⁹ Saṃdhi­nirmocana,¹⁰ Ratna­megha,¹¹ Ghana­vyūha, and Dharma­saṃgīti­sūtra.¹² Perhaps the earliest commentarial witness to the influence of The Ten Bhūmis is the Ratnāvalī of Nāgārjuna.¹³ Other early Mahāyāna sūtras and commentaries show no such influence from The Ten Bhūmis. The Laṅkāvatāra­sūtra,¹⁴ for example, only mentions seven bhūmis. Similarly, in the commentarial tradition, one finds that in the Bodhisattva­bhūmi, which is the fifteenth section of the Yogācārabhūmi, only the seven bhūmis and the thirteen vihāras are taught. The authorship of the Yogācārabhūmi is attributed in China to Maitreya­nātha and in Tibet to his successor, Asaṅga. However, it is probably a compilation from various authors. In contrast, in the Mahāyāna­sūtrālaṃkāra,¹⁵ which is also attributed to Maitreya­nātha, the ten bhūmis are specifically presented.

The principal commentary to The Ten Bhūmis was written in the fourth century by Asaṅga’s successor and half-brother, Vasubandhu.¹⁶ That commentary was itself the subject of a commentary by Sūryasiddha,¹⁷ who claims that the meaning of the sūtra was revealed solely to Asaṅga, who subsequently transmitted it only to Vasubandhu. These texts do not concern themselves with the introductory section of the sūtra, but a commentary on the introduction was written in the eighth century by Śākyabodhi.¹⁸

The ten bhūmis are found in many important later Indian Buddhist texts, such as Candrakīrti’s seventh-century Madhyamakāvatāra,¹⁹ and they became a central part in the presentation of the higher stages of the path in Tibet, featuring prominently in lamrim (“stages of the path”) texts.