Vasubandhu outstanding scholar of the Sarvāstivāda and Yogāchāra schools, who is also considered the twenty-first patriarch of the Indian lineage of Ch’an (Zen). The question of the historical personality of Vasubandhu raises a number of problems. He was born in modern Peshawar, lived in Kashmir, and died in Ayodhyā. He is thought to have been the brother and student of Asanga, the founder of the Yogāchāra. Asanga is said to have converted him to Mahāyāna Buddhism. Vasubandhu might have lived in the 4th or the 5th century. The Indologist E. Frauwallner posits two Vasubandhus, the Yogāchārin (Vasubandhu the Elder, 4th century) and the Sarvāstivādin (Vasubandhu the Younger, 5th century).
The Sarvāstivādin was the author of the Abhidharmakosha, one of the most important works of this school. The Yogāchārin Vasubandhu is considered the cofounder of the Yogāchāra school with his brother Asanga. A number of works of fundamental importance for this school are ascribed to him, among them the Vimshatikā-vijñaptimātratāsiddhi (Proof That Everything Is Only Conception in Twenty Verses), for short, the Vimshatikā. It is extant both in the Sanskrit original and a Chinese translation; it is a summary of the Yogāchāra doctrine.
He was also the author of the Trimshikā, a poem made up of thirty songs, which also expounds the Yogāchāra teaching; and of a number of commentaries on works by Asanga and on important Mahāyāna sūtras such as the Dashabhūmika, Diamond Sūtra, Lotus Sūtra, and the Sukhāvatī-vyūha.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion: Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Zen. Shambhala Publications, Inc.
Books on Vasubandhu
External links:
Yogāchāra / Asanga / Mahāyāna Buddhism / Dashabhūmika / Diamond Sūtra / Lotus Sūtra / Sukhāvatī-vyūha (Longer version) / Sukhāvatī-vyūha (shorter version)