Vasubandhu’s How to Do Things with Texts: Proper Uses of Texts to Comment on Texts

Drawing on The Proper Mode of Exposition (Vyākhyāyukti), this presentation examines Vasubandhu’s critique of an interpretive approach that evaluates new texts by aligning them with established canons. Through numerous examples and citations, he argues that all Buddhist texts are fragmented and inconsistent, with conflicting doctrines and prescriptions — discrepancies present even within Yogācāra texts. This presentation interprets The Proper Mode to argue that Vasubandhu rejects canonical contextualization due to its flawed mereological assumption of a canon as a unified whole composed of texts bearing a distinctive marker of canonicity. This argument draws an important parallel between Vasubandhu’s hermeneutics and ontology by interpreting his critique of a coherent canon as an extension of his ontological position against unified wholes. It also explores the implications of his position, specifically regarding the proper uses of fragmented Buddhist texts in commenting on Yogācāra treatises.