These three volumes discuss virtually everything anybody might want to know about the Yogacara school, one of the two mainstream approaches of the mahāyāna. The ten chapters of the Mahayanasamgraha present a complete overview of the Yogacara view, such as the nature and operation of the eight kinds of consciousnesses, the often-misunderstood notion of "mind only" (cittamatra), dependent origination, the cultivation of the path, and its fruition in terms of the four wisdoms and the three kāyas of a buddha.

The first volume's introduction gives an overview of the Mahayanasamgraha and its Indian and Tibetan commentaries and includes a comprehensive exposition of two crucial elements of the Yogacara view--the alaya-consciousness and the afflicted mind (klistamanas). This volume concludes with English translations of the Mahayanasamgraha and its commentary by Vasubandhu. Volume 2 contains English renderings of the commentary by Asvabhava and an anonymous Indian commentary on only the first chapter of the Mahayanasamgraha. All these translations are supplemented in the endnotes by excerpts from Tibetan commentaries and related passages in other Indian and Chinese Yogacara works. Finally, the appendices in volume 3 include a number of excerpts from other Indian Yogacara texts, as well as supplementary materials on major Yogācāra topics in the Mahayanasamgraha.