Sumanapal Bhikkhu
Abstract:
[The
idealist philosophy of the Vijnanavadins, like most of the philosophies of
India, was closely connected with religious and doctrinal concerns. The Vijnanavadins
believed that their views correctly interpreted the doctrines taught in the
Mahayana scriptures, the world is nothing but the false ideation of the mind,
like a dream. According to all the Buddhist schools, mind or consciousness (Vijnana),
as one of the five groups of Dharmas, is destroyed in the final ‘nirvana’ of
total extinction – literally ‘Nirupadhisesa nirvana’. The Vijnanavadins also
held the view that the mind continues to exist and that Samsara continues to be
real, at least as a mental phenomenon, so long as the ‘Nirupadhisesa nirvana’
has not been attained. The only difference between the Hinayanists and the
Vijnanavadins on this point was that the Vijnanavadins, unlike the maintained
that ‘Samsara’ is purely ideal or ‘mental’ whether this unique concept of ‘Samsara’ is really a departure from early
Buddhist concepts ‘Samsara’ or not is
the, subject of this paper.]
The Yogacara- Vijnanavada
Idealism was the last great creative synthesis of Buddhism and its position in
that tradition is comparable to that of the Advaita Vedanta in the orthodox
Hindu tradition. The origin and development of the Yogacara idealism is an
outcome of the fruitful and dynamic ideas associated with the previous schools
of Buddhism, especially with the Sautrantika and the Madhyamika. “The Sautrantika
prepared the way of the Madhyamika in the one hand and the Yogacara on the
other, and is, in a sense, the parting of the ways. The Yogacara is the
culmination of Buddhism, arrived at by a gradual reinterpretation and
successive reorientation of its central concept of subjectivity. And it is the
Sautrantika which makes this reorientation possible, by establishing subjectivity
on a logical basis and by unfolding various implications”.1 Yogacara
philosophy is a contribution of the philosophers – Maitreyanatha, Asanga,
Vasubandhu, Sthiramati, Dignaga, Dharmakirti and Santaraksita.
The Yogacara School, also known
as the “Consciousness-only”2 school, is a fourth century outgrowth
of Mahayana Buddhism. The Yogacara’s, “by establishing a systematic
presentation of mind, a world-view based on their three-nature theory and a
path system…” of Buddhist practice, conceived a new philosophical system that
“brought Mahayana thought to its full scope and completion.”3Yogacara
itself is not a specific meditative practice, but is meant to be applied as a
descriptive tool to understand situations of action and intention. The final
goal is the complete clarification of consciousness into wisdom. The intention
of the school is not to profound a mere philosophical view point, but to
develop a perspective which will facilitate enlightenment, the purpose and goal
of human life.
Yogacara School was
systematically expounded by Maitreyanath and then ably by Asanga. It reached
the Zenith at the hands of Vasubandhu, honorably called the “Second Buddha”.
The school derived its name from the fact that it emphasized the importance of
yoga for the realization of Pure Knowledge (Bodhi) in order to become Buddha by
going through all the ten stages (Bhumi) of Bodhisattvahood.
Now, where in liberation lies
according to Nagarjuna’s doctrine — this question arises. How the process of
liberation presents itself within the phenomenal world? Nagarjuna solved this
problem very easily. According to old Sravakayan doctrine, rebirth depends on
deeds and the efficacy of the deeds on the defilements— in particular on the
mistaken belief in an ‘I’, in a soul. Nagarjuna now says that with the
abolition of diversity, resulting from the emptiness of all entities, the
bottom falls out of all ideas concerned with the entities of the phenomenal
world. With this, the belief in an ‘I’ is also invalidated, and with it the efficacy
of deeds vanishes and rebirth comes to an end; the Cognition of the emptiness
of all entities is the cause of liberation and provides the impetus form
unfolding of the process of liberation.
One of the problems that
attracted the attention of the pre-Buddhist thinkers was the origin and
development of the world. The keenness of the Indian mind for cosmological
speculation is well manifested in the large number of theories put forward
during this period. We have seen how speculation starting as far back as the
time of the Rgveda came to be systematized and assumed final form in the
theories of the Upanisadic thinkers such as Uddalaka.4 Most of the
thinkers accepted a first Cause such as Being (sat) and explained the world as
the final product of evolution, mostly by way of self-causation. Others, who
conceived of this First Cause as a personal creator God, considered the world
the creation of this omnipotent, being (Brahma). As we have seen, most of these
views were known to the Pali Nikayas and Chinese Agamas.
For empirical and logical reasons
the Buddha abstained from any discussion of the problem of the origin of the
Samsara.5 He emphatically declared that “it is not possible to know
or determine the first beginning of the cycle of existence of beings who wander
therein deluded by ignorance and obsessed by craving”.6 Nevertheless, the Buddha found it necessary
to give a rational explanation of the problem of evolution, especially to
refute the claims of the Brahman caste to superiority which were based on the
theory that Brahma had created the Samsara. Thus, the Agganna-suttanta, 7
which discusses the evolution of the Samsara process, was preached to explain
the evolution of the existing social order, namely, the four castes.8
Without positing a First Cause
such as the Being (sat) of Uddalaka, the Buddha, after stating that the
beginning of the cycle of existence (Samsara) is difficult to know or
determine, described the Samsara as being subject to a process of dissolution
(samvatta, huai) and evolution (vivatta, pien): There comes a time,…when,
sooner or later, after the lapse of a very long period of time, this world
passes away (or is destroyed). And when this happens, beings (who have reached
the end of their life span9) are reborn in the world of Rediance,10
and there they dwell; made of
mind, they feed on rapture, are self-luminous, traverse the air, remain in
glory, and thus they stay for a long time. There also come a time,…when, sooner
or later, this world beings to revolve. (When this happens, beings who have
passed away from the world of Rediance, 11 usually come to life as
humans. And they too are made of mind, they feed on rapture, are self-luminous,
traverse the air, abide in glory, and remain thus for long time.) 12
In the Theravada literature,
concept of phenomenal world is quite different. Based on the Theravada
Buddhavacana or Pali, Samsara may be divided into the following way:
1. The
philosophical (inorganic) world (utuniyama).
2. The
philosophical (organic) world (bijaniyama).
3. The
sphere of thought or mental life (cittaniyama).
4. The
social and moral sphere (kammaniyama).
5. The
higher spiritual life (dhammaniyama).13
This classification is, no,
doubt, based on the various statements made by the Buddha to explain man and
his environment.
Samsara, round of rebirth,
transmigration, lit. perpetual wandering or faring on14 Samsara is a
name by which is designated the sea of life ever restlessly heaving up and
down, the symbol of this continuous process of ever again and again being born,
growing old, suffering and dying. More precisely put, Samsara is the unbroken
chain of the fivefold Khandha-conbination, which, constantly changing from
moment follow continuously one upon the other through inconceivable periods of
time. “Of this Samsara, a single life time constitutes only a tiny and fleeting
fraction: hence to be able to comprehend the first noble truth of universal
suffering, one must let one’s gaze rest upon the Samsara, upon this frightful
chain of rebirths, and not merely upon one single life time, which of course,
maybe sometimes less painful”15
Nagarjuna was the first to create
a philosophical system — where he tried to give an exact proof of the unreality
of the external world which had been asserted in the Prajnaparamita literature;
he developed and defined the decisive fundamental concepts of the Madhyamika
School, the unreality of the external world, the relativity of opposing terms
and the middle way. Still more important in his uniquely developed concept of
an intrinsic nature (Svabhava) and the emptiness of the phenomenal world.
In the Mahayana Samparigarha
Sastra, Asanga has furnished the ten essential features of the Yogacara School;
tradition records that the head of the Yogacara School, Asanga received
teachings from the Bodhisattva Maitreya
or Maitreyanatha16 for the first created new and significant
ideas related to Yogacara. Maitreyanatha’s most frequently mentioned works are
– The Abhisamayalamkara, The Mahayanasutralamkara and The Madhyantavibhaga.
Asanga’s most striking essential
features are:
(A) The Alaya Vijnana is imminent in all beings.
(B) Knowledge is of three kinds – illusory,
relative and absolute.
(C) The goal of life is to become one, through Bodhi,
with the Dharmakaya (Buddha’s body
of pure existence).
(D) These
are absolutely no difference between Samsara and Nirvana from the ultimate
stand point. Nirvana is to be realized here and now by embracing “Sameness”
(samatva) and by discarding “Plurality” (Nanatva).
(E)
Reality is
Dharmakaya, (or Buddha’s body of Pure Existence) which is pure consciousness and
which manifests itself, from the point of view of Samsara, as Nirmanakaya or
the Body of becoming, and from point of view of Nirvana as Sambhoga-kaya or the
Body of Bliss.
The older Yogacara School
produced the most characteristic work – Yogacarabhumisastra (Treatise of the
stages of the Application of Yogacara). Tradition names the heads of the school,
Maitreya and Asanga, as its authors, but it is probably a work of the school,
whose development extended over several generations. The oldest part may be
Bodhisattvabhumi where the career of the Bodhisattva is described with
inexhaustible imagination in all its details and with bewildering and nearly ‘stupefying
elaborateness’, wherein the philosophical completely recedes behind the
tropically proliferative scholasticism of liberation; but there are few
isolated sections that are also of philosophical significance are, however,
inserted. And since they give an excellent ideal of thought from which the
development of the Yogacara system began.
From section 1 to 8 of Bodhisattvabhumi
– we get data about the divisions of reality it is twofold. With respect to the
manner of existence of factors, it is their true existence (bhutata). With
respect of the extent of their existence, it is the totality (sarvata) of the
factors. In this way true existence and totality are to be considered as
reality; the first is the object of the view of all ordinary individuals, the
second is the object of rational knowledge.
Further, reality is — divided
according to its varieties fourfold – that which is accepted in the ordinary
world (Loka); that which is accepted based on rational arguments (yukti); the
sphere of knowledge (Jnanagocara) purified of the obstruction of defilements;
and the sphere of knowledge purified of the obstruction to what is to be known.
Specifically the first reality or truth is the object of the view of all
ordinary individuals, thus of the opinion communist; the second is the object
of rational knowledge. This is simple and nothing special but the third is the
object of knowledge through which the obstruction of defilements is removed,
and the fourth is the object of knowledge through which the obstruction to what
is to be known is removed. The Yogacarabhuminsastra17 described the
determination. The nature of reality, non-duality and the
middle way and the constitution of the nature of reality, and the proof of the
unreality of the phenomenal world respectively18
As with the Madhyamika School,
the sutra literature plays a great role in the Yogacara School. The work “Samadhinirmocana
sutra” reflects the course of the general development of the school and its
oldest parts fully adhere to the manner of the Prajnaparamita texts, while in
the more recent ones the new philosophical thoughts and the scholasticism of
liberation of the Yogacara School find expression.
The Bodhisattvabhumi had taught
that the phenomenal world is mere conception, but that an ungraspable and
inexpressible thing in itself underlies it, and it had cloth this view in the form
of the old doctrine of the middle way; the Samadhinirmocana sutra chose another
from for this. It distinguished first and foremost between things as they
appear to us and things as they really are which are important from the point
of view of the doctrine of liberation. Yogacara philosophy is a logical
elaboration of the basic epistemological pattern of Buddhism and the discovery
of the subjective is the great achievement of Buddhist epistemology. Yogacara
considers enlightenment a state of True Suchness or Thusness, meaning that it
is the ultimate nature of all things. In reality enlightenment is the only
truly Tathata existent state. In the perfect clarity of enlightenment there is total
awareness and complete understanding19.
In enlightenment there is only
the singular total truth of unity, which subsumes the “I” of the
ego-differentiated self. After enlightenment the mind’s process of seeking
outside itself cases, as does the process of sending energy out in the form of
attachment and the mind is now contemplative absorbing energy for the benefit
of itself Y humanity, like a flower absorbing the rays of the sun. Enlightened
mind creates four types of enlightened wisdom which are functions of the
Buddhic mind and reflect the transformation of the eight consciousness – the
five perceptual, the 6th, 7th and 8th
consciousness into fundamental wisdom.
The Buddha is said to have three
bodies – Physical (the body of self
mastery) necessary for him to teach humanity the path to enlightenment; the
Enjoyment body – a luminescent, subtle, limitless form that the Buddha uses to
teach Bodhisattvas, the beings at the find stage prior to enlightenment, and
many enjoyment bodies, each having a Pure Land or heaven outside the normal
world system, where it is easy to hear and practice the dharma, The wisdom of
equality corresponds to this body; the third body in Dharma Body which is real,
with two aspects inner mature shared by all Buddha’s – the knowledge body which
manifests as omniscient knowledge, perfect wisdom, and the highest spiritual
qualities; and the second existent body representing the ultimate nature of
reality, thusness and emptiness. With three wisdoms – applied wisdom
discursive, fundamental wisdom with insight without distinction – making and is
non-discriminative and subsequently
attained wisdom – a pure form of knowledge which eliminate wisdom is all the
Buddha’s teaching explain how in enlightenment, a person deal still with relative
appearances in the everyday world.
The fundamental doctrine of this
school is that all phenomenal existence is fabricated by consciousness, the
basis of all activities from birth to attaining enlightenment. Since everything
is just an aspect of consciousness, all phenomenal existence is without
intrinsic nature. Therefore, the “I” is illusory and there is no self to be
found, these is nothing separate from consciousness. The world is our
perceptual construct and an analysis of the unenlightened mind will show
different levels of perception which are based in store-house of consciousness
containing the Karmic seeds of former actions.
Karma is the result of our
intentional actions whose consequences remain as seeds or traces in the
store-house consciousness; seeds germinate overtime, generate more seeds and
once a seed produces its fruit, it is used up; new seeds come to fruition in
each moment until the time enlightenment reaches. Consequently in Samsara (the
cycle of existence and rebirth that others about the external sensible world, experience interaction via
our streams of mental phenomena and three stages of Karmic process – fist
giving rise to delusion has one root in
the sixth – consciousness, creating
Karma involving seed’s planting in the 8th consciousness and finally
when the ongoing cycle of life, death – rebirth
draws the 8th consciousness back into the six levels of existence,
the 3rd stage of Karma undergoing retribution is the germination of
Karmic seeds — We reap what we have sown.
Dharmas the ultimate factors that
support existence are basic interdependent patterns within the overall nature
of reality, each dharma being a mental – construct with specific process of a
stream of momentary events and Dharmas are attachments to an illusory reality; Yogacara
posits one hundred Dharmas based on the three nature of reality. The
realization that all Dharmas are nothing but mental constructs is an essential
step on the path to enlightenment.
In Yogacara theory everything is
“mind only” and this consciousness is divided into eight sections — the
principal part is the Alaya or store-house-consciousness – the basis of the
seven other consciousnesses. The 8th consciousness is beyond the
dualisms of subject and object, or existence and non-existence and is said to
have the state of equanimity. Final
freedom from the Samsaric process occurs when all the defiled seeds are
replaced by pure seeds created by pure deeds which are the source of motivation
towards enlightenment and contained in the Alaya and it has two divisions — the
perceiving (The Subject) and the perceived (The Object), the former and the
latter are linked to the 7th and 8th consciousness and
the five perceptual consciousness respectively.
Cognition and perception take
place in the 6th consciousness devoid of four types of delusion –
pride of self, self-love, self-delusion and self-conceit and also devoid of
laziness, distraction, lack of faith etc. and hence no longer attachment to
self, only dharma’s. Distinction making three modes of knowledge is used by the
6th consciousness and involve subject and object. The subject has
three types of knowledge – 1) direct veridical perception giving a truthful
picture of reality, e.g. The Orange is forage. 2) Inference is assumptions
based on perception: the Orange will taste good and 3) the fallacious knowledge
is our dreams, imaginings and hallucinations: this orange will cure my dandruff.
With reference to the objects of
perception, three kinds of states involve:-
1) The
natural state unconditioned by mental causation and corresponds to the
perceptual
consciousness, e.g. you see a bird.
2) State
of solitary impressions refers to imagined categories in the 6th
consciousness: It is a nice dancing and sweet singing bird.
3) State
of transposed substance are the distortions of false thinking generated by the
concept of “self”. The bird likes my good vibes.
The 5th through 1st
consciousness are the perceptual consciousness comprising the visual, auditory,
olfactory, gustatory, and tactile senses which arise from the perceived
division of the eighth consciousness. Each organ of perception has two parts
its physical substances (eyes, ears, nose, tongue and body) the nerves connecting
it to the perceived division and its mental component. None of the five
perceptual consciousnesses contain the potential for making moral distinctions,
so they are of in terminate nature. Fifth consciousness is tactile feeling,
perceives through touch or contact, 4th and 3rd (or
Tongue and Nose) consciousness perceives through tasting and smelling
respectively and both also perceives though contact and after the second ground
– The first dhyana perception ceases. 2nd and 1st
consciousness (Ear and Eye consciousness) perceives through hearing and seeing
at a distance respectively.
The theory of three natures (also
known as three characteristics) is one of the central concepts of Yogacara
philosophy: three natures are involved in direct perception and represent all
states of entities without exception. In Yogacara theory all objects, internal and
external, are constructs which only
exist as part of our awareness, so their nature imaginary, there is no reality,
it is just illusion, (1) This imaginary nature accepts the validity of the
illusory, i.e. that happiness depends on having a new car/a flower rose or
lotus. The imaginary nature believes in the reality of the water in a mirage. (2) The other-dependent or interdependent
nature is the basis from which the imaginary nature arises and the perfected
nature appears; this nature is produced by the flow of changing mental
phenomena that arises from causes and conditions. These dharma’s real as
conditional things, but “because we impose ‘self-existence’ upon our experience
of them, we come up with distorted images of things and this causes suffering (Samsara),
since our mental constructs do not match reality. The other-dependent nature is
mirage itself. (3) The perfected or fulfilled nature is the ultimate nature,
the only one that is absolutely real. This nature is devoid of duality and sees
the world as “representation only”. Since it is always exactly the same, it is
the “thusness” of all. The perfected nature knows it is seeing a mirage.
To see the inter-relationship of
our mind processes (i.e. the other-dependent nature) as being without real
objective qualifications of their own (imaginary nature) is to be enlightened
(perfect nature). Once the false concept of “I” and “Object” id removed, the
result is “things-as they-are”, which is nirvana.
There are three kinds of feeling
– Experience of Pleasure, Pain and neutral feeling. The distinctions made by
the 6th consciousness cause the manifestation of the six levels of
existence (the six destinies): Gods- residing in heaven, Asuras (spirits or
titans), Humans, Animals, Hungry ghosts (spirits of suffering) and beings in
hell in the three realms: i) Realm of desire,
ii) Realm of form (of the four dharmas) and iii) Formless Realm (of four
samadhis). There are nine grounds — the nine bodhisattva grounds are stages,
within the three realms, of spiritual attainment, Realm of desire is First
ground – the phenomenal world which includes the destinies the six levels of
existence and the six desire “heavens”.
The Second ground in the realm of
form where the first dhyana is a level of deep awareness, contemplative fore
point generation and four dhyanas are meditative techniques which produce a
state of mental emptiness (Samadhi). This is the first formal level on the path
to enlightenment and is marked by joy, happiness, clear reasoning, and the
state of investigation and examination.
In the Third ground the joyful
stage of the Arising of samadhi is the second dhyana of joy and examination; at
this stage sexual desire has caused.
In the Fourth ground, the stage
of wonderful Bliss of Being Apart from joy is the third dhyana of happiness and
equanimity, but now without joy. Fifth ground the stage of Renouncing Thought
is the fourth dhyana which is the purity of equanimity without pain pleasure,
sixth ground is infinite space, Seventh ground is the far reaching ground or
infinite consciousness and at this level the 7th consciousness
breaks its attachment to the 8th consciousness as being the “self”
and is transformed into their respective wisdoms. Eighth ground the unmoving
ground, here all outflows from the 6th and 7th
consciousness stop and the wisdom of wonderful contemplation proceeds
spontaneously. Ninth ground is of
neither cognition nor non-cognition. In this ground is the samadhi of the
extinction of feeling and cognition.
In the process of consciousness,
ascend to the wisdom of enlightenment necessitates negating Samsaric reality,
while aspiring to the nirvanic ideal. Yogacara recognizes a five stage path to
enlightenment.
1. Resources based learned
attachments to self and dharma’s.
2. Application of using meditations
to enter into the four dhyanas. The process is completed
when the seeds in 8th
consciousness that ripen into the concepts of subject and object are
eliminated.
3. Vision is the beginning of the
transformation of consciousness into wisdom.
4. Meditational development for
fundamental wisdom and subsequent attained wisdom.
5. Perfection is the final stage
of completion and one resides there in the state of contemplation
of pure wisdom and enlightenment.
The Alaya Vijnana is the permanent
storehouse of consciousness; it transcends the subject-object duality
(Grahyagrahakavisamyukta), is free from birth, existence and is realizable only
though pure Reason (Nirabhasa-prajna-gocara). The Pravrttivijnanas may be
compared to the waves — various individual vijnanas, due to ignorance moved by
the winds in the form of objects dance on Alaya, in the same way as the waves
moved by wind dance on the ocean.20
Judging each phenomenal object by
the standard of Pratityasamutpada, Asanga has revealed and established that
things being born of causes and conditions are necessarily momentary. Change is
the law of the world. The object exists in thought only and this momentariness
is not the characteristic of Reality, which is not the best affected by these
categories. In this school of thought the ultimate reality of the empirical
self or ego has been denied. Consciousness pure s admitted as the only reality,
having its nature as self-luminous.
Pure consciousness is the Reality
and by its inherent power it undergoes modifications — Alaya-vijana (a
store-house consciousness), Mano-vijana (individual mental operations),
perception of the external objects, i.e. Visaya-vijanapti and behind these
three modifications is the permanent background of eternal and unchangeable pure
Consciousness (Vijnana or Vijnaptimatra) Vasubandhu is of opinion that Pure
Consciousness transcends the dualism of the subject & the object as well as
the plurality of phenomena and his system is Absolute Idealism.21
With Vasubandhu, the Yogacara
school reached its apex, his two works by the title Vijnaptimatratasiddhi
(Proof that everything is mere cognizance) one of which is in 20 verses
(Vimsatika) the other in 30 (Trimsatika) are considered to be the best
summaries of the most important philosophical tenets of the School Yogacara.22
Vasubandhu expresses the mental complex on which the entire phenomenal world
rests, consists of three transformations of cognition - i) fundamental
cognition (Alayavijnana)
ii) Thinking (manas) and
iii) Cognizance of objects
(Visaya-vijnapti).
According to Vasubandhu, with
this activity of the mental complex, the appearance of the phenomenal world
comes about as follows. By nature, every cognition is a conception (Vikalpa)
that conceives something unreal. This “unreal” is the duality of the
apprehended and the apprehending. In this, the apprehended and the apprehending
are not, as Asanga assumed, embodied by two distinct cognizances’ to which, as
bearer, corresponding to the sense organ, a third is added. Instead, everything
is united in one cognition which displays the image of an object that is held
to exist externally. With this, the apprehended and the apprehending is
established.
Also, important is Vasubandhu’s
insight that every cognition, as soon as it itself becomes an object, appears
in conceived form. What is then cognized is thus not its true nature, but
rather a conception like any other. With this, the relationship to the highest
reality is clarified. The doctrine that everything is mere cognizance thus does
not mean that the sole real entity is cognizance as it appears to us in
conceive from. It is, rather, the true nature of cognizance that remains
forever inaccessible to our mundane cognizance. And precisely this is the
highest reality.
Furthermore, Vasubandhu raises
the noteworthy question of the multiplicity of living beings, i.e. the
multiplicity of cognizing subjects and their relationship to one another. In
his view, the relation of different living beings to one another rests upon the
fact that the distinct streams of cognition, all of which are real, are able to
causally influence one another in their courses.
With respect to the doctrine of
liberation, Vasubandhu as for the process of liberation itself is concerned
only with the fundamental philosophical idea – which is created by Maitreyanath
and retained by Asanga. But he takes a very different route in the
establishment of the unreality of the external world, and Asanga’s way is
completely dropped. From the impossibility of the knowable, Vasubandhu infers
in the customary way the invalidity of cognition, while returning to the idea
that cognition, as it appears to us, is in reality only conception. Once the
disciple has turned away from the object and cognition, i.e. from the
apprehended and the apprehending, he then abides in mere cognizance, i.e. in
its true nature, the highest reality.
In this way the disciple has
attained the supramundane, non conceptual knowledge (Nirvikalpakajnana) 23
which is, at eh same time, the non-perception (anupalambha) 24 of
any object in the ordinary sense. With this, the transformation of the basis
(asrayapravrtti) 25 takes place, the two fold bondage which consists
of the false belief in a self and in factors is destroyed, and with new and
unique way the mental complex dissolves. Through this, liberation is attained;
the union with the highest reality, the undefiled element (anasrava-dhatu)
26 as Maitreyanatha called it, which at the same time is the body of the
doctrine (dharmakaya) of the Buddha.
Hence for Yogacara school,
subtraction of Asanga as qualified as psychological idealism, where as sub
tradition of Vasubandhu also developed by his disciples Sthiramati and
especially Dharmapala is qualified as Vijnanavada the Buddhist phenomenology of
consciousness; and subtraction of Dignaga, Dharmakirti (they are disciples of
Vasubandhu and Dharmapala respectively) can be qualified as the logico-epistemological
branch of the Yogacara School.
It is important to note that
all mentioned Yogacara trends are not purely philosophical but religio-
philosophical. All Yogacara discourse takes place within the religious and
doctrinal dimension of Buddhism. It is also determined by the fundamental
Buddhist problem, that is living being and its liberation from the bondage of
Samsara. So let us all take refuge in Yogacara.
Notes and References:-
1.
Chatterjee, Ashok
kumar., The Yogacara Idealism, Motilal Baranasidass pub. Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi,
2007, pp. 19-20.
4.
CHB, p.322: “Sad
ity astitamatram.” See also Sv5.12; Hume, Upanisads, p.278.
5.
Jayattileke,
Theory of Knowledge, pp.475f.
6.
S 2.178ff. :
“anamataggo’yam…samsaro pubbakoti na pannayati avijjanivarananam sattanam
tanhasamyojananam sandhavatam samsaratam” TD 2.485c (Pieh-I Tsa 16.1) see also
TD 2.241b (Tsa 34.1). It is interesting to note that the locution anamatagga in
the Pali version, which means “inconceivable is the beginning “(ana=negative
prefix; mata= past participle of man or mn, “to think”, and agga=agar,
“beginning”), occurs in most of the Buddhist Sanskrit texts as anavaragra (see
BHSD, p.21). In the Madhyamakakarika(11.1), Nagarjuna says:
“Purva prajnayate kotir nety uvaca mahamunih,
Samsaro’navaragro hi nasyadir napi pascimah.”
Anavargra has generally been translated “without beginning and end”
(BHSD, p.21). this is quite clear from Nagarjuna’s use of nasyadir napi
pascimh, on the basis of which Jacques May translates anavaragra as “sans debut
ni terme” (Candrakirti, Prasannapada Madhyamakavritti, Paris: adrien
Maissoneuve, 1959, p.170). But the Agama version seems to imply “without prior
limit” when it renders anavaragra, it seems that the former is in keeping with
the teaching of early Buddhism in that it implies the difficulty of knowing oe
determining the beginning,hence an epistemology rather than an onthological
problem. This view carries the support of later Theravada commentators (see SA
2.156: “anamataggo ti animataggo, vassasatam vassasahassam nanena anugantva pi anamataggo aviditaggo nassa sakka it ova
etto va aggam janitum aparicchinnapubbaparakarotiti attho” ). But the latter
implies a definite denial of a beginning and is in keeping with the metaphysics
of Mahayana.
7.
Agganna-suttanta,
of Digha Nikaya.
8.
This sutra is
found in D 3.80ff. : TD 1.36b (Ch’ang 6.1). the Chinese version, unlike the
Pali version, specifically states its purpose.
9.
The portion
within parentheses is not found in the Chinese version.
10.
The etymology of
the term abhassara has presented problem PTSD derives it form abha+svar, “to
shine,” and defines it is “shining in splendor” (p.130). The Chinese
translators seem to have followed a traditional explanation when they rendered
it as kuang yin, “brighy speech” (kuang=abha, yin=svara, “syllable”).
11.
Hence the Chinese
version adds: “On account of the exhaustion of merit [=punnakkhaya?] and the
termination of the life span{=ayukkhaya?].”
12.
In the Chinese
version the portion with in parentheses is given after another passage.
13.
DA 2.432; Dhs A,
p. 272;cf. C. A. F. Rhys Davids, Buddhism, p. 119.
14.
Digha Nikaya,
PTS, vol. I. p.54; vol. II. P.206.
15.
Nyantiloka, M,
Buddhist Dictionary, p.160; Visuddhimagga, p. 544f; Samyutta Nikaya, PTS, vol.
II. p. 178f.
16.
Haraprasad Sastri
in IHQ, I, 1925, P. 465 ff places Maitreya between 150 and 265 AD.
17.
Buston mentions
the Yogacarabhumi as the great work of Asanga. It is five volumes which are
briefly described by him, HB, I, pp. 654-56. It appears to be the same as
Yogacarabhumisastra. in sec-9-13 and Section 14,
18.
section 15 and
16, and sec- 17 and 19 gives the two proofs of the unreality of the
designations, and the two errors and the false and correct view of reality. In
correct view of reality —emptiness is correctly comprehended and well discerned
through correct insight.
19.
Chatterjee, Ashok
Kumar., The Yogacara Idealism, Motilal Baranasidass pub. Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi,
2007, p. 29.
20.
Lankavatara
Sutra, pp. 186-187.
21.
Frauwallner,
Erich, (trn.) Sangpo Gelong Lodro., the philosophy of Buddhism, Motilal
Baranasidass pub. Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi, 2010, p. 378.
22.
Ibid., pp.
375,479-80.
23.
Ibid., pp.
240-245.
24.
Ibid., pp.
162-381.
25.
Ibid., pp.
320,323,330.
26.
Ibid.,
p.381.
Bibliography:
1.
Barua, Amal.,
mind and mental factors in early Buddhist psychology, Northern Book centre, New
Delhi, 1990.
2.
Bapat, L.,
Buddhist Logic, A fresh study of Dharmakirti’s philosophy, Bharatiya vidya
prakashan, New Delhi, 1989.
3.
Choudhury,
Binayendra nath., Dictionary of Buddhist Doctrinal and Technicle terms,
The Asiatic Society, Kolkata,2005.
4.
Chattopaddhay, Debiprasad,
(Ed.) Chimpa, Lama, and Chattopadhay, Alaka., (Trn.), Taranatha’s History of Buddhism in India,
Motilal Baranasidass pub. Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi, 2004.
5.
Chattopadhay,
Alaka., (Trn.), Atisa and Tibet, Motilal
Baranasidass pub. Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi, 2011.
6.
Chatterjee, Ashok
kumar., The Yogacara Idealism, Motilal Baranasidass pub. Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi,
2007.
7.
Dutta,
Nalinaksha., Buddhist Sect in India, Motilal Baranasidass pub. Pvt. Ltd. New
Delhi, 1978.
8.
Dragonetti,
Carman., and Tola, Fernando., Being as consciousness Yogacara philosophy of
Buddhism, Motilal Baranasidass pub. Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi, 2004.
9.
Haldar, Aruna.,
Some psychological aspects of early Buddhist philosophy based on Abhidharmakosa
of Vasubandhu, The Asiatic Society, Kolkata, 2001.
10. Frauwallner, Erich, (trn.) Sangpo Gelong Lodro., the
philosophy of Buddhism, Motilal Baranasidass pub. Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi, 2010.
11. Kalupahana, David J., Causality: The Central
philosophy of Buddhism, The University press of Hawaii, Honolulu, 1975.
12. Mc Grovern, William Montgomery, An Introduction to
Mahayana Buddhism, Bharatiya Book Corporation, New Delhi, 1986.
13. Potter, Karl H., Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophyies,
Abhidharma Buddhism to 150 A.D., Vol. VII. Motilal Baranasidass pub. Pvt. Ltd.
New Delhi, 2011.
14. Robinson, H. Richard., Early Madhyamika in India and
China, Motilal Baranasidass pub. Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi, 1978.
15. Stcherbatsky, F (trn.)., Buddhist Logic, Dover
Publications, New York, 1962.
16. Verdu, Alfonso., Early Buddhist philosophy, in the
light of four noble truths, Motilal Baranasidass pub. Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi,
1995.
17. Ward, C. H. S., Buddhism, vol.II. Mahayana, London,
The Epworth press, 1952.
18. Zinn, William V., The global philosophy, New York,
Vanyage press, 1982.
No comments:
Post a Comment