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Buddhism: The Yogacara School of Mahayana Buddhist Philosophy
The Spiritual Bookstore Online World Religion Library
The Yogacara School of the Mahayana Buddhist Philosophy
(trends and subdivisions)
Evgueni A. Tortchinov
(St. Petersburg State University, Russia)
The Buddhist philosophical school of Yogacara established in the frames of
Mahayanistic Buddhism is one of the most complex and interesting phenomena
of the philosophical trends of traditional India. It exerted notable
influence not only on the formation of the Buddhist philosophical thinking
in different regions of the Buddhist world (China, Tibet) but also on the
native cultural tradition of those regions as well (it is rather enough to
mention here the Neoconfucian branch of "xin xue" in its historical
development from Wang Yangming up to such contemporary post-Confucians as
Liang Shuming and especially Xiong Shili). But the researches into this
trend of thought have not been completed yet. Thus, in the Russian Buddhist
studies (with exception of the classical works of Th. Stcherbatsky dedicated
to the logico - epistemological branch existing in the frames of Yogacara,
practically there are no serious studies of this school and the scholarly
translations of the principal texts of
Yogacara are also lacking). Here I would like to discuss the question of the
existence of different trends (subschools) within the frames of this
philosophical school.
It is usually conceived that the synonymous name for the title "Yogacara"
("school of the practice of yoga") is "Vijnanavada" ("the doctrine of
consciousness"). Really, the maxim "All three worlds are mind only" (its
locus classicus is "Dasa bhumika sutra") expresses the principal doctrinal
essence of this school as a teaching which examines mainly just the problems
of mind and consciousness. But not all the representatives of this school
used the term "Vijnanavada" for its self denomination (it is also true
regarding another denominations of Yogacara which also are conceived to be
synonymous – "Vijnaptimatra", "Cittamatra", etc.).
It must be said that every outstanding representative of this school who
established the subschool of his own preferred to use his own denomination
of his new branch. This difference in self denominations reflected rather
subtle distinctions between the trends developing in the frames of general
paradigm of the Yogacara thinking. On this foundations it seams to be
possible to define the following subtraditions of this school of the
Buddhist philosophy:
Subtradition of Asanga the exact name of which is Cittamatra ("psychical
only", or "mind only"); it can be qualified as psychological idealism.
Subtradition of Vasubandhu, developed by his disciples Sthiramati and
especially, Dharmapala. The exact name of this trend is Vijnaptimatra
("Conscious only"), or Vijnanavada ("The doctrine of consciousness"). It can
be qualified as the Buddhist phenomenology of consciousness.
Subtradition of Dignaga – Dharmakirti originated from Vasubandhu's
subtradition (as it is well known, Dignaga was a disciple of Vasubandhu, and
Dharmakirti – that of Dharmapala's) and its proper name is Sautrantika -
Yogacara. It can be qualified as the logico - epistemological branch of the
Yogacara school.
Cittamatra. For the brief definition of these subtraditions it can be said
that Asanga's teaching contains in itself the tendency to onthological and
metaphysical examination of the problem of Mind. It confirms the existence
not only the "store consciousness" of Alaya-vijnana which is the source of
all empirical forms of consciousness and its contents as well but also
supports the idea of the One and Only absolute Mind which is the same as the
Dharma Body (Dharmakaya) of the Buddha itself. This Absolute Consciousness
sometimes was even called "Great Self", "Highest Self", or "Pure Self" (mahatman;
paramatman; suddhatman). This tendency lead Asanga to the positions of the
Tathagatagarbha theory represented first of all by the treatise "Ratnagotravibhaga"
(or "Uttaratantra"). This work was included by the Tibetans to the texts of
"Maitreya – Asanga" (but the Chinese tradition attributed it to a certain
Saramati). It must be added that this tendency appeared in its purity first
of all in the texts included by the Indo - Tibetan tradition to the group of
the so-called Maitreya – Asanga works (the most clear example here is
"Mahayana sutralamkara sastra"). It is possible that the position of these
works of Asanga had played an important role in the process of integration
of the Yogacara ideas into the theory of the Tathagatagarbha. This
integration has found its most perfect expression in the famous work of
pseudo - Asvaghosa "Mahayana sraddhotpada sastra" (it is existed only in
Chinese). This position of Asanga supplied the reality of only psychical and
was quite in accordance with the teaching of such important doctrinal text
as "Lankavatara sutra". It is rather important to note that in another works
of Asanga ("Yogacara bhumi sastra", "Mahayana samgraha sastra", "Abhidharma
samuccaya") Asanga's position is looks like the position of his stepbrother
Vasubandhu (but some differences still continue to exist).
Vijnaptimatra. Subschool of Yogacara presented by Vasubandhu himself could
be considered to be "classical" Yogacara; it was just in Vasubandhu's and
his disciples' works this school attained its perfect maturity. Unlike
Asanga, Vasubandhu carefully reserves from the arguments of the onthological
character having strong intention to keep himself exclusively in the frames
of phenomenolology. Developing the concept of "alaya - vijnana" and the
teaching about three levels of reality (trisvabhava), Vasubandhu tells
nothing about any Absolute, or the Only Mind, he reserves himself from
discussion about the essence, or nature of consciousness examining only its
phenomena (laksana). Nevertheless, his disciples Sthiramati and Dharmapala
transcended the limitations of the pure empiricism and phenomenologism of
Vasubandhu distinctively proclaiming the idea of the non-existence of the
world outside consciousness (this position was accepted by the Chinese
Yogacarins Xuan-zang and Kuai-ji; Xuan-zang was a pupil of Dharmapala's
disciples). It can be added here that in India such words as Vijnaptimatra
and Cittamatra were pure synonyms but the Chinese tradition absolutely
correctly distinguishes them. In the Chinese Buddhist parlance Cittamatra (wei
xin) is the name for the Tathagatagarbha theory based schools whose
intention was to investigate the very nature of Mind (cittatva; xin xing),
and Vijnaptimatra (wei shi) is a designation of the school of classical
Yogacara with a phenomenological approach to Mind; their intention was to
investigate only phenomena (laksana; xiang) of consciousness and not its
transcendental nature (that is paratantra and not parinispanna level).
Xuan-zang's School of the Dharmic Phenomena (fa xiang zong) just was a
representative of this philosophical attitude.
Sautrantika - yogacara of Dignaga - Dharmakirti branch was called by this
name because of some special features of this subschool. The philosophers of
this trend together with the Sautrantikas of the Hinayana tradition taught
that sensations contained an element of the real knowledge. But this
position did not prevent some later representatives of this subschool (Prajnakaragupta,
Ratnakirti) to be proponents of the extreme illusionism and solipsism (as
well as of solipsism of this moment). The best example of such extreme
idealistic ideas was the treatise of Ratnakirti (XI century) "Refutation of
the existence of other minds" (Santanantara dusana). The logico-epistemological
trend of Yogacara rejected the doctrine of
alaya-vijnana but preserved the concept of vasanas, or "habitual force" (the
notion designated the energy of habit which conditioned the intentions of
mind to project its contents outward). The thinkers of this subschool were
extreme
nominalists and empiricists who underlined the theory of the momentary
character of all existence and considered the contents of the present single
perception (svalaksana) to be the only reality. In the same time they were
extremely interested in the problems of the formal logic which was used by
them in their rather successful and very active polemics with the
Brahmanists.
It is important to note that all mentioned Yogacara trends are not purely
philosophical but religious—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. Just the thinkers of this school
worked out the detailed version of the Mahayanistic doctrine of Buddha's
Three Bodies (trikaya, fo san shen) and the teaching about ten stages of the
bodhisattva path: the chapters on these themes not only constitute important
structural units of such important Yogacara texts as Asanga's "Mahayana
samgraha" or Vasubandhu—Xuan-zang's "Vijnaptimatra siddhi sastra" but
determine as well the contents and structure of such longest Buddhist
philosophical treatise as Asanga's "Stages of the Yogic Path" (Yogacara
bhumi sastra). Historically different subschools of the Yogacara tradition
played unequal roles in the history of the Mahayanistic Buddhist thought.
Thus, the branch of Asanga (or Maitreya-Asanga) which represented by itself
a kind of synthesis between Yogacara and the theory of Tathagatagarbha was
very fruitful for the Chinese tradition. And in Tibet it had only very
limited popularity.
Vasubandhu's Vijnaptimatra determined the character of the Chinese school of
Faxiang zong founded by Xuan-zang; it was known very well in Tibet as well.
Logico-epistemological trend had no followers in China or in the Far East as
such but it exerted a powerful influence on the formating of the logico-theoretical
tradition in Tibet. But in any case the school of Yogacara Buddhist
philosophy is one of the most profound and subtle Indian philosophical
system spreading with the Buddhist religion all along Eastern and Central
Asia. And Xuan-zang was the greatest exponent of this philosophical trend in
China.
This text was presented as a paper on the Second International Academic
Conference on Xuanzang Studies (China, Shaanxi Province, town of Tongchuan
-- March 22-23, 1999).
from: http://www.kheper.net/topics/Buddhism/Buddhism.htm
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