Yogacara: the school of the conscious mind
Yogacara ("yoga practice") is a philosophical branch of Mahayana Buddhism that emerged in India in the XNUMXth century AD. Its influence is still evident today in many schools of Buddhism, including Tibetan, Zen and Shingon.
Yogacara is also known as Vijanavada, or Vijnana School because Yogacara mainly deals with the nature of Vijnana and the nature of experience. Vijnana is one of the three types of mind discussed in early Buddhist scriptures such as Sutta-Pitaka. Vijnana is often translated into English as "awareness", "consciousness" or "knowledge". It is the fifth of the Five Skandhas.
Origins of Yogacara
Although some aspects of its origins are lost, British historian Damien Keown states that Yogacara was probably very early linked to the Gandhara branch of a primitive Buddhist sect called Sarvastivada. The founders were monks named Asanga, Vasubandhu and Maitreyanatha, who are thought to have all had a connection with Sarvastivada before converting to Mahayana.
These founders saw Yogacara as a corrective of the Madhyamika philosophy developed by Nagarjuna, probably in the XNUMXnd century AD. They believed that Madhyamika had come too close to nihilism by emphasizing too much the emptiness of the phenomena, although Nagarjuna undoubtedly disagreed.
Madhyamika's followers have accused the Yogacarin of substantialism or belief that some sort of substantial reality underlies the phenomena, although this criticism does not seem to describe Yogacara's true teaching.
For a time, the Yogacara and Madhyamika philosophical schools were rivals. In the XNUMXth century, a modified form of Yogacara merges with a modified form of Madhyamika, and this combined philosophy today forms a large part of the foundations of Mahayana.
Basic teachings of Yogacara
Yogacara is not an easy philosophy to understand. His scholars have developed sophisticated models that explain how awareness and experience intersect. These models describe in detail how beings live the world.
As has already been said, Yogacara is primarily concerned with the nature of vijnana and the nature of experience. In this context, we can think that vijnana is a reaction based on one of the six faculties (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind) and one of the six corresponding phenomena (visible object, sound, sense of smell, object tangible, however) as an object. For example, visual or vijnana consciousness - seeing - has the eye as a basis and a visible phenomenon as an object. Mental consciousness has the mind (manas) as the basis and an idea or thought as the object. Vijnana is the awareness that intersects faculty and phenomenon.
To these six types of vijnana, Yogacara added two more. The seventh vijnana is deluded awareness or klista-manas. This type of awareness concerns self-centered thinking which gives rise to selfish thoughts and arrogance. Belief in a separate and permanent self arises from this seventh vijnana.
The eighth consciousness, alaya-vijnana, is sometimes called "warehouse consciousness". This vijnana contains all the impressions of previous experiences, which become the seeds of karma.
Quite simply, Yogacara teaches that vijnana is real, but the objects of awareness are unreal. What we think of as external objects are creations of consciousness. For this reason, Yogacara is sometimes called the "mental only" school.
How does it work? All unenlightened experience is created by the various types of vijnana, which generate the experience of an individual, permanent self and project delusional objects onto reality. At enlightenment, these dualistic modes of awareness are transformed and the resulting awareness are able to perceive reality clearly and directly.
Yogacara in practice
"Yoga" in this case is a meditation yoga that was fundamental to practice. Yogacara also stressed the practice of the Six Perfections.
Yogacara students went through four stages of development. In the first, the student studied the teachings of Yogacara to get to know them well. In the second, the student goes beyond the concepts and engages in the ten stages of development of a bodhisattva, called bhumi. In the third, the student finishes going through the ten stages and begins to get rid of contamination. In the fourth, the contaminations have been eliminated and the student realizes the lighting.