Yogachara
In the first centuries of the common era, a group of yogis from the Sarvastivada and Sautrantika traditions in north India began to adopt Mahayana Buddhism. This movement eventually evolved into what is known as Yogacara, meaning "the school of the yogins." The brothers Asanga and Vasubandhu, active around the 4th and 5th century CE, are considered the classic philosophers who systematized these doctrines. They developed an elaborate analysis of consciousness and mental phenomena alongside a comprehensive system of spiritual practice called yoga. While some Buddhist believers attribute the origins of this school to the figure of Maitreya, historical records point to the practical work of Asanga and Vasubandhu in organizing these ideas. Their efforts created a distinct tradition that would become one of the two most influential schools of Mahayana Buddhism in India, standing alongside Madhyamaka.
The core philosophical argument of Yogacara centers on the concept of vijñapti-mātra, often translated as "consciousness-only" or "mere representation." In chapter eight of the Sandhinirmocana Sutra, the Buddha responds to a question about whether meditative images differ from the contemplating mind by stating they do not. He explains that because these images are vijñapti-mātra, there is no separate object outside the mind. Vasubandhu's Twenty Verses reinforces this idea with a simile: just as someone with cataracts sees unreal hairs floating in the moonlight, we perceive unreal objects within our own minds. The standard translation suggests reality consists solely of minds and their ideas, leading many Western scholars to label it idealism. However, other researchers argue for alternatives like "representation-only," suggesting the doctrine describes how experience is cognitively constructed rather than denying an external world entirely. This debate continues among modern academics who see Yogacara either as a form of subjective idealism similar to Berkeley or as a soteriological phenomenology aimed at understanding mental processes.
A key innovation of the Yogacara school was the doctrine of eight consciousnesses, expanding the traditional six into a new system. These eight bodies of consciousness include five sense-consciousnesses for seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and bodily sensation, plus mentation and two deeper layers. The seventh consciousness, known as kliśtamano-vijñāna, is the defiled self-consciousness obsessed with notions of "self." It takes the substratum consciousness as its object and mistakenly considers that substratum to be a true Self. The eighth consciousness, called alaya-vijñana or storehouse consciousness, serves as the repository for all karmic seeds. These seeds gradually mature until they manifest as karmic consequences in future lives. Unlike previous models where consciousness occurred sequentially, Yogacara posits that all modes of cognitive awareness occur simultaneously. The storehouse consciousness holds the seeds that ripen into both individual sense faculties and the shared container world experienced by all beings. Asanga and Vasubandhu wrote that this consciousness ceases at awakening, transforming into pure consciousness.
Yogacara works define three basic modes or natures of experience known as trisvabhava. The first nature, parikalpita-svabhava, is the fully conceptualized or imagined nature where things are incorrectly comprehended based on language and attachment. This represents the false world of everyday unenlightened people, described as empty like mirages or blossoms in the sky. The second nature, paratantra-svabhava, is the other dependent nature representing the causal flow of phenomena. While it seems to have real existence, it is actually like magical illusions since it only exists hypothetically. The third nature, parinispanna-svabhava, is the perfected nature discovered in meditation unaffected by conceptualization or duality. It is defined as the complete absence of objects within the dependent nature. Scholars note two main interpretations of these natures: the pivot model found in texts like the Trimśika and the progressive model found in the Trisvabhavanirdeśa. In the pivot model, the dependent nature serves as an ontological basis for both the imagined and perfected natures. Conversely, the progressive model views the perfected nature as the primary element, with the other two being impaired by ignorance.
Yogacara addresses the problem of shared worlds through a complex account of intersubjectivity. Each sentient being possesses a unique storehouse consciousness containing a sensory world specific to them. Despite this uniqueness, these worlds are not cut off from one another because beings are karmically connected. The Chengweishi lun explains that the sense of a surrounding world experienced in common arises when individuals take images produced in each other's alaya-vijñana as remote objective supports. This mechanism allows one person's mind to develop a corresponding image based on the mental representation in another's mind. Zhizhou, a grand pupil of Xuanzang's disciple Kuiji, stated that what develops from another constitutes a condition of dominance for what develops from one's own consciousness. This interdependence preserves the alterity of other minds while ensuring they do not violate the principle of mind-only. Thomas Wood critiques this doctrine, claiming it relies so heavily on telepathic connections between finite minds that it becomes indistinguishable from monistic idealism.
Indian sources indicate that Yogacara thinkers sometimes debated with defenders of the Madhyamaka tradition regarding issues of existence and the nature of emptiness. The Chinese pilgrim Yijing summarized the difference by stating that for Yogacara the real exists but the conventional does not exist, whereas for Madhyamaka the real does not exist but the conventional does. Garfield and Westerhoff describe Yogacara as both ontologically and epistemologically foundationalist, while Madhyamaka is antifoundationalist in both senses. Classical Yogacarins like Vasubandhu and Sthiramati affirmed the reality of conscious appearance, arguing there was something which could be said to exist independently of conceptual designation. They critiqued those who adhered to non-existence, seeing them as straying into metaphysical nihilism. In contrast, Madhyamaka generally states that asserting the ultimate existence or non-existence of anything was inappropriate. Asanga described emptiness as the non-existence of the self and the existence of no-self, maintaining that consciousness itself truly exists even if duality does not.
Yogacara was later imported to Tibet and East Asia by figures such as Shantaraksita in the 8th century and Xuanzang in the 7th century. These key individuals facilitated the spread of Yogacara texts across regions where they continue to influence Tibetan Buddhism and East Asian Buddhism today. The tradition traveled from India through various cultural lenses, adapting to local philosophical contexts while retaining its core doctrines. Xuanzang's work on the Cheng Weishi Lun became particularly significant in China, where he took seeds to be real rather than merely nominal as some earlier Indian thinkers had argued. During Ming dynasty debates between Huayan and Yogacara schools, exegetes like Kongyin Zhencheng appealed to holistic notions to argue for a single sensory world shared by all beings. Despite these regional variations and internal disagreements over interpretations, Yogacara ideas remain influential subjects of study within Buddhist traditions across Asia.
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Common questions
Who founded the Yogacara school of Buddhist philosophy?
The brothers Asanga and Vasubandhu systematized the doctrines of Yogacara in the 4th and 5th century CE. While some believers attribute the origins to Maitreya, historical records point to the practical work of these two philosophers.
What is the core philosophical argument of Yogacara regarding reality?
Yogacara centers on the concept of vijñapti-mātra which translates to consciousness-only or mere representation. This doctrine states that there is no separate object outside the mind because all images are mental representations.
How many consciousnesses does the Yogacara school recognize?
Yogacara expands the traditional six consciousnesses into a system of eight bodies of consciousness. These include five sense-consciousnesses plus mentation and two deeper layers known as kliśtamano-vijñāna and alaya-vijñana.
When did Yogacara spread to Tibet and East Asia?
Yogacara was imported to Tibet by Shantaraksita in the 8th century and to China by Xuanzang in the 7th century. These figures facilitated the spread of texts across regions where they continue to influence Buddhism today.