Yogacara

Yogācāra

The "practice of yoga" school: an analysis of experience in terms of consciousness.

Editorial overviewAssociated with the brothers Asanga and Vasubandhu, whom scholars generally place around the 4th–5th century CE.

In simple words

Yogacara studies how the mind builds the world we experience. It says the split between "me in here" and "things out there" is created by the mind, and meditation can undo that false division.

Overview

Yogacara is a Mahayana Buddhist school, also called Vijnanavada ("the way of consciousness") or Chittamatra ("mind-only"). It holds that what we take to be an external world of independent objects is constructed in and by consciousness, and analyses the mind into layers, including the storehouse consciousness (alaya-vijnana), which carries the seeds of past karma. It describes three natures of things — the imagined, the dependent and the perfected — as a way of understanding how experience is falsely split into subject and object. Awakening is described as a transformation of the basis of consciousness. Scholars debate whether Yogacara is metaphysical idealism or primarily a phenomenological analysis of experience for meditative practice.

Scholar’s note

Key texts (not yet in this library) include the Samdhinirmochana Sutra, Asanga's Yogacarabhumi and Mahayanasamgraha, and Vasubandhu's Vimshatika and Trimshika. The school has eight consciousnesses in its developed form. Its epistemological offshoot is the logic of Dignaga and Dharmakirti.

Core questions

?Do external objects exist independently of consciousness?
?How is karma carried from life to life without a self?
?What are the layers of the mind?
?What does it mean for the basis of consciousness to be transformed?

Core concepts

Conceptचित्तChitta — mind-fieldThe whole field of mind, with its thoughts, memories and latent impressions.Conceptअविद्याAvidya — ignoranceFundamental misunderstanding of oneself and reality — the root of bondage.Conceptकर्मKarmaAction — and the way actions shape future experience.Conceptशून्यताShunyataEmptiness: the absence of independent, intrinsic existence in all things.Conceptअनात्मन्Anatta (Anatman)No-self: the Buddhist teaching that no permanent, independent self is found in experience.Conceptअद्वैत / अद्वयNon-duality (advaya / advaita)The claim that reality is ultimately 'not two' — understood very differently across schools.Conceptध्यानDhyanaMeditation: an unbroken flow of attention toward one object.

Where it disagrees

Stated neutrally. The purpose is understanding, not a verdict.

With Madhyamaka · status of consciousness
Yogacara treats the dependent nature of consciousness as having a kind of reality that Madhyamaka regards as still empty.
With Advaita Vedanta · external objects
Shankara argues against the view that there are no external objects; Advaita's consciousness is also eternal and unchanging, unlike Yogacara's momentary stream.
With Nyaya · external world
Nyaya realism rejects the claim that objects are only forms of consciousness.

Traditionबौद्ध दर्शनBuddhist philosophyA major school of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy Traditionमध्यमकMadhyamakaThe other great Indian Mahayana school Traditionअद्वैत वेदान्तAdvaita VedantaAdvaita writers, including Shankara, criticised Buddhist idealism while some scholars see mutual influence Traditionप्रत्यभिज्ञा / त्रिकKashmir Shaivism (Pratyabhijna / Trika)Pratyabhijna thinkers engaged critically with Buddhist theories of consciousness

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