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Philosophy of mind in the Yogacara Buddhist idealistic
school
Fernando Tola, Carmen Dragonetti
To cite this version:
Fernando Tola, Carmen Dragonetti. Philosophy of mind in the Yogacara Buddhist idealistic school.
History of Psychiatry, SAGE Publications, 2005, 16 (4), pp.453-465. �10.1177/0957154X05059213�.
�hal-00570832�
After some general introductory remarks on Indian philosophy, this essay deals with
the structure of mind in the Yogacara Buddhist idealist school. Mind can be conceived
as having two ‘parts’: the receptacle consciousness, constituted by the vasanas, or
‘marks’ left by any individual experience, which ‘remains’ in the mind in an
unconscious state; and the function consciousness, constituted by these same vasanas
transforming themselves into conscious ideas and representations, which are either of a
cognizing ego or of congnized objects and beings and similar to the experiences that
gave rise to them. Since a beginningless eternity, vasanas have been produced without
anything real corresponding to them, in a fantasmagorical process.
Keywords: Buddhism; idealism; mind; vasanas; Yogacara
Introduction
History of philosophy in India is characterized by two great and profound
oppositions: on one hand, the opposition between substantialism and phenom-
enism, and, on the other hand, the opposition between realism and idealism.
Substantialism postulates the existence of Brahman, which exists in se and
per se, eternal and unchanging, and which is conceived sometimes as an
impersonal and abstract Absolute and sometimes as a personal Ishvara
(Lord, God) possessing the most sublime qualities. Substantialism manifests
itself in the most ancient Upanishads which go back to the eighth century
BC.
This is an essential characteristic of philosophical thought and religious
beliefs in Brahmanism and in Hinduism which derives from it.
Philosophy of mind in the Yogacara Buddhist
idealistic school
FERNANDO TOLA
Fundación Instituto de Estudios Budistas, Buenos Aires
CARMEN DRAGONETTI*
National Council of Scientific Research, Argentina
History of Psychiatry, 16(4): 453–465 Copyright
©
2005 SAGE Publications
(London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi) www.sagepublications.com
[200512] DOI: 10.1177/0957154X05059213
*
Address for correspondence: Olazabal 1584 3ro. ‘C’, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina. Email:
cldragon@mail.retina.ar
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454 HISTORY OF PSYCHIATRY 16(4)
Phenomenism is proper to Buddhism, which arose in India around 500 BC.
Buddhism does not admit the existence of a substance in se et per se; all is
constituted by dharmas, factors, elements, components of existence, unsub-
stantial, impermanent, which as soon as they come into being immediately
cease to be. Several centuries after the appearance of Buddhism, some of its
thinkers showed a substantialistic tendency, which brings them near to
Hinduism.
Idealism and realism exist both in Hinduism and in Buddhism. In
Hinduism the Nyaya-Vaisheshika, the Samkhya-Yoga, the Uttara-Mimamsa
schools and several branches of the Vedanta school (such as those of
Ramanuja and Madhva) undoubtedly adhere to realism: they accept the real
existence of the empirical world, they have no doubt about this. In
Buddhism, the sects that constitute Hinayana Buddhism (the first form of
Buddhism that at present dominates in SE Asia) adopt a realistic position.
As for the idealistic tendency (which denies the real existence of the
empirical world and considers it a mere illusion, a false product of mind
submerged in error, as the creation of delusion), we find already in some
ancient Hinduist texts – Upanishads, Puranas, Mahabharata, etc. – a series of
passages which could be interpreted as idealistic. In the seventh century
AD,
Gaudapada, who showed an undeniable influence of idealistic Buddhist
schools (see below), developed a philosophical system based on the Upanishads
in which he adopted a clearly idealistic position. Afterwards, around 700
AD,
Shankara, whom his rivals accused of being a hidden Buddhist, afirmed the
illusory and consequently mental nature of the world, of the empirical ego
and of the personal God, as conceived by people. He reduced them all to
mistaken and unreal perceptions of Brahman, the Absolute, the only truly
existing entity. Because of Shankara’s genius, and the fact that his works are
the best known in the Western world, people frequently attribute an excessive
importance to idealism in Hinduist thought.
In Buddhism the situation is different. In Mahayana Buddhism (which
appeared in India around the beginning of the Common Era, and which
afterwards spread through Tibet, China, Mongolia, Korea and Japan), the
dominant tendency is idealism, contrary to what happens in Hinayana
Buddhism. It is sufficient to say that the two great Mahayanist philosophical
systems, the Madhyamika and the Yogacara schools, assert systems of
idealistic inspiration.
The Madhyamika, with its implacable eliminating analysis, causes the
totality of what exists to fade away, making it possible to say that the reality
we perceive is in some way a mere creation of our mind.
The Yogacara school
We shall now deal more in detail with the Buddhist Yogacara school, because
the present essay concerns a characteristic doctrine of that school.
1
The
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TOLA AND DRAGONETTI: PHILOSOPHY OF MIND IN BUDDHISM 455
Yogacara school develops an idealistic theory in a very systematic way.
Idealistic theories had already been formulated in Buddhism by some sutras
(canonical works attributed to the Buddha himself, although they belong to
an epoch later), as for instance Samdhinirmocana-sutra, Lankavatara-sutra,
Dashabhumika-sutra, etc.
The Yogacara school was founded by Maitreya, who lived around 300
AD.
Important members of this school were Asanga (315–390) and his brother
Vasubandhu, and Sthiramati (6th century). Happily, many works written by
them in Sanskrit have been preserved. We owe a most important treatise of
this school to a Chinese Master, Hiuan Tsang (7th century), the celebrated
Ch’eng wei shih lun, whose aim was to demonstrate that all is only mind. The
interest of these authors was centred on metaphysics. Afterwards, authors
belonging to this school were more interested in logic and epistemology;
important among them were Dinnaga (480–540) and Dharmakirti (7th
century).
The principal theories of the Yogacara school are: the sole existence of
consciousness (cittamatra, vijñaptimatra); the mental, illusory, unreal character
of the empirical world; the structure of mind; the subconscious (alayavijñana)
and the subliminal impressions (vasanas), both of which have an important
function in the theory of cognition; the three natures or forms of being
(svabhava); the two truths or levels of reality; the tathagatagarbha or Buddha-
Nature which exists in all living beings; the Absolute; the Pure Mind
(amalavijñana).
The three natures or forms of being
According to the Yogacara school, there are three svabhavas, natures or forms
of being: the imagined (parikalpita), the dependent on other (paratantra), and
the perfect or absolute (parinishpanna). Asanga, in his commentary of
Mahayanasutralamkara ad XI, 41, says that tathata is the definition (lakshana)
of parinishpanna, and tathata, which literally means ‘suchness’, is commonly
used to designate the Absolute.
The importance of this doctrine is extrinsically revealed by the fact that it
is frequently referred to in many treatises of the school, as for instance in
Asanga’s Mahayanasamgraha and Mahayanasutralamkara, Hiuan Tsang’s
Ch’eng wei shih lun and Vasubandhu’s Trisvabhakarika and Trimshika. This
importance is intrinsically evident, since two of these natures (the dependent
and the imagined) constitute the empirical reality, and the third one, the
Absolute. To study these three natures is to study the empirical reality and
the Absolute; to define the essence of these three natures is to define the
essence of the empirical reality and of the Absolute; and to establish the
relation which links both of them, and to show the mechanism by means of
which the imagined nature comes forth from the dependent nature, is to
show the process of how the empirical world is created from the mind, that is
nothing else than the dependent nature. This is the most important point, not
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456 HISTORY OF PSYCHIATRY 16(4)
only for the Yogacara system but for any idealistic system, because when an
external world, objectively and autonomously existent, cause and object of
our representations, is not accepted, it is essential to explain why and how do
representations of a world arise in us.
The subject of the present article
Only one aspect of the theory of the three natures will be dealt with here: the
structure of mind. This study (a) outlines the conception the idealist school
had of man empirically considered, and (b) helps us to understand the
process, already referred to, through which the perceptible reality comes
forth from mind, and only from mind.
The dependent nature, mind, the asatkalpa (unreal mental creation),
‘what appears’
The dependent nature
The second nature is called ‘dependent’ because in order to arise and to
subsist it depends on causes. These causes are the vasanas:
If the dependent nature is only mind, support of the manifestation of the
object, why is it dependent, and why is it called ‘dependent’? – Because it
is born out of its own impregnations-seeds (vasanas), it is dependent on
conditions. Because after its birth it is unable to subsist by itself a single
instant it is called ‘dependent’. (Asanga, Mahayanasangraha, II, 15,1,
Lamotte edn)
In which sense the dependent nature is ‘dependent’? – In so far as it
depends on something else for being born: the impregnations-seeds
(vasanas). (II, 17)
Vasana means ‘the impression of anything remaining unconsciously in the
mind’ (according to Monier-Williams’ Sanskrit-English Dictionary), a ‘subliminal
impression’.
2
We shall refer to this term again later, but for now let us say
that all representations, ideas, cognitions, volitions, experiences, etc., which
reach the mind leave a trace in the subconscious part of the mind
(alayavijñana), just as perfume leaves in its bottle a scent, a ‘memory’ of its
having been there. The following could be relevant to this idea: ‘But in any
case they [experiments with LSD drugs] suggest how much of what we have
felt and thought is registered permanently in the brain and accessible to
consciousness in various transmutations.’ (Grinspoon and Bakalar. 1979:
146).
We can conceive the vasanas as weak reproductions, as weakened copies
of the representations, ideas, cognitions, experiences, volitions, etc., that
produced them. These vasanas remain in the subconscious part of the mind
(alayavijñana) in a latent, potential form until the moment when, due to
adequate circumstances, they are reactivated, they become conscious,
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