Encyclopedia of Buddhism Volume One A -L Robert E. Buswell

Y OGA CA RA
S CHOOL
plain the origin of the sense of self-hood with its appropriative
propensities, various problems with continuity
of experience, or the projective activity of
consciousness. If causality requires temporal contiguity,
how can consciousness temporarily cease during
sleep, unconscious states, certain forms of meditation,
or between lives, and then suddenly recommence?
Where did it reside in the interim? If karmic consequences
occur long after the act they are requiting was
committed, and there is no substantial self, what links
the act to its eventual karmic effect, and in what does
this linkage reside? Most importantly, how can consciousnesses
that are derivative of contact between organs
and objects become projective?
Yogacara’s eight consciousnesses theory answered
these questions. Manovijñana became the organ of the
sixth consciousness, rather than its by-product; manas
became the seventh consciousness, responsible for appropriating
experience as “mine” and thus infesting
experience with a sense of self-hood (and thus also
called adanavijñana, “appropriative consciousness,”
and klistamanas, “defiled mind”). The eighth consciousness,
the alayavijñana (warehouse consciousness),
was Yogacara’s most important innovation.
Experiences produce seeds (blja) and perfumings
(vasana) that are deposited in the alayavijñana. These
seeds, embodying wholesome or unwholesome implications,
regenerate new seeds each moment. These
causal seed chains remain latent until a new conscious
experience causes the seed to sprout, infusing a new
cognition. Hence the alayavijñana was also called
vipakavijñana (karmic requital consciousness). Like a
warehouse, the alayavijñana serves as a repository for
seeds that are stored there, across a lifetime or many
lifetimes, until dispatched. So it was also called allseeds
consciousness (sarvabljakavijñana). Vasanas
“perfume” the alayavijñana, like the smell of incense
perfumes a cloth in its proximity. The smell may seem
intrinsic to the cloth, but it is adventitious and can be
removed, returning the cloth to its original state. Various
Yogacara texts debate whether seeds and perfuming
describe the same phenomenon with different
metaphors, or whether they are different types of mental
events. In either case, the alayavijñana flows onward
like a constant stream, changing each moment
with each new experience, thus providing karmic continuity
as the seeds reach fruition. The alayavijñana
continues to function even while the other consciousnesses
become temporarily inoperative, unconscious.
Hence it is also called “foundational consciousness”
(mu lavijñana). Although it stores karmic seeds and engenders
their projection, the alayavijñana is a karmically
neutral mechanical process (anivrta, avyakrta).
Manas appropriates the activities of the other consciousnesses,
thinking they are “my” experience, and
it appropriates the alayavijñana as a “self.”
Karmic continuity ceases by overturning the basis
(aśrayaparavrtti), in which the alayavijñana and the
other consciousnesses cease to function. The consciousnesses
(vijñana) become direct cognitions (jñana).
A layavijñana becomes the “great mirror cognition”
(mahadarśanajñana), no longer holding on to or
engendering new seeds, but reflecting everything impartially
in the present moment, like an unobstructed
mirror. Manas loses its self-prejudicial nature and
becomes the immediate cognition of equality
(samatajñana), equalizing self and other. Manovijñana,
which discriminates cognitive objects, becomes immediate
cognitive mastery (pratyaveksanajñana), in which
the general and particular characteristics of things are
discerned just as they are. The five sense consciousnesses,
now devoid of mental constructions, become
immediate cognitions that accomplish what needs to
be done (krtyanusthanajñana), thereby engaging the
world effectively. Yogacara texts differ on which overturning
occurs at which stage of practice, but they
agree that full enlightenment entails accomplishing all
of them.
Purification of the mental stream
Yogacara practice consists of analyzing cognitive
processes in order to purify the mental stream of pollutants
(aśrava), removing all obstructions to unexcelled
complete enlightenment (ANUTTARASAM YAKSAM BODHI).
Bad seeds and perfumings need to be filtered out, while
good seeds need to be watered and cultivated, so they
will reach fruition. Mental disturbances (kleśa), such as
greed, hatred, delusion, arrogance, wrong views, envy,
shamelessness, and so on, are gradually eliminated,
while karmically wholesome mental conditions, such
as nonharming, serenity, carefulness, and equanimity,
are strengthened. As the obstructions from emotional
and mental obstructions (kleśavarana) are eliminated,
purification continues until the deepest seated cognitive
obstructions (jñeyavarana) are finally extinguished.
Yogacara provides a vast and detailed literature on
the various practices, meditations, and stages the Yogacara
adept undertakes. The details differ greatly
across texts, with the Yogacarabhu mi enumerating seventeen
stages, the Daśabhu mikasu tropadeśa ten stages,
and other texts, such as the Mahayanasam graha and
Cheng weishi lun, five stages. The five stages are:
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