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In Buddhism, 'consciousness-only' or 'mind-only' (Sanskrit:
''vijñapti-mātratā'', ''vijñapti-mātra'',
''citta-mātra''; Chinese:
唯識; Pinyin: ''wei shi'';
Japanese: ''yuishiki(唯識)'') is a theory
according to which all existence is nothing but
consciousness, and therefore there is nothing that lies
outside of the mind. This means that conscious-experience is
nothing but false discriminations or imaginations; a
provisional antidote; thus, the notion of consciousness-only is
an indictment of the problems engendered by the activities of
consciousness. This was a major component of the thought of
the school of Yogācāra, which had a major impact
on subsequent schools after its introduction in East Asia.

Contents

Doctrine

History

See also

Doctrine

According to the Vijñānavādins, embedded at the heart
of Buddhism lies a seeming paradox. In contrast to the
Brahmanic teachings of the Upanishads, the Buddha
stated clearly that the self (''atman'') is an
illusion and that man thus has no soul
(''anatman''). However, there is transmigration
(''samsara'') from one body to another. This poses a
difficult question: "If there is no soul, what is it that
reincarnates?"
The theory of consciousness-only starts by explaining the
regularity and coherence of sense impressions as due to an
underlying store of perceptions
(''ālaya-vijñāna'') evolving from the
accumulation of traces of earlier sense perceptions. These are
active, and produce "seeds" (''bija'') similar to
themselves, according to a regular pattern, as seeds produce
plants. Each being possesses a store of perceptions and beings
which are generically alike will produce similar perceptions
from their stores at the same time. The external world is
created when the store consciousness (''ālaya'')
is "perfumed" (薰) by seeds, i.e. the effects of good and
evil deeds.
To summarize, the seeds interact in three ways:
# Seeds produce the external world.
# Seeds are perfumed by the external world.
# Seeds produce seeds.
And this gives the solution to the original paradox. The
conception of "self", the false atman, is produced from seeds.
Actions in this world, good, bad and neutral deeds, perfume (or
mutate) these seeds. The seeds then produce new seeds, with
some seeds tainted by your actions, and others unaffected.
Even after death, the impressions of deeds — their
karma — linger on in the seeds of alaya
consciousness. Since the seeds have a natural affinity to join
together (''pratisamdhi''), reincarnation occurs when seeds
fuse and new states of seventh consciousness (delusions of
"self") form. A Buddha is someone who has managed to
obliterate all impressions of himself, all his perfumings of
the seeds, and escape the wheel of samsara. Such alaya
consciousness fully cleansed of karmic sediment is known as
''amalavijñâna'', or "pure consciousness".
The doctrine of consciousness-only thus reduces all
existence to one hundred dharmas (法 factors) in five
divisions 五位, namely, mind, mental function,
material, not associated with mind and unconditioned, dharmas.
The consciousness-only school thus sets out to enumerate and
describe all these dharmas in detail.
An alternative explanation to the truism that "man has no soul" lies in a simple but powerful extension and paradigm shift: "man has no soul, rather, the soul has man." In other words, we are spiritual beings having a human experience, not human beings having a spiritual experience. Assertions that "man" has a "soul" are necessarily false because man's physical existence, which "man" most predominantly identifies with, is merely an observable artifact of the true spiritual reality.
Another important contribution of the consciousness-only
thinkers was that of the three natures of imaginary,
provisional and real. See ''three natures'' for details.

History

The major framework of Yogācāra theory was developed
by the two brothers Vasubandhu 世親 and
Asaṅga 無著 in such treatises as the
''Abdhidharma-kośa-bhāsya''
倶舍論, the
''Triṃśikā Vijñaptimātratāsiddhiḥ''
(Thirty Verses on Consciousness-only)
唯識三十頌,
''Mahāyāna-saṃgraha'' 攝大乘論,
and the
''Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra'' 瑜伽師地論.
Dharmapala's ''Vijñaptimâtratâsiddhi-shâstra'' is an
important commentary that resolved several doctrinal disputes
that had risen out of the original texts.
Consciousness-only doctrine was also defined in sutras such as
the ''Samdhinirmocanasutra'' 解深密經 and
''Śrīmālā-sūtra''
勝鬘經. The
''Mahāyāna-saṃgraha'', for example, says,
"All conscious objects are only constructs of consciousness
because there are no external objects. They are like a dream."
(如此衆識唯識
以無塵等故
譬如夢等)
〔攝大乘論T 1593.31.118b12
〕.

See also

★ consensus reality

★ Dharma character school

★ Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

★ George Berkeley

★ German idealism

★ Hindu idealism

★ idealism

★ Platonism

★ Subjectivity

★ Woncheuk