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BASIC IDEAS OF YOGACARA BUDDHISM
CONSCIOUSNESS Consciousness is awareness of a "self". The fundamental doctrine of the Yogacara school is "that all phenomenal existence is fabricated by consciousness." Consciousness is the basis of all activities from birth to attaining enlightenment; "...all is based upon the coming into being and the ceasing to be of consciousness, i.e., of distinctions in the mind." Consciousness is the distinction making activity of the mind, both in making and having distinctions, including the states we consider the conscious as well as the unconscious. Consciousness, in making distinctions between self and other, becomes the subject which treats everything else as object. Consciousness itself is real. It exists as a series, or stream, of successive momentary awareness of events, each immediately replaced by consciousness in the next moment. Consciousness "has no substantiality ...and is dependent on the consciousness of the preceding instant."
Since everything, until the attainment of wisdom in enlightenment, is consciousness, all objects in the external world are just "representations" in our consciousness. Since everything is just an aspect of consciousness, all phenomenal existence is without intrinsic nature . Therefore, the "I" is illusory and there is no "self" to be found; everything is just a phenomenon of consciousness. Eventually, consciousness that is attached to these representations and makes distinctions has to be clarified into wisdom which is free of all attachments.
There is nothing separate or independent from consciousness. The world is our perceptual construct and an analysis of the unenlightened mind will show different levels of perception which are based in a storehouse consciousness [8] containing the karmic seeds [6] of former actions.
found at.....http://online.sfsu.edu/~rone/Buddhism/Yogacara/basicideas.htm
Since everything, until the attainment of wisdom in enlightenment, is consciousness, all objects in the external world are just "representations" in our consciousness. Since everything is just an aspect of consciousness, all phenomenal existence is without intrinsic nature . Therefore, the "I" is illusory and there is no "self" to be found; everything is just a phenomenon of consciousness. Eventually, consciousness that is attached to these representations and makes distinctions has to be clarified into wisdom which is free of all attachments.
There is nothing separate or independent from consciousness. The world is our perceptual construct and an analysis of the unenlightened mind will show different levels of perception which are based in a storehouse consciousness [8] containing the karmic seeds [6] of former actions.
found at.....http://online.sfsu.edu/~rone/Buddhism/Yogacara/basicideas.htm
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Comments
How does an activity become the subject? Is it an abstraction from the mind referred to in the first quote? If so is this mind the "true subject"?
Not doubting, just asking for your clarification on these points. Thanks.
http://www.acmuller.net/yogacara/articles/intro-uni.htm
If we are in touch with the mind being empty/clear of concept making, then we are aware of what arises as concept or thought. The question is it primary, IMO, is mute. No arising.....no question.....no apriori........etc.... the activity of mind becomes subject as we give it form and words and begin to identify with it as subject, which often times melds into objects.
I like this part.......
"Yogācāra doctrine is summarized in the term vijñapti-mātra, "nothing-but-cognition" (often rendered "consciousness-only" or "mind-only") which has sometimes been interpreted as indicating a type of metaphysical idealism, i.e., the claim that mind alone is real and that everything else is created by mind. However, the Yogācārin writings themselves argue something very different. Consciousness (vijñāna) is not the ultimate reality or solution, but rather the root problem. This problem emerges in ordinary mental operations, and it can only be solved by bringing those operations to an end."
uh.
I'll read the links and get back.
In simple English, "mind only" or "consciousness only" was a late development in Yogacara, and just one of the sub-schools that developed in Yogacara in India. The Oxford Dictionary of Buddhism says that early Yogacarins did not deny the objective existence of, for example, a chair.
As near as I can tell, the link in the original post is a pretty good explanation of the mind-only branch of Yogacara. So the quibble is only about equating Yogacara to mind-only.
It seems rather simple to me in practice, but i do not think my description is very "scriptural".
In my experience AGAIN, there is no doubt about the existence of an "outer world", chair, for example. It is what we make/define/construe of the "chair" that is "consciousness" produced. Then we are ignorant of that process, thus we take a ride on the wheel of ( DO ).