Yogachara ( sa, योगाचार, IAST: '; literally "yoga practice"; "one whose practice is yoga") is an influential tradition of

Buddhist philosophy Buddhist philosophy refers to the philosophical investigations and systems of inquiry that developed among various schools of Buddhism in India following the parinirvana of The Buddha and later spread throughout Asia. The Buddhist path combin ...

and psychology emphasizing the study of cognition,

perception Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous system ...

, and

consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...

through the interior lens of meditative and yogic practices. It is also variously termed ''Vijñānavāda'' (the doctrine of consciousness), ''Vijñaptivāda'' (the doctrine of

idea In common usage and in philosophy, ideas are the results of thought. Also in philosophy, ideas can also be mental representational images of some object. Many philosophers have considered ideas to be a fundamental ontological category of bei ...

s or percepts) or ''Vijñaptimātratā-vāda'' (the doctrine of 'mere representation'), which is also the name given to its major epistemic theory. There are several interpretations of this main theory; while often regarded as a kind of

Idealism In philosophy, the term idealism identifies and describes metaphysical perspectives which assert that reality is indistinguishable and inseparable from perception and understanding; that reality is a mental construct closely connected t ...

, critical scholars argue that it is closer to a kind of

phenomenology Phenomenology may refer to: Art * Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties Philosophy * Phenomenology (philosophy), a branch of philosophy which studies subjective experiences and a ...

representationalism In the philosophy of perception and philosophy of mind, the question of direct or naïve realism, as opposed to indirect or representational realism, is the debate over the nature of conscious experience;Lehar, Steve. (2000)The Function of Consc ...

, aimed at deconstructing the reification of our perceptions. According to

Dan Lusthaus Dan Lusthaus is an American writer on Buddhism. He is a graduate of Temple University's Department of Religion, and is a specialist in '' Yogācāra''. The author of several articles and books on the topic, Lusthaus has taught at UCLA, Florida Sta ...

, this tradition developed "an elaborate psychological therapeutic system that mapped out the problems in cognition along with the antidotes to correct them, and an earnest epistemological endeavor that led to some of the most sophisticated work on perception and logic ever engaged in by Buddhists or Indians." The 4th-century Gandharan brothers, Asaṅga and

Vasubandhu Vasubandhu (; Tibetan: དབྱིག་གཉེན་ ; fl. 4th to 5th century CE) was an influential Buddhist monk and scholar from ''Puruṣapura'' in ancient India, modern day Peshawar, Pakistan. He was a philosopher who wrote commentary ...

, are considered the classic philosophers and systematizers of this school, along with its other founder, Maitreya.Siderits, Mark, ''Buddhism as philosophy'', 2017, p. 146. It was associated with Indian Mahayana Buddhism in about the fourth century, but also included non-Mahayana practitioners of the

Sautrāntika The Sautrāntika or Sutravadin ( sa, सौत्रान्तिक, Suttavāda in Pali; ; ja, 経量部, Kyou Ryou Bu) were an early Buddhist school generally believed to be descended from the Sthavira nikāya by way of their immediate par ...

school. Yogācāra continues to be influential in

Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...

and East Asian Buddhism. However, the uniformity of a single assumed "Yogācāra school" has been put into question.

Doctrine

Yogācāra philosophy is primarily meant to aid in the practice of

yoga Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consci ...

and

meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm ...

and thus it also sets forth a systematic analysis of the

Mahayana ''Mahāyāna'' (; "Great Vehicle") is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies, and practices. Mahāyāna Buddhism developed in India (c. 1st century BCE onwards) and is considered one of the three main existing br ...

path of mental training (see five paths ''pañcamārga''). Yogācārins made use of ideas from previous traditions, such as Prajñāpāramitā and the

Sarvāstivāda The ''Sarvāstivāda'' (Sanskrit and Pali: 𑀲𑀩𑁆𑀩𑀢𑁆𑀣𑀺𑀯𑀸𑀤, ) was one of the early Buddhist schools established around the reign of Ashoka (3rd century BCE).Westerhoff, The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosophy ...

Abhidharma The Abhidharma are ancient (third century BCE and later) Buddhist texts which contain detailed scholastic presentations of doctrinal material appearing in the Buddhist ''sutras''. It also refers to the scholastic method itself as well as the f ...

, to develop a new schema for spiritual practice. According to Thomas Kochumuttom, Yogācāra is "meant to be an explanation of experience, rather than a system of

ontology In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality. Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities exi ...

". For this reason, Yogācārins developed an

literature set within a Mahāyāna framework. In its analysis, Yogācāra works like the '' Saṅdhinirmocana Sūtra'' developed various core concepts such as ''vijñapti-mātra'', the ''ālaya-vijñāna'' (store consciousness), the turning of the basis (''āśraya-parāvṛtti),'' the three natures (''

trisvabhāva Trisvabhāva (Sanskrit; Chinese: 三性 or 三自性) or the three natures, is one of the key doctrines of the Yogācāra school of Buddhism. The concept of the three natures describes the three qualities that all phenomena possess, and can be fo ...

''), and

emptiness Emptiness as a human condition is a sense of generalized boredom, social alienation and apathy. Feelings of emptiness often accompany dysthymia, depression, loneliness, anhedonia, despair, or other mental/emotional disorders, including schizoid ...

. They form a complex system, and each can be taken as a point of departure for understanding Yogācāra.Muller, A. Charles (2005; 2007). ''Wonhyo's Reliance on Huiyuan in his Exposition of the Two Hindrances.'' (Published in Reflecting Mirrors: Perspectives on Huayan Buddhism. Imre Hamar, ed., Harrassowitz Verlag, 2007, p. 281-295.) Source

(accessed: April 7, 2010)

The doctrine of ''Vijñapti-mātra''

One of the main features of Yogācāra philosophy is the concept of ''vijñapti-mātra''. It is often used interchangeably with the term ''citta-mātra'', but they have different meanings. The standard translation of both terms is "consciousness-only" or "mind-only." Several modern researchers object to this translation, and the accompanying label of "absolute idealism" or "idealistic monism". A better translation for ''vijñapti-mātra'' is ''representation-only'', while an alternative translation for ''citta'' (mind, thought) ''mātra'' (only, exclusively) has not been proposed.

Origins

According to

Lambert Schmithausen Lambert Schmithausen (born 17 November 1939 in Cologne, Germany) "On the Problem of the External World in the Ch'eng wei shih lun" Tokyo: The International Institute for Buddhist Studies 2005 (''Studia Philologica Buddhica'', Occasional Paper ...

, the earliest surviving appearance of this term is in chapter 8 of the '' Saṅdhinirmocana Sūtra,'' which has only survived in Tibetan and Chinese translations that differ in syntax and meaning. The passage is depicted as a response by the Buddha to a question which asks "whether the images or replicas (''*pratibimba'') which are the object (''*gocara'') of meditative concentration (*''samadhi''), are different/separate (''*bhinna'') from the contemplating mind (''*citta'') or not." The Buddha says they are not different, "Because these images are ''vijñapti-mātra."'' The text goes on to affirm that the same is true for objects of ordinary perception. Regarding existing

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

sources, the term appears in the first verse of Vasubandhu's ''Vimśatikā'', which is a ''

locus classicus {{Short pages monitor

Richard King, ''Philosophy East & West'', vol. 44 no. 4, October 1994, pp. 659–683
"The mind-only teaching of Ching-ying Hui-Yuan"
(subtitle) "An early interpretation of Yogaacaara thought in China", Ming-Wood Liu, ''Philosophy East & West'', vol. 35 no. 4, October 1985, pp. 351–375
Yogacara Buddhism Research Association
articles, bibliographies, and links to other relevant sites. {{Consciousness Vajrayana Idealism Buddhist movements Buddhist philosophy Nondualism Yogacara, Buddhism in the Nara period Buddhist meditation