The Yogācāra ( Vijñānavāda) School

The Yogācāra / Vijñānavāda School

The Yogacara school is another important branch of the- Mahayana, and was founded by Maitreya, or Maitreyanatha (3rd century CE) Asanga (4th century CE), Vasubandhu (4th century CE.), Sthiramati (5th century CE), Dinnaga (5th century CE), Dharmapala (7th century CE.), Dharmakirti (7th century CE), Santaraksita (8th century CE) and Kamalasila (8th century CE) were noted teachers of this school. They continued the work of the founder by their writings and raised the school to a high level. The school reached the height of its power and influence in the days of Asanga and his brother Vasubandhu. The appellation Yogācāra was given by Asanga while the term Vijñānavāda was used by Vasubandhu.

The Yogacara was so called because it emphasized the practice of yoga (meditation) as the most effective method for the attainment of the highest truth (bodhi). All the ten stages of spiritual progress (dasa bhumi) of Bodhisattvahood had to be passed through before bodhi could be attained.

The school is also known as the Vijñānavāda on account of the fact that it holds Vijniiptimatra (nothing but consciousness) to be the ultimate reality. In short, it teaches subjective idealism, or that thought alone is real. The “Yogācāra brings out the practical side of philosophy, while Vijñānavāda brings out its speculative features.” The Lankiivatara-sutra, an important work of this school, maintains that only the mind (cittamatra) is real, while external objects are not. They are unreal like dreams, mirages and “sky-flowers”. Cittamatra, in this case is different from alayavijnana which is the repository of consciousness underlying the subject-object duality. The alayavijnana is also the womb of the Tathagata (Tathagata-garbha). Vasubandhu’s Vijnaptimatrata-siddhi is the basic work of this system. It repudiates all belief in the reality of the objective world, maintaining that citta (cittamatra) or vijnana (vijnanamatra) is the only reality, while the alayavijnana contains the seeds of phenomena, -both subjective and objective.

Like flowing water alayavijnana is a constantly changing stream of consciousness. With the realization of Buddhahood, its course stops at once. According to Sthiramati, the commentator on Vasubandhu's works, alaya contains the seeds of all dharmas including those which produce impurities. In other words, all dharmas exist in alayavijnana in a potential state. The Yogacarins further state that an adept should comprehend pudgala-nairatmya (the nonexistence of self) and dharma-nairiitmya (the non-existence of the things of the world). Pudgala-nairatmya is realized through the removal of passions (klesavarana), and dharmanairiitmya by the removal of the veil that covers true knowledge (jneyavarana), i.e., by means of true knowledge. Both these nairatmyas (non-substantiality) are necessary for the attainment of emancipation.

The Yogacara recognizes three degrees of knowledge:

1.      Parikalpita (illusory): Parikalpita is the false attribution of an imaginary idea to an object produced by its cause and conditions. It exists only in one’s imagination and does not correspond to reality.

2.      Paratantra (empirical): Paratantra is the knowledge of an object produced by its cause and conditions. This is relative knowledge and serves the practical purposes of life.  

3.      And Parinispanna (absolute): Parinispanna is the highest truth or tathata, the absolute. Parikalpita and paratantra correspond to samvrti-satya (relative truth), and parinispanna to paramartha-satya (highest truth) of the Madhyamika system. Thus the Yogācāra has three varieties of knowledge for two of the Madhyamika.

The Yogācāra differs from the Madhyamika only in that it attributes qualities to reality. The former holds that reality is pure consciousness (vijnanamatra), while the latter believes it is Sunyata.