The "Three Aspects" in Yogacara Buddhism
The Nature of Consciousness in Mahayana Buddhism's Mind-Only School
Jul 9, 2009
The “Middle Way” (Madhyamaka) school and the “Mind-Only” (Cittamatra) school form the two main philosophical traditions of Mahayana Buddhism. Mind-Only reacted against the radical emptiness of all things that Madhyamaka taught. If everything is truly empty, then how is it that the mind perceives this emptiness? Thus as the name suggests, the Cittamatra taught that one thing alone was not inherently empty: consciousness itself.
The Mind-Only school placed a greater emphasis on the importance of meditation in transforming awareness. Hence the alternative name of the Mind-Only school is the Yogacara, the “Way of Yoga.” The chief proponents of Yogacara were the 4th century CE brothers Vasubandhu and Asanga.
The Three Aspects (trisvabhava)
In holding that mind alone exists, Yogacara is stating that everything that one perceives to exist really only exists in the mind. The entirety of the world, everything one experiences, is an experience generated by the mind. How does Yogacara explain this?
The mind has three natures or modes for apprehending the world:
- The “Imagined” (parikalpita) nature, which generates all perceptions as distinct from oneself;
- The “Dependent” (paratantra) nature, which is the flow of perceptions of external objects to the individual perceiving mind;
- The “Perfected” (parinispanna) nature, by which all things are correctly seen as projections of the mind.
Here’s how it works: Say one perceives objects such as a chair, a computer, a desk, a window, etc. These are merely appearances, a flow of perceptions generated according to the dependent aspect.
One perceives them as objects distinct from each other and oneself because of the imagined aspect. That is, the mind imagines them to be real, but they really depend on the mind for their seeming existence. Finally, when one has tasted awakening, one sees the objects for what they really are in the perfected aspect. They are just images generated by the mind, and part of the mind. The world one perceives is no different than the mind that perceives it.
Problems and Issues for Yogacara
Of course Yogacara never completely rejected the concept of emptiness in Madhyamaka Buddhism. As in Madhyamaka, all experiences are of inherently empty objects. That is, all things are appearances. But it is the viewer itself — consciousness — that is not empty. So while Madhyamaka holds that all things are of the nature of emptiness, in Yogacara, subjective awareness alone is an irreducible and existent things.
The problem that arises for Yogacara is whether there is just one consciousness or multiple consciousnesses. That is, does everyone have a non-dual, perfected, aspect of consciousness? Or is there only one Mind, and everyone’s individual consciousness is part of this universal awareness? Various proposals were put forth to resolve this problem, some of which will be discussed in Part II. But in some sense this is a false problem.
Why is it a false problem? A person only has one consciousness, one stream of experiences to deal with. And so it is in this stream of experiences that one experiences the appearance of an external world. That is, the perception that other people exist is only an appearance itself. This rather solipsistic solution suggests that maybe there are no other people out there. There is only the perception of other people.
While this may be in keeping with the tenets of Yogacara, it is nevertheless a dissatisfying solution, admitting of the worst kind of world-denial. So later Yogacarin philosophers advanced the idea of a universal consciousness. This theme, along with a discussion of the levels of consciousness in Yogacara, is discussed further here.
Sources:
- Tribe, Anthony J. Buddhist Thought: a Complete Introduction to the Indian Tradition. (Routledge: 2000).
- Conze, Edward. Buddhist Thought in India. (University of Michigan Press: 1962).
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