Consciousness-only

In Buddhism, consciousness-only (Sanskrit: vijñapti-m&#257;trat&#257;, vijñapti-m&#257;tra, citta-m&#257;tra; Chinese: &#21807;&#35672;; Pinyin: wei shi; Japanese: yuishiki) 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 Yog&, which had a major impact on subsequent schools after its introduction in East Asia.

Doctrine
According to the Vijñ&#257;nav&#257;dins, embedded at the heart of Buddhism lies a seeming paradox. In contrast to the Brahmanic teachings of the Upanishads, the Buddha stated quite 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 (&) 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 (&) is "perfumed" (&#34224;) by seeds, i.e. the effects of good and evil deeds.

To summarize, the seeds interact in three ways:


 * 1) Seeds produce the external world.
 * 2) Seeds are perfumed by the external world.
 * 3) 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 &mdash; their karma &mdash; 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 (&#27861; factors) in five divisions &#20116;&#20301;, 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 Yog&#257;c&#257;ra theory was developed by the two brothers Vasubandhu &#19990;&#35242; and Asa& &#28961;&#33879; in such treatises as the Abdhidharma-ko& &#20534;&#33293;&#35542;, the Tri& (Thirty Verses on Consciousness-only) &#21807;&#35672;&#19977;&#21313;&#38924;, Mah& &#25885;&#22823;&#20056;&#35542;, and the Yog& &#29788;&#20285;&#24107;&#22320;&#35542;. 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 Sa& 解深密經 and & &#21213;&#39704;&#32147;. The Mah&, for example, says, "All conscious objects are only constructs of consciousness because there are no external objects. They are like a dream." (&#22914;&#27492;&#34886;&#35672;&#21807;&#35672; &#20197;&#28961;&#22645;&#31561;&#25925; &#35692;&#22914;&#22818;&#31561;) &#12308;&#25885;&#22823;&#20056;&#35542;T 1593.31.118b12 &#12309;.