Yogachara

Translations of
Yogacāra school
EnglishYoga Practice, Doctrine of Consciousness, Consciousness-Only Doctrine, Cognizance-Only, Mind-Only
SanskritYogacāra, Vijñānavāda, Vijñaptivāda, Vijñaptimātratā, Cittamātra
Chinese唯識瑜伽行派
(Pinyin: Wéishí Yúqiexíng Pài)
Japanese瑜伽行唯識派
(Rōmaji: Yugagyō Yuishiki Ha)
Korean유식유가행파
(RR: Yusik-Yugahaeng-pa)
Tibetanརྣལ་འབྱོར་སྤྱོད་པ་
(rnal 'byor spyod pa)
VietnameseDu-già Hành Tông
Glossary of Buddhism

Yogachara (Sanskrit: योगाचार, IAST: Yogācāra) is an influential tradition of Buddhist philosophy and psychology emphasizing the study of cognition, perception, and consciousness through the interior lens of meditation as well as philosophical reasoning (hetuvidyā).[1][2] Yogachara was one of the two most influential traditions of Mahayana Buddhism in India, along with Madhyamaka.[3]

The compound Yogācāra literally means "practitioner of yoga", or "one whose practice is yoga", hence the name of the school is literally "the school of the yogins".[4][3] Yogācāra was also variously termed Vijñānavāda (the doctrine of consciousness), Vijñaptivāda (the doctrine of ideas or percepts) or Vijñaptimātratā-vāda (the doctrine of 'mere representation'), which is also the name given to its major theory of mind which seeks to deconstruct how we perceive the world. There are several interpretations of this main theory: various forms of Idealism, as well as a phenomenology or representationalism. Aside from this, Yogācāra also developed an elaborate analysis of consciousness (vijñana) and mental phenomena (dharmas), as well as an extensive system of Buddhist spiritual practice, i.e. yoga.[1]

The movement has been traced to the first centuries of the common era and seems to have developed as some yogis of the Sarvāstivāda and Sautrāntika traditions in north India adopted Mahayana Buddhism.[5][6] The Gandhāran brothers Asaṅga and Vasubandhu (both c. 4-5th century CE), are considered the classic philosophers and systematizers of this school, along with the figure of Maitreya.[7] Yogācāra was later imported to Tibet and East Asia by figures like Shantaraksita (8th century) and Xuanzang (7th-century). Today, Yogācāra ideas and texts continue to be influential subjects of study for Tibetan Buddhism and East Asian Buddhism.

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Makransky, John (1997). Buddhahood Embodied: Sources of Controversy in India and Tibet. SUNY Press. p. 211. ISBN 978-0-7914-3431-4.
  3. ^ a b Delenau, Florin. Mind Only and Beyond: History of Yogacara Meditation, 2010, Lectures Series (Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies).
  4. ^ Jones, Lindsay (Ed. in Chief) (2005). Encyclopedia of Religion. (2nd Ed.) Volume 14: p.9897. USA: Macmillan Reference. ISBN 0-02-865983-X (v.14)
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference :29 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference :30 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Siderits, Mark, Buddhism as philosophy, 2017, p. 146.