A Consideration of the Meaning of the Term “bāhyenātmanā” in the Early Yogācāra-vijñapti-mātra School

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to clarify the structure of cognition in the early Yogācāra-vijñapti-mātra school from an analysis of the term “bāhyenātmanā.”

The texts of the early Yogācāra-vijñapti-mātra school show a very complicated structure of cognition. For example, the structure of the following cognition called “the four manifestations” is shown in the Madhyāntavibhāga I. 3: (1) artha is the manifestation of outside, (2) sattva is the manifestation of inside, (3) ātman is the stained self-consciousness that cognizes sattva (= [2]), and (4) vijñapti are six consciousnesses that cognize artha (= [1]). “The four manifestations,” mentioned above, are produced from ālaya-vijñāna.

The question is whether the structure of this cognition is not such as “The subject of the cognition cognizes the object of the cognition” in the Buddhist epistemology that is different from the thought of the early Yogācāra-vijñapti-mātra school.

Vasubandhu says “ātmadharmopacāro hi vividho yaḥ pravartate, vijñānapariṇāme ’sau pariṇāmaḥ sa ca tridhā” in the Triṃśikākārikā 1. Sthiramati uses the term “bāhyenātmanā” in the commentary on this Triṃśikākārikā 1. In this case, ātman does not cognize dharma; it is not the subject of cognition. That ātman is cognized by the stained self-consciousness.