A Re-examination of the Concept of vastuprativikalpavijñāna in the Laṅkāvatāra sūtra

Abstract

The Laṅkāvatāra sūtra (LAS), a Mahāyāna scripture influenced by Yogācāra thought, classifies the eight consciousnesses into two types, namely khyātivijñāna (manifesting consciousness) and vastuprativikalpavijñāna (object-discriminating consciousness). These terms are particular to the LAS.

On the basis of Jñānaśrībhadra’s commentary, modern scholars such as Yasui 安井 and Takasaki 高崎 regard vastuprativikalpavijñāna as manovijñāna (consciousness). However, according to LAS, vastuprativikalpavijñāna is the result of grasping different phenomena, while the function of manovijñāna is grasping an object. Thus, it is hard to consider vastuprativikalpavijñāna as manovijñāna.

While thoroughly analyzing the concept of anādikālaprapañcavāsanā (the habit-energy accumulated by erroneous reasoning since beginningless time), one of the causes of vastuprativikalpavijñāna, Chŏng 鄭 identifies vastuprativikalpavijñāna as ālayavijñāna (store-consciousness), because the LAS describes that ālayavijñāna is precisely under the influence of anādikālaprapañcavāsanā. In addition, Chŏng suggests that the Xianyang shengjiao lun 顯揚聖教論 also shares the same description of ālayavijñāna. Thus, Chŏng concludes that vastuprativikalpavijñāna represents ālayavijñāna. However, since anādikālaprapañcavāsanā is also considered to be the cause of the seven conciousnesses, Chŏng’s argument is not thoroughly convincing.