On the Demonstration of the Existence of Ālayavijñāna in the Viniścayasaṃgrahaṇī of the Yogācārabhūmi

Abstract

After supplementing the theory on the genesis of ālayavijñāna proposed by L. Schmithausen from a reconsideration of the original meaning and explanatory phrases, we understood that the Demonstration of the Existence of Ālayavijñāna (8 proofs) was separately arranged in the order of all-Seeds (sarvabījaka) [the 1st proof], appropriator (upādātṛ) [the 2nd, 3rd], part of the Maturation (vipāka) [the 4th, 5th], and finally ālayavijñāna [the 6th, 7th]. In other words, from the discovery of some vijñāna in nirodhasamāpatti of the Initial Passage to the clarification of the mechanism of Transmuted Basis (āśrayaparāvṛtti) through meditation, the ālayavijñāna which was a gap-bridger of nirodhasamāpatti develops into the uniquely existing vijñāna at the moment of conception, and after becoming that which takes charge of the function of biological appropriation (upādāna), in the context of death the term ālayavijñāna is used. It can also be read from the order of the 8 proofs. We also pointed out that ālayavijñāna, which had a close relationship with antarābhava by birth, was able to complete the cycle of saṁsāra by expressing the withdrawal of ālayavijñāna in the 8th proof.