Yogachara (Sanskrit Yogācāra) is an influential tradition of Buddhist philosophy and psychology emphasizing the study of cognition, perception, and consciousness through the interior lens of meditation and philosophical reasoning (hetuvidyā) [1, 2].
Yogachara was one of the two most influential traditions in Mahayana Buddhism in India, along with Madhyamaka [3].
The compound Yogā-cāra literally means "practice 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 Consciousness Doctrine), Vijñaptivāda (the Ideas or Perceptions Doctrine), or Vijñaptimātratā-vāda (the "Mere Representation" Doctrine), which is also the name given to its major theory of mind that seeks to deconstruct how we perceive the world.
There are several interpretations of this main theory, which include various forms of idealism as well as phenomenology or representationalism.
Aside from this, Yogācāra also developed an elaborate analysis of consciousness (vijñāna) and mental phenomena (dharmas, "things"), as well as an extensive system of Buddhist spiritual practice, namely, yoga [1],
The movement has been traced to the first centuries of the common era and seems to have evolved as some yogis of the Sarvāstivāda and Sautrāntika traditions in North India adopted Mahayana Buddhism [5, 6].
The brothers Asaṅga and Vasubandhu (circa 4-5th century) are considered the classic philosophers and systematizers of this school, while it is also traditionally attributed by Buddhist believers to the figure of Maitreya-nātha [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 Vajrayana Buddhism and East Asian Buddhism. More
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In Buddhism dharma means cosmic regularity and order (its lawfulness, regularity, dependability, normative or intrinsic nature).
But the word when capitalized is also applied to the Teachings of the Buddha, the Dharma or Doctrine.
In Buddhist philosophy, physics, and metaphysics, dhamma/dharma is also the term for "phenomena" or things, both physical (form) and psychological/psychic (formless) -- particularly as they relate to the Five Aggregates of Clinging.
In East Asia, the translation for dharma is 法, pronounced fǎ in Mandarin, choe ཆོས་ in Tibetan, beop in Korean, hō in Japanese, and pháp in Vietnamese.
However, the term dharma can also be transliterated from its original form.
For practicing Buddhists, references to dharma (or dhamma in the exclusively Buddhist Pali language) particularly as "the Dharma," generally means the Teachings of the Buddha, commonly referred to throughout the East as the Buddha-Dharma or "the Buddha's Teachings."
It includes especially the discourses/sutras on fundamental liberation principles (such as the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path of practice), as opposed to the parables and the poems.
The status of the Dharma is regarded variably by different Buddhist traditions. Later Mahayana traditions and extrapolations, very much influenced by Hindu and Vedic philosophy, regard it as an ultimate truth, or as the fount of all things which lies beyond the "three realms" (Sanskrit, tridhatu) and the "wheel of becoming" (Sanskrit, bhavacakra) or "endless round of rebirth," the "Wheel of Life and Death," somewhat like the pagan Greek and Christian logos: this is known as the "Dharma-body" or in Sanskrit, the Dharmakaya.
Others, such as the Theravada school, regard the Buddha as an enlightened human being, as he declared himself. They see the Dharma as the essence of the "84,000 different aspects of the teaching" (Tibetan Vajrayana, chos-sgo brgyad-khri bzhi strong) that the Buddha gave to various types of people based on their individual propensities and capacities.
Dharma refers not only to the sayings of the Buddha, as found for example in the Dhammapada, but also to the later traditions of extrapolation, interpretation, and addition that the various later schools of Buddhism have developed to help try to explain and to expand upon the Buddha's Teachings.
For others still, they see the Dharma as referring to the "Truth," or the ultimate reality of "the way that things really are" (Tibetan, Cho).
The Dharma is one of the Three Jewels of Buddhism from which practitioners of Buddhism seek guidance, or upon which they rely for lasting happiness. Good guidance leads to right understanding, which leads to right action (karma) that bears happy results.
The Three Jewels or Gems in Buddhism are the Buddha, meaning the Teacher or mind's capacity for perfection in enlightenment, the Dharma, meaning the liberation Teachings and methods the Buddha taught, and the Sangha, or those taught to the point of rising from "ordinary, uninstructed worldings" (putujanas) to "nobles ones" (ariya puggala). Sangha also means "community of practitioners," and usually, as in the Theravada tradition, is used exclusively as a designation for the ordained monastic community, who provide guidance, teaching, support, and an example to followers of the Buddha.
Buddhist phenomenology
What are the higher or ultimate teachings?
Other uses include dharma, normally spelled with a lowercase "d" (to differentiate it from the Dharma). In this case it refers to a phenomenon or constituent factor of human experience, such as the Five Aggregates.
This was gradually expanded into a classification of constituents of the entire material and mental world, nama and rupa ("name and form").
Rejecting the substantial existence of any permanent entities which are qualified by changing qualities, Buddhist Abhidharma ("Higher-Dharma" or Teachings in ultimate terms as distinguished from the conventional terms utilized for the sutras and the monastic disciplinary code). These monastic-scholars and experts enumerated lists of dharmas... More
According to the great meditation teacher S. N. Goenka (dhamma.org), the original meaning of the technical Buddhist term dhamma (Sanskrit, dharma) is "dharayati iti dharmah,"
or "one that [or that which] contains, supports, or upholds" and dharma in sacred Buddhist texts has a variety of meanings, including "phenomenon," "nature," and "characteristic."
Dharma also means "mental contents" and
is paired with citta, which means heart-mind [technically mind-moment in the stream of consciousness]. The pairing is paralleled with the combining of shareera (body) and vedana (feelings or sensations that arise within the body but are experienced through the mind) in major sutras such as the Maha Satipatthana Sutra, "the Longer Discourse on the Setting up of Mindfulness."
On top of the world at peace in the Himalayas (Biswarupsarkar72/flickr.com)
Blue-eyed Buddha, Thikse Gompa
Suddenly by the fireplace, the light dawned. And I understood: Everything that is of a nature to arise is of a nature to pass away!
Regarding ALL phenomena it may be said, "Not having been, theycome to be; once having been, they cease."
In the ceasing, because they cease, how could these things be considered a permanent self? How could these things produce permanent satisfaction?
So fully letting go, things were known just as they are -- reality was seen just as it is -- and nirvana was glimpsed. Such a thing is good to see! Then there was no doubt whatsoever.
"A person riding along on a boat looks around, sees the shore, and mistakenly thinks that the bank is moving. But if looking directly at the boat, one discovers that it is the boat, not the bank, that is moving.
"Likewise, with confused thoughts about body and mind, holding to discrimination of myriad phenomena (dharmas), one mistakenly thinks one's own mind and nature are permanent.
"If intimately engaged in daily activities, one returns to right here, the principle that the myriad phenomena have no self is clear."
From here DogenZenji warns us against the view that the mind is permanent and only phenomenal appearances perish. He points out the fact that myriad phenomena [form, feelings, perceptions, volitions, and consciousness] are without self.
The view of permanence of the mind and the perishing of phenomenal appearances, to state it simply, is the view that the body changes and passes away, but the spirit eternally abides unchanging. It is a view that is generally easy for those of a simple faith to fall into.
The metaphor "a person riding along on a boat" means just what it says and can be understood by anybody.
"With confused thoughts about body and mind, holding to discrimination of the various dharmas, one mistakenly thinks one's own mind and nature are permanent."
An unenlightened person is completely confused about body and mind. As long as one has not clearly seen that the five conditions (materiality, sensation, conception, discrimination, and awareness) are all empty.
No matter how great a scholar one may be, one is confused about body and mind. As a result one falls either into a view of permanence or a view of annihilation. Many people of a simplistic faith fall into a view of permanence. Many second-rate scientists fall into a view of annihilation.
Here DogenZenji warns particularly against a view of permanence. A view of permanence is considering there to be a single, permanent, guiding self. It is considering there to be a fixed, unchanging "soul." It is thinking that the "self" actually exists.
Unenlightened people have the karmic illness of considering whatever they attach themselves to as having a self [an identity, a persisting or unchanging entity riding or guiding the phenomenal process]]. If they make a group, they consider the group to have a self [a persisting reality or identity independent of its parts].
If they attach themselves to a nation, they consider the nation to have a self. One would hardly think that there was a self in the planet, but if the world were to become completely unified and there were such a thing as a world-state, perhaps they would come to believe in a world-self.
"The Buddha Way is no-self." The one who thoroughly realized that all things are without self [are impersonal or devoid of self] was Shakyamuni Buddha.
"The myriad teachings return to the one" is also fine. But if Buddhism compromises with religions that have a false belief in the "self" or "soul" or "atman," it is no longer Buddhism at all.
But then if religions other than Buddhism return to no-self, the bases of those religions will disappear, and those religions will be changed into something completely different.
However, since there can only be one truth, I think that when the wisdom of human beings advances, one way or another they'll become one.
In recent times the ones who, comparatively speaking, are least inclined toward a false belief in the "soul" or "self" are the scientists, particularly physicists and psychologists. But I'm quite afraid that if they make one false step, they will fall into a view of nihilism.
By no means do scientists think that body and mind exist separately. But they are liable to regard the body as important and neglect the mind. Western [allopathic] medicine up until now has been treating people from that standpoint.
In contrast, it seems that the Eastern medical tradition has emphasized the mind since long ago. The expression, "Illness originates in the spirit (kior chi)" is a common one. Even the word for sickness (byoki) means illness (byo) of the spirit (ki)." [Ki can also be taken to mean the energetic body, mood or mentality influencing the body.] But even Western medicine has lately come to regard the mind as quite important.
Of course, it is confused thinking to consider mind and body as existing separately. But attaching greater or lesser importance to the mind or the body is also confused thinking. So if one thinks that a fixed body or mind exists for even one minute, this is also confused thinking. [All is in flux, moving, shifting, processing, not "being" but becoming.]
When one thinks about everything with this kind of confused thinking as the basis, one makes the mistake of thinking that only the body changes, arises, and passes away. One mentally depicts something like a spirit or a self that is eternally abiding and unchanging. This is the way ordinary people think.
From there, the theory of the undying soul emerges. On the one hand, in fact Buddhism stresses that there is no [creator] God [responsible for all things] and no soul. On the other hand, people think that Buddhism is something that believes in an unchanging soul.
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