Yogācāra

Sanskrit meaning “the practice of Yoga.” It is the name of a school of MAHĀYĀNA Buddhist philosophy which proclaimed a form of subjective idealism. It maintained that consciousness, which they term vijñāna, is the sole reality, hence it is also called Vijñānavāda. It states that the basic or “store-house consciousness” (ālaya-vijñāna) warps itself into individual centers of consciousness which imagine forth a world of apparently objective reality. It was begun by ĀRYĀSANGA (whose monastic name means “member of the Aryan [i.e., Buddhist monastic] Order) and his brother Vasubandhu (whose monastic name means “associated with excellent [people]”) who lived in the 4th or 5th cent. CE. It was then developed by the great Buddhist logicians Dign€ga and Dharmak…rti (6th-7th cent. CE). The school uses a form of yogic meditation, hence its name. Its chief rival was M€dhyamika, developed by N€g€rjuna (2nd cent. CE). Helena P. BLAVATSKY suggests that the šl€ya is essentially equivalent to Anima Mundi (“the World Soul”) or the “Over-Soul” of Ralph Waldo Emerson (SD I:48), but that it is not equivalent to nirv€Ša, but rather is “a condition next to it” (idem). She also points out that other schools of Buddhism accused Yog€c€rins of being “Ved€ntins in disguise” while other schools of Ved€nta accused Advaita Ved€ntins of being “Buddhists in disguise!” (SD II:637).

R.W.B.