Yogacara is an influential school of Buddhist philosophy and psychology that stems from the early Indian Mahayana Buddhist tradition. The Yogacara view is based on the fundamental truth that there is nothing in the realm of human experience that is not interpreted by and dependent upon the mind. Yogacara Buddhism was unable to sustain the same level of popularity as other Buddhist schools in India, Tibet, and East Asia, but its teachings on the nature of consciousness profoundly impacted the successive developments of Buddhism. Yogacara served as the basis for the development of the doctrines of karma and liberation in many other schools. In this refreshingly accessible study, Tagawa Shun'ei makes sense of Yogacara's subtleties and complexities with insight and clarity. He shows us that Yogacara masters comprehend and express everyday experiences that we all take for granted, yet struggle to explain. Eloquent and approachable, Living Yogacara deepens the reader's understanding of the development of Buddhism's interpretation of the human psyche.

This work is intended to the study of the Yogacara Buddhist philosop[hy together with its commentaries and notes for better comprehensibility of the contents of three edited and translated texts, namely, Alambanapariksavrtti of Dignaga; the vimsatika Vijnaptimatratasiddhih of Vasubandhu and Trisvabhavakarika of Vasubandhu.

Giving a new translation and interpretation of the basic works of Vasubandhu the yogacarin, the author shows that Yogacara metaphysics is basically the same as that of the early Buddhism. He contends that the Yogacara writings are open to interpretation in terms of realistic pluralism, and thus challenges their traditional interpretation in terms of idealistic monism. His translation is faithful to the original, arguments convincing and consistent, and presentation clear and readable. The texts translated and interpreted are (i) Madhyanta-vibhago-karika-bhasya, (ii) Trisvabhava-nirdesa, (iii) Trimsatika and (iv) Vimsatika. The doctrine of experience presented by these texts may be summarised in the words of the author as follow: The experience of samsara consists basically in one's being forced to view oneself as the grasper (grahaka), the enjoyer (bhoktr), knower (jnatr) of all beings, which are then viewed as the graspable (grahya), the enjoyable (bhojya), the knowable (jneya). There one cannot help mentally constructing the distinction between the subject and the object, the grasper and the graspable, the enjoyer and the enjoyable...

The Yogacara Doctrine teaches one fundamental truth, namely that all beings are Buddha-'sattva Buddha evam'-or, in other words, all beings are aspects of one all-embracing absolute awareness, were they but to know it. This book sets a context for the study and meditation on ten pivotal texts of Yogacara. The source texts, translated from a practice perspective, derive from the Indo-Tibetan mahasiddha tradition and are presented with an ecumenical approach. As this collection of pithy Yogacara works will readily prove to the reader, the ancient 'Practice Tradition of the Yogin' (rnal-bhyor-pa'i sgrub-brgyud) is based on a clearly active realization of the essential nature of mind and consciousness gained through years of intensive examination and reflection. Yogacara approach advocates a dynamic form of meditation that is neither suppressive nor lethargic. The guide to this attainment, the mechanism that sharpens the mind's penetrative and illuminative qualities, is metaphysical inquiry.

"With a new translation from Sanskrit by Ben Connelly and Weijen Teng."

A richly complex study of the Yogacara tradition of Buddhism, divided into five parts: the first on Buddhism and phenomenology, the second on the four basic models of Indian Buddhist thought, the third on karma, meditation and epistemology, the fourth on the Trimsika and its translations, and finally the fifth on the Ch'eng Wei-shih Lun and Yogacara in China.

Nautilus Award Finalist The renowned Zen’s monk’s profound study of Buddhist psychology—with insights into how these ancient teachings apply to the modern world Based on the fifty verses on the nature of consciousness taken from the great fifth-century Buddhist master Vasubandhu and the teachings of the Avatamsaka Sutra, Thich Nhat Hanh focuses on the direct experience of recognizing, embracing, and looking deeply into the nature of our feelings and perceptions. Presenting the basic teachings of Buddhist applied psychology, Understanding Our Mind shows us how our mind is like a field, where every kind of seed is planted—seeds of suffering, anger, happiness, and peace. The quality of our life depends on the quality of the seeds in our mind. If we know how to water seeds of joy and transform seeds of suffering, then understanding, love, and compassion will flower. Vietnamese Zen Master Thuong Chieu said, “When we understand how our mind works, the practice becomes easy.”

This is the story of fifth century CE India, when the Yogacarin Buddhists tested the awareness of unawareness, and became aware of human unawareness to an extraordinary degree. They not only explicitly differentiated this dimension of mental processes from conscious cognitive processes, but also offered reasoned arguments on behalf of this dimension of mind. This is the concept of the 'Buddhist unconscious', which arose just as philosophical discourse in other circles was fiercely debating the limits of conscious awareness, and these ideas in turn had developed as a systematisation of teachings from the Buddha himself. For us in the twenty-first century, these teachings connect in fascinating ways to the Western conceptions of the 'cognitive unconscious' which have been elaborated in the work of Jung and Freud. This important study reveals how the Buddhist unconscious illuminates and draws out aspects of current western thinking on the unconscious mind. One of the most intriguing connections is the idea that there is in fact no substantial 'self' underlying all mental activity; 'the thoughts themselves are the thinker'. William S. Waldron considers the implications of this radical notion, which, despite only recently gaining plausibility, was in fact first posited 2,500 years ago.

In this book, Ben Connelly shows the power of integrating early Buddhist psychology with the Mahayana emphasis on collective liberation. You’ll discover how wisdom from fourth-century India can be harnessed to heal and transform systems of harm within ourselves and our communities. The three natures (svabhavas)—the imaginary, dependent, and complete, realized natures—are inherent aspects of all phenomena. The imaginary nature of things is what we think they are. Their dependent nature is that they appear to arise from countless conditions. The complete, realized nature is that they aren’t as we imagine them to be: things that can be grasped or pushed away. The three natures form the backbone of Yogacara philosophy, and by showing us how to see beyond our preconceived notions of ourselves and others, beyond the things that we’re convinced are “true,” they open up a path to personal and communal healing. Dive into this empowering approach to freedom from suffering, from harmful personal and social patterns, and to finding peace and joyfulness in the present.