Making Sense of Mind Only

"The Yogåacåara, or Yoga Practice, school is one of the two schools of Mahåayåana Buddhism that developed in the early centuries of the common era. Though it arose in India, Mahåayåana Buddhism now flourishes in China, Tibet, Korea, Vietnam, and Japan. While the other major Mahåayåana tradition, the Madhyamaka (Middle Way), focuses on the concept of emptiness-that all phenomena lack an intrinsic essence-the Yogåacåara school focuses on the cognitive processes whereby we impute such essences. Through everyday examples and analogues in cognitive science, author William Waldron makes Yogåacåara's core teachings-on the three turnings of the Dharma wheel, the three natures, the storehouse consciousness, and mere perception-accessible to a broad audience. In contrast to the common characterization of Yogåacåara as philosophical idealism, Waldron presents Yogåacåara Buddhism on its own terms, as a coherent system of ideas and practices, with dependent arising its guiding principle. The first half of Making Sense of Mind Only explores the historical context for Yogåacåara's development. Waldron examines early Buddhist texts that show how our affective and cognitive processes shape the way objects and worlds appear to us, and how we erroneously grasp onto them as essentially real-perpetuating the habits that bind us to saòmsåara. He then analyzes the early Madhyamaka critique of essences. This context sets the stage for the book's second half, an examination of how Yogåacåara texts such as the Saòmdhinirmocana Såutra and Asaçnga's Stages of Yogic Practice (Yogåacåarabhåumi) build upon these earlier ideas by arguing that our constructive processes also occur unconsciously. Not only do we collectively, yet mostly unknowingly, construct shared realities or cultures, our shared worlds are also mediated through the storehouse consciousness (åalayavijänåana) functioning as a cultural unconscious. Vasubandhu's Twenty Verses argues that we can learn to recognize such objects and worlds as "mere perceptions" (vijänåaptimåatra) and thereby abandon our enchantment with the products of our own cognitive processes. Finally Maitreya's Distinguishing Phenomena from Their Ultimate Nature (Dharmadharmatåavibhåaga) elegantly lays out the Mahåayåana path to this transformation. In Waldron's hands, Yogåacåara is no mere view but a practical system of transformation. His presentation of its key texts and ideas illuminates how religion can remain urgent and vital in our scientific and pluralistic age"--