YOGACARA AND MADHYAMIKA AS THE FOUNDATIONAL PHILOSOPHIES OF VAJRAYANA
Milan Shakva Buddhist
Department Patan Multiple Campus
Sakyamuni Buddha in his lifetime found that this world is full of suffering and before his enlightenment, he sought the permanent solution to this unsolved predicament. He was the epitome of wisdom and compassion. He was very skilful too. Skilful means was one of the attributes of the Lord Buddha.
This signifies that he led sentient beings of various inclinations, predelictions and mental propensities from their suffering to the truth—the sorrow-free state of Buddhahood. His main intention was to liberate all sentient beings without exception from their suffering and fill their lives with supreme happiness.
Sakyamuni Buddha presented a vast array of instructions, both conventional and unconventional. First, the conventional teachings included the preliminary phase of Buddhist teachings such as the Sravakayana, Pratyekabuddhayana and the advanced phase of Mahayana teachings. The Buddha gave these teachings in the three turnings of the Wheel of the Dharma. Secondly, the unconventional instructions of the Vajrayana comprises the entire view of the Buddha's teachings brought to its fiill maturation, including extensive meditation practices.
In Buddhism, there are three progressive vehicles. Sravakayana, Pratyekabuddhayana and Samyaksambuddhayana. Samyaksambuddhayana is also called Mahayana because it develops Bodhicitta and great compassion in order to lead all sentient beings from the suffering of samsara to perfect Buddhahood. Mahayana is further subdivided in two ways, the vehicle of perfections (parami tay ana) and the Mantra vehicle (mantrayana)
=The Path of Vajrayana
In Advayavajrasamgraha, it is stated,
In the Hearer's Vehicle, the view is explained from the standpoint of Vaibhasika and Sautrantika. In the Perfection Vehicle, it is explained from the standpoint of Sautrantika, Yogacara and Madhyamika. In Mantranaya, it is explained from the standpoint of Yogacara and Madhyamika"
So according to these two texts, even though the Vaibhasika and Sautrantika doctrines are essential, two underlying philosophies of the Mahayana, the Yogacara and Madhyamika, are foundational views of the Vajrayana.
Yogacara Philosophy as the Vajrayana Foundation
The 3rd century master Asanga propounded the philosophy of Yogacara (Mind only or Vijnanavada) based on the third turning at Vaisali and other parts of India. These are propounded in the Lankavatara Sutra, Samdhinirmocana Sutra and other texts. Vasubandhu (4th century CE) also further developed the Mind only or Vijnanavada theory in his Vijnaptimatratasiddhi including Vimsatika and Trimsatika.
After Asanga and Vasubandu, the Yogacara developed into a number of different schools. Chief among the schools are the True Aspect Cittamatrins (satyakaravadin) and the False Aspect Cittamatrins (mithyakaravadins). They are also categorized as adherence to scriptures (agamanuyayf) and adherence to logic (yuktyanuyayi). Asanga, Vasubandhu and others adhere to scriptures whereas Dignaga, Dharmakirti and others adhere to logic. The Cittamatrins’s teaching include the three natures, eight consciousness. Buddha nature and forth. By these teachings, the Yogacarins or Cittamatrins prove that external appearance is false whereas the mind only is the ultimate truth.
Generally, Yogacara philosophy maintains that phenomenal existence which is generally supposed to have objective reality in the external world, is no other than the “ideation” or representation (yijnapti), or the generation of images of objects appearing in consciousness (yijnana).
Human beings and objective things, to which various terms - such as “self’ (atma), “living being” (jiva), “pot” (ghatci) and “cloth” (pata) are applied, are in reality the “modifications or transformation of consciousness only.” The consciousness that undergoes modification consists of three strata:
1. the six kinds of consciousnesses produced through the visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory’ and tactitle senses and the mind, collectively known as prvritti vijnana, 1. the afflicted "I" consciousness (klistamanovijnana), which accompanies the six kinds of consciousnesses and clings to alayavijnana as an entity of permanent self, and 3. the subliminal consciousness, called alayavijnana.
In alayavijnana the "impressions" (yasana) of past experiences are accumulated as the seeds (bija) of future experiences. While the alayavijnana is dormant, the six kinds of consciousnesses (pravrttivijnana) and the I- consciousness (klistamanovijnana) are always operative.
Therefore, the alaya vijnana and the operative consciousnesses are dependent on each other: the latter is produced from the seed preserved in the former and in turn, leaves its impression. Thus the modification (parinama) or “change” of consciousness takes place in two ways: (1) a seed planted by the operative consciousness becomes ripe in the alayavijnana and the operative arises from the seed.
The alayavijnana remains only for a moment, then is replaced by another consciousness in the next moment. The successive moments of the alayavijnana form a stream that continues to flow until the seeds planted in it are completely destroyed or purified into wisdom. The things that are thought to exist in the external world are therefore the images that appear in this stream of consciousness.
The three vijnana are related with the three natures. The Samdhinirmocana Sutra enumerate the three natures as: 1. imagined nature (parikalpita-svabhava), the dependent nature (paratantra-svabhava) and the perfected nature (parinispanna svabhava).
In Asanga’s Mahayanasamgraha, which deals with the three natures in depth, the imagined and the perfected natures are two aspects of the dependent nature. He explains that the dependent nature appears as the imagined nature because of a false imagination or vikalpa and as the perfected nature when the false imagination is removed.
The consciousness that arises in each moment with the image of an object is of dependent nature because its origin is dependent on the impressions of past experiences present in the alayavijnana. So in other words, samskara or karma is the dependent nature.
Suffering or bondage of samsara is thus caused by the false idea or imagination of there being something external or real. So long as a content is something external to us, it is a limitation of ourselves. Owing to this false view, consciousness becomes infected by subject-object duality; it projects as though objective.
When the false imagination is completly removed through the practice of yoga and practices on the path, the person realizes the absence of the subject-object duality or the clinging to external things as real. This occurs by transformation of the basis (asrayaparavriii). ' '
In this transformation, the seeds are completely destroyed and the stream of the alayavijnana no longer constitutes the basis (asraya) of existence. In its place, ultimate reality reveals itself as the real, undifferentiated basis of all living beings. By this asraya paravritti, the two, alaya and klista, and the pravritti are transformed into the five wisdoms of the Five Buddhas. At this point, one attains Buddhahood.
In the Vajrayana, the philosophical background of the three natures and the three (or eight) vijnanas and asraya paravrtti are critical. In terms of practice, the process of tantric meditation brings the dependent nature of karma of the world into view.
On the one hand, through meditation on emptiness, the defiled, conceptual versions of reality are abandoned. On the other hand, through visualizing the world as the pure abode of the tantric deities, the manifestation beyond ego is evident. Through the visualization, the relative world in its nonconceptual purity (perfected nature) is revealed. This becomes a process of gradual “purification” (visuddhi) in which there is a sevcrence of the view of reality as impure (imagined nature) and laden with the conceptual dirt of ego.
One’s perception becomes a pure vision (visuddha darsana or perfected nature), that is, the truth of the dependent nature and its inseparability from the perfected nature are realized on a tantric level as the inseparability of appearance and emptiness.
Buddha nature is the another topic explained by Asanga in his commentary to the Uttaratantra Shastra. According to this text, every sentient being has a Buddhanature. Its essence is emptiness; its nature is complete clarity and cognizance; and it manifests as compassion. Buddhanature is a perfected nature and dharmakaya, which exists within the heart of all sentient beings.
However, if we have Buddhanature, why are we so confused and why do we suffer? The reason, according to the Uttara Tantra is that even if Buddhanature is pure from the beginning, but it is covered by defilements of all sorts. But these defilements are adventitious, that is, they are not essential. They in no way actually damage our buddha-nature, they merely hide it from view.
Thus, sentient beings wander in samsara looking for happiness externally and undergo all sorts of suffering unaware that this jewel resides in our very heart not outside. As explained earlier, by engaging in the path, we uncover our Buddhanature and become Buddhas. Vajrayana’s goal is directed towards the uncovering of Buddha-nature within.
Meditation is a way of getting closer to this realization. For example, the practitioner visualizes himself as a fully enlightened Buddha. This visualization is an imaginative representation of our Buddha-nature within, which is otherwise inaccessible. Through enacting the tantric liturgies, our own sense of being a separate, ego-centered self gradually dissolves and is replaced by Buddhanature.
Buddhanature is synonymously known as co-emergent wisdom, the nature of mind, original wakefulness, and so forth. It represents the ability to rest in the realization of the open, empty, cognizant nature that is the very core of our being. Living according to Buddhanature. the person deflects from thinking of himself as a solid and discrete entity, and acts without need for the deliberate and self- referential strategies of the self-conscious “I”. Madhyamika Philosophy as the Vajrayana Foundation
The 2nd century Acarya Nagaijuna propounded the Philosophy of the Middle Way (Madhyamika) based on the second turning at Vulture Peak Mountain. These are set out in the Prajnaparamita, a genre of sutras with many different extant versions.
After Nagarjuna, the Madhyamaka developed into a number of different schools with prominent teachers.. Chronologically, Buddhapalita (fifth to sixth century) is seen as a father of the Prasangika Madhyamaka.
Bhavaviveka (sixth century) is credited with the founding of the Svatantrika Madhyamaka. Candrakirti (seventh century) was responsible for the prominence of Prasangika in his Prasannapada and Madhyamakavatara. Santideva (eighth century), also a Prasangika practitioner, gave teachings on the six perfections in his famous Bodhicaryavatara. including a ninth chapter on emptiness.
Later masters, notably Shantaraksita and Kamalasila. developed the Yogacara Madhyamaka, a synthesis of those two schools. Finally, Atisa Dipankarasrijnana was a Prasangika Madhyamaka teacher..
The teachings on emptiness as commentated and explained by Madhyamaka acaryas are critical for the Vajrayana practitioner because they establish the ultimately open and nonobjectifiable (nondual) nature of reality.
This means that the subject - the practitioner - is ultimately nonexistent in a solid or definitive sense and is ungraspable. The object of the practice, such as the deities encountered in tantric ritual, are equally empty and beyond any thought or characterization. The various practices themselves are beyond objectification or quantification. Without such a view of the world of practice as empty in this sense, the practioner would quickly fall prey to the enticements of spiritual power and gain.
As clarified above, the essence of Madhyamaka philosophy based on the Prajnaparamita sutra is that all the dharmas of samsara and nirvana are empty of essence, devoid of self-nature (sarvadharma nihsvabhavata). This means that the normal activity of the conceptual mind, which attributes qualities and characteristics to all experiences, whether worldly or supermundane, misses the truth of reality. Underlying this is the idea that things appear because of dependent origination, otherwise known as relative truth, which itself is illusory. According to ultimate truth, nothing has its own characteristic.
The view of emptiness presupposes the understanding of these these two truths. Emptiness, however, does not mean that there is nothing at all. As Peter Della Santina states in his book, The Tree of Enlightenment, “Emptiness is, of course, not nothingness.
It is rather, a kind of openness, a situation in which phenomena exist dependent on causes and condition.” This is reminiscent of Nagaijuna’s introductory verse in the Mulamadhyamakakcirika where he explains that things are unproduced from the very beginning and do not cease because they do not have an entity of their own. Therefore, samsara and nirvana are essentially pure and Dharmakaya nature is without conceptualization.
In addition, Nagaijuna proves the non-production of every dharma with the help of tratalema theory refuting such concepts as Self production, Other production. Production from both self and others, and Production without cause. This view is reflected in the Great Perfection (mahasandhi) and Mahamudra practice of the Highest Yoga tantra.
Since everything in samsara and nirvana is empty of inherent existence, this can be taken as an example of Vajrayana’s main concern, transforming common experience into the experience of enlightenment. This transformation is possible because things cannot have any real, permanent nature of its own.
Nagaijuna also says that if there was such a thing as “own being” (svabhava),, transformation by means of the path of liberation would be impossible. If each and every ordinary, afflicted sentient being had his own being, that is, permanent existence, then no matter how much we practice the dharma, we would never become enlightened. It is because beings are subject to afflictions (ignorance, attachment and aversion). With the replacement of ignorance with wisdom, attachment with renunciation and hatred with love and compassion, these conditions can change. By changing these conditions, we can change the nature of our being and become Buddhas. Thus, in Vajrayana practice, desires, ignorance and hatred are transformed into wisdom. As Reginald Ray states:
The teachings on emptiness call into question every painful and depressing experience, as well as every pleasurable and inflating experience. These teachings say: "Things are not what you think: if you think, things are a certain way, take a closer look, you cannot make anything out of your experience." Your experience is really and trully, beyond words and concepts. It is empty.
Therefore, you are left with nothing to make anything out of. Only when you remain in this open and indefinable�space can the tantric journey continue. So by training the mind thoroughly in the Madhyamaka, one is laying a foundation that is essential for successful Vajrayana practice. In this way, emptiness and the creative power of the mind are clearly present in the structure of the Vajrayana techniques of meditation.
Conclusion
In summary, the Vajrayana’s view is reflected in the two-fold philosophy of Madhyamaka and Yogacara. Underlying Vajrayana’s meditational systems, there is either viewy meditation, and conduct or ground, path and fruition. View or ground are the philosophies described in this paper. Meditation or the path is a process of actualizing that view' and the fruition is enlightenment.
So from the very beginning of Vajrayana practice, viewy that is, emptiness and clarity of mind, is enacted and this characterises all the four tantras, that is, kriya. carya, yoga and anuttarayoga tantra. Therefore, unless a person is fully grounded in this two-fold philosophy, he can not even imagine entering the Vajrayana path no matter how many empowerments (abhiseka) he may have taken.
Apart from these ideas, Vajrayana practice also deals with renunciation and bodhicitta which derive from the Sravakayana and Mahayana (that is, conventional Mahayana). Thus, it can be said that the Mahayana, with both its w isdom and bodhicitta, is a gateway to the Vajrayana.
