The Ālayavijñāna in the Context of Indian Buddhist Thought: The Yogācāra Conception of an Unconscious

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The Ālayavijñāna in the Context of Indian Buddhist Thought: The Yogācāra Conception of an Unconscious
Dissertation
Dissertation

Abstract

The thesis focuses on the relations between mind and karma and the continuity of life in saṃsāra based upon a concept of mind, the ālayavijñāna, as presented in the texts of Asaṅga and Vasubandhu of the Yogācāra school of Indian Buddhism, A.D. 4-5th centuries. It has been the topic of many sectarian disputes as well as the springboard for several far-reaching doctrinal developments, so it is desirable to examine it within its early Indian Buddhist context.
      The first section presents the multivalent viññāṇa of the Pali Canon and related concepts. It demonstrates that the major characteristics later predicated of the ālayavijñāna were present in an unsystematized but implicit form in the viññāṇa of the early discourses.
      The next section describes the systematic psychological analysis developed by the Abhidharma and its consequent problematics. It argues that the incongruity of Abhidharmic analysis with the older unsystematized doctrines led to major theoretical problems concerning the key concepts of kleśa and karma, to which the Sautrāntika school offered the concept of seeds (bija).
      The third section, based primarily upon the texts translated herein, depicts the origination and gradual development of the ālayavijñāna within the Yogācāra school from a somatic "life principle", to an explicitly unconscious mind, to its final bifurcation into an unconscious afflicted mind (kliṣṭa-manas) and a passive respository of karmic seeds, the latent loci of kleśa and karma, respectively.
      The last section compares the ālayavijñāna systematically with Freud's and Jung's concepts of the unconscious, concluding that their respective philosophical milieus led both traditions to conceptions of unconscious mental processes as necessary compensations for strictly intentional epistemological models.
      In the appendix the major texts presenting the ālayavijñāna, Chaps. V and VIII.37 of the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra, part of the Viniścaya-saṃgrahaṇī of the Yogācārabhūmi, and Ch. 1 of the Mahāyāna-saṃgraha, are translated and extensively annotated in order to contextualize the minutiae of this concept of mind with its canonical precursors and its Abhidharmic contemporaries. (Source: ProQuest)

Citation Waldron, William S. "The Ālayavijñāna in the Context of Indian Buddhist Thought: The Yogācāra Conception of an Unconscious." PhD diss., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1990.


  • Acknowledgementsii
  • Prefaceiii
  • Introduction1

  • CHAPTER ONE: CANONICAL BUDDHIST THOUGHT26
    • The Three Marks of Existence28
    • The Formula of Dependent Co-origination32
    • A Short Commentary on paṭicca-samuppāda35
    • Karma44
    • Reciprocity of Name-and-Form and Consciousness47
    • Consciousness Conditions Name-and-Form49
    • Craving and the Support of Consciousness50
    • Name-and-form Conditions Consciousness52
    • Sankhārā59
    • Viññāṇa65
    • Viññāṇa and Perception66
    • Viññāṇa and Rebirth68
    • Citta and Mano75
    • A Note on Saññā80
    • Saññā and Papañca83
    • Anusaya86
    • The Unconscious in Early Buddhism99
    • āsava103
    • Asampajāno mano-sankhārā105
    • Mind-reading107
    • Remarks on the "Concept of the Unconscious"113
    • Notes to Chapter One120

  • CHAPTER TWO: THE ABHIDHARMA CONTEXT133
    • Background of the Abhidharma135
    • The Abhidharma System of Mind142
    • Citta-caitta152
    • The caittas154
    • Citta-viprayuktā-saṃskārā157
    • The Six hetus, Five phalas, and Four pratyayas161
    • Karma and Kleśa in the Kośa172
    • The Problematics of Abhidharma Analysis183
    • The Sarvāstivādin Concepts189
    • The kleśa/anuśaya Controversy196
    • The Sautrāntika Concept of Seeds (bīja )204
    • The Problematics Generated by the Concept of Seeds210
    • Notes to Chapter Two229

  • CHAPTER FOUR: A COMPARISON OF THE ĀLAYAVIJÑĀNA WITH
    FREUD'S AND JUNG'S THEORIES OF THE UNCONSCIOUS
    400
    • Common Problematics Between the ālayavijñāna and the Unconscious404
    • Common Characteristics408
    • Latency408
    • Latent Causal Efficacy415
    • Simultaneity and Reciprocal Conditionality420
    • Cognitive Processes427
    • Matrix of All Conscious Acts430
    • Conclusion to Common Characteristics433
    • Divergences437
    • Rebirth438
    • Repression439
    • Energetics and Hermeneutics444
    • Instinctual Drives459
    • Conclusion463
    • The Collective Unconscious and the ālayavijñāna468
    • Did a Common Problematic Lead to the ālayavijñāna and the
      Unconscious?
      474
    • Notes to Chapter Four482

  • CONCLUSION495
  • APPENDIX503
    • Translation of the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra
      Chapter V and VIII.37
      504
      • Notes516
      • Tibetan Text520
    • Translation of the Proof Portion of the Yogācārabhūmi-Viniścaya-
      saṃgrahaṇī
      526
      • Notes537
    • Translation of the Pravṛtti/Nivṛtti Portions of the Yogācārabhūmi-Viniścaya-saṃgrahaṇī539
      • Notes563
      • Tibetan Text571
    • Translation of Ch. 1 of the Mahāyāna-saṃgraha583
      • Notes635
    • Outline of the Texts716
  • BIBLIOGRAPHY721