Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c7.s3.t25.1

c7.s3.t25.1

We conclude our examination of Nirvāṇa by ascertaining what the Laṅkāvatāra, an authoritative and early text of the Yogācārins, says about it. At the outset it may be said that the Yogācārins agreed with the Mādhyamikas so far as the unreality of the things of this world and the non-duality (advaya)¹ of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa is concerned. The Mādhyamikas were not prepared to establish any relation between the phenomenal world and the absolute except by remarking that from time immemorial beings have been subject to delusion, rendering them unable to realise the Truth unless and until they become Buddhas, after going through the processes prescribed in Mahāyāna works. The Yogācārins differed from the Mādhyamikas in attempting to find a relation between the absolute and the individual, and in doing so they asserted that there exists only citta (citta-mātra) or vijñāna (vijñānamātra).² This citta or vijñāna, better known as Ālaya-vijñāna (store of consciousness, the substratum of saṃsāra), though originally pure, becomes polluted by delusions and dichotomizes itself into me and not-me, subject and object, the former becoming mind (manas) and the latter the external world. So, according to the Yogācārins, Nirvāṇa consists in the ceasing of the mind to dichotomize and in realising that there exists only citta and that the phenomenal world is only a delusion of the citta. The Laṅkāvatāra says that Nirvāṇa consists in the removal of the imagining intellect (vikalpasya manovijñānasya vyāvṛttir nirvāṇam ity ucyate),³ the source of seven vijñānas and that it is not any one of the following four as conceived by the heretics:⁴