Early Monastic Buddhism v2.c34.s8.4

v2.c34.s8.4

The third point raises an important problem that is to say whether the mind at the beginning was pure or not. The Theravādins are decidedly of opinion that *pubbakoṭi* (beginning) and *aparakoṭi* (end) of beings are unknowable, and as such they have not gone into the question whether the mind is pure at any time before the attainment of *vimutti*. This doctrine of the Mahāsanghikas obtained its full development in the idealistic philosophy of Yogācāra in which the *Ālayavijñāna* is pointed out as the storehouse of pure consciousness which gets contaminated with worldly objects through the *indriyavijñānas* and mentally creates a world around it. It is by the removal of this mental creation that a person regains the *ālayavijñāna* in its pure original form and becomes an emancipated being—a Buddha.