The University of Nalanda c10.35

c10.35

The idea of a sky-flower connotes unreality. If by this unreality is understood that everything is unreal, the doctrine is nothing but nihilism: the one that was propounded by Nāgārjuna. But, if it suggests that all objects are unreal except when they are perceived by our cognitive faculty, then naturally the doctrine can be identified with that of the Idealists, viz., the Ālaya Vijñāna of Maitreya and Asaṅga.