Yogacara (Buddhism, Yoga)

Basic to this branch of [mahayana]

is the belief that outside the processes of knowledge things have no real existence. The external world only exists in that it comprises imaginative perceptions deriving from the "storehouse" of such perceptions [alaya-vijnana]

, which are carried over from previous empirical individuality or "lives" and cause activity of thought which is deluded and ignorant, dominated with the sense that an individual "I" exists as separate from [tathata]

, "suchness".

The yogic goal is to clarify [alaya-vijnana]

, to attain cognizance of [alaya]

, the "true home", and place the light of meditation awareness upon it, so that the mind can be liberated from the alaya-reality illusion; after the pure emptiness of space there is awareness of universal light.

The follower of [yogacara]

practices the great virtues - [paramita]

- and meditative concentration - [samadhi]

. He follows a path to liberation to consisting of four distinct stages: (i) [Prayoga marga]

, a preparatory stage where there is teaching of the doctrine that all exists only in the mind. (ii) [Darsana marga]

, the "path of seeing", where understanding and not just knowledge of the teaching develops - there is intuitive awareness of the identity of subject and object - and the first of the "ten lands" or [bhumi]

is entered on the "meditation way of the bodhisattvas"; the [klesas]

- defilements which are the cause of all misery and affliction - start to be eliminated and the [alaya-vijnana]

to be clarified. (iii) [Bhavana marga]

, the "path of meditation", where the ten lands of the [bodhisattva]

are passed through and further progress made in insight and cleansing from defilements. (iv) [Asaiksa marga]

, the "path of no-more-learning" or "path of fulfilment", when the [klesa]

are totally eliminated, the [alaya-vijnana]

clarified - "the ground converted" - so the cycle of existence is over and the [bodhisattva]

actualizes the [dharmakaya]

or "body of the great order", absolute-body awareness characterized as the "great awakening" and one of the [trikaya]

(three bodies) of a buddha.