The 'Buddhist Unconscious'-The Alaya-Vijnana in the Context of Indian Buddhist Thought

Abstract

Preface ; Acknowledgments ; Thematic introduction: a Buddhist critique of the construction of self and world ; PART I The background and context of the alaya-vijñana ; The early Buddhist background ; The three marks of existence ; The formula of dependent arising ; Causation and continuity without a self ; Viññafa in the formula of dependent arising ; Viññafa as consciousness ; Viññafa as cognitive awareness ; The underlying tendencies (anusaya) ; The underlying tendency “I am” and conceptual proliferation (papañca) ; The debate over latent versus manifest ; Reciprocal causality between the two aspects of viññafa ; The Abhidharma context ; The Abhidharma project and its problematic ; Background of the Abhidharma ; The aim and methods of Abhidharma: dharma as irreducible unit of experience ; The basic problematic: two levels of discourse, two dimensions of mind ; Analysis of mind and its mental factors ; The initial formulation of the problematic in its synchronic dimension: the accumulation of karmic potential, the presence of the underlying tendencies, and their gradual purification in the Kathavatthu ; The problematic in its diachronic dimension: immediate succession versus the continuity of karmic potential ; The persistence of traditional continuities: karma and kleka in the Abhidharma-koka ; Abhidharmic responses to the problematic ; The Sarvastivadin theory of possession (prapti) ; The Sautrantika theory of seeds (bnja) in the mental stream (santana) ; Questions raised by consciousness, seeds, and the mental stream ; The Theravadin theory of life-constituent mind (bhavamga-citta) ; Conclusion ; PART II The alaya-vijñana in the Yogacara tradition ; The alaya-vijñana in the early tradition ; The origins of the alaya-vijñana ; The new model of mind in the Saddhinirmocana Sjtra ; The alaya-vijñana as mental stream ; The Alaya Treatise of the Yogacarabhjmi ; The Proof Portion ; The Alaya Treatise, Pravgtti Portion: analyzing the alaya-vijñana in Abhidharmic terms ; The alaya-vijñana’s subliminal objective supports and cognitive processes ; The alaya-vijñana’s mutual and simultaneous relationship with manifest cognitive awareness (pravgtti-vijñana) ; The alaya-vijñana’s simultaneous arising with (afflictive) mentation ; The Alaya Treatise, Nivgtti Portion: equating the alaya-vijñana with samsaric continuity ; Conclusion ; The alaya-vijñana in the Mahayana-sadgraha ; 1. bringing it all back home ; Appropriating the traditional Buddhist framework ; Synonyms of the alaya-vijñana in the disciple’s vehicle ; The two vijñanas and the two dependent arisings ; Seeding the alaya-vijñana: the karmic process as simultaneous intrapsychic causality ; Resolving the Abhidharmic Problematic ; Karma, rebirth, and the alaya-vijñana ; The continuity of the afflictions (kleka) ; The path of purification: mundane and supramundane ; Beyond Abhidharma: adventitious defilements, pure seeds, and luminous minds ; The alaya-vijñana in the Mahayana-sadgraha ; 2. looking beyond ; The predispositions of speech, self-view, and the life-constituents ; Common experience, common embodiment: language, the alaya-vijñana, and “the arising of the world” ; PART III Appendices ; Appendix I; The series of dependent arising: affliction, action, and their results ; Appendix II Index of related controversies ; Appendix III Translation: the Pravgtti and Nivgtti Portions of the Vinikcayasadgrahafn of the Yogacarabhjmi ; Notes ; Bibliography of works cited ; Index of texts quoted ; Index ;