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How Innovative Is the Alayavijnana HOW INNOVATIVE IS THE ĀLAYAVIJÑĀNA? The ālayavijñāna in the context of canonical and Abhidharma vijñāna theory by William S. Waldron* INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................................ 2 A. THE CANONICAL CONCEPTIONS ...................................................................................................................... 1 AA. ‘Vijñāna’ as ‘consciousness’, ‘vijñāna’ as ‘Cognition’ ................................................................................... 1 AB. ‘Vijñāna’ within the ‘pratītya-samutpāda’ Series............................................................................................ 2 AC. The Latent Dispositions (anuśaya) in Early Buddhist Thought....................................................................... 3 B. MOMENTARINESS AND CONTINUITY IN THE ABHIDHARMA ................................................................... 6 BA. Abhidharma Analysis of Mind: Its Purpose, Methods and Problematics ........................................................ 6 BB. The ‘Synchronic’ Analysis of Mind ................................................................................................................ 7 BC. ‘Diachronic’ Discourse: Traditional Continuities – Karma, ‘Kleśa’ and Seeds .............................................. 9 BD. ‘Sarvāstivādin’ Doctrines ...............................................................................................................................12 BE. The Medium of Seeds, Body/Mind Relations and Meditative Cessation .......................................................12 BF. Bhavaṅga-citta................................................................................................................................................14 BG. Index of Controverted Issues..........................................................................................................................14 CONCLUSIONS......................................................................................................................................................16 C. THE ĀLAYAVIJÑĀNA..........................................................................................................................................18 CA. Excursus on the ‘Ālayavijñāna’ as a ‘systematic’ innovation ........................................................................18 CB. The ‘Yogācārabhūmi’ (‘initial passage’), the ‘Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra and the Origins of the ‘Ālayavijñāna’................................................................................................................................................19 CC. The Ālaya Treatise of the ‘Yogācārabhūmi: the ‘Proof Portion’....................................................................22 CD. The ‘Ālaya Treatise’: the ‘Pravṛtti’ and ‘Nivṛtti Portions’ .............................................................................25 CE. The ‘kliṣṭa-manas’ in the ‘Mahāyāna-saṃgraha (MSg) .................................................................................28 CF. Returning to the Source: The Defense of ‘Ālayavijñāna’ in the MSg ............................................................29 CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................................................31 1 How Innovative is the ĀLAYAVIJÑĀNA by William S. Waldron INTRODUCTION (1) The Mahāyāna-saṃgraha and other Yogācāra texts claim orthodoxy for the ālayavijñāna on the grounds that it had been taught by the Buddha within accepted scriptural sources, and that it was in fact posited by other Abhidharma schools in the guise of more or less synonymous terms.1 [i.e., claim of orthodoxy] (2) In an ironic reverse appeal, Walpola Rahula has claimed that “although not developed as in the Mahāyāna, the original idea of ālayavijñāna was already there in the Pāli Canon.”2 [i.e., claim of origination] (3) On the other hand, Schmithausen (1987: 46) has recently suggested that the <200> conception of the ālayavijñāna eventually entailed “redrawing the theory of mind.” [i.e., claim of innovation] In this essay I will examine the relationship between the canonical3 conception of vijñāna (Pali: viññāṇa) and the Yogācāra concept of the ālayavijñāna so as to contextualize these claims. The innovative aspects of the ālayavijñāna have so often been emphasized that its commonality with its canonical predecessors and Abhidharma contemporaries, the very context in which it most needs to be understood, is all too frequently overlooked. We shall view the ālayavijñāna not simply as a radically new departure, but also as the systematic development of the early concept of vijñāna within the more sophisticated context of Abhidharma. From this perspective we shall be able to more fully appreciate both its continuity with the earlier conceptions, as well as the gradual development and elaboration of vijñāna theory within Abhidharma and Yogācāra, thereby supporting but at the same time qualifying the ahove-mentioned claims to (1) orthodoxy, (2) origination and (3) innovation. In the early discourses preserved in the Pāli Canon vijñāna was a polyvalent term with diverse (i) epistemological, (ii) psychological, and (iii) metaphysical dimensions, many of which became marginalized within orthodox Abhidharma discourse. • The ālayaviñāna is, in crudest outline, this canonical vijñāna minus its role within immediate cognitive processes; • it encompasses those aspects of vijñāna pertaining to the continuity of saṃsāric existence that could not be readily integrated into orthodox Abhidharma discourse, focusing as it does upon the immediacy of transient states of mind. The ālayvijñāna system effectively reunited these divergent dimensions in a bifurcated model of the mind which articulated a simultaneous and interactive relationship between (1) the momentary, surface level of sensory cognition and (2) an abiding, subliminal level of sentient existence. Since the ālayavijñāna is presented in terms of 2 How Innovative is ĀLAYAVIJÑĀNA by William S. Waldron (i) the wide range of functions played by the canonical vijñāna [i.e., Section A] and (ii) the various problematics to which these arrived within Abhidharma [i.e., Section B], we shall examine these in some detail before we present (iii) the gradual systematization of the ālayavijñāna itself [i.e., Section C]. <201> 3 A. THE CANONICAL CONCEPTIONS AA. ‘VIJÑĀNA’ AS ‘CONSCIOUSNESS’, ‘VIJÑĀNA’ AS ‘COGNITION’ In the early Pāli texts, vijñāna was considered equally (1) as ‘consciousness’, an essential factor of animate existence without which there would be no individual life, and (2) as ‘cognition’, the ordinary sensory and mental models of perception and knowing.4 (1) Vijñāna as ‘consciousness’ plays a major role in the early Buddhist explanation of the cycle of birth, death and rebirth, known as saṃsāra. Together with ‘life’ (āyu) and ‘heat’ (usmā), vijñāna is one of the essential factors necessary for animate existence and without which one would die.5 Vijñāna enters into the womb at the time of conception,6 and exits the body at the time of death.7 As a factor of saṃsāric continuity, it is precisely the advent, the ‘stationing’ or ‘persistence’ of vijñāna in this world that perpetuates saṃsāric existence.8 It is this unbroken stream of vijñāna that, proceeding from life to life,9 is virtually the medium of the accumulated potential effects of past actions, of karma.10 In this context, vijñāna, along with the other four skandhas, is said to “attain growth, increase, abundance” [virūḷhiṃ vuddhiṃ vepullam āpajjeyya].11 The total elimination of this accumulated karmic potential along with the eradication of the afflicting passions is closely equated with liberation, nirvāṇa, at which point vijñāna, the medium of this accumulation, is also (i) eradicated or at least (ii) fundamentally transformed.12 As we shall see, the Yogācāra conception of the ālayavijñāna replicates these functions in every one of these respects. This became necessary, I will argue, largely because of the one-sided emphasis Abhidharma put upon vijñāna’s second major dimension: the role that vijñāna, as simple cognition, plays within ordinary cognitive processes.13 (2) As the central element within the perceptual processes, vijñāna as ‘cognition’ occurs in six modes depending upon the type of sensory or mental stimulus and its respective perceptual organ (the five sense organs and the ‘mental’ organ).14 In this context, vijñāna as cognition occurs upon the contact between the relevant unimpaired sense organ, its respective object and attention [manasikāra].15 Both of these aspects of vijñāna, • first as ‘consciousness’, the essential principle of animate existence and a continuous medium within saṃsāra, and • second, as simple, immediate ‘cognition’, co-existed <202> within the mass of transmitted teachings, albeit within different contexts of meaning.16 The earliest traditions evinced little awareness of discordance between the two, since at the deepest metaphysical level17 they were so inseparably intertwined as to be virtually causes and effects of one another: 1 How Innovative is the ĀLAYAVIJÑĀNA by William S. Waldron • Karmic actions, within which vijñāna as cognition plays a central role, lead to continued existence within saṃsāra, the major medium of which is the unbroken stream of consciousness, of vijñāna. • And this unbroken stream creates, in
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