The Arising of Delusion

1 The varying answers given to the single question of whether the mind is pure by nature or defiled by nature form a convenient lenses through which to view the development of Yogācāra thought. If the mind is pure, then where do the defilements originate? If it is defiled, where does purity originate? Though the classical formulation of Asaṇga and Vasubandhu sees consciousness as paratantric, the source of defilement yet only the support of purity (an important distinction that necessitates an external source of purity), another view which was taken up by Yogācāran thinkers is that of the originally pure mind (viśuddhi cittaprakṛiti); a third schema brings the structure of consciousness together with that purity as seen, for example, within the * Mahāyāna śraddhotpādaśāstra (The Awakening of Mahāyāna Faith). The Yogācāra formulation of the eight vijñānas is basically a chart of consciousness, of how delusion arises within that consciousness, and of the conversion of that consciousness to wisdom (jñāna). The ālaya-vijñāna or eighth consciousness is the storehouse consciousness because it appropriates or unifies the data of the other seven consciousnesses (ego or manas, the mind or mano, and the five sense-vijñāna). By this act of appropriating and storing the ālaya becomes the source of delusion because, as the basis of the evolution of discriminating consciousness (vijñāna-parināma), it is the source of deluded thinking (parapañca). However, the ālaya is not the sole cause of vijñānaparināma, as is the basis of production in the Upanishadic sense; rather, it too is the result of the evolution of discriminating consciousness inasmuch as it is " perfumed " by that same evolution. The ālaya and the other consciousnesses arise together in a symbiotic or synergistic relationship. Thus the structure of consciousness, for Asaṇga and Vasubandhu, arises 1 This was originally written in 1994; the publisher seems to have fallen into a black hole, so I am putting it up myself; I have not changed it (other than fonts and some formatting issues) in order to keep the historical in perspective. I think that I still agree with myself.