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Vijñānavāda
145
nature (prakṛti), not from themselves (svabhävät), nor from the Lord (iśvara), nor yet are they without cause; know that they arise from ignorance (avidya) and desire (trṣṇā).
51. Know that attachment to religious ceremonies (Silabrataparamarśa), wrong views (mithyadṛṣṭi) and doubt (vicikitsa) are the three fetters.
53. Steadily instruct yourself (more and more) in the highest morality, the highest wisdom and the highest thought, for the hundred and fifty one rules (of the pratimokṣa) are combined perfectly in these three.
58. Because thus (as demonstrated) all this is unstable (anitya) without substance (anatma) without help (asarana) without protector (anatha) and without abode (asthana) thou O Lord of men must become discontented with this worthless (asāra) kadali-tree of the orb.
104. If a fire were to seize your head or your dress you would extinguish and subdue it, even then endeavour to annihilate desire, for there is no other higher necessity than this.
105. By morality, knowledge and contemplation, attain the spotless dignity of the quieting and the subduing nirvāņa not subject to age, death or decay, devoid of earth, water, fire, wind, sun and moon.
107. Where there is no wisdom (prajña) there is also no contemplation (dhyana), where there is no contemplation there is also no wisdom; but know that for him who possesses these two the sea of existence is like a grove.
Uncompromising Idealism or the School
of Vijñānavāda Buddhism.
The school of Buddhist philosophy known as the Vijñānavāda or Yogacara has often been referred to by such prominent teachers of Hindu thought as Kumārila and Sankara. It agrees to a great extent with the Śūnyavādins whom we have already described. All the dharmas (qualities and substances) are but imaginary constructions of ignorant minds. There is no movement in the so-called external world as we suppose, for it does not exist. We construct it ourselves and then are ourselves deluded that it exists by itself (nirmmitapratimohi)'. There are two functions involved in our consciousness, viz. that which holds the perceptions (khyāti vijñāna), and that which orders them by imaginary constructions (vastuprativikalpavijñāna). The two functions however mutually determine each other and cannot be separately distinguished (abhinnalakṣane anyonyahetuke). These functions are set to work on account of the beginningless instinctive tendencies inherent in them in relation to the world of appearance (anadikāla-prapañca-vāsanāhetukañca)".
All sense knowledge can be stopped only when the diverse 2 Ibid. p. 44.
1 Lankavatarasutra, pp. 21-22.
D.
IO
