Book Title: Sambodhi 1984 Vol 13 and 14
Author(s): Dalsukh Malvania, Ramesh S Betai, Yajneshwar S Shastri
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
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CONCEPTION OF MAYA (Illusion) IN ASANGA'S
VIJNANĀVĀDA BUDDHISM
Y. S. Shastri Asanga (circa 290-360AD)' is one of the outstanding philosophical personalities in the history of Mabayāna Buddhism. His contribution to Vijñānavada School of thought is unparalleled in the annals of Buddhist history. There is no Buddhist topic which is left untouched by him in his works. In fact, one of his works namely 'Mahayanasūtralankara' is a landmark in the development of Mahayana Buddhism, which also throws full light on Absolutism of Vijñanavāda.
It is a well-known fact in the history of Mahāyāna Buddhistu that Nāgārjuna-the chief exponent of Madhyamika philosophy-adopts a purely negative approach to Reality and defines it as 'that which can only be directly realised, that which is quiscent, inexpressible, that which is non-discursive and non-dual.3 Absolutely reality is Sünya i.e., beyond subject object duality, inderminate, indescribable and cannot be even identified with pure consciousness. The word Sünya is used to indicate this Absolute Reality. But it seems that Nāgārjuna emphasizing the transcendental aspect of the Absolute, failed to show the proper relation between the Absolute and the phenomena. He does not analysc how this absolute is related to the phenomenal world. His extreme negative approach is misunderstood by his oponents and consequently be is dubbed as a propagator of nihilisi in his own time.5 But shortly after Nagarjuna, some of the Mahayana thinkers revolted against the negative stand point of his and started thinking in a more positive way by identifying the Absolute Reality with pure consciousness and established their own independent school of thought known as Vijñānavada.
Asanga, disciple of Maitreyanatha, is prominent among those revolutionary thinkers who went against Nāgārjuna's doctrine and propagated Vijnanavada. Asauga, a speculative thinker of first rank is not satisfied with this negative attitude of Nāgārjuna. His approach to Reality is more positive and he identifies the Absolute Reality with pure
* A Research Paper, presented to the Section of Buddhist Studies at the XXXII International Congress for Asian and North African Studies, at Hamburg, West Germany, Agust 1986. Sambodhi XIT-4
