How do the Yogācāra Buddhists deny the existence of the external world? Discuss.

The Yogācāra Framework: Consciousness as the Basis of Reality

At the heart of Yogācāra lies the concept of *vijñāna* – consciousness. However, Yogācāra doesn’t simply equate reality with individual, moment-to-moment consciousness. It proposes a more complex system involving eight consciousnesses:

• The Five Sense Consciousnesses: These arise from contact between the sense organs and external objects.
• Manas: The mental consciousness responsible for the sense of ‘I’ or ego.
• Manovijñāna: The mental consciousness that processes thoughts and ideas.
• Ālayavijñāna: The ‘storehouse consciousness’ – the most fundamental level of consciousness. This is where karmic seeds (impressions) are stored, influencing future experiences.

The *ālayavijñāna* is crucial. It’s not a passive repository but an active force shaping our perceptions. It contains the potential for all experiences, and these potentials manifest as the world we perceive.

Denial of the External World: A Construction of Consciousness

Yogācāra doesn’t claim the world *doesn’t* appear. Rather, it argues that the way it appears – as solid, independent, and external – is a misinterpretation. This denial stems from several key arguments:

• Dependant Origination (Pratītyasamutpāda): Yogācāra emphasizes that all phenomena arise in dependence upon other phenomena. Nothing exists independently. This applies not just to physical objects but also to consciousness itself.
• The Three Natures (Trisvabhāva): Yogācāra proposes three natures of reality:
  • Parikalpita (Imagined Nature): This is the world as we conventionally perceive it – objects with inherent existence. It’s a conceptual construct.
  • Paratantra (Dependent Nature): This is the level of dependent origination – the flow of consciousness and its modifications.
  • Pariniṣpanna (Perfected Nature): This is the ultimate reality – emptiness (śūnyatā) of inherent existence.
• The Eight Non-Dualities: Yogācāra identifies eight pairs of concepts (e.g., subject-object, knower-known) that are ultimately non-dual. The distinction between the perceiver and the perceived is a product of conceptual thought, not an inherent feature of reality.

Therefore, the external world, as we understand it, is not an objective reality ‘out there’ but a projection of the *ālayavijñāna*, conditioned by our karmic seeds and conceptual frameworks. What appears as external objects are actually modifications of consciousness.

Addressing Potential Objections

A common objection is: if the external world is not real, why do we experience consistent and shared perceptions? Yogācāra explains this through the concept of collective consciousness. The *ālayavijñāna* is not solely individual; there’s a collective *ālayavijñāna* shared by all sentient beings. This shared storehouse of karmic seeds explains why we experience a relatively consistent world. Discrepancies in perception arise from individual karmic differences.