Inside Vasubandhu's Yogacara

by Ben Connelly

Without karma and this grasping, the cycle that creates our habits of body, speech, and mind that cause suffering does not function. As the Early Buddhists say, when we see that none of the phenomena of the present moment are “self,” we find liberation, and as the Mahayanists say, when we see that none of the apparent phenomena of the present moment have a self, we liberate all beings. Vasubandhu says we can realize both these truths by opening the hand of thought, by letting go of the grasping at the root of experience.

  27

  Thinking About It Is Not Enough

  By conceiving what you put before you to be projection only,

  You do not rest in just this. || 27 ||

  When I taught my first class on the “Thirty Verses,” each week I gave a practice assignment, such as being mindful throughout the day of a specific affliction—for example, envy—or thinking about the other-­dependent nature of things we saw by listing things on which they were dependent. On the last week I asked the students to frequently stop to look at things and think, “This is projection only.” One student, to my amusement, called this “the universal solvent” of practices, in that it dissolved all phenomena down to one thing: projections of our karma. This is an extremely helpful practice, but it’s important to acknowledge, as I did when I gave this assignment, that this verse specifically states that thinking that something is projection only is not realization.

  Vasubandhu, in this twenty-­seventh verse, tells us that we can’t fully be at rest if we are conceiving what we put before us to be projection only. This line is difficult to translate; a couple of interpretations seem reasonable. First it may refer to placing an object in front of oneself as an object of meditation such as a candle, or a statue of Buddha. The meditative practice of concentrating on viewing an object is very old, and Vasubandhu is not saying it’s bad. This verse does say that if, through such practice, one arrives at a eureka moment (“It’s projection only!”) one has not arrived at the profound rest toward which he hopes we will aspire. The line also reminds us that if we are conceiving of something as projection only, we ourselves have in fact put it there in front of us by conceiving it. Our “realization” that it is a projection only is a projection only.

  In the last verse Vasubandhu intimated that “consciousness resting in projection only” was a key to realization, or a way to describe settling into a vast sense of connection. Here he says that as long as we’re conceiving objects in front of us we won’t “rest in just this.” A more literal translation for tanmatra, which we translated as “just this,” might be “thus only.” In projection only, thus only, just this, whatever this is, this moment, or these phenomena, we can rest. We don’t need to wait for some different, more appropriate phenomena to arrive so we can come to complete peace. There’s no doubt that most people who have talked about this profound state of rest have spent lots of time living in silence, in seclusion, in stillness, practicing meditation, but many of them have realized the deepest peace in the oddest of circumstances, like the nun Dhamma, far back in Buddha’s time, who practiced for years until she was very old and infirm. She was walking with a cane and fell down, and suddenly, in her words, “my heart was freed.” Monks have found peace as their teachers startled them with shouts or asked them impenetrable questions, and Basho points to realization at the scent of plum blossoms on a sun-and-fog-­drenched springtime hill. We may or may not find some great awakening, but we can rest in just this. We can rest in whatever circumstance is here.

  We can cultivate resting in just this by practicing mindfulness of the breath in the body. In the Thirty-­Three Synonyms for Nirvana Sutra, Buddha says that the way to realize nirvana is to practice mindfulness of breath, and then he encourages his monks to meditate at the roots of trees and in empty huts. If we attend to the breath without any judgment or need to control, we may then begin to, as the Samdhinirmocana Sutra says, “meditate on a nonconceptualized object.”

  As the mind rests on the breath without judging it, it may begin to rest on whatever is happening, not holding or understanding, but simply resting in just this. This resting may begin to permeate life. When fireworks come, we can rest in fireworks. When we get a promotion, we can be at rest in good news. When illness comes we can be at rest in the suffering. The fact that everything is projection only does not diminish the fact that right now, there is just this. This moment beyond any understanding we can ever have is the opportunity for us to give our heart and our effort to how things are, to give ourselves to complete realization, and as Zen Master Shitou says to “let go of hundreds of years and relax completely,” to rest in just this.

  28

  Being at Rest

  When consciousness does not perceive any object, then it rests in projection only;

  When there is nothing to grasp, there is no grasping. || 28 ||

  How can one describe enlightenment? Dongshan answered, “Three pounds of flax”; Mazu said, “This very mind is Buddha”; Gutei held up one finger. So many people for so many years have written or spoken of it, and most would also point out that the description is not the reality. As the old saw says, when the Buddha points toward the moon, do not confuse the finger for the moon.

  In the last three verses, Vasubandhu offers a description of enlightenment. He starts here by giving what Yogacarins view as the key to understanding how enlightenment occurs; realization, he says, occurs “when consciousness does not perceive any object.” This does not mean attaining some infinite blackness, although the near-­mythical founder of Zen, Bodhidharma, did describe the highest truth as “a vast emptiness.” What Vasubandhu is talking about is a moment of consciousness where there is nothing “other,” a moment where the afflicted manas is not dividing experience into self and other. You may have experienced some profound state in your life where you were so focused that your sense of self was weakened, or even gone: perhaps while playing music or sports, or attending to a child. But even in these moments manas still probably had a part in the way your mind was functioning. I believe Vasubandhu is speaking here of a very profound and total alteration in how consciousness works. When consciousness does not perceive any object, there are not “things.” The reason that this is a place of “rest in projection only” is that if there are no things, there is no need for a self to try and manipulate them. “When there is nothing to grasp, there is no grasping.”

  This verse exemplifies the description of enlightenment that has caused many doctrinal disputes among Buddhists over the years. I have generally avoided talking about these philosophical matters in this book, but I’ll briefly address them here. If we look at this verse, Vasubandhu is saying that in enlightenment there is consciousness resting in projection only. Early Buddhist texts show the Buddha teaching that all phenomena are empty of a lasting, independent self; all phenomena are empty, including consciousness. The Heart Sutra clearly states that consciousness is empty and that realizing this emptiness is key to enlightenment, to the realization of the bodhisattva’s vast compassion. Over the years many have argued that Vasubandhu is claiming that there is one thing that is ultimately real: consciousness. I will offer two comments. First, Vasubandhu makes no such claim. He says consciousness, like all things, has three natures: imaginary; other-­dependent; and complete, realized (which is nonself). Our ideas about consciousness are imagination; whatever it appears to be, it is something arising from conditions, and it is ultimately devoid of self-nature, of a lasting, independent self. Second, I will say that many Consciousness Only texts, although realizing this, argued that consciousness is here now. The reason for such an argument is twofold: They first contend that the people arguing with them are stuck on their idea that everything is empty, a fixation which the great genius of the doctrine of emptiness Nagarjuna called the ultimate sickness. They next point out that if there’s no consciousness, if there is nothing here, no projection, with what and why would we argue?

  The argument that Vasubandhu’s vision of consciousness with no object resting in projection onl
y could cause people to think that consciousness is some kind of ultimate reality is one that we should take to heart. There is a real danger that someone studying this material will think that they can develop some ultimately real consciousness that knows an absolute truth no one else knows. In fact perhaps the most quoted line from the Samdhinirmocana Sutra is “I do not teach this [Consciousness Only] to ordinary people, fearing they will grasp it as a self.” This is a confusing teaching and people can be confused. I heartily pray that my efforts in working with these teachings help people find a way toward peace and harmony.

  If we review the early verses of Vasubandhu’s text, in verse 7 we see that manas is not found in enlightenment or the bodhisattva path, the states this twenty-­eighth verse describes. However the six senses do not cease to function in these states. If we review Vasubandhu’s explanation of the contents of the six senses, we find the universal, specific, and beneficial factors, the afflictions and secondary afflictions. It is not stated in this text but it is assumed that one is not likely to reach the state of enlightenment without training the mind to manifest beneficial rather than afflictive emotions. As we cultivate and begin to manifest humility, lack of desire, lack of aversion, lack of delusion, energy, and equanimity, and we let go of pride, anger, envy, laziness, and distraction, the mind begins to rest in how things are, and consciousness softens into the capacity to rest in projection only.

  So this mind with no object is one that is manifesting beneficial emotions as all six senses are operating, but without seeing any of them as being self or other, and without any afflictive emotions arising from its own karma. However, in any moment, there is likely to be affliction in this consciousness for there are what would be conventionally understood to be other people. There is a vast ocean of afflictive emotion in this world, and the consciousness that has no object, that is completely at rest, does not see these afflictions as self or other. They are simply here, just this. Thus this consciousness naturally moves due to its tendency to manifest beneficial emotions, to help where affliction arises. It doesn’t move to try and control an “other” thing, or fix another person. It simply moves, in this very moment, in the way that is most beneficial, like someone adjusting a pillow in the night.

  This model of enlightenment can show us a way of being in this world that is completely devoted to peace, harmony, and ease for everyone, forever. It can orient our heart to the possibility of giving each moment to alleviating suffering wherever it is. Self and other are merely imaginary, though conventional and often useful, projections, but arising within the six senses, there is the possibility of manifesting beneficial mind. If you are angry, be present to your anger. If someone else is angry and you are not overcome by reactivity, you can be present to their anger. If you are in danger or overcome with afflictions, do what is most beneficial. This is a model that shows us we can send some money to help impoverished farmers to dig a well while we let go of the paralyzing desire to overcome all of world hunger. We can devote ourselves to a political cause, and if we lose, we don’t have to feel beaten or burned out, because there is not an “other” that we are trying to change. We are simply manifesting our beneficial emotion in action right now. We can let our children know that we think they are cultivating a harmful habit by staring at their smartphone several hours a day, but we can let go of trying to be in control of them. We can rest in the way things are, rest in our projections, rest in the awareness that all the habits, all the karmas, in the world are absolutely and intimately connected. All of our suffering, all of everyone’s vast and beating hearts, all our love and compassion arriving here, right now, with no other.

  29

  Transformation at the Root of Suffering

  Without thought, without conception, this is the supramundane awareness:

  The overturning of the root, the ending of the two barriers. || 29 ||

  The awareness of the bodhisattva, the “supramundane awareness” mentioned here, is a knowing that does not perceive an other. It is knowledge without an object, with nothing to grasp. This is not a thought or an idea; thoughts and ideas are things that are separate from other things. Vasubandhu swims out with us again into the vast, inconceivable ocean of nondualism, playing in a sea of language where we may perhaps glimpse something beyond our ordinary, mundane view. Here in the warm waters, we do not know if we are the ocean or the waves. We may simply, calmly flow in this not-­knowing.

  The first line of the verse points to nonduality in a couple of ways. First, the term “supramundane awareness” is a translation of jnanam lokottaram. Jnana is usually translated as “awareness” or “knowledge.” A related term, vijnana, is generally translated as “consciousness.” That prefix vi-­ is closely related to the English prefix di-­, as in dichotomy, or divide. It’s significant, then, that Vasubandhu uses jnana rather than vijnana. The knowledge of the bodhisattva does not contain the self/other split that characterizes our mundane knowledge; it is undivided. It is not vi-­jnana, dividing consciousness, but jnana, direct knowing with no self or other.

  However there is a problem with the idea that we can train our minds to directly know what is real, to have this supramundane awareness: the afflicted manas may just creep back in and we might think that we know the Truth with a capital T. Thinking we know Truth has caused a lot of problems in our long-­suffering human world. So this line reminds us that the bodhisattva’s direct knowledge is without thought, without conception; it is not-­knowing.

  The supramundane awareness that can be realized through this path is not omniscience. It is just this, it is thusness. In Zen practice we put great emphasis on attending to just this, whatever this moment is. Actually we are often given the instruction not to attend to just this, but instead actually just this, without someone attending and without an “it.” This is the practice of immediately entering the supramundane path, for the bodhisattva is not other than just this. Right now. Just this. Look up!

  In practicing just sitting, or perhaps mindfulness of breath, or mindfulness of emotions, or any kind of meditation practice, it is very common to find ourselves in a fight with thoughts. We think if we could just get rid of these pesky thoughts, we can finally get down to some real meditation. It is true that many meditation practices include and benefit from the gradual resting of the tendency of mind consciousness to relentlessly produce thoughts. So we might think that, since this line is about the bodhisattva’s knowledge being without thought, as soon as thoughts stop, we’ll be enlightened. This line, however, points to a nondual relationship between thought and nonthought.

  In the earlier verses Vasubandhu tells us that store consciousness is overturned in enlightenment, and afflicted manas is not found in enlightenment, but thought ­consciousness always manifests, except in a few particular states of mind, none of which are enlightenment. Enlightenment, according to these verses, is both with and without thought. If we cannot conceive of this, that is good, for it is inconceivable.Why is inconceivability good? Because it cannot be grasped. Feel free to open the hand of thought.

  The overturning of the root, sometimes called “transformation at the base,” is a major theme in Yogacara Buddhism. It is the point at which the entire karmic process in the store consciousness is transformed. When the mind does not perceive an object, when there is nothing to grasp and no grasping, the ancient conditioned habitual tendencies of consciousness are transformed. The storehouse is transformed from being the place or process whereby our conditioning manifests and is stored, into a vast mirroring wisdom that directly knows and shows the world. Rather than seeing a person of a different race in front of us through our lens of accumulated prejudice, we may simply see their humanity, their infinite connection to ourselves. Rather than seeing a hard rain that soaks our clothes as we walk home in an unpredicted downpour in terms of our aversion to the experience, we may deeply experience the wet of the clothes, the chill in the body, the thoughts in the mind, and the scowls and wry smiles on faces passing by with no j
udgment. The store consciousness transformed at the root, the great mirror wisdom, does not taste the moment in terms of a self with needs, but as a vast, unknowable, infinitely connected thusness.

  This is the ending of the barriers of afflictive emotion and delusion. When there is nothing to grasp, there is no ground for selfishness, aversion, carelessness to stand on. The delusion that there is an I apart from this thusness in this moment, apart from the infinity of unknowable conditions, apart from those we might love, hate, try to control, or ignore, evaporates like steam from a mirror.

  30

  The Blissful Body of Liberation

  It is the inconceivable, wholesome, unstained, constant realm,

  The blissful body of liberation, the Dharma body of the great sage. || 30 ||

  Consciousness that rests in projection only, that sees no object, is the knowledge of the bodhisattva, and according to this last of the thirty verses, it is an inconceivable, wholesome, unstained, constant realm, as well as the blissful body of liberation. Vasubandhu has described enlightenment many ways in this text: being at rest in what is, nonseparation from anything, knowledge beyond thought. In this verse he describes it as a place and a body. Although the language is lofty, and the concepts in the “Thirty Verses” are complex, finally Vasubandhu describes the ultimate goal of the Buddhist path as being right here now where we are in this body, where all practice begins and ends.

  If all we had of these descriptions of realization was the first line of this verse, we might think that practice was designed to take us to another realm. However, in the last three verses of this work, Vasubandhu gives us a variety of ways to describe realization. We might be able to focus on one briefly and believe it to be the most real or important one, but if we sit and look awhile we will see that, like the facets of a jewel, none of them exists without the other, that what we see and how we describe it are totally dependent on how we look and how the light is shining.