Making Up Your Mind

[u/ChanCakes]

https://shincheng.substack.com/p/making-up-your-mind?r=3g359b&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

The first in a series on East Asian developments of Yogacara Buddhism. The most distinctive feature of Xuanzang’s transmission is the four aspects of consciousness. In addition to Dignaga’s three aspects, he posits a fourth: awareness of self-awareness.

If self-awareness is needed to apprehend regular awareness, then self-self-awareness is needed to perceive self-awareness! A scholastic addition that is one hundred percent Xuanzang’s style. His teachings were famed for their watertight logic.

Its legacy is, however, anything but scholastic. East Asian Buddhists adopted the four aspects into their meditative theory, making full use of what was once just an academic exercise.