yogacara

Yogacāra, also known as Yogācārā or the consciousness-only school, is a major tradition of Indian Mahayana Buddhism that arose in the 4th to 5th centuries CE. It is traditionally associated with the scholars Asanga and Vasubandhu and developed through extensive treatises such as the Abhidharma-samuccaya and the Yogacārabhūmi-Śāstra. The school influenced later Buddhist thought in India, Central Asia, and East Asia, and its ideas spread widely through Chinese and Tibetan Buddhist contexts.

Central to Yogacāra is the view that all phenomena are manifestations of consciousness and that there is no verifiable mind-independent external world. The school is commonly described as mind-only or consciousness-only (cittamātra), though its position is more nuanced and emphasizes the role of cognition in constituting experience. A key doctrinal feature is the ālaya-vijñāna, the storehouse consciousness that contains karmic seeds (bīja) which condition future experiences. Through practice these seeds can be purified, transforming habitual patterns of perception.

Yogacāra also presents the "three natures" (trisvabhāva): the parikalpita-svabhāva (imagined or constructed nature), the paratantra-svabhāva (dependent or causal nature), and the parinispanna-svabhāva (perfected or thusness). The second is associated with ignorance and misperception, while the third represents the ultimate reality. In East Asia, Yogacāra influenced the Faxiang (Chinese) and Hossō (Japanese) schools, among others, and contributed to Tibetan Buddhist thought as well.