Vasubandhu's Philosophical Analysis

Yogācāra is one of the influential schools of Buddhist philosophy that emphasizes ontology through the heart of meditation and literally means the practice of yoga. Additionally, those who follow the Yogācāra are of an idealist approach and deny the existence of the external world, as well as any physical or material realities existing independently of the mind (Bartley, p. 68). The purpose of this paper is to outline three practical approaches to convince sixth century realist opponents that the external world does not exist. I will elaborate on Vasubandhu’s ideals and teachings to rationalize and convince sixth century realist opponents that the external world does not exist and how mood, emotions, and memories can influence an individual’s …show more content…
Emotions are a natural instinctive state of mind, which derives from an individual’s circumstance, mood or interactions with others. To make an emotional connection to something we must experience it, and believe in it, but this natural instinct calls for us to react in a certain way. An example of when we see that someone has a lot of gold, an unenlightened person may feel envy, or jealousy which is causing them to perceive gold to be a valuable material object that will satisfy them and bring their emotion back to an equilibrium. However, those who are enlightened know that the tempting desire for gold is like a disease and it corrupt your heart and mind until you become obsessed with it. The understanding that Vasubandhu came to was that he rejected the viewed that we are directly aware of objects made up of physical atoms, believing atoms are part-less and invisible (Bartley, p. 70). Therefore, when coalesced they cannot join together and have no dimension or increase in extent. This meant that all material items in this emotionally perceived world are not an external reality, but a mental reality. Vasubandhu also believes that in the momentary events that exist individual events are aware of each other in the mental series (Bartley, p. 70). As a bulb lights up, it illuminates an object, but it also illuminates itself. This example identifies that the emotions we …show more content…
Memories are the basis of all human consciousness, by encoding storing and retrieving an event or occurrence that we have experienced we develop a memory. That memory can then link to trigger an emotion, which will prompt you to be in a mood. The link between memory and consciousness is crucial, because to be conscious, is to be aware of the world around you. To make a memory in which we are able to identify with as a previous occurrence, the knowledge of its existence is only unique to each person in his or her own perspective. This leaves each one individual with a unique memory of the event, so how can we say that that event even occurred at all, if not one person will remember the event exactly the same as someone else. Because we each perceive the world differently, there is no truth to saying that the external world exists. Another example would be if a group of unenlightened individuals witnessed a robbery and when they have to describe the thief to the authorities they are unable to all come to the same description. The reason that all the witnesses aren’t able to collectively provide an accurate description of the thief is because their minds are are veiled by moral, emotional, and intellectual defects (Bartley, p. 79). This means that their judgments are clouded because they are afraid of consequences, are unsure and afraid to acknowledge