Page:A History of Indian Philosophy Vol 1.djvu/162

 14 6 Buddhist Philosophy lCH. unmanifested instincts of imagination are stopped (ablzuta- parikalpa-vasana-vaicitra-11irodha) 1. All our phenomenal know- ledge is without any essence or truth (lli(lsvabhiiva) and is but a creation of maya, a mirage or a dream. There is nothing which may be called external, but all is the imaginary creation of the mind (svacitta), which has been accustomed to create imaginary appearances from beginningless time. This mind by whose move- ment these creations take place as subject and object has no appearance in itself and is thus without any origination, existence and extinction (utpiidasthitibhangava1Jiam) and is called the alaya- vijilana. The reason why this alayavijnana itself is said to be without origination, existence, and extinction is probably this, that it is always a hypothetical state which merely explains all the phenomenal states that appear, and therefore it has no exist- ence in the sense in which the term is used and we could not affirm any special essence of it. We do not realize that all visible phenomena are of nothing external but of our own mind (svacitta), and there is also the begin- ningless tendency for believing and creating a phenomenal world of appearance. There is also the nature of knowledge (which takes things as the perceiver and the perceived) and there is also the instinct in the mind to experience diverse forms. On account of these four reasons there are produced in the alayavijnana (mind) the ripples of our sense experiences (pravrttivi.fl1iina) as in a lake, and these are manifested as sense experiences. All the five skan- dhas called paiicavi.fi'iiillakaya thus appear in a proper synthetic form. None of the phenomenal knowledge that appears is either identical or different from the alayavijnana just as the waves can- not be said to be either identical or different from the ocean. As the ocean dances on in waves so the citta or the alayavijfiana is also dancing as it were in its diverse operations (v.rtti). As citta it collects all movements (karma) within it, as manas it synthesizes (vidlliyate) and as vijfiana it constructs the fivefold perceptions (vi.filancll vi.fii1ltitz" dfsyam kalpate paiicabhil!Y. It is only due to maya (illusion) that the phenomena appear in their twofold aspect as subject and object. This must always be regarded as an appearance (samvrtisatyatii) whereas in the real aspect we could never say whether they existed (blliiva) or did not exist3. I Lmikiivatiiraszitra, p. 44. 2 Ibid. pp. 50-55. 3 Asanga's lJlahiiyiillasiUriilal!lktlra, pp. 58-59.