Living Yogacara (Tagawa Shun’ei)
The Perversion of Yogacara
[My 1-star Amazon review (NDA) of “Living Yogacara: An Introduction to Consciousness-Only Buddhism†by Tagawa Shun’ei.]
In my deep and wide readings of Yogacara, I have yet to encounter a contemporary professor of religious studies with a clue as to what this Buddhist tradition is about. Yet, these clueless, pointy-headed professors continue to pontificate on Yogacara Buddhism as if they they knew what they’re talking about. It’s depressing to know that students pay tens of thousands of dollars to attend top universities, only to be confronted with perverted versions of Buddhist philosophy such as this book. In this text, author Professor Tagawa Shun’ei makes the same fundamental error as the other professors—reducing Yogacara from an esoteric yogic or ontological system to an exoteric psychological or phenomenological one. This reductionism represents a perversion of the ontic status of Enlightenment (Bodhicitta) and a distorted view of Buddhist soteriology. Because this is just a review and not a book, I will have to delimit my deconstruction of Dr. Shun’ei’s discourse on Yogacara. Hence, know that my critique of his text is just the tip of the iceberg relative to the deconstruction that could be done on it.
First off, Dr. Shun’ei fails to understand what the term Yogacara (Consciousness-Only Buddhism) means. It means that everything is a manifestation of universal Consciousness (or Awareness, or Mind). It does not mean that phenomena are representations or cognitions of one’s mind. Dr.Shun’ei fails to consider the all-important distinction between cittamatra and vijnati-matrata, and without understanding this distinction, one cannot grasp Yogacara. Unbeknownst to reductionists such as Dr. Shun’ei, there is a single Mind-Stream that has become everything – and if one reads the right Yogacara teachings, one will learn that this POV, propounded by the great spiritual adepts, is the correct one.
In addition to his failure to understand the distinction between Mind and mind, Dr. Shun’ei also lacks a clear grasp of Yogacara's eightfold network of consciousness. For example, he describes the seventh consciousness as “manas,†when in reality is is klista-manas (mind as reactive affection (or afflicted, emotionally tinged habit-energies), while the sixth consciousness, mano-vijnana, is active manas (meaning mind as cognition and volition). Anyone who has studied Plato would see the sixth and seventh consciousnesses of Yogacara as representing man's (conditioned) soul. The seventh consciousness represents the germination of the samskaras (seeds) in the Alaya-Vijnana (Storehouse Consciousness), whence the samskaras concatenate and sprout as vasanas (reactive, afflicted habit-energies that reflect one’s conditioning via the imprint of the samskaras) that perpetuate samsara (becoming).
Dr. Shun’ei is clueless regarding the final stage of Awakening to (and as) Mind (or Buddha), and his description of Enlightenment (Bodhicitta) is a shoddy, de-esotericized, de-spiriritualized one. He writes:
“Arriving to the final stage, the selfish layers of mind become an unsullied true cognition that sees self and other equally without distinctions… The state of enlightenment is called becoming Buddha. Becoming Buddha means that we make an effort to truly understand the structure and mechanism of our own minds along with its various psychological functions, and endeavor to nurture wholesome psychological functions while trying to subdue the afflictive mental factors. Somewhere at the other end of the path, the Buddha-state will manifest itself.â€
Unbeknownst to Dr. Shun‘ei, the selfish layers of mind do not become an unsullied true cognition. What happens in the En-Light-enment process is that literal Light-Energy, called Dharmamegha (Dharma Cloud), descends into the Tathagatagarbha (the “’Womb’ of Buddhas,†which is the Heart-cave of Hindu yogis), and obstructs the arising of the vasanas (afflictive habit-energies) located therein by irradiating (and outshining) them. The Dharmamegha, which is the Dharmakaya in its dynamic Dimension as the Sambhogakaya, is described in the Lankavatara Sutra, as is Bodhisattvas being baptized by Buddhas, for without awakening to (and uniting one’s consciousness, or citta) with this Light-Energy, which Gautama Buddha called “the Stream,†one cannot become En-Light-ened.
In summary, this book reflects a common academic viewpoint amongst contemporary Buddhist scholars -- one that distorts and reduces genuine Yogacara Dharma. With this in mind, the book merits no more than a single star.
[My 1-star Amazon review (NDA) of “Living Yogacara: An Introduction to Consciousness-Only Buddhism†by Tagawa Shun’ei.]
In my deep and wide readings of Yogacara, I have yet to encounter a contemporary professor of religious studies with a clue as to what this Buddhist tradition is about. Yet, these clueless, pointy-headed professors continue to pontificate on Yogacara Buddhism as if they they knew what they’re talking about. It’s depressing to know that students pay tens of thousands of dollars to attend top universities, only to be confronted with perverted versions of Buddhist philosophy such as this book. In this text, author Professor Tagawa Shun’ei makes the same fundamental error as the other professors—reducing Yogacara from an esoteric yogic or ontological system to an exoteric psychological or phenomenological one. This reductionism represents a perversion of the ontic status of Enlightenment (Bodhicitta) and a distorted view of Buddhist soteriology. Because this is just a review and not a book, I will have to delimit my deconstruction of Dr. Shun’ei’s discourse on Yogacara. Hence, know that my critique of his text is just the tip of the iceberg relative to the deconstruction that could be done on it.
First off, Dr. Shun’ei fails to understand what the term Yogacara (Consciousness-Only Buddhism) means. It means that everything is a manifestation of universal Consciousness (or Awareness, or Mind). It does not mean that phenomena are representations or cognitions of one’s mind. Dr.Shun’ei fails to consider the all-important distinction between cittamatra and vijnati-matrata, and without understanding this distinction, one cannot grasp Yogacara. Unbeknownst to reductionists such as Dr. Shun’ei, there is a single Mind-Stream that has become everything – and if one reads the right Yogacara teachings, one will learn that this POV, propounded by the great spiritual adepts, is the correct one.
In addition to his failure to understand the distinction between Mind and mind, Dr. Shun’ei also lacks a clear grasp of Yogacara's eightfold network of consciousness. For example, he describes the seventh consciousness as “manas,†when in reality is is klista-manas (mind as reactive affection (or afflicted, emotionally tinged habit-energies), while the sixth consciousness, mano-vijnana, is active manas (meaning mind as cognition and volition). Anyone who has studied Plato would see the sixth and seventh consciousnesses of Yogacara as representing man's (conditioned) soul. The seventh consciousness represents the germination of the samskaras (seeds) in the Alaya-Vijnana (Storehouse Consciousness), whence the samskaras concatenate and sprout as vasanas (reactive, afflicted habit-energies that reflect one’s conditioning via the imprint of the samskaras) that perpetuate samsara (becoming).
Dr. Shun’ei is clueless regarding the final stage of Awakening to (and as) Mind (or Buddha), and his description of Enlightenment (Bodhicitta) is a shoddy, de-esotericized, de-spiriritualized one. He writes:
“Arriving to the final stage, the selfish layers of mind become an unsullied true cognition that sees self and other equally without distinctions… The state of enlightenment is called becoming Buddha. Becoming Buddha means that we make an effort to truly understand the structure and mechanism of our own minds along with its various psychological functions, and endeavor to nurture wholesome psychological functions while trying to subdue the afflictive mental factors. Somewhere at the other end of the path, the Buddha-state will manifest itself.â€
Unbeknownst to Dr. Shun‘ei, the selfish layers of mind do not become an unsullied true cognition. What happens in the En-Light-enment process is that literal Light-Energy, called Dharmamegha (Dharma Cloud), descends into the Tathagatagarbha (the “’Womb’ of Buddhas,†which is the Heart-cave of Hindu yogis), and obstructs the arising of the vasanas (afflictive habit-energies) located therein by irradiating (and outshining) them. The Dharmamegha, which is the Dharmakaya in its dynamic Dimension as the Sambhogakaya, is described in the Lankavatara Sutra, as is Bodhisattvas being baptized by Buddhas, for without awakening to (and uniting one’s consciousness, or citta) with this Light-Energy, which Gautama Buddha called “the Stream,†one cannot become En-Light-ened.
In summary, this book reflects a common academic viewpoint amongst contemporary Buddhist scholars -- one that distorts and reduces genuine Yogacara Dharma. With this in mind, the book merits no more than a single star.
