An Introduction to the Yogacara School of Indian Buddhism

FAIN: FB-57064-13

William Stone Waldron
Middlebury College (Middlebury, VT 05753-6004)

The Yogacara school is one of the two main schools of Mahayana Buddhism. It flourished in 4-6th c. CE India before spreading throughout Asia, influencing religious practice and philosophy in China, Tibet, Korea and Japan, where it is studied to this day. Its encyclopedic tradition encompasses a philosophy of religious texts and language, systematic analyses of mind and its transformation through meditation, and an account of the state of Buddhahood still accepted throughout Mahayana Buddhism. Moreover, Yogacara analyses of mind are quite similar to those in modern philosophy of mind and cognitive science, with whom it is in recent dialogue. Until now, however, there has been no adequate introduction to this important school in the English language, preventing English readers, scholars and lay alike, from understanding the historical and contemporary significance of this school. I propose to write such an introduction based on my years of research and writing on Yogacara philosophy.