and well established interpretations of the Yogacara school (for instance
that it expounds an uncompromisingly idealistic position) are founded upon
more ambiguous philosophical beginnings than is generally acknowledged. By
approaching the history of ideas from the rear, as it were, a different
picture emerges of the early Yogacara position. It is a picture which
suggests a great deal more in the way of philosophical continuity between
Yogacara and mainstream Abhidharma thought than is often suggested and
points to a doctrinal situation which is decidedly more complex than the
stereotypical representation of citta-matra in the works of later
Yogacarins and their opponents might at first suggest.

Richard King, Department of Religious Studies, University of Stirling,
Stirling, FK9 4LA, Scotland, UK; e-mail.

NOTES

[1] BECHERT, H. (1982) `The importance of Asokas so-called schism edict in
Indological and Buddhist Studies, Volume in honour of Professor J. W. de
Jong, Canberra, pp. 61-68.

[2] KING, R. (1994) Early Yogacara and its relationship with the Madhyamaka
school, Philosophy, East and West, 44(4), pp. 659-686.

[3] A recent example of the contextualisation of the Yogacara concept of
alayavijnana in terms of its prevailing Abhidharma background is WALDRON,
W. (1994, 1995) How Innovative is the Alayavijnana? The alayavijnana in the
context of canonical and Abhidharma vijnana theory, journal of Indian
Philosophy, 22, pp. 199-258 and 23, pp. 9-51.

[4] FRAUWALLNER, E. (1951) On the Date of the Buddhist Master of the Law
Vasubandhu (eerie Orientale Roma m). See also FRAUWALLNER, E. (1961)
Landmarks in the history of Indian logic in Wiener Zeitschrift fur die
Kunde Sud-Ostasiens, Vol. v, p. 131.

[5] DOWLING, T. (1976) Vasubandhu on the Avijnapti-Rupa: a study in
fifth-century Abhidharma Buddhism, unpublished Ph.D thesis, Columbia
University, p. 52.

[6] Ibid., p. 73.

[7] Ibid., p. 85.

[8] asrayo hi sa aryanam darsanabhavanamargasamarthyat tatha paravrtto
bhavati yatha na punas tatpraheyanam klesanam prarohasamartho bhavati ato
`gnidagdhavrivad abijibhuta asrayah klesanam prahinklesa ityucyate. Ibid.,
p. 59, and esp. p. 94.

[9] darsana marga vyutthitasyavisesa darsana prahata vyaprahanat
pratyagrasraya parivrtti nirmala santati vartate. Translation by Dowling,
ibid., p. 106.

[10] HARVEY, PETER (1995) The Selfless Mind: personality, consciousness and
Nirvana in early Buddhism (London, Curzon Press) pp. 155-179, 217-226.

[11] KEENAN, JOHN, P. (1982) Original purity and the focus of early
Yogacara, journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, 5,
pp. 7-18.

[12] SCHMITHAUSEN, L. (1987) Alayavijnana: on the origin and the early
development of a central concept of Yogacara philosophy (Tokyo,
International Institute of Buddhist Studies) pp. 7-8.

[13] GETHIN, RUPERT (1994), Bhavanga and rebirth according to the
Abhidhamma, in: The Buddhist Forum, Vol. III (London, School of Oriental
and African Studies) p. 35.

[14] DOWLING, T. op. cit., note 4, p. 64.

[15] SCHMITHAUSEN, op. cit., note 11, pp. 4-7.

[16] For details and full references see WALDRON, W. (1995), How Innovative
is the Alayavijnana ? The alayavijnana in the context of canonical and
Abhidharma vijnana theory, journal of Indian Philosophy, 23, pp. 38-39,
notes 177 and 178.

[17] Glossed by Yasomitra as `duravabodha, 'difficult to understand'. See
Abhidharma-Kosa-bhasyavyakhya IV.4.

[18] ANACKER, S. (1984) (Seven Works of Vasubhandhu, p. 159n) (Delhi:
Motilal Banarsidass) argues that Vasubhandhu accepts the necessity of
external stimuli in his Mahaydnasamgraha-bhasya (Peking/Tokyo ed. Tibetan
canon, vol. 112, p. 275,4,3). Anacker also suggests that Vadavidhi 32
understands alaya to be little more than a metaphor for the idea of karmic
seeds as a collective (ibid., p. 183n). In Mahayanasamgraha-bhasya (vol.
112. p. 277,5,1) 'seeds' are a metaphor for 'a special force within the
consciousness series'. See also ANAKER, ibid., p. 71, where he argues that
in the Pancaskandhaka-prakarana 'series' is nothing other than a metaphor
for the genetic relationship between aggregate moments.

[19] See AUNG DAVIDS & RHYS-DAVIDS, trans., Points of Controversy, passim.,
Dowling, op. cit., note 4, pp. 68-70. MCGOVERN (1923) Manual of Buddhist
Philosophy, I, pp. 128-129, translates avijnapti as 'not-manifested', and
its opposite `vijnapti' as 'manifested'. Following this one might want to
render the Yogacara term `vijnaptimatra' as 'manifestation-only' or
'appearance-only'.

[20] See VERDU, A. (1985) Early Buddhist Philosophy in the Light of the
Four Noble Truths (Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass), pp. 35-37.

[21] mid., p.36.

[22] Ibid., p. 37.

[23] TAKAKUSU, J. Essentials of Buddhist Philosophy, p. 69.

[24] Note that Vasubhandhu places 'subject' before 'object' in the scheme
of things in his Trimsika. Vasubhandu suggests that there are three types