Inside Vasubandhu's Yogacara

by Ben Connelly

  8

  The All

  That is the second transformation, the third is the perception of the six senses,

  Which are beneficial, harmful, or neither. || 8 ||

  In the second verse of this text, Vasubandhu told us there were three aspects of the transformation of consciousness: the ripening of karma, the consciousness of a self, and the imagery of sense objects. Having described the first two, he will now move on to the third, which he calls here “the perception of the six senses,” the six senses being sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, and mind.

  This is the aspect of consciousness of which we are generally aware. This is what we call “experience.” Right now, as I write, there is the sound of cicadas, the roar of a distant plane, a complex array of visual images, thoughts manifesting through the motion of fingers as words on a page, a sense of connection with you. This moment of experience is the ground for our opportunity to practice. The Buddha way is to alleviate suffering, and it is in, or through, this All—these six senses—that we do it.

  This verse says the perception of the six senses is beneficial, harmful, or neither. This means that we can choose to act in a way that manifests the intention to alleviate suffering—or not. The approach the “Thirty Verses” presents for the alleviating of suffering is remarkable in that it deals almost exclusively with one thing: awareness of whether what is occurring as a manifestation of our mental tendencies in this moment is beneficial or afflictive; awareness of how we feel.

  The basis of meditation practice in Early Buddhism is mindfulness of body. In Zen we practice just sitting, or posture and breath. Vipassana teachers call their students back again and again to awareness of the breath, the body, or sound as objects of concentration. Vasubandhu does not spend much time on this subject here, but all the teachings he will provide on seeing our mental tendencies are rooted in the “perception of the six senses.” We can only know these mental tendencies through what is arising in the body (touch), sound, sight, smell, taste, and mind. In particular mindfulness of the body is a powerful basis for developing the concentration necessary to see what is arising emotionally and also a very effective way of being intimate with it. If we practice mindfulness of body, we will begin to see how ragged breath comes with anger and anxiety, slumping posture comes with sadness, deep breaths and a strong upright body come with tranquility and joy.

  Deepening into our awareness of the six senses in general is a wonderful means to draw ourselves to the present and let go of the tendency to direct all of our attention into imagining the future, rehashing the past, or judging the present. Recently I stood by the shore of the urban lake by our Zen center gazing at the light of a setting sun playing across the water and the sky. Many people of many races and languages were running, biking, and strolling by, but all stopped and simply gave their attention to the effulgence all around. We stopped and drank deeply of the radiance and, in so doing, there came to be some peace. I think I was probably not the only one in that moment who noticed the stillness in my heart.

  The next six verses will focus on mindfulness of our mental states as the principal means to overcome the barrier of afflictive emotion.

  In the Abhidharmakosa, Vasubandhu states, “There is no other way of pacifying the afflictions than through the discernment of dharmas, the sole purpose for which Abhidharma was taught.”

  Remember, Abhidharmists developed a system for categorizing dharmas, different types of phenomena or moments of experience. They include things like eye, ear, seeing consciousness, sense-­contact, aspiration, desire, faith, anger, distraction, remorse, volition, birth/arising, continuity/decay, time, and thusness. The practice was to memorize the list of dharmas and then be mindful of and discerning of these dharmas, as they appear in the moment. In the “Thirty Verses,” Vasubandhu presents a partial list of these dharmas, divided into two types. The first is the five universal mental factors that we have encountered a few times already, and the second is emotional/volitional tendencies, or formations: specific, beneficial, afflictive, and indeterminate. By listing these dharmas, he’s telling us that two forms of practice are most beneficial: mindfulness of the universal factors and mindfulness of our current emotional state. These are the methods Vasubandhu recommends for overcoming afflictive emotion.

  How do you deal with afflictive emotion? People have many ways. Generally we are not even aware that we are experiencing affliction. For example, rather than knowing that they are angry, some people are likely to think (and erroneously believe) that their ex-­wives are capricious and cruel. Rather than knowing that I am frustrated, I sometimes think (or am entranced by thoughts about the idea that) people in Minnesota don’t know how to drive in snow. It is a deep and powerful aspect of human karmic tendency to try and externalize emotion and focus on judging and trying to control apparently external objects so that we may feel well. Vasubandhu is telling us that purchasing a new smartphone, trying to manipulate our family members, swearing at people in other cars, and running over the same old ground of our dreams of escape from our very own lives are all pretty ineffective at promoting wellness. In “The Song of the Grass-­Roof Hermitage,” Shitou teaches, “Turn around the light to shine within.” If we really want to be well, let’s learn to see and take care of our mental states. We can cultivate ones that are beneficial and let go of ones that are harmful. Thus we plant the seeds for more beneficial mind-­states and fewer harmful ones. We will see that we don’t need to be aggressive and controlling about this cultivating and letting go; the method centers on simply being aware and attentive to who we are in this moment, here and now.

  9

  Mindfulness of Phenomena

  It is associated with three kinds of mental factors: universal, specific, and beneficial,

  As well as the afflictions and secondary afflictions, and the three sensations. || 9 ||

  In this verse Vasubandhu begins to subdivide the six senses into a variety of categories, so that we may more effectively use them as objects of meditation and mindfulness. This categorization is rooted in Early Buddhist teachings and drawn directly from the Abhidharma. The Abhidharma is quite complex so this chapter will be as well, but over the next few chapters we’ll be able to put this information to good use for cultivating joy, compassion, and equanimity.

  All the material in the next few chapters will relate to practicing right effort and right mindfulness from the Eightfold Path. Right effort in simplest terms is making an endeavor such that what occurs in mind is conducive to wellness rather than harm. Right mindfulness is to be aware in the moment of specific things in a way that is conducive to wellness.

  In most cases when right effort comes up in Early Buddhist texts, it is explained with a four-­part formula that I’ll paraphrase here: making effort so that harmful states do not arise, harmful states that have arisen cease, beneficial states arise, and beneficial states that are present continue. We can see that the last phrase in the last chapter’s verse is pointing toward right effort—the six senses can be beneficial, harmful, or neither. The point is that right here, this moment of experiencing the six senses, is where we can apply right effort: doing laundry, walking the dog, or talking to our children.

  In Zen practice, where I’ve done most of my training, right effort, as an attempt to control the mind, is de-­emphasized. We tend to put more emphasis on just being aware of what’s here without trying to judge or control, which is a subtle and very powerful expression of right effort. However there is room for right effort, in its most assertive sense, in anyone’s practice. Sometimes when you see yourself beginning to dive into one of those stories you’ve told yourself a thousand times—“no one understands me,” “I can’t get anything right,” “I’m always surrounded by fools . . .”—whatever that story is, sometimes it’s possible to just say, “This story is not helping anyone,” let it go, and move on. Sometimes we are in a position where we can just make a choice without being harsh or cruel to ourselves and change our minds for
the better. However, sometimes this is not possible or advised. If the karmic energy of a mind-­state is too strong, we may not be able to change it through will. Often as well, it’s more helpful to just observe what the mind is doing with an open, kind curiosity and let it quiet down on its own. This state of openness is actually a very beneficial mind-­state. Manifesting awareness of mind without trying to control it is an excellent way to practice right effort, and it is also known as right mindfulness.

  Mindfulness basically means being aware of something. Right mindfulness is being aware, kindly and dispassionately, of specific things in a way that is conducive to well-­being. The four foundations of mindfulness, as delineated in the eponymous sutra, are mindfulness of body, sensation, mind, and dharmas. Vasubandhu recommends that we focus our mindfulness practice on objects that are not exactly the same as, but are deeply connected to, the categories laid forth in that sutra: the universal, specific, and beneficial factors, afflictions and secondary afflictions, and the three sensations.

  We investigated the universal mental factors—sense-­contact, attention, sensation, perception, and volition—in chapter 4. The specific factors are somewhat of an outlier here and I will address them in the next chapter. The “three sensations” refers to the third universal factor, the very basic sense of positive, negative, or neutral that underlies our experience. In verse 4 Vasubandhu says the alaya is “neither pleasant nor unpleasant,” which means the sensation there is neutral. Here he makes explicit that the sensation in the six senses, our direct experience, can have all three aspects.

  Beneficial and afflictive states are karmic formations: emotional and volitional tendencies, the intersection of karma and intention; for example, anger, equanimity, envy, energy, or tranquility. These beneficial factors, afflictions, and secondary afflictions are both where we can see how the karma in the store consciousness is manifesting and where we can make effort to plant seeds of wellness in the storehouse. Vasu­ban­dhu’s teaching here is that if we want to promote wellness it is absolutely key to focus on and attend to our emotional and volitional state. How do you feel right now? Just to see and be aware of what is manifesting is already a seed that can grow amazing and nourishing fruit.

  These teachings may seem extremely complex, but at root they point in one direction, to the idea that we can transform the tendencies of mind so that consciousness manifests states of wellness rather than affliction, so that we may be at peace rather than suffering, so that we may be free of the painful states that limit our capacity to serve others.

  10

  Five Aggregates, Five Universal Factors

  The universal factors are sense-­contact, attention, sensation, perception, and volition.

  The specific are aspiration, resolve, memory, concentration, and intellection. || 10 ||

  This verse deals with two types of mental phenomenon: the five universal mental factors we’ve addressed earlier in the book and the specific mental factors.

  These specific factors are so named because, unlike the universals, they only arise in certain circumstances. They pose some difficulties for understanding; over the last fifteen hundred years, commentators have disagreed as to whether the specific mental factors are beneficial or not. Each of the items in this list of specific factors is a translation of a Sanskrit word that in Early Buddhist texts is considered beneficial. In fact three of them are included in a list called “the thirty-­seven aids to enlightenment”: chanda, aspiration; smrti, mindfulness/memory; and samadhi, concentration. The disagreement is whether these five specific factors are actually beneficial or are neutral factors that have the same names as things considered beneficial in other contexts, terms whose meaning evolved substantially during the development of the Abhidharma system. Both sides are persuasive, so I am choosing not to take sides. I’d like instead to focus in this chapter on the powerful and time-­honored practice of working with the five universal mental factors.

  Vasubandhu does not himself give us instructions for how to practice with the universal mental factors; he was writing in a context in which anyone reading this text would be expected to know what the practice associated with them was. By including them here he holds practicing with them up as fundamental to the way of liberation. Since these five mental factors are basically a renaming and reconceptualizing of the five aggregates, I will base these practice instructions on Pali Canon texts about working with the aggregates. The two main themes of these teachings is to observe the five arising, existing, and passing away, and to realize that they are not I, me, or mine.

  To practice with the five—sense-­contact, attention, sensation, perception, and volition—we must first know and remember them. Sense-­contact is a moment of sense data: a sound, a color, a bodily feeling. Attention is the directionality of mind, where awareness is aimed. Sensation is a very base-­level sense that something is pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. Perception is the ascribing of basic concepts, often names, to sense data. Volition is the impulse or inclination to do something. Here’s an example: you feel an itch and scratch yourself. If you are practicing mindfulness of the five universal factors, you notice the following: sense-­contact, a sensory experience in the body with no concepts or value attached to it; attention directing awareness to the sensory experience; sensation arising that deems the feeling unpleasant; perception calling it “itch”; and volition arising, seeking to scratch.

  We practice mindfulness of the five universals/aggregates by seeing what is arising in the moment and labeling it according to these categories. If we do this, something will happen that is rather interesting. Rather than thinking, “I have an itch, I want to scratch it,” we see that there is sense-­contact, attention, sensation, perception, and volition happening, in this very particular way, right now. We see a process happening that forms a sense of I, of itch, of want, of unpleasant. If we practice this in seated meditation and stay still for a little while, it is likely that we will also see all these things pass away. Watching these aggregates arise and fade and allowing that to soften our sense of I is a profoundly powerful means to weaken the karma that drives us to constantly be dissatisfied, that makes a brief moment of sense contact into something we must judge and control. Rather than acting on unconscious impulses we can be aware of the process of their coming and going.

  It’s important to note that the labeling of the aggregates should have a softness to it. The naming is there to help us actually be intimate with the experience. The point isn’t to sit and think about sense-­contact but to actually see the changing evening light moving across the wall without naming or judging, to deeply know the motion of the breathing belly, to truly feel the keys of this keyboard as I type. The point is to deeply experience the arising of a volition, an impulse to act, at the very moment of its arrival and to know it, to sense its texture, its shape. When we are about to berate a small child we have just stopped from running into the street, we can be aware of the racing heart, the clenched hand, the concepts proliferating about the child’s foolishness, the intense unpleasant sensation of fear and loss of control, the impulse to shout—and we can take a moment to let this arise and pass, see that it is not “I,” but an occurrence, deeply colored by the process of karma, in consciousness. We can see that the child is safe now; we don’t need to unconsciously teach this child that to alleviate your own fear you should try and control other people. We can say something kind, and firm, and helpful, and we can be honest about how it feels to see the child in danger. We can foster connection and safety and plant seeds of kind speech and compassion for ourselves and for the world.

  Recall that these five universals are associated with the store consciousness, manas, and the six senses. In verse 4, Vasubandhu teaches that even in the bodhisattva state—the supramundane path, where there is no afflicted manas—these five still appear in the store consciousness. I’ll use a Zen koan to illustrate how these five mental factors appear, even when there is no sense of I, of subject and object.


  Yunyan asked Daowu, “How does the bodhisattva of compassion use all those hands and eyes?” Daowu answered, “It is like someone reaching behind her head for a pillow in the night.”

  Kuan Yin, the bodhisattva of compassion, is usually depicted with countless arms outstretched to help all the suffering of the world, and in each hand is an eye, to see and be present to that suffering. The bodhisattva has left behind almost every trace of her own karma through years of practice, but still some traces remain, allowing her to stay in the world and not forget how it is to suffer, not forget how close her life is to everyone else’s. All over East Asia people call on the image, idea, and aid of Kuan Yin when they face illness, death, divorce, and despair. Many, too, follow her inspiration to a life of love and service. And yet, although she deeply hears countless cries and extends her loving arms of aid ceaselessly in all directions, she is as relaxed as someone reaching for a pillow in the night.

  To reach for a pillow the five universal factors must still manifest. There is sense-­contact, the sensory experience of the bed; attention, a directionality of mind toward bodily sensation; the sensation of unpleasantness, of suffering; the perception far below the level of thought that this can be alleviated; the volition to reach out and move the pillow to a nice comfy spot. This describes a profoundly easeful, unselfconscious, calm motion toward making things better. The reason Kuan Yin can have the energy to use a thousand hands and eyes to help and intimately hear people in their smallest and most terrible sufferings is that each gesture of each hand, each experience of seeing suffering, is unbounded by the self-­centeredness, need, and focus on results that is made by manas. By seeing and being intimate with the five universal mental factors with mindfulness, we can see that they are not I, me, or mine; we plant the karmic seeds that lead toward the softening and dissolution of the afflicted manas. We water the seeds of opening our eyes and reaching out to help with no need to succeed or gain anything.