THE YOGACARA OR IDEALIST SCHOOL

The Yogacara or Idealist School of Buddhism was founded in India in the 5th century A.D. by the brothers Asanga and Vasubandhu.  It proceeded from where the Intermediate School of Nagarjuna left off in the 2nd century.

Nagarjuna held that anything whatsoever was in fact merely a loose collection of pulsating, transitory "elements."  These elements when closely examined were no more than mental phenomena or phantasms.  The Idealist School proposed similarly that only mind existed, and that the objects of its thoughts were ideas only.

But how then did the mind always perceive what other minds did and not just what it was inclined to perceive?  The answer was simply that there was a reservoir or store of perceptions on which all minds drew, namely the "consciousness that holds all" or the "receptacle of consciousness," Alaya-vijnana.  This was the cosmic all-mind.  To identify with it was to be in Nirvana.  This was destined to have great influence on later Buddhist thought.