Yogacara
The World According to Zen
There is a school of thought in Mahayana Buddhism called Yogacara. This school’s great contribution to Buddhism was the Yogacara Abhidhamma, meaning “the higher dhamma” or “special dhamma.” And dhamma is another word for phenomena.
Yogacara is often referred to as the “mind only” school due to its theory that all experience and reality occurs in the mind only. The school’s method is about seeing Absolute reality while within the dualistic, mundane realm.
In seeing, the essence of mind is recognized as calm and quiet, the only disturbance coming from mental phenomena arising and decaying. It might be said that, in the end, Buddhism is about seeing the world clearly, about seeing phenomena clearly, and more precisely about seeing mental phenomena clearly.
According to Yogacara, then, when we come in contact with the external reality, what really happens is: an impulse interacts with a sense organ, from the sense organ a signal travels to the mind, and a mind object arises. Then, depending on how we relate to the object, mental phenomena (states) arise. If we react to these phenomena, we give that phenomena a definition or function. Eventually, the mental phenomena decay. It should be noted that the mind objects only represent the external stimulus. Or, as the scientist Alfred Korzybski once pointedly said, “The map is not the territory.”
An example. I see a man (external stimulus) with my eyes (sense organ) and I think of him (mind object). Depending on how I relate to the man, an emotional state (phenomena) arises. Let’s say, in this case, I relate with anger. I react out of this anger, yelling at the man (function). So, the function of the anger becomes yelling angrily. Eventually, the anger (phenomena) fades.
The formal logic: If my relationship to the man is my relationship to my mind object, then, if we generalize, my relationship to the man is my relationship to my mind. In the example above, I relate to the man with anger, therefore I relate to my mind with anger.
Thus, whatever I think about, and do to, another human being, I am thinking about and doing to my mind and, by extension, my self.