[Buddha-l] Fsat Mnifdlunses?

[Dan Lusthaus]

Mike,

> I think you have misunderstood me here.  I did not say there was nothing
> 'at all'.  I said there was nothing to 'get at', meaning nothing that we
> could ever get at. Am I still wrong, from a Yogacara perspective?

You are echoing the kantian and post-kantian impasse -- no way to reach the 
noumenal, except in phenomenal approximations. The noumenal is supposed to 
be forever out of reach.

But Yogacara, like pretty much all Buddhists, accepts there is something 
called anuttara-samyak-sambodhi which at minimum includes, at maximum is 
constituted by seeing yathaa-bhuutam, which, to rephrase in kantian 
terminology, would be direct cognitive access to the noumenal. The final 
barrier, j~neya-aavara.na (obstruction from the knowable) is overcome.

>  In my very
> limited understanding, Yogacara seems to suggest that the realisation of
> things as they are would be unity of perceiver and perceived through the
> elimination of the projections.

That's vedanta, not Yogacara. For Yogacara, eliminating apprehension of an 
object consequently eliminates apprehension of a subject, No "unity," 
monism, pantheistic self-hugging, or other displays of cosmic narcissism.

As Vasubandhu says:

Apprehending vijñapti-mātra is the basis for the arising of the 
nonapprehension of artha. The nonapprehension of artha is the basis for the 
nonapprehension of vijñapti-mātra.

vijñapti-mātropalabdhim niśrityārthānupalabdhir-jayate. arthānupalabdhim 
niśritya vijñapti-mātrasyāpi-anupalabdhir-jayate. (Madhyāntavibhāga-bhāṣya 
I.7)

---
By the apprehending of citta-mātra, there is the nonapprehension of cognized 
artha. By nonapprehending cognized artha, citta also is nonapprehended.

citta-mātra-upalambhena jñeyārthārthānupalambhatā. jñeyārtha anupalambhena 
syāc-cittānupalambhatā. (Trisvabhāvanirdeśa 36)
---

In other words, not only is the object, the artha, negated, but that which 
noetically constitutes it (vijñapti-mātra, citta-mātra) is also negated. 
Vijñapti-mātra or citta-mātra are provisional antidotes (pratipakṣa), put 
out of operation once their purpose has been achieved. They are not 
metaphysically reified or lionized.

> "Clearer?"
>
> ... in that I am understanding my lack of clarity.

Getting better all the ti-ime...

Dan