Description
Vāsanā is a crucial technical term in Yogācāra philosophy, particularly in relation to bīja (seeds) in ālayavijñāna, though it holds little doctrinal significance in early Buddhism. However, interpretations of vāsanā in one Buddhist context cannot always be applied to another. Rather than asking what vāsanā is, the primary research question of this book is which type of vāsanā is being referenced.
This book presents a genealogical study of the development of the Buddhist concept of vāsanā, drawing on primary sources in Sanskrit, Tibetan, Classical Chinese, and Pāli. It traces the diverse origins of the concept and demonstrates the close doctrinal relationship between Abhidharma and Yogācāra. Based on the contexts in which the term occurs, the book explores the main ideas conveyed by vāsanā in Buddhist texts from the following four basic aspects: (1) karmic imprints, (2) meditative impregnation and impregnation of conditioned dharmas, (3) traces of defilements (kleśavāsanā), and (4) impression from hearing (śrutavāsanā) the Dharma. The book then discusses how these different connotations of vāsanā were synthesized in the Yogācāra-Vijñānavāda tradition, resulting in later Buddhists regarding the term as a unified, self-consistent concept.
Through this genealogical inquiry, the book seeks to identify the historical contexts and theoretical paradigms in which Buddhist thinkers formulated and developed doctrines concerning vāsanā. In addition, it also examines how vāsanā eventually came to be regarded as synonymous with bīja in the Yogācāra-Vijñānavāda tradition.
