[24] By Asanga. Nanjo, 1177. ([return])
[25] Mahâyâna-samparigraha-çâstra, by Asanga. Nanjo, 1183. ([return])
[26] Perceiving an incarnation of the Dharmakâya in every spiritual leader regardless of his nationality and professed creed, Mahâyânists recognise a Buddha in Socrates, Mohammed, Jesus, Francis of Assisi, Confucius, Laotze, and many others. ([return])
[27] Ancient Hindu Buddhists, with their fellow-philosophers, believed in the existence of spiritually transfigured beings, who, not hampered by the limitations of space and time, can manifest themselves everywhere for the benefit of all sentient beings. We notice some mysterious figures in almost all Mahâyâna sûtras, who are very often described as shedding innumerable rays of light from the forehead and illuminating all the three thousand worlds simultaneously. This may merely be a poetic exaggeration. But this Sambhogakâya or Body of Bliss (see Açvaghoṣa’s Awakening of Faith, p. 101) is very difficult for us to comprehend as it is literally described. For a fuller treatment see the [chapter] on “Trikâya.” ([return])
[28] Though I am very much tempted to digress and to enter into a specific treatment concerning these two Hindu Mahâyâna doctrines, I reluctantly refrain from so doing, as it requires a somewhat lengthy treatment and does not entirely fall within the scope of the present work. ([return])
[29] That Açvaghoṣa’s conception of the Âlaya varies with the view here presented may be familiar to readers of his Awakening of Faith. This is one of the most abstruse problems in the philosophy of Mahâyâna Buddhism, and there are several divergent theories concerning its nature, attributes, activities, etc. In a work like this, it is impossible to give even a general statement of those controversies, however interesting they may be to students of the history of intellectual development in India.
The Âlayavijñâna, to use the phraseology of Samkhya philosophy, is a composition, so to speak, of the Soul (puruṣa) and Primordial Matter (prakṛti). It is the Soul, so far as it is neutral and indifferent to all those phenomenal manifestations, that are going on within as well as without us. It is Primordial Matter, inasmuch as it is the reservoir of everything, whose lid being lifted by the hands of Ignorance, there instantly springs up this universe of limitation and relativity. Enlightenment or Nirvâna, therefore, consists in recognising the error of Ignorance and not in clinging to the products of imagination. ([return])
[30] For a more detailed explanation of the ideal philosophy of the Yogâcâra, see my article on the subject in Le Muséon, 1905. ([return])
[31] “One mind” or “one heart” meaning the mental attitude which is in harmony with the monistic view of nature in its broadest sense. ([return])
[32] These ten stages of spiritual development are somewhat minutely explained below. See [Chapter XII]. ([return])