Burmistrov S.L. The doctrine on conditioning factors not associated with consciousness in Asanga’s “Compendium of Abhidharma”
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu7.2017.1.1
Sergey Leonidovich Burmistrov
Doctor of Philosophical Sciences, Leading Researcher, Section of South Asian Studies of the Department of Central and South Asian Studies,
Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, RAS
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Dvortsovaya Emb., 18, 191186 Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation
Abstract. The concept of conditioning factor expresses the basic Buddhist notion of causality that determines the future of a person, and in the Yogacara philosophy it denotes the mechanisms of individual Universe change with the treasury consciousness as its basis. Cittaviprayukta-samskara, or the conditioning factors not associated with consciousness, are the factors that draw the borders of the individual stream of dharmas (elementary psychophysical states) and that lie beyond conscious control. They define the structure and character of causality in that stream, including physical characteristics of a person, their intellectual peculiarities and the interaction of causal chains inside the singular stream. The “Compendium of Abhidharma” (Abhidharma-samuccaya) by Asanga (4th century), one of the founders of Buddhist Mahayanistic school of Yogacara, treats the conception of conditioning factors not associated with consciousness in its association with the idea of treasury consciousness. The set of conditioning factors not associated with consciousness is divided into seven groups each of which determines a specific aspect of karmic causality: prapti fixes the borders of the stream of dharmas; the second group consisting of dharmas associated with meditation points the false meditative practices; the third group (from ji vitendriya to anityata) draws the borders of individual existence; group of names delimitate the thought of a person; the state of common person associate individual dharmas with affected dharmas; the sixth group (from pravrtti to anukrama) defines the character of causality; and the seventh group (from kala to samagri) fixes the external relation of causal chains.
Key words: Asanga, yogacara, vijnanavada, conditioning factors, karma, the structure of a person in buddhist philosophy, causality.
The doctrine on conditioning factors not associated with consciousness in Asanga’s “Compendium of Abhidharma” by Burmistrov S.L. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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