Triṁśikā
Introduction
The Triṁśikā-vijñaptimātratā — "Thirty Stanzas on Consciousness-Only" — is a poem of thirty verses composed by Vasubandhu (4th–5th century), one of the greatest philosophers of Indian Buddhism. It is the quintessence of the Yogācāra (Cittamātra) school, which analyzes the workings of the mind with remarkable precision.
In just thirty stanzas, Vasubandhu describes the eight consciousnesses (the five senses, mental consciousness, the ego-consciousness, and the storehouse consciousness ālaya-vijñāna), the fifty-one mental factors, and the process by which the mind projects a world of appearances.
This text is fundamental for understanding Buddhist psychology and the conception of the mind that Dōgen himself inherited from the Indo-Chinese tradition. The famous formula "all is only consciousness" (vijñaptimātratā) is expounded here with unparalleled philosophical rigor.
The 30 stanzas in bilingual version (Sanskrit/French) are in preparation.
The eight consciousnesses (st. 2–7, summary)
The text first distinguishes the storehouse consciousness (ālaya), which matures karmic imprints, then the sensory consciousnesses which depend on it, and the ego-consciousness (manas) which clings to the ālaya as a self.
The three natures (st. 17–25, summary)
Vasubandhu then expounds the three natures: the imaginary (parikalpita), the dependent (paratantra), and the perfected (pariniṣpanna), which correspond respectively to illusion, the causal dependence of phenomena, and realized emptiness.
Liberation (st. 26–30, summary)
The final stanzas describe the transformation of the basis (āśraya-parāvṛtti): when the storehouse consciousness is purified, the eight consciousnesses transform into wisdoms, and awakening is attained.