Yogacara - Meditation and Awakening

Meditation and Awakening

As the name of the school suggests, meditation practice is central to the Yogācāra tradition. Practice manuals prescribe the practice of mindfulness of body, feelings, thoughts and dharmas in oneself and others, out of which an understanding of the non-differentiation of self and other is said to arise. This process is referred to in the Yogācāra tradition as āśraya-parāvṛtti, "turning about in the basis", or "revolution of the basis", the basis being the storehouse consciousness:

... a sudden revulsion, turning, or re-turning of the ālaya vijñaña back into its original state of purity the Mind returns to its original condition of non-attachment, non-discrimination and non-duality".

In this awakening it is realized that obeserver and observed are not distinct entities, but mutual co-dependent.

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