Kyoto International Consortium for Asian Studies京都亞洲研究國際聯盟

The relationship between the error-theory of the self and the theory of consciousness in Yogācāra School

Hi Fang Min,

Having read over your powerpoint I understand fully how you went about arguing against Ganeri and why, and I completely agree that 1) kliSTa-manas is already erroneous, 2) self/mineness refers to AlayavijJAna (in the sense that manas has the darzana-bhAga of Alaya as its Alambanapratyaya), and 3) YogAcAra theory of consciousness is not independent from its error theory.

I have one question for clarification. In "The Target of Error Theory" you said the error consists in people taking the stream as one numerically identical self, while the "mineness feeling" that occurs at each instant is itself innocuous; the error consists in taking the multiple "phenomenological mineness" for one diachronically identical self. And in "Without the afflicted-consciousness" you said there are only experiences in the end, and both the subject and the object aspect of experience are an imagination caused by the afflicted consciousness. I would like to know whether and how the self-identity talk is related to the subject-object division talk.

Thanks!

Itsuki