唯識哲學的對象概念

The Magic of Consciousness - An Inquiry into the Concept of Object in Yogācāra Buddhism

Vasubandhu, a fifth century Yogācāra Buddhist philosopher, claimed that all beings are nothing but the subjective manifestations of consciousness. His philosophy, as known by the label 'mind-only' (citta-mātra) or 'consciousness-only' (vijñãna-mãtra), received criticism from both Buddhist and non-Buddhist circles. As recorded in the Virrzsatikā (The Twenty Verses ), a philosophical debate on the issue of whether or not the existence of external objects can be denied might have occurred in Vasubandhu's life time. For those realists such as the Vaiseika and the Sarvastivada, knowledge cannot be explained if the existence of an external object is not postulated. For Vasubandhu, however, the very postulation should be called into question.