유식학의 심리구조에서 말나식의 위상과 그 의의

Abstract

Early Buddhism and Abhidharma Buddhism explained diverse cognitive and mental phenomena in terms of the structure of six consciousnesses, as presented through the framework of eighteen realms (dhātu), and also on the basis of the relationship between the mind and mental factors. In particular, Abhidharma Buddhism acknowledged that citta can be distinguished into three different appellations of mind, thought and consciousness according to its operative modes. Abhidharma Buddhism, however, saw these three terms as having no specifically distinct mental statuses, as it regarded them as mental modes occurring on the surface of mind. In the history of Yogācāra philosophy, this problem of mind, thought, and consciousness was set forth anew with its introduction of the structure of eight consciousnesses, which is characterized by multilayeredness and dynamicity unseen in the Abhidharma theory of mind. Thereafter, Yogācāra philosophy accepted the Mahāyāna position of cognitive and mental phenomena (caitasika), and presented the dynamic relationship between consciousness and deep consciousness (i.e., unconsciousness), as well as its epistemological and soteriological contexts―thereby revealing how the understanding of cognitive/mental phenomena underwent changes in the history of thought. In this respect, the present paper pays attention to the Yogācāra structure of eight consciousnesses, which shows the close and consecutive causal relationship between cognitive phenomena and deep consciousness in a more dynamic and multilayered fashion than the structure of six consciousnesses in the eighteen realms does. In particular, this paper aims at explicating the status and role of the seventh consciousness called manas has in epistemological and soteriological contexts from multiple perspectives. For the purpose of attaining this aim, this paper closely examines the descriptions of the ālayavijñāna and eight consciousnesses as appearing in the Saṃdhinirmocana, the “Viniścayasaṃgrahaṇī” section of the Yogācārabhūmi, the Madhyāntavibhāga, the Mahāyānasaṃgraha, the Triṃśikā, etc. This paper thus explicates the process, in which the theory of eight consciousnesses was established, and the role and status manas has in the structure of eight consciousnesses, to a certain extent in the history of Yogācāra philosophy.