A Theoretical Study Of "Transforming Consciousness And Gaining Wisdom" In Consciousness-only School Of Thought

According to the view of Jin Yuelin, "A study of philosophy Wll eventUally reach a stageof speechiessness" (See Selection of Jin Yuelin's essays,p.339). It seems to me thatcontemPorary philosophy is at this stage of speechlessness. Nevertheless, such a Stage stillcannot prevent human thought from remaining still, and from continuing to pursue a comPletelynew age of transcendence. This kind of transcendence aims at exPress What cannot beexPressed, seeking a kind of experience that is free of ndnd and body and that corresPonds Withobjective reality. Our study of "transforndng consciousness and gaining wisdom" can beregarded as such a pursuit.The theory "transfOrndng consciousness and gaining Wsdom" is initially presented by theYogacara Buddhist School. This thesis intends to make a comPrehensive survey on this theory,argUing that the school is well fOunded as based on this theory in terms of its probabilityindispensability, and realistic feature. This thesis also discusses the sigulficance of theConsciousness-only School in relation to its role and impact in the history of Chinese Buddhism.I offe an exP1anation from the perspective of securing the continuing development ofBuddhism in China and of resolving the problematical issue of "transfOrAnng consciousness andgaining wisdom" to convey what causes Master Xuan Zang to make the joumey to India. Thisthesis also explores the impaCt of the theory .'transfOrming consciousness and gajning wsdom"on traditional philosophy as well as modern philosophy in China.This thesis is composed of fOur parts. The first part concems the first chaPter entit1ed.'IlltfoduCtory Remarks", Which introducesthe background of this stlldy, the aim of this stUdy,the material this study is based on, and What this study aims at achieving. Through a brief. ouhine of modern philosophy, this first chaPter exPlains why .'transfondng consciousness andgaining wisdom" is taken as the topic of this thesis, and gives a survey over the previousstudies and accomPlishments, so that the significance of our study of this theory is Clarified.The second part concerns the second chapter entitled "The theoretical background of theintroduction of 'transforming consciousness and gaining wisdom' 'i. This chaPter briefiyiniroduces historical background and the content of the theory .'transforAnng consciousnessand gaining wisdom", and explains the goal of Master Xuan Zang's journey to India fromanother view. It has been conunonly understood that Master Xuan Zang's journey to India is toresolve the problem of Mind-nature and Buddha-nature. ln my view, his journey is directlysolve the issue "transfOrAnng consciousness and gaining wsdom". In my opinion, Chinesephilosophy entered a new era thIough the effort of various philosophers from the Pre-Qin petiodand all the way up to the Dark Ledring in the periods of Wei and Jin Dynasties. This new era ofdevelopment is strongly marked by Buddhist influence from India. Various Indian Buddhistschools can be fOund their corresponding schools in China. In that situaton, Master Xuan Zangwas courageous enough to make the journey to India fOr seventeen years and obtained authencBuddhist scrintures. During his journey, Master Xuan Zang gained his fame with his AnoWedgeof Conscious-oIily. From the theory of YogRcdra Buddhist School, he fOund the answer thatcould solve many problems, which puzzled people of that time in China. The answer wasnothing else but the theory of "transfOrming consciousness and gaining wisdom" and itsrelated theories. ThIough the study of several unsolved issues such as "One kind of sentientbeings does not possess Buddha-nature, the debate over whether the Buddha-nature isoriginally possessed by beings as contrasted to the Buddha-nature should still be realized bybeings, the issue of the Buddha-natUre being quiescent and enlightened, and the issue ofpractice", I come to a conchision that all of these issues are associated with the the...