1 00:00:00,338 --> 00:00:01,621 Nagarjuna left behind one question 2 00:00:02,057 --> 00:00:04,121 two brothers spent their lives answering it 3 00:00:04,578 --> 00:00:05,261 last time we talked about 4 00:00:05,658 --> 00:00:08,240 how Nagarjuna cut open all phenomena with the blade of logic 5 00:00:08,337 --> 00:00:11,041 proving nothing in this world has a permanent unchanging essence 6 00:00:11,378 --> 00:00:12,941 every concept that looks solid 7 00:00:13,137 --> 00:00:14,057 when you get to the bottom of it 8 00:00:14,057 --> 00:00:15,160 is emptiness 9 00:00:15,538 --> 00:00:17,001 that blade was extremely sharp 10 00:00:17,097 --> 00:00:19,400 even his own theory did not survive it 11 00:00:20,233 --> 00:00:21,256 but after he was gone 12 00:00:21,273 --> 00:00:24,877 Buddhist thought fell into a bind he never resolved 13 00:00:25,354 --> 00:00:26,276 if all things are empty 14 00:00:26,633 --> 00:00:27,916 where does difference come from 15 00:00:28,474 --> 00:00:30,576 you and me flowers blooming and fading 16 00:00:30,753 --> 00:00:32,673 if the flower itself is empty 17 00:00:32,674 --> 00:00:33,756 then who exactly is blooming 18 00:00:34,034 --> 00:00:34,957 and who is fading 19 00:00:35,554 --> 00:00:38,073 memory character past karma 20 00:00:38,073 --> 00:00:39,317 where are they supposed to sit 21 00:00:39,873 --> 00:00:40,756 this is not word games 22 00:00:40,954 --> 00:00:42,777 it is a real theoretical dead end 23 00:00:43,034 --> 00:00:44,793 emptiness took the old world apart 24 00:00:44,793 --> 00:00:47,633 but never explained how the new one runs 25 00:00:48,051 --> 00:00:48,334 hello 26 00:00:48,530 --> 00:00:48,974 everyone 27 00:00:49,371 --> 00:00:50,393 I am Leo Wang 28 00:00:50,731 --> 00:00:52,594 Nagarjuna was the man who tore the house down 29 00:00:52,691 --> 00:00:55,234 he dismantled the entire building down to nothing 30 00:00:55,331 --> 00:00:57,673 showing every pillar was hollow all along 31 00:00:57,931 --> 00:00:58,853 but once the demolition is done 32 00:00:59,130 --> 00:01:00,753 people still need somewhere to live 33 00:01:00,770 --> 00:01:03,289 you cannot just say no wall here no beam there 34 00:01:03,291 --> 00:01:06,594 you have to explain what holds the world of experience together 35 00:01:07,533 --> 00:01:09,476 a century or two after Nagarjuna 36 00:01:09,533 --> 00:01:11,036 around the fourth century 37 00:01:11,132 --> 00:01:14,275 two brothers appeared in Gandhara in northwest India 38 00:01:14,613 --> 00:01:15,336 the elder was Asanga 39 00:01:15,613 --> 00:01:16,596 the younger was Vasubandhu 40 00:01:16,932 --> 00:01:18,135 tradition says they shared a mother 41 00:01:18,333 --> 00:01:19,876 born into a brahmin family 42 00:01:20,012 --> 00:01:21,275 and both left home for monastic life 43 00:01:21,572 --> 00:01:23,336 they did something Nagarjuna never did 44 00:01:23,733 --> 00:01:24,756 instead of tearing down 45 00:01:24,813 --> 00:01:27,515 they redesigned a whole set of building materials 46 00:01:28,357 --> 00:01:29,619 start with the elder brother Asanga 47 00:01:29,997 --> 00:01:31,860 he was born in Purushapura 48 00:01:32,036 --> 00:01:34,020 today that is Peshawar in Pakistan 49 00:01:34,357 --> 00:01:35,899 when he first studied the early Buddhist schools 50 00:01:36,077 --> 00:01:39,259 the Madhyamaka of Nagarjuna already dominated intellectual life 51 00:01:39,396 --> 00:01:41,179 everyone knew the idea of emptiness 52 00:01:41,437 --> 00:01:43,380 but Asanga kept feeling something was off 53 00:01:43,756 --> 00:01:44,720 not that emptiness was wrong 54 00:01:44,956 --> 00:01:46,420 but that emptiness was not enough 55 00:01:46,742 --> 00:01:48,385 tell a practitioner everything is empty 56 00:01:48,621 --> 00:01:49,965 and he nods along 57 00:01:50,061 --> 00:01:50,784 but push a little further 58 00:01:51,061 --> 00:01:53,380 the consciousness that is understanding all this emptiness 59 00:01:53,382 --> 00:01:54,504 is it itself empty 60 00:01:55,102 --> 00:01:56,025 if consciousness is empty too 61 00:01:56,382 --> 00:01:57,185 then who is practicing 62 00:01:57,542 --> 00:01:58,465 if consciousness is not empty 63 00:01:58,981 --> 00:02:01,084 then emptiness is not the truth of all things 64 00:02:01,302 --> 00:02:03,644 either answer leaves you standing on one shaky leg 65 00:02:03,942 --> 00:02:05,460 the question sounds simple 66 00:02:05,462 --> 00:02:10,125 but it was the biggest open problem in Buddhist philosophy of that age 67 00:02:10,422 --> 00:02:11,265 the way Asanga saw it 68 00:02:11,462 --> 00:02:13,144 this was the crack Nagarjuna left behind 69 00:02:13,582 --> 00:02:15,701 Madhyamaka was a perfect demolition tool 70 00:02:15,702 --> 00:02:17,780 but it never explained why after the teardown 71 00:02:17,781 --> 00:02:20,668 the world of experience keeps running 72 00:02:20,965 --> 00:02:22,548 the Madhyamaka side never accepted the charge 73 00:02:22,565 --> 00:02:24,328 they said the two truths had already covered it 74 00:02:24,525 --> 00:02:25,947 the Mulamadhyamakakarika says it plainly 75 00:02:26,005 --> 00:02:28,283 the buddhas teach by way of the two truths 76 00:02:28,285 --> 00:02:29,168 without the conventional truth 77 00:02:29,285 --> 00:02:30,388 you cannot reach the ultimate 78 00:02:30,604 --> 00:02:31,648 on the conventional level 79 00:02:31,965 --> 00:02:33,883 dependent origination and provisional names still hold 80 00:02:33,884 --> 00:02:35,388 so why add another layer 81 00:02:35,644 --> 00:02:38,043 that argument has run for over a thousand years with no verdict 82 00:02:38,044 --> 00:02:39,840 and this episode is not going to settle it either 83 00:02:40,137 --> 00:02:42,000 Asanga set out to find the answer 84 00:02:42,218 --> 00:02:44,241 the story goes that to crack this question 85 00:02:44,257 --> 00:02:46,641 he went alone into the mountains and meditated for twelve years 86 00:02:46,977 --> 00:02:47,880 twelve years 87 00:02:47,938 --> 00:02:51,720 that is like going from freshman year to finishing a postdoc today 88 00:02:51,938 --> 00:02:54,497 and he was not working on some paper 89 00:02:54,498 --> 00:02:58,081 he was working on the deepest fracture in the Buddhist philosophy of his age 90 00:02:58,720 --> 00:03:01,423 legend says that in deep meditation he rose to Tushita heaven 91 00:03:01,600 --> 00:03:03,062 and met Maitreya face to face 92 00:03:03,320 --> 00:03:06,523 Maitreya taught him the hundred volume Yogacarabhumi 93 00:03:07,160 --> 00:03:09,303 at night Asanga listened to Maitreya 94 00:03:09,320 --> 00:03:11,238 by day he passed it on to everyone else 95 00:03:11,239 --> 00:03:13,863 the most extreme night school student in history 96 00:03:14,440 --> 00:03:16,399 was Maitreya a bodhisattva in the heavens 97 00:03:16,399 --> 00:03:18,782 or a real yogi living at that time 98 00:03:18,839 --> 00:03:20,743 scholars still have no settled answer 99 00:03:20,880 --> 00:03:22,243 but whichever version you believe 100 00:03:22,399 --> 00:03:23,843 one thing is beyond doubt 101 00:03:24,239 --> 00:03:26,102 the blueprint Asanga came away with 102 00:03:26,119 --> 00:03:28,703 completely changed the direction of Buddhist thought 103 00:03:29,505 --> 00:03:31,328 his question differed from the one Nagarjuna asked 104 00:03:31,505 --> 00:03:33,349 he stopped asking whether the world has substance 105 00:03:33,666 --> 00:03:34,189 and asked instead 106 00:03:34,585 --> 00:03:35,349 if there is no substance 107 00:03:35,625 --> 00:03:37,789 how does experience get assembled 108 00:03:38,146 --> 00:03:39,309 the answer came down to one word 109 00:03:39,826 --> 00:03:40,328 consciousness 110 00:03:41,179 --> 00:03:42,063 all things are consciousness only 111 00:03:42,380 --> 00:03:44,243 this does not deny that the world exists 112 00:03:44,459 --> 00:03:46,362 it says everything you experience 113 00:03:46,420 --> 00:03:47,922 is the activity of consciousness 114 00:03:48,179 --> 00:03:50,882 the mountain is not sitting there quietly waiting to be looked at 115 00:03:50,980 --> 00:03:53,018 your consciousness in every instant 116 00:03:53,019 --> 00:03:55,963 keeps refreshing the experience of mountain 117 00:03:56,140 --> 00:03:57,102 think of it this way 118 00:03:57,499 --> 00:04:00,302 Madhyamaka says the world you see is not real 119 00:04:00,739 --> 00:04:01,582 Yogacara says 120 00:04:01,939 --> 00:04:03,058 it may not be real 121 00:04:03,059 --> 00:04:06,003 but the act of seeing really happens 122 00:04:06,300 --> 00:04:08,259 the point is not whether the world exists 123 00:04:08,260 --> 00:04:09,922 it is what is doing the seeing 124 00:04:10,699 --> 00:04:12,363 this turn runs deep 125 00:04:12,379 --> 00:04:16,442 it pulled Buddhist philosophy from the outer world back to consciousness itself 126 00:04:16,900 --> 00:04:18,442 it sounds like a slogan 127 00:04:18,539 --> 00:04:21,242 but what Asanga had to do was far harder than a slogan 128 00:04:21,540 --> 00:04:22,343 he had to answer 129 00:04:22,819 --> 00:04:23,663 how many layers consciousness has 130 00:04:24,180 --> 00:04:25,343 how the layers interact 131 00:04:25,819 --> 00:04:27,543 how seeds turn into experience 132 00:04:27,980 --> 00:04:29,942 and how experience turns back into seeds 133 00:04:30,459 --> 00:04:31,779 and at every step of practice 134 00:04:31,779 --> 00:04:33,702 which layer is actually being operated on 135 00:04:34,727 --> 00:04:35,650 he drew a diagram 136 00:04:36,086 --> 00:04:37,629 later called the eight consciousnesses 137 00:04:38,006 --> 00:04:39,949 we will open that diagram up next episode 138 00:04:40,006 --> 00:04:41,689 today you only need one takeaway 139 00:04:42,086 --> 00:04:44,790 Asanga drew an engineering blueprint of human consciousness 140 00:04:44,967 --> 00:04:45,689 not a poem 141 00:04:45,967 --> 00:04:47,069 not a zen verse 142 00:04:47,126 --> 00:04:50,590 a structural diagram you can take apart and inspect layer by layer 143 00:04:51,495 --> 00:04:53,678 that matters far beyond Buddhism 144 00:04:53,974 --> 00:04:55,854 picture the fourth century 145 00:04:55,854 --> 00:04:59,238 Europe was still a mess of a divided Roman empire and civil war 146 00:04:59,334 --> 00:05:03,397 and an Indian monk was already mapping the structure of human consciousness 147 00:05:03,575 --> 00:05:05,013 and not as a doodle 148 00:05:05,015 --> 00:05:07,378 he seriously answered what each layer of consciousness does 149 00:05:07,614 --> 00:05:09,758 how they interact and how to change them 150 00:05:10,179 --> 00:05:12,362 but Asanga could not carry this alone 151 00:05:12,499 --> 00:05:13,383 he needed help 152 00:05:13,739 --> 00:05:14,939 and the person he had in mind 153 00:05:14,939 --> 00:05:17,143 was the one man least likely to help him his own brother 154 00:05:17,460 --> 00:05:18,203 Vasubandhu 155 00:05:18,739 --> 00:05:20,282 Vasubandhu was brilliant 156 00:05:20,340 --> 00:05:23,122 trained under the strictest school the Sarvastivada 157 00:05:23,179 --> 00:05:27,482 and while still young one of the sharpest minds in sectarian Buddhism 158 00:05:27,699 --> 00:05:29,922 later generations called him the master of a thousand treatises 159 00:05:30,020 --> 00:05:32,523 saying he wrote more than a thousand works in his life 160 00:05:32,660 --> 00:05:34,922 at a few thousand words each 161 00:05:35,020 --> 00:05:37,003 the lifetime output of this one man 162 00:05:37,059 --> 00:05:40,896 may beat what most academic journals publish in a year 163 00:05:41,194 --> 00:05:43,316 his most famous work is the Abhidharmakosha 164 00:05:43,754 --> 00:05:45,776 we covered it in the members area before 165 00:05:46,114 --> 00:05:47,597 I described it in one line 166 00:05:48,033 --> 00:05:50,737 the most elegant betrayal in Buddhist history 167 00:05:51,234 --> 00:05:53,336 because when Vasubandhu wrote it 168 00:05:53,393 --> 00:05:55,896 on the surface he was organizing Sarvastivada doctrine 169 00:05:55,994 --> 00:05:58,593 but at the end of almost every key topic 170 00:05:58,593 --> 00:06:00,896 he quietly slipped in the Sautrantika rebuttal 171 00:06:01,114 --> 00:06:03,937 it is like writing the official textbook for a company 172 00:06:04,114 --> 00:06:05,593 and only when you finish does everyone realize 173 00:06:05,593 --> 00:06:08,136 you were arguing for the competitor 174 00:06:08,554 --> 00:06:11,857 his loyalty was to truth and not to a camp 175 00:06:12,074 --> 00:06:14,857 he did not hide the weak spots just because he came from that school 176 00:06:14,913 --> 00:06:17,192 he recorded every crack exactly as it was 177 00:06:17,194 --> 00:06:19,363 and let the facts speak 178 00:06:19,779 --> 00:06:20,543 but at that time 179 00:06:20,860 --> 00:06:22,579 this deeply honest man 180 00:06:22,579 --> 00:06:25,082 had no respect for Mahayana Buddhism at all 181 00:06:25,300 --> 00:06:26,962 he criticized the Mahayana in public 182 00:06:26,979 --> 00:06:29,882 he held that the Mahayana sutras were later fabrications 183 00:06:29,899 --> 00:06:31,402 not spoken by the Buddha himself 184 00:06:31,740 --> 00:06:32,543 his words were fierce 185 00:06:32,779 --> 00:06:33,923 and they carried far 186 00:06:34,019 --> 00:06:38,483 many young monks curious about the Mahayana backed away because of him 187 00:06:38,740 --> 00:06:39,262 keep in mind 188 00:06:39,539 --> 00:06:41,723 in the Indian Buddhist academic world of that era 189 00:06:41,899 --> 00:06:43,923 what Vasubandhu said was the benchmark 190 00:06:44,459 --> 00:06:45,423 whatever he rejected 191 00:06:45,740 --> 00:06:47,481 nobody dared touch 192 00:06:47,738 --> 00:06:48,822 Asanga saw all of it 193 00:06:48,979 --> 00:06:50,041 and it worried him 194 00:06:50,138 --> 00:06:52,241 he knew both the power and the prejudice of his brother 195 00:06:52,258 --> 00:06:53,221 and he knew one more thing 196 00:06:53,539 --> 00:06:56,282 if that blade could not be turned to the Mahayana 197 00:06:56,339 --> 00:06:58,818 Yogacara would stay nothing but a blueprint 198 00:06:58,818 --> 00:07:00,882 and never become a real theoretical building 199 00:07:00,899 --> 00:07:01,262 so 200 00:07:01,498 --> 00:07:02,948 he made a decision 201 00:07:03,206 --> 00:07:05,429 Asanga would not debate Vasubandhu head on 202 00:07:05,806 --> 00:07:07,069 he knew his brother too well 203 00:07:07,285 --> 00:07:09,228 Vasubandhu was a champion debater 204 00:07:09,405 --> 00:07:12,509 a frontal clash would only get his own argument shredded 205 00:07:12,766 --> 00:07:13,809 so he took another road 206 00:07:14,045 --> 00:07:14,749 he faked an illness 207 00:07:15,007 --> 00:07:17,250 the story says he sent word to Vasubandhu 208 00:07:17,648 --> 00:07:18,870 that he was gravely ill 209 00:07:18,968 --> 00:07:20,711 and asked his brother to come at once 210 00:07:21,047 --> 00:07:22,230 when Vasubandhu arrived 211 00:07:22,247 --> 00:07:26,511 Asanga had a disciple read a Mahayana sutra aloud in the next room 212 00:07:26,768 --> 00:07:28,331 Vasubandhu sat at the bedside of his brother 213 00:07:28,687 --> 00:07:30,190 listening through the wall 214 00:07:30,447 --> 00:07:31,571 and when it was over 215 00:07:31,807 --> 00:07:33,391 he was stunned 216 00:07:34,189 --> 00:07:35,191 picture that scene 217 00:07:35,669 --> 00:07:38,331 a man who spent half his life fighting the Mahayana 218 00:07:38,348 --> 00:07:39,552 sitting beside his sick brother 219 00:07:39,948 --> 00:07:41,052 through a single wall 220 00:07:41,229 --> 00:07:44,092 hearing for the first time what the Mahayana actually says 221 00:07:44,189 --> 00:07:45,691 what he had been opposing 222 00:07:45,869 --> 00:07:48,092 was deeper and wider than he imagined 223 00:07:48,309 --> 00:07:49,552 he was not persuaded 224 00:07:49,788 --> 00:07:51,092 he was pierced through 225 00:07:51,560 --> 00:07:53,962 what happened next has been told for sixteen hundred years 226 00:07:54,440 --> 00:07:57,503 Vasubandhu felt he had slandered the Mahayana with his tongue 227 00:07:57,560 --> 00:07:58,402 and the guilt was crushing 228 00:07:58,680 --> 00:08:00,142 he wanted to cut it out to atone 229 00:08:00,440 --> 00:08:01,902 Asanga stopped him 230 00:08:02,279 --> 00:08:04,642 what he told his brother went roughly like this 231 00:08:05,240 --> 00:08:07,519 even if you cut out a thousand tongues 232 00:08:07,519 --> 00:08:08,983 it will not wipe this away 233 00:08:09,200 --> 00:08:10,443 if you really want to atone 234 00:08:10,760 --> 00:08:12,438 use that same tongue 235 00:08:12,440 --> 00:08:14,275 to spread the Mahayana 236 00:08:14,533 --> 00:08:17,196 how much of this story was polished by later hands 237 00:08:17,252 --> 00:08:18,636 scholars still argue 238 00:08:18,812 --> 00:08:19,975 but what is not in dispute 239 00:08:20,412 --> 00:08:21,756 is that Vasubandhu turned 240 00:08:21,773 --> 00:08:24,915 and he turned as completely as he had once attacked 241 00:08:25,052 --> 00:08:26,136 not a reluctant acceptance 242 00:08:26,453 --> 00:08:28,196 not politely humoring his brother 243 00:08:28,213 --> 00:08:30,675 he flipped his whole self around 244 00:08:30,693 --> 00:08:32,811 with the same gift and the same intensity 245 00:08:32,812 --> 00:08:35,035 he built everything he had torn down 246 00:08:35,832 --> 00:08:36,674 after the turn 247 00:08:37,071 --> 00:08:39,470 with astonishing speed and precision 248 00:08:39,471 --> 00:08:43,134 Vasubandhu turned the blueprint into a finished theoretical building 249 00:08:43,392 --> 00:08:44,955 he wrote the Twenty Verses 250 00:08:45,311 --> 00:08:50,415 answering the seven sharpest objections to Yogacara in twenty verses 251 00:08:50,591 --> 00:08:51,394 someone asks for instance 252 00:08:51,752 --> 00:08:53,110 if everything is consciousness only 253 00:08:53,112 --> 00:08:55,354 why do different people see the same mountain 254 00:08:55,992 --> 00:08:56,754 Vasubandhu answers 255 00:08:57,152 --> 00:08:59,614 you are not seeing the same mountain 256 00:08:59,671 --> 00:09:04,494 each mind generates its own mountain under the same conditions 257 00:09:04,551 --> 00:09:06,215 they only look the same 258 00:09:06,431 --> 00:09:07,075 another asks 259 00:09:07,392 --> 00:09:09,614 why does fire in a dream not kill you 260 00:09:09,632 --> 00:09:11,035 while real fire does 261 00:09:11,383 --> 00:09:11,835 he says 262 00:09:12,191 --> 00:09:16,470 dreaming and waking consciousness run at different strengths under different conditions 263 00:09:16,471 --> 00:09:17,935 so the consequences differ 264 00:09:18,951 --> 00:09:22,815 these are still core questions in philosophy of mind today 265 00:09:22,912 --> 00:09:26,164 and Vasubandhu wrote his answers sixteen hundred years ago 266 00:09:26,542 --> 00:09:28,225 then he wrote the Thirty Verses 267 00:09:28,782 --> 00:09:29,384 thirty stanzas 268 00:09:29,581 --> 00:09:30,485 six hundred characters 269 00:09:30,542 --> 00:09:34,845 compressing the whole core of Yogacara into a design you can memorize 270 00:09:35,101 --> 00:09:38,065 how many layers what each one does how they connect 271 00:09:38,381 --> 00:09:40,581 and what changes in consciousness at each stage of practice 272 00:09:40,581 --> 00:09:41,644 it is all in there 273 00:09:41,861 --> 00:09:44,764 six hundred characters covering the entire machinery of consciousness 274 00:09:44,981 --> 00:09:46,301 that kind of compression 275 00:09:46,302 --> 00:09:48,221 even in the academic world of today 276 00:09:48,221 --> 00:09:50,339 you would struggle to find a second person who could do it 277 00:09:50,436 --> 00:09:52,438 but this text has a peculiar feature 278 00:09:52,916 --> 00:09:54,754 Vasubandhu left only the verses 279 00:09:54,755 --> 00:09:56,778 he died before writing the commentary 280 00:09:56,875 --> 00:10:00,315 thirty verses like thirty seeds scattered into soil 281 00:10:00,316 --> 00:10:01,739 waiting for later hands to water them 282 00:10:01,835 --> 00:10:04,099 and a whole forest grew 283 00:10:04,355 --> 00:10:06,038 ten great masters each wrote commentaries 284 00:10:06,316 --> 00:10:07,298 with different emphases 285 00:10:07,316 --> 00:10:09,018 often arguing with each other 286 00:10:09,115 --> 00:10:12,099 which kept Yogacara alive for a thousand years 287 00:10:12,316 --> 00:10:15,619 a theory nobody dares question is usually already dead 288 00:10:15,755 --> 00:10:17,475 the blank Vasubandhu left behind 289 00:10:17,475 --> 00:10:20,663 turned out to be the most living part of Yogacara 290 00:10:20,841 --> 00:10:21,799 by this point 291 00:10:21,801 --> 00:10:24,943 you can probably feel a clear line of logic 292 00:10:25,240 --> 00:10:28,343 Nagarjuna showed that all things can be taken apart into emptiness 293 00:10:28,681 --> 00:10:31,384 as for what keeps the world running after emptiness 294 00:10:31,520 --> 00:10:32,880 the Yogacara side held 295 00:10:32,880 --> 00:10:34,144 that one layer was still missing 296 00:10:34,400 --> 00:10:36,203 Asanga started from the foundation of emptiness 297 00:10:36,481 --> 00:10:37,484 and pointed to a new road 298 00:10:37,880 --> 00:10:39,244 it is not the world that is running 299 00:10:39,561 --> 00:10:41,264 it is your consciousness 300 00:10:41,441 --> 00:10:43,163 consciousness keeps assembling the world 301 00:10:43,441 --> 00:10:44,904 and it keeps assembling you 302 00:10:45,315 --> 00:10:47,818 Vasubandhu paved that road into a highway 303 00:10:47,915 --> 00:10:50,098 precise testable workable 304 00:10:50,275 --> 00:10:51,954 in two or three centuries these three men 305 00:10:51,954 --> 00:10:55,137 completed the deepest relay in the history of Buddhist thought 306 00:10:55,354 --> 00:10:56,797 Nagarjuna tore down the old building 307 00:10:57,035 --> 00:10:58,738 Asanga drew the new blueprint 308 00:10:58,755 --> 00:11:01,461 Vasubandhu turned the blueprint into a tower 309 00:11:01,837 --> 00:11:02,780 and notice 310 00:11:02,797 --> 00:11:05,500 none of these steps was planned in advance 311 00:11:05,797 --> 00:11:07,740 Nagarjuna had no idea an Asanga would come 312 00:11:07,918 --> 00:11:10,661 Asanga was not sure Vasubandhu would turn 313 00:11:10,918 --> 00:11:14,301 every step was forced out by the problem itself 314 00:11:14,557 --> 00:11:17,421 nobody paved this road and invited them onto it 315 00:11:17,518 --> 00:11:19,980 they stamped it out one footstep at a time 316 00:11:20,118 --> 00:11:23,140 that is how Yogacara came into being 317 00:11:23,358 --> 00:11:25,140 it did not appear out of nowhere 318 00:11:25,197 --> 00:11:29,737 it was forced out step by step by a real theoretical dead end 319 00:11:30,153 --> 00:11:31,397 every time I read this stretch of history 320 00:11:31,554 --> 00:11:32,196 I think the same thing 321 00:11:32,674 --> 00:11:34,696 if Asanga had not faked that illness 322 00:11:34,834 --> 00:11:37,056 if Vasubandhu had not heard the voice next door 323 00:11:37,113 --> 00:11:39,456 if the disciple had read a little more quietly that night 324 00:11:39,474 --> 00:11:42,696 the whole history of Buddhist thought might have gone another way 325 00:11:42,873 --> 00:11:45,737 Yogacara might have stayed a blueprint forever 326 00:11:45,753 --> 00:11:48,137 never becoming a building you could live in 327 00:11:48,674 --> 00:11:50,216 history works like that sometimes 328 00:11:50,633 --> 00:11:52,056 it is not a straight line 329 00:11:52,074 --> 00:11:54,216 and it is not built to plan 330 00:11:54,474 --> 00:11:56,696 it is a chain of encounters nobody saw coming 331 00:11:56,753 --> 00:11:59,857 a chain of turns forced out at the end of the road 332 00:12:00,194 --> 00:12:00,956 the blueprint is drawn 333 00:12:01,233 --> 00:12:03,137 and the story is only beginning 334 00:12:03,479 --> 00:12:06,563 what exactly did Asanga and Vasubandhu draw on it 335 00:12:07,079 --> 00:12:08,323 how do the eight consciousnesses work 336 00:12:08,760 --> 00:12:10,162 what do the three natures mean 337 00:12:10,640 --> 00:12:12,402 and what did seed theory solve 338 00:12:13,079 --> 00:12:13,603 next episode 339 00:12:13,839 --> 00:12:15,542 we walk into this building 340 00:12:15,560 --> 00:12:18,782 and see what every floor actually looks like 341 00:12:18,960 --> 00:12:21,343 you have probably heard many times that Yogacara is hard 342 00:12:21,800 --> 00:12:22,623 it is 343 00:12:22,759 --> 00:12:24,479 but the hard part is not the concepts 344 00:12:24,479 --> 00:12:26,662 it is that what it describes sits too close 345 00:12:26,680 --> 00:12:28,363 so close you live it every second 346 00:12:28,519 --> 00:12:29,863 and never notice 347 00:12:30,040 --> 00:12:30,763 I am Leo Wang 348 00:12:30,960 --> 00:12:31,850 see you next episode