Yogācāra as vijñāna-vāda: Examining Perception in Light of our Sense Faculties (indriya) and Categories (vikalpa)

“Categorization is a consequence of how we are embodied” (Lakoff, Johnson). Classical Yogācāra texts argue that our lived-worlds are based on our embodied sense faculties, which are structured by embedded categories (vikalpa). This departs from the later focus on Yogācāra as ‘mind-only’ (citta-mātra), as if ‘mind’ alone could account for perception of objects—a disembodied process that all but ignores our embodied sense faculties. But Yogācāra is also called vijñāna-vāda—cognitivism. Vijñāna (cognitive awareness) is classically analyzed in terms of the dynamic interaction (sparśa) between our embodied and categorically (vikalpa) structured sense faculties (indriya) and their respective stimuli. In short: without bodies, no perception, no objects. We will first examine the role of the sense faculties in early Buddhist analyses, in dialogue with findings in contemporary cognitive science, and then apply this approach to developed Yogācāra theories—providing a more embodied and parsimonious understanding of classical Yogācāra cognitive teachings.