From Intention to Being: Ethical Cultivation and Ontological Transformation in Yaśovijaya’s Dvātriṃśaddvātriṃśikā

This paper examines the concept of bhāvanā in Yaśovijaya’s Dvātriṃśaddvātriṃśikā, showing how it links ethical cultivation with ontological transformation. Bhāvanā in this text denotes a sustained and discerning practice of inner cultivation oriented toward the self. Yaśovijaya presents it as the disciplined formation of ethical virtues that gradually reshape one’s inner condition, weakening harmful tendencies and stabilizing wholesome dispositions. External religious acts, he argues, function only as supports; what ultimately determines moral value and soteriological progress is the condition of the soul itself. Liberation, described as śuddha-bhāva (pure state of being), emerges through this gradual refinement rather than through mere realization or ritual performance alone. By tracing discussions of intention, conduct, meditation, and the self, I show that bhāvanā functions as the process through which ethical practice produces enduring dispositions, linking ethical cultivation to transformation at the level of being.