Conception of Maya (Illusion) in Asanga's Vijnanavada Buddhism

Summary

This essay explores how Asanga, a seminal figure of the Yogacara or Vijnanavada school of Mahayana Buddhism, reinterpreted the concept of maya (illusion). It begins by contrasting Asanga’s outlook with that of Nagarjuna’s Madhyamika, which characterises ultimate reality in purely negative terms and has been accused of nihilism. Asanga, reacting against such negation, affirms that absolute reality is pure consciousness rather than an indescribable void. The article traces his philosophical context—Asanga lived in the fourth century CE and, along with his half‑brother Vasubandhu, helped consolidate Yogacara thought. Asanga argues that the phenomenal world arises from transformations of mind and that ignorance projects the illusion of external objects. Unlike Advaita Vedanta, Yogacara does not posit a permanent self; rather, consciousness flows in a continuum, and liberation involves recognising the constructed nature of subject–object duality. The essay analyses passages from Asanga’s works to show how he links maya to conceptual construction and describes the stages by which a practitioner, through meditation and ethical practice, dissolves illusory projections. It also discusses later Yogacara commentators’ interpretations and situates Asanga’s ideas within broader Buddhist debates on the ontological status of phenomena. Ultimately, Asanga’s conception of illusion underscores that ignorance is beginningless yet dispellable; the appearance of the world is neither absolutely real nor utterly unreal but dependently originated and thus transformable. By emphasising positive knowledge of consciousness, Asanga offers an alternative to radical emptiness while avoiding eternalist reification.