Korea Journal of Buddhist Studies ISSN:1598-0642(Print) 불교학연구

In this treatise, I tried to consider the meanings of other minds(他心) in the Fa-hsiang school(法相宗) which adheres to the doctrine, Mere-consciousness and No external-object(唯識無境). To do this, I first examined the problem of the knowledge of other minds(他心智), which is regarded not only as the important path to ascertain the existence of other minds by most Buddhist scholars but also as the fatal flaw by the objectors against Mere-consciousness(唯識). To the objection that the knowledge of other minds is the proof of being the external object, or another external spiritual entity separated from its consciousness, the Fa-hsiang school answers that we perceive only the image(影像) of another person’s mind, not the mind itself. Moreover, in the secret meanings(密意) of ālayavijñāna (阿賴耶識), they conclude as follows: The consciousness as ālayavijñāna means all dharma - s(諸法) which are produced by it and so not separated from it, and in this sense other minds mean the whole worlds experienced by them. Though the ālayavijñāna of each sentient being is individual and is not known perfectly by another, it originally communicates with another. The seeming external world, which the consciousness of each sentient being respectively transforms itself into, bears a similarity to another’s world, because it is produced by the force of the maturing of the common-bīja -s(共相種子) which derive from the common karma -s(共業) in one’s past life. And other minds as ālayavijñāna always coexist, not as the external object, but as ‘the condition qua contributory agent(增上緣)’ which assists and follows in ‘the transformation of my consciousness’ in its own distinct manner. In this sense, other minds are relative to mine, and the ‘Mere-consciousness’ doctrine is maintained.