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

The purpose of this article is to examine the process and method of producing Liberating Insight, and its characteristics in the Yogācāra school, focusing on the 14th chapter Avavādānuśāsanyadhikāra of Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra. The process is as follows: Based on the preliminary spiritual practices of the Six-fold mind (ṣaṭ citta), Liberating Insight into dharmadhātu which is defined as the existence of non-existence is produced by the method of asllakṣaṇapraveśalakṣaṇa. The Six-fold mind is an intellectual method for spiritual practice, which examines the words and meanings of the teaching of sutra. The Six-fold mind could be said to be the internalization of the method of exegesis on the sutra. On the contrary, asallakṣaṇapraveśalakṣaṇa is a mystical method that removes the ordinary and mundane distinction between the grasped and the grasper, but gives rise to the direct and supra-mundane insight into dharmadhātu defined as the existence of non-existence. In the Avavādānuśāsanyadhikāra, asallakṣaṇapraveśalakṣaṇa is considered as the main method to produce Liberating Insight and the Six-fold mind is considered as a preliminary method for asllakṣaṇapraveśalakṣaṇa. In this regard, the Avavādānuśāsanyadhikāra appears to integrate the mystical method as the main position with an intellectual method as subordinate position. The Liberating Insight that is generated as a result of asallakṣaṇapraveśalakṣaṇa is basically defined as a non-discriminating cognition (nirvikalpajñāna) that lacks the grasped and the grasper as its object. It has the existence of non-existence, namely dharmadhātu, as its object. This non-discriminating cognition of dharmadhātu is a transcendental recognition that arises when the ordinary discriminating cognition disappears. At the same time it is also intellectual recognition, because it recognizes a sort of conceptual object, namely the existence of non-existence. Liberating Insight of Avavādānuśāsanyadhikāra is, on the one hand, a mystical recognition in terms of the disappearance of the mundane and dualistic mode of mind. On the other hand, it is a rational recognition in terms of the appearance of supra-mundane insight into the highly conceptual object defined as the existence of non-existence. In conclusion, Liberating Insight of Avavādānuśāsanyadhikāra could be regarded as a harmonious integration of a mystical tradition and a rational tradition.