The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (112 page)

 
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(‘receptacle-consciousness’). In Yog
c
ra (Buddhist Idealism, also known as
Vijñ
nav
da
) the continuum of subjective consciousness underlying cognition and personal experience through time (given that there is no ‘self’ supplying this continuity). The concept was introduced by
Asa
ga
in the 4th cent. CE as an elaboration of the
Abhidharmic
notion of a stream of consciousness (
bhava
ga-sota
) which constitutes personal continuity over a series of lives. See also
AN
TMAN
;
ARAYA-SHIKI
.

 
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(Arab., ‘the most resplendent’). One of the principal
mosques
in Cairo, also a centre of learning and later a university. It was founded in 969 CE by the
F
imid
rulers of Egypt. Since they were Isma‘
l
, al-Azhar was (for two centuries) a centre for Isma‘
l
teaching, until the Ayyubids under
al
al-D
n (
Saladin
) deposed the F
imid dynasty in the late 12th cent. In the 1950s, and especially in the reform of 1961, further expansion added facilities for a much wider range of studies (including sciences, languages, and business studies) and in the 1970s a section for women was opened. Al-Azhar remains to this day one of the leading and most influential universities in the Islamic world.