The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2644 page)

 
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Vijñ
nav
da
.

Buddhist school of idealism, also known as Yog
c
ra (‘yoga-practice’) or the doctrine of ‘Mind-Only’ (
citta-m
tra
). The school developed in the 4th cent. CE, and its leading exponents were Maitreyan
tha, Asa
ga, and his brother
Vasubandhu
. Its literature is extensive and includes the
La
k
vat
ra S
tra, Samdhinirmocana S
tra
, and the
Avata
saka S
tra
, as well as many treatises composed by its followers.
The basic postulate of the school is that consciousness itself is the fundamental and only reality, and that the apparent diversity of the empirical world is the product of instability and obscuration in the individual field of consciousness. The standard form of the doctrine distinguishes eight functions or aspects of consciousness, the most fundamental being the
laya-vijñ
na