East Asian Yogācāra

East Asian Yogācāra (traditional Chinese: 唯識宗; pinyin: Wéishí-zōng; Japanese: Yuishiki-shū "'Consciousness Only' school" or traditional Chinese: 法相宗; ; pinyin: Fǎxiàng-zōng, "'Dharma Characteristics' school") refers to the traditions in East Asia which represent the Indian Yogacara system of thought.

The term Fǎxiàng itself was first applied to this tradition by the Huayan teacher Fazang (Ch. 法藏), who used it to characterize Consciousness Only teachings as provisional, dealing with the phenomenal appearances of the dharmas, in contrast to Huayan, which deals with the underlying nature on which such phenomenal appearances were based. However, Chinese proponents preferred the title Wéishí (Ch. 唯識), meaning "Consciousness Only" (Skt. Vijñaptimātra).

This school may also be called Wéishí Yújiāxíng Pài (唯識瑜伽行派 "Consciousness Only Yogācāra School") or Yǒu Zōng (有宗 "School of Existence"). Venerable Yin Shun also introduced a threefold classification for Buddhist teachings which designates this school as Xūwàng Wéishí Xì (虛妄唯識系 "False Imagination Mere Consciousness System").

Like the parent Yogacara school, the Faxiang school teaches that our understanding of reality comes from our own mind, rather than actual empirical experience. The mind distorts reality and projects it as reality itself. In keeping with Yogacara tradition, the mind is divided into the Eight Consciousnesses and the Four Aspects of Cognition which produce what we view as reality.

Translations of Indian Yogācāra texts were first introduced to China in the early 5th century CE. Among these was Guṇabhadra's translation of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra in four fascicles, which would also become important in the early history of the Chinese Chán school.

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