DESCRIPTION
The Viṃśatikā-vijñaptimātratāsiddhi or Twenty Verses on Consciousness Only is an important composed by Vasubandhu (fl. 4th century) and is notable within the discourse of Yogacara and has influenced subsequent discourse of other schools of Buddhism. This famous work may well be one of the last three Vasubandhu wrote, along with ‘The Thirty Verses’, and ‘The Teaching of the Three Own-Beings’ which seem to belong together: the implications of one lead to the revelations of the next.
The “Twenty Verses” is a series of hypothetical objections by possible opponents with replies by Vasubandhu. The objections of opponents are philosophically realistic arguments. In all cases, the opponent takes the realistic, no-nonsense position that the things seen, heard, smelled, etc., are real things that exist in the world outside the mind. The opponent typically offers an argument as to why it. cannot be possible for perceived objects to be merely mental constructs (vijnapti) and nonexistent apart from consciousness, which is Vasubandhu’s position. Along with this, he offers reasoned arguments as to why perceived objects must necessarily really exist apart from consciousness. That is why he is a realist. Vasubandhu counters each argument, explaining why the realistic argument is faulty and, at the same time, why objects of perception cannot rationally be considered to exist apart from consciousness.