Human Affliction (kleśa) as the Karmic Nourishment of the Universe, in Yogācāra Buddhism
Human Affliction (kleśa) as the Karmic Nourishment of the Universe, in Yogācāra Buddhism

Summary/Abstract: At least in its mystical traditions, Indian philosophy tends to “look down” at human condition, considering it either illusory (māyā) either “accidental” (āgantuka) and seeing its suppression as the soteriological goal. The present paper tries to “redeem” human experience showing how, in Yogācāra Buddhism, it represents the condition for the perpetuity of the cosmic manifestation. Human drama, through the karmic impressions it lives within the cosmic consciousness (ālayavijāna), represents the condition for the perpetuity of the Universe. The existence of the cosmic manifestation is thus somehow subordinated to human affliction. Yogācāra Buddhism distinguishes two major types of “obstructions” (āvaraa) specific to human condition: the obstructions of the afflictions kleśāvara) and the obstructions of the knowable (jeyāvara). Both of them are necessarily involved in the production of new karmic impressions, hence the faults of human beings representing conditions for the continuity of the universal manifestation. The second part of the paper discusses the two major processes undergone by the cosmic consciousness, the outflow (niyanda) and karmic maturation (vipāka), showing that the outflow can’t ensure more than a limited continuity of a particular manifestation of the store-house consciousness. The perpetuity of cosmic consciousness necessarily requires the karmic maturation processes which always involve human affliction. Therefore, human drama is not something “accidental” in the Universe, is not something which only happens to be, but is the reason to be of the Universe. Human beings and the Universe are in an intrinsic relation of mutual conditioning, the Universe not being the “place” where human experiences happen but rather the cosmic outreach of human drama.

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