The Yogācāra school actively accepted the existing Abhidharma theory and developed its doctrine. With this, its meditation approach was also developed comprehensively by combining existing meditation methods and its unique approach. In particular, �...
The Yogācāra school actively accepted the existing Abhidharma theory and developed its doctrine. With this, its meditation approach was also developed comprehensively by combining existing meditation methods and its unique approach. In particular, śamatha and vipaśyanā dealing with the twelve kinds of dharma of scriptures (十二分敎, dvādaśāṅgād vaco-gatād) can be said to be a very unique approach of meditation in that it uses the scriptures as the object of awareness. This is meditation with Dharma (隨法行), a practicing method of those who have the advanced faculties to enlightenment, and it explains in detail the dharmas (法) that must be known in śamatha and vipaśyanā and their meanings (義) by dividing them into a variety of kinds.
The dharma must be fully understood in terms of five aspects: name [名], phrase [句], character [文], individual [別], and synthesis [總], and it can be properly known through self-nature and discrimination of each of these five aspects. Knowing the meaning with correction refers to knowing self-nature and discrimination of ⑴ the meaning that must be known in terms of the 10 aspects [十種義], 2) the meaning of the 5 doctrines [五種義], 3) the 4 meanings observed about the mind [四種義], and 4) the three meanings [三種義] in all the meanings of the foundation (能依, gnas) and the relying on (所依, gnas pa).
These dharmas and meanings clearly demonstrate the characteristics of śamatha and vipaśyanā of the Yogācāra school, which is very systematic and analytical, and has a vast structure.