The theory of the five stagesAccording to the Consciousness-only School, the transformation from vexing
passions to Enlightenment does not take place through a single leap but through
several phases. Though each phase involves some leap, this leap is not so much sudden,
as is often imagined in Rinzai Zen, but gradual.
The Yogacara School offers stages of transformation from the eight consciousnesses
into the four types of wisdom and the ten stages of developing the Buddha-wisdom
(daĞa bhnjmaya) and the five groups (Japanese: goi). For purposes of brevity, the
present essay only details the latter. This corresponds to the theory of consciousness
development in modern psychology.
In the first stage, the stage of moral provisioning (sa bhƗravasthƗ), the student
arranges money and food for a trip, and he or she finds a teacher and comrades, and
study the philosophy of the Consciousness-only School.
In the second phase, the stage of intensified effort (prayǀgavasthƗ), the student
becomes involved in the practice. The classical Consciousness-only approach
prescribes not only meditations, like zazen, for getting rid of thoughts and images,
but also meditation that makes use of images and deepening thoughts as well as the
six practices.
In the third stage, the stage of unimpeded penetrating insight (pratived-havasthƗ),
the student attains the first Enlightenment, and understands the meaning of
Emptiness, Oneness or Suchness (tathatƗ), not only intellectually but also through
the transformation of the manas-consciousness and the alaya-consciousness. This
stage is only an entrance into Enlightenment and the student must pass further
through two stages for the eight consciousnesses to be transformed into the four types
of wisdom. A transitory spiritual experience never amounts to the transformation of
personality as a whole.
In the fourth stage, the stage of exercising cultivation (bƗvanƗvasthƗ), the student
assimilates the experiences through further practices and makes them habitual. In the
fifth stage, the stage of ultimate realization (ni hƗvasthƗ), the eight consciousnesses
have been completely transformed into the four wisdoms, and all vexing passions
have been overcome.
Much time is certainly needed to finish this course of discipline. It is believed to
take a kalpa (a single kalpa is eons of time) to go from the stage of moral provisioning
to the stage of intensified effort, and another two kalpas from the stage of unimpeded
penetrating understanding through the stage of exercising cultivation to the stage of
ultimate realization.
The Consciousness-only School takes very seriously the negative aspects of human
beings in pointing out how long a discipline one needs to attain the ultimate
Awakening. Rather than denying the possibility of Enlightenment, this approach
suggests that Enlightenment is possible when we devote ourselves to discipline as long
a time as three kalpas. Humans seem without hope in the possibility of spiritual
salvation, but the Consciousness-only School teaches us that it is possible if we devote
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