The Treatise That Proves Mind-Only.
The Cheng Weishi Lun is the great systematic statement of Yogācāra philosophy: the argument that what we take to be an outside world is entirely constructed from the activity of consciousness itself, down to the deep storehouse consciousness (ālayavijñāna) that carries the seeds of every experience. This page is the entrance for reading it fascicle by fascicle.
How to read this collection
This treatise is dense and technical — it was written to train monastic scholars, not casual readers. We keep the argument's own structure (its traditional 科判 outline) rather than smoothing it away, and we add reading notes wherever a modern English reader would otherwise lose the thread.
All ten fascicles are now translated in full. Read them in order, or jump to whichever part of the treatise you need — the eight consciousnesses, the fifty-one mental factors, the Three Natures, or the five-stage path to buddhahood.
What each fascicle page includes
- The Chinese source text beside our English translation.
- Reading notes explaining arguments, key terms, and the traditional outline.
- A running glossary so terminology stays consistent from fascicle 1 to fascicle 10.
Read by Fascicle
The full ten-fascicle translation is now complete. Use this as the table of contents for the treatise, from the opening refutation of self and dharmas through to the ultimate stage of buddhahood.
The Eight Consciousnesses and Fifty-One Mental Factors
The refutation of self and dharmas, the ālayavijñāna, the manas, the six sense-consciousnesses, and the full taxonomy of mental factors — universal, particular, wholesome, afflicted, and secondary-afflicted.
Proving Consciousness-Only, and the Three Natures
The indeterminates completing all fifty-one factors, the formal proof of Consciousness-Only, causation and the twelve links of dependent origination, and the foundational doctrine of the Three Natures.
The Five-Stage Path to Buddhahood
Provisioning, applied practice, the path of seeing, and the ten grounds of cultivation, closing with the four wisdoms, the four kinds of nirvana, the three bodies of a buddha, and the treatise's own final verse.
Translation Notes
Recurring terms, kept consistent from fascicle 1 through fascicle 10. See also this site's note on translation method.