Yogācāra presents a vision in which what is ordinarily taken as an external world is understood as “consciousness-only” (vijñapti-mātra). This does not simply assert a crude idealism, but rather emphasizes that what is actually experienced are mental representations, not independently existing things. The distinction between perceiver and perceived is treated as a construction born of ignorance, and the path consists in seeing through this duality. In this way, the tradition frames reality as a stream of cognitive events whose apparent objectivity is the result of deeply ingrained habits of mind.

A central analytical tool for this is the doctrine of the three natures (trisvabhāva). The imagined nature (parikalpita) is the falsely imputed layer of conceptualization, especially the belief in independently existing subjects and objects. The dependent nature (paratantra) refers to the causal flow of phenomena, arising dependently from conditions and, in particular, from karmic seeds. The perfected nature (pariniṣpanna) is the realization of emptiness: the non-dual reality free from the projections of the imagined nature within the dependent stream. Through understanding these three, the practitioner learns to discern how illusion is constructed and how it can be relinquished.

Yogācāra also offers a detailed map of consciousness, often articulated as eight distinct modes. Beyond the five sense consciousnesses, there is mental consciousness (manovijñāna), which coordinates and interprets sensory data. Beneath this operates the afflicted mind (kliṣṭa-manas), which appropriates experience as “I” and “mine,” generating ego-clinging and afflictive emotions. At the deepest level lies the storehouse consciousness (ālaya-vijñāna), the repository of karmic seeds (bīja) and habitual tendencies that condition how reality appears. This layered model explains continuity of experience and the patterned nature of perception without positing a permanent self.

Within this framework, transformation of consciousness (parāvṛtti or vijñāna-pariṇāma) is the heart of the spiritual path. As karmic seeds ripen and are exhausted, and as the dualistic tendencies of the afflicted mind are seen through, the storehouse consciousness itself is purified. This process reveals the emptiness of subject–object duality and allows non-dual awareness to manifest. Yogic and contemplative practices are thus not merely techniques for calming the mind, but disciplined means of reconfiguring the very basis of experience, so that what once appeared as a solid external world is recognized as the dynamic play of consciousness-only.