When Attentional Training May Leave Self-Grasping Intact: A Yogācāra Account of the Manas Layer with Implications for Theorizing Mindfulness-Based Interventions
Zhenguo Lai
PsyArXiv June 13, 2026 preprint DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/mq6xy_v1 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key points | Argues that the Yogācāra eight-consciousness doctrine can be reconstructed as a five-layer mental architecture in which the seventh consciousness (kliṣṭa-manas) forms a distinct background layer of self-grasping, potentially explaining why conceptual-level interventions have an inherent depth limit ("level-blindness") and why mindfulness gains in decentering can coexist with persistent background self-grasping. Proposes reinterpreting the eighth consciousness (ālaya-vijñāna) as a dynamic generative field and āśraya-parāvṛtti as a "third horizon" for psychological change. |
Abstract
Objectives. Contemporary psychotherapy and mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) show well-documented benefits for symptom reduction, emotion regulation, and attentional control. Yet they are most often framed as refining an already given self rather than as modifying the deeper structures through which experience is centered as “mine,” a level that has received comparatively little explicit modeling. A related finding—that practitioners can advance meaningfully in decentering and meta-awareness without equivalent shifts in background self-grasping—has not been fully explained at the level of mechanism (Lindahl et al., 2017; Vago & Silbersweig, 2012). The present paper addresses this gap by drawing on the Yogācāra (vijñānavāda) tradition of Indian Buddhist philosophy.Methods. The paper employs textual reconstruction and comparative conceptual analysis. The classical eight-consciousness doctrine is reconstructed as a five-layer mental architecture (L1: sensation-perception; L2: conceptual-reasoning; L3: background self-grasping; L4: latent-structural; L5: post-transformation non-grasping) and then brought into systematic dialogue with contemporary self models, mindfulness mechanism research, and cognitive neuroscience.Results. Three theoretical contributions are developed. First, the seventh consciousness (kliṣṭa-manas) is proposed as a distinct background layer of self-grasping, offering a candidate structural account of the self-appropriation process that is left implicit in many existing self models—and suggesting one possible reason why L2-level interventions may carry an inherent depth limit (termed here level-blindness). Second, the eighth consciousness (ālaya-vijñāna) is reconceived as a dynamic generative field rather than a static store, reframing how deep dispositional patterns may maintain or transform over time. Third, āśraya-parāvṛtti (transformation of the basis) is sketched as a possible “third horizon” for psychological change, complementing symptom management and acceptance-based approaches by directing attention to gradual shifts in background self-grasping.Conclusions. The Yogācāra framework does not aim to replace existing therapies; it offers a structural supplement that may help clarify why mindfulness gains in attentional training and decentering can coexist with persistent background self-grasping. Testable implications are outlined for nonattachment research, MBI mechanism studies, and future measurement development.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mechanisms of mindfulness | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness | 2012 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |