In the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra “reflexive” contemplation envisages the awareness of the ideality of the images perceived in meditative concentration——the fact that they are not different from the contemplating mind——, in order to effect the realization of universal True Nature (tathatā), understood, by Saṃdh VIII, as the ideality of all phenomena. It is in the context of the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra’s setting forth its view of the ideality of images visualized and contemplated in meditative concentration (VIII. 7) and of the subsequent generalization of this view (VIII. 8) that the concept ‘vijñaptimātra’——obviously alluding to the “nominalist” doctrine of ‘denomination only’ (prajñapti-mātra) of the Bodhisattvabhūmi——is introduced. The crucial passage in which the term first appears is in the initial part of Saṃdh VIII. 7 where the question is put whether the images perceived in meditative concentration (samādhigocarapratibimba) are something different from mind (citta) or not.

In: Acta Indologica VI (1984) = Studies of Mysticism in Honour of the 1150th Anniversary of Kobo-Daishi's Nirvāṇam, 433–455