The Lankavatara Sutra, which is the preeminent Sutra of Zen Buddhism, in every way runs counter to physicalism or the same, materialism. It adopts Mind realism (Mind-only/cittamatra), for want of a better term, which goes against modern physicalism realism which is the belief that all mental events, without exception, arise from matter—matter is fundamental.
The Mind realism of the Lankavatara Sutra, unlike physical realism, has its own unique way of dealing with the mind-body split that Western science appears to be unable to overcome. Thus far, it has been unable to build a scientific theory just how consciousness arises from biological matter. On the other hand, the Lankavatara presents an explanation of why the reality we perceive is really Mind-only. In addition, it states the requirement for fully and completely realizing the truth of this explanation which begins with the light of Mahayana (mahâyana-prabhâsa) that amounts to a profound gnosis of Mind which introduces us to a new way of looking at our lives.
The Mind realism of the Lankavatara Sutra doesn't sit well with the average Western Buddhist who is of the mistaken belief that Buddhism is, in some way, a form of materialism which among other things, supposedly denies that Mind can be the fundamental substance of everything meaning that nothing really exists apart from Mind.
The Lankavatara Sutra helps us to see that things are simply compositions of Mind in the same way we can say a clay pot is a composition of clay. We also learn that our consciousness (vijñâna) is a formation/mode of Mind which arises because Mind cannot recognize itself, this being its avidya or non-enlightenment state.
As such, we are conscious agents going from one illusory existence to the next only because we continually generate imperfect representations of Mind even though, according to the Lankavatara, subject consciousness and object consciousness are the same with regard to Mind!
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