Teleology and axiology of upbringing of Weishi/Faxiang, Chinese school of Mahayana drawing upon Yogācāra

Abstract

In this paper, the author seeks to determine the essence of upbringing, the ideal of upbringing, and also the values of upbringing contained in the Chinese School of Properties of Consciousness – Weishi/Faxiang. In pedagogical terms, the author considers the treatises of Yogācāra and Weishi, in particular, those which were written by Asańga, Wasubandhu, Xuangzang, and also Kuiji. The researched school of Chinese Buddhism stood out from the other ones due to its intolerant ideas, but also because of its nonconventional views relevant to the essence of Buddhist cognition, and also the possibility of achieving it. The comparative research into the doctrine of this school and contemporary pedagogy revealed, first and foremost, analogies with the following trends and directions in pedagogy: Herbartism, pedagogy of depth and phenomenological pedagogy, and also accentuated the pedagogical dilemma relevant to the significance of genes and upbringing in the development and behaviour of a human being.