10/17/13 Vsan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Vsan (Sanskrit; Devanagari: ) is a behavioural tendency or karmic imprint which influences the present
behaviour of a person. It is a technical term in Dharmic Traditions, particularly Buddhist philosophy and Advaita
Vedanta.
Contents [hide]
1 Nomenclature, orthography and etymology
2 Buddhism
2.1 Cheng Weishi Lun
2.2 Bon & Dzogchen
3 Hinduism
3.1 Vaishanavism
3.2 Advaita Vedanta
4 Notes
5 References
Nomenclature, orthography and etymology [edit]
Vsan (Devanagari: , Tibetan: , Wylie: bag chags) and its near homonymvasana (Devanagari: ) are
from the same Indo-European linguistic root, sharing a common theme of 'dwelling' or 'abiding'.
[note 1]
Vsan (Devanagari: ):
Past impressions, impressions formed, the present consciousness of past (life) perceptions;
The impression of anything in the mind, the present consciousness formed from past perceptions, knowledge
derived from memory, the impressions remaining in the mind;
Thinking of, longing for, expectation, desire, inclination.
Vasana (Devanagari: ): cloth, clothes, dress, garment, apparel, attire, dwelling or abiding.
Buddhism [edit]
See also: Sakhra
Keown (2004) defines the term generally within Buddhism as follows:
"vsan (Skt.). Habitual tendencies or dispositions, a term, often used synonymously with bja (seed).
It is found in Pli and early Sanskrit sources but comes to prominence with the Yogcra, for whom it
denotes the latent energy resulting from actions which are thought to become imprinted in the
subject's storehouse-consciousness (laya-vijna). The accumulation of these habitual tendencies is
believed to predispose one to particular patterns of behaviour in the future."
[2]
Sandvik (2007: unpaginated) states that:
... bag chags, in Sanskrit vsan. This word is used a lot in presentations about karma. It means
habitual tendencies, subtle inclinations that are imprinted in the mind, like a stain. For example, if
someone smokes, there will be a habitual tendency for an urge to smoke every day, usually around the
same time. There are bigger picture bag chags, such as why some people are kind by nature, and
others are cruel; it's the tendency to behave in a certain way that will trigger similar actions in future,
reinforcing the bag chags.

[3]
Cheng Weishi Lun [edit]
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Lusthaus states that the Cheng Weishi Lun (Chinese: ), a commentary onVasubandhu's Triik-
vijaptimtrat, lists three types of vsan, which are synonymous with 'bija' or 'seeds':
[4]
1. Vsan of 'names and words' or 'terms and words (Chinese: ming-yen hsi-chi'i) which equates to 'latent
linguistic conditioning'. These seeds, planted in the 'root consciousness' (Sanskrit: alaya-vijnana) by 'terms
and words' are the 'causes' (Sanskrit: hetu) and 'conditions' (Sanskrit: pratyaya) of each 'conditioned or
caused element or phenomena' (Sanskrit: samskrita dharma). There are two forms:
1. 'Terms and words indicating a referent' (Chinese: piao-yi ming yen) through which a mindstream is able
to express (Chinese: ch'uan) meanings (yi, artha, referent) by differentiation of vocal sounds (Chinese:
yin-sheng ch'a-pieh); and
2. 'Terms and words revealing perceptual-fields' (Chinese: hsien-ching ming wen), through which a
mindstream discerns (Sanskrit: vijnapti, upalabdhi) perceptual-fields (Sanskrit: visaya) as ' phenomena
of mind' (Sanskrit: citta dharma; caitta dharmas).
2. Vasanas of self-attachment (Sanskrit: atma-graha-vasana; Chinese: wo-chih hsi-ch'i) denoting the false
attachment to the seeds of 'me' and 'mine'.
3. Vasanas which link streams-of-being (Sanskrit: bhavanga-vasana; Chinese: yu-chih hsi-ch'i) denoting the
karmic seeds, 'differently maturing (Sanskrit: vipaka) that carry over (Chinese: chao) from one stream-of-being
to another in the Three Worlds (Sanskrit: Triloka). The bhavanga (linkage from one stream-of-being to the next)
is of two types:
1. Contaminated yet advantageous (Sanskrit: sasrava-kusala; Chinese: yu-lou shan) that is actions
(Sanskrit: karma) which produce desirable (Chinese: k'e-ai) fruits; and
2. Disadvantageous, that is actions which produce undesirable fruits.
Bon & Dzogchen [edit]
Main articles: Bonpo and Dzogchen
Bag chags are important in Bonpo soteriology, especially the view of the Bonpo Dzogchenpa, where it is
fundamentally related to the key doctrines of 'Primordial Purity' (Tibetan: , Wylie: ye nas ka
dag
[note 2]
As Karmay relates in his English rendering of the Bonpo text 'Kunzi Zalshay Selwai Gronma' (Tibetan:
, Wylie: kun gzhi zhal shes gsal ba'i sgron ma) from the Tibetan:
[5]
"Some people doubt that if kun gzhi is pure from the beginning, it cannot be accepted as the ground on
which one accumulates one's impressions (bag chags), but if it is the ground for storing the bag chags,
it cannot be pure from the beginning.
The essence of kun gzhi at no time has ever experienced being defiled by thebag chags since it is
absolutely pure from the beginning. In that case, one might think that it cannot be the 'ground' for
storing the bag chags. However, the bag chags are stored there only through the 'co-ordination' of all
the eight kinds of consciousness. Kun gzhi is therefore merely the ground for storing thebag chags. It
is like a treasury.
Although in the sphere of space, many a world came into existence and remains, the essence of space
remains undefiled by the dirt of the world, even a particle of it.
[6]

[note 3]
Hinduism [edit]
Main article: Hinduism
Vaishanavism [edit]
Main article: Vaishnava
10/17/13 Vsan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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rmad Bhgavatam (5.11.5) (also known as the Bhagavata Purana), a principal text for theVaishnava tradition
of Sanatana Dharma employs the term 'vasana':
Devanagari Roman Transcription
[7]
c 4 sa vsantm viayoparakto
9

c gua-pravho vikta oatm

Hc

F bibhrat ptha-nmabhi rpa-bhedam

7 * 1 antar-bahiva ca purais tanoti
A satisfactory English rendering has not yet been sourced, but the import is that the 'imprinted-volitions-of-mind'
(vsantm), whether pious or impious, are conditioned by theGunas. The gunas propel the mind into different
'formations' (rpa-bhedam). The 'mind' (atma) is the master of the sixteen material elements.
[note 4]
Its 'refined or
coarse quality' (anta-bahivam) determines the mind-formations of manifestation (tanoti).
Advaita Vedanta [edit]
Main article: Advaita Vedanta
A vasana literally means 'wishing' or 'desiring', but is used in Advaita in the sense of the sub-conscious or latent
tendencies in ones nature.
[8]
Writing from an Advaita Vedanta perspective, Waite refers to a model offered by Edward de Bono:
[note 5]
If you take a jelly, solidified and turned out onto a plate, and you trickle very hot water onto the top, it
will run off onto the plate and leave behind a faint channel where the hot water melted the jelly. If you
now pour more hot water, it will tend to run into the same channels as before, since these offer the line
of least resistance, and deepen the channels. If this is done repeatedly, very deep channels will form
and it will become difficult, if not impossible, to get the water to run anywhere else. The equivalent of an
entrenched habit has been formed.
[8]