Ālambana

Ālambana ( sánscrito : आलम्बन), es un término sánscrito que significa de diversas maneras: apoyo, fundamento, sustentador, base, causa, razón, base, o los cinco atributos de las cosas, o la repetición silenciosa de una oración, o la conexión natural y necesaria de una sensación con la causa que la excita, o el ejercicio mental practicado por los yoguis en su esfuerzo por realizar la forma burda de lo Eterno. ^{[ 1 ]}

In Indian philosophyālambana refers to the objective basis of a perception or sensation; according to which philosophy Kārana (cause) and all attendant emotional conditions are known as Vibhavas which are of two kinds – a) Ālambana, the personal and human object and substratum, and b) Uddipana, the excitant. Ālambana may further be divided into asraya and visaya, Radha is asraya and Krishna is visaya; Radha, as the devotee, experienced greater pleasure than Krishna who remained the object of her veneration.^[2]Visaya is the potential object of a perceptual consciousness, ālambana is the objective basis which can even be the cause of perceptual or cognition support for a perceptual error.^[3] The Nyaya school does not consider the object in front to be the ālambana of the illusory cognition but rather the interfering external element with its own characteristics.^[4] The best ālambana for the upasana of Brahman is Om.^[5]

In Vedic parlance, ālambana is also known as skambha i.e. the pillar of strength; God is the pillar of strength;^[6] it is the objective contemplation which lends support to the mind in its travel Godwards.^[7]

In the Indian theory of Rasa, Uddipana is the excitant or determinant which inflames sentiments or emotions, and ālambana is that on which the sentiment hangs i.e. ālambana is with reference to the sentiment which arises as the link between a sentiment and the cause which excites it. In Rasa process, the nature or object is said to be visibly present before the asraya as an excitant but the object that arouses emotions is usually imagined by the poet or dramatist; the mere presence of vibhava impels the configuration of Pratibha (the intuitive outcome of wisdom or knowledge) to change it in no time.^[8] As per the Rasa of Heroic devotion in compassion the enhancing excitants include transitory emotions such as impatience, understanding and happiness, and Krishna in some disguised form is offered by the hero, motivated by kindness, his own body. Yuddhisthira had made sacrificial offerings to Krishna.^[9]

With the aid of self-supported yoga or ātmālambana yoga, Ishvara can be seen in two ways i.e. dual and non-dual, or can be seen as fourfolded. Ālambana refers to inner support and yoga refers to self-discipline; ātmālambana yoga is the discipline of objectifying the non-self with the aid of the self when the negated-self becomes the object of the self.^[10]

Patanjali while defining Sleep which is a vritti of Buddhi, just as the waking state and the dream states are, tells us:

अभावप्रत्ययालम्बना तमोवर्त्तिर्निद्रा (Yoga Sutra Samādhipada 10)

"Deep sleep is the absence of all impressions resulting from opacity in that which is mutable in human-beings (citta)."

Here, he has used the word, ālambana, to mean support or based on i.e. absence of impressions is supported / based on inertia.^[11]

Según la fenomenología Yogacara, la condición ālambana , ya sea inmediata, directa o remota, significa que si existe un dharma, este tendrá una apariencia distinta; la mente a veces se corresponderá con él ( lakshana ) para que ese dharma sea conocido y comprendido perceptualmente. Esta condición conduce al despertar que resulta en el fin de las ocho conciencias y su reemplazo por cuatro capacidades cognitivas iluminadas. ^{[ 12 ]} Los budistas consideran ālambana como una causa, al igual que hetu , samanantara y adhipati ; lo consideran la condición del objeto que se toma como causa en la producción de conocimiento y mentales, como citta y caitta . ^{[ 13 ]} Según Nagarjuna, existen tres contextos motivacionales del amor y la compasión: sattva-ālambana , motivado por la semejanza del ser con otros seres; dharma-ālambana , motivado por la igualdad de los elementos psicofísicos; y ānalambana, que no está motivado por estos dos, es decir, que es independiente del contexto motivacional. ^{[ 14 ]} Xuanzang, en el contexto de la declaración de Dignāga con referencia a la octava conciencia, explica que las semillas o virtualidades de la octava conciencia producen la conciencia actual y también la base objetiva (ālambana) de la conciencia actual. ^{[ 15 ]}