ABSTRACT
Again, the crucial factor is attachment. In immediate experience, externality as such is not perceived; rather it is retrospectively read into, imposed on immediate experience. This cognitive overlay is not done out of some inexplicable cosmic flaw (such as Hinduism's mäyä) or because of a cognitive mistake (parik!p-, wang-chi ~~t). It is generated by discriminative, appropriational intent. In order for appropriation to appropriate there must be that which is appropriable, i.e., 'external.' Thus in the positing of external objects what, for Yogäcära, is problematic is not the positing of objects as such. The problem lies in positing externality, the idea or notion of the external ( wei-hsiang). Externality is the necessary condition for appropriation.
