Second Lineage: The 41st Patriarch of the Hsienshou and Ci'en Schools Ven. Qinyin of Shulin Monastery

The Ci'en School (慈恩宗) corresponds to the Vijnanavada or Yogacara school of India. Some traditions say that about 1000 years after the Buddha's death, Asanga (無著 c. 300-370) ascended to Tusita Heaven every night from his lecture hall in Ayodhya to receive yoga doctrine from Maitreya-nātha (彌勒 c. 270-350) and preached what he had learnt to the mass during the day. This work, later translated by Xuanzang into Chinese at Da Ci'en Monastery, was the famous the 100-fascicle Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra or Discourse on the Stages of Yogic Practice (瑜伽師地論).

During the Sui and Tang periods, the Chinese monk Xuanzang (Hsüan Tsang) (玄奘602-664) was deeply interested in Yogacara and became increasingly concerned about the incompleteness and misinterpretations of the translated Yogacara texts that were available in China. An imperial decree by the Emperor Taizong (T'ai-tsung) forbade Xuanzang's proposed visit to India on the grounds on preserving national security. In 629, defying imperial proscription, he secretly set out on his epochal journey to the land of the Buddha from Chang'an.

He reached Nalanda Monastery in 636 and spent the next two years studying logic, grammar, Sanskrit and the Yogacara school of Buddhism during his time from Silabhadra (戒賢 528-651), the Abbot of Nalanda. Xuanzang became Silabhadra's disciple in 636 and was initiated into the Yogacara lineage of Mahayana learning by the venerable abbot. The primary scriptures of this school are the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra or the Sutra of the Explanation of the Profound Secrets (解深密經), the 100-fascicle Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra or Discourse on the Stages of Yogic Practice (瑜伽師地論) and the Mahāyāna-saṃgraha or Mahayana Compendium (攝大乘論), which Xuanzang translated into Chinese between 645 and 660 at Hongfu (弘福寺) and Da Ci'en (大慈恩寺) Monasteries in Chang'an. It is through Xuanzang and his chief disciple Kuiji (K'uei-chi) (窺基632-682) that the Yogacara School (瑜伽宗) was initiated in China.

Since the main corpus of the Yogacara scriptures were translated in Da Ci'en Monastery (大慈恩寺), this school is also known as Ci'en School (慈恩宗). On account of the school's idealistic accent it is known as Weishi (Wei-shih) (唯識宗) or Ideation Only School; yet because it is concerned with the specific character of all the dharmas, it is often called the Faxiang School (法相宗) as well. Besides, this school argues that not all beings possess pure seeds and, therefore, not all of them are capable of attaining Buddhahood.