  Already in the earliest strata of the canonical literature we find a  tripartite model of cognition in which a clear distinction is made  between the phenomenal world, its mode of apprehension, and the  specific type of consciousness by which it is apprehended. However,  what is meant by world (loka) in this context is not an  external reality of physical entities and processes, but the  phenomenal world of perception (lokasaṃjñā)  that arises in dependence upon the proliferating activities of mind.  Thus, the notion that consciousness acts as a causal condition for  the appearance of phenomena, while not a direct rejection of  external, mind-independent objects, does seem to anticipate the  idealist tendencies of the Yogācāra School (see   §6.3).  