Vasubandhu
Everything we perceive is only representation: we see things without any external object, as in a dream.
Life
Vasubandhu was an Indian Buddhist monk and thinker, born in Puruṣapura (Peshawar) in Gandhara around the 4th or 5th century (the dates are debated). He first wrote a major Abhidharma treatise, then became a leading figure of the Yogācāra school. In his Twenty Verses he argues that what we perceive is only representation, with no external object, as in a dream.
Main works
A major systematic account of Buddhist doctrine (composed around the 5th century).
Twenty verses arguing that everything is representation-only, with replies to objections (around the 5th century).
Thirty verses setting out the Yogācāra theory of consciousness (around the 5th century).
Positions
click a row to see the evidenceAs a Buddhist he rejects a creator God, arguing that the world's diversity cannot come from a single permanent cause.
Vasubandhu, Abhidharmakośabhāṣya II.64 (c. 4th-5th c.)
He argues that perceived things are only representations of consciousness, with no external object, like things seen in a dream: a form of idealism.
Vasubandhu, Viṃśatikā (Twenty Verses on Representation-Only) (c. 4th-5th c.)