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Eight Consciousnesses

"Alaya" redirects here. For other uses, see Alaya (disambiguation).

The Eight Consciousnesses (Skt. aṣṭa vijñānakāyāḥ[1]) is a classification developed in the tradition of the Yogācāra school of Mahayana Buddhism. They enumerate the five sense consciousnesses, supplemented by the mental consciousness (manovijñāna), the defiled mental consciousness (kliṣṭamanovijñāna[2]), and finally the fundamental store-house consciousness (ālāyavijñāna), which is the basis of the other seven.[3] This eighth consciousness is said to store the impressions (vāsanāḥ) of previous experiences, which form the seeds (bīja) of future karma in this life and in the next after rebirth.

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Eightfold network of primary consciousnesses

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All surviving schools of Buddhist thought accept – "in common" – the existence of the first six primary consciousnesses (Sanskrit: vijñāna, Tibetan: རྣམ་ཤེས་, Wylie: rnam-shes).[4] The internally coherent Yogācāra school associated with Maitreya, Asaṅga, and Vasubandhu, however, uniquely – or "uncommonly" – also posits the existence of two additional primary consciousnesses, kliṣṭamanovijñāna and ālayavijñāna, in order to explain the workings of karma.[5] The first six of these primary consciousnesses comprise the five sensory faculties together with mental consciousness, which is counted as the sixth.[6] The kliṣṭamanovijñāna is described as an afflicted consciousness, which exhibits an ongoing subtle clinging to self that provides the basis for the ego and disturbing emotions. Based on the Kangyur, the Kagyu scholar 3rd Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje additionally points out that it must also have an immediate aspect, with the power to give rise to the six primary consciousnesses.[7]

According to Gareth Sparham,

The ālaya-vijñāna doctrine arose on the Indian subcontinent about one thousand years before Tsong kha pa. It gained its place in a distinctly Yogācāra system over a period of some three hundred years stretching from 100 to 400 C.E., culminating in the Mahāyānasaṃgraha, a short text by Asaṅga (circa 350), setting out a systematic presentation of the ālaya-vijñāna doctrine developed over the previous centuries. It is the doctrine found in this text in particular that Tsong kha pa, in his Ocean of Eloquence, treats as having been revealed in toto by the Buddha and transmitted to suffering humanity through the Yogācāra founding saints (Tib. shing rta srol byed): Maitreya[-nātha], Asaṅga, and Vasubandhu.[5]

While some noteworthy modern scholars of the Gelug tradition (which was founded by Tsongkhapa's reforms to Atisha's Kadam school) assert that the ālāyavijñāna is posited only in the Yogācāra philosophical tenet system, all non-Gelug schools of Tibetan buddhism maintain that the ālāyavijñāna is accepted by the various Madhyamaka schools, as well.[8] The Yogācāra eightfold network of primary consciousnesses – aṣṭavijñānāni in Sanskrit (from compounding aṣṭa, "eight", with vijñānāni, the plural of vijñāna "consciousnesses"), or Tibetan: རྣམ་ཤེས་ཚོགས་བརྒྱད་, Wylie: rnam-shes tshogs-brgyad –  is roughly sketched out in the following table.

The Eightfold Network of Primary Consciousnesses[4]
Subgroups Name[α] of Consciousness[β] Associated Nonstatic Phænomena[γ] in terms of Three Circles of Action[δ]
English Sanskrit Tibetan Chinese Cognitive Object[ε] Type of Cognition[ζ] Cognitive Sensor[η]
I. – VI.

Each of these Six Common Consciousnesses –  referred to in Sanskrit as pravṛttivijñānāni[16][θ] – are posited on the basis of valid straightforward cognition,[ι] on any individual practitioner's part, of sensory data input experienced solely by means of their bodily sense faculties.

The derivation of this particular dual classification schema for these first six, so-called "common" consciousnesses has its origins in the first four Nikāyas of the Sutta Pitaka – the second division of the Tipitaka in the Pali Canon – as first committed to writing during the Theravada school's fourth council at Sri Lanka in 83 (BCE).[18]

Both individually and collectively: these first six, so-called "common" consciousnesses are posited – in common – by all surviving buddhist tenet systems.

I.

Eye Consciousness

cakṣurvijñāna[5] ༡

Tibetan: མིག་གི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, Wylie: mig-gi rnam-shes

眼識 Sight(s) Seeing Eyes
II.

Ear Consciousness

śrotravijñāna[5] ༢

Tibetan: རྣའི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, Wylie: rna’i rnam-shes

耳識 Sound(s) Hearing Ears
III.

Nose Consciousness

ghrāṇavijñāna[19] ༣

Tibetan: སྣའི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, Wylie: sna’i rnam-shes

鼻識 Smell(s) Smell Nose
IV.

Tongue Consciousness

jihvāvijñāna[20] ༤

Tibetan: ལྕེའི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, Wylie: lce’i rnam-shes

舌識 Taste(s) Taste Tongue
V.

Body Consciousness

kāyavijñāna[21] ༥

Tibetan: ལུས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, Wylie: lus-kyi rnam-shes

身識 Feeling(s) Touch Body
VI.

Mental Consciousness[κ]

manovijñāna[5] ༦

Tibetan: ཡིད་ཀྱི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, Wylie: yid-kyi rnam-shes

意識 Thought(s) Ideation Mind
VII.

This Seventh Consciousness, posited on the basis of straightforward cognition in combination with inferential cognition,[λ] is asserted, uncommonly, in Yogācāra.[5]

VII.

Deluded awareness[μ]

manas, kliṣṭa-manas,[5] kliṣṭamanovijñāna,[25] ༧

Tibetan: ཉོན་ཡིད་རྣམ་ཤེས་, Wylie: nyon-yid rnam-shes

末那識 The eighth consciousness (which it grasps to as a self) [26] Disturbing emotion or attitude (Skt.: kleśa)[ν] Mind
VIII.

This Eighth Consciousness, posited on the basis of inferential cognition, is asserted, uncommonly, in Yogācāra.[5]

VIII.

"Storehouse" or "repository" consciousness [28][ξ]

ālāyavijñāna,[5] Also known as the appropriating consciousness (ādānavijñāna), the basic consciousness (mūla-vijñāna), and the "mind which has all the seeds" (sarvabījakam cittam).[28] ༨

Tibetan: ཀུན་གཞི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, Wylie: kun-gzhi rnam-shes

藏識,

種子識, 阿賴耶識, or 本識

The surrounding world, the "receptacle" or "container" (bhājana) world [29] Reflexive awareness[ο] Mind

Origins and development

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Early Buddhist texts

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The first five sense-consciousnesses along with the sixth consciousness are identified in the Suttapiṭaka, especially in the Sabbasutta,[31] Saṃyuttanikāya 35.23:

"Monks, I will teach you the All. Listen & pay close attention. I will speak."

"As you say, lord," the monks responded.

The Blessed One said, "What is the All? Simply the eye & forms, ear & sounds, nose & aromas, tongue & flavors, body & tactile sensations, intellect & ideas. This, monks, is called the All. [1] Anyone who would say, 'Repudiating this All, I will describe another,' if questioned on what exactly might be the grounds for his statement, would be unable to explain, and furthermore, would be put to grief. Why? Because it lies beyond range."[32]

The early Buddhist texts speak of anusayā (Sanskrit: anuśayāḥ), the “underlying tendencies” or “latent dispositions” which keep beings caught in the circle of samsara. These potential tendencies are generally seen as unconscious processes which "lie beneath" our everyday consciousness, and according to Waldron "they represent the potential, the tendency, for cognitive and emotional afflictions (Pali: kilesā, Sanskrit: kleśāḥ) to arise".[2]

Sautrāntika and Theravāda theories

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The Sautrāntika school of Buddhism, which relied closely on the sutras, developed a theory of seeds (bīja, 種子) in the mindstream (cittasaṃtāna, 心相續,[33] lit. "mind-character-continuity") to explain how karma and the latent dispositions continued throughout life and rebirth. This theory later developed into the alayavijñana view.[34]

The Theravāda theory of the bhavaṅga may also be a forerunner of the ālāyavijñana theory. Vasubandhu cites the bhavaṅgavijñāna of the Sinhalese school (Tāmraparṇīyanikāya) as a forerunner of the ālāyavijñāna. The Theravadin theory is also mentioned by Xuánzàng.[35]

Yogācāra

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Main article: Yogācāra

The texts of the Yogācāra school gives a detailed explanation of the workings of the mind and the way it constructs the reality we experience. It is "meant to be an explanation of experience, rather than a system of ontology".[36] The theory of the ālāyavijñana and the other consciousnesses developed out of a need to work out various issues in Buddhist Abhidharma thought. According to Lambert Schmithausen, the first mention of the concept occurs in the Yogācārabhumiśāstra, which posits a basal consciousness that contains seeds for future cognitive processes.[37] It is also described in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and in the Mahāyānasaṃgraha of Asaṅga.

Vasubandhu is considered to be the systematizer of Yogācāra thought.[38] Vasubandhu used the concept of the six consciousnesses, on which he elaborated in the Triṃśikaikākārikā (Treatise in Thirty Stanzas).[39]

Vijñānāni

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According to the traditional interpretation, Vasubandhu states that there are eight consciousnesses (vijñānāni, singular: vijñāna):

  • Five sense-consciousnesses,
  • Mind (perception),
  • Manas (self-consciousness),[40]
  • Storehouse-consciousness.[41]

According to Kalupahana, this classification of eight consciousnesses is based on a misunderstanding of Vasubandhu's Triṃśikaikākārikā by later adherents.[42][note 1]

Ālayavijñāna

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The ālayavijñāna (Japanese: 阿頼耶識 arayashiki), or the "All-encompassing foundation consciousness",[8] forms the "base-consciousness" (mūlavijñāna) or "causal consciousness". According to the traditional interpretation, the other seven consciousnesses are "evolving" or "transforming" consciousnesses originating in this base-consciousness. The store-house consciousness accumulates all potential energy as seeds (bīja) for the mental (nāma) and physical (rūpa) manifestation of one's existence (nāmarūpa). It is the storehouse-consciousness which induces rebirth, causing the origination of a new existence.

Role

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The ālayavijñāna is also described in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra as the "mind which has all the seeds" (sarvabījakam cittam) which enters the womb and develops based on two forms of appropriation or attachment (upādāna); to the material sense faculties, and to predispositions (vāsanāḥ) towards conceptual proliferations (prapañca).[43] The Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra also defines it in varying ways:

This consciousness is also called the appropriating consciousness ("adana-vijñana") because the body is grasped and appropriated by it.

It is also called the "alaya-vijñana" because it dwells in and attaches to this body in a common destiny ("ekayogakṣema-arthena").

It is also called mind ("citta") because it is heaped up and accumulated by [the six cognitive objects, i.e.:] visual forms, sounds, smells, flavors, tangibles and dharmas.[43]

In a seemingly innovative move, the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra states that the alayavijñana is always active subliminally and occurs simultaneously with, "supported by and depending upon" the six sense consciousnesses.[3]

According to Asanga's Mahāyānasaṃgraha, the alayavijñana is taught by other Buddhist schools by different names. He states that the alaya is what the Mahasamghikas call the “root-consciousness” (mulavijñana), what the Mahīśāsakas call “the aggregate which lasts as long as samsara” (asaṃsārikaskandha) and what the Sthaviras call the bhavaṅga.[44]

Rebirth and purification

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The store-house consciousness receives impressions from all functions of the other consciousnesses, and retains them as potential energy, bīja or "seeds", for their further manifestations and activities. Since it serves as the container for all experiential impressions it is also called the "seed consciousness" (種子識) or container consciousness.

According to Yogācāra teachings, the seeds stored in the store consciousness of sentient beings are not pure.[note 2]

The store consciousness, while being originally immaculate in itself, contains a "mysterious mixture of purity and defilement, good and evil". Because of this mixture the transformation of consciousness from defilement to purity can take place and awakening is possible.[45]

Through the process of purification the dharma practitioner can become an Arhat, when the four defilements of the mental functions [note 3] of the manas-consciousness are purified.[note 4] [note 5]

Tathagata-garbha thought

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According to the Laṅkāvatārasūtra and the schools of Chan and Zen Buddhism, the ālāyavijñāna is identical with the tathāgatagarbha[note 6], and is fundamentally pure.[46]

The equation of ālāyavijñāna and tathāgatagarbha was contested. It was seen as "something akin to the Hindu notions of ātman (permanent, invariant self) and prakṛti (primordial substrative nature from which all mental, emotional and physical things evolve)." According to Lusthaus, the critique led by the end of the eighth century to the rise of the logico-epistemic tradition of Yogācāra and a hybrid school combining Tathāgatagarbha thought with basic Yogācāra doctrines:[47]

The logico-epistemological wing in part sidestepped the critique by using the term citta-santāna, "mind-stream", instead of ālaya-vijñāna, for what amounted to roughly the same idea. It was easier to deny that a "stream" represented a reified self. On the other hand, the Tathāgatagarbha hybrid school was no stranger to the charge of smuggling notions of selfhood into its doctrines, since, for example, it explicitly defined the tathāgatagarbha as "permanent, pleasurable, self, and pure (nitya, sukha, ātman, śuddha)". Many Tathāgatagarbha texts, in fact, argue for the acceptance of selfhood (ātman) as a sign of higher accomplishment. The hybrid school attempted to conflate tathāgatagarbha with the ālaya-vijñāna.[47]

Transformations of consciousness

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The traditional interpretation of the eight consciousnesses may be discarded on the ground of a reinterpretation of Vasubandhu's works. According to Kalupahana, instead of positing such an consciousnesses, the Triṃśikaikākārikā describes the transformations of this consciousness:

Taking vipaka, manana and vijnapti as three different kinds of functions, rather than characteristics, and understanding vijnana itself as a function (vijnanatiti vijnanam), Vasubandhu seems to be avoiding any form of substantialist thinking in relation to consciousness.[48]

These transformations are threefold:[48]

Whatever, indeed, is the variety of ideas of self and elements that prevails, it occurs in the transformation of consciousness. Such transformation is threefold, [namely,][49]

The first transformation results in the ālāya:

the resultant, what is called mentation, as well as the concept of the object. Herein, the consciousness called alaya, with all its seeds, is the resultant.[50]

The ālāyavijñāna therefore is not an eighth consciousness, but the resultant of the transformation of consciousness:

Instead of being a completely distinct category, alaya-vijnana merely represents the normal flow of the stream of consciousness uninterrupted by the appearance of reflective self-awareness. It is no more than the unbroken stream of consciousness called the life-process by the Buddha. It is the cognitive process, containing both emotive and co-native aspects of human experience, but without the enlarged egoistic emotions and dogmatic graspings characteristic of the next two transformations.[42]

The second transformation is manana, self-consciousness or "Self-view, self-confusion, self-esteem and self-love".[51] According to the Lankavatara and later interpreters it is the seventh consciousness.[52] It is "thinking" about the various perceptions occurring in the stream of consciousness".[52] The alaya is defiled by this self-interest;

[I]t can be purified by adopting a non-substantialist (anatman) perspective and thereby allowing the alaya-part (i.e. attachment) to dissipate, leaving consciousness or the function of being intact.[51]

The third transformation is viṣayavijñapti, the "concept of the object".[53] In this transformation the concept of objects is created. By creating these concepts human beings become "susceptible to grasping after the object":[53]

Vasubandhu is critical of the third transformation, not because it relates to the conception of an object, but because it generates grasping after a "real object" (sad artha), even when it is no more than a conception (vijnapti) that combines experience and reflection.[54]

A similar perspective is give by Walpola Rahula. According to Walpola Rahula, all the elements of the Yogācāra storehouse-consciousness are already found in the Pāli Canon.[55] He writes that the three layers of the mind (citta, manas, and vijñāna) as presented by Asaṅga are also mentioned in the Pāli Canon:

Thus we can see that 'Vijñāna' represents the simple reaction or response of the sense organs when they come in contact with external objects. This is the uppermost or superficial aspect or layer of the 'Vijñāna-skandha'. 'Manas' represents the aspect of its mental functioning, thinking, reasoning, conceiving ideas, etc. 'Citta' which is here called 'Ālayavijñāna', represents the deepest, finest and subtlest aspect or layer of the Aggregate of consciousness. It contains all the traces or impressions of the past actions and all good and bad future possibilities.[56]

Understanding in Buddhism

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China

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Eight Consciousnesses Return to the Origin 八識歸元圖, 1615 Xingming guizhi

Fǎxiàng and Huayan

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According to Thomas McEvilley, although Vasubandhu had postulated numerous ālāya-vijñāna-s, a separate one for each individual person in the parakalpita,[note 2] this multiplicity was later eliminated in the Fǎxiàng and Huayan metaphysics.[note 7] These schools inculcated instead the doctrine of a single universal and eternal ālaya-vijñāna. This exalted enstatement of the ālāyavijñāna is described in the Fǎxiàng as "primordial unity".[57]

Thomas McEvilley further argues that the presentation of the three natures by Vasubandhu is consistent with the Neo-platonist views of Plotinus and his universal 'One', 'Mind', and 'Soul'.[58]

Chán

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A core teaching of Chan/Zen Buddhism describes the transformation of the Eight Consciousnesses into the Four Wisdoms.[note 8] In this teaching, Buddhist practice is to turn the light of awareness around, from misconceptions regarding the nature of reality as being external, to kenshō, "directly see one's own nature".[citation needed]. Thus the Eighth Consciousness is transformed into the Great Perfect Mirror Wisdom, the Seventh Consciousness into the Equality (Universal Nature) Wisdom, the Sixth Consciousness into the Profound Observing Wisdom, and First to Fifth Consciousnesses into the All Performing (Perfection of Action) Wisdom.

Korea

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The Interpenetration (通達) and Essence-Function (體用) of Wonhyo (元曉) is described in the Treatise on Awakening Mahāyāna Faith (大乘起信論, Mahāyānaśraddhotpādaśāstra, AMF in the excerpt below):

The author of the AMF was deeply concerned with the question of the respective origins of ignorance and enlightenment. If enlightenment is originally existent, how do we become submerged in ignorance? If ignorance is originally existent, how is it possible to overcome it? And finally, at the most basic level of mind, the alaya consciousness (藏識), is there originally purity or taint? The AMF dealt with these questions in a systematic and thorough fashion, working through the Yogacāra concept of the alaya consciousness. The technical term used in the AMF which functions as a metaphorical synonym for interpenetration is "permeation" or "perfumation (薫)," referring to the fact that defilement (煩惱) "perfumates" suchness (眞如), and suchness perfumates defilement, depending on the current condition of the mind.[61]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Kalupahana: "The above explanation of alaya-vijnana makes it very different from that found in the Lankavatara. The latter assumes alaya to be the eight consciousness, giving the impression that it represents a totally distinct category. Vasubandhu does not refer to it as the eight, even though his later disciples like Sthiramati and Hsuan Tsang constantly refer to it as such".[42]
  2. ^ a b Each being has his own one and only, formless and no-place-to-abide store-house consciousness. Our "being" is created by our own store-consciousness, according to the karma seeds stored in it. In "coming and going" we definitely do not own the "no-coming and no-going" store-house consciousness, rather we are owned by it. Just as a human image shown in a monitor can never be described as lasting for any instant, since "he" is just the production of electron currents of data stored and flow from the hard disk of the computer, so do seed-currents drain from the store-consciousness, never last from one moment to the next.
  3. ^ the mental functions (心所法),: self-delusion (我癡), self-view (我見), egotism (我慢), and self-love (我愛)
  4. ^ By then the polluted mental functions of the first six consciousnesses would have been cleansed. The seventh or the manas-consciousness determines whether or not the seeds and the contentdrain from the alaya-vijnana breaks through, becoming a "function" to be perceived by us in the mental or physical world.
  5. ^ In contrast to an Arhat, a Buddha is one with all his seeds stored in the eighth Seed consciousness. Cleansed and substituted, bad for good, one for one, his polluted-seeds-containing eighth consciousness (Alaya Consciousness) becomes an all-seeds-purified eighth consciousness (Pure consciousness 無垢識 ), and he becomes a Buddha.
  6. ^ The womb or matrix of the Thus-come-one, the Buddha
  7. ^ See also Buddha-nature#Popularisation in Chinese Buddhism
  8. ^ It is found in Chapter 7 of the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Ancestor Zen Master Huineng and other Zen masters, such as Hakuin Ekaku, in his work titled Keiso Dokuqui,[59] and Xuyun, in his work titled Daily Lectures at Two Ch'an Weeks, Week 1, Fourth Day.[60]

Definitions

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  1. ^ Sanskrit nama = Tibetan: མིང་, Wylie: ming = English "name".[9]
  2. ^ Sanskrit vijñāna = Tibetan: རྣམ་ཤེས་, Wylie: rnam-shes = English "consciousness".[10]
  3. ^ Sanskrit anitya = Tibetan: མི་རྟག་པ་, Wylie: mi-rtag-pa = English "nonstatic phænomenon".[11]
  4. '^ Tibetan: འཁོར་ལོ་གསུམ་, Wylie: khor-lo gsum = English "three circles" of action.[12]
  5. ^ Sanskrit rupa = Tibetan: གཟུགས་, Wylie: gzugs = English "form(s) of physical phænomena".[13]
  6. ^ Tibetan: ཤེས་པ་, Wylie: shes-pa = English "cognition".[14]
  7. ^ Sanskrit indriya = Tibetan: དབང་པོ་, Wylie: dbang-po = English "cognitive sensor".[15]
  8. ^ Sanskrit pravṛtti-vijñāna refers to the first six consciousnesses which derive from direct sensory (including mental) cognition.[5]: 11 
  9. ^ Sanskrit pratyakshapramana = Tibetan: མངོན་སུམ་ཚད་མ་, Wylie: mngon-sum tshad-ma = English "valid straightforward cognition".[17]
  10. ^ Sanskrit mano-vijñāna = Tibetan: ཡིད་ཀྱི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, Wylie: yid-kyi rnam-shes = English "mental consciousness".[22]
  11. ^ Sanskrit anumana = Tibetan: རྗེས་དཔག་, Wylie: rjes-dpag = English "inferential cognition".[23]
  12. ^ Tibetan: ཉོན་ཡིད་་, Wylie: nyon-yid = English "deluded awareness".[24]
  13. ^ Sanskrit klesha = Tibetan: ཉོན་མོངས་, Wylie: nyon-mongs = English "disturbing emotion or attitude"[27] – also called "moving mind", or mind monkey, in some Chinese and Japanese schools.
  14. ^ Sanskrit ālayavijñāna (from compounding ālaya – "abode" or dwelling", with vijñāna, or "consciousness") = Tibetan: ཀུན་གཞི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, Wylie: kun-gzhi rnam-shes = Chinese 阿賴耶識 = English "All-encompassing foundation consciousness"[8] = Japanese: arayashiki.
  15. ^ Tibetan: རང་རིག་, Wylie: rang-rig = English "reflexive awareness"[30] in non-Gelug presentations of Sautrantika and Chittamatra tenet systems.

References

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  1. ^ Harivarman. "Sātyasiddhiśāstra"At vargaḥ 62 (nācaitasikavargaḥ): "ya ādhyātmiko 'sti vijñānakāyāḥ"{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  2. ^ a b Waldron, William S. The Buddhist Unconscious: The Alaya-vijñana in the context of Indian Buddhist Thought. Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism, 2003, page 33.
  3. ^ a b Waldron, William S. The Buddhist Unconscious: The Alaya-vijñana in the context of Indian Buddhist Thought. Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism, 2003, page 97
  4. ^ a b Berzin, Alexander. "Mind and Mental Factors: the Fifty-one Types of Subsidiary Awareness". Berlin, Germany; June 2002; revised July, 2006: Study Buddhism. Retrieved 4 June 2016. Unlike the Western view of consciousness as a general faculty that can be aware of all sensory and mental objects, Buddhism differentiates six types of consciousness, each of which is specific to one sensory field or to the mental field. A primary consciousness cognizes merely the essential nature (ngo-bo) of an object, which means the category of phenomenon to which something belongs. For example, eye consciousness cognizes a sight as merely a sight. The Chittamatra schools add two more types of primary consciousness to make their list of an eightfold network of primary consciousnesses (rnam-shes tshogs-brgyad): deluded awareness (nyon-yid), alayavijnana (kun-gzhi rnam-shes, all-encompassing foundation consciousness, storehouse consciousness). Alayavijnana is an individual consciousness, not a universal one, underlying all moments of cognition. It cognizes the same objects as the cognitions it underlies, but is a nondetermining cognition of what appears to it (snang-la ma-nges-pa, inattentive cognition) and lacks clarity of its objects. It carries karmic legacies (sa-bon) and the mental impressions of memories, in the sense that both are nonstatic abstractions imputed on the alayavijnana. The continuity of an individual alayavijnana ceases with the attainment of enlightenment.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Gareth Sparham, translator; Shotaro Iida; Tsoṅ-kha-pa Blo-bzaṅ-grags-pa 1357–1419 (1993). "Introduction" (alk. paper). Yid daṅ kun gźi'i dka' ba'i gnas rgya cher 'grel pa legs par bśad pa'i legs par bśad pa'i rgya mdzo: Ocean of Eloquence: Tsong kha pa's Commentary on the Yogācāra Doctrine of Mind (in English and Tibetan) (1st ed.). Albany, NY, United States: State University of New York Press (SUNY). ISBN 0-7914-1479-5. Retrieved 6 February 2013. {{cite book}}: |author1= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ Berzin, Alexander. "English Glossary of Buddhist Terms". Primary Consciousness. Berlin, Germany: The Berzin Archives. Retrieved 14 February 2013. Within a cognition of an object, the awareness of merely the essential nature of the object that the cognition focuses on. Primary consciousness has the identity-nature of being an individualizing awareness.
  7. ^ Rinpoche, Thrangu (2013). Transcending Ego: Distinguishing Consciousness from Wisdom. Translated by Roberts, Peter Alan. Namo Buddha Publications. ISBN 978-0-9628026-1-4.
  8. ^ a b c Berzin, Alexander. "English Glossart of Buddhist Terms: 'All-encompassing Foundation Consciousness'". Berlin, Germany: The Berzin Archives. Retrieved 6 February 2013. An unspecified, nonobstructive, individual consciousness that underlies all cognition, cognizes the same objects as the cognitions it underlies, but is a nondetermining cognition of what appears to it and lacks clarity of its objects. It carries the karmic legacies of karma and the mental impressions of memories, in the sense that they are imputed on it. It is also translated as 'foundation consciousness' and, by some translators, as 'storehouse consciousness.' According to Gelug, asserted only by the Chittamatra system; according to non-Gelug, asserted by both the Chittamatra and Madhyamaka systems.
  9. ^ Berzin, Alexander. "English Glossary of Buddhist Terms: 'Name'". Berlin, Germany: The Berzin Archives. Retrieved 7 February 2013. A combination of sounds that are assigned a meaning.
  10. ^ Berzin, Alexander. "English Glossary of Buddhist Terms: 'Consciousness'". Berlin, Germany: The Berzin Archives. Retrieved 6 February 2013. A class of ways of being aware of something that cognizes merely the essential nature of its object, such as its being a sight, a sound, a mental object, etc. Consciousness may be either sensory or mental, and there are either six or eight types. The term has nothing to do with the Western concept of conscious versus unconscious.
  11. ^ Berzin, Alexander. "English Glossary of Buddhist Terms: 'Nonstatic Phenomenon'". Berlin, Germany: The Berzin Archives. Retrieved 7 February 2013. Phenomena that are affected and supported by causes and circumstances and, consequently, change from moment to moment, and which produce effects. Their streams of continuity may have a beginning and an end, a beginning and no end, no beginning but an end, or no beginning and no end. Some translators render the term as 'impermanent phenomena.' They include forms of physical phenomena, ways of being aware of something, and noncongruent affecting variables, which are neither of the two.
  12. ^ Berzin, Alexander. "English Glossary of Buddhist Terms: 'Three Circles'". Berlin, Germany: The Berzin Archives. Retrieved 7 February 2013. Three aspects of an action that are all equally void of true existence: (1) the individual performing the action, (2) the object upon or toward which the action is committed, and (3) the action itself. Occasionally, as in the case of the action of giving, the object may refer to the object given. The existence of each of these is established dependently on the others. Sometimes translated as 'the three spheres' of an action.
  13. ^ Berzin, Alexander. "English Glossary of Buddhist Terms: 'Forms of Physical Phenomena'". Berlin, Germany: The Berzin Archives. Retrieved 6 February 2013. Nonstatic phenomena that can either (1) transform into another form of physical phenomenon when two or more of them come into contact with each other, such as water and earth which can transform into mud, or (2) be known as what they are by analyzing their directional parts, such as the sight of a vase seen in a dream. Forms of physical phenomena include the nonstatic phenomena of forms and eye sensors, sounds and ear sensors, smells and nose sensors, tastes and tongue sensors, physical sensations and body sensors, and forms of physical phenomena included only among cognitive stimulators that are all phenomena. Equivalent to the aggregate of forms of physical phenomena.
  14. ^ Berzin, Alexander. "English Glossary of Buddhist Terms: 'Cognition'". Berlin, Germany: The Berzin Archives. Retrieved 6 February 2013. (1) The act of cognizing or knowing something, but without necessarily knowing what it is or what it means. It may be either valid or invalid, conceptual or nonconceptual . This is the most general term for knowing something. (2) The 'package' of a primary consciousness, its accompanying mental factors (subsidiary awarenesses), and the cognitive object shared by all of them. According to some systems, a cognition also includes reflexive awareness.
  15. ^ Berzin, Alexander. "English Glossary of Buddhist Terms: 'Cognitive Sensor'". Berlin, Germany: The Berzin Archives. Retrieved 6 February 2013. The dominating condition that determines the type of cognition a way of being aware of something is. In the case of the five types of sensory cognition, it is the photosensitive cells of the eyes, the sound-sensitive cells of the ears, the smell-sensitive cells of the nose, the taste-sensitive cells of the tongue, and the physical-sensation-sensitive cells of the body. In the case of mental cognition, it is the immediately preceding moment of cognition. Some translators render the term as 'sense power.'
  16. ^ Delhey, Martin (2016). "The Indian Yogācāra Master Sthiramati and His Views on the Ālayavijñāna Concept". Academy of Buddhist Studies, Dongguk University. 26 (2): 11–35 – via Academia.eduFrom page 18: "aṣṭau vijñānāni vijñānaskandhaḥ: ṣaṭ pravṛttivijñānāni, ālayavijñānaṃ, kliṣṭaṃ ca manaḥ" rendered as "the personality constituent consciousness consists of the eight forms of consciousness: the six manifest forms of mind, the ālayavijñāna and the defiled mind{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  17. ^ Berzin, Alexander. "English Glossary of Buddhist Terms: 'Valid Straightforward Cognition'". Berlin, Germany: The Berzin Archives. Retrieved 7 February 2013. Straightforward cognition that is nonfallacious. See: straightforward cognition.
  18. ^ Berzin, Alexander. "A Brief History of Buddhism in India before the Thirteenth-Century Invasions". Berlin, Germany; January, 2002; revised April, 2007: Study Buddhism. Retrieved 4 June 2016. The Theravada and Sarvastivada Schools each held their own fourth councils. The Theravada School held its fourth council in 83 BCE in Sri Lanka. In the face of various groups having splintered off from Theravada over differences in interpretation of Buddha words (sic.), Maharakkhita and five hundred Theravada elders met to recite and write down Buddha's words in order to preserve their authenticity. This was the first time Buddha's teachings were put into written form and, in this case, they were rendered into the Pali language. This version of The Three Basket-like Collections, The Tipitaka, is commonly known as The Pali Canon. The other Hinayana Schools, however, continued to transmit the teachings in oral form.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  19. ^ Muller, Charles (31 January 2003). "Digital Dictionary of Buddhism - 鼻識". DDB. Retrieved 29 March 2018.[dead link‍]
  20. ^ Muller, Charles (11 May 2002). "Digital Dictionary of Buddhism - 舌識". DDB.[permanent dead link‍]
  21. ^ Muller, Charles (13 June 2002). "Digital Dictionary of Buddhism - 身識". DDB.[permanent dead link‍]
  22. ^ Berzin, Alexander. "English Glossary of Buddhist Terms: 'Mental Consciousness'". Berlin, Germany: The Berzin Archives. Retrieved 7 February 2013. A primary consciousness that can take any existent phenomenon as its object and which relies on merely the previous moment of cognition as its dominating condition and not on any physical sensors.
  23. ^ Berzin, Alexander. "English Glossary of Buddhist Terms: 'Inferential Cognition'". Berlin, Germany: The Berzin Archives. Retrieved 7 February 2013. A valid conceptual way of cognizing an obscure object through reliance on a correct line of reasoning as its basis.
  24. ^ Berzin, Alexander. "English Glossary of Buddhist Terms: 'Deluded Awareness'". Berlin, Germany: The Berzin Archives. Retrieved 6 February 2013. A primary consciousness that is aimed at the alayavijnana in the Chittamatra system, or at the alaya for habits in the dzogchen system, and grasps at it to be the 'me' to be refuted.
  25. ^ Muller, Charles (15 September 1997). "Digital Dictionary of Buddhism - 八識". DDB.[permanent dead link‍]
  26. ^ Williams, Paul (2008). Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations, Routledge, p. 97.
  27. ^ Berzin, Alexander. "English Glossary of Buddhist Terms: 'Disturbing Emotion or Attitude'". Berlin, Germany: The Berzin Archives. Retrieved 6 February 2013. A subsidiary awareness (mental factor) that, when it arises, causes oneself to lose peace of mind and incapacitates oneself so that one loses self-control. An indication that one is experiencing a disturbing emotion or attitude is that it makes oneself and/or others feel uncomfortable. Some translators render this term as 'afflictive emotions' or 'emotional afflictions.'
  28. ^ a b Waldron, William S. The Buddhist Unconscious: The Alaya-vijñana in the context of Indian Buddhist Thought. Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism, 2003, pp 94-95.
  29. ^ Schmithausen, Lambert (1987). Ālayavijñāna: on the origin and the early development of a central concept of Yogācāra philosophy, Part I: Text, page 89. Tokyo, International Institute for Buddhist Studies, Studia Philologica Buddhica Monograph Series IVa.
  30. ^ Berzin, Alexander. "English Glossary of Buddhist Terms: 'Reflexive Awareness'". Berlin, Germany: The Berzin Archives. Retrieved 6 February 2013. (1) The cognitive faculty within a cognition, asserted in the Sautrantika and Chittamatra tenet systems, that takes as its cognitive object the consciousness within the cognition that it is part of. It also cognizes the validity or invalidity of the cognition that it is part of, and accounts for the ability to recall the cognition. (2) In the non-Gelug schools, this cognitive faculty becomes reflexive deep awareness -- that part of an arya's nonconceptual cognition of voidness that cognizes the two truths of that nonconceptual cognition.
  31. ^ "Sabbasutta: The All". suttacentral.net.
  32. ^ "Sabba Sutta: The All". www.accesstoinsight.org.
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  36. ^ Kochumuttom 1999, p. 1.
  37. ^ Schmithausen, Lambert. Ālayavijñāna: On the Origin and the Early Development of a Central Concept of Yogācāra Philosophy, International Institute for Buddhist Studies (1987), pp 12-14
  38. ^ Kalupahana 1992, p. 126.
  39. ^ Kalupahana 1992, p. 135-143.
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  43. ^ a b Waldron, William S. How Innovative is ALAYAVIJÑANA
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  45. ^ The Lankavatara Sutra, A Mahayana Text, Suzuki's introduction at p. xxvi, available online: [1].
  46. ^ Peter Harvey, Consciousness Mysticism in the Discourses of the Buddha. In Karel Werner, ed., The Yogi and the Mystic. Curzon Press 1989, pages 96-97.
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  49. ^ Kalupahana 1992, p. 192, Trimsika verse 1.
  50. ^ Kalupahana 1992, p. 194, Trimsika verse 2.
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  56. ^ Walpola Rahula, quoted in Padmasiri De Silva, Robert Henry Thouless, Buddhist and Freudian Psychology. Third revised edition published by NUS Press, 1992 page 66, [2].
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Sources

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  • Kalupahana, David J. (1992), The Principles of Buddhist Psychology, Delhi: ri Satguru Publications
  • Kochumuttom, Thomas A. (1999), A buddhist Doctrine of Experience. A New Translation and Interpretation of the Works of Vasubandhu the Yogacarin, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass
  • Norbu, Namkhai (2001). The Precious Vase: Instructions on the Base of Santi Maha Sangha. Shang Shung Edizioni. Second revised edition. (Translated from the Tibetan, edited and annotated by Adriano Clemente with the help of the author. Translated from Italian into English by Andy Lukianowicz.)
  • Epstein, Ronald (undated). Verses Delineating the Eight Consciousnesses . A translation and explanation of the "Verses Delineating the Eight Consciousnesses by Tripitaka Master Hsuan-Tsang of the Tang Dynasty.

Further reading

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  • Schmithausen, Lambert (1987). Ālayavijñāna. On the Origin and Early Development of a Central Concept of Yogācāra Philosophy. 2 vols. Studia Philologica Buddhica, Monograph Series, 4a and 4b, Tokyo.
  • Waldron, William, S. (2003). The Buddhist Unconscious: The ālāyavijñāna in the Context of Indian Buddhist Thought, London, RoutledgeCurzon.
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