The Eight Consciousnesses (Skt. ''aṣṭa vijñānakāyāḥ'') is a classification developed in the tradition of the
Yogācāra
Yogachara ( sa, योगाचार, IAST: '; literally "yoga practice"; "one whose practice is yoga") is an influential tradition of Buddhist philosophy and psychology emphasizing the study of cognition, perception, and consciousness through t ...
school of
Mahayana
''Mahāyāna'' (; "Great Vehicle") is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies, and practices. Mahāyāna Buddhism developed in India (c. 1st century BCE onwards) and is considered one of the three main existing br ...
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religions, Indian religion or Indian philosophy#Buddhist philosophy, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha. ...
. They enumerate the five sense consciousnesses, supplemented by the mental consciousness (''manovijñāna''), the defiled mental consciousness (''kliṣṭamanovijñāna''
), and finally the fundamental store-house consciousness (''ālāyavijñāna''), which is the basis of the other seven.
[Waldron, William S. The Buddhist Unconscious: The Alaya-vijñana in the context of Indian Buddhist Thought. Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism, 2003, page 97] This eighth consciousness is said to store the impressions (''
vāsanāḥ'') of previous experiences, which form the seeds (''
bīja'') of future
karma
Karma (; sa, कर्म}, ; pi, kamma, italic=yes) in Sanskrit means an action, work, or deed, and its effect or consequences. In Indian religions, the term more specifically refers to a principle of cause and effect, often descriptivel ...
in this life and in the next after
rebirth
Rebirth may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Film
* ''Rebirth'' (2011 film), a 2011 Japanese drama film
* ''Rebirth'' (2016 film), a 2016 American thriller film
* ''Rebirth'', a documentary film produced by Project Rebirth
* ''The Re ...
.
Eightfold network of primary consciousnesses
All surviving schools of Buddhist thought accept – "in common" – the existence of the first six primary consciousnesses (Sanskrit: ', ).
The internally coherent school associated with
Maitreya,
Asaṅga, and
Vasubandhu
Vasubandhu (; Tibetan: དབྱིག་གཉེན་ ; fl. 4th to 5th century CE) was an influential Buddhist monk and scholar from ''Puruṣapura'' in ancient India, modern day Peshawar, Pakistan. He was a philosopher who wrote commentary ...
, however, uniquely – or "uncommonly" – also posits the existence of two additional primary consciousnesses, ''kliṣṭamanovijñāna'' and ', in order to explain the workings of ''
karma
Karma (; sa, कर्म}, ; pi, kamma, italic=yes) in Sanskrit means an action, work, or deed, and its effect or consequences. In Indian religions, the term more specifically refers to a principle of cause and effect, often descriptivel ...
''.
The first six of these primary consciousnesses comprise the five sensory faculties together with mental consciousness, which is counted as the sixth.
According to Gareth Sparham,
The ' doctrine arose on the Indian subcontinent about one thousand years before Tsong kha pa. It gained its place in a distinctly system over a period of some three hundred years stretching from 100 to 400 , culminating in the ', a short text by Asaṅga (circa 350), setting out a systematic presentation of the ' 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 founding saints (Tib. ''shing rta srol byed''): Maitreya nātha/nowiki>, Asaṅga, and Vasubandhu.
While some noteworthy modern scholars of the
Gelug
240px, The 14th Dalai Lama (center), the most influential figure of the contemporary Gelug tradition, at the 2003 Bodhgaya (India).
The Gelug (, also Geluk; "virtuous")Kay, David N. (2007). ''Tibetan and Zen Buddhism in Britain: Transplantati ...
tradition (which was founded by
Tsongkhapa
Tsongkhapa ('','' meaning: "the man from Tsongkha" or "the Man from Onion Valley", c. 1357–1419) was an influential Tibetan Buddhist monk, philosopher and tantric yogi, whose activities led to the formation of the Gelug school of Tibetan Budd ...
's reforms to
Atisha's
Kadam school) assert that the ' is posited only in the Yogācāra philosophical tenet system, all non-Gelug schools of Tibetan buddhism maintain that the ' is accepted by the various
Madhyamaka
Mādhyamaka ("middle way" or "centrism"; ; Tibetan: དབུ་མ་པ ; ''dbu ma pa''), otherwise known as Śūnyavāda ("the emptiness doctrine") and Niḥsvabhāvavāda ("the no ''svabhāva'' doctrine"), refers to a tradition of Buddhi ...
schools, as well.
The eightfold network of primary consciousnesses – ' in Sanskrit (from compounding ', "eight", with ', the plural of ''vijñāna'' "consciousnesses"), or – is roughly sketched out in the following table.
Origins and development
Early Buddhist texts
The first five sense-consciousnesses along with the sixth consciousness are identified in the Suttapiṭaka, especially in the Sabbasutta,
Saṃyuttanikāya 35.23:
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".
[Waldron, William S. The Buddhist Unconscious: The Alaya-vijñana in the context of Indian Buddhist Thought. Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism, 2003, page 33.]
Sautrāntika and Theravāda theories
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, 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.
The Theravāda theory of the
bhavaṅga may also be a forerunner of the ālāyavijñana theory.
Vasubandhu
Vasubandhu (; Tibetan: དབྱིག་གཉེན་ ; fl. 4th to 5th century CE) was an influential Buddhist monk and scholar from ''Puruṣapura'' in ancient India, modern day Peshawar, Pakistan. He was a philosopher who wrote commentary ...
cites the bhavaṅgavijñāna of the
Sinhalese school (''Tāmraparṇīyanikāya'') as a forerunner of the ālāyavijñāna. The Theravadin theory is also mentioned by Xuánzàng.
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". The theory of the ālāyavijñana and the other consciousnesses developed out of a need to work out various issues in Buddhist
Abhidharma
The Abhidharma are ancient (third century BCE and later) Buddhist texts which contain detailed scholastic presentations of doctrinal material appearing in the Buddhist ''sutras''. It also refers to the scholastic method itself as well as the f ...
thought. According to
Lambert Schmithausen
Lambert Schmithausen (born 17 November 1939 in Cologne, Germany)
"On the Problem of the External World in the Ch'eng wei shih lun"
Tokyo: The International Institute for Buddhist Studies 2005
(''Studia Philologica Buddhica'', Occasional Paper ...
, the first mention of the concept occurs in the
Yogācārabhumiśāstra, which posits a basal consciousness that contains seeds for future cognitive processes. It is also described in the
Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and in the
Mahāyānasaṃgraha
The Mahāyānasaṃgraha (MSg) (Sanskrit; zh, t=攝大乘論, p=Shè dàchéng lùn, Tibetan: ''theg pa chen po bsdus pa''), or the Mahāyāna Compendium/Summary, is a key work of the Yogācāra school of Mahāyāna Buddhist philosophy, attrib ...
of
Asaṅga.
Vasubandhu
Vasubandhu (; Tibetan: དབྱིག་གཉེན་ ; fl. 4th to 5th century CE) was an influential Buddhist monk and scholar from ''Puruṣapura'' in ancient India, modern day Peshawar, Pakistan. He was a philosopher who wrote commentary ...
is considered to be the systematizer of Yogācāra thought. Vasubandhu used the concept of the
six consciousnesses, on which he elaborated in the ''Triṃśikaikākārikā'' (Treatise in Thirty Stanzas).
Vijñānāni
According to the traditional interpretation, Vasubandhu states that there are eight consciousnesses (''vijñānāni'', singular: ''vijñāna''):
* Five sense-consciousnesses,
* Mind (perception),
* Manas (self-consciousness),
* Storehouse-consciousness.
According to Kalupahana, this classification of eight consciousnesses is based on a misunderstanding of Vasubandhu's Triṃśikaikākārikā by later adherents.
Ālayavijñāna
The ālayavijñāna (Japanese: 阿頼耶識 arayashiki), or the "All-encompassing foundation consciousness",
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
Rebirth may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Film
* ''Rebirth'' (2011 film), a 2011 Japanese drama film
* ''Rebirth'' (2016 film), a 2016 American thriller film
* ''Rebirth'', a documentary film produced by Project Rebirth
* ''The Re ...
, causing the origination of a new existence.
Role
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
''Upādāna'' is a Sanskrit and Pali word that means "fuel, material cause, substrate that is the source and means for keeping an active process energized". It is also an important Buddhist concept referring to "attachment, clinging, grasping". ...
''); to the material sense faculties, and to predispositions (''
vāsanāḥ'') towards conceptual proliferations (''
prapañca In Buddhism, conceptual proliferation (Pali language, Pāli: ; Sanskrit: ; zh, s=戏论, t=戲論, p=xìlùn; ja, 戯論) or, alternatively, mental proliferation or conceptual elaboration, refers to conceptualization of the world through language ...
'').
[Waldron, William S. How Innovative is ALAYAVIJÑANA] 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 he six cognitive objects, i.e.:visual forms, sounds, smells, flavors, tangibles and dharmas.''
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.
According to
Asanga's
Mahāyānasaṃgraha
The Mahāyānasaṃgraha (MSg) (Sanskrit; zh, t=攝大乘論, p=Shè dàchéng lùn, Tibetan: ''theg pa chen po bsdus pa''), or the Mahāyāna Compendium/Summary, is a key work of the Yogācāra school of Mahāyāna Buddhist philosophy, attrib ...
, 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.
Rebirth and purification
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.
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.
Through the process of purification the dharma practitioner can become an
Arhat
In Buddhism, an ''arhat'' (Sanskrit: अर्हत्) or ''arahant'' (Pali: अरहन्त्, 𑀅𑀭𑀳𑀦𑁆𑀢𑁆) is one who has gained insight into the true nature of existence and has achieved ''Nirvana'' and liberated ...
, when the four defilements of the mental functions of the manas-consciousness are purified.
Tathagata-garbha thought
According to the
Laṅkāvatārasūtra and the schools of Chan and Zen Buddhism, the ālāyavijñāna is identical with the ''
tathāgatagarbha
Buddha-nature refers to several related Mahayana Buddhist terms, including '' tathata'' ("suchness") but most notably ''tathāgatagarbha'' and ''buddhadhātu''. ''Tathāgatagarbha'' means "the womb" or "embryo" (''garbha'') of the "thus-gone ...
'', and is fundamentally pure.
The equation of ālāyavijñāna and tathāgatagarbha was contested. It was seen as "something akin to the Hindu notions of ''ātman'' (permanent, invariant self) and ' (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:
Transformations of consciousness
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:
These transformations are threefold:
The first transformation results in the ''ālāya'':
The ālāyavijñāna therefore is not an eighth consciousness, but the resultant of the transformation of consciousness:
The second transformation is ''manana'', self-consciousness or "Self-view, self-confusion, self-esteem and self-love". According to the Lankavatara and later interpreters it is the seventh consciousness. It is "thinking" about the various perceptions occurring in the stream of consciousness". The alaya is defiled by this self-interest;
The third transformation is ''viṣayavijñapti'', the "''concept'' of the object". In this transformation the ''concept'' of objects is created. By creating these concepts human beings become "susceptible to grasping after the object":
A similar perspective is give by
Walpola Rahula
Walpola Rahula Thero (1907–1997) was a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk, scholar and writer. In 1964, he became the Professor of History and Religions at Northwestern University, thus becoming the first bhikkhu to hold a professorial chair in the Weste ...
. According to Walpola Rahula, all the elements of the Yogācāra storehouse-consciousness are already found in the Pāli Canon. He writes that the three layers of the mind (''citta'', ''manas'', and ''vijñāna'') as presented by Asaṅga are also mentioned in the Pāli Canon:
Understanding in Buddhism
China
Fǎxiàng and Huayan
According to Thomas McEvilley, although Vasubandhu had postulated numerous ālāya-vijñāna-s, a separate one for each individual person in the parakalpita, this multiplicity was later eliminated in the
Fǎxiàng and
Huayan
The Huayan or Flower Garland school of Buddhism (, from sa, अवतंसक, Avataṃsaka) is a tradition of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy that first flourished in China during the Tang dynasty (618-907). The Huayan worldview is based primar ...
metaphysics. 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".
Thomas McEvilley further argues that the presentation of the three natures by Vasubandhu is consistent with the Neo-platonist views of
Plotinus
Plotinus (; grc-gre, Πλωτῖνος, ''Plōtînos''; – 270 CE) was a philosopher in the Hellenistic tradition, born and raised in Roman Egypt. Plotinus is regarded by modern scholarship as the founder of Neoplatonism. His teacher wa ...
and his universal 'One', 'Mind', and 'Soul'.
Chán
A core teaching of Chan/Zen Buddhism describes the transformation of the Eight Consciousnesses into the
Four Wisdoms. 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".. 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
The
Interpenetration (通達) and
Essence-Function (體用) of
Wonhyo
Won Hyo (617 – April 28, 686) was one of the leading thinkers, writers and commentators of the Korean Buddhist tradition. Essence-Function (), a key concept in East Asian Buddhism and particularly Korean Buddhism, was refined in the syncretic p ...
(元曉) is described in the
Treatise on Awakening Mahāyāna Faith (大乘起信論, ''Mahāyānaśraddhotpādaśāstra,'' AMF in the excerpt below):
See also
*
Brahmavihara
The ''brahmavihārās'' (sublime attitudes, lit. "abodes of brahma") are a series of four Buddhist virtues and the meditation practices made to cultivate them. They are also known as the four immeasurables (Sanskrit: अप्रमाण, ''apr ...
*
Doctrine of Consciousness-Only
*
Mindstream
Mindstream (''citta-santāna'') in Buddhist philosophy is the moment-to-moment continuum (Sanskrit: ''saṃtāna'') of sense impressions and mental phenomena, which is also described as continuing from one life to another.
Definition
' (Sanskri ...
*
Thirty Verses on Consciousness-only
*
Three kinds of objects
*
Anatta in the Tathagatagarbha Sutras
Notes
Definitions
References
Sources
*
*
*
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
* 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.
External links
Walpola Rahula
Walpola Rahula Thero (1907–1997) was a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk, scholar and writer. In 1964, he became the Professor of History and Religions at Northwestern University, thus becoming the first bhikkhu to hold a professorial chair in the Weste ...
, not dated; quotes the
Pali Canon
The Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the most complete extant early Buddhist canon. It derives mainly from the Tamrashatiya school.
During t ...
's use of ''alaya'' and compares the Mahayana ''asrayaparavrtti'' and ''bijaparavrtti'' with
Nikaya Buddhism
The term Nikāya Buddhism was coined by Masatoshi Nagatomi as a non-derogatory substitute for Hinayana, meaning the early Buddhist schools. Examples of these groups are pre-sectarian Buddhism and the early Buddhist schools. Some scholars exclude ...
's ''alayasamugghata'', the "uprooting of ''alaya'', and ''khinabija'', one whose "seeds of defilement are destroyed".
Eightfold Path of Buddha* Waldron, William S. (1995).
How Innovative is the Ālayavijñāna?The ālayavijñāna in the context of canonical and Abhidharma vijñāna theory.''
{{Buddhism topics
Consciousness studies
Yogacara
Nondualism
Buddha-nature
Eighteen dhātus