Eight consciousnesses
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- See also :
eight consciousnesses
八識 ( Jpn hasshiki ) རྣམ་ཤེས་ཚོགས་བརྒྱད། (Wyl. rnam shes tshogs brgyad) n. Pron.: namshé tsok gyé
- Skt. aṣṭavijñānakāya. The eight consciousnesses, or more literally, eight collections of consciousness: the six consciousnesses, རྣམ་ཤེས་ཚོགས་དྲུག་, plus the defilled mental consciousness, ཉོན་ཡིད་, and the all-ground consciousness, ཀུན་གཞི་རྣམ་ཤེས་. Chittamatra eight consciousnesses (vijnana): The first six consciousnesses are eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness, and mental consciousness. These are what we normally think of as consciousness–what we see, hear, smell, taste, feel, and think. In Buddhism these six are also referred to as the fifth aggregate or skandha and the third link in the chain of dependent origination. The seventh consciousness is ego consciousness that the Western world is also aware of. The eighth consciousness, known as the alaya or storehouse consciousness, is that which carrys over to the next reincarnation and is not well known in the West.
==Further Information==
The eight consciousnesses, or more literally, eight collections of consciousness) (Skt. aṣṭavijñānakāya; Tib. རྣམ་ཤེས་ཚོགས་བརྒྱད་, Wyl. rnam shes tshogs brgyad) are mentioned in the writings of the Mind Only school.
The six consciousnesses
- Visual (or eye) consciousness (Skt. cakṣur-vijñana; Tib. མིག་གི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, mig gi rnam shes)
- Auditory (or ear) consciousness (Skt. śrotra-vijñana; Tib. རྣ་བའི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, rna ba'i rnam shes)
- Olfactory (or nose) consciousness (Skt. ghrāṇa-vijñana; Tib. སྣའི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, sna'i rnam shes)
- Gustatory (or tongue) consciousness (Skt. jihva-vijñana; Tib. ལྕེའི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, lce'i rnam shes)
- Tactile (or body) consciousness (Skt. kāya-vijñana; Tib. ལུས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, lus kyi rnam shes)
- Mental (or mind) consciousness (Skt. mano-vijñana; Tib. ཡིད་ཀྱི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, yid kyi rnam shes)
==The seventh and eighth consciousness==
To the six consciousnesses mentioned in the Abhidharma texts of the basic vehicle are added:
7. Defiled mental consciousness or emotional consciousness (Skt. kliṣṭamanas; Tib. ཉོན་ཡིད་, Wyl. nyon yid) and
8. All-ground consciousness (Skt. ālaya vijñāna; Tib. ཀུན་གཞི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, kunshyi namshé; Wyl. kun gzhi rnam shes).
===Transformation into Five Wisdoms===
According to Mipham Rinpoche, the eight consciousnesses transform into the five wisdoms in the following way:
- Alaya transforms into the wisdom of dharmadhatu.
- Alaya consciousness transforms into mirror-like wisdom.
- Emotional consciousness transforms into wisdom of equality.
- Mental consciousness transforms into the wisdom of discernment.
- Five sense consciousnesses transform into the all-accomplishing wisdom.
==Alternative Translations==
- Eight avenues of consciousness (LCN)
==Oral Teachings Given to the Rigpa Sangha==
===Edited Teachings===
- Sogyal Rinpoche, 'The Eight Consciousnesses', Rigpalink December 2003, 6 November 2003, Zurich (available in English, French and German, ordernumber 361)
Eight kinds of discernment:
(1) sight-consciousness,
(2) hearing-consciousness,
(3) smell-consciousness,
(4) taste-consciousness,
(5) touch-consciousness,
(6) mind-consciousness,
(7) mano-consciousness,
(8) alaya-consciousness.
The concept of eight consciousnesses was set forth by the Consciousness-Only school. The first six consciousnesses—sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and thought—were originally expounded by the Hinayana schools. The Consciousness-Only school of Mahayana tradition delved into the subconscious and postulated the seventh and eighth consciousnesses. The school named them, respectively, the mano consciousness and the alaya-consciousness, and formulated the doctrine of eight consciousnesses. The mano-consciousness is the realm of the ego, or where the sense of self resides. The Sanskrit word manas, from which mano of mano-consciousness derives, means to ponder. This consciousness performs the function of abstract thought and discerns the inner world. The alaya-consciousness is regarded as the source of one's body and mind as well as the natural world. Alaya means abode, dwelling, or receptacle. It is also called the storehouse consciousness because all karma created in the present and previous lifetimes is stored there.
See also alaya consciousness; mano-consciousness.
