The eight consciousnesses
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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.
- 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.