All-ground consciousness
All-ground consciousness (Skt. ālayavijñāna; Tib. kun shyi nampar shépa; Wyl. kun gzhi rnam par shes pa) — the eighth of the eight consciousnesses posited by the Chittamatra and Svatantrika-Madhyamika schools. There are three mental consciousnesses, of which two are active (the sixth and seventh) and one is inactive (the eighth).
Etymology
Kun means ‘all’, shyi means ‘ground’, nampar shépa is ‘consciousness’.
Alternative Translations
- Ground-of-all consciousness (Gyurme Dorje)
- Storehouse consciousness
- Stratum-bound perceptivity (Guenther)
Further Reading
- Lambert Schmithausen, Alayavijñâna. On the Origin & the Early Development of a Central Concept of Yogâcâra Philosophy. International Inst. for Buddhist Studies (Tokyo 1987).
- William S. Waldron, The Buddhist Unconscious: The Alaya-Vijñana in the Context of Indian Buddhist Thought, RoutledgeCurzon 2003