Eight consciousnesses: Difference between revisions
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[[Image:Monkey.JPG|frame|A monkey swinging in a tree, the image for consciousness in the [[Wheel of Life]]]] | [[Image:Monkey.JPG|frame|A monkey swinging in a tree, the image for consciousness in the [[Wheel of Life]]]] | ||
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 '''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. | ||
{{:Six consciousnesses}} | {{:Six consciousnesses}} | ||
Revision as of 11:48, 2 April 2011
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་, Wyl. mig gi rnam shes)
- Auditory (or ear) consciousness (Skt. śrotra-vijñana; Tib. རྣ་བའི་རྣམ་ཤེས་,Wyl. rna ba'i rnam shes)
- Olfactory (or nose) consciousness (Skt. ghrāṇa-vijñana; Tib. སྣའི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, Wyl. sna'i rnam shes)
- Gustatory (or tongue) consciousness (Skt. jihva-vijñana; Tib. ལྕེའི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, Wyl. lce'i rnam shes)
- Tactile (or body) consciousness (Skt. kāya-vijñana; Tib. ལུས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, Wyl. lus kyi rnam shes)
- Mental (or mind) consciousness (Skt. mano-vijñana; Tib. ཡིད་ཀྱི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, Wyl. 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)
Further Reading
- A Treasury of Dharma, aka The Mengak Study Pack (Lodève: The Tertön Sogyal Trust, 2005), pages 90-92 & CD2, tracks 4-6.