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Eight consciousnesses

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eight consciousnesses
八識 ( Jpn hasshiki ) རྣམ་ཤེས་ཚོགས་བརྒྱད། (Wyl. rnam shes tshogs brgyad) n. Pron.: namshé tsok gyé

==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

  1. Visual (or eye) consciousness (Skt. cakṣur-vijñana; Tib. མིག་གི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, mig gi rnam shes)
  2. Auditory (or ear) consciousness (Skt. śrotra-vijñana; Tib. རྣ་བའི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, rna ba'i rnam shes)
  3. Olfactory (or nose) consciousness (Skt. ghrāṇa-vijñana; Tib. སྣའི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, sna'i rnam shes)
  4. Gustatory (or tongue) consciousness (Skt. jihva-vijñana; Tib. ལྕེའི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, lce'i rnam shes)
  5. Tactile (or body) consciousness (Skt. kāya-vijñana; Tib. ལུས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, lus kyi rnam shes)
  6. 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:


==Alternative Translations==


==Oral Teachings Given to the Rigpa Sangha==
===Edited Teachings===


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 consciousnessessight, 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.

Source

www.sgilibrary.org