Ālayavijñāna

ālayavijñāna (T. kun gzhi rnam par shes pa; C. alaiyeshi/zangshi; 阿賴耶識/藏識), is translated as "storehouse consciousness", "all-ground consciousness", etc. It is the eighth of the eight consciousnesses presented in the Yogacara school. It is a subtle level of consciousness, in which traces of past actions are stored as 'seeds' ready to ripen into future experience.

The ālayavijñāna is systematically described in treaties by Asanga and Vasubandhu.

Etymology

From Sanskrit

• Ālaya is commonly translated as "storehouse" or "receptacle".
• Vijñāna means "consciousness".

Regarding the origins of the term ālaya, William S. Waldron states:

Ālaya means "that which is clung to, adhered to, dwelled in", and thus derivatively, "dwelling, receptacle, house." Yet is also retained an older sense from the earlier texts...of "clinging, attachment, grasping."

From Tibetan

The Tibetan term for ālayavijñāna is "kun shyi nampar shépa" (T. kun gzhi rnam par shes pa ཀུན་གཞི་རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པ་).

• kun (ཀུན་), means ‘all’,
• shyi (གཞི་), means ‘ground’,
• nampar shépa (རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པ་), is ‘consciousness’.

Description

Thrangu Rinpoche states:

The eighth consciousness is called the alaya vijnana or all-basis consciousness. It is so-called because it is the basis or ground for the arising of all other types of consciousness. It is that fundamental clarity of consciousness, or cognitive lucidity, that has been there from the beginning. As the capacity for conscious experience, it is the ground for the arising of eye consciousness, ear consciousness, etc. Like the seventh, it is constantly present, constantly operating, and it persists until the attainment of final awakening, or buddhahood.

Mipham Rinpoche states:

The state of consciousness that is mere clarity and knowing, which does not veer off into an active sense cognition, and which is the support of habitual tendencies, is called the alayavijnana, the consciousness that is the universal ground (kun gzhi rnam shes). The Chittamatrins consider that this is essentially neutral, neither positive nor negative. It is an awareness of the mere presence of objects and it arises in a continuity of instants. It is attended by the “five omnipresent mental factors,” such as contact. It does not have a specific object of focus but observes the world and beings in a general, overall manner. Finally, the alayavijnana may be divided into a “seed aspect” and a “maturation aspect.”

The reason for its being so described (in terms of nature, attendant mental factors, object of focus, and so on) is that when the key point is grasped that this consciousness is a mere clarity and knowing, not caught up in any of the active sense consciousnesses, it is easy to understand all the different features of the alaya. If, on the other hand, the nature and object of the alaya are explained and understood differently, it will be difficult to achieve an understanding of its essence even if one reflects upon it for an entire kalpa.

The fine details of the Chittamatra position should be studied in other texts. Within the universal ground consciousness, which is like an immense ocean, there is a potential (a power source) for the seven kinds of consciousness and their attendant mental factors, which rise and fall like waves on the sea. This potential is supplied by habitual tendencies. In brief, if the potential stored in the alaya is not yet ready to bring forth its subsequent result, it remains in the universal ground consciousness like a seed. When this ripens, however, it gives rise to the appearance of all sorts of things: bodies, places, and experiences. There are no outer objects. It is simply through the strength of habitual tendencies that various appearances are experienced, just as in the case of a dream consciousness or when the mind, habituated by meditation upon repulsive objects, perceives the ground strewn with bones. Such are the assertions of the Chittamatrins.

Subdivisions

The ālayavijñāna is divided into two aspects as follows:

• a seed aspect

  the storing or recording of all habitual patterns accumulated through our mental and physical activities.

• a maturation aspect

  to know everything taking place in the moment in consciousness

Alternative translations

• Consciousness as the basis of all ordinary experience (LCN)
• Ground-of-all consciousness (Gyurme Dorje)
• Store consciousness (Pettit)
• Storehouse consciousness
• Stratum-bound perceptivity (Guenther)
• All-encompassing foundation consciousness (Alexander Berzin)

Sources

• Shantarakshita; Jamgon Mipham (2005), The Adornment of the Middle Way: Shantarakshita's Madhyamakalankara with commentary by Jamgon Mipham, translated by Padmakara Translation Group, Boston: Shambhala Publications 
• Thrangu Rinpoche (1998), The Five Buddha Families and the Eight Consciousnesses, translated by Peter Roberts, Boulder, Colorado: Namo Buddha Publications 
• Jamgon Kongtrul; Sarah Harding; Thrangu Rinpoche (2002), Creation and Completion, Essential Points of Tantric Meditation, with a Commentary by Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, Wisdom Publications 

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
• Ben Connelly, Inside Vasubandhu's Yogacara: A Practitioner's Guide, Wisdom Publications, 2016, ISBN 978-1614292845

External links

• kun_gzhi_rnam_par_shes_pa, Rangjung Yeshe Wiki
• All-ground consciousness, Rigpa Shedra Wiki
• Buddha in the Storehouse