Manovijñāna

manovijñāna (P. manoviññāṇa; T. yid kyi rnam par shes pa ཡིད་ཀྱི་རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པ་; C. yishi; J. ishiki; K. ŭisik 意識) is translated as "mind consciousness," "mental consciousness," "mental cognition," etc. It is the sixth of the six sense consciousnesses.

The manovijñāna differs from the five sense consciousnesses as follows:

• Whereas the other five sense consciousness entail forms of direct perception (pratyaksa), the manovijñāna is capable of both direct perception (pratyaksa) and thought (kalpanā).
• The other sense consciousness are limited by type of object; for example, the eye consciousness can only percieve sights, the ear consciousness can only perceive sounds, etc. The manovijñāna is not limited by type of object. "The objects of the mental consciousness are said to be all phenomena (dharma) because it is capable of thinking about anything that exists."
• For the other five sense consciousnesses, the precondition is the respective sense organ. "However, for the mental consciousness, the precondition is a previous moment of consciousness, which allows for either the next moment of mental cognition of a previous object or the first moment of cognition of a new object."

The manovijñāna is also the 18th of the eighteen dhatus.

Sources

• Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Donald S. (2014), The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University 

External links

• yid_kyi_rnam_par_shes_pa, Rangjung Yeshe Wiki
• yid_kyi_rnam_shes, Rangjung Yeshe Wiki