FUNCTIONS OF EIGHT KINDS OF

CONSCIOUSNESS IN YOGĀCĀRA

ANKUR BARUA

Introduction

The Yogācāra school of Buddhist thought was founded by the two brothers, Asanga

and Vasubandhu in the fifth century. Origins before this could be traced only through

traditions where Asanga was believed to be mentored by a man known as Maitreya

who might not be historical.1 Yogācāra was already hundreds of years old by the

time of Asanga.2 However, the “foundational scripture” of Yogācāra considered to be

Asanga’s text entitled, “The Scripture on the Explication of Underlying Meaning

(Samdhinirmocanasutra)”.1,3 The original texts of Yogācāra no longer exist in their

original Sanskrit version. But only Chinese and Tibetan translations are available at

present. The gap between the original teachers and the written tradition has

fostered misunderstanding about Yogācāra philosophy.3,4

Evolution of Yogācāra

Yogācāra (yō'gəkär'ə) [Sanskrit = yoga practice], is a philosophical school of

Mahayana Buddhism, also known as the Vijñānavada or Consciousness School.4,5

The founders of this school in India were thought to be Maitreya’s disciple Asanga

(c.375–430) and Asanga's younger half-brother Vasubandhu (c.400–480).5,6 Here, we

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must remember that though the Maitreya Bodhisatta or Buddha was not a historical

figure, but there is a possibility of historical existence of an Arahant named Maitreya

who is believed to be the teacher of Asanga. If this is true then the historical

Maitreya should be dated during (c.270–350). Vasubandhu also systematized the

Abhidhamma of Buddhist philosophy. Before being introduced to the Yogācāra

philosophy by his brother Asanga, he was a Sautrantika thinker and an expert in

Abhidhamma.4,5,6

The Yogācāra school held that consciousness (vijñāna) is real, but its objects of

constructions are unreal. The school's teachings are thus often characterized by the

phrase “consciousness-only” (citta-matra) or “representation-only” (vijnapti-

matra).6,7

The content of consciousness is produced not by independently existing objects but

by the inner modifications of consciousness itself. A theory of eight kinds of

consciousness was formed to explain how this process functions. The deepest level

of consciousness is the “store-consciousness” (Ālaya-vijñāna), which is both

individual and universal and contains the seeds or traces of past actions, which are

projected into manifestation through the “defiled mind” and the six sense-

consciousnesses (the five physical senses plus mind or thought). The school was

transmitted to China as the Fa-hsiang. It eventually it got synchronized with the

Madhyamika school.7,8,9

Yogācāra: A Reaction to the Concept of Sunyata

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Yogācāra is influenced by the Prajnaparamita sutras, scriptures of Madhyamaka

Buddhism or the Middle Way. Nagarjuna, the first-known author of Madhyamaka

tradition, taught “sunyata” by upholding the view that emptiness was the ultimate

reality and this insight destroyed all understanding. He rejected all theory and all

philosophy as illusory, believing them to be definitively negated by the dialectic of

emptiness.1 Emptiness or voidness, was intended to mean that the world is “empty

of any imagined creator being or self entity or any notion of an absolute.”1,2,3

Yogācāra is a reaction to the “sunyata” concept. Though Yogācāra is often seen as a

complete break from the doctrine of emptiness and substituting a new idealism in

its place, but this was not the actual intention behind the formation of Yogācāra

school.10 The goal of the first Yogācāra philosophers was to move beyond the limits

of emptiness.9,10 Asanga wanted to “revive” the Nagarjuna and Madhyamaka

philosophy. He wanted to create a strong view of the structure of consciousness

through an investigation into meditation and use it to rethink the notion of

emptiness so that it did not stop with the destruction of all views.1 Vasubandhu

gives his definitive explanation of emptiness in the very beginning of his writing, the

Madhyantavibhaga. In the emptiness or voidness itself, something exists and

persists. This conclusion is not found explicitly in Madhyamaka.10 Yogācāra was also

a response to non-Mahayana schools including Theravada and Sarvastivada.10,11

Significance of Yogācāra

Yogācāra was a synthesis created in response to all existing schools of Buddhism

during the third century BC. Yogācāra extracted the common teachings from all the

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Buddhist traditions and made an attempt to resolve the problems that most of them

were facing. The key epistemological and metaphysical insights of Yogācāra evolved

from the common Buddhist belief that knowledge comes only from the senses

(vijnapti).4,5,6 With a new insight, Yogācāra proposed that the mind, itself, was an

aspect of vijnapti. Asanga further recognized that though the mind can sense its

own objects, which are known as thoughts (apperception), but it cannot verify its

own interpretation. As the senses are constantly misinterpreted, our thoughts

(apperceptions) are also misinterpreted in the same way. These misconceptions are

instinctive and nearly universal because they are caused by the desires, fears and

anxieties that come with animal survival. This results in an automatic assumption of

substance for self and objects (atman and dharma) which are created to suppress

our fears.4,6

Yogācāra departs from the common Buddhist understanding not only in its view of

the problem, but also in its view of the solution. We cannot perceive correctly the

perception that we do not perceive reality correctly. So, we never can actually verify

our apperception with perfect accuracy.4,6 Yogācāra talks about “grasper/grasped”

rather than “subject/object” respectively and also introduces a causal relationship.

We grasp because we desire; desire comes from a sense of need. What we

fundamentally lack is a self, thus we seek to preserve what we do not have.

Because we strive to survive, we do not naturally challenge the assumption of our

own being. The solution is to disown the phenomena within our minds as our own.

Sensations of pleasure and pain, belief, ignorance, language and reason are the

strategies employed to preserve the self which come at the expense of our

unending sense of need.4,6

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Various Types of Consciousness in Yogācāra

The most famous innovation of the Yogācāra School was the doctrine of eight

consciousnesses. Early Buddhism and Abhidhamma described six consciousnesses,

each produced by the contact between its specific sense organ and a corresponding

sense object. Thus, when a functioning eye comes into contact with a color or

shape, visual consciousness is produced. Consciousness does not create the

sensory sphere, but is an effect of the interaction of a sense organ and its true

object. If an eye does not function but an object is present, visual consciousness

does not arise. The same is true if a functional eye fails to encounter a visual

object.10,11,12

Arising of consciousness is dependent on sensation. There are altogether six sense

organs (eye, ear, nose, mouth, body, and mind) which interact with their respective

sensory object domains like visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, and

mental spheres. Here, the mind is considered to be another sense organ as it

functions like the other senses. It involves the activity of a sense organ (manas), its

domain (mano-dhātu) and the resulting consciousness (mano-vijñāna). Each domain

is discrete and function independent of the other. Hence, the deaf can see and the

blind can hear. Objects are also specific to their domain and the same is true of the

consciousnesses like the visual consciousness is entirely distinct from auditory

consciousness. There are six distinct types of consciousness namely, the visual,

auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile and mental consciousness. The six sense

organs, six sense object domains and six resulting consciousnesses comprise our

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eighteen components of experience and are known as the eighteen dhātus.

According to Buddhism, these eighteen dhātus are the comprehensive sensorium of

everything in the universe. 10,11,12,13

As Abhidhamma grew more complex, disputes intensified between different

Buddhist schools along a range of issues. In order to avoid the idea of a permanent

self, Buddhists said citta is momentary. Since a new citta apperceives a new

cognitive field each moment, the apparent continuity of mental states was

explained causally by claiming each citta, in the moment it ceased, also acted as

cause for the arising of its successor. This was fine for continuous perceptions and

thought processes, but difficulties arose since Buddhists identified a number of

situations in which no citta at all was present or operative, such as deep sleep,

unconsciousness, and certain meditative conditions explicitly defined as devoid of

citta (āsaṃjñī-samāpatti, nirodha-samāpatti). So, the controversial questions were:

from where does consciousness reemerge after deep sleep? How does

consciousness begin in a new life? The various Buddhist attempts to answer these

questions led to more difficulties and disputes. For Yogācāra the most important

problems revolved around questions of causality and consciousness.10,11,12,13

Yogācārins responded by rearranging the tripartite structure of the mental level of

the eighteen dhātus into three novel types of consciousnesses. Mano-vijñāna

(empirical consciousness) became the sixth consciousness processing the cognitive

content of the five senses as well as mental objects (thoughts, ideas). Manas

became the seventh consciousness, which was primarily obsessed with various

aspects and notions of "self". Hence, it was called "defiled manas" (kliṣṭa-manas).

Functions of Eight Kinds of Consciousness in Yogācāra Page 6

The eighth consciousness, ālaya-vijñāna also known as "warehouse consciousness,"
10,11,12,13,14
was totally novel.

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Understanding our mind—Eight kinds of consciousness and their

functions11,12,14

Transformatio Functions of Comparison with

The Eight Kinds
n into four the Computer
of these Eight
types of Data Processing
Consciousness Consciousnesses
Wisdom System
First five
consciousnesse Data Collection
s- Centre:
1. eye - visual

2. ear - auditory Wisdom of

Windows to the
Successful Raw Data Input
3. nose - external world or
Performance
olfactory contact with the
external
4. tongue - environment to
gustatory collect information
5. body - tactile

Sense Centre:
Data Processing:
Sixth or Mind Wisdom of
consciousness The CPU (central
Wonderful
Performing the processing unit)
Contemplatio
functions of
6. Mind n
cognition and
differentiation Forming conceptions
out of perceptions.
Seventh Wisdom of Thought Centre:
consciousness Equality
Data analysis

Plays the role of

Manas thinking on a self-
consciousness centered basis. As the result of ‘self-
centered’ situation,
all the selfish
thoughts, egotistic
opinion, arrogance,

Functions of Eight Kinds of Consciousness in Yogācāra Page 8

 self-love, etc. would
arise.
Eighth
Store Centre Data Storage
consciousness
(store-house):
Grand-round-
Ālaya mirror-like Each seed has
consciousness Wisdom The new seeds are infinite power to
perfumed from time produce a
to time manifestation.

The Eighth Consciousness (Ālaya Consciousness) 11,12,13,14

Warehouse Consciousness was defined as the receptacle of all seeds, storing

experiences as they "enter" until they are sent back out as new experiences. This is

the same way as a warehouse handles inventories. It was also called vipāka

consciousness, where vipāka means the "maturing" of karmic seeds. Seeds

gradually matured in the repository consciousness until karmically ripe and can

reassert themselves as karmic consequences. Ālaya -vijñāna was also called the

"basic consciousness" (mūla-vijñāna) as it retains the karmic seeds that both

influence and are influenced by the other seven consciousnesses. For example,

when the sixth consciousness is dormant (while one sleeps, or is unconscious), its

seeds reside in the eighth consciousness. They "restart" when the conditions for

their arising are present. The eighth consciousness is a mechanism for storing and

deploying seeds of which it remains unaware. The Warehouse Consciousness acts as

the pivotal karmic mechanism, but is itself karmically neutral. Each individual has its

own Warehouse Consciousness which is nothing more than a collection of ever-

Functions of Eight Kinds of Consciousness in Yogācāra Page 9

changing "seeds." It is continuously changing and therefore not a permanent self.

So, there is no universal collective mind in Yogācāra.

Four Wisdoms from Eight Consciousnesses10,11,12,13,14

(1) The first five perceptual consciousnesses are transformed into the Wisdom of

Successful Performance. This wisdom is characterized by pure and unimpeded

functioning (no attachment or distortion) in its relation to the (sense) organs and

their objects.

(2) The sixth consciousness is the perceptual and cognitive processing center. It is

transformed into the Wisdom of Wonderful Contemplation which has two aspects

corresponding to understanding of the “emptiness of self” and that of the

“emptiness of dharmas”.

(3) The seventh consciousness defiles the first six consciousnesses with self and

self-related afflictions. It is transformed into the Wisdom of Equality which

understands the nature of the equality of self and of all other beings.

(4) The eighth, the storehouse consciousness, is transformed into the grand-mirror-

like wisdom. This wisdom reflects the entire universe without distortion. Like

mirror can reflect many objects simultaneously, the wisdom can perceive many

objects accurately and simultaneously. This can be achieved by proper

transformation of the Ālaya-vijñāna to this wisdom and is considered to be the

state of the Buddhahood.

Functions of Eight Kinds of Consciousness in Yogācāra Page 10

Conclusion

In Yogācāra concept, true knowledge begins when consciousness ends. Thus,

“Enlightenment” is considered as the act of bringing the eight consciousnesses to

an end and replacing them with enlightened cognitive abilities (jñāna). Here, the

sixth consciousness (Manas) becomes the immediate cognition of equality (samatā-

jñāna) by equalizing self and other. When the Warehouse Consciousness finally

ceases it is replaced by the Great Mirror Cognition (Mahādarśa-jñāna) that sees and

reflects things truly as they are (yathā-bhūtam).8,9,11,14 Thus, the grasper-grasped

relationship ceases and the mind projects the things impartially without exclusion,

prejudice, anticipation, attachment, or distortion. These "purified" cognitions

remove the self-bias, prejudice and obstructions that had previously prevented a

person from perceiving beyond his selfish consciousness. Since enlightened

cognition is non-conceptual, its objects cannot be described. So, the Yogācāra

school could not provide any description regarding the outcome of these types of

enlightened cognitions except for referring these as 'pure' (of imaginative

constructions). There was also another Yogācāra innovation in the field of

consciousness. This was the notion that a special type of cognition can emerge and

develop after the attainment of enlightenment. This post-enlightenment cognition

was called “pṛṣṭhalabdha-jñāna”. It is concerned with how and Enlightened One can

engage himself in assisting other sentient beings in overcoming the suffering and

ignorance. 6,8,11,13,14

Though, in simple terms, Yogācāra means, “the school that practices the way of

yoga,”2 but the practical methodology of yogic meditation merely reveals the

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meaning of the underline philosophy. Insight meditation is actually a means of

abandoning delusions about the self and about the world. The original teachings

reveal the insights of Yogācāra and represent the greatest philosophical

achievement of the east, which surpasses the accomplishments of Western

philosophy.14 So, a great deal of understanding is required if we want to completely

understand and assimilate the inner concepts of Yogācāra.

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