ālaya-vijñāna [ - ] store of consciousness. Ālaya-vijñāna means universal consciousness. According to the Vijñānavāda school, the universal consciousness is repository of all mental ideas. It is pure in its nature. It appears to be divided into innumerable separate consciousnesses on account of unconscious tendencies of individual consciousness. The apparent distinctions of subjects and objects are due to ignorance.
Ālaya-vijñāna breaks up into innumerable individual consciousness with their different spheres of experiences. When the unconscious tendencies which are an outcome of the previous karma-s are extinguished, the individual loses his separateness and is reabsorbed into the ocean of pure consciousness. The unchanging aspect of ālaya-vijñāna is known as Tathatā. However the ālaya-vijñāna is characterised by changefulness.
According to Vasubandhu, the ālaya-vijñāna evolves in a continuous stream-like the water of a river. Husan Tsang says, "As the river struck by the wind gives birth to waves without its flow being interrupted, so the ālaya-vijñāna flows thus like a river without interruption." The Laṅkāvatāra describes the relation between ālaya and vijñāna by using the analogy of ocean and waves dancing, raised by the wind of passions.
阿頼識 See 阿頼耶識 above.
ālaya-vijñāna
(Sanskrit). The eighth consciousness, being the substratum or ‘storehouse’ consciousness according to the philosophy of the Yogācāra school. The ālaya-vijñāna acts as the receptacle in which the impressions (known as vāsanā or bīja) of past experience and karmic actions are stored. From it the remaining seven consciousnesses arise and produce all present and future modes of experience in saṃsāra. At the moment of enlightenment (bodhi), the ālaya-vijñāna is transformed into the Mirror-like Awareness or perfect discrimination of a Buddha.
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