CONSCIOUSNESS, THEORIES

Bibliography
Bol, Peter K. This Culture of Ours: Intellectual Transitions in
Tang and Sung China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University
Press, 1992.
Brook, Timothy. Praying for Power: Buddhism and the Formation of Gentry Society in Late-Ming China. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 1993.
Gernet, Jacques. Buddhism in Chinese Society: An Economic History from the Fifth to the Tenth Centuries, tr. Franciscus
Verellen. New York: Columbia University Press, 1995.
Zrcher, E. The Buddhist Conquest of China: The Spread and
Adaptation of Buddhism in Early Medieval China. Leiden,
Netherlands: Brill, 1959. Reprint, 1972.

GEORGE A. KEYWORTH

CONSCIOUSNESS, THEORIES OF
The English word consciousness usually translates the
Sanskrit word vija
na (Pa
li, via
na), although in
some contexts vija
na comes closer to the concept of
subconsciousness. In Buddhism in general (except in the
Yoga
ca
ra tradition), vija
na is considered to be synonymous with two other Sanskrit wordscitta and
manasthat roughly correspond to the English word
mind. Buddhism denies the existence of a substantial
and everlasting soul (a
tman), but unlike materialistic
traditions, Buddhism never negates the existence of
consciousness (or mind). From a Buddhist point of
view, consciousness is differentiated from the soul in
that the former is an ever-changing, momentary, and
impermanent element. Consciousness, however, is
considered to continue like a stream and is thought to
be somehow transmitted from one life to the next, thus
enabling karmic causality over lifetimes. This continuity of consciousness represents, in a sense, the personal identity. Consciousness also keeps the body alive
and distinguishes animate beings from inanimate elements. Therefore, consciousness is one of the key factors of Buddhism.
When the word consciousness is used, it appears to
refer mainly to the cognitive function directed to its
 yuttaobject. Thus, this word is defined in the Sam
nika
ya (Kindred Sayings) III:87 as: Because it recognizes [something], it is called consciousness.
More specifically, six types of consciousness are
enumerated in Buddhist texts: visual consciousness,
auditory consciousness, olfactory consciousness, gustatory consciousness, tactile consciousness, and men-

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OF

BUDDHISM

OF

tal consciousness. These six consciousnesses must be

supported by the corresponding, unimpaired sense
faculties (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind) in
order to recognize their respective objects (color/form,
sound, smell, taste, tactile sensation, and concepts).
When these three elements (sense faculty, object, and
consciousness) come together (contact, sparsa), cognition comes about.
The word consciousness, however, often appears
without specification regarding sense faculty or object,
as, for example in the list of the five SKANDHA (AGGREGATE): body/matter (ru

pa), sensation (vedana
),
 ja
), volition (sam
 ska
ra), and conideation (sam
sciousness (vija
na). This type of bare consciousness
is also found in several other important contexts.
Rebirth and the theory of
dependent origination

The notion of consciousness plays a cardinal role in

the context of REBIRTH, within the large framework of
PRATI
TYASAMUTPA

DA (DEPENDENT ORIGINATION). In
those early scriptures that propound very simple forms
of Buddhist causation there are two basic patterns: one
centering on consciousness and psycho-physical existence (na
maru
pa), and the other centering on desire
(trsn a
) and appropriation (upadhi, upa
da
na). According to the scriptures that put forth the first pattern, as
long as the consciousness has objects (a
lambana) to be
conceived and to be attached to, it stays in the realm
 SA
RA, and the psycho-physical existence will enof SAM
ter the womb (i.e., one will be reborn in the next life
without being liberated from sam
 sa
ra). Scriptural admonitions to guard the doors of ones sense faculties so that one does not grasp at cognitive objects
would be closely related to this idea of consciousness.
Since several expressions meaning desire also appear
in the context of consciousness attached to its objects,
these two patterns are in fact closely related. Eventually these two patterns were combined into more developed systems of dependent origination, consisting
of ten or twelve items. Even the full-fledged system of
the twelve causal links basically consists of two portions: the first (one through seven; ignorance through
sensation) centering on consciousness, and the second
(eight through twelve; desire through old age and
death) centering on desire. (Later Sarva
stiva
da and
Yoga
ca
ra interpretations of dependent origination,
though differing greatly from each other, also support
this division.) Therefore, the full-fledged theory of
dependent origination is in a way an elaboration of
the simpler causation theories described above. In this

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CONSCIOUSNESS, THEORIES

OF

system also, the third item, consciousness, is usually

understood as the consciousness at the moment of
conception, and thus it retains its nature as described
in the very early texts.
According to Yoga
ca
ra tradition, at the time of ones
death, a powerful attachment to ones own existence
arises and makes ones consciousness grasp the next
life. Furthermore, according to both the Sarva
stiva
da
and Yoga
ca
ra schools, the consciousness in the INTERMEDIATE STATE sees the parents making love. If the being is about to be reborn as a boy, he is attached to the
mother and hates the father. If the being is about to be
reborn as a girl, she is attached to the father and hates
the mother. Driven by this perverted thought, the being enters the womb, and the consciousness merges
with the united semen and blood, after which the
semen-blood combination becomes a sentient embryo.
Even when a being is about to be reborn in a hell, it
misconceives the hell as something desirable, and driven by its attachment to the desirable place, it hastens to the hell. Thus, in these cases also, the basic
structure of consciousness attached to some object and
bound to the realm of sam
 sa
ra resembles the structure
of consciousness found in the less developed stage of
Buddhist causation theory.
The a
layavija
na theory and the theory of
the eight consciousnesses

In the YOGA
CA
RA SCHOOL, consciousness that merges

with the semen-blood combination is understood as

the storehouse consciousness (A
LAYAVIJNA
NA). According to this school, the storehouse consciousness, the
deepest layer of ones subconsciousness, maintains all
the residue of past KARMA (ACTION) as seeds, which
will give rise to their fruits in the future. This theory
enabled the Yoga
ca
ra school to explain the problems
of reincarnation and karmic retribution without resorting to the concept of substantial soul.
The storehouse consciousness is also linked to the
idealistic theory propounded by Yoga
ca
ra. Buddhism
had an idealistic tendency from the early stages of its
history, and the state of the external world was linked
to the collective karma/desire of SENTIENT BEINGS. An
interesting example is found in a Buddhist cosmogonical legend, which states that as the desire of sentient
beings became more gross, the surrounding world became less and less attractive. On the basis of meditative experiences, the Yoga
ca
ra tradition elaborated this
tendency into a sophisticated philosophical system in
which the world that people experience is actually a
projection of their own consciousness. The seeds kept

176

in the storehouse consciousness are considered to be

the source of this projected world.
Another important function of the storehouse consciousness is the physiological maintenance of the
body. Since the early stages of Buddhism, consciousness was considered to be the element that distinguishes animate beings from inanimate matter. Unless
consciousness appropriates (i.e., maintains) the body,
the body becomes a senseless corpse. Since, however,
the stream of consciousnesses on the surface level is
sometimes interrupted (as in the states of dreamless
sleep, fainting, or deep absorption), it was difficult to
explain how the body is maintained during those unconscious periods. Because the storehouse consciousness continues to operate even when the surface
consciousnesses do not arise, the introduction of the
storehouse consciousness solves the problem of physiological maintenance of the body.
In addition to the storehouse consciousness, the
Yoga
ca
ra school introduced another subconscious
layer of mind, namely the defiled mind (klistamanas).
This is a subconscious ego-consciousness that is always
operative in the depths of the mind. According to the
Yoga
ca
ra system, the defiled mind is always directed
to the storehouse consciousness and mistakes the latter for a substantial self. By introducing the concept of
defiled mind, the Yoga
ca
ra school pointed out that the
subconscious ego-mind is hiding behind the scene
even when one is trying to do good things on the conscious level. Thus, from this point of view, the minds
of deluded, ordinary sentient beings are always defiled,
regardless of the moral nature of the surface consciousnesses. Thus, in addition to the conventional six
types of consciousness, the Yoga
ca
ra school introduced
two subconscious layers of minddefiled mind and
storehouse consciousnessand constructed a system
of eight types of consciousness. These eight consciousnesses are linked to citta, manas, and vija
na in
the following way: The storehouse consciousness corresponds to citta, the defiled mind to manas, and the
conventional six consciousnesses to vija
na.
Simultaneous versus successive operations
of plural consciousnesses

Since the Yoga
ca
ra model of eight consciousnesses

means that two layers of unconscious mind are always
operating behind the conventional six consciousnesses,
it naturally presupposes the simultaneous operations
of different types of consciousness. This position, however, was not uncontroversial among Buddhist traditions. Since the stream of consciousness represents a

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