Amalavijñāna

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Key Term	amalavijñāna
Topic Variation	immaculate consciousness
Hover Popup Choices	amalavijñāna; ninth consciousness
Wylie Tibetan Transliteration	dri ma med pa'i rnam shes
Romanized Sanskrit	*amalavijñāna
Chinese Script	啊摩羅識; 無垢識
Chinese Pinyin	amoluo shi; wugou shi
Japanese Transliteration	amarashiki; mukushiki
English Standard	immaculate consciousness
Term Type	Noun
Source Language	Sanskrit
Basic Meaning	The ninth consciousness, the immaculate pure mind.
Has the Sense of	According to East Asian Yogācāra, the absolute purity of mind of a buddha. While the Sanskrit term appears in Vasubandhu's Abidharmakośa and the accompanying Bhaṣya, the term as it is used in the sense of pure consciousness was first used in Chinese by Paramārtha and then expanded and changed by later Chinese Yogācāra writers. While Paramārtha associated it with thusness and used it to refer to a catalyst for enlightenment, it has come to refer to a ninth consciousness which only appears when the ālayavijñāna, the eighth consciousness, ceases. As such, it is pure, luminous, and permanent. Some writers, however, have equated it to the pure aspect of the ālayavijñāna, as well as with prakṛtiprabhāsvaracitta (the absolute purity of mind), tathāgatagarbha, and even emptiness.
Definitions
Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism	See page 33: In Sanskrit, “immaculate consciousness”; a ninth level of consciousness posited in certain strands of the Yogācāra school, especially that taught by the Indian translator and exegete Paramārtha . The amalavijñāna represents the intrusion of tathāgatagarbha (womb or embryo of buddhahood) thought into the eight-consciousnesses theory of the Yogācāra school. The amalavijñāna may have antecedents in the notion of immaculate gnosis (amalajñāna) in the Ratnagotravibhāga and is claimed to be first mentioned in Sthiramati’s school of Yogācāra, to which Paramārtha belonged. The term is not attested in Sanskrit materials, however, and may be of Chinese provenance.
Simplified English Usage Example:	At the moment of enlightenment, the eighth consciousness ceases, replaced by the ninth, the immaculate consciousness of a buddha.

The ninth consciousness, the immaculate pure mind.

The ninth consciousness, the immaculate pure mind.

Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana).

A neutral base consciousness that is posited as the storehouse for the seeds of past karmic actions in which they remain in a latent state until the circumstances arise for them to ripen as karmic consequences.

In a general sense, that which clears away darkness, though it often appears in Buddhist literature in reference to the mind or its nature. It is a particularly salient feature of Tantric literature, especially in regard to the advanced meditation techniques of the completion-stage yogas.

Buddha-nature, literally the "womb/essence of those who have gone (to suchness)."

The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics.