Amalavijñāna

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Key Term	*Amalavijñāna
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 Vasubhandu'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 eight 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
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.

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).

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.

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.