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First, we present some detailed background information on the concept of the alaya-vijnana and then we discuss the Vajra Bhairaveas approach concerning its relationship to the way much of contemporary Buddhism is practiced.

The concept of the alaya-vijnana was developed in the form of Mahayana Buddhism known as Yogacara or Vijnanavada Buddhism, which emphasized the role of meditation and consciousness. The compound term "Yogacara" literally means "practice of yoga", or "one whose practice is yoga", hence the name of the school is literally "the school of the yogins".

It was developed by Buddhist yogis in northern India, especially Asanga and Vasubandhu (fourth century CE), and later Yogacara ideas were imported to Tibet and East Asia by figures like Shantaraksita (8th century) and Xuanzang (7th-century). The Yogacara school flourished in India in the 4th and 5th centuries CE, and influenced many later types of Buddhism, particularly in Tibet and East Asia.

According to this perspective, the alaya-vijnana acts as the receptacle in which the impressions (known as vasana or bija) 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 samsara. This store-house consciousness accumulates all potential energy as seeds (bija) for the mental (nama) and physical (rupa) manifestation of one's existence (namarupa). It is the storehouse-consciousness which induces rebirth. It is the consciousness that is the universal ground (kun gzhi rnam shes). It is sometimes called the "eighth consciousness."

As the Karma Kagyu lama Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche states:

The eighth consciousness is called the alaya-vijnana or all-basis consciousness. It is so-called because it is the basis or ground for the arising of all other types of consciousness. It is that fundamental clarity of consciousness, or cognitive lucidity, that has been there from the beginning.

From the Chittamatrin perspective, "Within the universal ground consciousness, which is like an immense ocean, there is a potential (a power source) for the seven kinds of consciousness and their attendant mental factors, which rise and fall like waves on the sea. This potential is supplied by habitual tendencies. In brief, if the potential stored in the alaya is not yet ready to bring forth its subsequent result, it remains in the universal ground consciousness like a seed. When this ripens, however, it gives rise to the appearance of all sorts of things: bodies, places, and experiences."

This understanding of an underlying level of subliminal consciousness allowed for a better explanation of the constructed nature of perception ("consciousness-", "representation-", or "appearance-only", vijnapptimatra) as well as the commonality of our experienced world (bhajna-loka). And since it represents the "store" of one's past karma, alaya-vijnana is what must be eliminated, transformed, or purified on the path to liberation, when it becomes a "stainless consciousness" (alaya-vijnana). In some texts, it is even equated with tathagatha-garbha (roughly, "buddha-nature"), a relationship later Tibetan and Chinese Buddhists developed along with other aspects of the Yogacara traditions they received from India.

More recently, alaya-vijnana has been compared with theories of unconscious mental processes in depth psychology and cognitive science. It is also called the ground-of-all consciousness, the store consciousness, and the store-house consciousness.

As the Vajrabhairava describes the importance of the alaya-vijnana and its loss in much contemporary Buddhist practice:

The mindfulness leap from secular identity to Emptiness skips over much important knowledge. It avoids the personal unconscious, the realms of memory and emotion, and the important of the area of the mind called the alaya-vijnana. This is the deeper area of samsara which holds all memory, all emotion, and all potential forms for sentient life.

The Theravada tradition dismisses the importance of other forms of sentient life besides human life. It accepts the worlds of rebirth, usually narrowing them down to the six worlds, but dismisses their significance while grudgingly accepting their existence.

The path of emptiness dismisses the value of their beauty, creativity, and variety. Worlds upon worlds of variety are dismissed as illusory. From this perspective, the Buddha and his teachings are worthless - thus the idea of killing the Buddha if you see him on the road.

This approach degrades the value of the visionary, and the whole world of form. It also degrades consciousness itself - as merely a skanda to dismiss.

But consciousness is innately artistic and the alaya is the set of paints and brushes. It holds an infinite variety of possible forms, the colors and shapes used to create universes and galaxies, both the physical worlds and worlds of awareness.

There is more to awareness than an end to suffering. By comparison to this potential, the goal of ending suffering is limited. It seeks to erase the power of karma and sit peacefully. The end.

But what about yogic exploration? The universe is full of worlds changing, growing, and transforming. Being enlightened does not mean ignoring everything. It includes understanding everything.

As samsara is the actualization of all potential, the alaya is that potential for all samsaric creation and destruction. If samsara is a house, the alaya is its foundation. It is the clay which samsaric powers use to build worlds. It is the root consciousness from which all other forms of consciousness arise.

Its power can be overwhelming, so there may be a pragmatic reason for negating its existence. But such negation brings ignorance.

True yogis, Buddhist or Hindu, seek to understand how consciousness arises, not just how to still it. Both Buddhas and gods work through the alaya to shape infinity.

The denial of universal consciousness in Buddhism denies the role of the alaya and comes from the assumption that human beings cannot stand too much truth. Its view of human potential is limited, a viewpoint of poverty rather than richness. Even visualizations of the buddha worlds which have remained from ancient texts are promptly dissolved [or rejected] as soon as they are perceived. There is no encouragement for yogis to explore the paradises that the Buddhas create and destroy.

Does consciousness and creativity have any value for Buddhists? Not for those who seek to dissolve it all into silence.

This is not the Vajrayana that grew from a Mahayana Buddhist appreciation of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Such Buddhism speaks of compassion but denies the existence of souls and created worlds [so that the compassion has no purpose or objective].

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Introduction | Methodology - Participant/Observer | The Bodhi Tree Sadhanas | Vajra Dakini Discussion | Vajra Dakini Commentary | Vajra Dakini Sadhanas | Vajra Yogini Commentary | Maitreya Sadhanas | Green Tara Commentaries and Sadhanas | Vajradhara Speaks About Yidams | Lost Sadhanas Conclusion

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