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| frame | A monkey swinging in a tree, the image for consciousness in the [[Wheel of Life]]

The 8 consciousnesses, or more literally, eight collections of consciousness (Skt. aṣṭavijñānakāya; Tib. རྣམ་ཤེས་ཚོགས་བརྒྱད་, namshé tsok gyé, Wyl. rnam shes tshogs brgyad) are mentioned in the sutras of the Three Turnings | third turning of the Wheel of Dharma, as well as in the writings of the Mind Only school.

1. Visual (or eye) consciousness (Skt. cakṣur-vijñana; Tib. མིག་གི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, Wyl. mig gi rnam shes)
2. Auditory (or ear) consciousness (Skt. śrotra-vijñana; Tib. རྣ་བའི་རྣམ་ཤེས་,Wyl. rna ba'i rnam shes)
3. Olfactory (or nose) consciousness (Skt. ghrāṇa-vijñana; Tib. སྣའི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, Wyl. sna'i rnam shes)
4. Gustatory (or tongue) consciousness (Skt. jihva-vijñana; Tib. ལྕེའི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, Wyl. lce'i rnam shes)
5. Tactile (or body) consciousness (Skt. kāya-vijñana; Tib. ལུས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, Wyl. lus kyi rnam shes)
6. Mental (or mind) consciousness (Skt. mano-vijñana; Tib. ཡིད་ཀྱི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, Wyl. yid kyi rnam shes)

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The first five consciousnesses are non-conceptual (Tib. རྟོག་མེད་, tok mé, Wyl. rtog med). The sixth, mind consciousness, is divided into conceptual (Tib. རྟོག་བཅས་, tok ché, Wyl. rtog bcas) and non-conceptual aspects.

There is a very good example illustrating the difference between these two which appears in a verse by Sakya Pandita:

{]] | f7f7e7;" cellspacing="5" border="0" text-align:left,top" | + | valign="top" | And conceptual mind is like a blind person who can talk.<ref>''The Treasury of Valid Reasoning'', chapter 4</ref> | རྟོག་པ་ལོང་བ་སྨྲ་མཁས་འདྲ། །</big> | Is it a good cup or a bad one, like a really attractive person, if we are just thinking about that person, then even if our eyes are looking at the cup, we will not be thinking about what the cup is like, and whether it is good or bad. Even if our eyes are seeing the cup, our mind might be daydreaming about this person very vividly, so that even if something were to happen in front of us we would not really notice.

This mental consciousness can only have one thought at a time. The sense perceptions can all arise at the same time. If you go to watch a movie at the cinema, you will see the film and hear the soundtrack, and then if there is a woman nearby wearing perfume, you might smell that, and you might also be eating popcorn. Then if someone touches you from behind there is also the sense of touch. So all five are happening at the same time. But the conceptual mind can not experience two thoughts simultaneously. For example, we can not think “I like it” and “I don’t like it” at the same time. But the conceptual mind is changing from one moment to the next. And it moves very quickly. Together with the eyes, it sees forms. Together with the ears, it hears sounds. Together with the nose, it smells odours. And it is moving about from one moment to the next. It is like a crazy monkey moving around inside a house with five windows. It is moving about so quickly that if you look from the outside it can seem as if there are five monkeys, but there is only one.

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Category of Abhidharma Category of Enumerations Category of 06-Six </noinclude>

To the six consciousnesses mentioned in the Abhidharma texts of the basic vehicle are added: :7.&nbsp;&nbsp;Defiled mental consciousness or emotional consciousness and :8.&nbsp;&nbsp;All-ground consciousness.

According to Mipham Rinpoche, the eight consciousnesses transform into the five wisdoms in the following way:

• Alaya transforms into the wisdom of dharmadhatu.
• all-ground consciousness | Alaya consciousness transforms into mirror-like wisdom.
• Emotional consciousness transforms into wisdom of equality.
• Mental consciousness transforms into the wisdom of discernment.
• Five sense consciousnesses transform into the all-accomplishing wisdom.

• Eight avenues of consciousness (LCN)

• Khandro Rinpoche, Lerab Ling, France, 14 July 2018 am
• Philippe Cornu, Lerab Ling, France, 3 November 2018
• Khandro Rinpoche, Bodhgaya, India, 26 February 2019
• Khandro Rinpoche, Amsterdam, Holland India, 24 March 2019
• Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, Prajna online, 6 August 2021

• Sogyal Rinpoche, 'The Eight Consciousnesses', Rigpalink December 2003, 6 November 2003, Zurich (available in English, French and German, ordernumber 361)

• A Treasury of Dharma, aka The Mengak Study Pack (Lodève: The Tertön Sogyal Trust, 2005), pages 90-92 & CD2, tracks 4-6.

Category of Buddhist Key Terms Category of Chittamatra Category of Enumerations Category of 08-Eight