Memory awareness

Memory consciousness ( Sanskrit आलयविज्ञान, ālayavijñāna ; Chinese  阿賴耶 識 , Pinyin ālàiyé shì , W.-G. a-lai-yeh shih ; hgl. 아뢰야식 , aroeya sik ; Japanese 阿 頼 耶 識 , araya-shiki or honshiki ; viet . a Lai da Thuc ; Tib. kun gzhi rnam shes ) is the eighth most fundamental and consciousness ( Vijnana ) within the Vijñanavada (consciousness teaching). The Sanskrit noun ālaya means “soul” in German and is related to the adjective alaya , which means “not fundamental”. Vijñāna means "consciousness".

It essentially fulfills three functions:

1. The memory consciousness collects all experiences of a living being and represents the basis of the present and future existences. It receives impressions of all other forms of consciousness and preserves them as possible energy for further actions.
2. It serves as the basis of the remaining seven forms of consciousness and is also known as basic consciousness (mūla-vijñāna) or causal consciousness .
3. In accordance with its function as a store of all experiences ever made (metaphorically referred to as bija or “seed”) it is also called seed consciousness (種子 識).

literature

• Thich Nhat Hanh : Fear becomes courage - Basics of Buddhist Psychology, 2003, ISBN 3-89620-201-4
• Francis H. Cook, Three Texts on Consciousness Only, Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, Berkeley, 1999