<p>From the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_Consciousnesses" rel="nofollow">wiki</a> page:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>All surviving schools of buddhist thought accept – "in common" – the existence of the first six primary consciousnesses (Sanskrit: vijñāna, Tibetan: རྣམ་ཤེས་, Wylie: rnam-shes).<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_Consciousnesses" rel="nofollow">1</a> The internally coherent Yogācāra school associated with Maitreya, Asaṅga, and Vasubandhu, however, uniquely – or "uncommonly" – also posits the existence of two additional primary consciousnesses, kliṣṭamanas and ālayavijñāna, in order to explain the workings of karma.[2] The first six of these primary consciousnesses comprise the five sensory faculties together with mental consciousness, which is counted as the sixth. </p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-02-16T03:13:28.423Z
2016-02-16T03:13:28.423Z
santa100
<p>The answeres to the following question: <a href="https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/13686/is-the-ocean-samadhi-a-metaphor-or-an-actual-meditation">Is the Ocean Samadhi a metaphor or an actual meditation?</a> implply there are 8 types of conciousness in Chinese Buddhism. What are these? How did they originate? Is this there a common text with Theravada which is cited deriving or rationalising this?</p>

<theravada><pali-canon><mahayana><chinese-buddhism><chinese-canon>
What are the 8 Consciousness in Chinese Buddhism
# What are the 8 Consciousness in Chinese Buddhism

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-02-16)

The answeres to the following question: [Is the Ocean Samadhi a metaphor or an actual meditation?](https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/13686/is-the-ocean-samadhi-a-metaphor-or-an-actual-meditation) implply there are 8 types of conciousness in Chinese Buddhism. What are these? How did they originate? Is this there a common text with Theravada which is cited deriving or rationalising this?

**Tags:** theravada, pali-canon, mahayana, chinese-buddhism, chinese-canon


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2016-02-16. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

From the [wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_Consciousnesses) page:

> All surviving schools of buddhist thought accept – "in common" – the existence of the first six primary consciousnesses (Sanskrit: vijñāna, Tibetan: རྣམ་ཤེས་, Wylie: rnam-shes).[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_Consciousnesses) The internally coherent Yogācāra school associated with Maitreya, Asaṅga, and Vasubandhu, however, uniquely – or "uncommonly" – also posits the existence of two additional primary consciousnesses, kliṣṭamanas and ālayavijñāna, in order to explain the workings of karma.[2] The first six of these primary consciousnesses comprise the five sensory faculties together with mental consciousness, which is counted as the sixth.


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