末那識

Readings

Pinyin: mònà shì

Wade-Giles: mo-na-shih

Hangul: 말나식

Korean MC: malna sik

Korean MR: malna sik

Katakana: マナシキ

Hepburn: māna shiki

mạt na thức

(Skt. manas)

• Consciousness; mentation. The seventh of the eight consciousnesses 八識 taught in Yogâcāra; translated into Chinese as 意 and as 思量識. As the consciousness that localizes experience through thinking, its primary function is to perceive the subjective position of the eighth consciousness 阿賴耶識 and construe it as one's own self, thereby creating self attachment. It is characterized in the Cheng weishi lun as "continually examining and assessing" 恆審思量 (T 1585.31.7b28). Much of its function is similar to the sixth consciousness 意識 (mano-vijñāna), but whereas the latter has interruptions 間斷, the manas functions 24/7 without lapse. The ālayavijñāna, on the other hand, while being continuous, does not discriminate. Not consciously controllable, the manas is said to give rise to conscious decisions in regard to individual survival, and to incessant self-love. Since it can also be called the movement of the human mind that sees the limits of human variation from within, it is necessary that for their basis of existence, humans have some fundamental thing that unceasingly continues and changes, serving as the ground for the sixth consciousness. As the Yogâcārabhūmi-śāstra says: 末那任持意識令分別轉 是故說爲意識所依 〔瑜伽論 T 1579.30.651c4〕.

  This consciousness is also theorized as the connecting realm between the mano-consciousness 意識 and the ālayavijñāna. The so-called origin of delusion, it is also called the "stained mind," (Skt. kliṣṭa-manas), being associated with the four fundamental, subconscious afflictions of self-delusion 我癡, self-view 我見, self-conceit 我慢, and self-love 我愛. See also 七識十名.

  [resp. cmuller; source(s): Nakamura, Yokoi, JEBD, Iwanami]
• Monier-Williams says: "mind (in its widest sense as applied to all the mental powers), intellect, intelligence, understanding, perception, sense, conscience, will. (in phil. the internal organ or [ antaḥ-karaṇa ] of perception and cognition, the faculty or instrument through which thoughts enter or by which objects of sense affect the soul."[resp. cmuller]

Dictionary References:

Bukkyō jiten (Ui), 995

Bulgyo sajeon, 203a

Zengaku daijiten (Komazawa U.), 1176a

Iwanami bukkyō jiten, 759

Japanese-English Buddhist Dictionary (Daitō shuppansha), 193b/216

Japanese-English Zen Buddhist Dictionary (Yokoi), 443

Zen Dust (Sasaki), 312

Bukkyōgo daijiten (Nakamura), 1275d

Fo Guang Dictionary, 1941

Ding Fubao

Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki), (v.1-6)4745a, (v.1-6)4745a,39a,4208c, (v.9-10)1092b

Bukkyō daijiten (Oda), 1661-2

Copyright © 2010 -- Charles Muller

generated: 2012-11-27