layavijñna

Layavijñāna, also named alaya-vijñāna, is a central concept in Yogācāra Buddhist philosophy. The term translates as storehouse consciousness and is described as the eighth consciousness underlying the ordinary sense-consciousnesses and mental activities. In this framework, conscious experience arises within a single continuum shaped by habitual tendencies and karmic impressions stored in the alaya.

The alaya-vijñāna is said to house latent seeds (bija) of past actions, feelings, and dispositions. When conducive conditions arise, these seeds ripen and project into the other consciousnesses—eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind—giving rise to perception, thought, and emotion. Thus the alaya functions as a substrate for both samsaric existence and, potentially, awakening, since wholesome and unwholesome seeds influence future experience.

Variations exist across schools. In Yogācāra, the alaya is treated as a real, subtle level of mind rather than a separate ego; it participates in the transformation of dharmas, turning seed energies into habitual tendencies and streams of awareness. Some later Tibetan accounts interpret alaya as the foundation of psychophysical continuity across lives, while others emphasize its functional, non-substantial role within dependent origination.

Critics question its metaphysical status, arguing it risks reifying mental processes. Proponents contend that layavijñāna offers a coherent account of karmic continuity and the durability of dispositions, without positing a permanent self.

The concept remains influential in East Asian and Tibetan Buddhist psychology and meditation, where it provides a framework for understanding how latent tendencies shape perception, behavior, and spiritual development.