Naming the Seventh Consciousness in Yogācāra

The Yogācāra School presents the seventh consciousness as the internal mental faculty of the sixth consciousness. According to the Hīnayāna tradition, the internal faculty is called manas, so the complete compound word referring to the seventh consciousness is manovijnāna. Thus, in the Yogācāra system the seventh and sixth consciousnesses are both named manovijnāna. In order to resolve the confusion of the homonyms, one of them must be adjusted. Based on the Tibetan term, nyon yid rnam par shes pa, some scholars recently claimed that the seventh consciousness could be called kliṣṭamanas. However, in the Cheng Weishi Lun, Xuanzang proposed that the seventh consciousness is also reasonably named akliṣṭamanas when referring to the pure Buddha, and therefore it is better to simply term the seventh consciousness “manas”. On the other hand, some Indian ancient Yogācāra theorists suggested that the word manovijnāna should be used to name the seventh consciousness, while the sixth consciousness would in that case be called dharmavijnāna. However, that solution was rejected by Cheng Weishi Lun. Through contextual analysis, utilizing the method of the Indian Śāstra of Vaiyākaraṇa, this article puts forward an innovative way to solve the difficult problem of homonymity: denoting the seventh consciousness as pradhānamanovijnāna (最勝末那識) based on the unique meaning of manas advocated by Yogācāra School itself.