The concept of Alaya-vijnana, or the cosciousness which is a treasury, is considered an important development in the history of the Buddhist ideas, and, particularly, in Yogacara tradition.
Alaya-vijnana has enjoyed its share of the scholarly interest. Among the main contributions is the monographic work by Lambert Schmitthausen called Alaya-vijnana. On the Origin and Early Development of the of a Central Concept of Yogacara philosophy.
In my short presentation, I want to briefly explore the exposition on Alaya-vijnana in the Pancaskandhakavibhāṣā of Sthiramati, a commentary on the Pancaskandhaka of the famous Vasubandhu.
The text is interesting in the sense that it shows the transition from the philosophy of the classical Sarvastivada to Abhidharma as it was developed and accepted in Yogacara school.
In the studied text, one of the reasons or justifications for Alaya-vijanana is that it starts samsara.
When this topic is dealt with, first, samsara is explained in the following way: samsara means that the upadana skandhas are produced in the collections (nikayasabhaga). Nirvana is different from samsara in the sense that in nirvana the skandha-s are not supported anymore.
It is stated, that in case Alaya-vijnana did not exist, it would be impossible for the samsara to start functioning.
Alaya-vijnana also explains the rebirth, or relinking, pratisandhi: it is said that if it did not exist it would not be possible to influence a newly-born person with the formations (samskaras) conditioned by the previous birth.
The text also explains that without Alaya-vijnana, cessation of the samsara would also be impossible. Here the argumentation is quite intricate and will require further exploaration.
In the end of the exposé, it is explained that Alaya-vijnana, the treasury of consciousness, owes its name due to the fact that it stores the seeds of the afflicted states of mind.
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