Without getting too deep into the woods of Buddhist psychology, let’s examine the Five Wisdoms of enlightened beings, which are said to arise from the eight forms of consciousness found in the unenlightened. “Arise” is an awkward word because the Five Wisdoms are primordial, so it’s more like we return or learn our way back to them.
These teachings are from the Abhidharma, a collection of texts from the centuries after the Buddha’s death. They are written in dense prose outlining the philosophy and psychology of Buddhism. The Abhidharma is far too dry for me, so what follows is a surface-level understanding from the teachings I’ve heard or read.
I’m following the Yogachara philosophical interpretations. Yogachara and Mādhyamaka are the major philosophical themes of later-stage Buddhism. You can read more about them in the book Madhyamaka and Yogacara: Allies or Rivals?1
We humans have what are called the Eight Consciousnesses:
Eye consciousness or seeing.
Ear consciousness or hearing.
Nose consciousness or smelling.
Tongue consciousness or tasting.
Body consciousness or feeling.
Mind consciousness—ideation and thinking.
Kleshas—the five afflictions that cloud our minds: attachment (clinging), aversion, ignorance (of the nature of mind), pride, and jealousy.
Alaya (also called alaya-vijnana), which is described as a storehouse. It can be compared with the modern concept of the unconscious, but in Buddhism, it contains our karma, which we’ve developed and inherited from those before us. We will potentially pass it on to those who follow. (If you’re uncomfortable with literal rebirth, you might think of collective karma—the traits we inherit from all who came before and pass on to all who follow us.)
The early Buddhist scholars seemed to understand that our eyes, ears, noses, tongues, and bodies don’t understand what they see, hear, smell, taste, and feel without the ideation that goes on in the mind, so they considered all of the first six forms of consciousness as sense consciousness.
The minds of enlightened beings have been purified of the five kleshas, which are replaced by the Five Wisdoms:
Dharmadhatu wisdom: The realization of the true nature of the mind and the natural state of all phenomena. Seeing the world as it is. Some traditions refer to this quality as “suchness.”
Mirror-like wisdom: The unobstructed clarity of the pure nature of mind, or Rigpa. This perfectly clear lens enables us to see, hear, taste, and feel the world in its non-dual form.
Wisdom of equanimity: The realization that there’s no this without that—no light without dark, no happiness without sadness, no liberation from suffering without suffering. This is expressed in the phrase one taste.2
Wisdom of analytical awareness: When we see the tree across the street, we know that, in the relative world around us, it has form, but it is also empty of unique and permanent existence.3
Wisdom of accomplishing: The realization of these wisdoms through spontaneous actions, requiring no effort or exertion of the ordinary mind.
We interrupt this blog post for a joke about Judaism:
A synagogue in a town in Siberia was without a rabbi for many years. Then, as the Russian government became more tolerant of religion, the townspeople hired one. As he conducted his first Saturday morning service, when he got to the Shema prayer, some congregants stood, and some remained seated.
The standing congregants shouted at the seated ones, demanding that they rise. The seated ones shouted back. The rabbi had no choice but to abort the service. The congregation was unmanageable.
He went to the home of a wise old man who was too immobile to attend the service.
“Sir,” he said, “I request your help. When we got to the Shema, some people stood and some remained seated. What’s the tradition in this shul?”
When the old man remained silent, the rabbi added: “It was terrible. They were shouting at each other and wouldn’t stop.”
Then the old man spoke:
“That’s the tradition!”
Buddhists tend not to shout at each other, but when I research and write about deeper teachings like the Abhidharma, I can’t help thinking about the many ways in which Jewish scholars vary in their interpretations of the Talmud. So bear in mind that I write from my 40 years of Buddhist experience and my 60 years of researching and writing experience but without any credentials as a Buddhist teacher.
When it comes to interpretation, I’m sometimes on shaky ground. I said above that the kleshas (Consciousness #7) are replaced by the wisdoms. As I understand it, however, the alaya (Consciousness #8), which contains our karma, is also replaced when one is fully enlightened. Exactly what gets replaced by what during the stages of enlightenment is beyond my pay grade.
None of this matters in our practice—our efforts to become closer to our Buddha Nature and lessen the world’s suffering—or whatever practice we follow. I include it for those who like a short diversion into the weeds without becoming entangled.
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The musical bonus reminds me of Wisdom #4.
If you click on the link and go to the book’s page on Amazon, then click on “Read Sample,” you’ll see the introduction, which may be all you need.
My reflection on “one taste” is that, of course, we can like peace better than war, love better than hate, and so on. (Maybe this is reflected in the fourth wisdom.) The point is that we accept everything from the same calm, clear base.
Another purely personal reflection from a man with no teaching credentials: We grok non-dual and dual reality simultaneously, or we grok the nondual world from our dual perspective.
Thanks for the enlightening stroll through the weeds! I enjoyed it.