neuter · viññāṇa 1 · viññāṇa 2
animation; consciousness
Viññāṇa (neuter) [from vi + jñā; cf. Vedic vijñāna cognition] (as special term in Buddhist metaphysics) a mental quality as a constituent of individuality, the bearer of (individual) life, life-force (as extending also over rebirths), principle of conscious life, general consciousness (as function of mind and matter), regenerative force, animation, mind as transmigrant, as transforming (according to individual kamma) one individual life (after death) into the next. (See also below, c and d). In this (fundamental) application it may be characterized as the sensory and perceptive activity commonly expressed by "mind" It is difficult to give any one word for v., because there is much difference between the old Buddhist and our modern points of view, and there is a varying use of the term in the canon itself. In what may be a very old Sutta S II 95 v. is given as a synonym of citta (q.v.) and mano (q.v.), in opposition to kāya used to mean body. This simpler unecclesiastical, unscholastic popular meaning is met with in other suttas. E.g. the body (kāya) is, when animated, called sa-viññāṇaka (q.v. and cf. viññāṇatta). Again, v. was supposed, at the body's death, to pass over into another body (S I 122; III 124) and so find a support or platform (patiṭṭhā). It was also held to be an immutable, persistent substance, a view strongly condemned (M I 258). Since, however, the persistence of v. from life to life is declared (D II 68; S III 54), we must judge that it is only the immutable persistence that is condemned. Viññāṇa was justly conceived more as "minding" than as "mind". Its form is participial. For later variants of the foregoing cf. Miln 86; Pv-a 63, 219. Ecclesiastical scholastic dogmatic considers v. under the categories of (a) khandha; (b) dhātu; (c) paṭicca-samuppāda; (d) āhāra; (e) kāya. (a) V as fifth of the five khandhas (q.v.) is never properly described or defined. It is an ultimate. But as a factor of animate existence it is said to be the discriminating (vijānāti) of e.g. tastes or sapid things (S III 87), or, again, of pleasant or painful feeling (M I 292). It is in no wise considered as a condition, or a climax of the other incorporeal khandhās. It is just one phase among others of mental life. In mediæval dogmatic it appears rather as the bare phenomenon of aroused attention, the other khandhās having been reduced to adjuncts or concomitants brought to pass by the arousing of v. ( Cpd. 13), and as such classed under cetasikā, the older saṅkhāra-kkhandha. (b) as dhātu, v. occurs only in the category of the four elements with space as a sixth element, and also where dhātu is substituted for khandha (S III 10). (c) In the chain of causation (paṭicca-samuppāda) v. is conditioned by the saṅkhāras and is itself a necessary condition of nāma-rūpa (individuality). See e.g. S II 4, 6, 8, 12 etc.; Vin I 1; Vism 545 f. = Vibh-a 150; Vism 558 f.; Vibh-a 169 f.; 192. — At S II 4 = III 61 viññāṇa (in the paṭicca-samuppāda) is defined in a similar way to the definition under v.-ṭṭhiti (see c), viz. as a quality peculiar to (and underlying) each of the 6 senses: "katamaṃ viññāṇaṃ? cha-y-ime viññāṇa-kāyā (groups of v.), viz. cakkhu° sota° etc.," which means that viññāṇa is the apperceptional or energizing principle, so to speak the soul or life (substratum, animator, life potency) of the sensory side of individuality. It arises through the mutual relation of sense and sense-object (M III 281, where also the 6 v.-kāyā). As such it forms a factor of rebirth, as it is grouped under upadhi (q.v.). Translations of S II 4: Mrs. Rh.D. ( K.S. II 4) "consciousness"; Geiger (in Saṃyutta translation, ZB IV 62) "Erkennen." (d) As one of the four āhāras (q.v.) v. is considered as the material, food or cause, through which comes rebirth (S II 13; cf. BMPE 62). As such it is likened to seed in the field of action (kamma) A I 223, and as entering (a body) at rebirth the phrase viññāṇassa avakkanti is used (D II 63; S II 91). In this connection the expression paṭisandhi-viññāṇa first appears in Paṭis I 52, and then in the commentaries (Vibh-a 192; cf. Vism 548, 659 paṭisandhicitta); in Vism 554 = Vibh-a 163, the v., here said to be located in the heart, is made out, at bodily death, "to quit its former "support" and proceed (pavattati) to another by way of its mental object {619} and other conditions." Another scholastic expression, both {554} early and late, is abhisaṅkhāra-v., or "endowment consciousness," viz. the individual transmigrant or transmitted function (viññāṇa) which supplies the next life with the accumulation of individual merit or demerit or indifference, as it is expressed at Nidd II §569 a in definition of v. (on Snp 1055: yaṃ kiñci sampajānāsi ... panujja viññāṇaṃ bhave no tiṭṭhe): puññābhisaṅkhāra-sahagata-viññāṇaṃ, apuññ' ..., ānejj' ... — Under the same heading at Nidd II §569 b we find abhisaṅkhāra v. with reference to the Sotāpatti-stage, i.e. the beginning of salvation, where it is said that by the gradual disappearance of abhis.-v. there are still 7 existences left before nāma-rūpa (individuality) entirely disappears. The climax of this development is "anupādi-sesa Nibbāna-dhatu," or the Nibbāna stage without a remainder (parinibbāna), which is characterized not by an abhisaṅkhāra-v., but by the carimaka-v., or the final vital spark, which is now going to be extinct. This passage is referred to at As 357, where the first half is quoted literally. (e) As kāya i.e. group, v. is considered psycho-physically, as a factor in sense perception (D III 243, M III 281, etc.), namely, the contact between sense-organ and object (medium, μεταξύ was not taken into account) produces v. of sight, hearing etc. The three factors constitute the v.-kāya of the given sense. And the v. is thus bound to bodily process as a cat's-eye is threaded on a string (D II 76). Cf. above c. Other applications of the term v., both canonical and mediæval: on details as to attributes and functions, see Vin I 13 (as one of the khandhas in its quality of anattā, cf. S IV 166 f. ); D III 223 (as khandha); S II 101 f. (°assa avakkanti); III 53 f. (°assa gati, āgati, cuti etc.); A I 223 f.; III 40; Snp 734 (yaṃ kiñci dukkhaṃ sambhoti, sabbaṃ viññāṇa-paccayā), 1037 (nāma-rūpa destroyed in consequence of v. destruction), 1073 (cavetha v. [so read for bhavetha]; v. at this passage explained as "punappaṭisandhi-v." at Nidd II §569 c); 1110 (uparujjhati); Paṭis I 53 f., 153 f.; II 102; Vibh 9 f., 53 f., 86; Nett 15 (nāma-rūpa v.-sampayutta), 16 (v.-hetuka n.-r.), 17 (nirodha), 28, 79, 116 (as khandha); Vism 529 (as simple, twofold, fourfold etc.), 545 = Vibh-a 150 f. (in detail as product of saṅkhāras and in 32 groups); Vibh-a 172 (twofold: vipāka and avipāka); Dhp-a IV 100. -ānañcāyatana infinitude (-sphere) of life-force or mind-matter D I 35, 184, 223; III 224, 262, 265; Nett 26, 39. It is the second of the Āruppa-jhānas; see jhāna; -āhāra consciousness (i.e. vital principle) sustenance: see above d and cf. Dhs 70, 126; Nett 114 f.; Vism 341; -kāya : see above e; -khandha life-force as one of the aggregates of physical life D III 233; Tikap 61; As 141; Vibh-a 21, 42; -ṭṭhiti viññāṇa-duration, phase of mental life. The emphasis is on duration or continuation rather than place, which would be ṭṭhāna. There are (a) 4 v.-durations with regard to their "storing" (abhisaṅkhāra) quality, viz. combinations of v. (as the governing, mind-principle) with each of the 4 other khandhas or aggregates of material life (rūpa, vedanā, saññā, saṅkhārā), v. animating or bringing them to consciousness in any kind of life-appearance; and (b) 7 v.-durations with regard to their "regenerating" (new-life combination or rebirth = paṭisandhi) quality, viz. the 4 planes of various beings (from men to devas), followed by the 3 super-dimensional stages (the ānañcāyatanas) of ākāsa-infinitude, viññāṇa-infinitude and ākiñ-cañña-infinitude — passages in the canon: (α) as 4: D III 262 f.; S III 53 f. ("standing for consciousness" and "platform," °patiṭṭhā S III 54; K.S. III 45) (β) the 7: D II 68 f.; III 253 (translated "station of consciousness"), 282; = A IV 39. Both the 4 and the 7 at Nidd II §570. Cf. under a slightly different view S II 65 (yaṃ ceteti ... ārammaṇaṃ ... hoti viññāṇassa ṭhitiyā). — See also Paṭis I 22, 122; Snp 1114; Nett 31, 83 f.; Vism 552; Vibh-a 169; -dhātu mind-element, which is the 6th dhātu after the 4 great elements (the mahābhūtāni) and ākāsa-dhātu as fifth (this explained as "asamphuṭṭha-dhātu" at Vibh-a 55, whereas v.-dhātu as "vijānana-dhātu") D III 247; Vibh 85, 87; Vibh-a 55; cf. A I 176; M III 31, 62, 240; S II 248; -vīthi the road of mind (figurative), a mediæval technical term for process in sense perception Pj I 102.
【中】 精神，識（意識）。~ka,【形】 有精神的。~kkhandha,【陽】 識蘊（精神的組合）。~ṭṭhiti,【陰】 有意識的生物的階段或時期。~dhātu,【陰】 識界（識元素）。
(nt, nt, from vijānāti) awareness; consciousness; cognition; mind; fifth of the five aggregates animation, consciousness [lit.] knowing distinctly Construction: vi + √ñā + aṇa
(nt, nt, act, from vijānāti) knowing; understanding [lit.] knowing distinctly Construction: vi + √ñā + aṇa
(adj, adj, in comps, from vijānāti) with awareness; having consciousness [lit.] knowing distinctly Construction: vi + √ñā + aṇa