Korea Journal of Buddhist Studies ISSN:1598-0642(Print) 불교학연구

Many scholars of the Yogacara school in Chinese Buddhism place Paramārtha(眞諦: 499~569) at the start of the theory of nine types of consciousness, regarding his transmission of the theory of consciousness only into East Asia as already combined with the thought of Tathāgatagharbha in China. This reflects an important perspective on the starting point for investigating the difference between Paramārtha’s tradition and Xuanzhuang’s(玄奘, 602~664) Faxiang(法相) tradition in the study on the school of only consciousness. Another perspective regards the scholars in the southern branch of the Dilun School and the disciples of Paramārtha in the Shelun School in China as responsible for the formation of the transformed theory of mind and consciousness in East Asia. These two perspectives still continue to produce equally important research results, there being no expectation about which perspective will become dominant. Concerning the supposition that Paramārtha proposed the theory of nine types of consciousness or the term of amala-vijñanā(阿摩羅識) in relation to it, this is thought to have been formed through the other textual evidences developed after Paramārtha. This article ascertains the comparatively high probability of the wide circulation in China of the observation that the term of amaluoshi and the ninth type of consciousness were proposed by Paramārtha.On the other hand, the amala-vijñanā is explicit in its character as the pure consciousness that is real nature, being mentioned as the dharma of zhuanyi(轉依) in various places, which makes it possible to investigate its nature of pollution and pureness in relation to alaya consciousness. The tathāgatagharbha is pure consciousness, but it is also dependent on zhuanyi, in which context there is found the possibility of reading that pollution and pureness go together. Therefore, we can surmise that alaya consciousness, which is thought to be equal in status with tathāgatagharbha by Paramārtha, can be seen with high probability as the consciousness in which pollution and pureness are combined.