The all-ground consciousness (Skt. ālayavijñāna; Tib. ཀུན་གཞི་རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པ་, kun shyi nampar shépa; Wyl. kun gzhi rnam par shes pa) is the eighth of the eight consciousnesses posited by the Chittamatra and Svatantrika-Madhyamika schools. In these systems, there are three mental consciousnesses, of which two are active (the sixth and seventh) and one is inactive (the eighth). It is a subtle, neutral level of consciousness, in which traces of past actions are stored as 'seeds' ready to ripen into future experience.
Tib. ཀུན་, Kun means ‘all’, Tib. གཞི་, shyi means ‘ground’, Tib. རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པ་, nampar shépa is ‘consciousness’.
Mipham Rinpoche explained: :The state of consciousness that is mere clarity and knowing, which does not veer off into an active sense cognition, and which is the support of habitual tendencies, is called the alayavijnana, the consciousness that is the universal ground (ཀུན་གཞི་རྣམ་ཤེས་, kun gzhi rnam shes).<ref>The Adornment of the Middle Way, p.238</ref>
Thrangu Rinpoche explains:
:The eighth consciousness […] is the basis or ground for the arising of all other types of consciousness. It is that fundamental clarity of consciousness, or cognitive lucidity, that has been there from the beginning. As the capacity for conscious experience, it is the ground for the arising of eye consciousness, ear consciousness, etc. Like the seventh, it is constantly present, constantly operating, and it persists until the attainment of final awakening.<ref>Creation and Completion, p.126</ref>
The all-ground consciousness is divided into a 'seed aspect' and a 'maturation aspect'.
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