the Arayashiki...what is it?

O

oscar

confusoid
Registered Senior Member
there is few information that I found on the web...including the fact that it is considered the "8th sense" that lies dormant in the human consciense...we all possess this at the moment we are born and at the moment we die all of our senses disappear one by one...and the last one to appear is this one...

I also know something related to the Alaya consience...the "all conserving conscience"...that the Arayashiki is where all of our memories and other such impressions are kept, each and everyone in detail...

my question is...am I on the right track or is there something to add to it?

also, I've just started reading on Yoga (Hatha and Raja if you must know) and got 2 books about Meditation...and I was wondering if the so called 8th sense can be reached thru the excercise of both :confused:
 
3.1. The Fundamental Semiotic Model of Buddhism

Perhaps the most influential Buddhist model of semiosis was developed by the Indian Yog‘c‘ra school by AsaÃga (IV century), Vasubandhu (IV-V century), and later by Indian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Tibetan scholar monks. Yog‘c‘ra epistemology emphasized the connections among three different layers of psycho-physical reality: the material world, the mind, and the set of perceptive, intellective, and volitional activities connecting them. The so-called outside world is not believed to have an autonomous existence. Organized in categories, it is not independent from mind articulating them.

According to the Yog‘c‘ra epistemology, semiosis (and knowledge) is a complex process of interaction between various levels and functions of mind with a supposedly "outside" world through the mediation of senses. Each one of the six sense organs (Jp. rokkon: sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch, intellect) perceives qualities among six perceptual fields in the "outside" world (rokky¿: forms, sounds, flavors, perfumes, tactile qualities, the thinkable). Perceptual data of direct experience (preceding the attribution of a name) are further elaborated by six sense consciousnesses (rokushiki) corresponding to each of the six sense organs; in particular, the sixth consciousness unifies the data, attributes names and formulates judgements. These six superficial consciousnesses are based on another consciousness, called mano-vij_‘na (Jp.manashiki), which is the center of the I-consciousness, creating the distinction between subject and object. But all these processes are possible because of the existence of a still deeper consciousness, the ‘laya-vij_‘na (Jp. arayashiki). This is the core of the Yog‘c‘ra epistemology and semiotics. The ‘laya-vij_‘na is postulated as the store of sign-seeds that act recursively on perception and volition, and in this way de facto governs the interaction of one's mind with the world. Alaya-vij_‘na is often interpreted by modern commentators as a sort of Freudian, or perhaps Jungian, unconscious, but it is more accurate to consider it as the mental centre of semiosis. It contains the seeds of all perceptions, objects, thoughts, deeds, volitions accumulated by the subject. Past experiences influence the future ones, and future experiences reorganize in turn the deposit of seeds. In this way, and interestingly, time and karma have a semiotic foundation.

mano-vij_‘na (Jp.manashiki). the first term is original indian, jp is japanese. same goes for laya-vij_‘na (Jp. arayashiki).

Buddhist Semiotics

BASIC TEACHINGS OF THE CONSCIOUSNESS-ONLY
(Yogacara) SCHOOL OF BUDDHISM

THE YOGACARA THEORY OF MIND

A Brief Retrospective of Western Yogaacaara Scholarship in the 20th Century

The Yogacara School of the Mahayana Buddhist Philosophy
 
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really? you are a strange one. you pretty much nailed it and yet you feel you are off track? read the links. ask questions.
 
well there are eight chakras. Seven of them are ruled by the planets including the moon and the sun. The eighth one, Sahasrara, is usually dormant in many people. Once you balance the seven chakras below the "godhead" you will awaken this chakra hence one is enlightened. it is also known as Arayashiki.
 
hmmm...might have been on the right track but probably on a different tangent

so...is "enlightenment" in a way related to the 8th sense?

ok so I was wondering...

Following the last 4 paths of the Ashtanga:

<< from a website >>

#5.- Pratyahara : Withdrawal from sense-desires
#6.- Dharana : Concentration on an object
#7.- Dhyana : Meditation on the Divine
#8.- Samadhi : Union with the Divine

so my (not sure if I'm quite informed) thought on this is...

#5.- Transcending your primary 5 senses

#6.- Focus on the 6th sense

#7.- Meditation...the 7th sense

....and as for #8...some books call it "Transcendence"...others call it "Contemplation"...the above source calls it "Union with the Divine"...my question is...is it possible that it's related to the Arayashiki (8th sense)?

I was also wondering...do other kinds of Yoga other than Ashtanga strive for this goal? (enlightenment or what have you)

on a side note: you'd be surprised to know that 1/3 of my initial information I got it from a Manga (Saint Seyia :p )...so in a way I'm like the guys that saw the Matrix for the first time and thought that theyve found the ultimate truth...only to discover later that the basis of the film's philosphy is Cartesian doctrine hahahhahahahahahhahahaha
 
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I am done reading the info you gave me, quite interesting

I am still to derive conclusions from this, but thank you very much :D
 
In primitive societies, and amongst those fundamental religionists who the Yogacara masters designate as mu-teg-pa, or "animists," there is a prevailing belief that the Universe is organized and "animated" by either a ruling God (isvara) or a number of god-entities. The Yogacara sages point out that the Universe is a progression of order evolving out of chaos. This demonstrates to us that the innate consciousness of universal energy is itself progressing from an original, relatively inchoate unorganized state into an ever more organized, evolved condition. Universal consciousness, vast and deep as it may be, is not omniscient, although it may well be progressing towards a future relative omniscience within itself.

Something which appears as an element of volition, or consciously directed organization, involved in bringing order out of chaos within the universe, is not God. It can be said to arise out of an Absolute Ground (?laya), an ineffable vastness of Omniscience, a God-Absolute, but it itself is not That explicitly. What we mean by Universal Mind, what we experience through meditation and insight, is a homogeneous, non-local, but coherently "evolving" state of intelligence throughout the universe, that has arisen along with matter, space and time, as a result of the Big Bang. This fluctuating consciousness innate to existence itself, is highly organizing, and operates with ever more complex molecular structures to give birth to individual lives. It coheres around organic matrices in particular ways, to "arise" as those living sparks of consciousness which we call sentient beings; the pravritti-consciousnesses. This abstract but total unified field of Consciousness is everywhere in the Universe, yet not "local" in any given space or location. It does not "pervade" the Universe like a substance, because it is mind or spirit (citta), and mind or spirit is not substantial; nevertheless, we can speak of it as all-encompassing, and as the experiencer of the totality. The entire Universe is a total experience

damn! that shit rocks!
 
I liked this part, had somethign to do with what I was wondering about

Ordinary knowledge (in Sanskrit j_‘na ) is considered fallacious because it mistakes a presumed ontological reality of the universe with ordinary psycho-mental phenomena and processes (modalities and functions of mind) creating such reality. In contrast, true, absolute knowledge, called praj_‘ or bodhi, is the product of the performance of religious practices (meditative, devotional, and ritual practices in general), resulting in altered (non-ordinary) states of body-mind-language. Usually translated as "enlightenment," it is often confined by scholars among various dubious phenomena pertaining to irrationality and mysticism, thus ignoring its semiotic and cultural interest. Such an absolute knowledge implies and presupposes a "catastrophic" transformation of the human cognitive apparatus. Alaya-vij_‘na as an ideative device, source of illusion and suffering, is transformed through the practice of Buddhist Yoga (this is the origin of the name Yog‘c‘ra) into pure mind, a clear mirror reflecting everything without formulating interpretations or judgements. The more superficial consciouness apparatus becomes the agent of good and pure actions. Ordinary consciousness becomes thus the instrument to attain Buddhahood and liberation from suffering. Once human cognitive apparatus has been transformed, once ‘laya-vij_‘na has turned into a supreme mirror-like organ, semiosis (as the activity of creation, interpretation and transmission of sings) is brought to an end by the attainment of Emptiness. What remains is only the ritual reiteration of cosmic processes and the reflection of the absolute and undifferentiated World of the Dharma. Buddhist texts describe this situation defying human possibilities of comprehension through the metaphor of Indra's Net: each pearl reflects all the other pearls, without interpreting or modifying them. The Buddhist universe in its absolute modality is made of reflections reflecting reflections, in a cosmic interplay of pure light.[See Note 11] In any case, it is clear that language plays an essential role in Yog‘c‘ra semiotics, as a key element for the formation of the ordinary world of delusion from which it is necessary to escape in order to attain liberation. In this sense, Buddhist soteriology is a liberation from ordinary ways to conceive and use language...
 
Originally posted by oscar
hmmm...might have been on the right track but probably on a different tangent

so...is "enlightenment" in a way related to the 8th sense?

ok so I was wondering...

Following the last 4 paths of the Ashtanga:

<< from a website >>

#5.- Pratyahara : Withdrawal from sense-desires
#6.- Dharana : Concentration on an object
#7.- Dhyana : Meditation on the Divine
#8.- Samadhi : Union with the Divine

so my (not sure if I'm quite informed) thought on this is...

#5.- Transcending your primary 5 senses

#6.- Focus on the 6th sense

#7.- Meditation...the 7th sense

....and as for #8...some books call it "Transcendence"...others call it "Contemplation"...the above source calls it "Union with the Divine"...my question is...is it possible that it's related to the Arayashiki (8th sense)?

I was also wondering...do other kinds of Yoga other than Ashtanga strive for this goal? (enlightenment or what have you)

on a side note: you'd be surprised to know that 1/3 of my initial information I got it from a Manga (Saint Seyia :p )...so in a way I'm like the guys that saw the Matrix for the first time and thought that theyve found the ultimate truth...only to discover later that the basis of the film's philosphy is Cartesian doctrine hahahhahahahahahhahahaha
Click to expand...
oh my god!!! i used to love that manga, Saint Seiya, especially Shaka, the virgo saint- oh! how i wish he was real! ahem anyways, yogis do try to get all of their chakras in order to achieve this transcendental consciousness in other words union with the universe (divine). i got to go i'll post more later :) .
 
I look forward to your post! :D

Shaka is my fave too...well Saga kicks butt also but...Shaka is "the closest man to God" or so the story says...

anyway, there's a part of the story during the Hades Saga that explains this...Shaka managed to "awaken" his Arayashiki...the dividing line between him and the Universe, life and death, black and white had blurred out...

anyway...I know it's just a manga, but I wanted to see how much of this was real...and strangely most of it is...the Manashiki is the center of the I-consciousness, the part that creates the illusion that we are separate entities, but its purpose is to set distance between us and what is external to us...the Arayashiki is the sense of connection with the Universe...transcendence maybe

so based on the first bits of information, I thought of it as the "awakening" of the Arayashiki...but then I started reading some Yoga books, and was able to relate the "awakening" to the 8th step in Ashtanga Yoga, Samadhi, was the limb in Ashtanga that was related to the transcendence stage...anyway I'd been reading too much :confused:

However, the information on semiotics that you guys provided me was a bit different, some of which I found interesting, particularly the excerpt I quoted in my last post before this one

again, thanks for your help in this ;)
 
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